Tag: Jesus

The Fountain of Life that is Jesus Christ

Psalm 90:14
Satisfy us in the morning with your unfailing love, that we may sing for joy and be glad all our days.

There is nothing on this earth that satisfies like the love of Our Heavenly Father. He created a void in our hearts that can only be filled by the presence of Jesus in our lives. When we allow Jesus to be our sustenance, there is nothing that the world can offer that measures up.

Living under the fountain of life that is Jesus Christ is to have a future filled with joy. It is to have sufficient balance against all of our griefs and sorrows. It is the enlightenment that steers us away from wasting our precious time pursuing the things of this earth. It is the light that produces good works in us. It is what prepares us for our inheritance in the kingdom of Our Lord.

Unfortunately, too often we chase every type of earthly pleasure in efforts to fill the void in our hearts. We choose to live in darkness instead of in the light of the One who loves us perfectly. May our eyes be opened so that we see what Our Savior has set aside for us. May our hearts be prepared to receive all that Jesus holds for us. The fullness of our joy will never be reached until we turn to Our Savior for completion. He, and He alone, is the one who satisfies every desire of our hearts.

Let us satisfy ourselves in the wondrous presence of Our Savior. Let us rejoice in His perfect love and forgiveness. Let us show the world our joy.

Prayer
Heavenly Father, we thank You for Your unfailing love. We rejoice in the joy in our hearts that You have provided by allowing us to receive Your Son, Jesus. We pray, Lord, that the Holy Spirit will inspire us to fill our days with the sweet presence of Our Savior and that the Holy Spirit will provide us with the wisdom to turn away from the offerings of this world. We ask, Father, that as we receive all that has been set aside of us that the world will be drawn to Your Son by our joyful countenance. We ask all these things in the name of the Joy of the World, Jesus Christ.

The Certainty of All the Promises of God

John 16:31
Jesus answered them, “Do you now believe?

The apostles spent three years with Jesus. Yet when He was ready to leave them, He had to take a lengthy amount of time explaining to them who He was. When He completed His explanation, He posed a question to them, “Do you now believe?”

Are we not just like the apostles? Even though we have spent years in prayer, years in the reading of the Word, years in worship and years in serving God, we manage to lose our sense of who Almighty God really is and the certainty of all the promises that He has given us through His Son, Jesus Christ. Sadly, as if Jesus Christ left the earth and left us to our own wiles, we turn toward the world for answers. We somehow find ourselves overlooking that our all-sufficient Lord provided us with a Wonderful Counselor who stands ready to supply our every need.

Let us be reminded that Jesus promised that His Holy Spirit would be with us and would comfort and guide us. To believe otherwise is to have a complete lack of faith. To believe otherwise is to deny what Jesus said He came to earth to do. “These things I have spoken to you, so that in Me you may have peace. In the world you have tribulation, but take courage; I have overcome the world.” John 16:33

Let us take courage as Jesus commands us. Let us believe fully in the promises of Jesus Christ.

Prayer
Heavenly Father, we thank You for the comfort and guidance that You provide through Your Holy Spirit. We bless the name of Jesus who came to earth so that we may have peace and we may overcome the tribulations of the world. We pray, Father, that Your Holy Spirit will help us to dig deep into our relationship with You. May we dig so deep that we never again turn to the world for counsel without having gone to You first. Help us, Lord, to believe for more than we can imagine is possible through our own efforts. Teach us how to wait on You for Your good and perfect timing in all things. We ask these things in the name of the One that is with us until the end of the age, Jesus Christ.

Join Jesus Doing the Work of the Father

John 14:31
But I will do what the Father requires of me, so that the world will know that I love the Father. Come, let’s be going.

What an succinct invitation that Jesus offered to His disciples, “Come let’s be going.” He offers us the same invitation to join Him in doing the work of the Father.

We cannot possibly find a better model for life, nor a better partner for our work, than the only man who lived without sin. And what was it that this man without sin did? He loved His Father and He did what His Father asked of Him. Then He asked others to join Him in His work.

