Isaiah 9:2-7 Names of God Bible

A Child Will Be Born as the Prince of Peace

² The people who walk in darkness will see a bright light.
    The light will shine on those who live in the land of death’s shadow.

³ You will expand the nation and increase its happiness.
    It will be happy in your presence
        like those who celebrate the harvest
            or rejoice when dividing loot.
⁴ You will break the yoke^[a] that burdens them,
    the bar that is across their shoulders,
        and the stick used by their oppressor,
            as you did in the battle against Midian.
⁵ Every warrior’s boot marching to the sound of battle
    and every garment rolled in blood
        will be burned as fuel in the fire.
⁶ A child will be born for us.
    A son will be given to us.
    The government will rest on his shoulders.
    He will be named:
        Wonderful Counselor,
        Mighty God,
        Everlasting Father,
        Sar Shalom.
⁷ His government and peace will have unlimited growth.
    He will establish David’s throne and kingdom.
    He will uphold it with justice and righteousness now and forever.
    Yahweh Tsebaoth is determined to do this!

The Word of God for the Children of God.

Glory be to the Father,
and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost;
as it was in the beginning,
is now, and ever shall be,
world without end. Amen, amen.

If it was in our power exactly right now, how would we go about redressing the division, tyranny, oppression, and suffering that marks and mars our world?

What would our “completely perfect” solution look like?

We all have our grandiose ideas and plans on achieving them—but now here is God’s: His definitive answer to all of the world’s darkness was to send a child.

The people of Israel had long been awaiting the arrival of the one who would embody all of their hopes.

The ancient prophets of old had long been declaring the coming of a Messiah, and as the centuries passed, the expectation of such a deliverer steadily grew.

God’s Prophet Isaiah added significant fuel to the fire of this longing, declaring that the Messiah would come as “a child,” “a son,” and that “the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.”

Such a complete and comprehensive picture in an 8×12 glossy biblical frame!

But the ancient question remained: Who could possibly fill this description?

Surely no one had yet come who lived up to such high, lofty heavenly language.

But it was this child-—sent of God, conceived of the Holy Spirit, who came not in military might or with flashes of lightning but in a trough, surrounded by animals and shepherds at His birth—who was God’s answer to sin and death.

Isaiah prophesied: He alone would govern His kingdom “with justice and with righteousness from this time forth and forevermore” (Isaiah 9:7).

Isaiah says the child-king would be called “Wonderful Counselor.”

Kings were known in some measure by their counselors.

The extent of their authority and rule was made apparent by the number of advisers they could call upon for their heavenly vision, wisdom and guidance.

And yet this King would have none.

Because He Himself is the Wonderful Counselor; He has no need of any outside wisdom in order for Him to rule with absolute perfection and total authority.

This self same Wonderful Counselor is the sole remedy for all expressions of division, and suffering and evil in our own world—including those in our life.

Are we joyfully submitting to His plans and are we bowing our knee to His rule?

Have you entrusted all of our ways and all of our concerns unto His counsel?

When His ways and ours are not the same, what “names do we give Him?

By what “socially engineered construct” do we envision His place in our life?

Do we accept that He knows better than us and walk the way He calls us to?

What “signs of the times” do we raise and march and protest and declare Him?

Whose name do we exalt, shout out above all others as we block intersections?

Do we even, right in this exact moment, know why we should block the streets?

Overwhelm the news media with songs as the angels did before the shepherds?

With shouts of exclamation for our God’s gift to His world is no ordinary child.

This is Christ the Lord, our Counselor, Prince of Peace, our wonderful Savior!

Have we not known?

Have we not heard?

Have we not called to Him by His name?

Have we not acknowledged Him or even recognized Him by His Words, deeds?

Have we not scratched all of our hair off of our collective heads enough yet?

Have we not yet begun to shout loud enough “over the hills and everywhere?”

Well, there will will surely come a day, as God always promised, when we will!

Maybe, just maybe, that glorious day of salvation will come into our lifetimes?

Perhaps, it might even be today – God willing and the name of the Lord Arises!

In the name of God, the Father and God the Son and God the Holy Spirit,

Let us Pray,

Thank You, Father, for sending Jesus as the Light of the world to enlighten everyone coming into the world. Thank You that in Him is the light of the glorious gospel of grace that can never be quenched by the darkness of this world. I praise and thank You that His Light has come into my life and enlivened my spirit and enlightened my soul. Open my eyes more and more to see Jesus and to grow more like Him. Give me greater understanding of all that You have achieved in my life, for without You I would remain in darkness and dead in my sin. Thank You for Your great salvation, to You be all praise and glory forever. Loving Lord, no matter how many times I read of the wonder of Your incarnation as the Word made flesh, it fills me with wonder and praise. Lord, I worship You in the beauty of holiness, and I bow down before Your throne of grace in wonderment, for holy is Your name. In Jesus’ name I pray, AMEN.

Glory be to the Father,
and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost;
as it was in the beginning,
is now, and ever shall be,
world without end. Amen, amen.

1 O come, O come, Immanuel,
and ransom captive Israel
that mourns in lonely exile here
until the Son of God appear.

Refrain:
Rejoice! Rejoice! Immanuel
shall come to you, O Israel.

2 O come, O Wisdom from on high,
who ordered all things mightily;
to us the path of knowledge show
and teach us in its ways to go. Refrain

3 O come, O come, great Lord of might,
who to your tribes on Sinai’s height
in ancient times did give the law
in cloud and majesty and awe. Refrain

4 O come, O Branch of Jesse’s stem,
unto your own and rescue them!
From depths of hell your people save,
and give them victory o’er the grave. Refrain

5 O come, O Key of David, come
and open wide our heavenly home.
Make safe for us the heavenward road
and bar the way to death’s abode. Refrain

6 O come, O Bright and Morning Star,
and bring us comfort from afar!
Dispel the shadows of the night
and turn our darkness into light. Refrain

7 O come, O King of nations, bind
in one the hearts of all mankind.
Bid all our sad divisions cease
and be yourself our King of Peace. Refrain

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1 John 3:4-6 The Message

^4-6 All who indulge in a sinful life are dangerously lawless, for sin is a major disruption of God’s order. Surely you know that Christ showed up in order to get rid of sin. There is no sin in him, and sin is not part of his program. No one who lives deeply in Christ makes a practice of sin. None of those who do practice sin have taken a good look at Christ. They’ve got him all backward.

The Word of God for the Children of God.

Glory be to the Father,
and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost;
as it was in the beginning,
is now, and ever shall be,
world without end. Amen, amen.

Why do we anticipate Christmas with such relish?

Because we eagerly anticipate that someone will read our mind, discern all of our thoughts, catch on to all those hints we drop in the year for the perfect gift?

What about that “perfect gift?”

Who would know such things at the level where the gift can indeed be called “good and perfect” and exactly what we need at all those times, in all places?

James 1:16-18 English Standard Version

¹⁶ Do not be deceived, my beloved brothers. ¹⁷ Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change.^[a] 18 Of his own will he brought us forth by the word of truth, that we should be a kind of first-fruits of his creatures.

James 5:10-11 The Message

^10-11 Take the old prophets as your mentors. They put up with anything, went through everything, and never once quit, all the time honoring God. What a gift life is to those who stay the course! You’ve heard, of course, of Job’s staying power, and you know how God brought it all together for him at the end. That’s because God cares, cares right down to the last detail.

Right down to the last detail: For the believer, the answer must surely lie, above all, in the awareness that Jesus Christ appeared and lived to take away our sins.

