Intimacy With God

Prayer: Faith that is not ashamed

Father, I know that I, too, have often denied Jesus. Perhaps not with words, but with choices, attitudes, omissions, and moments when I was ashamed to demonstrate my faith. Forgive me when the fear of being rejected spoke louder than the desire to remain faithful to You. Give me courage not to hide Your name and to remember that it is a privilege to feel discomfort for choosing to follow Christ in a world that often rejects what comes from You.

To know or to follow

Prayer: Dependence on Him

We currently have access to so many things. New products, new ideas, new dreams. Thousands of information and news. And that can easily take our focus away from the Lord, steal our attention to something that quickly fades away. But we need to be dependent on Him at all times, on His amazing grace. It is this grace that enables us to go through the most difficult situations in life without losing sleep, faith and hope. So I would like to say a prayer on this topic. Say this powerful prayer with me! Remembering that you don’t need to pray exactly as you are here, because everyone has their own way of talking to the Father. Prayer “Lord, teach me to depend only on You. In so many situations, I end up depending on people, resources, my work or my own understanding of life. But I ask that I may remember Your sovereignty every day. it is the Lord who has all knowledge, understanding and power over any circumstance. In this prayer, I want to exalt You and recognize that You Lord is greater than anything. Bigger than any relationship crisis, bigger than any financial crisis, bigger than any illness. […]

Justice and righteousness

In the beginning, when God created the world and everything in it, He also laid the foundation for righteous living. He is infinite wisdom himself and recognizes the importance of us living according to His righteousness. What are? “Follow justice and justice alone, so that you may live and possess the land the Lord your God is giving you.” Deuteronomy 16:20 Justice means the quality of who has a just behavior or treatment. It is a way of perceiving, evaluating what is right, just. Righteousness has a close meaning. It means quality, characteristic or attribute of what or who is upright. The virtue of following, without deviation, the direction indicated by the sense of justice, by equity. Virtue of being in conformity with reason, with duty. Justice and righteousness are very necessary traits. We can see their importance being expressed since the first books of the bible by great prophets and leaders. Just like god “Righteousness and justice are the foundation of your throne. Love and faithfulness go before you.” Psalm 89:14 Throughout the biblical texts, we find in the nature of God teachings, through words and actions, about justice and righteousness. And He invites us to express His glory, to be […]

Where does forgiveness live

I want to talk to you today about the power of forgiveness and reconciliation. That’s how God demonstrated on the cross how he loves us. He calls us to act in this way towards one another as well. What have you valued? “For if you forgive other people when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you.” Matthew 6:14 In this passage from Matthew 6 Jesus teaches us about the importance of releasing forgiveness. He underscores in that sentence how the forgiveness we offer others is linked to the forgiveness we receive from Him. Forgiveness shouldn’t be a choice for us, it should already be one of our foundations. When we offer forgiveness we can experience the fullness of the Father’s forgiveness. We are not perfect, we all make mistakes at some point. We are often inflexible. When we demand of the people around us that they be perfect, we seem to erase from our minds the fact that we fail too. To forgive is to say that we value the relationship and communion more than the pain and anguish that exist in pride. Beloved in failure “Shouldn’t you have had mercy on your fellow servant just […]

Prayer: Good Fruits

In the last text we talked about the seed that He sows in our hearts and the fruit that is generated in us when we are in Him. Today I want to use this space to pray together about these fruits and these seeds. Let’s pray for the soil we are (or should be) to be fertile for the Kingdom. I invite you to pray with me. Remembering that you don’t have to pray exactly as it is written here. Everyone has their own way of talking to the Father and I want you to feel free to pray as you prefer. But if you want, I’ll be happy to accompany you. 🙂 PRAYER “Father, thank you for pouring so much on me, even though I didn’t deserve it. I am filled with gratitude for your work, for your mercy, love and care. For entrusting me with something so much greater than myself. I thank you for my gifts and my calling. More than giving thanks for what I receive from You every day, I want to pray for what I deliver before it. God, teach me to take care of what You have entrusted to my hands. Give me […]

