Trust Only in the Lord

Trust must be earned, rather than blindly given; and is more important to a relationship than love. If we spend our time telling little white lies to keep us out of trouble, this undermines the love that others feel for us

When life boils down to the details, we are not even able to trust our self. We often disappoint our self, because we let our self down and then have a hard time forgiving our self.

God is truly the only trustworthy being in the universe. He keeps His Word through generations of time (Psalm 147:13). We can trust in the Lord with our whole heart and refuse to lean on our own human reasoning.

He will always direct our steps and lead us in His will and way (Proverbs 3:5-6). He preserves our life, and inspires us to devote our time and resources in His service. He is our God and He saves His children who trust in Him (Psalm 86:2).

We keep our focus on Him because He never leaves us destitute. He offers us continual refuge under His wings, regardless of how dire our circumstances become (Psalm 46:1-3, 141:8).

God is only a prayer away and provides us with all of our needs according to His glorious riches (Psalm 142:5). He hears our prayers and answers us in His faithfulness and righteous judgment (Psalm 143:1).

Prayer:

Father God, even though our food supply stops producing or our drinking water is contaminated, we know that You will faithfully supply all of our needs. We may suffer persecution and hardships on this earth, but You are the strength of our life (Psalm 46:1-2).

We give You the praise, glory and honor that is due to Your name, even if we face imminent deprivation in this life. You will always see us through any and every trial, because You walk through it with us and in us (Colossians 1:27, Galatians 2:20).

Thought for the Day:
The Lord allows us to hear His promise of unfailing love with each new morning, and calls on us to totally trust His mercy and goodness for our life. - Psalm 143:8

Yielding to God's Holy Spirit

 

Christians today are far from the Biblical norm of what we should be. We have no concept of what life is like when it is controlled and guided by God’s Spirit. We take too active a role in our life and we make our own plans instead of checking with God about His plans for us (Ephesians 2:10). We get our self stuck up a tree or circling the same mountain in life and then we get discouraged and grow weary.

We end up grieving God’s Spirit (Ephesians 4:30) by our thoughts, words and deeds. We dishonor God’s name by walking with one foot in the world and one foot in the Spirit. We walk with diminished spiritual power because we focus more on the fleshly concerns in our life than on the spiritual and eternal.

We have so much self-confidence, self-centeredness, self-reliance and self-sufficiency that there is no room for God. We are like the foolish Galatians (Galatians 3:1-3) attempting to please God by our human efforts. This type of lifestyle comes from the flesh and the flesh stinks in the nostrils of God (Acts 8:22-24). God’s power is available to every Born Again Believer...it is yours.

His Spirit wants to sanctify us and enable us to walk in God’s will every moment of every day. God continually eliminates our human strength, confounds our human wisdom and limits our human abilities in every area of life until we get tired of trying to live life apart from Him. We end up in complete shame and emptiness, lost and undone.

If we call on God’s mercy and grace, He cleanses us from all unrighteousness and helps us to walk in newness of life (1 John 1:9). This is when the blessings of God start to fall If you find yourself failing or discouraged or overwhelmed in life, you can be sure you are out of God’s will. Stop and pray. Center yourself in the mind of Christ and ask God for His direction. Then, yield to God’s Holy Spirit.

Prayer:

Father God, show us the futility of living life from our own wisdom and strength. Remind us to seek You first before we do anything, make any plans or set any goals. Allow us to see Your hand in every area of our life, to feel Your love overflowing in our heart, to have Your strength to accomplish everything that You calls us to do and to yield to Your Spirit each moment of the day.

Thought for the Day:

When God calls us to perform some function in His will, we find our self in the happiest place on earth.

 

Love Lifted Me

Prior to our salvation, we lived life with one goal and focus…our self. We did what we wanted to do and what pleased our self. Even living a life in service to others was done to please our self, because it made us feel good about who we are and what we were accomplishing. Once we come to Christ, those carnal desires to please our self are still there.

This is called, the flesh. The flesh wants to have its own way and rebels against anything to the contrary. At first, Paul’s admonition to die daily is not only foreign, but also repulsive to us. We cringe from inflicting any hardship on our self. However, God gives us both the power and the desire to walk in His will for our life (Philippians 2:12-13). Desiring to please Him above all else, becomes our goal and focus.

It is interesting that the only areas of our life that God wants to change are those parts, which are harmful to us anyway. Hobbies, habits and hang-ups, which are sinful, are also destructive to our well-being. God replaces our selfish character with His divine character and our human nature with His divine nature, and we are much more fulfilled and at peace.

In living for our self, Satan made sure we were attracted to sin. He made it look enjoyable and used that to tempt us. In Christ, we no longer enjoy the same activities and many of them are actually abhorrent to us. We no longer see any value in them or why they had any appeal to us in the first place. We find more and more freedom in our service to God because His love lifts us higher and higher.

Prayer:

Father God, there is nothing this world has to offer that can take Your place in our life. We are never lonely again, because Your presence is with us and in us through every experience we will ever encounter. Our best interest is at the center of Your heart and You work out everything, even the worst sickness and the most dire of circumstances for our ultimate benefit. Thank You for Your love and direction in our life.

Thought for the Day:
God’s love lifted me.

