Emotional and Mental Health - Christ Triumphs over Evil

Rather than to allow our mental and emotional health to gain its influence from the world, the flesh or the devil, we can glean as we read from God's Word and adopt its Biblical principles and concepts as our own.

Writing verses on 3x5 cards and carrying them around with us enables us to focus on scripture while waiting at traffic lights, retail lines at the check-out, doctor's offices, school pick-up lanes to retrieve our children, etc.

Rather than to fume about wasted time, we constructively focus on the Word of God, which is life to our spirit and soul. As we set our mind on things above, we grow in our faith, hope and love, and we increase our intimacy with our Lord.

Our trials in life give us the perfect opportunity for God to prove His love and sustaining power to us, it draws us together as a couple, a family and as the Body of Christ, if we pray together for our needs.

We are all falsely accused, misunderstood, and people make incorrect assumptions about us and our motives. Yet, evil will not triumph over us, because Christ in us is greater than Satan and the people in this world (Ecclesiastes 3:17, 12:14).

God will right all the wrongs when our righteous King takes His throne to rule and reign for eternity. There will be no more tears or sorrow; no more emotional of mental distress; only peace and joy for eternity.

Prayer:
Father God, You give us respect in our city, when we support one another as Your Body, and when we walk in Your ways (Proverbs 31:23). Yet, at other times, people around us hate You, and then hate us because we love You (Psalm 31:11-13).

We do not need to please people or lead people to You; we simply need to share Your gospel with whomever will listen; allow Your Spirit to do a work in their heart; and then, let our light shine in such a way that our family, friends, associates and neighbors will see our good works and glorify You (Galatians 1:10; 1 Peter 2:12; Matthew 5:16).


Thought for the Day:
When we choose to walk in God's rest and peace, we are paving the way for difficult, evil people to encounter the Prince of Peace Himself, because He abides within us; so we can choose peace over worry and walk in serenity instead or unrest and anxiety.

Abiding Fruit - Part 2

As God's Spirit conforms us to the image of Christ, we abide in His abundant love forever. We keep His commandments and love our friends, relatives, associates and neighbors with the love of the Lord (Matthew 22:37-39; John 15:10).

The Vine existed long before the branches ever grew, and He sacrificially shares His love and life with us (1 John 4:19). We choose to fully commit to our relationship with the Vine (John 15:16).

Separated from the Vine, we can do nothing (John 15:5). We display the fruit of the flesh, which is envy, strife, hatred, self-centeredness, criticism, worry, depression, pride, bitterness, complaining, quitting, backbiting, loving our self more than others, loving money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to our parents, ungrateful, unholy, slanderers, God-haters, insolent, arrogant and boastful; inventing ways of doing evil; disobeying our parents; and as adults, we put work and fun ahead of God (2 Timothy 3:2; Romans 1:30).

Abiding in the Vine gradually renews our heart and replaces these negative issues with the fruit of God's Spirit, which we bear through our obedience to Him. This is the evidence of our union with the Vine (John 15:13).

We rest in His grace and renew our strength as we wait on Him (Isaiah 40:31). His Spirit directs us each moment of the day (John 16:13). We increase God's Kingdom by our obedience to Him and His Word (Mark 4:26).

God's fruit in our life is proof of our faith in God (James 2:14-26). We abide in Him, but He also abides in us, completing the sanctifying work of holiness, which He started in us at salvation (Philippians 1:6, 2:12-13).

Prayer:

Father God, let us never break our connection with Your Vine. The life we receive through Your presence in our spirit is not paralleled by anything this world has to offer.

Help us to exhibit affection for others, an exuberance about life, serenity through the storms, determination and patience, a compassionate heart, and kindness that pervades our entire being (Galatians 5:22-23).

We trust that You have this world in Your control and have a perfect timetable for its culmination and the renewal of all things. Remind us to live humbly in service to You and others, and continually guide us by Your Spirit.

