Dear Morning Devotion Friends – This is the last devotional segment you will receive before my new format and schedule begins.  My weekly posts will occur on Fridays.  I encourage you to continue your daily time with the Lord and His Word.  Blessings – Larry

The importance of our prayers for “clarity” cannot be overstated.  God has equipped us with the ability to work through devastating events in our lives.  He has given us the capacity to reason, discern and act.  But unless we begin with the right fundamental truths, our perspectives can become distorted.  Satan can work all kinds of mischief into the details of our crisis.

Praying for clarity is like planning a trip.   When we face a crisis, we must invite God into our journey and ask Him to help us set our course.  While it is true He is always present, there is a big difference between knowing He is there and allowing Him to work in us and through us.  At the beginning of any path God affirms certain truths in our minds, and reminds us we are covered with His Son’s grace.  He reveals principles of crisis management through His biblical record, and gives us positive and negative examples of ways in which His servants have faced difficult trials.

Certainly, we continue to pray throughout any crisis, just as we make prayer a priority in every season of our lives.  But it is best if we concentrate our efforts on getting things straight from the beginning.  If we can first figure out where we need to end up, and how God wants us to get there, many of the details in-between will be easier to determine.  Perhaps this is why Jesus began His ministry by committing His future to His Father in baptism and entering the desert for a forty-day fast.  Everything that was to come would rise or fall on Jesus’ resolve to fulfill His mission.  His words to Satan sum up the heart of a faithful servant, “Worship the Lord your God, and serve Him only” (Matthew 4:10).  This is where every successful journey starts.