Battling to Be Christ Like

Heavenly Father I praise You for all the little things You do for us like providing food to eat, clothes to wear, air to breathe, water to drink, and Your word for us to learn from. I praise You for Your faith in us to make good choices, to rear a family, to be friendly to others, and to learn to love. I praise You for continuing to help us be amazed by the wonder of life that can’t be explained.

Holy Spirit, in view of God’s mercy, help me to offer my body as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this will be my spiritual act of worship. I will not conform any longer to the pattern of this world but be transformed by the renewing of my mind. Then I will be able to test and approve what Your will is—Your good, pleasing and perfect will. Let my love be without hypocrisy. Show me how to abhor what is evil. Cling to what is good. Be kindly affectionate to others with brotherly love, in honor giving preference to others; not lagging in diligence, fervent in spirit, serving the Lord; rejoicing in hope, patient in tribulation, continuing steadfastly in prayer; distributing to the needs of the saints, given to hospitality. [Romans 12:1&2; Romans 12:9-13]

Holy Spirit I continue to struggle with frustration and anger towards the insanity of my work environment and with people in my country. Help me to correct my attitude, my focus and to learn to be more considerate and patient. Teach me to not focus on this world and its evil but on Your goodness and my eternal home. Help me to see people not as idiots but as souls going to hell unless they see Your light shining in my life and the life of my brothers and sisters. Help me to see a bigger picture than just what is in front of me. Lead me in how I should act, speak and think. Help me to not be like Jonah and want to see people destroyed for their sinful lives but to have mercy and grace as Jesus demonstrated while here on the earth.

Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves have received from God. For just as the sufferings of Christ flow over into our lives, so also through Christ our comfort overflows. If we are distressed, it is for your comfort and salvation; if we are comforted, it is for your comfort, which produces in you patient endurance of the same sufferings we suffer. (2Corinthians 1:3-7) But as for me, I watch for the Lord; I await the God of my salvation, and I know my God will hear me. Amen. [Micah 7:7]