No space for the new

How do you want to receive new things from God if you remain the old man? No, our attitudes do not change God. His character is something permanent and solid. But our actions directly interfere with everything we receive from the Father. Not because we influence His power, but because we impede the miracle and blessings in our lives by being full of ourselves. We leave no room for the will of God. Empty yourself “For the flesh desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the flesh. They are in conflict with each other, so that you are not to do whatever you want.” Galatians 5:17 In some of the texts I wrote here for the blog, I commented on how the actions of people at the time of Jesus prevented them from living profound experiences with God, prevented them from enjoying the presence of Christ. A very simple and quick explanation related to this is that God is not going to put new wine in an old wineskin. If we live a life for our desires, without emptying ourselves, we don’t make room for the new. Even if God poured out His new […]

Used or approved?

Many times we confuse God using us with approving us and we end up taking paths that are not what God wants for us. We seek to be used and do not act to move towards approval. Used by god “For it is God who works in you to will and to act in order to fulfill his good purpose.” Philippians 2:13 To be used by God is to be a channel for a certain action. For example, at one point the Lord used you to say something to someone who was asking for an answer. When you minister over someone’s life, it doesn’t come from you and your knowledge, but it is an act of God through your life. And He can use anyone, any place, any situation. As in the book of Numbers, where the donkey that belonged to Balaam is used to send God’s message and guide the man in the opposite direction, where his mission would be. In many situations we seek to be used, but this is so momentary. The animal didn’t keep talking and having words of wisdom coming out of its mouth for the rest of its life. It was just that moment, and […]

Have you been dreading your call?

Do you know what your calling is? What did the Lord form you and call you for? It is important as Christians to know this, because God counts on us. Your calling won’t do anything for you if you don’t say “yes” to it. God does not suggest “He has saved us and called us to a holy life—not because of anything we have done but because of his own purpose and grace. This grace was given us in Christ Jesus before the beginning of time.” 2 Timothy 1:9 It all starts with understanding that your calling is not a suggestion from God. It’s not like your life is a suggestion box, where God puts little slips of what He thinks could be better. We need to begin to understand the voice of God as a duty. Not that duty that tires us and is a boring obligation. But listening with obedience and devotion. When our obedience is activated, so are God’s graces and blessings in our lives. And it is through our calling that many of them are poured out on us. Obedience is faith “Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says.“ James 1:22 […]

How to know God?

Do you know what a house of prayer is for? Do we need to “consecrate” a space as a place of prayer? I wanted to bring some thoughts about the text of Isaiah 56: “For my house will be called a house of prayer for all nations”. Go to him “If you seek Him, He will be found by you, but if you forsake Him, He will forsake you”. 2 Chronicles 15:2 The Father’s house was not called the house of “preaching” or “mysteries”, such as miracles and prophecies, but of “prayer”. Pointing directly to a relationship with God and the way worship should be performed. Several times I come here to talk about one of our actions. That’s because a lot is heard about what He does and we already know His promises, but it’s important to remember daily what needs to come from us. Knowing God through preaching and miracles takes away our action to build a relationship with Him. Receiving is easy, watching God speaking and doing is easy. But being willing to seek Him requires a step on our part. Listen and do “My ears had heard of you but now my eyes have seen you”. Job […]

God is not a genie

I would like to invite you now to close your eyes for a moment and stop to think about your prayers and the hours/minutes you spend with God. Analysis: what do you usually talk about? Do you ask for more or do you have quality time with the Father? Did you think about it a bit? Have you opened your eyes yet? Excellent! Let’s talk about it then. We can easily live a theology in which the human being and his will are placed above everything and God (I hope unconsciously) is reduced to a servant or a genie, etc You may be wondering where I’m going with this and if I’m implying that presenting your needs to God is wrong, but no, that’s not the point. It’s not that you shouldn’t ask, but you can’t summarize your life with the Father in just requests and more requests. Ceaseless search I recently started reading a book that is quite famous here in Brazil, called “The God Who Destroys Dreams – Rodrigo Bibo”. He has several analogies to things in our daily life to explain the central theme of the book, that no, it’s not an evil God who doesn’t let […]