Draw Me Close to You

As we trust in God alone, He establishes our path and provides us with the resources we need to walk in His victory. Were He leads, we follow. We keep our spirit in tune with Christ in us, and our soul – our mind, choices and emotions – led by His Spirit (Romans 13:14). We submit to God, resist the devil and he must flee from us (James 4:7). Even if Satan uses pain and suffering to sidetrack us, we firmly stand on the faith of the Son of God who loves us and gave Himself for us (Galatians 2:20). We rest, as God restores or replaces everything that Satan tried to steal from us.

We find our rest in Christ during every time of trouble. As we abide in Him, He is our portion forever (Psalm 73:26). We learn from Him as we draw closer to Him. Once the current, negative circumstance is over, we find our roots clinging more firmly to Him. Even during prosperity, He remains the center of our focus and the joy of our soul. We walk by faith in God’s faithfulness, and He joys over us with singing (Zephaniah 3:17). The abundance and gentleness of His love is more real to us with each passing day.

The power and the draw of the world, the flesh and the devil decreases as we are transformed into the likeness of Christ by the Spirit of God (2 Corinthians 3:18). Our rebellion, self-centeredness and love for this world diminish as we abide in Him and He abides in us (John 15:4). As we partake in His holiness, our union with Him deepens, His comfort fills our soul and His joy is our strength (Nehemiah 8:10). As God’s Spirit removes the carnality in our flesh, He fills us instead with His fruit, which is the nature of God (Galatians 5:22-23).

His compassion in us allows us to comfort othes with the same comfort He provides for us (2 Corinthians 1:3). His love fills our soul and our cup runs over with agape love for our everyone we meet (Psalm 23:5). We lose our self in Him and care more for His Kingdom and righteousness than we do for the pursuits of this world. When we see adversity approaching, we hide under the shelter of His wings and we abide in Him moment by moment (Psalm 91:1). This pruning results in more fruitfulness in our life, all for His glory (John 15:5,8).

Prayer:

Father God, daily we come closer to the point of finding our satisfaction totally in You and our heart in deeper harmony with Your purpose for our life. We enter times of aloneness to become all-one with You. We find our comfort in You, rather than in any person, place or thing. You are our all sufficiency (2 Corinthians 12:9). We bear the fruit of Your Spirit to edify and nourish Your Body and all those in our world that You bring our way.

Thought for the Day:

Jesus is the tree of life and we are His branches.

Jesus was not a Hippie

 

 

Jesus is not a freethinker, who advocates multiple sexual partners, broad mindedness, and if it does not hurt anyone else, go ahead and do it. Jesus’ words will give you a much different view of who He really is. He equates lust with adultery and hatred with murder (Matthew 5:27-28). He tells us that pursuing His Kingdom is more important than our family (Matthew 19:29). He did not come to bring peace, but a sword (Matthew 10:34). He promised that following Him would separate parents and children (Matthew 10:35).

Jesus said that no one goes to heaven except by believing in Him (John 14:6). He denounced divorce (Mark 10:1-12). He says that the person who changes his/her mind from following after Him is not worthy of heaven (Luke 9:62). He cleansed the temple with a whip (Mark 11:15-19). The Gospels are full of accounts of the real Jesus. If you care to take the time to read them, you will see that Jesus drew a line in the sand and pronounced that anyone who does not come over to His side is condemned already (John 3:18).

Many people believe in God, but not in Jesus whom He sent (John 3:34). They think Jesus is a “cool dude”, but they ridicule true Christians for following the teachings of Christ according to His Word, rather than according to the humanistic interpretation they put on His Word. The sad state of affairs in the world today is that too many so-called Christians live according to their own agenda and in chasing satanic pursuits in the world and of the flesh, than in living for our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ (John 10:10). They give authentic Christians a negative reputation.

The Bible shows that Jesus constantly confronted humanistic, self-serving, unholy practices in both the religious leaders and the Jewish people (Matthew 12:34). He was not some peace-loving hippie that went around preaching free love! He taught about love in His parables and He showed us His love by His death. He brought us peace and hope through His resurrection. He said that every work of our flesh would burn up under His scrutiny. However, as we follow the leading of God’s Spirit we do good works that will withstand the fires of judgment (Ephesians 2:8-10).

