“Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.”
What an awesome prayer by the Psalmist who knew His God and was very aware of his need of cleansing. He is filled with a sense of awe as he reflects on a God who knows him completely. Inside and out, upside and down, standing or sitting, near or far, in travel or at rest, he knew that he knew, that God knew Him and knew his thoughts. Nothing could hide him from the eyes of His Creator and all knowing God. His reflection leads him to consider the wicked and then to consider himself before the one, righteous Judge and examiner of all people. Is your conscience speaking? Is it time for an evaluation of the heart? Let’s thank God for the conscience that alerts us to our need for His probe deep within our heart and soul. That deep heart and soul searching accomplished by our creator pulls out the unlovely and impure that lurks within. His mercy search brings sin to the surface, so that we can deal with it, ask forgiveness and renew our minds in Christ. O Happy day, O Happy Day, when Jesus washed my sins away!
What a marvellous makeover! An awesome transformation and rejuvenation! What a miraculous beauty treatment when we allow Him to free us of your strongholds, release us from our chains of oppression and set us free from the wages of sin and all the bondage, misery and despair that it brings! God’s transforming power leads us into a new life with an extreme makeover, and the promise of abundant life here and now with sweet, life everlasting.
“Start children off on the way they should go, and even when they are old they will not turn from it.”
Proverbs 22:6
Parents are advised in scripture to begin training children in the things of God from their early days onward, because it establishes a firm foundation on which they can build their lives. As parents, we are to Saturate their lives with the things of God through example, teaching, prayer and the Word of God. We are to impress upon their mind the salvation story that will stay with them for the rest of their lives. Yeah, we are, and that example simply means just that, how we live!
It pains me to see the choices that kid’s make and yes, sometimes adult compromise and friends lead them down the garden path of pleasure, quickly leading them astray and away from the truth that they once knew and maybe even treasured in their heart in their younger years. Even when they’ve been raised in a Christian home, sometimes kids just have to try their wings and go their own way for a time. There’s nothing any more difficult for a parent to watch than the consequences of children fulfilling their passionate pleasures, even though they know better. There is nothing like the school of hard knocks to refresh our memories of what we know to be right and wrong and thankfully God gets our attention when we refuse to live in obedience to Him. He may allow very difficult times, but He will get our attention. It may not be pretty, but it will be perfect and just the right thing, at just the right time.
It’s what we’ve taught our children that comes back to soften their hearts in their down and out moments…If they’ve not had the spiritual teaching and training or the example of godly living, life becomes seemingly futile without hope during the consequences of sinful living. Oh how we need to teach them the things of God, and pray for our kids that God will fulfill His purpose in their lives. If you’ve a child that has gone astray, You have to trust the Sovereign God to take that child under His wing of protection and then keep praying….Claim His promises and watch for the victory.
Together You and I
So we’re in this together you and I; fellow sojourners in a temporary land, making our way through one crazy, mixed up world to ultimately reach our final destination. Oh yeah, Heaven is so very real and so very close to our hearts but sometimes it seems so distant and so far removed from where we are today ~ right now, this moment when the way is long and daunting! There’s still so much journey ahead, and we wonder through our wanderings of wilderness where its taking us? It’s a different way for us all, and we find ourselves so often in the difficult places on difficult days. The roads are many: long, short, steep, winding and dangerous with each one presenting its own level of challenge. Sometimes the light is dim the way is dark. Sometimes the eyesight wanes, health fails and strength is zapped. Decisions are overwhelming, and choices are hard, but we’re in this together aren’t we? Your way and my way? Our ways our dotted with enemies who lie in wait to ambush ~ taking us down, defeating our cause and distracting us from our heavenly goal. We want to run rather than face! We want to cry because it hurts! We want to just give in because it’s too hard to go on.
