Graciously Bestowed and Powerfully Applied

2 Peter 1:4

Through these he has given us his very great and precious promises, so that through them you may participate in the divine nature, having escaped the corruption in the world caused by evil desires.

  

The great God of heaven and earth, the creator and ruler over all things, has made His divine nature available to us through His Son, Jesus.  He confirms this endless gift through His promises, His power and His faithfulness.  Whether our faith be weak or strong right now, we can find hope in claiming what has already been granted to us.  

What does it matter if times are tough?  We know the tough times will end.  Do we not know that the divine nature and power of Jesus Christ is sufficient to provide victory for us in all things?  Once we have accepted Jesus as Our Savior, the victory is ours.  All that we need has been provided to us free, without conditions and unchangeable.  All of it is provided to serve the great ends and purposes of Almighty God.  All of it is provided to proclaim His glory as He showers us with His everlasting good.

Through this divine intervention, we are able to escape the frailties of our own flesh and the corruption of the world.  With the precious promises graciously bestowed and powerfully applied, we are able to live under the divine influence of Our Savior and avoid the ungodliness of our carnal nature. 

Prayer

Heavenly Father, we thank You for providing Our Blessed Hope and Assurance, Jesus Christ.  We praise You, worship You and exalt Your Name for all that You have set aside for us.  We pray that You teach us how to submit to Our Lord, Our Master and Our King, Jesus so that we may be fully prepared to receive our eternal inheritance.  May Your majesty, Your grace and Your power be manifested in us here on earth as it is in heaven.  May it all be for Your glory and the gain of the kingdom.  We ask all these things in the name of Jesus, Our Divine Mediator.

The True Light of the World

2 Corinthians 4:6

For God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.

One of the greatest beauties in all of nature is the full moon.  Yet the moon does nothing by itself to generate light.  It is an unproductive body of dirt on its own.  It only reflects the light of the sun as it moves into its proper position in concert with the earth.

We share similarities with the moon.  We are worthless collections of dirt without the light of the Son in our lives.  There is absolutely nothing that we could do through our own efforts independent of God that would evoke a light of awareness in the hearts of others.  Yet if we keep ourselves in proper position with the Son of God, the light of the Son will shine through us for the world to see.

Just as Almighty God created the moon to be an instrument to transfer light of the sun on the earth into the darkness of the evening, we were created to be instruments to transfer the light of the Son into the darkness of the hearts of those who do not know Jesus Christ as their Savior.  May we seek to bring glory to God in much the same manner as the brilliance of a full moon on a clear evening.

Prayer

Heavenly Father, we thank You for providing light at the beginning of creation so that we could see Your glory in the world that surrounds us.  We thank You for providing the light of the world, Your Son Jesus, so that we could see and accept the way to our eternal glory with You.  We pray, Father God, that You will shield us from the enemy who tries to take the Light out of our lives.  We ask, Lord, that You cleanse us and purify us so that we may be lampposts of Christ for all to see.  We ask all these things in the name of the True Light, Jesus Christ.

Listen. He Knocks.

2 Samuel 7:22

Therefore you are great, O LORD God. For there is none like you, and there is no God besides you, according to all that we have heard with our ears.

What if a man appeared at your door, a man of immense power and wealth, a man who everyone around the world recognized and praised, how would you greet him?   Would you welcome him in?  What if he said, "I know you.  I have been watching you.  I have a plan for you.  I want to make you the inheritor of all the riches of my estate."  How would you respond?

This man has knocked on all of our doors.  His name is Jesus.  He exceeds beyond our imagination any man that walks on this earth.  There is no one like Him.  He is the way, the truth and the life.  There is no other way to the riches of our eternal inheritance except through Him.

He is the Lord, Our God.  His name, His nature, His purposes, His promises and His works are all the essence of everything good.  He is the one true God, the creator of all things.   How could anyone not answer when He knocks?

Prayer

Heavenly Father, we praise You and exalt You.  We thank You for providing Your Son as Our Redeemer.  We humbly receive the riches that He has set aside for us through His sacrifice.  May we fully submit to Jesus as Our Savior and Lord over our lives as He knocks on our doors and asks us to follow Him.  May we become living testimony to His presence in our lives so that others may know Him when He knocks on their doors.  We ask all these things in the name of the Lord of all the earth, Jesus Christ.

His Grace Provides All We Need

Romans 8:32

He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things?

Is it hope that we need today?  Are we seeking hope to relieve the pain that we are suffering, or hope to relieve the concern over the financial woes that are hounding us or perhaps hope to ease the torment of conflict in a relationship that we are feeling?  In all these things we are more than conquerors through Him that loved us.  There is nothing in all of creation that can separate us from the love of God.  He sent the fallen angels from His kingdom forever because of their sins.  He flooded the earth because of the violence and evil of all mankind.  He destroyed all the people of Sodom and Gomorrah because of their wickedness.  Yet He spared us from our sins by giving us His Son.  

Through His Son, Our Heavenly Father provides us with all our temporal needs and all of our spiritual blessings.  It is all given freely according to His good will and pleasure.  He does not give grudgingly.  He gives cheerfully, bountifully and without conditions.  His love is perfect.  His forgiveness is endless for those who accept His Son as their Savior.

