East Gate Baptist Church

East Gate Baptist Church An Independent Baptist Church serving the spiritual needs of the community of Torrington
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06/02/2026

My Morning Perspective – Tuesday, June 2, 2026

Honor God and Obey His Word

I remember my grandparents talking about how quickly time seemed to pass as they got older. I am not sure I understood what they meant back then, but now that I am older, I am beginning to experience those same thoughts now.

Good morning and welcome to My Morning Perspective; it is great to see you, thank you for joining me. I hope you have brought your Bible; I will be taking my text today from Deuteronomy 11, please open your Bible to that great chapter and we will read the verses together in just a moment.

We are almost midway through 2026, in fact, we will pass that milestone in less than a month. It was a sobering thought when I recently received an advertisement for a product that I should buy now to beat the Christmas rush. I thought, “Are you kidding me?”

With that said, please join me in Deuteronomy 11:10-14: “But the land, whither ye go to possess it, is a land of hills and valleys, and drinketh eyes of the LORD thy God are always upon it, from the beginning of the year even unto the end of the year. And it shall come to pass, if ye shall hearken diligently unto my commandments which I command you this day, to love the LORD your God, and to serve Him with all your heart and with all your soul, that I will give water of the rain of heaven: A land which the LORD thy God careth for: the you the rain of your land in his due season, the first rain and the latter rain, that thou mayest gather in thy corn, and thy wine, and thine oil.”

Do you remember making plans for the New Year in the final couple of weeks of last December?

Some of them might have started with, “I am going to do this at the beginning of the year.”

In our text Moses presented God’s promise to take care of the Children of Israel at the beginning of the year and all the way through the end of it, if they would just trust Him and honor Him with their love and service to Him.

I recognize this specific promise was exclusive to Israel and the Promised Land, but the principle of God’s promise and provision is applicable today for each child of God who will trust Him, and honor Him with their love, and serve Him from the depths of their heart.

As a nation, the United States has been blessed by God’s wondrous grace and abundant provision over the years, but tragically, it appears our desire for His blessing has diminished, and the sign of His blessing is being withdrawn.

Can you imagine how different the history of our nation would have been if we did not have the hand of the Lord to protect and provide for us over the past three centuries?

There are some in our society who want to see the Christian influence silenced, but history has shown the devastation of those nations who have turned away from God. Once flourishing and important centers for commerce, agriculture, education, and faith, are little more than spotted images of what they once were.

Our text reminds, “The eyes of the Lord are upon us”, but we have become a generation of apathetic and ungrateful wanderers. Fueled with an attitude of apostasy, unbelief, and non-theists; as a nation, we no longer seek God; we simply find a reason to blame Him for all the challenges our decisions have caused.

Some call it progress and they celebrate their defiance and debate against God and His Word. Many others do not think there is a place in our society for the Christian voice or perspective; believing the Bible is an antiquated book of moral stories that was only written to oppress their select group of people, places, or programs.

For the past two and a half centuries, the United States let the way in missionary and evangelistic work around the world. But every year more nations around the world are sending missionaries to the United States to minister to people from their countries because they do not believe the United States is the torchbearer for the Gospel any longer.

I made that statement a few years ago and there were some who were aggravated that other countries have criticized us like that. My reply was, “We should not be aggravated by that statement, we should be ashamed and it should grieve our hearts.”

In addition, the United States has led the way as a supporter of the Nation of Israel. However, the support for Israel, or more specifically our support for God’s covenant with Abraham in Genesis 12, has begun to waver in recent years, and many in our nation no longer see the urgency to stand with them.

Those two items alone, our missionary vision, and our support of Israel, have perhaps been the only thing which has held back the judgment of God upon our beloved America.

The thing is, God wants to bless us, but He cannot bless those who rebel against His Word. In addition, God’s covenant with Abraham promised blessing to those who bless him, and a curse to those who curse him (or the seed of His covenant, which is Israel).

Down through history God blessed nations other than Israel, but it was always in relation to their obedience to His Word. Egypt was blessed above all the nations of the Earth when Joseph was prime minister in the Land. Their curse and judgment came only after they began suppress God’s Word and oppress His people.

