Daily Devotion - May 16, 2025

You formed my inward parts; you knitted me together in my mother's womb. I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. (Psm. 139:13-14)

God has applied beautiful creativity in knitting each child according to his specific design and wonderful purpose. So, the uniqueness of our children shouldn’t frustrate or bewilder us. 

God’s creativity encourages parents to tune their hearts to respond to each child in accord with the Lord’s handiwork. We shouldn’t ask our sumo wrestlers to move like ballerinas, nor fail to treasure the talents of artists and athletes, musicians and mathematicians.

Helping children discover God’s unique gifting for their lives is no easy task. That’s why a loving relationship with God is essential to parenting. 

As we discern God’s special gifting for our lives, we grow in appreciation for our uniqueness and for how it enables us to parent unique children. We discover why, out of all the parents in the world, God especially chose us for our children.  

As Christian parents our goals are both to reflect our Savior and to help our children do the same. Each time we control our anger, endure being misunderstood, take time for needed attention, absorb an insult, love patiently, discipline firmly, forgive gently, and choose which approach is best for each child and situation, we’re reflecting our personal love for Christ as it is needed for this particular child. 

We train children best when we treasure how they were made for God, and how we were made for them!

Prayer: Heavenly Father, thank you for your beautiful creativity! Help me to celebrate the uniqueness of my children in how I reflect your special love and grace for them.

Daily Devotion - May 15, 2025

His master said to him, “Well done, good and faithful servant. You have been faithful over a little; I will set you over much. Enter into the joy of your master.” (Matt. 25:23)

My wife, Kathy, ran across a news story about a woman from her childhood named Ruth. According to the article, Ruth was hesitant to talk about her sixty years of teaching Sunday school. She told the reporter repeatedly, “You can talk about me when I’m gone.” 

Ruth only agreed to the interview on the condition that the story would run after her death. Then, she insisted that everything she had done in her life of influencing generations of children was only possible through the strength and abilities graciously given by God. “The credit was his, not mine,” Ruth said.

Ruth never heard the acclaim of her community for her faithful teaching. But I have confidence, that on the day she stood before the Lord in glory, she heard this: “Well done, my good and faithful servant,” 

Sixty years of teaching little children is no small feat, but it may have been a greater feat to do it so well and acknowledge the grace of God enabled it.

By Ruth’s faithfulness, blessings will reverberate in children’s lives for eternity, and acclaim will echo in the halls of heaven for just as long. But no “well done” will ring louder that the Lord’s blessing on the one who points God’s children to his enabling grace. 

The highest honor desired of those claimed by grace is to know God takes joy from the ways we have used his resources to share his heart. 

Prayer: Heavenly Father, help me to be faithful in the duties you give by depending on the grace you offer so that I may someday hear the words, “Well done, good and faithful servant.” May your grace make your approval my joy.

Daily Devotion - May 14, 2025

“I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.” (Jer. 29:11 NIV)

We can be extremely grateful for the sacrifice of Jesus that paid for our sins, and still be extremely burdened by the guilt that required it. We are thankful that are debt was paid, but our consciences are still stricken that we accumulated the debt that required his death. 

We wonder how God can really love those who required the suffering of his Son, even if we are saved by his grace. That is why God speaks so forcefully and repeatedly of his unwavering care. 

The One who saved us did so for a purpose. He has plans for us – plans to prosper us and not to harm us. Our prosperity is not the stuff of worldly pleasures that charm us for the moment and leave us after a season. Rather, God promises hope and a future. 

Our hope is the firm confidence that our future is secured by One who loved us enough to send his Son to secure us for his eternal home. His love does not hold the past against us. So, we can let it go, too. 

Today rest in the sure hope God has graciously given you through his risen Son, Jesus Christ so that you can fulfill the plan he has for your future!

Prayer: Heavenly Father, thank you for loving me enough to claim me by the life of your Son. Help me to find joy in the blessed hope and future you have given me by his sacrifice – and keep me from living in the guilt you have removed forever.

