Our Glorious Salvation

The more we allow sin to rule in our flesh, the more trials we endure. The quicker we relinquish our self-centeredness to God, the less tribulation we encounter.

If we keep on living in sin, it is because Christ is not living within us (Romans 6:1-2). Although we are not yet perfect, we press on to attain this goal, because it is possible through Christ’s divinity within us (Philippians 3:12).

Once we go to the Cross of Christ and surrender our sin-filled life, the Spirit brings forth new life through His fruit and He starts to rid us of every obstacle that blocks His flow into and out of our life.

Our attitude about life changes from earthly-mindedness to a spiritual focus. When God’s Spirit fills us, we praise Him every moment of the day. Sometimes, we will even wake up with a song flowing through our mind.

As God's Spirit sanctifies us from one level of glorious spirituality to the next, natural issues no longer bother us. We truthfully do not care where we live, what we eat or how many earthly possession we accumulate. In fact, we prefer the simplicity of life over the clutter of possessions and a stress-filled life.

Our challenge is not to allow life to rob us of our peace, joy and contentment. Christ in us triumphs over sin in us. We are free from the power of sin, because we now live in our true identity in union with Christ (1 Corinthians 1:30; Galatians 2:20).

Prior to salvation, our spirit is dead in sin (Ephesians 2:5). After Salvation, our humanity is dead to sin. We die with Christ through His death and we have no more desire to live in habitual sin (Romans 6:2, 6:5, 7:4; 2 Corinthians 5:14).

Prayer:

Father God, thank You for giving life to our mortal bodies through Your Spirit who indwells us (Romans 8:11). Our physical body will tire from exertion, but we have Your supernatural energy in our body, soul and spirit because Christ lives His life in and through us.

Once we realize that we are dead to sin, then we enjoy a fresh new life. We identify with Jesus’ resurrection and walk in union with Him (Romans 6:4-5). In Him all of our needs are met according to Your glorious riches                                                                                                             

Thought for the Day:

Even when our soul is troubled, we find hope in God's faithfulness to us and to those in our world all around us; He gives us His peace so our hearts will not be afraid or anxious in times of trouble; His abundant and unconditional love flows over us like a waterfall and we are complete in Jesus.

 - Psalm 42:11; John 14:27; Colossians 2:10

God Provides Healing for Our Soul

 

PTSD, known as Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, is not isolated to the armed service men and women. It affects other people as well. Survivors of childhood abuse - physical, sexual, mental and emotional abuse - suffer heinous crimes that leave them with PTSD also.

Some people experience trauma repeatedly during this time of abuse. These chronic assaults affect our sense of security, emotional and mental development, and personality.

This disturbs the way we relate to other people, events in our life, and our ability to focus and to pay attention for long intervals. We also have trouble with organization, and rational thought processes.

We rarely, if ever, feel confident, expectant or hopeful. We survive each day by using a great deal of self-effort. We fear that if we speak out or share what happened to us, it will happen again or people will not believe us.

During the abuse, some of our brain cells died; and now we often act irrationally and we suffer from anxiety as a way of life. We develop coping mechanisms in our attempt to control life, so that we may have a respite from exploitation.

Some of us will even develop multiple personalities in order to cope with our past abuse and to survive in our current world. We live with debilitating fears and insecurities. We withdraw within our self and do our best not to attract attention to our self.

Others cope by dissociating from the trauma, and we bury the memory deep in our subconscious mind. Parts of our true self splinter off and stay in the past with these memories; yet they haunt us for the rest of our life, until we persevere in prayer and allow God to heal us. (http://www.transformationprayer.org)

God provides us with a stabilizing effect in our life, building our identity in Him rather than in our self or anyone else. He helps us to reclaim that part of our personality from which we disassociated, and we feel more connected to Him and to our life, as He fills us with His peace.

Prayer:

Father God, knowing You provides us with the ability to reject Satan's lies and to walk in Your Truth. Our anxiety over our current trials, as well as our shame over the past, melt away as we live each moment in the center of Your will.

Remind us to spend time reading Your Word, which gives us a complete understanding of who You are and who we are in You (Galatians 2:20). Our daily devotional time prevents us from forming false concepts of who You are, and who we are in You. We want to grow closer to You each day of our life.

