Month: February 2014

No Man Should Live Alone

Romans 14:7

For none of us lives for ourselves alone, and none of us dies for ourselves alone.

The church is called the Body of Christ because we are all one in Christ.  Each one of us is inseparable from the other.  Each one of us is inseparable from Our Savior.

We are all different in our strengths, our capabilities and our practices.  Yet we all are the Lord’s.  We should all be looking to serve and prove ourselves as witnesses to Him.  The spiritual health of others should be as important to us as our own spiritual health.  The Body of Christ depends on our acceptance of our responsibility to be poured out for Christ. 

Prayer
Heavenly Father, teach us how to be responsible members of the Body of Christ.  Help us to understand that our sufficiency is in You and not in ourselves.  Guide us to the strengths, the capacities and the processes that You have set aside for us to serve You.  Allow our lives as Your servants to be our “Thank You” for all that You have provided.

The Bread of Life

John 6:33
For the bread of God is the bread that comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.
Give us this day our daily bread.  How many times have we prayed this and thought only of our fleshly provision?  Have we forgotten what Jesus Himself said?  The Lord Jesus, on the night he was betrayed, took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, “This is my body, which is for you; do this in remembrance of me.” 
Christ shows that He is the true Bread. He is to the soul what bread is to the body.  As our bodies are nourished by grain, Jesus nourishes and supports our spiritual life. He is the Bread of God.
Prayer

Heavenly Father, we pray that we will receive the nourishment of Jesus Christ for our souls.  May everything we do be in remembrance of Our Savior and what He did for us.  As You nourish us with Your True Bread, may we provide nourishment to those who are in need of the way, the truth and the life that is in Jesus.

Freedom From the Bondage of This World

Luke 4:18-19
The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because He hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; He hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, to preach the acceptable year of the Lord.

How shortsighted we are when we accept Our Savior’s invitation for salvation, but do not believe in the fullness of our redemption.  Not only did Our Lord come to redeem us from our sins, but He also came in His power and grace to free us from all the bondages of this world.  Though we may currently suffer in the flesh, freedom and joy in the spirit is ours to take hold of now. The promise of a perfected body and spirit will be fulfilled according to His Word.

Prayer
Heavenly Father, we pray that you show us how to take claim of the fullness of our redemption.  Whatever our current situation may be, may we take on the joy and comfort of Your completed promises.  May we find peace knowing that Your power is working in us.  May the world see that we are at rest because Our Savior is with us.  

Finding Lasting Comfort

Exodus 20:19

Then they said to Moses, “Speak to us yourself and we will listen; but let not God speak to us, or we will die.”

We often delight in and rely on the spoken and written words of men rather than digging into God’s Holy Word ourselves.  We find that the words of men lean toward messages that are meant to comfort us and not to convict us.  They also tend to require less work to digest.

By shying away from God’s Holy Word, we seek to avoid the discomfort that comes with having our weaknesses brought to light by the revelation of the Holy Spirit.   In doing so, we miss or delay the sanctifying work that prepares us for a life of eternal comfort with Our Savior.

Prayer
Heavenly Father, we pray that You will show us how to seek the truth in Your Holy Word.  Strengthen us to close our ears to the messages of leniency that the world espouses.  Speak to us through Your Holy Word so that we may bring our lives into alignment with Your laws.  Teach us how to listen to You, Lord, so that we can come into the lasting comfort that only You can provide.

The Fullness of Life in Christ

Ephesians 1:10

And this is the plan: At the right time he will bring everything together under the authority of Christ—everything in heaven and on earth.

Our Father in heaven surrounds us with the beauty of His creation.  He reveals His glory in every sunrise, every sunset, every full moon, every star, every mountain, every valley, every ocean, every lake, every river, every stream, every tree, every flower, every blade of grass, every grain of sand, every animal, every bird, every fish and in every man and woman.   

While Our Father blesses us with the capacity to enjoy it all, He leaves a void in our hearts that can only be filled by His Son.  Only when we fill the void with Our Savior are we able to fully experience the abundant life that we have been created for.  When we become one with Christ, we inherit everything in heaven and on earth.

