Freed from Bondage

 

If we are interested, God will teach us His ways and help us to walk on His paths (Psalm 25:4). He forgives us, defends us, provides for us and takes revenge for us on those who inflict harm on us in any way.

God takes the persecution of His Saints personally and He will avenge His own (Acts 9:4; Romans 12:19). It is easier for us to forgive others when we know that God will take them off our hook and put them firmly on His.

They will not escape their punishment from Him (Luke 17:2). Our forgiveness of them does not exonerate them from the wrong they perpetrated on us, but it frees us from being in bondage to them through our unforgiveness.

When we exact the revenge our self, it shows a lack of faith in God's protective care for us. We do not believe God cares or can make the person pay for what they did or said to us.

Attempting to vindicate our self leads us into trouble which often makes matters worse and leaves us more vulnerable than ever before (Deuteronomy 32:35-36; Romans 12:19; Hebrews 10:30).

When we view life from a temporal rather than an eternal viewpoint, we often think that God is taking too long to make things right.

We also overlook our call from God to function in the ministry of reconciliation (Ephesians 1:18), and that we are filled with God's Spirit and firmly established in our relationship with Jesus Christ.

God's Spirit gives us the advantage in life by providing us with power in spiritual warfare, which is where much of our abuse by others is initiated (Mark 3:14-15).

Prayer:

Father God, open the eyes of our understanding and enlighten us of Your exceeding power within us. Show us the glory of our inheritance with Your Saints (Ephesians 1:18-20). Open our eyes and spiritual ears and teach us to walk in Your Spirit. Teach us to draw our strength, wisdom and grace from Your Spirit who abides within us.

Thank You for removing us from the Kingdom of darkness and freeing us from Satan's bondage over our life through Christ in us. Reveal to us the extent of Your power within us and teach us how to use it for Your glory and to further Your Kingdom on the earth.

Thought for the Day:

Our lack of power in our Christian walk stems from the fact that we do not fully understand our identity in Christ and the power of His Spirit within us.

The Benefits of the Christian Life

 

Our relationship with God in the spiritual realm is more vital to our life here on earth than any other person, place or thing. Yet, we often focus more on pursuing the world, and we suffer in body, soul and spirit.

Repenting of our sins and trusting in Jesus to save us, opens the door for this intimacy with the supreme Ruler of the universe. Then devoting our thoughts, words and actions to Him maintains our union.

Any rivaling carnal thoughts, words and deeds suck the spiritual life right out of us. Satan attempts to keep us earth bound or pushes us to be religious rather than spiritual.

Yet, Jesus made it clear that our goal in life centers on loving God with our entire heart, soul, mind and strength (Mark 12:30). Then, we function in our ministry for Him by sharing His love with our mate and children, as well as our parents and siblings.

We serve them as God's Spirit directs our steps. We meet their needs in Jesus' name. Slowly, we branch out to our church family, workmates and acquaintances, neighbors and strangers as the Spirit directs us.

All the while we guard against substituting good activities, which side track us from God's will for us. The best activities are those which are spirit led and directed (Proverbs 3:5-6). Then we never get too busy to worship, praise and pray.

In God's plan for our life, every piece fits snugly together like the pieces of a puzzle. We may not readily see God's purpose for trials or opportunities, and we end up feeling frustrated, angry or hurt.

However, if we walk in the Spirit, we begin seeing spiritual fruit from our labors. We learn lessons, overcome desires to sin, fall in love with Jesus more every day and watch God use us to further His Kingdom on the earth.

We gradually realize that we are dead to the old nature and that Christ is now our whole life (Colossians 3:3-4). We give God complete control of our life, even through the severest of trials and persecution.

We trust in His goodness, even though life often wearies us and fills us with fear and insecurities. God continually pours out on us His magnificent love and lavishly showers us with the fulfillment of His precious promises.

He gives us everything we need to live a life of contentment and holiness, which costs us nothing, because He already paid the price for everything on Calvary's cross (John 3:16-18).

Prayer:

Father God, help us to follow in Jesus' footsteps and to become obedient to Your Spirit each day (Philippians 2:8). Draw us ever closer to Your heart, so that we daily increase our devotion, grow in our faith, understand Your mysteries and live a life of trust in and worship of You.

We release our heart into Your care; trust You to work out everything for our ultimate good, even if we never understand the why; come to You to reveal to us the source of our negative emotions; and realize that You give us a Kingdom focus which guarantees us that eternal life starts at salvation.

Thought for the Day:

If we feel unloved by the world around us, we can always look within and experience the amazing love of a God who took the form of a human being and suffered and died in our place, in order to give us His eternal life.

Words are Precious

 

Words are very precious to me. I love to write, I love to learn new words and use them, and I love to read God's Word. Last night, I inadvertently deleted several posts I had written for my blog.

I was devastated. I backed up my files four days before this, but I had a writing spurt between then and the catastrophe and the Holy Spirit helped me to write some inspired words. All lost.

I called my sons and between them, they did their best to recover my precious words. The files did not go to the recycle bin. My computer just wiped them out.

I also lost the Google Talk phone capability on my computer. This made me realize that if I felt this loss so deeply, I will be devastated if I ever lost the Word of God through persecution of the church in America.

At my age, I do not have a good memory anymore. Much of the Bible, which I memorized in the past is no longer in my conscious mind. I will not be able to fall back on that if the precious Word of God is taken from us.

Therefore, I purposed in my heart that I will go back to the verses that I could once recall at will and refresh my memory every night, because those words are stored in my subconscious mind.

As I reread them, I am easily recalling them into my conscious mind. Many of them were set to music by friends in my past, which makes it easier to remember them.

I want to make God's Word a priority in my life, so if we ever lose the written Word, my spirit and soul can find nourishment from the Words I hid in my heart (Psalm 119:11).

Prayer:

Father God, let us never take Your Word for granted. Our freedoms in America over all of these years lulled us into a sense of security that is no longer guaranteed. Many other countries across the globe lost their freedoms in small increments over time and we are losing them also. There is not a Christian nation left in our world today.

We look forward to Christ's imminent return; but if You tarry any longer, America may fall into enemy hands and we may lose our hard won freedoms. Help us to hide Your Word in our hearts so that it will sustain us in our times of trials now and in the future.

Thought for the Day:

The Word of God speaks to our spirit and soul like no other words we could ever read or hear; it sustains us through every trial.

- Psalm 119:116