Even Babylon (modern Iraq) and Persia (modern Iran) were blessed when their emperors and kings showed favor to the Word of God spoken by God’s prophets and the people of God who lived in their empires.

Our only hope is to trust in God, honor His Word, and obey the leading of the Holy Spirit as He leads in the paths of righteousness.

However, before our nation can turn to God, His people must lead the way by their (our) observance and obedience to His Word. The question we must each answer is, “Are we willing?”

I am going to leave it here for today, but I do want to invite you back tomorrow for another lesson in My Morning Perspective.

Until then, look to Jesus, the Author and Finisher of our faith, and I pray for God’s richest blessing on you.

Before we leave, please join me for a moment of prayer.

“Father, Your Word is a lamp for our feet and a light for our path, and You have commanded us to hide Your Word in our heart so we will not sin against You. Lord, Your Word may have a prominent place on our bookshelves or a special place in our homes, but it does not seem that it has a prominent place in our hearts as a nation, or more specifically in the hearts of those who call themselves Your children. Oh, how we need to honor You and obey Your Word. Amen.”

Thank you for joining me today, and I look forward to seeing you again next time.

Pastor

05/30/2026

My Morning Perspective – Saturday, May 30, 2026

Trust and Obey

History reveals the prayers of the righteous that have helped to shape the world. It also reveals the lack of prayer that it shapes also.

Good morning and welcome to My Morning Perspective; it is great to see you, thank you for joining me. I hope you have brought your Bible; I will be taking my text today from James 5, please open your Bible to that great chapter and we will read the verses together in just a moment.

In his book, All The Prayers Of The Bible, Herbert Lockyer wrote, “There are 650 prayers in the Bible, and 450 of those prayers have recorded answers.” The next time someone asks, “Does God really answer prayer?” you can remind them the Bible records specific answers to specific prayers.

Hopefully you can present a few illustrations of your own.

With that said, please join me in James 5:17, 18: “Elias was a man subject to like passions as we are, and he prayed earnestly that it might not rain: and it rained not on the earth by the space of three years and six months. And he prayed again, and the heaven gave rain, and the earth brought forth her fruit.”

Think with me about some of the great prayers recorded in God’s Word. When Moses’ prayer of dedication of the Tabernacle in the Wilderness was completed, God descended from Heaven in the Great Shekinah Glory, in the form of a cloud, and dwelt in the Most Holy Place above the Mercy Seat in the Tabernacle. Solomon experienced the same event after his prayer of dedication for the Temple in Jerusalem.

Elijah prayed for God to withhold rain, and He did, then he prayed again three and a half years later, and the rain returned.

Abraham was the first to call upon the Lord by name, and the first to intercede for cities. Jacob prayed for God to deliver him from his brother Esau, and God changed his heart. Hezekiah prayed for God to deliver His people from the Assyrians, and 185,000 from their army died mysteriously. Daniel prayed for over 80 years while in Babylon, and God sent His archangels to do His work.

The Apostles prayed for ten days, and the Holy Spirit came down on the Day of Pentecost and changed the history of the world forever.

John Knox, George Whitefield, Adoniram Judson, and Hudson Taylor prayed, and entire nations were evangelized and changed.

I wonder how fervent our prayers are at this moment. It is easy to complain about what is happening today, but only God can change hearts; beginning in our heart…seeing what He will do.

God used Moses to demonstrate His majestic power before Pharaoh and his army, and before the Children of Israel so they would know He is God. Exodus 14:21, 22 records the event, “And Moses stretched out his hand over the sea; and the LORD caused the sea to go back by a strong east wind all that night, and made the sea dry land, and the waters were divided. And the children of Israel went into the midst of the sea upon the dry ground: and the waters were a wall unto them on their right hand, and on their left.”

We have written about the night seasons and night songs in devotions and lessons over the years. Some people dread the night because of their inability to sleep, or perhaps from the anticipation of the day which awaits them when they awaken.

However, Scripture records God does some of His greatest work in the night hours. I have often wondered if it is because we are not awake to get in His way…just a thought.

