Tag: creator

Open Our Hearts to the Word of God

Exodus 20:19
Then they said to Moses, “Speak to us yourself and we will listen; but let not God speak to us, or we will die.”

The Jewish people were not accustomed to going directly to God. They only approached God through their high priest mediators. They were quite comfortable in allowing Moses to declare to them what God had spoken to him. They committed to doing whatever Moses revealed to them. They were certain that they would be consumed by fire if they were to be in direct communication with the living God.

What an awesome privilege that we have to be able to go directly to the throne room of Almighty God. What an unspeakable blessing that we have been provided by Our Mediator, Jesus Christ, who opened the doors of heaven for us.

Yet we often delight in and rely on the spoken and written words of men rather than digging into God’s Holy Word ourselves. We tend to look for our own Moses. We find that the words of men lean toward messages that are meant to comfort us and not to convict us. They also tend to require less work to digest.

By shying away from God’s Holy Word, we seek to avoid the discomfort that comes with having our weaknesses brought to light by the revelation of the Holy Spirit. Even more so, we shy away from a personal relationship with Our Creator. Unlike the early Jewish people, we may not fear being consumed by fire, but we may fear having to let go of the things of this world. In doing so, we delay the sanctifying work that prepares us for a life of eternal comfort with Our Savior and we miss out on having an intimate relationship with Him here on earth.

Let us be more earnest in our reading of the Scriptures. Let us seek the Holy Spirit to open our minds to receive all that has been prepared for us in God’s Holy Word. Let us seek and experience the joys of an intimate relationship with Our Savior.

Prayer
Heavenly Father, we thank You for speaking to us through Your Holy Spirit and Your Holy Word. We rejoice in knowing that we can hear Your voice if we dig deeply into Your Word. We pray, Lord, that we will be set on fire by Your Holy Word. We ask, Father, that You strengthen us to close our ears to the messages of leniency that the world espouses and to open our hearts to Your Holy Word so that we may bring our lives into alignment with Your laws. We ask that the Holy Spirit teach us how to listen to You. May we seek and find an intimate relationship with You through Your Son. We pray all these things through Our Great Mediator, Jesus Christ.

Getting Past the Busyness in Life

Isaiah 40:26
Look up into the heavens. Who created all the stars? He brings them out like an army, one after another, calling each by its name. Because of His great power and incomparable strength, not a single one is missing.

The prophet Isaiah wrote these words to the people of his time because they had turned their attention to idols. Isaiah was redirecting their focus from their man-made idols to the Creator of all things. He was testing them. He wanted them to use their imaginations to find the might, the power and the presence of God Almighty in everything in nature that surrounded them.

Jesus has authority over all creatures and all created things on this earth. Through the prophet, Isaiah, we were directed to use our senses to consider who created everything and give honor to Him. We should test ourselves. Have we replaced God Almighty with our own idols – ourselves, our work, our avocations, our idle time?

Let us lift our eyes to the the heavens above. Let us seek to understand what a glorious being our God must be. Let us consider what power He must possess. Let us imagine the brilliance of His majestic presence. Let us know for certain how He infinitely exceeds any other being. Having done these things, let us set His place in our lives where it should be – first and foremost.

Prayer
Heavenly Father, we thank You for directing our imaginations toward You. We pray that the Holy Spirit show us how to get past the busyness of our lives so that we can enjoy Your presence in all that we do. We ask that You teach us how to praise You in every breath, exalt You in every provision and worship You in every activity. May we find the essence of who You are in our every high thought. We ask all these things in the name of Our Most High God and Creator, Jesus Christ.

The One Who Exceeds All That We Understand or Could Even Imagine

Isaiah 40:28
Have you never heard? Have you never understood? The LORD is the everlasting God, the Creator of all the earth. He never grows weak or weary. No one can measure the depths of his understanding.

If we find ourselves knee deep in doubt about our service to God or find ourselves overwhelmed by our circumstances, it would be good for us to listen to Isaiah. Isaiah reminds us that we serve an everlasting God who created all things, who possesses depths of understanding that exceeds anything that we can imagine and who is never weak nor weary when it comes to meeting our needs.

Whenever we do the work of the Lord, we are like broken bread and poured out wine. We are providing nourishment to those around us. It does not matter what we are doing. We may be serving. We may be giving. We may be praying. Whatever it is that we are doing for others can drain us to the point of exhaustion. When the body is physically or emotionally drained, the spirit can also be exhausted. To keep up our strength, we must insure that we are seeking our power from the One who never wearies. Our affections must be with Him and not with the world.

Whenever we draw on His strength to carry us through our trials, we are privileged to draw on His infinite wisdom. He is never at a loss to provide the perfect counsel to carry us through to a place of comfort. Our focus must be on Him and not on our problems.

