The Spiritual Fruit I Would Choose

Did you ever notice that the fruit of the Spirit are all characteristics of a servant? If I were picking fruit, I would have chosen traits like perseverance, wisdom, courage and strength. These would come in handy in life more often than not. However, these are all qualities, which help us to serve our self. God, in His wisdom, chose humble attributes for us.

The fruit of the Spirit are: Love, Joy, Peace, Patience, Gentleness, Goodness, Meekness, Self-Control and Faith (Galatians 5:22-23). You can see how they would produce a very fine servant?

These traits mean:

Love – affection for others
Joy – exuberance about life
Peace – serenity
Patience – willingness to stick with it
Gentleness – compassion from the heart
Goodness – kindness that pervades our entire being
Faith – trust that God knows what He’s doing
Meekness – humility and service
Self-Control – guided by the Spirit

The Bible describes characteristics of the flesh, which are the opposite of God’s fruit: envy, strife, hatred, self-centeredness, criticism, worry, depression, pride, bitterness, complainers, quitters, backbiters, lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, slanderers, God-haters, insolent, arrogant and boastful, those who invent ways of doing evil, and people who put work and fun ahead of God (2 Timothy 3:2; Romans 1:30).

We can focus on replacing hatred with love, discontentment with peace, irritation with patience, criticism with gentleness, backbiting with goodness, worry with faith, pride with meekness, and depression with true joy, as we are controlled and guided by the Spirit of God.

Prayer:

Father God, thank You for Your fruit and for faithfully healing us of the wounds in our life, which cause us to exhibit negative, fleshly characteristics in our life. We always feel so repentant when we do. It is good for us to humble our self and to apologize to those we offend. Thank You also for Your gifts, which You give us for the common good of Your Body. A message of wisdom or knowledge, faith, gifts of healing, prophecy and preaching, discerning of spirits, tongues and interpretation of tongues. Thank You for Your Holy Spirit who distributes these gifts to each one as He sees fit (1 Corinthians 12:1-11).

Thought for the Day:

God always provides us with wisdom when we ask for it. - James 1:5

 

The Power of Words

Our faith in God’s faithfulness allows us to trust that God knows exactly what He is doing, even if we do not understand His ways, which are so much wiser and deeper than our methods of thinking (Isaiah 55:8-9). When we stoop to entertain negative thoughts and words, we allow Satan to use us. For instance, God considers gossip as detrimental to us as lying, cursing and wrath.

Gossiping stirs up strife and starts a firestorm of controversy, whether purposely or accidentally. Tidbits of gossip are sweet to the talebearer’s lips, but they strike to the very heart of the unfortunate victim’s soul (Proverbs 26:20-22). The longer the tale is told, the more vicious and debilitating it becomes. If we refrain from gossiping, however, we quench the fires of contention and prevent arguments. 

God advises us to put off our old self and to allow His Spirit to renew our character into the image of our creator (Colossians 3:5-10). We listen to gossip with our ears, but it effects our emotions and self-esteem as well. Lies will create shame, distrust and fear in our soul. Satan convinces us that we are “not enough”, cripples us with self-doubt and debilitates, confuses and discourages us.

Therefore, it is important that we limit the words that enter and leave our mind and speak only graceful words that encourage others. Otherwise, we grieve God’s Spirit and wound our own soul and the soul of those in our life (Ephesians 4:29-30). God’s Word encourages us to stop entertaining bitterness, anger, dissension and slander; and instead, to be kind, forgiving and loving toward one another (Ephesians 4:31-32).

God’s love gives us affection for others, His joy births in us an exuberance for life, His peace permeates in us a deep serenity, His patience develops perseverance, His gentleness causes our heart to blossom with compassion and His goodness permits kindness to pervade our entire being. His meekness gives us the humility to live as a servant. His self-control helps us to be guided by His Spirit.

Prayer:

Father God, You forgave us and released us from the debt of sin we owed. This allows us to live by Your Spirit and to do the works, which You called us to do (Ephesians 2:10). Remind us that our tongue has the power of life and death in it (Proverbs 18:21).Your Spirit imparts His fruit of love, joy, peace, patience, gentleness, meekness, goodness, self-control and faith into our life, so that You can use us for Your glory.  

