Reflecting Gods Character

 

As a new born Christian, we look at Biblical mandates and attempt to make a list of all of the requirements to keep in order to please the God who saved us. We want to walk righteously before Him.

Or some people look at the requirements and consider giving up before they start, because the chore of walking in righteousness appears overwhelming.

What we do not yet understand is that the same Spirit that justified us is present within us to sanctify us and to quicken our mortal body in glorification when we see Jesus.

We will have the sanctified mind, eternal spirit and glorified, immortal body of Christ Himself (Philippians 2:12-13). Jesus is both the author and the finisher of our perfection.

We do not need to sprint up the mountain to attain Godliness as quickly as possible; but merely to obey God's call and directives one moment at a time.

The only help He needs from us is that we enter His rest, consult Him before we do or say anything, and then walk in His Spirit each moment of the day (Proverbs 3:5-6; Galatians 5:15-25).

We spend intimate time in His presence, which fill us; in His Word, which instructs us; in His Spirit, which inspires and guides us; and in His fellowship, which completes and fulfills us.

Prayer:

Father God, when we surrender each moment of our day to You, we do not instruct You on how to make our dreams come true. Instead, we accept Your will for our life and draw from the power and strength of Your Spirit within us to fulfill each directive which comes from You.

Give us the power and authority that Paul and Silas enjoyed when they went to the synagogue and spoke in Your name about Jesus. Help us to make a difference in this life for as many people as You bring our way. Your Holy Spirit works in their life and in ours through each divine appointment.

Thought for the Day:

As a mirror, we reflect God's glory and divine nature to the world around us.

An Empty Vessel

God cleanses us at Salvation and creates an empty vessel to fill with Himself. As our flesh decreases, Christ is able to increase in us (John 3:30). He brings with Him all the attributes of the Trinity to abide within us.

We welcome every trial and look for the hand of God in both the negative and positive aspects of life - knowing that it is all part of His pre-arranged will for us and that He works out everything for our ultimate good (Ephesians 2:10; Romans 8:28).

We have confidence in the fact that nothing in heaven, on earth or in hell can separate us from the love of God (Romans 8:35-39). We trust in His divine will and draw from His power within us to obey His Spirit each moment of the day.

We delight in working according to His good pleasure (Psalm 40:8). He fills us with all peace and makes us pleasing in His sight (Romans 15:13; Hebrews 13:21). We start as an empty vessel at salvation and He fills us to the brim with Himself (Ephesians 3:16-19).

Our weakness makes room for His strength, His will is our sole motivation and His ways are the only desires of our heart. We find glory in our short-comings, idiosyncrasies and infirmities, because through them, He is glorified.

Our peculiarities are God's sign of ownership. Do you have issues with the way you talk, look, the balance of your bank account, the profession in which you work?

God uses these peculiarities to keep us humble and dependent on Christ in us rather than our own special human abilities. As we submit to His will, He can accomplish His will on the earth.

If we are still full of our self, we leave no room for God to fill us with His presence and purpose for our life. The more we empty our self of our self, the more of us He can use.

Prayer:

Father God, we bow before You in humble adoration and praise. We depend on You for the very air we breathe. Your almighty power is at work within us, in nature all around us, and in the lives with which we come into contact every day. We totally surrender to Your perfect will for every moment of our life.

We trust in You to use us as You will and to work out everything in our life - even the negative aspects - for our good (Romans 8:28). You work mightily within us by Your power and we lift up Your majesty on high. We give You Your way in our life and trust You to use us now and to take us home to glory with You when we complete our mission for You here on this earth.

Thought for the Day:

In the solace of surrender and faith, we find the deepest measure of God's love and presence.

Faith Without Doubt

 

After Pentecost, the apostles, full of faith and the Holy Spirit, continued to share Jesus’ teachings. The Word of God multiplied in the hearts of many, and even some of the hard-hearted priests, who schemed to bring about Jesus’ demise, put their faith in His divinity (Acts 6:7). This same thing occurs today through the preaching of God’s Word.

