Coming Out of the Thicket

2 Thessalonians 2:16-17

Now may our Lord Jesus Christ himself and God our Father, who loved us and by his grace gave us eternal comfort and a wonderful hope, comfort you and strengthen you in every good thing you do and say.

When we are in full submission to Jesus Christ, we have prepared ourselves to allow the bountiful power of the Holy Spirit to be released through us to the world around us.  At this juncture, we are capable of doing all that God has created and willed for our lives.

Even when it seems to us that our lives are a tangled mess, there is always the wonderful hope in the promises of Almighty God.  Through His grace and His mercy we will come through the thicket that we see ourselves caught in.  We will find our comfort and our strength by listening for and responding to the urgings of the Holy Spirit.  If we are diligent in listening and responding to the Holy Spirit, our paths will be productive and our fruit will be plentiful.

We have to learn that God is using us from His personal standpoint.  All that He asks is that we trust in Him, 

Prayer
Heavenly Father, we thank You for the free grace and mercy that our hopes are based on.  We praise the name of Jesus, who is the fountain of all the good that we have hope for.  Father, we pray for the strength to overcome our doubtful minds that make us halting in our duties.  May You grant us the unwavering faith that we need to set aside our own self-reliance and to learn to trust in Your promises.  May we be comforted in our hearts as we await all the good things that You have already set aside for us and our loved ones.

The Extraordinary Work of God in Our Ordinary Lives

1 Corinthians 12:6

There are varieties of activities, but it is the same God who empowers them all in everyone.

When we try to teach, preach or evangelize by our own strength and capability, we will be unsuccessful.  The power is not in us.  The power is in the Holy Spirit that is within us.  We must let the Holy Spirit lead us and let the outpouring of the Holy Spirit be our product.

It is not our job to convert people.  It is our job to have people drawn to us by the way that we live our lives in Jesus Christ.  Even though our labors may be ordinary, if they are done as works of faith, labors of love and with persistent hope in Our Savior, the Holy Spirit will carry on and complete the work of Our Heavenly Father in His children.  

Once drawn to us by our walk with Jesus, the people around us will have Jesus revealed to them as the way, the truth and the life. Through our living testimonies, those around us will be able to receive every good and perfect gift of The Father.

Prayer

Heavenly Father, we thank You for revealing Yourself through all Your works in nature throughout the universe, including Your humble servants who are so undeserving.  We thank You, Lord, for assigning to us various gifts, administrations and operations for us to carry out in the name of Jesus.  We rejoice, Father, in knowing that the world can learn of Your good and perfect gifts by observing the lives of those who have already accepted Your gift of salvation and are obedient to You in the ordinary things of life.  We pray, Lord, that Your grace will fill our hearts so that the world will know You.

Repositories of His Gifts

2 Corinthians 4:7

But we have this treasure in jars of clay, to show that the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us.

We are vessels of the living water that dwells within us.  We are not the the stream or the rain shower that brings the precious water.  We are only the collecting places where the thirsty can come to be quenched.

We are the lanterns of the Light of the World.  We are not the sun or the moon that brings the precious light.  We are only the beacons that allow the light to shine into the darkness of the world around us.

We are the temples of Jesus Christ.  We produce nothing on our own, but we are the repositories of the gifts of the Holy Spirit - love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.

We are conduits of the perfect love and forgiveness of Our Heavenly Father.  Nothing that flows from us is of ourselves.  It is all the perfection of Jesus Christ within us.  God could have chosen angels to deliver His message, but He chose weaker vessels so that His power might be glorified and His treasures might be shared with all men.

Prayer

Heavenly Father, we thank You for choosing us to deliver Your treasures to the world.  We rejoice in knowing that You have pulled us from the pit, cleansed us with the blood of Your Son, Jesus, and made us worthy to be lamps upon a hill.  We pray, Lord, that You will reveal to us everything in our lives that hinders the flow of Your gifts.  May we live in the fullness of Our Savior.  May all the glory be Yours.

We Are All Intercessors

1 Thessalonians 5:24

He who calls you is faithful; he will surely do it.

New government authority, new boss, new co-worker, new neighbor, new acquaintance, new friend - not a single one is new by chance.  God has placed each of those that are around us to teach us new things about ourselves.  It seems impossible that such a plan could be put in place for each of us.  But our God is a God of the impossible.  He has no limits to His power and His authority.  He loves us so much that He goes to an extraordinary, nearly unimaginable, level to insure that we are surrounded by a host of intercessors.  These intercessors in our lives are placed there for one reason.  God in His mercy and His grace wants to insure that we are properly prepared to spend eternity with Him.

In the life of the believer, there is no such thing as chance.  Our sovereign God is always in total control of everything.  Do not miss the flip side of our relationships with our surrounding intercessors.  We are simultaneously the other half of all of these relationships in our lives - the new boss, new co-worker, new neighbor, new acquaintance, new friend - and again, not a single one is new by chance.  God has purposely placed us in each relationship to be a giver as well as a receiver of His intercessory work in our lives.

Prayer

Heavenly Father, we thank You for Your providence in our lives.  We rejoice in knowing that You understand our weaknesses and provide intercessory support through those that You place around us.  We pray, Father, that Your Holy Spirit will alert us to the intercession that You have planned for us.  May we learn to grow through the circumstances that engulf us from time to time.  We pray that You will provide the wisdom that we need to be fruitful intercessors for others as we engage them in the journey that is life.

It Doesn't Get Any Better Than That

Romans 8:28

And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.

It is likely that at one time or another that you have heard someone say, "I am not worried.  Everything always works out for the best."  Of course, what you probably did not know when the person made the statement was whether that person had made the statement from a spiritual or worldly perspective.  Were they counting on continued good fortune because they trusted in the God that they loved to stand up to His promises or were they just feeling lucky? 

Through the grace of God, the followers of Jesus Christ do not have to wonder or worry about whether good things are coming their way.  We have been promised by Almighty God that if we love Him and follow the calling that He has placed on our lives that all things will work for together for good in our lives.   

Does this mean that we will always live in riches?  Does this mean that we will always live without illness?  Does this mean that we will live trouble free lives?  No it does not.  What it does mean is that we will be broken from sin, we will be drawn closer and closer to Our Savior and in the end we will be made fit for our eternal place in heaven.  Now it just doesn't get any better than that.

Prayer

Heavenly Father, we thank You for drawing us unto Yourself.  We exalt Your name for the perfect love and forgiveness that we receive through Your grace and Your mercy.  We thank You for the eternal blessings that are ours through the redemptive work of Your Son, Our Savior, Jesus Christ.  We pray that the world may know Your Son because we boldly proclaim the name of the One who brings us our eternal riches.