Through Jesus' Love

Or suppose a woman has ten silver coins and loses one. Won’t she light a lamp and sweep the entire house and search carefully until she finds it?

Where will the woman look first.  She will go back to the places where she thinks that she lost the coin.

So it is with us when we have lost our zeal for Christ.  We should go back to the place where we lost it.  Did we lose it because we cut back on our prayer time?  We need to return to our most robust prayer habits.  Did we lose it because we stopped studying the Word of God?  We should return to our diligent studies.  Did we lose it because of our habitual sin?  We need to repent and surrender to Christ.

Prayer
Heavenly Father, I have drifted away from my zeal for Your Son.  Help me return to the place where I lost Him.  Show me how to invigorate the good discipline in my life and give me the strength to walk away from the torments of my flesh. Bring me back to the Light of the World, Jesus Christ.  

Praise God.  He is so good.  Through the sacrifice of His Son, He provides our security for yesterday, today and tomorrow.  

He forgives our sins, providing propitiation for our past.  He sets our future securely in His hand.  He allows us to live today in freedom, in peace and in service to His calling on our lives.  We can move into every new year knowing that God will be with us and that His Holy Spirit will help us let loose of the things of this world so that we can grasp the things of His kingdom.

The sanctification process is not for the proud.  It is a humbling experience as God reveals to us everything in our lives that falls short of His perfect plan for our lives.  As we mature as Christians, it is generally not the “don’t do” sins that are most often exposed.   It is the revelation that we are falling short of what God has called us to do that really comes to light.

Jesus only did in His life what the Father called Him to do.  So it will be in our lives as we die of self and become like the one that dwells within us.

What is it that God is pressing on your heart?  You may not have a gigantic vision, but there is always something that God places as a desire in our hearts.  In all likelihood, it is something that we keep to ourselves.  In all likelihood, we have been waiting faithfully to see the fulfillment of our vision.  In all likelihood, it is challenging our faith that it will ever happen.

We cannot give up on the visions that God has given us for our God is a faithful God.  If He has placed a vision or desire on our hearts, He will deliver it in His perfect timing.  Have faith for He is worthy.

Small children run to their parents for everything.  Whether they need comfort, provision or direction, they immediately seek the arms of their parents.

They do not question the authority or power of their parents.  They assume the parents to be the ones in control and that their parents have the power to provide whatever is needed or desired.  More than anything, they do not see themselves as capable of doing more for themselves than their parents can do for them.  This complete reliance on the parents by their children is what God seeks from all of His children.

Receiving one’s salvation is a nexus point in life.  It is the point at which the individual settles his or her destiny for all eternity.  It is the point from which many battles of good versus evil will take place.  It is the point from which every victory over sin is anchored.

Once the individual selects Christ as Savior, the attacks of the enemy are relentless.  Every day the Christian battles with the flesh over the issue of submission.  Will it be submission to the flesh or will it be submission to Jesus as Lord, Master and King?  Aided and strengthened by the Holy Spirit, continually choosing submission to Jesus leads to a life of victory and kingdom living here on earth.

We could not go to God, so He came to us in the flesh.  He came to show us the way to join Him for all eternity.  He gave us the perfect gift…a gift so rare and wonderful that the world has celebrated His birth year after year for centuries.

Christ departed His heavenly throne and was born in the flesh.  He died and rose from the dead, returning to His place in heaven.  In so doing, He prepared a way for those born of the flesh with no rights to the eternal kingdom of God to be able to claim an eternal inheritance in heaven.   This gift beyond compare is ours when we die of self and accept the gift of salvation from Our Savior King.

As Christians, the Holy Spirit dwells within us.  Each day He is perfecting His strength in our weaknesses.  This is promised according to God’s Holy Word in 2 Corinthians 12:9.

And he said unto me, my grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness.

As time moves along, we continuously climb up God’s holy mountain.  We move from one high spot to another, stopping along the way to gain the strength provided by the Holy Spirit.  Our only delays are when Jesus knows that we are not strong enough to move higher.  If we remain in submission to Our Lord’s reign in our lives, there will be nothing to stop us from reaching the top.

As written in Isaiah 9:6, “For unto us a Child is born.  Unto us a Son is given.  And the government will be on His shoulders.  And His name will be called Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.”  King James is one of the few translations that separates “Wonderful” from “Counselor”.   It thereby attaches wonderful to all of the other names and attributes of Jesus Christ.  In Hebrew, the word wonderful means “of miracles, of wonders”.

There is much that is wonderful about the the gift that we receive in Christ.  We are given our salvation which provides the miraculous cleansing of our souls and the miraculous ability to die to self and to self-identify with Jesus.  What a wonderful gift that we have been given – one that we cannot receive apart from Jesus.