Being perfect is our goal and we know that is Your will for us. In the meantime, teach us and guide us, every moment to observe Your Presence. Your thoughts towards us exceed number. Help us to respond by drawing near to You knowing that as we do, You draw nearer to us.
Are you able to turn your challenges over to God?
Father, if we could just realize that you are offering us relief
from carrying loads You want to bear for us, it would allow us move forward in Your wisdom and strength.
Wisdom, an assurance of salvation… Maybe not.
Father, we know that Solomon, the wisest man who ever lived, asked You for the gift of wisdom and You granted it. Here we listen to Solomon praising wisdom, using the feminine gender, and considering wisdom in the same nurturing way as a mother is with a child. The gift of wisdom is a great comfort, a reassuring touch from You.
Wisdom, a product of having been disciplined?
Father, we all truly want our children to obey your law and to avoid being unduly influenced by kids who do not know You or at least their habits seem to indicate that they do not have a strong relationship with You. We prefer our children be witnesses of Your love, not victims of poor choices, often promulgated by others. Give our children discernment and the courage to be different, we pray.
Got wisdom? Acknowledge the source…
Father, we see here that age should teach wisdom but it is not always so. Neither great men nor aged men are always wise, but men whose spirit has been breathed upon by Your Spirit, are given understanding, Your understanding.
We seek you by day, you seek us by night, mysteriously
Father, when we seek You during the day, You are telling us here that You seek us by night, as we sleep. You open our ears to new knowledge, to new possibilities of service to You. You instruct us in the night seasons. Father, when Your Spirit teaches and leads our spirit, it is a gift of immeasurable value, a true act of love from You to us.
To be forgiven enables you to forgive
Core Christian Value: God gave His only Son as a sacrifice for our sins. God forgives us for our sins and He expects us to forgive others who have disappointed us. We must forgive others in order to receive forgiveness.
Pride, the subtle, but terribly effective, tool of Satan
Father, is there any sin more likely to be in our lives than pride? It seems not as we observe the actions of some of your most committed people. Help us notice how pride can creep into our lives. Show us how to convert prideful tendencies into joy in Your presence, joy in victories made possible by You. We are so tempted to “seek the best seat” but here you teach us how embarrassed, before You, we will be when we are asked to yield that seat to another.
Rescued by the very hand of God
Father, the magnificence of Your creation is constantly before us. You tell us that the clouds are as dust to Your feet and that You have named every star. Solomon advises us to never lose sight of Your omnipotence, Your omniscience and Your omnipresence. You have created every thing that exists, You are in complete control.
You are invited to enter, behind the veil.
Father, first You have called us saints and now You invite us to enter into Your Holy Presence, a place where only the High Priest could enter once a year, behind the veil.