No matter how we may be serving Him, no matter how challenged we may be in our service or in life in general, we should always be inspired and filled with confidence that we rest in His hands. There is not a single need that we have that escapes His attention. He is never weary in attending to the countless needs of His children.

Let us gather our strength from the One who never tires. Let us draw our wisdom from the One with a depth of understanding that is incomprehensible to us. Let us seek the One who created us and is our ever sufficient supply.

Prayer
Heavenly Father, we thank You that our every need is known to You and that You never weary in hearing and responding to our pleas. We rejoice in knowing that Your response to our needs is always perfect and always perfectly timed for our good and for the good of Your kingdom. We pray, Father, for the grace to never lose faith in Your faithfulness as Our Provider. We ask that you show us how to draw on the endless reservoir of the Holy Spirit within us to provide our strength. May our ears be opened so that we hear the urgings of the Holy Spirit as we humbly submit to the process of overcoming our unbelief, our pride and our self-confidence. We ask all these things in the name of our Wonderful Counselor, Jesus Christ.

Training to Hear the Voice of God

John 16:13
But when He, the Spirit of truth, comes, He will guide you into all the truth. He will not speak on His own; He will speak only what He hears, and He will tell you what is yet to come.

Our Heavenly Father has given all of us Christians the Holy Spirit to teach us the Truth. The Holy Spirit takes us beyond head knowledge of God into a personal relationship with Our Creator. If we submit to the urgings of the Holy Spirit, we will not only learn about Our Savior, but we will learn to relish and savor all things that glorify Jesus Christ.

Additionally, we will find that the Holy Spirit goes before us as a guide. He clears our path of obstacles as He opens our understanding. He leads us on the path that we should follow. He makes things plain and clear for us as never before.

In order to profit from this awesome gift of the Holy Spirit, we must train ourselves to listen for God’s voice in our lives. Listening to God is an acquired gift. It is a byproduct of discipline and obedience. We must set aside time to tune into God’s voice. The tuning comes from setting aside time for prayer, reading the Word, and meditation on the Word, as well as, personal praise and worship. When we are obedient in all these things, God will reveal Himself to us in all aspects of our lives.

Let us turn off the world and tune in to the Holy Spirit. Let us learn to listen for the urgings of the Holy Spirit in all matters. Let us be diligent in following the path that the Holy Spirit lays out for us.

Prayer
Heavenly Father, we thank You for giving us the Holy Spirit to guide us in all truth. We rejoice in knowing that the Holy Spirit will speak to us if we learn to listen for His voice. Help us, Lord, to overcome the voice of our flesh. We pray, Father, that You open our ears so that we can hear You at all times. We ask that Your Holy Spirit help us to overcome the distractions of the world so that Your voice is not drowned out. We beseech You, Father God, that You would strengthen us so that we can be diligent in the small things that we need to do to prepare ourselves to hear Your voice. We ask all these things in the name of the way, the truth and the life, Jesus Christ.

Trusting in the Father’s Promise to Provide for Us

Matthew 6:30
If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you–you of little faith?

Gorgeous are the wild flowers that fill our fields in the spring and the summer. They pop up everywhere without a hint of human intervention. They are here with us for only a brief time before succumbing to the seasons. Yet year after year, God raises them up and displays them spectacularly as just one tiny example of His loving providence. How is it possible that we doubt the provision and protection of Our Father in heaven when He is so loyal to even the small plants with their limited life cycles? Do we not have enough faith to see how much more He would provide for His children who He holds so dear as to grant them eternal life?

We have allowed the cares of the world to come in and diminish our faith in the promises of Almighty God. We have followed the world’s lead and put our faith in our own independence instead of in the hands of Our Creator. We have tried to satisfy ourselves in all the things of the world instead of the perfect provision of Our Loving Father in heaven. In the process, we have complicated our lives to the point that we cannot be satisfied.

Let us seek the simplicity and satisfaction of the promised provision that is ours to claim from the One who never breaks His promises. Let us trust that His planned provision for us is more than sufficient and is far more satisfying than anything that the world has to offer.

Prayer
Heavenly Father, we thank You for providing for our every need. We rejoice in knowing that all the treasures of Your kingdom are ours through the eternal inheritance secured for us by Your Son, Jesus. We pray, Father, that you will help us break our worldly appetites that are impossible to satisfy. Strengthen us, O Lord, that we may bear up to our daily troubles, stand up against our temptations and allow none of these things to move us away from You. Help us to seek You, Father God. We pray all these things in the name of our endless fount of provision, Jesus Christ.

