You knock on the door of my heart until Your knuckles bleed;

I’m in the corner trying to drown out the noise.

I know I’m in trouble; it’s You I need.

But the deceiver still holds me, and I am his toy.

I cannot escape this hole I’ve dug; it’s now much too deep.

But You are standing there and let down a rope;

I grab hold and climb, but fall for it’s too steep.

And I am now, only now, beginning to lose hope.

I become content with the person I am;

No longer do I need You in my perfect life.

Across the river that flows into my soul, I build a dam

So that without You near me, I will not feel strife.

You plead and you cry for me to come back,

But still I reject with a turn of my face.

I can still feel Your presence, or the presence I lack,

So my feeling turns to total disgrace.

How can You plead and how can You cry?

I have been nothing but someone you should throw away.

But You came to this earth, You came to die

So that I may enter Your glorious realm, on my last day.

You do not care where I have been, or what I have done.

You only care about what is deep inside.

Never will You give up on me, till victory is won.

And I deceive myself when I think I can hide.

My heart starts to break like waves on a shore.

With one mighty flash You destroy the dam.

You forget about knocking; You break down the door.

Into my heart is where You now stand.

A fork in the road. Which way should I take?

The left hand is narrow, the right wide and strong.

If I do choose the narrow, again I may break.

But You will always be there, to help me along.

Photo by Federico Stevanin Old Door http://www.freedigitalphotos.net/images/Garden_and_Exterior_g157-Old_Door_p3078.html

Logan is a high school student in Indiana.

Perhaps one of your New Year’s goals is to pray more. Well, January is a good time to pray and ask God what major issues or topics He wants you to zero in on for the year. Of course, as the year goes along, you’ll find plenty of things, people and situations to pray for. But right now we can all take some time to seek God on what ongoing requests He wants you to focus on for 2011. Mary and I were just talking about this the other day and decided to share our Top 6 Prayer List of what we’re focusing on this year.

Top 6 Prayer List for 2011

1.     Pray that we can love God with all our hearts. (Deuteronomy 6:5)

2.     Pray that we can believe God to do big things in our lives. (Ephesians 3:20,21)

3.     Pray for perseverance. (2 Peter 1:5-7)

4.     Pray for persecuted Christians. (2Thessalonians 3:1-2)

5.     Pray for justice for the oppressed. (Psalm 103:6)

6.     Pray that we would be developing and using our God-given gifts. (1 Corinthians 12:4-11).

You may be led to similar prayer goals, or God may reveal to you totally different goals. One of the challenges with goals is actually doing them or keeping them. What I decided to do to help keep these fresh before me for the whole year is to write each goal on its own index card and keep it in my prayer card file. I’ll use a larger 4 x 6 size card. (See Ready, Set, Pray if you need suggestions to help you establish a prayer time.) As I go through the year, I’m going to record any specific requests or how I see God working in these areas on the appropriate cards.

Set aside some time tonight or over the weekend to ask God what your prayer priorities should be this year. If you want to share any of your prayer goals for the year, just leave a comment. We’d love to hear them.

Click to listen to the Pray Your Way Through 2011 podcast.

Pray on!

“Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will in all things grow up into Him who is the Head, that is, Christ.” Ephesians 4:15

Sometimes being a Christian can appear complicated and confusing, especially when it seems as though Christians have always been battling between showing unconditional love and grace and speaking the truth boldly and without apology. Most Christians tend to take either one side or the other, but if we look at the life of Jesus, He had a balance of both.

He showed grace to those who needed an extra measure, yet to people such as the Pharisees He wasn’t afraid to have a stern hand and rebuke them. For Jesus, it was more about the heart of the people He was reaching and what method would bring them closer to Him and the truth. What really matters to Christ is our heart behind our actions, and I think if we were to focus on reaching people’s hearts, it would be easier to find that balance between truth and grace. If we have a bitter or angry heart, we are more likely to complain or argue with others. Once we get our hearts in line with Christ’s Word, we will start to become more like Him in all areas of our life, including in how we talk to and witness to others.

What different Biblical types of love are there?

In the Greek, phileo represented a friendship or brotherly love, and agape represented a God-like love. The type of love talked about in this passage is agape, reminding us that when we speak the truth, the love that needs to be shown is a love that says what others need to hear in kindness, instead of just saying what others think they want to hear.

Is there an example of Jesus being a witness by speaking the truth?

In the New Testament Jesus found Himself speaking the truth to the Pharisees on many occasions. One such confrontation that occurred took place in Luke 11:37-44. Christ doesn’t keep anything back, He calls the Pharisees greedy and wicked and compares them to unmarked tombs that others don’t even notice. The reason that Christ found it important to confront the Pharisees instead of just showing grace was because they knew the law and were twisting it to make themselves look good. The Pharisees needed to be confronted so that they would stop using the law to make others feel inferior and unworthy of the love of Christ.

Is there an example of Jesus being a witness by showing love?

One of the most beautiful examples of Christ showing grace in the New Testament took place in John 8:3-11 when Christ showed grace to the adulterous woman. The woman knew what she had done was wrong and didn’t need Christ to tell her how to change her life.  At that point she needed to know that Christ loved her despite her past, but that He loved her too much to allow her to stay that way.  So what Jesus gave her was hope and a second chance, which most others wouldn’t have given her.

What situations have you found yourself in where you had to choose between showing grace and truth?

When has someone had to be truthful with you when you would have rather just had grace, but later you were glad they were honest with you?

How have you grown from others’ loving honesty toward you?

How can you apply how they treated you into witnessing and talking to others?

Brittany Jean is a nineteen-year-old college student living in the Midwest with her parents and younger brother. She is currently majoring in pre-law and is planning on using that degree for ministry.

D0 you know that God longs for you? He also wants us to long for Him; He wants to be our Heart’s Desire! To do the study, just click on the link!

Do you need  a heart transplant or an attitude adjustment? The Great Physician is ready to do the procedure! Just click on the link to do the Take5! study Heart Transplant!

Do you love God with all your heart? The Bible tells us that we are to love Him with all our heart, soul and mind! To do the study “Heart and Soul” please click on the link!