Nurturing our Faith in God's Faithfulness

Jesus recommended that when we come to Him with a need, rather than to be afraid of His Will, we believe in His goodness (Luke 8:50). In fact, when it comes to salvation, if we refuse to believe in the name of Jesus, we condemn our self (John 3:18).

Daily, we cause our self unprecedented grief when we wander from our faith in the Lord Jesus Christ (1 Timothy 6:10). Pride goes before the fall (Proverbs 16:18), and our desires are not always holy; yet, a faithful person will always pursue holiness (Habakkuk 2:4).

When we focus on God's Kingdom, we build up our faith, we pray in the Spirit, and we keep our self in God's love by obeying His commandments (John 14:15; Ephesians 3:18-19). We look forward to the mercy of our Lord to bring usinto eternal life in His presence (Jude 1:20-21). 

Reading God's Word nurtures our faith in Heavenly Truth. This strengthens our convictions and helps us to keep them to the end of our lifetime in this earthly realm (Hebrews 3:14). We pray the prayer that never fails with confidence like Jesus did, "Not my will, but Yours be done" (Matthew 6:10).

Often we feel trepidation concerning God's Will for us. We think that if we control our life, rather than surrendering totally to God's Will, then events will run more smoothly, and people will better co-operate with us (James 4:13).

Satan convinces us that controlling our own life allows us to avoid trials that may come if we follow God's will for us. The opposite is actually true. Living in the center of God's will is the happiest place on earth. He makes all things beautiful in His time (Romans 8:28-32).

The past does not need to discourage us, and the future does not need to frighten, confuse and stress us out. We can live in total peace and joy in the exact center of God's will by following the guidance of God's Spirit each moment of our day.

Prayer:

Father God, we are silly to try to control our life. We have no idea what will happen tomorrow (James 4:14-15), but You already know the end from the beginning (Isaiah 46:10). Remind us that much of the anxiety and stress, that we think is inevitable in our life, will disappear once we totally surrender to You. Your incomparable peace washes over us when we yield to Your Will.

You continually prove Your faithfulness to us; yet in our humanity, we often question Your goodness and unfailing love. Help us to remember what Jesus taught us to pray, "Thy will be done on earth as it is in Heaven." We surrender our life to You today and every day, and we thank You for Your perfect plans and provision for every moment of each of them.

Thought for the Day:

Jesus died in our place in order to pay the debt we owed for our sins, as well as to gain control of the earth back from Satan; the devil is still the god of this world, but he is in subjection to God Almighty even now; once King Jesus returns, He will put all things under His feet. 

- Colossians 1:17

Your Feelings Matter Too

Our feelings always matter. They are valid responses to life, which God gave to us. Sometimes people disagree with or resent our feelings. They argue with us, discount how we feel or belittle our sentiments.

However, what really counts is that we endorse our own feelings. We honor and approve of our self when we acknowledge and allow our self to fully feel our negative emotions - although it is not healthy to vent our feelings on other people.

We face, feel and accept them as our own. When we face our feelings squarely without making excuses for them or attempting to change them, we learn so much about who we are and what we need. This enables us to nurture our self and to supply the insufficiencies in our life that are causing them.

Burying our negative feelings accentuates rather than hides them, and guarantees that they will add force and destruction to our current emotions. They are like a caged, roaring bear attempting to rip our life apart in order to escape.

The trauma, training and example that we experience throughout our lifetime, forms the lens through which we view issues in our life. Our attitudes are shaped by both the joy and the pain we feel, some of which we bury in our subconscious mind.

Our attitudes are influenced by our circumstances - past, present and future. Then attitudes condition our preferences, phobias and precedents by which we live. Attitudes also flavor our thoughts, words, emotions, choices and actions.

We may develop "stinking thinking" because our attitude spirals down into resentment and bitterness. We may feel joy over an issue that we are afraid to share with anyone else. God knows us better than we know our self, and our intimacy with Him enables us to chat to Him about our feelings as we feel them.

Prayer:

Father God, remind us that our life is more fulfilled when we take an honest look at our attitude. Then we can accept how we feel and move on from there. You enable us to change our focus and our perception about life. We are no longer concerned with this world and the aspects of it.

You help us to develop a heavenly mindset that is rooted in our salvation and grounded by our union with Christ in us and with us. We function on a level path throughout life, once we bring our emotions to You, and allow You to heal the negative ones and to accentuate our positive feelings.

Thought for the Day:

When we pray about our attitudes at home, church, workplace, social gatherings, etc; God helps us to discover the root cause of our negative attitudes, and to change our focus on the situation, which in turn changes our thoughts, feelings, stress-level, habits, choices, decisions and actions.

