Standing Firmly on His Promises

Matthew 16:21
From that time Jesus began to show his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things from the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and on the third day be raised.

Jesus fulfilled everything that He was called to do.  Even though He was tested beyond human imagination, He never faltered once in His obedience to the plans of God for His life.  He overcame all of His trials because He was one with the Father and He trusted in the promises of the Father.  And indeed, He did rise on the third day, fulfilling all of God’s promises for mankind.

It is very easy to say, “I give up.  I cannot do it.”  This course may even be acceptable if it is in reference to some earthly pursuit.  But, if what we are pursuing is of God, then giving up is denying the promises of God Himself.

We are to be anxious in nothing for God promises to take care of our every need and He promises to finish anything that He has called us to do.  The victory is in fact complete before we are even aware of our calling to its pursuit.  All we have to do is stand firmly on the promises of God Almighty.

Prayer
Heavenly Father, we thank You for providing Your Son to be the guarantor of Your promise of eternal life available to each of us.  We exalt the name of Jesus for His complete obedience to His calling as Our Savior.  We pray for the strength and guidance of the Holy Spirit so that we may be obedient to the completed purpose and plans that You have set aside for our lives.  May we stand firmly on Your promises.




Always Alert and Eager to Serve

Exodus 3:4
When the LORD saw that he turned aside to see, God called to him out of the bush, “Moses, Moses!” And he said, “Here I am.”

Moses was going about his normal business of shepherding the flock when he came upon the burning bush.  He could have run away in fear or he could have simply walked away thinking that this is no concern of mine.  Instead, he approached the bush to discover more of this mystery unfolding before him.  When the Lord saw that He had Moses’ attention, He called out to him and Moses responded, “Here I am.”

Moses was alert to look for God in his daily life.  More importantly, Moses was ready to hear and act upon whatever the Lord asked him to do.

So it should be with us.  We should look for God at all times.  We should expect to be surprised by Him showing up in the smallest details of our everyday lives.  Most importantly, we should be ready to respond to His calling.

Prayer
Heavenly Father, we thank You for always being present with us.  We exalt Your Name for being our ever present God.  We pray that You will open our eyes so that we can see You in every detail of our lives, from the grandest places and moments to the lowliest of places and moments.  May Your Holy Spirit prepare us to be alert to see Your presence and to hear Your calling.  May we always be eager to be instruments of Your good work and vessels of Your perfect love and forgiveness. 

Good Friday Prayer

Isaiah 53:5
But he was pierced for our rebellion, crushed for our sins. He was beaten so we could be whole. He was whipped so we could be healed.

On this day, I chose to pass along the Good Friday prayer of Charles Spurgeon.

Great God,
there was a time when we dreaded the thought of coming near to You,
for we were guilty and You were angry with us,
but now we will praise You
because Your anger is turned away and You comfort us.
Yes, and the very throne which once was a place of dread
has now become the place of shelter. I flee to You to hide me.
O bring us, we pray You, now near to Yourself.
Let us bathe ourselves in communion with our God.
Blessed be the love which chose us before the world began.
We can never sufficiently adore You for Your sovereignty,
the sovereignty of love which saw us in the ruins of the Fall,
yet loved us anyway.
We also bless You, O God, as the God of our redemption,
for You have so loved us as to give even Your dear Son for us.
He gave Himself, His very life for us
that He might redeem us from all iniquity and separate us unto Himself
to be His peculiar people, zealous for good works.
Never can we sufficiently adore free grace and undying love.
The wonders of Calvary never cease to be wonders,
they are growing more marvelous in our esteem
as we think of Him who washed us from our sins in His own blood.
Nor can we cease to praise the God of our regeneration
who found us dead and made us live,
found us at enmity and reconciled us,
found us loving the things of this world
and lifted us out of the muck and mire of selfishness and worldliness
in the love of divine everlasting things.
All our help must come from You.
Give back to the church its love, its confidence,
its holy daring, its consecration,
its generousness, its holiness.
Give back all it ever had and give it much more.
Take every member and wash his feet, sweet Lord, most tenderly,
and set us with clean feet in a clean road,
with a clean heart to guide them, and bless us as You will in a divine fashion.
Bless us, our Father,
and let all the churches of Jesus Christ partake of care and tenderness.
Walking among the golden candlesticks trim every lamp and make every light,
even though it burns feebly now, to shine out gloriously through Your care.
Now bless the sinners. Lord, convert them.
O God, save men, save this great city, this wicked city, this slumbering dead city.
Lord, arouse it, arouse it by any means, that it may turn to its God.
Lord save sinners all the world over, and let Your precious Word be fulfilled.
And now to Father, Son, and Holy Ghost be glory forever and ever. Amen.

