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Scripture: Ezekiel 36:26-27 NIV "I will give you a new heart and a put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit in you and move you to follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws. " A few weeks ago, my four year old slipped away from me in the department store and "went shopping" on her own! When I found her a few minutes later, she had a pink frilly skirt and pink glittery sunglasses. She was not concerned about where I was; she was shopping! She was so independent that she thought she could shop and take her things home. In this Clean Heart Challenge, I have been doing a lot of thinking about how this is different from the years of reading Christian self-help books and doing bible studies. Consistanly, God is showing me that in order to truly develop a clean heart is to stay close to Him, recieve his Spirit and allow Him to move in me. When we try to do things on our own, like my daughter and her shopping ,we don't see the end result of the true change. Just like my daughter did not consider how she would pay and leave the store with her "treasures" without me. How do we stay close to God? We need to change our thinking! This is a choice. We decide to think differently. First of all, we need to recognize that we can not do this on our own. Secondly, we need think more realistically and positively about our life. I know that those two ideas are hard to think of together. Here is an example. If you have a bad attitude about your children, you might expect perfection and be disappointed in all the things they do wrong each day. Instead, focus on the realistic expectation that kids will not be perfect, but you can teach them godly character traits and make progress in helping them improve. To be more positive you can think, "With God's help, I can raise my children to honor God." But don't stop there! Pray and make a plan in teaching them godly character traits and then follow through! Throughout the day, whenever you feel frustrated, stop and think realistically and positively about the situation. If you have a hard time with that, pray and ask God to send his Spirit upon you so that you can see the situation as He sees it. That is living in the Spirit! Reflection: How realistic are your expectations of the people in your life? Are you positive or negative most of the time? How can you turn your thinking around in each case of disappointment. Think specifically. (With my husband.... with my children... with my household duties...) For my prayer today I am going to pray our scripture verse for the day, except change it as if I am talking to God rather than Him talking to me. Prayer : Lord, I open my heart for you to give me a new heart and put a new spirit in me. Please remove from me, my heart of stone and give me a heart of flesh. And put your Spirit in me and move me to follow your decrees and be careful to keep your laws. I ask these things in Jesus' name- Amen.
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Posted by Anonymous