PRAYER FOR A NEW DAY AND WEEK

Heavenly Father, Maker of Heaven and earth, great is Your Name and greatly to be praised. You are worthy of all praise, all glory and all honor, this day, this week and this moment – now and always – as we live with breath borrowed with an expiration date from Your Kingdom Throne.

 

We thank You at the start of a new week, as one day comes to an end and the cycle continues through this current Age, that You have given us so much more than we have asked for, Oh Lord. In Your Grace, in Your Mercy, in Your Shalom – the peace that passes ALL understanding, You have given us the ability to be more than our feeble minds can even comprehend.

Father we can be like the giant oak, planted by the running waters of life, or we can be like the fig tree, which the Lord Jesus cursed because it bore no fruit.  Therefore, give us the boldness and courage in our weakness to use the power you filled us with, when You sent Your Holy Spirit to indwell us, so:

That we may bear fruit in and out of season

That we may take the long view as You do, and see the end from the beginning as much as we can

That we may not shake and cower at the first sign of opposition to our calling, because You did not give us a spirit of Fear, but the same Spirit Who raised Christ from the dead

That we may place our own selfish needs on the shelf and fish for great catch so that the King may be glorified – King Jesus.

 

Lord we know that when we quit navel-gazing and feeling sorry for ourselves, You open up the windows of Heaven and pour Your goodness on down in over-abundant measure. Hallelujah.

We know that when we water our hearts, mind and soul with the fresh and living Water of the Holy Spirit and Your Word, our leaf will not wither and whatsoever we do shall prosper.

We know that even though we wonder how long shall the wicked reign, we instinctively know in our spiritual hearts that You watch over the righteous…and that not one hair on our heads will be harmed by the evil one and his minions.

We know all these things because all Your promises are Yes and Amen! Hallelujah.

So thank You on Lord, on each passing day, that You put new joy in our hearts.

Thank You for the new wine which overflows our wineskins

Thank You for the grain of Your abundant provisions

Thank You for the sweet peace and rest You have blessed us with each day and night

Thank You for the families and spouses and children and grandchildren and more You have blessed Your faithful ones with.

Most of all, dear Lord, thank You for the Lord Jesus, our soon coming King, Who sits upon the Throne and as each day passes,  He sees the Day when He will mount the White Horse to bring Judgement and the Kingdom Reign upon the earth.

At the end of a new day, and at the start of a new week, we live for that Great and Glorious Day, when the King shall rise and lead the Armies of Heaven through the Eastern Sky. We honor, proclaim and bless His Mighty and Holy Name  - the Name above all other Names, the Name of Jesus, amen and amen.

 

THE PARADIGM OF THE NEW

“Remember not the former things, nor consider the things of old. Behold, I am doing a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it? I will make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert". (Isaiah 43:18-19)
The promises of God are yes and amen and true and will never fade away.  Jesus Christ, the Creator of ALL things, is the same yesterday, today and always. All things were created by Him and for Him. He is the Image of the Invisible God, the First Born of All Creation...begotten but not created. He considered equality with God not a thing to be grasped but humbled Himself to be born as a baby to a corrupt and filthy generation. Before His brief time on earth, He brought Isaiah up to the Throne Room who immediately realized his unworthiness. Still even though we - you and I - are like Isaiah and a people of unclean lips in a foul society run by evil men and women, He uses us. 

Jesus Christ sends out the call "Who will go for Us?" Who indeed?! Not one of us, on our best days are worthy to shine the brass sandals on His Holy Feet, yet He stands at the right Hand of God when one of us is martyred for His Name (Stephen in Acts 7 ). Who will go for the Lord? We will. He has no one else. We are His people. We who are called by His Name are His elect. He was born for us. He was born to reconcile us to God. He was born to make things new! He said so in His Word.

The Apostle Paul, who was taught by the Savior, whose followers he killed and jailed previously, said in 2 Corinthians 5:17 "if any man be in Christ, he is a new creation...behold all things are now new". The amazing thing about becoming a new Creation in Christ is that it can happen in deep depressing depths of winter to the bright days of summer or the beautiful blossoming Spring.

The Savior bids us go back to His promise in the lead verse above from Isaiah 43:18-19 to forget the past and not dwell on our sins and past transgressions, iniquities and sins against Holy God, but focus on what He is doing - as the God for all Seasons. What Abba Father, through the Son is saying is the "new thing springs forth", is God taking our dead in the water flesh and souls we were. which were absolutely and completely useless, unproductive, fruitless and of no use, even to other people - and making a NEW Creature out of us! In essence He has taken us to a new height which we could never attain on our own, or even knew we wanted! 

Then knowing that God is doing this new work of rejuvenation in our lives, He is asking us "do you not perceive it...can't you see it, acknowledge it, understand it or know it"?! It is a rhetorical question! He knows that after this rejuvenation, like then one when the Spring snows turn to green grass and blossoms, the lights He put there will eventually come on. 

This is all His Work.  This is our Great God making a way in the former dry, dead barren wilderness of our lives! Things we never noticed before - creation, evidence of the Flood and young earth, God's Hand in the affairs of mankind or even the signs of the evil times - we start noticing. This is because He has made  "a way in the wilderness" to lead us to the fertile ground. 

This fertile ground is His Kingdom, which knoweth no end! This Kingdom is an oasis, thus sayeth the Lord!  He made a new thing and did something which no sudden rare wadi or rainstorm in the desert can do - He put rivers in the dry deserts of our lives. Our great God says of rivers and streams in the desert that those whom He has chose, the man or woman who walk in His Ways, learn and live His Word and Worship Him will be "like a tree firmly planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in its season" (Psalm 1:3a). This is the paradigm of those whom God has renewed, if we are willing, submitted, committed and most of all - forgiven.