I will share about Christian books I have read or listened to.
I will be sharing about my life before and after Christ. I will include stories about my pet and other pets I have encountered.
Praying Honestly
Are you honest with God when you pray? Lots of people struggle with being completely honest with Him. Instead, they pick and choose the things they pray about. They hide certain sins and confess others that aren’t as embarrassing.
But Scripture says that we don’t need to clean up our life before we come to God. God is the one who created us, and He knows everything about us. So there is nothing that we can hide from Him. He already knows the innermost parts of our thoughts and desires.
The writer of Psalm 139 prays for God to search his heart and mind, and to bring up anything that he might be unaware of that is hiding beneath the surface. This is a prayer that we’re all invited to pray.
We cannot be healed from the things we try to hide. In order to experience the grace and mercy of God, we must bring everything to Him. When He searches us and brings things to mind, He’s inviting us to humbly confess them to Him.
This prayer in Psalm 139 is an open and honest plea for God to continue to purify and sanctify our hearts. God can handle the heaviest parts of us, and He is not surprised by what happens in our thoughts.
Honesty before God is the only way we can grow into the people He wants us to be. We cannot grow in our spiritual life by hiding secrets or guarding our thoughts from God.
So take a moment today to make Psalm 139 your prayer. Ask God to search your heart and see if there is anything hiding that you’re unaware of. When He brings something up, take it to Him and ask for forgiveness. Ask for the power of His Spirit to lead and guide you through this time.
God is faithful and merciful to continue to love us in spite of our shortcomings. He will continue to walk with you and lead you into eternal life with Him.
His Pain, Our Gain
Isaiah 53 is a stunning chapter in the Bible—in what is now commonly referred to as the “Old Testament.”
Approximately 700 years before Jesus walked the earth, Isaiah prophesied about a suffering servant who would also, somehow and in some way, be exalted. A coming Savior, a future Redeemer, the long-awaited Messiah—whose death would ultimately bring life.
A portion of Isaiah 53 says this:
“But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was on him, and by his wounds we are healed.”
Isaiah 53:5 NIV
So, who was this man who would be pierced, crushed, and wounded because of someone else’s sins? Whose undeserved punishment would be the catalyst for healing? Whose life would be given as an offering—so that others might live?
Jesus Christ not only fits the description of the suffering servant who paid the ultimate price to buy His people back, redeem them, and set them free—He ...
“Go to now, ye rich men, weep and howl for your miseries that shall come upon you. Your riches are corrupted, and your garments are motheaten. Your gold and silver is cankered; and the rust of them shall be a witness against you, and shall eat your flesh as it were fire. Ye have heaped treasure together for the last days. Behold, the hire of the labourers who have reaped down your fields, which is of you kept back by fraud, crieth: and the cries of them which have reaped are entered into the ears of the Lord of sabaoth. Ye have lived in pleasure on the earth, and been wanton; ye have nourished your hearts, as in a day of slaughter. Ye have condemned and killed the just; and he doth not resist you. Be patient therefore, brethren, unto the coming of the Lord. Behold, the husbandman waiteth for the precious fruit of the earth, and hath long patience for it, until he receive the early and latter rain. Be ye also patient; stablish your hearts: for the coming of the Lord draweth nigh. Grudge...
