Month: June 2016

Keeping Sight of Who We Live For

Matthew 14:30
But when he saw the wind, he was afraid, and beginning to sink he cried out, “Lord, save me.”

When Peter first stepped out of the boat, all He saw was Jesus.  He saw nothing but the one he desired to be with.  His focus was on His Lord and His Lord alone.  With His focus only on His Lord, he walked on water.  But then Peter let his focus shift to his surroundings and down he went.

It is a bit difficult for us to relate to walking on water, but we can all relate to finding ourselves in a place in life where we feel like we are sinking.  In these times, we are weak in faith and our doubts are overwhelming us. 

Too often we get to this place because we are seeking a way out through our own strengths.  Our focus is on our problems and not on the promises of Our Savior.  Peter was rebuked for his lack of faith.  We should know that we share in Peter’s weakness.  There is no valid reason why the disciples of Jesus Christ should be of doubtful mind.  Even on the stormiest of days, He is our ever present help. 

With our focus on Jesus, two important things happen.  1) The things that are around us to scare us or hinder us become insignificant.  2) The vision of Who we are living for and where He is leading us becomes crystal clear.  Through Jesus, we are able to see clearly the path that God has set aside for us before we were even born.  Through Jesus, we find the strength to keep up the good walk of faith when the world distracts us.  Through Jesus, we are able to complete the course that ends in our eternal resting place with Almighty God.

Prayer
Heavenly Father, we thank You for creating each of us with a unique purpose through which we serve You and bring honor and glory to Your Name.  We rejoice in knowing that we can fulfill our purposes here on earth as well as in Your eternal kingdom.  We exalt the name of Our Savior, Jesus, who walks along side us to insure that we have the strength to overcome the torments of our flesh and the attacks of the enemy.  May we keep our eyes firmly fixed on Jesus so we are not distracted or hindered by the things which are trying to pull us away from our purposes.   May we stand before You one day and hear the words, “Well done, My good and faithful servant.” We ask all these things in the name of Our Redeemer, Our King, Our Priest and Our Prophet, Jesus Christ.

Learning to Give Sacrificially Every Day

John 15:13
Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends.
The life of Jesus Christ was not the life of a mere man, but the life of a divine man who gave up His deity and His royalty in order to accept the calling of Almighty God to be the blood sacrifice for the sins of all mankind.  Jesus took on this calling freely and voluntarily that He might secure our legal standing in the kingdom of God.
The moment that we accepted the salvation that Jesus made possible when He laid down His life for us, we were given the power and the calling to lay down our lives day after day for the people around us.  This sacrificial calling is contrary to our human nature.  Our flesh will fight us on every occasion, be it large or small, that we seek to emulate Jesus’ love for us in our service to others.  And certainly, Satan will do his part to discourage us too.
Yet we can and will overcome the urges of Satan and our flesh, if we learn to rely on the urgings of the Holy Spirit.   For we were not only given the calling to serve, we were also given the power to serve.  We were given the Holy Spirit of Jesus Christ to dwell within us.  All we have to do is let the Spirit within us flow out of us.
Prayer
Heavenly Father, we thank You for providing Your Son Jesus to die for us so that we would not remain separated from You for all eternity because of our sins.  We praise Your Name for extending Your mercy so that we could accept the salvation that we did not earn and do not deserve.  We pray, Father God, that the fullness of Your Holy Spirit will flow from us each day.  May we learn to lay down our lives each day so that others may see the way, the truth and the life that is in Your Son, Jesus.  We ask all these things in the name of the Slain Lamb of God, Jesus Christ.

No Service is Too Small

2 Chronicles 27:6
King Jotham became powerful because he was careful to live in obedience to the LORD his God.
After the Jews were freed from bondage, they made their way to the holy land that God had set aside for them.  Moses sent twelve men to scout the land.  All but two returned with fearful stories.  As a result, the Israelites rebelled against Moses and refused to take the land that was prepared for them.  God punished the Israelites by condemning them to wander the desert for forty years.  None of the men over the age of twenty were ever allowed in to the holy land because of their disobedience.
On the other hand, Jotham became king at the age of 28.  He was obedient in all things.  Because of his faithfulness, he was given victory in all of his battles and a resting place of honor when he died.
We can miss out on the promises of God in our lives simply by not complying to the small things of life that the Holy Spirit may place on our hearts.  How many times have we passed up the opportunity to assist a testy neighbor, lend a helping hand to a needy stranger or respond politely and with love when receiving poor service?  Each time we passed on one of these or numerous other Holy Spirit led opportunities, we deprived God of His glory and we halted or limited the release of His power in our lives.  It is important that we seek and give full consideration to the will of God concerning all elements of our daily lives.
Prayer
Heavenly Father, we thank You for giving us the opportunity to bring honor and glory to Your Name when we allow the marvel of Your grace to be exhibited in our lives.  Teach us, Father, to recognize You and Your love in the simplest of tasks that are performed in service to others.  Lord, we pray that You release the fullness of Your power in our lives as we learn to share Your perfect love and forgiveness with the world around us.  We ask all these things in the name of the Lord of Our Lives, Jesus Christ.