Daily Devotion - May 13, 2025

The Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words.  And he who searches hearts knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God. (Rom 8:26-27)

Here’s an amazing promise: The God of all creation works through our prayers to do his will! That’s not because we have all that wisdom and insight to tell God how to run his universe. Instead, we are assured that, even when we do not know how to pray, the Holy Spirit takes over our humble petitions, interceding for us.

I think of the Spirit’s work, when I watch my mother decorate a cake. She glops the icing into a piping funnel and presses it through a decorator tip to create beautiful designs. 

With my limited wisdom and tainted desires, my prayers are often like the icing glopped into the funnel. The Holy Spirit is the decorator tip. So, as I offer my messy petitions, he transforms them into God’s beautiful design – a design so perfect that all things work together for good. 

Because the Holy Spirit is interceding for us, God answers our prayers better than we can ask them. So you do not need to know all answers and outcomes to pray well. Instead, humbly come to God with your needs, trusting him to deliver the answers that are best.

Prayer: Lord, I confess I don’t always know how to pray or what to pray. But I thank you for the Holy Spirit, who intercedes for me with greater fervency that I can offer and transforms my humble desires according to your perfect design.

Daily Devotion - May 12, 2025

In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him. (1 John 4:9)

God’s love for us is the soil in which our love for him grows. So, identifying his grace in all of Scripture is not simply a nice thing to do, nor is it a novel approach to reading the Bible. Regular exposure to grace ignites a consuming love for God, which is his greatest command.

We identify God’s grace in all Scripture not to encourage license or laziness, but to fan into flame a compelling love for our Savior. Our goal is not merely gaining a correct interpretation of what Scripture says. We are also seeking to stimulate a profound love for God that embraces him, abides in him, and bears much fruit.

When love for God is our chief delight, then glorifying him becomes the chief priority of our life! By his earthly life, we have eternal life. Because of his love we live, and because we live, we love to live for him.

Prayer: Father, as I reflect today on your amazing grace by which I have eternal life through the Son you sent, please ignite such love for him that my earthly life will glorify you every day in every way!

Daily Devotion - May 9, 2025

He drew me up from the pit of destruction, out of the miry bog; and he set my feet upon a rock making my steps secure. He put a new song in my mouth, a song of praise to our God. Many will see and fear, and put their trust in the LORD. (Psm. 40:1-2)

One of the men that I respect most in this world is my father-in-law, Bob. He is a real craftsman. The house in which my wife grew up, Bob built with his own hands from foundation to roof. Seeing the fruit of his diligent labors stimulates great regard in my heart for the man. 

But Bob’s work was not always easy. The stairs of the house turned twice with tricky angles to reach the second story. After numerous efforts to get the stairs right, there came a moment when Bob walked out of the house into the yard, hung his head and cried. He felt defeated and in a pit of despair, fearing he would never get things right.

But what if, in that moment, Bob could have known our regard for him these many years later? What if he had known that the difficulty of the task, and even the temporary failure, would not diminish our respect for him in the least? In fact, his endurance through the difficulty only increases our regard. 

 If Bob had known the end from the beginning, he would have been strengthened for his task despite temporary failure. For just such a reason, God assures us now of his regard forever, setting our feet on the rock that is Jesus, so that we have a song in our hearts to finish his work.

Prayer: Father, thank you for lifting me from my pits of despair by reminding me of the solid rock on which I stand. That rock is Jesus. Help me always remember his grace so I have certainty of your love and a song of praise in my heart.  

Daily Devotion - May 8, 2025

In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace, which he lavished upon us. (Eph. 1:7-8)

God forgives us for our trespasses by the blood of his Son. This great provision is a very precious truth to remember when we sense the magnitude of our sin. But we may miss some of the beauty of the concept by missing all the aspects of grace implicit in the Apostle Paul’s terms. 

In modern speech, we trespass when cross into forbidden territory or onto someone else’s property. That meaning is certainly included in the apostle’s thought. But the biblical language means something more specific – the notion of going outside a safe boundary. 

This makes sense when we understand that God’s law marks the boundaries that God’s heart has marked for our safekeeping. His forgiveness of our trespasses focuses on extending mercy to those who have wandered outside God’s loving protection.

