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The Basin of the Temple

Today in my reading I have been looking at the description of the temple. I am amazed at the simple elements of it and its focus. Lord, you have reminded me today the importance of being clean, clean, clean before You. I remember that Petra song that spoke of this and the importance of God seeing me as clean. Today I have been studying the Temple that Solomon built and today I have been focused on the bronze basin that was in front of the temple as a basin to purify and make clean the priests prior to entering into the presence of God. Lord, this makes me think of our practices to hurry up and wash our hands or wash ourselves so as to begin the day, to present ourselves for work. But this act of cleaning is important and vital to our lives. It is often what makes us healthy as we was off the impurities. I think of the addition of soap that helped us even further be clean and yet there are other products like Norwex towels that focus on the article that is doing the cleaning. We need ou...
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Praying with Confidence

Been a while since I posted on here. Lately I've found some readings of my mom in which she had paper she had taken from "Our Daily Bread." This excerpt is titled "Praying with Confidence" and she clearly liked it and thought it was important for she saved it. It reads: The Scriptures were written by people who felt the same desires and discouragements we face. They too were dismayed at times by their circumstances. They knew what it was like to cry out to a silent God, to come to the end of themselves, and to feel their emotions going "over the edge." Yet the people of the Bible are important to us because they lived long enough to recover their sense of joy and confidence in God.  As we struggle through our own fears and disappointments, we can find renewed hope by using their thoughts as a path for our hearts and prayers. Psalm 42 is a good example. Here is a verse from that psalm, and a suggestion for how you might use it to fashion your own prayer...
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Praying Together

O God, I need to pray with my wife. I have struggled with this our entire marriage. We are into year 34 and still it is a struggle. I want her to initiate and yet I don't initiate. Help me to do it, even if it is 30 seconds. And help me to do that with my boys and Megan and anyone in my midst I meet with or do things with. This is a simple way to lead. Help me to lead in that way. Thank you for friends that do this in my life. I can do this.  Update 2/28/2026 My wife and I have been praying more regularly, up to 5x per week, in the morning, before work, either after she comes into the kitchen to get breakfast (the better way) or right before I leave for the day (in the bathroom after I brush my teeth). At times I start the prayer with praying verses from "Handbook to Prayer - Praying Scripture Back to God" by Kenneth Boa I picked up on his website after seeing this was part of the remnants discovered on the person of Payne Stewart, a professional golfer, that died on a pl...
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Too many things

O Lord, I notice in my life how often I get so busy with so many things. I get obsessed with staying on top of things, busying myself with things to be informed, and suddenly I have so many things in my life I am trying to accomplish and do and then i am just staying busy but not really accomplishing much. Like the magazine Christianity Today. I love reading it, but it is easy for me to make it an obsession as I start getting RSS feeds on every article that gets added and somehow think I must read every article. It is interesting information, but is it just knowledge overload and what am I doing with the information, if anything. I am tempted to feel a need to look at Twitter and Facebook and other sites to stay informed, and yet for what? It is not fruitful. And yet, in my life I am noticing how I can try to justify not praying or not visiting people in need. I can justify a need to relax and sit in front of the tube and just drain time away. Deal with me God. Wake me up. Re-shift wha...
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I am depressed

God, I am depressed. I am struggling with being pursued and of interest. I want that, but that is a struggle, a need I believe I have right now and rather than focusing on the unmet expectation, I turn to you. I run to You God. I lean on You. I surrender to You. Meet me in this moment and assure me of the Love you have for me. Help me to remember you pursue me and you want me. I have been struggling with prayer Lord and what it means. I am not praying much these days. I lean on You for help. I need to find my rest in You and Your promises. Make that more than enough Lord. You are more than enough and I want that to be more than words I say or a song I sing, but a reality of meaning in my life. Bring a smile back to my face Lord. Bring contentment. Bring joy. Bring peace and assurance of Your love for me.
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Trusting in Him, not thinking it still needs to be me

Lord, I didn't get out what I wanted to say. I just left the time with that person. I believe you directed me to have that conversation, even though after you led me and I made the appointment that I began to be nervous about what to say. I decided to trust you on the way to the appointment and prayed ahead of time for the conversation and to trust you through it, as I spoke, for what was said. And there were some amazing things said. Things that came out, the way I had hoped. You were moving through me and helping me with the words to speak. Then I left and started rehearsing all that was said and suddenly I am saying, "Darn, why didn't I say that?" And then I began to reinforce that in my thinking more and more, to the point that I started to get down on myself and nervous and mad and feeling like I need to reach out to that person and get those things said.  Oh God, I am doing it again to you. I am making it out that you are not in control, but I am. That the only ...
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All He Has Given Me

O Lord, I thank you for the mercy you have shown me - continually. You granted me life, creating this world and all that is in it. You give me great gifts of creation - the food I eat, the surroundings I live in, the beauty of your creation. You give me great people to be with each day - people that encourage me and that I enjoy being with and living alongside. Family is a gift from you. There is joy in being with one another. And then you bestow abundant life to me, both now on this earth as I live and walk and breath and see each day this hand of providence in my life. You bestow on me pardon for my sin, peace of soul, grace, adoption into you - the trinity, and the blessing of eternal life. You take care of my hope for the future. My responsibility is through my words that need to honor you and yet I know left to myself, I am a person of wickedness and violence. All that comes from you is a gift of grace and riches of kindness. I praise you. I thank you. I trust in you. I pray alway...
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