Shielding Our Children from the Enemy

Isaiah 44:3
For I will pour out water to quench your thirst and to irrigate your parched fields.  And I will pour out my Spirit on your descendants, and my blessing on your children.

As mothers and fathers, we must be diligent in praying a hedge of protection around our children.  Satan is viciously consistent in his efforts to destroy our families and in his efforts to destroy the lives of our children.  As parents, we have the power of protecting them through our prayers.  Our Heavenly Father promises us that He will pour out His Spirit on our descendants and pour out His blessings on our children.
No matter what circumstances that our children may be in, we must not believe the lies of Satan.  We must hold to the promises of Our Father.  We must never give in to the work of the devil who will urge us to give up on our children.  Satan will do all that he can do to discourage our efforts to pray for our children because he knows the power that we access and release when we pray for our children.
We must fight the good fight on the behalf of our children.  We must continously pray a hedge of protection around them.  The Lord promises us that He will reward us for our efforts.  He will return our children to us.  Most importantly, He will return our children to Himself.
Prayer
Heavenly Father, we thank You for hearing our prayers of protection for our children.  Thank you for providing a way for us to shield our children from the enemy who is set on destroying them.  Strengthen us, Lord, that we may never falter in covering our children with our prayers.  We rejoice in knowing that You will reward us for our diligent, prayerful efforts on behalf of our children.  We cling to Your promise to return our children to the land that You have set aside for them.  We ask all these things in the name of Our Refuge from the Storm, Jesus Christ.

He is Waiting to Intercede for Us

Ephesians 2:10
For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.
We are the handiwork of the creator of the entire universe, but not merely as creatures, but as new creatures in Christ.  We were prepared before hand with the capacity to perform good works for the pleasure, the praise and the honor of Almighty God.  We were created not just to perform one good work but to continue to walk in a series of good works.  We were created to perform righteous and holy work as visible representatives of Our Savior.
There is nothing that we will face in life that is too big or too small for Jesus to overcome for us.  He is waiting to comfort us and guide us and intercede for us in every minute detail and in every seemingly insurmountable circumstance in our lives.  Once we receive Jesus as Our Savior, it is His promise that He will insure that we are successful in carrying out His plans for our lives.
Why should we try to rely on our own power when we have the power of the creator and sustainer of the universe available to us?  We should rejoice and seek Jesus in every element of our lives.  We should submit every breathing moment to Him.  He awaits!!
Prayer
Heavenly Father, we thank You for Your Son, Jesus, who comforts us, guides us and intercedes for us.  We pray that You teach us how to put all of our trust in Him.  We ask that You shield us from all the distractions that we bring into our own lives.  May we learn to walk in the ways that Jesus shows us.  May the Holy Spirit guide us and strengthen us as we seek to endeavor in the righteous and holy work of Your kingdom.  We ask all these things in the name of Our Righteous and Holy King, Jesus Christ.

Opening Our Access to All the Treasures of Heaven

Matthew 25:18
But he who had received the one talent went and dug in the ground and hid his master’s money.
What a shame it is to accept our salvation and then to remain mostly unchanged by the Holy Spirit within us.  In doing so, we are like the servant that took the talent from his master and buried it in the ground without doing anything with it to increase its value to the master.
When we do not access all that is available to us through the Holy Spirit, we cut off the flow of the gifts from God, denying ourselves the opportunity to reap from all that God has stored up for us.  Remember Jesus Christ gave everything for us.  He held back nothing.  He expects the same from us in return.
Also remember that Jesus rewards those who are faithful in their service to Him.  If we look for and seek the power of the Holy Spirit in our lives, we open our access to all the treasures of heaven.  We enable God to prepare us to serve Him and bear fruit for Him in the manner that He planned for us.  Often we will find that our harvest for the King is well beyond the limits of our imagination.
Prayer
Heavenly Father, we thank You for the gifts and talents that You have given us.  We call on Your Holy Spirit to take us beyond what we see and understand about our own capabilities to a place where we are releasing things in our lives that are not even imaginable to us now.  May all the gain we see and all the fruit we bear be for Your honor and Your glory.  We ask all these things in the name of Our Bountiful Lord, Jesus Christ.

All Burdens Be Gone!

Matthew 11:28
Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.
At some level, we all take on the heavy burdens of this world.  Without a doubt, we all seek to escape from the stress filled grind that most of us wallow in each day.  Jesus invites all of us who labor and are carrying burdens to come to Him.  He promises that He will provide us with the rest that we need.  
But be assured that “I will give you rest” does not mean “I will hold your hand while you lay in bed languishing in your burdens”.  It means “I will pull you out of the darkened state that you are in.  I will pull you from the depravity of your sins and the oppression of the enemy.  I will give you the spirit of life.  You will find your rest in vital and sinless activity.”
Why do we insist on hanging on to the old things that do nothing but hinder our progress toward finding the rest that is promised to us?  Why do we accept anything less than the full measure that God has set aside for us?  It is all about our commitment.  When we come to Jesus, we are committing to leave everything of this world behind in exchange for a personal relationship with Our Savior.

