Separated to God

If we draw near to God, He will draw near to us (James 4:8). Whoever lives and believes in Christ shall never die (John 11:26). Our last breath on earth is followed by our next breath in Heaven. We will live on eternally.

The extent to which we surrender our lives to God determines the degree to which He will use our life on this earth. There is no place for double mindedness, compromise with sin or half-hearted devotion (Luke 9:62).

A committed and separated life to Christ, who lives within us, demands that we live an estranged life from this world (Romans 14:7-8). Christ is the center of our focus and our pre-eminent Love (Revelation 2:4).

We pant after Him with a parched thirst, yield our goals for our life to the will of God, and relinquish our selfish desires to God's transforming power (Psalm 42:1-2).

Even in negative circumstances, He promises to prosper us, not to allow anything to harm us as He cares for us, and to give us hope for our future (Jeremiah 29:11).

As we submit to God and resist the devil, we walk in freedom from Satan’s influence in our life (James 4:7). We transfer the ownership of our life to God and we live as good stewards of all He created.

Giving up our human rights, we exchange them for His privileges. We swap our character traits, which hold us back from success, for the victory we find in a life hidden with Christ in God (Colossians 3:3).

God gives us the divine nature of Christ with all the fruit of His Spirit (1 Peter2:4; Galatians 5:22-23). We come to like our self much more in this transformed state than we did in our carnal state. We dedicate all of our days to His service.

Prayer:

Father God, as we repent of our sins and seek You, we have your peace and favor surrounding us (Job 22:21). Abandoning our life for Your sake, we live in obedience to You, just as Jesus did. We live, move and have our being in You (Acts 17:28).

Give us this day our daily bread, forgive our trespasses against Your will, and help us to forgive those who wound us. We give You all the power and glory and honor due to Your name and we commit to serve in Your Kingdom every moment of every day (1 Corinthians 10:31).

Thought for the Day:

God calls us to be holy in Him, and to be separated to God in this life and the next. - Psalm 4:3

Words Matter - Part 2

Education and breeding allow us to learn self-discipline and to measure our words carefully, regardless of how we think and feel. We speak cultured words, which do not offend, unless we lose our temper.

However, the Spirit of God is our continual restraint in our thoughts, feelings and actions. He helps us not to blurt out whatever comes to our mind, which is usually crafted by Satan to cause trouble (Proverbs 17:27).

Yet, no human is always able to restrain our tongue, because it is intolerant, immoral and full of lethal venom (James 3:8). Only the work of Jesus, living within the Believer, gives us the power over our tongue.

Once we accept Christ as our Savior, the negative aspects of life control us only if we allow them to do so. When we belong to Jesus, His life-giving Spirit frees us from the power of sin, which leads to death (Romans 8:2).

Salvation also frees us from living in conformity to this world, because we are transformed by the renewing of our mind (Romans 12:2). Jesus actually renews the spirit of our mind (Ephesians 4:23).

He always gives us a choice, along with wise counsel about which choice to make. If we guard our words and keep our tongue, we avoid calamity (Proverbs 21:23).

The Bible encourages us to be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry (James 1:19). Wise words win good things for us; and if we guard our lips, we guard our life (Proverbs 13:2).

When our thoughts are excellent and worthy of praise then this affects what we say and do, as well as how we feel emotionally and physically (Philippians 4:8).

Prayer:

Father God, remind us that it is better not to be quick to speak or hasty in our heart to think anything negative. When we walk in the Spirit, the fruit of our lips fill us with good things, as surely as the good work of our hands rewards us (Proverbs 12:13-14).

We give You the praise and glory for the transforming power of Your Spirit within us. We can never thank You enough for drawing us to Your heart and including us in Your family for eternity (John 6:44; Ephesians 2:19).

Thought for the Day:

God watches us from heaven as we are on earth, so let us be wise and let our words be few. - Ecclesiastes 5:2

The Power of God's Love

When a being as large as God moves into your life, you are going to notice some changes going on inside of you. This is one of the most convincing verifications that God is alive and well on planet earth! He makes a difference. No one who is truly Born Again will continue to willfully indulge in a carnal lifestyle. God’s Spirit now resides within us and we cannot continue to live in sin (1 John 3:9).

The Bible is full of typical illustrations of the changes, which God’s Spirit works into our life. The Apostle Paul is a great example of someone who persecuted Christ by tormenting and killing His Body. Christ turned this prideful, self-centered man into a paragon of virtue with the power of God’s Spirit to reach many for the cause of Christ (Philippians 1:13; Timothy 1:12-15).

Many are convinced that good people go to heaven and bad people go to hell. This is simply not true. Our eternal destination depends on where we currently place our trust (John 3:16-18). Do you trust in your own merits, or in the grace and mercy of God? God is in the life changing business. He opens our blind spiritual eyes. Our transformed life is a living testimony of the power of Christ to save.

