The operational base of a growing Christian is their devotional life. Jesus was clear that we need to have a place where we meet God alone and there spend time with Him each day. This time of communion is not only when we talk to Him but it is when His Word is impressed upon our hearts by the Holy Spirit.
A person can spend an hour alone with God each day. This time may be comprised of:

1. Reading the Word
2. Prayer (written and spoken)
3. Maintaining a Journal
4. Reading devotional material
5. Meditation (Making a direct application of spiritual principles to one's own daily life.)

What follows are from Pastor O'Ffill's written prayers and his journal. Written prayers may be either in a familiar tone or one that is exalted and full of praise. The prayers that follow are the latter. The journal entries tend to make applications of spiritual principles to the challenge of everyday life.

You are encouraged to develop a regular time with God each day. The morning is the best!

Prayers:

Oh God, Thou who art our love, our joy and, our peace. In the morning Thou shalt hear our voice ascending high. We praise Thee who art gracious, full of tender mercies and abundant in goodness and truth. Oh Thou in who's presence my soul takes delight, feed us today with the living bread from Heaven. From that pure river of water of Life, clear as crystal, give to us of the Living Water. Thou who art more beautiful than all the beauty Thou hast made, let Thy countenance shine upon us. Fill our hungry soul until we can hold no more, then increase our capacity. Lord, we were conceived in sin and shaped in iniquity. We have turned aside. We have shamed Thy grace. Our hearts are at enmity against Thee and we are not worthy to be called Thy sons. Alleluia! You have reconciled us unto Thyself by the death of Thy Holy Son, Jesus Christ, the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world. To Him be glory and honor, praise and adoration. World without end. Amen and Amen.

(written on Sabbath)
Gracious God our Heavenly Father, to Thee be glory and honor, dominion and power. For Thine is the kingdom. Holy Father, Thy who doest not weary or sleep. Thou who hast awakened us to a new day. A day of rest and gladness. On this day which Thou hast set aside to be a perpetual sign between Thee and Thy people draw nigh to us through Thy Holy Spirit, the Comforter, which Thou hast sent. Awaken every heart that they may go to your house. Lord, open our eye. The darkness of the world has blinded us. Open our eyes. The noise of self interest has defeated us. Heal our lame feet that we might walk in your paths and not our own. Have mercy upon us according to Thy loving kindness. Delay not, however, much longer. It is time for thee to work for they do not make void Thy law. They have despised Thy prophets and have turned aside from the everlasting covenant. Lord execute judgement upon Thy people. Do not afflict us unto death but break us from our crooked ways. Take away our stoney hearts. Remove our filthy rags and cover us with the garment of Thy righteousness.

God our Heavenly Father, Though the world be wrapped in darkness, Thou are the Everlasting Light. Though it is coldest just before the dawn, arise now, Oh Lord, lighten the earth with Thy glory. Warm our heart with Thy love. Make Thy glory known among thy people, Lord, thy light amongst the heathen. Thou art the only one worthy to be praised. Let us praise the Lord with our whole being. Let us exalt his name together. Let the redeemed of the Lord say so for the Lord is in the praises of his people. Let the people praise Thee, Oh God, Let all the people praise Thee, for Thou art high, and lifted up, and live among the cherubim. Lord in your loving kindness and tender mercy heal our backsliding. Forgive us this day our debts as we forgive our debtors. And lead us not unto the test but deliver us from the evil one. Blow away the shaft of our lives that we may see your word clearly. Purge away the dross from our lives that we may be pure vessels in your temple. One thing I desire and that I will seek after is that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life and I will dwell in the home of the Lord forever. Alleluia! Amen.

From the Journal

(Who is Saving Who?)

I was reading a book about the holiness of our God. It is incredible that in this generation God has been nearly de-throned in the minds of the people and in His place we have put ourselves. Perhaps one of the most devastating concepts that has been promulgated is the one that God is on trial. God's gracious act in saving lost man was not something that God did in self-defense, but rather it was a redemptive act for His whole creation which was at risk of being decieved. Surely this is a controversy between Christ and Satan, yet was there ever a real possibility that the Creator could be over-run by His creation? Was it ever possible that evil would, in fact, de-throne holiness? The answer must be no, yet the price that would be paid - not in saving himself, but in saving us would be extremely high. The statement, "Who became sin for us." is beyond our comprehension. The plan of salvation is only understood at the level of the Holy One and for this reason, we must be content to study it - the greatest of all themes - and even then only as we grow in holiness ourselves will we even begin to understand.

(Independently Owned and Operated -- the Will)

One of the aspects of life that I keep coming back to is the aspect of growth. A human being would rarely, if ever move suddenly one direction or another. It is almost impossible that we go suddenly from one side to another. Our lives are the result of decisions. They are the cumulative result of what we have and are deciding. The powers of good and evil are struggling to gain our decisions in their favor. Can we safely say that every decision is either a decision on the side of good or a decision on the side of evil? Yes. If I make a good decision or a bad decision does this mean I am changing sides? Not necessarily. A person whose net decisionss are toward God will be -howbeit- inpreceptibly be set back by a bad decision or if severe enough could be permanently scared by a bad decision.

A bad person who makes a good decision actually has in that moment a window of opportunity to get going another direction if he will. Stability and consistant growth in the Christian life then would come from an on-going series of decisions to do right which actually strengthen the trend. (All the power to make right decisions comes from God.) The will is, if you please, independently owned and operated, yet the will in excercising its options is actually being fundamentally impacted. Its quality and capability to function freely will be influenced by the choices it makes.

(The Importance of the Will)

The Apostle Peter said that we must always be sober and vigilant. Staying awake is essential for a growing and victorious Christian life. Is the victorious life the result of a recipe? Yes and no. Is it possible to describe how a flower grows? Yes. Can we diagram the life cycle of a flower? Yes. Then the question comes, can we make a flower? No. Can we make it grow? Yes and no. No in the sense that flowers must grow themselves by a power that is within them but is not of them, yet there is an environment without which the flower cannot grow and the environment in which the flower will flourish. The challenge then to the Christian is multifaceted. Can any of you by thinking add one cubit to your stature? Can we make ourselves grow spiritually? No. Can we keep ourselves from growing spiritually? Yes.

Do we learn the Christ-like life or do we receive it? Both. Learning is experience, either our own or someone else's, therefore the Christ-like life must be experienced or it has no meaning or relevance. Comparing the Christian life to the growth of a flower fails at its most important constraint that is nothing in nature has a will. A flower does not will to grow. Given the environment and the process growth is inevitable. Yet this is not so in our case. Both the process and the environment must be factored in by the will. If the will is the door through which our lives must pass then we have a set of factors not present in the rest of creation to contend with and upon which our success or failure will turn.

(Judging Another is to Self Destruct)

"Judge not that ye be not judged." What is the meaning of this? Surely it has to do with the center of our emotional focus. Who do we look at? Who do we compare ourselves with? Does this mean we will not recognize right from wrong? Hardly. Again the key word is focus. We will be focusing on Christ. We will "judge ourselves". A focus on Christ will draw in compassion, patience, and forgiveness. These qualities will short out or block the judgmental attitude. It is true that a judgmental attitude tends to try to read others attitudes. The main thing that judging does is that it compares. It says, "I am better than they are." It is at this point that the greatest damage is done. Because the other person may not even know what we are doing so the judging exercise is self destructive. It is comparing ourselves among ourselves, So if I compare myself with an "inferior" I always get good marks and so my own sins are rationalized and protected.

Journal Index

More Prayers