Posts by Pastor Roger Emmons (Page 23)

Psalm 119:130 The doorway to your words lets in light. It gives understanding to the inexperienced. Dear Heavenly Father, Jesus said he was the gate to the pen; in other places, he called himself the doorway to heaven and the light of the world, while in John’s gospel, he was named the Word. As the Word, Jesus sheds light on all our sins and then shows us the path to receive his forgiveness by faith in him. Every person is “inexperienced”;…

Psalm 103:8 The Lord is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in mercy. Dear Heavenly Father, Thank you for your compassion for us. We regularly struggle with our sins. Our minds get caught up in our thoughts, and the next thing we know, we spontaneously change those thoughts into words and actions. Those sinful thoughts do not condone what we do, but they explain why we do it. Hearing about your attributes—compassionate, gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in mercy—is a…

Psalm 32:10-11 Many are the sorrows of the wicked, but mercy will surround those who trust in the Lord. Rejoice in the Lord and celebrate, all you righteous, and shout joyfully, all you upright in heart. Dear Heavenly Father, The wicked around us seem to have no concerns as if everything seems to go their way. But they, too, have many troubles, and actually, they have many more. Because they do not trust in you, their conscience still plagues them with guilt and…

Hebrews 11:1-3 Faith is being sure about what we hope for, being convinced about things we do not see. For by this faith, the ancients were commended in Scripture. By faith, we know that the universe was created by God’s word, so that what is seen did not come from visible things. Dear Heavenly Father, We live by faith every day. We cannot see the oxygen in the air, but as we breathe, it fills our lungs, and we don’t…

Isaiah 44:24-25 This is what the Lord, your Redeemer, the Lord who formed you from the womb, says. I am the Lord, the one who does all things, who stretched out the heavens by myself, who hammered out the earth. (Who was with me then?) I frustrate the signs of the deceivers and make fools of the fortune tellers. I overturn the wisdom of the wise and turn their knowledge into foolishness. Dear Heavenly Father, You have such an intimacy with us. Not only…

2 Corinthians 10:17-18 But let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord. To be sure, it is not the one who commends himself who is approved, but the one whom the Lord commends. Dear Heavenly Father, You provide everything for us. You give us all our blessings—homes, food, families, and clothing—and the tools to make a living and all we need to survive. Our employment is not ours; the skills to earn an income come from you. You give…

2 Peter 3:8-9 But do not forget this one thing, dear friends: For the Lord, one day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like one day. The Lord is not slow to do what he promised, as some consider slowness. Instead, he is patient for your sakes, not wanting anyone to perish, but all to come to repentance. Dear Heavenly Father, Forgive us when we expect things to happen right now. Our timeline is not yours because…

Ephesians 5:8 For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light. Dear Heavenly Father, Forgive us when we fall back into our sinful ways of living as we once did before we knew you. As Paul wrote, we were once darkness, living by the world’s standards for what is good and being confounded by guilt and shame for our actions. By faith, we no longer walk in darkness because faith has…

1 John 3:1  See the kind of love the Father has given us that we should be called children of God, and that is what we are! The world does not know us, because it did not know him. Dear Heavenly Father, What grace we see in being called your children; we thank you for our adoption into your family. For a child to be adopted, that child does nothing to attain that adoption; the parents choose the child and…

Psalm 34:18-19  The Lord is close to the brokenhearted. He saves those whose spirits have been crushed. Many are the troubles of the righteous, but the Lord delivers him from them all. Dear Heavenly Father, This world brings us challenges, troubles, and trials; many—believers and unbelievers—are brokenhearted. Those who trust in you can also feel their spirits crushed by events caused by the weather and hurricanes, difficulties around the world, local problems, or family challenges. We ask you to deliver us from everything that…