Prayer A to Z

I took this picture outside my window. I am blessed by the Lord.

I stopped and admired this birch tree. I love its white slender branches and also the golden yellow leaves bouncing in the cool wind.

What a perfect autumn scene.

That verse, from Romans 12:21, was put in front of me last night after I prayed, “Lord, give me a Scripture verse to guide me.”

Sometimes, occasionally, I feel overcome by evil. But here, I reasoned, is a way to counter it. I can overcome evil when it comes against me by doing good. It does not have to overcome me—and get me down.

Another verse, earlier, verse nine, says “Let love be without dissimulation (hypocrisy). Abhor that which is evil; cleave to that which is good.”

I am wondering how exactly to read these verses; in what context? Well, certainly, as it is here, it is regarding evil men of the world. But in a broader sense we can take it as all the evils of the devil and the world and the flesh. It all will overcome us if we let it. How many ways can evil…

“Peace I leave with you; My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Do not let your heart be troubled, nor let it be fearful” (Jn. 14:27).

Recently, as I was meditating on 1 Corinthians 6:18-20, I suddenly realized, by the wording of verse 19, that since my body is a temple of the Holy Spirt, that that has a great significance to my purity.

1 Corinthians 6:18-20

Flee immorality. Every other sin that a man commits is outside the body, but the immoral man sins against his own body. 19 Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and that you are not your own? 20 For you have been bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body.

The fact that my body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in me, is the reason why I sin against my body when I am immoral. Let my explain. The devil and sin are always directed in…

Most deer are quite skittish, but this one was not at all afraid. He liked getting his picture taken.

In Psalm 119:67 and 71 it says,

Before I was afflicted I went astray,

But now I keep Your word…

71 It is good for me that I have been afflicted,

That I may learn Your statutes.

I’m not sure exactly what the Psalmist was referring to, but for me it has plenty of application to my old age. Every morning I get up reeking with arthritis pain, and it takes me a while to get going. And I also find that every little thing I do is more worrisome. These pains and problems tend to drive me more to God in prayer and in the word. I seek Him more now than ever before. So, I conclude with the Palmist that affliction is good for me; it keeps me in line with Him, seeking His will.