Davis Mountains State Park, Fort Davis, Texas
Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends. ~ John 15:13
Brad and Jeannine left for home today. ☹ We’ll miss their companionship, but we had a great time! And how honored and blessed are we that they’d give up their time, resources and the comforts of home to find us and spend a week with us?
There are no churches around here, so we drove to the top of the ‘scenic drive’ mountain, sat in the Jeep and listened to Pastor Mike do some more teaching from the Gospel of John.
His messages are wonderful, but too wonderful for me to try to paraphrase for you, so it’s God Moments Journal time again.
I want to share a prayer I wrote out as part of our Tuesday night study homework. It was when we were studying Solomon and his request for wisdom. The assignment was to “carefully consider then write out a prayer asking for your greatest desire(s). Keep it somewhere and continue praying – days, weeks, months, years? – however long it takes. Be sure to acknowledge and be thankful when the prayer is answered.
8/30/05
God of Wonders beyond our galaxy. You are HOLY. You are so far beyond my simple comprehension. I stand in awe of You. You are gracious, just, faithful, merciful. You are full of love and compassion and forgiveness. You must have a desire to be loved as well.
Our homework for Bible Study this week is to write down our deepest desires of our heart and wait patiently for You to fulfill those desires. I know that in order for my desires to be fulfilled, I must be like-minded with You.
My first desire is for my sons. I want so desperately for them both to seek Your face. To make You an inseparable part of their lives. That they will grow into spiritual leaders and be used by You in ways that they, nor I can even imagine. That they will seek to be led by Your Spirit in all their actions. That they will know great joy in their hearts & souls because of their walk with You. That others will see Christ living in them and be drawn to Him because of their example.
Second is for Blaine. That he will continue to grow spiritually. That he will continue developing a desire to share Your Word at every opportunity. That his compassion for others will continue to grow in the unselfish desire to serve. That he will continue to grow in love, as You love. That he will continue to gain great wisdom as he seeks you.
Third is for my unsaved family and friends. May they all come to know Christ in a meaningful way and know the joy of learning to serve You.
Fourth is for “my girls”. I’ve come to absolutely love watching and hearing how they have grown spiritually in these past few years! It must be a little taste of the joy You feel for us as You watch us. I feel so blessed and honored to lead this study; I can’t even express it! It is also a little scary, so I thank You for Your help! My prayer for them is that they too, will continue to grow and learn and apply Your Word to their hearts and lives. That others around them will see the difference You make in their lives and that those they come in contact with will want to know what’s so special in their lives.
Fifth is for me. Please help me as I strive to achieve my life-goal to be able to tell others, “Follow my example as I follow the example of Christ.” (I Cor 11:1) I want to be able to say this in a meaningful way, not egotistically. I want to show my faith by both word and deed. That others will see that Christians who follow Christ are not hypocritical or boastful or “holier than thou” types who live and sin in unspeakable ways, drawing believers and non-believers alike away from You. Lord, this seems to be increasingly difficult at work as my attitude toward my boss has not been good at all lately. I’m tearing down morale with my comments, rather than building it up. Help me to change that. I also fail to ask or witness in regards to faith – both mine and theirs. Help me find a way to do better. Please Lord, grow me up like You. Amen
Honestly, I’d forgotten about this particular prayer. But I can also honestly say that those prayers have continued. And looking back on it now, I can see how God has worked and moved in certain areas over the past 15 years! His Name be praised! Maybe you’d like to write out your own prayer?
After seeing Brad and Jeannine off, and absorbing our weekly pastoral influence, Blaine and I packed our lunch and went our separate ways. He took off on a fairly lengthy, difficult hike.
I drove to town and planted myself under a picnic shelter alongside the Fort Davis parking lot, to upload pictures from my laptop to the blog. (you have to have strong Wi-Fi in order to do that) It was a full parking lot until about 1:30pm.
During my time there, someone left their small dog in their car and it barked the entire time they were gone! Poor thing! About 1:50pm, an unexpected gust of wind that lasted several seconds, produced a small dust storm and even a couple of tumbleweeds!
I sat there for 4 hours.
I didn’t dare get up even to visit the ladies’ room, because then I’d have to pack everything up and lock it in the Jeep. And I couldn’t be bothered to do that. Besides, I was on a roll! Fantastic internet at this picnic table! 😊
Tomorrow we dip our toes into New Mexico.