Embrace the Within no. 61

"When you are suffering most [God’s] eyes are on you and he cares deeply about you."

Randy Alcorn

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 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 matters in life. 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 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 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.

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. 60

"I will cling to the old rugged cross, and exchange it some day for a crown."

George Bennard

I don’t know. And I don’t have to know. It’s alright to not know. It is true that ignorance is bliss. I am a lot happier now that I am ignorant of what is going on in the world. I am a lot happier even though there are a lot of topics I can’t discuss in detail with secular knowledge anymore. I am much happier to apply wisdom granted from my relationship with YHWH over an abundance of information.

Almost three years have passed since the lockdowns and over those three years, a lot about me has changed for the better. It wasn’t always that way. There were a lot of obstacles in my life. There were a lot of conflicts I had to work through. There were a lot of routines and ruts I needed to remove. There were new paths that I had to forge and new beds to plant. And here nearly three years later, I can look back on all those obstacles and challenges and find happiness and abundance in knowing that old me, despite his flaws and imperfections, helped pave the path for new me with his new flaws and imperfections.

I don’t know where old me thought this path was going and I don’t really care about that. Because despite what my plans were then and what my plans are now, my life is not my own. Understanding that and accepting that truth has helped shape my thoughts even before getting back into Moshiach’s teachings and the Way of YHWH. Back when I was reading the stoics, I was learning to get my circle of control figured out. I was beginning to understand some secularized concepts of the Way. I only had control over my actions and not the actions of others.

Which is not to say I don’t go out and spread the good news. I was adamant and excited about secular liberty and I am even more engulfed with joy about the liberty and responsibility that comes through the freedom given by YHWH through Moshiach. Why would I not be more excited and more willing to spread The Truth than the truth of personal responsibility and self ownership?

I pray that I don’t get settled into complacency in The Truth as I see in so many others. I pray that the Church gets motivated again to share the good news to others in their community. We need to share the good news with our neighbors as much as we share our fandom for anything else. We need to be boosters for YHWH and not athletics. We need to be putting up yard signs for Moshiach and not candidates. We need to show what is truly important in our lives or we are already showing what is important in our lives.

When you “don’t have the time” for something, try reframing that sentence with “that is not a priority” and notice how that changes your perception of what you truly value. We support what we love.

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