Devotions - Prayer
I believe one crucial ingredient to healing our moral confusion is the recovery of the biblical idea of holiness, which includes private morality but so much more—the very life of God IN us.
Holiness is not just for advanced Christians but stands at the beginning and center of God’s call on our lives: “Be holy, because I am holy” (Lev. 11:44; 1 Pet. 1:16 also 1 Thess. 4:3&4).
Holy: “set apart” or “dedicated” to God—to belong to God. “I will be your God, and you will be my people,” says Yahweh (Lev. 26:12; Heb. 8:10).
Thus, prior to any consideration of morality, biblical holiness describes a unique relationship that God has established and desires with his people. (Jn 17:3)
This relationship has moral ramifications, but it precedes moral behavior.
*Being set apart for God.
* Being set apart from the evil acts of sin.
*As God’s people, Living on the side of the Cross we have been cleansed from our sin.
*The sacrifice of Jesus has made us clean in the sight of God.
*We have been made holy through Jesus.
**We can now interact with God because of this great gift.
So we being made holy through Jesus—we need to STOP acting like sinful, unsaved people. Amen!
We are to honor God with our every breath and our every thought.
1 Peter 1:15 Instead, be holy in all that you do, just as God who called you is holy. 16 The Scripture says, “Be holy because I am holy.”
The Bible is holy because it is the Very Word of Almighty God, but what does holy mean?
To begin to understand what holy means, we must first consider God.
¨ God is not like us. He is higher (Isaiah 55:8-9).
¨ God does not think like we think
¨ God does not do like we do.
That higher form of thought and action is what holy is.
We could just pass it off and say God is holy because He is God, and I am not holy because I am not God. If we did that (and some of us do), we would be neglecting a very clear command in the Holy Scriptures: “Be holy, because I am holy” (1 Peter 1:15).
*Holiness is elevating God in our minds and recognizing that He fills the earth and knows our every thought (Psalm 139:2 and Psalms 19).
Holy living can be as simple as asking ourselves what God wants us to do before we do it. Just before we consider losing our temper, passing along some piece of malicious gossip, or possibly saying a cuss word, stopping to think, “Will this honor God?”
To be holy is to recognize that God exists and that He will reward those who look for Him in every facet of life (Hebrews 11:6).
Being holy is a process, and that process, like a journey, begins with the first step.
Guide me Lord Jesus to become all that You have planned for me and may my actions honor YOU! Help me become more Holy for Your Glory and my joy. Amen
Read MoreMost Christians don’t really know God. They know about Him, but they’re not intimately acquainted with His character (Matthew 5:3-12) and His Love (all 66 Books).
“Behold, God is exalted, and we do not know Him…” Job 36:26
We must always measure truth by God’s word.
We need to know the word and study the word so we can better recognize when something is off.
*If we recognize that someone is not teaching according to the word of God we should not remain under that teaching.
Hosea 4:6 My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge. Because you have rejected knowledge, I also will reject you from being priest for Me;
How is Jesus “the Truth”
Truth is rooted in the eternal God who’s all powerful and unchangeable. Jesus prayed, “Sanctify them by the truth; Your word is Truth” (John 17:17).
*Truth is far more than facts. It’s not just something we act upon. It acts upon us.
*******We can’t change the truth, even though the world tries too—- but the truth can change us.
*The truth of the word sanctifies (sets us apart) from the falsehoods woven into our sin natures.
*As Christ the living Word is truth, so his written word is truth.
*Though heaven and earth will pass away, God’s truth never will.
OUR BATTLE IN LIFE IS: “TRUTH VS. LIES”
The heart longs for truth—even the heart that rejects it.
As followers of Christ:
1. We are to walk in the truth (III John 3)
2. Love the truth, and believe the truth (II Thessalonians 2:10, 12).
3. We’re to speak the truth “in love”(Ephesians 4:32).
4. Truth is far more than a moral guide. Jesus declared, “I am the way, the truth and the life; no man comes to the Father but by Me” (John 14:6).
*He didn’t say He would show the truth or teach the truth or model the truth. *****JESUS IS the truth.
Col. 2:……I want them to have complete confidence that they understand God’s mysterious plan, which is Christ himself.
JESUS is the source of ALL truth, the embodiment of truth and therefore the reference point for evaluating all truth-claims.
*The Bible is God talking to man. —Prayer is man talking to God.
Anything beyond the teaching of Christ is to far:
2 John 1:9 Anyone who wanders away from this teaching has no relationship with God. But anyone who remains in the teaching of Christ has a personal relationship with both the Father and the Son.
Lord help me to read and obey your word that I may grow in my primary focus being my personal relationship with You, in Jesus name Amen.
