J * U * L * Y

July 1

Praise God who makes all things magnificently beautiful. Sometimes I wonder what you are thinking. Each soul you invite into heaven brings along the brightness of their faith in you. Each soul who returns to their Maker brings along the brilliance of their love for you. Heaven grows brighter than before as your children return to you.  And you laugh and rejoice that your family is with you at last. Oh, for the day when I can join your children there and laugh with you. Oh, for the eternal day when I can sing praises to you.  Do you sing, Lord?  I hope so. Will you be the director of our heavenly chorus? Wonderful, incredible day when I close my eyes in weakness and open them in your everlasting strength and ceaseless joy.

Lord, there are people in my life I never show my gratitude to. They work hard and I take them for granted. The janitors, the trash collectors, the maids, the farmers, the cooks, and so many more. I have neglected them. Make me notice them and express my gratitude to them. Can you forgive me for this, yet another sin?

Thank you for your promises. You always keep your promises. You are my protector, my helper, my shield, and keep me safe under the shadow of your wing.  But the greatest promise of all is that you will return in the clouds someday and bring me up to you. When all who have loved and obeyed you arrive, you will take us with you to heaven. What an amazing and comforting promise. You will take me to the new and glorious body you are preparing for me and I shall walk streets of your golden purity. I cannot begin to conceive what heaven will be like, but with you, I am always in heaven. Thank you.

 

July 2

You are my king. You are crowned with the sun. Your scepter is tipped with the moon. Your robe spreads across millions of galaxies.  Your throne is the dome of the cosmos encircled with a thousand rainbows. Your eyes sparkle like stars, your laughter is like the thunder, your tears like raindrops, your touch like billowy clouds gliding across the sky. Oh, my Lord. I love you, adore you, worship you.  I am your bride and long for you.

My Lord, you have given me so much. I have a decent place to live with air conditioning in the summer and heat in the winter. I have decent clothes to wear, nutritious food, doctors nearby. I even have the luxuries of a TV, cell phone, and computer. I take them for granted far too much. I sometimes forget you have provided them all for me. Please forgive my ingratitude.

Ah, Lord Jesus. What a life you lived!  You never sinned and that means you never passed up anyone who needed you. I think you must have been skinny. You must have skipped many a meal to get to everyone. And the awesome miracles you performed! Growing cut-off arms and legs back, returning the noses, fingers and toes to lepers, making the forever blind see, opening the ears of the deaf so they could hear your voice and the amazing words that came from your lips. Thank you, thank you for showing us who you really were ~ God materialized.

 

July 3

Ah, how can I praise you enough, Jehovah God? You are so good to me. You poured out your heart to the world in your Bible. How lucky I am to have a copy of it and live where anyone can have as many copies as they like. Lord God, I adore you. You are so high, I delight to follow you and try to reach up as high as you do. You’re never quite so far that I cannot sometimes touch you. To know you is to love you. You are my God and will be forever.

Father, my dreams have not been good lately. In my dreams I fear the whole world. Are those my true deep-down thoughts? It is a sin to be fearful all the time. I know that. Help me trust you fully again.

Thank you, God, for freedom to study your Book of all books.  I have a copy of your very own words. How amazing. Every word is so fascinating. You pour out your heart and withhold nothing of your plans, emotions, and doings. And thank you for the exhilarating gift of mind that allows humans to know of your existence and to understand who you are. Thank you for making me so much in your image that I have your same emotions, instinctively long for wisdom, and delight in creating. Thank you for all that I am.

 

July 4

Jehovah God, in your Word, you tell me how to think and act. You tell me what to stay away from, what to change, what to do. You tell me what attitudes I should have.  I try, but sometimes Satan lures me away from you with his false promises of a better and happier life. He convinces me it’s okay to not do what you want because “God just doesn’t want me to be happy”. Then, when I give in, I realize he has lied to me again and I yearn to return to you. It is always astounding to me that you smile and welcome me back. You forgive even the sins I repeat over and over ~ always trying but always failing. Continuously, you forgive, wipe away my tears, and calm my soul. I do not understand such patience and love. All I know is that you are my God and I am yours.

Father, I am fearful of poverty because of things some people have said to me. Why? Too often one’s fears turn to reality. Satan wants the worst for me and he wants me to blame you for it. Forgive my fears and make me strong again. Make me confident again and fearful of nothing as long as I am close to you.