Grace is on both sides of the fence of God’s law. Grace lays the fence for us to stay within God’s safekeeping, and grace extends beyond the fence for those who go outside God’s boundaries.  

Jesus’ blood does not only pay for our transgression of God’s law, but also for our trespassing of his love. This means God’s mercy is available not only for those who break his law, but for those who break his heart. 

His grace is good enough for those who stay inside the fence of his care and great enough for those who have gone beyond it.

Prayer: Lord, help me to trust the caring heart that provided the safety of your law. Please forgive my trespass when my willful heart wanders outside your will, and may that kindness lead me to repent and return to your care.

Daily Devotion - May 7, 2025

Clothe yourselves, all of you, with humility toward one another, for “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.” (1 Pet. 5:5)

How can humility be a conduit of grace for us – and others? That depends on how you define humility. Humility is often not prized in our culture because it is confused with shyness or backing down, making it hard to understand as a powerful force for God.

Humility is a combination of two things: confessing our need of God and prioritizing the purposes of God. When people are willing to put the Lord’s interests above their own and confess that they will need God’s help to do that, then honoring God has become their focus. 

God has no greater priority than his own glory – so that his will would be done and his goodness would be shared. So, when true humility is present, so is God. His attention, power, and grace flow through the conduit for his glory that our humility supplies.

Remember Jesus’ greatest achievement was not done with pomp and circumstance, but with the humble offering of his life for us. His perfect humility was the greatest conduit for God’s glory and grace the world has ever known.

Others have said that there is no limit to what God can do, if it doesn’t matter which of us gets the credit. There is no limit to the glory Christ can receive, when we confess the grace we require to do his will and to receive his mercy when we don’t.

Prayer: Lord Jesus, thank you for demonstrating what it means to be humble through your servant life and sacrificial death. Help me today to put your interests above my own so that I may be a conduit of your glory flowing into this world.

Daily Devotion - May 6, 2025

We do not want you to be uninformed, brothers, about those who are asleep, that you may not grieve as others do who have no hope. For since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so, through Jesus, God will bring with him those who have fallen asleep. (1 Thess. 4:13-14)

The most powerful Christian testimonies don’t usually come from “easy street” but are instead brought about by serious heartache. One such story came after the tragic passing of a young woman of faith. After she died, her aged father felt that there was little left in life for him.

But, then, this faithful woman’s recent words of hope in a heavenly future with a reunion of loved ones began to fill his mind. Simple, unplanned conversations with his daughter about her understanding of God’s promises would replay in the father’s mind. 

Though she was with the Lord, her ministry to him was still alive, echoing in the hope that her father began to share. He discovered profound comfort in the assurances of heaven’s promises. Faith in these truths that God had so graciously planted in his heart through those past conversations with his daughter restored hope and meaningful life for the father – and for those his life now touches. 

The beauty of our testimonies of grace can never be fully assessed until we are with the Lord. There we will see how the Lord uses us beyond all our expectations and, perhaps, beyond our lives to replace ashes of tragedy with new life and eternal hope. 

Prayer: Heavenly Father, thank you that there is hope beyond the grave – restoration of our bodies, our hearts, and our relationships! May my life be a testimony to others of heaven’s promises so that they can share in this eternal hope.

Daily Devotion - May 5, 2025

Lift your drooping hands and strengthen your weak knees, and make straight paths for your feet, so that what is lame may not be put out of joint but rather be healed. (Heb. 12:12-13)

God’s discipline is an incredibly gracious display of the presence of God. Of course, no one wants to be disciplined, but when God acts in our lives to “put out of joint” the legs, knees, and ankles of our souls that are walking us into sin, we cannot deny he is here, he is real, and he really cares about my walk.

Discipline is evidence of God entering our world to rescue us from spiritual dangers we cannot handle or would not avoid without his intervention. 

So, God’s discipline is not contrary to his grace but is, in fact, grace, itself. Just as we discipline our own children for their safety and maturity, God disciplines us to turn us from harm and to help us conform to the image of our Savior, Jesus Christ.

