God's Word on That

Author: Myrna L

  • My Father’s Instructions

    I am a wise child and I will heed my Father’s instructions (Proverbs 13:1). I no longer care to conform to the pattern of this world. I am being transformed by the renewing of my mind through God’s Word (Romans 12:2). Please, Father, revive me according to Your Word (Psalm 119:25). I do not want to let Your Word depart from before my eyes, Father. So I pray to You to help me keep it within my heart. For it is life to me; I have found it and it is health and healing to all my flesh and bones (Proverbs 4:21-22).

    Establish Your Word to Your servant, O Lord, who is devoted to fearing You (Psalm 119:38). Help me hide Your Word in my heart, dearest Father, so that I might not sin against You (Psalm 119:11). Your Word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path (Psalm 119:105).

    I will study Your commandments and reflect on Your ways; I delight in Your principles and I will not forget Your Word (Psalm 119:15-16) as You have put Your Holy Spirit in me to remind me of it (John 14:26). You are my lamp, O Lord; You turn my darkness into light (2 Samuel 22:29). Lord, You have brought light to my life. You light up my darkness (Psalm 18:28).

    Therefore, I will put a stop to idle and foolish talk (Ephesians 4:27, 5:4), for You have made me to be a blessing to others (Galatians 6:10). My desire is to bless You, Father. So I will let no foul or polluted language, nor any evil word, nor unwholesome or worthless talk come out of my mouth, but only such things as is good and beneficial to others, that it may be a blessing and bring grace to those who hear it. (Ephesians 4:29).

    I earnestly pray that I walk worthy of You, my Lord God, fully pleasing You and desiring to please You in all things, and being fruitful in every good work. I am increasing in the knowledge of You, my God. And so I pray that I am being strengthened with all power according to Your glorious might (Colossians 1:10-11).

    I am Your dear child, Lord God, and I am from You, and so I overcome all that is in the world — all the influences of the evil one. Because the One who is in me is greater than the one who is in the world (1 John 4:4). The Great God has redeemed me from the hand of my adversary, therefore I will have no more fear of the devil (Psalm 107:2). I let the peace of Christ Jesus rule in my heart since as a member of His body I was called to peace. And I am thankful, grateful, and even praiseful (Colossians 3:15). I refuse to worry about anything. God is on my side. God is in me now. Who can be against me and win? (Romans 8:31)

    Let us continually refresh ourselves in God’s wonderful Word.

  • Please Help Me Grow My Faith

    According to Your Word, O loving God, You promised I could be Your people and You would be my God, for I have indeed returned to You with all my heart (Jeremiah 24:7). My faithful God – who is the same yesterday and today and forever – please be to me what You were for Abram: my shield and my very great reward (Genesis 15:1).

    You have shown me, O Lord, what is good. And all that You require of me is to act justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with You, my trustworthy Father (Micah 6:8).

    Lord God, Your Word says You bestow favor and honor on those who walk uprightly (Psalm 84:11). I can’t claim a blameless walk, but I ask You first for Your mercies, and then for Your grace to empower me to walk with You faithfully, and to never cease pursuing that blameless walk.

    O dear Lord Jesus, I want to be like the one to whom You said, “Woman, you have great faith!” (Matthew 15:28) Please flourish this kind of faith in me.

    Sovereign Lord, Your Word says You esteem the person who is humble and contrite in spirit, and who trembles at Your Word (Isaiah 66:2). Please make me that kind of person through the power of Your Holy Spirit, gracious God.

    O Lord Jesus, I want You to be able to say to me, “I know your deeds, your love and faith, your service and perseverance, and that you are now doing more than you did at first.” (Revelation 2:19) O please, my loving Lord, cause these words to be true in my life.

    I know that You are the Lord God, the Almighty God, that those who hope in You will not be disappointed (Isaiah 49:23).

    May my Lord, Jesus Christ Himself, and God, my Father — who loves me and by His grace gives eternal encouragement and good hope — encourage my heart and strengthen me in every good deed and word (2 Thessalonians 2:16-17).

    Lord Jesus, please teach me to grow my faith.

