Stretch Me. Ruin Me. Heal Me.

Remember January? I do. Every year for the past five years I've been doing the One Year Bible Reading. I've been a little slack on keeping up on the exact date in my One Year Bible... but I have been reading lots of other scriptures to make up for it. So, I won't have read the entire Bible this year like I have the past four years... but I have been doing my regular praying.

Every year I come up with a short prayer to start my day with. In this article I shared what my prayer for 2009 was. After reading the book IT by Craig Groeschel I followed his advice and have been praying every day that God would stretch me, ruin me and heal me! And boy oh boy has he ever been doing an awesome job of that! :-)

I feel like God has taught me SOOOO much this past year. He's been teaching me so much about following him, about being a husband, about being a father and about being a Pastor. I'm definitely far from perfect (I can hear you're shouts of AMEN from here!) but I'm trusting God more and more that he is going to continue to do everything that he wants to accomplish in me and through me!

God continue to stretch me beyond myself. Continue to ruin the things in me that keep me from following you completely. And heal in me the wrong attitudes and emotions that prevent me from loving you with my whole being and loving everyone around me as myself!

Comments

DuaneA said…
Stretch me, ruin me, heal me. Those are 6 simple words that make one powerful prayer. I've personally been walking through some of that myself and I can identify with what you've shared in your post. I was recently talking with another pastor friend of mine about some of these issues. I told him that the process of God changing me is sometimes quite painful, yet my prayer is, Lord please don't stop.
Stretch me? Yea, I got that going on. Ruin me? The closer I look... the more I'm thinking that I was ruined already and God just needed to reveal it. Heal me? Oh yea... that is what I'm in need of. And there is a peace inside that's whispering, that healing is coming.
12:58 AM
samthemacman said…
Whenever we create our "belief box" and assume we "know" God, God has a way of breaking the box, usually through crisis points in our lives, adversity, and trial, only to whisper in our ear, "You cannot contain Me. Each time you create a box, to box me in, I will break out of that box, and through that, you will continue to discover My heart and My passion. Embrace the hard places, for I am found in those places!"
10:53 PM
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