Month: July 2025

DAILY PRAYERS FOR GUYS

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To Please You with My Prayers

Loving Lord,
One of the great joys of being adopted into your family by your gracious gift of faith is this: our lives are pleasing in your sight. How humbling it is that we should be able to carry out a single deed, speak a single word, or consider a single thought that would ever be pleasing to you. Nevertheless, because we are completely clothed with your righteousness, it is so!

Therefore, make even my prayers pleasing to your ears. Mature me to set aside selfish requests. Guide me instead along the paths of your plans and purposes for my prayers. Help me to maintain the proper balance between requests that center on the physical and temporal and the spiritual priorities that matter much more both now and into eternity. Let my heart beat with care and concern for others, routinely bringing their needs before you, since this, too, is pleasing to you. Move me to pray for those over me, beside me, and beneath me, so that your gracious favor and blessing extend to all those around me. 

In Jesus’ name I pray. Amen. 

DAILY PRAYERS FOR GUYS

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To Live Godly and Holy Lives

Holy Spirit,
Thank you for interceding on our behalf when we offer up our prayers. And thank you for equipping us as we grow in faith to carry out that for which we pray. With that in mind, guide me as I seek to live in godliness and holiness. Begin by increasing in me the desire to strive for your high standards of Christian living. While protecting me from a self-righteous spirit, instill in me a genuine desire to stand out from the rest of the world by my living. Not only does that honor you, but it also serves to reflect you to others. Keep me from succumbing to any shame or ridicule from others as I look to live for you more and more. Instead, let my example of godly and holy living lead others to aspire to live more honorably as well.  

In Jesus’ name I pray. Amen. 

DAILY PRAYERS FOR GUYS

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To Expand the Reach of My Prayer Life

Providential Father,
Not only do you invite and welcome my prayers, but you also guide and direct them, including those for whom I should pray. When I do pray, the majority of my prayers are on my own behalf or for those within my own family, social, and church circles. But you invite me to pray for all people, which exponentially expands the list of those to include in my prayers. I can bring up the needs of others with the confidence that, whether or not I even know them, you know them by name and are more qualified to address their needs than I am to ask for them. 

So I pray for the greatest need of many: their salvation. Work through your Word, proclaimed to and through your church, to reach the lost with your powerful gospel. Where other needs or concerns prohibit the gospel from being heard, address them by meeting them or removing them according to your will. In doing so, let a double measure of your goodness be known to many by your concern for both their temporal and eternal welfare. Then, as you bring them to faith, shape their own prayer lives to multiply the prayers offered up on behalf of all people. 

In Jesus’ name I pray. Amen. 

Gospel Growth

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(Colossians 1:1-14)

We want to know if something is working. Depending on what it is, we have different metrics to help us determine whether or not it is. If a person has car trouble and either replaces a part or has the mechanic fix it, we’d expect to be able to tell because whatever sound or warning light used to be going on is no longer an issue. The plan you have in place to drop a few pounds should be able to be verified as working by the shrinking number on the scale. You can tell a certain product works if it delivers the results promised. We want to know if something is working, and there are ways for us determine if that’s the case.

Does it work the same way with the gospel? How do you tell if it’s working? On the one hand, if a person looks at the general moral compass of our country, they might determine that the gospel – and by extension, the churches responsible for proclaiming it – isn’t working. After all, how could so many call bad what God calls good, and call good what God calls bad? But because this is such a common occurrence, we might conclude that most churches today aren’t preaching the gospel. Because if they were, wouldn’t our society include more good people?

So are we looking at the wrong metrics? Expecting wrong or unrealistic results? How can we tell if the gospel – and the church proclaiming it – is working?

Let us be encouraged by the words of Paul, which are every bit as true today as they were the day he first wrote them to the Colossians. “The gospel is bearing fruit and growing throughout the whole world—just as it has been doing among you since the day you heard it and truly understood God’s grace” (v.6). The gospel grows. It bears fruit. That’s what it does. It’s what it has always done in the past and it’s what it will always do in the future. Where, though, does this growth happen? Here. There. Everywhere.

