You Pray

You pray:

"Hide Your face from my sins, And blot out all my iniquities. Create in me a clean heart, O God, And renew a steadfast 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 uphold me by Your generous Spirit. Then I will teach transgressors Your ways, And sinners shall be converted to You."  (‭Psalms‬ ‭51‬:‭9-13, NKJV)

You know:

"The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit, A broken and a contrite heart— These, O God, You will not despise." (‭Psalms‬ ‭51‬:‭17‬ NKJV)

But, does a dry, disappointed, uninvested spirit resemble a broken and contrite one? No.

When a known or unknown sin separates you from God and your joy dries up and hope seems far away, you face several choices:

- step into unbelief

- continue sliding back into the world, your heart hardening by the minute 

- recognize your separation and seek restoration through repentance and throw yourself on God's mercy! 

Dry, hard places are the valleys (of the shadow of what seems like spiritual death) we traverse during the tests and trials of our walk with God. 

They often contain intersections or crossroads, if you will, that lead to distractions, dead ends, waywardness, or a deeper relationship. All the while the enemy is insistently whispering his suggestions of which turn you should take; right, left, straight ahead, turn around!

Picking-up hitchhikers, like Hopelessness, Doubt, Bitterness, and Rebellion as they stand on their appointed corners selling their propaganda, is hard to resist; their cries for attention mirroring our heart! 

Will we stand fast? 

Will we fail our test? 

Will we persevere? 

Will we give-up in defeat?

The choice is ours.

However, know this! 

The enemy is a liar! 

Pictures of despair never ending, darkness with not even a glint of light in the distance, pain real or imagined almost incapacitating, all designed to wreak havoc in our minds, all lies!

The "father of lies" will say "there is no hope", "you were better off before", "you've gone too far", "there's no turning back" and that is the biggest lie of all! 

Never miss the opportunity, never put off the chance to repent and turn back to God! 

He's standing there, arms stretched wide in welcoming acceptance of our willingness to humble ourselves and reverse our course set to destruction!

He knows it's hard and He knows what it takes. You keep your focus on Him! He'll never leave you or forsake you; no matter how it feels!

"Seek the LORD while He may be found, Call upon Him while He is near. Let the wicked forsake his way, And the unrighteous man his thoughts; Let him return to the LORD, And He will have mercy on him; And to our God, For He will abundantly pardon." (‭Isaiah‬ ‭55‬:‭6-7‬ NKJV)

Even so - MARANATHA! 

From 7/19/14, 1/15/16, 11/30/16