Morning Chapel Prayer Playlist
Morning Chapel Prayer Today
Sister Cindy…
Good morning. Hallelujah. So thankful that we get to gather every morning Monday through Friday and lift up our Father, lift up His heart, invite Holy Spirit to come and fill our sails in prayer. Good morning, I’m Cindy. I am on staff here at Living Word. And this morning we’re here to lift up our Father, the great, awesome God, creator of the universe, creator of heaven and earth.
“For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever shall believe in Him shall not perish but have eternal life.” God loved the world in its messy state because He created it for His purpose and He bought it back. We’re out there stepping our feet out into territory and taking land for our Father.
Passages from book, “Practicing His Presence”
I brought this to read a little bit from “Practicing His Presence.” It’s a book by a monk and it’s from, many, many years ago. So this is the most-excellent method.
Quote begins…
“Let me just comment with an open heart about my manner of going to God. All things hinge upon your hearty renunciation of everything which you are aware does not lead to God.
You need to accustom yourself to continual conversations with Him, a conversation which is free and simple.
We need to recognize that God is always intimately present with us and address Him every moment.
The things that are doubtful, we need to ask His assistance to know His will.
And the things we plainly see, He requires of us we should rightly perform.
As we go about this pursuit, we should simply offer all things to Him before we do them, and give Him thanks when we have finished.
In your conversation with God, be also employed in praising Him, adoring Him, and loving Him incessantly.
Doing all these things, because of His infinite goodness and His perfection.
We ought not to be discouraged on account of sins. Rather simply pray for the Lord’s grace with perfect confidence, relying upon the infinite mercies of the Lord Jesus Christ.
God has never failed offering us His grace at each action.
I can distinctly perceive that grace. And I am never without a sense of that grace, unless it is when my thoughts have wandered from the sense of God’s presence or I have forgotten to ask the Lord for His assistance. He is our help.”
Help me help you help me!
One of the best prayers is, “Father, help me help you help me!” Because He is the helper and sometimes we don’t help Him in those areas because He’s freely extending help.
Continued…
“God always gives us light in our doubt when we have no other design except to please Him.
Our desire, our readiness to desire to do whatever He is wanting us to do because it gives Him no pleasure if we draw back.”
We just want to please Him. And even if we go forward and we get a little bit ahead, He’s pleased because we’re not drawing back.
“Our satisfaction does not depend upon changing our works but in doing.
For God’s sake all those things which we commonly do for our own.
It is lamentable to see how many people mistake the means for the end, becoming addicted to certain of their works.
They do not perform these works perfectly because they’re human, selfish aim.
The most excellent method I have found of going to God is that of doing common business without any view of pleasing men.
And as far as I am capable doing it purely for the love of God.
It is a great delusion to think that the time of prayer ought to be different from other times.
We are strictly obliged to adhere to God in the time of action just as we are to adhere to prayer during the season of prayer.
My prayers are nothing other than a sense of God’s presence.
My soul is simply insensible at that time to anything but divine love.
When the appointed time of prayers passed, I find no difference because I still continue with God, praising and blessing Him with all my might so that I might pass my life in continual joy.
Yet I hope that God will give me more suffering when I grow stronger.
We ought not to be weary in doing little things for the love of God.
For God does not regard the greatness of the work, but the love with which it is performed.
We should not wonder if in the beginning we fail in our endeavor to pursue this manner of life.
In the end, we shall gain a habit which will naturally produce its acts in us.
Acts done without any care, but rather with exceeding great delight.
The whole substance of religion is simply faith, hope, and love.
By practicing these, we become united with the will of God.
Everything else is immaterial and is simply a means to arriving to our end to be swallowed up in our unity to the will of God through faith and love.
All things are possible to him who believes.
They are less difficult to him who hopes.
They are easier to him who loves.
And they are easier still to him who perseveres in the practice of all of these virtues.
We ought to purpose ourselves towards this end, to become in this life the most perfect worshipers of God we can possibly be.
Since this is what we hope to be throughout eternity.
When we enter into the spiritual life, we should consider and examine what we are to the very bottom.
We would find ourselves worthy of all contempt and not deserving the name Christian.
We are subject to all kinds of misery and numberless accidents, which trouble us and cause perpetual vastitudes in our health, our humor, in our disposition but both within and without.
Therefore, we should not wonder that troubles, temptations, suppressions, and contradictions happen to us from men.
On the contrary, we ought to submit ourselves to them and bear them as long as God pleases.
For they are highly advantageous to us.
The greater the perfection you aspire to have, the more dependent we must become upon divine grace.”
So it’s just a means to arriving at our end, to be swallowed up in the love of God, to be changed in His presence, to receive the grace that changes us.
I used to say, “If I stub my toe, Lord, I’m going to look at it and say, thank you. It’s working for me” because it’s actually causing my character to develop because I’m not saying something expletive, this, that, or the other.
But I’m saying, glory to God because even this is working for me and you’re changing me and you’re giving me more understanding because I’m yielding to you in everything.
I’m practicing your presence in everything—good, bad, ugly, whatever it is.
It’s just simply a means to arriving at my end to be swallowed up in you, for you are holy, you’re good, and your mercy endures forever.
Thank you, Lord.
