Proverbs 21: 1
The king's heart is like channels of water in the hand of the Lord, He turns it wherever He wishes.
We need to pray for all our elected and appointed government officials, so that God would lead them to make the right and best decisions for our Nation and our people.
Many Nations have ungodly leaders, or those who don't understand what would be best, so they need us to pray that God would lead them, as He said He would.
Please, O Father, lead our leaders to seek You for Your ways so they will bless us their populace with the good that You desire for Your people. Father, if they don't know you yet, please draw them to Yourself, and if they do know You, then draw them ever closer to Your side. Father, may all our leaders have Your wisdom, compassion and thought processes to align with Your purposes for each of us and all of us.
Even so, come, Lord Jesus!
Tuesday, August 1, 2017
Monday, July 31, 2017
Place Of Refuge
Psalm 142: 5-6
I pray to You, O Lord, I say, "You are my place of refuge." You are all I really want in life. Hear my cry, for I am very low. Rescue me from my persecutors, for they are too strong for me.
Our persecutors can be debts, they can be wayward children, they can be a circumstance forced on you by the weather. Anything that makes us feel overwhelmed, not able to do whatever is needed to resolve the situation.
O my Father, You are my place of refuge, Lord. You really are all I want in this life. I am feeling the pressure right now of this pressing situation. Please rescue me from my persecutors, for they are too strong for me. Please provide the help I need to deal with all the mud and trash and destruction this flood has put on me in my basements. Show me what I can do to clear out all the mess, and return this house into the home it should be.
Then, Father, any prospective buyer will see it's possibilities and take this property off my hands at last. I know You have been preparing the person(s) You would have here, who would be able to use this place for Your purposes.
Strengthen me, now, to go downstairs and deal with this enemy.
Even so, come, Lord Jesus!
I pray to You, O Lord, I say, "You are my place of refuge." You are all I really want in life. Hear my cry, for I am very low. Rescue me from my persecutors, for they are too strong for me.
Our persecutors can be debts, they can be wayward children, they can be a circumstance forced on you by the weather. Anything that makes us feel overwhelmed, not able to do whatever is needed to resolve the situation.
O my Father, You are my place of refuge, Lord. You really are all I want in this life. I am feeling the pressure right now of this pressing situation. Please rescue me from my persecutors, for they are too strong for me. Please provide the help I need to deal with all the mud and trash and destruction this flood has put on me in my basements. Show me what I can do to clear out all the mess, and return this house into the home it should be.
Then, Father, any prospective buyer will see it's possibilities and take this property off my hands at last. I know You have been preparing the person(s) You would have here, who would be able to use this place for Your purposes.
Strengthen me, now, to go downstairs and deal with this enemy.
Even so, come, Lord Jesus!
Sunday, July 30, 2017
Had Not Yet Directed Their Hearts
II Chronicles 20: 31-33
Now Jehoshaphat reigned over Judah. He was thirty-five years old when he became king, and he reigned in Jerusalem twenty-five years.
And he walked in the ways of his father Asa and did not depart from it, doing right in the sight of the Lord. The High Places, however, were not (did not stay) removed; the people had not yet directed their hearts to the God of their fathers.
Asa reigned 41 years, and his son Jehoshaphat reigned 25 years. They both had removed these shrines, these "High Places" (Asa in 14:3 and Jehoshaphat in 17:6), but the people kept replacing them, because even after 66 years of godly leaders, the people still "had not directed their hearts" to the Lord Who was their God. They still kept turning to the pagan deities of the peoples around and among them. They were just too seductive.
And people today also are seduced by the same ideas that these pagan idols represented. Our enemy is still deceiving us into believing that God is holding out on us, and we're smart, we're intelligent, we can make our own decisions; we can be our own god. We don't need to ask God what we are to do in every circumstance, what worked before should work again.
But God is still God, He is still our Creator, Who knows us better than we know ourselves, and He still loves us more than we can imagine. He always wants what's best for us, even if what we're going through right now doesn't seem very pleasant. But He has purpose for everything He allows in our lives.
Here in this World we are children in school, and we must endure the testings that come with that. They are all for our benefit. And His glory.
And one day, when we're adult children in God's Family, in the New Heaven and the New Earth, then we will be mature and ruling with Him in His Family Business, His Kingdom.
Even so, come, Lord Jesus!
