Archive for July 2019

Teach Me How to Love

God uses relationships –
especially difficult relationships –
to mold us into the image of the
loving, patient Christ.
This hymn is a prayer to help us
through such challenges.

Recording
Printed Music

Teach me how to love, Lord.
Teach me what to say.
Teach me how to hear their hearts,
And teach me how to pray.
Help me to be patient
As You work Your will,
Always ready to obey
And ready to be still.

Give me gentle wisdom.
Let Your Spirit speak
When my thoughts are harsh or when
I’m worried or I’m weak.
Looking to Your cross, Lord,
I can see the truth.
Just a vessel for Your love,
I trust them now to You.

by Ken Bible, © 2000 by LNWhymns.com.

ThinkSingPray

ThinkSingPray
about
Prayer as Listening

Monday –      Relax in the Silence
Hymn: Turn Your Thoughts to God (recording) (printed)

Tuesday –     Lord, I Am Listening
Hymn: We Come Seeking You (recording) (printed)

Wednesday – Listen
Hymn: God Is Speaking (recording) (printed)

Thursday –    A Hearing Heart

Friday –          Listening to a Friend

Saturday –     Hungry for a Word
Hymn: When Jesus Speaks (recording) (printed)

for more, visit
ThinkSingPray
at KenBible.com

God Our Fullness

We are inherently, inescapably needy.
We are not self-sufficient and never can be.
We forever have needs outside ourselves –
food,
water,
air,
temperature control,
companionship, and
so much more.
We are fragile creatures,
never self-contained,
designed to be dependent,
designed to be incomplete.

Sovereign God, You are complete in Yourself.
You are all power,
all wisdom,
all life,
all truth, and
all rightness.
You are self-contained.
You need nothing.
You lack nothing.
You are full to overflowing.
You give of Yourself
constantly,
lavishly,
lovingly.

O God of all,
we need You.
Only in Your fullness can we be complete.
Only in Your wisdom can we think aright.
Only in Your power can we
be who we need to be.
Only in You are we
pure and
at peace.
Only in You are we
loved,
honored, and
truly, deeply satisfied.
Only in You, Father.
Only in You.

Father, I look to this world, and
I am engulfed in
death, darkness,
disappointment, and despair.
I look to You, and I see
life,
love,
deep meaning, and
a shining future.
Fix my eyes on You.

Hymn: All-in-all

Psalm 57

A colorful and rhythmic hymn of
worship and praise,
set to a familiar tune.

Recording
Printed Music

Refrain:
Mighty God, be lifted high!
Wisdom, honor, glory, power!
Savior, Sovereign, reign on high!
Fill the earth and sea and sky!

Evil threatens, fears pursue,
Needs and problems never-ending.
When those anxious thoughts pursue,
God of gods, I hide in You!

Bless me, Lord, with just one aim.
May my heart stay fixed and focused –
Always, only this my aim:
Father, glorify Your name!

Loving Father, take my days,
Every motive, every moment.
Fill my thoughts and deeds and days!
Overflow my life with praise!

by Ken Bible, © 2018 by LNWhymns.com.

ThinkSingPray

ThinkSingPray
about
Prayer 6

Monday –      Dependent on Prayer

Tuesday –     Focus on God

Wednesday – Alone with Jesus
Hymn: Peace in Christ (recording) (printed)

Thursday –    Shape Me with Your Presence
Hymn: Jesus, I Need Your Spirit (recording) (printed)

Friday –          Creative Communicators, Make Prayer a Priority

Saturday –     My Own Prayer Retreat
Hymn: Psalm 5 (recording) (printed)

for more, visit
ThinkSingPray
at KenBible.com

The Hunger

Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied. (Matthew 5:6, NASB)

I had an extra day off work, and I wanted to enjoy it to the fullest. One of the best parts of having the day off is getting to stay up late the night before. So I watched TV to my heart’s content. I lay around instead of taking that walk I needed. And I ate whatever I felt like eating.

By the time I went to bed, I felt bloated, guilty, and restless. I had learned again what I should have already known: self-indulgence is not the path to happiness.

What’s more, satisfying the needs of our bodies does not satisfy us.

Yes, we are physical creatures. In a sense, we are children of this earth. Our bodies are made of its elements. We are sustained by its resources and are dependent on them for life – water, food, and air. Even our concepts of pleasure and beauty are largely shaped by this earth. And when we die, our bodies return to the elements from which we were formed. Physically, we are children of this earth.

But we are more than that. We are more than this weak, dying body. Life is more than a sensory experience. Happiness is more than making our bodies as comfortable as possible.

We indulge ourselves. We make life as easy as we can. Or we make it as stimulating as we can. Pleasure . . . ambition . . . they add interest to life, for a while. They can be pleasant distractions, some for longer than others. But always the emptiness returns, the “is that all there is?” feeling. We hunger for something greater, something deeper, something truly fulfilling . . . something lasting.

