Transformation Through Trial

1 Peter 4:13

But rejoice insofar as you share Christ’s sufferings, that you may also rejoice and be glad when his glory is revealed.

If we are to be used by God, He will allow us to go through a multitude of experiences that are meant to transform us into instruments of His good work.  Some of the experiences will be easy, but some of the experiences will certainly be difficult.  All will be meticulously worked into the fabric of our lives with the final product in mind.

We need to understand that the sufferings that we go through are not those of ordinary men and women.  We are being prepared for greater things to come.  While we view our lives in the fabric of time, God views our lives in the fabric of eternity.  While all we see is the weaving of one single thread at a time, God sees the final finished product all woven together in accordance with His will and plan for our lives.

Because God is who He is, the final product will be much more beautiful and useful than anything that we could ever even imagine or hope for.  We will realize it when the whole is complete and we stand before the Father in glory.

Prayer

Heavenly Father, we thank You for allowing us to experience life through many different trials.  We rejoice in knowing that when we are struggling in the tribulations that the world brings to our door that Your Holy Spirit is always there strengthening us and guiding us to the next experience that You have set aside for us.  Father, we pray for the patient perseverance to endure through all that You have prepared for us.  May we be transformed according to Your will and plan for our lives.

Dwelling in the Shadow of Almighty God

James 4:7

Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.

Man without Jesus Christ is not capable of standing against the powers that seek to devour and destroy him.  In the darkness of the flesh, we are unable to see that we are being lead into lives that will never be totally satisfying.  We cannot see that our lives are much less than they could be, much less than they should be.

But when the light of Jesus Christ comes into our lives, we see how life can be, how life should be, how our lives are renewed in the spirit of Our Savior.  We come to recognize that the renewal of our minds and our spirits is only available to us through our submission to Our Savior.  We come to discover that the dominating power of the world, our flesh and Satan himself are defeated through the victory that Jesus Christ won for us on the Cross. 

Prayer

Heavenly Father, we thank You for allowing us to come to You to gain the armor that we need to defend ourselves from the enemy who comes to defeat us.  We thank You for the weapon of prayer, the sword of Your Holy Word and the shield of faith.  We rejoice in knowing that the victory is ours because Your Son, Jesus, claimed it for us forever when He died on the Cross for our sins.  We humbly come before You, Lord, to proclaim that we are laying aside our own strength so that we may dwell in the protection of Your shadow.

Bond-Slaves of Jesus Christ

Galatians 2:20

I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.

In the days of slavery, the slaves were keenly aware of who their slave owner was and what their slave owner expected of them.  When the slaves had a good master, they understood the value of the  provisions that they were given.  They would delight in pleasing their good master.

As Christians, we not only have a good master, we have a good and perfect master.  We have Our Lord, Jesus, as our Master.  We should be in constant praise and worship for the provisions that we receive.  We should delight in meeting every calling that Our Master places on our lives.  We should purposefully sign away our own rights in order to be bond-slaves of Jesus Christ.

Prayer

Heavenly Father, we thank You for legally binding us to Your service for all eternity.  We rejoice in knowing that we will praise and worship You forever as our needs are met and satisfied beyond our imaginations.  We pray, Lord, for the wisdom and the strength to renounce any ownership that we seek to claim from this earth.  May we live in the comfort and triumph of Your grace.  May we live every day in surrender to Your Son, Jesus.

Living Daily For The Love of God

John 14:15

If you love me, you will keep my commandments.

Most diets that we follow are built around a list of "do's" and "don't's".   Here are a few "don't's". 

• Don't eat this type of food.
• Don't eat more than this much.
• Don't eat at this time of day.

Of course, there is always a corresponding list of "do's" to guide us through our diets as well.

For many of us, sadly, the diet process will ultimately end in failure.  We may find short term results, but we will revert to our old ways over time.  The cold hard fact is that the flesh is not capable of satisfying itself.  Those of us who are successful at diets are those who dieted for a specific purpose beyond losing weight - be healthy for my family, live longer for my family, etc.

Similarly, obedience to God's commandments for the sake of obedience is doomed for failure.  Obedience based on our love for the Lord and our desire to please Him is the only way to find victory against the desires of the flesh.

Prayer

Heavenly Father, we thank You for loving us first, so that we have Your love to return to You in an expression of praise and worship. We thank You for loving us so much that You gave us Your Son to give us victory over our sins.  Through the strength of our victory in Christ, we ask forgiveness and repent of our sins.  We pray for the grace to walk in oneness with You in all that we do.  May You know that we love You by the way we live each day. 

Vessels of God's Redemptive Work

1 Corinthians6:19

Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and that you are not your own?

Once we accept Jesus Christ as Our Savior, the Holy Spirit comes and dwells within us.  The Lord begins using us as vessels that carry the Living Water.

Before the Living Water can flow, we must be free of those things in our lives which would hinder the flow.  We must get into fellowship with Jesus Himself.  Without His fellowship, we are of no use to God as vessels of salvation.

As we submit to the Lord, we can anticipate that there will be trials in our lives.  Jesus Himself told us that it would be so as we followed Him.  These trials that create brokenness in our lives will also create the cracks in the living vessel so that the Living Water can flow through unhindered.  If but one heart can be saved because of our brokenness, let us thank God for allowing our trials to occur.

Prayer

Heavenly Father, we thank You for using us as Your vessels of Living Water.  We rejoice in knowing that through shed blood of Your Son, Jesus, and through the indwelling of Your Holy Spirit in our lives that You can use us, the sons of inequity, to be instruments of Your good work.  We pray for the aid of the Holy Spirit to build us up in Christ so that we can endure in faith all of our trials.  We ask, Father, that we may become free flowing vessels of Your redemptive work in those around us.