Over the years I have found sometimes things look better in the morning. Some of you might remember when you were growing up a trip to the doctor usually included, “Take two of these, and call me in the morning.” Miraculously, when the morning came, things were often indeed better.

The Children of Israel were afraid Pharaoh’s army was going to overtake them and kill them, however, through Moses they witnessed the miraculous work of God through the night hours.

God stood between the Egyptian army and the Children of Israel, and commanded Moses to hold out his arms over the Red Sea. He immediately moved back the waters, brought in a great wind to dry the ground, and provided a way for over two million people to walk across the dry bed of the Red Sea to the other side the next morning.

Oh, what a night that must have been, because it brought a great victory the next day.

When we trust in the Lord as He instructs, we should let Him do His work in the night, so we can do His work the next day. In her book, Streams In The Desert, Mrs. Charles Cowan wrote, “The next day simply manifests what God did all that night.”

You may not see it, but God works in the dark.

If we pray for God’s leading in our lives, and that of our family, we must be prepared to follow Him down the path of His choosing. Consider what the Psalmist presented in Psalm 44:1, 2, 6-8: “We have heard with our ears, O God, our fathers have told us, what work Thou didst in their days, in the times of old. How Thou didst drive out the heathen with Thy hand, and plantedst them; how Thou didst afflict the people, and cast them out. For I will not trust in my bow, neither shall my sword save me. But Thou hast saved us from our enemies, and hast put them to shame that hated us. In God we boast all the day long, and praise Thy name for ever. Selah.”

Sometimes God uses defeat or disappointment to draw us closer to Him. The Bible is filled with examples of those who followed God down His path, and were in the perfect center of His will, yet, faced defeat.

It is easy to question God in those times, but we must consider and examine where we are when the event takes place.

The disciples were acting in complete obedience when the Saviour told them to get in their ship and go to the other side of the sea. Yet, in the middle of the night, they faced a terrible storm. Fearing for their lives, the Saviour came to them and delivered them from the storm.

We may not know that the path before us will be difficult, but sometimes we do. There have been times when God led Jessie and me down a road we knew was going to be difficult; and we found that it was every bit of what we expected it to be. Yet we still experienced peace and contentment, because we knew we were where He was guiding us.

Was it difficult? Yes!

Was it impossible? No!

F. B. Meyer helped me to put this in perspective, he wrote, “If I’m told we’re in for a hard journey, every hard jolt reminds me I’m on the right road.”

We are given specific instruction in the Word of God to “trust in the Lord”, and then given this promise, “He will direct our paths”. That sounds like advice we should trust and obey.

I am going to leave it here for today, but I do want to invite you back on Tuesday for another lesson in My Morning Perspective.

Until then, look to Jesus, the Author and Finisher of our faith, and I pray for God’s richest blessing on you.

Before we leave, please join me for a moment of prayer.

“Father, You always lead us in the path of righteousness for Your glory. Lord, help us to not only understand that, but help us to learn to trust You with all our heart, and obey You with each step we take. Amen.”

Thank you for joining me today, and I look forward to seeing you again next time.

Pastor

05/29/2026

My Morning Perspective – Friday, May 29, 2026

God Already Knows

I know some of you have heard me say this, or have read it in one of these devotions, “Did it ever occur to you that nothing ever occurred to God?” That statement is not original with me, it came from a friend of mine; but here is what we must take from the statement, God has never been caught off guard by the misdeeds or shenanigans of man.

Good morning and welcome to My Morning Perspective; it is great to see you, thank you for joining me. I hope you have brought your Bible; I will be taking my text today from Isaiah 41, please open your Bible to that great chapter and we will read the verses together in just a moment.

God had a solution for Adam’s sin before he committed it, and God made provision for the sins of everyone who was born after him.

We might grieve God with our actions and attitudes, but He is not going to fret or worry about what He is going to do about our conduct.

With that said, please join me in Isaiah 41:12, 13: “Thou shalt see them, and shalt not find them, even them that contended with thee: they that war against thee shall be as nothing, and as a thing of nought. For I the Lord thy God will hold thy right hand, saying unto thee, Fear not; I will help thee.”