Following the Model of Our Servant King

Matthew20:28
even as the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.

To each of His disciples, Jesus gave the command, “Come and follow Me.”  He not only meant for them to join Him in His work but to follow the model of service that His life exuded.  

This, of course, is exactly how Jesus calls us.  He calls us to be humble servants of the world around us.  With all that Our Savior did for us through His suffering, the shedding of His blood, His death and Resurrection, how can we deny the Lord when He calls us to serve in any measure, large or small?

Prayer
Heavenly Father, we thank You for giving us the perfect model of servanthood, Your Son, Jesus.  We praise and exalt the name of Jesus for all that He has done for us.  We pray that we will clearly hear the voice of Jesus as He calls us to join Him in humble service.  May the Holy Spirit convict us to be instruments of Your good work and vessels of Your perfect love and forgiveness.

The Truth about Easter

1 Corinthians 3:11
For no one can lay a foundation other than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ.

Political correctness teaches that there are many ways to heaven besides accepting Jesus Christ as Savior.  It is sad to say that Satan has done a remarkable job selling this line of thinking, putting a large portion of mankind in danger of missing the way, the truth and the life that is only found in Jesus.  

We, Christians, have to be just as careful not to bend the Word of God to fit today’s culture, perhaps believing that the Bible is outdated.  God’s Word is the same today as it was yesterday and as it will be tomorrow.  Massaging God’s Word to make it more acceptable to the world endangers the eternal lives of those that we may be trying to appease.  

Prayer
Heavenly Father, we thank You that Your Word is true and that Your promises are certain.  May You open our hearts to receive the fullness and truth in the precepts that You reveal to us through Your Holy Word.  May You strengthen us and embolden us to speak the truth about Your Son as we celebrate this Easter season.

The Constant Struggle

Matthew 22:37-38
And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. 

May we always be mindful that God provided His Son to die for our sins because we can not measure up to the law.  We have to look no further than the great commandment that Jesus spoke of.  We simply do not have the capacity, except through Christ in us, to love God to the extent that our love consumes our whole heart, soul and mind.

We should also be mindful that God is completely aware of our weakness.  He provides His Holy Spirit to dwell within us to guide us along our path of sanctification.  The Holy Spirit will not rest when we depart from making God the love above all loves in our lives.  The Holy Spirit will not accept us living with one foot in God’s kingdom and one foot in the world.  It is all or nothing with the Holy Spirit.  The good news is that the Holy Spirit’s job is to follow through on God’s promise to perfect His strength through our weakness.

Prayer
Heavenly Father, we thank You for the mercy and the endless grace that You provide to each of us.  Help us, Lord, to be keenly aware of the urgings of the Holy Spirit.  Help us to humbly accept the corrections that the Holy Spirit is asking us to make in our lives.  Take us, Father, to the high places that can only be reached when our hearts are consumed by Your love.

Our Place in the Yoke

Matthew 11:29
Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.

In this passage, Jesus specifies that He is lowly in heart.  He is telling us that He is a willing servant that is ready to work along side us.  He is inviting us to join in His yoke – a device that pairs animals together to make their work more efficient.  He is promising to provide rest for us when we are in need.  How could we pass on such an invitation from our Servant King?

Notice that Jesus did not place any limits on the burdens that He would share with us. Thus, He is always along side us to bring us comfort when we are under the greatest level of stress or experiencing pain at the limits of our ability to endure.  Truly He offers us the endless joy that He shares with the Father. The joy of the Lord is our strength when we would have none otherwise.