  • Dealing With Grief

    This weekend I lost something very dear to me. As it happens to all of us. I enjoyed what God gave me as a precious gift. And I am not sorry I had that time to enjoy it, but now I must learn to live without it. The Lord has blessed me with many gifts, and I am very thankful I had that one to enjoy for as long as I had. But we cannot escape the feeling of loss when something that wonderful is gone.

    I went about morning as though for my friend or brother; I bowed my head in grief as though weeping for my mother [we all experience sorrow at some point] (Psalm 35:14). But You, O God, do see trouble and grief; You consider it to take it in hand [the Good Lord sees our pain and sorrows] (Psalm 10:14).  Be merciful to me, O Lord, for I am in distress; my eyes grow weak with sorrow, my soul and my body with grief [He understands what we go through when we lose something] (Psalm 31:9).

    I must remind myself: The future is God’s and not mine. God will temper whatever is necessary. I am to think only of using each day well. Each day has its good and its evil, so that even the evil often becomes good if we let God act and never anticipate Him in impatience.

    God has presented me with a precious gift (Genesis 30:20). Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights (James 1:17). Each one should use whatever gift he has received to serve others, faithfully administering God’s grace in its various forms (1 Peter 4:10).

    Our gifts are not meant to be “ours” but shared and are given for a purpose. Why our gifts are taken from us before or after or even during our perceived purpose for them we may never know. But He knows, and He controls.

    Naked I came from my mother’s womb; and naked I will depart. The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away; may the name of the Lord be forever praised (Job 1:21). In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials (1 Peter 1:6). Though He brings grief, He will show compassion, so great is His unfailing love. For He does not willingly bring affliction or grief to the children of men (Lamentations 3:32-33).

    He does not want our pain but our love. I know this. But sometimes it doesn’t help suppress grief. Thank You, God Father, for Your limitless patience with me. And thank You again for that wonderful gift I had the opportunity to enjoy.

  • According to Your Word

    God my Father, revive me according to Your Word (Psalm 119:25). I do not want to let Your Word depart from before my eyes, Father. So I pray to You to help me keep it within my heart. For it is life to me; I have found it and it is health and healing to all my flesh and bones (Proverbs 4:21-22).

    Almighty God, I know You are capable, and so I pray for You to not let Your Word depart from my mouth. I put forth effort to meditate on it day and night so I am careful to do everything written in it. Because then I will be prosperous and successful (Joshua 1:8).

    I look into the perfect law that gives freedom, and I continue to do this, not forgetting what I have heard, but doing it, and so I am blessed in what I do (James 1:25). I remember it is a message to obey, not just to listen to and so deceive myself (James 1:22).

    I know Your Word is living and active; sharper than any two-edged sword. It penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joint and marrow. It judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart (Hebrews 4:12). They are not just idle words for me. They are my life! By them I will live in the land (Deuteronomy 32:47). Blessed are we who do not doubt the Lord (Matthew 11:6).

    You, my loving Lord, are faithful to all Your promises. Although You are sovereign and You do what You please, still You are righteous in all Your ways and loving toward all You have made (Psalm 145:13, 17). These things You have spoken unto me that Your joy might remain in me and that my joy might be full (John 15:11). For You have promised: “I am with you and will protect you wherever you go. I will not leave you until I have done that which I have spoken unto you” (Genesis 28:15). Lord God, do as You have said (2 Samuel 7:25).

    Let us learn to live and breathe His Word.

  • I Will Fix My Eyes

    Lord God, heavenly Father, according to Your Word, my ‘light and momentary’ troubles are achieving for me an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So I fix my eyes NOT on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary; what is unseen is eternal (1 Corinthians 4:17-18). I don’t have to fight Satan; he is an already defeated foe. The only battle I have to fight is the good fight of faith. With the Lord at my right hand, I walk by faith and not by sight (2 Corinthians 5:7). O Lord my gracious God, please strengthen my spiritual vision that I may see You everywhere.

    When we are really and truly abandoned to God, all that we do we will do well, without doing many things in a day. This daily accomplishment of the will of God is the coming of His kingdom within us, and at the same time our daily bread. Only be faithful in turning yourself simply to God from the moment you see your fault. His Presence always brings about getting out of ourselves, and this is what is needed.

