The Abounding Comfort of His Love

2 Corinthians 1:5
For just as we share abundantly in the sufferings of Christ, so also our comfort abounds through Christ.
As the Body of Christ, we identify with Christ’s suffering on the Cross.  We are crucified with Him.  We share in the physical sufferings of Christ because we suffer for the same cause.  He endured the highest level of suffering for the remission of our sins.  We suffer with Him as we confess our culpability for putting Him on the Cross.  As result of His suffering and ours, we are given the abundant comfort of eternal life.
On a different level, Jesus Christ considers the sufferings of His corporate body to be His own personal suffering.  He identifies Himself completely and directly with His church.  So everything that we suffer in life, Jesus shares in.  This is especially true of those things that we suffer for His name’s sake.  But as we suffer with Christ, we receive the abounding comfort of His love.
Whether we are dealing with the physical or personal suffering of Jesus Christ, He provides the strength and comfort that we need to overcome the suffering that we endure.  He supplies it abundantly so that we are never asked to suffer more than we can handle.  Through His grace we are provided hope and joy under the heaviest of sorrows and suffering.  Ultimately, we are made cheerful in our suffering so that we may be made useful and comforting to others.
Prayer
Heavenly Father, we thank You for providing Your Son, Jesus, to comfort us in all of our suffering.  We humbly ask forgiveness for putting Your Son on the Cross because of our inequity.  We ask that we may suffer crucifixion with Jesus as we die to our old selves and take on our new lives in Christ.  We pray that everything that we suffer in life be for the glory of Our Savior.  May we always be cognizant of His personal and physical suffering.  May we suffer as He suffered for the same cause.  May both the suffering we go through and the abundant comfort that we receive result in eternal good for ourselves and for those around us.  We ask all these things in the name of the Worthy Lamb, Jesus Christ.

The Lord’s Provision for Individual and Corporate Increase

1 Thessalonians 3:12
And may the Lord cause you to increase and abound in love for one another, and for all people, just as we also do for you.
According to Webster’s Dictionary, the word increase means to become or make greater in size, amount, intensity or degree.  It can be assumed that Paul was speaking to all these nuances held in the definition of the word increase when He was writing to the Thessalonians.
It is certain that Paul was encouraging the Thessalonians to continue to increase in numbers just as all the other early Christian churches were doing.  It was his prayer that the Lord would cause them to increase through the abounding love that they would have for one another and for the world around them.
It is just as certain that Paul was also teaching that as the Lord provided for their increase in numbers that He would necessarily provide them with an increase in the intensity and fullness of His love.  Thus these early Christians would have the increase in the amount of love that they would need to win the world for Jesus Christ.  It would, in fact, be their cup spilling over with His perfect love that would draw others to their church and to Christ Himself. 
And it would also be in accordance with all of Paul’s other teachings for him to be praying that the Lord would increase the Thessalonians in one other area.  Paul was surely praying that there would be an increase in the degree of holiness, humility, knowledge and spiritual joy that would be poured out upon the Thessalonians in the form of the grace of God and the gifts of the Holy Spirit.  Their increase as individuals was critical to the growth of the Body of Christ.
And so it is with us.  God calls us to serve Him.  He calls each of us to pour out His perfect love to the world around us so that the Body of Christ may increase.  Subsequent to our obedience, He adds to us and grows us according to His good and perfect will and purpose for our lives.  This process of individual and corporate increase is continuous throughout our lifetimes.
Prayer
Heavenly Father, we thank You for the good and perfect purposes that You have for our lives.  We rejoice in knowing that we will be able to continually serve You, not only on this earth, but also on into eternity.  We pray that You will show us where You are calling us to pour out Your perfect love.  Father, we ask that we never tire of the service that is at hand.  May we always increase in our service to Your kingdom.  We pray, Lord, that we may also increase in our holiness as we serve You.  We ask all these things in the name of our holy and awesome Savior, Jesus Christ.

