God's Faithfulness

 

Our faith in God's faithfulness is never disappointed. He will not give us the lusts of our flesh, but He always abundantly provides for more than our needs (Ephesians 3:20).

If we pray anything according to His will, he hears us and supplies (1 John 5:14). We cannot live fully without Christ living within us. Paul realized this truth in his life (1 Corinthians 4:7).

Jesus’ disciples knew the truth of this statement too (John 15:5). Joseph exemplified this when he interpreted Pharaoh’s dreams (Genesis 41:16). Rebellious Jonah learned to trust the Lord, as the God of heaven who made the sea and earth (Jonah 1:9).

God is always ready to listen to those who worship Him and are willing to live in His will for their life (John 9:31). Blessed and happy is everyone who worships the Lord and walks in His ways (Psalm 128:1).

Due to God's great faithfulness, His steadfast love never ceases; His mercy never ends and is actually fresh with the dawn of each new day (Lamentations 3:22-23).

Even when we fail in our faithfulness, it does not negate the faithfulness of God; although, our poor witness does tarnish His name and ours (Romans 3:3).

Our God is gracious and merciful, patient and full of love and faithfulness (Psalm 86:15). He loves and protects those who keep His commandments, and honors His covenant with them through a thousand generations (Deuteronomy 7:9; Psalms 119:90).

Prayer:

Father God, You are our God. We earnestly seek You; our soul thirsts for You, our body longs for You, as in a dry and weary land where there is no water. You always provide us with everything we need to live Godly in Christ Jesus.

I have seen You in the sanctuary and beheld Your power and Your glory. Because Your love is better than life, my lips will glorify You. I will praise You as long as I live, and in Your name I will lift up my hands" (Psalm 63:1-4).

Thought for the Day:

True disciples long for God more than life itself and seek His love and grace as we glorify Him in all that we think, say and do.

The Most Holy Place

A curtain hung between the Holy Place and the Most Holy Place in the tabernacle and temple and separated the presence of God from the Israelite priests who served there.

Only the high priest was allowed into the Most Holy Place, and only after a strict regimen of cleansing. Jesus cleanses us from our humanity, so that we may serve the Living God through His divinity within us (Hebrews 9:14).

As Jesus took His last breath on Calvary's cross, the temple curtain split in half from top to bottom (Matthew 27:51). Most scholars believe that God orchestrated this torn Temple curtain as an object lesson for us.

It illustrates and signifies the fact that we cannot earn our way to heaven, but we can now enter the presence of God by the blood of Jesus with confidence in our salvation (Hebrews 10:19).

When we accept Jesus as our Savior, He sets His seal of ownership on us and gives us His Spirit as a down payment of our inheritance (2 Corinthians 1:22).

Once we repent of our sins, ask for forgiveness and surrender our will to Him, He moves into our Born Again spirit and resides within us all through our lifetime. He places us in His Body and we work together for His glory.

We are the temple of the Holy Spirit (1 Corinthians 6:19). Christ lives in us (Colossians 1:27). Our Spirit is the Most Holy Place where God resides. God makes us a holy sanctuary in which He can dwell (Exodus 25:8).

Cleansed from sin by the blood of the perfect Lamb of God (1 Peter 1:19), we are His priests and we shall reign with Him during the Millennium for 1000 years and then serve Him throughout eternity (Revelation 20:6).

Prayer:

Father God, You are our safe haven and our power to deal with temptation and persecution (Psalm 46:1). Even in the most unthinkable and earth shattering circumstances, with our faith in Your faithfulness, we have no reason to fear (Psalm 46:1-3). We consider trails as a time of great joy, because they are an adventure with You (James 1:2).

We stop our stressing and watch You work in our behalf (James 1:2; Psalm 46:10). We are Your children (Romans 8:15). You promise never to leave us or to forsake us (Hebrews 13:5). You are our Mighty God who saves us and abides within us. You celebrate over us with delight. You calm us with Your love. You even rejoice over us with thunderous singing (Zephaniah 3:17).

