April 20, 2024

Change

SeekingHimLogo

Search me, O God, and know my heart;
test me and know my anxious thoughts.
Point out anything in me that offends You,
and lead me along the path of everlasting life.
Psalms 139:23-24 NLT

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Do you believe that’s a person can change?  I do…I believe that a person can change, if they want to change.  We cannot change people, people have to want to change on their own or the change won’t stick.  I’m talking about true change not “appearances” of change.  Can people change on their own?  I do believe that even this is possible.  However, I also believe that the easiest change you will ever experience is with the help of God.  And by easy I mean that the tools are readily available if you will accept them.

First, and foremost, a person needs to acknowledge that there is a need to change.  As you can see in Psalms 139:23-24, he asked for the Lord to change him—to make him better.  Confession time: when I first came to Christ, my biggest concern was that if I let Him “change me that I would no longer be “me“. Through prayer and constantly going to God about my concern, He pointed out that He was not changing me, but was making me into the person I was intended to be before life happened.  The “me” that I came to Him as was not the “me” He had envisioned me to be. The more I explored Scripture, the more I was able to accept this.

God says, “Bring all who claim Me as their God, for I have made them for My glory. It was I Who created them” (Isaiah 43:7 NLT).  He made us for His glory.  Does He find glory in the fact that I isolate myself or that I am mean to others?  Well, no.  So, then this is not how He created me to be.  How we are is not the same as how we were created to be.

Things happen in life that influence us—in positive and negative ways.  God happens to make us right.

…this means that anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person.
The old life is gone; a new life has begun!
2 Corinthians 5:17

New life is what we are promised.  But you know we have to choose to live in this new life.  God can show us a better way to do anything; whether it is managing money, or loving your family and friends, or loving the people of the world, or interacting with other believers, or how to be a better mother… boss… worker… or anything!  God knows the very best way to do it!  And, if we ask, He will show us.

The key is that you have to want it.  So, what do you want?

The Living Praise the Lord

SeekingHimLogo

The dead praise not the LORD, neither any that go down into silence.
But we will bless the LORD from this time forth and for evermore.
Praise the LORD.
Psalms 115:17-18

God is sovereign, meaning that He is completely independent.  He did not need to create us.  He does not need us for anything.  Based on this we might come to the conclusion that we are not important to God, or that we are not needed, or that we have no purpose. But, that is not the end of the story.

God tells us throughout the Scripture that we were created to glorify Him. That’s our purpose and means we are important to Him personally.

So our purpose of living is to

Glorify God   Talking about mankind in the Book of Isaiah, God says about us, “…whom I created for my glory…” (Isaiah 43:7).  God created us for His own glory.  When we are praising God it means we are glorifying Him. “I will praise you, O Lord my God, with all my heart; I will glorify your name forever” (Psalm 86:12).

How do we glorify God?

  • to glorify God means to bring Him honor through what we say, how we act, and how we think.
  • to glorify God means to acknowledge His glory and to value it above all things.
  • to glorify God means we make it known to others.
  • to glorify God means we have a heartfelt gratitude.

We glorify God through our faith and trust. We glorify God through our love. We glorify God through our desire to obey Him. We glorify God through our desire to know Him.  Therefore, my sisters, this has to be our habit when driving, doing household chores, talking among ourselves.  How sweet He is…how wonderful to us, how cared for we feel. He is such a loving Father, I tell you!

Enjoy God  Psalm 16:11 tells us, “In your [God’s] presence there is fulness of joy, in Your [God’s] right hand are pleasures for evermore.”  Hence verse 18 of Psalm 115 says “We will bless the Lord from this time forth and forevermore.”  Praising God should be a joyful thing for us to do. How do you feel when your loved one praises you after you have cooked a delicious meal?  I see many posts here on cookery and some are helped by their husbands; others tell us how their spouses have enjoyed the meal (definitely they must have uttered pleasing words). How do we feel? It feels good, huh!!  We are alive…not dead!  Let God delight in us through our praise to Him!

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Dear God, we delight in You for who You are in our lives.  You are a Great God.  We lift our hearts in worship and with praise on our lips to You alone.  Let our praises be with sweet aroma to the glory of Your name!  In Jesus name, we have prayed.  Amen!