Thank you for Calvary. Thank you for making it possible for them to arrest you, chain you, slap you, spit on you, beat you, scourge you, drive nails into your body. You let them do it to show the world how mean humanity had become when following Satan. You exposed Satan for what he was. Then you tricked him! Hallelujah, you tricked Satan!  He thought he’d killed God.  How egotistical. No one can kill God. You spent three days resting in Paradise, then came back to life. Was Satan ever mad. He had lost again. Oh, Wonder of wonders, my Lord. Nothing can conquer you. You are Lord of all lords, King of all kings, Conqueror of all conquerors.

 

July 5

I praise you, Jehovah, Creator of everything I observe and more.  You are too large to see all of you. You are too small to perceive your intricacies, too much to fathom, too wise to comprehend. You are my monarch, my sovereign, my emperor, my king.  You reign over my heart, my mind, my spirit, my soul.  And one day I will see you face to face. What will it be like? Actually seeing he who made the universe with over two hundred billion galaxies? And you know me by name.

There are people in the world who are unholy unbelievers in you. The only time they accept your existence is to blame you for bad things happening.  I do not always know what to say to them. I cannot get past their bitterness toward you and their degradation of me for being so naïve to believe in you. Lord, forgive me for not reading more of their writings so I can tell better what is motivating them and what will open their heart.

Thank you for the rain we had to nourish my thirsty garden. How do you make such fantastic things out of tiny seeds? Beets with one seed, carrots with another seed, radishes with another, corn, wheat, beans, tomatoes ~ all from tiny seeds.  I put them underground, they die, then they come back to life in delightful assorted sizes, shapes, colors, and tastes. Oh, how you must enjoy creating and giving life. Such pleasure you must receive from watching my little garden grow. I do too, Lord. I do too.

 

July 6

How amazing your Plan, God, to give mankind free will, let us fall, then forgive and lift us back up. Satan did not understand forgiveness. It was a mystery to him. Even your angels did not understand forgiveness. You can forgive anything and anyone. Your mercy tempers your justice. Forgiving tempers accusing. How angry Satan became after your Word died like he wanted, then came back to life. Your Word paid the ransom for our souls and Satan had no choice but to set us free.  How amazed the angels were after your holy Plan was carried out. How overcome I am that you forgive me over and over for the same sins.  I do try to resist Satan, Lord, and that is all you want. Still, I am awed. This is what makes you so great. You are the God of second chances. You are the God of extreme love. I worship you.

Help me not spend so much time studying your Word that I neglect relationships. Learning is just the beginning. Applying is what you want. Forgive me when I neglect people.

Thank you for the opportunity to wait. I make plans and they do not always come about as I desired. So, I wait, and as I do, I think a little deeper, I let go, I rest. Thank you for making my dreams of spreading your words of saving grace far greater than I could imagine. You stretch out your hand to make my puny efforts take hold and grow. I struggle, I am weak, but you make strong whatever I attempt in your own way. You are my strength.

 

July 7

When I think of the days you materialized and walked on earth with Adam and Eve, and returned as Mary’s Son, I lift up my soul to you. When I think of the angels announcing your appearance, I offer my heart to you.  When I think of your miracles and words of wisdom you proclaimed, I sing my song to you. When I think of the sorrow you bore and the cross of your suffering for me, I offer right now to lay down my life for you if your enemy ever demands it. My spirit communes with your Spirit. You love me so.  Though I may feel unloved by others sometimes, I feel your love always. The God of Love breaks through barriers and is victorious.

There are some shows on TV about good and happy witches and it is so tempting to watch and approve of them. Smiling does not make it right. Kindness does not make it right. Witches having families does not make it right. Forgive me for watching them; it is the same as approving of witchcraft.

Lord God, I adore you. How can I thank you for being so close to me in your word and my prayer?  I love every one of your words. They are sweet as honey and like a drink in the wilderness. Praying to you is so powerful. I used to pray through the newspaper and my congregation’s membership directory. I must do that again. I can always tell a difference in their lives because you hear me and grant my requests for them. Prayer is a catalyst to reading more of your wisdom, and reading more is a catalyst to talking to you more. It is overwhelming that you are just a thought away, but you made it possible for me. Thank you for this possibility.