What do we know about Paul’s relationship with the Christians in Colossae? In addition to it being one of the letters he wrote while in prison, it was also somewhat unique in that Paul was writing to a church that he had not personally started or even visited. As Paul explained in verse seven, it was Epaphras who had started and pastored the church. And, according to the details of the rest of the letter, there was concern over a false teaching that was getting around and threatening the gospel which Epaphras had been responsible for preaching and teaching. 

What Paul was personally familiar with was the fruit the gospel was bearing in all of the places he had proclaimed it. The prolific church planter that he was, Paul had many Christians and congregations on his heart and mind at all times. Not only that, but as leaders were trained and equipped to keep the gospel ministry going, he received regular reports about gospel growth in so many places. So he knew firsthand about how the gospel was “bearing fruit and growing throughout the whole world.”

And, Paul was excited that the same thing could be said about what the gospel was doing among and through the believers in Colossae. Paul wasn’t just trying to pump them up with encouraging reports coming in from all over, but also reminding them of the work that was happening in their midst ever since it had first reached them. Theirs was one of the churches Paul was celebrating. He had heard news of the obvious evidence of their faith in action and prayed that it would continue as their faith continued to grow. 

Do you know how much fruit the gospel is bearing all over the world today? Even if we focus just on the work we’re doing together in WELS, we see so many reasons to celebrate! This year we are celebrating that our church body has been carrying out gospel ministry for 175 years. This 175th Anniversary highlights that for almost 200 years, we have been establishing churches and schools as hubs for gospel ministry. In addition to the thousands of congregations and mission efforts across the United States, we are involved in mission efforts in about 50 countries, and currently looking into more than 15 possible new mission fields. Our world-wide ministry allows us to spread the gospel through digital and printed publications in other languages, providing medical aid and disaster relief, and even training future pastors through our seminaries in other countries. 

But, let’s not be too presumptuous that we assume the only gospel work God is doing throughout the world is through WELS. While we certainly desire to see the gospel preached and taught correctly and without any error – and rightly so! – we rejoice that the good news is delivered even when the “packaging” leaves much to be desired. In other words, even where this teaching or that teaching may not be inline with a given doctrine in Scripture, the good news of Jesus as the Savior from sin for all people is still made known. So yes, through WELS and other Christian churches, “the gospel is bearing fruit and growing throughout the whole world.”

And, as Paul wrote to the Colossians, so he could say to us: “just as it has been doing among you since the day you heard it and truly understood God’s grace.” As we’ll celebrate very soon, God has been at work with his gospel in and through Shepherd of the Hills (SOTH) for sixty years! That is no small thing! 

What fruit would you point to evidence of God’s work? Paul provided a lengthy description of what gospel growth looks like. “We continually ask God to fill you with the knowledge of his will through all the wisdom and understanding that the Spirit gives, so that you may live a life worthy of the Lord and please him in every way: bearing fruit in every good work, growing in the knowledge of God, being strengthened with all power according to his glorious might so that you may have great endurance and patience, and giving joyful thanks to the Father…” (v.9b-12a). 

Where have we seen any of this at SOTH? How many eternal lives have been altered directly because of the gospel through our church and school? How many students have been trained and educated in Scripture through our school and the schools we support? How many have been wrapped up in Christ’s righteousness through baptism? How many struggling souls have been refreshed and restored after having received Jesus’ body and blood?  How many souls have been ushered across the finish line into eternal life while bearing the SOTH name? Will these blessings continue? They will if we keep the gospel front and center in all we do, because that’s what the gospel does: it grows. It bears fruit. Here. There. Everywhere. 

