The Lord Preserves His Faithful

The Lord preserves His faithful, those who love Him and keep His commandments (Psalm 31:23). He does not want us to obey for His sake as much as He does for our own sake.

We avoid so many troubles and trials when we do things His way. After all, Father really does know best. He created us for His purpose and when we walk in His will, our life proceeds so much more smoothly and effortlessly.

Our soul finds rest in God alone. He is our only rock and salvation, our fortress that prevents life from shaking our faith. We have strong courage to face life's issues, because God strengthens our heart as we hope in Him (Psalm 31:23, 62:1).

God is our hiding place and He preserves us in trouble by encompassing us with songs of deliverance (Psalm 32:7). Whenever we are afraid, we can trust in Him (Psalm 53:3). 

Yet, He allows the proud and arrogant who refuse to believe in Jesus for salvation to reap the results of their choices - even to the point of eternity in the fires of damnation (John 3:18; Psalm 31:23).

We are crucified with Christ and share in His death to sin, even though we still live on this earth. Christ lives in us and we live by His faith in us (Galatians 2:20). We are dead to this world and our life is hidden with Christ in God (Colossians 3:1-3).

As we delight our self in the Lord, God puts His desires in our heart (Psalm 37:4). We make the effort it takes to clear our heart and mind of things of this world, and instead to love the Lord with all of our heart.

We walk in His ways, keep His commandments and cling only to Him. He orders our steps and He delights when we walk in His will (Psalm 37:23). Even if we fall in spirit, soul or body, we shall not be entirely cast down, or cast out of His Kingdom, because God holds us in His hand (Psalm 37:24).

Prayer:

Father God, thank You for giving us the opportunity to be risen with Christ and for helping us to seek and set our affections and desires only on heavenly, eternal aspects (Colossians 3:1-3). You make our steps firm, when You delight in our thoughts, words and deeds.

Always keep us in the center of Your will; not drawn away by our fleshly desires, but kept on the straight and narrow road, designed to protect us by its simple parameters. Allow us to hear Your still small voice whispering "this is the way, walk you in it.” We always want You to delight in us, and in our ways; so You will keep our steps firm and our footing sure (Psalm 37:23).

Thought for the Day:

God’s river of salvation protects us in any fiery trial, and He alone is worthy of all of our trust.

​Give Yourself to God

Give yourself first and completely to God. Do not give Him a few moments of devotion, but dedicate all of your day and night to Him.

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Seek His direction at home, work, school and play. You will live in His peace and anointing, and will reap the joy and serenity He provides as you give yourself entirely to Him.

He will not grant all of your desires, He will not spare you from all of your trials and heartache, but He will always give you more and better than you could ever imagine.

As we simplify our life, we no longer buy what we do not need. We do not pay a monthly fee for a storage room that collects stuff we will never see again.

The more possessions we own, the more they own us. If we do not have room for it at home, we do not need it. The more we walk in the Spirit, the less time we have to walk in the flesh (Romans 5:16).

Without encumbering ties to this earth, we can consecrate our whole spirit, soul and body in service to King Jesus as we traverse through our day by the leading of God's Spirit.

Prayer:

Father God, the more control we attempt to maintain over life, the more problems we experience. Trouble seems to come in three's and gets totally out of our control more often than not. Yet, the more of our self we give to You, the less we have to worry about and attempt to control in our life. 

You sent Jesus to pay our sin debt and You gave us Your Spirit to lead us through every moment of our life. As we surrender control to You, and obey Your Spirit moment by moment without resisting; we reap the joy You have in store for us each and every day.

Thought for the Day:

Jesus died to give us eternal life in abundance now and for eternity; so the least we can do is to live our life for Him.

No Longer a Sinner - Making Positive Changes

Once we come to Jesus Christ for our salvation, our spirit is alive in Christ and sin is gradually exorcised from our soul (Ephesians 2:5; Philippians 3:12-15). This requires no self-effort; the Spirit begins and completes this work in us (Galatians 3:1-3).

Our role is simply to cooperate and obey as we walk in the Spirit each moment of the day. Christ is our whole life and we are drawn away from Satan's dominion over our life (Colossians 3:3-4).

We do not need to make goals for our self and obsess over them. We have no need to develop problem solving skills in order to perfect our self.

We did not save our self, and we cannot perfect our self (Galatians 3:1-3). We usually struggle with reaching our goals and we get defeated by our failings.

Scientist tell us that the habenula in our brain records our failures and then inhibit our future attempts to succeed in that same area; this implicit memory prevents us from repeating our failures, but also hinders our attempts to perfect our performance.

Christ suffered in every way just like we do and He can relate to our issues in this life (Hebrews 4:15). Jesus was tempted, but did not sin; and He abides within us, helping us to maintain our purity.

God's Spirit will give us new habits to overcome past failings; He enables us to thwart temptations by giving us a motivation to serve Him rather than the flesh.

The law of the Spirit in Christ Jesus sets us free from the law of sin and death (Romans 8:2). We are free from sin’s torment and temptation (Romans 6:7, 18, 22; Acts 26:18). Christ in us then expresses Himself through us (Romans 5:10; Matthew 1:21; 1 John 4:4).

Prayer:

Father God, remind us that we do not have to sin. We can focus on the process of our spiritual growth rather than on our shortfalls. Help us to find a solution to overcome the sins, which so easily trip us up. Help us not to focus on the process, but rather on the outcome and to keep our eyes on You.

We know we cannot perfect our self, but as we acknowledge You before we think, act or speak, You will unveil Your plans for us and give us the strength to carry them out in Your will and way. We can celebrate even the smallest success when it comes from Christ in us. We give You all of the praise and glory that You deserve.

Thought for the Day:

Attempting to perfect our self may diminish our future chance to walk in holiness, since the perfection we reach on our own is done in the flesh and can also be undone by our flesh.