 

July 8

I praise you, Mighty God, I delight in you, I adore you. You are splendid majesty reigning on high. You are my Maker. Yet you long for more and more children. You did not want just one, so you set in place your Plan to have millions of children. You delight in us as a father, punish and guide us as a father, protect and provide for us a home as a father. With you I feel safe, so unbelievably safe.

Father, help me not be judgmental, even of members of my own family. Help me concentrate on the good and reflect it back to them.  Forgive me when I lapse.

Thank you for the confidence you are going to be placing in all of us who follow your will regardless of what our will is. We are in training and testing here on earth. I believe when you said you would put your servants in charge of a number of cities, you were saying God was going to put his children in charge of possibly entire galaxies. Scientists say there are from two hundred to four hundred billion galaxies. You are not a God of idleness.  Is that what you have in mind when you give us our crowns of salvation? Will the world end when you have enough of us? What a thought.

 

July 9

I come to you on bended knees as your child. I come to you with limited words, limited thoughts, limited wisdom. Take what I have, Lord God, and use it. Take my hands to work for you. Take my feet to walk for you. Take my lips to speak for you. Take my songs, my prayers, my life. You are majestic sweetness that leans low and embraces me. You keep me working, and walking and speaking. You keep me singing, praying and living for you, as you live for me. You are the lover of my soul. You are all glory, all wonder, all holy. Praised be your very name, the self-existent one, the I AM.

Lord, sometimes I watch too much TV, or eat too much, or spend too much time at the computer. I neglect good works I need to be doing and actually lie to people, telling them I don’t have time for good works. Forgive my self-deception and self-absorption.

It is summer. The flowers are blooming, the birds are teaching their young ones to fly, the early crops are beginning to come in. The rains are gentle, the sun is lazy, the breeze floats easily through my hair. The snows on the mountain are melted for a while, the deer and bears are roaming the forests for berries, the waters are slowing to let the fishes play. Your world is so beautiful. And you made it all for us as our garden. Thank you.

 

July 10

Lord God, you are so good, blameless, and upright. You are completely pleasant in my thoughts. In the morning I praise you with the new dawn. As I walk through my day, each step praises you. The summer blossoms and trees and meadows praise you in chorus led by the glistening sun. The little animals skittering here and there, the feathery birds happily soaring from limb to limb, the fish in misty lakes praise you as the sun begins its descent. As I stop my work and head homeward, my sighs whisper praises to you. At setting of the sun, my thoughts praise you. In the shadows of the evening and end of day, I praise you and adore you and worship you.

Father, I think I am obeying only those of your commands that I want to obey. The attitude commands are the hardest to keep. Help me. I know they are for my own good.

Thank you, God, for your great Plan.  You conceived me by your Spirit. Now the womb of the world is experiencing labor pains. How we hurt as we slowly progress from this dark world to finally emerge in the light0. Someday it will be over and I will be born into your heavenly world. Each one of us you take through this birthing process. Each one of us is a new son or daughter for you. Thank you for making it all possible.

 

July 11

Your Eternal Plan is so magnificent! So all-encompassing! So daring! Were you lonely before you made us? You had the angels. I cannot comprehend it. Why did you want us too? Why couldn’t the angels be your sons and daughters? How are we different? You have set us above them.  From the beginning Satan was evil. From the beginning Satan was a liar. But also from the beginning was the Word who made the earth and all that is on it.  I do not understand. All I know is that you created one man and one woman and from them have come billions of us humans.  You did not put us in heaven. You made a beautiful cosmos to set us in. Then gave us the challenge:  Defeat Satan. We were to be co-workers, co-warriors with you.  What confidence you have shown in us ~ in me.  I now march together with you carrying the banner of love against Satan and his banner of hatred. You and I march together and I salute and praise you above all other beings. You will win the battle and I pray I will be there with you when you do.

I am never satisfied. I always want more friends, more food, more promotions ~ always more. Forgive my selfishness, please. Help me stop all this and make a turnaround so I am always satisfied.

Thank you, God, for your Eternal Plan. You are never changing. Therefore, you always stick with your Plan no matter what Satan does to stop you. He is the destroyer, but you grab those of us who will let you from his clutches. You never stop. Even though we keep sinning, you keep forgiving. How can I thank you enough? Such love is beyond my understanding. I will spend eternity offering my undying gratitude.

