No Longer a Sinner - The Love of God

 

We learn more from one another's example than from our words. We often say one thing, but do another. Many times we are not even aware of it. Our children are always watching us.

The human eyes absorb sights we do not even register with our conscious mind. These images are stored in our subconscious mind and affect us for the rest of our life.

We need to guard what our eyes, and the eyes of our children see. TV, movies, magazines, books and all media are sources of perversion that we can control to protect us and our children.

God uses our eyes to reveal to us His glory through nature all around us (Romans 1:20). We feel His pleasure in His love when we experience it through the details of our life.

The glory of Christ in us is the revelation of His divine character, which changes us into a new creation. He imparts to us the fruit of His Spirit (Galatians 5:22-23), and relates to us through His grace and love.

The servant role, which Jesus performed while on earth, teaches us how to model His character to our world as well. We serve others as Christ serves His Bride, His Church.

Jesus was obedient to our Heavenly Father to the point of submitting Himself to the death on the cross. Similarly, we come to the place spiritually where we are willing to die to our self (1 Corinthians 15:31; Galatians 2:20).

We live for God to the point where He actually lives through us. We adopt the mind of Christ as our own and refrain from living a sinful lifestyle - fully convinced that He sets us free from the law of sin and death by the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus.

Christ's life and death are the manifestation of the love of God for all of mankind. Due to His great love for us, His compassionate mercies never fail us; they are new every single morning (Lamentations 3:22-23).

Prayer:

Father God, we gaze on Your goodness through every moment of every day. We esteem, appreciate and adore You with every breath that we take. We look forward to You changing us into the image of Christ by the work of Your Spirit in our life (Romans 8). Lead us by Your Holy Spirit so that we only do the activities which You are calling us to accomplish with our day (Ephesians 2:10).

Help us to ignore the overwhelming flood of details in this life, which attempt to sidetrack us from doing Your will. We have confidence that Your Spirit will lead us to perform each detail of our responsibility in Your timing and way, without the stress we usually put on our self when we try to control our life.

Thought for the Day:
We are channels of God's love to everyone in our sphere of influence from our family to neighbors, workmates and acquaintances, as well as strangers we meet on the street, the store and the restaurant.

The Greatest Measure of God's Presence

 

We can never go anywhere that the love of God cannot find us (Psalm 139:7-12). He wants nothing more than to spend time fellowshipping with us, and filling us with the greatest measure of His presence (Ephesians 3:16-19).

In our busiest or calmest day, He is always within us, desiring to lead us by His Spirit and to direct us to do His will. Yet, in the hustle and bustle of life we often forget He is there.

We proceed through our day relying on our self-effort and human reasoning, making our own plans without consulting Him first and carrying them out with varying degrees of success.

We continue through life like this, enjoying the simple pleasures and the fruit of our labor, forgetting that God has specific work for us to accomplish for His purpose (Ephesians 2:10).

Then, we hit a brick wall and get the wind knocked right out of us. We make accusations against God, calling Him unfair, unjust and unloving.

We may even walk away from God with anger in our heart. We do not realize that we are either reaping the result of our own choices or we are experiencing the effects of Satan's lordship and sin's power in the earth.

When we walk away from God, we compound our problems. We abandon our best friend, our most faithful ally and our loving Father who loves to bless His children.

God is still waiting for us right where we left Him. He is calling us to Himself and wanting to cherish us and direct us in His will and purpose for our life.

Prayer:

Father God, when will we ever learn? Since you created us, mankind continually walks away from You. Even with Your Spirit abiding within us, we ignore You and do our own thing, making trouble for our self and living as a poor example of Your child.

You are our loving Creator, Father, Provider and Protector. Surround us with Your love and fill us with Your peace and joy. Submitting our life to You as our sovereign Lord, we appreciate that You are just and righteous in all of Your ways. Teach us to dedicate every moment of our day to loving You in ceaseless praise.

Thought for the Day:

Our walk with the Lord starts at the cross and continues by living in the center of God's will, which is the happiest place on earth.

Condemnation or Conviction

 

There is a huge difference between condemnation and conviction. A person without Christ in their life might experience both of these; but a child of God is freed from all condemnation (Romans 8:1).

Satan condemns us, but God's Spirit convicts us. For instance, when we choose to walk in slavery to the flesh, God convicts us to walk in the Spirit instead (Galatians 5:15-25).

Condemnation brings shame, hopelessness and discouragement with it. Yet, conviction brings relief, and gives us the opportunity to decide not to sin and to please God instead (James 4:7).

Satan will crush us with his shameful condemnation and attempt to cripple our soul in order to prevent us from ever serving God again. If we flee temptation, we also flee condemnation (1 Corinthians 10:13).

Satan is the accuser of God's children and he will attempt to belittle us, telling us that we are not enough, will never amount to anything and that we are a hopeless failure.

However, these accusations are contrary to God's truth about us. God says that we are more than conquerors (Romans 8:37). We have victory in all things through Christ in us (1 Corinthians 15:57)

As we submit to God and resist the devil, he has to flee from us (James 4:7-8). Nothing can ever separate us from the multi-dimensional love of God (Romans 8:35-39).  

Prayer:

Father God, when Satan attempts to defeat us, remind us that You already gave us the victory through Christ in us (Galatians 2:20). Thank You for being so willing to forgive our departure from Your will for our life (1 John 1:9), and for giving us Your Spirit to help us to walk in Your perfect peace.

Produce in us a Godly sorrow, which pricks our conscience and reminds us not to succumb to Satan's temptations (2 Corinthians 7:10-11). Prompt us to walk in Your Spirit, filled with His fruit, so that we will not fulfill the lusts of our flesh (Galatians 5:15-25).

Thought for the Day:

The blood of Christ frees us from the penchant to sin, as well as from the condemnation of the devil.

- Revelation 1:5; Romans 8:1