{"id":1831,"date":"2017-12-21T14:10:49","date_gmt":"2017-12-21T19:10:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/becourageousbebold.com\/?p=1831"},"modified":"2017-12-21T14:25:25","modified_gmt":"2017-12-21T19:25:25","slug":"pride-pity-and-praise","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/becourageousbebold.com\/index.php\/2017\/12\/21\/pride-pity-and-praise\/","title":{"rendered":"Pride, Pity and Praise"},"content":{"rendered":"
\u00a0\"\"<\/h6>\n
This morning I awoke and realized that something was not quite right in my spirit. I prayed, \u201cWhere are you God? I can\u2019t hear you\u2026I can\u2019t see you\u2026\u201d and I realized I had allowed \u201cstuff\u201d to clog my heart and I needed to confess some things to the Lord. Wrong attitudes, complaints, resentments\u2026and as I talked to the Lord about these things, the Holy Spirit began to reveal, my heart to me, because I asked him too. He does not force us.<\/h6>\n
I remembered the peace he had given me when my mom died, and at that time, I said, I never ever want anything to come between me and God, because the peace he gave was so pure and freed me from unforgiveness\u2026but years go by and we become complacent and take Him for granted. Even though He shows us many things, and uses us for His glory\u2026little foxes come and spoil the vine. (*Song of Sol. 2:15)<\/h6>\n
This morning these thoughts came to my mind as I prayed. I thought about, Pride, Pity and Praise<\/em>.<\/h6>\n
Pride<\/em> certainly blocks our communion with the Lord. We are centered on the \u201cself.\u201d And when self is on the throne of our hearts there\u2019s no room for another.<\/h6>\n
Pity<\/em> also blocks our communion because the \u201cI, Me\u201d is our focus. \u201cWhy can\u2019t \u201cI\u201d have this, or, why can\u2019t \u201cI\u201d be like that, or, why doesn\u2019t anyone care about \u201cme?\u201d Poor pitiful thing\u2026<\/h6>\n
Then there is Praise.<\/em> Not the praise of self, but praise to God. The Holy Spirit spoke to my heart and said, \u201cPraise opens the gates into the courts of the throne room of God. Our eyes are taken off of self and focus on the Living God. He is our Hiding Place, He is Love and grace\u2026our hearts become free and unfettered in His presence. Life emerges and we can see clearly who He is.<\/em><\/h6>\n
Then I had a vision\u2026the room was dark and someone, I couldn\u2019t tell if it was a man or a woman, was sitting at a desk writing. Light illuminated only where the hand was writing and the Holy Spirit said, \u201cPraise brings the light<\/em>!\u201d<\/h6>\n
We can know the Lord, study his word, know all Scripture and sing songs and pray. But unless we are enlightened by His grace we are empty vessels. When we begin to concentrate on who He, is and what He, accomplished and forget about ourselves\u2026then the light of His grace and mercy will burn like a bright light in our souls\u2026<\/h6>\n
We can become so distracted by what we want, and what we think, that before we know it, everything is all about us\u2026It takes the light of His Holy Spirit and His word to reveal Jesus to our hearts so that we can be clean and holy in His sight\u2026writing for His glory\u2026singing or preaching or greeting, or giving, our motives must be about what He wants, not what we want\u2026<\/h6>\n
I hope this encourages you today. Stop what you are doing right now, and open your heart and mind and see if there is anything blocking you from hearing and seeing His light. Let go of pride and pity and open your mouth in Praise to Him who sits on the throne and unto the Lamb\u2026Be blessing and honor and power and glory, forever\u2026.(*Rev. 5:13 NKJV)<\/h6>\n
God bless you on your journey\u2026<\/h6>\n
All is well with my soul!<\/h6>\n
~Marla Shaw O\u2019Neill December 21, 2017<\/h6>\n
John 8:12 English Standard Version (ESV) <\/em><\/strong>I Am the Light of the World<\/em><\/strong><\/h6>\n
Again Jesus spoke to them, saying, \u201cI am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.\u201d<\/em><\/h6>\n
Psalm 119:105 <\/em>Good News Translation (GNT) <\/em><\/strong>Light from the Law of the <\/em>Lord <\/em>Your word is a lamp to guide me<\/em> and a light for my path.<\/em><\/h6>\n
*Song of Solomon 2:14-15<\/em>King James Version (KJV) <\/em><\/strong>O my dove, that art in the clefts of the rock, in the secret places of the stairs, let me see thy countenance, let me hear thy voice; for sweet is thy voice, and thy countenance is comely. Take us the foxes, the little foxes, that spoil the vines: for our vines have tender grapes.<\/strong><\/em><\/h6>\n
*Revelation 5:13 <\/em>New King James Version (NKJV) <\/em><\/strong>And every creature which is in heaven and on the earth and under the earth and such as are in the sea, and all that are in them, I heard saying: \u201cBlessing and honor and glory and power Be to Him who sits on the throne, And to the Lamb, forever and ever!\u201d<\/strong><\/em><\/h6>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u00a0 This morning I awoke and realized that something was not quite right in my spirit. I prayed, \u201cWhere are you God? I can\u2019t hear you\u2026I can\u2019t see you\u2026\u201d and I realized I had allowed \u201cstuff\u201d to clog my heart and I needed to confess some things to the Lord. Wrong attitudes, complaints, resentments\u2026and as…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1831","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p8aPxH-tx","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/becourageousbebold.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1831","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/becourageousbebold.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/becourageousbebold.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/becourageousbebold.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/becourageousbebold.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1831"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/becourageousbebold.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1831\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1838,"href":"https:\/\/becourageousbebold.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1831\/revisions\/1838"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/becourageousbebold.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1831"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/becourageousbebold.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1831"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/becourageousbebold.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1831"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}