And, the gospel can bear fruit in unexpected ways – not just under our own roof, but also on the frontlines of ministry. Sometimes that fruit is born out of what might come across as failure. After carrying out gospel ministry in the Fallbrook area for fifty years through its church and school, our sister congregation in the last couple of years made the difficult decision to close the doors of its ministry. One could easily conclude that the gospel had become ineffective or was no longer bearing fruit. However, it appears that God is simply taking what he yielded from that gospel ministry to bear fruit in a new orchard.

From the financial assets of one ministry, our sister congregation has passed along the resources both to our congregation and to our church body to work together in expanding ministry around San Diego County. In addition to a substantial gift given to WELS for that purpose, the saints in Fallbrook also designated a gift to our own congregation to establish a plan for exploring mission work. We are currently working with our various mission planners to determine a plan for carrying out mission work in the Menifee area.

What could that look like? How could God bear fruit through that gospel ministry? How could it contribute to and collaborate with our existing congregations in Temecula and Wildomar, as well as our high school, CLHS, to bear fruit in gospel ministry? What will our role in that gospel effort be? While we may not have a clear picture just yet, we do have confidence that the gospel will bear fruit, because that’s what it does. It grows. It bears fruit. Here. There. Everywhere – including the potential mission field of Menifee!

We’ll keep after this if we continually remind ourselves of the power the gospel has in our lives and potentially in the lives of all who hear it. Remember who we are! “[The Father] has qualified you to share in the inheritance of his holy people in the kingdom of light. For he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins” (v.12b-14).

When we remember this, we don’t want to walk, but run with the gospel! When we rejoice that our doubts about how effective the gospel is and our complacency surrounding it have been cancelled and forgiven, we’re renewed and stirred! Why should we have this privilege? Because the Father qualified us through the work of his Son. Knowing that we belong to his kingdom of light, having been rescued from the darkness of unbelief, we want to expand that kingdom to include many others – here, there, everywhere!

How do we know if the gospel works? It’s simple. Open your eyes. It’s here. There. Everywhere. Bearing fruit all over. And it will continue to work and bear fruit, because that’s what it does – the gospel grows.

DAILY PRAYERS FOR GUYS

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To Become a Man of Prayer

Ever-Present Father,
You are always willing to bend your ear to our prayers. But your willingness to hear our prayers fails to be matched by our willingness to offer them. Too often prayer is a last resort. Too frequently we mindlessly mumble words of prayer while our minds are elsewhere. Too many times our prayers are not offered up to you with the mountain-moving trust that you deserve.

So it is with good reason that we routinely begin our prayers with repentance, confessing that our prayer lives themselves are not worthy of your time or attention. Forgive me and hear my prayers not for my own sake, but for Jesus’ sake. And since there are so many ways I can grow in my prayer life, I simply ask you to bless me with progress and growth in any one of them. As I focus my attention on the privilege of prayer this week, make me more and more a man of prayer.

In Jesus’ name I pray. Amen. 

Free From Me

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(Galatians 5:1, 13-25)

All student loans have been cancelled. Any remaining car payments have been eliminated. All remaining criminal sentences have been commuted and records have been expunged. Great news! … that is, if any of those apply to us. But if none of them do, then it’s rather ho-hum news. Freedom only matters to those who need to be freed from something.

Paul talks a lot about freedom in the verses from Galatians 5. We know that we have freedom in Christ. But, what exactly is it we are free from? He mentions not being “burdened again by a yoke of slavery” (v.1). What exactly does Paul mean? The rest of Galatians makes it clear that the good news of the gospel means we have been freed from being enslaved by the law. In other words, we don’t get to heaven by keeping the rules. That means we aren’t bound to the unattainable standard of perfection in our lives. 

We want to make sure we know why that’s such a big deal. While the relationship we believers have with God’s law is always going to be conflicted, we need to know why. It’s easy and natural for us to find relief from knowing that our salvation isn’t found by keeping the law, because we all know that’s impossible. Very few of us stay up at night wondering if we’re good enough to get to heaven. We know keeping the law doesn’t save us; Jesus does. 