The late Adrian Rogers, who pastored in Memphis, Tennessee for many years, wrote about an interview he had with Corrie Ten Boom, who wrote “The Hiding Place”. He explained, “I drank in her words; I listened and kept my mouth shut. One of her statements went straight to my heart: ‘There is no panic in Heaven, only plans.’ That is how God operates—no panic.” (End of quote)

I worked for a company who was a facilities provider for other companies who leased space from us. We used to build what is called “design-build” buildings for our customers. That simply meant we designed the building as we built it. Occasionally, we had to call an emergency meeting because of some unforeseen challenge. Sometimes the challenge was so great we had to work diligently to find a solution before we could continue.

Here is a great comfort for the believer, we are the workmanship of God but He does not have unforeseen challenges where we are concerned; His Word has the answers, He holds us by the hands, He calms our heart so we will not fear, and the Spirit reveals all this to us as He leads us in the path of righteousness.

It is always a blessing to me to hear the testimony of someone who trusted Jesus as Saviour when they were young. Absent from their testimony is how they were saved out of a life of drugs, alcohol, or lascivious living, because they never got involved in any of those kinds of vices.

Instead, they tell how they went to Sunday school and Church, memorized Scripture, and grew up honoring their parents and reverencing God. They learned young of how important the Bible is.

The Apostle Paul reminded Timothy of that great truth in II Timothy 3:14, 15: “But continue thou in the things which thou hast learned and hast been assured of, knowing of whom thou hast learned them; and that from a child thou hast known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make thee wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus.”

My Dad read to us from his Bible every day and he instilled in our hearts its accuracy and God’s preservation of His Word for our generation.

Do you want to know what I appreciated the most about Dad’s teaching from that Old Black Book? It was the one he lived by in his daily life; he not only read it to us every day, but he also lived it before us in each of those days. We witnessed it, our extended family witnessed it, and the people he worked around witnessed it.

Dad put the Word of God into action as he lived it because he read it, obeyed it, and then taught it. I did not know it at the time, but he knew His Bible was the Living Word of God. I am glad he did!

Yet despite the seed of God’s Word he planted in my life, I rejected God and His calling for many years. I brought a life of regrets, grief, and sorrow to the Lord when I came to Him to surrender my heart and will in confession of my sin on the night I was saved. Some of those challenges and the effects of sin from my life in the past still grieve my heart after almost 52 years.

Many of our lives were filled with a past of emptiness and self-fulfilling relationships, and all our lives were spiritually dead and condemned before salvation.

The Saviour already knows about the wrong paths you have taken, and when you enter into His Throne of Grace to confess your sin you discover He has already paid the penalty for your sin. At that moment you must be willing to leave your past behind and follow Him in love, grace, and confidence that your sin has been forgiven.

Every once in a while, something will happen that our adversary will use to try to get us to turn away from the Lord. It could be anything, sickness, a financial set back, a disagreement with someone, or perhaps a trial; whatever it is he will use it to try to place a shadow of a doubt about God’s love for us.

Psalm 107:6, 7 presented God’s remedy for times like that; “Then they cried unto the Lord in their trouble, and He delivered them out of their distresses. And He led them forth by the right way, that they might go to a city of habitation.”

You may not recognize the name of Frank E. Graeff, but you might recognize his work when you read the following words to his hymn: “Does Jesus care when my heart is pained, too deeply for mirth and song; As the burdens press, and the cares distress, and the way grows weary and long?”

How often do the burdens of life cause the believer to become anxious and ask the Lord, “Why is this happening to me?” David asked, “Why art thou cast down O my soul, and why art thou disquieted in me?” (Psalm 42:5).

Do you think that you are above the trials of life? Do you believe God has abandoned you when you are tried? David continued his prayer by saying: “O my God, my soul is cast down within me: therefore will I remember Thee…for I shall yet praise Him, Who is the health of my countenance, and my God” (Psalm 42:6, 11).

So, child of God, do you think your sorrows are out of God’s plan, or do you think you are forsaken of God? They are a great part of His plan for you; they are for the strengthening of your faith and for your reliance upon Him.

