The Lord Preserves His Faithful

The Lord preserves His faithful, those who love Him and keep His commandments (Psalm 31:23). He does not want us to obey for His sake as much as He does for our own sake.

We avoid so many troubles and trials when we do things His way. After all, Father really does know best. He created us for His purpose and when we walk in His will, our life proceeds so much more smoothly and effortlessly.

Our soul finds rest in God alone. He is our only rock and salvation, our fortress that prevents life from shaking our faith. We have strong courage to face life's issues, because God strengthens our heart as we hope in Him (Psalm 31:23, 62:1).

God is our hiding place and He preserves us in trouble by encompassing us with songs of deliverance (Psalm 32:7). Whenever we are afraid, we can trust in Him (Psalm 53:3). 

Yet, He allows the proud and arrogant who refuse to believe in Jesus for salvation to reap the results of their choices - even to the point of eternity in the fires of damnation (John 3:18; Psalm 31:23).

We are crucified with Christ and share in His death to sin, even though we still live on this earth. Christ lives in us and we live by His faith in us (Galatians 2:20). We are dead to this world and our life is hidden with Christ in God (Colossians 3:1-3).

As we delight our self in the Lord, God puts His desires in our heart (Psalm 37:4). We make the effort it takes to clear our heart and mind of things of this world, and instead to love the Lord with all of our heart.

We walk in His ways, keep His commandments and cling only to Him. He orders our steps and He delights when we walk in His will (Psalm 37:23). Even if we fall in spirit, soul or body, we shall not be entirely cast down, or cast out of His Kingdom, because God holds us in His hand (Psalm 37:24).

Prayer:

Father God, thank You for giving us the opportunity to be risen with Christ and for helping us to seek and set our affections and desires only on heavenly, eternal aspects (Colossians 3:1-3). You make our steps firm, when You delight in our thoughts, words and deeds.

Always keep us in the center of Your will; not drawn away by our fleshly desires, but kept on the straight and narrow road, designed to protect us by its simple parameters. Allow us to hear Your still small voice whispering "this is the way, walk you in it.” We always want You to delight in us, and in our ways; so You will keep our steps firm and our footing sure (Psalm 37:23).

Thought for the Day:

God’s river of salvation protects us in any fiery trial, and He alone is worthy of all of our trust.

No Longer a Sinner - Making Positive Changes

Once we come to Jesus Christ for our salvation, our spirit is alive in Christ and sin is gradually exorcised from our soul (Ephesians 2:5; Philippians 3:12-15). This requires no self-effort; the Spirit begins and completes this work in us (Galatians 3:1-3).

Our role is simply to cooperate and obey as we walk in the Spirit each moment of the day. Christ is our whole life and we are drawn away from Satan's dominion over our life (Colossians 3:3-4).

We do not need to make goals for our self and obsess over them. We have no need to develop problem solving skills in order to perfect our self.

We did not save our self, and we cannot perfect our self (Galatians 3:1-3). We usually struggle with reaching our goals and we get defeated by our failings.

Scientist tell us that the habenula in our brain records our failures and then inhibit our future attempts to succeed in that same area; this implicit memory prevents us from repeating our failures, but also hinders our attempts to perfect our performance.

Christ suffered in every way just like we do and He can relate to our issues in this life (Hebrews 4:15). Jesus was tempted, but did not sin; and He abides within us, helping us to maintain our purity.

God's Spirit will give us new habits to overcome past failings; He enables us to thwart temptations by giving us a motivation to serve Him rather than the flesh.

The law of the Spirit in Christ Jesus sets us free from the law of sin and death (Romans 8:2). We are free from sin’s torment and temptation (Romans 6:7, 18, 22; Acts 26:18). Christ in us then expresses Himself through us (Romans 5:10; Matthew 1:21; 1 John 4:4).

Prayer:

Father God, remind us that we do not have to sin. We can focus on the process of our spiritual growth rather than on our shortfalls. Help us to find a solution to overcome the sins, which so easily trip us up. Help us not to focus on the process, but rather on the outcome and to keep our eyes on You.

We know we cannot perfect our self, but as we acknowledge You before we think, act or speak, You will unveil Your plans for us and give us the strength to carry them out in Your will and way. We can celebrate even the smallest success when it comes from Christ in us. We give You all of the praise and glory that You deserve.

Thought for the Day:

Attempting to perfect our self may diminish our future chance to walk in holiness, since the perfection we reach on our own is done in the flesh and can also be undone by our flesh.

Three Types of Death

I was organizing my vitamin supplements and filling my two week pill box with each vitamin and mineral that I take either morning or night or both. I started to include the Vitamin D that the doctor prescribed for me a few years ago due to the lack of sunlight that I get in my daily routine.

I have faithfully taken it ever since; but...God's Spirit told me not to put it in my box of supplements this time. I was incredulous and argued with the Spirit (yeah, I still do that occasionally!) I felt so strongly that I should not include this healthful vitamin that I had to quit arguing and agree to obey.

Then God's Spirit told me to look at the ingredients of the capsule. This particular brand had the vitamin D encased in corn oil, which is one substance that causes a leaky gut. I am healing from this malady and have to be extra careful with corn oil.

I was so amazed that God is so minute in His love and direction that He even guides our paths concerning the toxins we unknowingly include in our diet. God is so worthy of all of our praise for the way He guides our steps and cares about every issue of our life (Proverbs 3:5-6; 1 Peter 5:7).

As I thanked Him for His direction, God focused my attention to the concept of life and death. I did some research and realized that there are three areas of death that every human experiences.

The first is that our spirit is dead in trespasses and sins until we choose to accept Christ's atoning work on Calvary's cross (Ephesians 2:1-5). This provides us with salvation and the regeneration of our spirit (John 3:16-18). We are actually Born Again and alive in Christ in our spirit.

The second area of death is our physical death at some point in time, which results in an eternity either in heaven or hell. We are free from sin and death by our belief in Christ, or we condemn our self to an eternity in hell by our unbelief (John 3:18).

The third area of death is our soul's death through sanctification, which releases us from slavery to sin and destruction (Romans 8:2). Our soul - our thoughts, choices and emotions - is gradually changed over the course of our life to mirror Christ's divine nature (2 Peter 1:4). We slowly die to self and are more and more alive in Christ (Ephesians 2:5; Galatians 2:20).

Prayer:

Father God, most people fear death. We have never experienced it before and we fear the unknown quality of death. We anticipate pain, and we worry about our eternal destination. Yet, in You there is no concern. Our last breath on earth is followed by our next breath in heaven. You delight in the death of Your Saints (Psalm 116:15).

As Solomon concluded, "The day of our death is better than the day of our birth." (Ecclesiastes 7:1) Authentic Born Again Believers look forward to joining You for eternity once we leave this world behind. Help us to win as many people to faith in Christ as will receive Him - with open hearts, eyes, ears and minds - before it is too late.

Thought for the Day:

God guides our steps throughout our life and welcomes us with open arms into eternity with Him; He delights over us with singing. - Zephaniah 3:17