Tag: discouragement

Claiming the Power and Authority that We Have Been Promised

John 20:21
Jesus said to them again, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, even so I am sending you.”

In one brief statement, Jesus gave the disciples the peace that they needed to overcome the fear that had them gathered in a hiding place and the power and authority that they needed to be successful in their calling. So it is for us.

It is so easy to be overwhelmed by all that the world throws at us. It is so easy to become discouraged, even fearful of the outcome ahead of us. It is so easy to withdraw to a hiding place where doing nothing seems comfortable. Yet the words of Jesus, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, even so I am sending you,” are just as relevant today as they were 2000 years ago.

Are we giving back to the Lord as He has given to us? He has given us the peace, the power and the authority to do what He has called us to do. Much has been given to us. Are we doing all we can do with what we have been given? Surely we will not leave on the table the feast that He has set before us.

Let us set aside all fear and uncertainty. Let us claim the power and authority that has been promised to us. Let us go out boldly and proclaim the Good News of the Gospel.

Prayer
Heavenly Father, we thank You for providing all that we need to be good and faithful servants. We rejoice in knowing that there is nothing in the world that can stop us from bringing to harvest the seeds that You have given us to plant. Father, we pray that You give us the wisdom to see the bounty that You have planned for us. We ask for the grace and the strength that we need to thrive under the power and authority that we have through our relationship with Your Son, Jesus Christ. We ask all these things in the precious, holy and mighty name of Our Savior, Jesus Christ.

The Call and the Power to Serve

John 15:13
Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends.

The life of Jesus Christ was not the life of a mere man, but the life of a divine man who gave up His deity and His royalty in order to accept the calling of Almighty God to be the blood sacrifice for the sins of all mankind. Jesus took on this calling freely and voluntarily that He might secure our legal standing in the kingdom of God.

The moment that we accepted the salvation that Jesus made possible when He laid down His life for us, we were given the power and the calling to lay down our lives day after day for the people around us. This sacrificial calling is contrary to our human nature. Our flesh will fight us on every occasion, be it large or small, when we seek to emulate Jesus’ love for us in our service to others. And certainly, Satan will do his part to discourage us too.

Yet we can and will overcome the urges of Satan and our flesh, if we learn to rely on the urgings of the Holy Spirit. For we were not only given the calling to serve, we were also given the power to serve. We were given the Holy Spirit of Jesus Christ to dwell within us. All we have to do is let the Spirit within us flow out of us.

Let us learn to love others as we love ourselves. Let us give up our lives in service to others. Let us reveal to the world the greater love that dwells within us.

Prayer
Heavenly Father, we thank You for providing Your Son Jesus to die for us so that we would not remain separated from You for all eternity because of our sins. We praise Your Name for extending Your mercy so that we could accept the salvation that we did not earn and do not deserve. We pray, Father God, that the fullness of Your Holy Spirit will flow from us each day. May we learn to lay down our lives each day so that others may see the way, the truth and the life that is in Your Son, Jesus. We ask all these things in the name of the Slain Lamb of God, Jesus Christ.

Learning to Wait on God Appointed Assignments

Exodus 2:11
One day, when Moses had grown up, he went out to his people and looked on their burdens, and he saw an Egyptian beating a Hebrew, one of his people.

Moses had a calling on his life and he knew it. He just did not know how to handle it. Although he was tuned in to his calling, he was not spiritually prepared yet to handle the assignment. God took Moses through 40 years in the wilderness to prepare him for his God-appointed place among the Israelites.

We are all called to lead our families spiritually. We are all called to lead others spiritually in some manner. When the fullness of the calling hits, we soon realize how ill equipped we are for the work and how ill prepared those around us are to receive us. We have the vision and a limited understanding of what needs to be done. But like Moses, we feel like we have been left out in the wilderness. It seems as if God is ignoring us.

In actuality, the opposite is true. God is fully and perfectly engaged in our lives. His plan is to discipline us so that we are focused on Him and not on our vision. When our focus is corrected, the fruit of the vision is released for the harvest.

Let us tune into the vision that God has for our lives. Let us surrender to His work as He prepares us for our work. Let us confidently wait on the perfect time in which He will release the fullness of His blessing into our lives.

Prayer
Heavenly Father, we thank You for Your perfectly patient hand in our lives. We thank You for taking us through our wilderness experiences in order to draw us closer to You. We bless the name of Jesus who carries us through our discouragement. We praise His Holy Name as He releases the fruit of our lives when we are mature enough in our relationship with Him to handle the harvest. We ask all these things in the name of the Lord Over All, Jesus Christ.

When We are Called to Carry Our Cross, it Will Cost Others

Luke 23:26
As the soldiers led him away, they seized Simon from Cyrene, who was on his way in from the country, and put the cross on him and made him carry it behind Jesus.

Because Jesus was obedient to His Father’s calling on His life, it cost others around Him. It cost His disciples who suddenly were without the leading and teaching of their Master. It cost His mother who suddenly lost a Son. It cost His brothers and sisters who suddenly lost a sibling. In the case of today’s passage, it was Simon of Cyrene who bore a portion of the costs of Jesus’ obedience when he was suddenly called to carry the cross of Jesus.

Whenever we choose to be obedient to God’s calling on our lives, it is likely to cost other people. It certainly will be a dramatic shock and cost to those near us who are not Christians when we proclaim that we have received Jesus Christ as Our Lord and Savior. Our choice will completely shake up their world.

Then after receiving Jesus, suppose the Lord asks us to give up something we love doing because He wants more time with us. It is likely that we shared our beloved activity with others who will suffer from our withdrawal from the activity. Or it may be that our faithful service at church creates an internal challenge to those who are shunning a calling of their own. We must guard against the inclination to move away from our calling in order to avoid costing others. We simply must obey and leave the consequences with Our Lord. He completely understands the challenge of dealing with the cries of those who would try to discourage us from our calling.

Let us learn to accept the fullness of our calling, even when it bears some cost for those near us. Let us learn to lean on the strength and the guidance of the Holy Spirit when we are faced with the befuddlement of others. Let us pray that the Holy Spirit will open the eyes of our detractors, so that they, too, may drawn to the Lord that we serve.

Prayer
Heavenly Father, we thank You for creating us to fulfill unique plans and purposes in Your kingdom. We pray that you keep us steadfast in our obedience to Your calling on our lives. We ask, Lord, that You provide the strength we need to overcome the pressure that may come from others as they bear the costs of our obedience. Show us, Father, how to love and forgive those that persecute us for serving You. We pray these things in the name of the One who gave His life in obedience to the Father so that we may have eternal life, Jesus Christ.