But we may not have the best understanding of why. See, it isn’t the law’s fault. We don’t find relief from salvation by works so appealing because the law itself is unbearable or problematic or too strict. God’s law is perfect. We have to understand that the real reason we naturally take issue with the law is on our end. It shows who we are. It shows that we – not the law itself – are the real problem. 

It’s like the insurance adjuster assessing the status of a car after it’s been in an accident. There’s the hope that the car can be fixed, that whatever damage was done can be replaced or repaired by a mechanic and we’re back up and running in no time and on the road again. But the law doesn’t reveal that about us. Instead, it shows that we’ve been written off as a total loss, just like that car that has been totaled and is beyond repair. No, our problem isn’t God’s law; our problem is that we’re broken beyond repair. We’re the problem.

We sometimes refer to our spiritual enemies as the “unholy trinity,” referring to the threats of Satan, the world, and our own sinful flesh. When Paul writes that we are free, he means we are free from being enslaved by these three enemies.

But of these three, which freedom do you appreciate the most? You might answer Satan. And indeed, he is a threat. But I wonder if that’s part of what makes him so effective. When our attention is on him, when we are concerned about the possible damage he can do to us, we let down our guard against the enemy inside us: our own sinful nature. And if we think of Satan, the world, and our own sinful flesh as allies coordinating attacks against us, they don’t really care who gets the credit – they just want to see us spiritually and eternally crash and burn.

For now, let’s give our attention to the very real threat of self, which the writer of Galatians is very well qualified to address, since he demonstrated a keen awareness of this struggle. He shared it in another of his letters to the Romans, where he wrote, “I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do. And if I do what I do not want to do, I agree that the law is good. As it is, it is no longer I myself who do it, but it is sin living in me. For I know that good itself does not dwell in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. For I do not do the good I want to do, but the evil I do not want to do—this I keep on doing” (Romans 7:15-19). 

Why is self such a sneaky sinful threat? Let’s consider an example from the outdoors. Think about all the different kinds of bugs there are outside. Think of the bee. When a bee does its thing, you know it right away. It stings. Or a mosquito. It itches. So when you see or hear a bee or a mosquito nearby, you’re on the lookout.

Then there’s the tick. Ticks aren’t like bees and mosquitos. They don’t announce their presence. Ticks can be such a pain because you don’t even know they’re there until you spot them, and that may not happen until days later as they swell and become big enough to be seen with the naked eye. 

That’s your sinful flesh. The other stuff is easier to watch out for. Satan’s temptations. The world’s allures. We know what to watch out for. And, to some extent, because they are external temptations, we can still disassociate a bit from them. Because, while we may have a sinful desire for those things, it’s still just the desire that is the problem – not us, we convince ourselves. We’re still able to differentiate between right and wrong, and able to identify those wrong desires that we shouldn’t have, all the while still thinking pretty highly of ourselves when we succeed.

But that is exactly what Paul is warning against in these verses. Don’t believe the lie that you are basically a pretty good person who just has to wrestle with some wrong desires here and there. The truth is, you as a person are what’s wrong, and the reality is that if you ever have even a single good, right, pure, thought, it’s only because by faith, the Spirit has worked that into you. When we admit this, when we quit trying to downplay it or balk at our sinful nature, it starts to make sense why we struggle the way we do. 

It’s why marriage is so tough. When I work with couples in their marriage, do you know what the problem is 9 times out of 10? It’s the spouse. The husband or the wife lays out for me everything that is wrong with their spouse. You know what almost never happens when I’m working with couples in marriage? I can’t think of the last time a spouse wanted to talk to me because they were struggling with being the reason their marriage wasn’t better. They knew they were the problem. They knew they were selfish. Isn’t that odd? It’s a wonder any marriage works when most every spouse is convinced that their partner is the problem!