When we read from the Books of the Prophets, when we read the Gospel writers, we discover the gift of this truth at the very heart of their Christmas message.

From Matthew come the words of the angel to Joseph: “[Mary] will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins” (Matthew 1:21).

Ahead of what might be regarded as the first ever Christmas concert, the song, the message the angel gave to the shepherds was incredibly similar: “I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord” (Luke 2:10-11).

The Narrator John began his message to us from a very different vantage point.

As he highlighted the commencement of Jesus’ earthly ministry, having raised our gaze to the eternal Word becoming flesh (John 1:14),

John gave us the immortal words of John the Baptist: “Behold, the Lamb of God, who comes to take away the sin of the world!” (v 29).

And Mark records nothing of Jesus’ birth or childhood, but in his Gospel Jesus’ first words are an announcement that in Him the kingdom of God has come near to people like us (Mark 1:15), and in one of His first miracles Jesus assures a paralyzed man, “Son, your sins are forgiven” (2:5).

If we say that God has shown His love for us in the incarnation of His only Son, that is accurate but that explanation is also quite incomplete and insufficient.

God demonstrated His love for us not simply by sending Jesus as a baby in Bethlehem; rather, His own word tells us “God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8, emphasis added).

Of course, if we understand that Christ came to take away our sins, then it’s only logical to conclude that we have sins which need to be taken away.

Rare is the man or woman who would say that he or she has never done wrong!

1 John 1:8-10 The Message

^8-10 If we claim that we’re free of sin, we’re only fooling ourselves. A claim like that is errant nonsense. On the other hand, if we admit our sins—simply come clean about them—he won’t let us down; he’ll be true to himself. He’ll forgive our sins and purge us of all wrongdoing. If we claim that we’ve never sinned, we out-and-out contradict God—make a liar out of him. A claim like that only shows off our ignorance of God.

WITHOUT EXCEPTION:

We all have impure thoughts.

We all speak bitter words.

We all have impure actions.

We all know what it is to live an unholy life.

But the Word of God comes to us and is among us and declares unto each of us, “Here is the good news: Christ appeared in this world to take away your sins.”

Today, this Advent, lay hold of this message with a renewed joy and gratitude.

Let these eight words be the most precious part of your Christmas season:

“He appeared in order to take away sins.”

Your family, friends, coworkers, and neighbors and everyone of those complete strangers in all the stores you will surely be shopping in, may become .00001% more open to the gospel message during the holiday season; make it your aim, then, not to further the sadly misguided worldly perception that Christmas is nothing more than a sentimental emblem of God’s love, as though His Son lay cold, hungry, and gurgling in the manger but never hung in agony on the cross.

His love can only be fully explained in the ultimate purpose of Christ’s coming:

to take away my sins.

to take away your sins.

to take away the sins of the world.

This, and this above all, is what gives our hearts bountiful cause for celebration!

Thanks be to God for this wonderful Gift!

In the name of God, the Father and God the Son and God the Holy Spirit,

Let us Pray,

Psalm 24 The Message

24 ^1-2 God claims Earth and everything in it,
    God claims World and all who live on it.
He built it on Ocean foundations,
    laid it out on River girders.

^3-4 Who can climb Mount God?
    Who can scale the holy north-face?
Only the clean-handed,
    only the pure-hearted;
Men who won’t cheat,
    women who won’t seduce.

^5-6 God is at their side;
    with God’s help they make it.
This, Jacob, is what happens
    to God-seekers, God-questers.

⁷ Wake up, you sleepyhead city!
Wake up, you sleepyhead people!
    King-Glory is ready to enter.

⁸ Who is this King-Glory?
    God, armed
    and battle-ready.

⁹ Wake up, you sleepyhead city!
Wake up, you sleepyhead people!
    King-Glory is ready to enter.

¹⁰ Who is this King-Glory?
    God-of-the-Angel-Armies:
    he is King-Glory.

Glory be to the Father,
and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost;
as it was in the beginning,
is now, and ever shall be,
world without end. Amen, amen.

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2 Corinthians 6:1-10 The Message

Staying at Our Post

6 ^1-10 Companions as we are in this work with you, we beg you, please don’t squander one bit of this marvelous life God has given us. God reminds us,

I heard your call in the nick of time;
The day you needed me, I was there to help.

Well, now is the right time to listen, the day to be helped. Don’t put it off; don’t frustrate God’s work by showing up late, throwing a question mark over everything we’re doing. Our work as God’s servants gets validated—or not—in the details. People are watching us as we stay at our post, alertly, unswervingly  . . . in hard times, tough times, bad times; when we’re beaten up, jailed, and mobbed; working hard, working late, working without eating; with pure heart, clear head, steady hand; in gentleness, holiness, and honest love; when we’re telling the truth, and when God’s showing his power; when we’re doing our best setting things right; when we’re praised, and when we’re blamed; slandered, and honored; true to our word, though distrusted; ignored by the world, but recognized by God; terrifically alive, though rumored to be dead; beaten within an inch of our lives, but refusing to die; immersed in tears, yet always filled with deep joy; living on handouts, yet enriching many; having nothing, having it all.

The Word of God for the Children of God.

Glory be to the Father,
and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost;
as it was in the beginning,
is now, and ever shall be,
world without end. Amen, amen.

Nothing confronts us with our creatureliness quite like the watch that we wear on our wrist, the pocket watch in our vests or the clock that ticks on our wall.

Try and think about no time.

It’s virtually impossible for us to do. God, who is outside of time, created time so that we might each live each moment that He has given to us for His glory.

We don’t like to face it, but Scripture frequently calls us to face life’s brevity.

It tells us that our life is “vanity, a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes” (James 4:13-15 The Message).

Nothing but a Wisp of Fog

^13-15 And now I have a word for you who brashly announce, “Today—at the latest, tomorrow—we’re off to such and such a city for the year. We’re going off to start a business and make a lot of money.” You don’t know the first thing about tomorrow. You’re nothing but a wisp of fog, catching a brief bit of sun before disappearing. Instead, make it a habit to say, “If the Master wills it and we’re still alive, we’ll do this or that.”

The Bible confronts us with transience in this way not to manipulate us or crush us but in order that we maybe more amendable, favorable and sensible to God.

We all need to be reminded of how quickly time passes, especially when we are all “young,” because we tend to think that we have more time than we really do.

Throughout the Bible, Scripture almost always addresses us in the now: “Now is the favorable time; behold, now is the day of salvation.” 

Now, in other words, is the time to be reconciled to God. 

Now is the time to take heed of our salvation—not someday over the horizon. 

Now is the time to hold out the gospel message to those around you.

You and I are not to live dominated by the regrets of yesterday or the anxieties of tomorrow.

You and I are not to live as though you and I will always have a tomorrow in which to do what you and I should absolutely be doing today.

You and I are to face the fact squarely, head on, that the future comes in at the constant and continuous rate of exactly 60 seconds a minute.

“See! I AM Making All Things New …”

Revelation 21:3-5 The Message

^3-5 I heard a voice thunder from the Throne: “Look! Look! God has moved into the neighborhood, making his home with men and women! They’re his people, he’s their God. He’ll wipe every tear from their eyes. Death is gone for good—tears gone, crying gone, pain gone—all the first order of things gone.” The Enthroned continued, “Look! I’m making everything new. Write it all down—each word dependable and accurate.”

Some imagery that appears in the beginning of the Bible is contrasted or expanded upon in the final chapters of God’s grand story of salvation.

