Month: May 2015

Joy Beyond Our Imagination

Matthew 25:21
His master said to him, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant. You have been faithful over a little; I will set you over much. Enter into the joy of your master.’
As disciples of Jesus Christ, we are called to join Our Master as He walks along side us in our journey toward sanctification.  We can be certain that we will encounter the following along the way.
  • Jesus will set our hearts to burning for Him as He opens the scriptures to us, just as he did for the two disciples when He joined them as they were walking on the road to Emmaus.
  • The Holy Spirit will reveal to us who we are without Jesus in our lives.
  • The Holy Spirit will convict us of the darkness in our lives and urge us to be obedient in changing our ways and helping others to change their ways.
  • Satan will attack us all along the way.  As we grow in Christ, the intensity of the attacks will increase.

We can be just as certain that the victory is ours if we rely on the One who died for our sins.  We will enter into the joy of Our Master for all eternity.  Can you even imagine the joy that Jesus holds?  He is the essence of everything good.  He is the absence of anything evil.  He is perfect in every measure.  This is all ours when we stand before Him one day to take our place as His eternal servants.
Prayer
Heavenly Father, we praise You and thank You for loving us so much that You gave us Your Son to redeem us from our sins and You provided Your Holy Spirit to guide us along our path of preparation for receiving our place in heaven for all eternity.  May Your countenance shine up us.  May Your grace be with us always.  May You protect us from harm and evil.  May You protect us from the evil one and all of His temptations.  May You raise us up to be instruments of Your good work and vessels of Your perfect love and forgiveness.  May we stand before You one day and hear the words, “Well done, good and faithful servant.”  We ask all these things in the name of Our Lord, Our Master and Our King, Jesus Christ.

Our Place in Heaven Has Been Secured by the Son of the Most High God

John 17:24
Father, I desire that they also, whom you have given me, may be with me where I am, to see my glory that you have given me because you loved me before the foundation of the world.
This passage is part of the prayer that Jesus prayed to the Father on behalf of His disciples prior to His eminent death and resurrection.  Jesus was confirming with the Father that His disciples and all of the new believers in the good news of the salvation story who followed in discipleship would join Him in glory for all eternity.

Jesus prayed that all that choose to follow Him would see the fullness of His grace and beauty.  He prayed that all His followers would see His standing with the Father on the grandest scale in heaven without the obstructive hindrances of the flesh.  He prayed that His disciples would experience the full capacity and infinite power of His glory.  He prayed that all of His disciples would join Him at the right hand of the Father for all eternity.
Jesus’ prayer to the Father in heaven provides us with the strength that we need to endure all that comes against us in life because we know there will be the ultimate victory in the end.  To paraphrase 2 Cor 4:8-9, we may be afflicted in every way, but not crushed; we may be perplexed, but not driven to despair; we may be persecuted, but not forsaken; we may be struck down, but not destroyed because we are one with Jesus Christ.  Our place in heaven has been secured.
Prayer
Heavenly Father, we come to You in the name of Jesus Christ, Our Lord, Our Master and Our King.  We thank You Father that we may be one with Jesus as He is one with You.  We praise You as we receive in faith all of the promises that come with being a disciple of Your Son.  May the Holy Spirit keep us steadfast in all aspects of our discipleship.  We ask all these things in the name of the Son of the Most High God, Jesus Christ.

And All These Things Will Be Added

Matthew 6:33
But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.
We have been raised in a world where performance/results are everything.  We feel measured by the things we have and the things that we have accomplished.  We have been trained to be independent and self-reliant.  This is absolutely upside down from the kingdom of God.
God promises us that He will provide all that we need and all the desires of our hearts.  We must realize that these promises are conditional.  We must seek His kingdom first and we must seek the righteousness that living in His kingdom requires.  Then all of these things will be given to us.  Food, drink, clothing or whatever other worldly sustenance that we need will be given to us freely and liberally.  We are able to receive these gifts without having to think about how they will come, without having to concern ourselves about the timeliness of their arrival and, most importantly, without due consideration of our merit.

Thus, our great efforts in life should be directed toward putting our relationship with God first.  Everything else should be second.  The truly abundant life awaits.
Prayer
Heavenly Father, we thank You for the abundant life that awaits us when we seek You first.  We bring You all the honor and glory for being Our Provider.  We ask Your forgiveness for seeking the things of the world before You.  Teach us, Lord, how to prioritize our lives according to the principles of Your kingdom.  May the Holy Spirit enlighten us so that we may live in Christ and not in the world.  We ask all these things in the name of Jehovah-Jireh, the Lord will provide.