Thought for the Day:

A person entombed by abusive behavior learns to adapt to their fearful and insecure lifestyle and to build walls between them and the untrustworthy people in their world; they learn to attempt to control life to keep unwanted surprises from blindsiding them.  

Jesus as Our Yoke-Fellow

We rarely rest in this modern society, because we cannot shut off our mind or find time in our busy schedule to slow down. With work-a-holics as parents, we did not learn to rest.

We hardly ever take the time to pause to pray or to acknowledge God at all (Proverbs 3:5-6). Instead, we rush through life, controlled by opportunities to amass the almighty dollar, never satisfied and always wanting more.

We forget that God has a perfect plan for our life, and that He loves us and cares for every aspect of our life. He gives us His Spirit to guide and empower us, as well as to give us wisdom.

When God is in control, He replaces our carnal personality with the fruit of His Spirit. We exhibit love rather than hatred, true joy rather than depression, peace rather than discontentment, patience rather than irritation, gentleness rather than criticism, goodness rather than backbiting, meekness rather than pride, self-control rather than excess, and the faith of God rather than worry, because we are controlled and guided by His Spirit.

Love is affection for others; joy is exuberance about life; peace is serenity; patience is a willingness to persevere; gentleness is compassion from the heart; goodness is kindness that pervades our entire being; meekness is humility and service; self-control is to be guided by the Spirit; faith is to trust that God knows what He is doing (Galatians 5:22-23).

When we realize that our true identity comes from our relationship with God, and that His opinion of us is all that really matters, we blossom wherever He plants us.

We live as a praise and honor to His name rather than our own name. When we yoke up with Jesus, our lot in life becomes easier and lighter (Matthew 11:30). We enjoy a deep intimacy with Him as our yoke-fellow.

Prayer:

Father God, teach us to appreciate, admire and cherish those people that You put into our life, regardless of the ways their character or personality irritates us. Help us to exhibit patience and compassion for others, and to follow Your Spirit's leading in order to live as a blessing to others.

Remind us to spend time abiding in Your eternal Sabbath rest so that we can concentrate on what is truly important in this life. Keep our focused on Your Kingdom, and enable us to walk in Your ways every moment of our life. We delight in Your Word and we cherish our intimate union with You.

Thought for the Day:

God gives us work to do for His Kingdom that bears lasting, eternal fruit. We no longer work for fleeting, temporal treasures, but we store up our treasure in Heaven where thieves cannot steal it and where rust and moths cannot destroy it. -  Matthew 6:19-21

The Source of Our Supply

Broken-hearted people have no hope, and feel helpless, discouraged and in despair. The only way to transcend this sad state of affairs is to humble our self before God.

Once we surrender our circumstances to God and trust in Him to work out everything for our good (Romans 8:28), the peace of God floods our soul and fills us with contentment and hope, regardless of our worldly issues.

God fills us with His Spirit and presence so that we are not alone. We have all the power of the Trinity resident within us. God answers our prayers and reveals the seed for a miracle, which He planted within our current trial.

God is close to the broken-hearted and He gives us special care (Psalm 34:18). He even keeps all of our tears in His unique bottle (Psalm 56:8). His grace makes us sufficient to deal with whatever He allows to come our way.

Our Father enlightens the eyes of our heart in order to help us to understand the hope to which He calls all of His Saints, as well as to realize the depth of riches we receive from our glorious inheritance as His holy people (Ephesians 1:18).

We learn to rejoice in the God of our salvation (Habakkuk 3:18), and to pour out our love to Jesus for paying for us the penalty of our sins. In exchange, He gives us His right-standing with God.

God's Son is our ever-present rock, stronghold, tower and help in every trial. We offer our thanks to Him for all of His blessings, including the incessant trials that He designs to protect us, perfect us and teach us to trust only in Him.

Prayer:

Father God, we find our true, inner peace in the shadow of Your wings (Psalm 16:1). You abundantly bless us through Your consistent and generous supply. You give us peaceful places of rest in the midst of this wicked and perverse world in which we live.

