god – JLM in Euroclydon

How Do You Pray?

How Do You Pray?

Jeremiah 33:3 Call to Me, and I will answer and show you great and unsearchable things you do not know.

James 4:1-6 1What causes conflicts and quarrels among you? Don’t they come from the passions at war within you? 2You crave what you do not have; you kill and covet, but are unable to obtain it. You quarrel and fight. You do not have, because you do not ask. 3And when you do ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may squander it on your pleasures.

4You adulteresses! Do you not know that friendship with the world is hostility toward God? Therefore, whoever chooses to be a friend of the world renders himself an enemy of God. 5Or do you think the Scripture says without reason that the Spirit He caused to dwell in us yearns with envy? 6But He gives us more grace. This is why it says: “God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble.”

1 Thessalonians 5:17 “Pray without ceasing.”

Last week our pastor spoke about prayer, the Lord’s prayer, in particular, illustrating this as a great template for how to format our prayers and reminding us with his sermon title (To Whom Do You Pray?) the identity of the One to Whom we pray.

We all have need of our daily bread being given, our trespasses being forgiven, and freedom from temptation and evil. But what about those other needs? Things like healing, financial assistance, family problems, and a myriad of other things seemingly not addressed in the Lord’s prayer.

The Bible gives many examples of people praying for things they needed and or/wanted. Today’s scripture references show us why we should pray.

Wouldn’t you like to see great and unsearchable things you don’t already know, as Jeremiah promises?

I doubt anyone reading this is a killer, but certainly we have all coveted from time to time. And, we have all quarreled or fought with someone in our lifetime. Those are things that our human selves cause us to do when the things we want or think we need are not readily available.

The next verse tells us we don’t have because we don’t ask AND our motives are wrong, we want to “squander” our answered prayers on earthly things.

What follows is an example of what I believe was a wrong prayer prayed by a “good person” that, to which for some reason, YHWH said yes.

I’ll preface this by reminding you that the northern kingdom of Israel had no “good” kings, and the southern kingdom of Judah had only 8 of its 20 kings who were considered good.

One of those was Hezekiah. 2 Chronicles 31:20-21 says that Hezekiah was “good and upright and true before the Lord his God. 21He was diligent in every work that he began in the service of the house of God, and in the law and the commandments, in order to seek his God. And so he prospered.”

Later historically in a parallel history of the nation of Judah located in 1 and 2 Kings, in 2 Kings chapter 20 we find that In those days Hezekiah became mortally ill. The prophet Isaiah, the same one who wrote the book of Isaiah “son of Amoz came to him and said, “This is what the Lord says: ‘Put your house in order, for you are about to die; you will not recover.’” It sounds as though his death was imminent.

2 Kings goes on: 2Then Hezekiah turned his face to the wall and prayed to the Lord, saying, 3“Please, O Lord, remember how I have walked before You faithfully and with wholehearted devotion; I have done what was good in Your sight.” And Hezekiah wept bitterly.

4Before Isaiah had left the middle courtyard, the word of the Lord came to him, saying, 5“Go back and tell Hezekiah the leader of My people that this is what the Lord, the God of your father David, says: ‘I have heard your prayer; I have seen your tears. I will surely heal you. On the third day from now you will go up to the house of the Lord. 6I will add fifteen years to your life.

Did YHWH “change his mind”?

Numbers 23:19 “God is not a man, that He should lie, or a son of man, that He should change His mind. Does He speak and not act? Does He promise and not fulfill?”

Yet, there are many instances where it “seems” like YHWH has changed his mind, including the one just described about Hezekiah.

In fact, this “changing” of YHWH’s mind resulted in the birth of one of the most evil kings in Judah’s lineup of kings. In addition, due to pride in self and the blessings which YHWH had bestowed upon him, just a few verses later in the same chapter verses 12-13 “At that time Merodach-baladan son of Baladan king of Babylon sent letters and a gift to Hezekiah, for he had heard about Hezekiah’s illness. And Hezekiah received the envoys and showed them all that was in his treasure house—the silver, the gold, the spices, and the precious oil, as well as his armory—all that was found in his storehouses. There was nothing in his palace or in all his dominion that Hezekiah did not show them.” Note, it was the king of Babylon to whom Hezekiah showed “his” treasures. The same Babylon who a few years later took the nation of Israel into captivity.

