Our Circumstances Bring Out the Best in Us

Matthew 5:48

You therefore must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.

When Jesus spoke to His disciples, He knew full well that they were incapable of being perfect.  He was asking them to consider the manner in which they represented Him.  He wanted their behavior to distinguish them from others in the world around them.  He wanted them to be living examples of the good character of the representatives of His kingdom.

We are most comfortable in life when we are around people we like.  We also feel comfortable when we are asked to do things that we know that we are capable of doing successfully.  In these times of ease, our personality and our capabilities often shine and our performance appears to be nearly perfect, at least from a secular standpoint.  While this type of behavior is certainly good, it generally will not separate us from the secular crowd.  We are likely to rely on our own strengths, resulting in us just blending into society without reflecting the presence and character of the One who dwells within us. 

On the other hand, when we are challenged by our circumstances and we purposely follow the perfect example of Jesus and draw on Him for our strength, our behavior as His representatives will draw the others to Our Savior.   When we seek and allow the fruits of the Holy Spirit to flow through us, the world around us will see us modeling the life of Our Savior and be drawn to Him. 

Jesus commands us to make it our duty to desire to press forward in grace and holiness, so that we may conform ourselves to His example under even the most difficult circumstances.  He desires for us to be perfect like the Father.  When we lean on the Son of God as our model and submit to His indwelling Spirit in our lives, we can attain the perfection that He is calling us to.

Prayer

Heavenly Father, we thank You for providing Your Son, Jesus, to be our perfect model for life.  We thank You for providing the Holy Spirit to guide us to follow Jesus' example.  We rejoice in knowing that our obedience will result in the gifts of the Holy Spirit being poured out on the world around us.  We pray that we may exhibit unusual grace, gentleness, faithfulness, loving kindness, patience, self-control and goodness as we are being taxed by our situations.  May You receive all the praise and glory, Lord.  We ask all these things in the name of the perfect Son of the Most High God, Jesus Christ.

Living the Simple Life in Christ

2 Corinthians 11:3

But I fear, lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtilty, so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ.

Grey is defined as an intermediate color between black and white.  In truth, there is not any grey area that allows for a choice.  Things are cut and dry.  They are either true or they or not. 

Satan's fingerprints are all over the complexity of issues that we deal with daily in this world.  His tactics are simple.  Satan builds in layers of grey around the truth.  His minions, especially the media, work hard to confuse us.  They attempt to build layers of grey around good and evil.  They try to make us see elements of evil as good and elements of good as evil.

When our focus is in Jesus Christ, our lives become much simpler.  He that dwells within us is the essence of everything good and the absence of evil.  He is Truth.  Living in Truth is very cut and dry.  Simplicity in life is found by living in the light of Christ.  From this standpoint, we can see, believe in and adhere to the black and white choices offered by the teachings of Jesus.

Prayer

Heavenly Father, we thank You for revealing the way, the truth and the life that is Your Son, Jesus.  We praise the name of Jesus for modeling the good and perfect life that we should strive for.  We rejoice in knowing that our choices in life are easy when we abide in Our Savior.  We pray, Father, that the Holy Spirit will provide the wisdom that we need to discern the proper choices that we need to make in life for ourselves and our families.  May we learn to live in the light and shut the door on the darkness that the world offers.  We ask all these things in the name of the True Light, Jesus Christ.

All for the Glory of the Father

John 17:4

I glorified you on earth, having accomplished the work that you gave me to do.

Jesus Himself declared that His principal work was to be obedient to the will of His Father in heaven.  He did not seek His own glory.  He sought only His Father's glory.  In the process, He did away with Satan, sin and death and He provided for the redemption and the salvation of all men.

Just as Jesus was faithful in completing His work on earth to glorify His Father, He will also be faithful in completing His work in us so that we may glorify Our Father.  We will not experience the complete fullness of His work in us until we meet Our Savior in His eternal kingdom.  But as we surrender to the will of the Father, we can expect to accomplish more here on earth than we can imagine that we are capable of.  And we can be certain that our work will bring glory to Our Father in heaven.

Be mindful that Satan and our own flesh will come against us as we seek to glorify the Father on earth.   But fear not for the Spirit of the Lord will insure that we overcome the work of the enemy.  We do not need to be concerned about our circumstances, Our Savior will be sufficient.  And it will all be for the glory of The Father.

Prayer

Heavenly Father, we thank You for the grace that You have given us through Your Son to overcome the world.  We bless the name of Jesus for His faithfulness in completing the good work that You gave Him to do.  We pray that the Holy Spirit will lead us and strengthen us so that we may fully surrender to Your will just as Your Son surrendered His all to You.  May it all be for Your glory, for the glory of Your Son and the glory of the Holy Spirit.  We ask all these things in the name of the obedient Son of the Most High God, Jesus Christ.

Aligning With the Will of the Father

Matthew 20:23

He said to them, “You will drink my cup, but to sit at my right hand and at my left is not mine to grant, but it is for those for whom it has been prepared by my Father.”

The apostles, James and John, were seeking a position in heaven that was not in the will of the Father.  God had a place prepared for them that certainly exceeded their imaginations, but it was not at the right and left hand of Jesus as they had asked.

We have been taught that we can ask anything in the name of Jesus and it will be granted to us.  This is true, but our solicitations can be granted only if what we ask is in the will of The Father.  This can cause spiritual confusion for us when our prayers are not answered or, more correctly, have not been answered according to the desires of our flesh.

