{"id":1479,"date":"2011-10-18T16:20:35","date_gmt":"2011-10-18T20:20:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.phatherphil.org\/?p=1479"},"modified":"2011-10-18T16:20:35","modified_gmt":"2011-10-18T20:20:35","slug":"reflections-in-the-word","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.phatherphil.org\/?p=1479","title":{"rendered":"Reflections in the Word"},"content":{"rendered":"

Dear Lord; Happy Tuesday Father!<\/p>\n

As You\u2019re aware Lord, over the last few weeks my Scripture reading time has been spent wading through the Old Testament books of Kings and Chronicles.\u00a0 I won\u2019t pull any punches Father, they can be some onerous books to read, but without a doubt they\u2019re chock-full of Your wisdom nonetheless.\u00a0 This morning, as I was nearing the end of 2nd<\/sup> Chronicles the thought crossed my mind:<\/p>\n

\u201cWow\u2026 They just didn\u2019t learn very quickly, did they.\u201d<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

It really wasn\u2019t meant to be disrespectful or nearly as sarcastic as it came out, but reading about king after king that \u201c\u2026did not do what was right in the eyes of the Lord\u201d,<\/em> and by doing so led their people down paths of destruction and pain, I was struck by the fact that even with all they knew to be true, they still turned away from Your path.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou do that now and again yourself\u2026\u201d You whispered.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Double Ouch!!<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Yes Father\u2026 yes I do\u2026<\/p>\n

While I may not erect idols and temples to other gods, I certainly have allowed my focus and desires to shift away from You, and to cling to earthly things.<\/em><\/p>\n

I sometimes allow my pride to overwhelm me and try to rely on my own strength to \u201cfix\u201d things, instead of humbling my heart and following Your lead.<\/em><\/p>\n

Although my Walk with You has grown ever closer, there are still times that the concerns of the world get their hooks in my heart, and Your voice becomes drowned out in the turmoil.<\/em><\/p>\n

While I very much try to look towards others with Your love in my heart, there have certainly been more than a few cases where I\u2019ve allowed negative feelings to get the better of me, and not treated people as Jesus\u2019 example directed us.<\/em><\/p>\n

I guess I don\u2019t learn very quickly Father\u2026<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Thankfully, You haven\u2019t given up on me.\u00a0 \ud83d\ude42<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

It\u2019s convicting to read through those pages and see reflections of our own behaviors Father, but if that realization helps guide us closer to You, then we\u2019re truly bringing Your Word into our hearts.<\/p>\n

Heavenly Father,<\/p>\n

I lift my praises Lord, for the lessons and messages You bring us through Scripture, and for the guidance we receive through Your Holy Spirit.\u00a0 For although the truths we uncover may be convicting, uncomfortable or even painful, if in the end they draw us closer to Your will, it\u2019s a path we need to follow all the same.<\/p>\n

In Jesus\u2019 Name we pray,<\/p>\n

Amen.<\/p>\n

~Phather Phil<\/p>\nPin It<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Dear Lord; Happy Tuesday Father! As You\u2019re aware Lord, over the last few weeks my Scripture reading time has been spent wading through the Old Testament books of Kings and Chronicles.\u00a0 I won\u2019t pull any punches Father, they can be some onerous books to read, but without a doubt they\u2019re chock-full of Your wisdom nonetheless.\u00a0 […]<\/p>\nPin It<\/a>","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1478,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[3],"tags":[289,359,2000,583,1998,1997,27,425,915,143,7,487,541,173,216,667,42,844,1898,1999,457,21,686,444,140,273,593,916,804,592,269,345,133,355,824,506,845,582,1677,1206,19,81,2001,601,725,217,186,585,571,1318,1358,1513,117,469,86,40,785,680,106,2002,733,71,565,348],"class_list":["post-1479","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-daily-emails-to-god","tag-behavior","tag-bible","tag-book-of-2-chronicles","tag-books","tag-books-of-chronicles","tag-books-of-kings","tag-comfort","tag-concern","tag-dear-lord","tag-desires","tag-doubt","tag-earth","tag-example","tag-father","tag-feelings","tag-fix","tag-focus","tag-follow","tag-gods-will","tag-gods-wisdom","tag-grow","tag-guidance","tag-guide","tag-happy","tag-heart","tag-hearts","tag-heavenly","tag-heavenly-father","tag-help","tag-holy-spirit","tag-jesus","tag-learn","tag-love","tag-message","tag-messages","tag-morning","tag-need","tag-negative","tag-negative-feelings","tag-old-testament","tag-pain","tag-path","tag-path-of-destruction","tag-praise","tag-praises","tag-pray","tag-pride","tag-read","tag-realization","tag-respect","tag-scripture","tag-scripture-reading","tag-son","tag-sons","tag-strength","tag-thankful","tag-truth","tag-truths","tag-turmoil","tag-turn-away-from-god","tag-uncomfortable","tag-voice","tag-whispered","tag-word"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.phatherphil.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/10\/Womans-Face-Reflection-in-a-Window-1-Cropped.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p18mMc-nR","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.phatherphil.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1479","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.phatherphil.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.phatherphil.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.phatherphil.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.phatherphil.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1479"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/www.phatherphil.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1479\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1486,"href":"https:\/\/www.phatherphil.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1479\/revisions\/1486"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.phatherphil.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1478"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.phatherphil.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1479"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.phatherphil.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1479"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.phatherphil.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1479"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}