The unformed abyss in Genesis 1, for example, is contrasted with the stunning architecture of the heavenly city in Revelation 21.

The tree of life in the garden of Eden (Genesis 2:9; 3:22-24) is multiplied in Revelation 22 and described as constantly bearing fruit and providing healing for the nations.

And the image of the Spirit hovering and brooding over the waters is contrasted with the One who is now seated on the throne.

The promise of Creation will be complete, fully formed and mature, and we will each enjoy glorious, delightful friendship with our loving Creator, who at a time which is favorable to Him, invites us to live with Him in the perfect unity of love that has always characterized God the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

The awe-inspiring creation that we live in today will be the foundation for the new creation, and on the days of the Lord’s favor we can each look forward to rejoicing along with birds and all other creatures in the new heaven and earth.

Not only is Christ seated in the heavenly realms, but we who love and trust him are also raised up with Christ and are seated with him even now (Ephesians 2:6).

He Tore Down the Wall

2 ^1-6 It wasn’t so long ago that you were mired in that old stagnant life of sin. You let the world, which doesn’t know the first thing about living, tell you how to live. You filled your lungs with polluted unbelief, and then exhaled disobedience. We all did it, all of us doing what we felt like doing, when we felt like doing it, all of us in the same boat. It’s a wonder God didn’t lose his temper and do away with the whole lot of us. Instead, immense in mercy and with an incredible love, he embraced us. He took our sin-dead lives and made us alive in Christ. He did all this on his own, with no help from us! Then he picked us up and set us down in highest heaven in company with Jesus, our Messiah.

This means our lives are firmly grounded and maturing in Christ as we enjoy the favor of God, the intimacy of living in communion with God each day while we are each waiting and watching, eagerly expecting His coming Advent again.

The time which God has allotted you and me is always quickly passing us by.

If you and I are not even minimally careful, it will be gone before we realize it.

In Psalm 90, the psalmist prays, “Teach us to number our days that we may get a heart of wisdom” (Psalm 90:12).

Psalm 90:12-17 The Message

^12-17 Oh! Teach us to live well!
    Teach us to live wisely and well!
Come back, God—how long do we have to wait?—
    and treat your servants with kindness for a change.
Surprise us with love at daybreak;
    then we’ll skip and dance all the day long.
Make up for the bad times with some good times;
    we’ve seen enough evil to last a lifetime.
Let your servants see what you’re best at—
    the ways you rule and bless your children.
And let the loveliness of our Lord, our God, rest on us,
    confirming the work that we do.
    Oh, yes. Affirm the work that we do!

May this urgent and most timely prayer become our own, and may the favor of Almighty God enable us to be a good steward of the time He has given unto us!

Today is a great day remember the favor of the Lord, to enjoy our salvation and to always seek out and find the favorable moment to speak ever so highly of it.

Now is the most favorable time – Let us each be sure to most favorably use it.

In the name of God, the Father and God the Son and God the Holy Spirit,

Let us Pray,

Psalm 16 The Message

16 ^1-2 Keep me safe, O God,
    I’ve run for dear life to you.
I say to God, “Be my Lord!”
    Without you, nothing makes sense.

³ And these God-chosen lives all around—
    what splendid friends they make!

⁴ Don’t just go shopping for a god.
    Gods are not for sale.
I swear I’ll never treat god-names
    like brand-names.

^5-6 My choice is you, God, first and only.
    And now I find I’m your choice!
You set me up with a house and yard.
    And then you made me your heir!

^7-8 The wise counsel God gives when I’m awake
    is confirmed by my sleeping heart.
Day and night I’ll stick with God;
    I’ve got a good thing going and I’m not letting go.

^9-10 I’m happy from the inside out,
    and from the outside in, I’m firmly formed.
You canceled my ticket to hell—
    that’s not my destination!

¹¹ Now you’ve got my feet on the life path,
    all radiant from the shining of your face.
Ever since you took my hand,
    I’m on the right way.

Glory be to the Father,
and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost;
as it was in the beginning,
is now, and ever shall be,
world without end. Amen, amen.

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2 Thessalonians 3:16 The Message

¹⁶ May the Master of Peace himself give you the gift of getting along with each other at all times, in all ways. May the Master be truly among you!

The Word of God for the Children of God.

Glory be to the Father,
and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost;
as it was in the beginning,
is now, and ever shall be,
world without end. Amen, amen.

From the dawn of mankind, there is probably nothing more sought after in this world perpetually at war with something and or someone, than genuine peace.

Throughout history, too many nations have fought bitter wars for the sake of peace and too many innocent lives have been lost in a vain pursuit after peace.

But the peace that is offered by this world’s system, is a false, fragile, imperfect, pseudo-peace, leaves in its wake a hungry heart, a wounded disappointed soul.

We look at the pages of God’s Scriptures – the God of Peace started to unveil Himself as, “The Lord our Peace”, to the frightened Gideon, and He expanded man’s understanding of peace to David the shepherd-king, who discovered Him to be the One Who gently leads us to meadows beside still and peaceful waters.

And God’s much loved, often preached, Messianic promise of “a coming child” through Isaiah that encourages the hearts, minds, souls of countless believers.

Isaiah 9:6 King James Version

⁶ For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace.

Isaiah 9:7 King James Version

⁷ Of the increase of his government and peace there shall be no end, upon the throne of David, and upon his kingdom, to order it, and to establish it with judgment and with justice from henceforth even for ever. The zeal of the Lord of hosts will perform this.

It is the zeal of the Lord of Hosts performing this miraculous moment of Peace.

And God’s promise through Isaiah of the coming of an endless peace through that child has truly encouraged the hearts of countless generations of believers.

Isaiah 26:3 King James Version

³ Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee: because he trusteth in thee.

By the indescribable zeal of God, it was to be the shed blood of His Son, Jesus the holy Lamb of God, that great Shepherd of the sheep, Who was sent into the world by the Father, so that ultimately, fallen man could have peace with God.

God purposed that through the intervention of the Son, all things should be completely reconciled back to Himself, and so He sent the life blood of Jesus to bring about final peace with men, who were dead in their trespasses and sins.

It was Jesus, the incarnate Son of God, Who knocked down the middle wall of partition between God and man.

He tore the curtain of separation from top to bottom, so that we, who believe on Him, may be comforted by our great God of peace.

He inaugurated for us a new and living way through the veil of His physical body, when He died on the cross and rose again, the third day.

It was the heavenly Man, Who equipped us in every good thing to do His will.

And in the fullness of time, God sent the Prince of Peace to be born of a virgin in the little town of Bethlehem, as the sacrifice for the sin of mankind.

He came in dishonor and shame, so that at the appointed time He would be the One whose name would be highly exalted above all others as the Lord of Peace, crowned the King of Peace, for He is the God of peace, the wellspring of peace.

The Experience of His Peace 

2 Thessalonians 3:16 Easy-to-Read Version

Final Words

¹⁶ We pray that the Lord of peace will give you peace at all times and in every way. The Lord be with you all.

One of the most heavenly aspects of experiencing God is his abounding peace.

Abounding Peace is not ever going to be something this world can offer us.

This world is run on chaos, division, political correctness, racial, gender stress, ideological confusions, strivings, and frivolous pursuits with no satisfaction.

Even in this life, the zeal of God offers us the peace of heaven, the peace that comes from having our hearts wrapped up in One true relationship with him.

Philippians 4:6-7 says, “Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.” 

God zealously exchanges our thoroughly confused earthly cares and stresses for the ultimate revelation of His – Alpha to Omega – heavenly, sustaining peace.

