Praise and Thanksgiving
O my God,
Thou fairest, greatest, first of all objects,
my heart admires, adores, loves thee,
for my little vessel is as full as it can be,
and I would pour out all that fullness before thee
in ceaseless flow.
When I think upon and converse with thee
ten thousand delightful thoughts spring up,
ten thousand sources of pleasure are unsealed,
ten thousand refreshing joys spread over my heart,
crowding into every moment of happiness.
I bless thee for the soul thou hast created,
for adorning it, sanctifying it,
though it is fixed in barren soil;
for the body thou hast given me,
for preserving its strength and vigor,
for providing senses to enjoy delights,
for the ease and freedom of my limbs,
for hands, eyes, ears that do thy bidding;
for thy royal bounty providing my daily support,
for a full table and overflowing cup,
for appetite, taste, sweetness,
for social joys of relatives and friends,
for ability to serve others,
for a heart that feels sorrows and necessities,
for a mind to care for my fellow-men,
for opportunities of spreading happiness around,
for loved ones in the joys of heaven,
for my own expectation of seeing thee clearly.
I love thee above the powers of language to express,
for what thou art to thy creatures.
Increase my love, O my God, through time and eternity.
- from The Valley of Vision: A Collection of Puritan Prayers
So far, we have seen two of the three enemies of God’s people–the world and the devil. This post will begin looking at the enemy within–sin. The devil only has the power to tempt and the world only has the power to conform because of our own sinful hearts. We can never say, ‘the devil made me do it’ or ‘I got caught up in following the world’ as if we are not responsible. On the contrary, we freely chose to do what our sinful hearts longed to do–sin. If we cannot understand the sinfulness of our own hearts, then we will never succeed in spiritual warfare.
Defining Sin
Wayne Grudem helpfully defines sin this way: “Sin is any failure to conform to the moral law of God in act, attitude, or nature.”
The Bible presents many actions as sinful. That is to say, how we live can either be righteous or sinful before God. Often then, the Bible calls to live for God, apart from sin: “Now this I say and testify in the Lord, that you must no longer walk as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their minds. They are darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, due to their hardness of heart. They have become callous and have given themselves up to sensuality, greedy to practice every kind of impurity. But that is not the way you learned Christ!—assuming that you have heard about him and were taught in him, as the truth is in Jesus, to put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires, and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness” (Eph 4:17-24).
We often think of sin this way; it’s about what we do. But the Bible says that sin also comes from our attitudes, from the intentions of our hearts. So, Jesus says in Matthew 5:27-28, “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’ [28] But I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lustful intent has already committed adultery with her in his heart.
And more than just attitudes or motivation, sin is not just acting wrongly, but also failing to act in the right way. There are sins of commission as well as sins of omission. James says, “So whoever knows the right thing to do and fails to do it, for him it is sin” (4:17).
1. Sin’s Nature
Defining sin in relationship to God reveals its true nature: sin is essentially rebellion against God.
Sin is the willful and selfish rejection of God’s rule while choosing to live independently of him.
Romans 1 says, “For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse. For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Claiming to be wise, they became fools, and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things” (1:18-22).
Sin is always fundamentally and primarily against God
When we sin, people are affected. We are affected when we sin. Sin has consequences. But, in the end, our sin is ultimately against God.
Psalm 51:4 – Against you, you only, have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight, so that you may be justified in your words and blameless in your judgment.
2. Sin’s Pervasiveness
Humanity’s sinfulness extends to every part of his being; nothing in him has been unaffected by sin. We act, think, feel, desire in ways that are tainted by the sinfulness of our hearts. This has some far-reaching implications.
Sin’s corrupting effects have touched every part of our being
Romans 3:10-12 – as it is written: “None is righteous, no, not one; no one understands; no one seeks for God. All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one.”
Because of sin, apart from God, we are incapable of pleasing or obeying God.
Even seemingly “good” works are tainted by sin.
Romans 8:7-8 – For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God’s law; indeed, it cannot. Those who are in the flesh cannot please God.
Romans 7:23 – I see in my members another law waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members.
