Heavenly Father I praise You for creating us with a purpose. I also praise You for sending Jesus to live among us for 33 years giving us an example and words to live by before dying on the cross for our sins and then resurrecting three days later to give us victory over sin and death. I praise You for the hope that You have provided to us throughout the Bible.
Holy Spirit my spirit grieves with the people in Buffalo, Southern California and now Texas. We have seen what hate, narrow mindedness, isolation and political nonsense does to people. Now we need to show the world what living like Jesus does that radically changes the world. I work in a prison and have seen that if man wants to kill others he will find a means no matter the weapon he chooses or makes.
Holy Spirit lets stand up and live like Jesus showing people how to take care of our neighbor and love on them instead of demonstrating hate. Help us to not be judges of people but people who listen and demonstrate the hope that is in us. Help us to not compare ourselves or expect people to live like us because we definitely do not know everything like God does. Help us to see people for what they really are, Your creation with a soul that hangs in the balance by the choices they make. Help us to protect the innocent, stand for the downtrodden, support those who have been grievously wronged, work as workers for God not man, Help us to live a life that will cause change not challenge.
Holy Spirit help us to see people as people like Jesus did when he helped the Roman, the Samaritan woman at the well, the woman caught in adultery, the woman with the blood issue and even the hated tax collector Zacchaeus. Help us to start living a life that is truly a living sacrifice for God dying to our wills, our rights, our justifications and start seeing people as Jesus sees them, loving them as Jesus loved, caring for them as we were taught to do at the foot washing and when the disciples picked 7 Spirit filled men to serve, and most of all realizing that if we do not show them Christ and allow the Holy Spirit to change their lives they will have an eternity of hell.
Holy Spirit teach me to be an encourager, a defender, a workman worthy of his hire. Help me to not look down on people and not put people on pedestals either. Help me to be honest and a man of integrity. Let me show kindness, generosity and hospitality as I was taught since I was a child. Help me to see all people as potential brothers and sister in Christ. Help me to look beyond the biases of today and see people as people made by You. Help me to be simple and keep it simple to how I respond to all the people around me.
Holy Spirit put a hedge of protection around my son and his mind, body and spirit so that he can prepare to speak on Sunday. Help him to fully immerse himself into Your Spirit so he can be a vessel that fills up on You and then pours out to the congregation Your Spirit. Help him as he begins the next generation to speak for You. Help continue to grow his teen group and his Youth for Christ outreach so that he can have a meaningful and lasting impact on our community. Bind discouragement, distraction, apathy and fear from him and loose onto him courage, wisdom, discernment, and true joy that will fuel him. Bring Your word alive to him and breathe into him Your Spirit so he can breathe out onto the congregation at Millington.
But, beloved, remember the words that were previously spoken by the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ. They said to you, “In the last days there will be scoffers who will walk after their own ungodly desires.” These are the men who cause divisions, sensual, devoid of the Spirit. But you, beloved, build yourselves up in your most holy faith. Pray in the Holy Spirit. Keep yourselves in the love of God while you are waiting for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ, which leads to eternal life. On some have compassion, using discernment. And others save with fear while pulling them out of the fire, hating even the garment stained by the flesh. Now to Him who is able to keep you from falling and to present you blameless before the presence of His glory with rejoicing, to the only wise God our Savior, be glory and majesty, dominion and power, both now and forever. Amen. Jude 17-24 (MEV)