Faith gives us the assurance of what we hope for, and confidence even when we see no way for it to occur (Hebrews 11:1). Jesus’ life gives us the faith to believe that God exists also, because God raised Jesus from the dead and glorified Him at His right hand in Heaven. This allows us to place our trust and hope in God alone rather than in our own abilities (1 Peter 1:21).

Our faith grows as we exercise it. Faith visualizes the impossible (Matthew 19:26), overcomes the lies of the devil (Revelation 12:9-11), believes in God without proof (Hebrews 11:1), holds us firm during life’s tribulation (Matthew 7:24-27), places our feet on the solid Rock (Psalm 40:2), sees the Creator in nature and clings to God’s faithfulness (Deuteronomy 7:9).

Faith overcomes temptation from the world, the flesh and the devil without giving them any credence (Galatians 5:16). Even when we do not fully comprehend it, faith helps us to believe the truth of God’s Word (Mark 9:24). Just a little faith allows us to move huge impediments in our life, even those, which are the size of a mountain, because nothing is impossible with God (Matthew 17:20; 19:26).

Prayer:

Father God, many in this world condemn themselves to hell by their unbelief (John 3:18). Their stubbornness and pride cripple their heart and prevent them from trusting in anyone but their own self. Those of us who do believe in You, often have trouble with whole hearted trust. Father, help our unbelief (Mark 9:24). Take our human doubts, which wiggle into our hearts and bind them with Your truth. Your Word proves Your faithfulness to us over and over again. Thank you for all You do for us each moment of every day.

Thought for the Day:

We live by faith, not by sight. - 2 Corinthians 5:7

The Love of God

 

The intense love of God burns like a fire deep in our soul, warming us as we travel through this cold world of sin and degradation. Christ died so that we may possess this everlasting love (Romans 6:23). We are precious to Him and we bring Him delight by our obedience (John 14:15). Everything God gave to His firstborn Son, Jesus, He shares with us, His adopted sons. Jesus sacrificed His throne and crown for us, and He did not reserve His life or blood, but gave His all for us.

Only as we completely surrender our life to Him in return, will we come into perfect union with Christ within us.  We totally submit to the sanctifying power of the Holy Spirit. We live according to God’s divine will for our life (Ephesians 2:10), and find our fulfillment in our union with Christ. We seek only the will of God in our thoughts, words and deeds, so that He might be glorified in us, just as He was in Jesus (John 14:13). We completely dwell in His love (John 10:17).

We come to the day where we stop offending God with our sinful desires, because the Spirit sanctifies us from glory to glory (2 Corinthians 3:18). He gives us discernment and His Word, so that we can ascertain what will bring God glory. His righteousness pervades our life to the extent that we surrender our sinfulness to Him. We live in harmony with Christ in us through the anointing of His name. Our prayers are centered in Jesus’ name and our life is lived in the power of His name.

Our union also provides us with faith to believe in His faithfulness. We live in unreserved obedience to the Father (1 John 3:22). We pray with confidence in our intimate union with Christ. We sit silently in His presence, knowing that He knows what we need before we even speak it (Matthew 6:8). An abiding life of faith in Christ alone provides power to our prayers (John 15:9). We wait at His feet for Him to provide all of our needs according to His glorious riches (Philippians 4:19; James 4:3).

Jesus shares with us His life, His inheritance, His righteousness and His Spirit. He keeps nothing from us, but freely gives us all things (Romans 8:32). His love is an example of the Father’s love for us as well. Our sinful state magnifies the beauty of His sacrificial love, and His compassion changes us from the inside out. God is love and we abide in His love through His Son (1 John 4:8). As we completely yield our life to His will, we reap the abundance He died to provide for us.

Prayer:

Father God, help us to find the eternal dwelling place provided for us by Your love (Deuteronomy 33:27). Our soul finds its peace in the shadow of Your wings (Psalm 91:4). Cause us to hear Thy loving kindness each morning, for in You we place our trust. Fill us to the brim with Your Spirit, and cause us to know Your will for each moment of our life (Psalm 143:8). We want to abide in Your presence and in the fullness of Your joy (Psalm 16:11).

