Heavenly Father, I praise You for today and for watching over me. I praise You for giving me reason to live, find joy, and grow in faith. I praise You for my family and for teaching me lessons from them. Help me today to take command of my day and shake the evil from it.
Holy Spirit, you inspired a thought within me yesterday during worship that has troubled me as I've picked it apart in my way of thinking. How did the foreigners see the star over Bethlehem and know a king had been born, but the scholars, priests, and wisemen of Israel completely missed this until the wisemen from afar stopped to inquire of the new king from Herod? That star had to be obvious. So, think about this, the Gentiles of a foreign land recognized a glorious event was taking place when all those who studied the prophet Isaiah, and the other writers of what we now call the Old Testament, who are supposed to be alert and seeking a messiah, completely missed it. They completely missed that the shepherds who watched the sheep for the temple witnessed angels, and the spiritual world open up
into the physical world. How do you not know what is going on in your own backyard? To this train of thought, please help me to be more aware of the awe and wonder around me and to see when God moves in my community, family, or my work. Let me be sensitive to recognize God moving or doing a miracle. Don’t let me be so consumed by my own affairs that I miss the events around me that I should be aware of.
For this reason, I kneel before the Father, from whom his whole family in heaven and on earth derives its name. I pray that out of his glorious riches, he may strengthen me with power through His Spirit in my inner being, so that Christ may dwell in my heart through faith. And I pray that I, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that I may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God. Now to Him who is able to do immeasurably more than all I ask or imagine, according to His power that is at work within me, to Him be glory, Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever! Amen. Ephesians 3:14-21