God
calls us to love Him with our whole mind, heart and soul, and then to love our
neighbor as well as our self (Luke 10:27). We help one another when we fall into
desperate times, and we share comfort in grief and provision in deprivation. Jesus
is our ultimate friend, who sticks closer to us than our dearest brother (Proverbs 18:24; 1 John
3:1).
God’s
Holy Spirit restores our life to stability and order as we follow His leading through
each moment of our day. We embrace His will for our life, follow His precepts
and obey His Holy Word. God hears the prayers of the afflicted (Psalm 10:17). He encourages us and
listens to us when we cry out to Him (1 John 5: 14-15; Psalm 54:2). He keeps every one of
our tears in a bottle and records them in His book (Psalm 56:8).
We
cannot enter heaven through our own good deeds or morally upright behavior. We
cannot go to heaven by joining a church, getting baptized or living in a
Christian home. Jesus is the only way, truth and the life. No one comes to the
Father except through Him (John
14:6). Salvation
is a free gift from God and there is no way we can boast about our
accomplishments (Ephesians
2: 8-10).
Surrendering
our life to Christ is the first step of sincere faith and total submission to Him.
He forgives us for our self-centered lifestyle and calls us to turn complete
control of our life over to Him. He adopts us into His family, and He holds
us, protects us, nurtures us and comforts us in all of our affliction. He constantly
reassures us that He has everything under His control, so that we can surrender
all to Him.
Prayer:
Father
God, You defend the fatherless, the oppressed and the widow. You remove the
terror from our life (Psalm
10:17-18).
Your love for us defies description, because it is more than we can comprehend.
Thank You for all that You do for all of us each and every day, and for plucking
us out of our old lifestyle and giving us this wondrous new life in You. We
will live each day in Your will with the knowledge that You already secured for
us our eternal destination with You.
Thought
for the Day:
Eternal
life is a free gift, but only those who believe in Jesus Christ as Savior, and who
surrender control of their lives to Him, will receive it.
-
John 3:36