Trustworthy prophet of YHWH, Isaiah, was still in King Hezekiah’s corner, and he rebuked him, with the remainder of the verses of this chapter reading as follows: Then the prophet Isaiah went to King Hezekiah and asked, “Where did those men come from, and what did they say to you?”

“They came from a distant land,” Hezekiah replied, “from Babylon.”

“What have they seen in your palace?” Isaiah asked.

“They have seen everything in my palace,” answered Hezekiah. “There is nothing among my treasures that I did not show them.”

Then Isaiah said to Hezekiah, “Hear the word of the Lord: The time will surely come when everything in your palace and all that your fathers have stored up until this day will be carried off to Babylon. Nothing will be left, says the Lord. And some of your descendants, your own flesh and blood, will be taken away to be eunuchs in the palace of the king of Babylon.”

But Hezekiah said to Isaiah, “The word of the Lord that you have spoken is good.” For he thought, “Will there not at least be peace and security in my lifetime?”

So Hezekiah repented, but no other great kingly acts are recorded about him as chapter 20 concludes with these final 2 verses:

As for the rest of the acts of Hezekiah, along with all his might and how he constructed the pool and the tunnel to bring water into the city, are they not written in the Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Judah? And Hezekiah rested with his fathers, and his son Manasseh reigned in his place.

And there it, the 4^th word from the end “Manasseh.”

His evil acts are described in the next chapter of 2 Kings beginning with verse 2 “he did evil in the sight of the Lord by following the abominations of the nations that the Lord had driven out before the Israelites.”

Continuing with verse 3 “he rebuilt the high places that his father Hezekiah had destroyed, and he raised up altars for Baal. He made an Asherah pole, as King Ahab of Israel had done, and he worshiped and served all the host of heaven.”

And in verse 6 “He sacrificed his own son in the fire, practiced sorcery and divination, and consulted mediums and spiritists. He did great evil in the sight of the Lord, provoking Him to anger.” In my humble opinion, the act of “sacrificing a child to the fire” for personal gain and/or comfort is not any different than the act of abortion.

For these reasons and others, Manasseh earned the title of “the most evil king in Judah’s history”.

However. . . and this is a big however. . . in the parallel version found in 2 Chronicles 33, Manasseh was captured and tortured by a foreign entity.

While in captivity, in what was probably the lowest point of his life in verse 12 “in his distress, Manasseh sought the favor of the Lord his God and earnestly humbled himself before the God of his fathers.”

And verse 13 “the Lord received his plea and heard his petition; so He brought him back to Jerusalem and to his kingdom. Then Manasseh knew that the Lord is God.”

Manasseh’s life as relayed by 2 Chronicles concludes with verses 18-20 “As for the rest of the acts of Manasseh, along with his prayer to his God and the words of the seers who spoke to him in the name of the Lord, the God of Israel, they are indeed written in the Chronicles of the Kings of Israel. His prayer and how God received his plea, as well as all his sin and unfaithfulness, and the sites where he built high places and set up Asherah poles and idols before he humbled himself, they are indeed written in the Records of the Seers. And Manasseh rested with his fathers and was buried at his palace. And his son Amon reigned in his place.”

Because of YHWH’s grace, and Manasseh’s humility before Him, Manasseh concluded his life as a “good” king, and I fully expect to meet him in Heaven one day.

Romans 8:28 “we know that God works all things together for the good of those who love Him, who are called according to His purpose.”

Because of Manasseh’s repentance and YHWH’s grace and mercy, his son Amon was born who was an evil king, but Amon’s son, Josiah was the most godly king Judah had in the entirety of its history. Josiah’s story can be found in 2 Kings 22 through 2 Kings 23:30 and 2 Chronicles 34 and 35.

All of them, Hezekiah, Manasseh, Amon, and Josiah are in the Lord Jesus’ lineage!

So, while Hezekiah’s prayer may have produced some bad things, in the end it all worked according to YHWH’s purposes and for the good of those who love Him.

So. . . returning to our original scripture in James, look at that last verse, verse 6 “He gives us more grace. This is why it says: “God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble.”

Hezekiah’s pride hurt him and, indeed, his people. . . but when he humbled himself even though his motives may not have been 100% pure, he received grace. Manasseh also received grace.

WE RECEIVE GRACE.

Prayer is simply us maintaining our relationship with the One Who loves us the most. It doesn’t have to and, in fact, shouldn’t be filled with lofty words we don’t even fully understand. It doesn’t have to be lengthy. Listen to these words from Matthew 6 in the passage just before the Lord’s Prayer “And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites. For they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by men. Truly I tell you, they already have their full reward.

