School of Hard Knocks

Life often sends us through a crash course at the School of Hard Knocks. We feel overwhelmed and hopeless, because of the weight of disappointment smothering the life right out of us.

As authentic Born Again Believers, we have Father God, Brother Jesus and their Holy Spirit - who defend, protect, advise, guide, provide for and love us so much that Jesus laid down His own life for us (1 John 2:1; John 14:16, 15:13).  

We can have faith in God's faithfulness, because He proves His love for us each moment of every day. He provides a miracle to accompany every trial, such as: spiritual growth, lessons learned, or blessings, which come in spite of our suffering.

In our trials, God surrounds us with His ministering angels, provides for our needs, builds our faith, gives us wisdom to share with others, and uses us as an example of one who maintains faith in God (Hebrews 1:14; Philippians 4:19; 1 Peter 1:7; Luke 22:32).

God's Spirit uses trials to shape in us the fruit of His Spirit: love, joy, faith, patience, gentleness, goodness, meekness, self-control and faith (Galatians 5:22-23; James 1:3).

God also teaches us contentment, which fills our heart regardless of the severity of the circumstances (Philippians 4:11-12). God continually abides in us through everything we ever experience (Galatians 2:20; Colossians 1:27).

At times, Satan tempts us to blame God for our losses and to feel anger towards Him for what we perceive as Him letting us down. However, God sees the big picture and He allows trials for our ultimate good.

Prayer:

Father God, as we live through the school of hard knocks, remind us to adopt an attitude of joyful acceptance and thanksgiving. Help us to focus on Your sovereign purpose in everything we experience (Romans 8:28). Remind us to trust in Your foreknowledge and grace (Romans 8:29; Hebrews 4:16).

Your infinite ways exceed our finite human understanding; therefore, we can always trust that You have our good at heart. We trust in Your faithfulness to fulfill all of Your promises, even when the circumstances appear hopeless.

Thought for the Day:

Praising God in and through trials helps us to feel contentment in spite of them and gratitude for His presence in us through each one of them. 

- 1 Thessalonians 5:18; John 17:23

Continual Peace and Security

Many people rely on their heart to lead them, but they can end up making foolish decisions that hurt them in the long run (Proverbs 28:26). Too often our soul causes us to fall into trouble. We give into all sorts of impurity, greed and idolatry when our soul – our thoughts and feelings - guides us (Colossians 3:5-7). We may futilely plan our goals and decisions from our heart, but the Lord ultimately determines our steps (Proverbs 16:9).

Only the counsel from the Lord through our spirit will help us to prosper (Proverbs 19:21). As we commit our life to the Lord, He establishes our plans, and they will succeed (Proverbs 16:3). We have a strong fortress within our spirit, when we trust Christ with our life. We can take refuge within us through every trial and temptation, because our Divine Comforter is there. We retreat there and find continual peace and security (Psalm 91:1-2).

There is no need to cry out to God, to long for Him, or to desire more of Him, because the complete triune God dwells within us from the moment of our salvation. The problem is not that God is not close to us, but that we have moved away from Him. Our body is the temple of God; our spirit is the throne of God. We can continually rest in Him, if we will relinquish control of our life to God and enter into His divine rest (1 Corinthians 6:19-20; Hebrews 4:10).

Our physical senses and human soul will lead us astray. The spirit of God will we lead us in peace and certainty, because the Lord fights our battles (2 Chronicles 20:15). We do not add the divine nature of God to our human nature when we get saved (2 Peter 1:4). Christ in us is our new identity. God’s divine nature replaces our human nature. God regenerates our spirit and we are Born Again. We leave the kingdom of darkness and live life in the Kingdom of Light (Ephesians 5:7-14).

If we use our five senses to indulge in the flesh, we will remain spiritual pigmies; but as we neglect sin and dwell in the Spirit, we grow stronger in our spiritual life. We can still choose to walk according to the flesh; but we are no longer in the flesh, but in the Spirit (Romans 8:9). As we walk in the Spirit, we no longer want to fulfill the desires of our flesh (Galatians 5:16, 25). We hunger after righteousness and despise the flesh (Romans 8:1-2).

