Hello (again?) dear Reader, and welcome to this obscure sliver of American cyberspace in the middle of the week on a cool, sunny day in early Spring where I currently sit, writing my late-morning thoughts/prayers/observations et cetera, from a remote segment of the Sonoran Desert.
First, here is today's portion from the Book of Wisdom (in correspondence with this being the fifth day of the month):
Proverbs 5 ESV
And, because "Faith cometh by hearing, and hearing the Word of God" (Romans 10:17 KJV), here is the audio version as well:
Elsewhere online, I saw this Psalm referenced, and that caught my attention:
Enough about that; next time I hope to talk some about partisan politics, but will go and rest a bit for now, thanking you, dear Reader, for these minutes of your time and I ask You, Lord God, for the salvation of the souls of all whose eyes see these words, in Jesus' Name, amen. 💜
Elsewhere online, I saw this Psalm referenced, and that caught my attention:
I am compelled to admit to you right now, dear Reader, that, at the time of this blog entry, I AM an abject FAILURE at verse 3, FULL STOP. No excuses, no justifications. It's just sin/ failure, pure and simple. I'll make no excuse for my behavior, nor will I deny it. And, no I'm not bragging, but merely owning what is fact because facts are not altered one iota because of how I 'feel' about them.
Ok, so there's step 1, taken from 1 John 1:9
Now, for the second part (prayer and repentance):
Dear Lord God, thank You for this, yet another day of life that I was not promised and do not deserve; please see that I do not squander it, God! Thank you for making my sin apparent so that I can lay it down and seek You for healing and the empowerment to do better going forward, Lord God. Please always, always show me when I'm wrong that I may have that chance to do better the next time, God. Please create the strength of Your Gentleness within me, Lord Jesus, and further please imbue me with Your compassion for all, leaving none out. Thank You, Lord!
Father, I am compelled to ask that You please protect all the unborn from medical murder, God, in Jesus' Name! Please give a deep love for every unborn baby to that baby's mother, God, in Jesus' Name. Father, please end all war, globally, God; please settle Your Peace over the land, God. Please bring clarity where there is confusion; please dispel conflict with understanding, God. Lord, we ask also that You please protect President Trump and everyone who surrounds him, God, now and always, in Jesus' Name. Father, please remove all the wicked from places of authority and replace them with those who truly love and honor You above all else, Lord God. Also, Father, please feed every hungry mouth as well as every hungry soul today, Lord. Please protect all of the most vulnerable among us, God. Please dispel the insanity of partisan politics, God, not only in the US but globally - please erase the division, God. Father God, please bring all of the currently unsaved to the saving, miraculous inner knowledge of Christ and remove all of the scales from the eyes of all who are presently deceived, God. We ask that You embolden saints across the land to speak and to live in Truth that will be a light to the lost. Please heal the sick; please deliver the bound and all held in captivity, God! Please end the entire human-trafficking industry world-wide, God! Please cause people involved in the industry to encounter You and cooperate with the right global authorities to bring the demise of that unspeakable evil about, God, if it be Your will. Please, meet all of our unspoken needs and the prayers that we forgot to pray and lead us every minute of every day, by grace, in faith, and strengthen every heart to cry "though He slay me, yet will I praise Him!" and we thank You for all of these things and more, our heart, our Love, our Everything, God. In Jesus' Name, amen.
I always go way off the starting topic in prayer, but, the point that I am trying to make here is that prayer and repentance (I think, should) always follow confession.
One more quick note about confession: I think that it's important to confess TO the person harmed by the mistake/ your sin whenever possible. It's my experience that yes, it's the most difficult option (emotionally, psychologically speaking) but I find that it's also the most effective, truly-cathartic option as well. Of course, I feel like you are still absolutely forgiven by the Lord if/when direct-confession is not an option (and, not that I can speak for Him, I'm just what the Bible says about it). So, if you - for whatever reason - cannot confess directly (to the object of that offense), it's not the end of all things.
Getting back to the prayer and repentance part:
For me, I find that repentance is impossible UNTIL I've prayed. Like, I just do not have it in me, in/of just my human, finite self, to repent without praying for it to even become a possibility first. Sometimes the substance of that prayer is a whispered "God, help!" and sometimes the prayer is a morass of unarticulated tears, in a language that only God can understand. Just honest prayer, from the heart is all that He asks. In fact, God calls David "a man after My own heart" even though David had Uriah the Hittite killed and then took Uriah's wife, Bathsheba, for himself. Don't believe me? Read 2 Samuel 11, 12 and I Kings 1, 2.