But when you pray, go into your inner room, shut your door, and pray to your Father, who is unseen. And your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.

And when you pray, do not babble on like pagans, for they think that by their many words they will be heard.

Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask Him.“

That is not to say you should not ever pray in public. 1 Thessalonians 5:17 says “Pray without ceasing.” It is also suggested you look up the verse immediately preceding that one. Undoubtedly, some of the times you are praying, you will be in a public setting. But remember, although prayer in its most basic form is carrying on a conversation with YHWH, it should always be done in humility and worship of YHWH remembering His kingdom, His power, and His glory which will last throughout eternity.

In Memorium Charlie Kirk October 14, 1993 – September 10, 2025

Wednesday, September 10, 2025, at 12:23 pm Mountain Time a 31-year-old man, a husband and father of two young children, went to be with Jesus. It was 1:23 here, I’d just got home from work, and I began to follow the news reports, although from what I could see of that first post, his body would not be able to sustain life after such an injury.

His death was not pronounced until after 2 pm, but most believe the death occurred at 12:23 instantaneously and that, thankfully, he was unable to process what was happening or experience any pain from it. So, in effect, he went from witnessing about Jesus to being in His Presence in the blink of an eye. 2 Corinthians 5:8

Immediately, condolences started flooding Facebook from those most impacted by his death, his close friends and associates, the President and Vice President, and me though I had never met him.

At the same time, celebratory comments began to trickle in which were absolutely appalling! Due to the age in which we live, those comments were shared, and some of the recipients with whom they were shared have been instrumental in seeing those individuals removed from positions of power and influence, especially power and influence over our children.

The posts, good and bad, continue today and have caused me to come to the decision that I need a break from FB. Further blog posts will not be mentioned on FB unless someone else wants to talk about them there.

Many posts stated that Charlie Kirk was assassinated for political reasons. His alleged killer was raised in a conservative household with conservative values but was “radicalized” probably at least in part by his college.

But there is something more significant going on here. Clearly there is a spiritual aspect to this that cannot be ignored. Charlie was the first well-known and influential American to be killed for his faith on American soil.

Consider other Christian martyrs in the halls of HIStory. I did a quick Google search and found a lengthy list. Aside from Jesus’ disciples, all but two of whom were martyred, the following individuals whose names I recognize were included:

Paul (Greek name Saul of Tarsus, writer of a large portion of the New Testament)

Mark (writer of the Gospel of Mark)

Luke (writer of the Gospel of Luke and the book of the Acts of the Apostles)

Timothy

Philemon

Polycarp of Smyrna

Justin Martyr

Joan of Arc

William Tyndale

Dietrich Bonhoeffer

Jim Elliott

Charlie Kirk was not on the list. Of course, this list was generated by Wikipedia which stated in the opening paragraph that it “is a dynamic list and may never be able to satisfy particular standards for completeness.”

My guess is that Charlie’s name will soon appear on that list.

In just 4 days, I’ve read several stories of young people (and older ones) who repented and gave their hearts to Jesus because of Charlie’s ministry, a ministry which continues even though he is with our Lord. Who knows how many there actually are and will be in the days, weeks, months, and years to come should Jesus tarry? 2 Peter 3:8-9

Oh, to have a witness that continues after I am gone!

I am not an influencer in any way, shape, or form. I am an elderly woman with professionally diagnosed level I autism (FKA Asperger’s). It is at least partially because of this that I am disengaging from FB, at least for a time until YHWH heals my heart. My only close friends are my children and sisters; aside from that all my “conversation” comes from what I read. What I’ve read recently has hurt me, and I must not look at FB right now.

Despite my “weird wiring”, YHWH has honored me by placing me somewhere I can minister to others, a handful of small rural churches in central Illinois. I’ve been doing this for several years now. Until today, I followed the advice of my mentors within that denomination to “avoid those verses that might get me in trouble” because there are plenty of other verses from which to choose.

Because I was not convinced that the wonderful people in those churches were all believers in the full Truth of Jesus Christ . . . or . . . had more progress to make in their sanctification journeys (the latter group includes me and everyone else still residing here in the land of the living Psalm 27:13), I believe YHWH wanted and wants me to remain right where I am, so, I pretty much followed that advice. The only time I veered resulted in a finger in my chest and a “what news channel to do you listen to?” from a congregant in one of the churches.

