God Help Me To Love Myself

The Love of God is shed abroad in our hearts (Romans 5:5), so love does begin within. This scripture can be interpreted several ways. I see one of the interpretations as God's love in our hearts teaches us how to love ourselves.

We often give so much on behalf of others that we don't allow God to work on ourselves with ourselves. Sometimes, we need to be separated from others in various ways and for various periods of time in order for God to work exclusively with us about loving ourselves. 

Of course, God is also doing a work in us as we interact with others. Our Father, however, wants to reveal to us how we are not valuing ourselves as He is. We neglect ourselves because we believe that our confirmation of being in Christ is confirmed through our unceasing, loving activities for others.  

We don't realize that we never learned to unconditionally love ourselves. If the love that we think we have for ourselves is a scam and a sham, a false illusion, then nothing that we do for others proves that we love them. 

How can we love then when we haven't learned to love ourselves? Until we begin healing towards ourselves, our relationships with others will continue to begin and be maintained by our fleshly reaching out.  

Our efforts for others should be a reflection of our inner love for ourselves. As we learn to love ourselves as God loves us, we won't be motivated through ulterior motive, inverted pride, secret goals and selfish orchestration. These are the facts that the Holy Spirit wants to help us to accept. 

Once we begin to see ourselves with the respect, admiration and validation with which God sees us, we come to love ourselves in a way in which we never learned. We did not learn through our families, church members, spouses, friends or through any other person. 

No matter how good they may have seemed, we could not learn to love ourselves through them. Some of them were not good at all, for they took away what love we could have learned to have for ourselves. As we grow in The Lord, we become able to accept the brutal truth. 

Godly love for ourselves comes through acceptance of the truth about our deficiency and personal revelation from God about who we each are. When we start loving ourselves with the spiritual dedication provided for us by the Holy Spirit, then we can act upon a true love for others. This will result in wisdom, circumspection and restraint about what we do on behalf of loving others.  

The God-established love for ourselves is one of the pillars that we must sink into our foundation on the Rock of Jesus Christ. It is what helps us to build a stable Christian life. It is how we exhibit solid and unselfish service to God. We learn to be obedient to God rather than being self-sacrificing busy-bodies. (1 Samuel 15:22)

Grace And Truth Came Through Jesus

The Law Was Given Through Moses, But

Grace And Truth Came Through

Jesus Christ.

John 1:17

This means that we are no longer debtors to the Law but we are now free, delivered and redeemed through the given shed blood and unblemished body of our Lord & Savior, Jesus Christ. His sacrifice on Calvary fulfilled the Law of God and destroyed the power of the Law to kill us. 

There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh but after the Spirit, for the law of the Spirit of Life in Christ Jesus has made us free from the law of sin and death.

For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh: That the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. Romans 8:1-4

This is what Jesus did for us. We can't understand, in the flesh, the magnificence of His obedient and holy gift. We can only catch glimpses of it as we seek God's face.

Expect Doors To Open

Learn what makes your heart sing, what makes you truly happy. You can feel it in your emotions and spirit today and you can find traces of it in your childhood. It has to do with if you could have things exactly as you want them, what would you be doing? Where would you be? What would your life look like? 

Fill your life with videos of others who are doing it. Replace as much entertainment with educational videos and podcasts as you can. Commit to lifelong learning about what makes your heart sing. Keep learning from others who are living it and never stop learning from them.

If you think you want to live somewhere else, anywhere else in the world, go ASAP. Go now, not only because money is unsure but because it gets harder as we age. It's never too late to do anything but some things we won't feel like doing later in life. We'll always want to though, and wish that we had.

Limit time, whenever possible, with people who don't support you, who depress you and who don't seem to have your best interest at heart. Be strong, be consistent in this but choose to forgive them. Learn not to buy friendships and don't pay people to like you.

Believe in the impossible, every day, and that it is for you. Expect doors to open.

Save and keep saving while you can, always live within your means, try to live debt-free, try not to pay interest. 

Don't become a miser, reward yourself within reason and enjoy life.

Forgive yourself for everything. God's Holy Spirit will help. Just ask. Believe that Our Heavenly Father is aware of all that has to do with you and He always has your best interest at heart.