Thank You that we are only passing through this troubled earth, which groans for the revelation of Your Sons (Romans 8:19). We look forward to Your provision for all of our needs now and in eternity. We focus on You, and we delight in Your presence and Your Spirit in our life.

Thought for the Day:

God is our source of supply for the provision of all of our needs - not our mate, siblings, children, vocation, friends, hobbies or bank account.

Reaping and Sowing

As an authentic Believer, we grow to realize that we reap the same results that we sow - whether positive or negative (Galatians 6:7-8); and we reap the same amount that we sow - whether stingily or abundantly (2 Corinthians 9:6).

However, God is gracious and His love is abundant and unconditional. We will either reap the fruit of our misguided, unprofitable life, or we can reap the mercy and forgiveness of God in place of our stumbling human efforts (Galatians 6:9; 1 John 1:9).

God promises that we shall reap if we do not grow weary and faint (Galatians 6:9). The ground may be rocky or thorny or full of weeds; but if we seek God's will into which fields we should sow our energy, there is always good ground into which we can put our efforts (Proverbs 3:5-6).

God cares about every issue that concerns our life. He supernaturally provides,, or puts it on the hearts of other people to provide all of our needs. God even supplies our paycheck through our employer.

It is so easy to rely on our human resources, rather than to trust in God for every area of our life (2 Corinthians 10:5). We get so wrapped up in the treasures of this world, that this causes us to forget that God created us to live as His emissaries in His spiritual world.

Some people even get sidetracked into satanic spiritualism, eventually reaping demonic destruction in every area of their life. Living a life of debauchery is not necessary, because God always gives us a way to escape the devil's temptations (1 Corinthians 10:13).

God's Spirit changes us from glory to glory (2 Corinthians 3:18). His presence in our life makes us more and more immune to temptation, because sin holds no more lure for us. We just are not interested in depravity any longer and we find no pleasure in such activities.

Prayer:

Father God, when we choose to follow our flesh, the world or the devil, we get sidetracked from following after You. We reap negative consequences that eternally affect our life. Our thoughts, emotions and choices lean toward negative perspectives and attitudes. We live in a downward spiral and usually do not even realize it.

Bring us out of the miry quicksand of this sin-cursed world and into the glorious light of Your presence. Draw us close to You and never, ever let us go back into the world. Discipline us so that we do not slide back into the world of decadence and destruction. We serve at the pleasure of our King Jesus and we ask You to allow us to make a difference in our place in the cosmos for Your Kingdom.

Thought for the Day:

God has a perfect plan for our life that starts with believing on Jesus for salvation, continues with God's Spirit sanctifying us and making us more holy every day, and when we see Jesus face-to-face we will shall be just like Him - glorified body and all.

Shattered Pieces Restored

Trials and tribulation are an inevitable part of a normal life on this sin-cursed earth. In our life, we are constantly faced with trauma of one sort or another. Fear overwhelms us, and we struggle with keeping our faith.

As an abuse victim in my childhood, I spent the over half of my life trying to keep myself safe from further trauma. I lived in fear and insecurity; therefore, I attempted to control my life and the people in it, so that I would no longer experience the pain of rejection, abuse and deprivation.

I thrived on the status quo in my life remaining stable and reliable. This is where I bloomed the best. Unfortunately, my former husband's choices kept us moving frequently.

This required me to constantly re-adjust my comfort level in order to keep myself from falling off the edge of sanity and into the bottomless pit of anxiety and terror.

At age 43, God upended my life in a greater way than ever before. He took away all control that I believed I had acquired. My husband of 22 years decided that there was no option for us but divorce.

This upheaval of the only stable portion of my life caused me to cast aside all of the safety nets I erected around myself. What I discovered was that these deceptive webs actually restricted me rather than kept me safe.

At this traumatic time in my life, I totally and irrevocably cast myself upon the Lord, because I have always known without a doubt that He cares for me (Hebrews 13:5).

In this same time frame, I had no job and little employable experience, but neither did I want to live in a place where I was simply tolerated rather than cherished.

My husband recommended that I return home with my parents and brothers, because they offered me refuge and employment. My church counselor advised me to follow his advice, since he was still technically my covering in Christ.