Mr. Graeff knew this to be true and concluded with these words when he presented his refrain: “O yes He cares, I know He cares, His heart is touched with my grief; when the days are weary, the long night weary, I know my Saviour cares.”

Remember, God sees and knows the road ahead and He will never cease to love and care for you.

I am going to leave it here for today, but I do want to invite you back tomorrow for another lesson in My Morning Perspective.

Until then, look to Jesus, the Author and Finisher of our faith, and I pray for God’s richest blessing on you.

Before we leave, please join me for a moment of prayer.

“Father, we know the devil will do whatever he can to keep us from becoming a child of God. Lord, we also know that when we make the decision to trust Jesus as our Saviour, the devil will do what he can to try to get us to become discouraged with You when the disappointments in life happen. Please help us to cast our cares on You when that happens and give us the grace and courage to leave them with You after we thrust them on You. Amen.”

Thank you for joining me today, and I look forward to seeing you again next time.

Pastor

05/28/2026

My Morning Perspective – Thursday, May 28, 2026

For God’s Good Pleasure

There seems to be a desire and need by today’s church attenders to be saturated with messages of goodwill and positive reinforcement. I have books and messages that date back to the eighteenth century and up to the present; and I find it interesting to see the evolution and emphasis of messages that have moved from holy living and surrender over the past couple of centuries, to the modern emphasis of prosperity and what God is obligated to do for us personally.

Good morning and welcome to My Morning Perspective; it is great to see you, thank you for joining me. I hope you have brought your Bible; I will be taking my text today from Philippians 2, please open your Bible to that great chapter and we will read the verses together in just a moment.

Surrender to God is an almost forbidden subject today; as some have implied: “Absolute surrender requires too much.”

There it is! There is the challenge found in the final two words of the statement I just mentioned, “Too much”. Maybe we should take a few moments to consider why those two words are a hindrance to our surrender to God.

Before we do, I would ask you to join me for the first of the verses we will include in our lesson found in Philippians 2:13: “For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of His good pleasure.”

We must understand and realize that God does not expect your surrender by your own power or will; He is willing to work in you if you will let Him. Does not our text explain it is God who works in us, both to will and to do of His good pleasure?

“His good pleasure”, that, then, is what we should and must seek after as a child of God; to go before Him in humility, and with a fervent desire to turn to Him and turn away from all that is wrong in our heart.

God offers His work of absolute surrender in you; our Saviour lived in nothing less than absolute surrender, and we are invited to follow in His steps as we let the Holy Spirit lead by His Divine power.

We might be content to settle for the things which please the flesh, and make us feel good or comfortable, but too often they fall short of true satisfaction and contentment. So, let’s think about that for a moment.

We are all challenged with the thought of surrender and submission to God. I include myself in that statement, so, here is the process I follow when I resist the Holy Spirit’s invitation and instruction to surrender my will to the Lord.

The simple truth is, I do not need to look any further than to remember where I was before I trusted Jesus as my Saviour. My life was spiraling out of control, I was miserable and in a really bad place emotionally, and the storms in my life were just about to pull me further away from any hope from God for what I thought was His final call for me to be saved.

I had used the words “Too much” many times, but at that single moment on that Sunday night, when the invitation was given at the end of the Pastor’s message I was faced with an eternal decision to surrender my heart to the Lord to trust Jesus as my Saviour, or to turn away from Him and never hear His call, “Ye who are weary, come home.”

The words “Too much” were ravaging my mind and tearing my soul apart. My decision that night, at that very moment, carried the fate of my eternity which would include accepting the call of God to go find rest and redemption in Him or reject Him for the final time and continue on my journey of misery and choose to go to Hell.

While the music was playing and the congregation was singing the invitation hymn I stepped out into the aisle to turn to my right and walk out of the door of the Church for one final time, but I could not make my feet take the steps. I stood there for what seemed to be a long time, and once again the words “Too much” echoed through my mind. This time, however, it was not only considering that surrender to God was “too much” but also considering the cost of rejecting Him for the final time was going to cost “too much”.

At that moment, I turned to the left and walked up the aisle to the front of the Sanctuary and told the Pastor, “I was just about to walk away for the final time, but I realized that decision was going to cost me “too much”, and I want to give my heart to Jesus to be saved right now.”