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The Kingdom Of God

The Kingdom of God is within those of us who love Jesus. It is a way of thinking which alters our thoughts which then directs how we behave. God's way of thinking is not immediately evident to us. We have to come to recognize it and learn to utilize it. Most of all, we have to see value in God's way of thinking and doing things in order to learn through his Holy Spirit. 

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Is God Male Or Female?

I have often thought of how we (through what the Holy Scriptures share and tradition passes down) relate to God as male. Of course, Our Father sent Our Savior to be born into this world as a male.

As we understand it, the first human formed by God was a male, Adam. The Savior had to be male to repair the damage that Adam did.

I feel that God is both male and female, and more than we can perceive or understand. I believe his Holy Spirit is both male and female, and much more than we can imagine.

Our Father is not restricted by sex, age, race or any of the designations in which we have to currently live. Male and female both came from him through Adam.

I believe that for the purposes of our human race on this earth, seeing the Godhead as male serves God's supreme purpose. That purpose is in redeeming us and leading and guiding us into all truth.

I am sure that there are very good ideas presented that support the belief that God is unambiguously female. I have never had the desire to study them. I'm satisfied with relating to the Godhead as male and subjecting myself to God's supremacy.

While I have wondered about it at times, I still feel that it is in God's order, at this time, for us to see the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit as male.

We can't imagine what wonders we will be shown in the New Heaven, the New Earth and the New Jerusalem. Things will be eternally different but Our Father is the God of precise order.

Those of us who believe know that our lives are hid in God through Christ, the Son of Man, the male who, for eternity, redeemed all who believe. The supreme maleness of God does not negate his love and care for women. If we allow him to, he will show us more each day his unqualified love.

The Best Way To Experience Results From God

People ask Christians to pray for them when tragedy, fear, trauma and other challenges strike. They have not given God the time of day (and we remember when we hadn't) and they desperately want something for nothing. 

We have mercy on them because the Love of God is shed abroad in our hearts. We also remember how it felt to be in that selfish and fearful frame of mind. We remember when we wanted something for nothing. 

While Our Father will listen to and sometimes honor our requests on their behalf, the best and most effective way to experience results from God is through building a personal relationship with him through Jesus Christ. 

It is faith that moves God, not desperation, piggy-backing on others prayers and attempted exploitation. That sounds brutal but the truth can be brutal. 

The Word is also quick, powerful and sharper than any two-edged sword. It is piercing even to the dividing asunder of the soul and the spirit and of the joints and marrow and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. (Hebrews 4:12) That is brutal. The Word tells us the truth about the human condition. 

The Word also shares that what does it profit a man to gain the whole world and lose his soul. What does it profit a person to always receive answers to prayers prayed on their behalf when they don't know God for themselves? Their end is coming, maybe sooner than they think, and their end is perdition.

We should also pray that Our Father sends his Holy Spirit to bear upon them so that they come into the knowledge of the truth. Let us also pray that God gives them a hunger and thirst for righteousness that they might live in the Resurrection of Life. 

Our prayers should also include the request that The Father of Lights will open up an opportunity for us to share Jesus Christ with them.

Do You Understand Your Worth?

You are worth a lot to God. Do you know how much?

Do you see the value in yourself that God sees?

How can you be in relationships with people who don't when you have a choice?

There needs to be a transformation so that you can see you how you really are in the Kingdom of God.

Romans 12:2

Psalm 119:105

You mean SO much to Our Father. You don't deserve inferiority or mediocrity. Nothing like that is worthy of you. Get it right and see yourself like God sees you! You can learn. He's given you his Word to teach and elevate you.

Take the journey upwards now. Step on the elevator of God and be uplifted to the heights of understanding where he intends for you to be. You mean something to God, more than you've ever known before.

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Image Credit: Google

Witness In Peace

 

Don't stress yourself or press yourself into pressuring others to come to Jesus. There is no one way or perfect way to witness. 

Sharing salvation should flow with your spirit and personality type. God reveals our personality types to us and how we are most inclined to share The Gospel. 

