Jeremiah 29:12-13 - Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will hear you. You will seek me and find me, when you seek me with all your heart.
I am thankful for God's promise that we can have a relationship with him - that we can seek and find him. My devotion this morning used this verse and shared this quote from Oswald Chambers:
'Our Lord in his teaching regarding prayer never once referred to unanswered prayer; He said that God always answers prayer. If our prayers are in the name of Jesus, that is, in accordance with His nature, the answers will not be in accordance with our nature, but with His. We are apt to forget this, and to say without thinking that God does not always answer prayer. He does every time, and when we are in close communion with Him, we realize that we have not been misled.'
I haven't been able to stop thinking about that all day - what would it look like in my life if my prayers and desires were truly in accordance with God's nature? It brings me back to seeking him with all my heart... when I am truly seeking him, I am in that close communion and am gifted with God's perspective in small daily things and even difficult circumstances. So today I'm thankful for the promise of a close relationship and challenged with making sure my prayers are in accordance with God's nature, not mine. :)
Tuesday, February 10, 2015
Wednesday, February 04, 2015
God's Promises - Week 5
The promise I'm thankful for this week comes from a scripture passage that God has powerfully and practically been using in my life for the entire last year. It's in Deuteronomy 30:15-20:
See, I have set before you today life and good, death and evil. If you obey the commandments of the Lord your God that I command you today, by loving the Lord your God, by walking in his ways, and by keeping his commandments and his statutes and his rules, then you shall live and multiply, and the Lord your God will bless you in the land that you are entering to take possession of it. But if your heart turns away, and you will not hear, but are drawn away to worship other gods and serve them, I declare to you today, that you shall surely perish. You shall not live long in the land that you are going over the Jordan to enter and possess. I call heaven and earth to witness against you today, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and curse. Therefore choose life, that you and your offspring may live, loving the Lord your God, obeying his voice and holding fast to him, for he is your life and length of days, that you may dwell in the land that the Lord swore to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give them.
There are so many great and challenging things in this passage but I am so thankful that God gives us a choice each day... He gives us today and he gives us choices each day. A Bible study I am doing recently had an exercise where you listed things that brought life and peace and things that brought sin and death in relationships, work, schedules, home, etc. And it was such a great exercise. It took some time to really think about and write down the triggers and heart-responses in my life that bring life and bring death. And it has been a great list to look back on when I start to feel overwhelmed or worried about things I can't control... am I choosing life in this moment? or am I choosing death? I'm so thankful that each day God gives us this choice and that He is with us and in us to enable us to choose life. Thank you, God, for your promise of a new day and your promise of life.
See, I have set before you today life and good, death and evil. If you obey the commandments of the Lord your God that I command you today, by loving the Lord your God, by walking in his ways, and by keeping his commandments and his statutes and his rules, then you shall live and multiply, and the Lord your God will bless you in the land that you are entering to take possession of it. But if your heart turns away, and you will not hear, but are drawn away to worship other gods and serve them, I declare to you today, that you shall surely perish. You shall not live long in the land that you are going over the Jordan to enter and possess. I call heaven and earth to witness against you today, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and curse. Therefore choose life, that you and your offspring may live, loving the Lord your God, obeying his voice and holding fast to him, for he is your life and length of days, that you may dwell in the land that the Lord swore to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give them.
There are so many great and challenging things in this passage but I am so thankful that God gives us a choice each day... He gives us today and he gives us choices each day. A Bible study I am doing recently had an exercise where you listed things that brought life and peace and things that brought sin and death in relationships, work, schedules, home, etc. And it was such a great exercise. It took some time to really think about and write down the triggers and heart-responses in my life that bring life and bring death. And it has been a great list to look back on when I start to feel overwhelmed or worried about things I can't control... am I choosing life in this moment? or am I choosing death? I'm so thankful that each day God gives us this choice and that He is with us and in us to enable us to choose life. Thank you, God, for your promise of a new day and your promise of life.
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