Abundant Love

We are able to love God and love others because God loved us first.  He created us with a place in our hearts that desires love and has the capacity to give love.

When we fill the void in our hearts with the perfect love of Jesus Christ, our hearts overflow with love.  We cannot contain the love that Jesus gives us.  It flows from us continuously and in great abundance.  It cannot be stopped as long as the love of Jesus is the source.

Unexpected Joy

The most delightful of all trips are those that are not bound by fixed plans.  They are the trips that end up delighting the heart by one unexpected joy after another.

These types of trips are quite rare in a world where we are so determined to pre-plan every moment of our lives.  We are fearful of what we might miss instead of being joyfully expectant of the unexpected.  When we choose to let God plan our way, the unexpected joys are continuous.

Abundance and Joy in Every Moment

What would we give to be able to wake up every morning excited about the day?   What would we give up if it meant looking forward to every moment in our lives?  Surely, we would be willing to give up much for such a gift.  

How about giving life itself?  That is actually the only thing, once given up to the Lord, that will bring the kind of joy and peace that makes every moment of every day a blessing.  By giving up our old lives to God and accepting our new lives in Jesus Christ, we make the only trade that can bring abundance and joy in every moment of our lives.

The Real Promise of Provision

Why should we seek things from God when He already promises to meet our every need?  The first part of the answer is easy for us to see.  Our petitions show Our Heavenly Father how much we trust in Him and confirm to Him our faith in His promises.  In the process, He delights in providing for us just as any good father delights in meeting the needs of his children.  

The second part of the answer is a little harder to see and is generally learned over time through His grace.  As we go to the Lord to seek His hand in provision, we ultimately learn how to seek Him and not His gifts.  This is the real provision that He has set aside for us.

His Grace is Sufficient

There is no good purpose in asking God to test our faith.  To do so is to suggest that we value our own strength and consider it sufficient to take us through our trials.  Satan will use our perception of our own strength against us.  He will turn our strengths into our gods and turn us away from the one true God in the process.

God, on the other hand, will naturally and steadfastly turn our weaknesses into strengths.  This is His promise in 2 Cor 12:9, " And He said to me,  'My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness'.”

Even When We Don't Feel Like It

God calls us first and foremost to be obedient in the small things.  He promises that He will reward us with larger responsibilities and larger blessings, but only after we have been obedient in our day-to-day lives.  

God is watching to see if we serve Him by calling or helping friends in need, putting the concerns of others before our own and loving others as we love ourselves - even when we don't feel like it.  In the process, we prove that we are rightly related to Our Heavenly Father and we consequently grow in our relationship with Him.  

The Salvation Plan

God is totally responsible for the salvation of His beloved children.    
It is His desire that all will accept the saving grace offered through His Son.  His plan for salvation was completed when His Son shed His Blood, died on the Cross and resurrected into Heaven.

He will never ask us to "save" a single person.  He will, however, ask us to allow His Son to be presented to the world through the lives that we lead.  While He will not ask us to save anyone, He will ask us to help Him by living a life that will induce everyone that we come into contact with to seek the Lord that dwells within us.

Christ as our Co-Worker

Think how liberating it would be if your boss told you to do something, but added, "Do what I ask of you.  Do not worry about the results.  I will join you in your work and I will be responsible for delivering the outcome that I desire.  You will be richly rewarded for your perseverance in the task no matter what happens."  

This, in essence, is where God wants us.  He wants us to serve Him without any concern of the outcome.  He wants us to express our faith in Him, knowing that He will fulfill what He asks us to do for Him.  He wants us to express our devotion to Him as our co-worker.  He wants us to give Him the honor and the glory in the end.

Unfailing Support

At some point, all men and women will fail one another.  Humans simply are not capable of standing with each other through all circumstances.  Our precious Lord Jesus, however, never fails us under even the direst of circumstances, not even the ones that we have created ourselves.  

We must learn to lead our lives with our focus steadfastly placed on Jesus.  He is the only standard bearer that is capable of supporting us through all tribulation.

Our Ever Present Lord

Our freedom and our joy are ever present in the Lord, Our God.  His presence never leaves us.  He is always with us, ready to meet our every need.  He is constantly there beside us, His kingdom there for the taking.

Yet we miss Him.  We miss Him not because He is not there, but because we set our sights elsewhere.  We take on the troubles of the world because we place our trust in the world and not in the Lord.

Let us return to the joy of our youth when we placed all of our troubles in the hands of our parents.  We lived without a care in the world because of our trust in them.  Let us live like trusting children under the ever present comfort and provision of Almighty God.

The Victory is Complete

It is very easy to say, "I give up.  I cannot do it."  To do so is even acceptable if it is in reference to some earthly pursuit.  But if what we are pursuing is of God, then giving up is denying the promises of God Himself.

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.  The victory is in fact complete before we are even aware of our calling to its pursuit.

