Author: Ken Crawford

It is the Lord your God you must follow, and him you must revere. Keep his commands and obey him; serve him and hold fast to him.
– Deuteronomy 13:4 (NIV)

So many people want us to follow their lead and obey their voice. Only God alone has proved himself faithful and loving through the ages. In his might he is to be revered. But rather than seeing reverence as a “church thing,” we are reminded by Moses it is a “life thing.” We are to obey and keep his commandments, we are to serve him and depend upon him in our daily lives. Rather than silence in the assembly, reverence is action to his glory!

Holy and Righteous Father, help me take my worship outside the church building into my day to day life as I try to live what I sing, practice what I say, and pursue what I pray. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

For we who worship by the Spirit of God are the ones who are truly circumcised. We rely on what Christ Jesus has done for us. We put no confidence in human effort…
– Philippians 3:3 NLT

Our identity as God’s children is defined by the presence of the Holy Spirit as we worship, not by our race or by a physical mark on our body. Those who have the Spirit are the children of God (John 3:3-7). We rely on the work of Christ and don’t rely on our human attempts at significance. Christ poured the Spirit on us when we were saved by grace (Titus 3:3-7). The Holy Spirit is the mark of our identity (Rom. 8:9). The Work of the Spirit makes us a part of the Body of Christ (1 Corinthians 12:12-13). The gift of the Holy Spirit is our gateway to authentic worship (John 4:22-23). The presence of the Holy Spirit makes us the dwelling place of God, a holy temple in which God lives through the Spirit (1 Corinthians 6:19-20). The presence of the Holy Spirit defines our lives in Christ and is crucial to our identity and worship! Rather than our lives and worship being tied down by all sorts of detailed rules about worship like we find in the Torah and other hard and fast rules of human order, we are set free by the guidance of the Holy Spirit.

Father in heaven, please forgive me when I try to define my significance in any other source other than your gracious love for me, your Son’s sacrifice for my sins, and the work of the Holy Spirit in my day-to-day life. I ask this in Jesus’ name. Amen

O God, you are my God, earnestly I seek you; my soul thirsts for you, my body longs for you, in a dry and weary land where there is no water.
– Psalm 63:1 (NIV)

Addiction has been defined as “God-hunger directed to the wrong source of soul satisfaction.” Psalm 63 reminds us this is true. Deep in us is a desire to seek after God because he is not far from us and longs to be known by us (see Acts 17). But often when our soul craving need for God is greatest, he is the last place we turn for satisfaction. Let’s earnestly seek after him and slake our soul thirstiness in him.

Holy Father, fill my heart with longing for you and my head with understanding that it is your presence I crave. I confess that I have often sought relief for my hunger in things that do not satisfy. I pledge today to recognize all other sources of satisfaction to be temporary and false. I promise to pursue you and your will through your word and your Spirit till I rest in your presence and grace. In the powerful name of Jesus my Lord, I pray. Amen.

Then [John] saw a Lamb that looked as if it had been slaughtered, but it was now standing between the throne and the four living beings and among the twenty-four elders. He had seven horns and seven eyes, which represent the sevenfold Spirit of God that is sent out into every part of the earth.
– Revelation 5:6 NLT

God’s presence is made available in all places on earth through the Holy Spirit. If we pause and think of the magnitude of this simple statement, we are dumbfounded. Gather in the implications of this thought: God’s presence is available everywhere to everyone — it’s available for billions of people, over millions of square miles, and across an incredible diversity of races, cultures, peoples, and nations. In realizing our insignificant size in the whole of the universe, we are dumbstruck by a realization of God’s indescribable vastness and also his most loving intentions demonstrated through the sacrifice of Jesus. Every part of the earth is the habitation of the Holy One through the presence of the Holy Spirit. Jesus came and gave himself so that we could be invited into fellowship with God and with each other through the gift of the Holy Spirit. We should be awed, amazed, and appreciative of being so sacrificially loved and wanted by the Creator of the universe!

Almighty God — whom I know as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit — forgive me for the times I forget just how big you are and yet how much you love me. In a universe so vast, you love me personally. In sending Jesus, you have loved me at great cost to yourself. As your child through new birth, I know you love me by living in me through your Spirit. Thank you. Praise you. I can never repay you, but I can adore you. In Jesus’ name, I praise and thank you even though you are far beyond my ability to comprehend. Amen.