Prayer:

Father God, You chose us in You before the creation of the world, to live blameless and holy in Your sight. Through Your foreknowledge, it pleased You to predestine us to be adopted as Your children through Christ (Romans 8:29; Ephesians 1:4-5). We are Your workmanship, created in Christ to do good works, which You prepared in advance for us to do (Ephesians 2:10). We are now children of light. Sin and darkness have no allure for us anymore (1 Thessalonians 5:5). Our citizenship is now in Heaven and we are heirs with our Lord Jesus Christ (Philippians 3:20; Romans 8:17).

Thought for the Day:

As children of our Abba Father, God gave us His Spirit to lead and protect us each moment of the day. - Romans 8:14-15, Galatians 4:6-7

God's Foreknowledge

Read: Psalm 139:15-16

“Your hands made me and formed me; give me understanding to learn your commands.” – Psalm 119:73

God created each and every one of us with a purpose in mind. He wants to bless us and shower us with His love as we perform His will for our life. Jeremiah gives us a great picture of this truth. Before God formed him in his mother’s womb, God set him apart and appointed him as His prophet to the nations (Jeremiah 1:5).

Paul made this same statement. He realized that God set him apart from birth and called him by His grace. God was pleased to reveal Jesus to Paul, so that Paul would proclaim the Good News about Jesus to the Gentiles. No human being revealed this to Paul. God called Paul Himself (Galatians 1:15-16). God is not hindered by time, because He lives in eternity. He created life and He sees the past, present and future all at once without the restrictions of time. God knows the end from the beginning (Isaiah 46:10).

Jesus existed before anything was created. He actually created everything – the visible and invisible things, as well as all the dominions and rulers and authorities. They were created through Him and for Him, and He holds everything together (Colossians 1:16-17). God chose us in Christ according to His foreknowledge, saved us by the blood of Jesus and sanctified us through the work of the Holy Spirit in our lives (1 Peter 1:2, 20; Ephesians 1:4).

 

God knew before the foundation of the world who would believe in Him. Therefore, He predestined all Believers to become conformed to Christ’s image (Romans 8:29). Jesus was the firstborn, and we are co-heirs with Him and adopted into God’s family (John 3:16; Romans 8:17).

Those whom God predestined because of His foreknowledge, He also saved; and those He saved, He also sanctifies them throughout their lifetime; and those He sanctified, He will also glorify their body when they joined Him in heaven (Romans 8:30, Romans 11:2). By God’s set purpose and foreknowledge, He handed Jesus over to wicked men, who put Him to death by nailing Him to the cross (Acts 2:23). This was part of God’s plan before He even created the universe; because He knew mankind would need a Savior (Revelation 13:8; Acts 2:3).

Jesus also had foreknowledge of His death. He knew from the beginning of time and creation which of His apostles would believe in Him for salvation and who would betray him (John 6:64; 13:11). When Judas led the soldiers into the garden, Jesus willingly gave Himself over to them (John 18:4). He readily gave up His life, because Jesus came to seek the lost, to pay our sin debt and to save us for eternity (Luke 19:10).

The Lord keeps His promises to us. He is patient with us, calling us over and over again, because He does not want anyone to perish in eternal damnation, but for everyone to come to repentance (2 Peter 3:9). God also came to give us abundant life on this earth, as well as in the next life with Him (John 10:10).

Prayer:

Father God, You are like the wind. We cannot see the wind. It blows wherever it pleases. We hear its sound, but we cannot see where it comes from or where it is going; just its affects as it passes by (John 3:8). We are amazed at how You formed us in our mother’s womb. Your ways are far above our understanding. You are the Maker of all things (Ecclesiastes 11:5). We find comfort in Your foreknowledge and we thank You for including us in Christ’s Body

Thought for the Day:

God did not design mankind with a predisposition for belief or unbelief, but He had a foreknowledge of our choices (1 Peter 1:2; Acts 2:23; Romans 8:29).