April 30
Jesus sees your infinite potential. He has high expectations of you. He knows your heart and He understands your yearning to be a viable contributor to His Kingdom’s purposes. Before the foundation of the earth, He set you aside to perform exploits in His behalf. Yes, He did.
In John 15:16 He says, “You have not chosen me, but I have chosen you and I have appointed you that you might go forth and bear much lasting fruit. Whatsoever you ask the Father in My name, He will give to you.” This broad, sweeping promise empowers you for great fulfillment of your glorious purpose.
Jesus here assures you that your feet are not trapped in the concrete of the mundane day-to-day endeavors of life. You were created for greatness. Though you may be required to earn a living and live a life, you must not be so occupied with the temporal as to overlook the spiritual opportunities around you. You have been chosen to be a vessel for His purposes!
The Lord has selected you to do the work of His Kingdom within your sphere of influence because He has seen your potential to bear much fruit for Him. He has seen your faith that will enable you to go to the Father’s Throne in Jesus name and beseech Him for souls that He will save, for healing that He will perform, for miracles He will do for His glory! Be bold! Ask! Receive! Let blessings flow!
Thursday, April 30, 2009
Tuesday, April 28, 2009
April 29
We tend to be conflicted. This proclivity pervades our species. Even the great Apostle Paul indicated this inner battle for ascendancy. There was a war within him for control. He said that the things he wanted to do were in conflict with the things he did. We are victims of the same internal turmoil.
It seems there is no total remedy for our quandary as long as we dwell within this tabernacle of flesh, for we won’t be totally like Christ until “we see Him as He is.” But there is a way to draw near to Him in the inner man. There is a way to diminish the inner warfare, to empower the spirit man to triumph over the natural man.
It’s not a hidden secret. In fact, it’s proclaimed throughout scriptures. Psalm 71:8 declares it as do many other verses throughout the Word. It says, “My mouth shall be filled with Your praise and with the honor of Your name all the day.” All the day. Continually.
The reality is that the mouth that is filled with praise for the Holy One will not be inclined to curse his fellow man. The lips that speak of His honor will not soon be given to blasphemy or profanity. May we yield our lips to His glory, for in so doing, the rest of our life shall follow suit.
We tend to be conflicted. This proclivity pervades our species. Even the great Apostle Paul indicated this inner battle for ascendancy. There was a war within him for control. He said that the things he wanted to do were in conflict with the things he did. We are victims of the same internal turmoil.
It seems there is no total remedy for our quandary as long as we dwell within this tabernacle of flesh, for we won’t be totally like Christ until “we see Him as He is.” But there is a way to draw near to Him in the inner man. There is a way to diminish the inner warfare, to empower the spirit man to triumph over the natural man.
It’s not a hidden secret. In fact, it’s proclaimed throughout scriptures. Psalm 71:8 declares it as do many other verses throughout the Word. It says, “My mouth shall be filled with Your praise and with the honor of Your name all the day.” All the day. Continually.
The reality is that the mouth that is filled with praise for the Holy One will not be inclined to curse his fellow man. The lips that speak of His honor will not soon be given to blasphemy or profanity. May we yield our lips to His glory, for in so doing, the rest of our life shall follow suit.
April 28
Those of us who have committed ourselves to the Lord have a deep yearning to serve Him and one of the ways we most long to see our witness take affect is by the conversion of those we love to a fullness of faith in Christ. This longing goes back to the earliest pages of scripture where it is expressed by Moses.
Moses was called by God to lead His people the Israelites out of bondage in Egypt. Moses discovered that leading people into the promised blessing of God is not an easy task. Our human will often thwarts God’s will and our progress toward the provision He desires us to have is impeded by our own resistance.
We lift the prayer Moses prayed in Exodus 33:13 for the Israelites in the behalf of ourselves and those we long to see following the Christ we love—“Now, therefore, I pray to You, if I have found favor in Your sight, show me how I may know You better and have Your grace for myself and for these I lead for You.” Like Moses, we must ask Him to show us how to overcome the hindrances before us.
To spare ourselves frustration in our attempt to keep those we love on the path to God’s full blessings of salvation and provision, we must remember that HE will empower us to accomplish all He calls us to do. We must say as Moses did when being pursued by pharaoh’s army, as the Red Sea parted so the people could escape pharaoh’s chariots on dry ground, “Stand still and behold the salvation of God” (Exodus 14:13)
Those of us who have committed ourselves to the Lord have a deep yearning to serve Him and one of the ways we most long to see our witness take affect is by the conversion of those we love to a fullness of faith in Christ. This longing goes back to the earliest pages of scripture where it is expressed by Moses.
