{"id":43974,"date":"2024-05-12T08:19:00","date_gmt":"2024-05-12T12:19:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.westbendnews.net\/autonews\/?p=43974"},"modified":"2024-05-07T09:23:16","modified_gmt":"2024-05-07T13:23:16","slug":"i-am","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.westbendnews.net\/autonews\/i-am\/","title":{"rendered":"I AM"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

It is my custom to rise at dawn praising God through prayer. This one particular morning, I was asking and thanking God for his continued extension of mercy and forgiveness on this imperfect fleshly man that I am.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I don’t know why but sometimes I focus too much on my many imperfections and flaws, and it hurts me deep in my soul. Perhaps it’s because I’m a sinner and perhaps that is the way sinners should feel without the dispensation of grace. Now I know you probably won’t hear very many pastors say this about themselves but it’s a fact, I’m a sinner… saved by grace, and OH thank God for His grace! If it were not for His grace, where would we be? <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I don’t know about you but I make so many mistakes it will make your head spin. But then God spoke into my spirit and said “THAT’S WHY YOU ARE DOWN ON YOUR KNEES ASKING FOR FORGIVENESS AND PRAISING ME AT THE SAME TIME. IF I MADE YOU PERFECT, YOU WOULD STOP PRAISING ME, AND SEEK PRAISE AND GLORY ALL FOR YOURSELF. YOU WOULD DISOWN ME. SO I COVERED YOU WITH MY PRECIOUS BLOOD. YOU WERE BOUGHT WITH A PRICE\u2026MY LIFE FOR YOUR LIFE. I’VE GIVEN MY LIFE FOR YOU; WILL YOU GIVE YOUR LIFE FOR\/TO ME? MY STRENGTH IS MADE PERFECT IN YOUR WEAKNESS”. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

It was at that moment that God made me recall who I am in Christ. 1). I am a child of God (Romans 8:16) 2). I’ve been forgiven (Colossians 1:13-14) 3.) I’ve been redeemed from the hand of the enemy (Psalms 107:2) 4). Saved by grace through faith (Ephesians 2.8) 5). I’ve been redeemed from the curse of the law. (Galatians 3:13) I am above only and not beneath (Deuteronomy 28:13) I am an Heir to the throne of Eternal life, and a joint Heir with Jesus Christ (Romans 8:17) <\/p>\n\n\n\n

It was at that time that I realized that He, God, Jesus Christ, is the Great I AM. He is everything that we could ever hope to be. All of our aspirations and desires are found in Christ alone.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Peace and Love,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2014Pastor Dwayne<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If you would like to know more about prayer and praising God, check out House of Love ministries YouTube channel:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/@predestrichardson7271<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It is my custom to rise at dawn praising God through prayer. This one particular morning, I was asking and<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":43850,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"colormag_page_container_layout":"default_layout","colormag_page_sidebar_layout":"default_layout","nf_dc_page":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[9364,22195,9363],"class_list":["post-43974","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-churches","tag-house-of-love-ministries","tag-i-am","tag-pastor-dwayne-richardson"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.westbendnews.net\/autonews\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/Pastor-Richardson-run-w-column.jpg?fit=318%2C413&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2YQd9-brg","jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-04-25 16:54:01","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.westbendnews.net\/autonews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43974","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.westbendnews.net\/autonews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.westbendnews.net\/autonews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.westbendnews.net\/autonews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.westbendnews.net\/autonews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=43974"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.westbendnews.net\/autonews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43974\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":43975,"href":"https:\/\/www.westbendnews.net\/autonews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43974\/revisions\/43975"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.westbendnews.net\/autonews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/43850"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.westbendnews.net\/autonews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=43974"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.westbendnews.net\/autonews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=43974"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.westbendnews.net\/autonews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=43974"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}