Alan Penn @alanpine

Dear Lord, Today, teach me to sit with You before I run from what’s trying to grow me. Sit me in the lesson until I stop blaming everybody else. Sit me in the wait without letting me get bitter. Sit me in the blessing without making me careless. And if I try to get up before I change, sit me back down—because I’m tired of new doors exposing old problems. In Jesus’ name. Amen🙏🏽

Dear Lord, Today, let June open with sense, favor, and nerve. Put my feet where my prayers been pointing. Don’t let me drag May’s mood into a month You just opened for me. Let this month know I didn’t come in begging; I came in believing. Send answers with timing, people with clean motives, and wins that make me look and say, “That was God.” Let June find me prayed up, and done apologizing for expecting You to be God. In Jesus’ name. Amen🙏🏽

Dear Lord, Today, close this month with Your fingerprints on my next step. I don’t need a perfect ending I need a clean handoff. Take what tried me, and teach me from it, don’t let it pack up with me. Let June meet me with fresh sense, better habits, and doors that know my name. I’m walking out thankful, not empty. In Jesus’ name. Amen🙏🏽

Dear Lord, Today, help me stop treating focus like punishment. I asked You for better, so don’t let me get lazy when better starts asking for discipline. Let me enjoy the work without dragging my feet through it. Keep my mind in the room. Keep my hands on what matters. And if distraction shows up dressed like a break, don’t let me entertain it too long. In Jesus’ name. Amen🙏🏽

Dear Lord, Today, thank You for the stuff I never saw coming. The wreck that almost happened. The call that never came. The door that stayed shut even when I was mad about it. Some people really would’ve wrecked my peace if You let them stay close. Help me trust Your no even when it bruises my feelings. And stop me from calling every delay a bad thing when You might really be keeping me alive from my own pride. In Jesus’ name. Amen🙏🏽

Dear Lord, Today, help me stop feeling guilty for walking away from people who kept showing up halfway. I kept trying to be understanding while lowkey getting tired of feeling let down. Teach me not to beg for care, honesty, or effort. And if I gotta choose peace over history, give me the strength to do it. Stop letting me feel bad for pulling back from people who only notice me when they need me. In Jesus’ name. Amen🙏🏽

Dear Lord, Today, help me not miss the good because I’m busy studying what went wrong. Put my eyes back on what’s still possible. Let me enjoy the little wins without acting like they don’t count. Send something this week that makes me pause and say, “Okay God, I see You.” And when it happens, don’t let me be so distracted by it that I forget to thank You. In Jesus’ name. Amen🙏🏽

Dear Lord, Today, walk into this week before I do. Touch what I haven’t put on my calendar yet. Let my name come up in the right mouth, at the right time, for the right reason. Keep my attitude from blocking what my faith is asking for. And when opportunity shows up, help me recognize it, respect it and walk in ready. In Jesus’ name. Amen🙏🏽

The main reason we go to church is for God to serve us. +We go hungry ; he feeds us his Word. +We go dirtied by sin; he cleanses us by the blood of Christ. +We go thirsting for hope; he gives it to us in the gospel. +We go shrinking from shame; our Father tells us once more that we are his beloved children. Yes, we respond to God with prayer and praise. But the primary reason we go to church is for God to do what God does best: gift us, feed us, serve us in Christ.

@Adam_FaithfulM In Jesus name. Amen 🙏🏿

One of the dangerous assumptions we modern Christians often make is that we are more advanced than believers who lived before us. And, to be sure, we have advanced beyond them, if we're talking about technology, health care, and the like. But, in other ways, in more substantial ways, we have regressed. We suffer from living solely by sight. Ours is a visual world full of facts, empirical evidence, stuff we can count, measure, and touch. But our fathers and mothers in the faith, who have gone before us, were more keenly aware of this fact: all around us are realities beyond our visual capacity. Demons waiting to ensnare and woo us into false belief and despair and vice. Angels guarding, directing, and serving us. We wade through spirits as we go about our daily tasks. As the poet, Francis Thompson, says, we disturb an angel's wing every time we turn a stone. A whole world, unseen, stands and flies all around us. When the enemies of Israel surrounded the town where Elisha was staying, his servant was trembling with fear. But the prophet, unperturbed, said, "Do not be afraid, for those who are with us are more than those who are with them" (2 Kings 6:16). Then, when Elisha had prayed that God would open the servant's eyes, he saw "the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha." O Lord, open the eyes of our minds and hearts to "see" that the heavenly host surrounds us. Therefore, we will not fear, for the Lord of Hosts is with us. The God of Jacob is our stronghold. "Those who are with us are more than those who are with them." Amen. _______ We read 2 Kings 6 today in Bible in One Year, 1517.org/oneyear

