Removal from the Rat Race

The best way to remove our self from the rat race we call life is to simplify our activities. We learn to walk in the Spirit (Galatians 5:15-25), to live by the faith of God's Son within us (Galatians 2:20) and to glorify God with our thoughts, words and deeds (1 Corinthians 10:31).

We focus our thoughts on God instead of the next goal we have for our life here on earth. He replaces our carnal character traits with His Spiritual fruit and leads us to do only His will for each day (Galatians 5:22-23).

His will is different for each one of us. He may call one as a pastor, someone else as a sales clerk, one as a car mechanic, another to serve Him as a lawyer or doctor, and someone else as a stay-at-home parent.

He removes us from the mental, financial and emotional roller coaster we choose for our life and puts us in a glass bottom boat so that we can see what is beneath the surface of life, as well as what is above the surface. Our spiritual understanding increases and our perspective broadens.

God leads us to restore broken relationships, resolve issues buried in our subconscious mind, to make new friends and to influence them for His Kingdom, and to be a neighbor who really cares about those living around us.

The power of God's Spirit, which raised Jesus from the dead, is an integral part of our life regardless of our vocation, social class, education and financial status.

We do not earn anything in life apart from Christ, but all that we have is a free gift, a by-product of our salvation in Christ. He provides our daily bread, like the manna in the wilderness and He meets all of our needs with His glorious riches (Matthew 6:11).

Prayer:

Father God, You complete us (Colossians 1:28, 2:10) by planting us in Your love, building up our faith, and using us for Your glory (Colossians 2:6-10). You provide us with the assurance of our salvation by filling us with Your Spirit and Your presence. Death and sin have no more dominion over us, because the law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus sets us free from them (Romans 8:2).

Teach us who we are in Christ and sanctify our soul from one stage of glory to the next (2 Corinthians 3:18). Make us a new creation who lives to serve You with every breath we take and every move we make. Thank You for firmly rooting us by Your Word and guiding us by Your Spirit to walk in Your will for our life.

Thought for the Day:

God gives each one of us spiritual gifts, talents and wisdom in order to influence the world around us for His Kingdom, to serve in His Body and to bring light and hope to a society which chooses to doom itself to destruction and eternal torment.

- John 3:16-18; Romans 6:22-23

Healing for Our Wounded Soul

Divorce is so easy and common in this day and time. There is no need to prove grounds for divorce; we just dump our mate as if they are a sack of garbage. We do not see life through their eyes, but only our own. There are personality issues and woundedness in every person’s soul, which may hinder us, or our partner, from changing.

Rather than divorce, we can change our focus about our mate's issues and accept them with love for who they are at this very moment. Satan plants lies in our soul throughout the experiences of our life. These misconceptions cause us to over-react irrationally and with intense emotion in our current life situations.

Once the lie is discovered, we can hear God’s truth about the issue. These problems are resolved through seeking their root and origin, uncovering Satan's lie and then hearing God speak His truth to our soul ( www.theophostic.com ). God's healing will change our behavior for the better as we find freedom in Christ and His Word.

However, before a person finds this freedom, they are often divorced by their mate, which adds to their trauma. Interestingly, the mate who does the divorcing tends to connect with another injured soul with many of the same issues as their former mate. They also take their own unresolved issues from their former marriage into their next relationship.

This is often tragic and ruins their bond with the next person too. Give yourself time to recover from the trauma of your break-up. The more you date, the more sure you will be of finding God’s choice for you. Then, when you find someone with whom you can connect mentally, spiritually, emotionally and physically, make sure it is God's will by allowing Him to continue to heal your wounded soul.

Prayer:

Father God, remind us that our soul longs more for a relationship with You than with a person. We often go from one person to another in this life, trying to find our soul mate, or someone to complete us. Yet, the only way we can feel fulfilled is through deepening our commitment and our relationship with You. This is true even for married people. The more we find acceptance and develop satisfaction in our relationship with You, the more we can serve our mate out of our love for You (Ephesians 5:22, 6:7; Colossians 3:18, 23-24).

Thought for the Day:

Our support and understanding of our partner’s shortcomings will do much to improve our attitude, as well as our mate's feelings of love and acceptance.

Unresolved Grief

Read: Psalm 6:2-7

"Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your paths straight." - Proverbs 3:5-6

Unresolved grief multiplies our problems, and can even cause addiction, homelessness and despair. Expressing our emotions, sharing our story, getting angry if we need to, and telling God how we really feel is the key to overcoming grief and turning our life into something productive. God’s plan for our life does not include living in the trap of continual cycles of disabling grief and despair. He died to give us freedom in our spirit, which controls our body and soul if we allow Him to do so. He brings light from our darkness.

We do not betray our lost loved ones if we choose to get on with our life. Healing and allowing joy to fill our hearts actually honors them. They can no longer live their life. They would not want us to waste ours, but to live completely and fully for the Lord. This honors them as well as the Lord. They are never far from our thoughts. We may even miss them forever. However, these thoughts should not prevent us from living our life as God ordained it.