Four Major Choices in Life

We have four major choices in our journey through this distortion that we call "life." We can follow the dictates of Satan, the world, our fleshly desires, or God's Holy Spirit. No one can ever force a decision on us. God gave us a free will for us to decide.

If we follow the devil's impulses, we set our self up for ultimate failure. He roams about the world like a roaring lion, seeking for someone to devour (1 Peter 5:8). His motive in blessing us is to eventually steal from, kill and destroy us (John 10:10).

Satan makes sure to disguise His extermination of us with sweet treats and pleasant promises. We fall for the lies and poor image of our self that He plants in our mind; and we slowly spiral into depression, anxiety and self-destruction through our addictions.

If we take another option and choose the way of the world, we are puppets of the business conglomerates' ever-changing whims of fashion and formulas for success. We live by the dictates of the media, and we amass worldly goods that end up being chains of bondage around our neck.

We devour self-help books in order to find a way to improve our self, get that promotion, and find some semblance of inner peace. We flit around like social butterflies, changing friends, places of employment, addresses, and the car we drive, etc. - all to impress other people and to feel good about our self.

Another possibility is to live in order to satisfy our human desires, following our human reasoning and the directives of our latest moods and earthly cravings. We use every diet and exercise gimmick formed by man to keep a body of which we can be proud.

However, we are never satisfied. We jump from one discovery to another in our attempt to meet our perceived physical, mental, emotional and financial needs. We end up in poor health, and taking medication with side-effects that ruin our life inch by inch.

Our soul is sick from our lack of fulfillment, which causes us to decline in body as well as our soul. So what are we to do? How do we to not only survive, but also truly succeed in finding fulfillment on this side of Eternity?

The answers are found in our fourth and best major choice in life, and are provided by God's Holy Spirit. First through salvation in Jesus Christ (John 3:16-18), and then by His Spirit teaching us His Truth, as God provides for our needs from His gracious abundance (John 16:13).

Prayer:

Father God, You allow us a free will to either barely survive or abundantly excel through this path called "life". You stand back and endure the grief of watching us - Your beloved creation - destroy our self, one decision at a time. Yet, You constantly call us by Your Spirit, encouraging us with Your love and blessings, to totally surrender our life to Your constant care.

When we do, we hear Your loving kindness each new morning. We give You our undivided attention, so that You can lead us in the way that we should go every step of our life. You deliver us from our enemies and cause us to run to the safety You provide for us (Psalm 91:1-4). Teach us how to avoid the trappings of the devil, the world and our flesh (Psalm 143:8-10).

Thought for the Day:

God gives us abundant life (John 10:10), regardless of our circumstances, as well as the wisdom and the will to walk in His ways each moment of the day (Philippians 2:12-13); therefore, we quickly eliminate anything in life that clouds our vision of Christ in us, or makes us hesitant to spend daily time in His Word, or discourages us from a place of Christian service.

Grace in Time of Need

God gives us His grace in every time of need (Hebrews 4:16). Whether our trial is physical, mental, financial, emotional, spiritual or relational, we have God's grace to help us, because the Trinity abides within us.

When we find joy in our circumstances, regardless of their intensity of severity or bliss, we please our Daddy God. He thrills in our trust in Him, and He rejoices over us with singing (2 Corinthians 10:18; Zephaniah 3:17). Our soul delights in God, regardless of the issues we face (2 Corinthians 10:17).

Unless we cause them by our own faulty choices, trials come to sift away the scum in our life, like the refiner sifts dross from precious metals. We see more pure gold in our thoughts, actions, emotions and choices, as God's Spirit removes carnality from us (Job 23:10; 1 Peter 1:7).

Trials also strengthen our faith in God's faithfulness (1 John 5:4-5). He proves His love for us by His divine intervention throughout the circumstances of our life. He turns our mourning into dancing (Psalm 30:11-12), and gives us inexpressible waves of joy that are full of praises to Him (1 Peter 1:6-9).

God's grace also gives us victory over every temptation. Most temptations are common to everyone; even Jesus had temptations (Hebrews 4:15). God gives us a way to escape every fleshly lure. We simply focus on His provision, rather than our tempting desires (1 Corinthians 10:13).

Trials teach us patience, which in turn perfects us (James 1:4-8). Patience helps us to feel complete and fulfilled, without the pressure of having to perform, or to force others to perform in our timing and way. It also allows us to continually wait on God without stress and expectations (Hosea 12:6; Psalm 25:5, 27:14, 37:7; James 5:7-8).

