Sometimes we manage to banish ourselves from God’s presence by bad decisions we’ve made…sometimes the Lord disciplines us by starkly exposing our disobedience and lets us think about it in the desert for a while. Either way, God promises His forgiveness and reconciliation to all who seek Him.
Tag: word of god
Jeremiah 29:13 ” You will seek Me and find Me when you seek Me with all your heart.”
God wants the best of you…not the leftover dregs. He wants your total heart, mind, and soul in pursuit of His will for your life. That means setting aside a time daily to be in His Word and pray…whether that means early in the morning, over the lunch hour, or in the evening when the house quiets down. Don’t squeeze God into your schedule…but rather work your schedule around Him and the things that have eternal consequences.
Jeremiah 29:12 ” ‘Then you will call upon Me and come and pray to Me, and I will listen to you.’ “
When we seek the Lord…He will be found, and He will listen. When we summon His aid…He’s right there to help. When we plead for mercy…He hears and moves on our behalf. You have God’s undivided attention anytime you call to Him…for He wants to shoulder the burdens you’re carrying.
Jeremiah 29:11 ” ‘For I know the plans I have for you,’ declares the Lord, ‘plans to prosper you not harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.’ “
The plan and purpose for your life was written before the beginning of time. Every goal, aspiration, and ambition has been planned for you beforehand…every aim, consideration, and course of life has been especially designed for you only by the Lord Himself. He desires only the best for you.
Joshua 22:5 “But be very careful to keep the commandment and the law that Moses the servant of the Lord gave you: to love the Lord your God, to walk in all His ways, to obey His commands, to hold fast to Him and to serve Him with all your heart and all your soul.”
This verse brings together the very essence of what every Christian strives to do on a daily basis. We are to love God and in doing so, love others. We are to imitate His ways… obey His word…and resist the pull of the world, cleaving only to God…for in that is eternal life and unspeakable joy.
Isaiah 1:18 ” ‘Come now, let us reason together’, says the Lord, ‘though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red as crimson, they shall be like wool.’ “
The Children of Israel had veered far off course…they had rebelled against God and were “off doing their own thing.” Now God was calling them back…repent or face judgment…turn back to Me and be forgiven.
Psalm 73: 27-28 ” Those who are far from You will perish; You destroy all who are unfaithful to You. But as for me, it is good to be near God. I have made the Sovereign Lord my refuge; I will tell of all Your deeds.”
God will not stand for apostasy…spiritual adultery with pagan gods…whatever that god or idol may look like in your world. For anything that comes between you and God…that causes you to wander away from God’s instruction…that makes you think you know more than God…that’s an idol.
Isaiah 25:1 ” O Lord, You are my God; I will exalt You and praise Your name, for in perfect faithfulness You have done marvelous things, things planned long ago.”
The steadfastness and certainty of the Lord can not be more apparent than knowing that what He has planned for us was decided long before this world began. This is shown even more beautifully in Isaiah 14:24, “The Lord Almighty has sworn, ‘Surely, as I have planned, so it will be, and as I have purposed, so it will stand.’ ” God and His Word does not change…nor will His purpose and plans for your life.
I John 2:16 ” For everything in the world – the cravings of sinful man, the lust of his eyes and the boasting of what he has and does – comes not from the Father but from the world.”
The corrupt nature of man hasn’t change one bit from when this scripture was written to today…or for that matter…from when Adam and Eve disobeyed God in the Garden of Eden. Man’s means and manners on the most part involve fulfilling and satisfying those sinful needs and pleasures that can never be fully appeased. Proverbs 27:20 tells us that our eyes are never satisfied. The world is always searching for the next new thing…the next new entertainment …the next new indulgence…never to be satisfied by the status quo. There is only one thing that can fully satisfy that longing and that is a relationship with the living Jesus.
Hebrews 2:1 ” We must pay more careful attention, therefore, to what we have heard, so that we do not drift away.”
Slipping off the right path can happen so slowly and insidiously that we aren’t really aware of it until something drastic happens. We compromise a little here…we give in a little there…and before we know it – we’ve wandered far from where the Lord wants us. That’s why it’s so important to be ever vigilant…ever on guard for things that will cause us to jeopardize our faith.