A finger in the chest is hardly the same thing as a bullet to the neck!

Today I was bold. This is because of the example of boldness displayed for me by this new martyr!

Although I spoke my original sermon from Acts 28:30-31 and my sermon was written out in its entirety (a practice I follow fairly strictly to avoid saying something I don’t intend to and which I can do fairly well since I can read as though I am speaking), I started the preaching time by reading Luke 12:49-59 and then correlating that to what I’ve been seeing on FB. What I shared was not written out beforehand, and I was afraid I would misspeak.

How many times does YHWH tell us in His Word not to be afraid?

I knew what I shared would not be well received by everyone there, and it was not. After church I was approached by one of the women whom I suspected might be offended and was able to counsel her about the Biblical basis for believing the way I do. I believe the words I spoke during the message and those I shared with her afterward will accomplish their intended purpose.

As I was reading the passage from Luke 12 out loud, some words. . . one word. . . struck me. Luke 12:55 reads “And when the south wind blows, you say, ‘It will be hot,’ and it is.”

I wonder. . . is this true south of the equator?

When I received the paper describing my autism diagnosis, the psychologist was able to come up with three strengths: “intelligent, open to feedback, and curious.” Because I’m open to feedback, both positive and negative, and curious enough to do more research on dissenting opinions, please feel free to share your thoughts with me at my email address jacquelinemcdougall@ymail.com. Also, I pray and lovingly ask that you share this post with others. The name of my blog is JLM in Euroclydon.

Romans 8:28

Charlie Kirk is with Jesus.

That is not the only good thing to come from the bad thing of his assassination. One of those good things I shared in a previous paragraph.

Earlier today, I read something on FB speculating his beautiful widow, Erika, might make a good President. Maybe Vice President J D Vance read that post, too, and is considering her for a running mate.

On the other hand, her soul is the most important thing, and it would be so hard to maintain her relationship with YHWH in that position.

On the 3^rd hand, one must remember Esther, though, and her being used by YHWH for “such as time as this.” Esther 4:14

Another good thing that is probably applicable to me only is that one of the devout men I follow on FB is probably not the greatest for me to follow as he is not a believer in Jesus. It is obvious from his recent FB posts that he is taking the death of Charlie very badly—sincere grief is written all over his countenance—and that may be affecting what he shares in his posts, but what he is saying makes it clear that followers of Jesus, including me, need to be more careful in whose teachings we follow, no matter how closely their moral compasses and/or political beliefs align with our own.

I have shared several Bible references in this post. Following one of them I shared the verse as well. However, I’m going to try to get away from that except when necessary for context, because. . .

. . . I want you to look them up in your Bible. My prayer is that this post and other posts and writings of mine which you might stumble across out there will lead you closer to YHWH as you listen to Him for yourself when you look at what He has to say in your Bible.

God bless you. Shalom shalom.

The Wonder of Chesed

I gave serious consideration to titling this “IS LOVE LOVE?” which is a rearrangement of words of a phrase currently in common use. The thing about love is. . . it comes from many different words, some Greek, one Latin. Here are 9 of them.

Agápe brotherly love, charity; the love of God for person and of person for God. Agape is used in ancient texts to denote feelings for one’s children and the feelings for a spouse, and it was also used to refer to a love feast. In a couple months, I will be participating in a love feast when I take another Walk to Emmaus, this time working in the room that is called the Agape Chapel. It is a room where every one of the 50+ participants in a Walk to Emmaus retreat goes to be prayed over at one or more points during the weekend. There are usually 3-4 workers there who spend the entire 3 days praying, sometimes even staying overnight in the chapel praying when no one else is around. Sunday afternoon, following the closing ceremony every follower of Jesus leaves will a full serving of agape on board.
Éros love is romantic passion or love of the human body. This is the love that will be celebrated on Wednesday. It is also the cause of much sin.
Philia means affectionate regard, friendship, usually “between equals”. Philadelphia is called the city of brotherly love.
Storge means “love, affection especially of parents and children”. It is the common or natural empathy, like that felt by parents for offspring. I believe it is also a supernaturally augmented by God, and I certainly experienced it myself upon the birth of each of my children.
Philautia means “self-love”. To love oneself has been conceptualized both as a basic human necessity and as a moral flaw, akin to vanity and selfishness. We are instructed in the Bible to love our neighbors as ourselves (Mt 22:37-39). If we do not have love for ourself as a masterpiece of our great creator (Ps 139:14), what sort of love would we be giving our neighbor?
Xenia describes the concept of hospitality, “guest-friendship”, or “ritualized friendship”.

