IBS Week 13

Nick:

1 Samuel 12:24 Only fear the Lord and serve him faithfully with all your heart. For consider the wonderful things he has done for you.

As of recently the Lord had brought to my attention how lazy and irresponsible I have become. I have been making small compromises and neglecting the small things that the Lord has given me. I have been unfaithful in areas in which the Lord has given me to be faithful in. My perspective and my heart have been so far off from what God has intended for me. I know that he has great plans from me, but along the journey I have forgotten that to be given more I must be faithful in the little things. I have, in a sense, grown weary of doing good, of serving him. I’ve allowed myself to be distracted by things and people. Things that ultimately are temptations of the flesh and drag me way as James puts it in 1:14. The Lord by his gentleness has redirected my path and has brought to my attention the cliff I was getting to fall off of. There is a countless list of incredibly wonderful things He has done for me out of his boundless love. Because of this, Lord please restore my heart to you so that I can fear you and serve you faithfully with all my heart.

Julie:

2 Corinthians 3:3 – “And you show that you are a letter from Christ delivered by us, written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tables of stone but on tablets of human hearts.”

In the Old Testament, the people followed the law of Moses.  They followed the ten commandments that were written on stone tablets.  They kept their distance from God in the temple.  They sacrificed when they sinned.  But now, we worship a God who does not keep a veil between us.  We follow a God who has already accepted the ultimate sacrifice for our sins, His Son.  And most of all, we do not have to go back to the stone that the ten commandments were written on because they are now written on our heart.  We now live for a God that conquered death and defeated the grave.  The guilt and shame that we once carried around on our hearts is now replaced by hope and faith.  That hope and faith has a character on our hearts.  It is the cross.  At the cross, when Jesus died for our sins, we discovered a relationship with God that does not require the weight of the law to be carried around in our hearts, but a light and peaceful word.  I felt this weight go away when I read this verse this morning.  God reminded me of His hope, truth, light, and faith.  And what comes out of the mouth comes from where? The heart!!! If the things God reminded me of are dwelling in my heart, then they will overflow off my lip and into the heart of others.  My application is to remember the what is truly dwelling in my heart that God placed there, and let THAT flow from my mouth.