Trusting in the Promises of God: He is Faithful

Whenever troubles come into our lives, we naturally assume that we are being punished for something we've done wrong. With the help of the devil, our consciences remind us of past sins. We scrutinize our lives and wonder what offended God. This can even lead to blaming God for our problems. Eventually we can end up hating Him.

Perhaps Abraham had similar thoughts when God asked him to sacrifice his son: "Maybe I have become proud because God gave me a son." Perhaps I wasn't thankful as I should have been. Maybe the Lord regrets making his promise to me. It's difficult to silence anxious thoughts like these when we can't understand what God is doing. People can't comprehend how an unchanging God can change his mind. Inevitably, we come to one of two conclusions: either God is a liar, or God has become our enemy. Thinking of God as a liar is blasphemy. Thinking of God as our enemy leads to despair.

Often, serious doubts arise, such as "What if God doesn't want me to be save?" But when our consciences are troubled in this way, we have to continue to believe the promise of salvation- a promise we can trust in and depend on. When we doubt God's promise, we must pray and hang on to it, because if Satan can prevent us from believing it, then we have no where else to turn. God will test us, as he did Abraham. God doesn't test us because he enjoys it. He tests us to find out whether we love him above all things.

Casting Your Cares on Christ

Almighty God, with whom all things are possible, hear our prayers as we come to you in trouble and distress. You are our hiding place. You are our very present help in trouble. We have no other refuge in an hour like this. Gracious Lord You can heal. Your grace can restore to health and give us strength to carry on. We know that You are compassionate, for you have sent Your beloved Son, Jesus Christ, to suffer the death of the cross in order to redeem us and make us Your own. As You did not forsake Him, surely You will not abandon us in this great time of need. As You raised Him from the dead on the third day, so we ask that You would also raise up with Him from this present danger. O Lord, we humble ourselves before You and confess our many sins. We pray, merciful Father for your grace hour by hour. Forgive us and restore us for You have made us Your own children in Christ. Remove the worries and anxious fears that would crush us. Give us grace to trust in You, whose will is wiser than our own, for we have been baptized into the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen.

Our help in times of trouble

Lord Jesus, who endured the pangs of death and the torments of hell for our sakes, be with us and save from the spirit of despondency which would drive us to despair, and would swallow up our soul. Pour out abundantly upon us the Spirit of joy and comfort, to lift from us the burden and guilt of sin, and to strengthen and comfort us through Your sacred wounds. Amen.

God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble... The Lord of hosts is with us the God of Jacob is our fortress. Psalm 46

To Live a Holy Life

Lord Jesus, by Your precious blood You redeemed me, a lost and condemned creature, and called me to be Your very own, a fellow citizen with the saints. You, O Lord, know all things. You know that I love You. You know that my renewed heart desires to serve You in righteousness and holiness, to cast aside the sin that so easily entangles me, and to run with preserving the race set before me. I grieve, O Lord, that I have so often failed to do what You, my precious Savior, have asked me. So often I have refused to follow You and Your example, instead choosing the paths of the world and the desires of my sinful flesh. In me there is no good thing. The good that I would do, I do not; an the evil that I would not, that I do. I am so wretched! Who will deliver me from this body of death? To You, my Savior and loving friend, I flee. Uphold me with Your willing Spirit. You are the Author and Perfecter of my faith, having delivered me from the guilt and punishment of sin and having redeemed me from its power and dominion. Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me. Purge every evil desire and thought from my heart and mind, and fill me with a pure love for You and Your will. Whether I live or die, may I be Yours alone and forever. Amen.

There is only one thing the soul needs....

Thanks be to You, Lord Jesus, Captain of our salvation, for the goodly weapon of Your Word, with which we drive the enemy before us, and can rout thrones and potentates. Create in us a zeal for Your Word, willingly to hear and learn it, that we may always have our weapon polished and ready. Amen.

We were reading from The Freedom of a Christian...and we thought this really tied in with the prayer from Psalm 119 that is listed above.
The soul needs only one thing: the Word of God. When this is missing, the soul lacks the one thing that is essential... For what else could it possibly need? The Word brings life, truth, light, peace, righteousness, salvation, joy, liberty, wisdom, power, grace, glory, and every other blessing imaginable. 

After reading all of these blessing that come with what the Word of God creates, how can I not want but to surround myself daily with God's Word? Through faithful pastors, parents, and friends is the only way I see this happening for me. Faith doesn't come from looking within yourself. Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God.

Great peace have they which love thy law: and nothing shall offend them. Psalm 119:165

Blessed is the one whose transgressions are forgiven...

We have been reading from  Reading the Psalms with Luther and today we read Psalm 32 and wanted to share with you what it said.

The 32nd Psalm is an exemplary psalm of instruction that teaches us what sin is, and how one might be freed from it and be righteous before God. Our reason does not know what sin is and tries to make satisfaction for it with works. But even saints are sinners. They cannot become holy or blessed except by confessing themselves as sinners before God, knowing that they are regarded as righteous only from the grace of God, apart from any service or work.


In short, our righteousness is called (in plain language) the forgiveness of our sins. Here stand the clear plain words: All the saints are sinners and remain sinners. But they are holy because God in His grace neither sees nor counts these sins, but forgets, forgives, and covers them!

This is the prayer that follows the psalm. We are so blessed and thankful that we don't even have to come up with our own prayers, but can receive our many gifts from people who have gone before us to preserve life.

O God, our heavenly Father, with whom is grace and much forgiveness, be merciful to us who were born in sin and cannot but sin and fall short everyday. Forgive us our many transgressions and account them against us no more, but make us as Your heirs through Jesus Christ, Your beloved Son, who was delivered into death for our offenses, and was raised again for our justification. Amen.