If you take the time today to read Psalm 107 in its entirety, you’ll find examples four times of God’s steadfast love and illustrations of His readiness to answer the prayers of His people in times of trouble. (See verses 6, 13, 19, and 28) From the lost wandering in the wilderness alone, or being a chained slave to sin and shame, or bearing the consequences of foolish behavior, or being battered by the storms of life…each time when His people cried out to the Lord, He heard and saved them from their distress…showing His divine power and might to control the seemingly impossible situations. Whatever anguish, affliction, or stress you’re going through today, know that God is there, willing and able to come to your rescue…if you will just call on His Name.
Author: kezha1
A Christian mother, grandmother, and retired nurse living in Illinois. Called into a ministry of encouraging others to find their ultimate plan and purpose in life through Christ.
John 14:27 ” Peace I leave with you, My peace I give to you…”
The peace of Jesus Christ is there for the asking…He offers it without condemnation or reproach. If your life right now is far from peaceful…if you long to feel inner calmness, hope, and comfort…look to Jesus. John 6:63 tells us that when the Lord speaks peace, He creates peace, because the words Jesus speaks are “spirit and life”. So by receiving His words and looking fully into His face, we can receive His quiet contentment and the peace we have been searching for. Hebrews 12:2 tells us to “Fix our eyes on Jesus…” For no matter how much worrying we do, we will never worry our way out of the trial we’re in. But by fixing our eyes on Jesus and not on the circumstances around us, our confusion will stop…for there is no disorder in the Lord, (I Corinthians 14:33) and as we reflect on His peace, we will be filled with comfort and joy.
Ephesians 4:22-24 ” Put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires; to be made new in the attitude of your minds; and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness.”
On this first day of 2022 let us all resolve to put off the old and put on the new…striving to become more like our Savior. Here are what I call the five foundations for doing this.
Forgive The kindest thing you’ll ever do for yourself is to forgive the other person that has wronged you. You will never be able to change the past, but you can change how you live today, and holding on to resentment, hatred and bitterness is only hurting yourself. Forgive others.
Forego In Luke 9:62 Jesus said, ” No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for service in the Kingdom of God.” When we forego, we surrender and relinquish the past and everything that goes with it to the Lord…while refusing to allow guilt and shame to drag us back. Forego what is behind.
Forget The past is the past…let it remain there. Philippians 3:13 tells us, “Forgetting what is behind and straining towards what is ahead…” That means taking off the lies of hopelessness, powerlessness, and invalidation and putting on the truth of God’s love, grace, mercy, and hope.
Forsake Leave behind unhealthy habits…cast off secret sins…put aside all things that rob time away from being in God’s Word. Get rid of any cunning intentions that linger in your life.
Follow We can’t follow the Leader if we don’t know who He is. Matthew 16:24 tells us plainly, ” If anyone would come after Me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow Me.” You also can’t follow the Leader if you don’t have a trusting relationship with Him, and that will never happen until you get into the Bible and experience Him for yourself.
Mark 2:11 ” I tell you, get up, take your mat and go home.”
On this last day of 2021, like yesterday, we’re going to look at the past…but in a much different way. In this Scripture Jesus is talking to a paralytic that had been carried to Him by friends. In this setting, no doubt, all the disciples were witness to this miracle as the man got up, threw his mat over his shoulder, and walked away healed. For we see Peter in Acts 9:34 speaking to longtime paralytic in the same manner…but with one big difference. “Aeneas,” Peter said to him, “Jesus Christ heals you. Get up and take care of your mat. Immediately Aeneas got up.” Peter knew where the healing power came from. But in both Scriptures Jesus and Peter tell the paralytics to pick up their mats and go home…not to leave them behind, or burn them…but to take them home. Their mats represented their past…as dirty, nasty, and stinky as they might be, they were still their past – their irrefutable testimony of what Jesus did in their lives. But so often as we heal and move on from our past, our mat gets put in the closet…away out of sight. The plain truth is we don’t want to be reminded and we think no one else would want to hear our testimony…but I would ask you this one question today. If, when you were in the very worst part of your situation, someone had shared their story with you and how the Lord had brought them through victoriously…how would it of helped you? Just to be able to talk to someone that had been in a similar situation and to listen to them talk about God’s mercy, grace, and hope would no doubt make a huge difference in how you looked at your own trial. We think nobody wants to hear our testimony…but I know there’s someone out there today that is desperate to hear it…so it can give them hope to hold on one more day.
John 7:17-18 ” If anyone chooses to do God’s Will, he will find out whether My teaching comes from God or whether I speak on My own. He who speaks on his own does so to gain honor for himself, but he who works for the honor of the One who sent Him is a man of truth; there is nothing false about Him.”
