Beats From Your Pastor’s Heart
Deuteronomy 8:2, “And thou shalt remember all the way which the LORD thy God led thee these forty years in the wilderness, to humble thee, and to prove thee, to know what was in thine heart, whether thou wouldest keep his commandments, or no.”
To know the self is part of knowing the Lord.
If we do not know the self, we cannot adequately know the Lord.
And when we adequately know the Lord, we know ourself–we know that we are untrustworthy and that there is nothing good in us.
So experientially, the more we get to know the Lord, the more we know ourself in God’s light (Psa. 36:9).
The Lord humbled the children of Israel and tested them.
Their being humbled came about through many testings and failures.
It was not that the Lord needed to learn more about them, or get to know them; but they needed to get to know themselves.
It was the same with Peter in the Gospels.
Obviously, he was a person full of self-confidence, because he had so many opinions.
So the Lord allowed him to fail the most.
We may express our opinion, living it out toward our husband or wife, or toward the brothers and sisters.
We are so strong.
We feel that we are so right.
We are convinced that the other person is wrong and we are right.
But then in some area of our personal life, we sin.
We live in the flesh.
We fail.
But we may not connect our opinion with our failure.
Yet this failure is intended to cause us to open ourself to the Lord and to tell Him, “Lord, I do not know anything. I cannot do anything. I just open to you, Lord, to cast down not only the sin, but all of my opinion.”
Through dealing with failures in this way, we are brought more and more to the place of having no confidence in ourself but in the Lord Himself.
Until Tomorrow
With A Shepherd’s Love,
Pastor Jackson
THURSDAY’S PRAYER REQUESTS
June Cronan
Lee Cronan
Darlene Thaxton
Darlene Wiggins
Amy Garner
Amy Garner’s Mom & Dad
Ashely Burn’s Sisters
Brandon’s Dad
Charlene Palmer
Coly/Connor – Allison’s G’sons
Dan Haines
David Burnette
David Harrison
Denise Hulsey – Jordan’s G’mother
Donnie Butler’s Dad
Doris Loyd
Dr. and Mrs. Davis
Easton Fielder
Eric Ward
Erik Magnusson
Freddie May’s Mom
George & Linda Alexander
James Burnette
James Garner’s Friend
Jillian Gray
Jim Mabe
Jodi Bateman
John Austin
John McClain
June Cronan’s Sister
Karen Slane
Kim McClain’s Mother
Lamar Knight
Larry Barker
Lillanna Magnusson’s Mom
Linda Alexander
Linda Breedlove’s Sister – Sarah
Linda Hodges’ Sister
Lonzo Christin
Lori Blount’s Mother
Mary Sims
Marynell Ford
Maureen Brown
Michael Stanley
Pastor & Mrs. Driskell
Ricky Gipson – Ashley’s Brother
Ricky Stubbs
Rose Fuller
Roseleigh Osborn
Sandra Graham
Scott Lanier
Terrell Loyd
Tom Witcher