Today's Scripture(s) - Proverbs 24:1-2
"Be not thou envious against evil men, neither desire to be with them. For their heart studieth destruction, and their lips talk of mischief."
Who do you hang around with? Have you heard this phrase? "BIRDS OF A FEATHER FLOCK TOGETHER". Which means: 'those of like heart hang out with each other'. Look around you, what type of people are you congregating with? What's your best friend truly like? Who is it that you allow to speak into your ear? What is it that you and those you hang around with talking about? What is it that you and those you spend so much time with doing? Are you saying you are one thing and exemplifying that you are another? Let's ask that question a different way: Are you saying you are a Child of God but doing the things a child of the devil would do? You may be saying, "The Lord knows my heart" and YES He surely does and the Lord sees your deeds and hears the words that come out of your mouth. "...and shall not he render to every man according to his works?" (See Proverbs 24:12). "But I say unto you, That every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give account thereof in the day of judgment." Matthew 12:36. The word of God tells us to be holy. So we are to walk in a holy way before God, in spirit, in mind, in heart in every part of our being. When we accept Christ into our hearts and make Him Lord and Savior of our lives that does not mean that we can now willfully sin without penalty. I've said this before and I will say it again, just because we went to the altar at some time in our lives and recited a prayer asking the Lord to forgive us of our sins and come into our hearts and we walked away feeling good about it, if we did not make a conscious decision to turn away from sin and the evil things that we do and think, but continue to this day to commit willful sin doing whatever sinful thing we desire, saying whatever sinful thing we want and say "I'm saved, I made faith confession before", we are number 1 allowing the enemy to fool us and number 2 we are fooling ourselves. Many will have a rude awakening when Christ cracks the sky. I saw a line in a movie recently and this line shook me to the core and tears sprang to my eyes quickly as I read the subtitle 'Remember God so much that you are forgotten'. Don't want to be accepted and known of men so much that you endanger your own soul! I'd rather be forgotten of men and remembered by Almighty God. 2 Corinthians 6:17 says: "Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you." When we come to Christ there are things we must give up to truly walk with Him, the old man must die and Christ much be allowed to arise and live through us. Many times we must let go of the ones that do not want to follow Christ. Do we forget them? No of course not. If we truly love them we will witness Salvation and the love of Christ to them, every chance we get and we will keep them on the altar in prayer. Above all, we will show ourselves holy examples for them to see, for them to be able to say: "He/She have has changed, they don't do any of this stuff anymore" and perhaps their hearts will become pricked to and they will repent and turn to the Lord.
Today's Prayer:
Father God in the name of Jesus I give you praise! I thank you Father for waking me up this morning. Thank you for reaching out with your love and allowing me to open my eyes to another day that you have made for me. Father I thank you! I thank you Father God for being so good to me. I thank you Father God for your mercy and your grace you have given to me. Lord I thank you for your love and your kindness toward me. You Lord are so great and you Lord are so wonderful, you are everything I need and I bless you this day Father God. I present my body a living sacrifice to you today Father, holy and acceptable in your sight. I thank you for giving me life, health and strength. I thank you Father God for providing all that I need according to your riches in glory by my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. I thank you Father God that I lack nothing because you take good care of me. I thank you Father that all things are working for me, even the things I can't see for you work all things out for my good and I love you and I give you praise, glory and honor. I am committed to be pleasing in your sight Father. I don't always hit the mark but I thank you Father God that you hold me up and I thank you Father God that when I come before you with a true repentant heart determined not to fail again determined not to touch the unclean things, determined to not fulfill the lust of my flesh, the lust of my eye or be prideful, I thank you Father that you receive me and I am determined to keep my face, my lips, my eyes, my feet, my all pointed in your direction, fixed and set on you Lord. Lord I am ready to give up whatever I have to give up. I just want you Lord. I just want to be closer to you. I just want my life to exemplify you Lord, I want my life to honor you and bring you glory. Help me Holy Spirit! Help me to live a holy pure clean right life before you Lord. Cleanse me Lord of all unrighteousness. Remove from me all things that hinder me from getting closer to you Lord. Father I bless you today and praise you today and exalt you today and magnify your great name! Thank you Father for all things, you are worthy of all worship, glory, praise and honor, forever and ever. In Jesus name I pray. Amen