Confess It Now

When we sin, it is very important that we confess the sin and repent of it quickly.  We are not to hold on to it for any reason - not even to punish ourselves.  

We must take God's merciful grace and shed ourselves of our sins.  We must cleanse ourselves through the power of the Holy Spirit and move on to a new higher level of relationship with the Father.

We must recognize that Christ has atoned for all sin for all eternity.  To hold on to any sin, even in guilt, is to continue to suffer its destruction in our lives.

For Our Good and God's Glory

God's call on each of our lives is unique.  While He gives all of us the same commandments to follow, He will give each of us specific areas in which He wants us to obey Him.  It is for our own good and for His glory that He calls us to specific areas of obedience.

God told the Jews not to eat pork.  He was protecting them from the inherent health issues related to cooking pork improperly.  The Jews did not realize why they were being called to obedience in this specific area, but it was for their good and ultimately for God's glory.

If God calls us to a specific area of obedience or gives us a command specific to our circumstances, it will be for our good.  If we are obedient to His calling, we will receive the good that God planned for us and He will receive His glory.

The Perfect and Powerful Word of God

When called to share the Good News of the Gospel, we often try to slightly change the wording to make it more acceptable to the listener.  How dare we assume that our words are more pleasing than the Word of God itself.

We can and should confidently speak the Word of God exactly as it was written.  While our words are powerless, the Word of God holds truths that deliver their promises without failure.

The Promise of Provision

One of the most difficult lessons to learn for each believer is to trust the Lord in all matters concerning his or her life.  For most, it is a lesson that is not fully internalized even up to the death bed.

God has promised His perfect provision for our lives.  At times, we just cannot see past our circumstances to receive the fullness of His grace.  How much more joy could we have in life if we would simply focus on Our Provider instead of our problems? 

The Treasury Is Open

The throne of grace is open 24-7.  The access into the throne room is through prayer.  If the throne room is continuously open, are we not fools if we only access it infrequently.

If the bank would give us funds anytime that we visited, would we not run there on a steady basis?  In all likelihood our presence there would be as frequent as our schedule allowed.  We would be incessant visitors to the bank.  

We should approach God's throne with the same sense of urgency and persistence.  The content of His Treasury is far greater than anything that we can find on earth and He releases it to us when we ask Him.

The Great Potter

The Great Potter has a plan for each of His creations.  The creations with the greatest worth are the ones that He leaves in the fire the longest.  For it is the fire that seals in the lasting beauty and value of the piece.

As one of God's creations, we should rejoice and praise God for taking the time to see us through our fiery trials.  Our Heavenly Father will use each trial to take us to a higher place in His kingdom.

Sin is Our Nature

Sin is our nature.  It never leaves our flesh.  We must always be alert to its lurking in our lives and the fact that Satan stands ready to exploit its power over us at a moment's notice.

Our only refuge from sin is Jesus Christ.  We must constantly renew ourselves through the power of the Holy Spirit within us.  We must allow for His strength to be perfected in our weakness.  If we ever consider ourselves adequate for the battle, we will surely fall to our sinful nature.

Our Exchanged Life of Joy

Our corporate sin sent Jesus to the Cross to die.  Our individual sins will lead to our deaths unless we go to Jesus to accept our gift of redemption from the death penalty.

Through Jesus we receive the exchanged life of joy for the old life of sin and its miserable consequences.  We must recognize in the process that it is only through the power of the Holy Spirit within us that we are able to live a life that brings glory to God and results in the joy that we experience.

The Eye of Judgment

We can be certain that we have much to be concerned about in our own lives when we are constantly judgmental of others.  We should be careful not to look at others with a judgmental eye, seeking to find the stains of sin in their lives.  We should seek instead the path of intercession for others.  We should be diligent in prayer for the blood of Jesus to cover them so that they may stand spotless before the Father.

As we turn our focus on prayer for the salvation of others, the eye of judgment will leave us.  The spiritual cleansing that we seek for others will be imparted to us through the Holy Spirit.

Blessing Those Close to Us

In Numbers 6:24-26, we read of the priest's prayer for the people.  "May the Lord bless you and protect you.  May the Lord smile on you and be gracious to you.  May the Lord show you His favor and give you His peace."

These are the things that we desire for everyone around us when we submit our own lives to Jesus.  When we abide in Jesus, we will seek nothing but the best of what God has to offer for all of the people in our lives.  Numbers 6:24-26 is a great way to start our prayers of intercession.