Yes, God sometimes allows difficult and painful paths, but his intention is always to lead us to the spiritual fruit of righteousness and peace. As we partake of this fruit, we are healed from this world’s trials and strengthened for our journeys by our Father’s loving care. That is why his discipline not only confirms that he is here, but also that we are his. 

Prayer: Father, when your discipline is painful, help me to trust your gracious plan for healing and strengthening me so that I treasure this confirmation of your presence and care.

Daily Devotion - May 2, 2025

You have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ who is your life appears, then you also will appear with him in glory. (Col. 3:3-4)

When all her older siblings had left home, my youngest daughter only had me to play with at the dinner table. One of our favorite games was “napkin war.” 

We would wait until the meal was mostly done. Then, one of us would ball up the paper napkin in our lap, wait for the other person to get distracted, and hurl the paper missile at the other’s head. 

 Then, the war of the flying napkins was on – a war that I always won because I have a better aim than my daughter. But, whenever she began to lose, she knew exactly what to do. She would get up from her chair and hide behind her mother. Because I won’t throw at her mother, my child was safe. 

The game reveals and contrasts the grace of our Heavenly Father. He could have hurled his wrath upon sinners, but instead he poured it out on his Son. Now, when are hidden in Christ, there is no wrath that touches us. We are safe. 

Prayer: Heavenly Father, I know that my life is hidden with Christ. As I am tempted by the assaults of guilt and doubt, please help me to remember that I am safe in your love because of your assurance that he took the wrath I deserved.

Daily Devotion - May 1, 2025

I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ. (Phil. 1:6)

When an architect designs a building, he plans all the details. He draws in the spiral staircase, the dormer windows, and even the attic and basement. But while the structure is under construction, onlookers need some imagination to envision the final product. It can often look like a disorganized mess until final stages.

The Apostle Paul describes God as a divine builder, working for our good now, and also planning for our future glory. But day after day our human frailties remind us that we are still under construction. God is still framing our lives and installing proper supports, because he is working to bring us into conformity with his ultimate plan.

We can get discouraged that the construction takes time, and that we are not yet all we desire to be. So, the Apostle Paul encourages us to be patient with this assurance: “He who began a good work, will bring it to completion at the day of Christ Jesus.”

 Until then, we are all “Christians under construction,” thanking God that, though we are not all we should be, we are not all we were or shall be. God’s not done with us, yet, but he promises to bring us to completion according to his design. 

Prayer: Lord, thank you that I am forgiven, even though I am still under construction. Give me patience and encouragement as your plan unfolds for my life, knowing you promise to bring everything to completion through Christ!

Daily Devotion - April 30, 2025

Do you presume on the riches of his kindness and forbearance and patience, not knowing that God’s kindness is meant to lead you to repentance (Rom. 2:4)

One night in high school, I stayed out well past my curfew. I was having fun, and the time had gotten away from me. I was wrong, and no excuses would have made things right. As I realized what was waiting for me at home — a set of angry parents with arms crossed and toes tapping — I lost all desire to hurry back. Why rush back to the wrath I deserved?!

When I finally did make it home, my parents hugged me instead of scolding me. Being so long overdue had worried them far more than I anticipated. Their joy at my return exceeded their anger at my absence. 

My parent’s reaction was far different than what I had anticipated. I immediately felt more chastened than if they had yelled at me. They were so happy I was safe that, even when they later corrected me, I had no doubt I was deeply loved. Their kindness sparked resolve in me not so to burden their hearts again. 

Such is God’s intention for us. His unswerving grace, even when mixed with parental discipline, is to convince us of his love so that we turn from the sin that hurts him and us. The kindness of God leads to true repentance.

Prayer: Lord, help me not to sin. And thank you that, when I do err, assurance of your kindness turns me from sin to my Savior.

Daily Devotion - April 29, 2025

Now may our Lord Jesus Christ himself, and God our Father, who loved us and gave us eternal comfort and good hope through grace, comfort your hearts and establish them in every good work and word.” (2 Thess. 2:16-17)

If you only measured by the attitudes and actions of your life, would you be a sinner or a saint? If you measure by the Bible’s standard that counts even our best works as “filthy rags” before God, the answer is pretty clear. There is so much humanity in our motives and deeds that no one is going to brag of earthly performance before a holy God in heaven.