Moses was called by God to lead His people the Israelites out of bondage in Egypt. Moses discovered that leading people into the promised blessing of God is not an easy task. Our human will often thwarts God’s will and our progress toward the provision He desires us to have is impeded by our own resistance.
We lift the prayer Moses prayed in Exodus 33:13 for the Israelites in the behalf of ourselves and those we long to see following the Christ we love—“Now, therefore, I pray to You, if I have found favor in Your sight, show me how I may know You better and have Your grace for myself and for these I lead for You.” Like Moses, we must ask Him to show us how to overcome the hindrances before us.
To spare ourselves frustration in our attempt to keep those we love on the path to God’s full blessings of salvation and provision, we must remember that HE will empower us to accomplish all He calls us to do. We must say as Moses did when being pursued by pharaoh’s army, as the Red Sea parted so the people could escape pharaoh’s chariots on dry ground, “Stand still and behold the salvation of God” (Exodus 14:13)
Monday, April 27, 2009
April 27
Ephesians 3:16-19 enumerates a series of reasons Paul has chosen to “bow my knees” before our heavenly Father. They are valid cause for our doing the same and include, “that He would grant you according to His riches in glory to be strengthened by His spirit in the inner man, so Christ might dwell in your hearts by faith…”
It goes on to say, “…that you may be established in love and able to comprehend…the entirety of the love of Christ which passes all human understanding and thereby be filled with all God desires to give to you.” The Word makes it clear that without bowing the knee, there can be no comprehension of the lavish blessings the Lord longs to give His people.
Until we have surrendered our will to His, we can’t fathom the magnitude of the advantage we gain in forgoing our control over our own lives to His control. Until we have given our heart, our mind, our spirit, our will to the Lord, we can’t begin to comprehend the blessing He will give to us. It has to do with what this passage goes on to say in verse 20.
“He is able to do exceeding abundantly above all we can ask or think, according to His power at work within us.” When we empty ourselves of self and enthrone Him as Lord of our life, He endues us with His power that enables us to not only comprehend the reality of His provision for us with our minds but to know HIM in the realm of our day-to-day experience.
Ephesians 3:16-19 enumerates a series of reasons Paul has chosen to “bow my knees” before our heavenly Father. They are valid cause for our doing the same and include, “that He would grant you according to His riches in glory to be strengthened by His spirit in the inner man, so Christ might dwell in your hearts by faith…”
It goes on to say, “…that you may be established in love and able to comprehend…the entirety of the love of Christ which passes all human understanding and thereby be filled with all God desires to give to you.” The Word makes it clear that without bowing the knee, there can be no comprehension of the lavish blessings the Lord longs to give His people.
Until we have surrendered our will to His, we can’t fathom the magnitude of the advantage we gain in forgoing our control over our own lives to His control. Until we have given our heart, our mind, our spirit, our will to the Lord, we can’t begin to comprehend the blessing He will give to us. It has to do with what this passage goes on to say in verse 20.
“He is able to do exceeding abundantly above all we can ask or think, according to His power at work within us.” When we empty ourselves of self and enthrone Him as Lord of our life, He endues us with His power that enables us to not only comprehend the reality of His provision for us with our minds but to know HIM in the realm of our day-to-day experience.
Sunday, April 26, 2009
April 26
Those of us who believe we are Christ’s, that our lives are not our own but His, have a heightened sense of purpose. We know what we were and we know what He’s called us to be, and there is a great gulf between those two diametrically opposed aspects of our lives.
As we once lived for ourselves, focused on the aspirations that we anticipated would make our lives into the epitome of our dreams and innermost longings, so now we focus on the performance of His purposes so others might know Him through us and believe.
We recognize our total inadequacy to be effective for His lofty calling upon our lives, but we also recognize His all-sufficiency to accomplish it through us. In Ephesians 3:16 we are assured that He will, “…grant you out of the riches of His glory to be strengthened in the inner man.”
What we have no power or ability to accomplish on our own, He will, through His own strength and glory, grant to us the empowerment to perform! We needn’t rely upon our own inadequacy because we are endued with His complete sufficiency! He asks nothing of us that He will not enable us to do!
Those of us who believe we are Christ’s, that our lives are not our own but His, have a heightened sense of purpose. We know what we were and we know what He’s called us to be, and there is a great gulf between those two diametrically opposed aspects of our lives.
As we once lived for ourselves, focused on the aspirations that we anticipated would make our lives into the epitome of our dreams and innermost longings, so now we focus on the performance of His purposes so others might know Him through us and believe.
