Advent Quote of the Day: Dorothy Day

"Advent is a time of waiting, of expectation, of silence. Waiting for our Lord to be born. A pregnant woman is so happy, so content. She lives in such a garment of silence, and it is as though she were listening to hear the stir of life within her. One always hears that stirring compared to the rustling of a bird in the hand. But the intentness which which one awaits such stirring is like nothing so much as a blanket of silence."  ~ Dorothy Day

How are you preparing for the coming day, Christmas, in which we celebrate the birth of God's incarnate son? Sometimes it seems so hard to keep focused on the true meaning of this time of year amidst the distractions of consumerism and busy schedules packed with family get togethers and activities.  All kinds of things during this season compete for our attention.

I suppose I should confess something. Up until this year, even though I've been a Christian for over a decade, I kind of let Advent pass by unnoticed. I, of course, celebrated Christmas, and recognized the miracle it aknowledges, but I didn't pay much attention to the days before. I always felt like Christmas came too quickly and that when it was upon me, it was nearly over already, and the true meaning almost lost among the hectic nature of the day. I always read the passages in the New Testament on Christmas eve talking about Christ's birth-that has especially been a custom since my daughter was born. But the days between Thanksgiving and Christmas Eve really had no spiritual depth or meaning. This past year I've experienced a lot of spiritual changes and growth and have changed my perspective towards observing Advent, fully embracing the concept of preparing my heart for Christmas. If any reading this have gone about the Christmas season like I have, I'd urge you to reconsider. I feel this time of year can be a time of great growth spiritually and one can experience a deep connection with God during this time if one opens oneself up to such an experience.

Let's try to find moments each day to quiet our souls and let the truth and wonder of the miracle God provided for us, the miracle and gift of redemption by means of His son, to penetrate the deep places within. Let's open ourselves to the light, the truth, the saving Grace of God and find ourselves transformed and renewed during this time. With this renewel God will undoubtedly bless us with refreshed souls, filling us with a peace surpassing all understanding and providing us with a new sense of direction in which we can serve Him, bringing Him much glory, honor and praise.

Let's not fall prey to all the things that would distract us and take our eyes off our Savior. I know that's easier said than done sometimes. Especially for us parents that have to deal with the "santa" thing. But through prayer God can help redirect our heart's priorities and help guide us.  Let's keep focused on Jesus this season!

Do you have a way that you have found prepares your heart for Christmas? That melts away the distractions and opens your heart up to Christ, to His presence, and to the real meaning of the season?...Please share if you do! :)  


~many blessings.

Let's Be Laborers (Includes quotes from Shane Claiborne/Mother Teresa)

I remember hearing about an old comic strip back in the days of St. Ed's. Two guys are talking to eachother, and one of them says he has a question for God. He wants to ask why God allows all of this poverty and war and suffering to exist in the world. And his friend asks, " Well, why don't you ask?". The fellow shakes his head and says that he is scared. When his friend asks why, he mutters, "I'm scared God will ask me the same question." Over and over, when I ask God how all these injustices are allowed to exist in the world, I can feel the Spirit whisper to me, "You tell me why we allow this to happen. You are my body, my hands, my feet."    ~ Shane Claiborne, The Irresistible Revolution: Living as an Ordinary Radical, p. 64-65

When I read that passage from Shane Claiborne I was instantly reminded of Luke:2 where it says:

² He told them, “The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field.





Are you a laborer for God? Do you help spread His light and love throughout your home, throughout your community, perhaps even throughout the world? Lifting up those that you are able to lift up? Encouraging? Helping to build the Kingdom right here on earth? Or do you grumble instead at the injustices that surround you...the pain, the suffering? Instead of lifting up your spade to turn over the earth and plant seeds of Spirit, you watch others, or perhaps don't even watch at all, consumed in your own existence and not concerned about the broader picture?

I have to admit, I've been less of a laborer and more of a bench warmer. But I've felt God stirring my heart considerably lately, and books like Shane's as well as through prayer and just reading through the Bible, have led me to acknowledge that if I am to have a genuine faith, things have got to change.

I'd encourage us all to pray for the Spirit to direct us towards new ways of serving God and helping work against the suffering and pain in this world. Let's become laborers for Christ. Let's lift up our hoes and rakes and turn over the soils of injustice and sow seeds that will bear great fruit for His Kingdom. Let's walk the walk of faith and approach this world with love and compassion and interest like Christ did. He went among the most marginalized and came with healing and love.

