Facing the Future

 

When we pay attention to all that God does for us throughout our day, we find our soul overflowing with love and gratitude to Him. We rejoice in Him, His provision, His peace and His joy that He showers us with each moment of our day. He is our source of rejoicing.

 

The Trinity of God is available to us every moment of the day, because God the Father, Jesus the Son, and the Holy Spirit abides within us. He provides everything for us exactly when we need it – in His perfect timing and will. 

 

Each day is a new surprise, as we put our trust in Him with every hurdle we come up against. Thanks to God’s Spirit, we have fathomless riches because of who He is and what He does for us each day. This is all possible only because of what Jesus, the Son, did for us on Calvary’s cross. 

 

Once we totally surrender to our Father’s love, our supply of His blessings is instant and eternal. Jesus is our Good Shepherd. Our Father God intimately knows us, because He knitted us together in our mother’s womb (Psalm 139). 

 

We recognize the Holy Spirit’s voice, He leads us, and we follow (John 10:4). God’s Trinity goes before us, to ward off any approaching enemy, and we feel protected and secure in His love (Psalm 27:1-3). He makes a way for us over every towering mountain pass, flooded creek, and even the darkest valley (Psalm 23). 

 

God makes the crooked places straight for us (Isaiah 45:2), He knows ahead of time all of the events of our tomorrows, and He keeps us close to Him (Proverbs 18:24). We even slumber and sleep in His eternal peace. He provides all of our needs.

 

Since God knows what lies ahead of us, we thrive in His mercy, truth, and grace through every circumstance that we face. He heals us in body and soul and spirit, reduces the pain of our trials, and uses us as a testimony of His grace and provision (Philippians 4:19).

 

Prayer:

Father God, it is a comfort to know that we are not a nameless entity who drifts around in this stress-filled life until the day that we die. We are not strangers in the throng of humanity surrounding us, but we are known by You, provided for by You, saved by Your grace, and we will spend eternity in Your service. In the center of Your love, even death is not our enemy, because Jesus overcame death and He abides within us (1 Corinthians 15:19-23).

 

Thank You for walking with us and in us, during every step of our life on this earth. You are our Helper, Hope and Expectation. We need You to care for us each moment of the day, and we thank You for all You have done for us, in us, and will do for us in our future. We have the confidence to face whatever the future holds for us, because You are working our Your purposes for our life. We look forward to worshipping You, with the angels around Your throne (Revelation 7:11), for all of eternity.

 

Thought for the Day:

We do not know what the future holds for us, but we do know who holds us in our future; He knows the number of hairs on our head, He rejoices over us with singing, and He allows us to come boldly to His throne in our every moment of need. 

-      Luke 12:7; Zephaniah 3:17; Hebrews 4:16

 

Praying up a Storm

 

If we allow our thoughts to randomly flit through our mind, we run the chance of making decisions that do not honor God and that will tend to bring us hardship and shame. Satan and God both influenced our thoughts (1 Timothy 4:1). Our thoughts, even our subconscious thoughts that we are not aware of at the time, influence our feelings. Our heart is deceitful and wicked, and we should submit both our thoughts and our emotions to God at all times (Jeremiah 17:9). We can control our thoughts by using them to pray each moment of the day. We control our emotions by sharing them honestly and kindly before they build up and explode.

We start in a place of aloneness (all-one-ness) with God. God has the perfect formula for prayer. Vain repetition in prayer does not honor God nor does it help us in any way (Matthew 6:7). Quoting scripture to God in an attempt to force His hand to provide what we want is useless and insulting to Him. We can use Bible verses in our prayers, but not to twist God’s arm to do our will. Sit in a very still and quiet place with your journal. Submit all of your thoughts and emotions to the Lord (2 Corinthians 10:5).

As you do, jot them down in your journal. You can even write out your prayers in your journal. Pray for everyone the Lord brings to your mind, issues in your life about which you need His wisdom, besetting sins that trouble you, negative emotions that crowd out His joy in your life, world news, unreached people groups, the persecuted church, government officials, etc. Whatever the Spirit brings to your mind. Another way to pray is when you see someone who reminds you of someone you know, pray for that person you see, as well as the person you know.

When you hear an emergency vehicle siren, pray for the people impacted by that emergency: for God to meet their needs and to reveal Himself to them. As you travel in the car, pray for the people with Christian symbols or bumper stickers on their car; if they are bold enough to display their faith, they could use your prayers. When someone dials the wrong number and they get you instead, tell them the reason they called is for you to tell them that God loves them and has a perfect plan for their life. Then, pray for that person as the Lord brings them to your mind.

We do not pray in order to force God’s hand to do our will, but we follow Jesus’ example and pray according to His will (Luke 22:42). As we seek God’s will, our thoughts and heart become one with His. We are dead and our life is hidden with Christ in God (Colossians 3:3-4). It is no longer we who live, but Christ who lives in us. We do not have to summon our faith, because we are filled with the faith of the Son of God (Galatians 2:20). Obedience to God’s will is the common denominator of all people of faith in the Bible. Their example gives us a peek into the life of people of prayer.

Prayer:

Father God, we all long to hear Your voice. You are our Abba Father and You desire nothing more than to commune with Your Body each moment of our day. Remind us to listen more and to talk less throughout the day; so that we can be led by Your Spirit to accomplish the works, which You prepared for us even before the foundation of the world (Ephesians 2:9-10). Help us to discern Your Spirit from the voice of the flesh, the world and Satan, which all try to negatively influence our thinking and behavior. As we read Your living Word, allow the verses to penetrate our heart and to sanctify our soul (Hebrews 4:12).

Thought for the Day:

We have confidence that God hears us in our prayers when we ask according to His will. - 1 John 5:14-15