Let My Heart Not Be Far From You

The Lord says:

"These people come near to me with their mouth

and honor me with their lips,

but their hearts are far from me.

Their worship for me

is based merely on human rules they have been taught."

Isaiah 29:13

Father, as I read this, it scares me. It scares me that these people thought they were following you but were so deceived, and I am wondering if I am deceived. I am wondering if my heart is far from you in ways I don't know. Jesus said there will be people who stand before you that you will tell you never knew them, and they will be confused because they did all these things in your name, and you reply, "But I never knew you. Away from me."

Father, I ask you to forgive me for worship that was not what you desire, and I ask you to show me every single way that I think I am worshipping you when really, I'm just performing well. I pray that you would show me your heart so my heart can draw near to it. I ask you to speak deep into me and uproot theology that is a lie or twisted to serve anything other than you. I ask you to forgive any way that I use my obedience to feed my ego and develop pride when I should be humbling seek hard after you.

Show me any way where my actions do not align with your heart. Show me where I am all talk and no love.

Show me where my heart is far from you.

Lead me into holiness that I may know you better and love you deeper. Show me how doing things for you has been my goal and who me how to love you greater, which should be my heart.

Father, I don't want to be someone far from you. I want to be someone in the most intimate place of your presence. I want my heart to beat with the same rhythm as yours. I want to be so deep in you that you see me every time you open your eyes and I see you every time I open mine. I don't want to be a performer. I want to be the one that you find such amazing oneness in that it brings joy to your heart.

I ask that you would bless me with your discipline and correction. Bless me with your heart, Father.

I love you. Show me how to love you better.

Amen

Because the Only Way to God is God's Way

Stop! Listen to me a second. Some of you need to hear this because it can't totally change your day, your week, and your life.

God loves you, and He is for you, but He can't bless you if you choose to do things in opposition to Him. He cannot bless what goes against His nature, character, or laws. He will not bless manipulation, revenge, or cruelty. He will not bless sin. He will not bless you to keep sinning. If there is something in your life that takes you further from Him, He will not bless it. He may give you over to it if you are determined to have it, but that is not His blessing. That is His letting you have your way so you can see what a failure that road is.

If you are tired of living that life, if you are ready to be blessed, have peace, and find Him, turn to Him in repentance, meaning confessing that you've been doing it the wrong way and want to do it His way. Ask His forgiveness, which He grants with lavish generosity, and seek His heart and His way of doing things.

You don't have to try to fix your mess on your own. You don't have to try to escape the addiction on your own. You don't have to fill that hole caused by the failure of those who should have covered you and loved you on your own. He can and will fix it for you, but He will fix it HIS way, and He wants to start fixing it today, right now.

I'm praying for you today. If you want to know more or need personal prayer, let me know. God be with you.

The Best Time for Grace

They say he headed up the biggest in-your-face doping scheme to be pulled off in sports.

They say he made a mockery of the sport and a joke of the people who believed in him.

They say he fooled the world for years.

Now he is saying they are right.

According to "sources", Lance Armstrong is going to confess all his sins on TV for the world to see.

I don't know Lance Armstrong. For whatever he did...

I don't know why he made the choices he did. Obviously the person he was then thought it was acceptable. Maybe he felt he needed something he could get no other way. Maybe he believed that is who he needed to be...so he could be something. Maybe...maybe he's as human as I am.

I don't know why he is confessing now. Maybe he is weary. Maybe he has learned...he doesn't need the lies to be truly himself. Maybe he has learned...the best part of him, the world changing part of him...isn't in a frame on the wall. Maybe he is weary of being a fugitive. Pasts can become prisons we can run from but never escape until we put on the prison clothes and call ourselves what we are...debtors of the sinful kind...desperate for freeing grace...right now.

And when I look at Lance Armstrong, I am looking in a mirror, a mirror I stand before far more than I want to confess...putting on prison clothes, calling it what it is...a person from the past desperate for grace right now.

And I confess...

And I can't explain it into goodness...

I can only say this is...what I've done...who I've been...who I am...asking for a chance to be better...another chance to be better...to get it right...to be me the right way...the be the me I wish I had been...

And I should have been here before...should have fallen on knees before...should have confessed before...should have been someone not her before...

But I am now, and now is all I have to offer.

...and now I am here
...now I am fallen
...now I am confessing
...now I am needing

...and there is no better time than now...

...for Grace.