But oh we do have the good days too! Those days when we just know that we walk the way with Jesus as our steady guide, and our sovereign Lord who leads the way and just as God faithfully led the Israelites through their wanderings He leads us through ours. He’s given us the best director for the drama and the best tour guide for the journey, all packaged together beautifully in the Saviour of the world. The only one who can meet our biggest need and save us from the perils of sin and it’s ruin. Oh I trust you walk with Him today on your journey. Walk with Him as David and so many other great men and women of the faith did. So when it’s rough, and smack dab in the middle of difficult, reach out to Jesus and say with David as he prayed in
Psalm 86: 1, “Bend down, O Lord, and hear my prayer; answer me for I need your help. Protect me, for I am devoted to You. Save me for I serve You and trust You. You are my God.”
So your mind is full of stuff that’s happening in the world ~ It’s all around you, infiltrating your personal life, your world and our free country doesn’t seem so free any more! Your mind is hurled in all directions and laws, so contrary to Biblical principles, are being instigated into our culture that we have no say in and Government officials are gung – ho for it all and leadership is anything but comforting. Yes, we pray against the decisions, but the laws still get passed! Where is God now, when we need Him to come and heal our land? He seems to be right where we put Him. We’ve pushed Him and prayer out of our educational system, only to find uneasy and controversial subjects introduced into our curriculums from kindergarten up, that sadly now, we have no say in! Didn’t we used to be able to speak up and stand up for what we believed to be right? Where did it go? It’s all happened so subtly and bit by bit evil has poured it’s poison over our society with it’s powerful infiltration ~ so much so that even adults and parents reel with confusion over what’s right and what’s wrong and get pulled into the wrong believing it’s right. Many believers are being deceived and will argue against Biblical truth. Clearly events are unfolding to make way for a one world government and how on this whole, wide side of the earth do all the little ‘me’s” make a difference? The you and I’s that clearly don’t like what we see happening and yet feel helpless to make some kind of positive encounter against it all?
In 2 Chronicles 6: 12 Solomon prayed before the entire community of Israel and asked the Lord to hear and forgive when people failed to be obedient. He asked for justice to prevail when guilt and innocence couldn’t be determined. His was a powerful pray-er for guidance and blessing. In 2 Chronicles 7:14, God gives a gracious answer to his plea, “If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.
Yes, prayer to the one true God, the sovereign One who rules over all the earthly governments and all the principalities and powers is our only resource and when prayed to our one true God, it packs a powerful punch of divine supernatural authority! Pray then ~ because beautiful soul ~ prayer is all we’ve got and it’s the awesome, power source at our disposal that calls believers everywhere to action.
Yeah, remember, all this horrendous unfolding of stuff is Biblical prophecy being fulfilled and as Luke 17: 26 reminds us, “As it was in the days of Noah, so shall it be also in the days of the Son of man.” God judged the unrighteousness of man with the flooding of the entire earth to clean it up by destroying the sin that had taken over. Make no mistake about it, He will again judge the earth and no doubt His return is imminent but no one knows the day nor the hour. We have to be ready, but, believers everywhere, we might well be called to stick around for a while and we might well be called to endure some pretty messy stuff. “Note To Self” and mark it on your heart today ~ “Stay true to the faith” and say with Paul “I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.” Philippians 3:14 and say with Peter in 1 Peter 5:8-10, “Stay alert! Watch out for your great enemy the devil. He prowls around like a roaring lion, looking for someone to devour. Stand firm against him and be strong in your faith. Remember that your Christian brothers and sisters all over the world are going through the same kind of suffering you are…. God, who shows you his kindness and who has called you through Christ Jesus to His eternal glory, will restore you, strengthen you, make you strong…”
Oh what a promise for us ~ for our future and the generations to follow. Stay true! Remain strong! Remain steadfast and unmovable, standing for the right even when wrong prevails. Suddenly ~ little ‘me’s” become powerful armies of prayer warriors with God, the host of heaven’s armies leading the way to that final and glorious eternal victory!
Hope and Healing In Hard Places 