Psalm 139:23-24

Psalm 139:23-24

Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. Point out anything in me that offends you, and lead me in the path of everlasting life.

Have you ever had someone in your life that knew you so well and that you could trust so much that you felt they knew your heart? Someone that you knew even when you said something stupid or totally messed up that person would filter your words and actions through what they knew your heart to be? I have been blessed with one such friendship in my life and it is amazing the freedom that comes from this friendship. When you have this freedom you know you can let your guard down and relax. You can trust them to see the real you and know they will love you warts and all. Friendships like this are truly a treasure, but even better is when we have that relationship with God.

How many of us trust God enough to really say to God- search me and know my heart as David did in Psalm 139:23-24?  So often we would rather not have God know our hearts at all. We don’t want God to look too deep, afraid of what He might see. It might be ok for Him to look at our behavior, because some of us have managed to learn how to behave even when our hearts are wrong.  Even when we are behaving well we don’t want him to know what is really going on in our hearts. We definitely don’t want him to test us, or examine us, and know our anxious thoughts and point out anything in us that offends Him. We want to fly under the radar with God because we don’t trust Him enough to believe He loves us warts and all.

Many times we think God wants only perfection from us and can not love us when we are flawed. In our skewed vision we think that He is a God way up there waiting to judge us and maybe zap us with lightning once or twice to show us He is boss. We think God thinks as the world thinks and therefore we do not trust Him. We look at God as only the God of judgment and so we do not really trust Him with our hearts. We may read verses such as Matthew 5:48 that tell us to be perfect even as our heavenly father is perfect and so we give up hope. How can we be perfect? The world tells us that perfect is flawless or without shortcomings. As long as we are on this earth we will always have things in our behavior, thoughts, and spiritual life we have to deal with. Trying to reach the world’s definition of perfect may be impossible, but in the Strong’s concordance we see that perfect means to have human integrity, virtue, and maturity. These are not things you have immediately or get over night they are something you grow into.   

Paul said in Philippians 3:12-14 that he had not already reached perfection, but that he was pressing towards that perfection. God knows that we are born with a sin nature. He knows that naturally our hearts are bent towards evil. In Matthew 15:19 it says, that from the heart comes evil thoughts, murder, adultery, all sexual immorality, theft, lying and slander. God knows those things are what are naturally in our hearts. The beauty of it is that God has not left that as the end of the story. We are born with these things in our hearts, but they do not have to define us for the rest of our lives. In 2 Corinthians 5:17-21 the Word tells us that we are made new creatures if we are in Christ and as new creatures God has reconciled us with Him. It also says that God made Jesus to be sin for us so that we could be righteous. In Romans 12:2 it says that we should be not conformed to the world, but be transformed by the renewing of our mind so that we will know the good, acceptable, and perfect will of God.

God knows we have not attained perfection. He knows everything about us. In Psalm 139:1-7 we see that David said God knew everything about him. When he stood up, sat down, traveled, and stayed at home- God even knew what he was going to say before he said it. Then he said that God went before him and followed him and placed His hand of blessing on David’s head. Later on in the chapter verse 17 says, How precious are your thoughts about me, O God, they cannot be numbered. David trusted God to search his heart because David knew that God completely knew him. David knew that God not only knew him, but had precious thoughts about him. David was not perfect. David was an adulterer and a murderer, but David repented and turned to God for forgiveness, so David could have confidence that God loved him even though God knew him. David knew that to be right with God he had to trust God enough to let God point out the things in David’s life that offended God and allow God to lead him in the path of everlasting life.

We are not left without hope. When we try and do good, be good, and attain perfection on our own we might feel hopeless, but that is not God’s plan for us.  2 Peter 1:3-4 says, “By his divine power, God has given us everything we need for living a godly life. We have received all of this by coming to know Him, the one who called us to Himself by means of His marvelous glory and excellence. And because of His glory and excellence, He has given us great and precious promises. These are the promises that enable you to share His divine nature and escape the world’s corruption caused by human desires.”

