whinings of a wretched sinner

Please help me to be faithful, persistent and obedient.

Praying always,

ceasing never.

Help me to do right.

Keep me from reasoning my way through sin.

Grant me spiritual discernment of right and wrong,

of my voice or Your voice.

I ask for wisdom and understanding,

that I may not be distracted or deceived.

Show me what to do and lead me through it with Your own voice.

I know that trouble is at the doorstep.

I can feel it-- it is almost overwhelming.

Teach me spiritual confidence

that I may not feel fear over what path I have been assigned to tread.

I long to finish this race

for the glory and justification of Your design and purpose.

I long to hear You

and to experience an unquestionable instruction from You.

I fear my own thoughts being mistaken for Yours.

I am a sinner and not likely to be mistaken for some sort of holy saint.

However, God is glorified in my weakness.

But my weakness is not justified by this, for it is still sin and must be brought before God daily.

Please help me to be the "me" that is a reflection of You. Speak and be heard-- help me to hear You over myself.

Circumcise my wrong thinking and ways of error! Keep these righteous desires of prayer ever-present in my daly thoughts.

I submit myself to You only, and not to myself and my own expectations.

Father, I give You myself wholly and completely, to make me the best I can be for You and Your holy, eternal kingdom.

Although I may have times ahead of me in which I will feel fear, I know that I can do all things through Christ Who strengthens me.

He has given His children peace, He has left this peace here for us, and He will never leave us nor forsake us.

God grant me the strength to continue in the faith that those whom You are trying so desperately to reach will hear Your voice and recognize it, will hear You knocking and answer.

Let not Your servants be discouraged, who serve You in complete obedience, by and through Your everlasting grace which is renewed EVERY SINGLE DAY-- and only by this Grace, Your servants forsaking themselves and this world to strive ahead with perseverance, courage and tenacity to bring about the great day of the revelation of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, as He returns for His precious Bride and to make an end to all corruption, enmity and strife.

Our Father in Heaven, the Most High God, Truly Your Word to us is unchanging-- the same today, yesterday and tomorrow, just as You are the Great I AM, THE Alpha and Omega, THE Beginning and the End!

The gates of hell will not prevail against the most holy ROCK of Christ Jesus.
The ROCK cut from the MOUNTAIN OF GOD-- but not by human hands!
The ROCK of salvation, the ROCK of truth, the ROCK from which springs of Living Water flow forth even in the driest of deserts for all eternity and without end.... GLORY HALLELUJAH !

He is HOLY, He is a Marvelous Counselor, He is THE King of kings and Lord of lords, He is the Creator of all things seen and unseen, therefore:

God elevated Him to the place of HIGHEST honor

and gave Him the Name ABOVE all other Names,

that at the Name of JESUS,

every knee SHALL bow in heaven

AND on earth

AND under the earth,

and every tongue confess that JESUS CHRIST IS LORD,

to the glory of God the Father.

Refine me to serve Your purposes. Sometimes I feel like I have such a long way to go, how could I possibly accomplish anything before You return for Your kingdom. I have so many flaws and feel so ignorant. I am frustrated every day because I know that there are things I have yet to come to an understanding about. Just show me anything I'm doing wrong, to save us both the precious time I feel is wasted while You allow me to figure it out myself. But I suppose that is how refinement is supposed to work in the first place, and You are God and I am not. Yet I remain frustrated by my indescribable longing to be Your servant and am consumed with the desire to serve Your purposes.

I wonder what I'm doing wrong and why I don't 'feel' Your presence more often. Then I remind myself that You are the God Who desires to be worshipped in faith, not by a generation seeking signs. Please do not let me be a stumbling-block to others, please do not let me fail You-- whether in my ignorance, pride, stubbornness, or all three.

How many times will I have to press forward, desperately clinging to my faith in Your goodness, despite all appearances, and that Your abundant and unconditional love includes me, rather than less-and-excepts me?

How I can help others hear His still, small voice, when I feel like most of the time I can't hear Him over the din of myself?

I am consumed with a doubtful certainty that I am supposed to do something, that I am supposed to be doing something. I am hesitantly sure that I have some sort of purpose or reason, but then wonder how I could possibly do anything of real measure when it seems I have so much farther to go, and that there are so many others that seem so much further along than me. I wonder how I could accomplish anything in the future when it seems like I don't even know what I'm doing now and like I'm still getting it wrong.

Yet I will continue to wrestle with You. I will continue this spiritual sparring because it is the very thing that keeps me moving forward. By Your grace, I will never quit. And because I will never quit, by Your grace I will die in the wrestling embrace of Your holy arms.

I pray that I will not fail You, Lord. Reconcile this battle that rages within me, between my flesh

and my spirit.

I pray for the continual victory of spirit over flesh, that I may live in true liberation from the shackles of deception and the weight of sin.

Brand my lips with Your coals of righteousness and truth.

Wash away the filthy garments of pride, self-righteousness and judgment.

Make me nothing in my own eyes.

Gird my heart tightly about, with Your will and Your purpose.

Baptize me daily in Your most Holy Spirit.

Lead me straight ahead, fix my eyes toward Your face which cannot be looked upon.

Grant me the strength to perceive Your glory, only that I may share it boldly with those who love You and seek You in truth.

Let me look neither to the right, nor to the left, lest I stumble and fall from Your grace--

which is the only thing in me that drives me forward-- for anything of myself only holds me back.