Monday blog post June 25th

A Prayer For The Heart To Be Quiet And Ready To Be Used Where God Has Me (Acts 16:16-40)

Lord, my heart desires to know how to lift my voice in prayer and to sing hymns when I find my life in the difficult places and when chains bind me or desire to bind me.

Paul and Silas were chained and in prison because they went against societies wisdom and desires and were obedient to you even though it seemed like foolishness and reckless. Life had taken a turn that they had not expected or forseen and they found themselves bound and what many would have seen as abandoned. But they did not see it that way. Lord, they lifted voices in prayer and song from the prison they found themselves in. They knew the God they served and that even though this place they were in had been unforeseen to them it was not to you. What many would have deemed as unpleasant and unfair circumstance, your obedient servants saw it as something you would work through and be exalted in. Lord, you did not disappoint. You saw them and you let them know that you were there. You opened the prison doors and loosed the chains that bound. What amazes me lord is that they did not see this as an opportunity to escape their circumstances but rather they saw that they were right where you wanted them to be. Rather than run they stayed where they were in order to freely allow your glory and salvation to be seen by those who were in an invisible prison and who walked each day with unseen chains that held hearts captive. Paul did not take the easy route to freedom but stayed quiet and trusting in the middle of his circumstance where he knew you were with him and working. From that lord you brought salvation to an entire family. You spared the jailer's physical life as well as his and his family's spiritual lives.

That is how I need and want to live lord, with unrestrained trust in who you are and what you are doing in my life. I not only want to have a prayer ready on my lips at all times and during all circumstances but a song as well. Help me not to look at my circumstance with fear or doubt. Help me to not want to run from them and leave them at a distance but may your spirit give me hope in your will for my life so that you may be exalted and your glory touch the lives of those who you place around me. I want to know you more and more by seeing you move unhindered in my life. I want to be used for your will and glory right where I find myself today. Give me the prayer and song that I need to see you and trust you wherever I am.

AMEN

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