Category: Uncategorized

Keeping Our Eyes on Our Finisher

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 the runner.  The runner must keep his eyes on the finish line.  He must keep his goal in view.  He cannot be distracted by the runners around him or he will lose ground.

So it is with us in our race of life.  We must keep our eyes on Our Finisher, Jesus Christ.  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 what we are running for and where we are running to become 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 race 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.”  

No Greater Love Than This

John 15:13
Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends.

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 express 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.

Releasing God’s Power in Our Lives

2 Chronicles 27:6
King Jotham became powerful because he was careful to live in obedience to the LORD his God.

Moses was prohibited from entering the promised land because of his disobedience.  Instead of calling water from the rock as God had asked of Him, Moses struck the rock twice.  Moses probably spoke to the rock and reacted out of anger when nothing happened immediately.  It would seem to be a small act of disobedience, but in God’s eyes every tiny detail is important.

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 grumpy co-worker, lend a helping hand to a stranger or give a loving hug to a disobedient child?  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.

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.

Praying for Our Children

Jeremiah 31:16–17
Restrain your voice from weeping and your eyes from tears, for your work will be rewarded,” declares the Lord. “They will return from the land of the enemy. So there is hope for your descendants,” declares the Lord. “Your children will return to their own land.” 

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.

No matter what circumstances that our children may be in, we must not believe the lies of Satan.  He will try to get us to give up on our children.  He will do all that he can do to discourage our efforts to pray for them because he knows the power that is in our prayers.

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. 

Finding Joy in Our Troubles

John 15:4
Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me.

Where do we find ourselves today?  Are we happy with our circumstances?  These questions are irrelevant if we are abiding in Jesus.

If we follow His command to, “Abide in Me.”, we will not have a care about where we are, what we are doing or what is going on around us.  In this place of abiding, we will find our lives filled with the perfect joy of the Lord.  Whatever we find ourselves doing will be completely satisfying and will bear much fruit.  What freedom and power we find when we abide in Our Savior!!

Prayer,
Heavenly Father, we bow in awe and wonder before You.  We acknowledge and thank You for the fullness of the joy and the power that we receive when we abide in Your Son.  We pray for the strength to place all of our fears and worries at Your feet.  We ask for the courage to move forward knowing that all things are possible when we place our trust in Our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

Walking with Our Savior

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.

There is nothing that will face us 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 plan to 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.

Seeking the Power of the Holy Spirit

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.  On the other hand, 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.

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.  

Living a Life of Vitality and Might

Matthew 11:28
Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.

The moment that we receive our salvation the abundance of God’s grace is available to us.  All we have to do is to submit to Jesus Christ and allow His Spirit to guide all that we do.  It is so simple and yet so powerful.

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 half dead state that you are in.  I will pull you from your sins.  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 else behind.

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.

Seeking the Presence of Jesus

Luke 11:9
…seek, and you will find;

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.

Relying on the Grace of God

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.