Let Us Go From Here

John 14:31

But I do as the Father has commanded me, so that the world may know that I love the Father. Rise, let us go from here.
This passage represents the culmination of what could be considered the last will and testament of Jesus given to the His disciples before He left them.  In the prior verses of John 14, Jesus promised many things to comfort His disciples.  He also revealed a number of truths critical to our faith.
He encouraged His disciples as He told them that He was leaving them to prepare a place for them with Him in heaven.  He emphasized the He was the way, the truth and life and that the only way to heaven was through Him.
Jesus confirmed the Godhead to the apostles as He commanded them to “believe in Me that I am in the Father and the Father is in me.”  Later He comforted the disciples when He told them that the Holy Spirit would be sent in His name by the Father to be their Helper in His absence.  He emphasized that the world cannot receive the Holy Spirit because they do not know Him.
More encouragement was given to the disciples as they were told that they would do greater works than He had done because He was going to the Father to represent them.  He emphasized that anyone that believes in Him will also be able to do greater works than He did.
Jesus promised them His peace and commanded them not to be troubled or afraid of the evil that would come against them.  He emphasized that the victory was theirs because He has power over the enemy.
Jesus’ final command to them was, “Rise, let us go from here.”  This is our command as well.  We have been given all the things that the disciples were given.  As we work and live in the presence of Our Savior, we are filled with supernatural power.  Through the presence of the Holy Spirit in our lives, we are able to share the peace of the Lord with those that come into our lives.  We are able to live a life without fear because we know that Our God is in control of our circumstances.  And we are also able to live a life without trouble in our hearts because of the promises of Our Redeemer.
Prayer
Heavenly Father, we thank You for the peace that reigns in our lives.  We thank You, Jesus, for the peace that You brought us through Your shed blood.  We praise You, Lord, for providing the supernatural power that we need to live our lives without fear of any man or any circumstance.  We pray that You will equip us, embolden us and strengthen us so that we may be instruments of Your good work and vessels of Your perfect peace.  We ask all these things in the name of the Prince of Peace, Jesus Christ.

Determined to Receive the Perfect Gift of Grace

Psalm 101:2
I will be careful to lead a blameless life– when will you come to me? I will conduct the affairs of my house with a blameless heart.
In Psalm 101, David is proclaiming his desire to lead a blameless life and to lead his family in a blameless lifestyle.  As Christians, we all try to do what David proclaimed.  We plan to be in church whenever the doors are open, we plan to study the Bible daily, we plan to pray more often and we plan to love our neighbors, co-workers, strangers and even our enemies.  We plan to have our families follow our good example.  Yet we fail just as David failed.  At best, we can usually claim limited success.
David’s story should give us great hope in our failure.  David sinned.  Yes he did.  But David was quick to confess his sins and to continue running after God.  A summary of David’s writings in the Psalms could be stated as, “I am running after you, you’ve become my soul’s delight! I am running after you, here with you I find my life!”  Because of David’s desire for God, God loved David greatly.
Because of His love for David, God stood by David and saw to it that His perfect will and plan for David’s life was fulfilled.  He will do the same for us if we run after Him.  He has a plan that allows us to overcome the frailty and sinfulness of our flesh.  “My grace is sufficient.  My strength is perfected in your weakness.”  This is God’s promise to us as written in 2 Corinthians 12.  When we accept Jesus as Our Savior, the promises of the Father are assured.
Nonetheless, our challenges will continue.  Moment by moment, we can choose to submit to the will of Jesus in our lives or we can choose to submit to the desires of our flesh.  The perfect choice is always there for us.  We simply have to be determined to receive the perfect gift of grace that has been promised to us.
Prayer
Heavenly Father, we thank You for the gift of grace that allows us to overcome the torments of our flesh.  We rejoice in knowing that the Holy Spirit remains with us always to provide the strength we need to overcome the attacks of the enemy.  As we make our choices in life, Father, we pray that our allegiance is always to You.  We pray that we do not waver a moment as we choose to serve You in accordance with Your will and purpose for our lives.  We ask all these things in the name of the Great Rock in a Weary Land, Jesus Christ.

