Tag: A Prayer to live with Eternity in Mind

What a Long-Suffering and Gracious and Restorative God we Each Pray To. Hosea 6:1-3

Hosea 6:1-3 shares of Israel’s desire to return from their misery and repent from their sin.

The Israelites didn’t realize the impact and consequences of their sin, but recognized no matter how far they strayed God was the one who would heal and restore them.

Hosea 6:3 says, “Oh, that we might know the LORD! Let us press on to know him. He will respond to us as surely as the arrival of dawn or the coming of rains in early spring.”

In verse 3 the Israelites pressed into acknowledging the Lord.

They had the same assurance that you and I can have; just as the sun appears every morning,

God always does too.

Despite how far and wide you or I have strayed, God will authentically respond to you as you seek Him.

Hosea 6:1-3 New King James Version

A Call to Repentance

6 Come, and let us return to the Lord;
For He has torn, but He will heal us;
He has stricken, but He will [a]bind us up.
2 After two days He will revive us;
On the third day He will raise us up,
That we may live in His sight.
3 Let us know,
Let us pursue the knowledge of the Lord.
His going forth is established as the morning;
He will come to us like the rain,
Like the latter and former rain to the earth.

The Word of God for the Children of God.

Adeste Fideles! Laeti Triumphantes! Venite Adoremus! Dominum.

Gloria! In Excelsis Deo! Alleluia, Alleluia, Alleluia, Amen.

What A Long-Suffering And Gracious God We Have

God rebuked the people of Israel for their apostasy and idolatry, pronouncing a severe judgement upon them and causing Amos the prophet to mourn that His people were destroyed for lack of knowledge of the God of Israel, while He also is bewailing their marked and severe disinterest in the God of their salvation.

And yet the stark and serious warning broke into a comforting song of hope, that one day God would return, revive and restore His erring nation and pour out His blessings upon them like dew onto a parched desert, or as the spring showers falling over a hot and dry and dusty and thirsty land. (Psalm 63:1-2)

God knows that the disobedient Israel will one day return to His open arms of love, for they are all like a flock of straying sheep without a shepherd and the wounds and pain that have been inflicted due to the centuries of idolatry and apostasy will be over, when they come to acknowledge Jesus as Lord, Savior.

And He will bind up their wounds, mend the broken-hearted, with His soothing ointment and He will anoint their nation with the oil of gladness, when they call on the name of the Lord and recognize their God and Savior – for then they will look upon Him Whom they have pierced – whom they have crucified and buried.

His dealings with Israel is a great comfort to all of God’s children, for we know that despite the times when we also wander away from the Lord; getting swept into worldly ways or adopting a careless attitude, His initial response may well be discipline or chastisement, but He is also long-suffering towards us, even when we stray from His path of righteousness and follow our own foolish ways.

What a long-suffering and gracious God we have – for as He has dealt wisely with us, will continue in that wisdom, in grace, truth toward His erring nation.

So will Deal deal with Christians who have wandered far from His outstretched arms of love and truth or when faith wears thin and life seems too much to bear.

No matter how far any of us have strayed, His long standing promises to the church are as sure and praise-worthy, His promises to Israel. His chastening rod may hurt or wound us, but His promise of grace will truly help and heal.

Prayer for Restoration – Our Daily Prayer Unto God

6 1-3 “Come on, let’s go back to God.
    He hurt us, but he’ll heal us.
He hit us hard,
    but he’ll put us right again.
In a couple of days we’ll feel better.
    By the third day he’ll have made us brand-new,
Alive and on our feet,
    fit to face him.
We’re ready to study God,
    eager for God-knowledge.
As sure as dawn breaks,
    so sure is his daily arrival.
He comes as rain comes,
    as spring rain refreshing the ground.” (Hosea 6, The Message)

The exact moment sin reared its impossibly hideous, ugly head, in the form of a snake, in the garden of Eden in Genesis 3, brokenness likewise entered the scene.

Undoubtedly, we live in a broken world filled to overflowing of broken systems, overwhelmingly stressful situations, and people who could care less about God.

Sin leaves a vast ripple effect that continues year after year, generation after generation. It affects every individual. You cannot walk through life unscathed.

This is no different for Christians as it is for non-Christians. 

Matthew 5:45 says, “…He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous.”

Just because we are Christians does not and never will mean we are exempt from trials of all degrees and heartaches of every measure known but to God.