Prayer:

Father God, thank You for showing us that patience is the key to allowing the other fruit of the Spirit to manifest in our life. Without patience we act inappropriately and hurt others. With patience, Your Spirit can exchange our carnality with His fruit (Galatians 5:22-23). This enables us to abound in every work that You call us to perform (2 Corinthians 8:7).

Your grace of patience also helps to protect us from succumbing to temptations. Rather than wanting everything now, we learn to wait. Instant gratification is no longer a driving force that pushes us to fall into sin - even when we do not want to sin (Romans 7). We praise You for Your intervention in our life, for drawing us into union with Your Trinity, and for Your provision and protection every moment of all of our days on this earth.

Thought for the Day:

God helps us to walk in the light of His loving countenance and grace all day long, by sending Jesus to free us from the human penchant to sin; initiating the Law of His Spirit of Life in Christ Jesus to set us free from the Law of Sin and Death, He allows us to live in sweet communion with His Spirit every single moment of every single day. - Psalm 89:15; Romans 8:2

Hidden out of Sight

When we embark on our Christian quest, we learn to recognize Jesus in every aspect of our day - positive and negative. When something is hidden, it cannot be seen; it is invisible and under a cover. It is not readily accessible, except to the one who hid it.

We are hidden with Christ in God, but He knows exactly where we are. We are not alone, because we are filled with all the fullness of God (Ephesians 3:16-19, Amplified Bible). We are in an intimate union with Jesus by His Spirit.

We live in the center of God's will, led by His Holy Spirit because Christ is our whole life (Ephesians 2:10; Colossians 3:3-4). Sin is not an option for us, when Christ is pre-eminent in our choices. We have no attraction to unrighteousness, and no desire to grieve God's Spirit within us (Ephesians 4:30).

God calls us to live in such a manner that when people look at us, they see Him rather than us. This occurs when we give God the credit and glory for the deeds He accomplishes in and through us. We run to Him, follow His path for us, and give Him all of the glory for what He accomplishes through our life.

The righteousness of Christ consumes us, fills us, and crowds out any ungodly desires or behavior. We are not separate from Christ. We are unified with Him as one being (Galatians 2:20). By following His peace within us, we recognize the will of God, for each moment of our life.

This peace rises above all physical, emotional, mental, natural, and human thoughts and reasons (Philippians 4:7-9). We do not trust our heart, because it is unreliable (Jeremiah 17:9-10). Instead, we discern God's will in our spirit, and this floods our soul with His peace.

Prayer:

Father God, You are our all in all - one God of all people, and Lord of all, as You work through all and abide in us all. We start this adventure by inviting You to dwell within our spirit (Ephesians 4:6). Then, before we do or say anything, we want to consult You rather than to depend on our own plans and viewpoint (Proverbs 3:5-8).

Thank You for directing our thoughts, words and actions every time that we consult You for Your will for each moment of our life. We trust You with our whole heart to provide for and to protect us in every issue of life. We promise to cease from consulting our human wisdom, and to rely on Your wisdom instead. We love You with every fiber of our being, and we are thankful for all of Your blessings on each moment of our day.

Thought for the Day:

When we trust in, rely on and obey God during each moment of our day, He keeps us on track for success, gives us the best of everything, and fills our resources with abundance for every good work that He calls us to allow Christ to preform through us.

- Proverbs 3:5-8; 2 Corinthians 9:8; Ephesians 2:10

The God of Peace

When we are not enveloped by the peace of God, which has nothing to do with human reasoning or our circumstances (Philippians 4:7), we cannot abide in the rest of God (Hebrews 4:10). Entering His rest is imperative and quite easy (more to come).

Stress is often called the "silent killer". It destroys our body, soul and spirit with its relentless, negative bombardment. We control stress by what we eat, drink, think about, and the kind as well as the amount of activities that we introduce into our daily schedule.

Anxious situations and thoughts keep us in continual turmoil. Our Father God speaks to this issue in so many places in His Word. He used Paul to remind us not to allow anxiety to permeate our thoughts and activities (Philippians 4:6).

Jesus taught us that worry and anxiety cannot change any aspect of our life (Matthew 6:25-26). He taught us that the antidote for the poison of stress is to enter God's rest by seeking first the Kingdom of God. Then, the Trinity will supply all of our needs (Matthew 6:33).

When we focus on the Lord (Isaiah 26:3-4), regardless of the situation going on around us, we allow the peace of God to rule in our heart. Gratitude and forgiveness are two characteristics that help us to access that peace (Colossians 3:15).