By His zealous compassion for His Children, He is such a good Father to us that He takes all that which troubles our hearts, promises to take care of us down to the smallest burden, and offers us His incomprehensible peace from his Spirit.

Jesus says in John 16:33, 

“I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world.” 

When we seek relationship with Jesus we are seeking relationship with the One who conquered death, destroyed any and every scheme of the enemy against us.

To know Him as zealously as He knows every single one of us, is to know a true Conqueror -and in zealously knowing Him our lives become wrapped up in His.

Our worried and fearful hearts instead become wrapped up in his heart of peace.

Again, Isaiah 26:3 says, “You keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on you, because he trusts in you.” 

God longs for us to so encounter his trustworthiness that our lives are marked by his peace – He longs for us to so trust him that this world cannot rob us of the peace that comes from knowing our God will always prove himself faithful.

All God has promised to do he will do.

All God has said of Himself He truly is.

Peace comes from our zealously keeping our entire mind stayed on the perfect character of our heavenly Father and zealously letting only who He is be at the exact center, Him who is the genuine foundation of all we do, think, and feel.

Psalm 104:1-9 Easy-to-Read Version

104 My soul, praise the Lord!
    Lord my God, you are very great!
You are clothed with glory and honor.
²     You wear light like a robe.
You spread out the skies like a curtain.
³     You built your home above them.^[a]
You use the thick clouds like a chariot
    and ride across the sky on the wings of the wind.
⁴ You make the winds your messengers
    and flames of fire your servants.^[b]
5 You built the earth on its foundations,
    so it can never be moved.
⁶ You covered it with water like a blanket.
    The water covered even the mountains.

⁷ But you gave the command, and the water turned back.
    You shouted at the water, and it rushed away.
⁸ The water flowed down from the mountains into the valleys,
    to the places you made for it.
⁹ You set the limits for the seas,
    and the water will never again rise to cover the earth.

God has heavenly peace in store for you today.

The peace which God offers you and me is not ever going to be the “peace” of this world which will never assure us or sustain us through any of its troubles.

It is always and forever going to be the greatest possible expression of peace, the peace of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ which sustains us (John 14:27).

John 14:25-27 The Message

^25-27 “I’m telling you these things while I’m still living with you. The Friend, the Holy Spirit whom the Father will send at my request, will make everything plain to you. He will remind you of all the things I have told you. I’m leaving you well and whole. That’s my parting gift to you. Peace. I don’t leave you the way you’re used to being left—feeling abandoned, bereft. So don’t be upset. Don’t be distraught.

Ergo, Come before your loving heavenly Father and cast your cares upon Him.

Let your requests be made known to Him.

Place your trust in His trustworthiness.

And receive the perfect, sustaining peace of your loving Father.

2 Thessalonians 3:16Amplified Bible

¹⁶ Now may the Lord of peace Himself grant you His peace at all times and in every way [that peace and spiritual well-being that comes to those who walk with Him, regardless of life’s circumstances]. The Lord be with you all.

“Now may the Lord of peace Himself continually grant you peace in every circumstance,” was Paul’s prayer and blessing for the Thessalonian believers, as he prepared to draw his letter to a close, “May the Lord be with you all!”

Like Christians today, the believers at Thessalonica were living in tough, and turbulent times, and the apostle that the church needed the Author of peace to guide His people, sustain their spirits, and grant His perfect peace from above.

It was the Prince of Peace Himself that promised to leave His own perfect peace with His confused disciples.

“Peace I leave with you”, were the reassuring words He spoke to them, as the shadow of the cross loomed closer.

“My peace I give to you. Not the peace the world gives do I give to you. Do not let your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.”  

And this same assurance is given to all God’s children who are seeking to serve the Lord of Peace, as we live inside a world at war and a world without hope.

In His final days, Christ gave His disciples His own precious promise of peace.

But His peace is not the war-torn peace of this world, but inner peace, a perfect peace – a peace that is vastly uncountable echelons beyond our understanding.

Jesus promised to give us the peace of God to guard our hearts – a peace that brings comfort and rest, refreshment, and hope – a perfect inner peace that transcends humanity’s comprehension – both now and literally forevermore.

Now, may the Lord of peace Himself give YOU peace at all times, and in all ways.

May the peace of the Lord be with us all, now and forever, and may the perfect peace of God zealously rule in our hearts, in the perfect unity of the Holy Spirit.

In this coming season of Advent, when we eagerly anticipate His coming, may life be marked by the fruit of wholehearted relationship with the God of peace.

In the name of God, the Father and God the Son and God the Holy Spirit,

Guided Prayer:

1. Meditate on the peace available to you in relationship with God. 

Allow Scripture to help you not settle for stress, burdens, and cares that aren’t your portion in Jesus.

Isaiah 9:6-7 English Standard Version

⁶ For unto us a child is born,
    unto us a son is given;
and the government shall be upon^[a] his shoulder,
    and his name shall be called^[b]
Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God,
    Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.
⁷ Of the increase of his government and of peace
    there will be no end,
on the throne of David and over his kingdom,
    to establish it and to uphold it
with justice and with righteousness
    from this time forth and forevermore.
The zeal of the Lord of hosts will do this.

“Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid.” John 14:27

“I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world.” John 16:33

“You keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on you, because he trusts in you.” Isaiah 26:3

“For God is not a God of confusion but of peace.” 1 Corinthians 14:33

2. What has been causing you stress? 

What’s been stealing your peace? What thoughts, people, situations, fears, or spiritual attacks do you need to bring before your loving heavenly Father?

3. “Cast all your anxieties on him, because he cares for you”(1 Peter 5:6-7).

Take time to bring before God all that’s bothering you.

Lay all your anxieties at His feet, choose to trust He will take care of them and help you through them, and receive His peace that surpasses all understanding.

“Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.” Philippians 4:6-7

“Now may the Lord of peace himself give you peace at all times in every way. The Lord be with you all.” 2 Thessalonians 3:16

“But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.” Galatians 5:22-23

Romans 8:6 says, “For to set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace.” 

We have the choice moment by moment to set our minds on the things of this world or on the things of God.

When we choose to set our minds on the Spirit, we are positioning ourselves to be people marked by the fruit of his presence in our lives.

When we choose the world we are only setting ourselves up for failure, anxiety, and trouble.

Choose today to set your mind on the Lord in every situation.

The things of this world are fleeting, but our God spans throughout the farthest reaches of eternity.

May His power, His zealousness, faithfulness, nearness, bring you peace today!

Heavenly Father, I praise You with all my heart, for Your indwelling Spirit of Peace. This hurting world has lost its way in its vain pursuit of a pseudo-peace, that can never satisfy. O how I long for the world to realize, it is only Your perfect peace that can satisfy. May I shed Your peace in my life, to all I come into contact with. May the peace of God, which passes all human understanding, guard and govern our hearts and minds, through Christ Jesus our Lord and for His greater glory. AMEN! AMEN!

Glory be to the Father,
and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost;
as it was in the beginning,
is now, and ever shall be,
world without end. Amen, amen.

https://translate.google.com/

John 8:42-47 The Message

^42-47 “If God were your father,” said Jesus, “you would love me, for I came from God and arrived here. I didn’t come on my own. He sent me. Why can’t you understand one word I say? Here’s why: You can’t handle it. You’re from your father, the Devil, and all you want to do is please him. He was a killer from the very start. He couldn’t stand the truth because there wasn’t a shred of truth in him. When the Liar speaks, he makes it up out of his lying nature and fills the world with lies. I arrive on the scene, tell you the plain truth, and you refuse to have a thing to do with me. Can any one of you convict me of a single misleading word, a single sinful act? But if I’m telling the truth, why don’t you believe me? Anyone on God’s side listens to God’s words. This is why you’re not listening—because you’re not on God’s side.”