God takes a human spirit, which is dead in Adam’s sin, and births new life in it through His life saving power (2 Corinthians 5:17). He totally transforms an angry, rebellious wounded soul into a serene and joyful one. The change in our life speaks volumes to everyone. We are no longer ashamed to proclaim to our world, the difference, which Christ made in our life.

The power of God brings a life-altering change to anyone willing to totally surrender to His love (Romans 1:16). The story of how God changed our life is a powerful tool for bringing others to the cross of Christ for their own salvation (Luke 8:39). A meek, empty person or a vile blasphemer can both witness the love of Christ in their life and melt under the conviction of God’s Holy Spirit.

Prayer:

Father God, we seek no other pleasure in this life than to bring delight to Your heart. We want no other success than to bring You glory. We cry out for nothing more than to see You more plainly, to know You more deeply and to love You more intimately through each successive day of our life. Your love for us transforms the carnality in our life until we love you with our whole heart (Luke 10:27; Psalm 119:10).

Thought for the Day:

Even while our life is rife with sin and degradation, God loved us enough to suffer the penalty of our sins and to set us free in His love. – Romans 5:8

 

God's Transforming Power

Children of God and children of Satan both obey the Spirit within them (2 Corinthians 4:10-11; Ephesians 2:2). Satan’s children do wickedly. God’s children experience a lifetime of God’s transforming power. Christ is our head and we mature into every aspect of Him (Ephesians 4:15). God’s Spirit renovates us until we mirror the nature of the fullness of Christ within us (Ephesians 4:13-15; Galatians 4:19). God loves us and chooses us to fulfill His purpose for us during our lifetime (Colossians 3:12). First, He washes away the stench of sin from our soul and spirit (2 Corinthians 7:1). Then He calls us to walk in holiness as His Saints (Ephesians 4:12, 24, 1:18; Romans 1:4).

Our cleansing comes in stages, like the rings of the tree or the layers of an onion (2 Peter 3:18). God peels away one stratum at a time until He exposed our core and brings us to the perfection of His Son (Romans 8:29). Our spiritual growth process brings successive changes and development into our life by God’s grace and glory (2 Pet. 3:18). Daily the Spirit renews our inner man from one level of glory to another (2 Corinthians 4:16, 3:18). Christ manifests Himself in and through us to the world around us. He purifies our heart (James 4:8) as a people whom He possesses. We soon desire for Him to use us to perform good works for His honor and glory (Titus 2:14).

We cannot accomplish our own sanctification or purify our self through self-efforts any more than we can save our self (Galatians 3:1-3). Only humble surrender to God’s will and His Spirit accomplishes this goal (Matthew 5:3). God refines us like silver (Psalm 66:10; Malachi 3:13), by putting us through the fire of tribulation until we lack nothing necessary for faith and holiness (James 1:4; 1 Peter 1:7; Hebrews 12:29; Isaiah 4:4). He cleanses us by His shed blood (1 John 1:9; 2 Corinthians 7:1; Hebrews 9:14). God disciplines us as Sons (Hebrews 12:5). Jesus overcame the world and died in our place. Now, He overcomes the world in and through us (Revelation 2:7-3:21; 1 John 5:4-5; John 16:33). He replaces the lusts of our flesh by the fruit of His Spirit (Galatians 5:19-23).

All of our determination and self-efforts to reach perfection fails (Colossians 2:23). However, God conforms us to the fellowship of His death and brings us through the stages of His glory (Colossians 1:24; Philippians 3:10; Romans 8:17). We die daily to our flesh for His sake, and we are a new creation (Romans 6:2,11; Galatians 5:24; 2 Corinthians 5:17). His death on Calvary’s cross was God’s design to redeem mankind for all eternity (Philippians 2:7-8; Hebrews 7:27, 10:10; 1 Peter 3:18). As we take up our cross (Matt. 10:38; 16:24; Mark 8:34; Luke 9:23; 14:27), our humanity dies with Him and our life is now hidden with Christ in God (Romans 6:6; Galatians 2:20; Colossians 3:3). We live by the Spirit of God within us (Romans 8:13).

Prayer:

Father God, You not only provide us with Your assistance as we overcome our flesh, but also, you renew us daily by the divine life of Christ within us (1 Peter 1:4). Your Spirit of life in Christ Jesus sets us free from the law of sin and death. We live in victory over sin because Your Spirit dwells within us (Romans 7-8). You reproduce in us the nature of Christ through His habitation within us, and He lives out His character in us moment by moment throughout the day. We simple keep our eyes on Your Son as He perfects our faith (Hebrews 12:2).

Thought for the Day:

We submit to God as He puts to death the deeds of our flesh and we reap the benefits of His resurrection.