My hope was that my husband would relocate to help care for his aging parents in a town near to where my parents lived, and that God would put the relationship back together; this never happened.

I was faced with having to make my own way in the world, but I could not do it. God became my refuge and strength on a deeper level than ever before. My intimacy with Him increases as I learn, with each new morning, to totally surrender control to Him (Proverbs 3:5-6).

Eighteen months after I moved back home, the Lord allowed me to meet my current husband of over two decades. Through the years, we have learned to meld together with one another in unity in body, soul and spirit, as well as with God's Spirit (Psalm 133:1).

We appreciate and cherish one another and have fun together - doing things that we both enjoy. I am safely tucked under the shadow of the Almighty's wings, and I feel secure regardless of the circumstances in my life.

Prayer:

Father God, Your Spirit taught me that being breakable is not the end of the world. Your power is released in us when we are broken, adaptable and obedient to Your will. This attitude frees us from the futility of attempting to control life in our human abilities.

I learn that when we explode into fragments, it is in the power of Your grace that we survive. Please turn all of our shattered pieces into a collage for Your glory; and give us the courage to face another day through Your love, peace and strength within us. Lead us in Your everlasting way and bring us to the place where we totally trust in Your love and provision for our life (Psalm 139:24).

Thought for the Day:
Living each day immersed in an intimate relationship with the Trinity allows us to face trials with joy, and to actually look forward to this new adventure in which God has surely planted a seed for a miracle. 

- James 1:2-4

Totally in Control

As youngsters we trust unconditionally; yet, as life progresses, we experience setbacks and disappointments that erode our confidence and trouble our soul. Therefore, as adults, we keep a close guard in order to retain control over our life.

We struggle to maintain a smooth order in our lifestyle. Crazily, circumstances break out of our little box, which we build to confine and conform life to our will, and it throws us for a loop.

We end up living in stress with wasted time, money and energy used in our struggle to divert catastrophes that occur beyond our control. These unsuccessful attempts either strengthen our resolve to conquer life, or show us our need for a savior.

God alone is able to control the winds, rains, nations and their leaders, and the issues in our own lives. As we walk in sync with His will, our lives are converted and our joy is complete (John 15:11).

Each moment of our life is controlled and guided by God's Spirit (Ephesians 3:16-19, Amplified Bible). Our faithfulness to God increases as our intimacy with God blossoms. He is our example of faithfulness in every way.

There is nothing we need that God is not willing to supply, including our Savior. God became man in the form of Jesus Christ in order to pay our debt for the penalty of our sins.

God is able to make all grace abound to us in our times of need. He softens the blows that the devil uses to punch the life right out of us and He gives us His truth to expose Satan's lies.

He provides us with His universal Body across both the continents and the ages. We are unified with one another by God's Spirit. He is able to make all grace abound to us, and He gives us new mercies every morning.

Prayer:

Father God, thank You for supplying all of our needs through Your glorious riches. You make our heart sing and You set our feet to dancing. We rejoice in the fact that You adopted us into Your Family to live as co-heirs with Jesus throughout eternity.

We want nothing more than to serve in Your Kingdom and to live in the center of Your will. You bring us Your joy and peace through the uncontrollable circumstances of our life and we trust that You will always plant a seed for a miracle in every trial that we will ever experience.

Thought for the Day:

We can be filled through our entire being with all the fullness of God, so that we have the richest measure of His divine presence within us and we become a person wholly filled with God Himself. - Ephesians 3:16

God's Sabbath Rest

God invites us to enter with Him into His Sabbath rest. He offers us a place under the shadow of His wings to escape the hectic pace of our lifestyle.

When we realize that our true identity comes from our relationship with God, and that His opinion of us is all that really matters, we blossom wherever He plants us.

We live as a praise and honor to His name rather than our own name. We yoke up with Jesus, and our lot in life becomes easier and lighter (Matthew 11:30). We enjoy a deeper intimacy with Him as our yoke-fellow.

If we commit to step aside for a few minutes several times during the busyness of our day, we can experience this rejuvenating rest. We take time to breathe deeply, to enter into God's presence, and to focus on Him and His will for the next moment of our life.