God has given us the means to live a life pleasing to Him. We can not use the fact that “God knows our hearts” as an excuse to act however we want because God knows we are a good person. God does know our hearts and He knows when we are truly maturing and trying to do better. He knows when we are honoring Him only with our lips, but our hearts are far from Him (Matthew 5:18), or when we are pressing on towards that perfection (Philippians 3:12-14). We can trust God because God already knows us. God knows when we are having good days and when we are having bad days, when you are experiencing a season of joy or a season of heartbreak. God knows you and loves you anyway and He is giving you what you need in this season to live a life of godliness right now- in the good and bad, joy or pain, single or married, mountain top or valley below. Trust God; seek God, ask God to show you what you need to change so that you can live a life free of offence to Him. Ask Him to create in you a clean heart and renew a loyal spirit within you (Psalm 51:10). God’s thoughts towards you are precious (Psalm 139:17) and He loves you with an everlasting love (Jeremiah 31:3).

There may not be many people in this world that we can trust our hearts to. People may let us down and hurt us. They may not always understand the motives behind our actions or words, but God does. He knows our innermost thoughts and he understands our outward actions. He sees our imperfections, but see us as perfect and righteous through His son Jesus Christ when we trust Him enough to allow Him to examine our hearts and point out what we need to change. Seek God today and ask Him to help you grow towards perfection and maturity in Him.

Make like a tree...

Genesis 12:1-3

The Lord had said to Abram, “Leave your native country, your relatives, and your father’s family, and go to the land that I will show you. I will make you into a great nation. I will bless you and make you famous, and you will be a blessing to others. I will bless those who bless you and curse those who treat you with contempt. All the families on earth will be blessed through you.”

This time of year is one of my favorites. I love when the mornings are crisp and the smell outside is fresh. The leaves are changing color and everything is just so beautiful. I try not to focus on the fact that after this beautiful season of color the trees will be barren, the grass will turn brown and I will have to look harder to find beauty in the area around me. Not very long ago I began to wonder why the leaves change colors and why they fall off. They are so pretty when they are on the trees and such a hassle to have to rake and clean up when they fall off.

After a little research I found out that the reason the leaves fall off the tree is so the tree can protect itself. When the nights get longer the trees start to secrete chemicals that cause the leaves to change color and then to ultimately separate from the trees. The trees do this to conserve energy and protect themselves from damage during the winter. The leaves that fall off the tree end up becoming a mulch for the tree and help to further protect its roots as well. This process helps the tree to thrive in the next season when the leaves begin to grow again. If the tree didn't lose the leaves it would be weak and not as lacking the next year.

When I was reading this it made me think of people and relationships. There are seasons in our lives where we have to begin to step away from things, whether it is people or activities, so that we can protect ourselves and do what God wants us to. We see an example of this in Genesis chapter 12 when God told Abraham to go and leave his native land. He told him to leave his father's family and go to the land God would show him. God told him that He would make Abram into a great nation and that He would bless him there. When I was younger it seemed harsh to me that God would make Abraham leave his family and go away. Family is one of the most important relationships we can have and for God to ask Abraham to get up and leave them all behind would be so difficult, but it is precisely what Abraham had to do to get to where God wanted him.

I have read this passage many times and one day something stood out to me that I had never seen before. In chapter 11 and verse 31 of Genesis it said that Terah (Abraham's father) took his son and their family and moved away from Ur. Then it says that he was headed for the land of Canaan but that he stopped in Haran and settled there. It does not tell us that God told Terah to go to Canaan and that Terah disobeyed by settling in Haran, but it did make me wonder. I wondered if Terah was supposed to keep on going and take his family with him, but instead he stopped short of the promise that God had for him. I wonder if this is why God told Abraham and he had to leave his fathers household. God may have known that Terah stopped short of the blessing, and Abraham needed to get out away from his family so that he wouldn't follow in his fathers footsteps and stop short as well. God may have know that in order for him to continue on in the plan of God and be the man through whom the earth was going to be blessed, he had to let go and then go. Abraham had a season where he had to “shed his leaves”and leave his family, possibly to protect him from discouragement or even just from a bad example.

We may have seasons like that as well. Times where we have to give up certain relationships for a time so that we can pursue something that God has put in our hearts. Maybe we need to shed some relationships because they are toxic to us. There may be people in our lives that will suck the life right out of us, just like the leaves will suck the life from the tree if they do not fall off for the winter. Sometimes we allow ourselves to feel guilty if we start to remove ourselves from those friendships because the person “needs” us. We think that we can help them or save them, but often when this is the case we are just enabling the person to continue in wrong behavior.

Maybe it is not a person that you are supposed to be letting go of, but an activity or even a sin. What is it in your life that you need to shed. What is bringing you down and causing an obstacle in your relationship with the Lord? If you want to live in God's best for your life. If you want to live in the place of blessing for you- then you need to be willing to get up and go when God tells you to, even if it means leaving a comfort zone or stepping back from relationships that you are in. Just because God asks you to give things up for a time does not mean it is gone forever. Once the autumn and winter season is over then there will be a spring and a summer.