We recognize our total inadequacy to be effective for His lofty calling upon our lives, but we also recognize His all-sufficiency to accomplish it through us. In Ephesians 3:16 we are assured that He will, “…grant you out of the riches of His glory to be strengthened in the inner man.”
What we have no power or ability to accomplish on our own, He will, through His own strength and glory, grant to us the empowerment to perform! We needn’t rely upon our own inadequacy because we are endued with His complete sufficiency! He asks nothing of us that He will not enable us to do!
Saturday, April 25, 2009
April 25
Although God needs nothing from us, He, in His love and graciousness, extends to us the opportunity to make ourselves of service to Him. Some of us may be called to far foreign shores to serve Him among the lost. Some of us may simply be given the opportunity to let His light shine through us right where we are to those whom we love.
Some of us may do great things to the honor and glory of His holy name. Some of us may do nothing but simple things with fervor born out of our devotion to the Lord. Whichever course our individual lives may take, we are privileged to do all that our hand finds to do with the excellence that becomes the One we serve.
In Matthew 5:16 Jesus admonishes, “Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works and glorify your Father Who is in heaven.” Our Lord declares that each of us has a light to shine, that each of us has a work to do if His Kingdom’s purposes are to be furthered.
We are tasked with the Great Commission that we go into the entire world with the message of hope and salvation that Christ came to extend to all mankind. By so doing, the light of His truth and His love and His salvation shall shine through us. The good work that we do to our brothers shines that light as does little else.
Although God needs nothing from us, He, in His love and graciousness, extends to us the opportunity to make ourselves of service to Him. Some of us may be called to far foreign shores to serve Him among the lost. Some of us may simply be given the opportunity to let His light shine through us right where we are to those whom we love.
Some of us may do great things to the honor and glory of His holy name. Some of us may do nothing but simple things with fervor born out of our devotion to the Lord. Whichever course our individual lives may take, we are privileged to do all that our hand finds to do with the excellence that becomes the One we serve.
In Matthew 5:16 Jesus admonishes, “Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works and glorify your Father Who is in heaven.” Our Lord declares that each of us has a light to shine, that each of us has a work to do if His Kingdom’s purposes are to be furthered.
We are tasked with the Great Commission that we go into the entire world with the message of hope and salvation that Christ came to extend to all mankind. By so doing, the light of His truth and His love and His salvation shall shine through us. The good work that we do to our brothers shines that light as does little else.
Friday, April 24, 2009
April 24
When we have gone forward, clean in God’s eyes by the purging of the dishonor that is our proclivity as mere mortals, we discover the basis of the truth regarding the process we have allowed within our own dark hearts.
In Ephesians 4:32, Paul states it thusly: “Become useful and helpful to one another, be tenderhearted and forgive freely as God in Christ forgave you.” This speaks to the great gulf that exists between unrepentant man and God. It was created by our sin and resulted in our separation from Him.
Jesus came to bridge that vast expanse that no man on his own can traverse. Because Jesus sacrificed Himself for our cleansing, we can be forgiven of the sin that interjects itself between us and the eyes of God that cannot look upon sin. As HE forgave us, we must forgive others. He is not hardened against us because of our sin.
Jesus is tenderhearted and His love compelled Him to spend Himself in our behalf. If we indeed wish to be useful to His Kingdom’s purposes, we must have His mind—which laid His deity aside and His tender heart, which emanates infinite love—so we can go forward to serve Him by demonstrating His salvation through love and forgiveness to those whose lives touch ours.
When we have gone forward, clean in God’s eyes by the purging of the dishonor that is our proclivity as mere mortals, we discover the basis of the truth regarding the process we have allowed within our own dark hearts.
In Ephesians 4:32, Paul states it thusly: “Become useful and helpful to one another, be tenderhearted and forgive freely as God in Christ forgave you.” This speaks to the great gulf that exists between unrepentant man and God. It was created by our sin and resulted in our separation from Him.
Jesus came to bridge that vast expanse that no man on his own can traverse. Because Jesus sacrificed Himself for our cleansing, we can be forgiven of the sin that interjects itself between us and the eyes of God that cannot look upon sin. As HE forgave us, we must forgive others. He is not hardened against us because of our sin.
Jesus is tenderhearted and His love compelled Him to spend Himself in our behalf. If we indeed wish to be useful to His Kingdom’s purposes, we must have His mind—which laid His deity aside and His tender heart, which emanates infinite love—so we can go forward to serve Him by demonstrating His salvation through love and forgiveness to those whose lives touch ours.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)