Dear friends, this is now my second letter to you. I have written both of them as reminders to stimulate you to wholesome thinking.
2 Peter 3:1 (NIV)
Father, I thank You for the individuals You have placed in my life who challenge me in my walk before You, my thoughts concerning You, and my treasures in You. Through them You challenge me regarding what I value and store up, whether they are treasures here on earth or in Heaven. You use them to shape my thoughts pertaining to You, how I interpret what You are doing in my midst, in me and through me, and how I am holding You in highest esteem or giving Your Lordship over to earthly things and beings. And by them You expose my actions, shortcomings, and human failings. Not the blatant ones that are easy to see when I shine the light of Your Word on them. No. You use them to get below the surface and expose those failings that could easily pass for rightness, where I have a “form of godliness.”
And what is amazing to me, Father, is that You don’t shut them up! They keep coming at me, seemingly from every direction, reminding me that there is a better way of walking, thinking, and serving You.
Yes, they are a pain in the neck. But oh, what a glorious pain in the end! Through them I see You more clearly, am shed of that sin weight that pulls me down, and am walking in the freedom You intended for me! Hallelujah!
Thank You, Father, for loving me enough not to allow me to spin off in a direction that is devoid of You. Thank You for not allowing my flesh and the enemy to deceive me into holding fast to a form of godliness. Instead through others You constantly bring me back to the foot of the cross where I found You and found true love. And there You cleanse my heart and mind with that fountain that flows from Christ to me.
Continue to use others to speak to my heart condition. Over the course of this week expose those areas in my life where I need to change. And grant me the Holy Spirit guided power to do something about it. And, please use me to do the same for someone else that Your Name might be glorified in us and through us in Jesus’ Name! Amen.