Taking on the Full Armor of God

We should never feel as if we are good enough or strong enough to withstand the temptations of Satan without the assistance of the Holy Spirit.  If we begin to feel like we are strong enough to defend ourselves against the enemy through our own righteous behavior, we are setting ourselves up for a downfall.

Satan has thousands of years of experience in deceiving mankind.  He delights in bringing down those who believe that they can stand alone against him.  He is an expert in finding and exploiting our areas of vulnerability.  Our only defense against Satan, our only certainty in victory is by taking on of the full armor of God at all times through prayer, reading of the Word and obedience to Our Heavenly Father.

Ready Vessels

Once we have submitted ourselves totally to God, we no longer try to get the Lord to bless what we want to do for Him.  Instead, we seek His guidance in directing our lives in such a way that He can do His work through us.  We become ready vessels of His perfect love and eager instruments to do His good work.  The how, when, what and where of our service become unimportant.

Releasing It All to Him

The real intimate relationship that Jesus Christ seeks to have with each of us can begin to flourish only when we have fully submitted our lives to Him.  To be in full submission, we must come to the place where we are willing to give up anything and everything.  We must come to a moment in time when nothing is more important to us than our relationship with Our King.  

Jesus must know that it is the desire of our hearts to give Him all that we have, all that we are, all that we will every have and all that we will ever be.   He must see us rejoicing in the knowledge that we will be serving Him for all eternity.   When He knows that that we have released everything to Him for His eternal glory, there is nothing that Our Master will withhold from us.   

His Guiding Light

When we are abiding in the will of God for our lives, we are constantly moving closer to Him.  We are continuously being prepared for a greater work.  During this time of growth, we may at times feel like we do not know where we are going.  At these times, we must call on our faith to continue to move us forward.  We must recognize that although we may feel that we have no direction that God is guiding us according to His perfect light.

Serving One Master

Once the Holy Spirit dwells within us, there will be no rest if we try to keep something in our lives that is offensive to God.  Whether it be an act of commission or omission, the Holy Spirit will not allow it.

To try to keep one foot in the kingdom and one foot on earth is an exercise in pure torment.  It may even seem less painful to side with the devil than to try to serve two masters.  Of course, siding with the devil leads to an eternity of torment.

The Joy of the Lord

The joy of the Lord is evident in His children.  It does not matter what their circumstances are or where they find themselves.  They reflect the awesome Spirit of their Savior.

They can be laden with the heaviest of burdens, yet they will reflect the joy of their Master who dwells within them.  They can be suffering the deepest of human pains, yet they will celebrate their shared love with the Father, Son and Holy Spirit without concern about their circumstances.  The joy of the Lord is their strength.

Casting Our Burdens Upon the Lord

There is absolutely nothing that we can undertake for God that will not become a burden to us if we do not include God in the process.  We simply are not able to endure without His sustaining grace.  The sense of responsibility will ultimately crush us.

If we try to produce results for God without His favor, we are doomed to failure and perhaps even bitterness.  If we put our faith in Him and give Him every trial and every ounce of fatigue, He will work through us.  We will not carry the burden because we will only be the vessel that He uses.  In accordance with His promises, our burdens will be cast upon the Lord.

Eternal Life with Our Heavenly Father

God abhors sin.  He can never allow sin into His kingdom.  

In order for Our Heavenly Father to have His children join Him for all eternity in heaven, it was necessary for Him to provide a way for all the sins of His children to be wiped away.  He so loved His children that He provided His own Son as the sacrifice required to atone for the sins of His children.  

The gates of heaven are now open to all of God's children because Jesus, in obedience to the Father, went to the Cross for the sins of all men to be washed away.  The only way to receive the eternal gift from God is to reject sin for all eternity.  The only way to reject sin for all eternity is by accepting the One who took on all of our sins on the Cross.  

The only source of eternal life is through the Lord Jesus Christ.  We must trade our old sin-filled lives for the life of Christ within us to be able to live forever with Our Heavenly Father who loves us so dearly.  

The Holy Spirit Reigns in Our Lives

Through the power of the resurrection, we that have accepted Jesus as our Savior, are able to let go of our old lives and let God rule in our new lives.  It is not because we are better people.  It is because we are completely new men and women in Christ.

We have been taken over by the Spirit of Jesus Christ.  He has taken residence in our bodies in the form of His Holy Spirit.  God has put His holiness into us - never to be separated, sealed for all eternity. 

Overcoming Sin

When we accepted the crucified Christ as our Savior, we accepted the crucifixion of our old selves.  This allowed the One without sin to come and dwell within us. 

With the One without sin dwelling within us, sin is no longer tolerable.  Jesus, who submits Himself totally to the Father, cannot dwell in a place of sin.  Therefore, there is no place in our lives for the carnal man to rule.  Sin must be put to death.  

Our old sin-filled selves must be denied as we repent of our sins.   We will not and cannot cleanse ourselves by the strength of our old selves, but we can and will repent and be victorious over sin by the strength of our precious Savior within us. 

Kingdom Living

Not only are we born again in Jesus Christ, but we are born into the royal family.  Our thread bare former lives are left behind for all eternity, so that we may enter into our place in the Kingdom.  