The Pathway Out of the Barren Desert

Isaiah 35:8
And a highway will be there; it will be called the Way of Holiness; it will be for those who walk on that Way. The unclean will not journey on it; wicked fools will not go about on it.
Each day’s news and headlines confirm that from a spiritual perspective the earth is a den of iniquity, a vast barren desert.  It is a rare case indeed when holiness can be found in the news.  Looking forward, the content of the news is not likely to improve but to get worse and more hopeless.  The social and political systems of mankind are offering nothing that will change things.  As time moves forward, the barren desert is converting to a total wasteland through the ongoing deterioration of the morals of mankind. 
There is a way of escape, however.  There is a pathway that offers hope for anyone and everyone who takes it.  The way out of the barren desert is through Jesus Christ, Our Redeemer.  He is the way, the truth and the life.  Because Jesus took His place on the Cross as part of the Father’s will for His life, we as the redeemed children of God can stand up and find victory in the most difficult of circumstances.
Although our flesh will fight us, by the Word and Spirit of Christ, we that are spiritually blinded by the world can be enlightened.  We that are spiritually deaf to the calls of God can be made to hear them readily.  We that are struggling in service can be made active and joyfully productive.  We that find it difficult to speak of God or to God can have our lips opened to bring forth His praise.  We that find it hard to love one another can have our hearts filled with the perfect, loving forgiveness of Our Father in heaven.  Most importantly, we that stand alone against the world can find victory in all things of this earth, no matter how trying, if we all stand together in Jesus Christ.
Prayer
Heavenly Father, we thank You for providing the way, the truth and the life that is in Jesus Christ.  We thank You for loving us first, so that we may love You and abide in Your will for our lives.  We pray that You enlighten us and strengthen us so that we may see and follow the way that You have set aside for us as individuals and as a worldwide community.  May Your grace be upon us so that we may be living founts of Your love and holiness to be shared with the world around us.  May the world be changed as we all stand together united with Our Savior.  We ask all these things in the name of Our Refuge from the Storm, Jesus Christ.

A Perfect Vision for Our Lives

Isaiah 35:7
The parched ground will become a pool, and springs of water will satisfy the thirsty land.  Marsh grass and reeds and rushes will flourish where desert jackals once lived.
The prophet Isaiah was given a vision of what Israel was to become.  It was his job to try to inspire the people to attain the vision that God had given Him.

To have a vision is to see the completed work before it is even started.  Visionaries are able to see the completed work and to devise a plan to reach the desired end.  Almighty God is the essence of what any visionary would hope to be.  He knows the beginning and the end of all things on this earth.  He has every single element of the time line of earth and the people on it planned out to the smallest degree – in far greater detail than we could ever even imagine.

From a human perspective, no visionary is successful without finding believers who will execute his or her plans.  From a supernatural perspective, Almighty God is the perfect visionary who needs no one to execute His visions.  Yet it is His vision that all of His believers will be the ones who carry out His divine plans.  It is His will that His power and glory are revealed to the world through His believers.
Our Heavenly Father has a vision for each of our lives.  He sets His vision for our lives into place before we were even born.  Being the perfect visionary that He is, He insures that each of us is prepared for our part in His vision.   He is never in a rush to complete His work – only to perfect His work.  We are His work.  We are His vision.  Our Heavenly Father refuses to see us in any other light except in the image of His Son.  There is no other outcome that He would allow other than the perfect outcome that He has planned for us through His Son, Jesus Christ.

Prayer
Heavenly Father, we thank You for creating us with perfect plans for our lives.  We thank You for Your patience as You take us through life’s struggles in order to shape us according to Your perfect plans.  We thank You that Your hand never leaves us as we stray away from Your plans for our lives.  We pray, Father, that You will teach us to humbly accept the trials of our lives which are shaping us for our roles in Your kingdom.  We beseech You for the grace that we will need to have the patience and persistence required to allow us to be molded by your plans.  May we bring honor and glory to You, Father, by abandoning the folly of our own plans and choosing Your ways instead of our own.  We ask all these things in the name of the Refiner and Purifier, Jesus Christ.

Leaving Every Concern and Trial at the Throne of God

Psalm 37:5
Commit your way to the LORD; trust in him, and he will act.
Jesus tells us to give Him our burdens and He will give us rest.  God promises to give us the desires of our hearts if we delight in Him.  The peace and joy of our Christian life will be determined by the constant application of our belief and faith in God’s Holy Word.
If we choose to involve God selectively in our lives, we can expect that the fulfillment of His promises will only be partial.  It is in the full submission to Jesus Christ’s lordship in our lives that we experience the fullness of God’s grace.  It is by putting God first in all things that we experience the joy that the world cannot provide.
To delight in God is as much a privilege as a duty.  He has not promised to gratify the appetites of our flesh, but the desires of our new spirit in Christ.  What are the desires of a new man in Christ?  They are to know, love and serve the Lord, to cast our burdens upon Him and to leave everything else to Him.  He will bring to pass all that He has in His will for us that we have committed to.
Prayer
Heavenly Father, we thank You for Your loving kindness, Your mercy and Your grace in our lives.  We praise You with every breath because each breath is a gift from You.  We seek to turn over every decision in our lives to You.  We seek to leave every trial and concern at Your throne.  We pray that the Holy Spirit will instruct us in the ways of complete surrender to Our Savior, Jesus.  May the world around us be drawn to You by witnessing the joy in our lives as we place all of our trust in You.  We ask all these things in the name of Jehovah-Jireh, the Lord Our Provider, Jesus Christ.