Sometimes it doesn't seem like my current circumstances allow me to serve God effectively and that can be discouraging. I don't feel like I have the money, the means, the way to go out and do the things I'd like to do to help others. But to do nothing is the goal of the enemy and the lie that because of our circumstances, whether they be circumstances of limited time, limited income or limited ability, that we can't labor for God and help others, is nothing but a false illusion. Sometimes, even from a little, a lot can spring up and be born. Look at the mustard seed...one of the smallest seeds out there...when watered and nourished and allowed to grow, it grows to a tremendous size.

Some encouraging and inspiring words from Mother Teresa about this quandary some of us find ourselves in:

If you can't feed a hundred people, then feed just one.

Love begins at home, and it is not how much we do... but how much love we put in that action.

So even if you aren't at the point where you can go out and volunteer, engaging yourself in the ministries that seem to draw you to them, you can still start laboring for God right now. There's no better time then the present moment.

Let's be laborers!

Heavenly Father,

Thank you so much for your son Jesus, who you sent to us to become a living example of purity, of compassion, of love. Without Jesus, there would be no redemption, there would be no hope. Thank you for your great mercy and love for our Savior.

May the Spirit usher us forward to a new understanding of what it means to serve you. May you draw us closer inward as we express the character of Christ more and more outward. May we get off our spiritual benches which have collected dust, and pick up our spades, rakes and hoes which have become rusty and get back in the field and labor for you. May we help turn pain into healing, suffering into relief, despair into hope. May our lives glorify you while we bring your message of redemption and hope into this dark and fallen world. We praise you, we glorify you and we seek you always with humble hearts always lifted towards your throne. Direct us in ways we can serve you and give us the ways and means so that we can bear fruit for your Kingdom.

In the name of Jesus,

Amen

 

Experiencing God's Presence in the Everyday

"How do we enter an intimate, ongoing communion with God? The answer is simple: with practice. We undertake experiments of everyday life in which we are learning to be with God. And the stuff of our  day-to-day experience is the place where these experiments go on. This with-God life takes no time, yet it occupies all our time. When we go to work, we go to work with-God. At work we are learning how to bless those who curse us, how to weep with those who weep and rejoice with those who rejoice, how our very presence can be a joy to others. And the experiments are numerous and varied: "Today, Lord, teach me somehow to bless every person I meet. Show me the preciousness of each individual. Fill my mind with creative new ideas and show me how to break the horns of cruel dilemmas." The same is true for times at home with family and time with neighbors and friends."

~ Richard Foster, Longing for God: Seven Paths of Christian Devotion

That we might accustom ourselves to a continual conversation with Him, with freedom and simplicity. That we need only to recognize God intimately present with us, to address ourselves to Him every moment, that we may beg His assistance for knowing His will in things doubtful, and for rightly performing those which we plainly see He requires of us, offering them to Him before we do them, and giving Him thanks when we have done.   ~ Brother Lawrence, The Practice of the Presence of God

Mindfulness has been a transforming process spiritually for me and I am a firm believer that if we silence our oftentimes rambling and distracted thoughts, we open ourselves up to new levels of consciousness and new ways of experiencing God's presence. I wrote about this very thing in a post titled :Experiencing God - http://ascendingthehills.blogspot.com/2010/10/experiencing-god.html .

Prayer, and as Brother Lawrence puts it, continual prayer, is another way to open ourselves up to God's presence and to His reality. I love how, in Foster's passage he says, "This with-God life takes no time, yet it occupies all of our time." That is so true! To open oneself to continual conversation with God and to find God, who is true reality, manifested in the present moment, applying the teachings of Jesus directly in our lives, is something that we can do while doing our most ordinary tasks and chores. In Brother Lawrence's book he mentioned many times to others that his prayer time differed very little from his everyday ordinary moments of doing his many tasks, mostly in the kitchen, at the monastery. He was in sync with God, within and outside of conventional prayer.

It takes awhile to get into the custom of seeking God and experiencing Him continually throughout one's day through experiencing His presence and through prayer. Some don't think it possible, but my opinion differs from theirs. I'm not going to even give the illusion that I live that way. But I know it is possible because of those who have walked the ancient paths of faith before us. Those like Brother Lawrence, whose book I highly recommend, who can help aid us in beginning our journey towards experiencing God ever deeper with each passing day.


