Ed’s opinion.  Someone may ask what is the difference with what I do with the word of God. And I would caution us that God blesses us in many physical ways probably hundreds of ways that we never even notice. But his primary purpose, it would appear to me, is to bless us in spiritual ways. To see that we are conformed and transformed to the people, ministers, instruments of praise and the purpose that he created us to be.

So if my interest in the word of God is always geared toward physical needs I am majoring in the minors.  Paul writes,” we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal.”

Jesus tells us, “for the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly father knows that you need them all. But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness and all these things will be added to you. ”

I spend some time praying for health and finances and physical needs, and also thanking God for the quantities of those that I already have. But I do not think that that should be the main thrust of my prayer life.  Instead I believe I should spend the majority of my prayer life washing my mind and renewing my mind with the word of God so that my character changes and I am converted and become more conformed to the image of my Lord Jesus Christ.  I believe the word of God should be used to manipulate and change me instead of trying to manipulate God with his word.

So my urging to you is to take the word of God; put it on your lips and in your heart in the context of who it says you are in Christ and who it says Christ is in you. Dwell on those things. Preach those things to yourself.  Let the word of God convert you and give you rest and peace.

Please let me repeat one more post from early on just to be sure that no one gets the wrong leading from what I am suggesting and begging you to do with the word:

“Lest you think that all I am doing here is cherry picking some verses about physical “stuff” I want and then putting them in a clever prayer designed manipulate God to give me what my “felt” needs are. That is not the case – a’tall.

My faith is in what God tells me about His Word. That it is “alive and able”. So my part is to be a “doer” and let the Word “do” what it does. See, God names what it will do – I just want to be wise enough to claim what it does as done in me today.

What the Word will do is “conform me to the image of the Lord Jesus”; it is meant to “renew my mind” and then “transform me to where I am no longer conformed to the world’s pattern” for people.

So I am going to AGREE with God. I am claiming those amazing things that God says are done and doing in me because of “Christ in me and His Word dwelling in me richly”.”

Since we have some new readers, please let me take a moment at this point to repeat a post from the beginning of this blog in which I stated my aim and plan for most of my posts: “My desire herein is to present excerpts from the Word of God written in such a way that they can be “preached” to myself or yourself. Preached out loud, repetitiously and intentionally. Repetitiously to let the Word be active and alive in my mind, and intentionally to take thoughts captive to make them obedient to Christ.

I desire to have the Word of God rolling around in my mind in plenteous quantity to be mused and meditated on throughout the day: spoken aloud, answering questions that come to mind, starting or stopping behaviors, and seasoning verbal responses.

So from time to time I will post excerpts from the Word of God, ready to be ingrafted into my thinking and speaking; ready to guide my thoughts and corral my feeling.”

I give thanks to you today, Lord, that you chose me to be saved through sanctification by the Spirit and belief in the truth; that you called me through your gospel so that I would obtain the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ. So then, in Christ, I stand firm and hold to what your word teaches, Lord.  I believe, Lord Jesus, that you and God, my father, love me and give to me eternal comfort and good hope through grace.  By your grace, Lord, you comfort my heart and establish my heart in every good work and word.

Father, you and the Lord Jesus are faithful. You establish me and guard me against the evil one. By your eternal presence I am doing and will do the things you command. You, Lord Jesus, direct my heart to see and receive the love of God, the Father, and to take assurance and hope from your steadfastness as the Christ. You, the Lord of peace, give me peace at all times and in every way. You, my Lord, are with me.

I thank you, Lord, that by your grace and presence my faith is growing abundantly and my love for others is increasing. Fill me, Lord, that I will be steadfast in all circumstances and endure all tests.  For I believe that I will see a day when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven with his mighty angels in flaming fire, inflicting vengeance on those who do not obey the gospel of Jesus, the Christ. They will suffer the punishment of eternal destruction away from the presence of the Lord and away from the glory of his might.