The Word of God for the Children of God.

Glory be to the Father,
and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost;
as it was in the beginning,
is now, and ever shall be,
world without end. Amen, amen.

In my experience, God doesn’t speak verbally, aloud.

Perhaps He did in those ancient Old Testament days; we know that people did indeed hear His actual, physical voice at times, but it just sounded like thunder except to the one to whom He was speaking.

God certainly can speak to us that way if He wished, but in these contemporary days of the indwelling Spirit, He speaks to our hearts as we read His Word and spend time in prayer with Him – He also speaks through the church and into the circumstances of our lives, but we must be paying attention to hear Him at all.

Here is a troubling verse (one we should all cause to become memorized):

He who is of God hears the words of God; for this reason you do not hear them, because you are not of God. (John 8:47)

Do you hear the words of God?

Do I hear the words of God?

Has God ever spoken to you?

Has God ever spoken to me?

Has God ever spoken to anyone we know?

Does this verse – John 8:47 – affirm or confirm or assure that any of us belong to God in these days, or cause any of us to stop and consider if we truly are “of God,” i.e., have we been born again, and do we belong to the family of God? 

Jesus answered and said to him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. … Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Do not be amazed that I said to you, “You must be born again.” (John 3:3,5-7)

What does it mean to hear from God?

Jesus does not leave us wondering whether we have heard Him speak.

In the context of much of John 8, I would suggest that here are at least nine ways we can know that we are “of God,” or conversely, we should all (gasp) discover we have indeed failed to hear Him speak and do not know Him at all.

• We continue in God’s word, where we find truth that makes us free (8:31-32). We believe that God’s word is the final authority on all things and is the only reliable source of truth in a world that lies to us every single day.
• We recognize that sin enslaves us; we realize the hold it can have on our hearts and minds (8:34). We believe that God has the right and authority to define what is and isn’t sin, despite what culture tells us. We know that to allow, tolerate, condone, or practice the things that God’s word defines as “sin” is to be enslaved, both to our flesh, and to God’s enemy, Satan.
• We have been freed from sin; we are able to say “no” to temptation by the power of God’s Spirit who lives in us (8:36). We are not perfect in practice, but we continually pursue holiness that pleases God in our thoughts, words, and actions.
• We do not want to “get rid” of Jesus, but long for more intimacy (8:37-41). We are seeking to elevate Him in our hearts and in the world, not push Him away or deny Him His rightful place.
• We love Jesus, and acknowledge that He is the Son of God, sent into the world by His Father (8:42). No other gods will do. No other religion will suffice.
• We understand spiritual truths, something which a lost person cannot do (8:43,47). While we will continue to seek to know and understand the truths of scripture for the rest of our lives, even now, it makes sense to us. We can read God’s word and our minds are enlightened to understand it.
• We love and protect life and despise murder (8:44). We understand that God is the giver of life and that He hates the shedding of innocent blood (Proverbs 6:17).  We know that Jesus was right when He equated anger to murder (Matthew 5:21-22) because to despise and hate another person is just as wrong in God’s eyes as it would be to actually kill them.
• We speak the truth and avoid lies (8:44). We are convicted by God’s Holy Spirit to be people of honor and integrity, to keep our word, and to avoid all pretense and cunning deception.
• We set the world aside, believe what Jesus says, and accept it as truth (8:46).

Perhaps that last one is the most important one.

Those who hear from God must acknowledge that Jesus’ words are true.

There is no way around it.

If we reject Jesus, if we reject His words, we are not “of God” and we will not see the kingdom of heaven and we can say conclusively, have not heard God speak.

John 8:47 is a very sobering verse – it should cause us to stop and examine our lives and ask ourselves, “Has God spoken to me?” “Is God speaking to me now?”

God tells us His Spirit will not always strive with men.

If we continue to stop up our ears and harden our hearts, He will stop speaking and let us go on our own way down the path to destruction.

Do not take it for granted when you sense the conviction of God’s Holy Spirit.

Stop and listen carefully.

The all-powerful, sovereign God who created you is speaking!

Jesus answered them, “I told you, and you do not believe; the works that I do in My Father’s name, these testify of Me. But you do not believe because you are not of My sheep. My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow Me; and I give eternal life to them, and they will never perish; and no one will snatch them out of My hand. My Father, who has given them to Me, is greater than all; and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand. I and the Father are one.” (John 10:25-30)

The Miraculous Experience of Our Hearing His Voice

To seek the fullness of relationship with God is to hear his voice. 

“Whoever is of God hears the words of God” (John 8:47).

Just like when I seek true relationship with a person, or a child a conversation must happen; when we seek to truly know God, He talks with us – He is not a God who is ever silent but a God who speaks to us in any and every way He can.

All throughout the New Testament, there is both teaching on hearing the voice of God and instances where the people of God had conversation with Him.

John 14:16-17 Jesus says, “And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you forever, even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, for he dwells with you and will be in you.” 

And later in John 16:13 Jesus says, “When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth, for he will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he hears he will speak, and he will declare to you the things that are to come.”

God himself dwells within us and longs to speak to every place in our hearts.

He longs for us to know the will of our heavenly Father the way Jesus did.

Longs for us to follow His leading moment by moment the way the apostles did.

And He longs for us to engage in fellowship, conversation with Him, as all those who are in true fellowship, in true relationship with one another do.

The immutable Biblical Truth is exactly this: God is constantly speaking to us.

The problem is that we do not know how to listen.

The problem is that we will flat out refuse to listen – or its selective listening – when we do not like what is being communicated and refuse to hear the words.

Scripture tells us that He is declaring the invisible attributes of his nature through creation (Psalm 19)

Psalm 19 The Message

19 ^1-2 God’s glory is on tour in the skies,
    God-craft on exhibit across the horizon.
Madame Day holds classes every morning,
    Professor Night lectures each evening.

^3-4 Their words aren’t heard,
    their voices aren’t recorded,
But their silence fills the earth:
    unspoken truth is spoken everywhere.

^4-5 God makes a huge dome
    for the sun—a superdome!
The morning sun’s a new husband
    leaping from his honeymoon bed,
The daybreaking sun an athlete
    racing to the tape.

⁶ That’s how God’s Word vaults across the skies
    from sunrise to sunset,
Melting ice, scorching deserts,
    warming hearts to faith.

^7-9 The revelation of God is whole
    and pulls our lives together.
The signposts of God are clear
    and point out the right road.
The life-maps of God are right,
    showing the way to joy.
The directions of God are plain
    and easy on the eyes.
God’s reputation is twenty-four-carat gold,
    with a lifetime guarantee.
The decisions of God are accurate
    down to the nth degree.

¹⁰ God’s Word is better than a diamond,
    better than a diamond set between emeralds.
You’ll like it better than strawberries in spring,
    better than red, ripe strawberries.

^11-14 There’s more: God’s Word warns us of danger
    and directs us to hidden treasure.
Otherwise how will we find our way?
    Or know when we play the fool?
Clean the slate, God, so we can start the day fresh!
    Keep me from stupid sins,
    from thinking I can take over your work;
Then I can start this day sun-washed,
    scrubbed clean of the grime of sin.
These are the words in my mouth;
    these are what I chew on and pray.
Accept them when I place them
    on the morning altar,
O God, my Altar-Rock,
    God, Priest-of-My-Altar.