As followers of Jesus Christ, we are asked to be obedient to the Father as He was. We are asked to share the Gospel as He did. We are asked to suffer for the sake of the kingdom as He did. We are asked to fully surrender to the will of the Father as He did. We are asked to find others who will join in the work of the kingdom, just as the Son of Man did. In doing so, we join Jesus in doing the work that the Father called Him to do.

Let us be obedient to the call of Jesus. Let us join the Son of God in doing the Father’s work. Let us show the Father and the Son how much we love them by joining them in their good work.

Prayer
Heavenly Father, we thank You for loving us so that we are empowered to show the world how much we love You. We bless the name of Jesus for surrendering His life to You so that we can surrender to You. We thank You, Father, for the privilege of joining Your Son, Jesus, in His work. We pray, Lord, that You will raise us up as instruments of Your good work. We ask that You use us as vessels of Your perfect love and forgiveness. We seek the wisdom, grace and the strength to be able to gather others to unite with us in union with Our Savior. We ask all these things in the holy name of One who invites us to join Him, Jesus Christ.

Unmerited Favor Living in the Kingdom of God

2 Kings 25:30
Day by day the king gave Jehoiachin a regular allowance as long as he lived.

During the reign of Nebuchadnezzar, God punished the Jews because of their disobedience and falling away. He allowed the Jews to be overcome by the Babylonians under King Nebuchadnezzar. Nebuchadnezzar exiled the Jews from their land and imprisoned their king, Jehoiachin. When Nebuchadnezzar died, his son Evil-merodach became king of Babylon. Because God loved His children so much, He placed favor for the Jews in the heart of the new Babylonian king. King Jehoiachin of Judah, who had been imprisoned for 37 years, was given a seat of honor in Evil-merodach’s house. Jehoiachin dined regularly with the Babylonian king and was provided an allowance for all his daily needs as long as he lived.

Because of the disobedience of Adam and Eve, they were exiled from the land where they walked with Almighty God and each of us that followed them was also exiled by sin to a life outside the presence of Almighty God. But because God loved us so much, He provided His Son, Jesus Christ, to die on the Cross to atone for the sins that separated us from Our Creator.

Like Jehoiachin, we received unmerited favor. But while Jehoiachin received a seat of honor at the king’s table, we were provided unlimited access to the throne of the King of Kings. While Jehoiachin was provided an allowance for his daily needs, we received a royal inheritance of all of the unlimited treasures of Our Heavenly King. While Jehoiachin’s privileges ended at his death, we were given the fullness of God’s blessings for all eternity.

Let us be mindful of the eternal treasures that have been prepared for us. Let us rejoice in knowing the seat of honor that awaits us. Let us give thanks for the daily provision that we receive on earth and the unimaginable provision that we will receive, day after day without end, in the eternal kingdom of Our Savior, Jesus Christ.

Prayer
Heavenly Father, we thank You that You loved us so much that You gave us Your Son, Jesus, to atone for our sins. We bless the name of Jesus who made it possible for us to join You in Your heavenly kingdom. May the Holy Spirit guide us to Your throne to receive the fullness of Your blessings and the ongoing provision for our needs. May our cups overflow with Your love and Your grace. May all the unmerited favor that we receive be poured out on the world around us. We ask all these things in the matchless name of Our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

The Complete Expression of Love

1 Corinthians 13:7
Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

God is love. His love is unconditional and without end. His love for us is expressed explicitly through the sacrifice of His Son, Jesus.

God’s love bears all things. Through His love for us, He provides the blood of His Son to wash away all of our iniquities. He forgives all of our sins.

God’s love believes all things to be good in accordance with His promises in His Holy Word. He views all His children in the best and the kindest manner. Because of the victory of the Cross, He does not accept the lies of the enemy against us.

God’s love provides us with hope in all things. Through His loving promises, we are given hope through all of our circumstances for a future that we cannot see. We are given hope that we will one day live in glory in His presence in His house. We are given hope that all will be right and well with us for all eternity.

God’s love endures all things. With patience and a loving spirit, He endures all of our failures in the flesh for the sake of the Gospel and the sake of His Son, Jesus Christ.

