Twenty-Seven.

My prayer the same as David's today:

1 In you, O Lord, I have taken refuge;
let me never be put to shame.
2 Rescue me and deliver me in your righteousness;
turn your ear to me and save me.
3 Be my rock of refuge,
to which I can always go;
give the command to save me,
for you are my rock and my fortress.
4 Deliver me, O my God, from the hand of the wicked,
from the grasp of evil and cruel men.
5 For you have been my hope,
O Sovereign Lord,
my confidence since my youth.
6 From birth I have relied on you;
you brought me forth from my mother's womb.
I will ever praise you.
7 I have become like a portent to many,
but you are my strong refuge.
8 My mouth is filled with your praise,
declaring your splendor all day long.

14 But as for me, I will always have hope;
I will praise you more and more.
15 My mouth will tell of your righteousness,
of your salvation all day long,
though I know not its measure.
16 I will come and proclaim your mighty acts, O Sovereign Lord;
I will proclaim your righteousness, yours alone.
17 Since my youth, O God, you have taught me,
and to this day I declare your marvelous deeds.
18 Even when I am old and gray,
do not forsake me, O God,
till I declare your power to the next generation,
your might to all who are to come.
19 Your righteousness reaches to the skies, O God,
you who have done great things.
Who, O God, is like you?
20 Though you have made me see troubles, many and bitter,
you will restore my life again;
from the depths of the earth you will again bring me up.
21 You will increase my honor and comfort me once again.

22 I will praise you with the harp for your faithfulness, O my God;
I will sing praise to you with the lyre,
O Holy One of Israel.
23 My lips will shout for joy when I sing praise to you--
I, whom you have redeemed.
24 My tongue will tell of your righteous acts all day long,
for those who wanted to harm me have been put to shame and confusion.
[Psalm 71 - NIV]

Twenty-Six.

I wonder - does everyone struggle to be consistently genuine?

So many times I notice myself show a different personality around certain people or reserve a part of my true personality around other people, afraid that if they knew who I really was, they wouldn't like me or would look at me differently.

I really want to become a genuine person and lose the masks.

I want to be a passionate follower of Christ who loves people and to see them grow in Christ and be involved in passionate worship experiences. I want to well-represent God and the people I'm teamed up with in life, presenting a constantly growing leader who, sure, has his struggles, but never gives up and never looks back.

I want to be that, and that all the time - whether I'm in my office (still sounds weird to say), or on stage, or at school, or at home (that's a hard one), or anywhere else. I want to be real everywhere I go.

That is my personal challenge from here on out. I will be consistently me.

Twenty-Five.

"This very day God has given you victory over Sisera. Isn't God marching before you?" -Judges 4:14

Wow. What a question - "Isn't God marching before You?" It seems like it should be typed in italics because of its sort of sarcastic tone, right?

Deborah from Judges might as well have said, "Of course you were victorious - God was in-charge!"

God knows what You are about to face and how difficult the issue may be, so He made a plan. And all You have to do is ask Him to take over and use His plan to take care of your situation.

So many times, we struggle to part with our own ideas and with our own plans, but if we could only compare the results of following our plans and the results of following God's, we'd see that God's plan is always better. I could see how this may be difficult, though, in that God's plans don't always seem like they'll will be better until the very end.

And that is where trust comes in. Trust is hard sometimes, but if we will trust in God, He'll never let us down...even if it seems like His plan isn't going to work at the moment. He will always come through.

God is smarter than you because He made you and mapped out your life a long time ago. So don't worry so much, and trust in God. His plan is better than yours and always will be.

And when you finally see God's awesome results--victory--thank Him for marching before you!