Prayer:

Father God, You are not pleased with our sacrifices, but only by a humble spirit and a repentant heart. Help us to renounce our self-centeredness and to humbly submit to the guidance of Your Holy Spirit. Without faith in Your faithfulness, we cannot please You (Hebrews 11:6). You created each one of us for Your purpose (Ephesians 2:10). You have a perfect plan for each life that is conceived. Help those who do not believe to come to know Jesus for who He really is (John 3:16-18).

Thought for the Day:

As God works in and through us, He accomplishes His will for our life and for everyone we touch.

God's Hand in Our Life

 

Are you traversing a season of sorrow in your life? Have earthly comforts failed you? Are you in financial difficulty? Only when we turn to Christ do we obtain everlasting solace and limitless supplies (2 Thessalonians 2:16,17; Philippians 4:19). When someone or something comes against God’s beloved, He takes it very personally (Zechariah 2:8). We are precious in His sight (Isaiah 43:3). He enriches us in every way because of His love for those who dedicate their life to Him (1 Corinthians 1:5). We trust Him because He always helps those who seek Him (Psalm 9:10). 

God’s will is not an objective to achieve, but a lifestyle to live. When we develop this type of relationship with the living Lord, where our only desire is to do His will, we move into the realm of an eternal viewpoint. Focalizing our vision on God’s desires, we pause to find His will before embarking in a new direction or activity. Recognizing that we are already dead in Christ to our sinful nature, we no longer allow sin any sway over our choices nor do we fall prey to Satan’s temptations (Galatians 5:19-21; Colossians 3:3-4). Self-centered ambitions play no part in our life.

Jesus disarmed all authority in the kingdom of darkness by His death and resurrection (Colossians 2:15). Now all authority on earth and in Heaven belongs to Christ (Matthew 28:18). As we recognize this truth in our life, we realize that we no longer live in bondage to the flesh, to the world or to Satan. The thoughts, choices and emotions of our soul are now centered in Christ. Satan’s attempts to threaten and inflict us with His demonic influence no longer have any hold over the authentic Born Again Believer. We are alive with Christ now, and seated with Him in the spiritual realm (Ephesians 2:5-6).

We submit to human authority as unto the Lord, unless they require that we disobey God’s principles. The freedom we receive as Christians does not call us to indulge in sinful behavior, but to reign supreme over the devil and his minions. No matter what we do in life as a housewife, a financial planner, a pastor, a car mechanic, a missionary, a medical professional, a church planter, a beautician, etc, we all serve Him with our life. He draws us to Himself and sanctifies our soul until His divinity reigns supreme in our life. If we choose to submit our life to our carnal impulses, we lose our fellowship with and our protection by the divine Trinity.

Prayer:

Father God, show us the evidence of Your hand in our life. Make us aware of the little love letters You give us each day. Remind us to bring our needs to You and to dress in Your armor before we do Your will each day of our life (Ephesians 6:11-13; Ephesians 2:10). Help us to draw near to You and to resist Satan’s allurement to draw us back into the flesh and carnality. When we see a negative emotion in our life, help us to identify the idol causing that discord in our life, which is standing between us and You. Produce Your fruit in us so we can shine as stars in the heavens for your glory (Philippians 2:15; Galatians 5:22-23).

Thought for the Day:

Rather than to involve yourself in sinful activity and willful disobedience to Christ, draw nearer to God and Satan will have to flee from you. – James 4:7

A New Perspective

 

Paul was confident that the very moment our spirit and soul leaves our body, they are immediately present with the Lord (2 Corinthians 5:8). We are not disembodied spirits wandering the earth until we finish the business we failed to accomplish in our life. Neither do we need to contact some human being to help us to leave a message for our loved ones or to straighten out some misunderstanding we left behind. We know that once we take our last breath on this earth, our very next breath will be in heaven.

Death is not the end; it is the beginning. We leave the limits of this earthly realm and enter into the glorious riches of the Kingdom of God. We graduated from the school of life, we passed all the tests and we earned our diploma in order to enter the grandeur of heaven and receive our rewards. God rejoices in the death of His Saints (Psalm 116:15), because we are no longer separated from Him, but we dwell with Him for eternity. The day of our death is actually even better than the day of our birth (Ecclesiastes 7:1).

God fills our body, soul and spirit with joy as we inherit exquisite pleasures in His eternal presence here on earth (Psalm 16:9-11). However, He does not leave us to rot in the grave. He is our guide, even in death (Psalm 48:14). We have a refuge, even in death (Proverbs 14:32). The angels carry us into the presence of God in heaven (Luke 16:22), where we will never die. We are like angels in this respect, because we are the sons of God. God raises us from the dead into a new life with Him (Luke 20:36).

