A PRAYER FOR GENUINE FREEDOM

To conclude yesterday's sermon, I told a story about one of the true saints of the church, Mary V. Hudson, who passed away last week. At her funeral Saturday, the family shared one of the many prayers she wrote, which I knew immediately I wanted to share with you today:

Our heavenly Father, Redeemer, Creator, and Friend, we are advised by your Word to offer praise and devotion to you. We have no capacity to live a happy, fruitful life when left to human limitations. I thank and praise you for your countless miracles related in the Bible and also in present and future time. You are praised for unconditional love and mercy for your earth-bound human family. May we heed Paul's words found in Galatians 2:20, "I am crucified with Christ; never-the-less I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me; and the life that I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me."

I pray that your precious Holy Spirit chastise when I fail to measure up to your ageless precepts. May I, with faith, measure up according to the example set forth by our living loving Savior, Jesus Christ. I also pray for removal of any worldly ambition for self-praise, worship of false gods and chains of guilt.

In humility of spirit but with boldness of truth, may I be constrained when temptations occur by the knowledge that I am a child of the one and only King of Kings.

In the midst of our Easter 2014: A Season of Grace, may this, and the sentiments expressed therein, be our prayer now and always.

Grace and Peace, Lamar