Praise the ZEALOUS LORD
“Then the Lord will be ZEALOUS for His land and will have pity on His people.”
Isaiah 9:7, John 2:13-17, Joel 2:18
I hope you had a wonderful Christmas. Our home was filled with the laughter of grandchildren. I felt like a short order cook in the kitchen and loved every minute of it. I prayed. Lots. Christian families have an enemy who wants to destroy them and their relationships. But, we have a GOD who is bigger than any of Satan’s schemes. When we pray, God hears and moves to act on our behalf. When people say, “but God didn’t…..,” we have no idea what God DID do behind the schenes. We don’t know all the ways He acted and intervened on our behalf. We won’t know until heaven. God is zealous for us. In Joel 2:12, He calls us to return to Him with all our hearts, with fasting, weeping and mourning; to rend our hearts. His response to the one who does that? He relents. Why? Because He is ZEALOUS for us. He wants sin out of our lives and His joy and peace in our lives.
As we think about 2016 coming to an end, what are ways you’ve seen God’s zeal? Is He pursuing you to draw closer to Him? Is God prompting you to put aside sin so you are a more pure vessel through whom He can work?
In Jesus’s zeal, He cleansed the temple of the money changers; saying, My Father’s house shall be called a house of prayer.” His disciples remembered that it was written, “ZEAL FOR YOUR HOUSE WILL CONSUME ME.” (John 2:17) Today, we are the house or temple of God. So, what do you think Jesus, in His zeal, wants for us?
To be filled with sin? Or, to be places…people of prayer?
I believe our Heavenly Father wants us to be people of prayer.
Will you join me in making 2017 a more prayerful year?
Many of you have shared with me the powerful changes journaling your prayers has made. Others have shared that you want to journal, but don’t know how.
It’s simple. You write your thoughts to God. You also wait and listen. As we speak to God without audible words, He speaks back without words we hear.
This year, I’ve sent you an attribute of God each day to begin your praise of Him. I’ll not be doing that in 2017, but I will be continuing to focus on a different attribute of God each day in my personal prayer time. Why? The more in-depth we know God, the more our relationship with Him grows. The more we’ll trust Him and turn to Him.
I hope you’ll order your 2017 Prayers of My Heart Prayer Journal today, and give journaling a try. You can journal every day, once a week, or once a month. There’s no right or wrong way or amount to journal. But try sitting in God’s presence with your journal open; recording what God impresses on your heart. Be blessed, not stressed, as you talk to God about your day, relationships, and His will. Record your intercessions for others, then go back and write “PTL” for “Praise the Lor”d when He answers your prayers.
You can order your Journal HERE. And, if you’ve been blessed by the 365 Days of Praise attributes you’ve received in 2016, please consider making a donation to Hill Country Ministries. We are a non-profit 501 (c)(3) which depends on donations to continue our blog posts, prison ministry, ministry to moms, P.R.A.Y. with Passion Conference, and so much more. And, in 2017, we’re expanding our ministry to the deaf and Vietnamese. If you’d like to learn more about these ministries and how you can join us, please let us know.
It’s been a blessing and honor to be a part of your day in 2016, and I look forward to seeing what God has in store for us in 2017. Thank you for helping us CONTINUE.
Lord God, You are ZEALOUS for us. Forgive us when we sin. Cleanse and purify us as You did the temple so we are houses of prayer – worshipping You and interceding for others.