Joyful Surrender #Nightlight #RTTBROS #quiet #Holyspirit #Surrender

Joyful Surrender Prayer

By Praise and Patries a FB creator who makes content primarily for women. 

I wanted to invite you to pray with me to invite the Holy Spirit and his ministry and his leading into our day. And so as I pray, I'm praying this for you too, but I encourage you to save this so that you from your mouth can pray these scriptures into your day. 

Good morning, God. I thank you for this new day. I thank you for your mercies that are made new every day. What a gift. What is a man that you are mindful of him, but you are not just mindful of us. I'm reminded this morning of Psalm 37.

that says the Lord directs the steps of a godly man and he delights in all his ways. Forgive me for the moment that I choose to lean on my own understanding when the God who created the heavens and the earth delights in me and in all my ways. So today I joyfully submit to you. I joyfully surrender. I will trust in the Lord with all my heart. I will not lean on my own understanding, but in all my ways.

I will acknowledge you so that you may direct my steps. I thank you for your promise in Isaiah 30 that says, there will be a voice that comes from behind that says to walk to the left or to the right, who will direct me in the way that I should go. You are a good shepherd, leading me always in paths of righteousness for your name's sake. I ask that you would increase my discernment, me eyes to see and ears to hear your voice.

and create in me a heart that is eager to obey your command.

I pray, Father God, that you would help me to use my time and my resources wisely today, that I would invest in eternal reward rather than temporary successes. I welcome you, Holy Spirit, to convict me, to deal with me in all my ways, in my attitudes, in my behaviors, in my personalities, in my thought patterns, anything that does not glorify you.

Anything that does not reflect the image of your son, remove it. Prune me, Lord, so that I may be transformed into the image of Christ. Your assurance is that if I seek first the kingdom of heaven, then all these things shall be added to me. Everything that pertains to life, the physical, the material, and godliness, my spiritual health and transformation, you have given to me, so I will not worry.

about finances or doors of opportunity or relationships I trust in your timing, in your leading, and in your sovereignty over it all. That you are working all things together for the good of those who love you and are called according to your purpose. I thank you, Lord, that you delight in me and in my ways. May I never forget it or take it for granted. I look forward to walking with you today. I pray these things in faith.

and with thanksgiving in Jesus name.

The Sound of Silence #RTTBROS #Nightlight

The Sound of Silence #RTTBROS #Nightlight

"Be still, and know that I am God." — Psalm 46:10

You know, I read something recently that stopped me cold. In 2011, a Finnish tourism board was trying to attract visitors to their country. After all the research and focus groups, you know what they landed on? Their slogan was simply this: "Silence, please." They ran ads showing vast, empty forests and frozen lakes, and the tagline read, "We have it. The world needs it."

The campaign worked. Because deep down, every one of us knows that's true. The world is drowning in noise, and somewhere in our souls, we are starving for quiet.

Elijah the prophet knew something about that. You remember the story in 1 Kings 19. This man had just called down fire from heaven on Mount Carmel, and the very next day he was sitting under a juniper tree telling God he was done. Just done. God fed him, let him sleep, and then told him to go stand on the mountain. And what happened next I've turned over in my mind for years. There came a great wind, an earthquake, and a fire. And God was not in any of them. After the fire came, "a still small voice." That's where God was. In the quiet.

God is still working that way. He is most clearly heard in the stillness. But Elijah had to stop running to hear it. He had to stand still and let the noise pass by first.

Most of us never get there. We fill every quiet moment with our phones, our music, our own anxious thoughts. And God has been trying to get a word in edgewise for a long time.

When is the last time you got genuinely quiet before God? Too soon old and too late smart, friend. I know that one from personal experience.

Let's pray: Father, forgive us for filling our lives with so much noise that we can hardly hear Your voice. Teach us the holy discipline of silence, and help us be still long enough to know that You are God. In Jesus' name, Amen.

#Silence #BeStillAndKnow #ChristianLiving #DailyDevotion #Prayer #SpiritualGrowth #Faith #RTTBROS #Nightlight

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The Truth Will Set You Free #rttbros #nightlight

The Truth That Sets You Free #RTTBROS #Nightlight

"And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free." — John 8:32

You know, in my years in ministry, I've sat with a lot of people who were carrying something heavy, something they couldn't quite name. And one of the most common things I've noticed is this: the thoughts that trouble us most are the ones we never let out into the light. They just rattle around in there, getting louder and scarier the longer they stay locked up inside.

Jesus said the truth would make us free, and I believe that with everything in me. But here's something I've learned the hard way, and I'm too soon old and too late smart on this one: sometimes the first step toward truth is just getting the thought out of your head and into the open.

