Skip to main content

November 9 We Can Change! Alleluia!

The heart of the righteous weighs its answer, but the mouth of the wicked gushes evil. The Lord is far from the wicked, but He hears the prayer of the righteous. ~Proverbs 15:28-29


This is what the Lord says, He who made the earth, the Lord who formed it and established it, and The Lord is His name: “Call to Me and I will answer you and tell you great and unsearchable things you do not know.” ~Jeremiah 33:2-3

Amazingly, because of repentance, no one is set in their course forever if they don’t want to be. In truth, because all of us were born in sin, all of us began life apart from God. When we read the proverbs above, we all begin life at the place where the wicked are. We all gush evil. We are all full of our own desires and we are often willing to go to great lengths to have those desires fulfilled.

Many of us are civil about getting what we want. The world may call us, “good,” and, perhaps by most standards we are. But God’s standard says, “All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” (Romans 3:23). So, what the remedy? Change becomes possible when our heart begins to weigh its thoughts, desires, and words, and discovers that in truth, the person in whom it resides isn’t quite where it wants to be. This heart sees God’s standard, holiness, and wants holiness and righteousness to be the goal. The Lord will always hear that prayer and is more than willing to assist in the transformation from wickedness apart from God to righteousness, becoming Like Him instead.

“Call to Me and I will answer you and tell you great and unsearchable things you do not know.” That is not from a God who wants to remain distant. He wants to be fully known by all those He has created in His image. His desire, in contrast to our sinful selfish ones, is that all would call on Him and be saved. “If anyone is in Christ, he or she is a new creation. The old has gone, the new has come!” The old, the desire for our own ways that separate us from God, is gone, and the new, the desire to walk in His ways and become like Him is come.

He hears the prayer of the one who longs to repent and change. He answers that prayer with gladness, and He hears our prayers and petitions for wisdom, guidance and supply. True, we all begin life separated from Him, so Solomon’s words are true. But thanks be to God! In Christ, we are not doomed to this life of separation, because God Himself wants to draw us close to Him, through Jesus, forever.

Prayer: Father, thanks for listening! Help me hear You too and obey. Thanks for making new life possible in Jesus. Help me share that with others. In Jesus’ name, amen.

Song: Draw Me Close to You 



Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

October 27 Save the Glaze for the Bunny

Like a coating of glaze over earthenware are fervent lips of an evil heart. A malicious man disguises himself with his lips. But in his heart, he harbors deceit. Though his speech is charming, do not believe him, for seven abominations fill his heart. His malice may be concealed by deception, but his wickedness will be exposed in the assembly. If a man digs a pit, he will fall into it. If a man rolls a stone, it will roll back on him. ~Proverbs 26:23-28 For there are many rebellious people, mere talkers and deceivers, especially those of the circumcision group. They must be silenced, because they are ruining whole households by teaching things they ought not teach—and that for the sake of dishonest gain. Even one of their own prophets has said, “Cretans are always liars, evil brutes, lazy gluttons.” This testimony is true. Therefore, rebuke them sharply, so that they will be sound in the faith and will pay no attention to Jewish myths or to the commands of those who reject the truth. T...
Post a Comment
Read more

July 16 Thick Skinned Love

Whoever covers over an offence promotes love, but whoever repeats the matter separates close friends. ~Proverbs 17:9 If your brother sins against you, go and show him his fault, just between the two of you. If he listens to you, you have won your brother over. ~Matthew 18:15  The end of all things is near. Therefore, be clear minded and self-controlled so that you can pray. Above all, love each other deeply, because love covers over a multitude of sins. ~1 Peter 4:7-8  Being offended seems to be the battle cry of the day. Instead of freedom of speech, everyone has the right not to be offended. If one is offended, then one has the right to exact vengeance on the offender because, of course, the offender KNEW that he or she was being offensive and just didn’t care. Is that how you see much of society behaving today?  There seems to be all of this offending and finger pointing that just keeps growing and growing. Nothing is being resolved, just more blame that grows louder a...
Post a Comment
Read more

211. The Sons of Thunder's Request

Matthew 20:20-28 , Mark 10:35-45 , Key verse: "Whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first must be slave of all." Mark 10:43B-44 In our readings for yesterday, in which Jesus outlined what was about to happen to Him, for His disciples, the passage in Luke ends: "The disciples did not understand any of this. It's meaning was hidden from them, and they did not know what He was talking about." ( Luke 18:34 ) Now, we see just how truly clueless they were. Jesus had laid out a plan before them of pain and suffering and death and now James and John are focused on a promotion. The disconnect is so obvious. It's really not important to know whether James and john came up with this request on their own or if their mother put them up to it. The request was made and James and John thought that they could handle the responsibility that would come with it. What is that saying, "Fools rush in where angels fe...
Post a Comment
Read more