#56. Deuteronomy 23-25 | A God Who Strongly Supports Those Whose Hearts Are Fully His

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This is a dwelling place from Entrusted Ministries, and we are all

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about helping you focus on what matters

for eternity in the day to day, whether

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you're out and about, dropping kids

off for school, gearing up for a busy

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day at home or on your commute to work,

wanting to cover your family in prayer.

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We're so grateful that we get to do

life with you a few minutes each day.

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As we go through scripture chronologically

this year, we're seeking to grow in our

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understanding of a perfect holy God,

but also how this can transform our

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families and what happens in our homes.

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If you're looking for a study that

would wrap this all together and

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what faithful biblical motherhood

really is, I encourage you to check

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out Entrusted with a Child's Heart.

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It is designed to help groups of

moms, whether at churches or at home,

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look to God's word to shape their

parenting because the trends of culture

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will come and go, but God's word is

time tested and worthy of our trust.

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On the Again podcast last week I

recorded a brief episode laying out

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the benefits and how it actually helps

your church leadership right now.

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So many churches are planning

what they're going to be doing

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in the fall, and although we

love that you're joining us here.

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We want you to have support and

fellowship with other moms at your

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church, so check out our resources.

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We have an amazing program for kids

too called Troopers, where they're

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learning what mom's learning, but

in a way that works just for them.

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I try so hard to just focus on

scripture with you, but after this much

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time together, we're friends, right?

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And how can I not tell you about something

that's had such an influence on my life?

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Alright, now let's get to

Deuteronomy 23 through 25.

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Do you believe we've already gone

through about 220 chapters of scripture?

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I know it's going so fast, but remember,

God is the main character of this story,

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and when we go this quickly, we're able

to see patterns like how faithful he

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is and how he longs to dwell with us.

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But we also know that there are things

we can do to hinder this relationship.

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And in chapter 23, we're given

some of those, just as I warned

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yesterday, don't compare these laws

to our culture and our date and age.

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Today, it's best to compare them to

the cultures around the Israelites.

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At this time still, there were a few

verses that really got my attention.

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23 5 tells us, but the Lord your

God would not listen to balam.

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Instead, the Lord your God turned

the curse into a blessing for you

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because the Lord your God loved you.

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Don't you love that?

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God is so sovereign over even the ways

that people have tried to hurt you.

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It's his purposes that will stand, and

I realize the context is making sure we

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have a little privacy when we're using

facilities, but I still love: 2314

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Because the Lord your God walks in the

midst of your camp to deliver you and

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to give up your enemies before you.

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Therefore, your camp must be holy so

that he may not see anything indecent

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among you and turn away from you.

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And this reminds me of one

of my mom's favorite verses.

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She always traveled with a few verses on

index cards above her visor in the car so

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she could memorize God's word on the go.

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And this is one, she had me

learn with her as a little girl.

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Second Chronicles 16, nine tells us.

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For the eyes of the Lord run to and

fro throughout the whole earth to

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give strong support to those whose

heart is blameless toward him.

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Aren't you thankful that you have a

God that is so omniscient and aware

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of what's going on, and that he's

omnipotent as well, all powerful,

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that he can give you strong support?

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When you feel like you're hidden

at home, changing diapers, washing

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dishes, doing the laundry, reading that

book again, breaking up the sibling

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squabble and mopping up the milk spill.

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God sees it all,

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he's looking for how he can support you.

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What an honor.

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Harriet Tubman was known

as the Moses of her people.

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And this next verse, always

makes me think of her.

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You shall not give up to his master.

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A slave who has escaped

from his master to you.

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He shall dwell with you in your midst.

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Isn't that beautiful?

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That God's intention was to bring

freedom to people when they were

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escaping an oppressive situation?

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He called his people to care for them.

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I see that repeatedly through the

words of Deuteronomy, as he calls

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us to care for orphans and widows

and the poor and the sojourner.

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I, when we get to chapter 24,

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Moses describes when a certificate

of divorce could be offered.

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This can be kind of confusing because

Malachi two 16 tells us God hates divorce.

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But Jesus brings clarity to in Matthew 19.

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and Pharisees came up to him and

tested him by asking, is it lawful

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to divorce one's wife for any cause?

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He answered.

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Have you not read that?

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He who created them from the beginning

made them male and female and said,

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therefore, a man shall leave his father

and his mother and hold fast to his

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wife, and the two shall become one flesh.

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So they are no longer two but one flesh.

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What?

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Therefore God has joined together?

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let not man separate they said to him.

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Why then did Moses command

one to give a certificate of

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divorce and to send her away?

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He said to them, because of your

hardness of heart, Moses allowed

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you to divorce your wives.

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But from the beginning it was not so,

and I say to you, whoever divorces

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his wife except for sexual immorality

and marries another, commits adultery.

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So even though Chapter 24 talks

about divorce, God wasn't setting

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a standard for utopian society.

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He was actually addressing

common practices.

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Of the day he was recognizing

divorce occurred and he was

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calling for it to be restricted.