Our soul experiences peace that transcends human capabilities, our spirit grows stronger through our connection to His influence, and our body heals of many of its diseases.

As we mature in the Lord, we make more time to spend segments of rest in His presence, and to focus our entire being on Him (Psalm 46:10). We bless Him for who He is and for His abundant love for us.

This time can be just a few moments or an extended period. Then, we abide in God's rest as His Spirit directs the remainder of our day; and we follow along with His plans instead of our own.

Prayer:

Father God, help us not to give Satan a foothold into our life by allowing his thoughts to infiltrate our soul - our thoughts, decisions and emotions. We do not want to unwittingly open a door into our soul for him to take advantage of us, to side-track us and to destroy our witness for You.

Reveal his lies to us so that we can combat them with Your Truth.  Strengthen us in our spirit as we respond to Your will for each moment of our life. Now and always, we want to serve at the pleasure of our King Jesus, following Your will for our life and living in Your Sabbath rest each moment of our day.  

Thought for the Day:

Once we learn to abide in God's Sabbath rest, rather than pursuing meaningless activities in life, we find peace and joy and live in the power and anointing of abiding in the center of God's will.

Adoption into God's Family

The world has always been full of lonely people, lost in the sea of humanity, feeling unimportant, unfulfilled and never good enough. The people who are born on the earth in any one year increases this sorrowful fact.

We live, work, attend church and have hobbies with other people; yet, we rarely connect with anyone with more than a superficial acquaintance.

Even married couples drift apart over the years; and feel lonelier than they did when they were single, because they once expected to find in their mate a friend for life.

God recognized our human need for belonging when He created Eve for Adam. The two of them enjoyed a continual unity with God when He walked in the garden of Paradise with them in the cool of the evening (Genesis 3:8).

Some personality types do not need human bonding as much as other types. Melancholies love to be alone with peace and quiet all around them. Yet, Sanguines and Phlegmatics enjoy human interaction and Cholerics need people to help them to carry out their many plans.

God adopted us into His family as co-heirs with Jesus. He gave us His Body of Christ to help to fill that need for fellowship and belonging; however, many churches are an organization, void of real connectedness.

When we take the time to think about it, we realize that there are tens of thousands of new Believers in Jesus every day. Eternity will be filled with fellow Christ-followers who will live to serve King Jesus together in the closest bond available on this earth.

Prayer:

Father God, You are our living Creator, Savior, Comforter, our everything; and You meet all of our needs all of the time. We lack no good thing, because You provide all of our spiritual, physical, mental and emotional needs each moment of our day. Our relationship with You meets all of our intimacy needs; and we revel in Your abundant grace and unconditional love.

Thank you for adopting us into Your family and giving us Your assurance of security and belonging both now and throughout eternity. We so appreciate Jesus' sacrifice to give us this blessing by laying down His life for us all. We give You all of our love, focus and praise and make Your will our priority for each of our days.

Thought for the Day:

God loves the Israelite nation and made a covenant with Abraham to care for His extended family through all generations; God's faithfulness to Israel all of these years proves that His devotion to us never ends either.

A Friend in Jesus

Once we admit that we are a sinner, we accept Jesus' sacrifice on Calvary's cross as the payment for our sins, and we surrender to the Holy Spirit's sanctification process in our life, we have a wonderful friend in Jesus.

As our friend, Jesus bore the penalty of our sins for us, and He sent His Spirit to comfort us in all of our griefs in this sin-cursed world. Ours is the privilege of bringing every issue in our life to God who cares for us (1 Peter 5:7).

If we attempt to earn our own salvation (Philippians 2:12-13), solve our own problems and make our own riches and success in this life, we needlessly forfeit the grace of God to provide these needs for us.

If we do not totally trust in God as our benevolent Father, we bear the pain and loss of peace in our trials. We have no need to suffer from discouragement or to feel overwhelmed, because Jesus within us experiences and shares our sorrows with us.

Well acquainted with our weakness, foibles and idiosyncrasies, God never judges us, but unconditionally and eternally loves us as we submit to His will for our life. He is our Father God (Exodus 15:2), and He cares about us (Psalm 55:22).