Heavenly Father,

Thank you for being the kind of God that we can get to know. The God that opens His arms to His children, beckoning them to draw near. Give us the strength and direction, the focus and prompting from the Spirit, to seek you continually, to grow with you. I pray that with each passing day we enter deeper in our understanding of you and experience you in new ways. May our lives serve as living testimonies of your grace, your mercy and love. May we always seek to bring you glory, honor and praise.

In Jesus' name,
Amen

Richard Foster Quote:Reading the Bible for Spiritual Transformation

"If we want to receive from the Bible the life with God that is portrayed in the Bible, we must be prepared to have our dearest most fundamental assumptions about ourselves and our associations called into question. We must read humbly and in a constant attitude of repentance. Only in this way can we gain a thorough and practical grasp of the spiritual riches that God has made available to all humanity in his written Word. Only in this way can we keep from transforming The Book into a Catholic Bible, an Orthodox Bible, a Protestant Bible, an Ours is More Accurate than Yours Bible...And so the test of whether or not we have really gotten the point of the Bible would be the quality of love that we show."

          ~Richard Foster,Life with God: Reading the Bible for Spiritual Transformation

Some Bible verses that came to mind when I read that passage and others from Foster in regards to reading Scripture for spiritual transformation (emphasis mine):


2 Corinthians 5:17  Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!

Matthew 16: 24-26 ²⁴ Then Jesus said to his disciples, “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. ²⁵ For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will find it. ²⁶ What good will it be for someone to gain the whole world, yet forfeit their soul? Or what can anyone give in exchange for their soul?

John 15:12-13 ¹² My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you. ¹³ Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.

1 John 4:7-8  ⁷ Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. ⁸ Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. ⁹ This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him.

I am no expert, but from experience and what I've read as I've gone through the gospels and Scripture, by reading Scripture with an open heart and open mind, with conviction and expectancy, one cannot help but be changed and transformed. Who could expect anything less from the very living and real Word of God?

In Foster's book he brings up the technique of reading the Bible with expectancy. Not just reading it as some kind of historical account of biblical times or just to get knowledge about the laws of God. But to approach Scripture with expectancy of meeting God there. To be continually open and receptive to the promptings of the Spirit and to expect change in one's heart. After all, that is what sanctification is all about-us moving away from our illusions and attachments towards ourselves and the world and towards the reality of Christ, our wills eventually cleaving to His. Becoming a "new creation" in Christ. And what better litmus test to our progress than the love that we exhibit towards God and to others?  A heart moving closer to God and becoming identified more and more in Christ cannot but help to experience a greater depth of love towards others as the Spirit prompts the heart to move from superficial love to agape love.

Do you feel yourself changed when you read the Bible? Do you feel yourself nourished and full when you finish reading through Scripture? Your soul lifted up and encouraged? Do you feel your heart opening up to new dimensions of love? Do you expect to meet with God when you open up the holy text which reveals His Word, His love letter to you and I and the rest of the world? When you meet with Him do you feel His presence? Do you feel a peace that surpasses all understanding?

If not, take heart...the very things which I just described are possible for everyone. God in His amazing love, makes it possible for all of His children to experience the love and peace of His presence and makes it possible for us humans, in our frailty and brokeness, to be transformed in His love and truth by means of His Word, prayer and meditation.

Let's Pray :)

Heavenly Father,

We thank you for the amazing love that is your reality. We thank you for Your mercy and grace that break the chains of sin in our lives and your light which causes darkness to flee. We seek to be changed and transformed in your presence. We seek to love others, not with conscious effort, but through a changed and transformed heart that makes it natural to love others the way you do. May the Holy Spirit touch our lives with truth and grace and enable us to draw close to you and give us the strength, clarity and spiritual insight to conform more and more to the likeness of Christ. May Scripture come alive when we enter into it with expectant hearts, may it breathe truth and light into our souls.

May you humble us in areas that need humbling, may you remind us of our need for you and may we never, ever cease to seek your face. May the Holy Spirit continually spur us on to greater heights of understanding and experiencing you. We love you and seek you with all our hearts, minds and strength. Thank you for being the kind of God we can call Father and approach with humble confidence.

In Jesus' name,
Amen.

Exploring Denominational Diversities

        A Prayer Attributed to St. Francis

Lord, make me an instrument of your peace. Where there is hatred, let me sow love; where there is injury, pardon; where there is discord, union; where there is doubt, faith; where there is despair; hope; where there is darkness, light; and where there is sadness, joy.

Grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled as to console; to be understood as to understand; to be loved, as to love. For it is in giving that we receive, it is in pardoning that we are pardoned, and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life. Amen.

