Working For The Weekend!  We are over the hump and headed into the weekend!  I hope that you are taking advantage of a blessed week.  God blesses all of our weeks, it is just up to us to decide if we will accept and take advantage of the blessings or not.  Here is a few thoughts that the Holy Spirit shared with me this morning that I hope will help you on your journey!

Powerful Prayers! I love prayers in the Bible.  I love to read what other people are saying to God.  I especially love to hear what King David had to say to God, because King David was one of those real, messed up, but in love with God kinda guys.  Listen to the words of this prayer that he lifted up to God: “May the words of my mouth and the meditations of my heart be pleasing in your sight, O Lord, my Rock and my Redeemer! Psalms 19

Words Are Powerful! Speaking produces reality!  When we open our mouths and words flow out, these words have the power and the ability to change the direction of our lives.  We need to be careful what we think and even more careful about what we say.  I think that this was one of the reasons why David prayed this prayer.  I want my words to be pleasing to my God, so I need His help and it is not wrong to ask for it.  God help me to speak your words, so that Your will can be my reality!

Your Heart’s Desire! What do you have your heart set on?  What is it that occupies your thoughts?  What do you spend most of your time doing?  The meditation and thoughts of your heart will guide the direction of your living and will produce the reality of your life.  Get the meditation and thought right and get your living and life right!  Again, I need God’s help with this.  I can not do it on my own.  God help me to meditate and think about the things that help me to be pleasing to you and a blessing to others!

God is your ROCK and REDEEMER! Build your life upon Him by thinking the right thoughts and saying the right words and you will be glad you did!

Here is a very amazing thought for us to chew on! “God said, “Let us make mankind in our image, after our likeness!” Genesis 1:26  Stop for just a moment and realize that this is talking about you and me!  We are made in the image and likeness of God.  This should challenge us to look at ourselves and others differently.  And when I say differently – I mean in a good and positive way!

God Said It! “God said!” For people to be made in His image was His idea!  God desires for us to take on His nature and character as seen in His Son Jesus.  We should seek to be transformed into His image and likeness, because it is in this place that we will find fulfillment by living in the purpose of our creation.

Only The Best! “Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness.” God created us from nothing into something.  And not just any something – the something was in His image and likeness.  We may not always live up to our created potential, but the potential is always there, just waiting for us to tap into and experience the miraculous!

I remember as a young boy growing up in church that one of our sunday school rooms had a poster of a little boy with the following words above his head:  “I am special because God made me and God don’t make no junk!”  The grammar may not have been great, but the message was and is powerful.  You are special!  God made you and if He took the time to make you in His image, then you know He has to have an amazing plan for your life!

Take some time today to appreciate who God created you to be.  Also take a little time to appreciate who God created others to be.  You’ll be glad you did!

Wake Up! I woke up this morning with this Scripture in my heart and on my lips!  “Create in me a clean heart, O God, And renew a right spirit within me.  Do not cast me away from your presence And do not take your Holy Spirit from me.  Restore to me the joy of your salvation and renew a right spirit within me.” Psalms 51:10-12

Powerful Prayer! What a powerful prayer for us to pray!  I challenge each of us to pray this prayer and mean it!  Just think of what could happen to and through your life, if you would take the time to pray this prayer with the expectation that God will be faithful to respond.

Create in me a clean heart, O God! God has to do it, because we cannot do it for ourselves.  If we are going to have a clean heart, it is because God comes into our lives and does for us – what we could never ever do for ourselves.  God wants to forgive and cleanse us, so that there is absolutely nothing that gets in between us and Him.  He does not forgive and cleanse us because we deserve it.  He forgives and cleanses us because He loves us and because we ask!

Renew A Right Spirit Within Me! We cannot have a right spirit, until we have a clean heart.  When God cleanses our heart, the next step is a right spirit.  When our heart is clean, we can expect God to renew a right spirit and a right spirit changes everything!

Do not cast me away from Your presence! I have no desire to step away from God and His protecting and blessing presence.  I need Him to deal with my sin, so that I don’t have to be chased away by His holiness.

Do not take your Holy Spirit from me! I have tried to do life by myself and have made the discovery that I can’t!  I need God’s breath of life breathing in and through my life.  I don’t even want to think about having to do life without His Holy Spirit breathing through me!

Restore to me the joy of Your salvation! I don’t deserve to be saved and in a right relationship with God, but I am thankful that He loved me with such an awesome love.  A love that motivated Him to send His only son Jesus to do for me what I could never do for myself.  Through my belief and acceptance of Jesus I am free to live in the power of a right relationship with my Creator and Sustainer and I have the joy of His salvation flowing to and through me!

Take some time to pray this prayer and let its power change your life!

“Create in me a clean heart, O God, And renew a right spirit within me.  Do not cast me away from your presence And do not take your Holy Spirit from me.  Restore to me the joy of your salvation and renew a right spirit within me.“