Freedom from Fearing this Life

God knew us before He formed us in our mother's womb. He knew when we would rise and sleep, where we would live and what type of home we would live in while we sojourned on this earth.

Some of us are rich, some poor; some tall, others short; one may be meek and another bold; some tend toward goodness and others folly; yet, all of us have His calling on our life (Proverbs 19:3; Ephesians 4:1-16).

 ​​

Our only task is to live in submission to His will for each moment of our day. We accept His call to salvation and He accomplishes His desires in and through us as His Spirit sanctifies our flesh and our soul - our thoughts, choices and emotions.

He infuses our weaknesses with His strength, and we realize our startling need for Him. This need overwhelms us more than our fear of this life, and drives us deeper under the shadow of His wings.

God's Spirit transforms our character into the nature of Christ who abides within us through ever-increasing stages of divine glory (2 Peter 1:4). We relinquish our idols, addictions, desire and activities in submission to His will.

Our heart is totally transfixed on Him. He is our whole life (Colossians 3:4). We want nothing more than to please Him with our thoughts, words and deeds. He consumes our heart with His love and fills our mind with His wisdom.

We focus on Christ alone and relinquish the issues of this life to His care. Nothing worries us any longer as we place our full trust in Him (1 Peter 5:7). This reduces our stress levels and brings health to our body and soul.

We also sanctify Christ as the Lord of our life and we live to further His Kingdom in the earth, which dispels our fears and insecurities (1 Peter 3:13-14). Our faith increases as He proves to us His faithfulness.

Prayer:

Father God, thank You for leading us to repentance and forgiving our sins (1 John 1:9). We cast all of our sorrows and cares on Your capable shoulders (Isaiah 53:4). With our heart set on things above, we no longer sorrow as those who have no hope; we even rejoice in our tribulation (1 Thessalonians 4:13-18; James 1:2).

You turn our sorrow into dancing and return to us the years which the canker worm destroys (Psalm 30:11-12; Joel 2:25). We deepen our commitment to You and find fulfillment in our involvement in Your calling and cause. You are our greatest friend, husband and brother (Proverbs 18:24; Isaiah 54:5). Help us to realize that You are our refuge, and the fear of this world need not control our life.

Thought for the Day:

God is able to destroy both body and soul in hell; yet, we fear man more than we fear God. - Matthew 10:28

Precious in the Sight of the Lord

God recorded every one of the days of our life in His book prior to our birth. He laid out each moment of time before even one day passed. In fact, He watched as we were formed in our mother's womb. He made all of our delicate, complex internal organs by His creative workmanship (Psalm 139:13-16). God has a perfect plan for every life (Ephesians 2:10).

In our times of trouble on this earth, our Heavenly Daddy is a refuge for the oppressed. We learn to trust in Him, because He never leaves or forsakes us (Hebrews 13:5; Psalm 9:9). In fact, God does not even leave us to rot in the grave. When we die, He sends angels to carry us to Heaven (Luke 16:22). Then, He raises us up in new life as His sons, and we never die again (Luke 20:36).

Solomon, in all of His wisdom, realized that the day of our death is better than the day of our birth (Ecclesiastes 7:1). To be out of this earthly body means that we are face-to-face with our Creator and King (2 Corinthians 5:8). We experience all the joys of knowing God in this life, and then He provides us with the wondrous pleasure of His own unending presence throughout eternity (Psalm 16:9-11).

The death of His Saints is precious in the sight of the Lord (Psalm 116:15). We are never parted from our Lord and Savior, not even by death. We leave this old sin-cursed world behind and enter the glories of Heaven with our Daddy God. He is our guide throughout life, and He also walks with us through the valley of the shadow of death (Psalm 48:14; Psalm 23:4).

Prayer:

Father God, when we put our trust in Your name and live by faith in Your faithfulness, You never let us down. You even give us Your peace and joy as we leave this world behind (Psalm 9:10-11). We sing praises to You now in this life, and we will continue to sing Your praises when we enter Your heavenly city. Remind us to tell everyone we know about Your goodness to us during this lifetime, so they will know You too.

Thought for the Day:

God gives His righteous bride a refuge in death. - Proverbs 14:32

No One is God's Equal

 

Our awesome God formed the earth with the power of His Words (Genesis 1). He holds the seas in the hollow of His hand, and He measures the sky with the width of one of His hands. He knows the number of the grains of sand on the seashore and the dust of the earth. He even calculated the weight of the mountains and hills (Isaiah 40:12-18; Isaiah 46:5).

