God's Word about hypocrisy is true, Luke 12:1-3.  The truth always comes out.  And today's headlines prove God true.  It's hard not to marvel at salacious secrets being disclosed, the hidden being made known, private texts sent on government cell phones being read openly on the news, whispers in inner rooms proclaimed on the world wide web.  

Our foolish choices will find us out.  To the pure God shows himself pure, but to the devious He shows himself shrewd,  Psalm 18:26.  He sees those digging a hole for someone else, they themselves will fall into it, the trouble they cause recoils on themselves, Psalm 7:14-16.  

The beautiful thing about it is that we can look up from the bottom of that pit and cry for mercy.  He hears that cry and will lift us from our pit.  We will have some consequences from the mess we made, but with the LORD as our ally, he promises to resurrect and author a new beginning filled with His grace.  He has compassion on those who fear him, Psalm 103:11-13.  

Psalm 40:2- He lifted me out of the slimy pit, out of the mud and mire; he set my feet on a rock and gave me a firm place to stand.

We need a spirit of wisdom to protect ourselves from ourselves.  I needed it desperately.  God had me memorize and pray Isaiah 11:2-3 over myself as a new Christian.  I've been praying it ever since and He has provided His Spirit repeatedly at critical times.  We need to daily rely on His Spirit.  Our head-lines (our thoughts and bent towards wrong desire) always have been and will continue to be about sin.  If the investigative reporter came into each inner world, what would the juicy details be?  It's horrifying to consider our sin splashed for the world to see.  We need God's Spirit every day to turn us away from sin.

Sin, that 3 letter word that in our time has become a dirty word, a word that turns people off, shuts down conversation, and garners you a narrowing gaze of disapproval if you dare call sin out as sin.  It's much more acceptable to say "Oh my gosh, can you believe these headlines?"  Easier to try to get a chuckle by saying, "Watching the news is like watching a bad soap opera." 

Can you imagine if news stations always started out saying "and now for today's most salacious stories of sin".  We'd turn it off.  We prefer to label it as "news".  

That news is not God's news.  He has good news to give but in wisdom has sometimes used reverse psychology.  He had a prophet named Isaiah give bad news. God let him know upfront, his words were to be of doom and gloom, see Isaiah chapter 6.  Isaiah was to tell people to be ever hearing, but never understanding; be ever seeing, but never perceiving.  He was to go out and tell people to listen to God but ignore Him, go ahead and look at His truth don't understand it.  He wasn't to just say it once; but until cities lied in ruin and houses left deserted and the land forsaken. Jesus referenced that passage in Isaiah 6 as explanation for why he hid his messages in parables, Matthew 13:13.  

It's a different way I suppose if we were to start saying a message similar to Isaiah's, "I hope you keep your ears closed to God, please continue to ignore him, otherwise you will be healed."  Yes it would be quite different to tell people "I am going to keep hidden from you a great secret that will save your life."  Would people be more receptive?  More curious? I do wonder.  After all, we frequently want what we can't have.   

But bad news is not God's preferred way.  He has Good News in Christ.  And there is beautiful language from Isaiah 11:1-3 about Jesus.  It is His Spirit you can ask for, that He rest on you. 

Whether believer or unbeliever, may you ask for God's Spirit to rest on you to give you wisdom, understanding, counsel, and might and a healthy fear of the LORD.  Jesus is good news and His news will be revealed by His Spirit resting on you and entering your mind and heart.  Try praying it repeatedly for yourself, try for 5-10 times to put it to memory.  Then pray it for your loved one.  Pray it for those in today's headlines.  Pray it for the President.  Pray it for the nations.  Pray for God's message of mercy, grace, and truth to come!  God doesn't want our sin openly disclosed before all.  He has made a way out, to remove it as far as east is from the west; it is available to those who fear him, Psalm 103:11-13.

Super excited for those who follow through with receiving inspiration from today's blog!
3 challenges:

1. Bless one lost from God's fold
2. Create a prayer closet
3. Join us for the remaining 9 days of committing 2018 to God

There is a group of people who are committing 2018 to God.  Each day I am sending a one page Adobe file that contains a prayer exercise.  Each prayer exercise suggests a way to position in prayer, offers language inspiration, and draws on clear biblical promises.  As well, images are included to inspire and support truths from God.

We are on day 12.  Today the exercise was to bless one lost, who is on a path far from God. 

Blessing can be an abstract idea.  What you might say it means to be blessed could be quite different than what another might say.  However God is not abstract in meaning and intent.  His language is concrete.  He has clear actions and meaning behind His words.  To bless, means to bend down and extend holy gift.  To help people visualize blessing, on day 6, an exercise was sent on how to bless the One who has bent down and extended the gift of Himself.  Our soul is to bless God. Consider the wise men who didn't only come to the Messiah with words to bless, they came with gifts.

Today, that idea was reinforced with an exercise of using the holy priesthood authority you have and proclaiming, "Lord, I bless (insert name) with ...".  Do you know the prayer language of blessing?  Could you come up with a list of 50?  If you need help, sign up!  If you sign up today, I will send you a list of 50 holy gifts to pronounce on one far from God!  I wrote the list in 2015 when a family member was embroiled in addiction.  It took time, but he has turned.  God sent gifts of amazing grace repeatedly.  He is now clean, seeking maturity, and going to church!  Go to the top right hand corner of this page, put in your name and email.  I will send you today's exercise with those 50 blessings plus the remaining 9 days!  

On day 10, the exercise was to create a prayer closet, a sacred space where you can steal away and spend time with God.  God promises to openly reward those who go into their inner room, close the door from interference, and pray to their Father in secret.  His word is clear that He sees this prayer commitment done in secret and will openly reward!  What a blessing!  He still bends down and extends holy gifts, James 1:17 & Luke 11:13.  "I the LORD do not change", Malachi 3:6.

On day 11, the exercise was to see yourself in your seated position in Heaven with Christ.  Do you struggle with believing you have to do more to be accepted by God?  Jesus said, "It is finished."  He completed all the work that was required for you to be accepted by God.  Stop striving, see yourself raised up and seated with him in heavenly realms, Ephesians 2:1-9.  Day 11 was an exercise to take off the old self and put on the new, Ephesians 4:22-30.

For the rest of the blog, be inspired by spaces created as prayer closets.  One is the corner of my room upstairs.  I organized a prayer corner this week when I did the exercise from day 10.  Another is a beautiful sacred room created awhile ago by a very close friend.  Another is a space created this week from a woman who just joined our "2018 Commit to God group" on day 9.  She created a space filled with light and holiness of devotion!  Do you have a space you want to share?  Upload your "inner room" picture to today's post on our Facebook page!  

As you see the slides, notice the items placed in the spaces- bibles, note pads, pens, biblical art, tissues, personal pictures, a place to sit, biblical promises posted, symbolic personal treasures that inspire, lighting, a globe, musical instruments, tables for study, speakers for worship, etc.  They do not need to be elaborate spaces, just dedicated to God.  It can be an empty corner.  It can be you going and sitting alone in your car!  Whatever it is, know God sees you in the secret place and will openly reward you!  (Note- Copyright information for the art slides is found by a link connected to the image.)