1 John 5:21 - May Nothing Take God's Place in Your Heart

“Little children, keep yourselves from idols.”

1 John 5:21

God does not want us to have idols in our lives. An idol is anything that takes God’s place in your hearts. I like what the New Living translation says. It says “Dear children, keep away from anything that might take God’s place in your hearts.” We feel empty inside but we don’t know why. It may be that we have an idol in our lives, which depletes us spiritually. Sometimes it is hard for us to admit or see that we have an idol in our lives. We may not see it, but others can. God may reveal it to you through the mouth of other people. There was a time when the girls were small that Dave wasn’t happy with the way I was keeping house. I told him that I wasn’t able to find the time to give it the attention I needed. He ended up telling me that I had time to watch Regis and Kathie Lee everyday and talk on the phone with my friends. This hurt my feelings and I went crying to the Lord. The Lord ended up speaking to my heart and telling me that David was right. I had idols in my life. The television and the phone were the two idols I had in my life at the time. It was an arrow that penetrated deep into my heart. If David wouldn’t have said anything, I might not have realized it. I confessed my idolatry to David and to the Lord. Then I made the necessary adjustments in my life. The phone and television are no longer idols in my life. Examine your heart. What takes away time from God and His Word in your life? What takes God’s place in your heart? What do you spend a lot of time doing but makes you feel depleted and empty in your life afterwards? Ask the Holy Spirit if it’s an idol. If it is, confess it as sin and make the necessary adjustments in your life. You will be spiritually blessed because of it.

Father, may we keep ourselves from idols. May nothing take Your place in our hearts. If we have any idols in our lives, reveal it to us now. We want to confess it as sin and we want to make the necessary adjustments in our lives. We want You to be first place in our lives. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.

Matthew 16:19b - Binding and Loosing

“... whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.”

Matthew 16:19b

God has given us the keys to the kingdom of heaven. Matthew 16:19a says “I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven.” This means that He has given us authority. Jesus tells us in Matthew 16:19 that we should bind and loose. He repeats this in Matthew 18:18-20 “Assuredly, I say to you whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.” Since Jesus told us this twice, it means that he was trying to get an important message across to us. Binding and loosing is a command. It lets us move into the devil’s territory and take authority over him. If you have never bound and loosed things begin to in the mighty name of Jesus. You have the authority in Christ Jesus if you are a believer. God wants us to bind the evil and loose the opposite. Dispel the powers of darkness. Loose the Holy Ghost to work in your life as well as the lives of those we know and love. Some examples are: fear vs. faith, confusion vs. clarity of mind, pride vs. humility, bitterness vs. forgiveness, rebellion vs. obedience, hatefulness vs. love. There are so many things we can take authority over. Let’s begin to do what He has commanded us to do.

Father, You have given us authority over evil and the evil one. Greater is He that is within us than he that is in the world. You have given us the keys to the kingdom. May we begin to use them by binding and loosing as You have instructed us. We thank You for this authority that comes in the name of Jesus. May we believe with all our heart that You have given us this authority so that we can go forth and use it in the mighty name of Jesus.  In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.

1 Thessalonians 5:15 - Don't repay evil for evil

See to it that no one renders evil for evil to anyone, but pursue what is good both for yourselves and for all.”

1 Thessalonians 5:15

God doesn’t want His children to “render evil for evil” … to anyone. I believe that God desires this even in our homes. James 1:19 says “So then, my beloved brethren, let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath; for the wrath of man does not produce the righteousness of God.” James 1:26 says “If anyone among you thinks he is religious, and does not bridle his tongue but deceives his own heart, this one’s religion is useless.” Romans 12:17-21 says “Repay no one evil for evil. Have regard for good things in the sight of all men. If it is possible, as much as depends on you, live peaceably with all men. Beloved, do not avenge yourselves, bur rather give place to wrath; for it is written, ‘Vengeance is Mine, I will repay,’ says the Lord. Therefore ‘If your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him a drink; for in so doing you will heap coals of fire on his head.’ Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.” The other day the Lord impressed on my heart that when a spouse or someone else gets angry with you, if you respond by raising your voice and getting mad back choosing to defend yourself and spout off that that is a form of taking vengeance upon yourself and repaying evil for evil. Ouch! We need to confess this as sin. And keep our peace in the future. I had never thought of it that way.

Father, we come to You this day and we thank You for the Holy Spirit’s teaching in our lives. You want us to be holy, even in our homes. You want our lives to bring glory to Your name. Be with us Lord. Help us to be slow to speak, slow to wrath, patient and kind, even in our own homes and with people we love most. May we not be overcome by evil, but may we overcome evil with good. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen. 

Jeremiah 3:22 - God wants to restore the backsliders

“Return you backsliding children, and I will heal your backslidings.”

Jeremiah 3:22

God desires for those that have backslid to come back to Him. He wants to heal them. I have at least a handful of Christian friends that continually pray for their backslidden children/grandchildren to come back to the Lord. Jeremiah 3:12 says “‘Return, backsliding Israel,’ says the Lord; ‘I will not cause My anger to fall on you. For I am merciful,’ says the Lord; ‘I will not remain angry forever.’” Some of them have been bound by the enemy. God wants to free them and restore them. Jeremiah 31:16-17 says “Thus says the Lord: ‘Refrain your voice from weeping, and your eyes from tears; for your work shall be rewarded; says the Lord, and they shall come back from the land of the enemy. There is hope in your future, says the Lord, that your children shall come back to their own border.’” Be encouraged today. Stand on God’s Word. Pray that He do a work in their hearts and mind. He is able.

