That We May Know Him

2 Corinthians 1:5
For just as we share abundantly in the sufferings of Christ, so also our comfort abounds through Christ.

The fruits of our work are the outpouring of the Jesus Christ within us.  Our works are not the proof of our goodness.  They are the proof of our submission to Our Savior in every aspect of our lives.

If our works ever become a way in which we seek to gratify ourselves, they will become a burden that will drag us away from the Cross.  Our works must be an outpouring of our spirit filled love as disciples of Jesus.  Then our works will draw us to the Cross in complete thanksgiving.  Our works will be a comfort to us and to those around us.

Our Christian mindset should not be that there is work to be done and I need to do it.  Our mindsets should be that I am seeking Jesus Christ and His will for me in every single moment of my life.

Prayer
Heavenly Father, we thank You for the indwelling spirit of Jesus in our lives.  We praise the name of Jesus.  He is Our Lord, Our Master and Our King.  We seek to make Him a part of every single moment of our lives.  May everything that we do in life be an expression of His love.

Continuous Growth Through Service

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;

Life in Jesus Christ is about fullness and growth.  It is never about reduction and decline.  There is no such thing as spiritual retirement.  

God places us where we are just as sovereignly as He rules over every aspect of His kingdom.  He then calls us to serve Him.  He calls us to meet the needs of His kingdom around us.  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 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 the needs that are around us.  May we never tire of the service that is at hand.  May we grow in Christ daily as we serve You.

Let Not Your Hearts Be Troubled

John 14:27
Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid.

We are instruments of the good work of Our Creator.  We have been given the gift of peace through Our Savior, Jesus Christ.  We are meant to share our peace with the world around us.

As we work and live in the presence of Almighty God, 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 also able to live a life without fear because we know that Our God is in control of our circumstances.  We can live a life of power in the kingdom of God.

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.

Making Choices Daily

Psalm 101:2
I will ponder the way that is blameless. Oh when will you come to me? I will walk with integrity of heart within my house;

“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, this grace flows freely to us from the Spirit of Jesus Christ within us.  Yet we still must choose who we will serve each day.

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 receive the perfect gift of grace that we have been given.

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.

The Way of Holiness

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.

As children of God, we are all called to stand up in His will against difficult circumstances, just as Jesus was called to die on the Cross as part of His Father’s purpose for His life.  Jesus was able to meet the final test because He filled His life with continuous abiding in His Father’s will.

Although our flesh will fight us, by the word and Spirit of Christ, we that are spiritually blind can be enlightened.  We that are spiritually deaf to the calls of God can be made to hear them readily.  For those of us who are struggling in service, we can be made active and joyfully productive.  For those of us who find it difficult to speak of God or to God, we can have our lips opened to bring forth His praise.   We will find victory in all things if we make it a life practice to abide in the will of the Father in all matters.

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.  May Your grace be upon us so that we may be living founts of Your love and holiness.

The 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.

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.  

God had a vision for each of our lives before we were even born.  He is the only perfect visionary.  He never fails in completing His work.  He always has the perfect plans that come to perfect completion.  He is never in a rush to complete His work – only to perfect His work.  We are His work.

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 may have the patience and persistence needed to allow ourselves 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.


Experiencing The Fullness of God’s Grace

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.

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.  

Living Under the Spotlight of the Holy Spirit

Isaiah 6:5
And I said: “Woe is me! For I am lost; for I am a man of unclean lips,

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 our particular sin.

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 a single point of iniquity.  Then He will lead us to deeper revelation of the things in our lives that are displeasing to Him until we are properly prepared to serve Him.

Prayer
Heavenly Father, we thank You for 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.

A Life of Imitation

1 Corinthians 11:1
Be imitators of me, just as I also am of Christ.

In Paul’s letters to the Corinthians, he exhorted them to pattern their lives after Jesus Christ.  Paul understood that obedience to a creed simply takes us to a proper and higher level of lifestyle.  Accepting Jesus Christ as Our Savior and patterning our lives after Him will move us toward a level of perfection, holiness and purity that only He could attain and we can begin to approach through Him.

In truth, it is not good enough to be good.  It is not good enough to do great works.  The only thing that we can do that is of any eternal value is to submit our lives to Jesus Christ as Our Savior, to die of self and to take on the spirit of the One who dwells within us.  Anything less than full submission to Our Lord and Master and anything less than becoming imitators of Jesus Christ as His disciples leaves us short of being true Christians.

Prayer
Heavenly Father, we thank You for allowing the Word to become flesh so that we could see the standard to which we are all called.  May we stand before You one day in the image of Your Son, washed clean by His blood and perfected by His presence within us.  Father God, we pray that the Holy Spirit will teach us how to become true disciples of Jesus as we spend our time on earth preparing for the glorious day of coming into Your presence.   

Living According to Kingdom Principles

Matthew 5:25-26
Come to terms quickly with your accuser while you are going with him to court, lest your accuser hand you over to the judge, and the judge to the guard, and you be put in prison.  Truly, I say to you, you will never get out until you have paid the last penny.

In Matthew, we are taught that when we have a debt that needs to be paid that we should try to reconcile with the one to whom we owe the debt.  We will always end up suffering the consequences of the unresolved debt if we do not try to come to terms with our accuser.  We should try to come to terms with the accuser prior to going before the judge.

The same perspective can be applied to sin in our lives.  It was necessary for Jesus to redeem us from our sin debt for there is not a space in heaven where the slightest sin is allowed.  It is our responsibility to try to come to terms quickly with the sin in our lives.

Once we received Jesus as Our Savior, we found it generally easy to turn away from obvious and grievous sin.  It is probable that we have found out that there were areas of sin in our lives that had been hardened prior to our renewal in Christ.   It is even more likely that we have found areas in our lives that are not necessarily sinful, but are separating us from the perfection that we will reach in heaven.   It is in these areas that we find that we continue to struggle.  Thank God that He is so merciful for it is through these struggles the He reinforces our dependence on Our Savior and He draws us closer to Himself and to the time that we will spend eternity with Him. 

Prayer
Heavenly Father, we thank You for sending Your Son to spare us from our sin debt.  We thank You for Your mercy as You see us struggle against sin in our lives.  We thank You for Your grace as You provide Your Holy Spirit to aid us in departing from our errant ways.  May Your countenance shine upon as we turn away from our old lives and learn to live according to Your kingdom principles here on earth.