Confession Is Good For The Soul

Focus verses: Psalm 32

Did you ever keep a guilty secret? Were you in constant fear of being found out?

David knows how you feel. Listen to his descriptions. I kept silent and my bones wasted away through my groaning all day long. A guilty secret eaats at your inmost being.

David knows the heaviness of God's hand upon him. His little escapade with Bathsheba put him aat odds with the Lord. When he discovered that illicit liason had produced a child he connived first to deceive Uriah and then to have him killed.

But David realized that his sin was against God and confessed that and was restored.

When we find our selfes distant from God, we need to examine ourselves - and make confession - and be restored to His good graces.

Father, God,

Help us to keep short accounts with our consciences and with you. Be quick to show us the errors of our ways so that we can confess our sins and be reconciled to you.

In Jesus' most precious name.
Amen.

God's Will

Focus verses: Deuteronomy 10:12, 13

Have you ever noticed that people get bogged down in trying to find God's will for their lives? Good people, who are otherwise pretty much pulled together, wallow in indecision as to whether this course of action or that one is what God would have them do.

The children of Israel were told exactly what God's will was for their lives. They were to fear the Lord, walk in His ways, love Him and serve Him with all their heart and soul, and to observe all His commands.

How different are we from the children of Israel? If that was God's will for their lives, it must also be His will for ours because not only is this command in the Old Testament, but we find it in the words of Jesus in the New Testament as well. We are to love the Lord with all our heart and soul and strength.

If we love the Lord, the rest will follow. You don't deliberately run away from someone you love. You want to please them and will bend over backward to be of service.

Walking with God is a difficult exercise but it was a mark of high esteem when it was said of an Old Testament character that "he walked with God." Walking with God implies that day after day, step after step, we are in sync with God and His plans for our lives.

The old hymn "In The Garden" says "he walks with me and he talks with me. And he tells me I am his own." But we must make time for Him. We must come to the garden alone. This is an intimate, one-on-one time. And this is the time to listen to the specifics of His will for our lives.

Father, God,

Help us to make time alone for You. Give us ears to hear and hearts to love and feet willing to walk in Your footsteps.

In Jesus' most precious name.
Amen.