Prayer:

Lord Jesus, I thank You for drawing us to Your heart during times of strain and sorrow, which accompany the death of our loved ones. I thank You that Your peace, which passes all human understanding, will flow over us like a waterfall. You fill our heart with Your love so fully that we will feel no other emotion. I ask that You help us to always find our refuge under the shadow of Your wings, our strength in Your joy and our comfort and clarity of thinking in Your wisdom as You lead us beside the sill waters and restore our soul.

Thought for the Day:

Our last breath on earth is followed by our next breath in Heaven.

Escaping the Gridlock of Disappointment

 

Our current circumstances will not last forever. God has a purpose in them for us and for those around us. As we focus on Jesus, God gives us everything we need to live a fulfilled life in Him, even during negative circumstances (Matthew 6:33). We look beyond the present moment and focus on the glory set before us, just like Jesus did (Hebrews 12:2). When our faith and hope collide like a car wreck into some abrupt incident, which life T-bones us with, it throws us off course. Disappointment, discouragement, depression; and sometimes, even hopelessness settle into our very bones and they are hard to dislodge.

Our only hope is to draw near to God. Then as we resist Satan, he must flee from us with his entire demonic hoard (James 4:7). We can write in our journal or pour our heart out to God in prayer. We may even read our words scribbled across our journal and realize that God spoke the answer as we unburdened our heart on its pages. God gives us a future and a hope (Jeremiah 29:11). We know without a doubt that in the next instant we will hear God’s voice telling us which way to turn to escape this gridlock with disappointment. He may use His Word, a thought, a person or an instance to give us His direction.

My friend lost her baby in childbirth. In the midst of her anguish, God showed her that although her arms ached to hold this precious child, God was already holding the baby in His everlasting arms. What better place for her child to rest for eternity? Life starts at conception, and her baby's little soul is now in heaven with our Savior. This is a fact to celebrate, in spite of their sadness at never having known their child during her temporary life on earth. Their beloved child may have left this mortal world, with all of its suffering and trials, but she did not miss her immortal home in heaven. Right now, she is waiting there for us all.

Once we understand our feelings we can forgive the one who offended us. Once we sleep on it, few things are as momentous as they seemed at first. We may realize that we over-reacted to the situation. We may need to ask forgiveness for our behavior. Once we understand God’s perspective in the situation, hope rises in our soul. We see God’s direction for this new day and we walk in His ways by the guidance of His Holy Spirit. God has a perfect plan for every life. Even a fatal illness is nothing to fear. God has His plan in it and He will work out His purposes through it. We can rest assured that it will accomplish results for our good (Romans 8:28).

Prayer:

Father God, You make all things beautiful in Your time (Ecclesiastes 3:11). You help us to keep our perspective centered in Your faithfulness whenever we experience tribulation in this world. We often allow minor issues, which will have no meaning a week from now, to bowl us over and knock us for a loop when they first occur. Remind us that You are the Father of all mercy and comfort. You calm us in our sickness and trials, so that we may share this same consolation with others when they experience similar situations. We experience suffering for Christ’s sake, but we also receive abundant comfort through Him as well (2 Corinthians 1:3-5).

Thought for the Day:

Faith provides us with total surrender and trust in the faithfulness of God, over a future outcome, which we cannot yet foresee.

Living in God's Will

 

The Bible tells us to wait on God and to be led by His Spirit (Proverbs 3:5-6; Romans 8:9). If you want to walk in God's will, then wait on the Lord to tell you what to do and when to do it (Proverbs 3:5-6). Follow His perfect peace within your spirit. Do not make decisions out of fear, but out of faith and obedience. If you do not feel the Spirit prompting you to do something in particular, and you do it anyway, you are operating out of fear or presumption, and you may miss God's perfect will for your life. We do not have to sit idle, but we seek God's will for each day.

Get your advice from the Bible, not from people! People can confirm to us what God already spoke to us from His Word, but do not rely on anyone but God to tell you what to do. Ahithophel is a good example to show us why we cannot always trust a person’s advice. He started out as King David’s advisor and he had the reputation of someone who could hear from God (2 Samuel 16:23). However, he turned against King David because of David’s mistreatment of his granddaughter Bathsheba and her husband. 

