The Heart of the Matter

"Also keep back Your servant from presumptuous sins;
         Let them not rule over me;
         Then I will be blameless,
         And I shall be acquitted of great transgression.
    Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart
         Be acceptable in Your sight,
         O LORD, my rock and my Redeemer."

                                                    Psalm 19:13-14

It is so awesome to know that God forgives us of our sin; what a blessing it is to receive His mercy when we feel overwhelmed by the burden of our guilt and sin. Yet, this does not give us license to sin, knowing that we can come to God and seek His forgiveness - that would be the presumptuous sin the author of Psalm 19 is talking about. We can't use God on a credit card basis 'sin now - pray later', this kind of 'presumptuous sin' does not honor God, in fact it shows disregard for His sacrifice and implies the idea that whatever we are tempted to do is of more importance than our faithfulness and obedience to God.

It is a matter of the heart. We might fool those around us, we can make excuses and try to convince ourselves that we are justified or that our motives were good, but we cannot fool God. He created us and knows us. He knows the thoughts and intents of our hearts, and whether we willfully chose to sin with the intent of seeking his forgiveness later. 

I love that the Psalmist prays 'Let the words of my mouth AND the meditation of my heart be acceptable in Your sight, O Lord" (emphasis mine). Not only should we desire to please God with what we say and do, but also in the hidden person we are; in the heart, where no one else sees. Our words, actions, thoughts and prayers should all honor God. Though sometimes it seems like such a struggle to walk in His ways, it is ALWAYS worth the effort and sacrifice.

Sharing: Bible Verses By Topic

Just want to share a useful article from another blog - What Christians Want to Know

 I think you will find this to be a great resource for finding a scripture for a particular situation. Click on the following link:

Bible Verses By Topic: Inspirational Scriptures By Subject

Check it out and bookmark it for future reference. Be sure to read some of their other articles too!

Blessings :)

Linda

Remembering To Be Thankful

Last year during the month of November I wrote a series of blog entries called "Thirty Days of Thanksgiving", I won't be doing those this year but thought I'd just mention it in case you wanted to read any of those entries this year. You can look in my archive section for November 2009 and you'll see an entry for each day of the month.

I hope you are considering the blessings in your life and looking for things for which to be thankful. Try to express your gratitude today whenever the opportunity arises, I think it will be a blessing to you and to those around you.

Feel free to post a comment at any time to let me know what you are thankful for. I am thankful for you, that you have visited my blog!

I pray that you experience God's blessings today.

Linda

"Let the word of Christ richly dwell within you, with all wisdom teaching and admonishing one another with psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with thankfulness in your hearts to God."

                          Colossians 3:16

Time to Hibernate?

It has been a long time again since my last blog entry, I have had several very busy months, yet not too busy to be in my Bible each day. God has been continuing to speak to me and teach me as I spend time in His word.

I have many verses that I would like to share from the past few months, therefore it is kind of difficult to know where to begin today. As I browsed through my journal this verse stood out to me.

"Sow with a view to righteousness,

Reap in accordance with kindness;

Break up your fallow ground,

For it is time to seek the LORD

Until He comes to rain righteousness on you." 

                                  Hosea 10:12

When I read this verse it reminded me that what we do and how we do it matter; we need to intentionally live our lives in a way that serves God's purpose and brings Him honor.

I tend to get complacent with life and get caught up in taking care of the needs of my family that I forget that I need to use my time for God and His glory. I also feel kind of irrelevant or insignificant in God's plan because I feel so small; but God does not want me to be discouraged as if I have nothing to offer. As Christians we are called to be actively seeking opportunities to share our faith in Christ with those around us, and God has gifted and equipped each of us uniquely.

Sometimes it is tempting to want to crawl into hibernation and not deal with 'one more thing'. Though we are in the fall season and heading into winter, we are not to hibernate, we need to still be sowing, reaping and breaking up the fallow ground for the Lord, for it is ALWAYS time to seek the Lord!

      Be blessed,

          Linda

In Humility

"Guard your steps as you go to the house of God and draw near to listen rather than to offer the sacrifice of fools; for they do not know they are doing evil.

Do not be hasty in word or impulsive in thought to bring up a matter in the presence of God.  For God is in heaven and you are on the earth; therefore let your words be few."

                                                Ecclesiastes 5:1-2

In the United States we have the right to many freedoms, including freedom of speech. This country was founded on principles of freedom and many have fought for, and continue to fight for those rights. I am not headed toward a political topic here, because my real concern is the freedom we have received from God and what we do with it.

The passage I have quoted today reminds me of the many freedoms that have been given to us by God, including the freedom to choose to believe in Him, to accept His gift of salvation, to be obedient to His commands, and to come before Him with our requests.