And then there are these more sobering words of the Apostle Paul to ponder;

Romans 1:18-23 The Message

Ignoring God Leads to a Downward Spiral

^18-23 But God’s angry displeasure erupts as acts of human mistrust and wrongdoing and lying accumulate, as people try to put a shroud over truth. But the basic reality of God is plain enough. Open your eyes and there it is! By taking a long and thoughtful look at what God has created, people have always been able to see what their eyes as such can’t see: eternal power, for instance, and the mystery of his divine being. So nobody has a good excuse. What happened was this: People knew God perfectly well, but when they didn’t treat him like God, refusing to worship him, they trivialized themselves into silliness and confusion so that there was neither sense nor direction left in their lives. They pretended to know it all, but were illiterate regarding life. They traded the glory of God who holds the whole world in his hands for cheap figurines you can buy at any roadside stand.

When I finally decide to actually take time to experience firsthand the things God has made, God has spoken into existence – I finally feel His full presence.

There is a reason it’s peaceful to be in creation.

There is a reason it’s restful to be back to nature, in the mountains, lay on a beach, rowing a boat, fishing in a lake or a pond or or swimming in the sea.

All of creation is declaring the glory of God, declaring the wonderful character of our loving God, the miraculous, the wonderful words of life that He offers.

We just need to learn how and when to listen.

God speaks to us through his revealed word.

The inspirer of Scripture dwells within us and longs to use the Bible as a wonderful avenue to encountering its Author.

The Bible is not a biography written after someone has died.

Rather, it is the living, active words of a living, active God who longs for the very deepest most intimately possible relationship with us (Hebrews 4:12).

God speaks to us through one another.

All of us as believers have been given the same Spirit who has called us to a lifestyle of encouraging one another.

We are called to be a critical part of the process of discovering God’s heart and will in each other’s lives.

If we will make time to learn how God speaks to us for others, we will discover the very words of God given by grace to the lips of man.

And God speaks to us directly from his Spirit to our spirit.

The Holy Spirit is a vocal God.

He longs for us to know his thoughts.

He longs to direct us whether it be through words, a sense, a desire, through an uneasiness, or a tap on the shoulder, elbow in the ribcage type of prompting.

He is always speaking to us.

In order to learn to hear his voice moment by moment, whether we are inside solitude or in chaos, we must make time in the secret place to seek the fullness of relationship with him.

It’s in our intentionally seeking relationship with God that we become familiar with his voice and are able to closer follow him as a sheep with their Shepherd.

Take time in guided prayer to seek the face of your heavenly Father and hear his voice however he is choosing to speak.

In these days ahead, do not limit yourself to hearing him in only one way.

The path to the fullness of relationship with him is marked by his voice in each of these ways and more.

Open your heart and your soul to hearing Him through any and every way He is speaking that you might grow in your relationship with a good and loving God.

In the name of God the Father and God the Son and God the Holy Spirit,

Guided Prayer:

1. Meditate on Scripture that declares God to be a vocal God. 

Allow Scripture to stir up your desire to hear God in every way He speaks.

“My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me.” John 10:27

“Whoever is of God hears the words of God.” John 8:47

“Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and eat with him, and he with me.” Revelation 3:20

2. In what ways are you comfortable hearing God? 

What ways might be new to you? Know that there is grace to grow in every facet of your relationship with him. Don’t limit yourself to only what you’ve known or experienced up to this point. Rather, seek the truth of God’s word by his Spirit and discover a wealth of relationship you might not have yet experienced.

3. Choose one of the ways God speaks that’s new to you and ask him to help you have conversation with him through that avenue. 

Again, hearing His voice through all of these avenues is meant to be the byproduct of simply seeking relationship with Him. Just as we do not seek to hear the voice of another person but seek relationship with them and get a conversation as a result, simply seek to know God and talk with Him.

“Call to me and I will answer you, and will tell you great and hidden things that you have not known.” Jeremiah 33:3

“And your ears shall hear a word behind you, saying, ‘This is the way, walk in it,’ when you turn to the right or when you turn to the left.” Isaiah 30:21

“When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth, for he will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he hears he will speak, and he will declare to you the things that are to come.” John 16:13

To have conversation with God might sound strange for some, but that does not mean it does not happen.

Rather, to have conversation with God available to us and to not take advantage of it is strange.

God longs to speak to you.

The Creator of all longs to have dialogue with you.

The King of kings and Lord of lords is inviting you to meet with him that you might have true relationship.

Seek God with all your heart.

Look to Scripture and the lives of biblical believers as your source of truth and normalcy.

Because of God’s heart to miraculously speak to you, you can live your life in constant conversation with a God who is both near to you and who loves you.

O Lord, your Word is a lamp to our feet and a light unto our path. Give us grace to receive your truth in faith and love, to receive your wisdom with an open heart and grant strength to follow on the path you set before us; through Jesus Christ, Amen.

Glory be to the Father,
and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost;
as it was in the beginning,
is now, and ever shall be,
world without end. Amen, amen.

https://translate.google.com/

Romans 5:3-5 GOD’S WORD Translation

³ But that’s not all. We also brag when we are suffering. We know that suffering creates endurance, ⁴ endurance creates character, and character creates confidence.  ⁵ We’re not ashamed to have this confidence, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us.

The Word of God for the Children of God.

Glory be to the Father,
and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost;
as it was in the beginning,
is now, and ever shall be,
world without end. Amen, amen.

Suffering Produces Perseverance, Character and Hope—Romans 5:3-5

Why does suffering produce patience, perseverance, character, and hope?

These are the gold standard characteristics but scarce.

If I had a choice, I would rather purchase virtues from Amazon.

I’d have them overnight if I purchased them in sufficient dollar levels or in 2 days, they wouldn’t cost much—Prime shipping is free after all, am I right?

So why is it that suffering the primary way we develop good things in our lives?

I think (I could be wrong) when we suffer we look for love, ergo we look for God.

We look for God – God always wants to be found – God finds us – We notice Him.

After awhile, It becomes apparent He is working in our lives and the situation.

This process can be “nails on a chalkboard” long, but but as Paul writes in these verses, waiting develops patience in us – and patience deepens into a steadfast, steely iron on iron sharpened determination humanity has called perseverance.

This is the forge where hope takes shape and with vigorous grinding – it shines.

This sharpened edge called Hope, when we take the time break it down, when we make the time to hone its edge, down is a confident and joyful expectation.

In suffering, we anchored our hope to God, who is the author, source of hope.

Hope never disappoints because God generously pours into our lives during times of suffering through the ministry and the work of the Holy Spirit.

He shows up and does something special in our hearts—He pours out love and perspective; God hones, smooths our rough edges; He enables us to see others in need and relate to them; God helps turn our focus from inward to outward.

Then He uses us to be an instrument of grace, a redemptive force in this world.

Yes, my friends, my beloved brothers and sisters in Christ, in suffering when hope awakens within, it is because we know God is with us, and working for us.

The process is undeniably hard, but the results far outweigh the pains – Our confidence is unshakeable because we know God will always be there for us.

That Miraculous Experience: His Love Poured Into Us

There is nothing in this world like experiencing the unconditional love of God.

His love extends farther than the width of the skies.

His love goes deeper than the deepest sea.

His love is more powerful than a thousand thousand diesel locomotives at full steam, and it is a trillion times closer than the heartbeat deep within your chest.

Experiencing his love is like becoming new again and again.

