Pastor Stephen Dedman

Tag: bible

The Eyes Of Your Heart

Encouragement

“having the eyes of your hearts enlightened, that you may know what is the hope to which he has called you, what are the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints,”
‭‭Ephesians‬ ‭1:18‬ ‭ESV‬‬

The Bible uses the word “heart” to refer to the center of the whole person, the place of all desires.  

The heart is seen as the seat of the will, intellect and feelings. “Character”, “personality” and “mind” are also terms used for the Bible’s meaning of heart. As you may have already discovered, the Bible has much to say about the heart. 

“The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it?”
‭‭Jeremiah‬ ‭17:9‬ ‭ESV‬‬

“The good person out of the good treasure of his heart produces good, and the evil person out of his evil treasure produces evil, for out of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaks.”
‭‭Luke‬ ‭6:45‬ ‭ESV‬‬

“But the Lord said to Samuel, “Do not look on his appearance or on the height of his stature, because I have rejected him. For the Lord sees not as man sees: man looks on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart.””
‭‭1 Samuel‬ ‭16:7‬ ‭ESV‬‬

“Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me.”
‭‭Psalms‬ ‭51:10‬ ‭ESV‬‬

“And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh.”
‭‭Ezekiel‬ ‭36:26‬ ‭ESV‬‬

We must allow the eyes of our heart to be opened to the spiritual things of God. When our heart is set on God we see things in a spiritual realm and not physical. We need to allow God to speak to our heart so we can see who He is. Is your heart prepared to receive the riches of His glory?

Pray

Lord, open the eyes of my heart so that I may see You in all your glory. Fill my heart with joy and peace that I may have hope. 

Your Sins Are Forgiven

Encouragement

I, even I, am He who blots out your transgressions for My own sake; And I will not remember your sins.
Isaiah 43:25

If God chooses to never remember our sins that have been forgiven, then why do we? We ought to forget the things that God forgets. But it seems that human nature tends to remember the things that we ought to forget and forget the things that we should remember.

How often do you recall the failures in your past? Or what regrets keep haunting you? It’s a powerful thing for God to never remember the things that have been removed from our past. More importantly, God chooses to forget! He chooses to never bring up the charges against us.

However, the devil, our accuser, constantly reminds us of our mistakes and mishaps. He tries to keep us thinking of the dark past. It is the past failures that keep us from a rewarding future.

When you are reminded of your “forgiven and forgotten” past, just remember that brokenness brings blessings. God uses our past failures to show His glory and grace. God uses the broken things to provide blessedness. Do you remember the 300 men of Gideon’s army that faced overwhelming odds but when they started breaking their clay pots, the Midianites were so scared and confused they killed one another?

Have you ever considered how God has used brokenness in your life? We tend to think that brokenness disqualifies us or weakens us. However big the sins may be, if God forgives and forgets them then we should rejoice and experience the power of grace. 

Let grace have victory in your life. Seek forgiveness in Jesus’ name and rest in the promises of God.

Pray

Lord, allow Your Light to shine through my darkness and brighten my future. Help me to know Your character so I may learn to deal with my remembrance.

Jesus Knows How To Encourage You

Encouragement

But Simon answered and said to Him, “Master, we have toiled all night and caught nothing; nevertheless at Your word I will let down the net.”
Luke 5:5

Have you ever failed at something that you were good at? Do you remember that feeling of failure and frustration? 

No one knows how to help you in times of discouragement like Jesus does. He will not just encourage you to do better next time, instead, He gives you a recipe for victory.

Peter was cleaning up after an all night fishing failure. It wasn’t like he had just caught a few fish; he had nothing, and he was a profession. There was nothing to show for his effort. He was ready to throw in the towel and give up. Needless to say, what he needed was a victory.

Jesus could have said to Peter, “Don’t worry about it. You’ll be in a different line of work soon.” Instead, Jesus instructed him to launch back out into the deep and let the nets down. That sounds crazy! A carpenter instructing a skilled professional fisherman where and how to catch fish! But even crazier was the fact that they caught so many fish that the nets were breaking and they had to call for help to carry in the weight of so many fish.

This is how Jesus works in our life. He will take us right back to where we were unsuccessful in order to build us back up. The problem may have been that you were relying on your own strength and understanding and He wanted you to rely and trust in Him. We must learn from our faults and failures so that next time we will experience victory in the supernatural, spiritual strength of God.

Pray

Lord, I know that I need Your help and Your strength. Comfort me with Your Holy Spirit and show me what to do next. Your ways and plans are much better than mine and I will follow Your lead.