Thought for the Day:

Words have an impact on our soul and influence our attitude, feelings and demeanor.

The Blessing of Difficulties

  

 

 

We often fear that facing our past will cause us more suffering. We imagine that we will experience all that pain all over again. We are already tormented from the damage done to us by other people, even if they did it unknowingly or could not help how they acted because of pain in their life. The truth, however, is that facing the past frees us to face the future. We encounter God in the midst of the memories, and He reveals His truth to us. This always trumps Satan’s lies, which otherwise keep us in bondage to him our whole life.

We also fear facing the current problems in our life. We want to ignore them or pretend that they do not really exist, so we do not have to deal with them. Have we made faulty decisions? Hung around with the wrong crowd? Is someone perpetrating his or her evil on us? Again, God’s faith, resident within us, gives us the power to deal with these issues as they arise. A young, Jewish boy faced the mighty Philistine with these astute words, “The battle is the Lord’s” (1 Samuel 17:47).

It is God’s anointing and power working in and through us that result in our victories in this world. When we see the mighty hand of God evident in our life on our behalf, this gives us glorious joy beyond words (1 Peter 1:8). Even when we are personally violated, God brings glorious freedom to Believers through forgiveness, empathy and second chances. We learn to trust God to turn around even the most negative issue for our good (Romans 8:28).

As we seek God’s deliverance from the issues, we learn that His grace sufficiently empowers us in our weakest moments, even if He chooses not to deliver us from the problem itself (2 Corinthians 12:9-10). We can glory in our imperfections and weakness, because that is when God’s power is manifested in and through us. We find our joy in His love rather than in our circumstances. Human joy depends on life’s situations, but God’s joy is our strength regardless of the circumstances.

We are happy just because of His presence in our life. We choose our emotions and our responses to them because Christ lives in us with all the power of the triune Godhead. We persevere in prayer and accept God’s answer, even if He says, “No” or “Wait.” We can also follow God’s Spirit in responding to the problems in other people’s lives. We do not have to rescue or enable anyone. We can help them, but only when the Holy Spirit tells us to do so.

Prayer:

Father God, remind us that Satan uses our thoughts as His battleground against Your Spirit. He attempts to persuade us to curse you and die (Job 2:9). As we surrender every thought to Christ and walk in obedience to Your Spirit’s direction, we live a positive, productive life regardless of our circumstances (2 Corinthians 10:5). We shine with Your love and live as a testimony of Your mercy and grace in our life.

Thought for the Day:

Walk in the Spirit, and you will not fulfill the lusts of the flesh.
– Galatians 5:16, 25

The Problem with Problems

 

Many Christians are not happy. They are overloaded with their problems. They see no joy in life and they are overwhelmed with stress and trials. They rush off to work, rush through work and rush home after work, falling into an exhausted sleep each night, getting up way too early to care for the needs of their family and then starting the same behavior all over again. Like a hamster on a wheel, they frantically run; yet never get anywhere, accomplishing very little, and ending up in the hospital with physical and psychosomatic illnesses.

That is the problem with problems. They are inescapable. Our obsession with them keeps our eyes off Jesus. We often attempt to ignore our problems, denying their existence, minimizing their importance in our life or blaming them on everyone else. We falsely believe that if we had more money, a better mate or job, or fewer problems, then we would be happier. We try to get rid of them, but then new ones pop up! That is when we beg God to free us from them, or to solve them for us.

Jesus uses our trials to convert us into a new creation. His Spirit transforms us into His image day by day throughout our lifetime, using our trials and temptations to perfect us. He replaces our carnal nature with His  nature, which is the fruit of His Spirit. We receive eternal life from that first moment of Salvation; and we walk more fully in this eternal life as we come to know God, and Jesus Christ whom He sent (John 17:3). God’s Spirit within us enables us to experience pure joy in Jesus.

The Bible tells us that we can traverse trials of every kind with God’s joy. This is because when our faith is tested, we develop perseverance, which works maturity and perfection in us, so that we lack nothing (James 1:2-4). God uses these opportunities to fine-tune our faith and to draw us closer to His heart. He encourages us to enter into His rest and to depend on Him (Hebrews 4:10). He proves His love, power and authority to us by working out every negative circumstance for our good (Romans 8:28).