When we live in mindfulness of the moment, we view God working out everything for our eventual good (Romans 8:28). By finding items for which to show gratitude, we live in constant praise to our Daddy God, and our inner joy grows incrementally.

With joy in our heart, we have less of a struggle with negative thoughts, stress and worry. We have faith in our Heavenly Father, because of His faithfulness to us in every area of our life. We live in incomparable peace and joy each moment of the day.

Prayer:

Father God, help us to limit our activities to only those in which You lead us to participate. Help us to put Your will above our own and above the constant needs of everyone around us. Remind us to put all of our concerns in Your heart, through turning them over to You every time we find our mind obsessing about them.

Give us the courage to follow Your direction for our life, no matter how uncomfortable it makes us feel. Remind us to love our self, so that we will have the emotional, physical, mental and spiritual energy to love other as You love them - nonjudgmentally, whole-heartedly and with Your unconditional Agape love.

Thought for the Day:

Living in the moment, fully engaged in and abiding in the rest of God, we realize that He has everything in His control, and nothing can harm us, or invade our life without His knowledge; He works out even negative issues for our ultimate good. - Romans 8:28

Who is the Holy Ghost?

When we come to Christ, repent of our sins and trust in Jesus as our Savior, the Trinity moves into our Born Again spirit. The Father, Son and Spirit all abide in us, and we do the works that Jesus did, in each community in which we live (John 14:12).

God's Holy Spirit is our comforter, guide, encourager, perfecter, convicter, and sanctifier. He supplies us with everything we ever need to accomplish God's will during each moment of the day, as long as we consult Him first and not making our own plans (Proverbs 3:5-6).

The Spirit also fills us with His fruit until we exhibit Christ's divine nature of love, joy, peace, patience, gentleness, goodness, meekness, self-control and faith in exchange for our carnal nature (Galatians 5:22-23). He replaces our carnality with His fruit.

We can facilitate this process by focusing on one verse in God's Word at a time, which pertains to each fruit. I like to write the verses on 3x5 cards and carrying them around with me to reread every chance that I get.

The Trinity gives us wisdom when we are puzzled, forgiveness when we fall, humility when we are tempted to take the credit for our successes, and contentment that stems from living with a heavenly mindset rather than as worldly-minded individuals.

We already have all of the Holy Spirit abiding in us; however, the more we submit to His guidance, the more the Spirit controls our life, smooths out the rough edges of our day, and gives us supernatural strength to do all that He calls us to do.

Sometimes, the trials of life are overwhelming, causing physical, emotional, and mental pain and anguish. Yet, we can rely on God's Spirit to heal our brokenness (Psalm 147:3), comfort our distresses (2 Corinthians 1:1-11), and make our paths straight (Psalm 27:11).

Prayer:

Father God, we are so grateful that You did not leave us alone in this great big, scary world (Hebrews 13:5). We appreciate Christ abiding within us, teaching us, leading us, enlightening us with His Truth, and comforting us through His Spirit dwelling in us. Help us to see that our self-worth and confidence come from our relationship with You.

Teach us to pray without ceasing, rejoice in our circumstances regardless of their severity, and give thanks to You for Your provision, safety and blessings throughout our day (1 Thessalonians 5:16-18). In spiritual warfare, You guide us in how to overcome Satan's wiles, and we are so grateful that You are greater than anything he or this world can throw at us (1 John 4:4).

Thought for the Day:

Jesus is the Word who became flesh in order to pay the debt that we owed for our sinful lifestyle; His Word is truth, and His Spirit enlightens us as we feast on verses of scripture throughout the day. - John 1:14, 14:6

God's Principles - Part Three - Financial Health

The Word of God is full of advice on how to live a healthy life mentally, emotionally, financially, physically and spiritually (3 John 1:2). If we ferret them out of the chapters and verses, we find amazing truth by which to live our life (Proverbs 4:22).

When our thoughts, words and deeds please the Lord, even our enemies are at peace with us (Proverbs 16:7). He daily increases our blessings, and this even includes our children (Psalm 37:25, 115:14). We lack nothing that we truly need (Psalm 34:10; Deuteronomy 28:6; Philippians 4:19).

God actually gives the ability and wisdom to produce wealth to those who covenant with Him (Deuteronomy 8:18; Psalm 24:1). He yokes up with us to carry our burdens each moment of the day, because He is the only God who truly saves (Psalm 68:19).

God's blessings bring us wealth, without the painful toil that so many must endure (Proverbs 10:22). When we humble our self enough to respect, honor, obey and consult the Lord throughout the day, we reap riches and honor (Proverbs 22:4).

