Surrendered Hearts...

If therefore God gave them the same gift as He gave us when we believed on the Lord Jesus Christ, who was I that I could withstand God?” When they heard these things they became silent; and they glorified God, saying, “Then God has also granted to the Gentiles repentance to life.”—Acts 11:17-18

I loved the reaction of the Jewish believers in Jerusalem here.   Stunned silence and then surrendered hearts glorifying their God who had granted the Gentiles repentance to life.  God’s word and work of grace in their hearts allowed them to get past traditions and prejudice.  They wanted what God wanted.  Oh, Father, make this so in my own life. Align my will with Your own.  Make Your desires my desires.   May Your word work in my heart.  May I receive it with meekness (no argument) and allow it to soften and transform me so that both my heart and my life glorify You, my Father in Heaven.

Romans 9:15,16,23,24 (KJV)
15 For he saith to Moses, I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion. 16 So then [it is] not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that sheweth mercy. 23 And that he might make known the riches of his glory on the vessels of mercy, which he had afore prepared unto glory, 24 Even us, whom he hath called, not of the Jews only, but also of the Gentiles?

Romans 11:34-36 (KJV)
34 For who hath known the mind of the Lord? or who hath been his counsellor? 35 Or who hath first given to him, and it shall be recompensed unto him again? 36 For of him, and through him, and to him, [are] all things: to whom [be] glory for ever. Amen.

2 Corinthians 3:18 (KJV)
18 But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, [even] as by the Spirit of the Lord.

Blockish, Senseless and Stupid....

Those who make them become like them, so do all who trust in them.  (Psalms 135:18, ESV)

Those who make them become like them...blockish, senseless and stupid. SO THANKFUL for the Lord’s grace and mercy in my life...that He pulled me up out of the horrible pit, out of the miry clay and rescued me. My God turned my heart  from looking at worthless things and revived me in His way.

And you He made alive, who were dead in trespasses and sins...But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved)...For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.
—Ephesians 2:1;4-5;10