 

July 12

All nature praises you. Their beauty in sight and sound, touch and taste testify to your excitement, your intensity, your tenderness, your subtle delights.  Oh, to watch kittens and puppies play and romp, birds ride the currents of the sky, butterflies land on unsuspecting noses, squirrels skitter up trees and back down again. Oh, to watch the sky churn and rumble and flesh during a storm, then turn as blue as a robin’s egg with clouds as white as a mountain’s snow. To see a shooting star, a sunrise, a double rainbow. Everything you made declares your glory.

This fall I must start a Bible study at a nursing home. Two years have come and gone and I keep putting them on the back burner of my busy life. Help me begin eliminating so I have time to study with them.

Thank you for Sunday mornings. The reminder of Jesus returning to life. ~ the greatest event in the history of mankind.  Especially sunny Sunday mornings. My weekly reminder that you’ll bring me back to life again you. You promised him and kept your promise. You have promised me. You keep your promises.  All of them. Thank you.

 

July 13

Lord God, you are so good to me. Though I do not talk to you every hour of the day, you keep my food growing, the sun coming and going on time, and you watch over me every hour of every day. You do not treat me as I do you. I am sometimes weak and ungrateful, taking what you do for me for granted.  You are loving and forgiving, never stopping for a moment. You even watch over people who have a Bible and never read it, people who worship you only in public and never at home, people who resent you and even refuse to believe you exist. Still, you watch over everyone. You are hurt that they do not return your love, but you continue to watch over them and take care of their needs.  None of us is worthy.  You are as beyond our understanding of you as the earth is from the farthest star.

Sometimes I fear other people for one reason or another. Forgive me. I know that perfect love casts out fear. Help me love even my enemies, even as Jesus said so long ago.

Thank you, God for quietness balanced with someone to talk to.  Thank you for sun balanced with darkness to rest. Thank you for the chirping of little birds balanced with the roar of thunder. Thank you for living where there is perfect peace. And for a copy of your actual Words ~ Words that lift my spirit, enchant my heart, challenge my mind, keep promises with my soul. Just think. The Creator of the universe wrote us a love letter!

 

July 14

I lift up my praises to you, God, for you are so incredible. You are my rock so I will not fall.  You are my life so I will not ever die. You are my redeemer who sacrificed so much so you could buy me back from Satan.  How can you love me so when I sin, especially by my attitudes? And my neglecting others? You fill in the gaps for me and make me look better than I am. You are astounding and sometimes leave me dumbfounded at your capacity to love.

Father, sometimes people think it is their right to treat me bad. Help me stop noticing when they do and just keep on loving them.

Jesus, thank you for coming to us when we so needed you. You knew all along we would sin, so you arranged for forgiveness.  You tried to explain forgiveness to the angels but they still did not quite understand. So, you put mankind on earth so you could demonstrate forgiveness.  How amazing your Plan.  Still, we could not overcome Satan by ourselves. We could not free ourselves from Satan. You had to do it yourself. You came and set us free in the midst of physical weakness.  It was then that you were the strongest. Thank you for times of my own weakness so I will use your strength. What a privilege to fight Satan side by side with you.

 

July 15

Lord, take me home. This world is hard. How I long to live in your world. Well, I know you have a purpose for me being here and I try to do my share in defeating hatred with love, accusations with forgiveness. But sometimes I grow weary. It is at those times I long to be with the One I adore. There we can walk and talk together as you did with Adam and Eve in the garden. There the river of life will flow freely; the tree of eternal life will blossom and bear fruit. There the roses will not have thorns, the street of gold will not have broken bricks, the wall of salvation will stand sturdy and protective, and the sun will shine forth from you to make it forever day. Well, someday it will be my time. I will close my eyes here and open them in your presence. Glorious day.

Lord, I often declare my love to you, but sometimes have trouble loving some of my family members. I become tired of forgiving them or giving them unheeded advice to ease the problems in their life. That is so wrong of me. Ease my heart and keep me loving them.

Thank you for your salvation. Over and over your Bible tells me that’s all you think about. How loving and wonderful you are. And thank you for the friends coming to have dinner with us. And for my next-door neighbors. Thank you for food to share with them. Thank you for the animals who seem to have a special love for humans ~ kittens, dogs, horses and others. Thank you for color and rainbows that show off all the colors at once. So many delights.