Every person who knows Jesus can witness. It is talking at the appropriate time, to anyone who is receptive, about our relationship with God and what his Son Jesus Christ has done for us. The Holy Spirit reveals to us those who are ready. 

It is not we who bring people to salvation. It is the Holy Spirit. God prepares the heart of a person to receive. If it's not the right time and God's Holy Spirit has not yet prepared that person's heart, then he/she will not accept Jesus.  No amount of cajoling, pressuring, threatening and shaming that person will work. He or she will only become stubborn in spirit and be pushed further from God. 

Be at peace. Work with God, not against him. Let the Holy Spirit do his work and go with God's flow in talking to people about Jesus. Witnessing should always be done in peace.

Prayer Can Give Us Intelligence

Consider this. Some unwanted events happen in life because we neglect to do things a certain way. Often, we don't understand what we are supposed to do. Sometimes we do know our roles but in ignorance or self-centeredness we choose not to fulfil them. Prayer can heal all of that.

• Prayer is submission to God. 
• Prayer can help us to allow God to help us do what we stubbornly don't want to do. 
• Prayer is an avenue in which God's Word can be illuminated and brought to life in us.
• Prayer can give us intelligence where we did not realize we were ignorant. 
• Prayer is hope when we feel hopeless. 

God has provided a way for us to receive the benefits of prayer, even when we don't feel like doing it. It is through asking His Holy Spirit to pray for us when we can't find the words. It's not a crutch. It's a real source of supernatural help when we can't do it ourselves. 

The Holy Spirit is faithful. He will utter words for us that we don't know how to say. He will talk to Our Father for us until we can form the words again for ourselves. In this way, we don't have to miss our prayer time with God, even though we may be tired and weary.

Forgiveness Gives Us Power

It feels better to forgive than to be angry, frustrated and resentful. We who love God forgive because we can, not because we have to. Because of Our Lord and Savior's sacrifice, we can choose the power of the Holy Spirit in our everyday interactions. Forgiving is a powerful tool of the Holy Spirit and that power can be felt! 

They say that unforgiveness hurts us the most, but that truth is not enough for us to claim the power to forgive. We are used to hurting ourselves in subtle and non-subtle, covert and overt ways. Our society promotes and applauds it. The power to forgive at every turn comes through the fact that Jesus Christ has provided a way out for us.

~ Worry is the root of all unforgiveness. ~  

We don't have to bear the burden of unforgiveness as the only solution to hurts, afflictions and the wicked intentions of others. Forgiveness is the answer to the pain of worry, which is the root of all unforgiveness. We have an answer. That answer is that God truly knows, sees and hears all and it is going to be ok. 

~ Unforgiveness is seeking an answer to fix what we can never fix through our flesh. ~

We don't have to find an answer to what has happened to us. Forgiveness removes the burden from the shoulders of our minds to have to fix things. That is what unforgiveness is, seeking an answer to fix what we can never fix through our flesh.

Forgiveness gives us the power to rest and to move on, in a Godly direction, to other things.    

Bearing Our Crosses For Jesus

We who are growing in Christ are called to suffer with him because we are heirs to the throne and joint heirs with the Savior. What does it mean to suffer with Christ? It is not a concept that our fleshly being readily accepts. The word suffer does not denote fun and pleasure. 

To suffer with Christ means that, through the experiences that God allows into our lives, we are able to identify with what Christ felt. Even more important is that we are able to perceive, through difficult experiences, that Christ knows how we are feeling. Why is this important? Because it sets us up for spiritual riches in the New Heaven and the New Earth and for the best rewards. 

It sets us up to rule with Christ. Even though this is at the end of time, it is what those who love Christ are living for. No matter how attached we become to this world, no matter how immersed we have to become in it to survive and thrive, we are always living for Christ's return to claim us. 

Our Father allows trying experiences into our lives so that we can better relate to what Jesus did for us. You have heard it said that Only what's done for Christ will last. It is not only about accepting Jesus as Savior, but also about being able to relate to his obedience to the Father at his own hurt. Since all that Jesus did was for us at Father God's request, it is the Father's will that we experience a little of what Christ did. 

