The Overwhelming Importance of Christians approaching God with Right Heart Motives!

26 Sep 2026 Leave a comment

by randyobrien50 in Christian Thoughts and Inspiration., Daily Devotion, Daily Inspiration, Inspirational Living, Spiritual Living Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Today’s Scrip-Bit   26 September 2026   Jeremiah 33:3.

Jeremiah 33:3.        Call unto me, and I will answer thee, and shew thee great and mighty (inaccessible) things, which thou knowest not.

It’s our lazy-day Saturday my brethren, another warm and sunshiny autumn day. We certainly have been blessed with quite a few good days recently, but on the other side of the equation, we haven’t seen any rain, which is also necessary for things to run smoothly. And by the way friends, you’ll notice that we’re on a much earlier bus today, that’s because I’ve given up some of my lazy time to come down and write the Bit. Yuh see, like Jesus, I’m sacrificing for you. (smile)

Anyway, enough talk, let’s offer up our Lazy-Day Saturday Prayer in all sincerity and truth. As one strong voice: ‘Lord, I want to be with You now. Please slow my thoughts and quiet my soul. Let my muscles relax, my breath deepen. You are here with me – Your peace and LOVE are present. I marvel to think You can’t be contained, that Your LOVE both surrounds and fills me. Thank You for this tenderness, Lord. I praise You for Your unceasing nearness. Increase my awareness of You today, that I may know You all the more. Amen!’ 

And as always, if our hearts conveyed the right motives, then the Lord will soon bless us with a sense of calm and peace that surpasses all understanding, for He just LOVES it when His human creation comes a calling for greater intimacy with Him. It’s something that He’s entreated us to do several times in His Word. Listen as He says through the prophet Jeremiah while he was imprisoned. ‘Thus saith the Lord the maker thereof, the Lord that formed it, to establish it; the Lord (Yahweh, Jehovah) is his name; Call unto me, and I will answer thee, and shew thee great and mighty (inaccessible) things, which thou knowest not.’ (Jer. 33:3)

And we know the Lord doesn’t make empty or useless promises, so if He says that something good will happen when we do something, then we ought to do it, if we’re wise. Earlier on in Jeremiah,, the Lord also made it clear that He was in our court, when Jeremiah proclaims on His behalf.  ‘For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the Lord, thoughts of peace, and not of evil (calamity), to give you an expected end (a future and a hope). Then shall ye call upon me, and ye shall go and pray unto me, and I will hearken unto (listen to) you. and ye shall seek me, and find me, when ye shall search for me with all your heart.’ (Jer. 29:11-13)

That’s plain and straightforward my people. But please note the importance of that last verse. Before we can find the Lord, we have to seek Him, and not just seek Him, but seek Him with all of our hearts; that’s right motives. And that’s something many of us don’t do. We cry out to the Lord for help, but our hearts aren’t in sync with Him.

It’s as Jesus quotes Isaiah, (29:13) when talking about the Jewish traditions as opposed to God’s law. ‘Ye hypocrites, well did Esaias prophecy of you, saying, This people draweth nigh (near) unto me with their mouth, and honoureth me with their lips; but their heart is far from me. But in vain they do worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men.’ (Matt. 15:7-9)

Ah friends, that’s so prevalent nowadays! Yes, too many of us simply offer lip service to the Lord, saying the right religious words, and pretending to honour God outwardly, while our motives, inner thoughts and LOVE are completely disconnected from Him. But yet we expect Him to hear and honour our requests. That’s a fool’s wisdom my brethren!

And if that’s what we’re currently doing, then there is a way to change it all, as Isaiah says when he talks about God abundantly pardons. ‘Seek ye the Lord while he may be found, call ye upon him while he is near: Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts: and let him return unto the Lord, and he will have mercy upon him; and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon.’ (Is. 55:6-7) Yes mih people, all we have to do is sincerely turn back to the Lord, and He will pardon us. It’s not rocket science but simple common sense.

