It Only Takes a Spark

 

There is a truth in life that we often overlook. The more that we value Christ's sacrifice for our life, the more intense is our desire to share Him with other people.

It only takes one spark to get a fire going. Letting people know that God's mercy is new every morning, and available in their life as well as our own, is the best news that some people could ever hear. They are just waiting for us to speak up (Romans 10:14).

The fountain of living water within us is not meant to cleanse and nourish us alone, but to overflow to everyone around us (John 7:38). We cannot hide the light of Christ within us under a basket, but we are to set it on a hilltop for the whole world to see (Matthew 5:15).

I want to take more of an advantage of opportunities to share the good news of God's love with other people. I do not want to take His sacrifice on Calvary's cross for granted, but I want to broadcast it to the whole world.

That way, anyone willing to listen to what I have to say will have the opportunity to surrender their life to His love just like I did.

If I can spark the curiosity or hunger in just one person, and that person and I share God's truth with one other person, and continue to do this every day, we will certainly soon set the world on fire.

Prayer:

Father God, give us the boldness and love for others to share Your Good News with anyone willing to listen. Give us many divine appointments throughout our day to tell people about salvation through Jesus Christ. Someone shared the news with us; so remind us to "pay it forward".

Break our heart over the sin in our life and draw us closer to Your presence within us with each passing day. Allow the intimacy we share with You to grow every moment of our life, and remind us to consult with Your Spirit all through the day (Proverbs 3:5-6).

Thought for the Day:

God's mercy is the greatest gift we have ever been given and we can share that Good News with anyone willing to listen to us; we just make that first move to greet or offer to pray for anyone God brings across our path.

 

Waiting on the Lord

I hate to wait. I am hyperactive and waiting makes my blood pressure go up. I usually take my knitting everywhere; so I can make the time pass more productively and prevent my blood pressure from rising. 

I also attempt to start conversations with the potential friends sitting in the waiting room with me. I give them one of my business cards, which has the Romans' Road printed on the inside of the card, and I invite them to join me at church on Sunday.

However, waiting has some other benefits as well. Waiting on the Lord renews our strength and allows us to rise up and soar in the Spirit (Isaiah 40:31). While waiting, we will hear God's clear direction for each moment of our day.

Waiting on the Lord gives us time to function in the ministry of intercessory prayer for whomever God's Spirit brings to our mind. It also allows patience to do her perfect work in us (James 1:4-8).

Waiting gives us time to praise and worship our Father, either silently or out loud and either by singing or reciting scripture, which we memorized along the way.

Paul learned to wait the hard way. As an active minister of the Gospel, he rarely sat still. He worked as a tent maker, as a missionary and as an apostle in the far reaches of his known world.

Yet, he also had years at a time of inactivity. He learned to be content, to wait on the Lord, to pray and write, and to minister to anyone the Lord brought his way (Acts 20:27, 28:30).

Like Paul, as we wait, we learn to trust in God and to know Him as our personal Savior. We come to realize that He is our safe refuge in any oppression or trouble (Psalm 9:9-10).

Regardless of whether we live in peace or in turmoil, or in health or we die, God is in us and with us in this world and in the next. There is nothing to fear as we wait on the Lord.

Prayer:

Father God, as we wait on You, we feel Your loving kindness with us as we greet each new morning (Lamentations 3:23). We grow in courage and strength as we wait on You (Psalm 27:14). We learn to rest patiently for You and not to fret about injustice or to fear the future (Psalm 37:7).

You never forsake those who seek You (Hebrews 13:5). As Your Saints, we experience Your faithfulness first hand and can testify to anyone who will listen. We sing Your praises both night and day as our soul waits patiently for You, because our hope rests in You (Psalm 9:11, 33:20; 130:5).

Thought for the Day:

As our whole being waits patiently for the Lord, our expectations come from Him and we find hope in His Word and rest for our weary soul. - Psalm 62:5, 130:5

Grafted

 

A gardener will take a young vine and cut the trunk off at ground level. Then, he will graft a new branch into the trunk, just where it rises from the earth. The sap from the trunk flows into the new branch until the old sap from the branch is embedded completely as one with the trunk. Similarly, God cut Jesus down to His roots on Calvary’s cross to give us new life. He grafts us into the vine of Christ (John 15:1-17). God’s Spirit totally renews us until we are completely consecrated and surrendered to Christ with wholehearted faith and devotion (2 Kings 10:3).

If we forget that we are in Christ and that He is in us (1 John 2:28; Colossians 1:27), life can get absolutely unbearable. When we live according to our will or try to do anything in our own strength, we will eventually self-destruct. It is only as we allow the life of Christ to fill us that we are able to succeed in life. God’s wisdom and power come spontaneously as our life is rooted and grounded in Christ (Ephesians 3:17). We only find true contentment as we consistently dwell in Christ with unbroken fellowship (1 John 1:6).

We recognize Christ as our life (Colossians 3:4), and without Him we have no life at all. Life is not a mystery for us to decipher. The Holy Spirit guides us throughout the day with His spiritual insight: a deep abiding understanding of what God wants to do through us. We trust His faithfulness, wait for His guidance and glorify Him in everything we think, say and do. We live in Him and He lives in, through and instead of us as we submit to the Holy Spirit’s leading throughout the day.

