Tag: plans of God

Becoming Visible Representatives of Christ

Ephesians 2:10
For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.

We are the handiwork of the creator of the entire universe, but not merely as creatures, but as new creatures in Christ. We were prepared before hand with the capacity to perform good works for the pleasure, the praise and the honor of Almighty God. We were created not just to perform one good work but to continue to walk in a series of good works. We were created to perform righteous and holy work as visible representatives of Our Savior.

There is nothing that we will face in life that is too big or too small for Jesus to overcome for us. He is waiting to comfort us and guide us and intercede for us in every minute detail and in every seemingly insurmountable circumstance in our lives. Once we receive Jesus as Our Savior, it is His promise that He will insure that we are successful in carrying out His plans for our lives. Why should we try to rely on our own power when we have the power of the creator and sustainer of the universe available to us?

Let us seek Jesus in every element of our lives. Let us submit every breathing moment to Him. Let us rejoice, knowing that He awaits to intercede for us!!

Prayer
Heavenly Father, we thank You for Your Son, Jesus, who comforts us, guides us and intercedes for us. We pray that You teach us how to put all of our trust in Him. We ask that You shield us from all the distractions that we bring into our own lives. May we learn to walk in the ways that Jesus reveals to us in our hearts. May the Holy Spirit guide us and strengthen us as we seek to endeavor in the righteous and holy work of Your kingdom. We ask all these things in the name of Our Righteous and Holy King, Jesus Christ.

Making Jesus the Center Point of Our Lives

John 2:24
But Jesus would not entrust himself to them, for he knew all people.

Jesus knew that He could not put His trust in any man. He knew their nature, their dispositions, their affections and their evil schemes. Jesus knew what we need to know. Simply put, man cannot be trusted, especially ourselves. The evil within the heart of each man is a snare that cannot be overcome without the grace of Our Savior.

We must put our trust in Jesus Christ alone. If we put our trust in Him, we will find it appropriate to love Him above all things. If we put our trust in Him, we will be drawn to love our neighbors as ourselves. If we put our trust in Him, we will be guided and equipped to tell others about Him and to give Him all the glory. If we put our trust in Jesus, we will live according to the plans that He has set aside for us.

If we doubt the Lord in any area and put our trust in man instead, we will fall short of God’s plans for our lives. For the fullness of life, we must trust the grace of God in all things.

Let us put our trust completely in the Son of God. Let us make Our Savior the foundation of our lives. Let us make Jesus the center point of all that we do.

Prayer
Heavenly Father, we praise You and thank You for providing Your Son, Jesus, to be the foundation of our trust in You and Your promises to us. May we live each day in complete faith that Your Word is the foundation upon which our lives are built and sustained. May we face each day knowing that Your Son is the source of everything we need. May we lean not on anything from man, but seek everything from Your grace. We ask all these things in the name of our all-sufficient Lord, Jesus Christ.

Small Obedient Steps Are Essential in Moving Higher and Sustaining Growth

2 Peter 1:3
His divine power has given us everything we need for a godly life through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness.

God sets the vision for our lives and puts everything in place for us to fulfill the plan. He provides His Holy Spirit to stand by us, to guide us and to instruct us in the person, the grace and the righteousness that is Jesus Christ. There is absolutely nothing in this world that can stop us from meeting the plans that Almighty God has set aside for us.

We must, however, take all the small steps needed to move from one place to the next higher place that God has planned for us. We must be obedient to the urgings of the Holy Spirit as we overcome the callings of our flesh. We must allow the Holy Spirit to move us from a knowledge of Our Savior into a meaningful relationship with Him.

Along the way, Satan will challenge each and every step. And once we really start making progress, Satan will turn his evil on those around us, especially those close to us. Built up by our faith and strengthened by the Holy Spirit, we will overcome. As we surrender to the whispers of Our Helper, our tiny steps of obedience will take us to our special calling and allow us to live godly lives through the One who has called us.

Let us make the Lord, Jesus Christ, first in our lives. Let us learn to seek His counsel in all things. May the voice of His Holy Spirit drown out all the noise that the world sends to keep us from our manifest destiny in Christ.