Sometimes with and without awareness, we have chosen a destructive path.

Other times, God makes us dwell in darkness (Lamentations 3:4-6 The Message).

4-6 He turned me into a skeleton
    of skin and bones, then broke the bones.
He hemmed me in, ganged up on me,
    poured on the trouble and hard times.
He locked me up in deep darkness,
    like a corpse nailed inside a coffin.

It’s not uncommon to forget God can still restore us when we are in the muck and the mire of a trial – our situations sometimes cloud our view of all God is. 

I don’t know what you, the reader of this devotion may be facing today, but I want to remind you the truth is God is still in the business of restoring!

He can still restore a broken relationship, shattered marriage, limp bodies, prodigal child, special needs children, tattered hearts, and scrambled minds.

With frustrated man, frustrated women, frustrated humanity, it is impossible to restore such as those, but with God, all things are possible (Matthew 19:26).

Truth is God does not always restore the things we have in mind the way we have that restoration all acceptably socially, culturally, politically defined.

Instead, God, through Jesus and the Holy Spirit restores our peace, joy, hope, and contentment, despite our uncertain situations – regardless of what ways and means our God chooses, He still redeems, repairs, restores, resurrects!

In addition to this, let us please never forget God always has the very final say.

By His Sovereign Will,

By God’s own Authority,

By God’s own Power,

Let it now be our declaration that no matter what threatens our souls,

We have the faith that according to the truths revealed in the Word of God,

When God speaks, Pharaoh relents, the chariots disappear beneath the waves and the storm is compelled to be silent, the seas will part for His Children, the lame are healed, the crippled will walk, the deaf will hear, and the will blind see.

He has the authority over everything because He is the creator of all things. 

If we are going through a tough season, keep pouring your heart out to God.

He is not weary of your tears.

He will not grow weary of your tears.

In fact God will collect your tears and reveal them to you at the suitable time.

Psalm 56:8 The Message

8 You’ve kept track of my every toss and turn
    through the sleepless nights,
Each tear entered in your ledger,
    each ache written in your book.

He knows the words you cannot seem to utter.

He sees the pain no one else can see.

But also please remember to remind yourself God can still do exceedingly and abundantly more than you can ever ask, do, or ever imagine (Ephesians 3:20). 

In the name of God, the Father and God the Son and God the Holy Spirit,

Psalm 56 The Message

56 1-4 Take my side, God—I’m getting kicked around,
    stomped on every day.
Not a day goes by
    but somebody beats me up;
They make it their duty
    to beat me up.
When I get really afraid
    I come to you in trust.
I’m proud to praise God;
    fearless now, I trust in God.
    What can mere mortals do?

5-6 They don’t let up—
    they smear my reputation
    and huddle to plot my collapse.
They gang up,
    sneak together through the alleys
To take me by surprise,
    wait their chance to get me.

7 Pay them back in evil!
    Get angry, God!
    Down with these people!

8 You’ve kept track of my every toss and turn
    through the sleepless nights,
Each tear entered in your ledger,
    each ache written in your book.

9 If my enemies run away,
    turn tail when I yell at them,
Then I’ll know
    that God is on my side.

10-11 I’m proud to praise God,
    proud to praise God.
Fearless now, I trust in God;
    what can mere mortals do to me?

12-13 God, you did everything you promised,
    and I’m thanking you with all my heart.
You pulled me from the brink of death,
    my feet from the cliff-edge of doom.
Now I stroll at leisure with God
    in the sunlit fields of life.

Creator, Father, I ask You for a fresh vision for what breakthrough will look like in my life. Help me to pursue healing while I wait for my miracle. Show me how to rest right in the middle of the storm. Help me to enjoy the feast You prepare for me, right in the middle of the raging battlefield. I want my whole life to testify that there’s a God in heaven who knows my name and who will get me safely home. Fill me afresh with the wonder of Your long-suffering love and indomitable power. I am so very determined to win this battle with fear and anxiety. Help me to discern when to rest, when to feast, and how to actively engage my faith as I wait for You to breakthrough. May my life display Your power. Do the impossible in and through me, I pray. Amen.

Adeste Fideles! Laeti Triumphantes! Venite Adoremus! Dominum.

Gloria! In Excelsis Deo! Alleluia, Alleluia, Alleluia, Amen.