That's it.
No need for a PhD or any other degree from men. You don't have to be a genius, you don't have to be wealthy, you don't have to be a rousing social success, no. What you do need - what we ALL must have, that is - to approach God, is honesty, first with ourselves and then with Him. This is about the only time you'll ever hear me recommend that we put ourselves before God in anything and the simple reason is this: if we are not first honest with ourselves, we make it therefore impossible to be honest with anyone and everyone else afterward, and that includes God.
Ok, so there's step 1, taken from 1 John 1:9
Dear Lord God, thank You for this, yet another day of life that I was not promised and do not deserve; please see that I do not squander it, God! Thank you for making my sin apparent so that I can lay it down and seek You for healing and the empowerment to do better going forward, Lord God. Please always, always show me when I'm wrong that I may have that chance to do better the next time, God. Please create the strength of Your Gentleness within me, Lord Jesus, and further please imbue me with Your compassion for all, leaving none out. Thank You, Lord!
Father, I am compelled to ask that You please protect all the unborn from medical murder, God, in Jesus' Name! Please give a deep love for every unborn baby to that baby's mother, God, in Jesus' Name. Father, please end all war, globally, God; please settle Your Peace over the land, God. Please bring clarity where there is confusion; please dispel conflict with understanding, God. Lord, we ask also that You please protect President Trump and everyone who surrounds him, God, now and always, in Jesus' Name. Father, please remove all the wicked from places of authority and replace them with those who truly love and honor You above all else, Lord God. Also, Father, please feed every hungry mouth as well as every hungry soul today, Lord. Please protect all of the most vulnerable among us, God. Please dispel the insanity of partisan politics, God, not only in the US but globally - please erase the division, God. Father God, please bring all of the currently unsaved to the saving, miraculous inner knowledge of Christ and remove all of the scales from the eyes of all who are presently deceived, God. We ask that You embolden saints across the land to speak and to live in Truth that will be a light to the lost. Please heal the sick; please deliver the bound and all held in captivity, God! Please end the entire human-trafficking industry world-wide, God! Please cause people involved in the industry to encounter You and cooperate with the right global authorities to bring the demise of that unspeakable evil about, God, if it be Your will. Please, meet all of our unspoken needs and the prayers that we forgot to pray and lead us every minute of every day, by grace, in faith, and strengthen every heart to cry "though He slay me, yet will I praise Him!" and we thank You for all of these things and more, our heart, our Love, our Everything, God. In Jesus' Name, amen.
One more quick note about confession: I think that it's important to confess TO the person harmed by the mistake/ your sin whenever possible. It's my experience that yes, it's the most difficult option (emotionally, psychologically speaking) but I find that it's also the most effective, truly-cathartic option as well. Of course, I feel like you are still absolutely forgiven by the Lord if/when direct-confession is not an option (and, not that I can speak for Him, I'm just what the Bible says about it). So, if you - for whatever reason - cannot confess directly (to the object of that offense), it's not the end of all things.
 |
| I AM the latter here - the evil one in dire NEED of Him |
For me, I find that repentance is impossible UNTIL I've prayed. Like, I just do not have it in me, in/of just my human, finite self, to repent without praying for it to even become a possibility first. Sometimes the substance of that prayer is a whispered "God, help!" and sometimes the prayer is a morass of unarticulated tears, in a language that only God can understand. Just honest prayer, from the heart is all that He asks. In fact, God calls David "a man after My own heart" even though David had Uriah the Hittite killed and then took Uriah's wife, Bathsheba, for himself. Don't believe me? Read 2 Samuel 11, 12 and I Kings 1, 2.
That's it.
No need for a PhD or any other degree from men. You don't have to be a genius, you don't have to be wealthy, you don't have to be a rousing social success, no. What you do need - what we ALL must have, that is - to approach God, is honesty, first with ourselves and then with Him. This is about the only time you'll ever hear me recommend that we put ourselves before God in anything and the simple reason is this: if we are not first honest with ourselves, we make it therefore impossible to be honest with anyone and everyone else afterward, and that includes God.
Enough about that; next time I hope to talk some about partisan politics, but will go and rest a bit for now, thanking you, dear Reader, for these minutes of your time and I ask You, Lord God, for the salvation of the souls of all whose eyes see these words, in Jesus' Name, amen. 💜
No comments:
Post a Comment