Prayer
Heavenly Father, we thank You for Your promise to complete Your good work in our lives. Thank You for the faith that You provide us through the work of the Holy Spirit in our lives. We pray that You will help us to build a relationship with Your Son and His Holy Spirit who has been sent to be Our Helper. Help us to become tuned in to every tiny whisper from the Holy Spirit that reminds us of Your promises and guides us in faith on our journey of sanctification. We ask all these things in the name of the Anointed One, Jesus Christ.

Let Us Surrender to His Reign

Jeremiah 18:4
And the vessel he was making of clay was spoiled in the potter’s hand, and he reworked it into another vessel, as it seemed good to the potter to do.

God has the power and the authority to raise up nations to do His good work. He also may dispose of nations as He sees fit if they do not please Him. He certainly has the power to rule over individual lives. He will always rule and reign perfectly according to His justice and His goodness.

Our Father in heaven rules over the lives of all men through His Son, Jesus. Jesus puts His hands on each of us to insure that we are molded uniquely in accordance with the Father’s plans for our lives. Jesus is the Great Potter. He keeps His hands on us, His clay, at all times. He is in no hurry to form us according to His purposes. He knows that He will take whatever time is necessary to get us to conform to the purposes that His Father has for our lives. He will even break us, the clay, if it is necessary for Him to see us reach our chosen form.

As the clay, all we have to do is surrender to the hands of the potter on our lives. From the point of surrender, we should have no concerns for the potter will form us perfectly. We simply wait on the glory of our finishing.

Let us surrender all that we are to the hands of the Great Potter. Let us rejoice in knowing that there is no better place to be than in His hands.

Prayer
Heavenly Father, we thank You that You have good and perfect plans for our lives. We thank You for Your patience as You mold us into the good and faithful servants that will stand before You one day in the image of Your Son, Jesus. We pray for the grace to surrender to the hands of Your Son on our lives. We pray for the strength to endure through the shaping process. May we become the perfect vessels of Your love that You created us to be. We ask all these things in the name of the Great Potter, Jesus Christ.

God Rewards Starting Over

Genesis 11:31
Terah took Abram his son and Lot the son of Haran, his grandson, and Sarai his daughter-in-law, his son Abram’s wife, and they went forth together from Ur of the Chaldeans to go into the land of Canaan, but when they came to Haran, they settled there.

In this passage we find Abraham traveling with his father and their extended family. Most writers seem to believe that Terah was moving his family based on the calling on Abraham’s life. In obedience to the calling of Almighty God, they have left Ur of the Chaldeans and are traveling to the land of Canaan. But for some unexplained reason, they do not complete the journey to Canaan. They end their journey half way to Canaan. They remain in Haran until Terah’s death.

There are two lessons that can be taken away from this passage. The first has to do with falling short of Canaan. How often do we miss out on what God has set aside for us because we quit before we reached His intended favor for us? We must be careful not to rely on our own thoughts and ways and settle for less than what God has planned for us because what we have achieved is pleasing to us and seems good in our own eyes.

The second lesson from this passage teaches us that we can get up and go again even if we have given up or quit on something that God has set aside for us. Just as Abraham continued on to Canaan after the death of His father, we can continue on to the calling that God has given us after we have settled for something less. Our Father in Heaven will provide a reward for us that will be much greater than what we may have settled for.

Let us set our sights on the calling that Our Father has set aside for us. Let us settle for nothing less. Let us call on His promise to perfect His strength in our weakness when we are faltering. Let us collect the full rewards of the victor.

Prayer
Heavenly Father, we thank You for creating each of us to fulfill a special calling. We rejoice in knowing that You will stand by us even when we falter on our journey. We exalt Your name for providing Your Holy Spirit to lift us back up when we weaken, to redirect us when we go off course and to inspire us to go further when we settle for less than Your plan for us. We pray that we will settle for nothing less than our own Canaan. We ask all these things in the name of the One who provides our future and our hope, Jesus Christ.

