Embrace the Within no. 77

"True love is an act of the will—a conscious decision to do what is best for the other person instead of ourselves."

Billy Graham

Adonai, there is much for which to be thankful.

I thank you for all the obstacles and challenges I faced this past week. Your Grace and Truth have helped me hurdle those obstacles and face those challenges. Allow me to focus on all the good that is within my life and the thankfulness and praise that lie beneath every kindness within my life. Let me be thankful that sicknesses, obstacles, and challenges are within your control. Let me be thankful that even though I may not see the way that You have already provided the path through. Help me, Lord, to know that there is nothing impossible when it comes to life. Allow me to be thankful for the time I have on this side of eternity to witness Your Power, Your Grace, Your Mercy, and Your Truth.

Thank you for showing me that since nothing I do matters in my salvation that everything I do this side of eternity matters. The pointless actions of a broken nephesh can never redeem my transgressions. You provided a way that relies not on my deeds BUT the sacrifice of Your Son in a plan for perfection. Thank you for providing a path to salvation and atonement that all can achieve through Your sacrifice.

Help my heart. Help me to remember humility and to treat all as Your image bearers. Help me to remember that all humanity are my neighbors. Help me to live a right example of the relationship I should have with You, myself, and my neighbor. Help me to pause in Your Presence before merely reacting with a broken spirit. I thank you for all the understanding that I have gained through studying your Word and building a better relationship with You. I thank you for allowing that opportunity through Your Way and not my way.

I pray this week for revival. I pray for revival in my heart. I pray for revival in my home. I pray for revival in my family. I pray for revival in my friends. I pray for revival in my neighbors. I pray for revival in the churches I visit. I pray for revival in the community I live. Lord, we need a revival. Lord, I need a revival. I pray your Presence be felt in this world for all of us in need.

I pray that those that are suffering from physical, mental, and spiritual weakness will find Your strength. I am thankful for the healing that awaits all of us this side of eternity. I thank You for showing me the power of prayer and the healing that can occur with faith and trust in Your power over this mortal world. And I look forward to an eternity to learn even more about You.

As I move forward with the ending of this week and the promise of a new week ahead, I ask that You look over my community. I pray for Your Church and all those that work for your glory in my community. I pray that Your Church is strengthened with resolve and commitment to spreading your love and grace to all in the community. I pray that you pour out more blessings for Your Church than they can hold. Help us all to live a life that is a beacon to those in our community and help my words and actions be a blessing to Your glory. Help us and those we meet along the way to see Your vision of the world to come, Your Truth in all those interactions. In all this I ask that it is Your way and not my way.

Hear, O Israel: YHWH, our Elohim is One! And I will love and worship and thank and praise my YHWH, my Elohim with all my nephesh!

Amen.

Shavua tov. Shalom to your home. Bless your being. The reign of YHWH is now. Be a blessing to YHWH and others.

#ThinkBetter #BeBetter #NoGodsNoMasters #NoKingButChrist #MyNepheshMyChoice #ChristsLifeMatters #EmbracetheWithin #NotMyWayYHWH #GodKnows

Embrace the Within no. 76

"To love to preach is one thing—to love those to whom we preach, quite another."

Richard Cecil

My morning prayer over the past few days has been one of simple humility, “Lord, work on my heart.” My heart needs to SHEMA when the Spirit is telling me something from Adonai. And oftentimes I do not SHEMA as well as I should. And if my heart was better aligned to listening to the Spirit, then this walk would be a lot easier.

So, every day I pray that my heart will not only always be on YHWH BUT I will also listen when YHWH speaks through His Word, His Truth, and His Spirit.

The more I move forward in the Way of the Lord, the more I see so many things in which I am deficient. So many things I need to keep working and building and refining and polishing and perfecting. And I know that this process will never end on this side of eternity. I know that I am striving for something that I can never possibly achieve on this side of Eden.

That’s not going to stop or deter me. I am not going to give up on working toward that ideal presented in Christ. No matter that I will always have something else to work towards every day. Because every day I get to choose to pick up that mantle of discipleship, every day I get to choose to be an ambassador for His Kingdom, every day I get to choose to live the Way of the Lord. I get the opportunity to represent the Way of the Lord here among my neighbors. And that is not an opportunity I should take lightly or dismiss. That is an opportunity with the most important consequences.

After decades of teaching and working in a broken nation, I know the only way to unburden myself is in the Truth of love for my neighbor. And the only way to arrive at love for my neighbor is through an increasing love for YHWH. I cannot love my neighbor fully without his Grace and Truth. So, that simple prayer of humility works wonders for me this week. As I follow forward in the word for the week, “Humble”. I pray that we all find humility to the Father and stop acting like the Elder Son.

“Now his elder son was in the field: and as he came and drew near to the house, he heard music and dancing. And he called one of the servants, and asked what these things meant. And he said unto him, Your brother is come; and your father has killed the fatted calf, because he has received him safe and sound.

And he was angry, and would not go in: therefore came his father out, and intreated him.

And he answering said to [his] father, Lo, these many years do I serve you, neither transgressed I at any time your commandment: and yet you never gave me a kid, that I might make merry with my friends: But as soon as this your son was come, which has devoured your living with prostitutes, you have killed for him the fatted calf.

And he said unto him, Son, you are ever with me, and all that I have is yours. It was meet that we should make merry, and be glad: for this your brother was dead, and is alive again; and was lost, and is found”

(Luke 15: 25-32 NMV).

Shavua tov. Shalom to your home. Bless your being. The reign of YHWH is now. Be a blessing to YHWH and others.

#ThinkBetter #BeBetter #NoGodsNoMasters #NoKingButChrist #MyNepheshMyChoice #ChristsLifeMatters #EmbracetheWithin #NotMyWayYHWH #GodKnows