Hoping in God

As human beings, we place our hope in many things: people, places, careers, stock markets, etc. We often fail, however, to realize that our only lasting hope is in God.

Jesus secured our hope by His death, burial and resurrection. His sacrifice touches every part of our life, even the most devastating moment we could ever experience.

At salvation, our hope in God turns to faith, which is authentic, powerful and enables us to enjoy God's company as our loving and nurturing Father.

His presence opens the door for us to enter into the citizenship of heaven, the Body of Christ, the circle of His beloved children, His Saints and called out ones. We are no longer pilgrims and sojourners (Philippians 3:20-21; Ephesians 2:19).

For those of us who believe in God, this hope is tangible evidence of the calling He gives to each one of us. We inherit His glorious riches and enjoy His great power and assurance now and forever (Ephesians 1:18-20).

Moses failed to deliver God's people when he killed the solitary Egyptian soldier who mistreated his Jewish brother. He ran from the consequences of that behavior and hid in the desert.

He forgot that God allowed Him to be raised in the king's castle and that He was actually a child of the almighty King. His self-image was polluted by Satan's lies and accusations of his failure.

This occurs in our life as well. Satan throws our past up into our face over and over in order to render us ineffective in any ministry for the Lord. We are riddled with self-doubt.

We can trade God's truth about us for the devil's recrimination and lies about our failings. Taking our journal, we sit in silent meditation and listen as God speaks His truth about who we really are and how He feels about us. ( www.theophostic.com )

We can read the back of the book, the last two chapters of Revelation, and understand that God returns to us everything which Satan attempted to steal from us in the first chapters of Genesis.

Prayer:

Father God, Your truth ignites our passion to have more of You in our life and to walk in Your Spirit and will for our life (Galatians 5:15-25). We live as a testimony of Your existence for the world to see. We read daily affirmations from Your Word about who we are in Christ, which transform our thought life from a negative image to a Godly one (Galatians 3; 2 Corinthians 5; Romans 8).

Your Spirit testifies that we are Yours and He breathes the breath of life into our spirit until He transforms us from one level of spiritual maturity to the next (Romans 8:16; 2 Corinthians 3:18). We overcome the world and our doubts and fears through the victory that overcomes the world - our faith in Your faithfulness (1 John 5:4) - and You empower us by Your Spirit as we walk in Your will moment by moment throughout the day.

Thought for the Day:

Regardless of what we view with our human understanding and vision, we live by the faith from God's promises about the unseen world, which are just as real and tangible.

Christ, Who is Our Life

Peace in this world is fleeting and superficial. It depends on our circumstances and the people we are with. However, the peace of God allows us to glide serenely through any trial or difficulty (John 14:27). God’s peace is a fruit of His Spirit and His Spirit is ever present within us (Galatians 5:22-23). His peace is supernatural and everlasting. We cannot understand His peace, but it always guards our heart and mind in Christ Jesus (Philippians 4:7).

The closer to God we live, the harder it is for Satan to attack us. God is our shield, our high tower and our defense (Psalm 28:7). As we hide in Him and clothe our self in His armor (Ephesians 6:10-12), He is with us, even in the depths of hell on earth (Psalm 139:8). He never deserts us or abandons us (Hebrews 13:5). When the fiery darts of Satan attack us, God shelters us through it all (Psalm 91).

The demons of hell are actually powerless against us, because our name is written in the Lamb’s Book of Life (Luke 10:20). As we walk in obedience to God, we are surrounded with legions of angels and they protect us from Satan and his demons, as well as any harm man plans to impose on us (2 Kings 6:8-23). God always works everything out for our ultimate good, even if it is to work His nature into our life (Romans 8:28). Without Him, we are hopeless and helpless (John 15:5).

Life is not about us, but about Christ living in and through us (Galatians 2:20). Having Christ as our life is more than enough for us (Colossians 3:4). We live every moment of our life on earth only for the glory of God (Philippians 1:21). We surrender our plans and aspirations to His will for us (Ephesians 2:10). We pray without ceasing by communing with God each moment of the day through His Spirit within us (1 Thessalonians 5:17). Prayer is our key to abiding in Christ (John 15:4-7).

Prayer:

Father God, our hope of living in glory lies in the fact that Your Christ lives within us (Colossian 1:27). Our life in You is more than salvation, more than dedication, it is a life where Christ is all we need, as well as in all we say and do (Ephesians 1:22-23). We are one with You in Christ (Colossians 2:9-10). Now, we labor until we see Christ formed in our family, friends, associates and neighbors (Galatians 4:19).

Thought for the Day:

We are partakers of Christ’s divine nature, and one with Him now and for eternity. – 2 Peter 1:4; John 17:23

Compromise with the World

 

Secular society has no idea of the advantages God gives us when we live our life dedicated to Him (1 Corinthians 2:14). The only way they have of seeing Christ is when He is consistently manifested through our life (John 14:19). If we claim the name of Christ and live in compromise with the world, we actually cast a shadow over authentic Christianity. It is only when the walking dead see an uncompromising difference in us that they see the reality of a life in Christ. They come to a crossroads where they will either accept Christ, or reject Him yet again as they continue to walk in the darkness of Satan’s defeat.

The spiritual life is far richer than the carnal life (Romans 8:6-11). We maintain our spiritual life in Christ as we fellowship with Him in prayer, in His Word and in His suffering. We walk in His faith through prayer, we learn His character through His Word and we come to know Him intimately through His suffering. He is the biographer and the fulfiller of our faith (Hebrews 12:2). Our whole life is based on our trust in Him (Romans 1:17). He is our confidence, our expectancy and our fulfillment (2 Corinthians 3:4).

Through Christ, we are reborn by the Spirit of God and have everlasting life through faith in God’s faithfulness (John 3:8, 17:3). The Spiritual life not only drenches our spirit with the indwelling Spirit of God, it also infiltrates our soul – our mind, will and emotions - through sanctification. Whoever is born of the flesh is flesh, but whomever is born of the Spirit of God is Spirit (John 3:6). Christ is our very life and He works in us through His indwelling Spirit (Colossians 3:4).

The mind controlled by the Spirit of God is full of life and peace (Romans 8:6). The emotions controlled by the Spirit of God mirror His spiritual fruit (Galatians 5:22-23). The choices controlled by the Spirit of God come from justice and holiness and reap righteousness (Proverbs 14:27). We shall never thirst, because His river of living water flows through us and out into the world around us (John 7:38). The soul possessed by the Spirit of God blossoms as a rose in the desert (Isaiah 35:1).

We, who are born of God, partake in the divine nature of God through Christ who dwells within us (2 Peter 1:4). We possess the fullest measure of Christ within us (Colossians 2:9; Ephesians 3:19). Since Jesus lives within us, we can face tomorrow with hope in our heart and joy in our soul (Jeremiah 29:11). He helps us never to compromise with the world. We will never experience the second death; because at salvation, we moved instantaneously from the earthly realm into the heavenly one.

Prayer:

Father God, while we live on this earth, You will cover us with Your feathers and under Your wings we trust that nothing will come against us that can ever irreversibly harm us. You are our shield to protect us from Satan’s arrows that fly by day; and his plagues, which come in the night; and his destructiveness, which comes at noon. Even if thousands fall all around us, we shall still stand because Your protection hold us up in Your hand (Psalm 91). Remind us that a spiritual mind is much more precious to You and to us than a fleshly one.

Thought for the Day:

A carnal mind is worse than a body containing a spirit, which dead in sin, because it limits God’s divine power from working in and through us.