Purposing to Cleave

“…exhorted them all, that with purpose of heart they would cleave unto the Lord.” Acts.11:23b

In the past few weeks I have wept more, jumped for joy more, been excited about the salvation of the Gentiles, even more importantly, MY SALVATION, prayed more, changed more….this morning as I was enjoying this sweet time of fellowship, it made me ask myself. What has changed to make this time so precious and exciting to me? Why was it that for most of last year, my devotional time just felt like a ritual, with an occasional ‘nugget’…instead of a relationship? Was it God? Was He purposefully putting me through a dry period? The truth fully sunk in this morning and was hard for me to handle. The reason was…I did not find sweet fellowship with Christ last year because I did not PLAN to meet with God. I just ‘let it happen’. I made too many excuses why I could not…pregnant, sick most of the time…new born, so very tired. God understood that I needed sleep. It’s funny, not much has changed with how tired I am and Sammy wakes up even more at night now then when he was first born! What changed was I PURPOSED in my heart to have a relationship with Christ. What changed was PRAYER. Everything changed when I started applying what I was reading. 

"But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves.  For if any be a hearer of the word, and not a doer, he is like unto a man beholding his natural face in a glass: For he beholdeth himself, and goeth his way, and straightway forgetteth what manner of man he was.  But whoso looketh into the perfect law of liberty, and continueth therein, he being not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work, this man shall be blessed in his deed." James 1:22-25

I started studying prayer along with my reading through Acts…and PRAYING. I started getting excited about my salvation and the access it gives me to God. I started praying using God’s own Word…for the lost, 2 Peter 3:9, Matt. 19:26…for me, Titus 2:4,5.

Eric read this quote last night about Hudson Taylor. “It was not easy for Mr. Taylor, in his changeful life, to make time for prayer and Bible study, but he knew that it was vital….Mr. Taylor, however weary…from 2 to 4 A.M. was the time he usually gave to prayer; the time when he could be most sure of being undisturbed to wait upon God.” “The hardest part of a missionary career, Mr. Taylor found, is to maintain regular, prayerful Bible study.” So, this is what I found “Take time. Give God time to reveal Himself to you. Give yourself time to be silent and quiet before Him.”

Pray for me to purpose to cleave.