No one can compare to our awesome God. All the nations of the earth added together are a mere drop of water in the ocean, and they always do His bidding. He reduces rulers and cares nothing about the decisions made by judges. No one directs God, because He is in control. We are like insects compared to Him.

His throne is above the circle of the earth. He gave us the ozone layer to protect us (Isaiah 40:22-23). No one compares to the Lord or is His equal. He stands above the crowd. He brings out the stars by number and calls each one by name (Isaiah 48:13); and not one of them is missing. We cannot even see all of the galaxies, yet God knows the name of every star within them all.

God never grows sleepy or exhausted, and His wisdom is deeper than any human philosopher will ever figure out (Isaiah 40:25-28). When God acts, no one can reverse it (Isaiah 42:13). Once we understand all things, all of God's judgments will be proven holy and righteous, (Isaiah 5:16, 8:13). He preserves His Saints as we devote our life to Him.

He is our God and we trust in Him and serve Him each day (Psalm 86:2). God knows the end from the beginning, because He does not dwell in time. His purposes will stand and we serve at His pleasure (Isaiah 46:10). There is nothing that our God cannot do. When we call on Him, He will respond to us and demonstrate to us His vast and almighty deeds (Jeremiah 33:3).

Prayer:

Father God, You are the first and the last. You are the only God. You made everything. You even formed us in our mother's womb according to Your perfect plan for our life. You know the number of hairs on our head (Isaiah 44:24; Isaiah 48:12). Apart from You there is no other God. You are the Lord and there is no other (Isaiah 45:5-6). We thank You for your eternal salvation and for Your love and daily provision of all of our needs.

Thought for the Day:

God already decided what would happen on the earth from creation to eternity. - Isaiah 45:21-22

 

 

Life Hurts

 

There are so many hurts in this world. Our body and soul are wracked with every kind of atrocity in varying degree of horror. One of the worse is that inflicted on us at the death of our child - from one in the womb to one that is grown, but died too soon. I lost a baby in a miscarriage. At first I did not want anyone to fuss over me, because it was just a fetus, right? I tried not to grieve.

But God showed me that although my arms ached to hold this precious fruit of my love with my husband, God was now holding my child in HIS arms, and what better place for my child to be resting! I gave my baby a name and celebrated his birthday in my heart every year. This gave me hope and a blessing that lessened my grief (Jeremiah 29:11).

My beloved child may have left this mortal world, with all of its suffering and trials, but he did not miss our immortal home in heaven. Every single one of our days are planned out by God and written down in His book before we are ever born (Psalm 139: 13-18; Ephesians 2:10). God makes all things beautiful in His time (Ecclesiastes 3:11).

Life starts at conception, and our precious child's soul was alive in heaven with our Savior (Jeremiah 1:5). What a fact to celebrate, in spite of our sadness of never having known our child in this earthly life. God actually creates our soul to include our personality and knits our bones together in our mother’s womb. We are amazingly made as spirit, body, soul – our thoughts, will and emotions.

No one deserves to suffer the trials of life, but we all go through them. We are united in our sufferings, but we are also united in our joys and pleasures. God uses tribulation to strengthen our soul and to allow us to draw closer to Him and to one another. We can comfort each other with the same encouragement He uses to comfort us (2 Corinthians 1:4).

Prayer:

Father God, life treated Jesus abominably. His life was cut off in His prime at 33 years of life. His mother grieved at the cross and at His grave. She watched as He was scourged, nailed to a wooden cross and allowed to hang there until His lungs collapsed. However, according to Your will, Jesus victoriously rose again from the grave. He paved the way for everyone, who will walk away from sin and embrace Your will for our life, to spend eternity with You.

Thought for the Day:

God always uses everything in our life, even the bad things, for our ultimate good. 

No Secrets

We have no secrets from God. He knows us from our rising up to our laying down. He knows all of our actions, thoughts and desires. We are never out of His sight. He is behind us and ahead of us, reassuring us with His presence in our life. He is with us in the dark, immersing us in His light. He is with us in the day and in the night. He does this for every one of His children, which truly boggles the human mind (Psalm 139:1-12).