We can thank God for the time we were allowed to spend with our loved ones. We cherish the memories we made with them. We learn from the mistakes and we treasure the good times. We can take our past and our talents and move forward with the conviction that God still has a plan for our life. We can reach out to others in their need, grief and loss and share the affection our loved one gave us with someone else. Although we walk through the valley of despair, we have nothing to fear, because God is in us, living through our loss with us (Psalm 23:4).

Sometimes, we do not get a chance to say “Goodbye.” We have unfinished business that was never resolved. We may have deep rooted conflicts that still fester in our soul. The issues need to be resolved before we can have healthy relationships in the future. Write a detailed letter to your loved one, expressing how you really feel and giving or asking for forgiveness if necessary. Keep it in a box or burn it and allow the smoke to rise to heaven as a prayer. Allow the ashes to be swept away by the wind as the Holy Spirit cleanses your soul (Isaiah 43:26).

God gives us Himself to cling to in our times of grief. Our broken heart finds solace as we place our hope and trust in Him (Psalm 31:24). We can have absolute confidence in our faith in God’s desire for our ultimate good. He gives us hope and a future (Jeremiah 29:11). We look forward the time of Christ’s eminent return to the earth to set up His Kingdom of righteousness. Until then, we can resolve our grief and live tomorrow in the center of His will (1 Thessalonians 1:10).

Prayer:

Lord Jesus, show us Your ways and teach us Your paths. Guide us in Your truth and teach us. You are our God and Savior and we keep our hope firmly planted in You all the days of our life (Psalm 25:4-5). You never let us down and you will not in any way fail us, nor give us up, nor leave us without support. You will not in any degree leave us helpless, nor forsake nor us, nor let us down. Assuredly, You will not relax Your hold on us (Hebrews 13:5, Amplified). We put our griefs and sorrows as well as our hopes and cares into Your capable hands and we promise to listen to the guidance of Your Spirit each moment throughout the day.

Thought for the Day:

God sheds His light in our darkness, so that we can light the way for someone else in the future. - Job 29:3

The Meaning of Life

Life is baffling at times. Issues occur that we cannot resolve. Incidents happen that come out of nowhere. We try to wrap our head around the reason for these events, but our human understanding fails us. Even world events are spinning out of control. Record-breaking natural disasters, wars, senseless random killings, legislation that enrages half of society all create wounds that fester in our soul and sometimes even in our body, if we focus too closely on the chaos.

Only as children of the God who created the universe can we hang on to hope in these troubled times (Psalm 31:24, 36:6). Jesus Christ sacrificed His life to give us eternal life that starts the moment we realize that we are sinners and we ask Him to save us (John 3:16-18). He exchanges His righteousness for our sins and gives us the right to become children of the Living God (John 1:12; Romans 8:14). He is not limited by human standards or abilities. He does not dwell in time and is not confined by space or matter. His ways are so much greater and wiser than ours (Isaiah 55:9). In Him lies our hope eternal (Titus 1:2).

As we read the Old Testament, we see His actions throughout history and we come to understand that He is righteous and just, as well as loving and caring. The New Testament gives us a guideline for our faith, thoughts, words and actions. As we surrender our body, soul and spirit to God, He will slowly reveal to us His will and His ways. Reading His Word, listening to sermons, fellowshipping with other Believers, praising Him continually and praying without ceasing allows us to establish a relationship with Him that fills our life with all of His fullness. God disciplines His children and draws us ever closer to His heart. We also see His reasons more vividly, and we better understand why He allows these puzzling things to occur on the earth.

His presence in our life is vital to our survival during the coming end time developments (Psalm 73:25). If we pursue materialistic covetousness and worldly status, we will be disappointed; but as we realize that He is our all sufficiency in good times and bad, then we have hope. Nothing the world has to offer can give us this hope (John 16:33). In His presence we come to understand the reasoning behind the events in our life and in the earth around us. In the climate of today’s world, we see that Satan is making his final efforts to win society over to his way of thinking and to claim as many lives as he can to experience eternal destruction with him.

However, God offers hope to those who have the courage to believe that Jesus is God who came in the flesh (1 Timothy 3:16; Colossians 2:9). Although He suffered as a man, with all the limitations we suffer as humans, He rose as the eternal Savior for everyone who will surrender their life to His will for them. The day will come when the whole world will see who He really is. At just the right time Christ will be revealed from heaven by the blessed and only almighty God, who is the King of all kings and Lord of all lords. All honor and power will be given to Him (1 Timothy 6:15-16), and we will come with Him and live with Him forever (1 Thessalonians 3:13; Jude 1:14).

Prayer:
Living Lord, teach us to open our eyes and ears to detect the longing in the hearts of those around us; so that we can share with them the saving knowledge of Your love (John 3:16-18). Help us to embrace this life with loose arms, but to cling to eternity with a deep yearning. We know that life after death is of vital importance to the reality we live with in our daily life right now. Help us to live our life in light of eternity and to walk toward perfection with our every thought, word and deed.

Thought for the Day:

The meaning of our life is what every individual chooses it to be; but only those who choose to trust in Christ will live life fully and enjoy it for eternity.