Dictionary.com adds in

Mania is an obsessive love such as the type of love a stalker feels toward his/her victim.

And

Pragma is love based on duty, obligation, or logic

Those are all Greek words. In addition, there is the Latin word

Ludus means playful love. This could be likened to children at play. I think it is also the type of love being felt when one expresses a profound appreciation of something; i.e., I love chesed.

Truly love is not love. There’s more to it than that.

Agape love is, of course, the love most closely resembling that of YHWH toward us. But if you think about some of the original words for love, storge and even mania could be aspects of His feeling toward us. Mania? Really. Look at Psalm 23:6, Ezekiel 34:11 and Rev 3:20.

I don’t quote all the scriptures here; please look them up. Maybe one of them will become so relevant to you at your current stage in life that you will return to it again and again inadvertently memorizing it without even realizing you are doing so.

There have been several verses over the course of my life of serving YHWH that have been life changing. They don’t even necessarily include passages such as the 23^rd Psalm, the Lord’s Prayer, or even John 3:16 although that one is our faith-defining verse. Here are some verses that have been life altering for me during different seasons of my life.

2 Timothy 1:7

1 Corinthians 6:19-20

Jonah 2:8

Zephaniah 3:17

The one I’m using a lot right now is Romans 12:2

Each of these reads a bit differently in the translations I most enjoy. For example, the NASB translation of Jonah 2:8: “Those who are followers of worthless idols abandon their faithfulness.” I mean, that’s good, right? But it wouldn’t have necessarily leapt off the page at me in that translation. Now the OJB version: “They that observe lying vanities forsake their own chesed.”

Wow!

The word chesed is a Hebrew word which could also mean love, but really means so much more than that.

When I first read that verse, this is the picture my mind created.

That is, of course, not the type of vanity YHWH was speaking of when he gave Jonah these words. But I think it fits. The reflection you see looking in the mirror is the same image the world sees. It is chesed, though, that tells the truth, not vanity, not this vanity and not the vanities Jonah speaks of which translate into worthless idols. It is not even love or at least some of its forms.

For a more complete picture of the original meaning of Jonah 2:8, please visit https://claudemariottini.com/2010/03/16/forsaking-their-%E2%80%9Chesed%E2%80%9D/ written by Claude Mariottini. It provides one of the best explanations of chesed (sometimes spelled with an “h” instead of a “ch”) I’ve read AND will explain why I think chesed is a superior word to love.

When you are comparing Bible translations, you should always do so under guidance of Holy Spirit. Here’s one good reason.

Recently I came across the following on FB posted by a renowned worship leader I follow. “With my whole heart, with my whole life, and with my innermost being, I bow in wonder and love before you, the holy God! YAHWEH, you are my soul’s celebration. How could I ever forget the miracles of kindness you’ve done for me? You kissed my heart with forgiveness, in spite of all I’ve done. You’ve healed me inside and out from every disease. You’ve rescued me from hell and saved my life. You’ve crowned me with love and mercy. You satisfy my every desire with good things. You’ve supercharged my life so that I soar again like a flying eagle in the sky!”

Surely she was citing the words to one of the worship songs she wrote. Then I discovered that was not the case. She was quoting Psalm 103:1-5. I LOVED (ludus, anyone?) it, but having read the Psalms many times, I didn’t recall ever reading those words there. Then I saw the translation she was using. The Passion Translation.

This has been in past years one of my favorites, and I used it frequently in sermons.

However, in 2022 Bible Gateway, which I also use a lot, made the decision to remove The Passion Translation from its list of 90 English translations/paraphrases. The Living Bible and The Message, both of which are considered paraphrases rather than translations, are still present on Bible Gateway. When I was a teenager I received something called “The Way” as a gift from my parents. It’s the New Testament, Psalms, and Proverbs in the Living Bible which was at the time considered a translation. Not relevant, but don’t the 2 guys on the bottom look like Kevin Tighe and Randolph Mantooth from Emergency?

The difference between a translation and a paraphrase?

I couldn’t really find a reasonable explanation on a google search, but this is what I believe which may or not be correct. A translation takes the original text and translates it into the English language (or the language of the reader) using the same words. A paraphrase takes the original text and rewrites it to convey the presumed meaning of the original text. This makes the rendering of the paraphrase open to the interpretation of the one who compiles it. . . and. . . it may not completely reflect YHWH’s thoughts. Bible Gateway deems that both the Living Bible and The Message are acceptable but not The Passion Translation. Why?

