To Whom It May Concern:

I heard you were considering a new manager in your life. I would like to apply for the job. I believe I am the most qualified candidate. I am the only one that has even done this job successfully.

I was the first manager of human beings. In fact I made them, so naturally I know how humanity works, and what is best to get people back into proper working condition. It will be like having the manufacturer as your personal mechanic.

If this is your first time considering me, I would just like to point out that my salary has already been paid by the blood of my son, Jesus on the cross of Calvary. What I need from you is the acknowledgement that the price is sufficient to pay for all of your sin and your independence from Me. I need you to believe this in your heart and to tell somebody else about your decision with your mouth.

The next thing I ask is the right to change and fix your life so you can learn how to stay close to Me. I will make some major changes and revisions. They are not for you to worry about. I need your permission to execute these changes, in My way and in My time. I will change your desires and give you the strength to make the changes.

Please keep your hands out of the way. Don't try to help me and don't resist me. I really do need your full commitment and co-operation. If you give me those, the process can go smoothly, without delays.

Yours Sincerely,
God

John 15:10,14 – If you obey my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have obeyed my Father's commands and remain in his love. You are my friends if you do what I command. (NIV)

Prayer: Father, forgive me for resisting your authority in my life, and for not letting you be my manager all the time. Fill me and control me by your Holy Spirit. Amen.

A mother was watching her four-year-old child playing outside in a small plastic pool half-filled with water. He was happily walking back and forth across the pool, making big splashes. Suddenly, he stopped, stepped out of the pool, and began to scoop water out of the pool with a pail.

"Why are you pouring the water out, Johnny?" the mother asked.

"'Cause my teacher said Jesus walked on water. And this water won't work." the boy replied.

How many times we do this in our lives, saying that we are going to trust God to deal with something and then putting our trust in the physical thing that we can see, like the boy trying to trust in the water. The Bible tells us that faith is what caused Peter to walk on water, and when he started to doubt that faith, then he sank. God wants to take our problems and help us with them, but most of the time we don't have enough faith to give them totally to him. Why is that so hard for us? God not only wants us to have faith, but even more, to have a relationship with him. The two go hand in hand. Think about your best friend. Do you treat God that way, better or worse? Think about what you can do to increase your faith and your relationship with God.

Prayer: Lord, we try so hard to trust you. Both you and we are so disappointed when we fail. Give us a deeper relationship with you so that we can learn to love you fully and trust you wholly. In Jesus' name. Amen.

A mother told her young son to go to bed and be sure to say his prayers and ask God to make him a good boy. The boy's father, passing by the bedroom, overheard his son praying: "And make me a good boy if You can; and if You can't, don't worry about it, 'cause I'm having fun the way I am."

Does this sound familiar? How many times do we think this? I do not think that anyone would admit it, but we all know that sin is much more fun. Why is it fun? It should not be, but it is, because it is easy and it gives instant gratification. That is not what God calls us to do though. It has been said that the things that mean the most, that are most important and meaningful, are the things that we have to work for. That is the way the Christian life is. First of all we have to work to be obedient. It is a constant battle to do what is right, but the end result is much better than the instant gratification that we get the other way. I heard a sermon one time about choices. We all have choices, but what we have to live with is the consequences. What I do today will never change, but the consequence of that choice is something that I will have to live with. My challenge to you is to think about what you do and make sure that it is God's will that you do it. Does this situation look like it will be in God's plan? Will it glorify him? That is a question that we should always be asking.

Prayer: Lord, deliver us from the blindness that deceives itself into thinking that sin is more fun. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil, for yours is the kingdom, the power and the glory forever. Amen.

A paediatric nurse, before listening to the little ones' chests, would plug the stethoscope into their ears and let them listen to their own hearts.

Their eyes would always light up with awe. But she never got a response to equal four-year-old David's. Gently he tucked the stethoscope in his ears and placed the disk over his heart.

"Listen", she said, "What do you suppose that is?"

He drew his eyebrows together in a puzzled line and looked up as if lost in the mystery of the strange tap-tap-tapping deep in his chest.

Then his face broke out in a wondrous grin. "Is that Jesus knocking?" he asked.

Wow, don't you wish that we were like the child again. Can you remember when everything was a mystery, how did this work, how did that work. Now that we have grown up, we think that we know how everything works. We are smarter and stronger, living in an age where we have to know these things. How does God work, what is he like? We think that because we go to church and pray to him, that we know how he works. The only thing that is going to make us really know him, is coming to him as a child, with a heart open to what he has to show us. This week, come to Jesus with the heart of a child.

Prayer: Lord, you warned us that anyone who will not receive Your kingdom like a little child will never enter it. Protect us from becoming so jaded to our faith that we lose that childlike wonder, that You would love us so much that You would send Your Son to die for our sins. Thank You, Lord, for all You do for us, for Your grace and mercy. Amen.