The Merciful Hand of the Lord Never Leaves Us

Daniel 4:14-15
He proclaimed aloud and said thus: ‘Chop down the tree and lop off its branches, strip off its leaves and scatter its fruit. Let the beasts flee from under it and the birds from its branches. But leave the stump of its roots in the earth, bound with a band of iron and bronze, amid the tender grass of the field.

King Nebuchadnezzar was at ease in his house and prospering greatly. In his own words, the Most High God had blessed him in every way. But because of Nebuchadnezzar’s unrighteousness and iniquities, it was all taken away from him. The Most High God, who had provided it all for Nebuchadnezzar, allowed it all to be taken away. Ultimately, when Nebuchadnezzar turned his eyes back to the the Lord, all was returned to the King.

In the prophetic words of Daniel, King Nebuchadnezzar is the tree. God commands that the tree be stripped of all branches, leaves and fruit. But as the God of all mercy stripped everything away from the tree, he left a stump from which the tree could rise again.

Almighty God is not only the God of all provision, He also the God of all loss. In some unusual cases, He may order our losses to occur. In most cases, He is simply allowing a loss to occur as a result of our iniquities or as a result of the attacks of the enemy. Be certain that no loss can occur in our lives without God allowing it. Be even more certain that our merciful Lord, who is filled with lovingkindness, is also the God of restoration. So no matter what we are going through, or have gone through, God has commanded that some good remnant be left in us from which He can raise us up according to His perfect plans for our lives.

Let us gird ourselves with the promises that God has made to us when we are going through the greatest of trials. Let us rejoice in knowing that He is not only prepared to restore us, it is His desire that we be restored. Let us find comfort in knowing that the loving and merciful hand of the Lord never leaves us.

Prayer
Heavenly Father, we thank You for every provision in our lives. We give You all the glory and the praise for Your grace and lovingkindness. Teach us, Lord, how to give you all the glory and praise when we are experiencing loss in our lives. Build up our faith so that we may endure while You raise us up from “what is left” in our lives to the good and perfect place that You have planned for us. We ask all these things in the name of our all-sufficient Lord, Jesus Christ.

Living Under the Influence of Jesus Christ

Colossians 2:6-7
Therefore, as you received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in him, rooted and built up in him and established in the faith, just as you were taught, abounding in thanksgiving.

We are called to walk in the fullness of Jesus Christ who dwells within us. We are to mirror in every way His love, patience, humility, meekness and faithfulness in carrying out His duties. But more than that, we are to lean on Him. We are to derive from Him the grace and strength that we need to live under His influence, by His direction and through His assistance.

In Jesus, we find beauty, glory, fullness and everything suitable for living our new lives in Christ. We should not consider our own plans ever again, unless they are derived by seeking the guidance of Our Savior first. We must learn not to lean on our own understanding, but to trust in the Lord to make our paths straight.

Once we acknowledge Our Lord and receive the benefit of the good and perfect plans that He sets aside for us, we must express our gratitude for all that He has provided. For God justly withdraws His provision from those that receive it without thanksgiving.

Let us move swiftly to the yoke of Jesus Christ. Let us receive the fullness of all of His promises as we pour out our burdens upon Him. Let us tell the world of the peace and comfort that He provides us. May it all be for the glory of Our Lord and Servant King.

Prayer
Heavenly Father, we thank You for providing Your Son, Jesus, to dwell within us. Make us mindful of His presence at all times. Teach us to gladly, joyfully and willingly seek the plans that have been set aside for us through Our Savior. Mold our hearts so that we will be ready to receive the fullness of Christ into our lives. We pray that You fill our hearts with continuous gratitude and thanksgiving for our ever present King. We ask all these things in the name of the One who transforms us through His indwelling presence, Jesus Christ.

God Will Always Provide a Way

Genesis 22:2
He said, “Take your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love, and go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains of which I shall tell you.”

Did anyone, other than Jesus Himself, have to endure a greater test than Abraham? Can you imagine yourself standing over a loved one, especially your child, with knife in hand? Can you picture yourself ready to offer him or her as a living sacrifice? Can you even conceive of the idea that you would have gotten as far as picking up the knife?