Now Jehoshaphat reigned over Judah. He was thirty-five years old when he became king, and he reigned in Jerusalem twenty-five years.
And he walked in the ways of his father Asa and did not depart from it, doing right in the sight of the Lord. The High Places, however, were not (did not stay) removed; the people had not yet directed their hearts to the God of their fathers.
Asa reigned 41 years, and his son Jehoshaphat reigned 25 years. They both had removed these shrines, these "High Places" (Asa in 14:3 and Jehoshaphat in 17:6), but the people kept replacing them, because even after 66 years of godly leaders, the people still "had not directed their hearts" to the Lord Who was their God. They still kept turning to the pagan deities of the peoples around and among them. They were just too seductive.
And people today also are seduced by the same ideas that these pagan idols represented. Our enemy is still deceiving us into believing that God is holding out on us, and we're smart, we're intelligent, we can make our own decisions; we can be our own god. We don't need to ask God what we are to do in every circumstance, what worked before should work again.
But God is still God, He is still our Creator, Who knows us better than we know ourselves, and He still loves us more than we can imagine. He always wants what's best for us, even if what we're going through right now doesn't seem very pleasant. But He has purpose for everything He allows in our lives.
Here in this World we are children in school, and we must endure the testings that come with that. They are all for our benefit. And His glory.
And one day, when we're adult children in God's Family, in the New Heaven and the New Earth, then we will be mature and ruling with Him in His Family Business, His Kingdom.
Even so, come, Lord Jesus!
Saturday, July 29, 2017
Jacob And Esau
Genesis 33: 4
Then Esau ran to meet him and embraced him, and fell on his neck and kissed him, and they wept.
Wow! Jacob didn't know what to expect from his brother. The last he knew, 20 years earlier, Esau wanted to kill him. But God told him it was time for him to go home, and what an eventful journey that was!
Jacob was very highly on edge with approaching Esau and hearing that Esau had 400 men with him! That must've been a very nerve-wracking night, with everyone up all night, driving the animals, and the women with their children, crossing the river, as they approached the meeting. And then Jacob was alone and wrestled with the Angel that night, resulting in a limp to remind him to rely on God.
Then his trepidation turning to relief and joy when Esau accepted him favorably, no wonder they both wept! Their emotions went from one extreme to the other.
We are not given any information at all about what happened to Esau, to change his attitude toward his brother from hatred to love. But God knew that those 400 men with him weren't an army to wipe out Jacob's whole family. God knew it was time for Jacob to return home, to the land God had promised to give his descendants. And now God has made Jacob His prince, in changing his name to Israel (a prince with God).
O my Father, You took special care of Jacob the whole time he lived with Laban; and You also took care of Esau, changing his thinking processes so that he would welcome his brother home.
And, Father, you are also taking care of me, teaching me what I need to know, shaping my understanding to conform to Your Truth, and molding me into a vessel suitable for Your King's Table; making me fit to be Your own child, to work with You in Your Family Business, Your Kingdom.
Even so, come, Lord Jesus!
Then Esau ran to meet him and embraced him, and fell on his neck and kissed him, and they wept.
Wow! Jacob didn't know what to expect from his brother. The last he knew, 20 years earlier, Esau wanted to kill him. But God told him it was time for him to go home, and what an eventful journey that was!
Jacob was very highly on edge with approaching Esau and hearing that Esau had 400 men with him! That must've been a very nerve-wracking night, with everyone up all night, driving the animals, and the women with their children, crossing the river, as they approached the meeting. And then Jacob was alone and wrestled with the Angel that night, resulting in a limp to remind him to rely on God.
Then his trepidation turning to relief and joy when Esau accepted him favorably, no wonder they both wept! Their emotions went from one extreme to the other.
We are not given any information at all about what happened to Esau, to change his attitude toward his brother from hatred to love. But God knew that those 400 men with him weren't an army to wipe out Jacob's whole family. God knew it was time for Jacob to return home, to the land God had promised to give his descendants. And now God has made Jacob His prince, in changing his name to Israel (a prince with God).
O my Father, You took special care of Jacob the whole time he lived with Laban; and You also took care of Esau, changing his thinking processes so that he would welcome his brother home.
And, Father, you are also taking care of me, teaching me what I need to know, shaping my understanding to conform to Your Truth, and molding me into a vessel suitable for Your King's Table; making me fit to be Your own child, to work with You in Your Family Business, Your Kingdom.
Even so, come, Lord Jesus!