And if you still don’t believe, then listen to what the Lord says through the psalmist in Psalm 91. ‘Because he hath set his LOVE upon me, therefore will I deliver him: I will set him on high, because he hath known my name. He shall call upon me, and I will answer him: I will be with him in trouble; I will deliver him, and honour him. With long life will I satisfy him, and shew him my salvation.’ (Ps. 91:14-16) Oh my fellow believers, that’s what the Lord does for those who sincerely LOVE and care for Him!

And just in case you forgot, like the Lord told Samuel when He sent him to anoint the next king of Israel from among the sons of Jesse, and he saw Eliab, the eldest son’s pleasing outward presence: ‘Look not on his countenance, or on the height of his stature; because I have refused (rejected) him: for the Lord seeth not as man seeth; for man looketh on the outward appearance, but the Lord looketh on the heart.’ (1 Sam. 16:7)

Yes friends, just a little reminder that we can go to the Lord with all the flowery speech we want, but the first place He looks at is our hearts, and if that isn’t right with Him, then we’re wasting our time. So, as we experience this first lazy-day Saturday of autumn, let’s take a look at our hearts and see if they are truly right with God. And if they are not, then lets turn to Him for the help that only He can give to make them right! That’s wisdom for the ages! Much LOVE!

…LOVING God…is what we were created for…

Hear our podcast at https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/randy-obrien   

Today’s Scrip-Bit   3 June 2023 Jeremiah 29:13.

03 Jun 2023 Leave a comment

by randyobrien50 in Christian Thoughts and Inspiration., Daily Devotion, Daily Inspiration, Inspirational Living, Spiritual Living Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Jeremiah 29:13.       And ye shall seek me and find me, when ye shall search for me with all your heart.

Well friends, it looks like this lazy-day Saturday is going to be another hot, dry, sunshiny summer’s day. Mother Earth is crying out for some water, for some respite from the lack of heavenly blessings, and I’m crying out for an end to the allergy nonsense that’s been harassing me all week. I haven’t had any allergy problems like this for years, and the sneezing, weepy eyes and runny nose are rather inconvenient and positively annoying. (smile) And the medication only seems to relieve it for such a short time. Chuh! But as they say: that’s life! And we just have to grin and bear it as best we can. 

And by the way, I have decided to use that prayer I shared last Saturday from the In Touch Devotional as our Lazy-Day Saturday Prayer, since it seems appropriate for a quiet, lazy, relaxing, God-filled day. (smile)  However, unlike our other Scrip-Bit Prayers, this one will come at the beginning rather than at the end. So, without further ado, let’s pray our Lazy-day Saturday Prayer. 

As one sincere voice: ‘Lord, I want to be with You now. Please slow my thoughts and quiet my soul. Let my muscles relax, my breath deepen. You are here with me – Your peace and LOVE are present. I marvel to think You can’t be contained, that Your LOVE both surrounds and fills me. Thank You for this tenderness, Lord. I praise You for Your unceasing nearness. Increase my awareness of You today, that I may know You all the more. Amen!’ 

Yes mih people! I like it, because it’s calming and soothing and takes us into the presence of God, where we diligently seek to find and know Him, which is exactly what He says He desires of us. And we can find one instance of that scripture in Jeremiah 29, where the Lord promises the Israelites their captivity in Babylon will only last for seventy years, then they will return home. 

‘For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the Lord, thoughts of peace, and not of evil (calamity), to give you an expected end (a future and a hope). Then shall ye call upon me, and ye shall pray unto me, and I will hearken unto (listen to) you. And ye shall seek me and find me, when ye shall search for me with all your heart.’ (Jer. 29:11-13) 

Yes my fellow believers, our God desires us to seek and search for Him with all our heart, that’s diligently. And what does diligently seeking God mean? ‘It means we keep seeking God until we find Him, not resting until we hear from Him in our situation or circumstance. Doing something “diligently” means doing it energetically and persistently.’ 

Now, how many of us can truly say that’s how we are seeking God eh, if we are seeking Him at all? Are we truly seeking Him with all of our heart, or diligently, in these evil and trying times eh? It’s certainly not as many as ought it to be, otherwise our sway and power, that’s God word in the world would be much stronger. 

