Talk of JESUS .com

Tag: prayer

  • A Heart Cries Out

    A Heart Cries Out

    A heart cries out

    In sad futility:

    Is anyone out there?

    Does anyone care?

     

    Yes, says the Lord

    I hear your prayer.

    Do you hear my answer?

    Do you really care?

     

    A soul sadly survives

    Without being alive:

    Why do I matter?

    Why do my thoughts scatter?

     

    I still love your soul.

    I showed you the Way.

    When will you believe,

    That your heart will not deceive?

     

    Is anyone out there?

    Does anyone care?

     

    I hear you in prayer.

    I AM your joy and salvation.

     

    Sad, isn’t it – the futility of one without God.

    In fact, the Bible points to many of God’s faithful who have moments of doubt and hopelessness.  Yet their answer always comes though faith and prayer.

    The American Heritage Dictionary gives us a rather complete picture of futility by definition:

    1. The quality of having no useful result; uselessness.
    2. Lack of importance or purpose; frivolousness.
    3. A futile act.
    “Life without God is lifelessness.
    We often confuse the emotions and moods of the heart with the temporal worldly meanings imposed on our self-seeking souls by the ruler of this world.
    • The world does not equate Heart to soul.
    • Love is only equated to sexual love by the imposition of false meaning twisting our every thought.

    We do not think to ask God for an answer.  Time after time our heart cries out in hopelessness.

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    Without God as part of the love of our life, we miss out on the very love God intended.
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    The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it? – Jeremiah 17:9 KJV
    If you want to understand the heart, look to the Hebrew root word: leb.
    Foremost in your understanding of your own heart is that your heart is your soul. 

    We are not really just the flesh and bones that others see or the mind and actions you show off to others. At the core of our being, you are your Leb:

    inner man, mind, will, heart, understanding; 

    1. Inner part, midst
    2. midst (of things)
    3. heart (of man)
    4. soul, heart (of man)
    5. mind, knowledge, thinking, reflection, memory
    6. inclination, resolution, determination (of will)
    7. conscience
    8. heart (of moral character)
    9. as seat of appetites
    10. as seat of emotions and passions
    11. as seat of courage

    Yes, there is much more to us than just our nature of the flesh.

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    The scriptures about the heart are also most revealing.  The list is long and includes some of what Jesus had to say about our hearts.

    Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, ‘Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.’ – John 7:38 ESV

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    So why are faith and prayer the answer?

    Did you hear a conversation in the opening poem?

    One caught-up in his or her own heart will have neither humility nor faith to hear God’s answer:

    requiring trust in Jesus as Lord.

     Psalm 4:

    Answer me when I call, O God of my righteousness!
    You have given me relief when I was in distress.
    Be gracious to me and hear my prayer!

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    Jesus Christ, who sacrificed Himself on the Cross because of God’s love for you said:

    And whatever you ask in prayer, you will receive, if you have faith. – Matthew 21:22 ESV

    Does your heart cry out?

    You with ears to hear, listen to God in your conversation of prayer.

    Jesus IS Lord.

  • A prayer for men

    A prayer for men

    LORD? I know many men who need your help.

    Men without respect… or honor… or praise…

    Men without love… without fulfillment… incomplete…

    Men without purpose… without direction… without work…

    Men alone.

    It was never your intention to abandon a man to be:

    • without a wife
    • without work
    • without a friend
    • without You.

    So LORD, please help all these men who have been driven deep into the recesses of defeat.

    Lift them LORD, to YOUR purpose, YOUR complete Love and YOUR full blessing.

    Blessed is the man
    who walks not in the counsel of the wicked,
    nor stands in the way of sinners,
    nor sits in the seat of scoffers – Psalm 1:1

    Blessed is the man who finds a good wife in the Lord.

    Blessed is the man whose children honor him and whose wife respects him.

    Blessed is the man near to his Christian brothers.

    Blessed is the man known of the Lord in the gates.

    Blessed is the man who can provide for others.

     

    Yet in these evil days, blessed is the man who is rejected by his beloved for the sake of our Lord.

    Blessed is the man whose wife and children reject him.

    Blessed is the man who is rejected by his friends of the world.

    Blessed is the man who is not known and cannot find work.

     

    “Blessed are you when people hate you and when they exclude you and revile you and spurn your name as evil, on account of the Son of Man! – Luke 6:22

    Dear Lord? We pray for these faithful men…

    and also their loved ones.

    In Christ’s Name…

     

  • ANGRY Children of a Loving God – Part 4

    ANGRY Children of a Loving God – Part 4

    “IF we harden our hearts in ANY hatred, we distance the love of ANY who come near – any loved one, even Jesus.

    IF I entertain any anger of my wife, or my child, or my parents, or my boss, or my brothers or sisters or friends; I try to seek their forgiveness and forgive what I hate in their hatred.

    Rather, I give my anger to God.

    “Let’s talk about this, Lord.  I have a complaint here.  I am probably wrong, but You will have to tell me how.”

    I rant and I rave in person-to-Person prayer, releasing my anger to the healing of the Lord.

    I try to stop long enough in silence to listen to His answer of love.  I could never hate the Lord, but I sometimes hate that He does not answer.

    Sometimes I hate His answer; but then… eventually I admit, I am wrong… and will learn to love His answer.  That is hard… but a softening of my heart is necessary to prevent a hardening of the hearts of others.

    ANGRY children of a loving God must bow down in humility to a loving Father who does discipline those He loves.

    It would not do us well to provoke a loving God to anger.

    There is no soundness in my flesh
    Because of Your anger,
    Nor any health in my bones
    Because of my sin. – Psalm 38:3

    Ephesians 4: 25 So stop telling lies. Let us tell our neighbors the truth, for we are all parts of the same body.

    Communication: person-to-person truthful relationship.

    This reference is to real relationship between the brothers and sisters of Christ’s body, His church.

    It is ALSO a person-to-Person relationship with Christ Jesus.

     26 And “don’t sin by letting anger control you.” Don’t let the sun go down while you are still angry, 27 for anger gives a foothold to the devil.

     31 Get rid of all bitterness, rage, anger, harsh words, and slander, as well as all types of evil behavior.

    32 Instead, be kind to each other, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, just as God through Christ has forgiven you.

    We spoke earlier of Ephesians 4:26 – Do NOT let the sun go down on your ANGER.

    (A link to Christian Anger, in case you missed it.)

    [To be continued…]