The secret to financial success in life is to seek God's Kingdom before our own desires, and He will give us everything we need (Matthew 6:33-34). When our ways please the Lord, He also gives us wisdom, knowledge and happiness (Ecclesiastes 2:26).

       

Prayer:

Father God, thank You for Your abundant prosperity for Your children. You bless the fruit of our labors, and our physical and financial needs. You open for us the windows of Heaven and the storehouse of Your bounty. You send rain to water our gardens, and You bless all the work of our hands (Deuteronomy 28:11-13).

As we pay attention to and obey Your precepts, we will always find fulfillment, peace, joy and richness in our life. Remind us to tithe a tenth of our income; because if we do not, we are guilty of robbing You. However, when we are faithful tithers, You open the floodgates of Heaven and pour out Your abundance of blessings on us, so that we have enough to share with those in need (Malachi 3:10).

Thought for the Day:

Financial responsibility and honoring the Lord with our whole heart, mind, soul and strength will result in His bountiful provision in our life, His protection over our resources, and His abundance in all of our endeavors.

- Malachi 3:11-12; Deuteronomy 29:9

Victorious through the Storms of Life

Life is unpredictable, disturbing, threatening, and even devastating at times. We have our ups and downs, and every time the mood changes, we stress out, feel shame over our past, and fear for our future.

If we take an inventory of every trial we ever experienced, God used most of them to work out our sanctification in some way. He also used some of them to position us into the right place at the right time to prepare us to effectively minister for His Kingdom, as well as to continually bless us by His divine appointments.

In nature, a storm often brings a cool front to refresh us, much needed rain to help us to grow, and wind to blow away the dead leaves and cobwebs that were preventing or limiting our growth. Our Father God knows best what we need and how to provide it for us.

He may turn us upside down, strip us from every relationship and treasure that we collected along our path, and then put us on an entirely different route. We often resent these changes, cry out to Him in anguish and devastation, and question His love for us.

The truth is that these peripheral provisions from our past are currently keeping us from moving forward in our personal intimacy with Christ in us (Colossians 1:27). We spend so much time absorbed in these earthly people and possessions that we are too busy to praise and consult the Lord (Proverbs 3:5-6).

When tragedy strikes, we realize that God is in control of every facet of our life. As we put our trust only in Him, we soon discover His perfect plans for us. We grieve the loss of what was important to us, and we cling to the eternal spiritual blessings we receive from this new direction in life.

Prayer:

Father God, thank You for designing our Christian walk to include comfort in trials, wisdom for decisions, transformation for our character, and meaning in our purpose in life. We choose to pray about every decision from what to wear to what to eat and drink (1 Corinthians 10:31). In the darkness of the moment we cling to Your presence within us, and we trust that You are working out everything for our ultimate good (Romans 8:28).

Your multi-dimensional love for us shelters us with Your wings and surrounds us with Your peace and joy regardless of our circumstances (Romans 8:35-39). We face our shame with Your forgiveness and our fears with Your confidence. The faith of Your Son fills us completely with courage and direction through every storm we encounter in our lifetime (Galatians 2:20).

Thought for the Day:

We often create our storms because of our own insecurity, emotional handicaps, negative thoughts, unwise words, obsessive relationships, and immoral deeds and greeds; however, walking in the Spirit, in the very center of God's will for us, protects us from these self-imposed trials. 

- Galatians 5:15-25; Romans 8:28

Our Authority in Christ

Jesus gave His disciples, and us as His co-heirs, the authority to make disciples. We work in His place as His Ambassadors to further His Kingdom in the earth, imploring people on Christ's behalf to allow His Spirit to reconcile them to God (2 Corinthians 5:20; John 14:12).

Acts 16 provides us with a bird's eye view of many of Paul's ministry opportunities, trials, and victories in that season of His life.

Paul certainly made the most of his authority in Christ (Acts 16:18). We enjoy this same redemption, resurrection and confidence in Christ that Paul exemplified. In Jesus' name we can do everything that He calls us to do (Philippians 4:13-17).

We are seated with Jesus, even now, in Heavenly Places (Colossians 3:1). We are no longer limited to the confines of this world. We focus on the fruit of God's Spirit until they replace our earthly tendencies (Galatians 5:22-23).

With His authority given to each of us, there is no need to feel apprehensive about stepping out and sharing with people as God's Spirit leads us. When I see someone in a store more than once, I know that God wants me to tell them that He loves them and has a perfect plan for their life.

Every checkout person gets greeted by name (I look at their name tag), asked if they are having a good day, and given a promise to pray for God's blessings on the rest of their time at work. We are not responsible for the results, simply the witness.

