God Delights in Blessing Us

God blesses us all day long in so many ways; we are just too busy to notice. If we focus on our to-do list or the negative issues we are facing, we miss seeing the blessings.

God delights in blessing His children (Psalms 8:4-5, 139: 6-7, 17). He rejoices over us with singing (Zephaniah 3:17). When we ignore or do not appreciate what He does for us, we get disappointed and frustrated by what we wanted Him to do, and what we perceive that He failed to do.

God arranged our genes, gave us our parents, and had us born in the city and country that He chose in order to give us the personality and talents we have, so that we can use them for His purposes.

Self-improvement is our carnal attempt to perfect our self. God wants to lead us, and for us to take the back seat (Mark 8:34). As we focus on praising God in the midst of our short-comings, He will replace our imperfections with His Spirit's fruit.

As we yoke up with Jesus, we find rest in God's grace. His mercy allow us to submit to His Spirit's direction each and every moment of every day. His presence eliminates the emptiness, fear and depression in our soul.

We develop a friendliness with others. We share the gospel with anyone interested in hearing that God loves them and has a plan for their life. We love God and His Kingdom as our priority and then we love others as we love our self (Matthew 6:33; Mark 12:30-31).

Prayer:

Father God, You hold us securely in Your love. We have no fear of life's storms, because You are in control of them all. You bless us with Your contentment, joy and fulfillment even in the midst of negative circumstances. You calm the storms and cause the sun to burst through the clouds, illuminating our days with Your peace.

As You shed Your love in our hearts, teach us to love others as our self. Remind us to look for Your blessings all through our day and to share Your blessings with others as You give us the opportunity to bless them. Help us not to miss Your divine opportunities or to take Your divine provision for granted.

Thought for the Day:

God does not ask us to trust one another, because we are frail humans and hurt one another - often without realizing it; but He does expect us to trust Him to bless us in His timing, will and way.

Union with Christ - Transformation

 

Prior to coming to Christ, we were shackled with our old soul nature and a spirit dead in sin. We were crippled by having a body that started dying the day we were born, a dysfunctional soul, and a dead spirit to cart around with us as we danced through life to the tune of lies from Satanic spirits (1 John 5:19).

We did our best to survive and thrive. Yet, even if we are successful in the eyes of the world, we still lack the basic connection with the God of the Universe, who took on the form of a human being in order to bring us new life.

At times, even God's servants go off on our own tangents and smear God's name, purposes and direction for our life. We work in God's name, but do not follow God's will, which defames His name among the nations - the exact opposite of God's plan for us (Ephesians 2:7-3:19).

When we come to Christ, He forgives our sin, rejuvenates our body, gives our spirit new life, and heals our soul. This gives us the maximum benefit of having a wholesome body, soul and spirit in order to relate to the issues in our life.

Our God-shaped vacuum within us is no longer empty and lifeless, but filled with God's Spirit and renewed each and every day because we are Born Again. We have a purpose in life, our identity in Christ and our vision clearly focused on the will of God.

The old sinful nature died and we are resurrected in Christ. He is now our whole life (Ephesians 3:3-4). We experience the exuberant goodness of our God toward us through His love (John 3:16-17).

Christ's sacrificed His life on the cross to eliminate our sin debt for us and to guarantee the Holy Spirit's residence within us, if we will only humble our self in the sight of the Lord (James 4:10).

Prayer:
Father God, please forgive us for giving You a "bum wrap" and "bad press" among the society of nations across the ages and around the world. Our human behavior, done in Your name, tainted Your name and defamed Your honor among the nations. True salvation connects us to the living water within us, and allows it to flow from us to those You bring into our life (John 7:38).

Lead us in a level path in this exact moment, and all of the moments of our life, because of our enemies. Help us to walk in true holy living according to Your Spirit for Your name's sake (Psalm 23). Regardless of our circumstances, when You are involved in them with us, You turn all of them around for our good (Romans 8:28).

Thought for the Day:

With the same conviction we enjoy in knowing that we are born of God's Spirit through our salvation, which comes from Christ alone, we live with the fulfillment and power of realizing that our sanctification also comes from Christ alone. - Galatians 3:1-3

His Exact Replica

After Salvation, we often focus our attention outwardly. We see God on His throne in Heaven, but we see our self as struggling alone in life and in need of His divine help. Some people say we are nothing but puppets, forced to serve as our Divine Manipulator dictates. However, we are more like a glove. Christ exactly fills us and we are perfectly molded to His character and nature (2 Peter 1:4).

