​Give Yourself to God

Give yourself first and completely to God. Do not give Him a few moments of devotion, but dedicate all of your day and night to Him.

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Seek His direction at home, work, school and play. You will live in His peace and anointing, and will reap the joy and serenity He provides as you give yourself entirely to Him.

He will not grant all of your desires, He will not spare you from all of your trials and heartache, but He will always give you more and better than you could ever imagine.

As we simplify our life, we no longer buy what we do not need. We do not pay a monthly fee for a storage room that collects stuff we will never see again.

The more possessions we own, the more they own us. If we do not have room for it at home, we do not need it. The more we walk in the Spirit, the less time we have to walk in the flesh (Romans 5:16).

Without encumbering ties to this earth, we can consecrate our whole spirit, soul and body in service to King Jesus as we traverse through our day by the leading of God's Spirit.

Prayer:

Father God, the more control we attempt to maintain over life, the more problems we experience. Trouble seems to come in three's and gets totally out of our control more often than not. Yet, the more of our self we give to You, the less we have to worry about and attempt to control in our life. 

You sent Jesus to pay our sin debt and You gave us Your Spirit to lead us through every moment of our life. As we surrender control to You, and obey Your Spirit moment by moment without resisting; we reap the joy You have in store for us each and every day.

Thought for the Day:

Jesus died to give us eternal life in abundance now and for eternity; so the least we can do is to live our life for Him.

God's Comfort through Grief

The death of an intimate relative is one of the most challenging, disturbing, overwhelming, and painful experiences we may ever survive. Grief shakes our core foundations and creates devastating and sometimes unrelenting loss and chaos in our life.

For a period of time, depression dampens all of our activities and feelings, and it interrupts our normal schedule. Grief has even been known to hasten the death of the surviving partner or parent.

Our life may never totally recover after the loss of a loved one. At best, life will take a new course, which brings change and fear of the unknown. This change is often one we would never select if we had a choice.

Grief may even accompany the loss of a cherished personal possession, a pet, or even financial security or a part of our body. Aging also produces aspects of grief as we experience the loss of friends, health, physical appearance, energy, family support and memory.

Divorce is another loss from which some people never recover. It causes traumatic grief in most cases, which is similar to or even more distressing than a death, because our mate chooses to leave us.

Each person alive experiences grief in some form or other in their lifetime. Even minor losses will trigger heartache. Grief from former losses will accumulate over the years and add to the sorrow we feel in current losses.

That is why it is important to allow our self the time and opportunity to grieve until we feel closure from any loss as it arises. Ignoring or suppressing grief compounds this devastating emotion in our soul.

Taking our grief to God allows us to heal more completely than if we try to heal on our own. His solace provides peace and joy, which surpasses human reasoning and emotion. We feel His presence within us, filling us and lifting us up.

Prayer:

Father God, we thank You for walking with us through the valleys of grief we experience throughout our lifetime. Your comfort transcends any mantras we utter or human counsel we receive during these times of loss.

We come to You and Your Word and find our well-being through Your life-giving truth and wisdom. We know we will see our saved loved ones again, but please fill their void in our life with more of Your presence than we ever felt before now.

Thought for the Day:
God brings physical, emotional, mental, social and spiritual healing to us in every instance of grief we experience during our lifetime.

God's Eternal Plan - Part 2

God loves humanity so much that He gave us His Word in the form of Jesus Christ, who left His place in the glories of Heaven and sacrificed His own life to pay the penalty for our sins (John 1:14). God also gave us His Word in written form to give us prophetic encouragement and His truth, as well as advice and instruction, which gives us skill for living in this world (2 Timothy 3:16).

Yet, the carnal mind cannot understand the things of the Spirit (1 Corinthians 2:14). Some people, who were hurt by a Christian or who do not understand why God did not answer their prayer the way they expected Him to, will turn their back on God. They cannot see that the fairytales, which Satan feeds them, are actually lies;, and they call the Bible a book of fairytales instead (1 Thessalonians 2:11-12).