Read MoreIsaiah 30:21 Your own ears will hear him. Right behind you a voice will say,“This is the way you should go,”whether to the right or to the left.
Follow the Little Promptings
The Holy Spirit always wants to lead us through life, but sometimes we get so focused on seemingly “big” issues that we don’t realize how much He speaks in small promptings every day.
When we don’t know what we should do, He will tell us what we should do.
God is forever Guiding you because he loves you so much, this unconditional love is more than you could ever imagine , so when ever in doubt , breath and let God guide you towards the right path.
God created us for a relationship with him.
Psalms 32:8 The LORD says, “I will guide you along the best pathway for your life. I will advise you and watch over you.
Proverbs 3:6 Seek his will in all you do, and he will show you which path to take.
Do I hear His voice? Yes. A simple thought comes prompting me to listen, to take a step I hadn’t planned to take-in a different direction perhaps, and I acknowledge that it could be God talking to me.
Hebrews 3:7 That is why the Holy Spirit says,“Today when you hear his voice,
God’s voice could come via a sermon, a song, a person whose life is a testimony to me, some unexplainable event-a healing or a miraculous escape from harm etc. Etc.
* It could be a verse from the Bible that touches my heart, a sunset, a storm, a movie.
God says, please don’t put Me in a box.
Revelations 3:20 “Look! I stand at the door and knock. If you hear my voice and open the door, I will come in, and we will share a meal together as friends.
2 Corinthians 10:4-6 For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds, casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ, and being ready to punish all disobedience when your obedience is fulfilled.
Lord, help me hear Your Voice more each and every day and to be able to put Your words into Action for Your Glory and my Joy. Amen
Read MoreMatthew 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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“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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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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John 1:23, John replied in the words of Isaiah the prophet, “I am the voice of one calling in the wilderness, ‘Make straight the way for the Lord.'”
John knew who he was and what he was called to do. This was one of the keys to his success.
Unlike most of us, John did not have an identity crisis growing up. He knew God’s plan and purpose for his life from the beginning and he spent his entire life preparing for it.
God has a plan for your life just as surely as he did for John the Baptist.
To succeed in life, you must find God’s plan for your life and then devote yourself to fulfilling that plan.
It is not enough to simply “do your own thing” and then ask God’s blessing upon it. Once you know you are doing God’s will, you never have to ask for God’s blessing. God’s will is already blessed.
The Lord created you with a purpose in mind. Your talents and abilities were given you to fulfill His purpose. Although you may find limited success using these talents for your own uses, you will never find your true potential until they are directed by and for the Lord.
The good news is that God wants to reveal His perfect plan for your life to you more than you want to know it. You can rest assured that if you ask for knowledge of His plan for your life, you will receive (Mt. 7:7).
He will show you His good, acceptable and perfect will (Rom. 12:1-2)
When we understand God’s love for us and His plan for us, then we can begin to realize the doors that He wants to open for us.
*But we’ll only realize these things when we’re constantly talking with Him, listening to His voice through His Written Word, and growing deeper in our relationship with Him.
God, remind me to bring my problems to You. I’m tired of living in my own strength. I need Your guidance and Your direction. As I seek You daily, I will put my trust in You. Amen
Read MorePeople 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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The First Truth in the 8 Truths to Master Life.
1. 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.
Isaiah 55:1. “Is anyone thirsty? Come and drink—even if you have no money! Come, take your choice of wine or milk—it’s all free!”
*Salvation is a gift from God. Gods thoughts and ways are far above our ways , when you accept his invitation. His invitation is for everyone “he that hath ears let him hear”.
Salvation is free a gift from God.
You said, “Listen now, and I will speak; I will question you, and you shall answer me.” My ears had heard of you but now my eyes have seen you. Therefore I despise myself and repent in dust and ashes (Job 42:4-6).
Notice the difference: “My ears had heard of you but now my eyes have seen you.” The inner eye of the heart sees the nature of God. And the result? Job says, “I despise myself.” That is repentance.
Job has never been in this place before. He is learning at last the hardest lesson of life, what God seeks to teach us all: the problem is never in others or in God; the problem is in us.
And it is a problem that only God can handle.
It looks as though God has humiliated Job and brought this poor, broken-hearted man down into the dust almost cruelly.
Yet it is not cruelty, it is love—because, at this point, when Job has finally given up trying to defend and justify himself, God begins to heal and pour into this man’s life blessings he never dreamed of.
Jesus said, “Blessed are the poor in spirit, the men and women who are bankrupt in themselves, who stop counting on what they have to make it. Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.”
God will begin to heal a life that repents before Him, and He will fill it with blessing and honor and glory and power.
