When it seems that our soul is melting with heaviness we can become very discouraged and depressed. Help us know that the difficulties of life are so very brief, though very real, and that we are able to overcome these ill feelings in Your strength, not ours.
The children are a special treasure in Your eyes. What is it Father that we adults lack? Do we lack the forthright nature of a child? Their innocence is genuine, not contrived. Their faith in Your love and the love of those around them is not like our faith as we mature. Our faith in other adults is usually conditional, based on how things are going at the moment
When we observe the purity and innocence of a child, You tell us that these children and their innocence are a representation of persons who will inhabit Your kingdom. How, Jesus, can we ever achieve that kind of innocence? The answer comes from You. “I live, yet not I, but Christ liveth in me.”
Father, No one has shown us the marvelous kindness that You have shown us. None of us feel worthy of Your concern for us. Even when we cry out in despair, doubting Your love for us because of our circumstances, You ignore our immature attitude and You bring us back to You, stronger.
We know that this kind of love should definitely result in our sharing it with our children, when we teach them, pray with them and speak of You and when we rise up and when we lie down. You expect us to make Your presence a constant reality in the lives of our children.
Father, at times we feel embattled, pressured by our daily circumstances and needs. We have learned to flee from sinful reactions to pressure because You are pleased to deliver us, to lift us up in that moment, if we but turn to You. We know that our willingness to be in a relationship with You transports us from helplessness to dependence on You.
“If someone says, ‘I love God,’ and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen, how can he love God whom he has not seen? And this commandment we have from Him: that he who loves God must love his brother also.” 1 JOHN 4:20-21 NKJV.
Father, we never seem to feel that we have enough stuff. We strive to achieve and to make gains of every sort. Help us know that You will see us through the good times and the difficult times. Teach us to persevere in doing good, even when things seem stacked against us.
This marriage, the union of our spirit and Yours, allows us to bear fruit unto life, life eternal. It is Your will that our old nature die and that the fruits of the Holy Spirit, mark us as Yours.