Month: June 2016

Mighty in Battle

Psalm 27:1
The LORD is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear?  The LORD is the stronghold of my life; of whom shall I be afraid?
Many of the Psalms were written by David.  David was proclaimed by God to be “a man after my own heart; he will do everything I want him to do”.  Because David proved himself to be obedient to the Lord’s calling on his life, sought God in all things and trusted God in all things, God made him king of Israel.
The first we read about David, we see him as a young man who believed God would give him victory over the giant, Goliath, when everyone else cowered in the face of the giant.  The men of the day tried to provide David with their armor to fight the giant.  David refused.  He knew he only needed God on his side.
The same God that helped David slay Goliath is the God that helps us to slay the giants in our lives.  The giants in our lives are not named Goliath.  They are named such things as addiction, fear, worry, depression, confusion, manipulation, control, bitterness and anger.  We do not need to turn to the world to defeat our giants.  We only need to go to Our Heavenly Father in the name of His Son, Jesus.  He will give us the victory, just as He gave David the victory.  He will also give us a kingdom, just as He gave David a kingdom.
Prayer
Heavenly Father, we thank You for giving us Your Son, whose death on the Cross gave us victory over all things.  We exalt the name of Our Savior King who opened the gateway to heaven for us.  We are so grateful that Jesus stands beside us as we face our giants. We pray that the Holy Spirit will teach us to trust in You, Lord, just as David trusted in You.  We ask all these things in the name of Our Lord Mighty in Battle, Jesus Christ.

Overcoming the Whims of Our Flesh

Philippians 2:12-13
Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, so now, not only as in my presence but much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure.
When Paul wrote to the Philippians, he knew that they were struggling with sin in their lives just as we all are.  He knew that they found it easier “to behave” when they were in his presence, just as we are more on guard in the presence of others.  He exhorted them to be constant in their battle against sin whether He was there or not.
He was not telling them that they were working to earn their salvation.  He was telling them how to overcome the ongoing attacks of the flesh which would try to lead them back to the sin that had been washed away forever by their Savior.  He was reminding them that their victory has already been set aside by the One who had died for their sins and dwells within them.  He was emphasizing that they must live in reverent awe of their Savior and not be lead by the whims of their flesh.
So it is with us.  We do not work to earn our salvation.  If we have received Jesus as Our Savior, we have been redeemed and washed clean of all of our sin.  The work of salvation that Paul speaks of is really the work of sanctification.  It is the process that we go through as we learn to lean on Jesus and not our own strength to overcome the work of the enemy in our lives.
Prayer
Heavenly Father, we proclaim our sin before You and ask for Your forgiveness. We thank You that this issue has been settled on our behalf for all eternity.  We pray that we may be continually washed by the blood of Your Son and strengthened daily by His presence in our lives.  We ask to live in reverent awe of who You are so that we will come under the purifying conviction of the Holy Spirit.  We ask all these things in the name of the Tower of Salvation, Jesus Christ.

Finding Victory in Our Lives

Hebrews 13:6
So we can confidently say, “The Lord is my helper; I will not fear; what can man do to me?”
The Lord is our helper.  He is our mighty King, but He is also our humble servant because of His promises to us.  He is able to help in ways that we cannot imagine.  He is our helper when there is no one else there to help.  His help is always suitable, seasonable and sufficient.
Do we see the Lord in all that we do?  If we do, there should be no doubt or drudgery in any task.  For in every task we should find the power and the joy of Jesus.  If we are experiencing a lack of joy in our circumstances, then we are not believing Jesus for His promise to take our burdens.  If we are doubting the outcome of our efforts, then we are not believing Jesus for His promise to never forsake us.
Throughout life we must make Jesus Christ our foundation.  We must learn to trust in all the promises that God has revealed to us that confirm that He is working out all things for our eternal good even when it seems man is working against us.
Prayer
Heavenly Father, we thank You for loving us so much that You promise never to leave us or forget about us.  We rejoice in knowing that You know every single thing that is going on in our lives and that You are working out all the details necessary for us to experience the fullness of joy through our relationship with Your Son.  Teach us, Lord, how to rely on the Holy Spirit to be our helper in every element of our lives.  Through our reliance on Your promises, may we find joy and find victory in our roles as grandparents, parents, children, citizens, employees, friends and neighbors.  Through all these things may we celebrate serving You.  Through all these things may we be light to the world around us.  We ask all these things in the name of the One who is faithful and true, Jesus Christ.

