Searching Moral Inventory

A searching moral inventory is an intense evaluation of the thoughts, words and actions in our life at any moment of time. This is a very helpful practice, because it rids us of negative issues, which plague our life.

We ask God to search us and to examine our heart as if it is on trial, so that we can see if there are any wicked intents in our thoughts, which God needs to heal and redirect (Psalm 139:23).

The cauldron filters silver and the furnace refines gold in the same way that the Lord purifies the hearts of His people (Proverbs 17:3). He sanctifies our soul, so that we can speak as one approved and entrusted by God to share His Gospel message.

It is in our best interest to walk uprightly before the Lord, blameless before Him and in our testimony to the world (Job 31:6). We no longer need anyone else's approval, because God's opinion of us is all that really matters (1 Thessalonians 2:4; Psalm 26:2).

We cannot always know our hidden faults and failings, but God's Spirit will bring them to our attention if we take the time to listen (Psalm 7:9, 19:12). A searching moral inventory reveals negative emotions, thoughts of regret and revenge, as well as shameful deeds for which we need to make amends.

It will relieve repressed stress and it will cause new stress until we repent and surrender control of our life to God. Once we fearlessly confront our issues and submit our self to God's healing scalpel, we are free from the bondage in which the past held us captive all of our life (Hebrews 4:12).

When we commit our ways to the Lord, He judges us righteously, tests our heart and metes out vengeance on those who misjudge us. He rewards each of us according to what our deeds deserve (Jeremiah 11:20; 17:10, 20:12).

We confess the root cause of the destructive behavior, which once dominated our life and God sets us free to live in His victorious grace and love. We mend relationships and are ready to face the future in the center of God's will - the happiest place on earth.

Prayer:

Father God, at times we are afraid to search our heart too closely. We know that there are wicked thoughts, desires and attitudes lurking in the dark corners of our soul. We are often afraid of these emotions; preferring to ignore them rather than to ferret them out, discover their cause and find a resolution to these unresolved conflicts.

Help us to bless those who hurt and curse us, and to allow You to take vengeance on these ignorant people who do not realize to whom we belong. You are the King of the galaxies and You ride the wings of the wind to come to the aid of all of those who trust in You (Psalm 104:3).

Thought for the Day:

Let us take a frequent searching moral inventory of our soul, to repent of our sins, to return to the everlasting arms of the Lord from which we strayed and to ensure His blessings on our life both now and in eternity.

- Lamentations 3:40

Why Christians Suffer

Christians suffer defeat in our life for many reasons. One is that we are still living through our soul, rather than from our spirit. We pursue worldly gain and fulfillment and end up disappointed.

Another reason is that we trust in our own wisdom and counsel. We forget to trust the Lord and to seek His will for each moment of our day. Trusting God brings us continual success (Proverbs 3:5-6).

Many Christians are also unaware that a spiritual battle is raging all around us to either tempt us back into Satan's service or to render our life ineffective for the kingdom of God (Ephesians 6:12).

Our only source of victory is to allow God's Spirit to renew our mind, which brings us freedom from the cares of this life and gives us an eternal perspective (Ephesians 5:23).

We gradually learn to reject our human reasoning, which ends our struggle between infinite faith and finite human understanding (Isiah 55:9).

We realize that the testing of our faith produces patience to wait on God in the midst of all of our negative circumstances, so that we can walk in obedience to God's Spirit each moment of our day (2 John 1:6).

Rather than surviving this world independently of God, we cling to Him as our Savior and Lord. We recognize that we will perish without His constant intervention on our behalf.

This puts the devil and his demons to flight from our life, and allows us to reap the benefits of living victoriously as members of God's own family (Psalm 103:2).

If we go through the continual trials of life without the joy of the Lord in the midst of them, we can change our focus to realize that there is a seed for a miracle in the midst of each one of them.

Prayer:

Father God, our flesh still pulls us toward humanistic thinking and reasoning. We buy into the world's view of success and fulfillment; therefore, we work all of our lives to provide temporal blessings for our self. Even if we happen to succeed, in the end we will understand the futility of our life spent pursuing worldly gain (Mark 8:36).

Only when we realize our helplessness will we be able to totally surrender to Your benefits and provision for our life. Remind us that only as we live our life in and for You, will we experience the true benefits of Your Life: peace, love and joy in Your Spirit (Romans 14:17).

Thought for the Day:

Even in the midst of the fiery furnace, the three Hebrew children walked with God. - Daniel 3:17-18

Hey, I'm Suffering Over Here!

 

Are you hurting right now, either physically, spiritually, emotionally or mentally? What happened? Who brought this pain and suffering into your life? Do you feel as if life is no longer worth living, or that there is no hope for you or that you are all alone and nobody cares about you? Do you want to end your life, because you see no way out of your predicament? We often suffer at the hand of an evil perpetrator that inflicts his/her selfishness on a family member, a friend or on us personally.

You may wonder why God would allow us to suffer? Well, have you tried asking Jesus to forgive your sins and then totally surrendering your life to Him? Your life will not turn around immediately, because you will still reap the consequences of your past behavior. However, as you start to sow good seed into the Holy Spirit, nurtured soil of your new life in Christ, you will see His benefits and blessings filling up every portion of your spirit, body and soul – your mind, will and emotions.

Many times we even suffer, because we are reaping the results of our own poor choices. We may suffer from debt, fear of financial collapse, unstable emotional relationships, physical ailments or wounds inflicted on us by some one or some force in this tragic, sinful world. God often uses suffering to draw us closer to Him, or to keep us from wandering back into a sinful lifestyle (Job 23:10). If we suffer according to the will of God, because we are Christians, we can commit our body, soul and spirit to God’s safe care, because He is our faithful Father (1 Peter 4:19).

If we choose to live according to God’s Word, then He will protect us from much of life’s suffering (Psalm 119:67, 55:7). We will have the same testimony as the three young Hebrew men facing the fiery furnace; or Job, when he lost his wealth, family and health in a brief instant of time (Job 13:15; 1 Timothy 6:12; Hebrews 12:1; 2 Corinthians 4). When we fellowship in Christ’s sufferings, we draw closer to Christ’s resurrection power in our life, even if we are put to death as He was (Philippians 3:10).

Have you ever noticed that you spend more time in prayer during bad times than during the good times? We forget to praise the Lord for His blessings, but we certainly have a great deal to say when something goes wrong in our life. However, if we turn our tragedy into an opportunity to seek God and pray, He will most assuredly deliver us (Psalm 50:15). We will also see the fruit of His Spirit manifested in our life, as we are refined by these fiery trials (1 Peter 4:12).

Prayer:

Father God, we want to bring glory to Your name. Sometimes, You use our suffering to spur us to live as a testimony to the world around us. We are living examples of the fact that You will sustain and deliver Your Saints through every trial and tribulation (John 9:3). Remind us to look to the eternal consequences of every situation, because the aspects of this world are simply temporal and fleeting (2 Corinthians 4:18). Thank You for comforting us in all of our trials, and help us to share this same comfort with others who are going through similar circumstances (2 Corinthians 1: 4-5).

Thought for the Day:

Our suffering in this world will provide for us an exceptionally, enormous, eternal compensation in Heaven. – 2 Corinthians 4:17