                                                        
                                                      


This prayer, to me, says it all. In a simple and direct way it puts the role of the Christian into perspective. To pray it, redirects one's heart to what matters most-God's will. It's God's will we sow seeds of peace, that we love and forgive others, that we be like burning lamps blazing brightly to cast light in the world's darkness, to give hope to those who haven't any. I love the second part of the prayer too because it puts the focus off ourselves and on others. The theme of love rings out in this prayer-love for God, love to do His will, and love for our fellow man.

It's kind of amusing but the first thing that I was compelled to write was a disclaimer that I wasn't catholic because the prayer is from a catholic saint. I guess that's the early evangelical blood running in my veins! When I was first born again I tried out a few churches, but having received the message of the gospel from the words and ministry of Chuck Swindoll, I was drawn to an evangelical, Bible-based church.  I loved that church but I did find out early on that not every denomination was as open and accepting towards every other denomination. Catholicism, with its predictable and ritualistic liturgical prayers and other customs and outlooks, was frowned upon.

It wasn't until I went to a Catholic college and met some very dedicated sisters in Christ that took their faith every bit as seriously as I took mine that I realized there wasn't as much of a difference between them and I as some would make it out to be. Though we had slightly varied patterns that defined us somewhat differently we were all cut from the same cloth. We were all part of the same family and body that is Christ.

It was also, later on, in fact pretty recently, that I discovered Thomas Merton, a catholic monk and writer who I have read and respect greatly as well as many other catholic voices that ring out with truth and light and life. So, I suppose the point of all of this is and my advice, for whatever it is worth, is to not be a "denominational snob", (which I naively started out as). Instead I would encourage you to open yourself up to new experiences and new points of view. For sure, if something seems to not ring true with the Bible, it should be avoided, but there are many different ways to worship, many different ways to pray. To explore the diversity which God has imprinted in the hearts of man to reach up to Him and seek His holy face, can be a changing event in one's life. And a renewing time in one's faith.

It is my view that it gives God no glory to continually point out the differences that we have with other brothers and sisters in Christ but that God wants us to simply see Christ in others and have others see Christ in us. All other differences are superficial. If one is misrepresenting Scripture and God, then that is one thing, but if one's way to worship, pray or commune with God differs from our own, it should be respected and even investigated as a potential path for us to explore and practice to enrich our own experiences and invigorate our own faith.

~ abundant blessings in Christ

Brennan Manning Quote: God Excludes No One

"The outstretched arms of Jesus exclude no one, not the drunk in the doorway, the panhandler on the street, gays and lesbians in their isolation, the most selfish and ungrateful in their cocoons, the most unjust of employers and the most overweening of snobs. The love of Christ embraces all without exception."     ~ Brennan Manning

God's love shows no partiality and excludes nobody. This being the case, then how come so many times our love does just that? Why is it that so many times our cultural upbringings and other influences we come across can prove to shape our view towards others who are different than ourselves more than the gospel? Who has the power here, when this happens...who are we yielding to as being sovereign over our heart's response to others...the world, or Christ?

Let us give thanks to God for the rich diversity of brothers and sisters that we have in this world. For the tapestry of many colored threads that God has woven to make up His kingdom. May we appreciate the multi-faceted beauty God has created, knowing that all of us are given an essential role and all of us, no matter how different, no matter the sins that plague us individually, make up one body, in Christ. And heaven forbid us that anybody's difference from us, or sin, or blemish, would keep us from embracing them with the same love Jesus embraced this world, and bar us from sharing the gospel with them.


Heavenly Father,

We thank you for all the blessings that flow into our lives-the natural and spiritual blessings that you richly pour out on us; reviving us, sustaining us, guiding us in our walks with you. We pray that you continually soften our hearts to others that our suffering. That we show the compassion and love Jesus showed while walking on earth. That our love encompasses those that we don't understand, those we might even abhor, knowing that in our own guilt, in our own sin, if not for the blood of Jesus, God, you would be unnaproachable and would find us reprehensible in your Holy presence.  In fact, without Jesus, it wouldn't even be possible to enter into your amazing presence. Your gift of mercy and grace makes it possible, in our human weakness, fraility and impurity to approach your heavenly throne with confidence. Let us not think we are any more worthy than anybody else. Humble us, so that we might be servants who live our lives out advancing your Kingdom here on earth, bringing you much honor, glory and praise.

