Devotions - Prayer
Weeping may endure for a night, but joy comes in the morning (Ps 30:5).
When a measured assault enters our life we often respond in two different ways. The pain caused by the assault drives us to a place of either:
• Embracing the pain or
• We embrace anything that will make us feel better.
That becomes the entry door to a false lover.
All of us are trapped by addiction to a desire for something less than God.
For many women, that something less is relational control. “I will not be hurt again and I will not let people I love be hurt. I’ll see to it that what I fear never happens again.” They therefore live in terror of vulnerably presenting themselves to anyone and instead become determined managers of people. Their true femininity remains safely tucked away behind the walls of relational control.
More common in men is an addiction to non-relational control. “I will experience deep and consuming satisfaction without ever having to relate meaningfully with anyone.” They keep things shallow and safe with family and friends and feel driven to experience a joy they never feel, a joy that only deep relating can provide. Their commitment is twofold: to never risk revealing inadequacy by drawing close to people and, without breaking that commitment, to feel powerful and alive. Power in business and illicit sex are favorite strategies for reaching that goal.
Many times we seek to deal with our pain through various forms of addictions designed to resolve the inner pain we feel.
All addictions represent a counterfeit desire for genuine love and intimacy.
We conclude these lesser desires are legitimate needs instead of band-aids of our fleshly soul.
These addiction lovers become isolation chambers created for ourselves designed to mask our pain.
Every human being has a desire to be loved and needed. When we do not feel loved and needed because of some event in our lives we seek to reconcile this emotional pain.
So, if you are fighting any kind of addiction–over control of people, sex, drugs, alcohol, workaholism, shopping, overeating–you are seeking to fill a void only God can fill.
Pain has a useful purpose in our lives. Facing it, rather than medicating it, allows us to move to a place of discovering a capacity for a different kind of joy. That is the purpose of pain.
We must let inner pain do its work by experiencing it fully. It feels like a contradiction to actually embrace the pain, but it is the only remedy for moving past it so it can yield its purpose in our lives.
Otherwise we will remain unaware of our deeper desire for God and be driven toward a false lover.
Read Isaiah 53:4-6 Lord, Thank you for the pain and suffering You went through which resulted in forgiveness made available to all people. Lord thank you for my past pain which helped me to bring me back into Your fold. Amen
Read More“Confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed” (James 5:16a NIV).
Revealing your feeling is the beginning of healing.
The Bible says, “Confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed”(James 5:16a NIV). So let me ask you: Do you want to be forgiven? That’s the first step. Do you want to be emotionally healed? That’s something different.
If you just want to be forgiven, you just confess your sin to God. But if you want to get over this and get on with your life, you need emotional healing. That means you need to tell somebody else.
You say, “Why? Why do we do this? Why does God want me to drag somebody else into this?” I’ll tell you why. Because God knows that the root of our problem is relational. We don’t even realize that. Our messed-up relationships with other people are the root of our problems.
When we don’t have one person in our lives that we’re completely honest with, we wear masks. We pretend and we fake it and we’re dishonest with each other and we play games and we’re hypocrites. We pretend that we have it all together, when everybody knows we don’t. We act like it’s all right when it’s not.
What does that do?
- It isolates you from other people.
- It prevents intimacy.
- And it keeps you from the deepest level of love.
- You cannot love fully with guilt in your heart.
You are only as sick as your secrets. The fact is, the more you hide, the sicker you get. On the other hand, revealing your feeling is the beginning of healing.
There’s something about telling another person that uncorks the pressure valve. When you let the boogeyman out of the closet, all of a sudden, the boogeyman isn’t so big any more.
If you want healing, you’ve got to stop concealing. The very thing that you don’t want anybody to know about, that’s the area where God wants to give you the most grace, mercy, and healing.
Lord, give me the Grace to move forward in my healing. Amen
Read MoreAlmost every Christian at some time in his life has had to face the problem of unanswered prayer.
*A prayer goes unanswered for weeks and months—even years.
*An unexpected illness or tragedy claims a loved one.
*Things happen that have no rhyme or reason and then faith begins to falter.
But the Word makes it very clear that a wavering person will never receive anything from God.
Jesus understood this tendency in His children to hold grudges against heaven when mountains are not moved on schedule.
*Jesus warned Peter not to ask anything when standing in God’s presence lest he be unforgiving in some matter.
“And when ye stand praying, forgive, if ye have ought against any; that your Father also which is in heaven may forgive you your trespasses” (Mark 11:25).
