How Is Your Most Important Relationship?

 Psalm 119:33-40


33 Teach me, O Lord, the way of Your statutes,

And I shall keep it to the end.

34 Give me understanding, and I shall keep Your law;

Indeed, I shall observe it with my whole heart.

35 Make me walk in the path of Your commandments,

For I delight in it.

36 Incline my heart to Your testimonies,

And not to covetousness.

37 Turn away my eyes from looking at worthless things,

And revive me in Your way.

38 Establish Your word to Your servant,

Who is devoted to fearing You.

39 Turn away my reproach which I dread,

For Your judgments are good.

40 Behold, I long for Your precepts;

Revive me in Your righteousness.


Once we trust Jesus and become a child of God, we have a responsibility to mature spiritually. This includes:


• Getting to know our heavenly Father. The Bible gives us detailed descriptions of God’s attributes, values, and thoughts, and it also includes accounts of His Son’s life on earth. As we meditate on Scripture and what it reveals about the Lord, our sense of connectedness to Him will grow. 


• Communicating regularly. We should stay in close contact with God through prayer and quiet time—and resist the temptation to put people, work, or pleasures ahead of Him. Remember, relationships thrive when we invest in them but wither when neglected. 


• Acting in obedience. A close relationship with God inspires us to respond to His Word. He’s provided us with instructions and explanations about how to live rightly. And we’re to heed our Father’s commands, just as children should obey parents. 


• Growing in Christlikeness. As we cooperate with the transforming work of the Holy Spirit, we will start to think and act like our Father. 


God adopted us into His family and sent His Spirit and His Son so we could grow in our faith, love, and service. Are we doing our part to keep the relationship healthy?





Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Advent: The Lion of Judah

Image
    Genesis 49:8-12 8 “Judah, you are he whom your brothers shall praise; Your hand shall be on the neck of your enemies; Your father’s children shall bow down before you. 9 Judah is a lion’s whelp; From the prey, my son, you have gone up. He bows down, he lies down as a lion; And as a lion, who shall rouse him? 10 The scepter shall not depart from Judah, Nor a lawgiver from between his feet, Until Shiloh comes; And to Him shall be the obedience of the people. 11 Binding his donkey to the vine, And his donkey’s colt to the choice vine, He washed his garments in wine, And his clothes in the blood of grapes. 12 His eyes are darker than wine, And his teeth whiter than milk. Have you ever looked into your family tree?  With today’s current technology it’s amazing how much easier it has become to dive in deep to your family history and see who was a part.  It’s interesting to find the history of our families and find out where we came from.  Genesis 49 begins to shed light on the famil
Read more

A Blueprint For Prayer Part 2

Image
  Matthew 6:11-15     11 Give us this day our daily bread. 12 And forgive us our debts, As we forgive our debtors. 13 And do not lead us into temptation, But deliver us from the evil one. For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen. 14 “For if you forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. 15 But if you do not forgive men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses. The first half of the Lord’s prayer focuses on God, but in the second part, Jesus addresses our need for daily provision, forgiveness, and protection. Notice His words remain centered on the Father, who provides all three.  Give us this day our daily bread.  The Lord is the source of everything we need—physical, material, emotional, and spiritual (Philippians 4:19).  By asking Him to provide our basic necessities, we’re acknowledging our complete dependence upon Him and trusting in His sufficient provision for each day.  Forgive us our debts, as we
Read more

Confessing

Image
  Read Matthew 9:18-22 A confession isn’t always an admission of guilt—it can also be a proclamation of what we know to be true. Confessions of faith are sometimes formal, like the Apostles’ Creed, but they can also be as simple as an unscripted sentence. Consider the woman suffering from a hemorrhage—on approaching Jesus, she said, “If I only touch His cloak, I will get well” (Matthew 9:21). And the man whose son was possessed by an evil spirit proclaimed, “I do believe; help my unbelief!” (Mark 9:24). The woman with the bleeding disorder comes across as confident, and sometimes that’s the benefit a confession of faith provides: assurance of who God is. But it’s also possible her words were spoken more like a prayer or desperate hope to be fulfilled—not unlike the seemingly contradictory statement of the boy’s father. But even as prayers, both of their declarations reveal faith that could serve as an anchor during hardship. And the same is true for us. When we’re feeling lost or hopel
Read more