God made an eternal, unbreakable covenant with all those who will believe in Jesus as our Savior. We have a free will and are capable of walking away from Him as an apostate (Hebrews 6:4-8), but God will never, ever leave us or give up on us (2 Chronicles 15:7; Hebrew 12:1-3; Mark 10:26, Philippians 3:7-14; Leviticus 26:11).

Prayer:

Father God, You provide us with the endless. spiritual heritage of Your entire Kingdom as co-heirs with Jesus. We are connected to Your divine presence by Your Spirit within us. We have no need to feel alone, abandoned, discouraged or forlorn, because Your presence in us fills us with hope and a purpose (Psalm 16:11; Ephesians 2:10).

Thank You for giving us a place in Your family and securing our fellowship with Your Saints through all generations, nations, tribes and tongues. We are never alone and we are always encouraged by our unity with You in our soul and spirit. You give us Your joy and peace regardless of the horrendous circumstances which we may suffer.

Thought for the Day:

When the malaise of our circumstances engulfs us, we can remember that we are a part of the Body of Christ, which secures our unity with the presence of Christ in our life, granted to us by His shed blood on Calvary's cross.

The Simplicity of Eternal Life

Eternal life is really a simple concept to understand. We experience it from the moment that we accept Jesus as our Savior and King.

I am not disputing the fact that our body will one day go to the grave, but at the same time our soul and spirit go to be with the Lord (2 Corinthians 5:8).

The blessing of Eternal Life is embodied in knowing God and Jesus Christ whom He sent (John 17:3). This concept is foreign to us when we first hear about it.

When we first consider surrendering our life to God, we hesitate, because we do not want anyone else controlling our life. The concept of God makes no sense to the human mind.

There is no tangible proof that God exists. Therefore, we reject the idea of the Trinity, and we feel sorry for the "chumps" that are duped by what we consider as brainwashing.

We feel superior to Christians, because we trust in our human understanding rather than living by faith in the Son of God who loves us and gave Himself for us (Galatians 2:20).

If we ever decide to take a chance on God, we eventually come to realize that He personally knew each one of us before He ever created the earth for us (Roman 8:29; Ephesians 1:4; Jeremiah 1:5; Psalm 139:15).

Even Creation reveals God to us (Romans 1:20). When we come to know Him intimately, we grow in grace and peace (John 17:3; 2 Peter 1:2-3). He provides us with the resources, skill and wisdom that we need for successfully living in His will (Hebrews 8:11-12).

Prayer:

Father God, the deeper our relationship with You grows, the more we realize how sufficiently You meet all of our needs. Many times, I will struggle with a stuck zipper, hard clasp, tightly closed bottle, creating a new recipe, buying an item that I really need, etc. However, as soon as I pray, You come to my rescue as the good, good Father that You are.

The stubborn element easily releases, the recipe floods my mind, or I find that needed item on sale. You care about every single detail of our life. After a short while, we actually learn to delight in personally knowing You. We live a life, which is free from the slavery of sin and its degradation (Jeremiah 9:23-24; 1 Corinthians 2:2; Galatians 6:14). Like Saints of old, we rejoice in knowing You and reveling in Your unconditional love (Philippians 3:10; 1 John 4:7-8).

Thought for the Day:

God provides His Saints with an abundant understanding of Himself, as well as an interactive and individual relationship with Him that is full of spiritual fruit, holy living and faith in God's faithfulness.

Living in Harmony with God's Spirit

When we stop consulting with the Lord concerning His plans for each moment of our day, our schedule can get out of hand. Our soul is scattered in too many directions: we have too much on our mind, our heart is troubled, and our choices are self-defeating (Proverbs 3:5-6).

When this occurs, our first line of defense is the Word of God. From its verses we obtain comfort, direction, encouragement and reasons to praise our God. He is our peace and He breaks down every wall between us and His will (Ephesians 2:14).

We, who are God's treasured creation (Deuteronomy 7:6), find our joy, refuge and hope in the shadow of His wings (Psalm 57:1, 63:7, 91:4). He is impartial, sovereign, and blameless. He daily supplies our needed provisions when we walk in the light of His presence within us (Psalm 89:15).