Prayer
Heavenly Father, we thank You for providing all that we need to get through our troubles.  We rejoice in knowing that we can find joy in the heaviest of burdens when we accept the yoke that is offered by Your Son, Jesus.  We pray that You teach us how to be lowly in heart so that we readily accept our place in the yoke.  

Fresh Supplies of Strength and Comfort

Psalm 55:22
Cast your burden on the LORD, and he will sustain you; he will never permit the righteous to be moved.
It is obvious from this verse that we are to have burdens in our lives.  But God in His mercy promises us that He will not give a burden that is larger that the provision that He will grant to overcome the burden.   

God gave His own Son a cup of sorrow and suffering that was so intense that Jesus sweat blood as He faced His upcoming crucifixion.  But Jesus did as the verse commands, He cast His burden upon the Father.  Thus He was provided with all He needed to face the Cross and rise from His trial in victory. 

To cast our burden upon God, is to rest upon his providence and promise.  Our Heavenly Father will not let His righteous children fail.  It is indeed His promise to us.
Prayer
Heavenly Father, we thank You for giving us cups of sorrow and suffering that we must swallow.   We thank You for using our trials to build our faith in who You are.  We thank You for insuring our righteousness through the presence of the Holy Spirit in our lives.  We pray for Your mercies to be granted us each day as You release fresh supplies of strength and comfort just as we need them to overcome our trials.  

Our Perpetual High Priest

Mark 15:33-38
And when the sixth hour had come, there was darkness over the whole land until the ninth hour And at the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, “Eloi, Eloi, lema sabachthani?” which means, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” … And Jesus uttered a loud cry and breathed his last. And the curtain of the temple was torn in two, from top to bottom.

In this sequence of verses, we have the foundation of our eternal destination laid out for us.  The darkness over the entire world represents the sin that engulfed mankind.  Jesus crying out to the Father, “why have you forsaken me?”, indicates that in taking on the sins of the world Jesus was separated from the Father – who cannot have sin in His presence.  And then, instantly and gloriously, the death of Christ opened up heaven to all of us.  The veil of the old covenant that represented the separation of God from the people, except through the intercession of the assigned high priests, was torn away.  In that moment, the new covenant of salvation was opened up to all mankind with Jesus Christ as our perpetual High Priest before the Father.

Prayer
Heavenly Father, we thank You for establishing the blessed hope and assurance of the new covenant through Your Son, Jesus.  May the eyes of the world be opened to see the way, the truth and the life that is in Your Son.  May the hearts of the world be prepared to receive Your Son as their Savior.  May the hearts of the world be molded so that they may surrender to Your Son as their Lord, Master, and King.  May it all be for Your honor and glory, for the honor and glory of Your Son, Jesus, and for the honor and glory of the Holy Spirit.  Father, we pray that You will allow our lives to be living testimony to this glorious message.

The Power of the Resurrection

Romans 6:5
For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his.

When we chose to accept Jesus Christ as Our Savior, we chose to let our old sinful man die.  But just as the completeness of death did not overcome Jesus quickly, neither will our old sinful nature be put to rest in short fashion.  And just as the power of His Spirit gave Jesus victory over His death, so will His Spirit within us give us victory over our sinful nature.

And just as the resurrection lifted Jesus’ spirit from His body to return to the Father, so too will the power of His resurrection lift us from our old lives and enable us to stand sinless in victory before the Father.  It will not be because we became better people.  It will be because we became completely new people in Christ.  It will be because Jesus Christ has taken residence within us, never to be separated.  It will be because we are sealed by His Spirit for all eternity.

Prayer
Heavenly Father, thank You for raising Your Son to meet you in heaven after His death on the Cross.  Thank You for preparing the way for us to gain our eternal inheritance as Your children through the power of the Resurrection.  Father, release the full power of the Holy Spirit in our lives so that we can surrender completely to our new lives in Christ, leaving behind forever the old man that torments us daily.