Heavenly Father, I praise You for giving me intelligence to think, learn wisdom, use understanding, and possess discernment through the Holy Spirit. I praise You for teaching me the guardrails of life that keep me on the path of my purpose and to lead me to the hope of my salvation. I ask today that through the Holy Spirit I am able to shake the evil from my day and to claim victory of righteousness for today. Let me be the living sacrifice You desire of me and to renew my mind with Scripture, worship, testimonies, and all the trials I will face.
“You shall not murder.” Jesus said, “Are you still without understanding? Do you not yet understand that whatever enters at the mouth goes into the stomach and is cast out into the sewer? But those things which out of the mouth come from the heart, they defile the man. For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, sexual immorality, thefts, false witness, and blasphemies. These are the things that defile a man. [Exodus 20:13; Matthew 15:16-20a, MEV] Holy Spirit, I understand the difference between murder and killing. I understand that if I go to war, I will have to kill the enemy; if an intruder comes into my home to harm my family, I may have to kill them. This, to me, is not murder. If I choose to end a life, either through weapons, with my hands, or with my words, with the intent that I hurt them out of anger, hate, or fear, then I would be guilty of murder. I am not the judge over people; You are, and when their time to die comes, it will not be decided by me unless it is to protect my country or my family or innocent people. Let me not even harbor murderous thoughts in my heart, for this is sin also. Help me truly to abhor sin, but to demonstrate Your love to the sinner, for I am no better than them; I have just asked for Your forgiveness and live under Your protection from paying the price for my sins.
Praise be to You, God, and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed me in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ. For You chose me before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in Your sight. In love You predestined me to be adopted as Your son through Jesus, in accordance with His pleasure and will—to the praise of His glorious grace, which he has freely given me in the One He loves. In You I have redemption through the blood of Christ, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of Your grace that You lavished on me with all wisdom and understanding. And You are making known to me the mystery of Your will according to Your good pleasure, which You purposed in Christ, to be put into effect when the times will have reached their fulfillment—to bring all things in heaven and on earth together under one head, even Christ. In You I was also chosen, having been predestined according to the plan of God who works out everything in conformity with the purpose of His will, might be for the praise of His glory. And I also was included in Christ when I heard the word of truth, the gospel of my salvation. Having believed, I am marked in Him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit, who is a deposit guaranteeing my inheritance until the redemption of those who are God’s possession—to the praise of his glory. Amen. Ephesians 1:3-14