"Though You probe my heart and examine me at night, and test me You will find nothing..." (Psalm 17:3 ESV)
Our hearts are, as Jeremiah said, continually "deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked" (Jeremiah 17:9).
Even though Your Holy Spirit has indwelt us followers of Jesus Christ, and is in the process of transforming us into becoming more like Your Son Jesus, never cease to help us each, Father God, that when You probe us and send Your conviction through Your Holy Spirit, that You'll find nothing. That we will be living obedient lives before You and men.
Help us to resolve that our mouth will not sin, that our actions will not be sinful.
We also ask that the people around us, that men and women everywhere, will also keep themselves from violent ways and they will not be attacking us, Your children, in any way, shape or form.
May our steps hold to Your path and may our feet not slip, Father. May our dependance always be upon You. May our trust and faith in Your guidance through Your Holy Spirit, evoke obedient, willing hearts that do not want to sin.
Father, we thank You that when we call on You that You will answer us and have Your ears open to our cry and prayer. Thank-You for indeed hearing our prayers.
Father, the world celebrates Valentine's Day and talks of love, celebrates human love that is often fickle. You have shown us Your divine love. Your constant love abides, yet show us often, the wonder of Your great love for us by the acts and deeds You do for us, as we ask, one by one. Show us that You save us by Your right hand when we take refuge in You, away from our foes. This, as a mother hen calls her chicks to the safety under her wings, to hide and protect them, that we will run to You in a similar fashion when we truly realize our refuge is in You. Our hope is in You. Our all is in You.
You see us all as the apple of Your eye, holding that special, special place within Your heart. Thank-You, Lord for loving us so much.
There's that saying that "You love us all equally but as if there is only one of us". So, help us to discern that love. Let others know and grasp Your love too Father. Many people are not loved; they don't feel that they are loved. Wrap Your comforting, loving arms around us all and those who have low self-esteem and have been down-trodden by wicked, evil people through abuse; through kidnapping; through persecution; through human trafficking...so many ways in which mankind can break down, tear down and destroy their fellow mankind.
We're an awful, unloveable bunch, Father, yet You still loved and continue to love, us. This You have proven to us time and again, especially in sending Your Son Jesus to die on the cross for us, to redeem us and bring us back to You with Your gift of salvation.
Help each one in those helpless, hopeless, desparate situations to perceive that they are the apple of Your eye. Send them visions of Jesus and His outstretched hands, holding them out to them in love. Let them get the message that You will hide them in the shadow of Your wings. Hiding them from their mortal enemies who surround them, as you did for David, so long ago (Psalm 17). Bring them ways and means of escape.
Many of those wicked people "close up their callous hearts and their mouths speak arrogance" (Psalm 17:10), as if they've done nothing wrong. Track them down and bind them with a perimeter that hedges them in. Do so with Your alert eyes, to throw them down and thwart them yet again and again (vs 11).
Father God, rise up and confront these kinds of people who go about like hungry lions seeking prey, crounching in cover, to spring suddenly upon the righteous when they are least aware (vs 12).
Father, may Your Holy Spirit alert us to be sensitive to Your voice. Oh Lord, help us to be sensitive to Your voice in order to obey You and to be listening to Your Words in our life, that brings life and protection when we take heed to Your provision.
Oh Lord, Your hand can save us from such men and women of this world whose reward is only in this life. Even then in the New Testament, You asked us to bless those who curse us, to bless those who persecute us and I tell You, Lord, that's a very difficutl thing to do! To be forgiving and not just forgiving but to bless them on top of all that! It can only be by Your galvainzing grace moving us to such action.
Lord, give us Your kind of heart of grace and love. The heart of Jesus. Not to take revenge. Not to continually ponder upon bad thoughts about those who do those awful deeds to us, 'cuz we know they too need the saving grace of Your Son Jesus Christ.
Satisfy that hunger of those You cherish. We want You in our lives. Still our spiritual hunger, our emotional hunger, our physical hunger. Many of Your people are literally hungry because they have been persecuted and sent out of villages. Maybe even thirsty too to avoid torture and death or humiliation they could find at the village well. Lord, let them know that You cherish them, as well as their sons and daughters. Help them to be able to store up the spiritual wealth of forgiving. Aid them in this so that the perpetrators will turn and seek You. May they be astonished by how Your people respond or react in love and forgiveness and blessing instead of cursing those who have caused such distress, such evil, upon them.
All our righteouness comes from You but Lord that sanctification process is a long, slow haul. May we each grip tightly onto that righteousness so man can see, not just what You see in us, so that we can see Your face. Those of us who live the holy life will be able to see Your face as Moses' and other's did who were able to come into Your presence. Lord, when we are awake or asleep we'll be satisfied with seeing Your likeness.
It's then, when we gather under Your wings, we fully realize being the "apple of Your eye".
I can't wait until I get to go to be in heaven with You. When You will transform us yet again; permanently, for ever. Then we will no longer be able to sin, at all. In this state, for ever with You.
I ask this in the wonderful name of Jesus.
~ERC February 2020~
Based on Psalm 17
Song, Apple of Your Eye, as sung by Esther Mui
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