If people I greet live in my area, I tell them we would love for them to visit our church and check us out. Often, I also give them a Bible tract or our business card and tell them I'm always available if they ever need a friend with whom they can chat.

We do all of this with no fear, by the direction of God's Spirit, because He already gave us His authority to do so. We do not allow our culture to force us into its pattern; but we emulate Christ in us as He works through us. 

We also cooperate with God's Spirit as He renews our mind, transforms our emotional responses and behavior, and gives us the nature of Christ to replace or carnal one (Romans 12:2; 2 Peter 1:4).

Prayer:

Father God, thank You for giving us Your authority, as well as Your boldness not to allow this world to press us into its mold. We devour Your Word, and set our affections on things above, not on things of this earth (Colossians 3:2-17). We no longer have two masters (Matthew 6:24), because we have learned to despise this world and to love You, Your precepts and Your will for our life.

We focus on Your presence in our life right now, as well as our future with You in eternity (Colossians 3:3-4). Our deepest and most motivating expectation is a life filled with all of Your fullness (Ephesians 3:16-19, Amplified Bible). We focus on Your will for us, to the exclusion of our own plans, goals and dreams. We prefer Your perfect plans over anything we can work for or even wildly imagine (1 Corinthians 2:9).

Thought for the Day:

Our citizenship is really in heaven, not on this earth, and we enjoy the presence of God's Trinity within us, make use of the fact that everything and everyone on this earth is under God's control, and eagerly anticipate Christ coming for His Bride when we receive our glorified body so that our Salvation will be complete in spirit, soul and body.

- Philippians 3:20-21; 1 Thessalonians 5:23

Understanding Each Other's Viewpoint

What is your pet peeve? What drives you absolutely crazy? What causes you more frustration and resentment than anything else in your life? What makes you to want to walk out of the room or go for a very long drive?

The answer to these questions may be a clue to explain why you no longer feel the same intensity of joy and contentment with your life now, compared to what you used to feel.

Maybe there are household chores that no one ever does but you; the reason may be that they never think about them. You could have a job jar or a chore list, so that everyone could pick a chore each day.

There could be a ministry that you thought you were involved in with a team, but it turns out that one member of the team ran with his/her own ideas and made decisions without consulting the rest of the team. Have the whole team kindly discuss this with him/her.

Possibly your mate takes you for granted and your date nights and romantic trysts occur farther and farther apart. Using a calendar and reserving a time each week for one another will go a long way in improving this record. Emergencies may arise occasionally; but otherwise, you can look forward to this time together.

Your mate may spend more than your budget allows, and it is hard to balance the checkbook, or pay off the credit card debt every month. If heart-felt talks and counseling does not remedy the situation, an envelope with cash will limit his/her spending, while keeping you from paying overdrafts on the bank account.

A lack of reliability can make you feel like you cannot trust your mate, friend, associate, etc.; when a person neglects to read your blog, texts, emails and answer your calls, or when they break promises and give you no say in choices they make that affect you too, etc. this makes you feel slighted and unimportant to them.

Or maybe your mate is flirting with the opposite sex, which causes insecurity and jealousy to invade your peace; a lack of consideration and appreciation may drive a wedge between any two people.

Working together to find a third alternative that both people feel good about will solve many of these issues. Do not demand your own way, but discuss the issues and brainstorm solutions until you both agree on one of them.

Prayer:

Father God, help us to kindly admit to each other when something bothers us. Remind us not to criticize or accuse, but to choose a time when we are both available to chat about any negative issues that arise between us. Help us to see that we may not be able to find an alternate solution to the problem, but talking about it often diffuses the negative emotions in the situation.

When we choose to understand one another's viewpoint, and we see where we are both coming from, peace is often restored to the relationship; especially when You remind us that we are human too, and are often frustrating and annoying as well. Point out to us the good in each of us, so that we can focus on our blessings and learn to be content.

Thought for the Day:

Loving someone is always a choice, and our contentment level is what we make it; when we view life from a heavenly perspective, the little annoyances that attempt to spoil our relationships cannot compare to the blessing and wisdom, which God gives us every single day. - Song of Solomon 2:15; Psalm 23:1-4

The Healing Presence of God

When we pray, we often look for earthquakes, fire from heaven, a great rushing wind, miraculous answers; however, God often comes in the sound of "gentle stillness" - in a still, small voice (1 Kings 19:9-12).

We meet God in the quiet rest of His presence (Hebrews 4:10) - allowing His peace to bathe our soul and to heal the sources of our negative emotions. Listening to His directives for each moment of our day, we live and walk in His Spirit and His will - the happiest place on earth (Acts 17:28).

