August 25, 2023 - Psalms‬ ‭101:5-6

“I will silence those who secretly want to slander my friends, and I will not tolerate the proud and arrogant. My innermost circle will only be those who I know are pure and godly. They will be the only ones I allow to minister to me.” Psalms 101:5-6 TPT

Lord, we want to truly be honorable people. People who honor you in all we do. Not only what we do, but what we allow others to do in our presence as well. Teach us how to stand up in a loving way and silence those who slander our friends or family. Don’t allow us to turn our heads and ignore or tolerate that which is not pleasing to you. Show us either how to disciple that wrong behavior away or how to remove that person from our inner circle. Never let us be ok with pride, arrogance, or slander. Show us if we have any of it in our lives. Open our eyes to it.

Help us only allow people into our inner circles - those who have a place to really disciple and influence us - who are pure and godly. We want to make sure that those we allow to help determine who we are, to be people who build us up and push us towards you. We don’t want to give anyone who pulls us down and away from you a place to influence our thinking. Help show us how to guard our thoughts.

Lord, we ask for you to grow us as shepherds. Teach us how to be good shepherds who know how to guard the flocks you have entrusted to us. Make us into a shepherd like you. Remove anything in us that is not of you, so we don’t unintentionally harm those we are shepherding. Open our eyes to see thought patterns or behaviors in us that are not healthy. We don’t want to pass those down to our children or those we are discipling. Grow us and change us so our issues don’t negatively influence others or cause them harm.

Lord, let all we are bring honor to your name.

In Jesus name, amen.