He shaped us in our mother’s womb. We are marvelously made. He knows us intimately inside and out. He sculpted us from nothing and made us a glorious creation. He prepared all of our days before we were even conceived; they are all spread out before Him, even those that did not happen to us yet! We can do no less than to worship Him in adoration and praise for His marvelous works (Psalm 139:13-16).

God’s ways are so stunning and extraordinary. They are hard for us to understand and more intricate and numerous than the grains of sand at the seashore. He has our days numbered and allows us to rise each morning to live in His presence throughout the day. As Saints, we come to abhor ungodliness, and God’s enemies become our enemies. One day, God will eliminate all wickedness and those who mock Him, hate Him and serve idols with their life (Psalm 139:17-22).

Prayer:

Father God, test us, try us and find out the real truth of who we are. Examine us and put us on trial until we see our self for who we are. Correct us and change us and keep us walking on the road of eternal life (Psalm 139:23-24). Help us to influence others to discard the lies, which Satan convinced them of, and to fully embrace the truth of Your Word for their own life. Prepare the soil of their hearts by whatever means necessary, until they are ready to receive the seed of Your Gospel Truth.

Thought for the Day:

The time is coming when everything that is covered up will be revealed, and all that is secret will be made known to all.
- Luke 12:2

 

Children - Our Heritage from the Lord

Read: Exodus 2

“Behold, children are a heritage from the LORD, the fruit of the womb a reward.” - Psalm 127:3

God formed each of us individually, knitting us together in our mother’s womb. We are fearfully and wonderfully made. Even before we were born, His eyes saw our unformed substance and wrote the number of our days in His book (Psalm 139:13-16). I learned as a young mother that when God gives us children, it is for a short season of time. We are to dedicate them to Him as His children from the day of their birth. He loans them to us to enjoy and then He wants us to release them back to Him. We may think we know what is best for our children, but He reminds us that He is their Heavenly Father and He knows what is truly best for them.

In the Bible story of Moses his mother, Jochebed, built a bulrush basket, daubed it with slime and pitch and put baby Moses inside. Pushing it into the flags growing by the river, she sent her daughter Miriam to watch what happened. God immediately took control and floated the basket toward Pharaoh’s daughter’s bathing place. Jochebed knew that if she kept her son with her, the soldiers would surely kill him. She obeyed God and put her son into God’s hands to do what was best for him. The wonderful plan God had for Moses also included his mother. She was chosen as the baby’s nursemaid and she watched him grow up in the palace as a privileged son of the Pharaoh’s daughter (Exodus 2).

If we are not careful, we allow our will, purpose and plans for our children to override God’s will for them. We have to remind our self to pray for our children and to understand what His will, purpose and reasons are for creating them. We need to teach our children that they each have definite gifts and callings on their lives. We can cultivate, sustain and build up those gifts and callings as we see them in our children’s lives. This way they will grow up, not to live as we think they should or how they want to live, but to fulfill God's will and direction for their lives.

When my daughter grew into a young woman, she disowned me for sharing Jesus and Bible verses with her and some of her friends. She felt that I was trying to convert them and was offended with me. People ask me all the time how I can possibly deal with my daughter’s rejection of me. I remind these caring people that humans have a soul, but once we are born again, we also have a spirit. My soul – my mind, will and emotions – do miss fellowship with my only daughter.

However, my spirit rejoices that she realizes my strong commitment to Christ and recognizes that I am not a hypocrite. I know that one day she will be encouraged and strengthened by the same convictions, which I cling to at this time in our life. Paul complimented Timothy because he shared the same faith as his mother and grandmother (2 Timothy 1:5). I look forward to the day when my daughter enjoys the same faith in Christ that her mother and grandmother do (2 Timothy 3:14-15).

God has a plan for each of our children. God fills our quiver with them and then shows us in which direction to aim them as arrows into the future (Psalm 127:4-5; Proverbs 29:17). For the glory of God, we impart to them the wisdom of Biblical precepts and knowledge (Proverbs 22:6; Deuteronomy 4:9; 6:6-9). Then we surender them to His care and purpose for their life. God teaches our children and imparts His peace into their lives (Isaiah 54:13).  Ultimately, however, we must release them into His care, protection, direction and provision (Psalm 127:3–5). Even though she does not realize it, I know my daughter is safely tucked into the palm of God’s hand.

