With All My Heart

Just like the previous post, here is a "e-votional" I signed up for written by Ronald Ovitt. I am blown away how much God has used this as tool to speak directly to me. I have depended on these Bible verses through some very difficult times this past year.

TODAY'S VERSE "You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart." Jeremiah 29:13 (NIV)

TODAY'S THOUGHT. When it is important to us, it is amazing to see how focused we can get. This is how it is with God. He spoke to His people through the Prophet Jeremiah, admonishing them that the only way they would really find God was when they involved their heart. Notice, Jeremiah did not say, "when you seek him with your whole intellect." It is not knowing "about" God; it is about "knowing God" in a deep and intimate way. God is saying that if you would get passionate about Him, then you will begin to find Him. How intent are you on knowing God? Begin today by seeking Him with your whole heart.

TODAY'S PRAYER Father, I come to You today. I really do want to know You. I want to have a deep intimate relationship with You. Help me discipline myself to take the time to know You. Take the time to hear You. Take the time to tell You my thoughts, hopes and dreams. To share with You my fears, apprehensions and doubts. As I seek You this way, that is with all my heart, I pray that You would reveal more and more of Yourself to me. AMEN

Isn't that the truth? We complain and say "boy am I busy, and tired....too tired to read my bible, too tired to pray". But I do find myself having extra time to think about that new shirt I want alot, or the way I want this adoption to go. (notice all the I's here)But am I getting REALLY passionate about what is important, developing a deep intimate realtionship with God. REALLY GETTING TO KNOW HIM? This week's preschool lesson (which I am writing a puppet show for) is a story from Acts. It is when Paul is traveling and spreading the "Good News". He encounters these two groups of people. One group believes in God, but has a distant relationship with Him. The other believes there is no God, no moral compass, and all that matters is seeing their own pleasures. I find myself falling into those two belief systems alot. Keeping God at a distance thinking "I can do this myself"....or trying to find satisfaction in things of this world. And God keeps calling "Come here, be still, listen to me. Rest with me. Get to know me. I will place your feet on solid ground. I am in control. I am God. I am God. I am God.

God Said "Shhhh, I need to tell you something"

Don't you love when things come full circle? Especially when God is drawing the circle? Yesterday's sermon was about how God changes us. Little by little, experience by experience. It starts with an uncomfortable feeling, like something just isn't right. I just happened to feel like I was drowning in anxiety.(note that word "drowning"). At the end of that sermon, God just whispered to my heart "my power is made perfect in your weakness"....but "what does that mean?", I thought. So I woke up this morning to this on my e-votional:TODAY'S VERSE "Be still before the LORD and wait patiently for him." Psalms 37:7 (NIV)

Even our prayers become a "tool" to use, rather than a relationship. Instead, God desires that we come to Him like a loving and wise Father. Our relationship with Him matters more than our circumstances. . Today, determine to know Him better. Choose some time where you can spend twenty minutes of solitude with Him. Don't let another day, week, month or year go by and not treasure God in your heart through time spent still before Him.

Wow...He knew I was drowning, and my Great Deliverer has taken my hand and set me on solid ground. God is....Indescribable. His wisdom and His peace floods my soul this morning.

But seek ye FIRST the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you."
Matthew 6:33 (WOW!)

"He only is my rock and my salvation: he is my defence; I shall not be moved."
Psalm 62:6

"That he would grant you, according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with might by his Spirit in the inner man; that Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith; that ye, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height; and to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fullness of God. Now unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us, unto him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus throughout all ages, world without end. Amen."
Ephesians 3:16-21

The bottom line is this "If we don't have a close relationship with Him then we will forget to lean on Him when we are in need. We won't have the faith to allow Him to do His thing while we rest in Him. We have to have developed a relationship with Him so we know that we know that we know that God is willing and able to handle things.

It is most important to turn our eyes toward God and find out where He wants us to focus our attention. Once we get our hearts and minds in line with His will then everything else is just frosting on the cake. Don't have a "me agenda". Have a "Him" state of mind.

His Power Is Made Perfect In My Weakness

Jehovah Tsidkenu” Jeremiah 33:16

which means “The Lord Our Righteousness”

by Robert Murray McCheyne
November 18, 1884

I once was a stranger to grace and to God,
I knew not my danger; and felt not my load;
Though friends spoke in rapture of Christ on the tree,
Jehovah Tsidkenu was nothing to me.

I oft read with pleasure, to soothe or engage,
Isaiah’s wild measure and John’s simple page;
But even when they pictured the blood-sprinkled tree,
Jehovah Tsidkenu seemed nothing to me.

Like tears from the daughters of Zion that roll,
I wept when the waters went over His soul,
Yet thought not that my sins had nailed to the tree
Jehovah Tsidkenu — ’twas nothing to me.

When free grace awoke me by light from on high,
Then legal fears shook me, I trembled to die;
No refuge, no safety in self could I see —
Jehovah Tsidkenu my Saviour must be.

My terrors all vanished before the sweet name;
My guilty fear banished, with boldness I came
To drink at the fountain, life-giving and free—
Jehovah Tsidkenu is all things to me.

Jehovah Tsidkenu! My treasure and boast,
Jehovah Tsidkenu! I ne’er can be lost;
In Thee shall I conquer by flood and by field—
My cable, my anchor, my breastplate and shield!

Even treading the valley; the shadow of death,
This “watchword” shall rally my faltering breath;
For while from life’s fever my God sets me free,
Jehovah Tsidkenu my death-song shall be.

“Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will raise up for David a righteous Branch, and he shall reign as king and deal wisely, and shall execute justice and righteousness in the land. In his days Judah will be saved, and Israel will dwell securely. And this is the name by which he will be called: ‘The Lord is our righteousness.’
Jeremiah 23:5-6