With only a day left of 2021, I find this quote from Oswald Chambers very appropriate, “Beware of paying attention or going back to what you once were, when God wants you to be something that you have never been.” We will never experience God’s Will if we refuse to let go of the past. For choosing His Will over ours, when we’re forever looking over our shoulder at the past, is difficult if not just plain impossible to do. It’s like being tied to the dock…and if we don’t cut the line ourselves – God may use a storm to sever the mooring for us. So examine what might be holding you back from doing God’s Will today. It might be long held on to anger, bitterness, and unforgiveness…it may be fear of the unknown…it may be spiritual apathy. Regardless, today is a good day to say “Yes” to moving forward in God’s Will for your life. For it’s only when we choose to do God’s Will, and let the past to the past, can we truly experience all that God has for us.
Matthew 18:3-4 ” And He said: ‘ I tell you the truth, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Therefore, whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.’ “
The disciples were feeling pretty full of themselves when they asked Jesus this cringe-worthy question at the beginning of this Chapter…”Who’s the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?” The Twelve were no doubt jockeying for status and recognition among the rest and wanted Jesus to publicly name His favorites. This is when Jesus sat a young child on His lap and began to school them in the true meaning of having a servant’s attitude. To the disciples, children were a irritating distraction from their work…while Jesus welcomed children to Him wherever He traveled. So with the little one as His visual aid, Jesus compared a child’s dependence upon others and how they humbly accepted what they could not provide for themselves, but also their plucky boldness to ask for things, to the self-serving attitude the disciples were exhibiting. He reminded them that if anyone would be first, he must humbly be last, and servant of all. (Mark 9:35) And so it goes for us today, our Spiritual life must be one of a child…not uncertain of God, but purely trusting Him for all our needs…and of having a child-like relationship and a life full of spontaneous, joyful expectancy.
Psalm 97:9-12 ” For You, O Lord, are the Most High over all the earth; You are exalted far above all gods. Let those who love the Lord hate evil, for He guards the lives of His faithful ones and delivers them from the hand of the wicked. Light is shed upon the righteous and joy on the upright in heart. Rejoice in the Lord, you who are righteous, and praise His holy name.”
As we wind down the last few days of 2021, I know for many this has not been an easy year. But hopefully we can look at this Psalm and gain comfort and hope. Our God is the only true and supreme God, and He should be greatly exalted as such…regardless of what kind of situation we find ourselves in. We are to desire and delight in doing what is right and not choose evil simply because it’s the most attractive option…for God watches over and preserves the upright and rescues them from harm and the oppression of the ungodly. For with obedience to God comes life and salvation, wisdom and understanding. So give thanks and rejoice in the Lord today for what he has done, is doing, and will be doing in your life ahead.
Luke 2:38 ” Coming up to them at that very moment, she gave thanks to God and spoke about the child to all who were looking forward to the redemption of Jerusalem.”
Yesterday we looked at Simeon in the Temple as the baby Jesus was being dedicated by His parents, Mary and Joseph. Today we look at Anna. Now Anna had been married only 7 years before her husband died, leaving her a widow for 84 years. It doesn’t say if she had any children to care for her in her old age, but it doesn’t appear there was anyone by the text. It tells us she spent all her time in the Temple, worshipping, fasting and praying…relying and dependent on the Church to meet her meager needs…utterly trusting in God to provide for her as Isaiah 54:5 says, “Your Maker is your husband – the Lord Almighty is His Name….” Her simple life one of service to God and others as she waited for her Redeemer…and here He was before her…her heart overflowing with thanksgiving to God as Anna stared into the baby’s face.
Luke 2:28 ” Simeon took Him up in his arms and praised God…”
Simeon was an elderly Jew, one of “the pious”, a minority of Jews who refused acts of violence and instead waited humbly for God’s deliverance from the oppressive Roman rule. He had faithfully waited a lifetime to catch a glimpse of God’s Chosen One, having been assured by the Holy Spirit he would not die until he had set eyes on the Messiah. That day, led by the Holy Spirit, Simeon entered the Temple and there encountered Mary, Joseph, and the baby Jesus coming towards him. As they approached, the Holy Spirit whispered to Simeon, “Behold, your Savior comes.” Taking the baby up in his arms, all Simeon could muster was to praise God for this opportunity of a lifetime…to be able to look into the face of the long awaited promise…Jesus Christ.
Isaiah 9:6 ” For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on His shoulders, And He will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.”
On this Christmas Day this is possibly one of the greatest Scriptures of hope we can find in the Bible. This Prophecy of Isaiah shows us plainly both the humanity and Divinity of Jesus Christ…giving us the real assurance that He is indeed – Immanuel – God with us. Also that Jesus is the promised Messiah born as a baby in humble surroundings in Bethlehem. But Jesus is also fully God as told to us in John 3:16,”For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son…” This was the only way that we could ever be reconciled to God…For God is perfect, but cannot die, and we humans aren’t perfect, but can die…so to be that perfect sacrifice, once for all, Jesus -fully man and fully God- came to died for our sins… born to die that we may live.
