Romans 10:8-9
To You, LORD, I Lift Up My Soul
When we enter our prayer time in the mornings, it’s a miraculous experience. Long before man invented the cell phone, God created us with the capacity to commune with Him and He with us. Our spiritual wiring is activitated when we repent and call on the Lord Jesus for salvation. Just like we may receive a credit card in the mail, but have to call the number on the label to “activate” it; so God has reached out to us in Jesus Christ. We need only call on Him. We confess, “JESUS is LORD” and believe in our hearts that God raised Him from the dead. He equips us with the Holy Spirit. THAT’S WHY I’M SO GRATEFUL to be ABLE to LIFT UP MY SOUL to HIM EVERY MORNING.
What I record in my Prayers of My Heart Journal most often begins with PRAISE. For instance, my morning reading of Psalm 50 beginning with verse 1 is, “The Mighty One, God, the LORD, has spoken, and summoned the earth from the rising of the sun to its setting.” In the first column of my “Week At A Glance” (labeled LORD), I record Mighty One Who Speaks. I momentarily ignore the columun lines and write across the page, “Speak to our hearts. We listen, respond, and obey.” That’s a good prayer request, don’t you think? And, it was prompted by God’s reminder to me of WHO HE IS. I then record specific requests for loved ones, friends, our church, and nation.
To You, Oh LORD, I lift up my soul. What a blessing to be able to do that every morning.
Pray with Purpose, Live with Passion TIP: Read a Psalm or Proverb every day. Look for a way in which God reveals Himself. Use your praise of Him as the springboard for your prayers as in the above example.
I AM CIRCUMCISED IN MY HEART
“and in Him you were also circumcised with a circumcision made without hands, in the removal of the body of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ;”
“Circumcised? What are you talking about? I’m not a man nor a Jew,” we may say. Of all the ways that Christians are identified in Christ, this may sound the strangest. What does it mean that believers are circumcised? Romans 2:28 explains, “but he is a Jew who is one inwardly; and circumcision is that which is of the heart, by the Spirit, not by the letter; and his praise is not from men, but from God.” In other words, when God convicts us that we’re sinners and we repent and confess Jesus as Lord; believing in our hearts that God raised Him from the dead, we’re saved. (Romans 10:9) The identifying “mark” of being saved is not wearing a cross or being physically circumcised. Rather, it is that we behave differently because the Spirit has circumcised our hearts and done away with the reigning power and penalty of sin. Have you been circumcised in your heart? If not, repent. Confess to God that you can’t change your heart, but You know He can. Confess Jesus as Lord. Let the Spirit do the inward surgery that only He can do to give you a new heart that beats for Christ.
Heavenly Father, Thank You for sending Jesus to die on the cross so that the power and penalty of sin would no longer be the reigning power in my heart. Help me live by the heartbeat of my new heart.
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