"For God is working in you, giving you the desire and the power to do what pleases him." Philippians 2:13
I am SO thankful for this promise from God! I am confident that God has been working in me since before my birth, but I'm sorry to say it took me many years to pay much attention to what He was saying.
Oh, I thought I knew God. After all, my parents always took us to Sunday School and we prayed before meals and all that good Christian stuff. I know my mother was a believer. I was very involved in the youth group. I'll never forget when I was about 14, as was the custom in our church, after completing a 2 year class, my fellow classmates and I were individually questioned by the elders of the church to make sure they wanted to allow us to join the church. I can still see that room and the men sitting around it! I don't remember what else they asked me, but I'll never forget one question. The pastor or someone else asked me if I believed Jesus Christ was my savior. I honestly told him no, I didn't. The response? "Well, you will one of these days." And they let me join the church - I just kept my mouth shut during the part of the ceremony where it said I accepted Jesus Christ as my personal savior!
Whoever that man was who said, "Well, you will one of these days" was right, but I do not think God whispered that in his ear any more than he did mine at the time. I am so thankful for our gracious God and his patience of working in me for so many years when I was basically giving him lip service and turning a deaf ear.
I can be a pretty stubborn person, so it took Him a number of years to get me to let go of that tug of war rope. And to be perfectly honest, I still pick it up from time to time to argue about who has control over some aspects of my life. However, thanks be to God, I finally accepted Jesus Christ as my personal savior in December of 1983. It still took me a while to start working on my relationship with Jesus. But, praise the Lord again for his patience and graciousness with me. He has truly instilled in me the desire to please Him and I have felt His power at various times when He has equipped and enabled me to serve and glorify Him in ways I pray please Him.
He is working in each of us every day. What is he trying to tell you today?
My prayer for today:
Father God, I thank you so much for loving me and never giving up on me. I praise you for who you are yesterday, today and tomorrow and the knowledge that we can trust you and believe you keep your promises! Thank you, thank you, thank you for all the work you have done in me and for all the work you still have planned to do in me! Thank you for instilling in me the desire to please you. I pray that I always keep you top of mind and that all I say, do and think is pleasing to you. I ask all this in your the precious name of Jesus.
I was not raised in a Christian home at all....I remember hiding down stairs in front of our television....praying on my knees at 9 years of age for the first time with Rex Humbard...A television Preacher....Asking for God to save my soul....I don't think I really understood what I was asking....But God knew my heart....I always felt that God watched over me from that day forward....listening to a prayer of a child....I made countless mistakes from that day on....I entered God's House at the age of 17 with a boyfriend after moving to Kentucky from Michigan with my parents....I listened carefully to Preacher Arnold Belmont Johnson....But as we all do for whatever reason I did not give my heart to the Lord during the invitation that day....But I went home....I actually said...If I am ever saved....I will be saved at Boldman Freewill Baptist Church....Five years later....I gave my life to the Lord while my brother was preaching at the very same church!! I have never taken my salvation for granted. Some may think I was saved at 9 years of age....Others may think I was saved April 11, 1983....Doesn't matter to me....All that matters to me....Is that I am a Child of A King....
ReplyDelete"Therefore are they before the throne of God, and serve Him day and night in His temple: and He that sitteth on the throne shall dwell among them." Revelation 7:15
Your comments are a good reminder of how thankful we should be that God is a God of second chances, and third, and fourth, .....
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