I pray today, Lord, that you make me worthy of your calling and that today I fulfill every resolve of good and every work of faith by your power that dwells in me. Hallelujah!

When the lawless one is revealed the Lord Jesus will kill him with the breath of his mouth and bring the lawless plans to nothing by the appearance of  His coming. All are condemned who do not believe the truth, but instead take pleasure in unrighteousness.

Today I receive grace, mercy and peace from God, my father, and Christ Jesus, my Lord. I pray that I will be a good steward of the truth and presence of God.  The aim of my walk in Christ today is love that issues from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith. I do not swerve from these and I avoid vain discussions. I do not engage in anything that is contrary to sound doctrine in accordance with the gospel of the glory of God.

I received mercy from God and the grace of my Lord Jesus overflows for me with the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus. It is true to say that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners of whom I am the foremost. But I received mercy to show God’s perfect patience to those who believe in him for eternal life. To the king of the ages, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honor and glory forever and ever.

I receive this charge in accordance with your calling, Father, that by your grace and presence I will wage the good warfare, holding faith and a good conscience.

My Lord Jesus, the Christ, has obtained a ministry that is much more excellent than the old (priesthood ministry) as the covenant he mediates is better, since it is enacted on better promises.  In the new covenant the father says, “I will put my laws into their minds, and write them on their hearts, and I will be their God and they shall be my people; they shall know me from the least of them to the greatest for I will be merciful towards their iniquities, and I will remember their sins no more. ” In speaking so of the new covenant, my heavenly father makes the first one obsolete, ready to vanish away.

When Christ appeared as the high priest of the good things that have come…, he entered once for all into the holy places, by means of his own blood, thus securing an eternal redemption.  How much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without blemish to God, purify my conscience from dead works to serve the living God?

In the days of his flesh, Jesus offered up prayers and supplications with loud cries and tears to Him who was able to save him from death and he was heard because of his reverence.  Although he was a son, he learned obedience through what he suffered. And being made perfect, he became the source of eternal salvation to all who obey (harken, submit, listen) him, being designated by God a high priest.

Lord, I pray I will mature in your word; that I will “hear” you every day, all day; that my powers of discernment are trained by constant practice to distinguish good from evil and to always choose and follow good.  I have tasted the goodness and the power of your word and “felt” your presence alive in me. I am sure of the hope I have in Christ and, therefore, I am not sluggish, but an imitator of those who through faith and patience inherit the promises.  I hold fast to the hope set before me. Fill me with your faith and endurance today, Lord.

Today, I look to Jesus, the founder and perfector of my faith. I keep my thoughts on him who endured from sinners such hostility against himself so that I do not grow weary or faint hearted. I thank you, Lord, that you discipline the ones you love. You have disciplined me for my good that I may share your Holiness. Therefore, I lift up drooping hands and strengthen weakened knees and head in straight paths.

I see to it that I and anyone who asks do obtain the grace of God and that no root of bitterness springs up to defile and cause trouble.  I hold onto and value highly the birthright God, my father, has decreed and Jesus, my Lord, has provided. I am, by God’s grace, one of the assembly of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven.  I am grateful to receive a kingdom that cannot be shaken, and I give my God worship with reverence and awe.

Lord, I do not account my life as precious to me;  if only I may finish my course and the ministry that I have received from you, Lord Jesus; that is to testify to the gospel of the grace of God.   That I would believe and live out, and then declare things that are profitable, the whole counsel of God, that is repentance towards God, the father, and faith in the Lord Jesus, the Christ.

I commend myself and those whom you have given me, Lord, to God the Father and to the word of your grace, which is able to build each of us up and to give us the inheritance among all those who are sanctified.

I believe that the God of my fathers has appointed me to know his will, to “see” the righteous one and to “hear” his words. I am to be a witness for him to whomever he sends me to and to whomever is sent to me. By your grace, Lord, I will live and preach your grace.