My thoughts

You, O LORD, know me; You see me and test me. 1 You discern my thoughts from far away. 2

I remember the days of old, I think about all your deeds, I meditate on the works of your hands. 3 Oh, how I love your law! It is my meditation all day long. 4 I will meditate on your precepts, and fix my eyes on your ways. I will delight in your statutes; I will not forget your word. 5

When I think of your ways, I turn my feet to your decrees. 6 My soul is satisfied as with a rich feast, and my mouth praises you with joyful lips when I think of you on my bed, and meditate on you in the watches of the night. 7 My eyes are awake before each watch of the night, that I may meditate on your promise. 8

Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my thoughts. See if there is any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting. 9 Let the meditation of my heart be acceptable to you, O LORD, my rock and my redeemer. 10

 

1 Jer 12.3 2 Psa 139.2 3 Psa 143.5 4 Psa 119.97 5 Psa 119.15-16 6 Psa 119.59 7 Psa 63.5-6 8 Psa 119.148 9 Psa 139.23-24 10 Psa 19.14

My plans for you

God says

 

I know the plans I have for you, plans for your welfare and not for harm, to give you a future and a hope. 1 With everlasting love I will have compassion on you. 2

I will snap the bonds that bind you. 3 I will deliver you out of the hand of the wicked. 4 I will save you. 5

I will restore health to you, and your wounds I will heal. 6 I will comfort you. 7

A new heart I will give you, and a new spirit I will put within you. 8 I will welcome you, and I will be your father, and you shall be my sons and daughters. 9

I will sprinkle clean water upon you, and you shall be clean. 10 I, I am he, who blots put your transgressions for my own sake, and I will not remember your sins. 11

I will make with you an everlasting covenant. 12 I will take you for my wife forever in righteousness and in justice, in steadfast love, and in mercy. 13

I will indeed bless you. 14 And you shall know that I, the LORD, am your Saviour. 15

 

1 Jer 29.11 2 Isa 54.8 3 Nah 1.13 4 Jer 15.21 5 Zec 8.13 6 Jer 30.17 7 Isa 66.13 8 Ezek 36.26 9 2Cor 6.17-18 10 Ezek 36.25 11 Isa 43.25 12 Isa 55.3 13 Hos 2.19 14 Gen 22.17 15 Isa 60.16

Our heavenly city

By faith Abraham, when called to go to a place he would later receive as his inheritance, obeyed and went, even though he did not know where he was going. By faith he made his home in the promised land like a stranger in a foreign country; he lived in tents, as did Isaac and Jacob, who were heirs with him of the same promise. For he was looking forward to the city with foundations, whose architect and builder is God. 1

We are foreigners and strangers as were all our ancestors. Our days on earth are like a shadow. 2 For here we do not have an enduring city, but we are looking for the city that is to come, 3 the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem. 4 Our citizenship is in heaven. 5

We fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal. 6 Look on Zion, the city of our festivals; your eyes will see Jerusalem, a peaceful abode, a tent that will not be moved; its stakes will never be pulled up, nor any of its ropes broken. 7

The throne of God and of the Lamb will be in the city, and his servants will serve him. 8 No one living in Zion will say, “I am ill”; and the sins of those who dwell there will be forgiven. 9 On no day will its gates ever be shut, for there will be no night there. 10 And the name of the city will be: THE LORD IS THERE. 11

 

1 Heb 11.8-10 2 1Chr 29.15 3 Heb 13.14 4 Heb 12.22 5 Phil 3.20 6 2Cor 4.18 7 Isa 33.20 8 Rev 22.3 9 Isa 33.24 10 Rev 21.25 11 Ezek 48.35

Resisting temptation

The grace of God has appeared training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives. 1

No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation he will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it. 2 Because Jesus himself has suffered when tempted, he is able to help those who are being tempted. For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathise with our weakness, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin. 3