We never know the reasons behind someone’s advice. They may have self-centered motives or misguided, worldly considerations. Paul commended the Bereans for being noble, because they searched the scriptures daily to prove if the words the preachers were expounding were God’s Words (Acts 17:11). Rather than following the direction of our circumstances, or some advice that is not based on scripture, we only follow God’s peace within us (Philippians 4:7). That is how Jesus lived. He only did what He saw and heard our Father doing (John 5:19).

The reason you have insecurity or confusion, and no peace about some decisions in your life at this time, is because God is not telling you to do it right now. You keep trying to summons the energy to do it, but you only feel conflict within. That is humanistic thinking. So, relinquish the decision to the Lord. Wait on the Lord's peace and just enjoy His presence until then. Never forget that God has a perfect plan for our life. We thwart His purpose when we independently make our own choices. We only succeed as we submit to His will (Proverbs 3:5-6).

You may repeatedly go to God for an answer and He remains silent. That means that you do not need that answer right now, so He is there just to hang out with you. Words are not always necessary when friends get together. Sitting in companionable silence with us is something God loves to do. You do not need to speak either. Just sit in His presence, allow His love to flow over you like a waterfall and enjoy being still. God will direct you to accomplish His purposes in your life in His timing and way (Isaiah 55:11).

Prayer:

Father God, as we walk in Your Spirit, our decisions are not based on the desires of our flesh, but on Your will for our life (Galatians 5:16, 25). As you lead us by Your Spirit, we do not fulfill the works of our flesh, but we walk by Your Spirit and reap the fruit of righteousness (Isaiah 32:17-18). Please strengthen us by Your Spirit and teach us to walk in Your ways (Ephesians 3:16, 5:18). We hinder You by our humanistic efforts, so teach us to walk by Your Spirit and to wait on Your timing.

Thought for the Day:

As long as we live in surrender to God’s Spirit, we will walk in God’s will.

Why is This Happening?

 

We often doubt our self when we go through some form of tribulation. We think that God is punishing us, or failing to protect us. Sometimes, tribulation comes as a result of us reaping the consequences of our choices. At other times, it is because we are so busy working for God that He cannot work in and through us. The key to success in tribulation is to learn to seek God’s guidance, to rejoice regardless of the situation, to look for God’s little love letters that He provides throughout the day and to hide under the shelter of His wings (Psalm 61:4).

For instance, my former husband of twenty-two years told me that he saw no option for us but divorce, sold our home and struck out into the great unknown to seek his place in life. This threw me into immediate turmoil. I had to relocate, find several jobs to support myself and wonder where God was in the midst of all of the pain and chaos. I knew that God hates divorce (Malachi 2:16; Matthew 19:9); and I married a Christian Pastor, so why was this happening to me? God immediately started to provide for me.

Taking me back to my supportive natural family, God put it in their hearts to take me under their wings. He healed my soul by opening the door at a Montessori training school and divorce recovery programs at two separate local churches. He introduced me to women friends going through similar circumstances. Confirming to me that He intended to provide for me and not to injure me, He gave me hope for my uncertain future (Jeremiah 29:11). Two years later I met and married a Pastor whose wife divorced him. God restored our ministries and gave us unconditional love through His presence in each other.

The Bible gives us many examples of hope in tribulation. Even while obeying Jesus’ directives, the disciples often found themselves in turmoil (Mathew 14:22). One time, they floundered in an angry sea and prepared to meet their death (Mark 6:48). When their hope ebbed, Jesus walked out to them on the water and calmed the storm. This is when the disciples realized that Jesus truly was the Son of God (Matthew 14:33). Jesus came to them at just the right moment.

Jesus always calms the storms for all of His children. God uses tribulation in our life to perfect us and to prove His faithfulness to us. We do not always understand why. That is the reason it is called faith. The wondrous thing about faith is we do not have to understand why...it just is; and it all works out for our eventual good, even if we never understand why. At times, blind faith is all that gets us through the murky waters of life. Reading God’s Word always provides stability and hope for us.

Prayer:

Father God, You love us enough to sacrifice Your Son on our behalf (John 3:16). You never leave us or forsake us (Hebrew 13:4-6). At times, You must discipline us for our errant behavior, or to prod us back on Your chosen path for us. It may be painful for a little while, but it all brings about in us Your peaceable fruit of righteousness (Hebrews 12:11).

Thought for the Day:
Tribulation is our opportunity to grow deeper in our faith, love, union and devotion to God. – Hebrews 12:6-7