one of His lambs

What is the basis on which Hezekiah asks for healing? Why is personal righteousness and holiness important in getting your prayers answered? How can unrighteousness prevent answered prayer if all gifts from God are by grace anyway? Hezekiah asks for healing because of God's ability to heal and because Hezekiah has been a faithful servant. When we choose to obey God and His commands, to walk in His ways, to reject the ways of the world, we become His friend. Friendship with the world is enmity with God, so the reverse is true -- if we are not in love with worldly things, giving into our lusts of the flesh and of the eyes, dying to ourselves daily, then we can come into the presence of the Lord with humility -- knowing that the Lord Jesus has paid the price for our petitions to be heard, and yet, we show that we are in the vine when we are obeying His commands to the best of our ability by His power and His strength, boasting only in the Lord Jesus Christ. God also promises that He rewards those who seek Him. Unrighteousness is probably because we have made friends with the world in some way, which can be a stronghold in our lives, and if we are not repentant, then we are choosing to separate ourselves from God and move away from His umbrella of protection of grace over our lives.

Q3. How can a wrong understanding of determinism and predestination keep us from the kind of gutsy prayer that Moses prayed? What do you call a belief that our prayers make no difference to God's response? If we believe everything is predetermined without our action, then we can just spend our lives sitting in front of the television set, waiting for everything to happen. In the Word of the Lord, I see a Divine Being, who encourages His people to take action, to be doers and not couch potatoes. In Hebrews, the Word says, "He rewards those who diligently seek Him." Why would Yeshua (JESUS) tell us to ask, seek and knock if we are not supposed to actively pray? Why did Yeshua take time out to pray every morning? The enemy of our souls sure likes this type of theology! And I am not one to say that there is no predestination, but I have seen the power of prayer in my life -- it has changed many situations that were headed in a very bad direction. It has changed my life! Even though I have some great testimonies of the power of prayer, I still have to motivate myself sometimes to keep praying. A belief that our prayers make no difference == UNBELIEF!

Q3. Why do we seek to be independent of asking anyone for help? Why do we seek to be independent of God? Why should we ask God to "give" us daily bread so long as we can earn a living for ourselves? If we are dependent on others, they can let us down. God will not let us down, but we think we are in control of our own destiny when we are healthy and have a good job. We are only fooling ourselves, though, since it is the Lord who gives us health and who gave us the intelligence and the discipline to be trained, etc. Every good gift comes from the Father, but since we don't see God's Hand coming out of the air to give it to us, we often don't see this. It takes time to develop a thankful, grateful, hunble heart, to begin to understand that but for the Grace of God, we could be living in a cardboard box in a dirty alley somewhere. I once heard about a man who had been a drug addict who came to the Lord, and he was homeless and lived in a cardboard box for a while, and he thanked the Lord for his cardboard box. That is the kind of humility we all need to have. We need to remember to thank the Lord for providing the air we breathe, the sunshine that helped the food grow, the water that refreshes us and keeps us alive, etc. etc. We should ask the Lord to give us Daily Bread because it honors Him and acknowledges that He is the ultimate provider of everything that we have in our lives. WE can thank Him for our job. Especially in today's economy, one never knows when one might be laid off. We must never take these things for granted. Perhaps we have lots of food in our pantry, but today we need strength to be patient with someone at work. Or today we need the energy to take care of young children all day. Or today we need His peace so we will not be anxious and can be a light to those around us. Or today we need to ask Him for His love for the lost in our workplace, so we can be kind and thoughtful and draw them to Him through our loving interactions. To me, that is bread also.

There is so much in this Psalm that can be used for instruction of children in righteous living. The main theme of the instruction here is relationships and use of money. We see how important relationships are to the Lord. 1. being honest: speak the truth in love. 2.golden rule: love one another that your joy may be full. 3. keep good company: when you play with pigs, you get dirty but they just are having fun. 4. keep your promises: we must be so careful what we say -- power of life and death is in the tongue 5. do not take advantage of others, especially someone who is poor "The Good Samaritan": if we care for those who are hurting and in need with no thought to repayment, we will be blessed 6. don't take bribes: use your authority wisely -- "do not govern as the gentiles do, who lord themselves over others -- we must be servant leaders"

This psalm(1) is a great comfort to me. It gives me a promise: if I delight in the law of the Lord and meditate on God's Law day and night, I will be successful -- "whatever he/she does will prosper" verse 3. Conversely, it warns those who are ungodly that their way will eventually perish -- which also can be a comfort if one has been persecuted by ungodly people or has seen ungodly people succeed for a time materially, though it is mostly sobering -- as there but for the grace of God, go I. What good is it for a person to gain the whole world but lose their soul? I need reminders, I need to read over and over again, how important it is to set aside time for the Lord to meditate on His word and bask in His presence. This is a sacrifice, there are always many things demanding our time and attention, and yet, it is a very "profitable" sacrifice, for it is more like an investment. The more time and energy I invest in God's Kingdom, the more I will flourish, "like a tree planted by the rivers of water that brings forth its fruit in its season". There is nothing more rewarding, more joyfilled for me, to bring forth fruit for the Kingdom of my Savior and Lord. Oh, that I could be even more fruitful!

I often am thirsty for the Lord. I find that getting in touch with my hunger for the Lord and fully embracing it and accepting it brings me to a deeper place in the Lord. Often crying out to Him from my place of hunger releases visions and opens things up in the heavenly realms, causes breakthroughs and deliverances. If I am down, I just need to get alone with Him, and worship Him from my heart, pouring out everything that is burdening my heart, and I always feel so much better afterwards. He always comes to me when I am in this state of humility and neediness, and ministers healing to me.