With each sweet taste of his affection, the wounds of the past become healed and restored that one no longer regrets pain but rejoices in the opportunity it gives to experience the love of a good and near heavenly Father once again.

Psalm 34:8 GOD’S WORD Translation

⁸ Taste and see that the [love of the] Lord is good.
Blessed is the person who takes refuge in him.

When we seek to know God we gain experiences with his love because it’s who He is.

1 John 4:8, “Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love.” 

To know love is to know God because every bit of true love comes from him. 

1 John 4:16 says, “So we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us. God is love, and whoever abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him.” 

Every single day, it’s time for each of us to “believe the love that God has for us.” 

It’s time we cease questioning whether we are loved and instead seek the face of our heavenly Father so we might know beyond a shadow of a doubt He loves us.

In my Cardiac Rehabilitation, almost all of my energy goes toward being loved.

I walk now more than I have in twenty years and I now look for love everywhere.

I look for it from my wife, friends, coworkers, acquaintances, my brothers and sisters in Christ, in total strangers in supermarkets and Doctors waiting rooms.

I constantly concern myself with whether I am, moment by moment, loved.

But Jesus came that we might no longer ask ourselves that question. 

“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:16).

God already loved us so much that he died for us (Romans 5:8).

Romans 5:8 GOD’S WORD Translation

⁸ Christ died for us while we were still sinners. This demonstrates God’s love for us.

There’s nothing we have to do to earn his love.

If we need a fresh reminder of it, all we have to do is simply seek his face and love will come as the result – and the majesty of the Lord our God is revealed.

2 Chronicles 7:11-16 GOD’S WORD Translation

The Lord Answers Solomon’s Prayer

¹¹ Solomon finished the Lord’s temple and the royal palace and completed everything he had in mind for the Lord’s temple and his own palace. ¹² Then the Lord appeared to him at night. He said to Solomon,

“I have heard your prayer
and have chosen this place for myself as a temple for sacrifices.
¹³ I may shut the sky so that there is no rain,
or command grasshoppers to devour the countryside,
or send an epidemic among my people.
¹⁴ However, if my people, who are called by my name,
will humble themselves,
pray, search for me, and turn from their evil ways,
then I will hear ⌞their prayer⌟ from heaven, forgive their sins,
and heal their country.
¹⁵ My eyes will be open,
and my ears will pay attention to those prayers at this place.
¹⁶ I have chosen and declared this temple holy
so that my name may be placed there forever.
My eyes and my heart will always be there.

Psalm 27:8 GOD’S WORD Translation

⁸ ⌞When you said,⌟
“Seek my face,”
my heart said to you,
“O Lord, I will seek your face.” ^[a]

We have unlimited access by the grace of God to the love of God.

Unconditional, limitless love awaits us at every turn if our hearts will simply seek His.

Scripture says in Psalm 27:8, “You have said, ‘Seek my face.’ My heart says to you, ‘Your face, Lord, do I seek.’” 

Jeremiah 29:11-14 GOD’S WORD Translation

¹¹ I know the plans that I have for you, declares the Lord. They are plans for peace and not disaster, plans to give you a future filled with hope. ¹² Then you will call to me. You will come and pray to me, and I will hear you. ¹³ When you look for me, you will find me. When you wholeheartedly seek me, ¹⁴ I will let you find me, declares the Lord. I will bring you back from captivity. I will gather you from all the nations and places where I’ve scattered you, declares the Lord. I will bring you back from the place where you are being held captive.

May we be children who constantly seek the face of our loving heavenly Father.

May we be a bride wholly wrapped up in the love of our Bridegroom.

And may we experience as the result of simply seeking God the powerful affections of a God who laid down his own life for the sake of his creation.

In the name of God, the Father and God the Son and God the Holy Spirit,

Let us Pray,

Guided Prayer:

1. Meditate on the love of your heavenly Father. Allow Scripture to stir up your desire to seek God and as a result experience an encounter with his love.

“Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love.” 1 John 4:8

“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.” John 3:16

“So we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us. God is love, and whoever abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him.” 1 John 4:16

2. Where are you seeking love? 

To whom or what are you turning for love other than God?

3. Take time to seek the face of your heavenly Father and encounter His love. 

Open your heart to him and simply desire relationship with him.

He will take care of the rest.

“And hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.” Romans 5:5

“You have said, ‘Seek my face.’ My heart says to you, ‘Your face, Lord, do I seek.’” Psalm 27:8

1 John 4:18 says, “There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear. For fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not been perfected in love.” 

We have no reason to fear seeking God.

All that He would say to us, do in us, and lead us to comes from a foundation of His perfect love.

There is no reason to fear in this life.

There is nothing here that can separate us from eternal, unbound relationship with our heavenly Father – allow His love to cast out any reservations you have today – to receive an awareness of His perfect love, to rest easy in His kindness.

Further Reflections …

Where are you suffering right now?

Where do you see God “showing up” in this pain?

Reflect on the ways God has poured into your life through the Holy Spirit during times of suffering and pain.

Take a moment to thank Him for walking with you through it.

Father, teach me to do your will, for you are my God. May your Holy Spirit lead me on level ground. I see your faithfulness and goodness in what you have done for me throughout my life. I think about these things, and I thirst for you. Let me hear of your unfailing love every morning, for I am trusting you. Show me where to walk, for I give myself to you. Keep me on firm footing for the glory of your name. Amen.

Glory be to the Father,
and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost;
as it was in the beginning,
is now, and ever shall be,
world without end. Amen, amen.

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Psalm 46 Revised Standard Version

God’s Defense of His City and People

To the choirmaster. A Psalm of the Sons of Korah. According to Alamoth. A Song.

46 God is our refuge and strength,
a very present^[a] help in trouble.
² Therefore we will not fear though the earth should change,
    though the mountains shake in the heart of the sea;
³ though its waters roar and foam,
    though the mountains tremble with its tumult. Selah

⁴ There is a river whose streams make glad the city of God,
    the holy habitation of the Most High.
⁵ God is in the midst of her, she shall not be moved;
    God will help her right early.
⁶ The nations rage, the kingdoms totter;
    he utters his voice, the earth melts.
⁷ The Lord of hosts is with us;
    the God of Jacob is our refuge.^[b]Selah

⁸ Come, behold the works of the Lord,
    how he has wrought desolations in the earth.
⁹ He makes wars cease to the end of the earth;
    he breaks the bow, and shatters the spear,
    he burns the chariots with fire!
¹⁰ “Be still, and know that I am God.
    I am exalted among the nations,
    I am exalted in the earth!”
¹¹ The Lord of hosts is with us;
    the God of Jacob is our refuge.^[c]Selah

The Word of God for the Children of God.

Glory be to the Father,
and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost;
as it was in the beginning,
is now, and ever shall be,
world without end. Amen, amen.

To know God is to experience God.

Just as we experience aspects of one another as we grow in our friendships, we experience the awesome wonders of our God as we all seek to simply know him.

God is calling us to a life of seeking him with all we are.

Every single moment of every single day He is calling us to value relationship with Him above all else, above all others, that we would love no other but him.

In this coming season of Advent and Christmas, may we renew and refresh our minds, encounter wonderful aspects of relationship with your heavenly Father as we wholeheartedly dig into His Scriptures, seek to know him with all we are.

God Absolutely Wants to be Known

Psalm 46:10-11 Amplified Bible

¹⁰ 
“Be still and know (recognize, understand) that I am God.
I will be exalted among the nations! I will be exalted in the earth.”
¹¹ 
The Lord of hosts is with us;
The God of Jacob is our stronghold [our refuge, our high tower]. Selah.