We do not have to wait for our new eternal bodies to experience the Kingdom.  Through the Holy Spirit in us, we can enjoy the fullness of the abundant life here on earth.  It was all made possible by our Resurrected Savior.

Redeeming Miracles

When we accept Jesus as our Savior, our lives are changed forever.  As we embrace our Savior and submit to His will in our lives, we naturally desire to see the lives of those close to us changed forever.  Most of us go through a stage where we think that we are responsible for initiating the spiritual change in the lives of our friends and family members.

At some point, there is an important distinction that we need to come to understand.  We are simply the vessels of Christ's love.  We do not do the work of bringing others to the Lord.  We, instead, allow Jesus Christ to work through us to perform His redeeming miracles.  We allow others to be able to receive a Savior that they have never seen because they have witnessed His love through our living testimony.

Unveiling the Truth

What a wonderful transformation we experience when the Holy Spirit opens our minds to receive and understand things that made no sense to us before or had no value to us in our old ways of thinking.  In the blink of an eye, our blinders are removed.  

Without even understanding the process, we begin to assimilate truths that had been unavailable to us before.  Just as suddenly, we are able to share the truths with those who have been prepared to receive them. 

The Gates of Heaven are Open to Us

Through His death on the Cross, Jesus Christ absorbed everything abhorrent to Him.  He absorbed it and washed it away for all eternity.  

Through the sacrifice of His Son, Our Heavenly Father no longer sees our sins when He sees us.  He only sees the perfection of His Son who is in us.

The Crucifixion was not some tragedy in history.  This was an event planned by God because He loved us.  He loved us so much that He allowed His Son to be sacrificed in order to open the gates of heaven to us for all eternity.  

Victory Over Satan

No matter what times we are going through, no matter in what circumstances that we find ourselves, if these times bring evil upon us, they are of Satan.  Do not faint or lose faith.  Through the suffering of Jesus Christ and ultimately through His death and resurrection, we can have victory over Satan and his attacks.  

On His Cross, Jesus secured victory over Satan and all of his evil for all eternity.  As a result of His sacrificial work on the behalf of all mankind, every person now has an open invitation to come before the Throne of God at anytime.  Whatever Satan has wrought upon us, we can take before the Father and ask that it be taken away in the name of the Eternal Victor, Jesus Christ.

At the Foot of the Cross

Jesus calls us that know Him at different times and in different places throughout our lives.  But at some point in time during our walk with Him, we all end up at the foot of the Cross.  

When we reach our place at the foot of the Cross, we are called to surrender all that we have and all that we are.  Then we are moved to give up all that we will ever have and all that we will ever be.  This is necessary so that He may complete His work in us.  

When Abraham proved to God that he was ready to lead God's people by sacrificing his son Isaac, God released His kingdom to Abraham.  When prove to God we are ready to give up our world, He will release the fullness of His kingdom to us.

Missed Opportunities

There are opportunities in life that we let go by without taking advantage of them.  Fear or lack of faith in ourselves may have been the reason that caused us to let the opportunities pass us by.  In each case, we may have missed a chance to change our lives entirely.  These missed opportunities may never come by again.

When these missed opportunities were presented to us by the Lord, we missed a large portion of God's favor on our lives.  Fortunately for us, God works with us through the Holy Spirit to diminish our fears and build our faith in Him so we are prepared to accept His offer the next time.  

He is a God of second chances.  He will return to us with new opportunities to serve Him.  The blessings of the earlier opportunity will be missed forever, but blessings beyond our imagination will be waiting on us if we accept the new opportunity that the Lord places before us.

Turn Judgement to Intercession

Once Jesus dwells within us, our interests in the things of the earth diminish relative to our interest in the Lord.  This can become a real problem for those around us who have not received Jesus as their Savior.  They can become threatened, particularly when we begin rejecting things that they may hold dear.  We must be careful not to judge them for they do not know the Lord.  Anytime our thoughts turn to judgement, we should quickly turn those thoughts into intercessory prayer.  

Pray that the Lord will open their eyes to see the way, the truth and the life in Jesus Christ.  Pray that the Lord will open their hearts to receive His Son as their Savior.  Pray that the Lord will mold their hearts so that they will submit to Him as their Lord, Master and King.  Pray that they will be empowered by the Holy Spirit to go out to proclaim their good news, to share the perfect love and forgiveness of Jesus with the world around them, to bear fruit for the kingdom of God and to bring honor and glory to His name.

Discernment in Prayer

The apostles were constantly trying to steer Jesus away from the worst elements of society.  Jesus would have no part of it.  By His own claim, He was here on earth to serve those who needed His help - sinners one and all.

So we should be careful not to only extend our intercessory prayers to those we favor.  Those who repulse us are probably in much greater need of the power of intercession from the Spirit within us. 

By seeking the will of God, we will receive the discernment we need for our intercessory prayers.  It should come as no surprise when we find our prayers of love and forgiveness lifted up for our enemies.