Wisdom from Above

We often lack wisdom and understanding in this life. It may come from a lack of training at home, a genetic deficiency, a sheltered life or a poor education.

We are not prepared to face the constant adversity and challenges of daily living. God promises to give us the wisdom we need, if we simply ask (James 1:5).

His wisdom is well beyond our years and also comes from senior Saints who experienced more of God and life's complications than we have. We only need to listen to their advice rather than thinking we know better than they do.

Basically, most humans are self-confident fools and pseudo-intellectuals who lack basic understanding (Isaiah 32:1-6). However, as we rely on God for wisdom, we end up speaking the inspiration provided by His Spirit.

We utter truth and refrain from saying curse words and making foolish remarks from confused thinking. Our thoughts and words are righteous; and there is no guile of lies from the devil mixed up in them.

Those who have a heart after God see the wisdom in our thoughts and words and agree with us. Only those with the eyes of their understanding clouded by sin refuse to see the spiritual insight in what we say and do.

They live in their own world of deception and believe in the lies fed to them by the "guru's" of this world (2 Peter 3:14-18). They judge our wisdom from above as crooked, perverse and contrary to their truth.

Yet, whoever comes to Christ finds true wisdom and priceless treasure beyond their wildest imagination; finds favor with the highly exalted King of all kings; and prospers in all of his/her ways (Psalm 119:1-2, 128:1-2; Luke 11:28).

Prayer:

Father God, thank You for teaching us Your Truth and leading us on the paths of spiritual understanding. They are more costly than silver and more precious than gold. They are more beautiful than rubies and pearls and are more desirable than what the world we live in considers as valuable (Job 28:15; Psalm 19:10, 119:127).

You teach us knowledge, prudence and discretion and give us Your power (James 1:5). We abide in our worship of You and we hate evil; we walk away from pride and arrogance with perverted thoughts, desires, words and actions (Romans 13:1; Daniel 2:21). We remain in You and walk in Your ways all the days of our life.

Thought for the Day:

God loves those who love Him, seek His wisdom and dedicate their every waking moment to His service, regardless of our secular training or vocation. 

- 1 Samuel 2:30; John 14:21; James 1:5

Forgiving Our Mistakes

The Bible makes a monumental case out of the fact that forgiveness is a fundamental exercise in our Christian walk. Jesus, Paul and many of the other authors note various aspect of forgiving our self and others (Matthew 6:14-15; Colossians 3:13).

Forgiveness is one of the hardest concepts to grasp and to obey God's directive. We want to hold grudges, thinking we are punishing the offending party; but we are actually only harming our self and our physical and spiritual health.

While balancing my checkbook at the end of the month, I clicked in two small numbers into the calculator and came out with an enormous number as the result.

Shocked, I sat there in disbelief. Then, I remembered that I forgot to clear the information, which I entered into the calculator earlier and this resulted in the confusion and misinformation.

This reminded me that we often carry with us, into our new life in Christ, the condemnation that accompanies our sinful lifestyle of the past. Yet, God forgot all of our sins when we repented and believed in Jesus as our Savior.

There is no longer any condemnation for them, because He cast our sins as far as the east is from the west (Psalm 103:12). He remembers them no more (Hebrews 8:12).

Once we realize that God forgives us, it is easier for us to forgive our self, as well as those who offend us. We can delete the balance of our sins from our mind and heart.

God no longer remember them, so why should we? He freely gives us His forgiveness and unconditional love, which accompanies us for the rest of our life.

Prayer:

Father God, nothing takes You by surprise, because You know the end of time from the beginning. Every moment is present before You, because You are not hindered by time, space or matter. You live outside of the realm of earthly hindrances and restrictions. You are immortal and there are no limits to Your knowledge, power or goodness.

Thank You for loving us so completely, for coming to earth as Emanuel and for saving us from our self. You set our feet to dancing (Psalm 30:11), and You give us feet like a goat's feet to traverse the rocky heights of danger in this world (Psalm 18:33). We look forward to spending eternity with You when Your Kingdoms comes to the earth (Matthew 6:10). 

Thought for the Day:

God remembers our sins no more.

Rest For Our Soul

The presence of God in our life is a wondrous gift that trumps any other blessing we could ever receive. God calls us to seek His Kingdom before, as well as more than we seek the distractions of the world, the flesh and the devil (Matthew 6:24).

God requires total dedication and surrender (Luke 14:26).  This does not negate the fact that we have a family, job, church and hobbies to participate in; but we do it all through the direction of God’s Spirit and for His glory (1 Corinthians 10:31).

We follow the leading of God’s Spirit through the ear-splitting noise and hectic pace of our life. He brings order from the chaos and peace in the confusion.

He replaces our stress with His rest, if we will only surrender every facet of our life to Him. The first step in entering God’s rest is to spend uninterrupted, quality time with Him (Mark 12:30).

Confusion drowns out the voice of God and causes us to feel frustrated, angry and to experience other negative emotions. However, walking in His presence moment by moment through the duties of our day, brings contentment and peace.

God helps us to prioritize our time and activities. Everyone needs “down” time for our soul – our mind, will and emotions - to catch up, to chill out and to recover from the trauma of life. We need time for our spirit to center into Christ’s life within us (Psalm 46:10).

We do not have to be afraid of not measuring up, or of not getting all of our required work done, or meeting all of the needs of all of the people who depend on us.

If we live one moment at a time, Christ within us directs us to do what pleases Him. Like Mary, we can make the best choice for our day, and sit at Jesus feet within us, no matter where we are or what we are doing (Luke 10:42).

As we praise Him and follow His Spirit, He will allow us to excel in our efforts, to finish what is required of us and to meet the needs of all the people to whom He wants us to minister.

Prayer:

Lord Jesus, when You see our agitation rising inside, prompt us to discover the source of the negative emotions and to seek Your wisdom on how to deal with it. Nothing and no one can come against us to overpower us, because You live within us. Remind us to be still and to acknowledge that You are Lord over our life.

Exhort us to rest in You while You work out the issues, which are distracting us from living in Your peace and rest. We trust You with our whole life, because we have faith in Your faithfulness. My soul finds rest in You and my hope comes from You (Psalm 62:5).

Thought for the Day:

We still have hectic activities swirling all around us; however, as we walk in the Spirit, God gives us a quiet refuge, supernatural strength and His constant help in any difficulty we experience.