Tag: faith

Seeking the Simplicity and Satisfaction of a Life in Accordance with the Plans of God

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.

Step by Obedient Step – the Challenge of Our Faith

Hebrews 11: 8
It was by faith that Abraham obeyed when God called him to leave home and go to another land that God would give him as his inheritance. He went without knowing where he was going.

What an amazing example of living in faith is provided by the story of Abraham. It was a great step of faith for Abraham to leave his family and his homeland in response to God’s calling on his life. He did not even know where God was leading him. Yet he faithfully followed the path that the Lord laid out for him. And for his simple act of faith, he became the father of all nations.

Abraham was called out of his own country. He was called away from his family. He was called away from his father’s house. He was called from the only culture that he knew. It is not likely that God will ask us to follow a similar plan as Abraham. He is not likely to call us away from relatives, friends and acquaintances. He is not likely to call us away from the neighbors and neighborhoods where we find our comfort. In fact, it is quite likely that these are the places that He will call us to serve. But just like Abraham, we can be assured that we will be challenged in some major way by our calling.

In challenging each of us, God will ask us to take simple steps of faith. As we respond obediently, He will put before us the next step which usually will require a little more faith in Him and a little more of letting go of faith in ourselves. We may not become a father of a nation by yielding to our calling, but we will surely gain more than we ever imagined.

Let us step out in faith when we sense the urging of the Holy Spirit. Let us follow God’s calling even when we are not sure where we are going. Let us reap the harvest of our journey.

Prayer
Heavenly Father, we thank You for having a unique plan for each of us. We rejoice in knowing that the reward that You have prepared for us if we respond to Your calling is beyond our imagination. We pray, Father, that you will give us the strength and guidance to follow the path that you have laid out for each of us. Even though we may not know our destination, Lord, may your Holy Spirit keep us steadfast in our journey to stand before you in the image of Your Son. We pray these things in the precious name of the author of our faith, Jesus Christ.

The Pleasing Words of Men is no Substitute for the Inerrant Word of God

1 Corinthians 2:1
When I first came to you, dear brothers and sisters, I didn’t use lofty words and impressive wisdom to tell you God’s secret plan.

Persuasion is man’s means of swaying the thoughts of other fellow men and women. By nature and certainly by cultural pressure, when most of us try to persuade anyone on any topic, we are usually careful not to offend anyone if we can avoid it. One of the biggest mistakes that we make as Christians is to carry over this mindset when we talk about the salvation message with non-believers. If we are not careful, we end up manipulating the salvation message to please the ears of the listener. All the while, we are actually withholding from them the truth and the power that is in the Word of God.

The apostle Paul in his teachings to the Corinthians emphasized the point that the power to convert was not in fanciful speech. He knew that the people would not be stable in their faith if they were resting on the words of men and not on the power of God’s words. He also knew and taught that His teaching had no power without the inspiration of the Holy Spirit.

Be certain that Jesus did not come to earth worried about His message being politically correct. In fact, He stated clearly that His teachings would be sure to divide households. Know that politically correct messages will get no one into heaven, nor will they keep anyone out of hell. Only the Word of God inspired by the Holy Spirit and delivered by His servants produces the supernatural power that leads to real persuasion and conversion.

Let us be sure to boldly proclaim the powerful saving Words of the bible and not our own words designed to tickle the ears of others. Let us ask the Holy Spirit to prepare the hearts of those around us to receive and accept the Truth.

Prayer
Heavenly Father, we thank You for the power that Your Holy Word has in transforming our lives. We rejoice in knowing that we are serving You and pleasing You when we share Your inerrant Word with others. We pray that the Holy Spirit will inspire us to be bold in proclaiming the Good News of the Gospel and direct us in choosing the right message for each time we are in a position to share our testimony. We ask, Father, that You prepare the hearts of those around us to receive the truth and respond to Your message of salvation. We ask all these things in the name of the Word of God, Jesus Christ.