I challenge you to spend time in prayer and ask God if there is anything you are supposed to be letting go of so that you can be the best you can be for Him today.

1 John 1:9

1 John 1:9 NKJV

If we confess our sins he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

My son took our dog for a walk the other day. Taking a dog for a walk doesn’t seem like such a big deal, but it became a big deal for him. It was one of the first times he took the dog for a walk by himself where we live. We have lived here a year and we have gone on walks together and so he felt that he could do this with no problems. He started walking and thought he would just follow the path and take a short walk. The short walk ended up being a very long walk because he was not familiar with how the roads worked. When we lived in Oklahoma the roads were straight and you could count on there being blocks and mile sections. When we moved here to Arkansas we realized that it is very different. He thought that if he just turned right, then turned right, and then turned right again he should be going the right way. In Oklahoma that would have worked, but not here. Here if you turn right, the road curves enough that you may end up going left and be lost before you know it. Nathan finally saw someone else walking their dog and asked them where the entrance to our neighborhood was and they pointed him in the right direction.

My son took off with good intentions of doing his chores. He thought he knew the right way to go and thought it would be easy. Instead he ended up on the wrong path and his way was made much more difficult. Have you ever had a time when you thought you were on the right path and then you realized that you had stumbled into an area of sin in your life that you needed to deal with? Or maybe you knew you were way off course and had fallen in a pit. You knew that you were in full fledged disobedience and that the sin had become a pit that you had taken up residence in. It is very easy when we are in these sin seasons to want to give up. To feel that God must be so mad at us and that he couldn’t forgive us. The good news is that God is not like us. In our verse this week God says, “if we confess our sins He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” God will forgive us- He wants to forgive us.

Paul, a man who wrote a majority of the New Testament talked in Romans 7:15 about how there were times in his life where he didn’t understand himself. He said that he wanted to do what was right, but sometimes he didn’t do it and instead did what he hated. We all, no matter how spiritual we are, will have sins in our life that we need to deal with. Whether we have walked away from the Lord and gone back to our old sins and need to come to repentance or whether it is the sins that we have always done, but did not recognize as sin in our lives until God gently (or not so gently) pointed it out to us. In the Strong’s concordance the word sin means to miss the mark, be mistaken, wander from the path, or wander from God’s law. The sin in our lives isn’t always blatant and obvious to others, sometimes the sins are just areas where we area little off target and are missing the mark. They could be things that we know we are supposed to do but we don’t do them, or things we know we should stop doing, but we do them anyway. We may even be on the right path, walking towards God, headed in the right direction, but we just kind of wander a little off the path and begin to separate ourselves ever so slightly from God.

God tells us when this happens that He has a plan for us. We can confess our sins to Him. We can acknowledge our sin, admit to it, and repent of it. When we do this God says He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins. Then he doesn’t just say we are forgiven he takes it further and cleanses us from the unrighteousness. To cleanse means to purify, purge, and to make clean. When you ask for forgiveness God makes you completely clean. He purges your sin from you and makes you in right standing with Him.
Some people take 1 John 1:9 and try and use it as a license to sin. If you are doing this then you really need to take a look at your heart and judge yourself. When you are aware of an area of sin in your life it should bother you. In chapter 1 verse 6 it says that “we are lying if we say that we have fellowship with God but go on living in spiritual darkness; we are not practicing the truth” (NLT). Chapter 3:8-9 says, “But when people keep on sinning, it shows that they belong to the devil, who has been sinning since the beginning. But the Son of God came to destroy the works of the devil. Those who have been born into God’s family do not make a practice of sinning, because God’s life is in them. So they can’t keep on sinning, because they are children of God.” (NLT) This does not mean that if you slip up and say a cuss word, gossip about someone once, or have a thought you shouldn’t have that you are not saved. It does mean that when you do things that are contrary to God’s word, you will have a prick in your conscience. You will know that you are doing something that you need to change. You will want to repent and get right with God.