Now, maybe you can't get to a good counselor right now. Counselors are expensive, their schedules are full, and there's still a little bit of stigma that makes some folks reluctant to go. That's okay. You've got options. Grab a journal and write it down. Call a trusted friend and say "I need to talk something through." Or better yet, take it to God in prayer, because He already knows anyway and He's the best listener there is. There's something almost miraculous about what happens when you get a troubling thought out of your head and onto paper, or into words. Psychologists call it "depotentiation." I just call it getting it out in the light where you can look at it. Those dark, swirling thoughts that seemed so overwhelming at two in the morning have a funny way of looking a lot smaller once you can actually see them.

Then, once it's out, run it through a simple filter. Ask yourself three things. Is this thought distorted, am I only seeing part of the picture? Is it a deletion, am I leaving out important information that might change how I feel? Or is it a generalization, am I saying "always" or "never" when the truth is somewhere in the middle? Those three questions will catch a lot of the thoughts that are working against you.

And here's the last thing, and this might be the most important: we don't always have all the information we need about a situation. So what do we do? We tell ourselves a story. And too often, we tell ourselves the worst possible story. We assume the person who didn't text back is angry with us. We assume the look on someone's face meant they don't like us. We assume the worst because we're filling in the blanks with our fears instead of with grace.

But here's the thing. You can choose to tell yourself a different story, one that gives the other person the benefit of the doubt. Truth be told, you have no idea why they did what they did. Neither do I. So why not assume something charitable? Why not tell yourself a story that serves you instead of one that tears you down?

That's not denial. That's wisdom. And it's grace, the same grace God extends to us every single day.

Let's pray. Father, help us drag our troubled thoughts into the light of Your truth. Give us trusted friends, open journals, and ears to hear You when we pray. Help us to stop telling ourselves the worst story and start extending to others the same grace You so freely give to us. In Jesus' name, Amen.

#MentalHealth #ChristianLiving #Truth #Faith #DailyDevotion #SpiritualGrowth #Counseling #HopeAndHealing #RTTBROS #Nightlight

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What Really Held Him There #spiritualwarfare #RTTBROS #Nightlight #goodfriday #Cross

What Really Held Him There #spiritualwarfare #RTTBROS #Nightlight #goodfriday #Cross

What Really Held Him There

D.A. Carson wrote something that stopped me cold the first time I read it. He said, "It was not nails that held Jesus to that wretched cross; it was his unqualified resolution, out of love for his Father, to do his Father's will - and it was his love for sinners like me." (QuoteFancy)

Read that again. Not nails.

Think about that. The One who spoke the universe into existence, the One who calmed the Sea of Galilee with a word, the One who raised Lazarus from the dead - He was not held by iron spikes driven through flesh and bone. He was held by something far stronger than metal.

He was held by love.

In the garden, just hours before, He had prayed, "O my Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me: nevertheless not as I will, but as thou wilt." (Matthew 26:39)

He knew what was coming. He could have walked away. He could have called ten thousand angels. But He didn't because His love for the Father and His love for us would not let Him go.

I've sat at a lot of bedsides in my work as a hospice chaplain. I've watched people spend their last strength for the ones they love. There's something about love that refuses to quit, even when quitting would be the easier road.

That's what I see at Calvary. Not a victim. A volunteer. Not a man overpowered by soldiers and nails and wood but a Savior who planted His feet in the will of His Father and said, in effect, "I'm not moving. Not until it is finished."

And it was. For you. For me.

Prayer: Lord Jesus, on this Good Friday, help me to see the cross clearly not as something that happened to You, but something You chose, out of love I will spend eternity trying to understand. Thank You. Amen.

#RTTBROS #Nightlight

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They Can't Take Everything #RTTBROS #Nightlight

They Can't Take Everything #RTTBROS #Nightlight

"That I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings." — Philippians 3:10

Viktor Frankl was an Austrian psychiatrist. He was also a Holocaust survivor. When the Nazis ordered him to report to a concentration camp, he faced an unbearable choice. He had been invited to flee to America and teach at a university there. But his elderly parents could not survive the journey. So he stayed. He lost his manuscript, the work of a lifetime. He lost his parents. He lost nearly everything in the crucible of Auschwitz.

But he discovered something they could not take from him.

The guards would come in and beat him and torture him. And when they came in, Frankl would ask them how their families were. How their children were. They were stunned by it. One of them finally asked him, how do you do that? After everything we're doing to you, how do you ask us how we are?

Frankl said, you've taken everything from me that you can take. You cannot take how I choose to respond.

Paul would not have been surprised by that at all. He wrote Philippians from a Roman prison. Beaten. Scarred. Chained. And he called the fellowship of Christ's sufferings the highest fellowship a human being can enter into. Not because suffering is good, but because it is in the depths of suffering that we discover what cannot be taken from us, our relationship with a living Savior.

