Sunday, September 20, 2026 💜🙏🦋 Psalm 5:8 NIV “Lead me, LORD, in your righteousness because of my enemies, make your way straight before me.” Heavenly Father, Lead me. Sometimes that's really all there is left to say. I don't always know which way to go. I don't always understand why certain things happen, why people do what they do, or why a road I thought was right suddenly gets so complicated. But You see what I can't see. So Lord, make Your way straight before me. When I'm tempted to react out of hurt, slow me down. When I'm angry, guard my mouth. When I'm confused, give me wisdom. And when I keep trying to force something that You are clearly telling me to release, give me enough sense to finally get out of Your way. Whew, Lord. Some of us might need that one today. Protect us from people who don't have good intentions, but also protect our hearts from becoming bitter because of them. We don't need revenge. We need direction. We don't need to win every argument. We need to stay close to You. If a door isn't for us, shut it. If a road isn't ours, redirect us. And if we're exactly where You want us but the road is simply hard right now, give us the strength to keep walking. Lead us, Lord. We'll follow. In Jesus’ most holy and exalted name I pray, amen. 💜🙏🦋 Brothers and Sisters, have you ever asked God for direction and then proceeded to give Him a detailed explanation of where YOU thought He should lead you? 😂 Yeah. We humans are something else. “Lord, lead me. But preferably over here. And could You do it by Tuesday?” Psalm 5:8 reminds me that asking God to lead means I have to be willing to follow, even when His direction isn't the direction I had planned. That's the hard part. Sometimes God's straight path doesn't look straight from where we're standing. Sometimes it includes a closed door we wanted open. A delay we didn't ask for. A goodbye we didn't want. Or a season where we simply don't know what He's doing. I've learned that not knowing the whole route doesn't mean God isn't leading.

Saturday, September 19, 2026 🌻🙏🦋 Psalm 5:5-6 NIV “The arrogant cannot stand in your presence. You hate all who do wrong; you destroy those who tell lies. The bloodthirsty and deceitful you, LORD, detest.” Heavenly Father, Well Lord, this isn't one of those Scriptures we can read, smile at, and move right along. These are strong words. You make it pretty clear how You feel about pride, lies, deceit, and wrongdoing. But before we start thinking about all the people who need to read this verse, turn the mirror toward us. Search our hearts, Lord. Because if we're being truthful, it's a whole lot easier to notice somebody else's mess than our own. We can spot their pride, their attitude, their dishonesty, and everything they're doing wrong. Meanwhile, You may be saying, “Okay, but I'm talking to YOU right now.” So talk to us, Father. If there's something in us that needs changing, show us. If we've been wrong, help us admit it. If pride has gotten in the way, humble us. If our words haven't been honest, correct us. And if we're holding onto something we know You have told us to let go of, give us the courage to finally let it go. Protect us from people who intentionally deceive and hurt others, but don't let us become so focused on what they're doing that we stop paying attention to our own walk with You. We aren't going to get everything right. You already know that. But Lord, give us hearts willing to be corrected when we get it wrong. We don't want to just talk about Jesus. We want people to see Jesus in the way we actually live. In Jesus’ most holy and exalted name I pray, amen. 🌻🙏🦋 Brothers and Sisters, Psalm 5:5-6 stepped on my toes a little bit. How about yours? 😂 This Scripture is STRONG. And you know what? Sometimes we need strong. We can spend an awful lot of time asking God to deal with somebody else. “Lord, straighten them out. Lord, show them they're wrong. Lord, did You SEE what they just did?” Oh, He saw it. But then comes the uncomfortable question.

Friday, September 18, 2026 🌻🙏🦋 Psalm 5:3-4 NIV “In the morning, LORD, you hear my voice; in the morning I lay my requests before you and wait expectantly. For you are not a God who is pleased with wickedness; with you, evil people are not welcome.” Heavenly Father, Before this day gets loud, I come to You. Before I carry yesterday's hurt into today, before fear starts predicting tomorrow, and before the world gets my attention, You get my heart. Lord, You know every prayer behind these words. You know the marriage that needs healing, the family carrying pain, the person worried about money, the one begging for an answer, and the heart smiling for everyone else while quietly breaking inside. Hear us this morning. We lay it all before You. Not because we have stopped caring, but because we finally recognize that some things are too heavy to carry without You. Protect us from evil and give us courage to walk away from anything that pulls us from You. Expose what needs exposing. Remove what needs removing. Heal what needs healing. Restore what is Your will to restore. Close doors we keep trying to force open and give us courage to walk through the ones You open. Then teach us to wait expectantly. Not hopelessly. Not fearfully. Expectantly. Because silence does not mean You are absent, and waiting does not mean You are not working. Today, we choose faith before fear, prayer before panic, and Your will above our own. In Jesus’ most holy and exalted name I pray, amen. 🌻🙏🦋 Lay it down and wait expectantly. There is a difference between praying and surrendering. Sometimes we pray about something and then pick the worry right back up before we even say amen. Psalm 5:3 gives us another way. Lay your requests before God and wait expectantly. That means you can stop rehearsing every worst-case scenario. You can stop trying to control people you cannot control. You can stop believing that everything depends on you figuring it out. Give it to God. And if you find yourself picking it back up at lunchtime, give it to Him again.