Lord, Make Me After Your Will

I am checking in as excited...eager, energetic, enthusiastic & expectant for what the Lord purposes and will accomplish in me in 2015!  Yup, I believe He is wants to 'rock my world', and yours, with untold blessings of His goodness.  No matter where I am in my love relationship w/ Him and others... He has more.  No matter how much He has already changed & remade me...He wants to remake me some more!  I must ask myself always: Am I presenting myself to Him, laying myself upon His altar, for Him to transform yet one more part of me?  Herein lies the answer for me:  Can I see the heart change, the alteration & transformation He has worked & is working within me as a result, as a consequence, of my submission, my following Him?  

His Word says this:  "The life I have is from Him".  So, apart from life in Him...I have not life.  "I live it by His power".  Thus, I do not live this life by mine own strength, but by His.  "And, I live this life for Him".  Therefore, my living is not for mine own selfish aim, reasons or intention...but for His glory.

As I reflect on the year 2014, I realize that the true measure of my following Him is worked & reflected in my heart.  That is the real evidence that His Holy Spirit is permitted to have dominion, sway, even influence within me.  I must examine my heart, with His guiding eye, to "see"...has He changed me?  And I ask myself:  Do I trust Him more today than a year ago?  Do I love Him and others more?  Do I worry less?  Am I more desperate for Him... to know & be known by Him?  Has He increased my hunger for & dependence upon Him and His Word?  Am I indeed...needy, for Him, only Him, only Jesus?

Oh, Lord,  show me clearly how I have really been following You, how I've given You possession of my heart, or how I've held it back, this last year.  Have I been transparent & genuine with you in revealing my own motives in the offerings of money, work & the service I present to You?  Dear Jesus, show me what You see...of changes You've made in my heart and changes You yet desire to perform.

Precious Lord, help me...empower me...give me the desire, faith & follow-through to partner with You by longing for & permitting You to reign in my heart in every way this new year.  Help me to measure my walk, not by the deeds I do, not by the success I have nor by the approval of persons, but rather let me hear the witness of Your heart to mine.  Show me how to love every person according to the incomprehensible & great worth which You "hard-wired" into every person's essential nature.  Yes, help me to love each person as You love them, without conditions, and speak only what I hear You speak and do only what I see You do.  Amen.

Your boy,

Cardo