Romans 5:1-5
                                                     We are justified by Faith.
Contrary to popular belief I do mess up.  All one has to do is take a look at my past, as recently as yesterday and one can see I mess up.  All one has to do is look at my attitude in politics, or towards certain people and one can see I really do mess up.  I don’t always act in love, I mess up.  However, I am justified.  Not by any good thing that I do, mind you. But I am justified because my faith is not in myself.  My faith is in him whom gave all he had to give so I could once again walk into the presence of our Father.   All those mess ups, their gone. The blood of Christ took them from me. He has removed them as far as the east is from the west.  My friend what I have just laid out here is man’s plight.  We have forgiveness; all we have to do is ask for it.  All we have to do is ask the person we have hurt, and go to the Father through the Son by the Spirit, ask for forgiveness and it is granted.  Does that mean there are no consequences?  I am afraid the answer to that question is no.  All one has to do is look at David. He was forgiven for his sin with Bathsheba. He was forgiven for the murder of Uriah. Yet the sword never passed from his family.  Our actions have results. Those results are sometimes very unpleasant. They will not keep us out of God’s presence if we repent. That still does not minimize the results of our actions.   So here is the bottom line here.  WE NEED TO PRAY BEFORE WE ACT!  You see our Faith can come into action in two ways.  We can act on our own, mess up, and go to our Father through the Son by the Spirit and get forgiveness. Or we can go to the Father through the Son by the Spirit before we act, wait for an answer, and not sin in the first place. Taking the above steps has kept me out of a lot of trouble.  When I don’t do the above I tend to get messed up. So here is the bottom line. We pray first we can usually stay out of trouble. Father through his spirit will give us guidance. Or we can do things on our own, and see things get totally messed up at times. This forces us into a position to go to Father through the Son by the Spirit in prayer.  Either way we go to the Father in prayer. It makes simple sense to pray first.
Pray first
Go in Peace
Michael