While none of us have been called to be crucified on a cross, God allows symbolic crosses, in the way of highly-challenging experiences, into our lives. These experiences can be somewhat minor or devastating.  He wants us to bear the experiences on behalf of his beloved and obedient Son. Through developing a personal perception of what Christ endured, we become one with him. Not only does this please Our Father but it comforts us to know that we are understanding more about what the Lamb of God suffered.

Does your flesh want to fight with someone to show them that they can't do you that way? Let them do it. Jesus had to let the soldiers do him that way. We don't even know the extent of all that he had to suffer, for it was much more than what has been revealed to us in the Bible.

Is someone trying to take something away from you that they are not entitled to and your fleshly spirit rises up to fight for it? Let them take it. Jesus had to let them take his garments from him and  divide them, and so much more did he have to allow them to take.

Do you feel alone in your trials, as if the whole world is against you and winning? Accept your feelings and continue on in fellowship with the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, for you are not alone. Jesus felt the hatred of so very many who were against him and he had to endure as Our Father allowed them to continue with their evil plans against him.

You don't want them to feel like they are winning against you so you want to fight them? Let them think they are winning. Jesus had to be unfairly judged and convicted. Every step of the way of his suffering he had to let them all think they were winning. He had to let them think they were winning as he suffered and died on the cross. 

You want to speak up for yourself and argue with them? Don't be deceived by your flesh. Don't become enraged and allow sickness to come upon you because of what God is allowing them to do. Jesus did not open his mouth when he was mistreated and unfairly charged, judged and sentenced. He had to allow himself to be quiet. Most of all, he had to suffer allowing them to have their way with him, as if they were in control. 

When our spirits rise up in a fleshly attitude against him/her/them, whoever is afflicting and maligning us, we must submit to the circumstances that God has allowed to come upon us. In this way, we choose to crucify the flesh and walk in the spirit, understanding that we are submitting not to them but to Our Heavenly Father. It takes bowing in humiliation, like Christ did. It never feels good but obedience to The Most High God is not founded in the feelings of the flesh. Bowing in humiliation and submitting to God is based in knowledge, acceptance and yielding. It is an informed decision.

We know when God is doing this special work in us because the Holy Spirit opens our eyes and ears to what is happening. The Holy Spirit does not do the work for us however, because we would not learn and grow in that way. We have to do the work of cutting our flesh off from what it wants to do, denying it and crucifying it. This causes us to suffer because we can't have our way, our fleshly way. 

We suffer as Christ did as we submit to and obey God in these unfair circumstances. This is bearing symbolic crosses for Christ and suffering with him. God has promised to take care of us when we submit to him and let them think that they are having their way. 

Is There Anything That We Cannot Do For Christ?

We can do nothing without Christ.

We can do all things through Christ.

Our lives are hid in God through Christ.

He who does not know Christ does not know the Father.

Christ is the Resurrection and the Life.

Through Christ is the only way that man can come to the Father.

His pure shed blood and his unblemished, broken body restored us to the Father.

God The Father loved us so much that he sent his Son Jesus Christ into the world to die for us, so that whoever chooses to believe in him should live forever with him.

Because Jesus lives, those who have accepted him as Savior will be resurrected into life and the resurrection into death, the second death, will have no power over us.

Jesus Christ of Nazareth saves us for God The Father.

God's Holy Spirit draws us to himself. 

God forgives us, through Jesus, for what was not our fault.

Even while mankind did not care, could not care and hated the light of truth, because we're all born into this world into darkness, God sent his precious son, Jesus, to be betrayed, unfairly charged, judged, convicted, ridiculed, struck, spit upon, beaten, scourged, burdened, subjected to all manner of insults and degradation of which all of it we were not told, nailed to a criminals' cross and tormented while upon that cross. 

Most of all, Jesus was denied a way out when he asked his Father three times as he prayed and sweated blood in the Garden of Gethsemane. He felt intense, paralyzing fear, like you and I feel at times.  

Most of all, God, the loving Father, separated himself completely from his dear and precious Son for a period of time while he hung and suffered on that hideous Cross. 

Jesus The Christ, the Bright and Morning Star, the Lamb of God, the Beginning and the End, was changed forever...for us. 

Is there anything that we cannot do for Christ should our Father ask us?  

