"Be Thou my Vision" 9-26-05

Good morning, Lord Jesus. The ancient words of the Irish hymn rise up in my spirit as my prayer this morning, as I settle in to my prayer chair to seek Your face and listen for Your voice: "Be Thou my vision, O Lord of my heart." ... It seems every moment counts in these days. Open the eyes of our hearts to see where You are leading, and open the ears of our spirits to hear where You are calling. Time is short and we can't afford to do what is merely good or helpful or even biblical -- we must do only what You command us, follow only where You lead us, and go only where You send us. Anything else is wasted time that we can't afford to waste. How gracious that You redeem all things, even our mistakes and missteps, if we commit them to You; but how much better to trust and obey to begin with? Paul thought he was doing a good thing by wanting to spread the gospel to Asia -- surely that was good and helpful, certainly that was biblical. But that was not the leading of Your Holy Spirit for him and his team at that time. You had a different direction to send him with the same message. He thought doing the obvious was Your perfect will; but in Your mercy and grace, You closed the doors of the direction he was headed and open the door of Your will through Your vision. "They went through the region of Phrygia and Galatia, having been forbidden by the Holy Spirit to speak the word in Asia. When they had come opposite Mysia, they attempted to go into Bithynia, but the Spirit of Jesus did not allow them; so, passing by Mysia, they went down to Troas. During the night Paul had a vision: there stood a man of Macedonia pleading with him and saying, 'Come over to Macedonia and help us.' When he had seen the vision, we immediately tried to cross over to Macedonia, being convicted that God had called us to proclaim the good news to them" (Acts 16:6-10). Holy Spirit of Jesus, we need You to direct our lives into the perfect will of our Father. We need the mind and vision of Christ, that we may be the obedient body of Christ, led by the Spirit of Christ, to follow Your heart in Your timing and Your way, and not merely our own. You must be our Vision and our true Light. "Be Thou my Vision, O Lord of my heart; Naught be all else to me, save that Thou art. Though my best Thought, by day or by night, Waking or sleeping, Thy presence my Light." In Jesus' name we pray, Amen. Be encouraged this day! In the Love of Jesus, Tommy Hays To subscribe/unsubscribe, please send a note to me at Messiah Ministries MessiahMin@aol.com -- "Preparing the Way of the Lord." Our address is 2800 Tates Creek Rd.; Lexington, Kentucky 40502. Come to The Fountain the 3rd Saturday night of every month at 7pm for our citywide gathering for prayer and worship in the chapel. Daily archives: www.morningbymorning.injesus.com