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But Jesus brought clarity to that

highlighting that divorce was only allowed

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because of the hardness of their hearts.

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It's scary, isn't it?

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Because when I think about a

heart and heart, it reminds me.

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About Pharaoh and the Exodus, and I

certainly don't wanna be in that camp.

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When we fail to allow God to work

in this important relationship, it

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affects our walk with the Lord too.

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But we know this isn't a perfect

world, and we can be deeply

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impacted by the sin of others.

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If you have encountered that pain in your

family, I have deep compassion and I'll

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pray over that in the end of this episode.

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But I didn't wanna neglect an

opportunity to encourage us to

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have soft hearts before the Lord.

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Let's pick back up in chapter

24, beginning in verse five.

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When a man is newly married, he

shall not go out with the army or

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be liable for any other public duty.

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He shall be free at home one year to be

happy with his wife, whom he has taken.

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No one shall take a mill or an

upper millstone in pledge for That

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would be taking a life in pledge.

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And in verse 10, when you make your

neighbor alone of any sort, you shall not

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go into his house to collect his pledge.

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You shall stand outside and the

man to whom you make the loan

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shall bring the pledge out to you.

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And if he is a poor man, you shall not

sleep In his pledge, you shall restore

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to him the pledge as the sun sets that

he may sleep in his cloak and bless

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you, and it shall be righteousness

for you before the Lord your God.

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You shall not oppress a hired

worker who is poor and needy.

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Whether he is one of your brothers or

one of the sojourner who are in your land

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within your towns, you shall give him his

wages on the same day before the sunset.

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For he is poor and counts on it,

lest he cry against you to the

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Lord and you be guilty of sin.

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Fathers shall not be put to

death because of their children.

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Nor shall children be put to

death because of their fathers.

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Each one shall be put to

death for his own sin.

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You shall not prefer the justice due

to the sojourner or to the fatherless,

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or take a widow's garment and pledge,

but you shall remember that you

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were a slave in Egypt and the Lord

your God redeemed you from there.

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Therefore, I command you to do this

when you reap your harvest in your

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field and forget a sheath in the field.

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You shall not go back to get it.

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It shall be for the sojourner,

the fatherless, and the widow that

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the Lord your God, may bless you

in all the work of your hands.

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When you beat your olive trees,

you shall not go over them again.

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It shall be for the sojourner,

the fatherless, and the widow.

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when you gather the grapes of your

vineyard, you shall not strip it

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afterward, it shall be for the sojourner.

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The fatherless and the widow,

you shall remember that you were

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a slave in the land of Egypt.

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Therefore, I command you to do this.

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Isn't that the sweetest law that in the

first year of marriage, a man was not

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allowed to be part of the army or serve

in any other public way that he was

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to be at home and happy with his wife?

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We haven't seen that

word very much, have we?

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So it's a pretty sweet picture that God

is showing us that this is a relationship.

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He wants prioritized

and he wants to bless.

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When we were talking about Joseph

protecting the people from the coming

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famine, I told you about how much I

loved my new grain mill, so I appreciated

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reading God's heart in 24 6 that no

one should take a meal from someone

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because they'd be taking their life.

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God knew that the grinding of the grain

was providing food for the people,

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and he never wanted that opportunity

to feed themselves taken away.

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And this was repeated at the

end of the chapter that we're to

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leave things for people to glean.

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Obviously this will be different in how

we practice it now, but as difficult

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as it can be, when we plan out our

budgets we're to think about how we

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can save room for others, , especially

those groups that God highlighted.

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in Chapter 25, Moses tells us more about

how disputes should be settled in court

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and how to handle love, right marriages.

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And then this portion of scripture

wraps up by God saying, be fair

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in how you measure things, and

that the Amalekites deserve to

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be blotted out from under heaven

because they attacked the Israelites

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as they were coming out of Egypt.

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Let's pray that we would be

faithful in applying these

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principles in our lives today.

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Heavenly Father.

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We thank you for your steadfast love and

the compassion you have for widows, the

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fatherless, the sojourner and the poor.

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Thank you that you strongly support

those whose hearts are fully yours.

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We pray that you would have all of

our hearts, and if there are portions

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of it that we're holding back.

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Help us to surrender them fully.

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As we go about our day-to-day tasks,

when we feel unseen, or unappreciated,

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increase our awareness that you go with

us and made that knowledge, lighten our

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steps as your word tells us to be happy

in our marriages, I pray for a blessing

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of joy for those that are married,

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but for those that have experienced

the pain of divorce, whether in

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their family of origin or in their

own marriage, I pray for them.

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May those children sense you even

more as their heavenly Father

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and strengthen these mothers.

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To carry the load when it feels so

evident they have a double burden.

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We pray for restoration and healing

where possible, and as Jesus warned

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us against Hardheartedness, we pray

that you would help us overcome

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Any bitterness or brokenness that

exists within us, make us willing to

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be peacemakers as you called us to be.

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Jesus.

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It's in your name we pray.

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Amen.