Prayer:

Father God, when You put us to the test, we fail unless we cling to Your hand and walk through them with our focus on Your face (Isaiah 26:3). Your power and authority over the prince of the power of the air delivers us from anything Satan uses to discourage us or bring us down. When we attempt to escape one problem, we usually end up in the midst of several more. Teach us to trust in You and to walk in Your Spirit every moment of the day.

Thought for the Day:

Facing our problems with prayer allows us to see God in the midst of them.

Living in Hope

 

When we go through some form of tribulation in our life, we panic, wondering where God is, and why He is allowing us to experience more than we can bear. Fear seeps into the depths of our soul. At times, we even cry out to God with accusations and angry words (Psalm 109:1-3). God already knows the feelings in our heart and the thoughts in our mind, so expressing our anger honestly, but respectfully, is only telling God what He already knows.

Contrary to popular teaching, God never promises to give us only the trials, which we can bear (1 Corinthians 10:13). However, our trials are never more than Christ in us can bear. God uses our trails for our good. They are God’s pruning shears, which allow more of His Spirit’s fruit to grow in our life (John 15:2). God also gives us trials in order to prove that our faith in His faithfulness will endure to the end of this church age (James 1:2-4). Tribulation provides us with steppingstones toward our maturity in Christ.

Satan tries to distract us from our walk with Christ by piling on the trauma and disappointments in order to sidetrack us from fulfilling God’s will for our life. He uses circumstances to divert us from the leading of God’s Spirit through each moment of our day. He attempts to arouse our anger toward God for letting us down. However, trials are actually adventures, because we hop from one undertaking to another.

Christ is our guide, and God’s Spirit as our comforter (John 14:26). In fact, we find that we can actually bear all things through Christ, because He dwells in us (Philippians 4:13). God also uses tribulation to produce determination and perseverance in our character. Then, the more we persevere, the more our Godly character is proven. This gives us hope, because we feel the love of God, which is poured out into our heart by God’s Holy Spirit who dwells within us (Romans 5:3-5).

If we empty our soul of negative emotions by pouring them out in the pages of our journal, or into the ear of God, then we will be less likely to pour them out on our family, coworkers or friends. If we would only take the time to notice, we can then turn our words into songs of praise for all that God already provided for us (Psalm 109:26,30). A bed to sleep in, a blanket for warmth, water to drink, air to breathe, a body that still works and nature to enjoy are just some of His bounty, which enables us to live in hope.

Prayer:

Father God, do not allow us to lose hope, or to give up just before we reach the mark to win the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus (Philippians 3:14). There are so many things we take for granted that both You and our loved ones do for us each day. Instead, let us express words of appreciation and thanksgiving to You with our every waking breath. Open our eyes to see Your purposes in our trials. Use the fire of these trials to burn the dross out of our life (1 Peter 1:7). I want to pour my heart out to You, because I know you care about me (1 Peter 5:7). Teach me to trust in You at all times (Psalm 62:8).

Thought for the Day:

God’s love gives us hope, which fills our life with joy.

Persevering in Temptation

The soul of an unregenerate sinner is full of decay and corruption. Degenerate thoughts and ideas penetrate our mind through the things we read, watch and talk about. Sinful desires then display themselves in our thoughts, emotions and actions. We live our life in this dung heap until we allow God to move in and save our spirit and renew our soul (Romans 12:2). As we grow in Christ and remember the degradation of our former lifestyle, we hardly recognize our former self. Old things have passed away, and God made everything new (2 Corinthians 5:17).

Our mind begins to meditate more on eternal issues; and carnal, earthly considerations take a back seat. The petty issues of life no longer affect us and we wonder why we were ever so tangled up in them in the first place. We distance our self from the cares of the world, the deceitfulness of riches and the values of our unsaved friends. Once in a while, however, something will occur that will drag our thoughts away from God and back to the worries of life.

Satan comes along with his art of deception and puts doubts in our mind about the truth of God’s Word. The world distracts us with a temptation to sin, to lie about or to take advantage of someone, or to opt out of a commitment we made. Our flesh captures our attention with an opportunity to indulge our self in some unwholesome activity. Each of these enticements comes to cause us to grieve the Holy Spirit and to distance us from our intimate relationship with God.