After I prayed, for the first time in my life my heart experienced peace, and the turmoil in my soul was calmed by the saving touch of my Saviour’s hand. I did not know anything about the doctrine or theology behind my decision; I just confidently knew my sin had been forgiven and I was going to go to Heaven when I died. I found that my first step in surrender was not “too much” at all.

Since that night I have learned this great truth found in Hebrews 4:9, 11, 16: “There remaineth therefore a rest to the people of God. Let us labour therefore to enter into that rest, lest any man fall after the same example of unbelief. Let us therefore come boldly unto the Throne of Grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need.”

The compassion of God was delivered through the blood of Jesus Christ when He gave Himself a sacrifice for sin. His sacrifice for sin was not “too much”, it was just what was needed to satisfy “His Father’s good pleasure” to save our souls from Hell.

On the night I gave my heart to Christ the guilt and worthlessness sin caused was shattered by the mercy God expressed at Calvary and the grace He extends at His Throne of Grace.

The assurance which gives the believer boldness to enter into God’s presence is fully experienced when the child of God understands his sin has been forgiven, and his life has been changed by his faith in Jesus Christ as Saviour.

Where but the Throne of Grace, and who but the God of mercy could deliver such a promise and present such a grace? This grace delivers righteousness through God’s righteousness and presents us to Himself holy and undefiled.

God’s Word teaches that our Saviour will present us faultless (Jude 24), accepted and without blame (Ephesians 1:4, 6), and forgiven (Colossians 1:14).

Through Christ then, we can now enter into the Holy Sanctuary of God to participate in a holy occupation with confidence that we have been made holy through His forgiveness of our sin, which is made possible by the blood He poured out at Calvary’s Cross.

Why would we ever want to return to the turmoil we had before we gave our heart to Jesus? There is no other place where we can find mercy and grace in our time of need. Let us come into His presence with confidence to find rest, find comfort in His grace, and find the confidence of His peace that passes all understanding.

Surrender to God’s will is not “too much” it is our reasonable service.

I am going to leave it here for today, but I do want to invite you back tomorrow for another lesson in My Morning Perspective.

Until then, look to Jesus, the Author and Finisher of our faith, and I pray for God’s richest blessing on you.

Before we leave, please join me for a moment of prayer.

“Father, our Saviour surrendered Himself completely to Your will to become obedient unto death, even the death of the Cross, for Your good pleasure. Lord, how can we give anything less than our complete and absolute surrender to You in our reasonable service? Amen.”

Thank you for joining me today, and I look forward to seeing you again next time.

Pastor

05/27/2026

My Morning Perspective – Wednesday, May 27, 2026

Simple Obedience

We learned simple obedience as a child when our mother and father taught us the difference between yes and no, or right and wrong. As we grew older and we began to work for our employers we learned that if we were going to stay employed, we were going to have to submit ourselves to the rules of the company.

Good morning and welcome to My Morning Perspective; it is great to see you, thank you for joining me. I hope you have brought your Bible; I will be taking my text today from Matthew 28, please open your Bible to that great chapter and we will read the verses together in just a moment.

God’s Word presents His instruction, commands, and desire for His children to walk in obedience and submission to His will. So, I wonder, how is our submissive attitude when it comes to the Lord’s Great Commission?

With that said, please join me in Matthew 28:18-20: “And Jesus came and spake unto them, saying, All power is given unto Me in Heaven and in Earth. Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world. Amen.”

Oswald Sanders wrote: “The basis of missionary appeals is the authority of Jesus Christ, not the needs of the heathen. We are apt to look upon our Lord as One Who assists us in our enterprises for God. Our Lord puts Himself as the absolute sovereign supreme Lord over His disciples. He does not say the heathen will be lost if we do not go; He simply says – ‘Go ye therefore and teach all nations.’ Go on the revelation of My sovereignty; teach and preach out of a living experience of Me.” (End of quote)

What does this mean to us? It means by the authority of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, and His commission, each Christian is to go out and tell others.

Why?

Because He has commanded us to go.