Since God’s standard for our actions and attitudes is perfect holiness, Jesus said, “that even when we have done all that we should do, we are still unworthy servants” (Lk.17:10). Because God knows our thoughts as well as our deeds, honest reflection leads us to the Bible’s conclusion: “All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Rom 3:23).

That is bad news for everyone who hopes for a heavenly future – were it not for the grace of God. The Bible says that God our Father has loved us and given us eternal comfort and hope through the grace he has provided in Jesus Christ!

If you confess that sinner more than saint is your life’s label, but you welcome Christ’s grace, then you need not despair. Eternal comfort is yours!

Such comfort is a calling. It so changes the motives of our hearts that we desire to honor God with works and words that confirm to others – and our own hearts – the reality of his transforming grace.

Prayer: Father, thank you for granting the grace that is eternal comfort to a sinner like me. May that comfort be such encouragement to my heart that I have transformed desires to please you, and may my words and deeds confirm this change!

Daily Devotion - April 28, 2025

The Lord your God is in your midst, a mighty one who will save; he will rejoice over you with gladness; he will quiet you by his love; he will exult over you with loud singing. (Zeph. 3:17)

A small statue at our door displays a Middle-eastern father with robe and turban, on his knees, holding a small child over his head. The child is “airplaning” over his father – arms out, feet back, and head forward, confident of his father’s grasp. 

What makes the statue so special to us is the look of rapturous joy on the face of the father and the child. The child delights in the father’s care, and the father rejoices in the gladness of his child. When we first saw the statue, we knew the verse that had to go with it – Zeph. 3:17.

In this portion of his Word, the Lord reminds us that the One who is mighty to save does not begrudge his care. The One who humbled himself to lift us to heaven, exults over us with singing. He rejoices with the gladness that he brings to our souls. 

When I must seek his grace for my sin, I come burdened by grief to my Heavenly Father. But the One who humbled himself to lift me from guilt, does not delight in prolonging my shame. He who saves me from the consequences of my sin by a mighty hand, holds me in love and delight no less strong. 

I seek him, return to him, and daily depend upon him knowing that he holds me and rejoices over me with gladness – which makes my heart glad and my life his.

Prayer: Heavenly Father, thank you for the mighty hand that saves me, lifts me from sin, and holds me forever. And thank you for the glad heart that exults over me, even me!

Daily Devotion - April 25, 2025

Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. He who does not love does not know God, for God is love. (1 John 4:7-8)

We all want to experience intimacy with God. We speak to him in prayer, and we listen for his voice as we study his Word, hear sermons, and consider the counsel of fellow Christians.

But along with talking or listening to God, there’s another component to spiritual intimacy: loving others. When we express Christ’s love for the those easy to love and for those hard to love, our hearts are experiencing the nature of his affection.

By expressing Christlike love, we get familiar with it and Christ’s care becomes more meaningful and precious – moving us closer to him. 

So vital is loving others to intimacy with God, that the Apostle John says we cannot really know God at all without loving relationships. 

Sadly, we will meet those even in the church who do not realize this. They substitute doctrinal correctness and personal criticism for loving others, thinking they are honoring God when, in fact, they are distancing themselves and others from him.

If you really want to experience the love of God, love those easy to love, and those hard to love.

Prayer: Lord, help me to know you more intimately by loving those easy to love and those hard to love. Make Christ’s love dearer to me by how I love those dear to you.

Daily Devotion - April 24, 2025

We know that God works all things together for the good of those who love Him, who are called according to His purpose. For those God foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son (Rom. 8:28-29 BSB)

We can throw the words of this verse around with casual ease, and not understand the richness or seriousness of its meaning.   

Laura Story’s song Blessings includes these lyrics: 

What if my greatest disappointments or the aching of this life is the revealing of a greater thirst this world can’t satisfy? 

What if the trials of this life – the rain, the storms, the hardest nights, are Your mercies in disguise?

 When I hear these questions, I think of Joseph in Genesis, speaking to brothers who sold him into slavery: “What you meant for evil, God has used for good.” 