The gist of the reasoning behind this seems to be that

The Passion Translation’s creator maintains it is a translation rather than a paraphrase.
He states his intention in its creation was to quote “expand the essential meaning of the original language by highlighting the essence of God’s original message” endquote.

Do not those 2 things contradict one another?

So, in recent years I’ve been using TPT as a devotional rather than the Word of God. Devotionals are helpful in gaining a better understanding of God and His Word. Devotionals are not the Word of God.

Here is another example of TPT text.

“Pray like this: ‘Our Beloved Father, dwelling in the heavenly realms, may the glory of your name be the center on which our lives turn. Manifest your kingdom realm, and cause your every purpose to be fulfilled on earth, just as it is in heaven. We acknowledge you as our Provider of all we need each day. Forgive us the wrongs we have done as we ourselves release forgiveness to those who have wronged us. Rescue us every time we face tribulation and set us free from evil. For you are the King who rules with power and glory forever. Amen.’”

Did you recognize those words?

They are the Passion Translation version of the Lord’s Prayer found in Matthew 6:9-13. One phrase does not appear in any form in the version of The Lord’s Prayer we use which comes from the Book of Common Prayer and most closely resembles the words found in the New Matthew Bible (that’s a new one for me that I need to check out) translation. Nor does this phrase appear in any other Bible translation.

“Rescue us from every tribulation.”

This illustrates a possible explanation for why Bible Gateway no longer provides TPT in any of its 90 Bible translations/paraphrases. One only has to look at the situations faced by Christians in other countries, particularly 3^rd world countries, to see that God does not always “rescue us from tribulation”.

Clearly, there are a lot of Bibles out there, especially in America. If you are a Christian, Holy Spirit lives within you; but is He leading you? He will not steer you wrong regarding the Word of God. I don’t believe He has steered me wrong in choosing chesed over love.

These 3 human beings, all Valentine’s babies, showed me chesed to the best of their abilities:

On the left is my father-in-law by my first marriage, in the middle is my wonderful Rod, and on the right is my Grandma Stauffer who died when I was 7 years old. Now they are members of the great cloud of witnesses (Hebrews 12:1-2) cheering me on.

On Wednesday, when you think about the day that we celebrate, remember the word chesed and that it not only means the versions of love that we could attribute to YHWH but it includes mercy, grace, faithfulness, true loyalty, commitment, covenant, and even the Creator, YHWH Himself. There is capital T Truth to the statement God is chesed and, therefore, chesed is chesed; and it is truly wonderful.

Shalom.

4 Dimensional YHWH

Yesterday, during my coaching call with my Revelation Within coach, we discussed YHWH’s 4 dimensionality

I had heard this discussed recently by, I believed at the time, one of my favorite podcasters (my favorite outside Heidi and Christina) that God is 4 dimensional, but we humans live in a 3-dimensional world; that’s a big part of the dichotomy we experience. Thinking about it, though, I believe instead of Brant Hanson it might have been my current favorite preacher from whom I heard this tidbit of wisdom. He may have shared the verse, but I didn’t write it down and didn’t remember it.

Yesterday, Christina and I visited Romans 8:38-39 which is similar but not exactly the same.

This morning, when I opened my HIStory Bible, my reading was in Ephesians 4. This is what I read: verse 16 really jumped out at me “that He would GRANT YOU, ACCORDING TO THE RICHES OF HIS GLORY, TO BE STRENGTHENED WITH POWER THROUGH HIS SPIRIT IN THE INNER SELF, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith, and that you , being rooted and grounded in love may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is THE WIDTH AND HEIGHT AND LENGTH AND DEPTH , and to know the love of Christ which SURPASES KNOWLEDGE that you may be filled to all the goodness of God.” Every word is great, but I’ve capped the ones that are especially relevant to me.

I love how YHWH knows my thoughts, those I speak and those I don’t. He is such a personal, intimate, knowing bridegroom (knowing surpasses knowledge). And I’m so glad the Bible doesn’t call Him a husband, rather a bridegroom, the one who stands at the front of the church as you enter and His eyes nearly pop out of His head and a big grin appears on His face when he first sees you in all your bridal attire. Not the one with whom you have “words” over the children, the bills, the house, etc.