It Only Takes a Spark

 

There is a truth in life that we often overlook. The more that we value Christ's sacrifice for our life, the more intense is our desire to share Him with other people.

It only takes one spark to get a fire going. Letting people know that God's mercy is new every morning, and available in their life as well as our own, is the best news that some people could ever hear. They are just waiting for us to speak up (Romans 10:14).

The fountain of living water within us is not meant to cleanse and nourish us alone, but to overflow to everyone around us (John 7:38). We cannot hide the light of Christ within us under a basket, but we are to set it on a hilltop for the whole world to see (Matthew 5:15).

I want to take more of an advantage of opportunities to share the good news of God's love with other people. I do not want to take His sacrifice on Calvary's cross for granted, but I want to broadcast it to the whole world.

That way, anyone willing to listen to what I have to say will have the opportunity to surrender their life to His love just like I did.

If I can spark the curiosity or hunger in just one person, and that person and I share God's truth with one other person, and continue to do this every day, we will certainly soon set the world on fire.

Prayer:

Father God, give us the boldness and love for others to share Your Good News with anyone willing to listen. Give us many divine appointments throughout our day to tell people about salvation through Jesus Christ. Someone shared the news with us; so remind us to "pay it forward".

Break our heart over the sin in our life and draw us closer to Your presence within us with each passing day. Allow the intimacy we share with You to grow every moment of our life, and remind us to consult with Your Spirit all through the day (Proverbs 3:5-6).

Thought for the Day:

God's mercy is the greatest gift we have ever been given and we can share that Good News with anyone willing to listen to us; we just make that first move to greet or offer to pray for anyone God brings across our path.

 

Attitudes Count

What is an attitude? It is a state of mind, a prevailing thought and it influences every aspect of our life. As a melancholy from birth, my attitude reflected a pessimistic bent.

I had a hard time seeing a glass half full, because my fearful and insecure personality saw everything as a potential problem. I was never satisfied and rarely hopeful. Depression constantly nipped at my heels.

The stresses of life intimately influence our attitude, which effects our thoughts, words and deeds. According to doctors, stress causes illness and infection to invade our physical, mental and emotional state of being.

Scientific research found a direct correlation between stress and our cortisol levels, which is supposed to help us to deal with stress. The adrenal glands produce cortisol, so we are able to flee or fight.

After we deal with the stress of a situation, the cortisol and adrenalin are supposed to subside and our body returns to normal. However, with chronic stress these chemical are constantly on high alert and affect our heart, digestion, sleep and energy level, and cause us to suffer from weight gain and adrenal fatigue.

In turn, adrenal fatigue contributes to major issues such as autoimmune disease and its accompanying illnesses. Pessimism exacerbates these issues and affects our mental and emotional status as well.

The exception to this rule is when a healthy sense of pessimism encourages us to seek wise counsel, make prudent plans and discourages us from taking unnecessary risks.

However, optimism usually works more in our favor. If we discipline our inner dialogue with our self to stay positive and trust God to help us, we will live more optimistically. Godly optimism empowers us to make a difference in our life and also in our world.

Prayer:

Father God, remind us that negative self-talk in our mind will defeat us every time. Satan whispers lies in our "ear" and we end up embracing them. Help us to stop judging or criticizing our self and others, and to be encouraging - especially to our self.

As a pessimist, life feels overwhelming to me, but I thank You for helping me to reword my self-talk and to think more positively. You changed my thought processes and are helping me to change my world by allowing Your Word to cleanse my soul and to restore to me the joy of my salvation (Psalm 51:10).

Thought for the Day:

God's Spirit will choose one aspect of our life at a time, and change our way of thinking about that issue, which helps us to change our focus about other issues as well.

An Empty Vessel

God cleanses us at Salvation and creates an empty vessel to fill with Himself. As our flesh decreases, Christ is able to increase in us (John 3:30). He brings with Him all the attributes of the Trinity to abide within us.

We welcome every trial and look for the hand of God in both the negative and positive aspects of life - knowing that it is all part of His pre-arranged will for us and that He works out everything for our ultimate good (Ephesians 2:10; Romans 8:28).

We have confidence in the fact that nothing in heaven, on earth or in hell can separate us from the love of God (Romans 8:35-39). We trust in His divine will and draw from His power within us to obey His Spirit each moment of the day.

We delight in working according to His good pleasure (Psalm 40:8). He fills us with all peace and makes us pleasing in His sight (Romans 15:13; Hebrews 13:21). We start as an empty vessel at salvation and He fills us to the brim with Himself (Ephesians 3:16-19).

Our weakness makes room for His strength, His will is our sole motivation and His ways are the only desires of our heart. We find glory in our short-comings, idiosyncrasies and infirmities, because through them, He is glorified.

Our peculiarities are God's sign of ownership. Do you have issues with the way you talk, look, the balance of your bank account, the profession in which you work?

God uses these peculiarities to keep us humble and dependent on Christ in us rather than our own special human abilities. As we submit to His will, He can accomplish His will on the earth.

If we are still full of our self, we leave no room for God to fill us with His presence and purpose for our life. The more we empty our self of our self, the more of us He can use.

Prayer:

Father God, we bow before You in humble adoration and praise. We depend on You for the very air we breathe. Your almighty power is at work within us, in nature all around us, and in the lives with which we come into contact every day. We totally surrender to Your perfect will for every moment of our life.

We trust in You to use us as You will and to work out everything in our life - even the negative aspects - for our good (Romans 8:28). You work mightily within us by Your power and we lift up Your majesty on high. We give You Your way in our life and trust You to use us now and to take us home to glory with You when we complete our mission for You here on this earth.

Thought for the Day:

In the solace of surrender and faith, we find the deepest measure of God's love and presence.