Paul provides two examples in the verses from Galatians which demonstrate we’re the problem. He warned, “But do not use your freedom to indulge the flesh; rather, serve one another humbly in love. For the entire law is fulfilled in keeping this one command: “Love your neighbor as yourself.” (Galatians 5:13-14). Have you ever wondered why the Bible directs us to love others as ourselves? Why would that be the metric, the standard? Why not, love your neighbor as your parents, or as your spouse? Because we are in love with ourselves, that’s why! We’re experts at loving ourselves! We think the world of ourselves! That’s what the sinful flesh does: it loves – and will fiercely defend and justify – self over everything and everyone else. 

It’s why we struggle so much even to serve others unselfishly. It isn’t about how much I do or how I serve someone else; rather, it’s how in my own mind I constantly keep tabs and am comparing all of the deposits that I have made in the relationship with how infrequently the other person has made any deposits and how often they seem to make withdrawals. See, I am not serving anyone else out of love for them, but out of love for me, and as I am constantly comparing, the other person always falls short. That’s what our sinful flesh does. That’s what is always at work within us. That’s the first example. 

To see Paul’s second example, take a focused look at the laundry list of sins Paul mentioned, starting in verse 19. “The acts of the flesh are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God” (v.19-21).

By my count, the list mentions 15 different examples. But if we take away the external temptations that include sex and alcohol, do you notice anything about the remaining ten? Each one of them is 100% a “me” issue that is entirely my fault and no one else’s. Idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, discord, jealously, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions, and envy – there is no one to blame for each of those sins but me! In other words, while ultimately every sin we commit is our fault, two-thirds of Paul’s list is made up of sins that very directly expose my heart as the problem! You have no one to blame but yourself for the damage sin does in your life!

That’s why Paul’s struggle in Romans 7 was so frustrating for him; he knew he was the problem. And ultimately, that awareness led him to the only conclusion any of us can arrive at. Listen to the rest of his words from that section of Scripture: “So I find this law at work:  Although I want to do good, evil is right there with me. For in my inner being I delight in God’s law; but I see another law at work in me, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within me. What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body that is subject to death? Thanks be to God, who delivers me through Jesus Christ our Lord!” (Romans 7:21-24). There can only ever be one conclusion: thank you, Lord, for Jesus, and the deliverance he provides from myself!

And that is the freedom about which Paul is raving in these verses before us from Galatians. “It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery. You, my brothers and sisters, were called to be free” (v.1,13). When Paul says that Christ has set us free for freedom, that freedom includes the freedom from your own selfish heart. On the cross, Jesus didn’t just pay for your sins; he introduced you to a world that is no longer governed by the dictatorship of your own selfish heart. That is true freedom – to be free from the deception of believing that my time, energy, and resources during my lifetime on earth are best utilized in service to self. That if I keep after it, eventually I will find utopia here on earth that finally has my perfectly designed life just the way I want it.

There is no such thing. It is a mirage, and the only reason I believe it is because I fall back to the lies of my own sinful flesh. Real freedom means I can stop chasing after that lie. Real freedom means so much more. 

When I understand the true freedom I have in Christ, then I also become aware that when I have an issue with serving someone, it is never truly about the other person, but about me. Because the other person has no bearing on the freedom I have in Christ. No matter how good or how horrible the other person is, my freedom allows me to find joy in the act of service.

That freedom craves the pursuit of Paul’s famous fruits of the Spirit: “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness,  gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law. Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit” (v.22-25).

Look, no one would dare to claim that the acts of the sinful flesh Paul listed earlier is desirable or noble. No one. But everyone here this morning absolutely agrees that everything listed as the fruits of the Spirit are not only noble and worthy of pursuit, but a blessing to everyone anytime they are put into practice.

