Goodbye 2012. Hello 2013!

What better way to end one year and start another than with prayer?

Dear Lord Jesus,

Thank you for 2012. Thank you for the hardships, persecutions, illnesses, and turmoil. Thank you for the tears, fears, heartaches, and headaches. Thank you for the good for you are good and bestow goodness on all. Thank you for the bad for you always make lemonade out of lemons. You work out everything for those who love you. No experience is a loss for you use all to work out for your purpose. Thank you, Lord, for 2012.

Lord Jesus, you are just awesome. Your love is indescribable. It is unconditional acceptance. The misfit belongs. The popular belongs. Your arms are open wide for everyone. The lonely never feels lonely or alone with you. You turn tears into joy. In your presence, there is peace, love, hope, joy, and comfort. Your healing is complete. You are just wonderful, the great counselor, and mighty God. I adore you, Lord.

Lord, there are many prophesies that 2013 is to be a year of restoration. Amen. Please let it be the year of restoration for everyone’s spiritual, emotional, mental or psychological, and physical health. Please mend broken families and broken hearts. Please draw people to yourself, dear Jesus, so their eyes can see the redemptive work you’ve finished more than two thousand years ago. This redemption provided complete and perfect healing of spirit, soul, and body.

Lord, please forgive your people’s trespasses. You know we are human and fallible. You know how limited and ignorant we really are. Please forgive our humanness and draw us back to you. For everyone who truly repents, please accept him and her with open arms. As you said in 2 Chronicles 7:14, “if my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and I will forgive their sin and will heal their land.” Please listen to our prayers and fulfill your promises in our lives. Set us free from everything that entangles us. Protect us from our own stubbornness, conceit, and ignorance. Heal our spirit, Lord, so we can truly praise you as you deserve. Show us our purpose in life and enable us to live out our purpose. Please do your will in our lives and fulfill your dreams for our lives during our lifetime.

Lord, please heal your people emotionally and psychologically. Please love our hurts away. Enable us to forgive as easily as you forgive us. Renew our minds with your words. Speak to us, Lord. Tell us we are loved and cherished. Tell us that no matter what happens, you will always be with us and never forget us. Take away our insecurities, inferiorities, and everything that separates us from you no matter how daunting it is. You are able to do everything for nothing is impossible with you. Lord, enable us to see the problem in the proper perspective and that you are bigger than any problem. Please set the lonely in families. Take away the negative thoughts and feelings. Please replace sadness, depression, and hopelessness with your joy. You can take the ugly and make it beautiful. Please Lord, restore your people.

Lord, your people are physically ill and some are dying before their purpose on earth is done. Please heal your people of all of their ailments. Kindly do not allow excessive pain or unneeded sufferings to take place.  If there is a need for suffering, please let your grace abound. We do not deserve your mercy, forgiveness, nor healing, but for your name’s sake and for your precious blood’s sake listen to our prayers.  You paid the price of our healing at the cross a long time ago. Thank you.  

We wish to glorify you, Jesus, glorify you alone. You created this earth. You gave us our being. You should be the only one to reign over all of the earth. You should be our only Lord and Savior. So please be glorified for you said that you won’t give your glory to another in Isaiah 42:8. Please be glorified in your people in 2013. Thank you for reading this prayer. Thank you for you. I love you, Lord Jesus.

Christmas, anyone?

We hear fables about Christmas. We have heard about Christmas miracles. We all know the Biblical story of Christmas found in the gospels according to Matthew and Luke. Here are some thoughts about Christmas: 

Adam and Eve disobeyed God in the Garden of Eden. God had forewarned them that if they ate the fruit from a certain tree, they would surely die. And died they did. They died spiritually. They lost the close communication between mankind and God; Genesis 2 and 3. When God says something, we are to make certain we understand His meaning and not our own.

Adam and Eve’s offspring inherited the spiritual deadness. The very first act of murder happened soon after they ate from the tree; Genesis 4. Morality started deteriorating rapidly. God saw that He had to intercede. But He set up laws that He must adhere to such as the wages of sin is death in Romans 6:23 and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness in Hebrews 9:23. He is faithful to His word. The best way to adhere to these laws and still save mankind from eternal separation from Him was to send a piece of Himself: Jesus Christ.

You would think Jesus would be born in a king’s palace. After all, He is a King. But no. There was no place for Him. He was born in a manger in a barn. You see, it was never His purpose to be born in a magnificent setting. He was born to be a sacrifice for His creation, us. As the song says, He was born to die.

Jesus Christ was born on Christmas day more than two thousand years ago. He humbled Himself. He lived like a poor man, yet He is very rich. Appearances did not faze or impress Him. He was gentle. He never turned anyone away. He healed everyone seeking Him. He demonstrated love, peace, joy, humility, submission, authority, objectivity, compassion, understanding, patience, wisdom, knowledge, forgiveness, generosity, and endurance. He protected, healed, and taught His followers. He supplied all of their needs while they remained with Him even the ones who betrayed Him. He confronted hypocrisy. He is still the same now as He was when He walked the earth in human form; Hebrews 13:8.

Jesus Christ lived a holy life. There was no wrong found in Him. Yet He was beaten, pierced, crushed, oppressed, and afflicted; Isaiah 53. Why? To reconcile humankind with God and enable them to live with Him for all eternity. He died so we won’t have to. He rose again on the third day so we can rise with Him. He became the last Adam. The first Adam severed the spiritual bond. Jesus Christ preserve it for anyone who believes in His redemptive work; John 3:16. Who will you choose? The first Adam or Jesus Christ?

We hear about all kinds of love stories during the Christmas season. Jewelry stores exploit this time to encourage marriage proposals. But the love of Christ is different. It is complete. It is unconditional. It is accepting of the unacceptable and the misfit. So what is Christmas all about? It is about Christ. It is about the greatest love story ever.

Merry Christmas!