An Act of Supernatural Love and Endowment

1 John 4:9
In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him.

Christmas is the celebration of a spectacular supernatural event. Our Heavenly Father sent His Son to this earth so that we might have eternal life through Him. This event was one that could not be accomplished by the efforts of man. Only God could orchestrate such an act of love and supernatural endowment.

There are scoffers around each Christmas season who try to deny the great gift that has been provided for all mankind to receive. They try to logically dissuade others from having faith in the true story of Christmas. Yet to do so, they must try to make others believe that the God who directs the earth in its orbit, who feeds the burning furnace of the sun and who upholds the entire universe itself will prove unable to fulfill His own promises.

Is it possible that the One who hangs the world on nothing is unable to deliver on His promises to His children? Does He not hold the winds and the clouds and the oceans themselves in His hand? How can He fail His children? We have every reason to be absolutely firm in our faith.

Let us celebrate openly and with great fervor the birth of Our Lord, Jesus Christ. Let us freely share the love that He has manifest in us.

Prayer
Heavenly Father, we thank You for sending Your Son to live in this world so that we may be supernaturally endowed with His presence in our lives and we may become heirs to Your eternal kingdom. We bless the name of Your Son, Jesus, who became poor so that we may have all the treasures of heaven. We rejoice in knowing that the Holy Spirit is with us each day to provide us with the peace that only Jesus can offer. We pray that as we receive these wondrous gifts that we surrender to the reign of Our Savior in our lives. May our lives become our love gifts to You, Father. May the world know us by our fervor for Our Savior. We ask all these things in the name of Our New Born King, Jesus Christ.

Doubt Should Never Be An Option

Matthew 16:8
But Jesus, aware of this, said, “O you of little faith, why are you discussing among yourselves the fact that you have no bread?

The bread of life, which is Jesus Christ, is within us when we receive Our Lord as Our Savior. The living bread is ever present. He is never removed. He is always available to us and to those around us. The only restrictor of the living bread is our own faith.

When we have no faith in the indwelling power of Our Lord, we build a hardened silo from which no provision can flow. With little faith, we restrict what can be released from our lives. With great faith, we can release an unlimited distribution of power, protection and provision into our lives and into the lives of those who surround us.

Jesus teaches in today’s passage that doubt should never be an option for a believer under any circumstances. Jesus loved us so much that He was willing to die for us. How could we ever doubt His presence and His power in our lives? How could we ever fear with the King of Kings as our protector? His countenance shines upon us and His grace is always with us.

Let us live in the triumphant belief of who Our Lord says He is. Let our faith be not in ourselves, nor in the world, but in the One from Whom our salvation springs.

Prayer
Heavenly Father, we thank You for giving us the Cornerstone of our faith, Your Son, Jesus Christ. With His death on the Cross, we received victory over all evil. We bless the name of Our Savior who made it possible for us to live our lives without fear. May we live by the faith that we have been given. We pray, Lord, that You will give us the wisdom and the strength to yoke ourselves to Jesus Himself. May we learn to live in the fullness of the One who dwells within us. We ask all these things in the name of the strength of our lives, the Bread of Life, Jesus Christ.

Faithful Obedience Releases God’s Supernatural Plan for Our Lives

Genesis 22:12
He said, “Do not stretch out your hand against the lad, and do nothing to him; for now I know that you fear God, since you have not withheld your son, your only son, from Me.”

We are going to experience trials in our lives. This is as certain in our lives as death and taxes. Some of the trials will be small and some will be so big that we will nearly faint. In each case, no matter the weightiness, the real test will be the test of our faith.

Who of us could have answered God’s request to sacrifice a child like Abraham did? It was his faith that allowed him to go. Notice what Abraham said to the men who were with him before he headed up the mountain to the place of sacrifice. “I and the boy will go over there and worship and come again to you.” Abraham was resting on God’s promise to make him the head of many nations. Abraham knew that this was only possible through his son. Abraham had the faith that in some manner God would provide a way through this test.