Father, You tell us to keep our heart with all diligence, for out of it are the issues of life. Please reach out to those that we know and love that have backslidden. May they come to the point where they keep their heart with all diligence. These have been taught of You. They heard about You when they were sitting in their house, when they walked by the way, when they lied down, and when those awakened each morning. Proverbs 22:6 says “Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it.” Be merciful and draw them back to You. Restore them to a right relationship with You. Deliver them and set them free. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.   

Matthew 10:26b - God can help us find missing items

“For there is nothing covered that will not be revealed, and hidden that will not be known.”

Matthew 10:26b

I came across this scripture last week and I got to cling to the verse and stand on it as I couldn’t find a missing item. I had felt led to go up to Cookies on Demand in Montpelier and send the girls some of their favorite cookies. They are in college and I have their address written in my address book. We always keep the address book in a certain spot in David’s grandmother’s secretary. When I went to go to town I went to the secretary to retrieve the address book. It wasn’t there. I looked and looked in the secretary. It wasn’t there. I began to look elsewhere. I couldn’t find it anywhere. I looked again in the secretary. I still couldn’t find it. Finally I decided to pray. I said “Father, Your Word says that there is nothing covered that will not be revealed. There is nothing hidden that will not be known. Please help me find the address book. May the Holy Spirit impress upon my heart in where it is.” It wasn’t long and the Holy Spirit impressed on my heart to go to the hall tree and look in a plastic bag. There it was! I know God was watching over His Word and bringing this to light. I find it neat that he cares about even the mundane things. He is so good!

Father, we thank You for the gift of the Holy Spirit. We thank You that the Holy Spirit impresses things on our heart. We thank You that You hold all of life’s answers in Your Word. Even lost items can be made known to us. You are a good and awesome God. We love You! In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.

Deuteronomy 8:6 - God wants us to love Him with our ALL

“Therefore you shall keep the commandments of the Lord your God, to walk in His ways and to fear Him.”

Deuteronomy 8:6

Nowhere in God’s Word are we instructed to be partially devoted to the Lord. The Old Testament tells us in Deuteronomy 6:5 “You shall love the Lord your God with ALL your heart, with ALL your soul, and with ALL your strength.” Jesus reminds of these words in Mark 12:30 “And you shall love the Lord your God with ALL your heart, with ALL your soul, with ALL your mind, and with ALL your strength.” Our praise and worship should be with our WHOLE heart as well. Psalm 9:1 says “I will praise You, O Lord, with my WHOLE heart.” It should not be lip service, it should be done with the heart. The book of Revelations is a reminder to us about how we should be living before Him. He takes note if He is not first place in our lives. There were seven churches and only one was he pleased with. This should be a warning to us. Most of the churches had done many things that were right. He told them that He had seen this. But they had done some things that He was against. These things were: 1) they had left their first love, 2) they let people eat things that were sacrificed to idols, 3) they allowed sexual immorality, 4) they allowed wrong doctrine which caused the people to stumble, 5) they allowed someone that called themselves a prophet—the woman Jezebel—to teach, 6) they allowed Jezebel to seduce His servants, 7) one church was completely dead—they had a reputation for being alive, but they weren’t, and 8) another church was neither cold nor hot. God wished they were one or the other. Since they weren’t He was going to vomit them out of His mouth. They said they were rich and had need of nothing, but they didn’t realize that they were wretched, miserable, poor, blind, and naked. He wanted them to remember from where they had fallen, repent, and do the works that they had done in the beginning. Let’s allow the Holy Spirit to examine our lives today. Do we love God with ALL our hearts, ALL our souls, ALL our minds, and ALL our strength? Let’s make sure we are not partially devoted to the Lord. Let’s give Him our ALL.

Father, may we fear You and walk in Your ways. May we love You with ALL our hearts, ALL our souls, ALL our minds, and ALL our strength. Examine our hearts today. Show us where we are wrong. Remind us to how much we have fallen. May we repent and do the works that we had done in the beginning. We don’t want to be partially devoted to You. We want for You to consider us “hot.” We want to give it our ALL. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.

Psalm 51:9 - God can heal us from the guilt of our sins

“Hide your face from my sins, and blot out all my iniquities.”

Psalm 51:9

Psalm 51 is so good for us mentally. If we take it to heart it can help us have a spiritual mental breakthrough. We all experience failures or setbacks. None of us is perfect. Psalm 51 can be used to breathe new life into us. When we commit sin, it hurts our relationship with God. It can cause us to experience pain deep in our heart and souls. We also feel shame, remorse, and guilt. There is no doubt about it, falling into sin inflicts us. If we don’t take it to the Lord, we may never heal. Psalm 51 is powerful chapter in the Bible. David penned it when he was remorseful over committing adultery with Bathsheba. He knew that he tried to cover up her pregnancy by giving Uriah an opportunity to unite with her (which he didn’t take). So he took matters into his own hand and had her husband murdered. Here in Psalm 51, David sincerely poured his heart out to the Lord. His words to the Lord were: “Hide your face from my sins, and blot out all my iniquities. Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me. Do not cast me away from Your presence, and do not take Your Holy Spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of Your salvation, and uphold me by Your generous Spirit. Deliver me from the guilt …” (Psalm 51:9-14). Guilt is a hard thing to live with. If you have experienced a personal failure or setback, read Psalm 51 over and over. Ponder it. Meditate on it. Use it in a prayer to the Lord as if it were coming your own heart. God will extend His mercy. He will forgive you. He will breathe new life into you. And you will once again receive the joy of your salvation. How much more can we ask?

Father, we thank You that we don’t have to live with the guilt from our sins. We can go freely to You and You will receive and welcome us. If we confess our sins you are faithful and just to forgive us of our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. This frees us as we can actually feel and sense You removing our sins and casting them as far as the east is from the west and remember them no more. We are cleansed, made whole, and made right with You. Thank You, Lord, for Your mercy and grace. Thank You, Lord, for everything. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.