It’s that first hope in Jesus that changes our life forever. We’ve taken those first halting steps towards our Savior, and He has in turn gathered us up in a mighty hug of assurance and certainty. Now filled with the confidence and trust no human can fully explain, we can face God without the guilt and shame that has covered us for so long.
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.
Ephesians 2:14 ” For He Himself is our peace.”
This precious promise is for you today. A promise that will never be withdrawn…a lasting promise brought about by God’s infinite mercy for you. In John 14:27 our Lord states, “Peace I leave with you; My peace I give you.” You have been bestowed with peace from Jesus Himself…receive this peace He offers you today.
Proverbs 25:9 …do not betray another man’s confidence.”
Here I sit, betrayed by someone I trusted…the feelings of hurt, anger, and shame washing over me. There are two paths I can choose to take with all this negative emotion. One is to wallow in it, allowing it to grow into a large festering wound…impacting all aspects of my life. The other choice is to forgive. But forgiving someone who has hurt you badly is hard to do when you’d rather hang on to the anger and hurt than release it. But forgiveness is for us…not the betrayer. For in all likelihood, they don’t even realize what they’ve done…or don’t even care. So even though I have to say, ” I forgive them Lord.” through gritted teeth, I’m now on the path to healing.
Proverbs 1: 19 ” Such is the end of all who go after ill-gotten gain; it takes away the lives of those who get it.”
Those who obtain wealth and possessions by dishonest means may think they are getting away with something…but in the end, their path leads to death. A total lack of integrity will never win over righteous living.
I John 2:17 ” The world and its desires pass away, but the man who does the Will of God lives forever.”
The draw of the world is strong…it entices and tempts all our senses and emotions…luring and seducing until we succumb – only to wake the next morning feeling guilty and full of self-loathing for what we had done. But God doesn’t want us to live this way…forever failing, begging for forgiveness, only to fail again in a weak moment. The Lord wants us to live victoriously through Him. The world will leave us in a broken heap in the gutter…but He never will.
Psalm 42: 1-2 ” As the deer pants for streams of water, so my soul pants for You, O God. My soul thrists for God, for the living God. When can I go and meet with God? “
Our Spirit longs to commune with the Lord, but taking the time daily to be in His Word is difficult. The literal meaning of “meet with God”, is to examine the face of God. When I was a new Christian, I read a book that changed my way of looking at reading the Bible forever…the book is entitled, “Meeting with Jesus” by Pastor Hal Perkins. The premise being, reading the scriptures and then writing them back to God as they apply to you. I then realized that the Bible was written for me and what I was going through and that God really did care…He longed to meet with me. And suddenly, I wanted to meet with Him too. Today, take the time to get in the Bible and examine the face of your Savior.
Hebrews 12:1 “…and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us.”
The race each one of us runs is totally unique to each… It’s not a sprint, it’s more of a long marathon. I can’t run your race, and neither can you run mine. Sometimes I look at the race God has given some, and marvel at how they can endure under all the struggles and challenges put in front of them. But for all of us, God instructs and disciplines …He educates and exhorts…He loves and showers each one of us with grace and mercy… so at the end, we will all reach our finish line victorious.
Ecclesiastes 2: 11″ Yet when I surveyed all that my hands had done and what I had toiled to achieve, everything was meaningless, chasing after the wind; nothing was gained under the sun.”
My husband and I have been talking about down-sizing. This big house has served its purpose well, but we no longer need all this square-footage. But with a large house comes a lot of stuff to fill it. And now there has come a time in my life, when I look around at all the accumulation and say “Enough!” More stuff will not bring me true happiness. Rather, I need to be gleaning, purging, and giving things away rather than gathering more.
Mark 6:45 ” Immediately Jesus made His Disciples get into the boat and go ahead of Him to Bethsaida…”
The Lord calls us to do something, and we are compelled, and driven by the strong hand of the Lord to do it. While we focus on the end result, God is more interested in the process. What we see as just preparation or readying…He sees as the goal itself. For God’s purpose is the process – the moment by moment obedience on our part to reach the goal He has in mind for us in the end.
Proverbs 15:1 ” A gentle answer turns away wrath, but a harsh word stirs up anger.”
The moment after angry words have been lobbed our way, we have two choices to make…either return fire with a mean and unkind volley of words ourselves, or take on the attitude of a servant and defuse the situation with kindness instead. The first choice is so easy to do and more of a knee-jerk reaction to hostility. While the second is much harder, and requires us to stay in control of both our emotions and tongue.
Safetypinlove 