"For as the body is one and has many parts, and all the parts of that body, though many, are one body-so also is Christ." 1 Corinthians 12:12

My Dad had his leg amputated.  He was still my dad.  The NFL has a player who starts and has only one hand.  My wife doesn't have a thyroid and she is still awesome.  We have been conditioned to believe that we can continue on without specific body parts.  We can.  However, wouldn't all of these three people prefer to still have them so that they could function more efficiently without a prosthetic or without medicine?  We may think we can function alone or without certain types of people in our lives but the truth is that we may be able to function but probably not as efficiently and effectively as if we allowed others in our lives.

Lord, help me to understand and appreciate others for who they are.

"Why am I so depressed? Why this turmoil within me? Put your hope in God, for I will still praise Him, my Savior and my God. "  Psalm 42:11

Our circumstances may make us depressed but our attitude gives us hope.

Lord, I believe in You and believe that You care about me, and that gives me hope.

So I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh.  Galatians 5:16

When do we tend to do bad things?  When we are alone and when we are with others who allow us to do bad things.  We rarely behave poorly at church on Sunday morning or when hanging out with our little old grandma.  We can't always be at church or at Grandma's side.  However, we can always take Jesus with us wherever we go.

Lord, help me to take You with me, especially to the places I find myself in trouble.

"Look at how great a love the Father has given us that we should be called God's children. And we are!" 1 John 3:1a

We often read this verse from our perspective.  After all, we are selfish and egocentric.  To our defense, we should read it from our perspective and it should give us hope and encouragement.  God loves us as His children.  However, that also means that God is our parent and for every parent out there, we should feel a little guilt about how we treat our heavenly father.  We unfortunately don't always appreciate all that He has done for us.  We take him for granted.  We expect Him to pick up after us and fix everything we break.  We expect Him to always be there and when He is there, we ignore Him.  And only when we can't figure it out on our own, we move back home and eat all of his food.

Lord, help me to realize that I don't always treat you with the love, respect and appreciation that I should and forgive me for taking You for granted.

"Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us." Hebrews 12:1 

Sometimes it is fine to dip the toe into the water.  Other times you need to take a run and jump in.  God wants us to jump in!

Lord, help me to refrain from being tentative and slow to fully follow You.

“Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moths and vermin destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moths and vermin do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.  Matthew 6:19-21

​Relationships matter.  Eternal life matters.  Love matters.  All of these things will last longer than homes and cars and vacation places and clothes and IPhones and jewelry.

Lord, help me to realize what is valuable.

"All the prophets testify about Him that through His name everyone who believes in Him will receive forgiveness of sins."  Acts 10:43

We will never work hard enough or do enough to earn forgiveness for our sins.  We may think that if we do this or if we don't do that, God will find favor in us.  God loves us unconditionally.  However, God needs more than our works to satisfy the debt of our misbehavior.  Christ alone can save us.  Believing in Christ alone will save us.

Lord, thank you for sending Christ so that I don't need to work my way into heaven.

Then He said to them all, "If anyone wants to come with Me, he must deny himself, take up his cross daily, and follow Me."  Luke 9:23

Choose to be less selfish, choose to sacrifice more,  and choose to follow Jesus.

Lord, help me to follow the clear plan You have for me.

"The LORD came and stood there, calling as at the other times, 'Samuel! Samuel!' Then Samuel said, 'Speak, for your servant is listening.'" 1 Samuel 3:10

​Two words put together have never been so appropriate.  We need to listen.  And we need to listen ... up.  God is "up there" and He is speaking.  We need to listen.

Lord, help me to listen up to You more.

"Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus."   Philippians 3:13-14

​You have heard it said in one form or another that if you are standing still, you are actually moving backward as the world continues to pass you by.  We must be intentional and always move forward.  Keep moving ... forward.  Standing still only leads to complacency and it makes it more difficult to start eventually moving forward again.

Lord, please help me move forward in my faith and commitment to You.