Blessed
Psalm 1: 1-3, 6 Blessed is the one who does not walk in step with the wicked or stand in the way that sinners take or sit in the company of mockers, 2 but whose delight is in the law of the Lord, and who meditates on his law day and night. 3 That person is like a tree planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in season and whose leaf does not wither— whatever they do prospers. 6 For the Lord watches over the way of the righteous, but the way of the wicked leads to destruction. What a promise from the Lord. Blessed. Blessed. I want to be blessed of the Lord, don’t you?! Delight in the law of the Lord. The things He commands us to do. The direction He gives us. To think on His law day and night! Seems crazy to think we would delight in and think about law, but when we understand that all of God’s commands are for our good, we can certainly delight in them! And when we do that, we are like a tree planted by water! We will bear fruit at the right time! We won’t wither away! And WHATEVER we do prospers! Oh how I long to bear fruit at the right time and to have the things I set out to do, based on God’s direction, to prosper! The Lord watched over the way of the righteous. Ah, how I can rest in that! He watches over me. Am I righteous on my own? No, no way. But through the blood of Jesus I have been made righteous and now the Lord watches over me! Oh God watch over me! Watch over my way and keep me! I pray you watch over and keep the way of each person reading this. Thank you for your promises in your word for us, Oh God! Oh Lord God may we not walk in step with the wicked! May you refine us, mold and make us into your image! May we take delight in Your law! Lead us, Oh God, in the way everlasting!
A Prayer For You
This morning, I was brought to Ezekiel. Ezekiel is an Old Testament prophet. He prophesies to the people of Israel of God’s punishment as well as His coming restoration. God wants their loyalty and devotion above all else, even above the sacrifices He commanded them to do (Hosea 6:6 NASB) In Ezekiel 11: 19-21, God gives His people the promise of bringing them back to Himself after they have turned away from Him and served other gods and worshipped idols amongst other evil deeds. Today I feel compelled to pray this scripture over you as well as over myself today. Ezekiel 11: 19-21 NIV 1984 19 I will give them an undivided heart and put a new spirit in them; I will remove from them their heart of stone and give them a heart of flesh. 20 Then they will follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws. They will be My people, and I will be their God. 21 But as for those whose hearts are devoted to their vile images and detestable idols, I will bring down on their own heads what they have done,” declares the Sovereign Lord. Oh Lord, I pray over your people this morning! I pray, Oh God, that you will give us undivided hearts! I pray that our hearts will be fully devoted to You and only You! Draw us unto Yourself that we may follow hard after You with abandon! May our loyalty to You be steadfast and may our loyalties not be divided! Give us a heart of flesh, Lord Jesus! Soften our hearts to Your will, Your ways, and Your direction for our lives! Remove our hearts of stone! If there is any hardness of heart in us, Oh God, show us and remove it! Show us any bitterness, anger, resentment or jealousy in our hearts and remove it, dear Jesus! Give us soft hearts towards You and others! Teach us to forgive quickly, move in our lives! Once You have done this work in us, Oh God, we will follow Your decrees! Help us to be careful to follow Your laws, Your direction for our lives. You desire for us to be holy as you are holy, help us dear Jesus! We want to follow You keep us in the shadow of Your wings, this day and always! Lord God, protect us and keep us! Protect us from the evil one! For those Oh God that are devoted to doing evil, bring down on their own heads what they have done! Search us and know us, Oh God, point out any evil way in our own hearts that we may be devoted to You! I ask all this according to Your word in the name of Jesus. Amen. Seek Him Today! Pray this over yourself today! Be blessed! ~A.E.
Are You Struggling Today? God Wants To Use The Struggle
We all live in uncertainty; the future is unknown. None of us know what tomorrow will bring. We all go through struggles. Most of us have had a time that we feel we’ve run straight into a wall. There’s so much brokenness in this world. So many difficult things we face: death of a loved one, loss of a job, loss of a dream, broken marriage, and many more that you may think of. You know how we can all read the exact same scripture and it will speak to us all differently? Or how a scripture will pop out at you at a certain time in your life even though you’ve read it many times before with no special impact. God wants to use our struggles similarly. We may go through the same struggle as someone else, yet God wants to use our experience in a unique way, specific to us. God wants to use our struggles to change us, to grow us. He wants to mold us and make us, refine and perfect us. But even though it’s the same struggle, same uncertainty, same wall for us all – He wants to work in us each differently and in a unique way. Just as His scripture speaks to us each differently. What struggle are you facing today? What is God doing in your life? What does He want to mold or perfect in you through this time? So many possibilities. Take some time and ask Him today. Ask Him, “God what do you want to change in me? What are you showing me or speaking to me through this struggle?” Then work on that thing alongside Him and allow Him to do His perfect work! And once completed ask Him again. Because this is a lifelong journey we’re on. We should be changing under the work of His hands continually until we meet Him face to face on the streets of gold. Be Blessed! Nothing goes to waste with God! He uses it all. Keep your eyes focused on Him through the struggle and seek what He’s doing in your life. He will use it, if you let Him! Isaiah 64: 8 Yet you, Lord, are our Father. We are the clay, you are the potter; we are all the work of your hand. Psalm 66: 8-10 Praise our God, all peoples, let the sound of his praise be heard; he has preserved our lives and kept our feet from slipping. For you, God, tested us; you refined us like silver. You brought us into prison and laid burdens on our backs. You let people ride over our heads; we went through fire and water, but you brought us to a place of abundance.
