Prayer Thoughts for the Heart

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The Continental Congress passed a resolution on July 2, 1776, to declare independence from England. Two days later, on July 4, 1776, the Declaration of Independence was adopted.

THE FIRST WORDS OF THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE: “When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the Powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness…..”

Let us give thanks to God for how He led our Founding Fathers and gave them wisdom to establish a new Nation, as we celebrate another anniversary of Freedom.

When the Colonies were seeking God’s will to break ties with England, George Washington wrote in his diary. “Went to church and fasted all day”.

America is a very unique nation, built upon the most unusual documents, that has served us well for over 200 years. The original constitution of the American states, the Articles of Confederation, was ratified by the states. On September 13, 1788, the Congress passed a resolution to put the new Constitution into operation.

PREAMBLE TO THE CONSTITUTION: “We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America”.

George Washington served in the Continental Congress and after the Revolution began, He became the Commander of the Army July 1775. The war was over in1783 and he retired from the Army and returned to Mount Vernon. Washington and others joined to reorganize the Articles of Confederation and in 1787, he presided over the Constitutional Convention, which wrote the Constitution of the United States.

Many people who knew George Washington up close and personal, report that he was a truly dedicated man and a God fearing man. They said that many times he spoke of seeing how God had answered his prayers.

When the Revolution was winding down and he and his army could smell victory, he reported that he knew that God Almighty gave them the victory.

“Righteousness exalts a nation” (Proverbs 14:34 NIV).

The meaning of the word Integrity is: We are a serious minded person and believe in practicing honesty, sincerity, and straight as an arrow purpose for our dealings with others.

We would be wise to seek Jesus’ word for integrity, and that is to have a pure heart. A good conscience that has been taught Biblical Principles, can sleep well, and not be concerned about how we acted or reacted the day before.

Purity of heart is a Spiritual thing where we have taken our standard of conduct from the Bible and not the world. We need to free ourselves from the pollution we may see and hear each day and not mix it in with our godly integrity.

A Believer desires to be clean and pure and pleasing to God in our walk with Him. This mind-set must come from within and renewed every day.

Remembering that God is Love and to show others God’s Love, we must walk in Integrity.

The Apostle Paul was a disciple that was sold out to walking in Integrity. Most of us may not be called to preach and teach, but we are called to be a good example that is demonstrating godly integrity.

“Be imitators of God, therefore, as dearly loved children and live a life of love, just as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God” (Ephesians 5:1-2).

“The integrity of the upright guides them” (Proverbs 11:3a).

We would be hard pressed to find anyone that doesn’t like to receive a gift. Today, I have good news that there are some exciting gifts we can receive.

First one is God’s gift of salvation and it is your free gift today. “…Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved” (Acts 16:31 NIV). All we have to do is receive it by faith and it is yours to keep. “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God” (Ephesians 2:8-9 NIV).

“And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him” (Hebrews 11:7 NIV).

“Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfector of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God” (Hebrews 12:2 NIV).

God has another gift for us and it is His gift of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is a wonderful gift because He is our teacher and guides us in the things of the spirit. He is the one who helps us discern biblical truths and to know right from wrong.
“But the man who isn’t a Christian can’t understand and can’t accept these thoughts from God, which the Holy Spirit teaches us. They sound foolish to him, because only those who have the Holy Spirit within them can understand what the Holy Spirit means” (1 Corinthians 2:14 LB).

Our next gift is the gift of godly wisdom that we receive when we know God as our Lord. “For the reverence and fear of God are basic to all wisdom. Knowing God results in every other kind of understanding” (Proverbs 9:10 LB).

Another gift to receive is the privilege of prayer. We can pray at any moment in time and God hears us. “Therefore he is able to save completely those who come to God through him, because he always lives to intercede for them” (Hebrews 7:25 NIV).

One morning at our church, during our Thursday morning prayer time, a young woman said to me. “I have been thinking that God wants me to divorce my husband”.

I was shocked and couldn’t believe what she was saying to me. She and her husband had three children, came to church, and seemed happy.

I ask her if her husband was abusive to her or the children and she said no. I then asked if she or her husband were having an affair and she said no. As we talked on about her situation, I could see that she just wanted her freedom.

After we had prayer for her and others, I told her that God didn’t want her to divorce her husband, but that the ideas of the world were making her think this way.

I felt bad that she was unhappy and our prayer was that she could see and do what God really wanted her to do. When children are involved, there is much more to consider than just self.

They moved away from our area and I don’t know what happened in this situation. However, I hope that she heard from God, worked on her marriage, learned to love again, and kept the family unit intact.

She had made a commitment when she was in love and got married. The most important thing to remember is the commitment that we make to each other. We will fall in and out of love and if there is no commitment then what. We have to work at keeping our love alive and well.

“Delight yourself in the Lord; and he will give you the desires of your heart” (Psalm 37:4 NIV).

Psalm 107 is a wonderful Psalm of Praise to the Lord. It is hard to count the many praises to the Lord that is written down in this Psalm. The first part records, that we should praise the Lord and give thanks to Him for His mercy.

Then let the redeemed of the Lord sing His praises. Oh that we would praise Him for His goodness and His kind and merciful deeds to us. Praise Him because He satisfies our longing soul with goodness.

Lift up your voice and praise the Lord because He sent His Word and healed the people and delivered them from destruction. His greatest miracle is how His Word brought the healing of salvation to us.

Let’s praise the Lord from morning until night. From the rising of the sun until the going down of the same. From dawn until dusk. All day, every day, all day long.

Our praises to God is really an attitude of praise. It’s not that we are sitting around all day praising and thanking God. We live our life in an attitude of thanksgiving and praise as we are working, playing, and serving.

Sometime during our day as we see and hear things, our mind tells our heart that it’s time to silently lift up praises to God. Also, we will want to lift up a request for God’s help in our life or for someone else.

“Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good; his love endures forever” (Psalm 107:1).

During the last two years, I have had my patience stretched far beyond the length, I could have ever imagined. But the years I have lived up to this time as a Believer has helped greatly for this time in my life.

Also my personality is that it takes a lot to make me angry. I try to stay calm and not embarrass myself. The time that I was having some work done at my house, has really taxed my patience.

Having the work done once, and then twice, and now the third time will try anyone’s patience. The second wait was one year and now the third wait is going on six months.

I believe that kindness with firmness works better for as long as possible. I have tried to do this because the Scripture records that “A kind word turns away wrath”.

I am glad to say that my patience got some relief because I received a phone call the other day that the work will begin soon.

This situation has for sure let me practice making my patience stronger with God’s help. I am thankful for that, but no one said that learning patience would be easy.

They say that practice makes perfect and of course none of us like the situations that causes the practicing to be necessary.

“…add to your faith virtue; and to virtue knowledge; And to knowledge temperance; and to temperance patience; and to patience godliness; and to godliness brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness charity” (2 Peter 1:5-7 KJV).