Connecting with patient, non-condemning people who pay attention to us is very healing. They are not absorbed in their self, their own problems, and their schedule. We can bond with one another as we chat or sit quietly in companionable silence.

We learn from God's Spirit, and from physically and psychologically safe people, to accept our self, to have patience with our flaws, and to find direction for our difficulties. This helps us to recover from the negative tapes in our mind of past labeling, criticism and degrading remarks.

In addition to externally safe environments, we also need an internally safe atmosphere. A place where we refuse to condemn our self, call our self names, or belittle our best efforts to follow God in our life.

Instead, we encourage and have compassion on our self. We accept our self for who we are in Christ. Paying attention to and meeting the needs of our body, soul and spirit are paramount pre-qualifications to our positive quality of life.

By the healing power of God within us, through Christ and by His Spirit, we stop judging our self, second-guessing our motives, or criticizing and devaluing everything we think, say and do each moment of the day.

Intimacy with God, basking in His attention, and listening to His words of comfort and direction all during the day, keep us joyful even in negative circumstances. As we wait on Him, He manifests to us His presence within us.

Prayer:

Father God, please keep us grounded and centered on Christ in us, and on who You are in our life; so that we keep Your peace in us through every trial and stressful situation. Help us to find our healing under the shadow of Your wings (Malachi 4:2). Teach us to walk in Your ways and to give You the glory for everything that You accomplish in us and through us during our life on this earth.

Thank You for helping us to live free of Satan's lies within our soul, and for teaching our internal voices to lift us up, have compassion and empathy for our self as well as others, to accept our self just the way we are, and to watch as Your Spirit transforms us into the likeness of Christ (2 Corinthians 3:18). We look to You to heal us and to bring us into a more intimate relationship with You day by day.

Thought for the Day:

In order to heal, we think Godly thoughts about our self. Below is a list of who we are in Christ, developed over the years from various authors I have read:

WHO AM I IN JESUS CHRIST AS A CHILD OF GOD:

·       I am loved (1 John 4:10)

·       I am capable; I am enough (Philippians 4:13)

·       I have been sanctified and called to holiness (1 Corinthians 1:2)

·       I have been given grace in Christ Jesus (1Corinthians 1:4)

·       I have been crucified with Christ and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. The life I am now living is Christ’s life (Galatians 2:20)

·       I am a son of God and one with Christ (Galatians 3:26, 28)

·       I am an heir of God, and co-heir with Jess since I am a Born Again child of God (Galatians 4:6,7)

·       I have been sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise (Ephesians 1:13)

·       I have been redeemed and forgiven, and I am a recipient of His lavish grace (Romans 6:1-5)

·       I have been made alive together with Christ (Ephesians 2:5)

·       I have been raised up and seated with Christ in heavenly places (Ephesians 2:6)

·       I am God’s workmanship…His handiwork…given a new life in Christ to do His work (Ephesians 2:10)

·       I am a Saint of God (Ephesians 1:1; 1 Corinthians 1:2; Philippians 1:1; Colossians 1:2)

·       I have been placed into Christ, by God (1 Corinthians 1:30)

·       I have received the Spirit of God into my life that I might comprehend the extent of what He freely gave to me (1 Corinthians 2:12)

·       I have already been given the mind of Christ (1 Corinthians 2:16)

·       I am God's temple…His dwelling place not made by humans. His Spirit and His life dwell in me (1 Corinthians 3:16; 6:19)

·       I am united to the Lord and am one spirit with Him (1 Corinthians 6:17)

·       I am bought with a price; I am not my own; I belong to God (1 Corinthians 6:19,20; 7:23)

·       I am called (1 Corinthians 7:17)

·       I am a member of Christ’s Body (1 Corinthians 12:27; Ephesians 5:30)

·       I am victorious through Jesus Christ (1 Corinthians 15:57)

·       I have been established, anointed and sealed by God in Christ, and I have been given to the Holy Spirit as a pledge guaranteeing my inheritance to come (2 Corinthians 1:21; Ephesians 1:13, 14)

·       I am blameless and free from accusation (Colossians 1:22)

·       Christ Himself is in me (Colossians 1:27)

·       I am firmly rooted in Christ and am now being built up in Him (Colossians 2:7)

·       I am complete in Christ (Colossians 2:10)

·       My old unregenerate nature has been removed (Colossians 2:11)

·       I have been buried, raised, and made alive with Christ (Colossians 2:12,13)

