Tag: God’s Heart

Where does you Heart need Relief today?

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Two heart verses spoke to me this morning.  Knowing our hearts are deceitful and driven by original sin, God promises to do a work in our hearts that is amazing.  Proverbs 3:5-6 is a well quoted verse that speaks of God’s power to lead and guide if we will trust and acknowledge Him in our lives.  “Trust in the Lord with all your heart; do not depend on your own understanding.  6 Seek his will in all you do,  and he will show you which path to take.”   God is the one with the transforming power in our lives if we will seek to know and trust Him.   

My second verse is found in  Psalm 34:17-18,   The Lord hears his people when they call to him for help.
    He rescues them from all their troubles.
18 The Lord is close to the brokenhearted;
    he rescues those whose spirits are crushed. David wrote these words during a very difficult time in his life.  He knew God. He knew God would hear his cries for help.  David knew God would and could rescue him.  He knew from experience that God was near to him when his heart was broken and his spirit crushed.   David knew God and had experienced His love and care during times of great need.  

God knows our hearts and sees what we need even before we ask for help.  God knows our desire for guidance and He alone has the power to mend our broken hearts and crushed spirit.   Seek Him like David did and lay your sorrows, hurts and needs before Him.  He promises that those who seek Him will find Him.  Moses told the children of Israel just  before they entered the Promised Land, “But from there you will seek the Lord your God and you will find him, if you search after him with all your heart and with all your soul.”  Deuteronomy 4:29   God promises to be found if we seek with an open heart.  Seek Him today and tell Him about your broken heart, your crushed spirit or your desire to be guided by Him.  God can and will answer your prayers, just as He promised.

Seeking His comfort and clinging to His promise as I  walk with Him daily,

Linda

How Big is your God? He is ABLE!

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Ephesians Chapter 3 ends with a powerful benediction to Paul’s prayer for the Ephesian believers.  He eloquently tells them and us about God, who He is,  and His power as seen in Christ and the church. God’s is: glorious,  omnipotent in power, provides us with His indwelling Holy Spirit,  has power that endures for  eternity and has a plan that lives from generation to generation.

Ephesians 3:20-21 “Now all glory to God, who is able, through his mighty power at work within us, to accomplish infinitely more than we might ask or think. 21 Glory to him in the church and in Christ Jesus through all generations forever and ever! Amen.

What comfort do you receive from reading these words?   I am encouraged even in these difficult times that our God is bigger than any virus, is Sovereign over heaven and earth now and in the future. Hebrews 13:8 “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and Ephesians 3-20 He Is Abletoday and forever.”  God is able to do even greater things than which we could even think to ask Him to do in our lives for Him.  2 Corinthians 9:8 “And God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that having all sufficiency in all things at all times, you may abound in every good work. “  God does not give us His Holy Spirit to indwell us without reason and purpose. John 3:16 shows us God’s purpose  “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.”    Romans 5:3-5 shows the Holy Spirit at work in our lives for a purpose.   “Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance,4 and endurance produces character, and character produces hope,5 and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.”   God loves us and desires that our character be refined and matured.

Use Paul’s words today as you pray.  Stand on the hope you have in Jesus, the power of His Spirit to lead and guide you, and God’s unfailing love for you.  God has a purpose for you, for your life and He desires that you know Him and live and grow in His love.  His love is transforming for now and into the future.  Because Christ died on the cross and Ephesians-3-21rose from the dead, we have His indwelling Holy Spirit to empower us with His love for His glory and our good.

Reach out to others today, however you can, and let God’s transforming love flow through you to them in the name of Jesus.  Amen.

Linda

 

 

Tender Mercy-what is it, who has it?

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Like Mary, Zachariah had a long song of praise to God after his speech was restored.  Luke 1:76-79  “And you, child, will be called the prophet of the Most High;
    for you will go before the Lord to prepare his ways,
77 to give knowledge of salvation to his people
    in the forgiveness of their sins,
luke 1 7878 because of the tender mercy of our God,
    whereby the sunrise shall visit us  from on high
79 to give light to those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death,
    to guide our feet into the way of peace.”