So That We May Have Life

Philippians 2:8
Being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.
The fact that Jesus left His divine state to become a man illustrates an act of humility that surpasses anything that any human could ever imagine.  Accepting the lowliness of man, it would have been reasonable by any human standard that He would a least appear as a king. Not so for this divine man, He took not a royal station but accepted a position in a lowly manger.  His state within humankind never advanced to any level above the lowest elements of society.  He worked His entire ministry in the streets and hillsides among the common people.
His splendor was never to be seen by man until He ascended to His seat beside His Father in Heaven. In the meantime, He endured a life of poverty and suffering which ended in an exposition of public hatred, ridicule and scorn.  Then, having no place for personal pride, He accepted death so that we may have life.
Let us lie before His Cross each day and learn from Our Savior King.  May our personal pride dissolve in the face of knowing why He made these choices – to save us from our sinful and prideful nature.
Prayer
Heavenly Father, we humbly bow before Your throne, asking Your forgiveness for our sins.  We thank You for providing the way for us to overcome our sinful nature.  May we cling to the Cross of Our Savior.  May we learn to set aside our pride and serve those around us in the manner that You call us.  May we ignore the scorn of the world as we are obedient to Your calling on our lives. We ask all these things in the name of The Captain of Our Salvation, Jesus Christ.

May We Praise the Lord with Every Breath

Psalm 150:6
Let everything that has breath praise the LORD! Praise the LORD!
We are stirred up in our hearts to praise God.  We praise Him because of His power and His glory.  We praise Him for His holiness and His love expressed through the redemptive work of His Son, Jesus.

Let us praise God out of the faith that He has built in us through His Holy Spirit.  Let us praise God with the love and delight that He has placed in our hearts.  Let us praise God as we are comforted by His goodness and His grace.  Let us praise God with the joy of the expectation of life in His eternal kingdom.  Let us praise God with the unshakeable confidence that the victory is ours through God’s greatest gift to us, His Son, Jesus.  

Our Lord, Jesus, is the fullness of the love and forgiveness that we have been so graciously provided by Our Father in Heaven.  Let our every breath be filled for praise for Our Savior.  May our lives be living testimonies of the Son of God who has come to dwell within us.
  
Prayer
Heavenly Father, we lift our voices up in high praise for Your precious Lamb, Jesus.  We proclaim His holiness and His righteousness.  We give thanks for His presence in our lives.  We pray Father that You open our eyes so that we may see His presence in the tiny things in life as well as the large things.  May our every breath praise Him as we come know just how dear He is to us.  We ask all these things in the name of the One whose steadfast love never ceases, Jesus Christ.

Living in Awe of Our Heavenly Father

Psalm 25:12
Who is the man who fears the LORD? Him will he instruct in the way that he should choose.
Fear of God can be compared to fear of one’s earthly father.  While we fear punishment from our earthly father, it is the fear of offending the one we hold dearest that is so powerful.  It is the fear of disappointing the one that we want to please the most.  It is the fear of not living up to the expectations of the one that we hold in the highest place in our lives.  It is the fear of losing closeness with the one we desire to be closest to.  It is this fear that holds us in line when the world is trying to pull us out of line.
As good sons and daughters, we live in awe of the highest authority figures in our lives – Our Heavenly Father and our earthly father.  We are shaped through our entire lives by these relationships.  Our earthly fathers take us through the follies of our youth as they provide for us in our formative years.  

Our Heavenly Father provides our every need in preparing us for our eternal lives with Him.  He makes us aware of our sinful nature.  He calls us to repentance.  Through His mercy and His perfect love, He gives us His Son as our Redeemer.  To those of us that humble themselves before His Son, He sets aside a path of sanctification.  He guides us and provides for all our needs in accordance with His promises.  He gives us rest in our souls as He leads us to our journey’s end.
Prayer
Heavenly Father, we exalt Your name as the name that holds the highest place in our lives and we exalt the name of Your Son, Jesus, who shed His blood for our sins.  We thank You that we can live in the shadow of His love, His protection and His provision.  We seek to deepen our relationship with Your Son.  We pray that the Holy Spirit will help us to understand who He is so that we may live our lives in reverent awe of Him. We ask all these things in the name of Our Refiner and Purifier, Jesus Christ.

Putting Our Trust in Jesus Christ Alone

John 2:24
But Jesus would not entrust himself to them, for he knew all people.
Jesus knew that He could not put His trust in any man.  He knew their nature, their dispositions, their affections and their evil schemes.  Jesus knew what we need to know.  Simply put, man cannot be trusted.  The evil within the heart of each man is a snare that cannot be overcome without the grace of Our Savior.
We must put our trust in Jesus Christ alone.  If we put our trust in Him, we will find it easy to love Him above all things, to love our neighbors as ourselves, to tell others about Him and to give Him all the glory.  If we put our trust in Jesus, we will live according to the plans that He has set aside for us.
If we doubt the Lord in any area and put our trust in man instead,  we will fall short of God’s plans for our lives.  For the fullness of life, we must trust the grace of God in all things.
Prayer
Heavenly Father, we praise You and thank You for providing Your Son, Jesus, to be the foundation of our trust in You and Your promises to us.  May we live each day in complete faith that Your Word is the foundation upon which our lives are built and sustained.  May we face each day knowing that Your Son is the source of everything we need.  May we never seek anything from man, but seek everything from Your grace.  We ask all these things in the name of our all-sufficient Lord, Jesus Christ.