As God reveals His faithfulness to us, we acquire confidence that He will continue to supply all of our needs according to His heavenly riches (Philippians 4:19). As we surrender our humanity and abide in Christ, our thoughts are clear, our passions tempered, our judgment wise and our body strengthened. Our former roots are cut off from earthly temptations and worldly distractions. As we wait in our dependence on our union with Christ, He inspires us, leads us and works through and instead of us.

We dwell in the inner recesses of our spirit, united with Christ, safe and blessed regardless of the circumstances that plague our life. This keeps us from reacting in the flesh and allows us to act from the spirit instead. We cling to Him, unshaken by the storms of life, in harmony with the Spirit of God within us. His work of righteousness in our soul brings us rest, tranquility and reassurance forever (Isaiah 32: 1,17). Abiding in Christ, we stand complete and accepted in God’s beloved family (Colossians 2:10; Ephesians 1:6).

Prayer:

Father God, we are delighted that You are in us, that You quiet us with Your love and that You save us mightily; however, we are especially blessed that You take great delight in us and that You rejoice over us with singing (Zephaniah 3:17; Isaiah 62:5). We abide in Your rest because You keep us in Your perfect peace, as we trust You and keep our focus on You (Isaiah 26:3).

Thought for the Day:

God unites us with Christ to make us right with Him: pure, holy and free from sin. – 1 Corinthians 1:30

The Journey through Depression

Read: Psalm 56:8-9

“Then they cried to the Lord in their trouble, and he saved them from their distress. He brought them out of darkness and the deepest gloom and broke away their chains.”

– Psalm 107:13-14

The journey through depression is often slow and frustrating. We may not even be aware of what is causing this darkness in our life. Negative conditions and emotions are signals that there are issues in our soul – our mind, will and emotions - that need correcting. It may be our attitude, unholy activities, unforgiveness toward our self or someone else, carnal goals and aspirations, filling our hectic life with too many activities or some deep hurt that is still unknowingly festering within. Journaling is an excellent way to stay in touch with our soul. If we know what we are thinking and feeling, we can more readily word our prayers and ask others for help.

God also brings His Saints to our rescue. The Bible encourages us to share one another’s burdens (Galatians 6:2). However, first we must be honest enough to admit to our self that we are troubled and humble enough to confess our true feelings and circumstances to another human being (James 4:10; Proverbs 29:23). Even the most detailed of plans can fail without God’s wisdom and a multitude of counseling from those who already walked this way before us (Proverbs 15:22). Therapists can help as well, because they are trained to understand the human mind and they can help us to unlock hidden doors within our soul.

In the pit of gloom, we have obstacles to overcome, but we lack energy or direction. However, even in times of depression, God will speak to us, if we will seek Him and listen for His voice (Isaiah 45:3). The Lord is good to those who wait for Him (Lamentations 3:25). His unfailing love rests upon us as we wait on Him (Psalm 33:22). By drawing near to God, He draws near to us. As we surrender our life to Him, walk away from our sin and allow Him to purify our heart, .He enables us to identify and resist Satan’s lies until clarity comes to our mind (James 4:7-8).

As we wait upon the Lord, our heart takes courage and our hope rises (Psalm 27:14, 39:7; 40:1). However, waiting is the hardest discipline for humanity today. We eat instant food. We have instantaneous access to the world through the Internet on our phone in the palm of our hand. We immediately access cash with an ATM machine. We get instant answers to all of our questions via Wikipedia, Google, and the like. We have direct help in a few moments of time for any technological issue we experience.

We are not used to waiting. We get frustrated waiting in long lines, and at red traffic lights, and in the doctor’s waiting room, and for the restaurant waitress to bring our food and for people to show up on time for an appointment with us, etc. Waiting takes patience in the face of our suffering (James 5:10). However, God uses times of waiting in our life to heal us from our losses, to renew our strength, and to prepare us for the next trial, so we can mount up with wings and soar with the eagles (Isaiah 40:31).

God is waiting too. He desires a people who will look to Him and wait on Him for His intervention. God will always hear us when we cry out to Him (Micah 7:7). Jesus, our high priest, experienced every trial and temptation that we do in our life, and He can sympathize with and relate to what we are going through at any given moment in our life (Hebrews 4:15-16). He empowers us, even when we are tired, weak and worn out. He does His perfect work in us as we wait on Him (Isaiah 40:29; Job 5:11; Philippians 1:6).

Prayer:

Father God, we thank You for Jesus as our Rock, our firm foundation in this stormy world in which we live. We look to You to put a new song in our heart, so that we can praise You in the midst of our negative circumstances (Psalm 40:3). Remind us that You work out all things, even the depressing issues in our life, for our good (Romans 8:28). Use our weaknesses to show other people that it is Your joy that upholds us and gives us our strength (Psalm 40:1-3). Thank you for Your strength as our sword and shield. Our heart trusts in You and leaps for joy, because You are our help in times of trouble (Psalm 28:7).

Thought for the Day:

God keeps track of our sorrows in His journal and stores every one of our tears in His bottle. - Psalm 56:8