Psalm 66:16-20 NLT
I've spent the last few hours going through cards, letters, old bills, old newspaper articles... a sales ad! Really?!? Most of it, I can recycle or shred, but right in the middle of it, some old family pictures. I don't know how they got mixed in with all that. Stuffing the stuff...
In the course of it, I happened upon some great and some not-so-great memories, but in my heart, I "visited" some of the milestones and landmarks of my life. God is so good! I am grateful to be able to remember, and I am grateful that I have the advantage of age to look back with an attitude of gratitude for all God has brought me through! At times like this, I always go back to what turned my life around and brought me to God, and I just felt like tonight, I wanted to share it again.
For me, it was this song. Help Me. Larry Gatlin wrote it and recorded it with Kris Kristofferson in 1972. I bought the record then, but didn't listen to it until sometime around 1980. A brief history of me at that time - paycheck on Friday, go to the bank, go to the liquor store, be drunk all weekend, sober up enough on Sunday to go to work on Monday. Be sick till Wednesday. Be good on Thursday, and start all over again on Friday. Broken. I was so broken...
This is my testimony - the shortened version. I'd been raised in church by a mother who tried, but I decided at 16 that I could never be good enough (I didn't know about God's amazing grace), so I walked away. By the time I listened to the entire song of Help Me, (ten years later), I was desperate. I knew I needed to get back to God, but couldn't find my way. I'd forgotten how to pray. I couldn't bring myself to even try to talk to God after all I'd done in a decade of debauchery. That's when I found the 45rpm record in my collection for the final time and actually listened to it all the way through for the FIRST time. God used my favorite singer to throw me a lifeline.
I am convinced that God gave that song to Larry Gatlin for me. It was the prayer of my life - for my life, of exactly where I was, and exactly what I needed.
If this resonates with you, let me tell you this. You're never too far gone. You've never done more than God will forgive. Jesus has already willingly paid the price for your soul. His grace truly IS amazing. God loves you and He will use everything at His command to get to you. Let Him know when you realize you need His help.
Prayer:
Father,
I pray for the one reading this right now who needs to know Your saving grace. Please reveal Yourself in a very personal way so they know it's You. Save souls, heal their mind, body and spirit, and set them free from those things that tie them in knots, Father. Put people or things in their way that will point them to You. In Jesus' Name we pray. Amen
I've spent the last few hours going through cards, letters, old bills, old newspaper articles... a sales ad! Really?!? Most of it, I can recycle or shred, but right in the middle of it, some old family pictures. I don't know how they got mixed in with all that. Stuffing the stuff...
In the course of it, I happened upon some great and some not-so-great memories, but in my heart, I "visited" some of the milestones and landmarks of my life. God is so good! I am grateful to be able to remember, and I am grateful that I have the advantage of age to look back with an attitude of gratitude for all God has brought me through! At times like this, I always go back to what turned my life around and brought me to God, and I just felt like tonight, I wanted to share it again.
For me, it was this song. Help Me. Larry Gatlin wrote it and recorded it with Kris Kristofferson in 1972. I bought the record then, but didn't listen to it until sometime around 1980. A brief history of me at that time - paycheck on Friday, go to the bank, go to the liquor store, be drunk all weekend, sober up enough on Sunday to go to work on Monday. Be sick till Wednesday. Be good on Thursday, and start all over again on Friday. Broken. I was so broken...
This is my testimony - the shortened version. I'd been raised in church by a mother who tried, but I decided at 16 that I could never be good enough (I didn't know about God's amazing grace), so I walked away. By the time I listened to the entire song of Help Me, (ten years later), I was desperate. I knew I needed to get back to God, but couldn't find my way. I'd forgotten how to pray. I couldn't bring myself to even try to talk to God after all I'd done in a decade of debauchery. That's when I found the 45rpm record in my collection for the final time and actually listened to it all the way through for the FIRST time. God used my favorite singer to throw me a lifeline.
I am convinced that God gave that song to Larry Gatlin for me. It was the prayer of my life - for my life, of exactly where I was, and exactly what I needed.
If this resonates with you, let me tell you this. You're never too far gone. You've never done more than God will forgive. Jesus has already willingly paid the price for your soul. His grace truly IS amazing. God loves you and He will use everything at His command to get to you. Let Him know when you realize you need His help.
Prayer:
Father,
I pray for the one reading this right now who needs to know Your saving grace. Please reveal Yourself in a very personal way so they know it's You. Save souls, heal their mind, body and spirit, and set them free from those things that tie them in knots, Father. Put people or things in their way that will point them to You. In Jesus' Name we pray. Amen
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