Hello,
When I was young, for no reason at all, I’d always try and just open RIGHT to a hymn in the 600 page book. And I often got it. I was a game I played, much like trying to keep a gas pump full speed til the last second and dropping it at a round number like $20.00. What I didn’t get back then was, maybe, just maybe God helped me because I got it more often than not.
Some people believe in the power of God in today’s day and age. They call these people Christians. I’ve seen over 20,000 miracles. I know he acts many times a day on my behalf and for those I pray for. Prayers get answered instantly sometimes, it’s pretty fun that the God of the Universe works through man who’s trying to be good. We try to be good, but fail. We can do miracles through God, but we’re not magicians. God is the one who chooses to act or not. God’s will be done. Praise him! I wouldn’t want to be the guy in charge of all eternity, I’d ruin stuff even my best tries.
This morning. I prayed paraphrased,”God the hate is bad in the world today. Things are falling apart in the streets too. When I grew up, I played video games in the arcades over 15 years for 10,000 hours and never saw hate once. I have a cousin just like this who had the same experience. But today online hate is rampant see it dozens of times per hour without fail. People are pushing terrible politics. Liberals are using people as pawns to bring em through border and do crimes, liberals are bringing terrorists right to our country after surrendering to a defeated enemy in Afghanistan. Muslims want to kill everyone who isn’t a Muslim and they declare themselves enemies of the children of love. This is why when you ask a Muslim what his beliefs are, he can’t tell you as there is not truth there, but lies. Politics is full of hate and America is in a terrible state of affairs with love lost. Thankfully God is love and truth that won on the cross. I just woke up, I’ll go pray at my balcony with the Bible by opening randomly in the Bible, you guide me.”
I opened to scripture addressing “A morning prayer about enemies who oppose and lie where there’s nothing man can do, but God will protect us.
Psalm 5:
1 Listen to my words, O Lord,
and hear my sighs.
2 Listen to my cry for help,
my God and king!
I pray to you, O Lord;
3 you hear my voice in the morning;
at sunrise I offer my prayer[b]
and wait for your answer.
4 You are not a God who is pleased with wrongdoing;
you allow no evil in your presence.
5 You cannot stand the sight of the proud;
you hate all wicked people.
6 You destroy all liars
and despise violent, deceitful people.
7 But because of your great love
I can come into your house;
I can worship in your holy Temple
and bow down to you in reverence.
8 Lord, I have so many enemies!
Lead me to do your will;
make your way plain for me to follow.
9 What my enemies say can never be trusted;
they only want to destroy.
Their words are flattering and smooth,
but full of deadly deceit.
10 Condemn and punish them, O God;
may their own plots cause their ruin.
Drive them out of your presence
because of their many sins
and their rebellion against you.
11 But all who find safety in you will rejoice;
they can always sing for joy.
Protect those who love you;
because of you they are truly happy.
12 You bless those who obey you, Lord;
your love protects them like a shield.
Some people call this Bible Bingo to speak derogatorily of it, and sometimes I call it that too because we should maybe take a less serious stand to our doings. God does not always will a miracle, and if we think he does, our Bible Bingo might go places where God ain’t at, and people have done some messed up things. We don’t hold the power. We’re not magicians even if God acts almost every time for us. We can’t assume every time we open the Bible, God guided us there, so if you Bible Bingo, know it ain’t always God doing a miracle, but it is always God’s word and it is good to read in different places. I look at this Psalm 5 though as an answer to my morning prayer for it addresses exactly what I was concerned with.
I also got Isaiah 64 which is similar to the plea of the dead martyrs pleading before God,”How long until your return Jesus and end the reign of terror of tyrants then raise the dead?”
Isaiah 64:
1 Why don’t you tear the sky open and come down? The mountains would see you and shake with fear. 2 They would tremble like water boiling over a hot fire. Come and reveal your power to your enemies, and make the nations tremble at your presence! 3 There was a time when you came and did terrifying things that we did not expect; the mountains saw you and shook with fear. 4 No one has ever seen or heard of a God like you, who does such deeds for those who put their hope in him. 5 You welcome those who find joy in doing what is right, those who remember how you want them to live. You were angry with us, but we went on sinning; in spite of your great anger we have continued to do wrong since ancient times. 6 All of us have been sinful; even our best actions are filthy through and through. Because of our sins we are like leaves that wither and are blown away by the wind. 7 No one turns to you in prayer; no one goes to you for help. You have hidden yourself from us and have abandoned us because of our sins.
8 But you are our father, Lord. We are like clay, and you are like the potter. You created us, 9 so do not be too angry with us or hold our sins against us forever. We are your people; be merciful to us. 10 Your sacred cities are like a desert; Jerusalem is a deserted ruin, 11 and our Temple, the sacred and beautiful place where our ancestors praised you, has been destroyed by fire. All the places we loved are in ruins. 12 Lord, are you unmoved by all this? Are you going to do nothing and make us suffer more than we can endure?