Joseph was explaining to them, and to us, this profound truth: God works all things together for the good of those who love him, who are called according to his purpose. God was working Joseph’s bitter circumstances for a sweet purpose that would result in the provision of Jesus for you and me.

Even though we face difficulties and tears, God will weave all – from beginning to eternity – into his tapestry of salvation for us and those our lives touch.

Prayer: Father, help me to realize that you are using everything in my life – both bitter and sweet – to conform me to the image of your Son and to help others know him.

Daily Devotion - April 23, 2025

His name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. (Isa. 9:6)

There are times when we all could use some good counsel — someone on our side who can understand our needs. In Scripture, Jesus is called Wonderful Counselor, but translators could just have easily rendered: “He will be a wonder of a counselor.”

What does a wonder of a counselor do?  We seek a counselor because we desire good advice. But that advice can only come when the counselor understands us (perhaps better that we understand ourselves) and reveals a path to help and heal. 

Our “wonder of a counselor,” fulfills these responsibilities with greater insight and care than any human counselor. He knows us through and through. He created us. He listens to us. He watches over us. He sent his Son to be like us. He knows our hearts. He knows your heart. He knows the path to help and heal each broken life. 

Because of God’s great love for you, Jesus sympathizes with you. He has endured trials so that he can understand your pain, and he rose from awful loss so that he can reveal a path to help and heal your brokenness. If you need One who can truly understand, comfort, and guide you from pain and loss, then seek the Wonderful Counselor, Jesus.

Prayer: Jesus, I’m grateful that you care for me and know me far better than I know myself. Now so reveal your will in your Word that I will marvel at your understanding, trust your care, and honor your counsel in my times of need.

Daily Devotion - April 22, 2025

Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, so that he might present the church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish. (Eph. 5:25-27)

Have you wondered how husbands are supposed to live out God’s command to sacrifice themselves for their wives? It’s a tall order, for sure. We understand more of the obligation from its goal.

The apostle Paul says, “Christ’s sacrifice was to “sanctify” his bride [the church] so that she would have “splendor” to him. 

Giving oneself for the good and glory of another seemed far from the pattern of a friend whose idea of biblical headship meant his wife had to get his approval for everything she wore, to whom she spoke, and whenever she left the house. 

So much did he use his authority to control and dominate his spouse that she was constantly fearful and depressed – and, consequently, less pleasing to him. His selfishness (driven by his own insecurities) deprived him of the splendor he wanted in her.

As Christ’s glory was enhanced by the splendor of his bride, so also is the blessing of spouses whose goal is to give themselves for the splendor of another.

Prayer: Lord, help me draw understanding from how your grace builds up and beautifies my heart to understand how I can love my spouse as Christ loves.

Daily Devotion - April 21, 2025

The disciples came to Jesus privately and said, “Why could we not cast it [a demon] out?” He said to them, “Because of your little faith. For truly, I say to you, if you have faith like a grain of mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move, and nothing will be impossible for you.” (Matt. 17:19-21)

An old story tells of two widows living together in a cottage at the foot of a mountain. Soaking rains loosened the soil on the mountain’s slope, and a huge boulder threatened to roll onto their home. So, the women prayed that God would anchor the stone. But – the rain continued, the stone rolled, and crushed the house, prompting one of the women to say, “I knew prayer wouldn’t work.”

Well, of course, doubting prayer doesn’t work, but what is believing prayer. Are we supposed to imagine that our desires are God’s commands – that we are as wise as God about what should happen to shape his eternal plans? 

True faith is never rooted in our designs, but in our God – his power, wisdom, and love. Nothing is impossible for him, not even working beyond our prayers to fulfill his plans. Pray, believing that God can move mountains, anchor stones, and melt hearts of stone by earth’s blessings or trials.

Through such believing prayers, God will do even more than we can ask or imagine to accomplish his will on earth as he intends in heaven. When we pray, “Heavenly Father, I believe in your wisdom, power and love to accomplish what is absolutely best,” then we will be most blest. Trust the God of grace to be better than your prayers.

Prayer: Lord, help me to pray, and to trust you more than my prayers. Do on earth what is best for eternity.