To begin our week’s conversations Lord, I first want to give You thanks for the Blessings You granted me this past weekend. Although a busy couple days to be sure, I was Blessed to spend them in the company of family and friends. I regularly find myself overwhelmed by the gifts You bring to my life, and thank You for Your continued Presence. I am indeed Blessed.
Well Father, this Wednesday marks the return to classes for Jonathan and Aidan. And while they’re a little disappointed that the freedoms of summer are waning, they’re both very excited to dive into a new school year’s “education adventure”. With that thought in mind, I decided to focus this week’s Meditations Monday Scripture selections on what Your Word has to say about the advancement of knowledge:
…That the path of learning is important to both our head, and our heart:
The heart of the discerning acquires knowledge,
for the ears of the wise seek it out. – Proverbs 18:15 (NIV)
…That putting our children on the proper path will help guide their future:
Start children off on the way they should go,
and even when they are old they will not turn from it. – Proverbs 22:6 (NIV)
…That wisdom, understanding and knowledge work together to make our lives fuller:
By wisdom a house is built,
and through understanding it is established;
through knowledge its rooms are filled
with rare and beautiful treasures. – Proverbs 24:3-4 (NIV)
Heavenly Father, as our children begin another year’s schooling, please keep Your watchful gaze upon them. Please help them not only to absorb what they’re taught, but to apply that knowledge towards fulfilling Your desires for their lives. Open their minds and their hearts, and fill them with that thirst for wisdom that only You can instill. Lead them Teacher, that they may grow both in this earthly realm, and in Your Kingdom as well.
Wow Lord… What a hectic day it’s been! As I’m sure You’re aware, we had some violent thunderstorms roll through here last night which always causes a “surge” (pun intended) in business the next day. In this instance, one of my clients took a spike which routed through their network wiring, killing off five machines and several pieces of infrastructure hardware… Not a pretty picture. As I was surveying and extracting the damaged equipment for repair this morning, it got me thinking that sin works very much like that surge…
Once we allow sin to enter our lives, it runs rampant, corrupting and damaging everything else it can.
Now, in this client’s case there was very little they could have done to prevent this particular hit from doing damage; we’re very much the same way with regards to sin. While as Christians, we try to avoid sin wherever we can, we’re certainly not always successful. It’s a constant battle in our souls Father; the pull of our corrupted, sinful natures versus the righteousness of Your Spirit within us. Thankfully, with Jesus Christ as our “Spiritual Surge Suppressor”, we have the protection we need to arrest sin’s progress in us so we can best operate as You intend.
Heavenly Father, as we go into the weekend we thank You for all the Blessings You’ve surrounded us with this week. I pray that for all of life’s “surges” that present themselves, we remember to place our trust in the One that can see us through the storms safely.
Whew… What a week it’s been Lord. Between a hectic schedule at my office, my visit to Kay’s Kamp and a myriad of other “life” events (getting new tires for the car, dealing with ill dogs, etc..), I’m quite ready for the weekend to begin. That being said Father, even with the fast-paced nature of the past few days I’ve had a very deep sense of Your Presence this week. That embodiment of peace in my Spirit has helped keep me focused, calm and joyful throughout, and for that I thank You.
To close out the week Lord, I’d like to share a song that’s been in my head as of late. It’s actually a song that’s been out for quite some time, but when I heard this rendition it was like hearing it for the first time. The song is called “Bless the Broken Road”, and this recording is by the group Selah :
Such a haunting performance, and a powerful message Father. 🙂
Heavenly Father, thank You for Your overwhelming presence in my life this past week. The more I open my heart to Your Voice, the more I realize that it’s been there all along. I pray that with Your guidance we’re all able to traverse life’s broken roads, and find our way into Your Loving Arms.
This morning Lord, I had another one of those inspired geek moments that You grant me from time to time. I was working on a laptop PC that was in for service, with the primary customer complaint being that it was running very slowly. External malware and virus scans had come back clean, so I booted into the operating system to evaluate the situation.
It was clogged to the hilt with “stuff” starting up automatically every time it booted.
Now, this is something we see pretty regularly. Between the bundled software that comes loaded on new machines, “add-on” downloads that come along for the ride with installs over the Internet, and all the little “extras” that get installed automatically with new components like printers and scanners, unless you know what’s safe to remove or deselect, it builds up quickly. The result over time is a computer that takes a long time to boot up, and acts slow and sluggish when performing tasks.
As I started to strip away the layers of unnecessary bloat from the machine, my mind drifted back to yesterday, and the “fog” my mind had been in for most of the day…
I was slow…
I was sluggish…
I had problems focusing on tasks…
Your Voice wasn’t as clear as it usually is.
Hmmm… A parallel maybe? 🙂
Like the laptop in my care, my mind yesterday was filled with unnecessary “clutter”. Ponderings and concerns about everything from money, to groceries, to laundry preoccupied my thoughts, making focusing on more important matters (like talking with You) much more difficult.
Therefore Father, going into this weekend my prayer is a simple one:
Heavenly Father, please grant us Clarity;
Clarity of focus to see past our earthly concerns…
Clarity of mind to listen in the Stillness for Your Voice…
Clarity of purpose to make choices that best Glorify You…
Clarity of Spirit to draw us closer to Your Presence.
To conclude this week’s postings Lord, I’d like to say a couple of prayers if I may.
First off Father, it’s hot here today… in fact, dangerously so. With a temperature of around 100 degrees and high humidity, the heat index shows us at around 117 degrees outside. For those of us who are Blessed with good health it’s oppressive enough, but for those who are more vulnerable to the effects of these conditions (young children, the elderly, asthmatics, etc.) this weather can pose serious health risks. Please wrap all those affected by these climatic conditions in Your Protective Embrace. Let them feel the cooling breeze of Your Holy Spirit, and give them the resources needed to combat the effects of this weather.
Secondly Lord, several of my “Bloggy” friends are attending the “She Speaks” Conference this weekend. I pray that Your Presence is felt in abundance at this gathering, and that their hearts and minds are opened wide to gain what this experience has to offer. Please protect and watch over their families while they’re away, and bring them home safely when it’s completed.
And finally Father, I’d like to thank You for leading me to find the Glo Bible website today. I’m always on the lookout for new sources of information to assist me in my Walk with you, and the Glo Bible is an amazing tool. After downloading the free version and working with it for part of the morning, I ended up purchasing the Premium content as well. I’m looking forward to spending time exploring it this weekend, and placing it in Jonathan’s hands as well. With all the rich multimedia and interactive tools Glo contains, I think it could open a whole new line of thought and prayer for him as he delves deeper into Your Word.
Heavenly Father, I thank You for yet another Blessing-filled week. I pray that Your Divine Peace and Comfort is felt by all those in need, and for Your continued Guidance in making choices and decisions that best glorify Your Will for us. Amen.
Hi, I’m Phil Malmstrom, a.k.a. Phather Phil. I’m self-employed, father of two wonderful young men, an ordained minister who delights in spreading Jesus’ Message of Hope and Love, a science-fiction junkie, an aspiring photographer and above all that one of God’s Children who rejoices in His Blessings each day.
Hi, I’m Phil Malmstrom, a.k.a. Phather Phil. I’m self-employed, father of two wonderful young men, an ordained minister who delights in spreading Jesus’ Message of Hope and Love, a science-fiction junkie, an aspiring photographer and above all that one of God’s Children who rejoices in His Blessings each day. 
