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