Not only are we therefore enslaved to sin, but we are completely responsible before God for our sin.
Romans 14:12 – So then each of us will give an account of himself to God.
Hosea is perhaps the most under-read, under-appreciated book among the prophets. Yet, it is a powerful book that gives us a glimpse at the pain experienced when sinful people who have professed to love God, turn their back on him and love other things instead.
The Infidelity of Israel
Because of Israel’s unfaithfulness we read, “When the Lord first spoke through Hosea, the Lord said to Hosea, “Go, take to yourself a wife of whoredom and have children of whoredom, for the land commits great whoredom by forsaking the Lord” (1:2).
That is, frankly, amazing. There is nothing else like it in the Scriptures. Nevertheless, there it is—God calls the prophet Hosea to marry a prostitute, an adulteress because that is what Israel has become. Hosea’s very life, then, is to be lived out as a dramatic retelling of the story of God’s relationship to Israel. In every way, Israel was Hosea’s prostitute-wife, Gomer. Despite incredible loving care from God, she rejected him and whored herself out to the false gods. She didn’t remain faithful to the Lord who had always remained faithful to her. Though God had showed great and deep love for Israel, she ultimately rejected him.
God’s people turned to other gods in worship, most notably the Canaanite fertility god, Baal. Thus, Israel was spiritual unfaithful; as a nation she became an adulteress. In fact, Israel was so far removed from the Lord that he says she actually thought all the best things she had came from Baal and not him. “[Israel] said, ‘I will go after my lovers, who give me my bread and my water, my wool and my flax, my oil and my drink…. [and the Lord says, but] “she did not know that it was I who gave her the grain, the wine, and the oil, and who lavished on her silver and gold, which they used for Baal” (2:5,8).
Although the central metaphor in Hosea is of Israel as the unfaithful wife, even as Gomer was an unfaithful wife, there is also another image that runs throughout the book—the image of the Father-son relationship between the Lord and Israel. This even goes back to the naming of the children with Lo-ammi, “Not My Son” or “Not My People.”
And in chapter 11, the imagery comes into sharp focus. The Lord says, “When Israel was a child, I loved him, and out of Egypt I called my son. 2The more they were called, the more they went away; they kept sacrificing to the Baals and burning offerings to idols. 3Yet it was I who taught Ephraim to walk; I took them up by their arms, but they did not know that I healed them. 4I led them with cords of kindness, with the bands of love, and I became to them as one who eases the yoke on their jaws, and I bent down to them and fed them. 5They shall not return to the land of Egypt, but Assyria shall be their king, because they have refused to return to me. 6The sword shall rage against their cities, consume the bars of their gates, and devour them because of their own counsels. 7My people are bent on turning away from me, and though they call out to the Most High, he shall not raise them up at all.”
Who can be moved by God’s words here? Here is the picture of God calling out Israel from Egypt, adopting the nation as his son. But Israel was just a small child, almost like a newborn. Like a loving Father, God held him by the hands and helped him along, teaching him to walk. When Israel was hurt, God healed him. It’s one of the most tender pictures in the Bible, but Israel apparently could care less. He’s forgotten about all that the God the Father has done for him. And though God has called him back from his sin in love, Israel refused to listen. Instead of being a faithful son who carries out his father’s wishes, Israel has rebelled over and over again. In chapter 8, they refuse to trust God and put their confidence in wealth and military might. They refuse to follow after God in loving things like justice, mercy, and righteousness.
Despite their sin and lack of faithfulness, God gives hope to his people through the prophet Hosea. He promises that there will be a time when their infidelity will cease and they will again be faithful to the Lord: “And in that day, declares the Lord, you will call me ‘My Husband,’ and no longer will you call me ‘My Baal.’ 17 For I will remove the names of the Baals from her mouth, and they shall be remembered by name no more.. . . 19And I will betroth you to me forever. I will betroth you to me in righteousness and in justice, in steadfast love and in mercy. 20I will betroth you to me in faithfulness. And you shall know the Lord…. And I will have mercy on No Mercy, and I will say to Not My People, ‘You are my people’; and he shall say, ‘You are my God’ ” (2:16-17,19-20, 23).