God is so good and so merciful to us. We always have areas in our life that we need to improve, places where we have started to stumble off the path. We should be always vigilant to make sure we are staying true to the path that God has us on and working at becoming better followers of Christ and better examples to the world of what a Christian is. We will mess up at times, but when we mess up we have an advocate who pleads our case to the father (1 John 2:1). Not because of our works or our righteousness, but because of Christ’s sacrifice and atonement for our sins. It is my prayer that you will judge your own heart right now. I pray that we will be like David in Psalm 139:23-24 and will ask God to point out if there is anything in us that offends him and that we will allow Him to lead us in the path of everlasting life.
　

Joshua 1:8

Joshua 1:8 NKJV

This book of the law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night, that you may observe to do according to all that is written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success.

So much of our lives we push ourselves to try and become prosperous and have good success. We work and work trying to keep up with those around us. Often people aren’t happy because they think they have to have this or that to be truly successful and happy.

When I think about learning to live a successful life, I realize that this verse is a very foundational verse for us. The reason I feel this verse is so important is because we do want to prosper and be successful, but it is more important to be prosperous and successful in God’s eyes than in the world’s eyes. In fact when we learn God’s ways of success we will also learn more about being successful in this world as well and in this verse God tells us how to make that happen.

God says that His word should not depart from our mouth. His word should be our first answer and our final answer. His law and Word should be in our mouth and we should be meditating on it. We should be studying scripture, reading scripture, and speaking scripture out of our mouths. The Hebrew word for meditate is hagah. It means to murmur, ponder, imagine, mutter, and plot. To meditate on God’s word we are going to take a morsel of the scripture and put it to memory. We will speak it out loud and mutter it under our breath. We will think about the verse and how it applies to our lives. We will even plot ways to put that word into action in our every day lives. When we do this we will be able to “do according to all that is written therein”. We will have the wisdom and knowledge that we can only get from God and His word and that will help us to live our lives in a right way.

Then we have a promise. When we speak and meditate on His word, then we can observe to do His word, then we shall make our way prosperous and have good success. Something I find interesting here is that God says WE will make our way prosperous and have good success. He isn’t going to do it, we do it. He has already given us the tools in His word, but we are responsible to take the tools and apply them in our lives. So many times people want to live and do whatever they want and then when they get in trouble they want God just to fix it. That isn't how God designed it to work. He has given us the resources, but we have to cooperate with Him by doing our part. If God hadn't set it up like this and we could do whatever we wanted all the time and then just pray to God and get Him to immediately fix everything, we would treat God like a genii in a lamp. We would just get to the place where he is our servant instead of the other way around.

Yes God wants us blessed. He wants us successful and prosperous. He wants good things in our lives, but he doesn't just want to be our errand boy. He wants us to take the steps- to memorize His words, to meditate on them, and then observe to do all that is written in it. He knows that when we do the things he has given us to do that we will be successful in our lives and we will be a blessing to others. When we study His word then we will know we are to love others, and how to love them. We will know things to avoid that will hinder our lives, and we will see ways that we can be a light to those around us.

This week I challenge you to start memorizing God's word. Make a quality decision to put His word in your heart so that you will not sin against Him. Meditate on these words and then do them. I know that as you follow His ways your life will be more successful and you will be prosperous in all you do.

Psalm 57:2

Psalm 57:2 (NLT)

I cry out to God Most High, to God who will fulfill his purpose for me.

Have you ever had seasons in your life that you just wondered if there was any purpose to your life? Times where you feel like Solomon did in Ecclesiastes when he said “meaningless, meaningless everything is meaningless”? Maybe at one time you had a dream for your life or you felt that God has a calling for you, but in that season it all seemed hopeless? Maybe you are in that season right now. Maybe you have had a tragedy in your life and now you just feel hopeless and like you don’t understand. Maybe you were abused or used and you feel like damaged goods. Maybe nothing really happened, you just feel so far from God and you might even be questioning if He is even real.

David wrote this psalm at such a time in his life. He knew he was anointed to be king. He knew that God had a call for his life. He had been close to the king, ministered to the king, and even fought for the king. He was even best friends with the kings son. Things probably looked like they were going in the right direction for him to step into the purpose that God had for his life.

Then Saul turned on him. Saul began to hate him and falsely accused him- he even tried to kill him. Talk about discouraging! David had to begin to question what the purpose was in all of this. I am sure he wondered if God even knew what He was doing at times. This particular verse for this week came on a day when David was hiding from Saul in a cave. David, who was anointed as king, was hiding and afraid for his life.

