The Most Wondrous Expression of God’s Love

Job 26:14
Behold, these are but the outskirts of his ways, and how small a whisper do we hear of him! But the thunder of his power who can understand?”

It is completely breathtaking to realize that we have only seen a mere portion of Almighty God’s power. It is quite inspiring to know that in Heaven we will be on an endless journey of enjoying and discovering all of God’s divine capacity.

Just think that all that has been revealed to us about Our Heavenly Father through the experiences of the ages and through the writings in His Holy Word is only a foretelling of His omnipotence. What we see of Him on earth and what we read of Him in the scriptures are illustrative of His awesome nature, but most of what He does each and every day is invisible to us. To name all the wondrous powers of Almighty God would be as fruitless as trying to count the stars.

God’s never ending works are completely immeasurable. They extend well beyond our ability to conceive of His might. We can be certain that what we see or know of Him is nothing in comparison of what we do not know about Him. Yet, we can be even more certain that all of His mighty wonders were eclipsed when He gave us His Son as the way, the truth and the life. With that gracious act of mercy and that unfathomable expression of His perfect love, He opened the gateways of heaven for all of His children to become heirs to His kingdom for all of eternity.

Let us press on through the work of the Holy Spirit in our lives so that we may grow in our knowledge of the Lord and all His ways. Let us become willing vessels of His power and living testimonies of His love so that others will seek to know Him.

Prayer
Heavenly Father, thank You for drawing us to Yourself through the exhibition of Your divine power throughout the ages. We exalt the name of Jesus as the most wondrous expression of Your perfect love and forgiveness. We ask that the Holy Spirit instruct us in knowing about You and lead us into a personal relationship with You through Your Son, Jesus. We pray that we will become instruments of Your good work and vessels of Your perfect love and forgiveness. May the world know You through our obedience in following Your calling on our lives. We ask all these things in the name of the dunamis power of God, Jesus Christ.

Praising God with the Love and Delight that He has Placed in Our Lives

Psalm 150:6
Let everything that has breath praise the LORD! Praise the LORD!

We are stirred up in our hearts to praise God. We are first moved to praise Him for the magnificence of His creation. We are inspired by the Holy Spirit to praise Him for His holiness and His love expressed through the redemptive work of His Son, Jesus. We learn to praise Him because of His power and His glory that we see expressed in our lives every day.

Let us praise God out of the faith that He has built in us through His Holy Spirit. Let us praise God as we are comforted by His goodness and His grace. Let us praise God with the joy of the expectation of life in His eternal kingdom. Let us praise God with the unshakeable confidence that the victory is ours through God’s greatest gift to us, His Son, Jesus.

Let us praise God with the love and delight that He alone has placed in our hearts. Let our every breath be filled with praise for Our Savior, Our Redeemer, Our King. Let us praise Him by allowing our lives to be living testimonies of the Son of God who has come to dwell within us.

Prayer
Heavenly Father, we lift our voices toward You in high praise. We bring our thanksgiving for Your precious Lamb, Jesus. We proclaim His holiness and His righteousness. We give thanks for His presence in our lives. We pray Father that You open our eyes so that we may see the presence of Your Son in the tiny things in life as well as the large things. May our every breath praise Him as we come know just how dear He is to You and to us. We ask all these things in the name of the One whose steadfast love never ceases, 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.

Bringing Ourselves into Proper Alignment with Christ

2 Corinthians 4:6
For God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.

One of the greatest beauties in all of nature is the full moon. Yet the moon does nothing by itself to generate light. It is an unproductive body of dirt on its own. It only reflects the light of the sun as it moves into its proper position in concert with the earth.

We share similarities with the moon. We are worthless collections of dirt without the light of the Son in our lives. There is absolutely nothing that we could do through our own efforts independent of God that would evoke a light of awareness in the hearts of others. Yet if we keep ourselves in proper position with the Son of God, the light of the Son will shine through us for the world to see.

Just as Almighty God created the moon to be an instrument to transfer light of the sun on the earth into the darkness of the evening, we were created to be instruments to transfer the light of the Son into the darkness of the hearts of those who do not know Jesus Christ as their Savior. May our light shine out in the darkness.

Let us become humble vessels of the Light of the World, Jesus Christ. Let us bring glory to God in much the same manner as the brilliance of a full moon on a clear evening.

Prayer
Heavenly Father, we thank You for providing light at the beginning of creation so that we could see Your glory in the world that surrounds us. We thank You for providing the Light of the World, Your Son Jesus, so that we could see and accept the way to our eternal glory with You. We pray, Father God, that You will shield us from the enemy who tries to take the Light out of our lives. We ask, Lord, that You cleanse us and purify us so that we may be lampposts of Christ for all to see. We ask all these things in the name of the True Light, Jesus Christ.

The Invitation from the Servant King

Matthew 11:29
Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.

In days of old, the yoke was used to pair field animals together. The yoke enabled the pair to work together more efficiently. In this passage, Jesus invites us to join Him in His yoke. He then points out that He is gentle and lowly in heart. Thus, He is telling us that He is a willing servant that welcomes us along side, where He will teach us about His demeanor and bring us rest. How could we pass on such an offer from our Servant King? How could we pass on the opportunity to learn from the only man who ever lived in perfection? How could we pass on being paired side by side in all things with the Son of God, the Son of Man, Jesus Christ?

