How lovely is your dwelling place, Lord Almighty! My soul yearns, even faints, for the courts of the Lord; my heart and my flesh cry out for the living God.
Psalms 84:1-2 NIV
Oh, how I yearn for the Lord. Again, looking at marriage as the picture of Jesus as groom and the church as His bride, it reminds me that my marriage should mirror the same kind of yearning. I pray that God would fill me with a yearning for my husband that equals my yearning for Him.
Acts 5
23 “We found the jail securely locked, with the guards standing at the doors; but when we opened them, we found no one inside.”
Whatever prison we find ourselves in, at times, God will free us and those or that which put us in the chains won’t even know.
I’m thinking of someone who has hurt you and you were filled with anger, spite, cruel thoughts. If we only repent and pray, God will release our hearts and minds from the evil and replace it with His peace. But first we ask.
The prison of anxiousness may constantly attach chains to our thoughts and enclose our heart with bars, God will free us, but first we pray. And we must have faith to know that God will claim the victory, even if we fight the same battle over and over again. In our freedom we must stand in the courts and share his light, that light which brings us out of darkness over and over.
29 Peter and the other apostles replied: “We must obey God rather than human beings! 30 The God of our ancestors raised Jesus from the dead—whom you killed by hanging him on a cross. 31 God exalted him to his own right hand as Prince and Savior that he might bring Israel to repentance and forgive their sins.32 We are witnesses of these things, and so is the Holy Spirit, whom God has given to those who obey him.”
Peter, who denied our Lord and Savior, not just once but thrice…what a wonderful warrior he has become when filled with the Holy Spirit. We too have strength beyond our own imagination, we too have denied Jesus many times, by choosing worldly things, thoughts or pursuits, but we must repents, and activate the Holy Spirit.
38 Therefore, in the present case I advise you: Leave these men alone! Let them go! For if their purpose or activity is of human origin, it will fail. 39 But if it is from God, you will not be able to stop these men; you will only find yourselves fighting against God.”
But if it is from God……. we are unstoppable.
40 His speech persuaded them. They called the apostles in and had them flogged. Then they ordered them not to speak in the name of Jesus, and let them go. 41 The apostles left the Sanhedrin, rejoicing because they had been counted worthy of suffering disgrace for the Name.
To rejoice after a trial is the sweetest praise one will ever experience. Not so sure about this? Well look at our Lord…crucified (no bigger trial that that) and seated at the right hand of God rejoicing for all eternity.
He’s calling us, strengthening us, fighting our battles with us, he wants us next to him,
But first we persevere, we pray, we stand, we praise, and then we rejoice….for all eternity right with Him.