Prayer

Heavenly Father, we long for Jesus to make His home in our hearts.  May we learn to trust in Him completely.  May we grow in His love so that we may be strong.  May we have the power to understand the depths of His love.  May we experience the fullness of life and power that comes from our precious Savior.

Getting Past the Business of Life

Isaiah 40:26

Look up into the heavens. Who created all the stars? He brings them out like an army, one after another, calling each by its name. Because of His great power and incomparable strength, not a single one is missing.

The prophet Isaiah wrote these words to the people of his time because they had turned their attention to idols.  Isaiah was redirecting their focus from their man-made idols to the Creator of all things.  He was testing them.  He wanted them to use their imaginations to find the might, the power and the presence of God Almighty in everything in nature that surrounded them.

So too, we should test ourselves.  Have we replaced God Almighty with our own idols – ourselves, our work, our avocations, our idle time?

Prayer
Heavenly Father, we pray that you take captive our imaginations.  Show us how to get past the business of our lives so that we can enjoy Your presence in all that we do.  Teach us how to praise You in every breath, exalt You in every provision and worship You in every activity.  May we find the essence of who You are in our every high thought.

The Reservoir of Our Strength

Isaiah 40:28

Have you never heard? Have you never understood? The LORD is the everlasting God, the Creator of all the earth. He never grows weak or weary. No one can measure the depths of his understanding.

Whenever we do the work of the Lord, we are like broken bread and poured out wine.  We are providing nourishment to those around us.  It does not matter what we are doing.  We may be serving.  We may be giving.  We may be praying.  Whatever it is that we are doing for others can drain us to the point of exhaustion. When the body is physically or emotionally drained, the spirit can also be exhausted.  To keep up our strength, we must insure that we are seeking our power from the One who never wearies.  Our affections must be with Him and not with the world.

Prayer
Heavenly Father, we have become weak in our efforts to serve You.  We have looked to ourselves and the world around us for our strength.  We pray that You show us how to overcome our unbelief, our pride and our self-confidence.  We ask that you show us how to draw on the endless reservoir of the Holy Spirit within us to provide our strength.

The King is With Us

Luke 24:21

but we had hoped that he was the one who was going to redeem Israel. And what is more, it is the third day since all this took place.

For the two men on the road to Emmaus, dejection had set in.  They had hoped for a King that would redeem their land.  They were so consumed by what they sought, they could not recognize their King when He joined them.

For all of us that have grown up in an era where instant gratification has become the norm, waiting on the Lord to answer our prayers is one of the most difficult challenges that we face.  We often feel dejected when we have not seen our prayers answered.  Generally, we are guilty of demanding something from the hand of God without fully seeking the face of God.

Prayer
Heavenly Father, we ask that You open our eyes so that we can see You in all the commonplace things that surround us.  Give us the strength to overcome the depression and oppression that we find in our world.  May we always be mindful of all that is ours because of the price that was paid by Your Son, Jesus.  May the world see our joy as we live in Your constant presence.

To Die is Gain

Philippians 1:21

For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain.

One of the greatest blessings that true Christians receive from The Cross is victory over death.  We are able to face our death bed with an exuberance that the world cannot understand.  We know that Our Savior is waiting to receive us and that He has prepared a place for us that is free from all misery and weakness.

Yet we know that we are called to remain in this world for as long as Our Lord has work for us to do. The longer we remain here to serve Him, the greater will be our reward in heaven.

Prayer
Heavenly Father, we thank you for the eternal inheritance that You have set aside for us.  We long to claim the rights of the heirs of Your kingdom.  As we wait for that time of glory, equip us to be your laborers in these end days.  Arm us against the attacks of the enemy as we help bring the church to completion by showing the world the living Christ that is within us.  

A Life of Service

1 John 3:16

This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers and sisters.

The life of Jesus Christ was the epitome of servanthood.  He poured Himself out upon the needs of the people, especially the need for salvation from sin.  He was willing to be the sacrificial lamb.  He was willing to be the door mat under people’s feet.  He sought no recognition.  He sought to show us what love is.

Prayer,
Heavenly Father, we pray that You will take us to the foot of the Cross to seek a life of service to all men.  We pray that You will teach us how to minister in love to those around us.  We pray that you will build us up so that we may forsake the need for recognition, except in Your eyes.  May our lives be a reflection of our Servant King.