Completed on the Cross

Once we have received Jesus into our lives, it becomes our nature to pray for the salvation of the lost persons in our lives.  This type of prayer intercession for others can be a frustrating experience if we are looking for instant results.

We must recognize that God works according to His perfect plans and perfect timing - not our desired timing.  But more importantly, we must recognize that the work of salvation that we pray for was completed on the Cross.

Do We Need to Rekindle Our Love for Our Savior?

When we were children, we joined our parents in the work around the house.  When we did the work with them, we were expressing our love for them by honoring them with our obedience.  It is probably safe to say that we enjoyed spending time with our parents more than we enjoyed doing the work itself.  

How is it that we can somehow become more enamored with our own Christian works than we are with Christ, Himself?  Somehow the truth has escaped us.  May the Holy Spirit rekindle our love for our Savior. 

Jesus As Our Focus

As good managers, we should always keep our sights on our goals.  As good Christians, we should also keep Jesus in our sights as we go through our daily activities.

With Jesus as our focus, two very important things happen.  1)  The things that are around us to scare or hinder us become insignificant.  2)  The vision of what we are trying to attain and how we are going to get there become crystal clear.  Through Jesus we are able to follow the path that God put in place for us before our birth.

Spiritual Maturity

When we can look at any other human being without being critical of their behavior, then we know we truly know Jesus.   When can overlook the behavior of others while we love them because of the fact that they are one of God's beloved children, then we know that we truly have a relationship with Jesus.  

Until we reach that time of spiritual maturity, we must take every situation in which we are ready to criticize someone and turn that situation over to the Holy Spirit.  Then we must praise God for giving us the grace to see the frailty in others without damaging them with our words.

The Power Within

What Jesus did for us, we did not earn.  What Jesus did for us, we do not deserve.  Yet the moment we accept the salvation that He made possible when He died for us on the Cross, we have the power within us to lay ourselves down each day for those around us.

Our flesh will argue against it and Satan will certainly do his part to discourage us, but the victory is totally complete.  All we have to do is let the Spirit within us flow out of us.

The Small Things Matter

Instead of calling for the water to come from the rock as God instructed Moses, he hit the rock twice with his staff.  Moses was prohibited from entering the promised land because of this simple act of disobedience.  

What promised land do we miss when we are not obedient in the small things - a helping hand for a grumpy neighbor, a kind word and unsolicited help for a tired spouse, a loving hug for a disobedient child.  God is in all these acts of kindness.  We should do them for His glory.  He has much awaiting us.

Where Are You Today?

Where are you today?  Are you happy with your circumstances?  These questions are irrelevant when you are abiding in Jesus.

If you follow His command, "Abide in Me", you will not care where you are or what you are doing.  Your place in life will be filled with the joy of the Lord.  All of your activity will be completely satisfying and will bear much fruit.  What freedom there is in Jesus!

He Awaits

There is nothing in our lives that is too big or too small for Jesus.  He is waiting to comfort us and guide us through and intercede for us in every minute detail in our lives.  He is also waiting to be our burden bearer and provider through every seemingly unsurmountable circumstance that we may encounter.

Why should we rely on our own power when we have the power of the creator and sustainer of the universe available to us?  Rejoice and seek Jesus in all things.  Submit every breathing moment of life to Him.  He awaits!

Buried Talent

What a shame it is for us to accept our salvation and then to remain mostly unchanged by the Holy Spirit within us.  In doing so, we are like the servant that buried the one talent that he was given without doing anything with it.

When we are inactive in our spiritual lives, we stunt our spiritual growth.  As a result, we cut off greater gifts from God and we deny ourselves the greatest rewards that He has stored up for us. 

We should actively seek the power of the Holy Spirit in our lives and in all that we do.  The rewards will be many. 

"Come Unto Me"

The abundance of all of God's grace is available to us the moment that we accept our salvation.  All we have to do is submit to Jesus, allowing His Spirit to guide us in all our ways.

"Come unto Me." Matthew 11:28

It is so simple, yet so powerful, to access all that God has available for us.  Why do we insist on hanging on to the things that do nothing but hinder our progress toward complete union with Christ?  Why do we accept less than a full measure of God's awesome grace when all of it is so readily accessible?

Preparing for Our Final Home

Once we knock on God's door, we must be ready to submit to His lordship over our lives by accepting His Son as our Savior.  When we enter a saving relationship with His Son, we will never be the same.  

Through our relationship with Jesus, we each become a new person who is faced with the eye-opening need to let our old self die.  We come to the realization that we are in need of cleansing before we can enter God's house.  God's house is greater than any place that we have ever been or could even imagine.  We will never want to leave there.  

