Prepared for Action 6-18-10

Good morning, Lord Jesus. Let me start this day rooted and grounded in a deep place in You. … “Therefore prepare your minds for action; discipline yourselves; set all your hope on the grace that Jesus Christ will bring you when He is revealed” (1 Peter 1:13). Right action requires preparation. Sustained success requires discipline. But all my preparation and all my discipline can only be my best and never Your best unless I set all my hope on the grace of God. It’s not an easy grace that allows me to be passive or complacent, somehow just sitting back and waiting for You to move me and the people around me like an army of chessmen on a chessboard. It’s a grace that calls me to look to You, to listen for Your leading, to embrace both Your love and Your correction, both Your abundance and Your pruning. It’s a grace that call me to train my fingers for battle and my hands for war, that I may be ready to advance at Your command, never to surrender, never to retreat, never to back up or back off from what You’ve put in my heart to do and who You’ve placed in my heart to be. Yet it’s also a grace that continually calls me to humble myself in Your sight, to admit I don’t always hear what You’re truly saying because I’m always in the process of transformation. There’s always another layer of the onion to peel away—exposing the next unhealed wound, the next unbroken chain, the next hardness of heart, the next confusion of mind, the next rebellion to the advancement of Your Kingdom within me. None are righteous, no not one. All are to be forever pressing on and pressing in until Your love is perfected in each one of us (Matthew 5:48). “As He who has called you is holy, be holy yourselves in all your conduct, ; for it is written, ‘You shall be holy, for I am holy’ ” (1 Peter 1:15-16). So I always have need of my Savior and Redeemer, my Healer and Deliverer. I am always in need of Your grace. And Your Holy Spirit is always moving in my human spirit to look to You and consciously, deliberately, intentionally set all my hope on all Your grace. That’s how I prepare my mind in advance to be ready for whatever action You desire, whether in me or through me. That’s how I position myself to be ready to move with Your Spirit in the moment You call. The old saying that “God helps them that help themselves” is just not true. God helps them that humble themselves to admit they can’t do a thing that really matters in this world without setting their hope on the grace that only God can give. So by the grace of God, I choose to set my hope on You this day and every day. In Jesus’ name I pray, Amen. Be encouraged today! In the Love of Jesus, Tommy Hays Come to The Fountain! This Friday Night June 18th at 7PM, the 3rd Friday Night of every month, for our Messiah Ministries monthly city-wide gathering for prayer, praise, and healing worship. Led by Messiah Ministries and hosted at Centenary United Methodist Church, 2800 Tates Creek Rd.; Lexington, Kentucky. Come drink deeply from The Fountain of Living Waters as we worship Jesus in the freedom of His Holy Spirit. I will be leading in Prayer while Brooke and Shannon Barrett will be leading in Worship and as we also honor Laura Beach and her ministry this month. All are welcome and please spread the word! Contact Marilyn Walker, our Dir. of Ministries for details 859-317-1591 or DirOfMinistries@aol.com Subscribe for free by email to me at Messiah Ministries: MessiahMin@aol.com -- "Preparing the Way of the Lord ... Ministering the Healing Love of God" www.messiah-ministries.org To order my books and our ministry resources or contribute to our ministry on-line: www.shop.messiah-ministries.org Messiah Ministries; 2800 Tates Creek Rd; Lexington, KY 40502 God bless you!