Living in Joy When Our Happiness is Challenged

Luke 21:19
By your endurance you will gain your lives.
Jesus warned His apostles of the hard times to come.  He foretold the trials and persecution that they would suffer after He left.  He comforted them with His promise that if they persevered in the ways of God and in the truths that He had given them, they would possess peace and joy in their souls that the world could not take away.
So it is with us.  We have our own trials to bear in our lives.  The Lord teaches us to let nothing disturb or distress us.  He instructs us not to submit to the moodiness that might come upon us due to our circumstances.  We must take on the Spirit of the One who dwells within us.  We must endure, knowing that we have already been given victory over our circumstances.  We must allow Jesus to do His work in us despite of our mood, so that we can press on and do the work that He calls us to do in the world.

May we learn to patiently bear all afflictions on our bodies, bear all attacks and indignities tossed our way by our critics and bear all difficulties dealt to us by the world.  Through it all, let nothing disturb us, distress us or steal our peace.  May we live joyfully in the presence of Jesus Christ, our ever present Savior.
Prayer
Heavenly Father, we thank You for granting us victory through Jesus over everything in the world that tries to take our joy away.  We rejoice in knowing that we can have joy even when happiness eludes us.  We pray that You will teach us how to seek the strength we need when our mood turns us toward our problems instead of our solution, Your Son, Jesus.  May the world see our joy in all circumstances so that they may be drawn to the One who provides it.  We ask all these things in the name of Our Stronghold, Jesus Christ.

Strength in Christ Through Good and Bad

2 Corinthians 12:10
For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong.
When we are weak and near defeat, perhaps even near death, we run to Jesus.  He promises to be our strength in every one of our times of weakness or trial.  It is during these times that we feel His presence so clearly.  It is during these times of pain that we experience the fullness of His love.  It becomes a blessing to have tribulation in our lives.
Unfortunately without trial, we tend to lean away from God.  We tend to move out of His presence.  We tend to let the joy of life overshadow the true and perfect joy that is available to us.  

As we enjoy the blessings that we have been provided in our lives, may we be mindful of the presence and power of Jesus Christ.  May His strength carry us through good and bad.  May it all be for the glory of God Almighty.
Prayer
Heavenly Father, we thank You for Your promise to perfect Your strength in our weakness.  We thank you for the comfort of knowing that You are always there.  We praise You for providing Your Son, Jesus, so that through Him and in Him we can experience the fullness of Your love.  Help us, Father, to find contentment in all things as we seek to live in Your shadow and not under the influence of the world.  We ask all these things in the name of Our Good Shepherd, Jesus Christ.

The Glory of God Proclaimed in His Children

Psalm 19:1
The heavens declare the glory of God and the sky above proclaims his handiwork.
It is undeniable.  The heavens proclaim the glory of God.  Every facet of God’s existence, power, wisdom and goodness are revealed in the starry canopy above us.  Peering into the vast heavens gives us a sense of our infinite Lord, a sense of His control over all things and a sense of the magnitude of His power to hold it all together. 

Our Creator provided the sun, the moon and the stars to provide light in our world.  He provided His Son to be the Light of the World.  Just as the Lord declares His glory through the display of His handiwork in the heavens, He also declares His glory through His Son.  And the glory that He receives through His Son is multiplied over and over again through His children.  He reveals His glorious Holy Spirit to the world through every single child that He has created. 
The Lord uses powerful men of God to deliver His messages, but He does not use them alone.  He chooses to use everyone of His children – of every age and every time – to declare His perfect love and forgiveness.  He certainly does not need any of us to accomplish anything, but He loves to use all of us to reveal Himself to those who are in our everyday lives.  We are the instruments of God’s perfect love.
Prayer,
Heavenly Father, we thank You and praise You for the magnificent universe that You have created.  We proclaim Your glory in all that we see before us.  Father, we pray that You will use us as instruments of Your good work.  May the world see the magnificence of who You are through our living testimony.  May we be daily expressions of Your perfect love and forgiveness.  We ask all these things in the name of Your Everlasting Light, Jesus Christ.

Our Eternal High Priest

Luke 24:51
While he blessed them, he parted from them and was carried up into heaven.
In the old testament, each person needed a priest to represent him or her before the throne of God.  Through their high priest and the accompanying sacrifices, each person’s sins were atoned for.  Without the intercession of the high priest, the individual person had no hope for salvation nor for their prayers to be answered.
Jesus changed it all when He ascended into heaven after His death on the Cross.  He was welcomed by His Father, by all the glorified saints and holy angels.  He was seated at the Father’s right hand.  He remains there forever as Our Mediator in restitution for all of our sins.