God expresses His love to us in all these ways so that we may love Him in return and share His love with the world around us. As vessels of the love that He has given us, we are capable of extraordinary service to those around us. We are capable of bearing all things that others bring against us. We are capable of enduring all of the attacks of the enemy. We are capable of believing in the eternal good of every man. We are capable of proclaiming hope to the world that is expressed through the perfect love and forgiveness that we have received from the Blessed Hope and Assurance, Jesus Christ.

Let us become vessels of the perfect love given to us by the Father through His Son. Let us show those around us how His love has changed our lives. Let us have the world know us by our expressions of His love.

Prayer
Heavenly Father, we thank You for Your perfect love. We thank You that Your love flows to us without end. We exalt the name of Jesus, who is the complete expression of Your love. We pray, Father, for the Holy Spirit to guide us, instruct us and prepare our hearts so that we may be living testimonies of the character of Your love. May the world have hope because they hear us proclaim Your Good News and see the fullness of Your love in us. We ask all these things in the name of the precious Lamb of God, Jesus Christ.

Defeating Everything Thrown Our Way

Romans 8:37
No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.

You just found out that your company is planning massive layoffs and your department will be hit hard. Or maybe the school called to let you know that your child is being bullied. Or perhaps you discovered that your family is being ostracized because of your Christian beliefs. How are you responding to your circumstances? Are you depressed? Are you in despair? Are you fearful?

Jesus teaches us that we should expect these types of trials in our lives. To think that we will not have challenges or trials because we are children of God is in direct opposition to what Jesus teaches us. So expect tribulation, but take courage for in all theses things we are more than conquerors through Our Savior.

Do not miss the importance of Jesus teaching us that “in all these things” we will be more than conquerors. Because Jesus Christ has paid the price in full for each of us, we can and will rise up and find joy in the midst of all of our troubles. The undaunted presence of Jesus Christ makes the world’s challenges impotent. No thing nor no power can put a wedge between us and the love of God that provides our resilience. Not only will we overcome, but our faith, our trust in God and our joy will increase through the experience.

Let us stand tall against the enemy. Let us rejoice and have faith for the victory is ours.

Prayer
Heavenly Father, we thank You for liberating us from our present sufferings by providing the hope that comes from the freedom and glory that has been set aside for us through Your Son, Jesus. We exalt His precious name for making us conquerors over evil and our own flesh. We pray for the courage and the strength to face and defeat every trial that the enemy throws our way. We rejoice in knowing that the victory is ours because it was first won on the Cross. We ask all these things in the name of Our Blessed Hope and Assurance, Jesus Christ.

Filling the Void in Our Hearts

Psalm 90:14
Satisfy us in the morning with your unfailing love, that we may sing for joy and be glad all our days.

There is nothing on this earth that satisfies like the love of Our Heavenly Father. He created a void in our hearts that can only be filled by the presence of Jesus in our lives. When we allow Jesus to be our sustenance, there is nothing that the world can offer that measures up.

Living under the fountain of life that is Jesus Christ is to have a future filled with joy. It is to have sufficient balance against all of our griefs and sorrows. It is the enlightenment that steers us away from wasting our precious time pursuing the things of this earth. It is the light that produces good works in us. It is what prepares us for our inheritance in the kingdom of Our Lord.

Unfortunately, too often we chase every type of earthly pleasure in efforts to fill the void in our hearts. We choose to live in darkness instead of in the light of the One who loves us perfectly. May our eyes be opened so that we see what Our Savior has set aside for us. May our hearts be prepared to receive all that Jesus holds for us. The fullness of our joy will never be reached until we turn to Our Savior for completion. He, and He alone, is the one who satisfies every desire of our hearts.

Let us satisfy ourselves in the wondrous presence of Our Savior. Let us rejoice in His perfect love and forgiveness. Let us show the world our joy.

Prayer
Heavenly Father, we thank You for Your unfailing love. We rejoice in the joy in our hearts that You have provided by allowing us to receive Your Son, Jesus. We pray, Lord, that the Holy Spirit will inspire us to fill our days with the sweet presence of Our Savior and that the Holy Spirit will provide us with the wisdom to turn away from the offerings of this world. We ask, Father, that as we receive all that has been set aside of us that the world will be drawn to Your Son by our joyful countenance. We ask all these things in the name of the Joy of the World, Jesus Christ.