And consider this…to make the offer even greater, Jesus places no limits on the time He will allow us to come along side of Him. Nor does He place any limits on the burdens that He would share with us. His invitation to be at His side is available 24-7 regardless of the burden we are carrying. He is always along side us to bring us comfort when we are under the greatest level of stress or experiencing pain at the limits of our ability to endure. Truly He offers us the endless joy that He shares with the Father. When we surrender to the yoke of Our Lord, the joy of the Lord is our strength when we would have none otherwise. When we take up His yoke, we take on His meekness, His humility, His lowliness and, most of all, His complete subjection to His Father.

Let us free ourselves from being yoked to anything of this earth. Let us humble ourselves and seek to be yoked to Our Servant King. Let us join Our Savior in His complete submission to His Father.

Prayer
Heavenly Father, we thank You for providing all that we need to get through our troubles. We rejoice in knowing that we can find joy in the heaviest of burdens when we accept the yoke that is offered by Your Son, Jesus. We pray that You teach us how to be lowly in heart so that we readily accept our place in the yoke. We ask all these things in the name of Our Comforter who rescues those who are crushed in spirit, Jesus Christ.

The Privilege of Interceding for Others

Isaiah 59:16
He saw that there was no man, and wondered that there was no one to intercede; then his own arm brought him salvation, and his righteousness upheld him.

Jesus was sent to earth to be the perfect intercessor for all mankind. He took the mantle that no one else could take. The Son of God came as Son of Man to be Our Redeemer. His Holy Spirit followed Him to be Our Sanctifier and Our Comforter. He stands forever before the Father in righteousness on behalf of all men. No human champion could ever meet the perfect intercessory requirements of the Father.

Though there is not one of us good enough to be true intercessors, Almighty God allows us the privilege to stand in intercessory prayer for others. Our privileges are not earned. They are granted through our relationship with Jesus Christ.

Intercessory prayer is the perfect service for each of us to enter. We communicate with God on behalf of others. We go before the Father in worship and solicitation for His divine assistance. We seek His will for those that we pray for. Through the process, the needs of many or met and our relationship with the Father grows to be like the relationship that the Father has with The Son.

Let us strive to be sensitive to the needs of the people who surround us. Let us learn to listen to the Holy Spirit who will gently urge us to intercede for others that are placed in our lives. Let us boldly proclaim our intercessory prayers in the name of Jesus Christ.

Prayer
Heavenly Father, we thank You that You have provided Your Son to stand before Your Throne on our behalf. We pray that You will teach us how to stand before You on the behalf of those that You have placed around us. May You open our eyes and hearts so that we may see their needs and prayerfully respond to them. May You strengthen us so that we will not falter in our prayer life. May our relationship with You become like the relationship that You have with Your Son, Jesus. We ask all of these things in name of the Divine Intercessor, Jesus Christ.

The Depth of His Love is Greater Than Anything that We Can Understand Fully

Ephesians 3:19
May you experience the love of Christ, though it is too great to understand fully. Then you will be made complete with all the fullness of life and power that comes from God.

Jesus loves each one of us unconditionally. He loves us so much that He gave up His position as Son of God to become Son of Man. He endured the pain and shame of the Cross so that He could become the sacrificial lamb that was necessary to provide the blood to wash away our sins, to make us acceptable to the Father.

He extended His unconditional love by sending the Holy Spirit to convict us of our sins, so that we would understand His offer of salvation and accept it. He continues to extend His unconditional love by dwelling within each of us that have accepted Him as Our Savior, so that we may have the strength and the power to overcome the sinful nature that still tries to rule in our lives.

He continuously pours out His perfect love and forgiveness to each of us. He places no limit on the love that He pours into us because He wants it to overflow our cups. He wants us to become living vessels of His perfect love and forgiveness so that the world will know Him and know the fullness of His love.

Let us lift the name of Jesus above all other names. Let us rejoice in His incomparable love. Let us claim the fullness of life and power that comes from a relationship with the Son of God. May our changed lives proclaim His immeasurable love, so that others may be drawn to Him.

Prayer
Heavenly Father, we thank You for the perfect love and forgiveness that You have poured out into our lives. We exalt the name of Jesus who became the Son of Man in order to fulfill our need for a perfect sacrificial lamb. We thank You, Father, for the blood of Your Son that washes away our sin and makes it possible for us to receive and share Your perfect love. We ask that we may become instruments of Your good work and vessels of Your perfect love and forgiveness for the world around us. We pray that we will live in the fullness of the life and power that is offered by You through Your Son. We ask all these things in the incomparable name of the Son of God, the Son of Man, Jesus Christ.

Overcoming All That Life Throws at Us

2 Timothy 2:1
You then, my child, be strengthened by the grace that is in Christ Jesus.

Paul wrote the words in this passage to his helper, Timothy, to prepare him for everything that the world was going to throw at him. Paul alerted Timothy that there would be many trials that he would endure. He encouraged him by reminding him that he would be strengthened by the One who sent them out to preach to the people. Paul exhorted Timothy to rely completely on the grace of God and not to turn to his own ways to find his strength.

