God has been teaching me a lot over this past year. The details of some of those lessons cannot and should not be disclosed in a public setting such as this. Thankfulness and praise are ongoing things that I'm learning to incorporate as I work through these lessons. As part of my time with God each morning, I've been reading a devotional about prayer, "31 Days of Praise," by Ruth Myers. Today's prayer was a great one for me and I thought I'd share it with all of you.
"Father, I thank You for the people in my life who seem to bring more pain than joy, for I believe You have let our paths cross for important reasons. I'm grateful that You are with me, to meet my needs when others fail to do so. I'm so glad that You are within me, working to make me more like Jesus- more patient, more gentle, more loving, through these things that I dislike.
Thank You that You love these people, and that Your love is adequate to meet their deep needs and to transform their lives, however willful or unwise they may sometimes be. Thank You that You care for them deeply, and that each one of them has the potential of being a vast reservoir from which You can receive eternal pleasure. And so, though I may not feel grateful, I give thanks for them by faith, trusting Your goodness, Your wisdom, Your power, and Your love for them as well as for me.
And I praise You that I need not fret about these people, or mull over angry thoughts to prove that I'm right. Thank You that by Your power I can receive them as You receive me: just as I am, warts and wrinkles and hang-ups and all...that I can choose to not judge them, but to forgive them....to cancel any debts I feel they owe me- any apologies, any obligations...that through Your grace, I can choose to wipe clean any slate of grievances I have within me, and to view those people with a heart that says, 'Thank You for Your Spirit who empowers me, so that I can do them good, delight in You, and commit my way to You, resting in You as You unfold Your good purposes in these relationships- in Your time.'"
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