Thought for the Day:

God’s everlasting love promises us eternal blessings. – Psalm 21:6

Journey to Heaven

Read: Galatians 3:1-3

“My soul followeth hard after Thee

Early in the morning

Will I rise up and seek Thee

And because Thou hast been my help

Under the shadow of Thy wing I will rejoice.” 

- Psalm 63 

Don Moen wrote this amazing song taken from Psalm 63. It resonates in my soul and calls me to live a life of worship to the One who is my help and who hides me under the shadow of His wings (Psalm 36:7) until disaster passes by (Psalm 57:1).

God saves us, not because of the righteous things we have done, but because of His mercy. He washed away our sins, giving us a new birth and new life through His Holy Spirit (Titus 3:5). Although we are guilty of many sins (1 John 1:9-10), and Adam's sin led to condemnation for all of mankind, God's free gift leads to our right standing with our Heavenly Father (Romans 5:16).

God only has two requirements for us in our journey to Heaven. The first is to believe that He loves us and died for us. The second is that we walk away from our sinful nature and follow hard after Him. God separated our journey to heaven into three stages:

Justification is an instantaneous event by which our spirit is Born Again. This happens the moment we realize that we are sinners and ask for forgiveness. Through justification, we are completely saved from our sin.

Glorification is also an instantaneous event, which occurs in our body. When we see Jesus, we shall be glorified like Him. This stage completes our Salvation in Body and Soul, which already started in our spirit in Justification (1 John 3:2).

Sanctification, or holiness, comes in a gradual process throughout our lives. It takes place in our soul – our mind, will and emotions - as we submit to the Holy Spirit on a daily basis. This is a life-long journey.

We cannot sanctify our self any more than we can save our self or glorify our self (Galatians 3:1-3). Justification, Sanctification and Glorification are all the achievement of the Lord working in us by His Holy Spirit. Walking in holiness simply requires that we respond to the work of Jesus Christ in us by His Holy Spirit. We are dead and our life is now hidden with Christ in God (Colossians 3:3). It is no longer we that live; but Christ that lives His life in and through us (Galatians 2:20).

We have no need for dreams and goals of our own. He has a perfect will for us that includes plans to prosper us and not to harm us, plans to give us hope and a future (Jeremiah 29:11). The only effort we exert in sanctification is to walk in obedience to His Spirit moment by moment throughout the day. If we could sanctify our self, then we could boast in our own efforts, and there would be no need for Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross (Ephesians 2:9-10). Paul actually reprimands the Galatians for trying to work out their own salvation in their own power (Galatians 3:1-3). Then, in Galatians 3:11 and Ephesians 2:8-10, Paul emphatically states that no man is justified, sanctified or glorified by keeping the law in his own strength, it is only by faith.

From Justification all the way through Sanctification to Glorification, God does the work in us as we walk in the Spirit (Galatians 5:16 & 25). In the book of Philippians we read an apparent contradiction to this! It tells us to work out our own salvation! The Bible never contradicts itself, however. The very next verse continues on to say that it is God who is at work in us, giving us both the will and the power to do His good pleasure (Phil 2:12-13).

You may ask, “Why then do we have to do good works? One reason is because God created us to do good works (Titus 2:15; 3:8). In doing these good works, we cause others to glorify God (Peter 2:12). We also construct our wedding garment through our good works (Revelation 19:8). Finally, we earn our rewards in Heaven through our good works (Hebrews 11:6).

 
Prayer:
Father God, if we do not do the works You created us to do, this does not affect our Salvation; but it definitely affects our rewards here on earth and then again in Heaven. It also causes You to find someone else to bless in our place. It does not make sense to disobey You, Lord. Thank You for giving us both the desire and the power to follow hard after You (Philippians 2:13; Psalm 63:8).

Thought for the Day:

It is a privilege to serve God with our lives.