The Weapon Will Not Produce

No weapon formed against us shall prosper doesn't mean that the weapon itself will always be stopped from striking. It means that the purpose and plan of the weapon, as designed by whoever the enemy is, will not produce the evil effect that the enemy intended. This is the heritage for those who love God through Jesus Christ by the power of The Holy Spirit, for those who choose to walk in the spirit and not in the flesh.

Isaiah 54:17

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It's All About God The Father

Jesus always pointed to his Father. He never uplifted himself. He only firmly and confidently stated who he is. His words and actions always directed us to God. Our Christian lives are hid in GOD through Christ. It was The Holy Spirit of God who raised Jesus from the dead, not Jesus himself. It's all about God The Father and his provision to restore us to himself through giving us the sacrifice of his only begotten Son. 

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New Glorified Immortal Bodies

Don't be afraid of the destruction of the mortal body. All of us who have acknowledged and accepted Jesus The Christ as Savior, who love Our Father and who obey The Holy Spirit will live in the Resurrection of Life. 

The second death will have no power over us. We know what to expect, as much as God has chosen to reveal and as much as we can understand. 

It is our spirits that are born again, or reborn, not our corrupted bodies. It doesn't matter what happens to our bodies for we must put on the incorruptible. (I Corinthians 15:53-55) We are getting new, glorified, immortal bodies. 

Rejoice! May the peace of God be with you. 

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Spiritual Growth Not Fleshly Control

As I've grown to the level that I am at in the Lord, I've come to understand that we shouldn't be striving to stop "sinning". As Christians continue to harp on that, I feel that there is something wrong and that they are making Jesus' blood to none effect. I know it's hard for some to not focus on working to stop sinning because of sinful habits. How terrorized, sinful and hopeless we feel when it comes to sinful habits that we can't seem to break. 

The Bible teaches us that we are only to focus upon:

• eating and drinking the Word everyday, 
• taking time to acknowledge and appreciate Jesus' sacrifice, 
• worshipping God, 
• and obeying the prompting of the Holy Spirit.

The result of these efforts is: 

our thoughts, words and deeds will become regulated to God's kingdom. 

This is what we want and what God wants for us. We'll become knowledgeable and wise on how God wants us to think, speak and behave. The most important effect through focusing on spiritual builders is that we'll lose the desire for anything that is not of him. We steadily become who God has ordained us to be and we don't even have to work to stop sinning. Isn't that amazing?

The Bible plainly teaches us that focusing upon the flesh profits us nothing. Trying to accomplish righteousness and holiness through carnally-minded efforts profits us nothing. Focusing upon spiritual efforts transforms and renews us everyday and stores up riches for us in Heaven. The riches that we each store up in Heaven are not just there to look pretty. We will be able to use them in the New Heaven and the New Earth.                                                               

We have to be faithful with reading the Bible, appreciating Jesus, praying, talking with God and obedience to the Holy Spirit. This is because our flesh or carnal mind is not changed in this world. It is only suppressed, crucified and brought under each day as we choose to live our lives through spiritual pursuits. Our flesh and its affections, passions and desires are always with us in this life. The flesh and the carnal way of thinking are not converted. It is our spirits that are converted or brought to life. We are choosing every day to walk in our reborn spirits through the help of The Holy Spirit that lives in us. These two facts are why we struggle so much. Romans 8 tells us what to expect and how to think about it so that we will not neglect our spiritual growth. It is easy to rely upon the flesh because we were born into it. Only through choosing to function in our reborn spirits with the help of The Holy Spirit can we daily defeat the carnally-minded flesh.

Remember that Jesus' blood paid it all. Don't be deceived into striving for things that will leave you lacking at the end time. Be attentive to spiritual things and your control over your physical life will follow. You'll experience the righteousness and holiness that has come to us through Jesus' sacrifice. You'll begin to live the change that can only come through a growing, personal relationship with Our Father.

Walking In The Reborn Spirit

Galatians 5:17 tells us that the flesh fights against the spirit and the spirit against the flesh. This is because our flesh is not reborn when we accept Jesus Christ as our Savior. Our spirits are reborn. The fleshly attitudes in us are against God and will never be subjected to him. The fleshly way is against God and the flesh can never be subjected to God's way, love or law. (Romans 8:7) I know that when I am disappointed in God, unhappy with him and not appreciating and respecting him, I am walking in my flesh. 

