Life-Changing Verses - Part 2 - Verse to Live By

God gives us a very simple plan for life. He encourages us to seek Him with all of our heart; not to depend on our human reasoning; and before we do anything, to ask Him to reveal His will for our next moment of time.

Then, He guarantees that He shall direct our paths (Proverbs 3:5-6). God will work out every circumstance, no matter how bad it is, for our ultimate good, if we love Him and are willing to walk in His will (Romans 8:28).

God created us for a special purpose before we were even born, starting with our salvation through Christ. We do not earn salvation by our works of righteousness. According to His mercy He saved us by cleansing us with regeneration.

God renews us by giving us His Spirit (Ephesians 2:8-10). Our Father God loved us while we were still sinners (Romans 5:7-9). He sees our whole life without the parameters of time or the constraints of mortality. God is eternal and views all of our years on earth from an eternal perspective.

We are crucified with Christ, but we still live on this earth; yet it is not us, but Christ who is living in and through us. And the life we now live in this human body, we live by the faith of God's Son who loves us - enough to die for us (Galatians 2:20).

We receive God's Spirit, which has nothing to do with our human effort, talents or hard work; and neither can we sanctify or perfect our soul through any work of our own (Galatians 3:1-3).

Our walk with God is a life-long process of growing in intimacy with Him, and enjoying the daily fellowship of almighty God. There is nothing that we cannot do as long as we are following His perfect will for us (Philippians 4:13).

If we submit to God and resist the devil, Satan is obligated to flee from us (James 4:7). He may gain permission from God to throw some type of trial in our path, but Christ in us is greater and more powerful than Satan could ever hope to be (1 John 4:4).

Prayer:

Father God, there are so many verses that stand out to us as we read Your Word, highlighted by Your Spirit in order to enlighten us and improve our brief life (James 4:14) on this earth. Thank You for giving us Your fullness as a free gift (Romans 3:23, 6:23; Ephesians 3:16-19, Amplified Bible). We give You all of the praise and honor due to Your name.

Because of Your mercy, we live our life free from the twisted duplicity of Satan's lies, and we relish the fact of our freedom in Christ. You make us whole and heal our physical, mental, emotional and spiritual diseases. You strengthen us from the inside out and You pour Your love and grace over us like a fountain of mercy. We love You with our whole spirit, soul and body, even into eternity.

Thought for the Day:

As we earnestly seek the Lord and thirst after Him to the point of fainting in this dry and weary land in which we live, He is our sanctuary - full of power and glory, the lover of our soul, which is better than life itself, and He satisfies our soul with His constant love; therefore, we continually praise Him with joyful lips and a mouth full of praises. - Psalm 63:1-11

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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.

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

Victorious Living

 

In this life, we often struggle with victory and are overcome by negative circumstances and trials. We focus on the negative aspects and surrender to Satan's lies, ending in depression and defeat. We cannot allow the devil to win victories in our life.

If we consciously embrace the fact that we are blood-bought children of God, we get a glimpse of what it means to live in abundance in body, soul and spirit. We find this life of freedom only through total submission to Christ in God.

God is our Father and He made Jesus our all, who is above all - even the angels - and lives in every authentic Believer. He also lives through us as we totally surrender our plans, goals and desires to Him.

Jesus and our Father are one (John 10:30); and in Christ we too are one with Jesus and our Father God (John 17:21), led by the Holy Spirit and fulfilled in both this life and the next (Galatians 5:15-25). We no longer live, but Christ lives in and through us (Galatians 2:20).

Jesus came to live, suffer and die so that we might have abundant, victorious life on earth and for eternity (John 10:10). We are born of the flesh and are hindered by the flesh, but as authentic Believers we are also born of the Spirit (John 3:6).

We cannot see the wind, but we can see the effects of the wind. In this same way, we cannot see the Trinity at this time, but we can see and feel the effects of their presence within us and as they use us to further God's Kingdom on this earth (John 3:8).

Jesus made the point with the rich, young ruler that no one is good regardless of how closely we keep the precepts of the law. Jesus even told the young man that only God is good. Only as we recognize God's presence in us can we accomplish anything for the glory of God (Luke 18:19).

Prayer:

Father God, You call all of us who are weary and heavily burdened to come to You to find rest - not as this world gives, but only as You supernaturally give us in abundant supply. As we share Your yoke, we learn from You and You shoulder and take the burden of our load of worries and cares and give us Your light and easy yoke in its place (Matthew 11:28-30).

You are our God of peace and you wholly sanctify us as we totally surrender our life and our burdens to You. We live a victorious life of abundance in You. You preserve our spirit, body and soul - our thoughts, choices and feelings - and make us blameless when we stand before You at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ (1 Thessalonians 5:23).

Thought for the Day:

God is faithful, and He calls us to Himself and provides us with eternal salvation for our entire body, soul and spirit now and throughout eternity. - 1 Thessalonians 5:24