God has been faithful in providing institutions on earth which can help us to understand how this precept works.  As parents, we can recall times that we withheld things from our children because we knew that is was not the right thing for them at the time.  What they were asking for did not fit in with the overall good that we were seeking for them.  As business leaders, we have denied the requests of good and faithful employees because it would not be beneficial to the company to grant their request.

Almighty God has prepared things for us that have been in place before the foundations of the earth were formed.  Everything that He grants us through His Son is in accordance with His good and perfect plan for our lives in His kingdom.  When we reach our place in the kingdom, we will find it to be beyond our imaginations.

Prayer

Heavenly Father, we thank You for preparing a place for us in Your kingdom.  We bless the name of Your Son, who You have given us to be our mediator as we seek Your grace in our lives.  Teach us, Lord, to seek those things that are according to Your sovereign will and pleasure.  We pray that the Holy Spirit will redirect us when our petitions are of our flesh and not of the fullness of Jesus Christ who dwells within us.   We ask all these things in the name of the True Foundation, Jesus Christ.

Preparing to Stand in His Presence

Revelation 1:17

When I saw him, I fell at his feet as though dead. Then he placed his right hand on me and said: "Do not be afraid. I am the First and the Last.

When John saw the glorified Christ, he fell at the feet of Our Lord.  Joshua, Daniel and Paul were all similarly affected.  The reason for such a reaction is the impact of sinfulness coming into the presence of sinlessness.  As we draw in close to the Lord, His light reveals every iniquity in us and His fire begins to burn away that which offends Him.  As we draw even closer, the purification process becomes even more intense.

The Lord will test us to see how difficult a journey we are willing to take to be close to Him.  He will send people into our lives who will be challenges for us.  He will ask us to serve them through the most menial and commonplace order.  He will ask us to wash their feet.

Through it all, His divine presence will be with us.  As we give up ourselves wholly to Him, we will receive His light in our lives.  Our light should then shine forth among all men and women as we engage them in our lives.  In the process, God will receive the glory.

May we listen to His voice and receive His perfect love.  May we submit fully to His rule and reign in our lives, so that we will be able to bear His nearness. 

Prayer

Heavenly Father, we thank You for the gift of Your presence in our lives.  We praise the name of Jesus who has made it possible for us to stand before You.  We ask forgiveness for all the things in our lives that have offended you.  We pray that the Light of Your Son will reveal the darkness in our lives.  We ask for the grace to be able to surrender to the good work that You are doing in us to prepare us to carry Your light to the world around us.  We ask all these things in the name of the spotless Lamb, Jesus Christ.

Let Us Praise God with Unshakeable Confidence in Our Victory

Psalm 145:21

My mouth will speak the praise of the LORD, and let all flesh bless his holy name forever and ever.

We are stirred up in our hearts to praise God.  We praise Him because of His power and His glory.  We praise Him for His holiness and His love expressed through the redemptive work of His Son, Jesus.

Let us praise God out of the faith that He has built in us through His Holy Spirit.  Let us praise God with the love and delight that He has placed in our hearts.  Let us praise God as we are comforted by His goodness, His grace and His holiness.  Let us praise God with the joy of the expectation of life in His eternal kingdom.  Let us praise God with the unshakeable confidence that the victory is ours through God's greatest gift to us, His Son, Jesus.  

Our Lord, Jesus, is the fullness of the love and forgiveness that we have been so graciously provided by Our Father in Heaven.  Let our every breath be filled for praise for Our Savior.  May our lives be living testimonies of the Son of God who has come to dwell within us.

 

Prayer

Heavenly Father, we lift our voices up in high praise for Your precious Lamb, Jesus.  We proclaim His holiness and His righteousness.  We give thanks for His presence in our lives.  We pray Father that You open our eyes so that we may see His presence in the tiny things in life as well as the large things.  May our every breath praise Him as we come know just how dear He is to us.  We ask all these things in the name of the One whose steadfast love never ceases, Jesus Christ.

Working Outside Our Comfort Zone

1 Corinthians 3:19

For the wisdom of the world is foolishness to God.  As the Scriptures say, “He traps the wise in the snare of their own cleverness.”

Satan's craftiness is witnessed in the way that he gets us to focus on good things that we are good at, knowing that we will find praise in our efforts.  Satan in his cleverness knows that if he can get us to stay in our comfort zone, we will never meet our full potential.  More importantly, Satan recognizes that in the process of relying on our own capabilities that we will completely by-pass God's inspiration in our work.

It is easy for us to take on projects that we are comfortable with and ones in which we feel our probability of success is very high.  There is nothing wrong with this position as long as we go to God for confirmation that the project is one that He ordains.

God inspired projects, however, are more likely to have us question our abilities to successfully complete them.  God is not concerned about our capabilities.  If He ordains something, it will be done.  God is looking for the opportunity to have His power and His glory, not our capabilities, reflected in the things that we do.  May we learn to seek the counsel and the might that He offers.

Prayer

Heavenly Father, we thank You for Your Holy Word that teaches how Jesus was interested in doing only those things that You asked Him to do.  In Jesus' life, every project was carried out in accordance with Your will.  We pray, Father, that the Holy Spirit will teach us how to seek You first in all things.  We pray for the grace to be able to accept and act upon the inspiration of the Holy Spirit.  May all that we do be for Your glory.  We ask all these things in the name of Our Blessed Hope and Assurance, Jesus Christ.