Undeniable Truth

Receiving God's Word as undeniable Truth is the first requisite for a life infused with love, joy, peace and power. When we doubt, we are in sin (Romans 14:22-23).

Yet, God lets us off the hook with one particular story. It is a man requiring a miracle and he humbly requests. "Lord, I do believe, but help my unbelief" (Mark 9:23-25).

How can he have faith and doubt at the same time? Didn't you ever feel this way? In your spirit you knew without a doubt that God could, but in your soul - your mind, choices and emotions - you wondered if He would.

Faith can move mountains and it often does. Faith can change lives, if the person humbly submits to God. Faith can give us hope in a hopeless situation.

Regardless of the amount of faith we have, God is not an Aladdin's lamp at our disposal to grant all of our wishes. He has a perfect plan for our life and some of that plan includes struggle and strain.

Not because God is mean of an ogre or vindictive, but He knows that our struggle makes us stronger. Look at a butterfly emerging from its cocoon or a chick coming out of its shell.

The struggle increases their ability to live in this world. If we help them and make it easier for them, they will most likely die. God planned for every struggle to bring us the strength to survive.

God connects us to the Vine of Christ. We draw every nutrient we need for an abundant life from the very blood of Christ. We bear fruit not by our own effort, but by the life of the Vine flowing through us.

Then, what does God do? He prunes us so we can bear more fruit - a temporary trial which makes us stronger. Yet, He does not stop there. He prunes us again so that we will bear much more fruit.

Prayer:

Father God, in the productive stages of our life, when we have learned the lessons brought to us through our pruning, we have an abundance of Your Spirit running through us from the Vine and we love who we are in Christ.

We do not need to be a separate plant in order to feel pride in our accomplishments. We are thrilled to have the privilege of abiding in our union with the Vine of Christ. Thank You for caring so much about the whole world that You chose to become Emmanuel and pay our sin debt for eternity (John 3:16-17).

Thought for the Day:

We love who we are in Christ and we rejoice when a new branch is connected to the Vine along with us. The Body, the Bride of Christ all intimately united with the amazing Son of God.

The End of All Things

 

God saw the end of this life as we know it before He ever created this world. We are all on His timetable and He has a perfect will for our life (Ephesians 2:10).

We can make our own plans and have our own dreams and goals; but if they are not according to God's will, we will be frustrated in trying to make them happen (Psalm 2:4).

America plays no part in the overall scheme of the prophecy in the Bible about the end times. America falls from the status of a super power.

The Bible makes no statement about how this will happen: financial collapse, foreign take over from a country like China who owns our multi-trillion dollar debt to them, etc. There is much speculation, but the Bible is not specific.

Therefore, it is best to follow the sage advice of Proverbs 3:5. We trust in the Lord with all of our heart and we do not rely in any way on our human reasoning and understanding.

We make no plans of our own, but we acknowledge God in every moment of our day, and He directs our every step. We realize that we are not wise in our own thinking; so we honor the Lord and turn away from all evil (Proverbs 3:6-7).

As we do this every day, we can be assured that God will care for us regardless of what happens to us. We may lose every penny we save as they did in the depression; we may be put in jail for our faith in Christ; we may die from a terrorist's attack.

We do not know what the next moment of time holds for us; but we do know that God is in the midst of it with us and He will never leave or forsake us (Hebrews 13:5).

Prayer:

Father God, even though You formed us in our mother's womb, and recorded every day of our life before we were ever born, in Your estimation, the day of our death is better than the day of our birth, because it is precious in Your sight (Psalm 139:13-16; Ecclesiastes 7:1; Psalm 116:15).

Thank you for sending Your angels to carry us to Your heavenly presence, and for guiding us and providing us with Your refuge even in death (Luke 16:22; Psalm 48:14; Proverbs 14:32). There we will never die again, and we will live as your children forever (Luke 20:36). Therefore, we do not have to fear what anyone will do to our body; because You are with us even in death (Psalm 16:9-11).

Thought for the Day:

God lives within us and experiences with us everything that transpires in our life; He will sustain us from the inside out.