Trials and tests are God’s way of drawing us close to Him and teaching us His ways. It is through the trials and tests that our faith is built up so that we can become the person that God has intended for us to be. God may not have created us to be a leader of a nation like Abraham, but He does have a specific plan for our lives. We can only fulfill this plan by putting all of our faith in the One in whose hands we rest.

Let us put all of our faith in the hands of Our Creator. Let us fulfill everything that He has set aside for us through our faithful obedience. Let us rejoice as our bountiful faith releases God’s supernatural plan for our lives.

Prayer
Heavenly Father, we thank You for each trial that You allow in our lives. We rejoice in knowing that we are resting in Your hands as we go through each of these challenges to our faith. We ask, Lord, that we will have the faith of Abraham. We pray that we will not turn away from any test that you set before us. May our character and our faith be built up in accordance with Your perfect plans for our lives. We ask these things in the name of the One upon Whom our faith is built, the Chief Cornerstone, Jesus Christ.

Hope for Productive and Fruitful Lives

2 Thessalonians 2:16-17
Now may our Lord Jesus Christ himself and God our Father, who loved us and by his grace gave us eternal comfort and a wonderful hope, comfort you and strengthen you in every good thing you do and say.

When we are in full submission to Jesus Christ, we have prepared ourselves to allow the bountiful power of the Holy Spirit to be released in our lives and through us to the world around us. At this juncture, we are capable of doing all that God has created and willed for our lives. In this process, we have to learn that God is using us from His personal standpoint. All that He asks is that we trust in Him.

Even when it seems to us that our lives are a tangled mess, there is always the wonderful hope in the promises of Almighty God. Through His grace and His mercy, we will come through whatever trials that we see ourselves caught in.

Let us find our comfort and our strength by listening for and responding to the urgings of the Holy Spirit. Let us be diligent in listening and responding to the Holy Spirit. Let us give the honor and the glory to Almighty God as our lives become productive and our fruit for the kingdom becomes plentiful.

Prayer
Heavenly Father, we thank You for the free grace and mercy that our hopes are based on. We praise the name of Jesus, who is the fountain of all the good that we have hope for. Father, we pray for the strength to overcome our doubtful minds that make us halting in our duties. May You grant us the unwavering faith that we need to set aside our own self-reliance and to learn to trust in Your promises. May we be comforted in our hearts as we await all the good things that You have already set aside for us and our loved ones. We ask all these things in the name of the One who is the complete fulfillment of all of Your promises, Jesus Christ.

Almighty God Understands Our Weakness

1 Thessalonians 5:24
He who calls you is faithful; he will surely do it.

The God who calls us to our Christian faith is faithful to fulfill His promises to us. From the moment that we surrender to His Son, Jesus, as Our Savior, He commences a good work in us that He promises to finish. He will be steadfast in His continuous work of sanctification in our lives.

New government authority, new boss, new co-worker, new neighbor, new acquaintance, new friend – not a single one is new by chance. God has placed each of those that are around us to teach us new things about ourselves. It seems impossible that such a plan could be put in place for each of us. But our God is a God of the impossible. He has no limits to His power and His authority. He loves us so much that He goes to an extraordinary, nearly unimaginable, level to insure that we are surrounded by a host of intercessors. These intercessors in our lives are placed there for one reason. God in His mercy and His grace wants to insure that we are properly prepared to spend eternity with Him.

In the life of the believer, there is no such thing as chance. Our sovereign God is always in total control of everything. Do not miss the flip side of our relationships with our surrounding intercessors. God wants us to join Him in the work that He is doing in the lives of those around us. We are simultaneously the other half of all of these relationships in our lives. We become the new boss, the new co-worker, the new neighbor, the new acquaintance, the new friend to someone else. And again, not a single one of the new relationships is by chance. God has purposely placed us in each relationship to be a giver as well as a receiver of His intercessory work in our lives.