Proving Ourselves as Witnesses to Him

Romans 14:7
For none of us lives for ourselves alone, and none of us dies for ourselves alone.

To live for ourselves alone is evidence that we are strangers to Jesus Christ. If it is our main purpose to gratify our flesh, to gain material things and to become the center of our social activities, it is evidence that we are not living according to the Good News of the Gospel.

The church is called the Body of Christ because we are all one in Christ. Each one of us is inseparable from the other. Each one of us is inseparable from Our Savior. We are all different in our strengths, our capabilities and our practices. Yet we all are one in union with the Lord. We should all be looking to serve and prove ourselves as witnesses to Him. The spiritual health of others should be as important to us as our own spiritual health. The Body of Christ depends on our acceptance of our responsibility to be poured out for Christ.

No one who has given his or her life to Christ is a self-seeker. The true purpose of our lives is to please God not ourselves. Through the grace of God, we are able to identify fully with both the life and the death of Jesus Christ, Our Savior.

Let us search our own lives to insure that we are approving ourselves to Christ in service to all mankind. Let our lives be living testimonies to our thanks for all that Jesus has done for us.

Prayer
Heavenly Father, we thank You for the grace that You provide that we may not live for ourselves but that we may live for Our Savior, Jesus Christ. We bless the name of Jesus who died for us so that we may live for Him and serve Him in the Body of Christ. Lord, we pray that the Holy Spirit will teach us how to be responsible members of the Body of Christ. We ask, dear Jesus, that You help us to understand that our sufficiency is in You and not in ourselves. Guide us to the strengths, the capacities and the processes that You have set aside for us to serve You. Allow our lives as Your servants to be our proclamation of thanksgiving for all that You have provided. We ask all these things in the Righteous and Holy Name of Jesus Christ.

The Natural and Supernatural Provision of God

John 6:33
For the bread of God is the bread that comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.

The Jews were accustomed to the idea that bread could come down from heaven. But the bread that they were familiar with came only to supply their natural needs. The manna that they had received came down from the lower heavens. John was writing to them about a new bread that would come to them from the upper heavens. John was teaching them about a new bread that was not for sustaining natural life, but for the giving of spiritual and eternal life. John was revealing to them the bread of God, Jesus Christ. John was confirming that God was still in the business of provision, but He was extending His giving from beyond the natural to the supernatural. In His excellency, Almighty God was offering the Jews a bread that was infinitely superior to the manna of old.

Give us this day our daily bread. How many times have we prayed this and thought only of our fleshly provision? Have we forgotten what Jesus Himself said? The Lord Jesus, on the night he was betrayed, took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, “This is my body, which is for you; do this in remembrance of me.”

Christ taught that He is the true Bread. He wanted His disciples to understand that He is supernaturally to the spirit what bread is naturally to the flesh. As our bodies are nourished by grain, Jesus nourishes and supports our spiritual life. He is the Bread of God.

Let us remember both the natural and supernatural provision that our precious Lord provides us when we ask for our daily bread. Let us seek both that which strengthens us physically and that which strengthens us by the supernatural power of the One who was crucified for our sins. Let us give thanks for our eternal sustenance.

Prayer
Heavenly Father, we thank You for providing both our physical and spiritual nourishment. We exalt Your name for the harvest that You bring into our lives to be the natural provision for our bodies. We praise You for sending Your Son, Jesus, to be the supernatural nourishment and eternal sustenance that we need for our spirit-filled lives. We pray that the Holy Spirit will prepare our hearts so that we will receive a full portion of the nourishment of Jesus Christ for our souls. May everything we do be in remembrance of Our Savior and what He did for us. As You nourish us with Your True Bread, Father, may we provide nourishment to those who are in need of the way, the truth and the life that is in Jesus. We ask all these things in the name of the Lord of all provision, Jesus Christ.

Testing Ourselves to Find Our Idols

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.