    I ask You, God, Father of all glory, please give me the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of You, so I may know You better. Father God, I pray the eyes of my understanding be enlightened so I may know the hope of Your calling, the riches of my glorious inheritance in the saint, and the exceeding greatness of Your power toward us who believe. This power is like the working of Your mighty strength which You exerted in Christ Jesus when You raise Him from the dead and seated Him at Your right hand in the heavenly realms (Ephesians 1:17-19). If You can raise Jesus from the dead and set Him beside You at Your throne, I know You can deliver me from every stronghold I am stuck in, as long as I trust You for it.

    I do not stop praying and asking You, Father God, to fill me with all knowledge of You and Your will, through all spiritual wisdom and understanding (Colossians 1:9). Please, gracious God, feed me discernment to know Your will in every situation. Lord, teach me knowledge and good judgment for I believe in Your commands (Psalm 119:66).

    God Father, I pray that out of Your glorious riches You will strengthen me with power through Your Spirit in my inner being, so Christ Jesus may dwell in my heart richly through faith. And I pray that I, being rooted and established in Your love, may have power together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ Jesus, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge — that I may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God. I know You are able to do immeasurably more than all I could ask or can even imagine, according to Your power that is at work within me. To You be glory in the Church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen. (Ephesians 3:16-21)

  • Perfectly Me

    Bear with yourself without flattering yourself. Our faults, even those that are the most difficult to bear, will all be of service to us if we make use of them for our humiliation – without relaxing our efforts to correct them. It does no good to be discouraged.

    It is a kind of betrayal of simple faith to continually demand to be assured that we are doing well. For it is the will of God that we should be ignorant of such. And to reason and ponder about the way is to waste time trifling along it.

    Weak people seek to live by pure faith, yet want to retain all their worldly wisdom; to be a child, yet great in their own eyes. We want to be tested but only while looking on with conscious superiority to the trial. But as Christians, we must give all when God asks it. If we do not have courage to give, at least we can let Him take.

    Christians must forsake everything that they have, however innocent. For it we do not forsake it in our hearts, it ceases to be innocent. We use only what God gives us, what He wills us to love and to hold, with the resolve to have a heart that is keeping itself for a more worthy Object.

    Since we did not make ourselves, we are not made for ourselves. We soon begin to realize that all our perfection and happiness should be lost in Him who has been pleased to form us. Created things, dazzling though they may be, cannot do this for us – cannot perfect us, or even give us happiness for any length of time. We must prefer God’s glory more than our own happiness, and must refer our happiness to His glory as merely a means to an end – our perfection.

    The Lord will perfect that which concerns me (Psalm 138:8).

    Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect (Matthew 5:48).

    I don’t mean to say I am perfect. I haven’ learned all I should even yet, but I keep working toward that day when I will finally be all that Christ Jesus saved me for and wants me to be (Philippians 3:12 TLB).

    In Jesus’ hands I will become perfect.

  • Building Muscle

    When we arrive at the point when we regard affliction as a pleasure for the sake of Christ Jesus, and affliction becomes something sweet, then all is well with us and we have found paradise here on earth.

    Sounds too good to be reality, doesn’t it? And I can confess, I’m not to the point where I can consider affliction a pleasure. But so long as suffering is something that vexes us and we seek to avoid it, then things will go ill with us, for the very affliction that we are trying to escape will follow us wherever we go.

    Faith is a heart full of action, not a head full of facts. Faith that can move mountains is the faith that can move God’s heart. It is true that to make it through the wilderness, we must travel. Yet the greatest spiritual crisis comes when a person has to move a little farther on in her faith than the beliefs she has already accepted.

    Jesus said to her, “Didn’t I tell you that if you believed you would see the glory of God?” (John 11:40)

    When my strength runs dry and my vision is blinded, will I endure this trial of my faith victoriously? Or will I turn back in defeat? Faith must be tested, because it can only become an intimate possession through conflict. The test will either prove your faith right, or it will kill it.

    And if anyone is not offended because of Me, he is blessed (Matthew 11:6).

    For we have become companions of the Messiah if we hold firmly until the end the reality that we had at the start (Hebrews 3:14).

    Believe in Him steadfastly and everything that challenges you will strengthen your faith.