We hunger to reach all the way to the roots of our existence. We hunger for our Father, our Mother.

We hunger for God.

We don’t want to think of it that way. We want to look at the need a “rational” way and come to a more human solution. But the fact is that we hunger for something more than this sea of humanity has to offer, more than it can know. We hunger for our Creator. We hunger to know Him and be known by Him, to understand, to rise to all that we can be, to find our place . . . forever.

We grasp for fulfillment, and fulfillment can only be found in the One that created us from Himself. Fulfillment can only be found in all that He is and all that we can be in Him.

If you’re searching for meaning, for purpose, for soul-deep satisfaction, for all that life should be, search for the Source. Search for Him.

You’ll discover that He has been searching for you all along . . . searching for His child. And you’ll discover that finding Him is as close as a single, honest prayer.

God is a gardener at heart.
He delights to grow things from tiny seeds.
Look at your life and
the lives of those who are following Him.
It’s like a stroll through His garden.
What is He growing?
Isn’t it beautiful?

Hymn: Growing in God

Christ in Psalm 45

As the Bride of Christ,
we are to have
His heart and
His mind and
burn with the passions that drive Him.
To a familiar tune.

Recording
Printed Music

O Bride of Christ, look to your Bridegroom,
The King of Kings, God’s holy Son.
Your highest good, your joy, your glory:
To live and breathe in Him as one.

O Bride of Christ, His throne is justice,
His throne is truth and glorious light.
His reign is peace and holy freedom.
Join Him and burn for truth and right.

O Bride of Christ, His heart is kindness.
With every breath He gives Himself.
His love is rich, eternal treasure.
O give your days to nothing else!

O Bride of Christ, He is your future.
Eternal joy is now begun!
He is the dawn of love’s perfection.
Walk in His light till we are one.

by Ken Bible, © 2018 by LNWhymns.com.

ThinkSingPray

ThinkSingPray
about
Prayer 5

Monday –      The Blind Man of Jericho
Hymn: From These Depths, O Lord (recording) (printed)

Tuesday –     Come Like Jesus
Hymn: We Are Children (recording) (printed)

Wednesday – God Answers Prayer
Hymn: Almighty God Is Near! (recording) (printed)

Thursday –    Stay Alert and Pray

Friday –          Listen for His Word
Hymn: Is There Any Word from the Lord? (recording) (printed)

Saturday –     Speak, Lord
Hymn: Here I Am (recording) (printed)

for more, visit
ThinkSingPray
at KenBible.com

When God Calls

By faith Abraham, when he was called, obeyed by going out to a place which he was to receive for an inheritance; and he went out, not knowing where he was going. (Hebrews 11:8, NASB)

The old adage says, “A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush”. Apparently Abraham didn’t believe that. When Almighty God called him to leave his home and extended family—the comfortable, the familiar, the secure, the “bird in the hand”—he obeyed. He didn’t know where God was taking him, but he followed anyway.

His obedience was the outward evidence of an inward faith. He had met Sovereign God, the Creator, the Lord of heaven and earth. Once Abraham had encountered Him, nothing else mattered. God’s reality was motivation enough. God Himself had called. Abraham obeyed. Since he believed in this Being who spoke to him, what else would he do? It was by faith that Abraham obeyed (Hebrews 11:8, NASB).

Abraham’s situation is not unique. Almighty God comes personally to every believer. He calls each of us. He makes demands. He makes promises.

He points to a new path and commands us to leave the life we have known and begin a new one. We don’t know where our new life, our new path, will take us. But if we believe the One who is calling—if we believe He is who He says He is—what else would we do but bow and obey? How else could we respond but to follow wherever He leads us?

For a time, God may isolate us
from every other source of supply
but Himself.
It can be frightening.
But what an amazing privilege!
Almighty Creator God is looking into our eyes,
one-on-one,
face-to-face, saying,
“I am God your Father.
I love you.
You can trust Me.”

Hymn: I Only Want to Walk in You

Pursue Love

A hymn based on
1 Corinthians 13,
the love chapter,
set to a classical melody.

Recording
Printed Music

Love, love fills life with music.
Live in love, and its fruits will grow.
Love gives the heart its endless wealth;
From heaven it flows.
Love frees us from the burdens
Selfish hearts always bear.
Love turns from wrong
And suffers long
With joy it’s glad to share.

Love, faithful and unfailing,
Bears so much, yet its strength endures.
Love, pressured through the night, will grow
More patient and pure.
See, time is slowly stealing
All the treasures we hold,
But loss is gain,
For love remains
Our God’s eternal gold.

by Ken Bible, © 2009 by LNWhymns.com.