Christ the Faithful Son
When we get to the New Testament, we see this hope being fulfilled in Christ. Christ comes in fulfillment of these promises first by being the faithful Son that Israel never was. The Gospel of Matthew is clearest about this. In chapter 1, Matthew shows Jesus is born Jewish, from the David himself.
And then in chapter 2, as Herod is killing Jewish children because he feels his throne is threatened, Jesus’ parents are warned by God to flee into Egypt to escape. Afterward, as the young Jesus and his family return to Palestine, Matthew says this happened to fulfill “what the Lord had spoken by the prophet, ‘Out of Egypt I called my son’” (2:15). He’s quoting from Hosea 11. But the Hosea 11 passage isn’t a prophecy! God isn’t predicting anything. So what’s going on? What’s going on is an example of how to read the Bible. Matthew is showing us that when Jesus came in fulfillment of the Old Testament, it’s not just direct prophecies, but a typological/spiritual fulfillment too. Jesus is coming to be all that Israel should have been, but failed to be.
So, in the Matthew 3, Jesus goes through the waters of baptism, just as Israel went through the waters of the Red Sea during the Exodus. Then, in chapter 4, Jesus is in the wilderness being tempted for 40 days just as Israel was in the wilderness being tempted for 40 years. Unlike Israel, though, Jesus succeeds in the testing. He doesn’t succumb to sin, but triumphs over it. And that is the pattern of his entire life. Though enduring great temptation—being tempted in every way any person has ever been tempted, Jesus endures without sin. He always obeys God the Father, he always seeks the glory of God the Father, he always trusts God the Father and lives by the strength he provides. So, it’s no surprise that when we get to Matthew 17, the voice of God the Father booms out of heaven “This is my beloved Son in whom I am well-pleased” (17:5).
Christ the Faithful Husband
Christ was not only God’s faithful Son, he also became the faithful husband to God’s people. In order to understand this, we need to go back to the story of Hosea and Gomer. In chapter 3, God directs Hosea to do what he has promised he will one day—redeem his wife, Israel. It has to be one of the most moving passages in all of the Bible:
‘And the Lord said to me, “Go again, love a woman who is loved by another man and is an adulteress, even as the Lord loves the children of Israel, though they turn to other gods and love cakes of raisins.” So I bought her for fifteen shekels of silver and a homer and a lethech of barley. And I said to her, “You must dwell as mine for many days. You shall not play the whore, or belong to another man; so will I also be to you.” For the children of Israel shall dwell many days without king or prince, without sacrifice or pillar, without ephod or household gods. Afterward the children of Israel shall return and seek the Lord their God, and David their king, and they shall come in fear to the Lord and to his goodness in the latter days’ (3:1-5).
To get the full weight of the passage, we have put ourselves in the culture of Hosea’s day. At this point, Gomer was on the auction block. Possibly because of debts, she’s being sold as a slave. That meant she would have been led out onto the podium, her clothes stripped-off for people to inspect her before bidding. Here is Hosea, forced to bear the shame of Gomer being up for sale. Men are staring at his wife, perhaps making crude jokes or leering. Worse, he has to bid against other men for own wife! Not to mention the indignity of people recognizing him as her husband saying things like, ‘What is he thinking! This is the woman who has betrayed his trust and left him to sleep around the city. Why does he even care? How could pay so much to get her back when she may do the whole thing over again?’
In the same way, Jesus came to redeem his bride, the Church. Though righteous in every way, Jesus had to bear the shame of his bride, the Church. Jesus took upon himself the shame of their sin, even hanging naked on a Roman cross like some vile criminal. More than that, he couldn’t just pay money to redeem his people from their sins. Instead, he offered his own life as a ransom for them—to buy them out of their slavery to sin. Thus, the apostle Peter can say to the Church, “[know] that you were ransomed from the futile ways inherited from your forefathers, not with perishable things such as silver or gold, but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without blemish or spot” (1:18-19).
What’s more, just as God promised that his people would be given new life to love the Lord—“After two days he will revive us; on the third day he will raise us up, that we may live before him” (6:2)—so also would Jesus rise from the dead back to life on the third day after being crucified in place of his people.