The moment that we receive our salvation the abundance of God’s grace is available to us through His Son, Jesus Christ.  All we have to do is to submit to Jesus Christ and allow His Spirit to guide all that we do.  Our peace awaits us.

Prayer
Heavenly Father, we thank You for providing a refuge for us – a place where we can be free from the burdens that the world tries to lay on us.  We praise You for providing the comfort that we can find nowhere else except through our relationship with Your Son, Jesus.  May we be drawn by the Holy Spirit to respond to the words of promise, “Come unto me.”  May we learn to live our lives in the vitality and might that You offer us in Christ.  We ask all these things in the name of the One who provides our comfort, Jesus Christ.

Preparation for Being in His Presence

Luke 11:9
And I tell you, ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you.
In Luke 11:9, we find a solemn declaration and promise made by Jesus Himself.  The declaration rests on His authority.  He makes the statement with the boldness of knowing it is true.  He opens the way for us to ask for food for the body and nourishment for our souls and He promises that for those that act in accordance with His counsel shall find their requests satisfied.
When we knock at Jesus’ door, seeking Him, our lives are changed forever.  Once we have accepted Him as Our Savior, we are new men and women in Christ.  We are new people who are faced with the eye-opening need to let our old selves die, so that our new selves are properly prepared to be in the presence of Our Lord.
Once we establish our relationship with Him, we will be in a place that is greater than anything we have ever experienced before.  We will never want to leave that relationship.  To stay there, we will find that we are forever humbled by our need to cleanse ourselves.  We will find that the experience of first meeting Him is the beginning of our preparation for being in His presence for all eternity.
Prayer
Heavenly Father, we humbly bow before You.  We thank You that we are allowed to approach Your throne because Your Son, Jesus, has prepared the way for us.  Make us forever mindful of His sacrifice which washed away our sins for all eternity.  Open our eyes to see the sins that remain in our lives so that we may ask forgiveness of them and repent of them.  May Your Holy Spirit guide us in continuously seeking the presence of Your Son in our lives.  May we find all we need in Him.  We ask all these things in the name of the Lord God Omnipotent, Jesus Christ.

Aligning Our Prayers With God’s Will for Our Lives

Luke 11:10
For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened.
Whether we lack food, shelter, finances or wisdom, the Lord promises to provide us with our needs.  He also promises to provide us with the desires of our hearts.  But in all these things, He provides according to His perfect timing and His will for our lives.
There is almost always a delay between our prayers and the answers to our prayers.  There are a number of significant variables that require that there be a delay.
Because of the delay, we learn to go to the Holy Spirit to get help with our prayers.  We learn that our prayers are too often coming from the desires of our flesh and not the desires of our spirit.  By turning to the Holy Spirit, we learn to put our prayers in line with God’s will for our lives.
If there were never any delays between our prayers and God’s provision, we would lose sight of the fact that God is controlling the process and not us.  We would also lose the perspective that God wants us to rely on His grace for all things.  We would lose the fervency of our prayers.
Prayer
Heavenly Father, we thank You for Your grace that is the source of all of our provision.  We thank You for the perfect timing of Your answers for our prayers.  We thank You for providing the Holy Spirit to help us pray properly for the things that we need.  We pray that You show us Your will for our lives so that our prayers will be in accordance with Your plans for our lives.  May You teach us how to pray without stopping as we learn to rely on Your grace for all things in our lives.  May our prayers touch Your heart so that You release from Your hands all that You have set aside for us.  We ask all these things in the name of the Power of God, Jesus Christ.

Are We Missing Our Promised Land?

John 13:17
If you know these things, blessed are you if you do them.
God told Moses to speak to the rock, but Moses in anger struck the rock. Water came forth for the people to drink, but God was not pleased because Moses had disobeyed, and he later suffered the consequences of his disobedience. He was not permitted to enter into the land of Canaan with his people, and Joshua became their leader at that point.
What “promised land” are we missing because we are not being perfectly obedient in what God is asking us to do?  God allows us much room for choice in our lives, but He also changes His rewards when we make poor choices. This is especially true if God has laid out a path for us to take, but we choose to take a different path.
Moses missed going into the promised land because he was not perfectly obedient to God’s direction in his life.  We certainly risk missing our promised land when we are anything less than fully submitted to God’s direction in our lives.
Prayer
Heavenly Father, we thank You that You direct our ways through the urgings of the Holy Spirit in our lives each day.  Prepare our hearts, Lord, so that we may be alert and obedient to Your calling on our lives.  Teach us how to hear and respond to the Holy Spirit so that we may know the things that You ask of us.  We pray that we will have the strength and wisdom to comply in accordance with Your plans for our lives.  May we receive the fullness of the blessings that You have set aside for us.  We ask all these things in the name of the Lamb without Blemish, Jesus Christ.