With the freedom to come to the house of God, the writer of Ecclesiastes tells us to guard our steps as we go, and rather than bring a sacrifice, we ought to come to listen. Humility. Can you come into the presence of God, offering Him nothing but your willingness to listen to Him and learn? Many of our churches today are filled with wonderful Christians sharing their gifts of music and drama, but often it appears to be a performance for the people rather than humble worship of God. While it is good to offer our worship to God, we all need to check our motivation and attitudes.

Freedom of speech is our right, yes? And God allows us the freedom to make our requests known to Him, but should we become so irreverent that we feel we can say anything to Him and it's ok? Society has become extremely informal and casual over the past few decades, respect for elders and those in positions of authority has dwindled; likewise many are complacent about who God is and who we are in relation to Him. Are we presumptuous, that we can speak our mind before the awesome Creator of the Universe? Should we not come before Him in all humility, seeking His favor and His will? Sometimes it can be a real challenge to let our words be few!

God has given us so much, yet in our sinful, fleshly nature we often get caught up in our own self-importance. Thankfully, we do have the freedom to come before the holy living God, and we do have the right to voice our concerns, but let us do so with reverence and humility - for He is God, the creator and we are His creation.

Humbly....

Linda

Finding Pasture

"I am the door; if anyone enters through Me, he will be saved, and will go in and out and find pasture.

The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly.

I am the good shepherd; the good shepherd lays down His life for the sheep."

                                                            John 10: 9-11

Jesus says that He is the door to our salvation and He is the good shepherd who lays down His life for the sheep. He promises us salvation, life abundant and pasture in these verses. He also contrasts Himself with the thief who comes to steal, kill and destroy. Our enemy, the devil doesn't care about us, all he wants is our destruction; but Jesus loves us so much that He has provided for our every need.

I learned early on as a Christian that Jesus is the door to my salvation, He is the only way for me to get to the Father and I am so thankful for this. However, I think sometimes I have overlooked the part of the verse which says I will go in and out and find pasture. This gives me a sense of being satisfied or content, because that pasture represents the meeting of my essential needs - food, water and rest. I imagine that a sheep would feel content and cared for when these basic needs are met. But Jesus promises us even more: that we might have life abundantly. We experience the blessings each day of belonging to Him; even though we face trials and difficulties, we have abundant life because we have the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. He lays down His life for us that we might have eternal life - this future life will be more abundant than anything we can imagine.

Jesus wants to provide us pasture. He wants to take us to a place of rest and security. That place is in Him; when we come humbly before Him and seek His presence, He brings us a peace and rest like no other. He wants to feed and nurture us; God's word is overflowing with words of encouragement and help; it is our daily bread, but we must eat in order to be nourished.

Will you follow Jesus to that pasture? You will find that He will give you life, and life abundantly.

Persistence in Prayer

Today is the National Day of Prayer, and I found it interesting that my Bible reading schedule brought me to Nehemiah whom I discovered was a man who persisted in prayer and ultimately saw God answer.

Nehemiah was informed that the Jews who had escaped and survived captivity were in distress and that the walls of Jerusalem were broken down.

"Now it came about when I heard these words, I sat down and wept and mourned for days; and I was fasting and praying before the God of heaven."

                                      Nehemiah 1:4

Nehemiah prayed diligently, and sincerely interceded for the people for three months before God answered his prayers. This got me thinking about the attitudes we tend to have toward prayer today.

• Do we offer 'token' prayers because we said we would pray but we're short on time? Or, do we feel sorrow and compassion and a burden which spurs us into heartfelt intercession? Nehemiah wept, mourned and fasted along with his prayers. He took it seriously and came before God with humility, sincerity and faith.
• We live in an "instant gratification" society. We can have immediate access to pretty much any information we want on the internet. Most of us can't imagine going back to a dial-up connection speed. We have TV on demand, cell-phones which act like computers in the palm our hand, we can instantly download a song, instant message with friends anywhere in the world, pay our bills with the click of a mouse, and more. So, when it comes to prayer, are we expecting God to respond in like manner? Are we willing to wait upon the Lord and give Him time to answer? It's not that God can't answer quickly; He is capable of doing whatever He wills whenever He chooses, but His timing is perfect and He knows what is best for us. Nehemiah persisted in prayer and so should we. Often we just give up too easy because God didn't answer right away we think He's not going to; but His word does not teach us that. In fact, we are told to "pray without ceasing", 1 Thessalonians 5:17.

God does answer prayer, if you have trouble seeing that, consider starting a prayer journal and write down your prayer requests, write down your praises. In time you can look back and see the evidence of God's faithfulness to hear your prayers and answer them.

Be committed to prayer, pray with sincere motives, be persistent in prayer, and pray in faith!

Have a blessed day!!