Friday, July 28, 2017
The Tree Of Life
Genesis 3: 22, 24
Then the Lord God said, "Behold, the Man has become like one of Us, knowing good and evil; and now, lest he stretch out his hand, and take also from the Tree of Life, and eat, and live forever--"
... He stationed the Cherubim, and the flaming sword which turned every direction, to guard the way to the Tree of Life.
Wow, the Man, the Adam, was now like God, in being able to distinguish what was good from what was evil. So when Satan told Eve that they would be "like God," she didn't realize that she would still need God to be God, not herself.
When God made the Angels, He made them so they wouldn't be vulnerable to death, they would live forever. But when they sinned, since they couldn't die, then they also couldn't have a Savior to die for them to redeem them, so they now must bear their sin forever.
When God made Man, He made him to be able to live forever, but if He would disobey and sin, then he would be subject to death. So he would have to die. But now he could also have Someone to die for him, and pay that debt.
But the Tree of Life was also there in the Garden of Eden with him, with no command to not eat of it. Now that he had sinned in disobeying the direct command of God, God didn't want him ruining his chances of redemption by not being able to die.
God does not change. He wouldn't change His mind and decide to forbid Adam from eating from this Tree, after already giving it freely to him along with all the other trees. So God drove him from this paradise, stationing His guards to make sure Mankind would never be able to upset the apple cart of God's Plan for us all; plans to save us from the power of the sin that would now plague us, and finally redeem us out of the very presence of sin.
O my Father, You are so smart to devise a plan wherewith Mankind could live forever if he obeyed You, but would also be subject to death and able to be redeemed if he disobeyed, which he did.
Father, please forgive our rebellions and selfishness in wanting to be our own god, making our own decisions for ourselves instead of depending on You to lead us. Forgive us for considering the intelligence and the abilities and skills You have given us to be our license to make our own choices without considering You, Lord.
Forgive us for putting our faith and trust in our own wisdom and ways, instead of seeking You and Your wisdom and ways. Since Your ways are not our ways, and our thoughts are not Your thoughts, Father, teach us Your ways and thoughts, because they are so far above our own that we would never attain to them without You teaching us, my Lord.
O Father, our enemy deceived our original mother into thinking that she could be her own god. And he has whispered that same temptation to every one of her children through the ages. Most of us have swallowed this idea whole, without even chewing on it to examine it in the light of Your Revelation to us in Your Word. Please forgive us for even considering this rebellion against You, to count You irrelevant, You Who are our Life!
Show me, my Father, whenever I begin to entertain the thought of making my own choices in life, bring me to the realization of how foolish I am to neglect to consult You and Your Word to learn Your ways for me. Help me to remember to seek Your direction, even if this situation is so similar to the other one You already helped me through. May I ask You every time. Don't let me go on automatic, doing what you showed me before.
Strengthen me, O Lord, in my dependence on You for my every step. And may I be molded and formed in Your gentle, loving hands, into a vessel fit for the Master's royal table.
Even so, come, Lord Jesus!
Then the Lord God said, "Behold, the Man has become like one of Us, knowing good and evil; and now, lest he stretch out his hand, and take also from the Tree of Life, and eat, and live forever--"
... He stationed the Cherubim, and the flaming sword which turned every direction, to guard the way to the Tree of Life.
Wow, the Man, the Adam, was now like God, in being able to distinguish what was good from what was evil. So when Satan told Eve that they would be "like God," she didn't realize that she would still need God to be God, not herself.
When God made the Angels, He made them so they wouldn't be vulnerable to death, they would live forever. But when they sinned, since they couldn't die, then they also couldn't have a Savior to die for them to redeem them, so they now must bear their sin forever.
When God made Man, He made him to be able to live forever, but if He would disobey and sin, then he would be subject to death. So he would have to die. But now he could also have Someone to die for him, and pay that debt.
But the Tree of Life was also there in the Garden of Eden with him, with no command to not eat of it. Now that he had sinned in disobeying the direct command of God, God didn't want him ruining his chances of redemption by not being able to die.
God does not change. He wouldn't change His mind and decide to forbid Adam from eating from this Tree, after already giving it freely to him along with all the other trees. So God drove him from this paradise, stationing His guards to make sure Mankind would never be able to upset the apple cart of God's Plan for us all; plans to save us from the power of the sin that would now plague us, and finally redeem us out of the very presence of sin.
