Heavenly Father, I praise You for all of the different people You inspired to write the letters, manuscripts, etc… which eventually became our Bible. I praise You that even though You could do it Yourself, You have us do it with the help of the Holy Spirit. I praise You for Your word for it brings me comfort, wisdom, and direction on how to live and know You.
Holy Spirit, James the half-brother of Jesus, wrote to the early church admonishing them on how they should live. In my own words, I want to now pray chapter 4: Why do we usually fight? Usually, because of our passions, desires, and supposed rights, we proudly think we deserve. We have this constant war within ourselves of what we want versus what God wants for us. Often we do not have because we do not ask and when we do ask we think God is some genie giving us our desires instead of truly asking for what God knows is good and right for us. We have become warped in our minds to what is good and what is needed. This is why Paul told us we need to renew our minds daily. God is not in the business to satisfy what we think is pleasure. He is in the business of meeting our needs, helping us grow, and being wise in how we help build the kingdom that we are heirs too.
Holy Spirit if I am in full agreement with this sinful world then I am hostile to God and His ways. I need to learn to desire what God wants for my life and seek it with all that I have. Unlike the world which tells me I was an accident of nature and have no real purpose, God created me with a purpose and with real potential, so I should hang my hope on that. God resists the proud, the people who think they know more than He does. The people who stand to make their own choices and follow their own foolish ideas. They may succeed for a little while but hell awaits them for eternity which is longer than this life which is compared to a vapor. We must humble ourselves and receive from God what it is we need to be successful for the kingdom. We must submit ourselves to God daily by becoming a living sacrifice. We must resist the devil, use our armor to defend ourselves, and fully lean on God our Savior to stand in front of us to our accuser and he will flee from the presence of God within us. Each day we should give all we have to get closer to God so that He gets closer to us. We need to come to the cross, admit our sins, understand our shame, and then submit to Jesus our Redeemer who will remove our sins from us. We need to understand there will still be earthly consequences for the seeds we have sown but now we are plowing a new garden and sowing good seeds for a harvest that will get us to heaven.
Holy Spirit help me to always remember I am not the judge of people and their actions. I do not see the intent of their heart and it is not my job anyway. There is one rightful judge, God the Father, and He will judge all of us when this world is finished. Christ as my advocate will defend me, because of my accepting His salvation, my sins are covered by His blood, and I am now a child of the King. Those who have not accepted Christ as their savior, will receive hell because of the foolishness of how they lived. But thank You, Lord, that is not my job to do.
Holy Spirit help me to seek, learn and then do Your will. Help me to trust each day for wisdom and direction and let God have control of what is next. I will be wise and make plans for the future, but I will always allow Your Spirit to lead me, even if it means going a different way. I do not see the whole picture or how God’s timing is going to work, so I will never presume I know what will happen next. Help me to always be a doer of Your word and a doer of what I know to be good and right, for I am accountable to You for what I choose to do or not to do. God is clear on this very point, if I know to do good and don’t, I have sinned against Him.
The Lord is faithful, He will establish me and guard me against the evil one. And I have confidence in the Lord, both that I do and will do the things He commands me to do. Now may the Lord direct my heart into the love of God and into the patience of Christ. Amen. [2 Thess. 3:3-5]