Let us embrace every relationship in our lives. Let us be proactive in gleaning the good things from each person God has placed around us. Let us also be determined to be productive intercessors for each person that God has put in our lives.

Prayer
Heavenly Father, we thank You for Your providence in our lives. We rejoice in knowing that You understand our weaknesses and provide intercessory support through those that You place around us. We pray, Father, that Your Holy Spirit will alert us to the intercession that You have planned for us. May we learn to grow through the circumstances that engulf us from time to time. May we be gracious and willing receivers of the intercession that You have placed in our lives. We pray that in turn You will provide the wisdom that we need to be fruitful intercessors for others as we engage them in the journey that is life. We ask all these things in the name of Our Most High Intercessor, Jesus Christ.

Our Weapons of Resistance Against the Enemy

James 4:7
Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.

Satan is to be looked upon as an enemy, one who must be watched and guarded against. Faith, humble prayers and heavenly wisdom are are our weapons of resistance.

Man without Jesus Christ is not capable of standing against the powers that seek to devour and destroy him. In the darkness of the flesh, we are unable to see that we are being lead into lives that will never be totally satisfying. We cannot see that our lives are much less than they could be, much less than they should be.

But when the light of Jesus Christ comes into our lives, we see how life can be, how life should be, how our lives are renewed in the spirit of Our Savior. We come to recognize that the renewal of our minds and our spirits is only available to us through our submission to Our Savior. We come to discover that the dominating power of the world, our flesh and Satan himself are defeated through the victory that Jesus Christ won for us on the Cross.

Let us rightfully proclaim our victory over the enemy. Let us boldly stand against the one who is trying to devour and destroy us. Let us fearlessly claim what Jesus provided for us on the Cross.

Prayer
Heavenly Father, we thank You for allowing us to come to You to gain the armor that we need to defend ourselves from the enemy who comes to defeat us. We thank You for the weapon of prayer, the sword of Your Holy Word and the shield of faith. We rejoice in knowing that the victory is ours because Your Son, Jesus, claimed it for us forever when He died on the Cross for our sins. We humbly come before You, Lord, to proclaim that we are laying aside our own strength so that we may dwell in the protection of Your shadow. We ask all these things in the name of our Living Shield, Jesus Christ.

Allowing the Grace of God to be Manifested in Our Lives

Philippians 4:13
I can do all things through Christ who gives me strength.

The apostle Paul knew what it was to receive God’s grace. Through his great faith he delighted in his weaknesses, he delighted in the insults that were tossed his way, he delighted in his hardships and he delighted in his persecutions. Paul knew the secret. He rested on God’s promises to perfect His strength in Paul’s weaknesses, in Paul’s trials and in Paul’s tribulations.

Our God in heaven is ready to do the same for us. Our Heavenly Father promises to provide all that we need to overcome every hard thing that we face and to provide all that we need to gain victory over the evil that surrounds us. He does not promise to take us out of the battle. Just as He used Paul’s thorn to keep him mindful of his needs in Christ, He will allow things in our lives to keep us mindful of how needy we are.

We will find victory when we learn to surrender like Paul did. We will find peace in all circumstances when we recognize God’s grace is sufficient. We will become stronger than we ever imagined when we allow the grace of God to be manifested and magnified in our lives.

Let us cast all of our cares upon the Lord. Let us trust in Him completely. Let us exalt His name as we confidently wait on our victory.

Prayer
Heavenly Father, we thank You for the all-sufficient grace that You promise us. We bless the name of Jesus who insured our victory on the Cross. We rejoice in the presence of the Holy Spirit, who guides us, instructs us and strengthens us through our trials. We pray, Father, that we will learn to have faith in You as Paul had faith in You. We ask for the courage to surrender to Your Holy Spirit through all the trials that we face. We pray that world will see and be drawn to the manifestation and magnification of Your grace in our lives. We ask all these things in the name of the Lord Mighty in Battle, Jesus Christ.