What kind of impulse reactions do I have?  If I am asked something is my initial response one of selfishness?   Do I occasionally revert back, when under pressure, to something I would have done when I wasn't living for the Lord? 

I know that God tells me that I need to renew my mind.  Freedom can come when I am renewing my mind.  (Rom. 12:1-2; 2 Cor. 10:3-5; Eph. 4:23)  I have been working on this for many years but especially in the last 1.5 years.  I can see how I am changing when I can think through how I should do something.  In other words, when I have the time to stop my initial reaction and think through how I should be reacting I can do okay, at times.

It is much harder to stop the impulse reactions.  My dh asks me to do something and I say, "no way."  I can retract those words but how much more pleasant would it be for the entire family if my impulse reaction was to say yes first.

Beth Moore says in the study I did this morning:

I decided that I not only needed my conscious mind renewed, I needed my subconscious mind renewed.  In fact, I began to pray, "God, invade my dream life, my thoughts when I sleep, and every closet in my brain!  Put Your truth in the innermost places of my mind, even those I don't know exist."

 

"God, fill me so completely with your Holy Spirit that even my reactions and sudden impulses are godly."

 

What if through the power of the Holy Spirit we developed godly reactions and not just responses?  Impossible?  No.  Challenging? Yes!  Perfection is out of our earthly reach, but "through and through" sanctification is not. (I Thess. 5:23)

What a challenge yet I want to make that my prayer. 

I am reminded again that I need to have a prayer journal in use so I can add prayers like this that I want to pray for.  I wish I didn't get so hung-up on how to format it and how often I am using it. 

God told Abraham that he must be circumcisied as well as all the males in his family and with his family.  It was a sign of the covenant God was making with him.  God certainly could have come up with another way of marking his people. 

Instead he chose one that was private and was a reminder to the man that he belonged to God and that his strength, virility, and ability to bear fruit rested in the blessing of God Almighty.

Abraham obeyed immediately and God quickly fulfilled his promise of a baby.  Before circumcision Abraham only produced a baby by human planning.  After circumcision Abraham experienced the birth of a baby that only God could have given.

The New Testament teaches of a circumcision of the heart in Rom. 4:9-12 and Gal. 2:15-21.  God calls His people to "put off" or "cut off" something from their lives so they can bear much fruit. 

Lord, show me what needs to be "cut off" in my life so that I can bear your fruit.

Scripture says many times that "Abraham's belief was credited to him as righteousness."  The part I have seemed to miss is that it is the same for me.  God credits my belief as righteousness just as he did for Abraham

The words "it was credited to him" were written not for him alone, but also for us, to whom God will credit righteousness- for us who believe in Him...(Rom. 4:23-24). 

Credited means  "to count, impute, esteem". 

I don't have a God who decides where I stand with Him by counting my sins and my acts of belief to see which out weighs the other.  Scripture says when I ask for forgiveness my sins are wiped away.  He is only counting the times I believe.  Boy, that puts a little fear in me.  Does He have anything to count?  Do I do what HE asks of me?  Do I daily seek Him?  Do I delight in Him?  Is he everything to me?

I want to make my daily prayer part of the lyrics to a Stephen Curtis Chapman song:

You are everything I want,

You are everything I need,

Come and be my consuming passion,

The one true thing,

That which drives me,

delights me,

delivers me.

 I want Him to be my consuming passion.

Sometimes it is hard for me to fathom that God has personal interest in me.  I tend to think He is there overseeing everything but not necessarily a personal interest. Yet Scripture says:

"what is man that you are mindful of him."   Psalm 8:4

The notes in my Bible say:

David was impressed by the astonishing condescension of God to be mindful of puny man.

In my Bible study today it talks of how God is urging me to believe Him.  What a thought.  He didn't just send Christ so that I can believe but He is urging me to believe.  How mind boggling that He has that much interest in me.  Wow.

God doesn't lack anything.  He didn't have to create me and have interest in what I will do, but He did.  In my study today it talked about what happens when we don't believe (note to myself: not just talking about saving belief as I tend to think but instead about a daily believing in Him).

"When we choose not to believe God and follow Him, we all lose.  Might we consider that God has allowed Himself to experience some element of loss?  Neither His plan nor any measure of His glorious essence and authority is lost.  However our part in the plan that He cherished, His great pleasure in our participation and our fellowship with Him, is lost - if only momentarily. 

What a motivation for me to know what He teaches and to believe in what He teaches.  I don't want to miss out on what He has for me and fellowshipping with Him.