In Jesus' name,
Amen

Passing Through the Dark Night

That there needed fidelity in those drynesses or insensibilities and irksomenesses in prayer by which God tries our love to Him; that then was the time for us to make good and effectual acts of resignation whereof one alone would oftentimes very much promote our spiritual advancements.
~ Brother Lawrence

There is so much one can learn from the Spirit-filled insights of Brother Lawrence. I like this quote from him because it is so real and I feel it can apply to most people, if not all, that seek to grow with God and experience Him fully.  As we progress in our walk with God, learning new insights, stretching and growing spiritually, we enter into new experiences that help shape and conform us more to Christ and helps strengthen our resolve as believers. One of these experiences that many Christian writers, monks, etc. have written about is a phenomena called "The Dark Night of the Soul." In fact, John of the Cross has a poem about this very thing titled, "Dark Night", it can be found on the "Inspiring Poetry" page of this blog.

This period in one's spiritual timeline can be interpreted by many as a time of great spiritual trial and testing. A time when the believer, removed (or seemingly so) from the presence of God, has to rely on the truest sense of their faith-believing in things that can't be seen (or felt) or otherwise proven in any tangible sense. This is when one's conviction towards God is tested and through the process, strengthened and refined. This is when our faiths are really put to the test.

It's also a time where great humility on the part of the believer is cultivated. Where any illusions of our own knowledge, strength and abilities of being means enough to be sufficient to carry us through this process are quickly vanquished. This is a time when the believer, whether literally or figuritavely, is drawn to her knees in total submission and surrender. A time when one's all is given to God and like a mirror, the believer's human brokeness, is laid bare for the soul to
observe.

Is God being unnecessarily cruel?...In Lamentations 3:33-34 it tells us of God:

³² Though he brings grief, he will show compassion,
   so great is his unfailing love.
³³ For he does not willingly bring affliction
   or grief to anyone.

God does not want any unnecessary pain or turmoil for His children.

Jeremiah 29:11 For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.

Sometimes, in this time, our human response to the void God creates in us is to lash back at Him. To doubt, to stomp our feet in anger, in sorrow, in distress. But the fact is, God wants the best for us. And sometimes growing isn't always comfortable. Our initial reactions might not show the best side of us, but God knows us, He expects that response.  He knows the pain we will go through during this time of apparant separation. He also knows what awaits us on the other side-and He knows it is well worth it!

God wants us to be strong. He wants us to advance His Kingdom here on earth-spreading love and compassion and hope. He knows our hearts will come under attack. He knows our souls will be tempted. He knows the snares of the enemy that lay ahead on the pathway of sanctification and He wants to give us the strength, direction, clarity and conviction to pass through such spiritual snares unhindered.

He wants us to echo that of Paul's resolve when Paul so faithfully declared:

2 Corinthians 4:8-9 ⁸ We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; ⁹ persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed.

When the believer passes through this Dark Night of the soul, their conviction towards God is solidified and God is truly glorified for the believer goes from being drawn low and almost broken in humility and contrition only to be lifted up by the Grace and Mercy of God in spiritual exaltation, where a reoriented sense of obedience, adoration and conviction for God and belief washes the believer with the renewing sense of God's Spirit and presence once again in his soul. The believer walks into the light out of the darkness truly changed.

Humilty is a central theme to this process and a term that sometimes isn't popular in today's culture. It's importance cannot be overstated. Without a humble and contrite Spirit, we will be barred from fully experiencing God's presence and blessings. I will end this article with some verses relating to humility.

 Let me just say this first, before concluding, if you are experiencing this type of spiritual phenemona, take heart-a whole new dimension of experiencing God awaits you! Oh..and one little tip...the quicker you surrender yourself to the process, and God, admitting your weaknesses, confessing and repenting your sins and giving God complete sovereignty over your life, the quicker you move through it. 

~abundant blessings in Christ


 Isaiah 57:15 

¹⁵ For this is what the high and exalted One says—
   he who lives forever, whose name is holy:
“I live in a high and holy place,
   but also with the one who is contrite and lowly in spirit,
to revive the spirit of the lowly
   and to revive the heart of the contrite.

Psalm 51:17

¹⁷ My sacrifice, O God, is a broken spirit;
   a broken and contrite heart
   you, God, will not despise


Proverbs 22:4
 ⁴ Humility is the fear of the LORD;
   its wages are riches and honor and life.

A Heart Zealous for God

I'd like to share a quote I read this morning in the book, Knowing God, by J.I. Packer. I read it this morning and couldn't help but want to share it here. It's all about having zeal for God, having a passion for God that consumes us so much that God is our one and only desire. I found it really inspiring, and would love to hear your thoughts, reflections towards it as well.