Be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might. Put on the whole armour of God, that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil. For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places. In all circumstances take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming darts of the evil one. And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God, praying at all times in the Spirit. 4

Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good. 5

Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. Resist him, firm in your faith. 6 Submit yourselves to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from faith. 7

Sin is crouching at the door. It’s desire is for you, but you must rule over it. 8 For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace. 9

 

1 Titus 2.11-12 2 1Cor 10.13 3 Heb 2.18, 4.15 4 Eph 6.10-12, 16-18 5 Rom 12.21 6 1Pet 5.8-9 7 Jam 4.7 8 Gen 4.7 9 Rom 6.14

Freed from the law

When we were in the flesh, the sinful passions operated through the law in every part of us and bore fruit for death. 1 We were in slavery under the elemental forces of the world. 2

But now we have been released from the law. 3

The law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. 4 God sent His Son to redeem those under the law. 5

He erased the certificate of debt, with its obligations, that was against us and opposed to us, and has taken it out of the way by nailing it to the cross. 6 Therefore, no condemnation now exists for those in Christ Jesus. 7

We may serve in the new way of the Spirit and not in the old letter of the law. 8 The Spirit’s law of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and of death. 9 For the letter kills, but the Spirit produces life. 10 

Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. 11 In the past, when you didn’t know God, you were enslaved to things that by nature are not gods. But now, since you know God, or rather have become known by God, how can you turn back again to the weak and bankrupt elemental forces? Do you want to be enslaved to them all over again? 12 

Christ has liberated us to be free. Stand firm then and don’t submit again to a yoke of slavery. 13

 

1 Rom 7.5 2 Gal 4.3 3 Rom 7.6 4 Jn 1.17 5 Gal 4.4-5 6 Col 2.14 7 Rom 8.1 8 Rom 7.6 9 Rom 8.2 10 2Cor 3.6 11 2Cor 3.17 12 Gal 4.8-9 13 Gal 5.1

LORD forgive us

LORD, if you kept a record of our sins, who, O LORD, could ever survive? 1 For our sins testify against us. 2

We have rebelled against you and scorned your commands and regulations. 3 Our sins are piled higher than our heads, and our guilt has reached to the heavens. 4 We are all infected and impure with sin. When we display our righteous deeds, they are nothing but filthy rags. 5

But you offer forgiveness, that we might learn to fear you. 6 O LORD, you are so good, so ready to forgive. 7

Where is another God like you, who pardons the guilt of the remnant, overlooking the sins of his special people? Once again you will have compassion on us. You will trample our sins under your feet and throw them into the depths of the ocean! 8

Have mercy on us, LORD, have mercy. 9 Forgive us our sins, as we have forgiven those who sin against us. 10 Show us your unfailing love, O LORD.  Restore us again, O God of our salvation, revive us again. 11

 

1 Psa 130.3 2 Isa 59.12 3 Dan 9.5 4 Ezra 9.6 5 Isa 64.6 6 Psa 130.4 7 Psa 86.5 8 Mic 7.18-19 9 Psa 123.3 10 Mt 6.12 11 Psa 85.4,6-7 

The universe’s existence

By faith we understand that the universe was created by the word of God, so that what is seen was not made out of things that are visible. 1 He spoke, and it came to be, he commanded, and it stood firm. 2

God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light. 3

It is he who made the earth by his power, who established the world by his wisdom, and by his understanding stretched out the heavens, 4 who spread out the earth and what comes from it, who gives breath to the people on it and spirit to those who walk on it. 5

There is one God, the Father, from whom are all things and for whom we exist, and one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom are all things and through whom we exist. 6

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made. 7

For by Jesus all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities – all things were created through him and for him. And he is before all things hold together. 8 He upholds the universe by the word of his power. 9

 

1 Heb 11.3 2 Psa 33.9 3 Gen 1.3 4 Jer 10.12 5 Isa 42.5 6 1Cor 8.6 7 Jn 1.1-3 8 Col 1.16-17 9 Heb 1.3