 

July 16

I adore you, Jehovah, my God, my Creator, my Savior, my Father, everlasting who was, who is, and who evermore shall be. You are so much better to me than I deserve. I live in a free country and you have saved me to live in your heavenly country. I am sinful but you keep forgiving me even though you are holy. The angels declare who you are and it echoes from world to world. The saved who have gone before me fall prostrate before you. Cherubim and seraphim worship you.  Though I cannot see you, in my heart through a mist I see your glory even now.

Lord, sometimes I do good works from the wrong motives. Sometimes I do them so others will notice me, sometimes so the person I helped will notice me. Help me do more things anonymously and then forget them so I will never tell them.

Just as you fed the slaves who escaped Egypt and wandered forty years in a wilderness, you feed me food for my body to keep me alive and food for my soul to make me eternal.  Just as you provided water for them in their wilderness, you provide clean water for me and the spiritual water that flows on forever. Just as you led them in a column of fire at night, you lead me with the fires of cleansing to make me pure.  Just as you led them in a cloudy column by day, you lead me with cloudy mists of what it will be to follow you right into heaven. When this wilderness comes to an end, I will be forever home.

 

July 17

My God, you have washed me in blood and made me pure. How can that be? Blood is so dark red and sticky and impossible to clean off. Blood drained out of a body means death. But you, my God, you turned a symbol of death into a symbol of life. Instead of dark red, the Savior’s blood is bright white and soothing and cleanses everything it touches. You do not draw blood out of me; you put the blood into my soul to make it come alive again as pure as I was as an innocent baby. With the Savior’s blood in my soul I become a priest and a king in your heavenly kingdom. There, I offer you the incense of my priestly prayers and lay at your feet the golden crown you bestowed on me.  To even say you do things staggers my mind. Your thoughts are so far above my thoughts.

Lord, I am still working on it ~ loving myself more than others. I put things I want to do before things others need me to do to help them. Help me change.

 

Though the world glories in fancy houses and fast cars and power above all things, I glory that you have prepared for me a place to live in your heaven. Let that place be lowly, I do not care. As long as I can be with you forever, that is all I desire. Thank you for making this world a shadow of things to come. In your world, the tree will provide life, running water will provide eternity, your throne will provide rainbows, you will be the sunshine.

 

July 18

Dear God, you are my delight. Oh, to be together in your world. But we are together now through your Word. You have poured out your heart to me in it ~ sharing your laughter and tears, your Eternal Plan, your disappointments and victories, ups and downs. How you love me far beyond what I deserve or even comprehend. You are holy beyond imagination.  You are glorious beyond description. You are the treasure in my heart.

Why do I feel so lonely inside sometimes? There are people around me. Am I expecting too much of them? Do I want more from them than they can give? Help me see myself as others do.

Thank you for making the world incomplete. You left the buildings unbuilt, the flowers unplanted, the jewels uncut, the poems unwritten. More, you left Satan unconquered, the kingdom unestablished, the blood ransom unmade. Then you set us to work to fight the foe together. You left us battles to pray for, souls for which to beseech you, sinners to bring to you for forgiveness.  Thank you for the opportunities you gave us.

 

July 19

How can I praise you enough, oh great Jehovah? With eternity, I will have only just begun. You have opened the gate to your home to me. What a privilege. I do not deserve it. Yet you love me so. How I adore you and worship in this life and in the next. I will never tire of singing to you, walking with you, living true life to its true fullest with you. I am awed by you.

I have some inner negative thoughts that should not be there. Make them go away. They shame me. Forgive me.

Sunday morning once again. The reminder once again that you materialized, died, and came back to life. How grand your Plan! You never diverted from it. Thank you for Sundays the day you came back. And the day you left behind your Word so we’d know exactly what you think. And thank you for summertime.

 

July 20

I adore you, God. I want to please you and spread your kingdom everywhere I can. You are great beyond imagination. When my thoughts are about you, it is summer in my heart. There blossoms thoughts of your grace.  There flow waters of life. There showers of blessings fall with gladness. There the gentle warm wind breathes wonder. There the sunshine of your love fills me with wonder.

