Heavenly Father, I praise You for today and for being the Creator of it. I praise You for all of creation and for the intricate design of all things, as well as the plans You have laid out. I praise You for the hope and forgiveness You offer us and the desire to seek You. Help me today to take command of my day and shake the evil from it.
Holy Spirit, I praise You for the lessons of my youth. I praise You for learning from my Uncle Art how to graft branches from fruit trees into other trees to keep a fruit-bearing branch productive. After some time, the new branch would look and act as if it had grown from that tree. James wrote, “Lay aside all filthiness and remaining wickedness and receive with meekness the engrafted word, which can save your souls. Be doers of the word and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves.” [James 1:21&22, MEV]
Help me to make Your word be engrafted and secure in my mind, soul, and spirit so that I can give life to it within who I am and to bear the spiritual fruit for others to taste and see that You are good. I have learned that with constant
memorization and meditation, the memory of scripture will eventually engraft itself on the nerve pathways of the brain and become an embedded memory to stay there for a very long time. Let me meditate wisely and put Your word into my very being so that I might not sin against You and learn to demonstrate Your righteousness and holiness.
Colossians 3:1-10—Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things. For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God. (4)When Christ, who is your life, appears, then you also will appear with him in glory. (5)Put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature: sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires, and greed, which is idolatry. Because of these, the wrath of God is coming. You used to walk in these ways, in the life you once lived. But now you must rid yourselves of all such things as these: anger, rage, malice, slander, and filthy language from your lips. (9)Do not lie to each other, since you have taken off your old self with its practices and
have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its Creator.
Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience. Bear with one another and forgive each other if anyone has a grievance against another. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity. Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, since as members of one body you were called to peace. And be thankful. Let the message of Christ dwell among you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom through psalms, hymns, and songs from the Spirit, singing to God with gratitude in your hearts. And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him. Devote yourselves to prayer, being watchful and thankful. And pray for us, too, that God may open a door for our message, so that we may proclaim the mystery of Christ, for which I am in chains. Pray that I may proclaim it clearly as I should.
Be wise in the way you act toward outsiders; make the most of every opportunity. Let your conversation be always full of grace, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how to answer everyone. Help me to adhere to this wisdom Paul wrote of. In Jesus’ mighty name, Amen. [Colossians 3:15; Colossians 3:12-17; Colossians 4:2-6]