Prayer

Heavenly Father, we thank You for providing us with all of our needs, both temporal and spiritual.  We exalt the name of Jesus for providing us with that which we do not deserve and could never earn except through His death for our sins.  We praise You for the blessed hope and assurance of Our Savior.  He is all that we need.   We pray that You will help us find peace and strength in Him through all circumstances.  We ask all these things in the name of the Son of the Most High God, Jesus Christ.

Their God is My God

Acts 24:16

So I always take pains to have a clear conscience toward both God and man.

Paul spoke these words when he was giving an account of himself to his followers.  He was under attack from his enemies at the time.  He wanted his followers to know that he was under attack because he was leading a life that conflicted with how his attackers wanted to live their lives.  Paul may have been the first to warn us about living our lives according to political correctness and not according to the teachings of Jesus Christ.

How many of us would feel more comfortable being accused of any weakness rather than be accused of being a fervent believer in Jesus Christ, devoted to His service?  Unfortunately, this is exactly where the world wants us.  Everything we see, hear and read that comes from the world is designed to desensitize us to evil and to move us away from the holy life style to which Jesus Christ calls us.  When we give in to what the world wants to hear, we give in to Satan.  We diminish our testimony that goes out to those who need to hear the truth.

You probably have heard of the rather recent beheading of 21 Christians in a mid-east massacre.  You may not have heard the entire story.  One by one, each of the first twenty were asked if they would like to deny Christ.  Each one of them, one by one, proclaimed their loyalty to their Savior and were subsequently beheaded.  When the twenty first person was asked if he would deny Christ, he said, "Their God is my God.  I will not deny Him."  Then he was beheaded.  If any of the first twenty had denied their Lord, it would have opened the door of temptation for the next person.  We are and will be held accountable for our testimony.  What we stand for does make a difference.

Prayer

Heavenly Father, we thank You for providing the Holy Spirit to keep us mindful of the truths that You have revealed to us through the life of Your Son, Jesus, and through the writings in Your Holy Word.  Strengthen us, Lord, to stand up to the ridicule and hatred of the world.  In the flesh, we are destined to fall for the tricks of the enemy.  Teach us, Lord, to call on and to rely on the Holy Spirit to help us to live in the spirit of the one who dwells within us.  May it be the passion of our hearts to please You and not the world.  We ask all these things in the name of Jesus Christ, the way, the truth and the life.

Speaking Into the Lives of Others

Proverbs 15:4

The soothing tongue is a tree of life, but a perverse tongue crushes the spirit.

God spoke the world into existence.  Jesus cast out demons and healed the sick with His spoken words. There is great power in our words as well. Words cast out from our mouths have the power to build up and the power to crush.  We must be conscious of the power of every word that we speak.

"You will never amount to anything," lives on in the life of a child forever.  So does, "You are wonderfully made by the hand of God.  He has a special plan for your life."   We must be careful in choosing the words that we speak to our loved ones and to all the people that we encounter in life.  We truly have the power to plant life or death into those around us.

Satan will stay in our ears all day long, feeding us with destructive words to be spoken against those that we care for.  We must keep our armor up against the urgings to hurt others with our words.  We must continually ask the Holy Spirit to help us to be mindful of our words so that we comfort and build up those around us instead of crushing their spirits.

May we bring healing words to the wounded.  May we bring atoning words to those without Christ.  May we speak peace, encouragement and building up in the lives of all those that surround us.  

Prayer,

Heavenly Father, we thank You for the gift of speaking.  We rejoice in praising you with our words and our songs.  We take comfort in coming to You with our words of solicitation.  We pray, Father, that You will fill our hearts with words that speak life into those around us.  We pray that You will shield us from the urgings of the enemy to speak words of conflict and destruction.  Build us up, Lord, so that we may build up others in Your Precious Name.  We ask all these things in the name of the Living Word, Jesus Christ.

His Eyes Are Always Upon Us

Deuteronomy 11:11-12

But the land that you are going over to possess is a land of hills and valleys, which drinks water by the rain from heaven, a land that the LORD your God cares for. The eyes of the LORD your God are always upon it, from the beginning of the year to the end of the year.

The Lord is our provider.  He provides everything.  He gave us life.  He sustains us.  He grants us eternal life through His Son, Jesus.  He endows us with the riches of His Kingdom for all eternity.

All we have to do is receive His Son as Our Savior and, through our faith in His promises, step out of the land in which we are living and into the land that God has set aside for us.  It will mean that we will look past those things that we think are unsurmountable. We will seek the promise and not get overwhelmed by the problem.  We will rely on God and not ourselves to be the source of our needs.

Once we turn our lives over to God and surrender to the reign of His Son in our lives, all of our needs will be met.  Provision may come from our own hands as God favors us with productive ideas and capabilities.   Provision may come from the hands of others or may even come from our enemies, if so directed by the Lord.  But rest assured, provision will come directly from the hand of God and it will be according to His perfect timing for our lives.

Prayer

Heavenly Father, we thank You for the countless blessings that You shower us with each day.  From breath to breath, You sustain us.  We praise You and bless You for Your eyes never leave us.  You are our constant comfort and provision.  We pray that Your Holy Spirit will teach us, Lord, to rest in Your promises.  We ask that Your Holy Spirit strengthen us, Lord, so that we may step out of the world of the flesh into kingdom living.  We ask all these things in the name of the One who made us heirs to Your kingdom, Jesus Christ.