Don’t be misled: No one makes a fool of God. What a person plants, he will harvest. The person who plants selfishness, ignoring the needs of others — ignoring God! — harvests a crop of weeds. All he’ll have to show for his life is weeds! But the one who plants in response to God, letting God’s Spirit do the growth work in him, harvests a crop of real life, eternal life.
– Galatians 6:7-8 MESSAGE

While we must commit to following Jesus as Lord, the power to bring growth in us comes from the Holy Spirit. Real life, the life that grows and matures and reproduces itself, is the work of God’s Spirit going on inside us. The Spirit produces God’s fruit in us and brings in God’s ultimate harvest: “real life, eternal life.” This growth work comes from the Spirit!

Father, I love you and want to honor you with righteous character and holy compassion in my life. Yet I confess, the more I try to produce this character and compassion on my own — without depending on your strength, your word, and your Spirit — the more I fail. I find myself prideful of my accomplishments or resentful of others and their accomplishments, or I just simply fall back into my sinful and addictive behaviors. So I offer my heart, my body, and my mind to love you, and I offer myself as a living sacrifice. As I do this, I ask that you fill me with your Holy Spirit and empower and guide me by your Holy Spirit, who brings true life. In Jesus’ name, I pray. Amen.

“Repentance is a change of willing,
of feeling and of living,
in respect to God.”
– Charles Finney

Trust in the Lord forever, for the Lord, the Lord is the Rock Eternal.
Isaiah 26:4 (NIV)

When we see mountains we feel small, knowing not only how much larger it is than we are, but also how much longer it has been here than we have been. But the Lord was long before any mountain and will be long after it has melted into nothing. He is the only rock of security and stability. All the forevers we have are found in him.

Eternal Father, who is and was and will be forever, I find comfort in the trust that you are and will always be my God, my Redeemer, my Savior, my Shepherd, and my Father. I commit all my tomorrows to you. In the name of Jesus my Lord I pray. Amen.

Though you have not seen him, you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy, for you are receiving the goal of your faith, the salvation of your souls.
— 1 Peter 1:8-9

Can you trust what you don’t see? Of course! What kind of question is that? Our lives depend on what we cannot see — things like gravity and the air we breathe, just to name two. Faith in Jesus is as natural as faith in each of those things. The problem is that our hearts are skeptical. We find it hard to believe that anyone divine would love us so much. Our experience says, “If it seems too good to be true, it is.” That skepticism is just the twisted form of the response God longs to see from us: “inexpressible and glorious joy.” I don’t know about you, but I’ve tasted both. I prefer joy over skepticism!

What joy fills my heart, Father, when I anticipate what it will be like to be in your presence — to have you wipe each tear from my eyes and to have you introduce me again to those I love and to those I’ve only known by reputation. Please never let me outlive that sense of anticipation and never let that hope dim in my heart, no matter what else may happen in my life here. In Jesus’ name I pray. Amen.

Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me. Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.
– Matthew 5:11-12 (NIV)

The sentiments of this verse often seem foreign and strange, but among those who closely study persecution, believers in Christ are enduring perhaps the greatest amount of persecution in the history of Christianity. For those of us who live in cozy places where belief is tolerated and Christians are just considered out of vogue or a bit out of touch, we need to be thankful that our lives make enough of a distinction from our culture to be noticed, even if it’s a bit unfavorable. But at the same time, we need to pray for other believers throughout the world who are undergoing the wrath of hell for the faith.

Lord and Redeemer, we have many who call on your name with faith in Jesus who face persecution and hardship every day. I pray that they will not lose heart and give up their confidence. I pray that you will bring deliverance from this time of persecution. I pray that their sufferings will be the source of powerful witness so others will come to see the great value of Jesus and our allegiance to him. This I pray in Jesus’ precious and holy name. Amen.

There are different kinds of spiritual gifts, but the same Spirit is the source of them all. There are different kinds of service, but we serve the same Lord. God works in different ways, but it is the same God who does the work in all of us.
– 1 Corinthians 12:4-6 NLT

I love the variety that God has placed in his creation. I love the variety of people that have answered the call of Jesus. I am amazed at the different abilities the Spirit has given God’s children. Yet, in this variety, I realize that there is one constant: the One True and Living God. All this variety is necessary for us to get a glimpse of the profound complexity and generosity of God, the very God who knows all of us intimately as his children who all bear some striking resemblance to their Creator.

I am amazed, Almighty God, at your nearness and your vastness, your gracious love and your eternal complexity. I am humbled, dear Father, that you would make me from my mother’s womb to be in your image and to fulfill your divine purpose in some important way. Please help me remember both my uniqueness and my connectedness to your nature and to your work in the world. In Jesus’ name, I pray. Amen.