I believe Jesus is saying, Don’t stand in God’s presence asking for
mountains to be removed or for forgiveness of your sins, if you have a secret grudge in your heart against a brother or sister in Christ.
*Get it out! Let the Spirit of forgiveness flow through you.
*Cry out to your faithful Father. He has not failed. He will answer. He will supply.
*Submit yourself and ask Him to forgive you for allowing these doubts to spring up.
The most difficult thing in all the world for Christians to do is forgive.
Even the best Christians find it hard to forgive those who injure their pride.
Nothing infuriates us more than to discover someone has lied to us.
In His teaching on prayer Jesus said, “Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors” (Matthew 6:11-12).
Lord, my prayer is that the entire Body of Christ (the Church) will go to You in prayer and work out our differences and not suppress the truth, but renew our minds on the Truths and Promises You give us through Your word on the Spirit of Forgiveness. Take the Pride from our hearts and minds, helping us see clearly that we are all on the same team and will be spending Eternity Together. Amen
Christ is actively working within you to shape your character and empower your obedience.
John 15:26 “But I will send you the Advocate—the Spirit of truth. He will come to you from the Father and will testify all about me.
We need to leave our failures behind and he keep moving forward.
Two wonderful absolutes.
1. The first absolute: GOD REALLY LOVES ME.
*God is not in the business of condemning His children, failures or not. He is a loving Father, wanting only to lift us out of our weaknesses.
*Sometimes we recognize His great love only when we hit bottom. You will have won a great victory if you can be convinced God loves you even in your wounded, crippled condition.
*Our strength is renewed by His everlasting love.
*Just rest in that wonderful love. Don’t panic. Deliverance will come.
2. The second absolute: IT IS MY FAITH THAT PLEASES HIM THE MOST!
“Without faith, it is impossible to please him” (Hebrews 11:6).
*God counts our trust as righteousness. “Abraham believed God, and it was counted unto him for righteousness”. (Romans 4:3).
I may not understand why He sometimes seems to take a long time to intervene, but I know He will keep His word to me.
*God is not in the business of condemning His children, failures or not. He is a loving Father, wanting only to lift us out of our weaknesses.(Read Romans 8).
*Sometimes we recognize His great love only when we hit bottom. You will have won a great victory if you can be convinced God loves you even in your wounded, crippled condition.
*Our strength is renewed by His everlasting love.
*Just rest in that wonderful love. Don’t panic. Deliverance will come.
*When Adam sinned, he tried to hide from God.
*When Jonah refused to preach to Nineveh, his fear drove him into the ocean to flee from the presence of the Lord.
*When Peter denied Christ, he was afraid to face Him.
God has shown us a truth: Something much worse than failure is the fear that goes with it.
**Adam, Jonah and Peter ran away from God not because they had lost their love for Him, but because they were afraid He was too angry with them to understand.
Satan uses such fear to make people think there is no use trying.
Proverbs 1:7 The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge, but fools despise wisdom and instruction.
Jesus, Help me see your Character in people as well as myself—-Knowing we all are Your Masterpieces. In Jesus’ Name, Amen
Read MorePsalms 40:1 I waited patiently for the Lord’s help; then he listened to me and heard my cry.
2 He pulled me out of a dangerous pit, out of the deadly quicksand. He set me safely on a rock and made me secure.
We all have pits we fall into—that’s just life—but God’s Word shows us that as Christians we are to face our pits through eyes of faith.
Maybe you are stuck in a pit right now.
*It could be a difficult relationship, a financial hole, an illness—something you’ve been caught in for a while—and you wonder if you’ll ever be able to climb out.
*Your situation may look fatal & terminal but God’s saying you won’t die; you’ll live to declare the goodness of the Lord.
James 1:2 My friends, consider yourselves fortunate when all kinds of trials come your way, 3 for you know that when your faith succeeds in facing such trials, the result is the ability to endure.
One type of pit is the kind we create for ourselves.
*We may fall back into an old sin habit or unhealthy life pattern that keeps us going in circles.
*We find ourselves drifting, wandering, moving farther away from the abundant life God has provided.
*But it does not matter what kind of pit we are in. Our merciful Lord makes a way for us out of every one of them.
Psalms 34:19 Good people suffer many troubles, but the Lord saves them from them all;
“Which one of you who has a sheep, if it falls into a pit on the Sabbath, will not take hold of it and lift it out?” (Matthew 12:11).
Jesus says, “It doesn’t matter if you created your pit. Even the law won’t stop Me from coming to lift you out of it.”