Our union with Christ involves our spirit, soul and body. He unites them in vision and purpose with Christ. Through this union, God expresses His heart through us in sympathy for the hardships of others, in patience in tribulation, and in devotion in Bible study, prayer and fellowship with other Saints of God. Consequently, God fulfills through us His purpose for us in the earth (Ephesians 2:10).

In this manner, the union between the Creator and the created, the divine and the human, the eternal and the temporal is complete (Colossians 2:10). The Spirit directs us, and we move as His exact replica on the earth. Jesus also walks beside us, as well as living within us. He completely surrounds us, finishing His work of sanctification in our soul. We live, move and exist in Him (Acts 17:28).

Christ redeemed us from sin by the cross, and He works out His intentions in us and through us (Ephesians 2:10; Colossians 2:9-10). Jesus is our all in all (Colossians 1:17). He justifies our spirit; sanctifies, inspires and directs our soul; and will eventually glorify our body. Jesus is the expression of God’s glory and the exact image of God’s being (Hebrews 1:3). He speaks the oracles of God through our voice (1 Peter 4:11).

Also, Jesus heals a sick body through the laying on of our hands (Mark 1:41; 6:5; 5:3; 7:32, 33; 8:23, 25; 16:18; James 5:15). He sees a need and meets it through the resources He provides for us (1 John 3:17). He will even raise the dead, cleanse the leper and cast out demons in and through us (Matthew 10:8). As we walk in union with Christ, by the direction of His Spirit, we walk as shining stars, shedding His light in the dark, lost world around us (Colossians 1:27; Philippians 2:15).

Prayer:

Father God, Your will flows from a combination of Your divine love and wisdom. Harmony in our relationship with You increases as we live in union with Christ. This guarantees that more accord abides between our will and Yours. We soon find that our purpose is to do nothing more in life than to allow Christ to work through us. Fill us with the spiritual gifts and fruit of Your Spirit, and help us to lay down our plans and expectations, so You can use us for Your purposes each moment of our day. 

Thought for the Day:

If we only focus on Christ on the cross, we may forget the fact that the risen Lord dwells within our spirit.

Who We Are in Christ

 

The need to work toward a successful life in this world is a lie from Satan. Even after salvation, we often feel disappointment with life. We hope that certain people will act a certain way in order for us to feel secure. We can even disappoint our self! We tend to trust in our government, our parents, our mate, our children, our teachers or even our pastors. We can work for God and burn out, because we do not allow God to work through us by His Spirit.

 

When we work for God we receive no lasting power, peace or joy. There is no permanent fulfillment in planning our own life and asking God to bless it. When we choose to act separately from our Father, we easily fall into sin (1 John 1:8). It is only as we surrender to God’s Spirit each moment of our day, and follow His leadership each step of the way, that we find deep peace and joy. We walk in His Truth, just as He is in the truth (3 John 1:4).

 

God does not help us to perform works for Him. He lives His life in and through us. Jesus set us free from the law of sin and death; it holds no power over us, unless we choose to give in to it (1 John 2:1). However, when we sin, we have an advocate with our Father and He forgives us because He is just and faithful (1 John 8-9). The Father uses our spirit to search the motives of our soul and to form the nature of Christ in us (Proverbs 20:27).

 

Our old, carnal nature dies at salvation. We became a new creation, partakers of the divine nature of God through His promises, and we escape the lusts of the world (2 Corinthians 5:17; 2 Peter 1:4). They hold no more power over us. When we come to this place in our life, we step out of the realm of sin and the flesh, and we walk into the arms of God. We are eternally united with Christ as our brother and fellow heir (Ephesians 5:8).

 

As we trust in God’s faithfulness, nothing can separate us from His love, or snatch us out of His hand (Romans 8:35-39; John 10:27-29). If we seek His eternal promises, He will supply all of our earthly needs (Matthew 6:33). The banks can fail, we can lose money in the stock market, but by investing in God’s Kingdom, we shall always succeed (Matthew 6: 19-21).

 

Prayer:

Father God, You intended for our salvation to be more than Christ dying for us, but that He also lives in and through us (2 Peter 1:3). He lives in us by Your Spirit and He helps us to understand who we are, not as a human being, but as Your child (Galatians 2:20). Help us to live for Your purposes and not our own goals and dreams (Philippians 1:21). We look forward to Jesus returning again to bring us to Himself (Titus 2:12-13).

 

Thought for the Day:

Denying our self is essential to spiritual freedom.