Ephesians 5:15-17
Heavenly Father, El Shaddai, Jehovah-Jireh,
We know that Your eyes are on the righteous and Your ears are open to our prayers, so we will continue to cry out to You. But even as we cry out, we have a responsibility to listen and obey. Please keep us focused on Your goodness, Your faithfulness, and Your mercy. You do not want empty praise – for us to honor You with our lips and not our heart, and you would know right away if that happened.
Our strongest desire is to do Your will – to continue in the faith – to be grounded and steadfast and NEVER moved away from the hope of the gospel of Christ Jesus. Father help us to do just that in our handling of this great task before us – never stepping in any direction that is not Your will for us to do.
In Jesus’ precious name we pray
Ezekiel 3 is part of my morning devotional God gave him a message for seven day in a scroll he had to eat. Beginning with verse 26, “if righteous people turn away from their righteous behavior and ignore the obstacles I put in their way, they will die and if you do not warn them they will die in their sins. None of their righteous acts will be remembered and I will hold you responsible for their deaths. But if you warn righteous people not to sin and they listen to you and do not sin, they will live and you will have saved yourself too.” I pray leaving UMC will speak someway to the sinfulness that seems to be rebellion against God Almighty as well as UMC Book of Discipline. God was angry with His chosen people. I am reminded of Jonathan Edward’s sermon, “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God.”