The first part of Zachariah’s song, Luke 1:68-75,  praised God for sending Messiah, as promised.  He speaks of the holiness and righteousness of this Savior to come.   In today’s scripture, Luke 1:76-79, Zachariah is praising merciful God for his own son, John, who will have a part in preparing the way for Messiah. John would be a prophet, prepare the world for the arrival of Messiah and give the people knowledge of coming forgiveness and salvation. Zachariah extols God for being merciful and sending  a Savior to give light in a dark world, provide guidance and would show us the way of peace. Just as Mary praised God for His mercy to her people Israel, so Zachariah praises God for His tender mercy to all mankind for sending John to lead the way and providing a guiding light towards forgiveness and salvation in Jesus.  Here Zachariah calls it the tender mercies of God.  Mercy is not giving us what we do deserve which is death for our sins and total separation from Holy God.  Tender mercy is mercy filled with love for us.   The Message reads, “Through the heartfelt mercies of our God, God’s Sunrise will break in upon us.”   Love, sincere love from the heart, motivated God to send Jesus to save us.  John 3:16 says it best,  “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.”  God loved us so much He sent Jesus to make a way for us to be made right with Him.  That is mercy- we did not deserve.  Romans 5:8 tells us, “ but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”  What a merciful God we have.  He loved us and sent Jesus even knowing of our sinfulness and the great cost to His Son to redeem us.  That is tender mercy from a loving God!

love and mercyMay your day be filled with His mercy and love towards you.  Then give it out like God did by sending Jesus.  You will be blessed.

Linda

David follows God with his Heart

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Understanding, guiding and using our heart in a way that is pleasing to God is a life long process.  David was called a ‘man after God’s own heart’ in Acts 13:22 by Paul when speaking in the synagogue in Pisidian Antioch.  He was relating history to the assembled Jews as to how David became king.   “But God removed Saul and replaced him with David, a man about whom God said, ‘I have found David son of Jesse, a man after my own heart. He will do everything I want him to do.’   When God chose him, 1 Samuel 13:14, He knew David was a man after his own heart.   “But now your kingdom must end, for the Lord has sought out a man after his own heart. The Lord has already appointed him to be the leader of his people, because you have not kept the Lord’s command.”

Psalm139 1David gives us a glimpse into his heart in Psalm 139.  He knew he was an open book before God and that God knew all about him.         “O Lord, you have examined my heart       God knew his motives.
    and know everything about me.
2 You know when I sit down or stand up.
You know my thoughts even when I’m far away.     God knew his daily actions.
3 You see me when I travel
and when I rest at home.                                 God knew where he went.
    You know everything I do.
4 You know what I am going to say               God knew what he was going  
even before I say it, Lord.                                                        to do or say.
5 You go before me and follow me.
You place your hand of blessing on my head.     God knew him inside and out.
6 Such knowledge is too wonderful for me,
    too great for me to understand!

psalm 139 1-6Where are you with God?  He knows you too but do you readily acknowledge that fact and if so how does it change you?  David said that God knowing him was too wonderful and too great to even understand.  Are you awed by God’s love and knowledge of you- your wants, desires, needs, sorrows and joys?  Perhaps David’s acknowledgement of God’s true knowledge of himself was his beginning.  He knew he was not the guide and motivator of his life- God was.  He knew God knew him, all of him, and it gave him comfort and assurance.  God is indeed omniscient and David rested in that fact and encouraged himself with it.  How about you?  Will you trust in God’s all knowing power to give you what is best for your life?  I claim Jeremiah 29:11’s truth in my life.  May you also gain comfort and assurance as you cling to God’s Word.  “For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.”   God had good plans for David and He has good plans for you and me!   Open your heart and follow Him in obedience as David did- you will be blessed.

Linda