"Zeal in religion is a burning desire to please God, to do His will, and to advance His glory in the world in every possible way. It is a desire which no man feels by nature-which the Spirit puts in the heart of every believer when he is converted-but which some believers feel so much more strongly than others that they alone deserve to be called 'zealous' men...A zealous man in religion is pre-eminently a man of one thing. It is not enough to say that he is earnest, hearty, uncompromising, thorough-going, whole-hearted, fervent in spirit. He only sees one thing, he cares for one thing, he lives for one thing, he is swallowed up in one thing; and that one thing is to please God. Whether he lives, or whether he dies-whether he has health, or whether he has sickness-whether he is rich, or whether he is poor-whether he pleases man, or whether he gives offense-whether he is thought wise, or whether he is thought foolish-whether he gets blame, or whether he gets praise-whether he gets honour, or whether he gets shame-for all this the zealous man cares nothing at all. He burns for one thing; and that one thing is to please God, and to advance God's glory. If he is consumed in the very burning, he cares not for it-he is content. He feels that, like a lamp, he is made to burn; and if consumed in burning, he has but done the work for which God appointed him. Such a one will always find a sphere for his zeal. If he cannot preach, work, and give money, he will cry, and sigh, and pray...If he cannot fight in the valley with Joshua, he will do the work of Moses, Aaron, and Hur, on the hill (Exodus 19:9-13). If he is cut off from working himself, he will give the Lord no rest till help is raised up from another quarter and the work is done. This is what I mean when I speak of 'zeal' in religion."     ~ Bishop J.C. Ryle, Practical Religion, p. 130

                                  

Do those words touch your heart? Making it leap with excitment towards the notion of being consumed by God so much that all of our motivations, all of our heart's intentions, are devoted with a single-mindedness towards bringing him glory and honor and praise? Towards pleasing Him?

I have to say, it touched mine! I thirst to know God with all of my heart that sometimes it aches. I want to experience Him with all that He will allow my senses to endure. But do I want to please Him? Do I want to bring Him glory? I do...but sometimes I think my search for theological answers and to understand facets of His character and glimpses of His truth overshadow or even come before a simple desire to please Him and bring Him honor.

God wants us to get to know Him. He wants us to reach out with our hearts, our minds, our souls, towards Him and develop strong relationships that don't quake though the whole world might tremble and shake around us. But, from what this quote says, our supreme desire, our only desire really, should be to please Him. And that, really, when one contemplates it, makes sense. For if we wish to please Him, if that is our ultimate motivation, than naturally all other things will fall into place-the knowing and experiencing Him parts.

I want to have a heart zealous for God! Unendingly zealous! Do you? I pray so. It might be a good prayer, for all of us really to pray- that we might cultivate a heart that puts God first and puts the focus of our intentions and the motivations of our hearts in pleasing Him above all other things. If we are honest with ourselves, I really don't think anyone can have a perfectly zealous heart for God...I mean, it seems certainly a process, an unending one at that. The world is full of tempations, our hearts are permeable enough that influences that steal our focus from God, no matter how sincere we might be towards Him, invade from time to time. So, it would seem natural that prayer and communion with God would be an essential thing in sustaining a heart of zeal towards God.

Let's pray :)

Heavenly Father,

We praise you for the abundant blessings that you have given us in our lives. We may have to endure trials, suffering and pain but your love and the blessed assurance that you give our souls surpasses all temporary things we might have to endure. You have given us your Son, and His innocent blood was shed for our sins, wiping away all the mistakes, all the blunders that our sinful hearts create clean if only we reach towards Him with souls asking for forgiveness. Thank you. Thank you for your unending mercy, for your gift of divine Grace.

Forgive us for not always guarding our hearts, keeping them from the temptations that creep in, stealing our focus from you God. Create in us hearts that are single-mindedly focused on pleasing you.On bringing you praise and honor and glory. Create in us lives that are living testimonies to the power, wonder and love of your Spirit. Through your Spirit, help us advance your love, your compassion, your gentleness, your patience, to a world of suffering, to those who don't yet know you. Let us not care what the world things of our fervent zeal towards you. Let us not care that the world might call some of our words and actions to please you, foolish. For The things of God are foolish to those that don't yet know Him. Let us not care what the world thinks but let our hearts burn with an all-consuming fire of desire to please you. Direct our hearts, our minds and our actions to bring about your will and to bless others and bless your Holy name.

In the name of Jesus,
Amen