2 Corinthians 5:17 Anyone who is joined to Christ is a new being; the old is gone, the new has come.
Today, make the decision to shake off any negative, self-defeating mindsets.
*Choose to cooperate with God.
*Trust that He is preparing you for promotion.
*As you keep an attitude of faith, expectancy and thanks giving, He will lift you up out of the pit and set you on the solid path of victory He has in store for you!
Thank You Lord, for using every situation in my life for my good. I bless You today no matter what is going on around me, knowing that You have a good plan for me in Jesus’ name. Amen.
” We know that in all things God works for good with those who love him, those whom he has called according to his purpose.” (Ro. 8:28)
Read MoreMark 4:7 7 Other seed fell among thorns that grew up and choked out the tender plants so they produced no grain.
18 The seed that fell among the thorns represents others who hear God’s word, 19 but all too quickly the message is crowded out by the worries of this life, the lure of wealth, and the desire for other things, so no fruit is produced.
Don’t allow the things of the world to steal the Word of God from You. There is so much that surrounds us it is so easy to fall into wanting and desiring the things of this world—-everyone wants a nice home, nice cars, nice clothes, everyone wants more money so that they can get more and more and more and more, (again I tell you, there is nothing wrong with wanting to have nice things, it’s when we allow the desire to have these things to take precedence over God the Father is when it becomes wrong).
When these things are allowed to become more important than seeking the Father then we have made them to become idols in our lives.
*It’s not just the cares of the world and the deceitfulness of riches that choke the word of God out of us: it is the lust of other things as well.
Because of the finished work on the cross, we have Jesus within us—which we need to keep the word from being choked.
When our prayer goes unanswered, or we get the answer we do not want we like little children throw temper tantrums and say “God does not answer my prayers” or “God does not care”.
Do not allow the things of this world to steal the treasure that God has given to you.
Ephesians 4:31 Get rid of all bitterness, rage, anger, harsh words, and slander, as well as all types of evil behavior.
32 Instead, be kind to each other, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, just as God through Christ has forgiven you.
***Do not believe the lies the enemy whispers do not allow him to choke the Word from you.
*Pray asking the Lord every day to cleanse us of ALL unrighteousness, to wash in His blood, ask Him to keep our mind right and help us to resist the devil. Amen
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HAPPY EASTER—– Believing the Truth – John 20:1-18
“Why are you looking among the dead for someone who is alive? He isn’t here! He is risen from the dead! (Luke 245-6).
HE IS RISEN—-HE IS RISEN—–HE IS RISEN!
Nothing more is required for our salvation other than the price Christ already paid at the Cross.
*Our sin-debt is paid in full, and the empty tomb is our receipt.
Some of us don’t know what to do with the “Truth of the Resurrection”!
* For Easter, we sing certain hymns and we have traditions that we do in the service and in meals at home.
But the broader concept of the Resurrection, this is harder to grasp.
*1Corinthians 15:13 For if there is no resurrection of the dead, then Christ has not been raised either. 14 And if Christ has not been raised, then all our preaching is useless, and your faith is useless.
**Without the Resurrection, Jesus is merely a dead and moral martyr who provided great teaching.
John 11:25 Jesus told her, “I am the resurrection and the life. Anyone who believes in me will live, even after dying. 26 Everyone who lives in me and believes in me will never ever die.
**Recovering the Resurrection.
This begins with remembering what Jesus said.
*So often, we forget what the Bible teaches about the resurrection, about the power and meaning of it.
* Our wonder will grow cold without His Word!
*We also need to repent for forgetting His Word!
*We need to remember that his death and resurrection “Solved the Problem of Sin and Death”!!!!
*Jesus death and resurrection empowers everything that Jesus said.
This resurrection wonder will lead to transformed lives, where each Sunday service and each day we live revolves around the Hope of a Risen Savior.
Jesus Has Risen! Jesus has Risen Indeed! I pray the world will see the true meaning of Easter and read Isaiah 53 and ask “How could this be predicted 700 years before this all took place?” And know that the Word of God is 100 percent True and Trustworthy and we all have The Faith and Hope of spending Eternity with our Heavenly Father.
Thank You JESUS! You have RISEN Indeed! Amen
Empowered through the blood of Jesus Christ!
6 ways the blood of Jesus releases power into your life.
1) The blood of Jesus has the power to free us from every stronghold of the enemy.
2) The blood of Jesus had the power to protect us from the onslaught of Satan.
3) The blood of Jesus has the power to give us absolute VICTORY.
