Confession and Petition

Holy Lord, I have sinned times without number, and been guilty of pride and unbelief, of failure to find Thy mind in Thy Word, of neglect to seek Thee in my daily life. My transgressions and short-comings present me with a list of accusations, but I bless Thee that they will not stand against me, for all have been laid on Christ. Go on to subdue my corruptions, and grant me grace to live above them. Let not the passions of the flesh nor lustings of the mind bring my spirit into subjection, but do Thou rule over me in liberty and power.

I thank Thee that many of my prayers have been refused. I have asked amiss and do not have, I have prayed from lusts and been rejected, I have longed for Egypt and been given a wilderness. Go on with Thy patient work, answering 'no' to my wrongful prayers, and fitting me to accept it. Purge me from every false desire, every base aspiration, everything contrary to Thy rule. I thank Thee for Thy wisdom and Thy love, for all the acts of discipline to which I am subject, for sometimes putting me into the furnace to refine my gold and remove my dross.

No trial is so hard to bear as a sense of sin. If Thou shouldst give me choice to live in pleasure and keep my sins, or to have them burnt away with trial, give me sanctified affliction. Deliver me from every evil habit, every accretion of former sins, everything that dims the brightness of Thy grace in me, everything that prevents me taking delight in Thee. Then I shall bless Thee, God of jeshurun, for helping me to be upright.

Great is thy faithfulnes...

How many people can you think of right now who have, in some way let you down?
Maybe its just a little thing like your son not doing as he was told, or maybe it a bigger thing like your husband not being faithful in his marriage.

Either way, there has and will be people who will let you down in this life.

here's another question, have you ever let anyone down?
have you ever been the person to give up on someone?
Have you in some way lost faith in God?

The apostle Peter understood the awesome power of faith as demonstrated in Acts 3:6. When a man begged something from him Peter SAID "in the Name of Jesus stand up and walk." Peter then acted upon his confession of faith by grabbing the mans hand and helping him to his feet. That is the God kind of faith. Complete confidence that what he SAID would come to pass.

But as we all know, Peter was far from perfect!
Some of his actions showed the lack of faith that he had.

Did you know that the only thing that every impressed God was faith?

In Hebrew it says without faith its impossible to please Him!

''And without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is and that He is a rewarder of those who seek Him.'' - Heb. 11:6

So faith is a very important part of the Christian life, I would say the it IS the Christian life, if we don't live by faith then we don't believe, which is salvation.
But our faith is never going to be perfect, we will fail and let God down, but that's were Gods wonderful grace comes in.

So today as you go through life and people are letting you down, just remember:

''Be strong and of good courage, do not fear nor be afraid of them; for the LORD your God, He is the One who goes with you. He will not leave you nor forsake you.”- Deuteronomy 31:6

Love

"For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life'' - John 3:16 (NIV)

God loved the people of this world so much that He sent His son to take our place.

''We love because he first loved us.'' - 1 John 4:19 (NIV)

Because God loved us first we love Him now.

What is love? Is it just caring for someone or is there something else to it?

One of the greek words for love is Agape, which means the love from a father to a son.
Another is phileo, which means to have an affection (sentiment, passion or feeling) for.


After Christs resurrection Jesus visited Peter who had denied him three times prior to the crucifixion. Peter, ashamed of his unfaithfulness, couldn't bring himself to acknowledge agape love towards Jesus. The exchange went as the following:

Jesus said to Simon Peter, "Simon son of John, do you truly love (agape) me more than these?" "Yes, Lord," he said, "you know that I love (phileo)you." Jesus said, "Feed my lambs." Again Jesus said, "Simon son of John, do you truly love (agape) me?" He answered, "Yes, Lord, you know that I love (phileo) you." Jesus said, "Take care of my sheep." The third time he said to him, "Simon son of John, do you love (phileo) me?" Peter was hurt because Jesus asked him the third time, "Do you love (phileo) me?" He said, "Lord, you know all things; you know that I love (phileo)you." Jesus said, "Feed my sheep."

Peter could only admit to preferring Jesus as a friend, for he felt that he failed to demonstrate agape love towards him.
But Christ told him to show his love through obediance.
One way our Agape love is revealed to the Lord is by our obedience. Jesus said, "Whoever has my commands and obeys them, he is the one who loves me." - John 14:21

So today as you go through your everyday life, remember that God loves you and you can show Him you agape love through obeying Him.