Thought for the Day:

Our hope in Christ is the sure and steadfast anchor for our soul. – Hebrews 6:19

In His Presence

All power belongs to God. Evil men try to usurp His authority and oppress His people, but they will come to their end (Psalm 62:9-10). His loving kindness is readily available to us. His joy, peace and love envelop us every moment of our life. He relates to us in proportion to our belief in Him and our faithfulness to Him (Psalm 62:11-12).

Our Heavenly Father reaches down and touches our soul, forever changing how we view life and respond to circumstances; yet, we ignore Him unless we have a problem, which we cannot handle. God is the rock of our salvation. He wants us to patiently linger only with Him. He calls us to wait on Him in silence (Psalm 62:1-2). However, we are often too busy to spend time with Him.

If we do enter His presence, our life would improve dramatically. In His presence, we are never seriously shaken. He is our hope and our stronghold (Psalm 62:5-6). Our deliverance and future rests on Him. He is the rock of our strength and our refuge in any trouble. We can trust in Him at all times. He listens when we pour out our heart to Him. He is our almighty sanctuary (Psalm 62:7-8).

Our soul cries out, even craves for the presence of our Living God. More than anything else, we desire to dwell in His courts. Even our body longs to be in His presence (Psalm 84:2). We groan along with all of creation for the revealing of Jesus Christ, the Son of God and the ruler of the universe (Romans 8:19-22). We long for His imminent return to rule and reign over the new heaven and the new earth (Revelation 21:1).

Prayer:
Father God, every pursuit in this life pales in comparison to spending time with You. Our fulfillment is found only in Your presence. You are the very air we breathe (Psalm 136:25). You gratify our cravings and You fill our famished soul (Psalm 107:9; 103:5). Remind us of the joy of a life in service to You. Teach us that amassing this world's goods will only take away from time better spent with You.

Thought for the Day:

The more we wait on the Lord, the more deeply we come to feel His presence in our life.

Hopelessness

There is a common malady in today’s society, which leads many into addictions and crime. It is called hopelessness. They have tried to make something of their life and they failed at every turn; so, they turn to chemicals and theft to relieve their symptoms. Some have never heard of the hope, which Jesus Christ provides. Others have heard that Jesus makes a difference, but they do not believe it.

 

It is up to those of us, who have first-hand experience with the wonderful love of God, to share the hope we find in Christ in a gentle, informative fashion and to entreat others to trust their life to Christ too. The Lord is close to the brokenhearted, and He saves all those who are crushed in spirit, if we will simply call out to Him (Psalm 43:18; 147:3). 

Total surrender to God is the key to getting out of our misery. He holds us up when we fall and lifts up everyone who is discouraged. We surrender our family, our future, our worries and our desires to the love and care of God Almighty (Mark 9:23). Then, we leave them in His capable hands.

When our soul is disheartened, we put our hope in God alone (Psalm 43:5). Complete surrender to God’s will in negative circumstance is the only way to stay sane. Even through the loss of a job, spouse, child, pet, home or parent, God cares for us. We walk in obedience to His Spirit, and live victoriously moment by moment throughout the day.

We learn to trust in God and not in our bank account, friends, children, job, the government or our parents. When we take our eyes off our self and put them on Him instead, He keeps us in perfect peace (Isaiah 26:3). We do not fear tomorrow, because God only leads us one step at a time. We obey His Spirit, and find rest in God alone. Our only true hope comes from Him (Psalm 62:5).

Prayer:

Father God, You are my helper, so I will not be afraid (Isaiah 41:10,13-14). What can mere mortals do to me? In my distress, I cry out to You and pray to You for help. You always hear me from Your sanctuary, because my cries always reach Your ears (Psalm 18:8). Thank You that once we put our trust totally in Your miraculous love, we always find a victorious way through every negative circumstance we face (2 Corinthians 4:8; Romans 8:28; Jeremiah 29:11).