Why did Christ redeem his sinful bride? In Ephesians 5, Paul says: “Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, so that he might present the church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish” (Eph 5:25-27).
This is why Jesus’ died for his people—because like Israel, we are sinful and in need of redemption. Moreover, even in being redeemed from the penalty of our sins, we still remain a sinful people. Yet, Christ does more than love his bride and die for her forgiveness—he has the power to actually transform her into a pure, sinless bride.
Though this will not be to everyone’s musical tastes, this is likely the greatest anthem encouraging believers to fight against sin. You may not like the sound, but you can’t argue with the theology!
Here’s the explanation of the song:
For those of you who might be interested, the video of today’s episode of Ask the Pastor is now online. Ask the Pastor is a local show with area pastors who answer questions from callers in a panel format.
I was recently listening to two Christians talking about verse from the book of Hebrews. I don’t know these individuals well, having only talked with them a few times. That being said, they seem like sincere people who desire to be faithful to God. Unfortunately, it seems like they’ve never been taught how to read the Bible.
As they were talking about this verse in Hebrews, the one person was saying how they understood the verse and it spoke to them. The other person went on to explain that they had always understood it differently. What did not happen was a conversation that involved techniques of exegesis or sentence diagramming or arguing from the context of the letter. Instead, the other person replied, “Isn’t it great that the Bible has so many meanings?”
Now, it is certainly true that any given passage may have a different weight in a person’s life at any given time. For example, I read exhortations to parents much differently now that I have three kids then when I was a kid. But in the end, the text only has one meaning. What was wrong in the conversation between these two Christians was that they began with their life experience and then read back into the text what they thought they needed to hear from it. They used their experience to explain a helpful meaning of the text. But this is backwards. God has spoken in his Word. When he spoke, he didn’t mumble or speak in riddles or have vague notions in mind that could be taken a multiple ways depending on what the meaning of “is” is. Again, some texts might be applied differently on some occasions or have a different significance, but there is only one, God-intended meaning behind the text of the Bible.
So when we approach the Bible, we must approach it like any other book and not like any other book. We approach it like any other book asking, ‘What is the author trying to say?’ Yes, I know there are whole literary theories driven by reader-response, the reader determining the meaning. But let’s be honest–that just doesn’t work! Work will not get done, laws cannot be enforced, society grinds to a halt, and life can’t be lived if WE get to decide what someone else means. So, in that way, we are reading the Bible like anything else–we ask, ‘What does the author mean? What is he trying to convey?’
But we also read the Bible unlike any other book. The Scriptures are not the product of the human mind (2 Peter 1:21). God is a speaking God who reveals himself to his people, and he has done this through his Word as well as his Son (Hebrews 1:1-2). We are privileged to have God’s revelation of himself. We may want answers to questions we think are important, but in his Word, God has told us everything we need to know about himself, his ways, and his creation so that we can be saved in Christ and live a life of godliness (2 Peter 1:3-4). Because it is God’s book, we have to treat it seriously–reading it and obeying it. It also means that we do not come with our own ideas about what it should mean, or what we would like it to mean. Instead, we acknowledge our preconceived ideas, and try to come fresh to the text, asking God to help us see what he is saying in his Word (Psalm 119:18).
I pray that God’s people would come to read the Bible this way, remembering that it’s not their word, but God’s Word. Then we will be built up in our faith in a way that is beneficial to us and honoring to God.
What a call for the church to be about spreading a knowledge of Christ with great zeal for God’s glory and a love for the nations of the world.
One of the passages of scripture from my own personal meditations that has had the greatest impact on me in recent weeks is Romans 10:1-2 where Paul says about his kinsmen, the Jewish people: My heart’s desire and prayer to God for them is that they may be saved. For, I bear them witness that they have a zeal for God, but it is not according to knowledge.