O my Father, You are so smart to devise a plan wherewith Mankind could live forever if he obeyed You, but would also be subject to death and able to be redeemed if he disobeyed, which he did.
Father, please forgive our rebellions and selfishness in wanting to be our own god, making our own decisions for ourselves instead of depending on You to lead us. Forgive us for considering the intelligence and the abilities and skills You have given us to be our license to make our own choices without considering You, Lord.
Forgive us for putting our faith and trust in our own wisdom and ways, instead of seeking You and Your wisdom and ways. Since Your ways are not our ways, and our thoughts are not Your thoughts, Father, teach us Your ways and thoughts, because they are so far above our own that we would never attain to them without You teaching us, my Lord.
O Father, our enemy deceived our original mother into thinking that she could be her own god. And he has whispered that same temptation to every one of her children through the ages. Most of us have swallowed this idea whole, without even chewing on it to examine it in the light of Your Revelation to us in Your Word. Please forgive us for even considering this rebellion against You, to count You irrelevant, You Who are our Life!
Show me, my Father, whenever I begin to entertain the thought of making my own choices in life, bring me to the realization of how foolish I am to neglect to consult You and Your Word to learn Your ways for me. Help me to remember to seek Your direction, even if this situation is so similar to the other one You already helped me through. May I ask You every time. Don't let me go on automatic, doing what you showed me before.
Strengthen me, O Lord, in my dependence on You for my every step. And may I be molded and formed in Your gentle, loving hands, into a vessel fit for the Master's royal table.
Even so, come, Lord Jesus!
Thursday, July 27, 2017
A Little Child
Mark 9: 36
... Taking the Child into his arms ...
I see myself as that Child was, with my Lord taking me into His arms, curling up in His lap. He is my Good Shepherd and I am His little wounded lamb that He carries in His arms.
One day He will return, and I will no longer be this little child that I am now, but I will then attain adulthood in His family and rule with Him on His throne, the "family business."
Until then I am still learning of Him, depending on Him, and trusting Him to finish the work He began in me.
Even so, come, Lord Jesus!
... Taking the Child into his arms ...
I see myself as that Child was, with my Lord taking me into His arms, curling up in His lap. He is my Good Shepherd and I am His little wounded lamb that He carries in His arms.
One day He will return, and I will no longer be this little child that I am now, but I will then attain adulthood in His family and rule with Him on His throne, the "family business."
Until then I am still learning of Him, depending on Him, and trusting Him to finish the work He began in me.
Even so, come, Lord Jesus!
Wednesday, July 26, 2017
Don't Be Afraid
Matthew 10: 26-31
But don't be afraid of those who threaten you. For the time is coming when everything will be revealed; all that is secret will be made public. What I tell you now in the darkness, shout abroad when daybreak comes. What I whisper in your ears, shout from the housetops for all to hear!
Don't be afraid of those who want to kill you. They can only kill your body; they cannot touch your soul. Fear only God, Who can destroy both soul and body in Hell. Not even a sparrow, worth only half a penny, can fall to the ground without your Father knowing it. And the very hairs on your head are all numbered. So don't be afraid; you are more valuable to Him than a whole flock of sparrows.
O my Father, thank You for valuing me so highly. Your care for me surpasses all the care of everyone on Earth who has ever cared for me, all together!
You have begun this good work in me, and You are performing it to perfect me. You are continuing to make progress in me and in my life, and You will eventually complete it when I am finished, when Jesus returns.
Even so, come, Lord Jesus!
But don't be afraid of those who threaten you. For the time is coming when everything will be revealed; all that is secret will be made public. What I tell you now in the darkness, shout abroad when daybreak comes. What I whisper in your ears, shout from the housetops for all to hear!
Don't be afraid of those who want to kill you. They can only kill your body; they cannot touch your soul. Fear only God, Who can destroy both soul and body in Hell. Not even a sparrow, worth only half a penny, can fall to the ground without your Father knowing it. And the very hairs on your head are all numbered. So don't be afraid; you are more valuable to Him than a whole flock of sparrows.
O my Father, thank You for valuing me so highly. Your care for me surpasses all the care of everyone on Earth who has ever cared for me, all together!
You have begun this good work in me, and You are performing it to perfect me. You are continuing to make progress in me and in my life, and You will eventually complete it when I am finished, when Jesus returns.
Even so, come, Lord Jesus!
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