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Lord's Prayer

Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come; Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.

For Thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever and ever.

George Washington's Monday Morning Prayer

O  eternal and everlasting God, I presume to present myself this morning before thy Divine majesty, beseeching thee to accept of my humble and hearty thanks, that it hath pleased thy great goodness to keep and preserve me the night past from all the dangers poor mortals are subject to, and has given me sweet and pleasant sleep, whereby I find my body refreshed and comforted for performing the duties of this day, in which I beseech thee to defend me from all perils of body and soul.

Direct my thoughts, words and work. Wash away my sins in the immaculate blood of the lamb, and purge my heart by thy Holy Spirit, from the dross of my natural corruption, that I may with more freedom of mind and liberty of will serve thee, the ever lasting God, in righteousness and holiness this day, and all the days of my life. In the name of Holy Christ, I pray,

~ From the Prayer Journal of George Washington

For Freedom from Sin

To Thee, O my God, I lift up my soul and heart; do not allow Thy creation to perish, but free me from the single and greatest enemy — sin. Grant, O Lord, that I may endure anxiety and sorrows of the soul with the same patience as the joy with which I receive satisfaction of heart. If Thou desirest, O Lord, Thou canst cleanse me and sanctify me. Here I commit myself to Thy mercy, begging Thee to destroy within me all that is offensive to Thee, and to unite me to the assembly of Thy chosen.

unk source 5/19/2017

Affirmation

Now may the God of peace who brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus Christ, the great shepherd of the sheep, by the blood of the eternal covenant, equip us with every good thing that we may do His will, working in us that which is pleasing in His sight; through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory for ever and ever.

~ Hebrews 13:20-21

Think of the day ahead in terms of God with you, and visualize health, strength, guidance, purity, calm confidence, and victory as the gifts of His presence.

Fight the Good Fight

Genesis 31:1-21 (TLB)

The Story of Jacob [6] - Jacob Leaves Laban

But Jacob learned that Laban’s sons were grumbling, “He owes everything he owns to our father. All his wealth is at our father’s expense.” Soon Jacob noticed a considerable cooling in Laban’s attitude toward him.

Jehovah now spoke to Jacob and told him, “Return to the land of your fathers, and to your relatives there; and I will be with you.” So one day Jacob sent for Rachel and Leah to come out to the field where he was with the flocks, to talk things over with them.

“Your father has turned against me,” he told them, “and now the God of my fathers has come and spoken to me. You know how hard I’ve worked for your father, but he has been completely unscrupulous and has broken his wage contract with me again and again and again. But God has not permitted him to do me any harm! For if he said the speckled animals would be mine, then all the flock produced speckled; and when he changed and said I could have the streaked ones, then all the lambs were streaked! In this way God has made me wealthy at your father’s expense.

“And at the mating season, I had a dream, and saw that the he-goats mating with the flock were streaked, speckled, and mottled. Then, in my dream, the Angel of God called to me and told me that I should mate the white female goats with streaked, speckled, and mottled male goats. ‘For I have seen all that Laban has done to you,’ the Angel said. ‘I am the God you met at Bethel,’ he continued, ‘the place where you anointed the pillar and made a vow to serve me. Now leave this country and return to the land of your birth.’”

Rachel and Leah replied, “That’s fine with us! There’s nothing for us here—none of our father’s wealth will come to us anyway! He has reduced our rights to those of foreign women; he sold us, and what he received for us has disappeared. The riches God has given you from our father were legally ours and our children’s to begin with! So go ahead and do whatever God has told you to.”

So one day while Laban was out shearing sheep, Jacob set his wives and sons on camels, and fled without telling Laban his intentions. He drove the flocks before him—Jacob’s flocks he had gotten there at Paddan-aram—and took everything he owned and started out to return to his father Isaac in the land of Canaan. So he fled with all of his possessions (and Rachel stole her father’s household gods and took them with her) and crossed the Euphrates River and headed for the territory of Gilead.

Notes on the Scripture

n Genesis 30, it seems as if Jacob was cheating Laban. Now, Jacob, as well as both of his wives, complain that Laban has cheated them! Who to believe? Well, we must believe that Laban is the bad actor here, because God’s own angels have been advising Jacob to carry out his genetics experiment with the goats and sheep.

Moreover, Laban has not given his daughters any share of the bride price Jacob paid. Compare Laban’s behavior here to the generosity shown to Rebekah (in Genesis 24), who received gold and silver jewelry, precious clothing, and other presents to take with her, in her own right, when she wed Isaac.

But setting aside all the squabbling about children and property in the preceding chapters, we see one overriding force at work: the will of Jehovah. For God speaks directly to Jacob, as He did to Abraham, and tells him to return to Canaan. (Remember that Jacob, unlike Isaac, traveled to Mesopotamia in person to find a wife. He has been living there, roughly three miles from the lands of Laban, ever since.)

Daily Inspiration

“The Power of Weakness”

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