Mornings In The Word

We continued our second week of Mornings In The Word, digging deeply into the following encouraging thoughts:

1. We must always be actively praying. We are living in a time where there is so much ugliness going on around us. Every day in the news we can hear a discouraging or horrifying story which has taken place. In Mark 14:32-38, we find the story of Jesus praying while the disciples fell asleep. Tammy Mashburn writes: “Here is the thing, we serve a living, active God who never sleeps on the job. Never.” Psalm 121 brings the reminder 2X  – “the one who watches over you will not slumber” for He “never slumbers or sleeps” (verses 3 & 4). Prayer is our most active weapon against everything going on in our lives and in our communities, even in our world. Yet often we turn to pray only after we have exhausted ourselves with our own efforts. Is prayer a priority in your life? What needs to change in your prayer life? 
2. Our hearts are always in need of guarding. Our heart is our lifeline in both the natural and the spiritual realms. Our heart is vital to our life. Only God can give us a healthy and clean “bill of health”. Luke 6:45 reminds us, “A good person produces good things from the treasury of a good heart, and an evil person produces evil things from the treasury of an evil heart. What you say flows from what is in your heart.”  What is your heart speaking? 
3. Are we desperate? In Luke 19:1-6, we find the familiar story of Zacchaeus. The children’s song reminds us that “Zacchaeus was a wee little man, a wee little man was he.” What he lacked in height, he made up for in his desperation to see Jesus. As he made every effort to see Jesus, Jesus saw him. Are we as desperate as Zacchaeus?  Zacchaeus was a man of power and wealth, so to climb a tree was a most undignified act for one in his societal position. But he cast it all aside for a glimpse of Jesus. As we face our need of Him, calling out to Him, He will come to us. “To be desperate for Him is to find Him.” (Tammy Mashburn) What keeps you crying out to God? Do you turn to someone or something first?
4. We must know and believe. Upon entering the tomb where Jesus was placed, the disciples find the cloth which had wrapped His head folded (see John 20:7). Grave robbers were common in those days. “Then the disciple who had reached the tomb first also went in, and he saw and believed – for until then they still hadn’t understood the Scriptures that said Jesus must rise from the dead” (John 20:8-9, NLT). John included the detail of the folded linen because he wanted to be sure those then, and us now, would have truth by which to KNOW and BELIEVE. The lengths to which God has gone in His Word to bring us to believe in Jesus should continually amazes. His grace is astounding!
5. Our hearts are prone to wander. We are such a needy people and yet … we struggle to admit our needs. We have been created with need and for need as it is the very means by which we will realize we need a Savior. Corrie Ten Boom once wrote: “You can never learn that Christ is all you need, until Christ is all you have.” In Psalm 107, it makes mention of the Israelites turning to the Lord or crying out to the Lord (depending on your translation) four times. The Lord responds each time saving His people. Our hearts are prone to wander until we are in desperate need. The world tells us need is a weakness. This is a lie we must unmask. The truth is – We need saving. We need a Savior. Every. Single. Day.

Our hearts need constant attention. May His Word thrill our hearts every morning until He is all our hearts desire.

This month I am sharing lessons learned from the devotional book “Mornings In The Word” by Tammy Mashburn. Week One can be found HERE.  You can read more about the book on the author’s website HERE . You can also follow Tammy on Twitter.

Today I am joining … Inspire Me Monday .