Bible Studies

Change Requires Choices

Proverbs 2:1-5 NRSV>
My child, if you accept my words
and treasure up my commandments within you,
making your ear attentive to wisdom
and inclining your heart to understanding;

if you indeed cry out for insight,
and raise your voice for understanding;
if you seek it like silver,
and search for it as for hidden treasures —
then you will understand the fear of the Lord
and find the knowledge of God.

I was having a discussion with a woman online one day. She was explaining that she had this (sinful) compulsion and had dealt with it over and over again. She wasn’t really distressed about it, just simply saying that this was who she was.

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Do You Have Control?

Matthew 26:39 NKJV
He went a little farther and fell on His face, and prayed, saying, “O My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from Me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as You will.”

It struck me, the other day, that the ultimate sin — the foundational mindset that causes us to sin — is a matter of control. We sin because we want to control… to control our circumstances, to control those around us, to control our future. We win because we want some thing rather than being willing to let God and trust God to give us what He wants.

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Are there Jebusites in Your Heart?

The king and his men marched to Jerusalem, to fight against the Jebusites who inhabited the land. 2 Samuel 5:6

The Jebusites still held a stronghold in the heart of the country, never having been dislodged. Just so, there are ‘Jebusites’ in every Christian heart!

In every heart, there are little ‘Jebusite strongholds’, which it seems impossible for us to conquer. Sometimes it is a secret sin which lives on, unconquered, amid the general holiness of a life. Sometimes it is a remnant of the old nature–such as pride, worldliness, selfishness, lust, or bitterness. There are many other such citadels of evil, which rear their proud towers and defy conquest.

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Hope is an Anchor if We Allow It to Be

Hebrews 6:17-19 NKJV
Thus God, determining to show more abundantly to the heirs of promise the immutability of His counsel, confirmed it by an oath, that by two immutable things, in which it is impossible for God to lie, we might have strong consolation, who have fled for refuge to lay hold of the hope set before us. This hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and steadfast, and which enters the Presence behind the veil.

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Patience: God isn’t McDonald’s

Hebrews 6:13-15 NKJV
For when God made a promise to Abraham, because He could swear by no one greater, He swore by Himself, saying, “Surely blessing I will bless you, and multiplying I will multiply you.” And so, after he had patiently endured, he obtained the promise.

God isn’t McDonald’s.

Have you ever thought about how impatient we are as a society? We want what we want when we want it, thinking that if we don’t get it now, then what’s the point? Everything is a fast food mentality.

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When You are in a Dark Place

One evening recently a dear friend and I sat talking about the fact that though she was praying and seeking God for clear direction, she seemed to receive no answer and couldn’t “see” the way she was supposed to go. As I listened to her, it became clear to me (isn’t it always easier to see/hear God’s direction for someone else than for ourselves?) that God had her exactly where she was for a specific purpose. She was unable to see where God wanted her to go next because He had called her to hide (and rejoice!) for a season under the shadow of His wings.

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Delight Yourself, No Matter What the Circumstances

Delight yourself in the Lord;
and He will give you the desires of your heart.
Commit your way to the Lord,
Trust also in Him,
and He will do it. Psalm 37:4-5

This verse is embedded in a chapter which differs from the over all scope we find in the Book of Psalms, for it mentions nothing of prayer or praise. But it is all instruction; it’s ” Mesihil – a teaching Psalm.”

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