Our prayer, then, should be, “Thy will be done”, and the fulfillment is found in the manifestation of His work, His witness, and His will performed by our simple obedience to Him.

Our adversary will do everything to cause us to question the Word of God, to doubt the calling of God to surrender and submit ourselves to His will, and the command of God to go share what He did in our lives with others.

The best way for us to be settled and secure in the Word of God is to spend time in the Word of God. Modern technology gives access to an overwhelming amount of information, however, so much of that information is false, fabricated, or fictitious; especially concerning the Word of God. It is becoming more common for someone to ask me a question or present a statement about something that the Bible supposedly states or has left out that tries to make God look like He does not have our best interest at heart. One of my first questions to them is, “Where did you get that information, from the Bible or from someone who said something about the Bible?”

That is the narrative and underlying subject of the very first question presented in Scripture by Satan, who spoke to Eve through the serpent in the Garden of Eden, “Yea, hath God said…?” Our adversary presents subtle and flagrant attempts every day to get us to doubt the validity of God’s Word.

Who are you going to believe? God, who wrote His Word in absolute righteousness and holiness, or someone who has supposedly found a hidden flaw in His Righteousness?

You can call me a simpleton, but I am going to believe the Word of God exclusively when it comes to anything pertaining to the Word of God, or more importantly, the God of the Word.

The reason our adversary tries to get people to doubt the Word of God is to keep them, (us), from obeying it by submitting ourselves to God and His will for us.

Jesus’ prayer in Matthew 6 and Luke 11 included these words, “Thy Kingdom come. Thy will be done” (Luke 11:2).

When we pray those words to the Lord from the depths of our heart, we are making this covenant with Him, “My kingdom go…Thy Kingdom Come!”

Our adversary will do anything to keep us out of God’s Throne of Grace because he knows hearts are changed, our souls are convicted, and our lives are consecrated when we spend effectual fervent time in the presence of God.

Someone once said, “The great tragedy of life is not unanswered prayer, but unoffered prayer.” Knowing we need the Lord every day, and understanding that we must trust Him for everything, how can we neglect spending time with Him in prayer?

After Jesus presents the words, “Thy Kingdom come, Thy will be done on Earth as it is in Heaven” in His prayer in Matthew 6, He then directs us to include, “Give us this day our daily bread”. The time we spend with our Lord in His presence at His Throne of Grace helps us to learn to abide in Him, and it better equips us for the tasks which are before us each day.

It is one thing to know the will of God for our lives, but it is quite another thing to seek the will of God in our lives. It is not until we are willing to pray “my kingdom go”, will we truly pray “Thy kingdom come”.

We are willful people, consumed with our own cares and concerns. Jesus’ instruction is presented so we might understand God must be involved in every detail of our life. He does not separate our lives into categories of spiritual, secular, or business; our whole being is His. I heard someone once say, “Everything in the life of the child of God is sacred and spiritual. We need Him for spiritual direction, physical strength, daily supply, and for forgiveness of our sins.”

Andrew Murray wrote: “Time spent in prayer will yield more than that given to work. Prayer alone gives work its worth and success. Prayer opens the way for God Himself to do His work in us and through us. Let our chief work as God’s messengers be intercession; in it we secure the presence and power of God with us.” (End of quote)

Our time with God is fellowship with Him under the power of His holiness, the peace and comfort of His counsel, and the preparation of our heart to surrender ourselves to do His will.

I am going to leave it here for today, but I do want to invite you back tomorrow for another lesson in My Morning Perspective.

Until then, look to Jesus, the Author and Finisher of our faith, and I pray for God’s richest blessing on you.

Before we leave, please join me for a moment of prayer.

“Father, no one has ever loved us like You love us, and You always have our greatest interest in everything You provide to us for Your glory. Yet Lord, even when we know that simple truth, we seem to be reluctant to surrender ourselves to You. Please help us to be willing to pray, ‘Not my will, but Thine be done!’ Amen.”

Thank you for joining me today, and I look forward to seeing you again next time.

Pastor

Address

1715 East L Street
Torrington, WY
82240

Opening Hours

Wednesday 7pm - 8pm
Sunday 10am - 11am
6pm - 7pm

Telephone

3075323007

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