There is no temptation that we face that is not common to everyone. God is always faithful to provide us a way to escape these roadblocks in our walk with Him. He gives us supernatural power to stand up under the attacks and to walk victoriously through each inducement to sin (1 Corinthians 10:13). He simply requires that we look to Him for deliverance. Nothing can ever separate us from His love (Romans 8:35-36).

The temptation is not the sin. The first thought comes from Satan. The idea only turns into sin if we entertain it or agree with it or act on it. There is nothing we can do to decrease or increase the love, which God has for us. His love is a free gift and is not dependent upon our behavior. We can grieve Him and break His heart, but nothing will sever His love for us (1 John 1:9). If we live in habitual sin, however, we belong to Satan, not to God (1 John 3:8). Our only hope is to truly repent of our sinful lifestyle and to submit our life and our will to God (John 3:16-18).

Think about the life of Israel in the Old Testament. Even in the New Testament, the Israelites rejected Christ as their Savior. This nation disappointed God a multitude of times, but God did not go back on His promise to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob (Romans 11:26). God gives His armor to all of His Saints to prepare us for battle with temptation (Ephesians 6:10-18). As we put on His armor each morning before any temptation ever gets a chance to attack us, we walk in victory all throughout the day.

The first piece of armor is to accept Jesus as our Savior. He is the Truth, and He is the belt that holds our life together. Then, we put on the breastplate of holy living, which protects all of the vital aspects of our life. We walk in peace, which comes from a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. This fully prepares us to stand victoriously in the Lord and the authority of His power (Ephesians 6:10).

In addition to all of these protective elements, we hold up the shield of faith in Christ to stop the fiery arrows of deception and temptation, which Satan shoots at us throughout the day. We put on the mind of Christ as our helmet (Philippians 2:5). Finally, we take up the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God. We follow Jesus’ example on the pinnacle of His temptation, and we quote scripture to Satan when he tries to deceive us (Matthew 4:8-9; 2 Thessalonians 2:3-4).

Prayer:
Father God, remind us that the only way to withstand temptation and to fully walk in Your Spirit is to read and study Your Word, to spend time communing with and listening to You in prayer, and by trusting in Your Spirit’s guidance moment by moment throughout the day. Help us to die daily to our fleshly desires and to walk in Your Truth as authentic followers of the Lord Jesus Christ (1 Corinthians 15:31, Galatians 2:20; 3 John 1:4).
 
Thought for the Day:
If we put on the armor of God every morning before breakfast, God’s Spirit will help us to persevere in holiness throughout the day.

Manifestations of God

Most of humanity does not know Jesus as the Christ, nor do they care about Godly principles at all. If unbelievers see no distinction in our daily walk when compared to theirs, we have a problem with our connection to the Vine (John 15:5). We may even have a false hope of Heaven, because we never truly repented or made Jesus the Lord of our life. If, however, we are grafted into the Vine, their reason for rejecting His truth may be that we are hiding His light within us and they cannot see it (Matthew 5:15-16).

Once we surrender our identity over to the Ruler of the universe, however, God makes a huge difference in our character and existence. When we fully submit to God for Him to use as He pleases (Isaiah 29:16), our life takes on the character of Christ. This is when people see us as authentic Christians. We have God’s peace in trouble, His perseverance in trials, His love for our persecutors and His joy during periods of grief.

They see us exhibiting patience in trying times, using self-control when others give in to debauchery, displaying meekness rather than having a haughty attitude, relating to others with kindness and basing our life and decisions on faith in our faithful God. We lay down our life and prefer the needs of others over our own agenda. This is when other people want for themselves what we have within us. They see truth and reality in our lives. We are capable of this behavior, not because we are exemplary human beings, but because of the Holy Spirit within us (Galatians 5:16:25).

We were formerly dead in sin (Ephesians 2:1), but now we are dead to sin, and our life is hidden with Christ in God (Romans 6:11; Colossians 3:3). The Holy Spirit fills us with His fruit (Galatians 5:22-23). We have an eternal view of life. We know that our eternal weight of glory far outweighs the momentary, comparatively light affliction we experience in this world. We view the visible issues of life as transient and passing, because we know that the spiritual aspects of life are everlasting (2 Corinthians 4:16-18).

