New Season, New Prayer Needs

May the favor of the Lord our God rest upon us;

establish the work of our hands for us-

yes, establish the work of our hands.

Ps. 90:17

Psalm 90 is the psalm of Moses.  I believe it is the only psalm of Moses retained in the 150 Psalms found in our modern bibles.  This Psalm was my grandfather's favorite.  He had lived through great hardship and times of great delight and growth in the Lord.  This Psalm matched his life.

I have found that I return to this Psalm often in my times of prayer and reflection.  I really do not know why.  In recent years, the final section of the Psalm has been meditated upon so often that I have it memorized.  It has become part of me.  I did not even realize this until I began to write today and I knew the passage by heart!

Today I ask that you will commit to praying for me according to Psalm 90:17.  I desperately need your prayers to speed and empower my work with and by the Holy Spirit.  Will you pray for me?

I have been collecting information, quotes, materials, and other resources for years to write about authentic spiritual life.  I have learned to live what I have learned.  I confess I often fall short of living the gospel, but I have grown.  I feel like the Lord is telling me it is time to share what I have learned with a broader audience.  The preparation is done, the writing now must begin.

This blog has been my attempt to kill many birds with one stone.  It has been excellent practice in writing.  I believe my prose has greatly benefited from writing at least an hour a day for almost a year and a half.  It is now so much easier to write.  My thoughts flow quicker.  I do hope from the reader's standpoint this blog has gotten better.  I need an editor, but who doesn't!  

To date, this blog represents about 400 pages of new writing and thought presented for others to read and reflect upon.  It has been written in the midst of a very busy and full life.  Often my posts are concluded between getting young children to up and to the bathroom and feeding them breakfast.  Distractions often mark my life!  Please forgive the many typos and often poorly conceived ideas.  I believe I have grown through the experience.

In addition, my writing has helped me see what is really important to me.  It has helped shape my thought and the direction of my reflection.  Believe it or not, I have often been encouraged and at times confronted by the thoughts of this blog as I re-read what the Lord laid upon my heart months before.  While the topics range, the center is the gospel believed and lived.

As I looked to my Ph.D. studies, a wise professor told me to keep a journal of my thoughts to see the connections and direction of my thought.  I was really interested in many topics, but he believed writing would help me sharpen my focus on what really interested me.  He was right.  By following his advice I found a topic that lead me to a great graduate school and an interesting dissertation.  (You can find it and read it if you wish my googling my name and John Cotton the Antinomian Calvinist)

This blog has continued that sharpening of focus.  As I see it, I think there are three books found within these many pages of blog posts.  I plan to continue to write new posts throughout the fall, but I also will consciously re-post older material so I have more time to write a book on authentic gospel-centered spirituality.  In fact, today I embark in earnest on writing that book!

Today is my 283rd post.  This past Wednesday, while I slept, my blog was hit for the 10,000th time.  I know many bloggers who get that in a day, but I am still amazed.  In addition, while Google stats will not give me the full picture, I would guess that people from well over 60 countries have stumbled upon my blog.  Each month I have had more and visitors.  I am thankful for each of you.  I am also thankful that the Lord can and will use these thoughts for His glory.  Please share my blog with your friends and help me engage in the process of clarifying my thoughts.  I pray the next 10,000 hits come much quicker.

As we enter the fall season, I ask that you pray for the Holy Spirit to quicken my mind and heart so I might write coherently and quickly.  Please pray for protection for myself, my family, and my church as I move forward and engage in the battle.  Finally, please pray for a good publisher to pick this up and run with it.  In other words,

May the favor of the Lord our God rest upon me;

establish the work of our hands for me-

yes, establish the work of my hands.

Ps 90:17 personalized

To Him be the Glory!