Life-Changing Verses - Part 2 - Verse to Live By

God gives us a very simple plan for life. He encourages us to seek Him with all of our heart; not to depend on our human reasoning; and before we do anything, to ask Him to reveal His will for our next moment of time.

Then, He guarantees that He shall direct our paths (Proverbs 3:5-6). God will work out every circumstance, no matter how bad it is, for our ultimate good, if we love Him and are willing to walk in His will (Romans 8:28).

God created us for a special purpose before we were even born, starting with our salvation through Christ. We do not earn salvation by our works of righteousness. According to His mercy He saved us by cleansing us with regeneration.

God renews us by giving us His Spirit (Ephesians 2:8-10). Our Father God loved us while we were still sinners (Romans 5:7-9). He sees our whole life without the parameters of time or the constraints of mortality. God is eternal and views all of our years on earth from an eternal perspective.

We are crucified with Christ, but we still live on this earth; yet it is not us, but Christ who is living in and through us. And the life we now live in this human body, we live by the faith of God's Son who loves us - enough to die for us (Galatians 2:20).

We receive God's Spirit, which has nothing to do with our human effort, talents or hard work; and neither can we sanctify or perfect our soul through any work of our own (Galatians 3:1-3).

Our walk with God is a life-long process of growing in intimacy with Him, and enjoying the daily fellowship of almighty God. There is nothing that we cannot do as long as we are following His perfect will for us (Philippians 4:13).

If we submit to God and resist the devil, Satan is obligated to flee from us (James 4:7). He may gain permission from God to throw some type of trial in our path, but Christ in us is greater and more powerful than Satan could ever hope to be (1 John 4:4).

Prayer:

Father God, there are so many verses that stand out to us as we read Your Word, highlighted by Your Spirit in order to enlighten us and improve our brief life (James 4:14) on this earth. Thank You for giving us Your fullness as a free gift (Romans 3:23, 6:23; Ephesians 3:16-19, Amplified Bible). We give You all of the praise and honor due to Your name.

Because of Your mercy, we live our life free from the twisted duplicity of Satan's lies, and we relish the fact of our freedom in Christ. You make us whole and heal our physical, mental, emotional and spiritual diseases. You strengthen us from the inside out and You pour Your love and grace over us like a fountain of mercy. We love You with our whole spirit, soul and body, even into eternity.

Thought for the Day:

As we earnestly seek the Lord and thirst after Him to the point of fainting in this dry and weary land in which we live, He is our sanctuary - full of power and glory, the lover of our soul, which is better than life itself, and He satisfies our soul with His constant love; therefore, we continually praise Him with joyful lips and a mouth full of praises. - Psalm 63:1-11

---

God's Adopted Children

 

"I can't!" and "I quit!" are two powerful statements. They denote a desire and decision to stop trying in our human efforts. They lead us to realize that we can, only in Christ (Philippians 4:13).

They help us to die to our self and to rise to walk in the new life, which God has planned for us (Mark 8:34-35; Ephesians 2:10). His peace in our spirit confirms His will, and His joy is our strength (Philippians 4:7; Psalm 28:7).

We are dead, and our life is now hidden with Christ in God. Christ is our whole life (Colossians 3:3-4). We empty our self of all of our plans, goals and dreams, and live according to God's counsel (Ephesians 4:11).

God changed us from sinners to Saints, His adopted children who will inherit His Kingdom. All that is His, now belongs to us as well (1 John 3:2; Ephesians 1:5; Galatians 3:26). We are no longer strangers and aliens, but we belong in God's family (Ephesians 2:19).

The Christian life involves much less striving than many Believers think. There is no need for us to use our humanity to accomplish anything in the Spirit (Ephesians 2:8-9).

We walk in the Spirit and exhibit His fruit in our character (Galatians 5:15-25). This enables us to trust in the Lord with every fiber of our being and not to depend on our human reasoning at all (Proverbs 3:5-6).

Jesus died for our salvation from sin and eternal death (John 3:16 -18). Offering our life to His service in our vocation and calling is our daily commitment to Him in return.

Prayer:

Father God, thank You for validating our worth through Your presence in our life. You set us free to live, move and have our being in You (Acts 17:28). Your mercy and love granted us forgiveness while we were still sinners (Romans 8:5), so that we in turn can forgive our self and others who wrong us during our lifetime (Matthew 6:14).

Teach us to discern the difference between the carnal or satanic voices and Your voice in our mind; so You can lead us throughout our day. Remind us not to expect certain results when we obey Your promptings, because Your ways are so much higher than our ways (Isaiah 55:8-9).

Thought for the Day:

We do not allow success or problems to approve or negate God's will for us, because we may not see the eternal plan, which God accomplished through us regardless of the results. - 1 Peter 4:12

Loving the Unlovable

 

Too often we judge people for their peculiarities and idiosyncrasies. We categorize them, box them up in neat little packages and stick them away on a shelf in our mind, ignoring them as much as possible.

Once in a while our paths cross again, and we are forced to interact with this peculiar individual once more. We take down our box, stick new labels on them and place them back on the shelf as quickly as possible. They may be our neighbor, spouse, child, sibling, relative, church member, co-worker or even our employer.

Please realize that within each of these precious people is a wounded soul. They are a product of a lifetime of events, which molded their personality to give them unique characteristics, which may irritate or even wound us deeply.

We may go so far as to harbor bitterness toward them and possibly even dismiss them from our life as a lost cause (Ephesians 4:32). However, these unlovable people are diamonds in the rough.

They are created by God, and He has a special plan for their life, just as He has for us (Ephesians 2:10). God put them in our life for us to minister His Agape love to them and to give them a secure and nurturing place to live (Matthew 5:47).

We are all fallible and have our own weaknesses and peculiarities. How would you want this person to treat you? There is healing for everyone at the cross of Christ.

Sometimes, people are unaware of God’s grace, and He gives us opportunities to give them unconditional love, patience, security and friendship to model God's character to them. His plan for this relationship may be for us to help heal the deep wounds within their soul.

Prayer:

Father God, You create everyone in Your image. We are all unlovable until You redeem us (Ephesians 1:7). In fact, You loved us while we were still sinners (Romans 5:8). Teach us that when we allow Your Agape love to flow through us to someone else, it is hard to stay angry at them or to consider them worthless.

Remind us to pray for them and to look for opportunities to bless them. You may just use this individual to bless us in some way too, if we look beyond the aspects of their life which irritate or hurt us, and love them anyway.

Thought for the Day:

Don’t throw people away, because God wants us to use our freedom in Him to love and serve one another, just as He died for and blesses us. – Galatians 5:13