And why do we need to seek God, besides His command? This commentary tells it nicely. ‘You long to be noticed, understood, and valued – to feel at home. When we feel out of place – like exiles – God is listening to us. He reminds us of his presence and his promise to bring us home.’ 

Oh, that’s for sure my fellow believers! And it’s just a reflection of our Lazy-Day Saturday Prayer, where we’re in an uncomfortable, unsure frame of mind, and need assurance of our worth and value, that someone out there truly LOVES and desires the best for us…and that someone is God Almighty! He is the ONLY One that LOVES us in that understanding and unconditional manner. All those others who claim to LOVE us have conditions attached to their LOVE, but not our heavenly Father. 

That’s why we can behave unseemly, inappropriately and His LOVE for us will not change. Oh, we will pay a price for our disobedience, but that doesn’t change His LOVE one iota. Our heavenly Father practices what I believe we call tough LOVE. That’s means His LOVE is steadfast, but you won’t get away with nonsense, you will pay for your disobedience. And oh, how I wish that more of us earthly parents had practiced tough LOVE on this current generation, for they would certainly not have been as irresponsible, entitled and ungodly as they are. But that’s another sermon for another time. (smile) 

And as always, Cousin Sol has something to cover every scripture. For our scripture of diligently seeking God, he says: ‘I LOVE them that LOVE me; and those that seek me early (diligently) shall find me.’ (Prov. 8:17) There’s no doubt about that my people! 

And the psalmist in Psalm 91, concurs with all that we’ve been saying, when he wrote these marvellous words of reassurance in our wonderful God. ‘Because he hath set his LOVE upon me, therefore will I deliver him: I will set him on high, because he hath known my name. He shall call upon me, and I will answer him: I will be with him in trouble; I will deliver him, and honour him. With long life (length of days) will I satisfy him, and shew him my salvation.’ (Ps. 91:14-16) 

Mama Mia! That’s what we get for seeking God diligently and sincerely my faithful brethren! We all want honour and safety and long life and salvation, and we go about seeking it either on our own or through man’s unfaithful help, but the surest way to get that is by sincerely and diligently seeking God. It’s the gospel truth friends! And there’s no better way to end this lazy-day Saturday, than with these astounding words of truth and faith from Jesus as He winds down His Sermon on the Mount. 

He sincerely advises: ‘Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you. For every one that asketh receiveth; and he that seeketh findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened. Or what man is there of you, whom if his son ask bread, will he give him a stone? Or if he ask a fish, will he give him a serpent? If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your Father which is in heaven give good things to them that ask him?’ (Matt. 7:7-11) 

That says it all friends! And I’m pleading with us, on this lazy-day Saturday, let’s take some time to ponder our relationship to our heavenly Father, consider whether we are truly seeking Him diligently and sincerely, in other words, with all of our hearts, because the quality of our lives depend on it, as that’s what we were made for! Much LOVE!

…God created man…to seek Him…above everything else… 

 Hear our podcast at https://open.spotify.com/show/3aVfqIC1CqwGybISs9dZ       

Today’s Scrip-Bit 27 April 2018 Joshua 1:9.

27 Apr 2018 Leave a comment

by randyobrien50 in Christian Thoughts and Inspiration., Daily Devotion, Daily Inspiration, Inspirational Living, Spiritual Living Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Joshua 1:9.    Have not I commanded thee? be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee whithersoever thou goest. 

Well a good morning to you my friends and Scrip-Bit family! Today is the Big Day! Yes, today the ole fella is going down to St. Michael’s Hospital, in Toronto, at long last, to have the tumour growing on his Pituitary Gland removed. Glory Be! And that’s why the Bit is so early. 

The tumour’s been hanging around for so long now that I’ve become accustomed to it, and after it’s removed, I’ll have to adjust to a new normal. But I can handle that. (smile) So all I’m asking is for you faithful fellow believers to bombard heaven with prayers for the success of the operation. (smile) Ask the Lord to guide the hands and hearts and heads of the medical team to do their best work, and to keep me strong and faithful. 