Happy Are Those That Trust in the Lord

Matthew 6:34
So do not worry about tomorrow; for tomorrow will care for itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.
God has a perfect plan and purpose for our lives.  He commands us not to fret or worry about our circumstances.  He promises that He will work out all things for our eternal good if we seek first His kingdom.  It is His plan that we come to Him daily with our prayers so that He may give us the strength we need to overcome our trials and so that He may set a hedge for us against the temptations that will be flung our way.
We must seek to find hope and joy in our circumstances as we learn to trust in God to fulfill His promises in our lives.  We should avoid seeing ourselves trapped by our worldly trials.  Instead, we should seek the comfort and peace of seeing ourselves gripped firmly in the hand of God – the only secure place in the universe.
Let us rejoice in the Lord Our God and allow ourselves to trust completely in all that He makes available to us through His Son, Jesus.  Happy are those that trust in the Lord.
Prayer
Heavenly Father, thank You for being the author and finisher of our lives.  We rejoice in knowing that Your hand is always upon us as long as we abide in You.  Teach us, Father, how to look past our troubles in this world and look to the source of our solutions, Jesus Christ.   We pray that our focus will always be on Our Savior and not on our problems.  We ask all these things in the name of Our All Sufficient Lord, Jesus Christ.

Why the Trials are Worth the Effort

James 1:4
And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.
As parents, we stood by the side of our children as they learned to ride a bike.  We picked them up and consoled them each time they fell.  We brought attention to the errors of their ways and reminded them of the the right ways to ride.  We went out with them time and again, rejoicing in each moment of progress, until they had mastered the skill of riding.  The process required the patience of the parent and the child.  The reward certainly made the trials worth the effort.
Thank the Lord for His salvation promise to complete every good work that He starts in us.  He will let nothing in our lives escape His attention.  He will steadfastly stand by us even as we stumble over and over.  He will pick us up as many times as we fall, even though He knows that we will never get it completely right on this earth.  He will continue to show us the error in our ways and point out the path that He has set aside for us.  He will continue to pick us up until that glorious day when we stand before Him in the image of His Son and He welcomes us into heaven as good and faithful servants.
May we learn to be patient with the process of sanctification.  May we find joy in the constant grace that Our Father extends to us.  May we prepare ourselves for the perfection in glory that is coming.
Prayer
Heavenly Father, blessed be the name of Jesus Christ, Our Lord and Savior.  Thank You for His steadfast work in our lives.  We pray that we will be quick to see the error in our ways and be even quicker to respond to Your correction.  May we completely surrender our lives to the perfect ways of Your Son.  As we rise and fall in our frailty, may we rejoice in knowing that Your presence is always with us and You will not leave us before Your perfecting work is done.  We ask all these things in the name of our Sure Foundation, Jesus Christ.

Convicted Down to the Smallest Transgression

Isaiah 6:5
And I said: “Woe is me! For I am lost; for I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts!”
When we go into the presence of God, anything that is not pleasing to Him will come to mind.  We cannot get by with a general sense of sinfulness.  The Holy Spirit will not rest until we have been convicted of all of our sin, down to smallest transgression.
When Isaiah came upon the vision of the Lord and saw His holiness, Isaiah immediately proclaimed that he was a man of unclean lips.  Isaiah knew that he would not be able to serve the Lord without cleansing himself from the sin that he had been shown.
God will work the same way with each of us.  Through His Holy Spirit, He will convict us of every single point of iniquity in our lives.  Then He will lead us to deeper revelation of the things in our lives that are simply displeasing to Him.  The process will continue until we are properly prepared to serve Him.
Prayer
Heavenly Father, we thank You for the restlessness that the Holy Spirit brings upon us when we are walking in darkness.  We thank You for the absolute focus that You put on our sins, making it impossible for us to take on a vague sense of the sinfulness in our lives.  We pray the Holy Spirit will bring our every iniquity into the light so that we may repent and move forward in obedience to Your calling on our lives.  We ask all these things in the name of the Perfecter of Our Faith, Jesus Christ.