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.

 

Surrendering to God's Will

We can develop habits over time to create more joy in our life and to eliminate depression and melancholy. However, it takes a change of focus and total submission to God's Holy Spirit.

Many people live in the realm of "what ifs" and/or wanting what they do not have. They think that happiness will finally arrive when they accomplish their bucket list.

We allow circumstances to color our thoughts and feelings, which may diminish our joy. We wait for God to answer our prayers rather than to enjoy the life, which He already provided for us.

His peace and joy are available for us each moment of the day and do not depend on circumstances. It is possible to live in an economically depressed area with impoverished circumstances and still have total peace and joy.

There is no guarantee that we will live to see the next moment in time; so focusing on having possessions or certain people in our life will reduce our peace and joy.

Without surrendering our will to God's will each moment of the day, we hinder our effectiveness both in life and in our spiritual growth and ministry.

Once we repent of our sins and recognize Jesus as our only Savior and King, the very life of Christ saturates our entire body, soul and spirit. As His Spirit sanctifies us, we see more spiritual fruit and less of a draw from our flesh, Satan and the world.

The most critical exercise we can do as a baby Christian is to surrender our will to God's will. Even as older Christians, if we never surrendered, it is time to do so now.

When we totally surrender to the Lordship of Jesus Christ over our life, we feel less and less tension and stress, and more and more of His rest, peace and joy.

Prayer:

Father God, we tend to regret the past and fear the future. We spend so much time focusing in these two directions that we waste the current moment. This moment in time is all that You guarantee us.

You forgave our past, and it is over and forgiven. We just have to remember to forgive our self too. Remind us that once we do surrender to You, Your Spirit begins replacing our negative personality traits with His spiritual fruit and You flood our spirit and soul with Your love.

Thought for the Day:

Our future is in God's capable hands; therefore, trusting God in the moment provides us with a stress-free life.

The Benefits of Emotions

 

Thoughts and emotions are not the enemy of our spirit or of the Spirit of God. God puts His desires in our heart, and uses negative thoughts and emotions as red flags to alert us to unmet needs and unresolved conflicts in our life.

As we take these issues to the cross, we gain God's perspective on them, and His wisdom and truth on how to overcome or to fulfill them, until His peace rules in our heart.

The word "emotion" comes from the Latin word "exmovere" which means "to move out". Our emotions motivate us to feel, and then to do something about them.

Emotions energize us, express how we feel, arouse our passions, spice up our life and restore our soul. Living without emotion is to live in a mental world of clinical, analytical thoughts without expression.

Embracing our emotions is healthy and fulfilling. Denying them is clinical and unhealthy. We block off a part of our self that is very much like our God, who exhibits emotion in so many ways.

Usually, an emotional person is empathetic, not weak; compassionate, not unstable; child-like, not childish. Emotions are very vital to our psychological and physiological well-being.

Emotions influence our attitude about our self, our world and other people. They also impact our actions. We think thoughts and then feel feelings.

Our personality influences our emotions and our emotions affect how other people perceive us. Owning our feelings without blaming them on other people is a healthy activity which allows us to effectively control them and to submit them to God's Holy Spirit to perfect them and to make them more like His fruit (Galatians 5:22-23).

Prayer:

Father God, unto You I lift up my soul. My soul often grieves because of the cares of this world. Only You know how to best renew my mind with Your Word, restore my emotions to true joy and peace, and return my will to following after You.

You are my heart, and my soul rejoices before you. You set my feet to dancing the dance of joy, and I acknowledge You in all of my ways. We attest to the fact that all glory is due to Your name. You alone are worthy of all of our praises (Ephesians 3:4; Psalm 25:1, 29:2).

Thought for the Day:

Our soul is our personality. It contains our thoughts, our choices and our emotions. Faith brings light to our soul, and helps us to think before we speak, so we do not trip over our own words.