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“Come Holy Spirit, and Gift Unto Us a Prayer to Live With Eternity in Mind” Ecclesiastes 3:9-13

“Faith and love are apt to be spasmodic in the best of minds. Men and women live on the brink of mysteries and harmonies into which they never enter, and with their hand on the door latch, they die outside.” ~ Christian Apologist, G. K. Chesterton

When I read and re-read this quote from Chesterton today on my Facebook feed yesterday, as I closed out the activities for my 62nd Birthday, it reminded me of that passage in Ecclesiastes, a passage that said God “put eternity in our hearts.”

All the while I was in my Mother’s womb, God weaved “eternity into my heart.”

Somewhere, somehow, God, my Creator, weaved “eternity deep into my DNA.”

Ecclesiastes 3:9-13 English Standard Version

The God-Given Task

9 What gain has the worker from his toil? 10 I have seen the business that God has given to the children of man to be busy with. 11 He has made everything beautiful in its time. Also, he has put eternity into man’s heart, yet so that he cannot find out what God has done from the beginning to the end. 12 I perceived that there is nothing better for them than to be joyful and to do good as long as they live; 13 also that everyone should eat and drink and take pleasure in all his toil—this is God’s gift to man.

The Word of God for the Children of God.

Adeste Fideles! Laeti Triumphantes! Venite Adoremus! Dominum.

Gloria! In Excelsis Deo! Alleluia, Alleluia, Alleluia, Amen.

“Faith and love are apt to be spasmodic in the best of minds. Men and women live on the brink of mysteries and harmonies into which they never enter, and with their hand on the door latch, they die outside.” ~ Christian Apologist, G. K. Chesterton

When I read and re-read this quote from Chesterton today on my Facebook feed yesterday, as I closed out the activities for my 62nd Birthday, it reminded me of that passage in Ecclesiastes, a passage that said God “put eternity in our hearts.”

All the while I was in my Mother’s womb, God weaved “eternity into my heart.”

Somewhere, somehow, God, my Creator, weaved “eternity deep into my DNA.”

Because God did this to me and for me, before I was even aware, of God, I can never shake the irrepressible feeling deep within my soul that there absolutely has to be something infinitely more waiting for me in eternity than in this life.

Collectively, in our response to this inner sense of eternity, we can and often do spend our lives either unaware of it, denying it, sidestepping it, fleeing from it, or attempting to resolve it without the assistance of the One who placed it there.

And this only leaves only leaves us in that empty space we call “wanting more.”

What we are called to do instead is turn to the One of whom it is said, “from him and through him and to him are all things” (Romans 11:36)(ESV).

Romans 11:33-36 English Standard Version

33 Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways!

34 “For who has known the mind of the Lord,
    or who has been his counselor?”
35 “Or who has given a gift to him
    that he might be repaid?”

36 For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be glory forever. Amen.

We turn to the only One in whom we find our origin, our purpose, our destiny.

We can know the only One who holds for each of His Children, in His righteous right hand, the indescribable feeling for eternity that He placed in our hearts.

Jesus said, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me” (John 14:6)(ESV).

Jesus said, unto his disciples a day before he died;

John 14:25-27 The Message

25-27 “I’m telling you these things while I’m still living with you. The Friend, the Holy Spirit whom the Father will send at my request, will make everything plain to you. He will remind you of all the things I have told you. I’m leaving you well and whole. That’s my parting gift to you. Peace. I don’t leave you the way you’re used to being left—feeling abandoned, bereft. So don’t be upset. Don’t be distraught.

This is the only path that will satisfy that nagging sense of greater things and the only path that leads us all to both reconciliation and an eternity with God.

The Gift of A Prayer to Live with Eternity in Mind

2 Corinthians 4:16-18 The Message

16-18 So we’re not giving up. How could we! Even though on the outside it often looks like things are falling apart on us, on the inside, where God is making new life, not a day goes by without his unfolding grace. These hard times are small potatoes compared to the coming good times, the lavish celebration prepared for us. There’s far more here than meets the eye. The things we see now are here today, gone tomorrow. But the things we can’t see now will last forever.

Eternity is a simple word but a complex concept.

Charles Spurgeon once said, “Time is short. Eternity is long. It is only reasonable that this short life be lived in the light of eternity.”