When we get caught up in our own plans, God patiently waits for us to return to Him. If we linger in this twilight zone of carnality, God faithfully calls us back into harmony with Himself. He will even lovingly discipline us, if we continue in our disobedience (Psalm 23:4).

Trials are not always the result of God disciplining us. Life in this imperfect world provides traumatic circumstances to infiltrate our schedule. If our life is on track with God's will, however, He works out every issue for our benefit (Romans 8:28).

Our belief in Jesus' sacrifice on Calvary's cross, which paid our debt and set us free from the ravages of a life full of debauchery, also provides us with the indwelling Holy Spirit, who guides and comforts us through the trials we experience on this sin-cursed earth.

Prayer:

Father God, thank You that Jesus' death is enough to bring us into Your family as co-heirs with Him for all of eternity. Your mercy and grace comfort us through each trial that we face, and Your love and hope restore our troubled soul during those times that we experience hardships and tribulation (Psalm 23:3).

When we live in harmony with You, You give us green pastures and still waters to luxuriously refresh us and to bountifully provide all of our needs. Even in the valley of the shadow of death, we have nothing to fear, because You abide within us by Your Holy Spirit. Our cup of blessings overflow due to Your abundant goodness to Your Saints. We look forward to dwelling with You in New Jerusalem for eternity (Psalm 23).

Thought for the Day:

The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases. His mercies never come to an end; in fact, they are new every single morning; His faithfulness to His Saints is sure and true, and we hope in Him because He is our provision, our shield and our peace.

- Lamentations 3:22-24

A Good Marriage - Changing Our Attitude

Our attitude toward our spouse must come from a fresh perspective each new morning. We cannot hold each other in bondage to our mistakes in our recent or past choices.

Seeing one another as Jesus sees us - as perfect in Him - helps us to forgive and let live. Sure, we still have carnality at the root of our personality, but we are growing out of that mindset as God's Spirit transforms us with the mind of Christ.

Personal adjustments are often required to have a good marriage. Rather than insisting on our own way, we work together to find a third alternative, with which we can both find fulfillment.

Soon we will automatically work toward finding Plan C rather than pushing to do things our way. We start to notice more of our mate's positive characteristics; in fact, some of them drew us to our loved one in the beginning of our courtship.

Sometimes, over the years of our marriage, we grow to resent some of the characteristics that we initially admired. We falsely interpret our mate's motive as controlling, weak, irritating, manipulative, etc.

This is rarely the case. Our mate did not change; our attitude about these character traits switched. If we look at our mate with fresh eyes, we see that God put us together in order to allow our strengths to help one another's weaknesses.

Planning frequent play time together as a couple will enhance our relationship and improve our perspective of one another. We learn to laugh together again, to appreciate each other, to listen quietly and compassionately to our individual fears and concerns, and to admire and cherish each other.

Mutual love and cherishing will change our attitude about one another. We enjoy each other's company again and learn to appreciate each other's strengths, as we humble our self while interacting with our mate.

Prayer:

Father God, help us to develop good will toward one another rather than to feed the resentment and hurt feelings that we have nursed over the years. Help us to interpret each other's behavior as caring and nurturing rather than as controlling and manipulative. We bring our hurt to You for healing as we reach out to each other with Your Agape love.

Remind us that rather than focusing on what we perceive as our mate's fault, we can learn to see them for what they really are and focus on our own faults instead. You will help us to meet our needs that we used to expect our mate to meet, and to allow Your Spirit to change our negative traits with His fruit. This will help us to grow in spiritual maturity, responsible reactions from our soul, and effectual effort from our body as we grow together into one flesh.

Thought for the Day:

As we develop our sense of wonder and joy with the little blessings in life, we will begin to reap the larger benefits that God has in store for us as individuals and as a couple.

God in the Details

You have heard it said that some people ”wear many hats". This implies that they have several "irons in the fire" - they are involved in many different aspects in their ministry, hobbies, vocation or as a stay-at-home parent.

Well, I wear many different gloves! I am part owner of a café, and I am a "jack of all trades." Therefore, I wear many gloves. For instance, I continually wear gloves if I have an open wound on my fingers or hand.