Lord, I neglect other people. I get so busy doing and reading and studying at home, I neglect getting out and doing something about what I am reading in your Word. Forgive my selfish ways.

Thank you for the church, that part of your kingdom that is on earth. When we, your family, get together, we are so full of joy. When we worship together, we are so full of kinship in our wonder of you. When we confess our sins to each other, we reach out and lift each other up. Your church is such a perfect way to keep us encouraged to stick with you all through life, no matter what Satan throws at us. Thank you for your church.

 

July 21

My Lord and God, steadily I climb toward you. You draw me closer to you with each step. With one step I strive to have the kind of mercy for others you have for me.  With another step I try to be more forgiving as you are to me. With yet another step I struggle to make time for others as you make time for me. Then there are the steps of purity, patience, pride and so many others that I dread to take because I am so weak to keep them in my life. Sometimes it is very hard to keep going.  But you keep drawing me. Where I lack the strength, you reach out and say, “Take my hand. I will help you.” Keep drawing me toward you, Lord. Help me keep climbing and walking, climbing and walking, until at last I walk through the gates into heaven and see you at last and forever.

Lord, I am worried about my money situation. I should be willing to live within my income. Help me eliminate things and activities I don’t really need. Help me stop comparing myself to what others have and do. Help me be satisfied with just clothes on my back, a roof over my head, enough food to keep me healthy. Forgive my greed.

Thank you, God, for your Book divine, the Book wherein you pour out your heart to me. How you have agonized with all of us these past centuries and millenniums. At the same time, you have shared in the victory march of each Christian who overcomes an enemy of action, an enemy of attitude. You never stop tugging at my heart and mind. You keep saying through your Book, come to me. Come to me!  I can give you strength. Thank you for being willing ~ no, anxious ~ to lift me up.

 

July 22

Your Plan.  Ah, my Lord!  Your Plan is so perfect amidst my imperfections. I jeopardize it, you punish, then forgive, and I get back on track a while. I struggle, wanting to please you but sometimes not knowing what to do next. You are so patient when I make mistakes. You smile and say, “Okay, let’s try it again.” I cannot comprehend such love. It is your love that gets me through life one day at a time. When you give me love, you give me yourself. It is you who I long to be with both now and forever.

Lord, help me not put my foot in my mouth. Help me think twice before I speak. And help me slow down and be willing to listen more than I speak. The mouth can be a wonderful thing or a treacherous thing. Guide my mouth.

Thank you for putting people in my path to divert me from selfish activities filling my time. Keep doing it, Lord. Keep sending me people to interrupt my easy-going and predictable life so I can hold their hand as you do for me. You always have time for me.  You love being interrupted. Thank you for your examples when you walked the earth. I think you must have been skinny because you never sinned and were always available to whoever needed you and whenever they needed you.

 

July 23

I praise you and magnify you in my heart. And, as I do, my heart grows and sometimes bursts with delight. Then it starts all over again. You are the pleasure of my day, and I bask in sharing just a spark of your glory. You bring sunshine when the dark clouds come. You give me smiles when I weep. You bring calm during storms. You give me direction when I feel lost. You grant me peace when turmoil surrounds me. Oh, great Lord. You do the same for everyone who loves you. How do you do it? I am in awe of you.

Lord, I bragged to some people about someone I helped. Why do I do such things? I stole the glory you should have had. I should have been complimenting those I was talking to, not myself. Help me overcome my ego.

Thank you for the time I spent with friends at their house yesterday. Good friends, good food, many smiles, a few memories shared, life discussed, just being together. Thank you for friends and interrupting my work so I can give and receive a special time of giving and receiving.  I may not have as many friends as others do, but they are pearls in the strands of  life that I walk day by day. My friends are a gift from you and, for that, I thank you.

 

July 24

My Father, as I walked along my path of life, the breeze teased itself through my hair and I felt such grace from you.  I was so energized when the breeze turned into an outright wind, I ran and felt your courage. I became so invigorated when the wind turned into a gale, I leaped and grabbed hold of your love.  I became so excited when the gale turned to a cyclone, I flew and felt the intensity of your love. Ah, my Lord, you are exciting and wonderful and I exalt you.

God, I got up late yesterday and rushed to my car then I had to rush to get to work on time. To do that, I had to go over the speed limit. You told me to obey the laws of the land but I didn’t obey just because I didn’t think I’d get caught.  But you caught me. Forgive me, please.

