Embrace the Within no. 56

"I shall never lose life’s zest, because the last turn in the road will be the best."

Anna Kay Scott

Heavenly Father, redeeming Christ, and comforting Spirit,

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 small kindness within my life. Let me be thankful that small sicknesses and small obstacles are not larger. Let me be thankful that even though I may not see the way that You have already walked that path and 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 of 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 matters in life. My deeds are never going to be enough. The pointless actions of a broken nephesh can never redeem my transgressions BUT You provided a way that relies not on my deeds BUT the sacrifice of Your Son in a plan for perfection. That has been a revelation over the past few weeks that keeps making more sense as I move forward in my journey along your way.

Help me to remember the conversion of Saul and how you took one of the most deadly and dangerous enemies of the first century and turned his life into one of witness for Your Glory. Help remove the scales from the eyes of others as You restored my vision to see and embrace Your Way. I am thankful for the chance to move from the path of rebuker and malcontent in this world and into a testimony of Your grace and mercy. 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 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 be 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.

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

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

Embrace the Within no. 55

“Our identity is to be rooted in the Imago Dei, in the image of God. But we’ve gotten so ingrained in the thinking of the culture, that we wind up being parakeets to what the society is saying, rather than taking a solid, loving but clear stance on what God is saying.”

-Tony Evans

“God has given us the Holy Spirit to illuminate our minds. He is eyes and understanding to us.”

A. W. Tozer

There are a lot of confused folks out there trying to tell you their truth. Folks that have a difficult time living at peace want to try and sell you their truth. They found a new way to make things easier while living a difficult life. So, stop believing them?

Folks like to point at our beliefs and say we are gullible. That Christians will believe anything. And they are right. They aren’t right because we are Christians. They are right because we are humans. And humans will believe anything. Look back to the Garden and how much trouble we get into by trusting what we see as good to really be good for us. And then fast forward to now and look around at all these people choosing what they think is good for them and really choosing their own destruction.

There are so many roads to wrong choices. We weren’t born with the ability to choose what is right. It’s a practice of continuing doing what is right and thinking about what is right and listening to what is right. No one wakes up one day and just does the right thing. I slowly worked my way into a habit of making right choices by changing my whole routine. When I gave up smoking, I had to choose to change my old routine. When I chose to eat healthy, I had to choose to change my routine into something new. When we decide to make better choices, then something in the past needs to go away. Right choice isn’t a miracle. Right choice is a daily practice that comes from consistent living.

Sure, Christians are gullible BUT so are the rest of humanity. In thinking that we can’t be fooled lies a foolishness of its own. I have been studying and teaching influence for nearly a decade and I still get fooled by the tricks of influence. I am better at recognizing those techniques BUT there is still an art and beauty to how they can get employed that fools anyone. Even folks that work at crafting influence get fooled. So, don’t be concerned about being gullible. The folks that think they are above trickery are the ones fooling themselves.

Judge the messenger and the message before accepting their truth. Not everyone, not even everyone in a church, is looking out for your best interest. Let the Ruach of Truth guide you.

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

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