What are you facing right now that feels like it's taking everything? Friend, they can't take that.

Let's pray: Lord, in our suffering, draw us into the deep fellowship of knowing You. Let nothing separate us from Your love. In Jesus' name, Amen.

#Faith #Suffering #Hope #ChristianLiving #DailyDevotion #VictorFrankl #RTTBROS #Nightlight

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The War Is Over #RTTBROS #Nightlight #spiritualwarfare #spiritualwar

The War Is Over #RTTBROS #Nightlight #spiritualwarfare #spiritualwar

Stop Fighting a War That's Already Over #RTTBROS #Nightlight

"Forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before." — Philippians 3:13

One of the strangest stories to come out of World War II involves a Japanese soldier named Hiroo Onoda, stationed in the Philippines. When Japan surrendered in 1945, Onoda refused to believe it. He stayed in the jungle and kept fighting. They dropped leaflets in Japanese trying to reach him. They couldn't track him down. He was simply too good at what he did. The only way they finally got him to come in was to find an officer he personally knew and send that man into the jungle to bring him out.

Hiroo Onoda fought World War II until 1974. Nearly thirty years after it was over.

Now here's the part that ought to stop us cold. The preacher in this sermon said it as plainly as it can be said: there are a lot of us still fighting battles that Jesus already won on the cross.

Paul said the one thing he did, the one discipline above everything else, was forgetting what was behind and pressing toward what was ahead. Not because the past didn't matter, but because staying stuck in it was keeping him from the prize in front of him. Past failures you've already repented of, let them go. Past successes you're still resting on, let them go too. God has something more for you.

There's a reason, somebody once said, that your rearview mirror is so much smaller than your windshield. God wants you looking ahead, not behind.

The war is won. You can come out of the jungle now.

Let's pray: Father, help us release what's behind us and press with everything we have toward what You have ahead. In Jesus' name, Amen.

#Faith #Forgiveness #ChristianLiving #DailyDevotion #LetItGo #PressOn #RTTBROS #Nightlight

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My Words #RTTBROS #Nightlight #silence #tongue #communication

Why Do My Words Keep Getting Me Into Trouble?

"In the multitude of words there wanteth not sin: but he that refraineth his lips is wise." — Proverbs 10:19

Social media has multiplied our words beyond anything Solomon could have imagined. In his day, your words reached the people in your immediate circle. Today, your words can reach millions. And every word is permanent. Screenshotted. Shared. Weaponized.

Solomon says in the multitude of words there is no lack of sin. That means the more you talk, the more likely you are to sin with your words. And social media has created a multitude of words like never before. Tweets. Posts. Comments. Stories. DMs. Replies. We're producing more words in a day than our grandparents produced in a week.

And all those words are getting us into trouble. Because we're posting in anger. Commenting without thinking. Tweeting reactions instead of responses. Sharing opinions that should stay private. And every careless word is creating problems.

Here's what social media has done. It's removed the natural consequences that used to restrain speech. In face-to-face conversation, you see the person's reaction. You feel the tension when you say something hurtful. You experience immediate feedback. But on social media, you don't see the damage your words cause. You just hit post and move on.

And because there's no immediate consequence, we say things online we'd never say in person. We're harsher. Crueler. More judgmental. Less gracious. Because we're not looking into someone's eyes when we wound them with our words.

Solomon's solution is simple. Refrain your lips. Talk less. Post less. Comment less. Not everything needs to be said. Not every opinion needs to be shared. Not every thought needs to be tweeted. Wisdom restrains words.

But our culture celebrates the opposite. It rewards people who post constantly. Who have hot takes on everything. Who never miss an opportunity to weigh in. And the result is exactly what Solomon predicted. In the multitude of words, sin abounds.

Here's my challenge. Before you post, ask yourself: Is this necessary? Is this true? Is this kind? Will this help or hurt? If you can't answer yes to those questions, don't post. Refrain your lips. Or in this case, refrain your thumbs.

The wise person on social media isn't the one with the most followers or the wittiest replies. It's the person who restrains their words. Who thinks before posting. Who values silence over constantly adding to the noise.

In the multitude of words there lacks not sin. Social media has given us unlimited capacity for words. But it hasn't given us wisdom to handle that capacity. And until we learn to restrain our lips, our words will keep getting us into trouble.

Let's pray: Father, we post too much and think too little. Teach us to restrain our lips. Help us to speak less and listen more. Give us wisdom about social media. Protect us from the sin that comes with too many words. In Jesus' name, Amen.

#Faith #Priorities #ChristianLiving #DailyDevotion #KnowingChrist #SpiritualGrowth #RTTBROS #Nightlight

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