Can’t you just picture David hiding in the cave. A man conflicted- knowing that God had shared a calling for his life. David knew he was a mighty warrior- he had killed a lion and a bear with his bare hands and he had killed thousands in war- but here he was hiding in a cave crying out to God. I doubt that he was just sitting quietly or even just kneeling beside his bed whispering a little prayer. This was a man confused and frustrated. I am sure he was pacing back and forth thinking of where he had been knowing where he was supposed to be going, but yet there he was stuck in that cave. This verse says he was crying out to God. Not talking, not whispering, he was crying out. And when he cried out he knew who he was crying out to- to God who would fulfill His purpose in David. David knew just crying wouldn’t do any good, he had to cry out to God, his God, the one with the plan.

Have you ever felt like you needed to really cry out to God? Do you now? Do you wonder if God has a purpose for your life? In Jeremiah 1:5 God told Jeremiah that God knew him before he was formed in his mothers womb. God had set him apart and appointed him as his prophet. God also knew you before you were born and he has a purpose for you as well! You may wonder how God can use you because you have been abused, hurt, or misunderstood. You may not feel that you have the abilities of others, that you are not attractive enough, smart enough, or anything enough- but God knows exactly who you are and exactly what He would want you to be.

Psalm 119:9-16

Psalm 119:9-16

How can a young person stay pure? By obeying your word. I have tried hard to find you—      don’t let me wander from your commands. I have hidden your word in my heart, that I might not sin against you. I praise you, O Lord; teach me your decrees. I have recited aloud all the regulations you have given us. I have rejoiced in your laws as much as in riches. I will study your commandments and reflect on your ways. I will delight in your decrees and not forget your word.

How can a young person, or any person for that matter stay pure? Our society seems to thrive on leading people away from purity. They emphasize the sensual and glorify that which is taboo. They say if it feels good- do it. The world says that you deserve whatever it is that you want, no matter what it takes to get it.  So with all of this working against us, with temptations on every side, how can we stay pure? Verse 9 says that a person can stay pure by obeying Gods word.  

Sometimes it feels almost impossible to stay pure because we feel like doing wrong. Sometimes people feel like they need another drink to feel good. Sometimes people feel that they don't love their spouse anymore and a different person makes them feel better.  Too often people think that to be true to themselves they need to follow their feelings. Feelings are good for us. God gave us feelings and they can be a blessing and help, but feelings are a horrible master. We have to learn to acknowledge our feelings and recognize how they are useful, but we can not let them rule our life.

Feelings are like symptoms. When you have a symptom- a fever, a pain, or even when you feel great then you know you either need to fix something or keep doing what you are doing. The symptom helps you diagnose if there is a problem and take the right course of action to fix it. This is how our feelings should work as well. Just because we have a feeling or a temptation does not mean we need to act on it in a negative way, instead we need to act the way the word tells us to.

This isn't always easy. Verses 10 and 11 say, "I have tried hard to find you, don’t let me wander from your commands. I have hidden your word in my heart that I might not sin against thee." The psalmist said that he tried hard to find God. People will do all kinds of things to try and find God. They will work themselves to death, they may become very legalistic, they may even go around telling everyone else what they are doing wrong in an effort to please God. This is not the way to find God. Verse 11 says that when we hide God’s word in our heart, it helps us keep from sinning. It helps us stay pure. Hiding God's word doesn't just mean that we go to church and look at the bible once in a while, it means that we treasure, esteem, and lift up God's word in our lives. In verses 13-16 we see an example of this when the psalmist says he praises the lord, he recites aloud God’s regulations and rejoices in God's commandments.  When he delights in God's decrees he doesn't focus on the fact that there are regulations and things he is not allowed to do, instead he focuses on the freedom that comes into his life by being free from sin.

God's commands give us true freedom. They help us to walk in purity and govern our feelings. When we see God's word tells us to walk in love towards one another it helps us to quickly resolve issues with others so that we can be free from anger, bitterness and unforgiveness. When God says not to lie we don't have to walk in fear wondering if our lie will be exposed. When God says not to commit adultery we don't have to be worried about our spouses finding out or about catching a disease. God's regulations are not designed to keep us from having fun, they are designed to bring us peace and joy. The world shows us the pleasure of sin, and sin is pleasurable for a season (Hebrews 11:25). If it were not fun for a time no one would have trouble resisting temptation. The consequences of living impure lives will catch up with us though, and the consequences are often anything but pleasurable. Sometimes they are physical, sometimes they are emotional or spiritual, but either way it hurts. God is a loving father who wants so much to keep you from that pain. God knows that when you follow His word it will protect you and bring you life.

