Make Your Life Count Forever

A DIVIDED HEART What's going on in your heart today? One of the many benefits of a Quiet Time, or a Morning Devotion, is the opportunity it gives us to hear from God about our heart condition.   According to Paul, all of us suffer from Chronic Heart Disease (Romans 7:23).  As Christians we are each a new creation in Christ, but we still live in an earthly body and are subject to the influences of our fallen nature---which Paul calls, the OLD MAN. This morning I was slogging through Hosea 9-11 in my daily reading.   It's a little depressing reading about the spiritual failures, the  whorings,  of Israel that resulted in their captivity and ruin. BUT---it is also instructive. Proverbs 4:23 has some excellent advice for each of us:   Keep your heart with all vigilance,   for  from it flow  the springs of life. When the Bible talks about our hearts it doesn't mean the organ that pumps blood throughout our bodie...

Church Steeple in Pienza Italy Photo © 2013 Kelly Grace Give ear to my words, O LORD, consider my meditation. Hearken unto the voice of my cry, my King, and my God:  for unto thee will I pray. My voice shalt thou hear in the morning, O LORD; in the morning will I direct my prayer unto thee, and will look up. Psalm 5:1-3 This familiar passage has often reminded me to start my day with God. It's been made popular as a Worship Chorus and that means many of us have actually memorized it by singing it often. But this morning the last four words preached a little sermon to my heart about prayer. , and will look up. What do I do after I pray? These four words give a simple and clear direction; and will look up . It speaks of expectation. It speaks of waiting. It speaks of a burden transferred. It speaks of a new focus. Expectation because I've taken my thoughts, my worry, my anxiety, my problems, my hopes, my need, my confusion, ...