Discovering Our Spiritual Assignment

Jeremiah 1:5
Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart; I appointed you as a prophet to the nations.

As it was with Jeremiah, so it is with each of us. God created us and has a plan for our lives. He has set us apart to serve Him in a way that only we can do because of the unique nature and capabilities that He has given to each of us. God draws each of us into a relationship with Him so that we can understand what He has prepared us to do. We do the things that we are called to do in response to the outpouring of love and forgiveness that we receive from Our Creator.

As we seek our place in God’s kingdom, we must be careful not to think too highly or too lowly of ourselves. We should maintain a keen sense of our weaknesses and our insufficiencies, but we should not let our weaknesses keep us back from our calling. We should fear no man and go about our work humbly as we grow in our relationship with Our Heavenly Father. Our primary focus needs to be on seeking God’s will for our lives and discovering the appointment that Our Creator has set aside for us. Once we confirm our appointment, we need to respond accordingly.

The good news is that we do not have to discover our appointment or respond to it on our own. Our Heavenly Father has given us a Helper to guide us through the process of finding and accepting the calling that He has placed on our lives. As long as we set aside time to be in the presence of Almighty God and surrender to the urgings of the Holy Spirit, we will discover our appointed role in the kingdom and rejoice in our opportunity to serve Our King.

Let us first seek an intimate relationship with Our Savior. Then let us earnestly seek the aid of the Holy Spirit to reveal the calling that Our Lord has set aside for us. Under the guidance of Our Counselor, let us move in faith one step at a time toward our appointment.

Prayer
Heavenly Father, we thank You for creating each of us to fill a specific need on this earth and in Your eternal kingdom. We thank You for providing the Holy Spirit to help us separate our own carnal desires from the will and plan that You have for our lives. We pray, Lord, that the Holy Spirit will help us to dig deep into our relationship with You. We ask, Father, that the Holy Spirit teach us how to be vessels of Your perfect love and forgiveness. We ask all these things in the name of the One who makes it possible for us to become Your good and faithful servants, Your Most Faithful Son, Jesus Christ.

Turning to Almighty God as the One in Whom We Trust

Romans 10:3
For being ignorant of the righteousness of God, and seeking to establish their own, they did not submit to God’s righteousness.

Most of the Jews at the time of Christ were more interested in an outward show of their piety than to submit to the new freedom and righteousness offered by Jesus. Jesus offered two commandments. Love God above all things and love thy neighbor as thyself. Yet the Jews clung to their traditions. The Pharisees followed 248 commandments and 365 prohibitions. There was no room in their lives for the message of the Gospel for it was crowded out by their obstinance in sticking to their own man made laws. Their lifestyles were dictated by their independence from God.

Move forward some 2000 years. Our nation was born under a call for fierce independence from a government that wanted to control how individuals related to their Creator. The early founders, while becoming fiercely independent of England, became fiercely dependent on Almighty God. But over time, Satan has done his evil work in our nation. Many individuals in America have become arrogantly and selfishly independent of God. They have built their lives around self-manipulated lifestyles that require no God and they have fashioned laws to fit their choices.

As a nation, let us firmly grasp the way, the truth and the life that is Jesus Christ. Let us pray for our leaders to make God’s Word and His commandments the foundation of our legal system. Let us once again look to Almighty God as the God in Whom we trust.

As citizens, let us keep His laws and observe them in our hearts. Let us delight in the path we follow when we follow the Lord’s commandments. Let our lives become living testimonies of His righteousness.

Prayer
Heavenly Father, we thank You for placing Your laws on our hearts. We praise the name of Jesus, who is the way, the truth and the life. We bless the name of the Holy Spirit who stands with us to incline our hearts toward the ways of Our Savior and not our own. We pray, Father, that as You touch our hearts with Your laws that You will also touch the hearts of the leaders of this nation. May we once again return to be a nation that has its trust in You. May we once again be a nation whose laws are the same as Your laws. We ask all these things in the name of the Mediator of the new covenant, Jesus Christ.

The Limitless Productivity Provided Through Our Relationship with Jesus

John 17:22
The glory that you have given me I have given to them, that they may be one even as we are one.

Jesus prayed that all of His disciples might be as one, united in the fullness of the Godhead – Father, Son and Holy Ghost. In this fullness, Jesus wanted all of His disciples to have the glory that He shared with the Father. He wanted His disciples to have the holy character that He had. He wanted His disciples to lead fruit-filled lives supernaturally inspired by the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. Jesus knew and taught that this was all possible through Him.

A life like the one that Jesus prayed for His disciples is possible for each of us. As written in Psalm 139, each one of us is wonderfully made by God. Just as God created every aspect of the universe, He created each of us to fulfill a unique and wonderful element of His plan for all eternity. Through His Son, he released capabilities to us that are beyond our imagination.