    Your life should be free from the love of money. Be satisfied with what you have, for He Himself has said, I will never leave you nor forsake you. Therefore we may boldly say: The Lord is my Helper; I will not be afraid. What can man do to me? (Hebrews 13:5-6)

    Build your faith’s muscles – trust in Him.

  • Materialism v. Contentment

    There is no gift that, after having been of help, will not become a snare and a hindrance to the soul that rests in it. And so God often takes away what He has given.

    Gideon made the gold into an ephod which he placed in Ophrah, his town. All Israel prostituted themselves by worshiping it there, and it became a snare to Gideon and his family (Judges 8:27).

    They worshiped their idols, which became a snare to them (Psalm 106:36).

    Materialism drives away contentment. Our pain and losses are always a test of how much we treasure the all-wise, all-governing God in comparison to what we have lost.

    For You, O Lord have delivered my soul from death, my eyes from tears, my feet from stumbling, that I may walk before the Lord in the land of the living (Psalm 116:8-9).

    My soul finds rest in God alone (Psalm 62:1).

    God always has the unification of the soul in view. He asks for a soul pliant in His hands, which neither desires anything nor refuses anything. His ways are not our ways. He seldom moves in a straight line from A to B. The way up is almost always down.

    God’s hand deals as gently with us as is possible.

    Lord, I do not know what I ought to ask of You. You alone know what I need. You love me better than I know how to love myself. O God, Father, give to Your child that for which my soul does not know what to ask. I dare not ask either for crosses nor consolations. I simply present myself before You. I open my heart to You. Behold my needs that I do not know; see and do according to Your tender mercy. Smite or heal. Depress or raise up. I adore all Your purposes without knowing them; because I know You are a God of goodwill. I am silent; I offer myself in sacrifice. I yield myself to You. I would have no other desire than to accomplish Your will. Please teach me to trust always in You alone. Teach me. [Andrew Murray]

    Let us be content with what God, in His providence, allots to us.

  • Reflecting

    If we set “self” aside and lose sight of it, we will have nothing to lose, to fear, or to consider… Then no one will be able to harm us. They can no longer attack us through hopes or fears, for we will be ready for everything, and we will refuse nothing.

    Sounds like a Mr. Miyagi quote doesn’t it? But the truth is that without an ego to defend there is no status or pride or attachment to guard, so there is nothing for us to lose. We can walk along in life without resistance or hesitation because we accept everything that comes our way, refusing no experience or trial God sees fit to place in our path. There is no ego to harm, embarrass or diminish, so there is nothing for us to fear. We no longer have to look at the world through the narrow lens of “How does this benefit me?” Instead, we are able to perceive the reality around us holistically.

    Pure water has neither color nor form; it always takes the form and color of the vessel containing it. Let this be our case with God. Let us shine His radiance and His glory to the world we walk in.

    Like stained glass windows, let us reflect God’s beauty.

  • To God’s Glory

    God needs nothing that is in us. He can never find anything there except what He Himself has placed there. The only thing God wants from you is your heart. God says, “I don’t need your talent. I don’t need your gift. I don’t want all the stuff you can do. I just want you.” God doesn’t want what you are going to be or what you would like to be. He wants all you are today. Offer God your finest, at whatever stage that “finest” is at – your finest for today.

    Dearest Father God, Almighty One, Loving Lord: The more I know You, the more I find You incomprehensible. You are so great that You have no need of any reason for Your decisions; Your good pleasure is the supreme reason – You do everything for Your glory. Blessed are You, O Lord, for Your glory gives life and light to the entire world.  You have created all things, and all things continue to exist because of You. All good things come from You, for You are all good, and always do good for it is Your nature. You do not choose men because they are good, but they become good because You have chosen them.

    So I say with David, “The Lord is my Shepherd, I have all I need.”  I want to suffer what I suffer and I do not want what I do not have. I want all and I want nothing, for I know it all adds to Your glory. This, my dear God, is my true and pure worship of You in spirit and in truth.

    Thank You that when I praise You and bring my requests to You in simple faith, I plug into Your almighty power. And I truly thank You that when I offer a sacrifice of thanksgiving I open a door for You to rescue me and bless my life, and I prepare the way for You to rescue and bless other people near and far. Thank You so very much, my Gracious and Generous and Glorious Father.

    Oh that we may reflect His glory to our world.