Thought for the Day:

Our God, who called us, is faithful to us and will fulfill us and care for us until we abide with Him in eternity. - 1 Thessalonians 5:24

Sacrificial Love

In following Jesus’ example and direction, we live with sacrificial love for everyone around us. We put the needs of others ahead of our own needs. We give our resources, time, energy, empathy and compassion. However, this lifestyle will deplete our emotional energy, if we live it in the flesh. Codependent people are servants at heart, and they give so much to so many so often, that they burn out. God tells us to love others as we love our self. We need to take time to meet our needs too, and to allow others to meet our needs.

The only way we can truly love others sacrificially is through obedience to the Spirit of God. We grow into the fullness of the stature of Christ because His Spirit transforms us into His likeness (Ephesians 4:13; 2 Corinthians 3:18). God’s love within us allows us to forgive the slights, abuses and violations perpetrated against us. He also enables us to cry with those who suffer; and rejoice, without jealousy or bitterness, with those who are celebrating (Romans 12:15).

The world, the flesh and the devil do not want us to love unconditionally. They want us to fling accusations concerning our trials into the face of God (Matthew 16:23). They want us to react in hate, to wallow in bitterness and to unleash all of our negative emotions on the one who hurt us. However, Jesus says to turn the other cheek (Matthew 5:39). It is hard to do that when our normal response is to fight back. With each temptation to disobey the Lord, we struggle to lay down our life, and instead, to take up His life within us.

We face a struggle between our fleshly nature and God’s Spirit (Galatians 5:1, 25). We want to do what is right, but we often fail in times of crisis (Matthew 6:22-23, 16:13-16). Finding Christian friends who are experiencing a similar life crisis soothes our soul and gives us prayer partners. God proves His love and kindness to us as He guards, fortifies and leads us through these troubled waters. In the end, God’s faithful Saints will receive commendation, prominence and even more authority, once the Lord returns for us (1 Peter 1:7).

Our sacrifice of love is an expression of our love for and gratitude toward God. The world recognizes us as Believers, because of the depth of our love for one another and for the world around us (John 13:34-35). There are so many hurting people in the world who need the love of God; and we are just the ones to show them that we love them, because He first loved us. We have the only true, eternal hope, which is available to offer to our hurting family, friends, associates, neighbors and even people we have only just met (Romans 5:5).

Prayer:

Father God, many of life’s storms come to prove that our faith in Your faithfulness is valid, and worth more to us than any earthly riches. You often allow tribulation in our life to prove to us that You love us, or to redirect our course of action and to center us in Your will for our life. We can patiently wait and watch for Your divine intervention on our behalf (Exodus 14:13). Help us to share Your sacrificial love only with those You want us to reach out to.

Thought for the Day:

God so loved the whole world that He sacrificially gave His only begotten Son to save us from a life of sin.

Our Offering

Read: 2 Corinthians 12: 9-10
"Now then, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were pleading through us: we implore you on Christ’s behalf, be reconciled to God."  ~ 2 Corinthians 5:20 NKJV

Circumstances in the world in which we live get more perilous with each passing day. A financial collapse, a current event or a natural catastrophe can bring the world to its knees at any moment. We have no need to fear, however.

God unfolds His plan to His children one day at a time. With His peace in our hearts, we can reflect His light into the desperate and dying world around us. Our friends, family, neighbors and associates will see Christ in us as we remove the shadow of our self-reliance and trust completely in the Lord. The power of God freely working in and through us is like a magnet, which attracts those seeking His Truth. Jesus said that when men see our good works, they will glorify our God in Heaven (Matthew 5:16).

We have no fear of failure when it comes to His calling in our life. God's strength is made perfect through our weakness. Our complete dependence in Him is our offering to Him. Do you think that God cannot use you? As a Believer, we can allow God to channel His will through our lives. When we are our weakest that is when He is His strongest. He will use us to share reality with a world that is built on illusions.

Prayer:
Lord Jesus, we offer our lives to you as a living sacrifice, to use for Your Glory and for the advancement of Your Kingdom on the earth.

Thought for the Day:

Approaching God with empty hands allows Him to fill them to their fullest.