Our flesh will always limit us as we try to reach the awesome and productive place that is ours through our relationship with Jesus Christ. We will only reach the fullness of our lives when we surrender completely to Our Savior so that He can give us the glory that was given to Him. We are freed to become all that the Creator of the Universe planned for us to be when we let go of our carnal lives and grasp on to our supernatural lives through Jesus Christ.

Let us become one with the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost. Let us fulfill the unique purposes that Our Father in heaven set aside for us before we were even formed in our mothers’ wombs. Let us rejoice in knowing that we will stand in the glory that Jesus has set aside for each of us.

Prayer
Heavenly Father, we thank You that we were formed in our mothers’ wombs with the exact set of capabilities that You set aside for us to be able to serve You for all eternity. We praise You that we were fearfully and wonderfully made in accordance with Your perfect plans. We pray, Lord, that Your Holy Spirit will reveal to us the frailties of our flesh that grieve You, so that we may turn away from them all. May we grasp the fullness of the way everlasting that You have provided us through Your Son. May we be one with You and one with Holy Spirit just as the Son is one with You. We ask all these things in the name of the Son of the Most High God, Jesus Christ.

Confidently Carrying Out the Work Our Father Has Created Us For

1 Cor 15:10
But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace toward me was not in vain. On the contrary, I worked harder than any of them, though it was not I, but the grace of God that is with me.

Everything that we have and everything that we are comes from Almighty God. To speak of ourselves as unworthy or incapable to do the work that the Lord has called us to do is an insult to the Creator. As the apostle Paul states in this passage, “His grace toward me was not in vain”.

In the eyes of Our Heavenly Father, through the blood sacrifice of His Son, we are seen in the image of the Son. We should carry ourselves and conduct our work for the Lord with the confidence of the heirs to His kingdom. The children of God should differ from the sons of men. We should live our lives by the standards that we are capable of through His grace and the presence and support of the Holy Spirit.

Only through our personal relationship with Our Redeemer can we let go the things of the world that are holding us in bondage. Only through submission to Our Lord, Our Master and Our King can we overcome our natural weaknesses and operate in the divine power of Our Creator for His good pleasure. Only by His grace can we become what He created us to be.

Let us steadfastly pursue the grace of Almighty God through our relationship with His Son, Jesus. Let us confidently seek and carry out the work that Our Heavenly Father has created us to do. Let us live boldly as heirs to His kingdom.

Prayer
Heavenly Father, we thank You for creating each of us with a sovereign, gracious purpose for our lives. We bless the name of Jesus for shedding His blood so that we may be worthy to do the things that bring pleasure to You. We exalt the Holy Spirit for standing by us so that we may overcome our weaknesses. We rejoice in knowing that Your grace is not bestowed on us in vain. We pray for the strength to persevere in pursuing Your will for our lives and not our own. May the fruit of our efforts be for Your honor, Your glory and Your good pleasure. We ask all these things in the name of Your dearly beloved Son in whom You are well pleased, Jesus Christ.

We Are Intricate Pieces of God’s Divine Handiwork

Psalm 19:1
The heavens declare the glory of God and the sky above proclaims his handiwork.

It is undeniable. The heavens proclaim the glory of God. Every facet of God’s existence, power, wisdom and goodness are revealed in the starry canopy above us. Peering into the vast heavens gives us a sense of our infinite Lord, a sense of His control over all things and a sense of the magnitude of His power to hold it all together.

Our Creator provided the sun, the moon and the stars to provide light in our world. He provided His Son to be the Light of the World. Just as the Lord declares His glory through the display of His handiwork in the heavens, He also declares His glory through His Son. And the glory that He receives through His Son is multiplied over and over again through His children. He reveals His glorious Holy Spirit to the world through every single child that He has created.

The Lord uses powerful men of God to deliver His messages, but He does not use them alone. He chooses to use everyone of His children – of every age and every time – to declare His perfect love and forgiveness. He certainly does not need any of us to accomplish anything, but He loves to use all of us to reveal Himself to those who are in our everyday lives. We are the instruments of God’s perfect love.

Let us take time to consider how awesome our God is. Let us take time to marvel at all of His creation. Let us recognize we are intricate pieces in His divine handiwork. Let us insure that our lives reflect His glory.

Prayer
Heavenly Father, we thank You and praise You for the magnificent universe that You have created. We proclaim Your glory in all that we see before us. Father, we pray that You will use us as instruments of Your good work. May the world see the magnificence of who You are through our living testimony. May we be daily expressions of Your perfect love and forgiveness. We ask all these things in the name of Your Everlasting Light, Jesus Christ.