It is summertime. I love summer. Perhaps it is because I grew up so cold living in the far north.  Now I can sit outside and write letters or work on my computer, or do sewing or reading or whittling. Yes, sometimes it gets a little too hot, but I don’t care. I just turn on a fan and sit still, sometimes leaning back, taking a short nap or remembering the rare days of my child when it was hot and I played tag or Red Rover or roller-skated on the sidewalk or rode my bicycle down the street.  Lazy day of my youth.  A good youth. I did not have to carry guns because the local army ran out of young men to recruit.  I did not have to stay home from school because my parents did not have money to send me. I had clean water to drink and nourishing food. Thank you for warm days and the days of my youth.

 

July 25

When I think about my comprehension of you through the years, I guess I started out as a young adult with just a speck of understanding.  Several years passed, and as I look back now, I see that I now hand a handful of         appreciation of who you are, what you are, and all that you give me.  More years passed, and then I was carrying an arm full of awareness of and admiration toward you.  Time continued to pass.  As I grew, all your wonderful traits of mercy, kindness, forgiveness, grace grew so overwhelming, I carried them on my back and invite others to take what of you they wanted.  At last, today, I have a golden cart pulled by a dozen happy angels and overflowing with all the goodness that is you. When others see it, they join with me and rejoice. Oh, blissful day when I can bring my parade right through your gates and join together to worship you with those who have gone before.

Lord, I guess I was a little rebellious earlier today.  I wanted to return something to the store and the clerks said it was against their policy to take anything back. I thought it was unfair and told them so. I need to go back to the store and tell them I am sorry I became angry and maybe give them a gift card for coffee and dessert somewhere.

Thank you, my God, for all the modern conveniences we have today in the twenty-first century.  I remember the time before microwaves and having to stand at a stove for an hour to cook something. I remember before restaurant chains and, when traveling, we had to guess if a restaurant had decent food; the same with hotels and whether they were clean. I remember before hand-held calculators we had to add everything in our head.  I remember before television and having radios that lost the station’s signal at the slightest turn of the knob. I remember before cell phones and even answering services and how we got along just fine not knowing instantly what someone wanted me to know. So many modern advances, it would take me hours to name and explain them all.  When you created the world, you left all these things unmade so we could have to excitement of discovering them.  Thank you for discovering, inventing, and sharing in your creativity.

 

July 26

Your love, ah my Lord, is as sweet as honey and tart as a lemon that becomes a tantalizing pie. Your love s as soothing as milk and comforting as macaroni. Your love is as fresh as peaches and as appetizing as fried chicken. Oh, my. If you had not made all the different kinds of foods, my understanding of your love would have been diminished a little bit. As your Apostle Paul told the Romans so long ago, if anyone wants to know what God is like, just look around.  And I do. You are everywhere.

Father, I carry offenses too long until they instill bitterness in me. Satan, go away from me. Leave me alone. I don’t want to be that way; bitterness is a poison. Take your poison and go bury it somewhere. But leave me alone.

Thank you for summertime when the grass grows green, the flowers bloom in every color and competing only with the glorious rainbow. Thank you for white clouds bumping into each other against a deep blue sky.  And for raindrops that slip down the sky and tumble into rivers, creeks and mud puddles. Thank you for potatoes and beets and carrots and radishes that play hide and seek with me under the ground until I find them. And thank you for corn and strawberries and green beans. And for trees that produce olives and avocados, peaches and pears. How I love summertime. Thank you.

 

July 27

I love you, Lord God, and lift up your name before the world. You are magnified in my heart, honored in my life, praised in my soul. I touch you with gratitude, feel you with love, and see you in faith and wonder. Made-up gods cannot compete with you, for no mind on earth can comprehend enough of you to duplicate, compete with, or overshadow you.  All blessings on earth and in the heavens have been made by you and then bestowed on us. Praise God from whom all blessings overflow.

Lord, forgive me for gossiping about another congregation. Once I began attending somewhere else, I should have left my judgmentalism behind. Help me remember only the good and forget the iffy as you do for me.