When the worst that the world can throw at us comes along, we need to be rooted and grounded in our faith in the grace that is provided to us. Our strength and our security will rest upon the faith that we build in the strong, immovable, unalterable love of God that is provided through His grace that is in His Son, Jesus.

As we find ourselves challenged by life, we can be comforted by Paul’s instruction to Timothy. Jesus Christ will never leaves us. When we turn to Him for our direction and our strength, our path is secure. By the fullness of His grace, we are enabled to fulfill our ministries, bear all trials and afflictions and stand against all persecution.

Let us march boldly forward in our walk with Our Savior. Let us open our minds and hearts to receive the abundant grace that He has set aside for us. May His power to overcome all that comes against us be released in our lives.

Prayer
Heavenly Father, we thank You for the grace that we receive through our relationship with Your Son, Jesus. We exalt the name of Jesus, who provides the strength that we need to overcome all of the trials and issues in our lives. We ask, Lord, that the Holy Spirit teach us how to rely solely on the fullness of the grace available to us through our relationship with Our Savior. We pray that our firm reliance on Your Son will release His power and His Spirit into our lives and our ministries. We ask all these things in the name of the One who became flesh so that we might receive Your endless grace, Jesus Christ.

What Does John 3:16 Really Mean?

John 3:16
For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.

While we may be able to recite John 3:16, do we really take the time to examine what this powerful verse means to us? Do we fully understand that God’s immeasurable, inexhaustible, divine love was required to save a sin ravished world. He gave His Son, Jesus, to be the Prophet, the Priest, the King and, most importantly, the Savior for all mankind. This was an unequivocal necessity for our eternal good.

Through His unlimited mercy, Our Heavenly Father provides a plan for each of us to avoid eternal damnation for our sins. His plan is simple. We must submit to Jesus Christ as our teacher, our ruler and Our Savior. Our duty is to proclaim His name. Our benefit is everlasting life in His Kingdom.

Jesus sacrificed His life for us. He is asking us to sacrifice our old lives in exchange for a new life under His stewardship. There is really no sacrifice on our parts. What we receive is eternally greater than what we leave behind – what an awesome offer! Yet many do not accept it.

To further understand the full value of the gift that we have received, we need to understand that we would not make the right choice if it were not for the grace of God. We choose salvation because the Holy Spirit does a work in us that we could not do for ourselves. What a loving, forgiving, merciful God we serve!

As we accept the precious eternal offer from Almighty God, let us exalt the name of His Son, Jesus, who sacrificed everything for us. Let us sacrifice everything for Him so others may know Him and accept His eternal offer of salvation.

Prayer
Heavenly Father, we thank You for providing a way for us to escape eternal damnation because of our sins. We thank You for providing Your Son as our sacrificial lamb and as our living, ever present Good Shepherd. We humbly submit to You all that we are and all that we have in the name of Jesus Christ. We pray that the presence of Your Holy Spirit will strengthen us as we walk the pathway of sanctification that You have set aside for us. We pray, Lord, that Your Holy Spirit will prepare the hearts of those around us to receive Your Son as their Savior. May our changed lives help draw them to Your Son. We ask all these things in the name of Our Holy Redeemer, Jesus Christ.

Modeling the Servant Heart of Jesus

Matthew 20:28
For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve others and to give his life as a ransom for many.

Jesus Christ, The Son of God, the King of Kings, the Lord of Lords came to earth as the Son of Man. He gave up all of His royal rights to become a servant of every man. His servanthood was so complete that He gave up His own life and He separated Himself from the Father in order to take on all of our sins so that we might have life with the Father.

Once we claim our eternal inheritance as children of God, we accept that which we do not deserve and could not possibly earn except through the grace and mercy of Our Savior. When we recognize that Jesus Christ served us to the end of our meanness, our selfishness and our sin, we should exhaust ourselves serving all men for His sake.

As disciples of Jesus Christ, should we not follow the model of Our Master? We should be in constant communion with the Father, just as Jesus was, so that we can determine the will and plan that Our Heavenly Father has for our lives. We should then be servants to all men in accordance to the will and plan that the Father reveals to us.

Let us model the servant heart of Jesus for the world to see. Let us draw those around us to the Son of Man through our living testimonies. Let our modeling of the life of the Son of God be what draws those around us to Our Savior King.

Prayer
Heavenly Father, we thank You for allowing us to be bond servants in Your kingdom. We praise the name of Jesus who came as Son of Man to show us the model for living in accordance with Your will. We come before You to proclaim how unworthy we are of all that You have set aside for us to do in service to Your kingdom. We bless the name of Jesus who has made us worthy servants through the shedding of His blood. We pray, Father, that You fill us with the power of Your Holy Spirit so that we may pour ourselves out to all men. May the hearts of those around us be prepared to receive what we have to offer in the name of Our Savior. We pray all these things in the name of Our Redeemer, Jesus Christ.