  • We waited in line for something relatively inconsequential for an eternity.
  • We are waiting for the blessed announcement of a baby being born.
  • We are waiting for the announcement that someone has passed away.
  • We are waiting for the arrival of family on Christmas or Easter Day.
  • We are waiting for laboratory and radiology test results to be read.
  • We are waiting for the bank to approve our very first Mortgage.
  • We think spring will never come; winter has lasted for an eternity.
  • We have a vacation planned for only a few weeks away, but it feels like an eternity on the calendar.
  • We are waiting for our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ to Return – “as promised.”

The undeniable reality is that, as humans, we cannot truly fathom eternity.

We know that God has provided eternal life to those who trust in His Son Jesus, but our understanding of the weight of eternity is beyond our comprehension.

Recently, I have come across numerous sermon series, devotional articles, and books, social media posts encouraging believers to live with eternity in mind.

But what exactly does that mean? 

Paul encourages us in 2 Corinthians 4:18, “So we don’t look at the troubles we can see now; rather, we fix our gaze on things that cannot be seen. For the things we see now will soon be gone, but the things we cannot see will last forever (NLT).”

Life in a fallen world is tough; there’s no escaping the effects of sin in our lives.

But, we can shift our priorities, our mindsets our perspective, focusing on the things that matter to God (the eternal) and sacrificing ourselves, surrendering ourselves, letting go of those things that don’t matter (the things of this world).

Romans 12:1-2 The Message
Place Your Life Before God

12 1-2 So here’s what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life—your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life—and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for him. Don’t become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You’ll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognize what he wants from you, and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you.

As one of my favorite preachers sermonized, “preaches easy, lives hard.”  

We are ever so easily, quickly distracted, discouraged, and disillusioned daily.

It is impossibly challenging to “keep on persevering, keep on pushing forward in our faith, and remain steadfast and immovable always abounding in God’s work.”

The world’s message is “live your best life now,” but God’s word preaches us so utterly and radically different, stating “your forever life is yet to come.”

If we back up a verse to 2 Corinthians 4:17, Apostle Paul again reminds us,

“For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison.”  

What we are experiencing today will one day come to an end.

Even if the season of steadfast and immovable sorrow drags on forever or your difficult circumstances continue to stay the same day after day, God will still make everyone and everything new one day – and in this new world, His eternal kingdom, there will be no more tears and pain – Just LIFE (Revelation 21:1-4).

I am not sure what anyone of you readers are going through today but PLEASE be ENCOURAGED, be EMPOWERED and take heart; God sees and cares for you.

Psalm 121 The Message

121 1-2 I look up to the mountains;
    does my strength come from mountains?
No, my strength comes from God,
    who made heaven, and earth, and mountains.

3-4 He won’t let you stumble,
    your Guardian God won’t fall asleep.
Not on your life! Israel’s
    Guardian will never doze or sleep.

5-6 God’s your Guardian,
    right at your side to protect you—
Shielding you from sunstroke,
    sheltering you from moonstroke.

7-8 God guards you from every evil,
    he guards your very life.
He guards you when you leave and when you return,
    he guards you now, he guards you always.

On this side of Heaven, you may continue to experience the consequences of sin, but please be INSPIRED, be an INSPIRATION, God’s great mercy provided a way for all His Children to have eternal peace through salvation in Christ Jesus.

Be the ENCOURAGER, Pray, Cling, to the eternal hope we have in our salvation, and let the presence of the Holy Spirit fill you as you live with eternity in mind.

In the name of God, the Father and God the Son and God the Holy Spirit,

Let us Pray,

Dear Heavenly Father, thank you for being a God who cares about our burdens. We know that you are God who sees and hears the cries and prayers of your children. Help us to live with eternity in mind. Blessed Intercessor Holy Spirit of God, We pray fervently you will Be with us as we strive to focus more on the eternal, shifting our perspective from temporary things that distract us from living a life for Your glory alone. Forgive us when we sin against you, and be with us as we pursue holiness.

We love you, Lord; we are undeserving of your grace and mercy but thankful that you freely grant us both. We ask that you strengthen and help us as we share the Gospel in a broken world. Guide our conversations, and direct our paths to those who need to experience the eternal hope of salvation through Christ Jesus. In Jesus’ Name.

Adeste Fideles! Laeti Triumphantes! Venite Adoremus! Dominum.

Gloria! In Excelsis Deo! Alleluia, Alleluia, Alleluia, Amen.

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