To follow His word you have to read and study His word. Memorize and meditate on it day and night that you may do according to all that is written in it (Joshua 1:8). If you want true joy and a life of peace you need to develop a habit of living in God's word. You need to rejoice in it and esteem it higher than riches (Psalm 119:14). You need to study His commandments and reflect on God's ways (Psalm 119:15).  I pray that each and every one of us will commit ourselves to live a life of purity before our God, more consistently and with more dedication than we ever have before. I pray that we will ask God to create in us a clean heart and a right spirit. That we will have the joy of his salvation and that we would be willing to obey Him more fully than ever before (Psalm 51:7-12). If you have not been living a life of purity before God- it is not too late. No matter what you have done in the past or are currently doing in the present, God is ready and able to forgive. Just make a quality decision today to live for Him and walk according to His word, no matter what you feel like doing.

Psalm 119:1-8

Psalm 119:1-8

Joyful are people of integrity,who follow the instructions of the Lord.Joyful are those who obey his laws and search for him with all their hearts.They do not compromise with evil,and they walk only in his paths.You have charged us to keep your commandments carefully. Oh, that my actions would consistently reflect your decrees! Then I will not be ashamed when I compare my life with your commands.As I learn your righteous regulations,I will thank you by living as I should! I will obey your decrees.Please don’t give up on me!

Have you ever said something and as soon as you said it your stomach felt ill because you knew you shouldn’t have said it? Or have you ever done something that you knew you shouldn’t, but you thought that no one would know, but sure enough people found out and then you were embarrassed? Or maybe you are even currently living in an area of sin and it is really nagging at your conscience. You are not really enjoying life, because you just can’t get completely relaxed and happy knowing you are not walking in the integrity of the Lord.

    Psalm 119:1 tells us that, “Joyful (happy, blessed) are the people of integrity who follow the instructions of the Lord.” Verse 2 goes on to say, “Joyful (happy, blessed) are those who obey His laws and search for him with all of their hearts.”  So often people say that they do not want to follow God or have anything to do with Christianity because there are so many rules or things they can not do.  But here God tell us that the rules bring you joy and blessing. They bring freedom, which is exactly opposite of how the world sees it.
    I love verses 5&6 that say, “Oh that  my actions would consistently reflect your decrees.  Then I will not be ashamed when I compare my life to your commands.” How many times in my life I have wished that my actions and words were more consistent with God’s decrees. How many times in my life I would have escaped embarrassment if I had only lined my words and deeds up with God’s word.
    God has grace and mercy for us when we mess up.  He forgives us as soon as we repent. He knows us inside and out. He knows when we are going to mess up and He chooses to love us anyway.  Just because God does love and forgive us does not mean we should go on living as we did before, allowing ourselves to say an dd anything we want.  Verse 7 says, “As I learn your righteous regulations I will thank You by living as I should.” God has given us so much and we often take Him for granted, but when we make a decision for Christ and to follow God we need to thank God for what He has done for us by changing our ways and living for Him.   
    Just because we do become Christians and want to do right does not mean we will never mess up. The psalmist knew this too because he ended this section of verses by saying, “I will obey your decrees. Please don’t give up on my!” How many times have you wanted to give up on yourself? Isn’t it good to know you are not the only one who has ever felt that way? Isn’t it even better to know that God will never give up on you?
    Sometimes people justify their wrong behavior. They live against the word of God and they tell themselves that they are a relatively good person and they believe in God so they that they are good enough and don’t need to worry. We can never be “good enough” for God. Our being Christians isn’t about our being good enough, it is about God wanting us to be right with him, and him making a way of salvation. We don’t do good to try and earn our way into heaven. We should live right first off because it is our way of thanking God for saving us. Our way of telling him that we love him. The cool thing is that even though we are lining up our lives with his word because we are thankful and we love him, He turns right around and gives us joy and peace. When we obey His commands and walk in His ways then we will be a happier and more joyful people!
    If there is an area that you are allowing yourself to live outside of God’s laws, I challenge you to change it. Line your life up with him in every area and you will be amazed at the peace and joy you will find.

Father I pray for each on that is reading this now. That they will personally pray as the psalmist in  Psalm 139:23 says that you will search me and know my heart and point out if there is any offensive way in me and lead me in the way everlasting. Lord if there is any stronghold that is keeping them from serving you and having the joy that only you can give, I pray that the stronghold will be broken now., and that they will be able to go forth in your peace and your joy.

In Jesus Name

Amen