Focus: 1 John: Prayers and Poetry

                Focus

                Presence, guidance 

                desires, confidence

                direction, anticipation

                requests all

                open gifts

                from our Lord's

                kindness and protection

                as we walk daily

                as we choose to

                hear His will in faith.

Psalm 107:27: "They reeled and staggered like a drunken man, And were at their wits' end."

Reflection: Confidence: 1 John: Prayers and Poetry

Reflection Questions

        1. How often do we have ongoing full confidence in our plans, and choices and relationships? Why or why not?

        2. How do you define confidence under the Lord's will? Is it different from our own expectations?

        3. How often do we ask Him first for conformation to be in His will and purpose?

Share: When have you asked and received a request as He led?

Confidence: 1 John: Prayers and Poetry

Reading:1st John 5:13-15: "These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, in order that you may know that you have eternal life. And this is the confidence which we have before Him, that, if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us And if we know that He hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the requests which we have asked from Him.

Confidence

Your gifts of presence and guidance and invitation to come to You in all things is beyond any measure we can understand.

Please keep our desires to be Your desires and that we will step into each one with awe and anticipation and focus.

Please edit our requests, Lord, so that each one is only as You choose and lead. We ask to walk with You everyday. And share with those around us.

Your thoughts,

Leaving Egypt Behind

Scripture: Exodus 6:5, ..; and I have remembered My covenant.

6:6-8, I will…(repeated seven times)

“Sorry, I forgot.” How many times have we spoken those words or had them spoken to us? Whether the forgetting is accidental, or intentional, it hurts. In our packed days we attempt to meet everyone’s needs, but, somehow, sometimes, that one seemingly unimportant request is forgotten, and a piece of trust gets chipped away. When it happens repeatedly we lose confidence in that individual, or others lose confidence in us.

No longer dependable.

God tells Moses “I have remembered My covenant.” Then He details seven distinct actions He will take to fulfill His promise. Dr. J. Vernon McGee calls these the “I Will’s of redemption.” Clearly God commits to Moses that His hand will save, His power will bring forth new life, His grace will establish relationship to Himself.

We can depend on God’s pledge too, even when it seems we’ve been forgotten. “My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me; and I give eternal life to them, and they shall never perish; and no one shall snatch them out of My hand.”

Keep the grains of mistrust from rubbing across my mind, Lord, on the days when You seem absent. Help me remember that You will not forget us or forsake us. Just as the sun follows its course above the storm clouds, so do You keep me on Your path during the darkness.

Psalm of Worship: Psalm 105:42

For He remembered His holy word

With Abraham His servant;