Do Checklists Keep You On Task?
Anyone love a good checklist? I love the sense of accomplishment that a checklist gives me. It’s also amazing how much more I accomplish in a day if I write each item down and create a checklist. That check list gives me a reminder, keeps me on task, frees my mind so I don’t have to keep running through everything I have do that day, ect. I can relate this same concept to spending time with the Lord daily. I want to be faithful to spend time with the Lord daily but sometimes I forget. I get busy with other things and all the priorities of life and the day is gone. Adding ‘time with the Lord’ to my checklist is a necessity. What does spending time with the Lord daily mean to you? Is it reading the Bible? Praying? Both? There are multiple terms for spending time with the Lord: devotions, quite time, ect. But regardless of what you call it, it should be Spending Time! I think perhaps we are missing something when our goal is to read the Bible and pray, just to check it off our list. We need our time with Him to be more than checking something off our list. We must take the time to spend time. When I choose to spend time with another person, the best times include conversation that goes two ways: they talk and I talk. Spending time with God should be similar. I talk (prayer) and He talks (listening). My time spent with a friend isn’t as enjoyable when I’m the only one that talks or when they are the only one that talks. It’s the back and forth. Reading the Bible is one way we listen. The Bible is God’s voice and He speaks to us through it. Another is to sit quietly before Him and wait for that still small voice. I believe God still speaks when we take the time to quiet ourselves before Him and listen. Taking time to think about God, think about what we just read in His scripture, think about our Pastor’s most recent sermon, think about where He’s leading us, think about what He’s calling us to do, to be. I think we often miss this important part of spending time with God. We read, we pray, we’re off to the next thing. It’s important that we give God time to speak to us, to change our hearts, to move in our lives. Years ago I created a log sheet, it’s not a true checklist, but it does have built in reminders to spend quality time with God. It offers a reminder to read the Bible, to pray, and to spend quality time with Him. In the log I label it Thinking About God or Journaling. In many ways what I mean is to meditate on God, meditate on what you just read, what He’s speaking to you and allowing the space for His still small voice to break through. Although to meditate on God is a Biblical principal, mediation in general is a concept that is no longer directly tied toward our relationship with Jesus. For that reason I intentionally chose a phrase to more clearly express what I mean. Joshua 1:8 Keep this Book of the Law always on your lips; meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do everything written in it. Then you will be prosperous and successful. Or journaling. Journaling can be a very effective way to keep your thoughts straight to process your thoughts and to keep you on task. Perhaps your mind wanders too much sitting quietly but putting pen to paper opens the flood gates of what God is doing in you. There’s a lot of flexibility in how to spend that time but the important part is that we do spend the time. I’ve included the Devotional Log here as a free download. Try it out, maybe it’s just the reminder you need. Click on the image below to view and save the checklist Be blessed! Trying out the log? Let me know what you think! Send us an email or leave a comment below.
Let Us Approach God with Confidence and Boldness
Hebrews 4: 13-16 NIV Nothing in all creation is hidden from God’s sight. Everything is uncovered and laid bare before the eyes of him to whom we must give account. Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has ascended into heaven, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold firmly to the faith we profess. For we do not have a high priest who is unable to empathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are—yet he did not sin. Let us then approach God’s throne of grace with confidence (or BOLDNESS KJV), so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need. Nothing in all of creation is hidden from God. He sees it all. He sees our weakness. He sees our struggle. He sees our humanity. And one day, we will stand before God and give account for it all. But, we are blessed beyond measure to live in the day when the very Son of God, Jesus Christ, is alive and has ascended into Heaven and He is our great High Priest!! The High Priest is the priest who goes before God on behalf of the people. But we do not have a high priest who is unable to empathize with our weakness. No, we have Jesus! Who, while on earth, was tempted in every way! Just as we are! Yet, He did not sin. Jesus gets it! When we come to Him in prayer – He empathizes with us! To empathize with someone is to experience empathy. According to Merriam-Webster*, empathy is: the action of understanding, being aware of, being sensitive to, and vicariously experiencing the feelings, thoughts, and experience of another of either the past or present without having the feelings, thoughts, and experience fully communicated in an objectively explicit manner. Jesus understands, he is aware of, and sensitive to our feelings, our thoughts, and our experiences! How powerful to have a High Priest going to God on our behalf that understands our weakness! We are so used to thinking of Jesus as God, which of course He is, we sometimes forget that he lived 33 years on this Earth- He was tempted in every way- He understands us – He has empathy for us! Amazing! With this knowledge and understanding, let us approach God’s throne with CONFIDENCE and great BOLDNESS! There is nothing we will bring before God that Jesus doesn’t understand! Nothing that He isn’t aware of! Nothing he isn’t sensitive to! Oh what a Savior! Isn’t He wonderful?! What a time to be alive! If we know Jesus will empathize with us, we can bring before Him any issue, any struggle, any concern, any desire and know it is okay to be honest with Him. It’s okay to pour it all out there. It’s okay to confidently and boldly share what we long for and are experiencing. And we do so trusting we will receive His mercy and find His grace to help us in our time of need! Let us end this year by approaching God with great boldness! Because Jesus has prepared the way for us to do so! He is the great mediator (1Timothy 2:5)! He has torn the veil in two (Matthew 27: 50-51)! He has made a way! Be encouraged today and seek God with great fervor, confidence, and boldness! *https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/empathy
