Dear Heavenly Father,
You have delivered many of us from a multitude of dark and negative issues, and we still carry idols with us into our deliverance. I personally know individuals that have moved to a different area, job, relationship, or place of worship; and remnants of the same issues will pop up in their lives. They say to themselves, “How is this possible? Why am I still dealing with the same problem when so much has changed?” Your deliverance is a sure thing. The psalmist said in Psalm 34:17(NLT) “The Lord hears his people when they call to him for help. He rescues them from all their troubles.” You deliver us out of dark places, but even in our deliverance, some of us refuse to let go of toxic things, the very things You have delivered us from.
These things are idols, because we have made them into the targets of our worship. Nothing should consume our hearts and minds other than our love for You and Your Word. Your Son tells us in Mark 12:30 that the first and greatest commandment is to love You with all our hearts, souls, minds, and strength. You also command in Exodus 20:3 that we should never have any other gods before you. Our relationship with You is precious. We are Your children, and You are our Heavenly Father. We must do as Joshua 24:14(NLT) says, “So fear the LORD and serve him wholeheartedly. Put away forever the idols your ancestors worshiped when they lived beyond the Euphrates River and in Egypt. Serve the LORD alone.”
Jesus Christ said in Matthew 6:21 that wherever your treasures are, there the desires of our heart will be also. This means that our cravings and the things we feel we must have in life speak the loudest about the kind of hearts we have. We should be craving You and Your love. We should be thirsting for Your righteousness and hungering for Your Word, but instead we thirst and hunger for what the world offers. We make worldly things, substances, and people the objects of our obsessions. For this, we must repent.
Only Your glory can fill us up. We can’t take new wine and put it in old wine skins. We must let go of those old idols so that we continue to grow in Christ through Your strength and power. We don’t have to do this by ourselves, as a matter of truth, we can’t. Jesus Christ invites us in Matthew 11:28-30 to allow him to do the heavy lifting. He’ll take our heavy burdens as we learn of him and begin to walk in his example.
Heavenly Father, help us to recognize when the problem isn’t an external one, but an internal one. It’s not where we live, not our workplaces, or the people we’re surrounded by. We can move to a different location and switch up the people around us, but if we have the same baggage in our hearts and minds, nothing will change. We need to allow You to do a work on the inside of us. God please help us to release old things completely so we can witness real change in our lives. Thank You for bringing people across our paths and situations in our midst that will help us walk the healing path You’ve laid before us. Please help us change what we hunger and thirst after so that we only crave You through the Lord Jesus Christ, and in the power of the Holy Spirit.
Thank You for our powerful Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ! Thank You for the gift of the indwelling Holy Spirit and thank You for Your matchless and perfect Word. Please let Your Will be done on earth as it is in heaven. In the precious and powerful name of Jesus Christ. Amen. ■
Scripture quotations marked (NLT) are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Wheaton, Illinois 60189. All rights reserved.
“Craving You” written by K.Lizzie, edited by Reverend Fran Mack for Sundie Morning Sistas ©2019. All rights reserved. All done to the glory of God through Jesus Christ, our Lord! SMS is dedicated to inspiring and encouraging Christian Women through the Word of God.