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Thank-you, almighty God, for granting me another day to breathe on this earth, to feel the sun on my body and to look upon your wonderful creation.
I think I lived sin free yesterday. Did I honor you yesterday? I did say some encouraging words to someone who was down hearted. Please examine my heart and if you find some impurity bring it to my attention. Help me to live this day without sin and to live honorably in your sight. Be with my mother and with Julie’s mother. Thank you for your power of healing that you’ve granted to my cousin Mark.
Thank you for my wife and all of my family.
Thank you for bringing Walker and Jo-Len together and for blessing them and me with their children. Protect my grand-daughters. Thank you for blessing my daughter with a man of faith.
Be with my brother who is struggling to become a man of faith. Thank you for David and Gus as we work to lead the congregation. Bless us with wisdom and insight.
Help me to be a better teacher. Help me Lord as I study to increase my knowledge and give me vision to see what is revealed in them. Bless me with wisdom and spiritual insight.
Say hello to all my loved ones and tell my father that I love and miss him. Thank you for Jesus Christ who has meant everything to me. It’s because of his blood that I’m your son and it is in his name that I pray.
The prophet Daniel had a regular schedule of prayer. He prayed three times per day on his knees. The enemies of Christ are also engaged in regular prayer… the Muslims pray on their knees five times per day.
“… our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, the powers, the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness…” Ephesians 6:12
The Soldier of Christ fights on his knees in prayer. Dedicate yourself to the fight. Pray with regularity. Practice the art of prayer and become proficient at it. Defeat the Soldiers of Satan.
“The theory states that maintaining and monitoring urban environments to prevent small crimes such as vandalism, public drinking and toll-jumping helps to create an atmosphere of order and lawfulness, thereby preventing more serious crimes from happening.”
It is well recognized among law enforcement officials that when small crime is ignored it leads to large crime. That goes against the idea that some have which is to ignore the small crime and focus on big crime.
You see similar attitudes about sin… ignore the small sin (white lies, immodesty, selfishness, bitterness, jealousy) and come down hard on big sins (Homosexuality, murder, adultery, theft).
Take for example sexual impurity. God wants his people to be sexually pure… no sexual intercourse except for between a man and a woman who have exchanged marriage vows. The small things that could lead to the big thing include; immodesty (the revealing of too much skin or clothes that are too tight revealing too much anatomy), physical contact (kissing, sitting in laps, touching private places) and inappropriate speech (of a sexual nature). In the case of sexual impurity if we control the small things usually the big thing will be controlled too but if we don’t then pretty soon God’s laws on sexual intercourse are violated and you find people becoming living together sexually or having multiple sexual partners or exploring sex homosexually.
A rock thrown through a window can lead to home invasion, theft and murder and small sin can lead to huge sin. Focus on the small sin and protect yourself from things that you never could have imagined yourself doing.
A mistake Bible students sometimes make is to read a passage superficially or fail to consider other relevant passages and make inappropriate applications.
Take 1 John 5:14, for example… “This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us”
A superficial reading might lead one to believe that we can pray for “anything” and fail to consider that the “anything” is modified by “according to his will”
That’s why you see people praying for things like winning the lottery or that a boy or girl might “like” them or for one’s favorite sports team to win or for someone we don’t like to suffer misfortune.
This type of prayer reflects poor Bible study.
Consider James 4:3 “When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures”
It is not “according to God’s will” that we pray for things that are self-serving. It is “according to his will” to pray for the necessities and not the extravagances of life.
It’s important that we become good Bible students so that we can make the proper applications of God’s word. God will not answer silly prayers and I suspect is insulted by them. Let’s make God proud of us in our prayer lives.
In Isaiah 58, God’s people are described as being eager to know and understand God. They prayed to Him every day. They prepared themselves for prayer by fasting and humbled themselves even in their clothing by wearing sack cloth and ashes. And yet they noticed and complained that God was not listening to their prayers and they didn’t understand why.
God reveals that he was ignoring their prayers because they were ignoring Him. Among other things they were not keeping the Sabbath Holy. They were doing whatever they wanted to on the Lord’s Day. In addition, they were ignoring the needs of others and only taking care of themselves.
It’s not enough just to pray every day and have the proper form of prayer. Something else is needed… obedience.
How about today? Does going to church mean anything? Is it easy to miss church services for any reason? Are we keeping ourselves sexually pure? Are we looking to help others who have needs? Do we dishonor God in our speech?
Don’t expect God to listen to your prayers without first listening to what God has to say. The communication goes both ways. Listen to God and obey him and your prayers will be answered bountifully.