Dear friends, You. Have. Freedom. You are free to pursue this good and worthy fruit. You are free to put it into practice in service to your neighbor and to Jesus, no matter what. At all times. No matter the circumstances. Let us give our undivided attention to putting this fruit into practice and loving Jesus and our neighbor, since the freedom we have in Christ, the freedom from our own sinful flesh, means we have a heart that is filled up to the brim when loving our neighbor as ourself. We know what it’s like to love ourselves. But more importantly, we know how much more fulfilling it is to love our neighbor even more than ourselves. 

DAILY PRAYERS FOR GUYS

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To Focus on My Prayers in Worship

Heavenly Father,
Sundays are sacred. When we set aside this day of Sabbath, we do so to engage with you together in worship. There you speak to us through your Word, guiding and directing us, but also convicting and comforting us through your law and gospel. In doing so, you feed our faith.

One of the natural responses of a healthy faith is to speak to you in prayer. Worship provides us with many opportunities to bring our requests and intercessions to you in prayer, and to thank and praise you as well. Let me be particularly mindful of my prayers this morning, focusing on the words being spoken while also expressing them with the confident faith that you are listening and will answer according to your rich grace. Let my worship set the tone for a prayer-filled week, regularly tapping into the privilege of talking to you and bringing before you all that is on my mind and heart.

In Jesus’ name I pray. Amen. 

DAILY PRAYERS FOR GUYS

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To Be Mindful of My Physical Health on the Weekends

Gracious Lord,
Weekends can be challenging when it comes to my physical health. During the weekdays, when daily routines are in place, eating healthy and staying active or working out come more naturally. I find it easier to stay on track with my health goals when that structure is in place. Weekends, however, can throw off those healthy patterns and plans that are in place Monday through Friday.

Since my actions and behaviors follow my thinking, give me a healthy mindset leading up to and during the weekends. Keep me from viewing weekends as some sort of reward for good behavior during the week, where I can disregard healthy habits and good choices. Rather than seeing the weekend as a break to treat myself and indulge, give me a more balanced perspective to appreciate its flexibility and freedom, allowing me to enjoy the pleasures of food and drink in moderation. In place of regular workouts, let me find satisfaction in fun, active alternatives that keep me from remaining sedentary all weekend. Grant me also the contentment of allowing the weekend to provide my body and mind with the necessary rest and margin I need as well. 

In Jesus’ name I pray. Amen. 

DAILY PRAYERS FOR GUYS

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For a Heart Filled with Genuine, Joyful Thanks

Giving God,
I could never keep a record of the countless blessings – physical and spiritual – that you have generously heaped on me over the course of my life, but I can thank you for them. So thank you, for giving me so much more than I deserve or could ever have hoped for. Even as I thank you, though, I realize how inadequate my own gratitude is, and how often it lacks a joyful heart behind it. Therefore, thank you for viewing even my insufficient gratitude as an acceptable expression of thanks, by virtue of my faith, which is itself your gift to me – yet another reminder of how wonderfully blessed I am! As I wake up each morning, lead me to greet the day with gratitude – real, genuine, joyful gratitude – so that I become even more mindful of your abundant blessings over the course of each and every day. Thank you!

In Jesus’ name I pray. Amen. 

DAILY PRAYERS FOR GUYS

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For Your Strength to Sustain Me

Almighty God,
I am not interested in pretending that my own strength is sufficient to sustain me in any way. So I ask you to strengthen me with your power, according to your might. Only then will I have the ability to patiently endure. Only then will I have any hope or chance of withstanding Satan’s attacks and defending against him in spiritual warfare. 

Strengthen me with your sacraments. Help me to embrace my Spirit-filled identity as victor, which you anointed me with through my baptism. Reinvigorate me through the Supper when my soul is weary and worn, and rejuvenate me through your body and blood to rejoin the spiritual battle with fresh vigor. Equip me with the weapon of your Word to fight valiantly, to persevere, and to confidently expect the victory you have already promised and won. When you alone are the only source of my strength, I know I will never fail. 

In Jesus’ name I pray. Amen.