What struck me here is that it is possible to have a zeal for God and be lost. A zeal for God and lost – perishing! “My heart’s desire is that they be saved,” he says. So they are not saved. Why? They have zeal for God. They are, in fact, part of the chosen Jewish people. But he prays that they would be saved. What’s wrong? What’s wrong with their zeal? And Paul answers: It is not according to knowledge. True knowledge is necessary for salvation. They have zeal. But it is not rooted in knowledge.
Now zeal – the passion of the heart for God – is important. Jesus said to love God with all your heart, and all your soul, and all your mind (Matthew 22:37). He said that lukewarm people will be spewed out of his mouth (Revelation 3:16). And just two chapters later, in Romans 12:11, Paul will say, “Never flag in zeal, be aglow with the Spirit, serve the Lord.” Literally: “Boil in the spirit.” Zeal is important. But without knowledge it does not lead to salvation.
- John Piper, “Let Us Draw Near to God” (sermon on Hebrews 10:19-22)
I’m preaching on Amos this Sunday, and in the course of my study came across D. A. Carson’s very powerful Amos-like message for us today. It seems even more poignant perhaps than when it was first published.
WOE TO CHINA. IN THIS CENTURY she has butchered fifty million of her own people in the name of equality. Proud and haughty, she maintains an officially atheistic stance, persecuting the church while that church, nurtured by the blood of the martyrs, has in half a century multiplied fifty times.
Woe to Russia. In the second decade of this century she embarked on a massive social experiment that resulted in the deaths of more than forty million people. She subjugated nation after nation, so certain was she that the tide of history was on her side. She became excellent at producing the “revolutionary man,” but could not produce the promised “new man” of Marxist thought, and so hid behind illusions and lies until her economic incompetence brought her down.
Woe to Germany. Privileged to serve as home to some of the greatest Reformers, she became extraordinarily arrogant intellectually, and in this century started two world wars that wreaked death and havoc, including the horrors of the Nazis, on countless millions. Today she builds excellent BMW’s but has a materialist soul, worshiping nothing greater than the deutsche mark.
Woe to Great Britain. At one time ruler of one-quarter of the world’s population; inheritor of some of the greatest Christian thought and literature ever produced, she became ever more proud and condescending to the nations she colonized and the people she enslaved. Having repeatedly squandered a heritage of the knowledge of God, she thrashes around directionless and degraded.
Woe to Canada. She likes to think of herself as morally superior to her nearest neighbor, while hiding under the U. S. military umbrella. Sliding toward a moral abyss, her Supreme Court issues decisions that are as morally corrosive as any in the Western world, while the English-French factionalism drives toward enmity and breakup for want of courtesy and respect from both sides.
Woe to the United States. She prides herself on being the only world power left, but never reflects on how God has brought low every world power in history. Her cherished freedoms, so great a heritage, have increasingly become a facade to hide and then defend the grossest immorality and selfishness. To the nation at large, no issue, absolutely none, is more important than the state of the economy.
This is the reasoning of Amos. In Amos 1, he circles around the pagan neighbors, articulating the judgment of God. Here in Amos 2, he moves to Moab, Judah (“Canada”), and finally brings it home to Israel. Israelite audiences would begin with smug contentment during the early parts: how would they end up? And understand: the sequence of my “Woes,” above, could have been rearranged to end with any country—with your country.
Perhaps we should go even further and ask, ‘What woes could we pronounce against ourselves in our churches?’ We are so good and thinking of ourselves as better than other churches around us, yet we often miss the sin crouching at our own door.
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Check out the rest of Carson’s amazingly helpful devotional commentary in his two-volume work, For the Love of God (vol 1, vol 2).
In the previous post, we looked at the apostle John’s exhortation to fight against the pull of the world on believer’s hearts by purposing not to love the world. Here we want to look at the apostle Paul’s instructions.
Romans Overview
“I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a sacrifice, living, holy, and acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service of worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect” (Romans 12:1-2).
These verses mark a pivotal turn in the book of Romans. The first eleven chapters were all doctrinal instruction. Now, Paul makes the turn to application. Chapters 12-16 of the book of Romans are all application of the great doctrines of the Christian faith. So what did he says in the first eleven chapters? he began by explaining the power of the gospel (ch 1); humanity’s fundamental sin is a failure to worship God (ch 1); God’s wrath against sinners (chs 1-3); The saving work of God (chs 3-4); The hope we can have through faith in God’s Son (chs 5-8); God’s salvation of His people Israel and now the rest the world (chs 9-11).