Dear Lord, Today, I need You in my head before I mess around and trust the wrong feeling. I’m tired of guessing and calling it wisdom. If I’m reaching for something You warned me about, snatch my hand back. If fear starts making sense, expose how dumb it sounds next to what You promised. And if my emotions try to take over my judgment, shut them down. In Jesus’ name. Amen🙏🏽

Dear Lord, Today, I need wisdom before I mess around and choose off emotion. Don’t let me mistake doubt for discernment. If I’m making stuff harder than You made it, check me. If I’m chasing the wrong answer because it feels familiar, block me. And if my feelings start talking over You—shut them down. In Jesus’ name. Amen🙏🏽

Dear Lord, Today, I’m not hurt because people left… I’m hurt because I kept keeping it real with people who knew from the beginning they wasn’t gone do the same for me. I never switched on nobody. People either pushed me away, left me stuck, or showed me where their loyalty stopped. Help me stop taking that personal. And God… let the next thing that finds me feel genuine for once. In Jesus’ name, Amen🙏🏽

Dear Lord, Today, going into this new week… don’t let me walk around expecting the bare minimum like that’s all life got for me. Surprise me a little. Let me laugh this week. Let me check my phone and have to reread the message because there’s no way You answered me that fast. And please don’t let any good thing come with stress attached to it. I need a week that don’t feel like I’m fighting through every single day just to make it to Friday. In Jesus name. Amen🙏🏾

Dear Lord, Today, I know what it look like… but I also know what You said. Some days my faith high in the morning and low by nighttime. Some days I’m speaking life out my mouth while lowkey expecting the worst in my head. Don’t let me sabotage good things just because I got used to disappointment. And if I’m closer than I realize, don’t let me quit out of frustration. In Jesus’ name. Amen🙏🏽

Never meet your heroes. As a younger man, I could not understand that saying. Why would you not want to shake hands with and really get to know the men or women who inspired you? As an older man, now I get it. I get it all too well. Imagine you see an outdoor statue from a distance. It looks awesome, flawless, perfectly designed--a work of art. But as you step closer, cracks become visible. Disproportion. A weathered hollowness to the eyes. Close up, imperfections become obvious. So with our heroes. Including biblical ones. Look closely enough, and you will see the cracks, smell the odor of human flaws. No matter what accomplishments ignited our admiration for such people, even our heroes stand on feet of clay. In his early days, Solomon seemed heroic. The Queen of Sheba traveled far to see him. He took her breath away, this most interesting man in the world. King, scholar, builder, sage. But Solomon, like almost all great men in the Bible, fell far short. He "loved many foreign women,” and “clung to these in love.” “When Solomon was old, his wives turned away his heart after other gods, and his heart was not wholly true to the LORD his God.” He “did evil in the sight of the LORD,” building worship sites for Chemosh and even Molech, to whom children were sacrificed (1 Kings 11:1-8). Oh Solomon, you wisest of fools. As a young king, he prayed for a “hearing heart,” but that heart eventually turned a deaf ear to the LORD God of Israel. The results were catastrophic. I suppose we all want human heroes. And, to an extent, that is okay. But realize--and I mean truly come to terms with the fact--that every hero is a sinner, and every sinner will eventually let you down. That is why the Bible repeatedly tells us not to put our trust in fellow sinners but in Christ, who will never let us down. Not once, not ever. The closer you get to Christ, the more perfection, the deeper affection, you see. Look up to the one who came down from heaven to make you his own.

Dear Lord, Today, my patience been ugly lately. I’ve been side-eyeing everybody else’s blessings trying not to ask what’s taking so long with mine. Fix my attitude before disappointment turns into bitterness. And stop me from making rushed decisions just because I’m tired of waiting. I won’t be in this place forever. I prophesy that one morning, everything gone start moving at once for me. In Jesus’ name. Amen🙏🏽

Dear Lord, Today, teach me not to go cold just because people did me wrong. Everybody know how to “match energy” when it’s time to be petty, distant, or weird… but give me enough maturity to stop reacting to everything that was sent to distract me. Teach me how to protect my spirit without becoming hard to love, bitter to deal with, or numb to genuine people. In Jesus’ name Amen🙏🏽

Dear Lord, Today, I’m not available for anything that makes me question my worth. I don’t care how familiar it feels—if it pulls too much out of me, I’m done with it. I ask You to block what wounds me, expose what weakens me, and protect the peace I had to fight to keep. I’m choosing what lifts me. I believe better days can still find me from here. In Jesus’ name. Amen🙏🏾