Righteousness, Part 1

The word righteousness is overlooked and underworked. You may be wondering, what on earth is she talking about?  It is my desire to layout, briefly, why I dare to say such a thing.  Often times when people are led to Christ, the clergy or lay person will have them cite Romans 10:9, which says, “If you confess with your mouth Jesus is Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you shall be saved;”  end of story.  Rarely does the Romans 10:10 come into play. 

 IT SHOULD.  THIS IS A BIG DEAL!

If you take a closer look at this scripture, you will notice that at the end of Romans 10:9, there is no grammatical period (.) after the word saved.  However, there is a semi-colon, meaning that it continues into verse 10, which reads, “for with the heart man believes resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses resulting in salvation.”  People are so elated for the saved soul, ( believe I am too), the righteousness part many times is just skipped over. 

I know this may come as a shock to some, but if you were to examine these two scriptures, you will see for yourself, that when a person confesses Jesus as Lord, not only is he or she saved or receives salvation, but he or she also become the “righteousness of God".  Think about that for a minute.  You who were nobody is now the righteousness of God.   How powerful and awesome is that? This is good news and we should get so excited about it and tell everyone. Praise God!

Furthermore, if we are the righteousness of God, given to us by God himself through belief in His son Jesus Christ, we are no longer sinners. We can’t be both, sinners and the righteousness of God through Jesus Christ.  When God sees us and hears us, He sees us as His righteousness through his son, Jesus Christ. 

So declare today and every day, “I am the righteousness of God through Jesus Christ.”

Be Blessed!

Prayer Instructions

Have you ever wondered to yourself, how should I pray or what should I say when I pray?  Many years ago, I found myself at this crossroad.  However, I've learned how to pray and today I want to share with you the instructions of prayer.   If you will get your Bible and turn to the Gospel according to Matthew, Chapter 6, verses 5-8, you will see what Jesus said about prayer.

In verse 5, Jesus instructed us “not to pray as hypocrites for they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and on the street corners, in order to be seen.”   In other words, don’t pray for other people’s adoration and attention.  Don’t pray just to be seen so you can get all puffed up.    Also in this same verse, Jesus tells us to “go into your inner room, and when you have closed the door, pray to your Father who is in secret, and your Father who sees in secret will repay you.”  WOW!  Did you catch that?  God will reward us when we pray in secret. 

Prayer is a personal and sacred act and it should be done in our “prayer closet”, a place where you go to pray, or the actual act of prayer.  The place doesn’t necessarily mean a physical place, but also a place in your heart, in your time, in your quietness, in your zone; a place to open up and converse with God Almighty.  Now don’t confuse your personal prayer time with praying at church, corporate prayer or at a religious ceremony.  If you are asked to pray, by all means do so.

Jesus goes on to tell us in verse 6 that when we pray “we should not use meaningless repetition, as the Gentiles do, for they suppose that they will be heard for their many words.”  You see, it’s not how many words, but the faith of those words; your faith in those words.  When we pray we should not babble and babble, saying words without faith and not much thought.   We should pray what God’s Word as already said and believe by faith that He hears us and will answer us. 

 

When you pray today, tonight or right now, remember to pray in faith in God’s word whether it is a real place, a secret place of your heart or a secret place of quietness.  

Be Blessed.