We live in this world as manifestations of God through Christ. We have the same abilities and expression of the Spirit that Christ did, because He lives within us (1 John 4:17). We obey God’s Spirit with an awareness, which exceeds human understanding. We cannot prove this relationship intellectually or physically, but the Spirit of God bears witness to our spirit that we are children of God (Romans 8:16). People see the fruit on our branch, and realize it is actually the Vine, which is the source of our productive lives (John 15:5).

As we allow God’s light within us to shine brightly, many in the world will see Him through us and want to give their life to Christ as well (Matthew 5:16). As Born Again Believers, our life on earth has Jesus’ supernatural capabilities. Not only does the Spirit of God lead us (Romans 8:14), but He also fills us to overflowing (Acts 4:31). We are children of God, with Christ living in us by God’s Spirit (Romans 8:11). The more we decrease, the more He increases within us (John 3:30).

Prayer:

Father God, Jesus prayed that no one would snatch us out of Your hand. You are greater than all, and we are perfectly safe in Your everlasting arms (John 10:28-29). Fill us completely full of Your Spirit and keep us as the apple of Your eye (Psalm 17:8). Draw us close to You and never let us go. Your unfailing love is our priceless treasure and we run to the refuge of the shadow of Your wings (Psalm 36:7).

Thought for the Day:

The Holy Spirit is our source of power. Ask Him to manifest Himself in and through you.

 

 

Count it All Joy

No one is glad about the negative aspects of life. We all cringe when it happens and we often run and hide from it. For instance, there is so much negative in the world that people often fail to see anything positive. The Christian has the best advantage when it comes to adversity. James advises us to rejoice in our suffering (James 1:2-8). That sounds like the advice of a crazy man, but I am here to tell you that it works!

James’ advice is actually very sensible. Rather than adding a pessimistic attitude and negative emotions to our depressing circumstances, if we start to praise God in them, He will eventually work everything out for our good (Romans 8:28). We do not have to praise God “for” our circumstances, but a key to defeating Satan’s strongholds in our life is to praise God in spite of them.

Rejoicing in our suffering makes no human sense, but it makes every spiritual sense. We are telling God that we trust Him with our spiritual eyes, no matter what our life looks like with our natural eyes. At times, life takes us captive in unbearable situations. If we are so absorbed in feeling negative about these issues, we miss seeing the hand of God in them. Paul told us that suffering works character in our life and gives us qualities such as perseverance, which eventually produces hope. Hope helps us to rise above any disappointment (Romans 5:3-5).

God pours out His love into our hearts and His Holy Spirit resides within each person who believes that Jesus is God who came in the flesh and who surrenders their life to Him. Love is the emotion of the heart. You can’t prove it, you just feel it and you know that it is there. In this same way, faith is the emotion of our spirit. You can’t prove it, you just feel it and you know that it is there. God pours out His love on us regardless of our circumstances. We can trust Him in faith.

If we are stuck in a prison of adversity and we do not see any way out, we may panic, grieve or just give up. Once we change our focus from our dismal negative circumstances to the limitless power of God, we relax. We believe that God has a purpose for allowing these hardships in our life, just as He has a plan for our overall life (Romans 8:28; Jeremiah 29:11). If we resist the negative, we may miss the positive that God is working out in our life through it.

Prayer:

Father God, You never leave us or forsake us (Hebrews 13:5). You walk with us through every event in our life – the good and the bad. You even walk with us through the valley of the shadow of death (Psalm 23:4). When we cooperate with You rather than fight our circumstances, You always make a way for us, even where there seems to be no way. When one door closes on us, You open an even better one. When we persevere, You develop in us the character to believe that You have our best interest at heart (Romans 8:28).

Thought for the Day:

Faith in God’s faithfulness gives us wings to fly above every sorrow and trial.