4) The blood of Jesus has the power to give us a complete breakthrough.
5) The blood of Jesus has the power to release all of the benefits and promises in our lives for enjoyment.
6) The blood of Jesus has the power to make us WINNERS on the face of the earth.
” But he was pierced for our rebellion, crushed for our sins. He was beaten so we could be whole. He was whipped so we could be healed.” (Isaiah 53:5)
God Completely Saved Us:
*God has completely saved US, and yet, has not violated His Holiness. Jesus did this by becoming a substitute for US and willingly accepting on himself the punishment for OUR sins. (See Ephesians 2:8-9).
*Freedom is found in Christ alone. (Titus 2:14)
“Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God”. (Romans 5:9)
*When God declares someone has been justified– He removes that person from the need to be judged for their sin.
THE GOOD NEWS *Our sin and sin nature have been removed from the wrath of God because God the Father now sees in that believer a reflection of His Son, Jesus the Christ.
* When God looks at the believer He sees Jesus!
2 Corinthians 10:4 We use God’s mighty weapons, not worldly weapons, to knock down the strongholds of human reasoning and to destroy false arguments.
Why does the blood Have power to Empower?
1) The blood of Jesus is Perfect
2) The blood of Jesus is Pure
3) The blood of Jesus is Perpetual
4) The blood of Jesus is Powerful
5) The blood of Jesus is Permanent
6) The blood of Jesus is Precious
Revelation 12:11 And they have defeated him by the blood of the Lamb and by their testimony.
* Basis of our power and authority over all the enemy: “the blood of the lamb”
The blood of Jesus purchased salvation that will endure for eternity! The acceptance of His blood brings the promise of eternal friendship and dwelling with God – both now- and in the world to come.
However, salvation through the blood of Jesus has an even greater purpose than just the assurance of the believer’s eternal destiny.
The work of the blood of Jesus, when coupled with the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, removes the corrupt influences of sin and drives believers forth to “serve the living God.” Amen
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Psalm 66:18 If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear.
Does God hear the prayers of sinners? Yes and no.
- Yes, our merciful God always loves us and works with us, and Jesus Christ even died for us “while we were still sinners” (Romans 5:8).
- We were all sinners (Romans 3:23), so if God did not hear our cries for forgiveness, there would be no human He would hear.
- After sinning, David prayed, “Hide Your face from my sins, and blot out all my iniquities” (Psalm 51:9). God heard that prayer.
But without repentance, as Isaiah wrote, “Your sins have hidden His face from you, so that He will not hear” (Isaiah 59:2).
Psalm 66:18 talks about sin “cherished” in the heart. “If I have known it was there and encouraged it,” then God wouldn’t listen (Adam Clarke’s Commentary on Psalm 66:18).
To be assured God will hear and answer us, we must repent and work to root sin out of our heart with God’s help.
Thank you Jesus for the Cross which gave us all Victory if we choose to walk with you. Amen
Read MoreLuke 23:18 “And they cried out all at once, saying, Away with this man, and release unto us Barabbas:”
What happened to Barabbas is a picture of what happens when a person is born again. Barabbas was guilty; Jesus was innocent. Yet Jesus suffered the death that Barabbas should have experienced, and Barabbas went free.
Likewise, we were all guilty (Rom. 3:23) and condemned to death (Rom. 6:23), yet Jesus suffered our punishment so that we may go free (2 Cor. 5:21). Just as Barabbas didn’t ask for this substitution, so “God commended his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us” (Rom. 5:8).
Barabbas was freed, but he had to choose whether or not to accept this new start and remain free, or go back to his old ways and come under the judgment of Rome again.
Likewise, we have all been freed through the substitutionary death of Jesus, but we have to choose whether to accept our freedom by putting faith in Jesus or to reject it, by denying Him.
Our death to sin and resurrection to life with Christ, is already a reality in our spirits but will only become a physical reality when we know and believe it.
In the same way that Jesus died unto sin once, and death no longer has dominion over Him, the person who recognizes their death with Christ unto sin, will not allow sin to rule over him anymore. Any Christian who is struggling with sin has not recognized that they are dead unto sin.
“For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities – his eternal power and divine nature – have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse” (Rom 1:19-20).
You can be a believer yet act as though there is no God.
*Whenever you fret over life circumstances, you immediately demonstrate unbelief.
*Whenever you move out of fear or anxiety, you believe a lie about God’s nature.
Each day your actions affirm or convict you of your belief system.
*It reveals who the central focus of your life really is – you or God.