Prayer:

Father God, lead and guide my children by Your Spirit. Teach me never to hug them too loosely or to tightly, so they will not feel neglected or fearful when they grow beyond my nurture and care. Help them to grow in Your wisdom and stature, in Your grace and knowledge, in Your compassion and love. Draw them ever closer to Your heart as they serve You with their lives in the profession and location in which You call them to function. Help them to come to the saving knowledge of Your Son, Jesus, and to live in full devotion to You. Allow their lives to testify of Your greatness and glory to all of those who know them.

Thought for the Day:

"Train up a child in the way he should go and in keeping with his individual gift or bent, and when he is old he will not depart from it." - Proverbs 22:6 (Amplified Bible)

If You Really Knew Me

Read: Psalm 139

“Thank you for making me so wonderfully complex! Your workmanship is marvelous - how well I know it.” – Psalm 139:14

I have a question for my friends. If you really knew my true, inner self, would you still be my friend? Would you have compassion on my idiosyncrasies, tolerance with my shortcomings and patience with my failings? Do I have to wear a mask for you to like me? Do I need to play games in order for you to spend time with me? If this is the case, then I am above all people, most miserable! Who will free me from this life that is dominated by sin and death? (Romans 7:24).

Thanks be to God, I am already accepted through Jesus Christ, my Lord. Jesus came to earth to demonstrate that He is for me and not against me. He came to let me know that He is not counting my sins against me, because He died for them, so that He could reconcile me to Our Father. His death was the ultimate expression of God’s love for me (Romans 7:25; Ephesians 1:6; Romans 8:31; 2 Corinthians 5:18-19; 1 John 4:10).

Jesus gave up everything He loved in Heaven, so that He might show me how much He loves me. If I receive His gift, I also receive God’s Spirit living within my spirit, because Jesus and the Father are one. Now, nothing will ever separate me from His love again. He looks forward to my homecoming, so He can throw the biggest party heaven has ever seen (Romans 8:31-32; 1 John 2:23; Romans 8:38-39; Luke 15:7; Ephesians 3:14-15).

I am not a mistake, because God planned for my life. I am fearfully and wonderfully made. He knit me together in my mother's womb. He brought me forth on the exact day I was born (Psalm 139:13-14, 71:6). God chose me and planned a life for me before He even created the world in which I would live (Ephesians 1:11-12). The Father, Son and Spirit made me in their image – a triune being with a body, soul and spirit (Genesis 1:27; 1 Thessalonians 5:23).

God called me to be His child, because He knew me even before I was ever conceived (Jeremiah 1:4-5). He even knows the number of hairs on my head (Matthew 10:29-31). God determined the exact time of my birth and even where I would live (Acts 17:26). Jesus transforms my soul and makes me a suitable member of God’s beloved family (Ephesians 1:6). God knows everything about me, but He still loves me and makes a difference in my life. He knows when I sit down and when I rise up. He is familiar with all of my ways (Psalm 139:1-3).

God’s plan for my future is completely filled with hope, because He loves me with His everlasting love. His thoughts toward me are as countless as the sand of the sea. He even rejoices over me with singing, because I am the apple of His eye. One day God will wipe away every tear from my eyes. He will take away the memory of all the pain I suffered during my lifetime (Jeremiah 29:11, 31:3; Psalms 139:17-18; Zephaniah 3:17; Psalm 17:8; Revelation 21:3-4).

Because all of this is true, the next question I have for my friends is this, “Now that you know who I really am, will you join me in allowing God to deliver you from a life that is dominated by sin and death, will you choose to accept Jesus sacrifice for your life and will you join me in enjoying all of these benefits as His child?” (Romans 7:24; James 4:8; Luke 15:11-32).

Prayer:

Father God, You love me even as You love Your only begotten Son. You revealed Your love for me through Jesus. He is the exact representation of You. You made the world and everything in it. You made Jesus the Lord of heaven and earth. You do not live in temples built by human hands, but in the spirit of every Born Again Believer. You are not served by human hands, as if You need anything. Rather, You give me life and breath and everything I need. (John 17:23, 17:26; Hebrews 1:3; Acts 7:48, 17:25; Psalm 23:1).  

Thought for the Day:

Every one of our days is written in His book. - Psalm 139:15-16