Trusting God's Will and Timing

Read: Matthew 24:12-13

“Why are you in despair O my soul? And why have you become disturbed within me? Hope in God, for I shall again praise Him for the help of His presence.” - Psalm 42:5

The reconciliation provided by Jesus was given to us, but also to those who lived before Him. God put the penalty of their sin on “layaway” and forgave everyone who put their trust in Him, in the same way that He forgives us today. God revealed His righteousness to men and women throughout the ages. Once they recognized the holiness of God, they realized their sinful state and how wrecked they actually were. They also comprehended that those that they lived around were as sinful as they were. Isaiah is one such example (Isaiah 6:3). Once Isaiah repented, God took away his guilt and atoned for his sin, just like He does for us (Isaiah 6:7).

Then, after Isaiah repented of his sinful life, God revealed His will to him. The prophet responded with the legendary words, “Here I am, send me” (Isaiah 6:8). Isaiah had no idea what encumbrances and turmoil lay ahead of him, but he knew that he could trust the living Lord. We have this same confidence, as we follow God’s will for our life each moment of the day. Isaiah had trial and triumphs, just like we do. He remained faithful to God’s calling throughout all of his life. We have this same privilege. God gives us His grace and provides for all of our needs, as we trust in His will and His timing.

God also gives us His anointing to accomplish what He calls us to do (2 Corinthians 9:8). Yet, so many refuse to respond to God’s call on their life. They put so much time and effort into providing for their temporal needs that they forget the importance of the eternal needs in their life and in the lives of all of those God wants them to influence. Our life is but a vapor (James 4:14), a fading flower, withering grass and a fleeting shadow (1 Peter 1:24; Job 14:2). The seasons of our life change as quickly as the seasons of the year, although we are not always ready to face the changes time brings our way.

We start in the springtime of our life, growing and learning through the excitement of school days with family and friends. We live through the fiery trials of summertime with a mundane job, the pain of childbirth, love found and possibly even lost again, as well as dissatisfaction from what we failed to accomplish and mourning the loss of our youth. Then we have the contented autumn of the golden years of our life. We see joy in the little things that we were previously too busy to notice. We have less, but we know it is really more. So quickly life slips into the bareness of winter with an aging body, the loss of energy and drive, fears of dying and the ache of losing family and friends too soon.

Through every season of life, faith and confidence in God’s loving kindness sees us through the valleys, as well as the climb up the mountains on the other side. He gives us a future and a hope that brings multiple blessings into our life (Jeremiah 29:11). We can encourage our soul through every season, just as King David did through his colorful lifetime (Psalm 42:5). He lived a life of praise to God, and relished the fact that God inhabited his praises (Psalms 22:3). Isaiah lived in the will of God for his whole life, living it to the fullest measure of the anointing of God. God asks this same commitment from all of us.

Prayer:

Lord Jesus, although our life is fraught with heart-rending trials, our hope in Your faithfulness endures. Remind us of the benefits of serving You so that our heart will not grow cold in these last days. Help us to grow spiritually and to mature into God’s children as we share in Your inheritance. Remind us to consider the trials we face with joy, because we know that our growing faith will help us to endure to the end of our life. This perseverance will do its perfect work until we are mature and complete, lacking no good thing because of Your love (James 1: 2-4).

Thought for the Day:

The truth that life is temporary puts eternity into its proper perspective.

 

 

 

Praying in Jesus' Name

Read: Isaiah 43:2

”The Lord is close to the brokenhearted; he rescues those whose spirits are crushed.” - Psalm 34:18

Demons tremble at the mention of the name of Jesus (James 2:19). This name is above all names and it has a power that is in no other name (Philippians 2:9). When we conclude our prayer with the words, "in Jesus' name", we are telling God that we are coming to Him with our requests because of the power behind Jesus’ name, especially if we pray together in agreement with other believers (Matthew 18:19-20). We come boldly to the throne of God (Hebrew 4:16) and we ask anything "in Jesus' name" with confidence that we will receive it (John 14:13-14).

After we repent of our sins, we are baptized in the name of Jesus Christ and we receive the gift of His Holy Spirit (Acts 2:38). From this point forward, God spoils His children. We can ask anything in His name and He gives it to us so that our joy will be full (John 16:24). Of course, as with anything worthwhile in life, there are parameters and cautions.