Thought for the Day:

God gives us grace for today and hope for tomorrow. - Ecclesiastes 9:4

Abundant Life

Read: Galatians 3: 1-3

“For my determined purpose is that I may know Him that I may progressively become more deeply and intimately acquainted with Him…” - Philippians 3:10 (Amplified)

As a baby Christian, I misunderstood His new life in me. I thought, “Now that I’ve found God, I no longer need to seek Him. Now I just need to be good enough to deserve His love.” So, I got up from my knees, sighed in determination, pulled myself up by my bootstraps, and went to work for God.

After ten years of striving, I finally heard what God wanted me to know. Our situation today is much the same as what existed among the foolish Galatians Christians, prior to Paul writing his letter to them. Having been born again by trusting in the finished work of Christ and the activity of the Holy Spirit within them, they had been seduced by Satan and the Judaizers - religious legalists who imposed rules and regulations on them to allegedly guarantee them spiritual maturity. Their definition of abundant life had withered to a desperate struggle in which they sought to keep trying to please God. These Christians lived in a constant struggle to please God by keeping the Law of Do's and Don'ts. Does that sound like anyone you know?

Paul hit the nail on the head in Chapter 3: 1-3..."¹ Oh, foolish Galatians! Who has cast an evil spell on you? For the meaning of Jesus Christ’s death was made as clear to you as if you had seen a picture of his death on the cross. ² Let me ask you this one question: Did you receive the Holy Spirit by obeying the law of Moses? Of course not! You received the Spirit because you believed the message you heard about Christ. ³ How foolish can you be? After starting your Christian lives in the Spirit, why are you now trying to become perfect by your own human effort?"

That just about sums it up, doesn't it? We trust in Christ for Salvation, but then we try to perfect our selves by our works. Sanctification ~ the process of becoming holy and pleasing to God ~ is a LIFELONG process. There is no shortcut. We did not come to Christ by our works (Titus 3:4-6; Eph 2:8-10), it was a free gift from God. Therefore, we cannot sanctify our selves by our works either; it is also a free gift from God.

There is no striving in our walk with God. We do not need to spend time nor energy on trying to overcome the flesh or on trying to earn God’s love. The only striving that the Bible commands us to do is:

1.) to enter his narrow gate through Salvation
2.) to enter into His rest.


Look at Hebrews 4:9-12… “So then, there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God; for whoever enters God's rest also ceases from his labors as God did from his. Let us, therefore, strive to enter that rest."

We cannot be good enough, holy enough or spiritual enough to deserve God’s love. We already have God's love, which does not depend on our behavior. If the Christian walk depended on us, then we would have no need for Christ’s sacrifice on the cross. He died because we can never be good enough to earn God’s love.

It’s tough to enter the rest of God. That’s why it takes effort and striving. Once we’re there, however, we can actually stop striving and rest. God gives us His unconditional love freely as a gift. We only have to open our hearts wide and receive His gift of love. When you realize the truth of this concept, you will sit in your quiet place and feel His love cascading over you like a waterfall.

Jesus completed the work of our perfection on the cross. Now we only need to allow Jesus to help us make a conscious effort to walk in obedience to His Will, regardless of the circumstances around us. Now, the focus of our purpose in life is to follow hard after God, to drink as a hart from the waterbrook, to come into an intimate relationship with the Lover of our soul.

Prayer:

Lord Jesus, whom do I have in heaven, but You? And besides You, I desire nothing on earth. My flesh and my heart may fail; but God, You are the strength of my heart and my portion forever. (Psalm 73:25-26) You will make known to me the path of life; In Your presence is fullness of joy; In Your right hand there are pleasures forever. (Psalm 16:11)

Thought for the Day:

I have seen You in the sanctuary and beheld Your power and Your glory. Because Your love is better than life. - Psalm 63:2-3 (NIV)