To have to end the life of your child by the act of your own hand, who could endure such a test? Only a person of unfathomable faith in the promises of God could stand up to such a trial. When Abraham headed up the mountain with Isaac, he held the promise from God that God would make Abraham a great nation. Abraham believed that the promise could not be fulfilled without Isaac.

Abraham makes two comments that indicate that he faced his trial girded by faith in God’s promises. The first confirmation of his faith came when he saw the place of sacrifice from afar. He told the servants that had joined him and Isaac, “Stay here with the donkey. I and the boy will go over there and worship and come again to you.” The second confirmation of his faith came when Isaac asked where was the lamb for the sacrifice. Abraham responded, “God will provide the lamb for Himself for the burnt offering, my son.” And so it was that Abraham became a great nation as he stood with his knife ready, waiting in faith for His God to fulfill His promises.

God will test each of us. He wants us to build up our faith in Him. He wants us to live with complete confidence that He will provide all that we need to endure that which we may feel is unbearable.

Let us take strength from the story of Abraham and Isaac. Let us rejoice in knowing that God will always provide a way for us to fulfill the plan that He has for our lives and for the lives of those that we serve.

Prayer
Heavenly Father, we thank You for covering us in the many promises of comfort, provision and strength that You have revealed to us in Your Holy Word. Test us, O Lord, to build our faith in who You are. Strengthen us, O Lord, that we may pass the tests that prepare us for our place in Your eternal kingdom. Comfort us as we endure the trials. Build up in us the faith of Abraham. May we rejoice in seeing the fruits of our faith. We ask all these things in the name of the Author of Our Faith, Jesus Christ.

The Victories That Are Secured by Obedience

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. Through the process, it was a blessing to us all that Jesus did not listen to the voice of others around Him. Peter specifically rebuked Jesus for proclaiming such a tragic ending to His life. Jesus let Peter know that he spoke Satan’s language when he suggested that Jesus step away from His mission.

It is very easy to say, “I give up. I cannot do it.” This is especially true when we allow others in our lives to suggest that the values of man should be given more weight than the callings of God upon our lives. In essence, if what we are pursuing is of God, then giving up is denying the promises of God Himself.

Jesus 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. In the same way, 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. Our victories are in fact complete before we are even aware of our calling to their pursuit.

Let us stand firmly on the promises of God Almighty. Just as Jesus did, let us surrender in complete obedience to God’s calling on our lives.

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. We ask these things in the name of the One who secured our victories on the Cross, Jesus Christ.

The Transformation of the Mind

John 16:12
I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now.

Almighty God has created each of us to fulfill a unique need in His kingdom. His plan for our lives is much, much bigger than anything that we have ever imagined. We are just not ready to take it all in. Our flesh simply gets in the way with what the Holy Spirit has to teach us. And of course, for many of us, we dig our own holes which makes the process even harder. Nonetheless, for those that have accepted Jesus Christ as their Savior, His spirit will provide our strength where we are weak.

Even the apostles were not ready to receive and understand all the teachings of Jesus. Without the filling of the Holy Spirit, their flesh simply could not handle what was going to be revealed to them in the spirit. It was only after Pentecost that the apostles were able to boldly proclaim the full gospel.

What a wonderful transformation when the Holy Spirit opens our minds to receive and understand the things that made no sense to us or had no value for us before. In the blink of an eye, our blinders are removed. Without even being cognizant of the process, we begin to assimilate truths that had been unavailable to us before. Then, just as suddenly we are able to share them with those who have been prepared to receive them.

Let us prepare our hearts to receive all that the Holy Spirit has for us. Let us fulfill the plans that Almighty God has created us to fulfill. Let us become all that God has created us to be.

Prayer
Heavenly Father, we thank You for the Wonderful Counselor that You have provided to guide and instruct us. We humbly ask that You prepare us to receive all that the Holy Spirit has to teach us. May we become willing vessels, ready to take on the fullness of Your living water. We pray that we will be eager to have the living water pass through us to bring life and enlightenment to those around us. We ask all these things in the name of the Living Water, Jesus Christ.