“I am the good shepherd; I know my sheep and my sheep know me – just as the Father knows me and I know the Father – and I lay down my life for the sheep” (John 10:14–15, NIV).

“Dear Father in heaven, we thank you that your voice reaches our hearts and that we can say with joy, ‘We belong to you. We too are yours.’ We want to lead lives that show we belong to you, never allowing ourselves to be sidetracked, never again giving way to pettiness, always drawing strength from the power of Jesus Christ. Protect our household. Watch over each of us. Protect us all on our way. O mighty God, be with us in the many dangers that surround us, and grant that we may always be joyful because our names are recorded in heaven. Amen” (Christoph Friedrich Blumhardt).

Lord, help us always to be true salt and light to the world in which we live. May our words and actions always be seasoned with grace and may we be guides to those who are lost and seeking to find their way home. Help us always to have a reason for the hope we have in You and always to be prepared to give a defense for what we believe, speaking the truth in love. Amen.

“Almighty and everlasting God,
you are always more ready to hear than we to pray,
and to give more than we either desire or deserve:

Pour upon us the abundance of your mercy,
forgiving us those things of which our conscience is afraid,
and giving us those good things for which we are not worthy to ask,

except through the merits and mediation of Jesus Christ our Savior;
who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,

one God, for ever and ever.
Amen”

Sometimes, you don’t have the words to pray. Hopefully, this prayer can be useful if you can’t think of what to say. I’ve always fallen back on liturgical and written prayers at times when my mind was a blank.

I love the idea of praying words that faithful saints have spoken through the decades, knowing we speak to the God who is the same yesterday, today, and forever.

“Lord, high and holy, meek and lowly,
Thou hast brought me to the valley of vision,
where I live in the depths but see Thee in the heights;
hemmed in by mountains of sin I behold Thy glory. 
Let me learn by paradox that the way down is the way up,
that to be low is to be high,
that the broken heart is the healed heart,
that the contrite spirit is the rejoicing spirit,
that the repenting soul is the victorious soul, 
that to have nothing is to possess all,
that to bear the cross is to wear the crown,
that to give is to receive,
that the valley is the place of vision.
Lord, in the daytime stars can be seen from deepest wells, 
and the deeper the wells the brighter Thy stars shine;
let me find Thy light in my darkness,
Thy life in my death,
Thy joy in my sorrow,
Thy grace in my sin,
Thy riches in my poverty,
Thy glory in my valley” (Taken from The Valley of Vision: A Collection of Puritan Prayers & Devotions, edited by Arthur Bennett).

I heard this read from the pulpit at a church I attended today and thought it was as powerful as the first time I read it in The Valley of Vision. Man, those Puritans could pray. There’s something about praying the same words that faithful saints have offered up to God down the generations, even with all the thees and thous.

I hope that you and I can take these words and make them our own prayer to God that He might be glorified in and through us, no matter what. May whatever valley we find ourselves in be transformed into a valley of the vision of God’s glory. Amen and amen.

This may prove that I’m in dire needs of increased medication, but I really want to live in a book right now. Currently, I’m reading These High Green Hills by Jan Karon, book 3 of the Mitford series, and I really wish there was a real Mitford so I could move there.

Think of an updated version of Mayberry or even Stars Hollow (for the post-2000s crowd). I’d eat at the Main Street Grill, pick up a book or two at Happy Endings bookstore, and hang out with some of the locals.

The best part of revisiting a book is that you can slip back into that world. It really is like going back to a favorite vacation spot. You know what to expect. You know what’s there. But still something might still sneak up and surprise you that you hadn’t noticed before.

I like books that I can visualize in my head and see myself living in that world. Another writer who has written books I want to live in is Charles Martin. He’s the one that kinda made me want to like on a houseboat. But probably not for very long. I might get a bit seasick.

Books are the best when you can escape into another world and not have to pay for airplane tickets or hotel reservations. You can be right where you are at home or in the car (hopefully with an audiobook if you’re driving) and be in a completely different place in your mind. That’s what I love about reading a good book of fiction.

“When bridges seem to give way, we fall into Christ’s safe arms, true bridge, and not into hopelessness. It is safe to trust! We can be too weak to go on because His strength is made perfect in utter brokenness and nail-pierced hands help up. It is safe to trust! We can give thanks in everything because there’s a good God leading, working all things into good. It is safe to trust! The million bridges behind us may seem flattened to the earthly eye, but all bridges ultimately hold, fastened by nails. It is safe to trust” (Ann Voskamp, One Thousand Gifts: A Dare to Live Fully Right Where You Are).

It’s only when we look back and see a million ways God has provided and protected us that we can remember that it is still safe to trust. When we skim through the pages of Scripture, we can read name after name, story after story that shows God’s unfailing love and unflagging care for His people. It is still safe to trust.

Ultimately, when we look up at the cross and see Jesus suspended between heaven and earth, holding nothing back but sacrificing it all, we can confidently state that it is safe to trust because we know that whatever stood in the way between us and God has been removed by the blood of the Lamb who was slain but is alive forevermore.

“So this is my prayer: that your love will flourish and that you will not only love much but well. Learn to love appropriately. You need to use your head and test your feelings so that your love is sincere and intelligent, not sentimental gush. Live a lover’s life, circumspect and exemplary, a life Jesus will be proud of: bountiful in fruits from the soul, making Jesus Christ attractive to all, getting everyone involved in the glory and praise of God” (Philippians 1:9-11, The Message).

I’ve said it before, but sometimes it helps to read a familiar passage in a different translation. It helps to bring out some of the nuances in the text that aren’t in your translation of choice. For me, it makes the passage come alive to read it in a more modern rendition.

I love this passage. We need to learn to not only love much but to love well. Our love needs to be based in faith not feelings and above all in truth. Otherwise, it becomes sentimental gush. We need to love the way God has loved is in Christ — He loves us as we are but refuses to leave us that way. Love does everything in its power to bring out the very best in the beloved.

Lord, help us to love in a way that draws people closer to You and in a way that brings out all that You created them to be. Help us to love them like You loved us. Amen.

I was listening to a book that brought up a conversation someone had with the late Vance Havner, a Southern Baptist minister and evangelist. Vance asked how they were doing and they responded with something like “I’m doing well under the circumstances.”

Vance responded with “Well, what are you doing under the circumstances?”

Basically, believers shouldn’t live under the circumstances as if they dictated or controlled our lives. We should be above our circumstances. We serve a God who is outside of time and is in control of every iota of our lives.

That’s the difference between happiness and joy. Happiness is circumstantial and depends a lot on what happens to me, as in how my day is going, what kind of mood I’m in, if I got enough sleep, etc. Joy is joy no matter what. Joy is also a choice that I can make every single day.

Living above the circumstances is keeping my eyes fixed on Jesus not my obstacles. It’s running toward the prize of the upward calling instead of being all over the place trying to put out a million fires or multitasking everything at once. It comes from a place of peace of knowing that the outcome is already assured.

I want to live above my circumstances because I know my circumstances will change as surely as the weather. I want to be so led by the Spirit that I am unfazed by any outward chaos, just as Jesus was able to sleep on the boat in the middle of a storm.

May each of us choose today to live above our circumstances and not under them.