Why Delay is a Good Thing

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 Jesus Christ, the Power of God.

Blessed Through Obedience

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 and 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.

Slaying Our Giants

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 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.

Living Under the Conviction of the Holy Spirit

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.

The Upholder of All Things

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 Upholder of all things, Jesus Christ.

Humility That Surpasses Understanding

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.

Praise Be to God

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.

Our Lord, Jesus, is the fullness of the love and forgiveness that we have been so graciously provided by Our Father in Heaven.  Our Lord, Jesus is the fullness of our joy once we receive Him as Our Savior.  Our lives are never the same once He dwells within us.  We come to realize a joy through His presence that surpasses anything that we can receive on earth.  As we count our blessings and share our good fortune with the world, let us not forget to praise God for the greatest blessing of all, Jesus Christ.
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 Jesus Christ, our precious Redeemer.

Living in Awe of Our Redeemer

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, especially the blood of the great sacrifice that washes away our iniquities.
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.

Trusting in the Grace of God

John 2:24-25
But Jesus, on His part, was not entrusting Himself to them, for He knew all men, and because He did not need anyone to testify concerning man, for He Himself knew what was in man.
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.  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 Jesus Christ, the Living Water.

Living in the Joy of Forgiveness

Psalm 32:5
I acknowledged my sin to you, and I did not cover my iniquity; I said, “I will confess my transgressions to the LORD,” and you forgave the iniquity of my sin.
In the flesh, it is very difficult to deliver a full confession of the sin in our lives.  We simply are not equipped to deal with self-condemnation without the aid of the Holy Spirit.  Our carnal minds are not able to fathom the real joy in the forgiving mercy of Jesus Christ.

It is very important that we confess our sins and repent of them quickly.  We should not hold on to them for any reason – not even to punish ourselves.  We must take God’s merciful grace and cleanse ourselves of our sins.  We must recognize that Jesus Christ has atoned for all of our sins for all eternity.  To hold on to any sin, even its guilt, is to continue to unnecessarily suffer its destruction in our lives.

Once we have cleansed ourselves of our sins through confession, the Holy Spirit will come along side us and lift us to a new, higher level relationship with the Father.  Blessed is the one whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered.  Blessed is the man against whom the Lord counts no iniquity, and in whose spirit there is no deceit.  Psalm 32:1-2
Prayer
Heavenly Father, we thank You for Your loving kindness, Your mercy and Your grace that has provided a way for us to be cleansed of our sins and freed from its destructive power in our lives.  We thank You Jesus for settling our sin debt for all eternity.  We exalt the name of Our Savior.  We pray that the Holy Spirit will help us to uncover all of the sin in our lives so that we may quickly confess it with our mouths.  May we escape the darkness that has overcome us and live in the precious light of Our Redeeming King.  We ask all these things in the mighty, holy and precious name of Jesus.