My reborn spirit loves God with a perfect love. The more that I walk in the spiritual life, or in the spirit, the more that I am happy and satisfied with God. This knowledge and revelation helps me to quickly get back into my reborn spirit side of my being, with the help of the Holy Spirit, when my thoughts and feelings are not helpful or fair. It is difficult to resist the fleshly way of thinking because we are born into it. We always need the help of God's Spirit in us to get back into our reborn spirit's way of functioning.

While on this earth, we as Christians have our reborn spirits and we still live in bodies that function by fleshly control. The best that we can do with our flesh is to crucify and bring it under.  (Galatians 5:24, I Corinthians 9:27)  Doing that with that same flesh, however, does not have lasting effects. The flesh, any way that you cut and dry it, profits us nothing. That's why we fall back into our detrimental habits and destructive ways when we try to make ourselves do better.

Romans 8:13 shares that through the spirit man we do mortify the deeds of the fleshly man. This profound knowledge helps me to know that I am not bad or wrong when I suffer through my fleshly attitudes and habits, because my fleshly influence does not go away or die in this life. My reborn spirit man is real and I need to use it like God means for me to. I must always remember that I have a reborn spirit and that I must spend quality time building it up. I must use the spiritual strength that comes from God to quickly get back into my reborn spirit when the flesh directs my thoughts.

A Little Leaven Leavens The Whole Person

Evil spirits always want to entice us with what we should not have but it's rarely in the form of an outright transgression. It's usually something on the thin line between what is acceptable and what is not, something that our flesh can slip past our reborn spirits. 

Paul, in Galatians 5:7-8, says, "You were doing well in your faith." He then asks, "Who persuaded you to not continue in the truth? It was not God the Father who called you to follow his Son Jesus." He goes on to share that he believes that through the Lord they will understand and remember the truth about the leaven of lies and seduction. 

We may think that little, questionable indulgences are not that bad but a little leaven will eventually leaven the whole attitude and direction of the person. It will cripple our walks in Christ. (Galatians 5:9) Succumbing to those minor fleshly desires will wreak havoc in our spiritual lives over time. 

Temptation and enticement to subtle, ungodly things are not insignificant. Evil spirits are not out to play with us. They are out to destroy us in as many ways and from as many directions as they can. The more that we brush off accepting small allurements and discount receiving little inducements the more destruction that rulers of the darkness of this world can do. Just as we eat and drink the Word of God everyday, they eat and drink plans for our destruction every day.  

When we work with God as he shows us the little issues, we allow our spiritual eyes to be opened so that we can see what the enemy is doing. We can perceive evil influence and control in our lives. We can obtain the answers that we need and information on directions to take regarding issues in our lives. Leavening takes over. That's what it's designed to do. Depending on what the leaven is, it can also be beneficial.

Adding the leaven of the Word by reading and studying it everyday will transform us. The Holy Word is living, like leaven, and will cause us to become more like Christ and draw closer to God. We don't have to be overcome by all of the Christian practices and traditions that we are judged for not being able to keep. When we focus upon putting the Word inside of us, we will please God and grow in him. A little leaven leavens the whole person, for bad or for good.

Why Is God Taking So Long?

God is working it out in a way that you can receive what you have asked for. God is not limited, but we are. He chooses to work around our challenges to bring us into the fullness of our faith and His glory. This is in addition to bringing about what we want according to his will.

God is not restricted by time but in our current earthly life, we are. He works with us and time to bless us, not only materially, but also in a way that encourages us to store up riches in Heaven. Don't forget that in his Word he also promises to redeem time for us. He does this in various ways, in relation to his plans and purposes.

Our Heavenly Father is processing it for us, always.

Father Teach Us About Charity

Dear Father: 

Help us to receive a deeper understanding of the ways that we should allow charity to reign in our lives, for we know that it involves more than our initial thoughts on what love is. Thank you for the knowledge and help us to be more obedient. Amen!