Morning Manna

"But those who hope in the LORD will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint." -- Isaiah 40:31 NIV

Abba, You have used this Scripture to encourage me over and over again. Each time it is like a cool breeze in the hot summertime. I never get tired of this Scripture bubbling up in my heart!

I love the image of the eagle. There is something majestic about them...strong and fierce. Yet, there is a season where the eagle looks the exact opposite. During the eagle's molting season, they lose their flight feathers and appear weak and scraggly. However, during their molting season, they literally experience a rebirth...their youth is renewed.

Oh how I love Your Promises. During seasons of pruning and redirecting, You renew my strength! Things get slimmed down and stripped, yet it is purposeful. You have an end picture in mind, and although I cannot see what I will look like in the end, I trust Your design for my life.

My hope, my strength, my energy is found in You.

Have Your Way today...

Morning Manna

“You parents—if your children ask for a loaf of bread, do you give them a stone instead? Or if they ask for a fish, do you give them a snake? Of course not! So if you sinful people know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give good gifts to those who ask him. -- Matthew 7:10-11 NLT

Abba, the Message translations ends verse 11 by saying, "So don't you think the God who conceived you in love will be even better?" So beautiful!

Even on my worst day, Jesus, I still provide for my girls. Regardless of my personal issues, I provide for my daughters...I will not turn them away.

Abba, what You are showing me is that as I raise them up to You in prayer, You will provide for their every need for You truly conceived them in Perfect Love. Your Perfect Love casts out any fear in my heart that my daughters will miss out or fall through the cracks of life.

If I will sacrifice my needs in order to provide for their needs, how much more does Your Sacrifice cause them to reign in this life! They are princesses in Your Kingdom and You are a Righteous and Loving King. No one in Your Kingdom does without.

I trust You to grow my daughters in Grace. I trust You to grow them in the knowledge of You. I trust You to grow them as You grew...in wisdom and stature, and favor with God and men.

Precious Jesus, my daughters are Yours. They are in Your Lovable and Capable Hands...the absolute best place to be, the better place.

Have Your Way in their hearts today.

Morning Manna

"...Our daughters as sculptured corner pillars hewn like those of a palace." -- Psalm 144:12 AMP

Abba, You have designed my daughter's in a very specific, planned-out way...Your Way. You have a special place where they will flourish.

I pray that they will fulfill this Scripture by Your Holy Spirit. May they be cornerstones in Your House. May they grow up and grow strong. May they find their place in Your Palace, for they are princesses.

I pray that You will prepare their hearts to support, respect, and honor their future husbands...Proverbs 31 women. May they find their place alongside their princes. Unite them in the Bonds of Love.

You have designed each of our daughters by Your Intricate, Lovable, and Capable Hand. You are precise and do not error. You are the Potter...we are the clay.

Have Your Way in our girls, Jesus. Draw them to Your Heart and may the realize all of their dreams by Your Strength.

Morning Manna

"Now [in Haran] the Lord said to Abram, Go for yourself [for your own advantage] away from your country...." -- Genesis 12:1 AMP

"So Abram departed, as the Lord had directed him...." -- Genesis 12:4 AMP

"Now there was a famine in the land...." -- Genesis 12:10 AMP

Abba, Abraham was a man of great faith and I am inspired by his ultimate trust in Your Plan for his life.

You asked Abraham to leave his country and he obeyed, but was he surprised to find that after Your promises of multiplication, fame, good success, and protection (v. 2-3), he was met with famine?

I am thankful that You show the human side of Abraham. You show us how in his fear, he told a lie about his wife. They were half-siblings, so it wasn't a total lie, but a lie never the less. You show that Abraham felt the pressure of his circumstance and in self-preservation, did what he thought would save his life. And this wasn't the only time he lied! Yet, in Your Bountiful Grace, You fulfilled Your Promises.

Oh Abba, I'm on a new journey...have been on it for some time now. Out of obedience, following Your Voice. You promise to take care of me. Yet, I must confess, this journey has been very hard.

There are times my heart cries, "What in the world?" In Your Patience, You comfort the ache. You comfort the desire for respite.

Abraham had to subtract and divide in order to multiply. I suppose that I must follow Your Lead and his example. Your Love for me is my Strength.

I'll stay on the journey. I'll pray so very much. I'll keep heart until the end.

Morning Manna

"...And be not grieved and depressed, for the joy of the Lord is your strength and stronghold." -- Nehemiah 8:10 AMP

Abba, You are showing me that in the journey of life, I must find Joy. For the Joy of the Lord IS my strength. Honestly, I have found this hard to understand and grasp until this week.

Thanks to Your incredible and anointed servant, Kim Walker, I'm beginning to see the Light. In her beautiful song, Show Me Your Glory, there is a part where she sings of the Joy of the Lord. What I'm beginning to understand is that - You find Joy in me...that gives me strength. I am the delight of Your Heart and I belong to You! Knowing, grasping, this I can say without fear, "Show me Your Glory!" I can pray, "Show me my glory", the part of Your Divine Plan for which I was created.

When I join in praise with Kim Walker/Jesus Culture...in my car, on the treadmill, in my home office, I am overwhelmed by Your Love for me. My heart is truly strengthened by the One that I Love.

Grasping the width, depth, length, and height - an Ephesians 3:18 kind of Love - the wellspring of Joy begins to fill my heart!

I belong to You, I belong to You, I belong to You...My Strength in life is I am Yours!

Morning Manna

Abba, just before bed last night, You ministered to my heart through the following devotion from Joy for the Journey - A Woman's Book of Joyful Promises. May the Scriptures and words shared bless my friends today in Jesus Name.

"Commit your works to the LORD, and your thoughts will be established." -- Proverbs 16:3 NKJV

"This is the day the LORD has made; we will rejoice and be glad in it." -- Psalm 118:24 NKJV

"For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them." -- Ephesians 2:10 NKJV

Blessings in Your Daily Tasks

Anne Morrow Lindbergh observed somewhere in her timeless little book, Gift from the Sea, that most of us don't really mind pouring our lives out for a reason. What we do resent is the feeling that it is being dribbled away in small, meaningless drops for no good reason.

For me, one of the greatest frustrations of walking through the "dailiness" of my life as a Christian is that I don't always get to see how the bits and pieces of who I am fit into the big picture of God's Plan. It's tempting at times to see my life as a meal here, a meeting there, a carpool, a phone call, a sack of groceries -- all disjointed fragments of nothing in particular.

And yet I know I am called, as God's child, to believe by faith that they do add up. That in some way every single scrap of my life, every step and every struggle, is in the process of being fitted together into God's huge and perfect pattern for good.

Claire Cloninger
When God Shines Through

Morning Manna

"But if serving the LORD seems undesirable to you, then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve...But as for me and my household, we will serve the LORD." -- Joshua 24:15 NIV

Abba, this is my prayer - that my family will serve You and no other. My prayer is that my daughter's not only serve You while under our roof, but continue their journey with Christ long after they are on their own. I place them in Your Lovable and Capable Hands.

Your Word says in Romans 2:4 that it is Your Kindness that leads us to repentance. Oh what a Truth! Looking back on our family's history, You have been SO Good and SO Kind! Even as recent as yesterday, I was nearly in tears at Your Goodness and Your Work behind the scenes. You truly take such wonderful care of us...You never miss a thing.

Gracious Jesus, I pray that You will lead our family. Great Shepherd, draw us to Your Heart. Bring our daughters to a place of personal acknowledgment, acceptance, and reliance of Your Grace, Your Hand, in their lives. May they know You in a deep and very personal way, the Better Way.

Loved beyond measure, I will serve You all the days of my life.