*It reveals who you place your ultimate trust in – you or God.
It is one of the great paradoxes for believers. One day we can believe Him to move mountains. The next day we can question His very existence.
We’ve lost our passionate embrace of the magnificent. Our appreciation for noticing God and His provision had been strangled by what the world begs us to pay attention to.
But I’m not interested in what the world classifies as important.
I’m interested in where God wants to point my focus. I’m interested in humbling myself in childlike awe of all that He is.
How might we remember to embrace the magnificent on this ordinary day?
Dear Lord, I praise You today for Your magnificence in all things. Humble me as Your child and guide me as I follow hard after You instead of the world. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.
Read MoreLet us test and examine our ways. Let us turn back to the Lord. Let us lift our hearts and hands to God in heaven and say, ‘We have sinned and rebelled’”Lamentations 3:40-42a.
The path to a fresh start and a clear conscience begins with repentance. First, review every area of your life, and then repent of every sin.
What does it mean to repent? It means three things:
- First, you take responsibility for your sin.
- Second, you turn away from those things.
- And third, you turn toward God and his grace.
Repentance does not mean rationalizing your sin. You don’t say, “It was no big deal.” It was a big deal, or you wouldn’t have remembered it. You don’t say, “It happened so long ago” or “It was just a stage I went through” or “Everybody does it.” It doesn’t matter! You cannot rationalize sin, minimize it, excuse it, or blame others. That is not true repentance.
Pay attention to this: The greatest holdup to the healing of your hang-up is you.
You’re not waiting on God; you’re not waiting on anybody else. God wants to heal the hang-up in your life, but the greatest holdup to your hang-up is you.
The Bible says in 1 John 1:8, “If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us”(NIV).
Would you like to get rid of the self-defeating habits in your life?
- You will stop defeating yourself when you stop deceiving yourself.
- It all starts with gut-level honesty and recognizing that something is wrong, no matter how much you want to rationalize it and excuse it.
- You need to admit it, confess it, and get it out of your life.
E’s of Decision Making”…Glorifying God in the Gray Areas…(got this from a Bible Study friend, not sure of author)
Edification…Will this activity produce a spiritual benefit?
Enslavement…Will this activity lead to spiritual bondage?
Exposure…Will this activity expose my mind or body to defilement?
Esteem…Will this benefit others, or cause them to stumble?
Evangelism…Will this activity further the cause of the Gospel?
Ethics…Will this activity violate my conscious?
Exaltation…Will this activity bring glory to God?
Armed with these basic principles every believer can navigate the gray areas with integrity. Amen
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People do not live by bread alone; rather, we live by every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord” Deuteronomy 8:3b .
When Jesus says we’re to pray, “Give us this day our daily bread,” he’s talking about far more than just bread. In fact, the Bible tells us that bread represents four things.
- Bread represents the necessities of life.
This is the economy of God. God says, “I supply it. You gather it.” When you pray, “Give us this day our daily bread,” it doesn’t mean you sit on the couch and wait for God to throw you money. You’ve got to work! Even the Israelites had to go out and pick up the manna. Work is a part of God’s purpose for your life. It builds character. Proverbs 14:23 says, “Hard work always pays off; mere talk puts no bread on the table” (MSG).
2. Bread represents God’s Word. The Bible is spiritual food. Bread is a symbol for Scripture. The Bible says, “People do not live by bread alone; rather, we live by every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord” Deuteronomy 8:3b NLT.
When the children of Israel were walking to the Promised Land, God dropped manna from Heaven for the people to pick up because they had nothing to eat. God gave them this bread to teach them that people need more than bread for their life. Real life comes by feeding on every word of the Lord. You don’t just need physical nourishment; you also need spiritual nourishment.
3. Bread represents God’s family and fellowship. The Bible says in 1 Corinthians 10:16, “Is the bread which we break not a sharing in the body of Christ?” (AMP) Bread is a metaphor for the family of God. You need God’s people in your life!(RELATIONSHIPS). Whether or not you have a physical family, God wants you to be part of his family that will last forever — the Church. It is to be a place of fellowship.
4. Bread represents salvation. Jesus chose bread to represent his sacrifice in communion. Every time we eat the bread and drink the wine or juice, it is a reminder of how much God loves us and the sacrifice he made so that we can go to Heaven.
Whatever your need is — physical, emotional, relational, or spiritual — God will take care of it if you will depend on him. Pray today, “Give us this day our daily bread,” and trust God to provide for you in every way. AMEN
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John 17:3 “And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent.”
