Deliver us from evil...

Sing praise to YHVH, you His godly ones, and give thanks to His holy name.
For His anger is but for a moment, His favor is for a lifetime;
Weeping may last for the night, but a shout of joy comes in the morning.
Psalm 30:4-5

What a night! I awoke with a burden on my heart ...not for the soul of someone else, but for my own. Feeling dull and useless to my beloved Y'shua-Jesus, cast aside, and lost in my own thoughts instead of His; all I could do was pray "The Lords Prayer". It is what I do when my mind does not co-operate with my heart.

I love Hebrew. John Parsons of Hebrew for Christians, has written an essay on the Hebrew translation and meaning of the Lord's prayer. I go back to that essay when my mind is only spitting up rote words instead of letting my heart cry out to Messiah. The Spirit of the Almighty led me directly to the problem.

.Matthew 6:13b ..deliver us from evil...  hatzileinu min-hara

John Parsons essay said that this idea is yetzer hara.

...the inner impulse to gravitate toward selfish gratification (idolatry). This concept first appears in Genesis 6:5 where the wickedness of man is described as "every imagination yetzer of the thoughts of his heart was only evil ra"...

It is overwhelming to realize that my problem with sin is exactly the problem that brought the flood! Could my beloved LORD be sorry that he wasted His time with someone like me? Genesis 6:6-7 Despair! What hope is there for me? Wouldn't the evil one, min-hara be delighted if he could freeze us up with that horrible thought. I was almost there in the darkness of my morning.

Is God finished with me? Feeling a little numb I started flipping through Facebook and came across an Anne Graham-Lotz post. It was a verse of scripture that ended with the hash-tag #PrayerAndPraise. Why was that on FB? Aren't hash-tags for twitter? Curious, I clicked on it and came to a page filled with encouragement. The love of God began to flood every fiber of my being.

The LORD is near to all who call on him, to all who call on him in truth. Psalm 145:18 NIV #PrayerAndPraise 

Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit of life set me free from the law of sin and death. Romans 8:1-2 NIV #PrayerAndPraise 

he will swallow up death forever. The Sovereign LORD will wipe away the tears from all faces; he will remove the disgrace of his people from all the earth. The LORD has spoken. Isaiah 25:8 NIV #PrayerAndPraise

On and on it went until I came to Philippians 1:6

being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.  Philippians 1:6 NIV #PrayerAndPraise

The amazing love that filled my soul and set my spirit to singing! I wanted to make this old body dance, to lift up my hands in praise... but for the sleeping, hard working man next to me who needed a few more hours of rest. Never mind! God is not through with me, I am not trash that He is sorry He tried to redeem. That is not who He is. With joy, I proclaim the words of Paul...

Just as you who were at one time disobedient to God have now received mercy as a result of their disobedience, so they too have now become disobedient in order that they too may now receive mercy as a result of God's mercy to you. For God has bound all men over to disobedience so that he may have mercy on them all.
    Oh, the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God!
    How unsearchable his judgments, and his paths beyond tracing out!
    "Who has known the mind of the Lord? Or who has been his counselor?"
    "Who has ever given to God, that God should repay him?"
    For from him and through him and to him are all things.
    To him be the glory forever! Amen.  Romans 11: 30-36 NIV #PrayerAndPraise :)

Mrs. Hagerty, July 25, 2016