They end up condemning their self to eternal destruction by their unbelief (John 3:18). They forfeit the blessings of God in their life in order to maintain the illusion of control and independence. They want it said of them, "I did it my way." They are rebels at heart and will not submit their life to the will of God for them (Ephesians 2:10).

The more we share God's truth with God Haters, the further it pushes them away from our beloved King. They attribute their success to their own hard work, and little realize that God is sending love on thousands of generations of those who love Him (Exodus 20:6; Deuteronomy 5:10). The only hope for them is that they will respond as God's Spirit draws them to our Father God (John 6:44).

We simply repent of our sinful thoughts, words and deeds and then surrender control of our life to God. We lose nothing but heartache, disappointment and stress. We gain all the fruit of God's Spirit, as well as a mind conformed to the mind of Christ (Galatians 5:22-23; Romans 8:29). We live in a blessed environment now and forever, because our Daddy God cares for us so much better than we can ever care for our self.

Prayer:

Father God, You continually prod the children of Your beloved Saints to call out to You for salvation, but they often disregard Your call and warning. Their pride and rebellion resist believing the truths taught to them from the cradle. They prefer to buy into worldly propaganda, which teaches hate for You and Your followers. Of course, many people who are Christians in name only, and not by profession of faith in Christ, are poor examples of an authentic Believer. Please teach us to walk purely before You and please draw these angry unbelievers to Your loving heart.

Thought for the Day:

God haters often attribute hypocritical behavior to Believers, simply because we do not hold to or support their humanistic interpretation of Christ's teachings.

Our True Inheritance

Read: Luke 15:11-32

“In the same way, there is joy in the presence of God's angels when even one sinner repents." - Luke 15:10

The parable of the prodigal son is really a message about our Heavenly Father who watches for our homecoming to Him. He rejoices every time a sinner turns his/her heart to Him and repents (Luke 15:10).

We all know this story. One son rebels against his father’s rules and despised the need to work for his living. In his selfish state of mind, he demanded and squandered his inheritance before his father even died. Yet, upon his repentant return home, he received a party, a ring of authority (like a credit card) and a new robe and shoes from his father.

Now, the second son faithfully served his father with respect and deference, never causing him any heartache or distress. Then, when his errant brother returns home, we detect jealousy and resentfulness in this young man because of his father’s mercy and grace toward his brother. He said, "All these years I've been slaving for you and never disobeyed your orders. Yet you never gave me even a young goat" (Luke 15:29).

This dear son walked in obedience and service to his father for his whole life. He felt slapped in the face by his father’s apparent disregard for his wayward brother’s reckless behavior. We do this too. We see other people who have more material blessings than we do, and we accuse God of loving them more than He cares for us. The faithful son focused on the meager offering the father gave his rebellious son and forgot the immense treasure that lay in wait for him. We forget too. These people are receiving their meager blessings now, but our immense treasure awaits us in heaven (2 Corinthians 4:7).

The father had to remind his faithful son, "‘My son,' the father said, 'you are always with me, and everything I have is yours’" (Luke 15:31). Everything our Heavenly Father has belongs to us as well. No matter how much or how little of their life a person squanders, when they come to Christ they receive His equal inheritance (Luke 23: 32-43). If this bothers us, we have to go to our Father for an attitude adjustment, just like the jealous son did.

We are joint heirs with Jesus (Romans 8:17) and all that is His belongs to us as well. He freely shares his treasure with those in His Body. We too should freely share our treasure – physical, spiritual and emotional – with all of those God places in our life. We reach out to everyone in order to win those that Jesus is calling to Himself.

Prayer:

Lord Jesus, only in You do we find the true riches of righteousness, peace and joy (Romans 14:17). You gave us the opportunity to follow You all the days of our life and to reap the benefits of righteous living and the inheritance we share with You from our Heavenly Father. Keep us on the narrow road of Truth. We submit our lives to You and resist the world, our flesh and the devil. Thank You that when we do, Satan must flee from us (James 4:7).

Thought for the Day:

Bitterness and gratefulness cannot coexist, because negative emotions blind us from seeing God’s true gifts in our life.




Thank you, Elisa Hall, for the use of your photo.