Now today is also Friday, so we have to consider the workingman’s song of freedom from unfair labour. ‘TGIF! Thank God is Friday! Our best friend, the weekend is here again! Time to let our hair down again and enjoy ourselves as much as we can, with whatever the crazy world has to offer; say, sex, drugs and rock and roll! Whatever is out there is ours for the taking. And yuh better believe we going to take it in these two short days off. Thank God for Fridays and weekends oui!’  

Ah mih people, the workingman surely goes out on a limb, but we believers in Jesus Christ can’t afford to do the same. We’re not allowed to be that lustful and licentious because our Lord and Saviour has set up boundaries of proper standards for us to adhere to. That’s why our Friday Chant is so much different from the ordinary workingman’s song. 

So let’s chant our Friday Chant with as much enthusiasm as the workingman sang his song nuh. As one now: ‘Oh Lord, thanks for getting me safely through another week of work! It hasn’t been easy, but with your generous help, I made it through. 

Now, please help me to get sufficient fun, fellowship, rest and relaxation in these two short days off, so that I can be renewed and refreshed in soul, body and mind, to go back out and do it all over again next week, furthering your glorious kingdom with each step I take. I pray this in Jesus name. Amen!’ 

Yeh friends, our song is much more reserved, excluding the extremes that the workingman seems to favour. And as we come to our Bit, I have to chuckle because I came down here just now wondering what I was going to write about, but the Lord beat me to it. I usually put some bookmarks in my Bible between the pages of scripture I’m interested in using that day. 

Now apparently when I used something from the first chapter of Joshua recently, I left a bookmark there, so the Bible naturally opened there this morning, and the first words to greet my eyes were those of our Bit. ‘Have not I commanded thee? be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee whithersoever thou goest.’ 

Obviously the Lord was telling me that was my duty for today; to stand up strong and courageous, don’t be afraid of what I was about to go through. In other words reassuring me of His continual presence and His LOVING-kindness, and His promise to bring me through all adversity in better shape than before. 

Glory to our great and wonderful God my brethren! How can I not trust and be faithful to Him under those conditions eh? And in all my messages, that’s all I’m trying to get through to us: if you trust the Lord He will be faithful to you. As Bruh David so stoutly and proudly declares in the opening verse of Psalm 27: ‘The Lord is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? The Lord is the strength of my life; of whom shall I be afraid?’ (Ps.37:1) 

Ah my people, when you have the Lord as your ally, you need to fear no one or nothing at all, for He is always with you, wherever you go, looking out for you in all situations. And this is most appropriately set out in Psalm 91 – God is a refuge and fortress. ‘Because thou hast made the Lord, which is my refuge, even the Most High, thy habitation (dwelling place); There shall no evil befall thee, neither shall any plague come nigh thy dwelling. 

For he shall give his angels charge over thee, to keep thee in all thy ways. They shall bear (lift) thee up in their hands, lest thou dash (strike) thy foot against a stone. Thou shalt tread upon the lion and adder (cobra); the young lion and the dragon (serpent) shalt thou trample under feet’ (Ps.91:9-13) 

Oh friends, what glorious promises! And that’s not all. Hear the Lord’s declaration: ‘Because he has set his LOVE upon me, therefore will I deliver him: I will set him on high, because he hath known my name. He shall call upon me, and I will answer him: I will be with him in trouble; I will deliver him and honour him. With long life will I satisfy him, and show him my salvation.’ (Ps.91:14-16) 

Wow people, wow! I don’t remember if I featured this scripture in my recent messages on the promises of God, but if I didn’t, it certainly deserved to be amongst them. And if I did, we can certainly be reminded of it, so that we can stay faithful and courageous in the strength and joy of our God. 

Now I don’t know what shape I will be in tomorrow, so I can’t say exactly when the Bit will come out, but the Lord willing, it WILL come out at some time. So please remember me in your prayers, and talk to you some time tomorrow, the Lord in favour. 

And I don’t see why the Lord won’t be in favour, since I haven’t really accomplished the desires He’s put in my heart to exalt and glorify Him. So if He took me home now, then He’d be wasting all those desires. And if there’s one thing I know, our God is wise, He doesn’t waste his desires. (smile) Much LOVE!

…trust in the Lord with all your heart…and lean not unto thine own understanding…  (Prov.3:5)