None of the prideful things to which we cling will be worth the smallest portion of the glory and joy we have discovered in coming into a relationship with God Himself.
Thank You, Father, for this penetrating look at my own heart. How proud I have been, how filled with self-justification with complaints before You. Teach me to put my hand upon my mouth and admit to You that the problem lies so often with me so that You will heal and restore me. Amen
Psalms 139:
1 O Lord, you have examined my heart
and know everything about me.
7 I can never escape from your Spirit!
I can never get away from your presence!
16 You saw me before I was born.
Every day of my life was recorded in your book.
Every moment was laid out
before a single day had passed.
23 Search me, O God, and know my heart;
test me and know my anxious thoughts.
24 Point out anything in me that offends you,
and lead me along the path of everlasting life.
Ruth Bell Graham once said, “A great marriage is the union of two forgivers.”
When you forgive your spouse, you are ultimately saying to them, “I choose to give up the right to punish you for how you have hurt me.”
When we forgive another person, it doesn’t mean we forget. And it doesn’t brush it away and pretend that it didn’t happen.
Forgiveness says, “I refuse to dwell on my anger and hurt.” It is an essential step to healing and restoring oneness.
Christ’s death on the cross—His forgiveness—restored our relationship to God. Trust that God can use your forgiveness to restore your relationship and change you both for the better.
Here are 4 steps that will help you express and experience forgiveness:
- Do it privately: Go to God in prayer and say, “God, I forgive _________ for hurting me. I choose to give up the right to punish __________.”
- Do it publicly and specifically: Go to the person and be specific, “I forgive you for ________.”
- Do it graciously: Keep the bigger goal in mind, which is restoring your relationship and rebuilding trust. That means giving up your right to punish!
- Do it generously: Acknowledge your own failings to maintain balance; not one of us is perfect! And once you’ve forgiven, refuse to bring up the matter again in a hurtful way.
Forgiveness gives us the opportunity to re-establish our relationship and make things right with our spouse or a family member.
It removes the issue that creates isolation in a relationship and empowers us to grow in oneness.
10 Keys to Forgiveness:(Emmett I. Aldrich)
1) Let Go of the Anger
2) Don’t be Stubborn
3) Stop Thinking of yourself as a Victim
4) Focus on the Future
5) Re-Learn to Trust
6) Be Reasonable in your expectations of Others
7) Expect that it will take time to Forgive
8) Examine your Heart
9) Let Forgiveness become an Everyday Practice
10) Ask God for Guidance
Lord, Help me see and experience forgiveness in my life, knowing You are the God of restoration. Help me be patient, knowing Your timing is Perfect!
Help us dear God to put aside resentment, hurt, hostility and bitterness so that we may have reconciliation with those who have offended us, and whom we have offended. Amen
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by Os Hillman
“Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes and clever in their own sight” (Isaiah 5:21).
Many of us have been trained to make decisions and respond to problems in a horizontal way instead of vertical.
- Operating from a horizontal basis means we try to fix the problem through our own self-efforts by bringing greater pressure upon it through our reasoning or our natural skills.
- Operating from a vertical position means we are seeking God for the answer and waiting for him to impact the problem.
Perhaps it is a spouse who fails to put their clothes away, or a boss who is overly critical, or an employee that you clash with. When we operate horizontally we attempt to shame or coerce the other to change their ways.
God knows the solution to the problem before it ever exists. Our responsibility is to ask God for help to solve the problem and to rely on Him for the outcome.
The minute we take on the responsibility, God quietly stands by to let us experience failure until we decide to seek Him for the answer.
One of the best examples of the contrast between a vertical and horizontal dimension in scripture is that of King Saul and David (see 1 Samuel 25). King Saul thought the way to preserve his kingdom was to kill David. While in pursuit of him there were several occasions when David had the opportunity to kill Saul, but David chose to wait upon God’s timing and await his own deliverance because he understood authority. David had such respect for those who had been put in authority by God over him that he would not take matters into his own hands.
Saul represents the exact opposite of this principle. He thought David was the problem and sought to get rid of him through force. As a result, he lost his kingdom because he chose to rule horizontally instead of vertically under God’s rule in his life.
No matter what problem you face today, stay vertical with God! Amen
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Psalm 119:92–93 If your law had not been my delight, I would have perished in my affliction. I will never forget your precepts, for by them you have renewed my life.
One thing is certain in this world, we’re not going to escape affliction forever. At some time or other, each of us is going to know the meaning of that word affliction. In the New Testament the apostles told the new Christian congregation that we must, through much tribulation (or affliction) enter into the Kingdom of God.
So don’t try to find a way through life that bypasses affliction, because if you do find it, it won’t take you to heaven.