Thank you, God, for your fascinating Bible. You tell of your actions and feelings all the way through from the beginning of time. You even tell of how and why you made the earth and people. You tell of Adam and Eve and how they lasted some one hundred years without sinning, but Satan kept after them until they finally gave in. You tell of your Plan to free everyone from the clutches of Satan through your Word made flesh. You tell of miracles, amazing words of wisdom to live by, of the ultimate self-sacrifice for helpless mankind to help us escape Satan’s power. And you tell of heaven, our final home, the home for which I have lived all these years to attain. My real home. My forever home.

July 28

I praise you, Jehovah, for you are Truth. Without truth, where would I be? I would not know what to do and what to stay away from. I would not know which was left and which was right, which was up and which was down.          I would be left wondering and wandering through life. And you always keep your promises. You do not hold back from making them. They give me courage to keep going in this world that Satan wants to take over. They give me courage to stand strong.  Satan may win some skirmishes with me along the way, but you forgive them as though they never happened. Satan loses. And in the end, you will win the war and I will be there with you. Great day of overcoming.

When I have dreams for advancing your church, are they from my selfishness or am I truly having them for you? Make me selfless. Make me forget my ego. Make me just keep on working and doing by myself so I will know for certain it is all for you whom I love.

Oh, Jesus, thank you for coming!  You kept your promise! Your Father Will brought you back to life. You kept your promise. Your Spirit explains it all in your Bible. You kept your promise. Now, I have the hope of heaven. No, not the hope; I have the promise of heaven. Oh, glorious day of being in the joy of your presence every day throughout eternity. Eternity is beyond my comprehension, but I know it will be so. I know it!

 

July 29

I praise you, Almighty God. You are the ultimate in all that is good and merciful, true and just, giving and forgiving. How could I want anything beyond you? You have opened the gate to heaven, smiled, and said, “Come in. Welcome to my home.”  You have opened the gate to your heart and said, “Come live here with me.” How you love! How you love….

Forgive me for saying something in front of the poor lady about people living off the taxpayers. I wasn’t thinking. It hurt her. She never wanted a life like that. Help me make it up to her. I should probably pick her up and bring her home with me for lunch.

Thank you for loving me. Thank you for saving me from Satan. Thank you for making my soul eternally good and pure in your eyes.  I am nothing without you.  I am and have everything.  I am inviting people to worship with me and they are finally coming. Thank you for giving me the patience to keep trying, mostly by just continuing to love them. It is your love that is in me. Everything I have is yours ~ the food I feed my company, the car I drive to visit people, and everything else. None of it is truly mine; all I have belongs to you.

 

July 30

I praise you, God, because of all that you are and can do. You are far above anything my mind can grasp. But you have left behind a world full of proofs you exist.  Nature testifies what you can do. You have left your Word to testify how you think and react. No other religion in the world comes close to what you are. They cannot compete, for their god is imaginary.  Their god cares nothing about the followers except for what the priests can get out of them by making them afraid of their gods. You are Truth. You are the Way. You are Love. I adore you, most holy God.

I try really hard not to be envious of others. I try really hard to be happy for others when they attain something. But, when that which they attain is something I want, I fail. I am envious and want what they got. Crush my ego and make only Christ alive in me.

Oh, righteous Jesus, you came to us when we were so rebellious against you.  You lived the perfect life we thought we were living because we believed Satan’s lies. We didn’t like the contrast of your perfect and our imperfection. You were so good at being perfect and we were not. But you never gave up on us. If you had, we would have been destroyed forever. Such patience, Such love. Such stubborn love. Thank you.

 

July 31

I send up my praises to you and they go rushing like a tidal wave to engulf your heart with my love. How can I praise you enough for the power of your love and justice, patience and mercy? I do not begin to understand it ~ powers beyond my imagination. Yet you love me ~ little, insignificant me. I lift up my voice to you in a whispered sigh, in a chant, in a song, in an anthem. May my voice echo through the universe until it reaches your magnificent throne of love.

I’m neglecting people again. I need to meet the parents of my new friend. I need to find a nursing home to study with. I sit here and let the days go by without following up with what I know I should be doing.

Oh, God, how can I thank you for offering your home to me, then doing everything possible to keep me from the terrors of Satan. I do not deserve such stubborn love. Today I have a lot of peace within and it feels so good. We had a little rain yesterday, a double rainbow, and now a golden sunrise. When I went outside to look at my flowers, a warm breeze touched my cheek and made me think of you.