 

 

The Benefits of the Race

 

Throughout our lifetime, God shows us who we really are (Galatians 6:3). We no longer excuse our failings and justify our motives. We recognize that even all of our accomplishments are filthy rags in His sight (Isaiah 64:6). We realize that we run a very real chance of standing before Him on the judgment day in shame and loss (1 John 2:28). Therefore, we confess that we are sinners and call out to Him for salvation. In exchange, He gives us all of His righteousness along with His Spirit, who takes up residence in our newly Born Again spirit (2 Corinthians 5:21; John 3:7). 

We never find true peace in life until we stop living for our self and live for God instead. We see His little love letters to us all throughout our day. We abide in His presence and rejoice in His provision and love for us. He strengthens us (2 Chronicles 16:9). His mercy and goodness keep us all the days of our life, and then we dwell in the house of the Lord forever (Psalm 23:6). He deserves more from us than half-hearted devotion and praise (Romans 6:17). He wants us to pray without ceasing (1 Thessalonians 5:17). When we do, His praise is on our lips every moment of the day.

Paul teaches us not to center our contentment on the circumstances of our life, but on the peace that God’s Spirit provides from within us. Jesus experienced heart-rending loss and adverse trials; yet, He taught us to count our suffering as a gift of joy (James 1:2-8). The purpose of our life is not to amass worldly goods, but to honor our Father in Heaven, just like Jesus did. Though we make a living in the world, our vocation is actually our ministry to use for the glory of God.

Paul likens our life with the Lord to a race. Christianity calls for the same characteristics of training and commitment (Hebrews 12:1-3). Running a race takes devotion and dedication.  Some people stand on the sidelines in church and even in life. However, running the race is so much more exciting, and even has the possibility of receiving awards at the end. God never leaves us, but gives us the courage and strength to finish the race (Hebrews 13:5; 2 Timothy 4:7).

God’s love is described in dimensions. It has height and length, depth and width (Ephesians 3:18-20). God’s love is proportionate and all encompassing. It completely surrounds us, encasing us in His love. Nothing can ever separate us from His great love (Romans 8:31-39). What can we do for Him in return for His grace, mercy, joy, peace and love? Even if we are just eating and drinking, we do everything for the glory of God (1 Corinthians 10:31). We can purpose in our heart to develop the deeper commitment of a life hidden with Christ in God (Colossians 3:3).

Prayer:

Father God, intimate fellowship with You is available to every Believer. It requires time and energy from us, quietness and confidence, and commitment and adoration. If we spend all of our time in the world, and give You only our spare change and hurried moments as we fall asleep at night, we not only insult You, but we short-change our self as well. We may have to hit the bottom of the barrel, before we ever take the time to look up into Your glorious face and live our life in worship to You.

Thought for the Day:

The Battle is the Lord’s and our best chance of success is to follow His strategy and obey His direction. -  Joshua 6:1-18

Sacrificial Love

In following Jesus’ example and direction, we live with sacrificial love for everyone around us. We put the needs of others ahead of our own needs. We give our resources, time, energy, empathy and compassion. However, this lifestyle will deplete our emotional energy, if we live it in the flesh. Codependent people are servants at heart, and they give so much to so many so often, that they burn out. God tells us to love others as we love our self. We need to take time to meet our needs too, and to allow others to meet our needs.

The only way we can truly love others sacrificially is through obedience to the Spirit of God. We grow into the fullness of the stature of Christ because His Spirit transforms us into His likeness (Ephesians 4:13; 2 Corinthians 3:18). God’s love within us allows us to forgive the slights, abuses and violations perpetrated against us. He also enables us to cry with those who suffer; and rejoice, without jealousy or bitterness, with those who are celebrating (Romans 12:15).

The world, the flesh and the devil do not want us to love unconditionally. They want us to fling accusations concerning our trials into the face of God (Matthew 16:23). They want us to react in hate, to wallow in bitterness and to unleash all of our negative emotions on the one who hurt us. However, Jesus says to turn the other cheek (Matthew 5:39). It is hard to do that when our normal response is to fight back. With each temptation to disobey the Lord, we struggle to lay down our life, and instead, to take up His life within us.

We face a struggle between our fleshly nature and God’s Spirit (Galatians 5:1, 25). We want to do what is right, but we often fail in times of crisis (Matthew 6:22-23, 16:13-16). Finding Christian friends who are experiencing a similar life crisis soothes our soul and gives us prayer partners. God proves His love and kindness to us as He guards, fortifies and leads us through these troubled waters. In the end, God’s faithful Saints will receive commendation, prominence and even more authority, once the Lord returns for us (1 Peter 1:7).

Our sacrifice of love is an expression of our love for and gratitude toward God. The world recognizes us as Believers, because of the depth of our love for one another and for the world around us (John 13:34-35). There are so many hurting people in the world who need the love of God; and we are just the ones to show them that we love them, because He first loved us. We have the only true, eternal hope, which is available to offer to our hurting family, friends, associates, neighbors and even people we have only just met (Romans 5:5).

Prayer:

Father God, many of life’s storms come to prove that our faith in Your faithfulness is valid, and worth more to us than any earthly riches. You often allow tribulation in our life to prove to us that You love us, or to redirect our course of action and to center us in Your will for our life. We can patiently wait and watch for Your divine intervention on our behalf (Exodus 14:13). Help us to share Your sacrificial love only with those You want us to reach out to.

Thought for the Day:

God so loved the whole world that He sacrificially gave His only begotten Son to save us from a life of sin.