Growing Up 8-20-05

Good morning, Lord Jesus. Cause Your thoughts to be my thoughts, Your words to be my words. Little by little, and day by day, conform me into Your image and transform me into Your nature. ... My youngest son, Elijah, loves to dig my old cowboy boots and straw hat out of the closet. (No matter where they live and no matter what they do, every Texan still has a pair of boots and a cowboy hat somewhere in their closet). The boots come up to his waist and the hat swallows his head. He loves to go through the house roping the furniture and tying up the "bad cowboys." He wants to grow up quick so he can be a "real cowboy." He loves being three, but it seems he would love even better to be thirty. As we come to know You, Your Spirit comes into our hearts to begin to grow us up into Your nature. As we spend time with You and Your word, our thoughts become more like Your thoughts and our words more like Your words. We are growing up in spiritual maturity. At first, Your "boots and hat" are way too big and almost swallow us up. But You are gracious and You are patient, loving and correcting us, teaching and maturing us, little by little and day by day, as we "grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ" (2 Peter 3.18). Individually and as the body of Christ, "we must grow up in every way into Him, who is the head, into Christ," so that "all of us come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to maturity, to the full measure of the stature of Christ" (Ephesians 4.11-16). We want to grow up to be like You, Lord. Help us be patient and gracious with who we are now, but never settling for less that who You want us to become. In Jesus' name we pray, Amen. Be encouraged this day! In the Love of Jesus, Tommy Hays Come to The Fountain this Saturday night at 7pm for prayer, praise, and healing worship in the Chapel at Centenary, 2800 Tates Creek Rd. Thank you for your prayers for our Healing Prayer Seminar in Versailles, KY this weekend. People have joined us from many different churches and traditions in the area to learn how to pray for others at the altar of the local church. Please cover us in prayer for our healing service tonight at the Versailles Methodist Church, 7-9pm. To subscribe/unsubscribe, please send a note to me at Messiah Ministries MessiahMin@aol.com -- "Preparing the Way of the Lord." Our address for ministry and contributions: 2800 Tates Creek Rd.; Lexington, Kentucky 40502. Daily archives: www.morningbymorning.blogspot.com andwww.morningbymorning.injesus.com