In order to fully understand what eternal life is, it is helpful to understand what it is not.
Eternal life is not living forever. Everyone lives forever in either heaven or hell.
Also, eternal life is not living forever in the blessings of heaven as opposed to being tormented in hell.
John 3:36 and 5:24 show that eternal life is a present tense possession of the believer.
Here, Jesus defines eternal life as knowing God the Father and Jesus Christ.
the word “know” is speaking of intimacy instead of mere intellectual knowledge.
Therefore, eternal life is having an intimate, personal relationship with God the Father and Jesus the Son.
According to John 3:16, this intimacy with God is what salvation is all about.
*Forgiveness of our sins is not the point of salvation: intimacy with the Father is.
*Of course, Jesus did die to purchase forgiveness for our sins because unforgiven sins block us from intimacy with God.
KEY IS: Most non-believers are so occupied with their “hell on earth” that they don’t really think or care about their eternal future.
*They are fed up with religion and are looking for something that will fill the emptiness inside.
Only intimate relationship (eternal life) with our Father can do that.
We need to have an Eternal Perspective
Basically, having an eternal perspective means that as we make decisions or take actions, we consider how they will impact us and others in eternity.
Lord, Help me to KNOW You more and more each day and share Your love with others. Amen
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“For we who are alive are always being given over to death for Jesus’ sake…. So then, death is at work in us, but life is at work in you.” – 2 Corinthians 4:11-12
Death is the great mystery of the gospel of Jesus Christ.
*Death gives life.
*Jesus’ death on the cross gave life.
*The death of a vision brings new vision.
*The death of a seed gives new life.
*It is the central focus of God’s requirement for experiencing Him–death.
When Jesus extended us an invitation to experience salvation and a relationship with Him, it came with a great cost, our very lives.
Yet what we don’t realize is that until we relinquish our total lives, we really aren’t living at all.
Without this death we will continue to strive, manipulate, and fret over every detail of life.
It is when we finally say, “Yes, Lord, I am Yours completely,” that we experience real freedom for the first time.
This is the only time when Christ is fully seen in and through our lives.
The First Truth to Master Life says:
” I confess my spiritual and moral bankruptcy and agree with Jesus’ words: “without me you can do nothing.”
Result: I am fully accepted and welcomed into God’s Family.
I am “Accepted.”
*When this happens, I am fully accepted into God’s family. Upon receiving Jesus and His work on the cross, of bearing my sin and His victory over death through His resurrection—I have the gift of eternal life.
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Matthew 13:44, “Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a treasure that a man discovered hidden in a field. In his excitement, he hid it again and sold everything he owned to get enough money to buy the field ”
I would interpret this parable as this:
1. the field is the people of the world,
2. the man buying the treasure is God,
3. the treasure is the true believers in Christ. (we are His Masterpiece Eph. 2:10)
4. The price that was paid was the very life of Jesus on the cross.
Jesus saw, through His foreknowledge, a remnant of people who would receive Him as Lord, and “for the joy that was set before him,” He endured the cross (Heb. 12:2) and purchased us unto Himself with His own blood (Acts 20:28).
Jesus purchased the whole world, but not everyone will receive what He did.
*Therefore, the Church (body of Believers) is hidden (scattered among the world) today.
We were chosen in Christ before the world began. We are holy and without blame because God sees us through Christ.
It was predetermined that we would be God’s children. We have been accepted by God.
Our Father would no more reject us than He would reject Jesus, because we are accepted by the Father through Christ.
THE CHOICE IS OURS! WE ARE THE TREASURE!
We are redeemed and forgiven. We are truly blessed!
#2 of 8 truths to master life.
I honestly admit and regret that I have failed God, my family, myself and others.
*Result: I receive God’s forgiveness and thankfully rest in His Peace.
*I am “Forgiven.”
*This expresses the difference between-“I am truly sorry for my sin” versus I’m sorry I got caught.”
2 Corinthians 7:10. “For the kind of sorrow God wants us to experience leads us away from sin and results in salvation. There’s no regret for that kind of sorrow. But worldly sorrow, which lacks repentance, results in spiritual death.”.
Everything that manifests outwardly begins in the heart. Don’t allow your heart to become defiled by hardness or bitterness of soul. Be purified and liberated from everything that would hold you in bondage.
Father, I lay my cares before You. I trust Your love for us. In Jesus’ name, amen.
1 John 4:4 But you belong to God, my dear children. You have already won a victory over those people, because the Spirit who lives in you is greater than the spirit who lives in the world.
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