But in your affliction, you need an anchor. And that’s what the psalmist says in those words that I read: If God’s law had not been his delight he would have perished in his affliction.
When the pressures, the waves and the billows swept over him, when it seemed that his tiny little vessel was going to be carried away on those monstrous billows, he had an anchor. It was God’s law and that kept him.
And so he says, with gratitude, looking back on that experience, “I will never forget your precepts, for by them you have renewed my life.”
As we turn to God’s law in the midst of our affliction we receive from it life, new life, life that wells up in spite of all the opposition and the pressures against us.
Out of God’s law and God’s Word there comes a life that is a stronger and more powerful than all the forces that oppose us.
Romans 12:12 Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer.
Matthew 6:33 Seek the Kingdom of God, above all else and live righteously, and he will give you everything you need.
We need to put God first in our lives to fill our thoughts with His desires to take His character(Beatitudes) for our pattern, and to serve and obey Him in everything having Jesus first place in every area of our life.
In Matthew 6:34 “So don’t worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will bring its own worries. Today’s trouble is enough for today.” Amen
Read MoreChrist 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 MoreWhen the Lord finished speaking to Moses on Mount Sinai, He gave him the two tablets of the Testimony, the tablets of stone inscribed by the finger of God. – Exodus 31:18
Throughout the Bible, the word testimony is used in many ways. Testimony comes from the Hebrew word eduwth, which means “witness.”
The Ark of the Covenant contained the Ten Commandments, written and inscribed personally by God and given to Moses on Mount Sinai. These became known as the testimony. The ark was a divinely inspired structure that was to be used as a witness to the people of Israel and the whole world of God’s power and majesty.
These divinely created tablets were a witness of God’s activity on earth with man.
Throughout the Bible, God looked to create testimonies with His people.
-At the Red Sea, He created a testimony through Moses.
-God created a testimony through Joshua when He parted the Jordan River and allowed the people with the Ark to cross on dry land.
-When Lazarus lay dead for days, Jesus came and created a testimony of His ability to raise the dead.
Jesus is still looking for those who are willing to have a testimony created through their lives. One of the major characteristics of a God-ordained testimony is for something to happen that cannot be explained in the natural.
In other words, if you can make it happen through your abilities, it is not a testimony about God, but about you.
God wants to create a testimony in every aspect of your life – your family, your work, your church, and in your community. He is waiting to put His finger on your next endeavor to reveal His power through your life.
Look carefully at the events where God might want to create a testimony out of an impossible situation.
He delights in using His children for this purpose because it brings Him glory.
I want to know Christ and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in His sufferings, becoming like Him in His death, and so, somehow, to attain to the resurrection from the dead. Philippians 3:10-11 – Acts 21:11-12 Amen
John 5:3–4 read; Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength. The second is this: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no commandment greater than these” (Mark 12:30-31 NIV).
We have all been made wonderfully complex and full of flaws, but until we embrace who we are — including our flaws — we cannot make the changes in our lives that will bring about true transformation.
The second factor that influences your identity is your connections. Your connections give your life purpose, meaning, and identity. If you grew up with dysfunctional relationships, then you question your purpose and struggle with identity.
Jesus said that the most important thing we should do is love God and love other people (Mark 12:30-31). Life is not about your accomplishments or acquisitions, your popularity or prestige. It’s about how well you love.
Romans 13:10 Love does no harm to a neighbor. Therefore love is the fulfillment of the law(commandments).
Love is defined by the law and law is defined by the revelation of God in the 10 Commandments.
There are three problems that keep us from loving fully as God intended:
- We’re all imperfect. There are no perfect relationships because there are no perfect people.
- Sin disconnects us. Adam and Eve had the first broken relationship and disconnected themselves from God and from each other. We’ve been excusing ourselves and accusing the people we love ever since.
- The more disconnected we are, the more fearful we become. We crave intimacy, but we fear vulnerability. We crave acceptance, but we fear rejection.
You may not have had a say in the hand you were dealt in life. But God sent his son as your Savior to transform your cards into a winning hand. No matter what connections you’ve made in life, you will be held responsible for what you do with your connections today.
- Will you let God affect your connections?
- Will you trust him for your future in spite of a difficult past?
- Will you nurture, protect, and build relationships so that God is more fully glorified in your life?
Resolve today to build healthy and not hurtful relationships with God’s help.
Lord, thank you so much for showing me through a three year old that one of the best ways to show love to someone is: “TIME”. Time spent with someone is a degree of how much you truly love. JN 17:3 Jesus says “to Know me is to have eternal life”. To get to know someone takes much time. Lord help us all to get rid of business in our lives. Amen
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