On top of that, I add kitchen gloves when I wash the dishes. When I prep food for the cook, I wear food prep gloves to prevent contact between my hands and the food.

I continually switch back and forth between food prep gloves and dish washing gloves all day long. Although we switch menu and food products when lunch time rolls around, my protocol is still the same - switching gloves with each new task.

When I make the soup of the day, I am not required to wear gloves, since the items that I chop and prepare will be cooked. Another respite from changing gloves is when we can use tongs to retrieve products for certain menu items.

Also, we are required to use different chopping surfaces for different types of food. The government requires that we use one for pork, another one for chicken, a separate one for beef and a completely different surface for vegetables.

My routine is often laughable because I continually switch both gloves and chopping boards. However, one good thing that never changes is the dedicated, positive and efficient staff with which I work.

We all love each other and really care about one another. We help each other out, cover for each other and do one another's job during breaks when we have the time. This makes the demands of running a restaurant more enjoyable.

Prayer:

Father God, we are so glad that You are in the details of our life. Thank You for showing us the humor in the tedious tasks that make up the majority of our day. Use us for Your glory in every situation in which we are involved. Let our light shine in such a way that others will see our works and give You all of the glory.

We thank You for Your love, care and provision for us from Your glorious riches (Psalm 55:22; Philippians 4:19). We live in continual worship with each of Your Saints of Your holiness, benevolence, protection and intimacy. We give you all of the praise and glory that is due to Your name.

Thought for the Day:

People who wear too many different hats (or gloves) often succumb to fatigue, stress and physical ailments; doing one thing, and doing it well is actually the best way to live.

God's Biblical Advice

 

Some of the best advice in God's Word encourages us to bear with each other (and our self), to forgive whatever grievances we may have against one another (or our self), and to forgive everyone (even our self) as the Lord forgives us (Colossians 3:13).  

If we refuse to forgive others or our self, we give Satan permission to control that part of our soul, and to inflict his demons on our body as well as our spirit.

The devil uses pride to encourage us not to forgive. We may even build a wall of anger around our soul to keep people out and to prevent a repeat performance by the same or some other person.

We are so angry with the person that hurt us that we refuse to forgive, or we do not want to admit to anyone what this person did to us. We fear that if we forgive, we let the perpetrator "off the hook."

Satan holds us captive and the fruit of the Holy Spirit cannot manifest in that area of our soul (2 Corinthians 2:10-11; Hebrews 12:16). We are crippled spiritually, mentally, and emotionally; and we make unwise choices for our life.

If we do not forgive our self or others, God cannot forgive us (Matthew 6:15). The negative emotions associated with unforgiveness block our soul from receiving the fullness of God's love, peace and joy.

Bitterness rises from woundedness deep within our soul, and can be rooted years back into our past. We falsely believe that resentment, anger and other negative emotions will protect us from any past, present and future hurt.

We do not need anger and pride to protect us when we have the King of Kings as our mighty stronghold and fortress (Psalm 18:2). As we put our trust in Christ, we live in abiding peace and joy - not only in our spirit, but deep within our soul as well.

Forgiveness actually takes our offender off of our "hook" and puts them squarely on God's hook - vengeance is His, and He shall repay (Romans 12:19).

If we do not have God's abiding peace filling our soul - our thoughts, emotions and choices - then we can ask God for it; this will prevent Satan from deceiving our soul with his lies (Isaiah 26:3; Isaiah 30:15).

Prayer:

Father God, remind us that You hover over us and shelter us under Your wings. This helps us to forgive past hurts, and to put future hurts into proper perspective. We can look for the seed of a miracle in every negative circumstance, because You promise to work out all things, even the bad things, for our good (Romans 8:28).

We have no need to extract vengeance, because You clearly teach us that vengeance is Yours. You promise to repay each one according to his own works (Romans 2:6). Jesus, Your Son, set the ultimate example for us on Calvary's cross when He forgave His tormenters and persecutors. Help us to forgive ourselves and others and to release every painful experiences to You.

Thought for the Day:

The Bible never commands us to like someone, God only requires that we allow Him to love each person through us; their sins and offenses are probably defense mechanisms or they may even arise from deep-seeded wounds just like ours.