For instance, if we pray covetously to gain this world’s goods, we are praying from our fleshly lusts instead of from our heavenly nature (James 4:3). God feels no compulsion to answer these prayers, whether we pray in Jesus’ name or not. When you pray in Jesus’ name ask for things that will honor and glorify Jesus, not to receive worldly goods. As we seek first the Kingdom of God, then He will take care of all of our needs (Matthew 6:33).

It is not really the words of our prayer that are important, but rather it is the intent with which we pray that matters. So use your own words when you petition God or praise His name. There is no right or wrong way to talk to God. As we pray in Jesus’ name, we are praying in agreement with God’s will.

God is not a genie or an Aladdin’s Lamp to grant all of our prayers with a "Yes". Sometimes, God also answers our prayers with a "No," or a "Wait". He wants our faith to grow and He wants us to love Him more than we want the answer for our prayers. Sometimes, God just wants us to persevere in prayer. In the parable of Luke 18:1-8, Jesus teaches us the importance of persisting in prayer.

God wants us to love Him even if He does not answer our prayers the way we want Him to. He promises to deliver us out of our troubles and make us a testimony for the world to see...just like the three Hebrew children in the fiery furnace. They refused to worship the king's idol and he tossed them in the furnace to die. Jesus met them there and kept them safe until the King called them out of the furnace again. God will keep us safe too, even in negative circumstances.

If your prayers are not answered, examine your heart, and ask God to show you the truth. Getting right with God leads us back to sweet communion with Him and more answered prayers. All of these areas can keep our prayers from getting answered. Ask yourself:

‎A. Are you asking selfishly?
B. Have you turned away from God or are you walking in disobedience?
C. Are you harboring unforgiveness in your hearts against someone, even yourself or God?
D. Have you allowed discord to creep into your marriage, family, church, workplace, etc? 

Often, Satan blinds us to the fact that God really is answering our prayers. Satan does not want us to see God’s provision in our life. He does not want us to praise God or to give Him any glory. Satan would prefer for us to be mad at God, for our anger to burn against Him and for us to grow cold and fall away from serving Him.

If you take an honest look at your prayers since dedicating your life to God, you will realize that God has resolved each one for you. You may be having continual trials, but that’s because Satan is trying to get you to give up! If you look at these circumstances more closely, God is actually answering every one of your prayers. In this world, we will have tribulation…but be of good cheer, because Jesus already overcame these trials for us and He lives within us (John 16: 32-33).

We can believe in faith that God will deliver us out of every trial and negative circumstance, because He promised that He would ~ not in our timing, but in His own. He will also use our trials to further His Kingdom in the earth and to help us to grow spiritually (Psalm 34:7, 17,19) as we pray in Jesus’ name.

Prayer:

Lord, sometimes You put people in our life to teach us to love them in spite of their idiosyncrasies. Satan will actually use these people to badger us, until they quit bothering us. Help me to remember that these people are actually hurting, and they need You in their life. I may never change them, but they will change me for the better, because You will use them to work Your fruit into my life. I pray for them in Jesus’ name.

Thought for the Day:
When doubts filled our mind, God’s comfort gives us renewed hope and joy (Psalm 94:19).

Friend or Foe?

Read: 1 Corinthians 3:16-20

"Anyone who chooses to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God." -James 4:4

Paul’s parents educated him so well that he rose in the ranks of Roman society. Once he met Christ, however, he chose to be called a fool in the world’s eyes in order to  "be transformed by the renewing of his mind" (Romans 12:2). This restoration took determination, consistency, persevering prayer and the continual reading in God’s Word. Once Paul made the commitment, God provided abundant resources for him to succeed.

Let us also make this uncompromising pledge to God and rise above the wisdom of the world. We can cast aside the innumerable influences, which compete for our attention, and instead seek to please the One who sacrificed His life for us.

Satan plants mine fields along the road toward freedom to destroy those who do not walk vigilantly (Ephesians 5:15). Do not become a statistic in Satan’s tally. Walk in the Spirit and you will see the world's wisdom for what it truly is... foolishness.

Prayer:
Lord Jesus, give me the faith and courage to stand alone. Though the world may label me a fool, I will "trust in the Lord with all of my heart and lean not on my own understanding" (Proverbs 3:5). Amen.

Thought for the Day:
God's plan always requires us to be "sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see" (Hebrews 11:1).