He rules eternally from His seat next to the Father so that our fears may be silenced, our sorrows may be sweetened and our hopes may be kept up.  He holds open the doors of heaven so that we can go directly to the throne of God with our praise, our worship, our prayers and our solicitations.  More importantly, He holds a place for us because we are His redeemed lambs. 
Prayer
Heavenly Father, we thank You that You allowed Your Son to return to earth after His resurrection to confirm the victory over sin and death that we, who have received Him as Our Savior, partake in.  We thank You that you allowed Your Son to ascend back into heaven to sit at Your right side and stand in intercession for all of us that call Him Lord.  May we receive the fullness of His blessings as Our High Priest.  May we share those blessings with those people who You place around us.  We ask all these things in the name of our Risen Savior, Jesus Christ.

Graciously Bestowed and Powerfully Applied

2 Peter 1:4

Through these he has given us his very great and precious promises, so that through them you may participate in the divine nature, having escaped the corruption in the world caused by evil desires.

  
The great God of heaven and earth, the creator and ruler over all things, has made His divine nature available to us through His Son, Jesus.  He confirms this endless gift through His promises, His power and His faithfulness.  Whether our faith be weak or strong right now, we can find hope in claiming what has already been granted to us.  
What does it matter if times are tough?  We know the tough times will end.  Do we not know that the divine nature and power of Jesus Christ is sufficient to provide victory for us in all things?  Once we have accepted Jesus as Our Savior, the victory is ours.  All that we need has been provided to us free, without conditions and unchangeable.  All of it is provided to serve the great ends and purposes of Almighty God.  All of it is provided to proclaim His glory as He showers us with His everlasting good.

Through this divine intervention, we are able to escape the frailties of our own flesh and the corruption of the world.  With the precious promises graciously bestowed and powerfully applied, we are able to live under the divine influence of Our Savior and avoid the ungodliness of our carnal nature. 

Prayer
Heavenly Father, we thank You for providing Our Blessed Hope and Assurance, Jesus Christ.  We praise You, worship You and exalt Your Name for all that You have set aside for us.  We pray that You teach us how to submit to Our Lord, Our Master and Our King, Jesus so that we may be fully prepared to receive our eternal inheritance.  May Your majesty, Your grace and Your power be manifested in us here on earth as it is in heaven.  May it all be for Your glory and the gain of the kingdom.  We ask all these things in the name of Jesus, Our Divine Mediator.

The True Light of the World

2 Corinthians 4:6
For God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.
One of the greatest beauties in all of nature is the full moon.  Yet the moon does nothing by itself to generate light.  It is an unproductive body of dirt on its own.  It only reflects the light of the sun as it moves into its proper position in concert with the earth.
We share similarities with the moon.  We are worthless collections of dirt without the light of the Son in our lives.  There is absolutely nothing that we could do through our own efforts independent of God that would evoke a light of awareness in the hearts of others.  Yet if we keep ourselves in proper position with the Son of God, the light of the Son will shine through us for the world to see.

Just as Almighty God created the moon to be an instrument to transfer light of the sun on the earth into the darkness of the evening, we were created to be instruments to transfer the light of the Son into the darkness of the hearts of those who do not know Jesus Christ as their Savior.  May we seek to bring glory to God in much the same manner as the brilliance of a full moon on a clear evening.
Prayer
Heavenly Father, we thank You for providing light at the beginning of creation so that we could see Your glory in the world that surrounds us.  We thank You for providing the light of the world, Your Son Jesus, so that we could see and accept the way to our eternal glory with You.  We pray, Father God, that You will shield us from the enemy who tries to take the Light out of our lives.  We ask, Lord, that You cleanse us and purify us so that we may be lampposts of Christ for all to see.  We ask all these things in the name of the True Light, Jesus Christ.

Listen. He Knocks.

2 Samuel 7:22
Therefore you are great, O LORD God. For there is none like you, and there is no God besides you, according to all that we have heard with our ears.
What if a man appeared at your door, a man of immense power and wealth, a man who everyone around the world recognized and praised, how would you greet him?   Would you welcome him in?  What if he said, “I know you.  I have been watching you.  I have a plan for you.  I want to make you the inheritor of all the riches of my estate.”  How would you respond?
This man has knocked on all of our doors.  His name is Jesus.  He exceeds beyond our imagination any man that walks on this earth.  There is no one like Him.  He is the way, the truth and the life.  There is no other way to the riches of our eternal inheritance except through Him.

He is the Lord, Our God.  His name, His nature, His purposes, His promises and His works are all the essence of everything good.  He is the one true God, the creator of all things.   How could anyone not answer when He knocks?


Prayer
Heavenly Father, we praise You and exalt You.  We thank You for providing Your Son as Our Redeemer.  We humbly receive the riches that He has set aside for us through His sacrifice.  May we fully submit to Jesus as Our Savior and Lord over our lives as He knocks on our doors and asks us to follow Him.  May we become living testimony to His presence in our lives so that others may know Him when He knocks on their doors.  We ask all these things in the name of the Lord of all the earth, Jesus Christ.