·       I died with Christ and I have been raised up with Christ. My life is now hidden With Christ in God. Christ is now my life. (Colossians 1:1-4)

·       I am an expression of the life of Christ because He is my life (Colossians 3:4)

·       I am chosen of God, holy and dearly loved (Colossians 3:12; 1 Thessalonians 1:4)

·       I am a child of light and not of darkness (1 Thessalonians 5:5)

·       I have been rescued from the domain of Satan’s rule and transferred to the kingdom of Christ (Colossians 1:13)

·       I have been redeemed and forgiven of all my sins. The debt against me has been cancelled (Colossians 1:14)

·       I have been given a spirit of power, love, and self-discipline. (2 Timothy 1:7)

·       I have been saved and set apart by God (2 Timothy 1:9; Titus 3:5)

·       I am an enemy of the devil (1 Peter 2:11)

·       I have been given exceedingly great and precious promises by God by which I am a partaker of God’s divine nature (2 Peter 1:4)

·       I am forgiven on the account of Jesus’ name (1 John 2:12)

·       I am anointed by God (1 John 2:27)

·       I am a child of God and I will resemble Christ when He returns (1 John 3:1,2)

·       I am like Christ (1 John 4:10)

·       I have life (1 John 5:12)

·       I am born of God, and the evil one…the devil…cannot touch me (1 John 5:18)

·       I have been redeemed (Revelation 5:9)

·       In Christ I have been healed (Isaiah 53:5)

·       I am the salt of the earth (Matthew 5:13)

·       I am the light of the world (Matthew 5:14)

·       I am being changed into the likeness of Christ (2 Corinthians 3:18

·       Since I have died, I no longer live for myself, but for Christ (2 Corinthians 5:14,15)

·       I am a new creation (2 Corinthians 5:17)

·       I am reconciled to God and am a minister of reconciliation (2 Corinthians 5:18,19)

·       I have been made righteous (2 Corinthians 5:21)

·       I am commissioned to make disciples (Matthew 28:19,20)

·       I am a child of God (John 1:12)

·       I have eternal life (John 10:27)

·       I have been given peace (John 14:27)

·       I am part of the true vine, a channel of Christ’s life (John 15:1,5)

·       I am clean (John 15:3)

·       I am Christ’s friend (John 15:15)

·       I am chosen and appointed by Christ to bear His fruit (John 15:16)

·       I have been given glory (John 17:22)

·       I have been justified…completely forgiven and made righteous (Romans 5:1)

·       I died with Christ and died to the power of sin’s rule over my life (Romans 6:1-6)

·       I am now a slave of righteousness, not of sin (Romans 6:18)

·       I am free from sin and enslaved to God (Romans 6:22)

·       I am free forever from condemnation (Romans 8:1)

·       I am a son of God; God is my Heavenly Father (Romans 8:14, 15 Galatians 3:26; 4:6)

·       I am a joint heir with Christ, sharing His inheritance with Him (Romans 8:17)

·       Because I am sanctified and am one with the Sanctifier, He is not ashamed to call me brother (Hebrews 2:11)

·       I am a holy partaker of a heavenly calling (Hebrews 3:1)

·       I have the right to come boldly before the throne of God to find mercy and grace in a time of need (Hebrews4:16)

·       I have been born again (1 Peter 1:23)

·       I am one of God’s living stones, being built up in Christ as a spiritual house (1 Peter 2:5)

·       I am a member of a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a People for God’s own possession (1 Peter 2:9,10)

·       I am an alien and stranger to this world in which I temporarily live (1 Peter 2:11)

·       I am more than a conqueror through Christ, who loves me (Romans 8:37)

·       I have faith in God's faithfulness (Romans 12:3)

·       I am led by God in triumphal procession (2 Corinthians 2:14)

·       I am to God the fragrance of Christ among those who are being saved and those who are perishing (2 Corinthians 2:15)

·       I am given strength in exchange for weakness (2 Corinthians 12:10)

·       I have been blessed with every spiritual blessing (Ephesians 1:3)

·       I was chosen in Christ before the foundation of the world to be holy and am without blame before Him (Ephesians 1:4)

·       I was predestined…determined by God…to be adopted as God’s son (Ephesians 1:5)

·       I have direct access to God through the Spirit (Ephesians 2:18)

·       I am a fellow citizen with the rest of God’s family (Ephesians 2:19)

·       I may approach God with boldness, freedom, and confidence (Ephesians 3:12)

·       I am righteous and holy through Christ (Ephesians 2:24)

·       I am a citizen of heaven, seated in heaven right now through Christ in me (Philippians 3:20 Ephesians 2:6)