"H.I.M."

"Let my mouth be filled with Thy praise and with Thy honor all the day." (Psalms 71:8) The older I get, the more I realize just how little I contribute to my own salvation. When I was young, I thought I had something in me that could change the world; but as I grew older, I realized it was the world that keeps on wanting to change me. This is why it is so important that we do not love this world; leave that up to God, only He can love it the way it the way it needs to be loved: John 3:16 gives us that illustration! This verse would be a great verse to live by, and I don't just mean to make it something you inspire to do, but that it is something you actually put into practice. You do know what that means, don't you? They say that it takes twenty-one days to establish a habit; the last I checked, twenty-one days is about three weeks, so if you are going to plan to make any New Year resolutions, then you had better start getting ready to put them into action. What I am really trying to say, is that you need to start resolving those issues now, not wait until New Years, as if there is some sort of magic in that day, because there isn't. I resolve not to say anything bad about anyone any more; and while I am at it, I should also resolve not to listen to the bad things that are said of others also. Other than that, I think my prayer life could use some great improvement; like maybe it needs to be brought back to life, because it seems as of lately to have been minimized profoundly. I know that these things are really not things that I can change on my own; which is primarily why the verse above begins with the word "Let" and not "I will have" or "My mouth will be." This is something I really want to do, but it is going to require God's help to make it happen; at the same time, I need to want it to happen! I don't think that we get that most of the time, because we ask God to change us in a certain way, but then we go on living the same old way we always have. You know that Abraham actually had to walk away from his father's home; eventually he did, and then it was accounted as righteousness. What are you saying Rich? He Inspires Movement! That's the whole wonderful point of living out the life of Christ, or any other aspect of the Christian life: there must be movement in the direction God inspires us to go...
 "As God's partners, we beg you not to accept this marvelous gift of God's kindness and then ignore it. For God says, "At just the right time, I heard you. On the day of salvation, I helped you." Indeed, the "right time" is now. Today is the day of salvation. We live in such a way that no one will stumble because of us, and no one will find fault with our ministry. In everything we do, we show that we are true ministers of God. We patiently endure troubles and hardships and calamities of every kind. We have been beaten, been put in prison, faced angry mobs, worked to exhaustion, endured sleepless nights, and gone without food. We prove ourselves by our purity, our understanding, our patience, our kindness, by the Holy Spirit within us, and by our sincere love." (2 Corinthians 6:1-6) NLT