He has prepared a place for us there.  But before we get there, we will be in an ongoing process to cleanse and prepare ourselves for our visit to God's house - our final home.

His Gracious Provision

There is usually some sort of delay when God is answering our prayers.  Part of the delay is due to Him putting all the details in place for our answer to be complete.  Another part of the delay is to cause us to realize that we are truly relying on His grace for all things in our lives.

If God immediately gave us all that we prayed for, we would probably consider ourselves in control.  It is important that we understand that God provides all that we need, but He wants us to come to a place where we appreciate the depth of His perfect love and gracious provision.

Our Promised Land

What "promised land" are we missing because we are not being obedient to God's calling in our lives?  God allows us to make our own choices, but He also changes His rewards based on our choices.  Our choices that take us away from the perfect path that He has laid out for us will diminish our ultimate reward. 

Moses was not allowed into the Promised Land set aside for the Israelites because He was not perfectly obedient to God.  We certainly risk the same fate when we are less than fully submitted to God's rule and reign in our lives.

Whatever We Shall Ask

The name of Jesus is the greatest resource that we have.  It is a resource that we should call on and rely on 24-7.  We are missing an awesome power in our lives, if we only call on the name of Jesus when we need something.

The name of Jesus represents His Spirit that dwells within us.  His power is with us with every breath that we take.  When we submit to His Lordship in our lives, our wills come into perfect union with His.  According to His Word, this abiding in Him allows us to receive "whatever we shall ask" in His name.          

Aligning with God's Will

What an awesome gift we receive, when we receive the will of God in our lives through the indwelling of the Holy Spirit.  No longer do we go through life relying on the urgings of our flesh - which is weak and destined for death.  Instead we take on the will of the Son of God which is perfect and destined to lead us to our eternal place in heaven.  

Our salvation, which was complete as soon as we made Jesus Our Savior, is worked out through our daily lives in Christ.  Every day we learn how to make each choice in life based on the will of God and not on the desires of our flesh.  When we reach heaven, our will will be in perfect alignment with God's.

The Counsel of Our Heavenly Father

When the Israelites went in to check out the promised land for the first time, they went in filled with fear.  They did not go in confident, carrying God's promise that "I will in no wise fail you".

Instead they entered the promised land cowered under the prospects of their own personal inability to handle their circumstances.  They completely overlooked God's promises to be their helper and the source of their victory.

How often have we done the same thing?  How often have we let our perception of our own abilities be the sole driver for how we handle our circumstances?  How often have we proceeded forward with our plans in life without involving the wisdom, understanding, counsel and might of Our Heavenly Father?

Trusting in His Promises

Do I see the Lord in everything I do?  If I do, there will be no drudgery in any task.  The joy of Jesus will be in all my work.

Do I believe in God's promise to take all of my burdens?  If I do, there will be no despair in any trials that I may encounter.  The hope of Jesus will be in every circumstance.

Am I certain that the Lord will never forsake me?  If I am, I will live life free of doubts.  Through it all, I will trust the Father's promise to work all things for my eternal good. 

The Unmentioned Blessing

Our Lord, Jesus, is the fullness of joy that we have been so graciously provided through our salvation.  Once we receive Him as Our Savior, our lives are never the same again.  We come to realize a joy through His presence that surpasses anything that we can receive from earthly things.

It is a shame to see that while we spend countless hours with friends and family discussing all the wonderful things in our lives that we rarely mention our most precious gift, The Provider.  And, probably sadder yet, even though He is readily available and eager to join us, we fail to include Him in the conversation.  Hmmm.

Fear of the Lord

Fear of God is like fear of one's father.  It is much more and so much deeper than the fear of discipline and punishment.  It is the fear of offending the one that you hold dearest.  It is the fear of disappointing the one that you want to please the most.  It is the fear of not living up to the expectations of the one that is held in the highest place of esteem in your life.  It is the fear of losing closeness with the one you desire to be closest to.  It is the reverent fear that creates eternal bonds.

The Nature and Power of God

It is evident that we do not have the power of the Holy Spirit within us, if the full knowledge of the love and power of God has not been revealed to us.  If we are not certain that God can do all things for our eternal good, we are lost.   

If we have the Holy Spirit within us, we will possess the knowledge of and have faith in the power of Jesus' shed blood to overcome every obstacle in our lives.  We will have certainty in our victory over anything that tries to move us away from relationship with our Heavenly Father.  We will understand fully the nature of God apart from our own failing natures.