The Lord’s Prayer Challenge

  
My family and I are doing this Challenge during the Lent Season that begins tomorrow and runs to Easter Sunday. We are hoping to make this become a new daily routine. 

We are not about removing the same ole things (sweets, fried foods, sodas, junk foods, etc.) as much as our focus is about adding some new practices to grow deeper in the Lord.  

We are reciting the short version upon waking and before going to bed each day and we are setting an alarm for mid day or lunch time to recite the longer version daily.  

This will be in addition to our regular quiet and devotion time we practice already. 

We are hoping that it will allow us to go much deeper in prayer by praying the Lord’s Prayer differently and daily.  

Join us! ~ XXOO Michelle Bollom 

*Set alarm and recite these 3 X a day during Lent

Short version 

Morning/Night 

My Heavenly Father, may Your name be holy in me,

May Your kingdom rule my life

May Your will control me

May You be sovereign on earth as You are in heaven

Give me daily bread for today’s need

Forgive my debts as I forgive my debtors

Lead me not into temptation

Protect me from the evil one

Your kingdom rules in my life, Your power can do anything, and Your glory is forever and ever. Amen

Longer version 

Middle Day/Lunch Time 

Our Father who art in heaven… May Your name be hallowed in my duties today… As Your name is hallowed in heaven.

Thy kingdom come… May You reign in my life on earth as You rule heaven.

Thy will be done… In my studying… Teaching… Counseling… As Your will is done perfectly in heaven. 

Give me daily bread… For my physical strength… For all my needs this day.

Forgive me my sins… And the consequences of my sins… Including my actions and intent… And forgive others as You have forgiven me.

Lead me not into temptation… Don’t let sin overwhelm me, but give me victory today.

Deliver me from the evil one… Protect me from physical and spiritual harm.

For thine is the kingdom… I recognize Your sovereign control of my life.

For thine is the power… I recognize Your ability to do these things.

For thine is the glory… I give You credit for every answer.

In Jesus’ name…

Amen. 

Taken from book: Praying The Lord’s Prayer For Spiritual Breakthrough by Elmer L. Towns 

The Weight Of The World

  
You have turned my mourning into joyful dancing. You have taken away my clothes of mourning and clothed me with joy, that I might sing praises to you and not be silent. O LORD my God, I will give you thanks forever! ~Psalm 30:11-12

Life never fails in it’s ability to create unending cycles of events and experiences. It still amazes me in it’s elegant beauty, but also in it’s crushing tragedies.

Today, I find myself experiencing the richness of life, having just swam in warm tropical waters while on vacation. However, my thoughts were also confronted with another season of life which will leave me brokenhearted and in pain.

Recently, I have received news of a loved one. News…I’d rather hide and deny of it’s coming. When you love someone it is very hard not to think they are invincible. Life can impose implacable timing.

I have discovered that life never seems to leave anyone out. No matter what the person’s background, social platform, ethnicity, economic lifestyle, or talent is, life delivers it’s extremes to everyone. It does not pick or choose who will experience the various elements it offers.

The very moment I find myself comfortable in a season, content with life, a storm is stirring behind the scenes, undetectable. It is preparing a season that will leave me sifting through the destruction and devastation that will be left. As is life, it does not stop. There will be new creation and the next season of growth and restoration.

Even still, it is my flesh that can not comprehend the emptiness my heart endures when it comes to the loss of those I have loved deeply….The whisper within, tells me I’m not supposed to. I have experienced enough loss of loved ones to understand that we all have a lifespan numbered by our Father. So, how is it that my flesh will, again, battle what it already knows?

When life consists of a fallen sense of purpose, it is impossible to understand, at times. Somehow, what is at hand, is followed through with intentional determination, whether I want it to, or I don’t.

I am starting to openly understand that life is a place I exist, with an inability to control its direction, and where my expectations, simply will never be met. Yet, I find myself with two choices. I can get caught up and be imprisoned by the things that are simply out of my control, or I can experience all that it has to give. 

My hope is to choose to live this beautiful life with purpose.

     ~Baring His Beauty,

        Tiffany Thomas