Paul calls these things “the mercies of God.” In the next five chapters of this great book, Paul will call us to “live for God, to love God, to obey God, to delight in God’s word; to delight in God’s will, to delight in God’s law, to live it out because of the mercy of God toward us. Thus, Paul is saying that Christian living is based on having received grace. He is calling us to obey God because of what God has done for us. It is vital that we understand this. If you cannot see the call to obedience against the backdrop of what God has already done, you will either be really confused, or really resentful of God.
Do Not Be Conformed to the World
So, what is the call of God on our life? In the opening verses of chapter 12, he says, “present your bodies as a sacrifice, living, holy, and acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service of worship.” In some translations it says, our spiritual worship. The word behind ‘spiritual’ is a difficult word to translate. Some translations have reasonable worship instead of spiritual. The idea is that it is a worship of the mind and heart. It is thus a reasonable response in light of God’s mercies as well as more than just a physical response. In other words, Paul is saying give God everything; give him all of your life. In his most famous work, The Institutes of the Christian Religion, the reformation theologian John Calvin writes,
“We are not our own, therefore let not our reason, nor our will sway our plans and deeds. We are not our own, let us therefore not set it as our goal to seek what is expedient for us according to the flesh. We are not our own. In so far as we can, let us therefore forget ourselves and all that is ours. Conversely, we belong to God. Let us therefore, let us live for Him and die for Him, we belong to God. Let His wisdom and will therefore rule all our actions. We belong to God. Let all the parts of our lives accordingly strive toward Him as our only lawful goal.”
Likewise, Pastor Ligon Duncan says, “The Apostle Paul is saying…. I want a Christian who is a twenty-four hour, seven-day a week worship machine. You are always thinking about glorifying God, you’re always thinking about adoring God and in every mundane event of life, or every extraordinary event of life your agenda is to be a person who is worshipping God.”
Right Living Comes from Right Thinking
If we’re called to not conform to the sinful world around us, how are we to fulfill our calling? Look at the second part of the verse – “Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.”
Just as John said, ‘do not love the world,’ so now Paul says, ‘do not be conformed to the world.’ The world is constantly bombarding you with the message to conform. Be like everyone else; be normal. But Paul says, don’t conform to this world. Do not let your life be controlled by the social mores of the culture around you. Do not make society’s morality and values, your morality and values. “Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind.” Instead of being conformed to the values of this world, be transformed. But that begs the question, ‘How are we to be transformed?’ Paul says, ‘by the renewal of our minds.’
The word Paul uses for transformed is the same from which we get our English word, metamorphosis. Paul is calling for a total, on-going change in our being. Thus, real, biblical worship rejects any notion of stagnation or complacency. This transformation is possible, but it will not happen overnight. It is a life-long process. It is a continual coming to God’s Word, allowing God’s Spirit to apply it to our lives and change our minds.
For the Bible teaches that right living comes from right thinking. Thus, the psalmist can say in Psalm 119:104, “Through your precepts I get understanding; therefore I hate every false way.” Through God’s instruction – his word – the psalmist gains understanding; his thinking is changed. And through understanding, he comes to hate sin. Hating sin means loving righteousness, and all of this means a transformed life. One that is lived according to God’s ways and not in conformity to the world.
Conclusion
Scriptures teaches over and over again, we lose our taste for sin and the world by increasing our appetite for God. How do you that? By daily getting on your knees in prayer and reading his word. By bombarding your mind with the Scriptures and allowing God’s Spirit to cultivate within you a desire for God and godliness.
And ask for help when you spend time with God in his word. Pray things like – Open my eyes, that I may behold wondrous things out of your law (Psalm 119:18). Incline my heart to your testimonies (Ps 119:36). Satisfy me in the morning with your steadfast love, that I may rejoice and be glad all my days! (Ps 90:14). Please, show me your glory (Ex 33:18).