All Truth Be Told – For Us – The single greatest privilege in life is to know God.

The God of All Creation, The God who formed us in our Mothers, provides for us in all life and sent his Son to die for us, longs to have real relationship with us.

He longs to be known by every single one of His Children.

And through the first coming of His Son, His miraculous Ministry among us, His powerful sacrifice of Jesus, we truly can know him like any other person.

And in fact, throughout His Scriptures reveal that in some respects God is infinitely more knowable than any other person. Jeremiah 31:33-34 says,

Jeremiah 31:33-34 New American Standard Bible

³³ “For this is the covenant which I will make with the house of Israel after those days,” declares the Lord: “I will put My law within them and write it on their heart; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people. ³⁴ They will not teach again, each one his neighbor and each one his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ for they will all know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them,” declares the Lord, “for I will forgive their wrongdoing, and their sin I will no longer remember.”

“From the least of them to the greatest,” says the living God.

Thanks be to God! No matter who we are, no matter where we are, no matter when we are and no matter what we have done, we can know the God of love.

Thanks be to God, Knowing God, from Alpha to Omega, is no longer reserved for those individually appointed as His Priests, Prophets, Kings and Apostles.

Knowing God, from Alpha to Omega, is no longer reserved for those like David, Isaiah, Paul and Peter – because of Jesus, we have equal access to the living God.

And from the place of knowing God, thanks be to God, we are granted the ability through Christ who is the Living Word of God, to experience all of His incredible attributes, by His Spirit, be blessed by a greater awareness, our union with Him.

When we seek to know God, the Bible is clear: we begin to experience his love (Romans 5:5), hear his voice (John 10:27), feel his peace (2 Thessalonians 3:16) and, thanks be to God, we can partner in his purposes (1 Peter 2:9), experience his freedom (Romans 6:4), and rest in His presence (Psalm 16:11) all our lives.

When we center our lives around knowing God, we gain experience with him like we do any other person.

I do not seek to hear only my wife’s voice, rather I seek to know her and have conversation with her as a byproduct of our shared study, knowledge of God.

I don’t seek just the emotion of love from my wife; rather, in getting to know her and walking in relationship with her, I experience her affections for me.

So it is with our relationship with God the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.

When we each simply seek to know Him as well as He knows us, we gain real Kingdom experience in return which can then be translated outward (Acts 1:8).

Acts 1:7-8 New American Standard Bible

⁷ But He said to them, “It is not for you to know periods of time or appointed times which the Father has set by His own authority; ⁸ but you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be My witnesses both in Jerusalem and in all Judea, and Samaria, and as far as the remotest part of the earth.”

I pray as we all enter into this coming Christmas Season, we will all look at the individual aspects of experiencing God our heart is stirred to simply seek deeper “thanks” relationship with our heavenly Father, whatever comes as the result.

Thanks be to God, From Alpha to Omega, Your Father loved each of us enough to send His Son Jesus, to pay the ultimate price to have relationship with us all.

From Alpha to Omega, seek Him, discover the wealth of His affections for you.

In the name of God, the Father and God the Son and God the Holy Spirit,

Let us Pray,

Guided Prayer:

1. Meditate on the availability of knowing the living God. 

Allow His Scriptures to stir up your desire to seek Him with all your heart.

“Be still, and know that I am God. I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth!” Psalm 46:10

“You have said, ‘Seek my face.’ My heart says to you, ‘Your face, Lord, do I seek.’” Psalm 27:8

“But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the Lord: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts. And I will be their God, and they shall be my people. And no longer shall each one teach his neighbor and each his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, declares the Lord. For I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.” Jeremiah 31:33-34

2. Is your life centered around the pursuit of knowing God? 

Check the posture of your heart today.

Look at the way you spend your time, your emotions, your thoughts, and your actions. What seems to be your greatest pursuit?

3. Spend some time centering your heart around true relationship with a knowable God. 

Ask Him to help guide your heart through your day toward this pursuit.

Ask Him to give you a check in your heart when something takes his place as the greatest desire in your life.

Live today with Him as your highest priority.

“With my whole heart I seek you; let me not wander from your commandments!”  Psalm 119:10

Jeremiah 9:23-24 says,

Let not the wise man boast in his wisdom, let not the mighty man boast in his might, let not the rich man boast in his riches, but let him who boasts boast in this, that he understands and knows me, that I am the Lord who practices steadfast love, justice, and righteousness in the earth. For in these things I delight, declares the Lord.

May we be those who boast solely in our relationship with God.

May His love and His nearness be our highest joy.

And may it be said of us at the end of our days we sought the Lord above all else!

Glory be to the Father,
and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost;
as it was in the beginning,
is now, and ever shall be,
world without end. Amen, amen.

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Psalm 146 New King James Version

The Happiness of Those Whose Help Is the Lord

146 Praise^[a] the Lord!

Praise the Lord, O my soul!
² While I live I will praise the Lord;
I will sing praises to my God while I have my being.

³ Do not put your trust in princes,
Nor in ^[b]a son of man, in whom there is no ^[c]help.
⁴ His spirit departs, he returns to his earth;
In that very day his plans perish.

⁵ Happy is he who has the God of Jacob for his help,
Whose hope is in the Lord his God,
⁶ Who made heaven and earth,
The sea, and all that is in them;
Who keeps truth forever,
⁷ Who executes justice for the oppressed,
Who gives food to the hungry.
The Lord gives freedom to the prisoners.

⁸ The Lord opens the eyes of the blind;
The Lord raises those who are bowed down;
The Lord loves the righteous.
⁹ The Lord watches over the strangers;
He relieves the fatherless and widow;
But the way of the wicked He ^[d]turns upside down.

¹⁰ The Lord shall reign forever—
Your God, O Zion, to all generations.

Praise the Lord!

The Word of God for the Children of God.

Glory be to the Father,
and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost;
as it was in the beginning,
is now, and ever shall be,
world without end. Amen, amen.

Psalm 146:1-2 The Message

146 ^1-2 Hallelujah!
    O my soul, praise God!
All my life long I’ll praise God,
    singing songs to my God as long as I live.

“I would trust them with my soul – with my very life to never mislead me.”

I heard someone say these words a few weeks ago when he was speaking about a long time supervisor friend of his whom he held in such very high regard.

Alarm bells went off all through in my spirit when I heard those words because I knew then and now that we should never trust another human with our soul.

The Word of God teaches that only God should be trusted with our soul because only God had created us and only God has our absolute best interest at heart.

Psalm 139:13-16 The Message

^13-16 Oh yes, you shaped me first inside, then out;
    you formed me in my mother’s womb.
I thank you, High God—you’re breathtaking!
    Body and soul, I am marvelously made!
    I worship in adoration—what a creation!
You know me inside and out,
    you know every bone in my body;
You know exactly how I was made, bit by bit,
    how I was sculpted from nothing into something.
Like an open book, you watched me grow from conception to birth;
    all the stages of my life were spread out before you,
The days of my life all prepared
    before I’d even lived one day.

Only God can absolutely save your soul from eternal destruction and bless you and keep you absolutely with eternal life in an immortal body that’s perfect.

With such knowledge tucked away, why would anyone want to trust another human with something so valuable, the essence of who was in Jesus Christ?

Psalm 139:17-18 English Standard Version

¹⁷ How precious to me are your thoughts, O God!
    How vast is the sum of them!
¹⁸ If I would count them, they are more than the sand.
    I awake, and I am still with you.

We cannot take our possessions to Heaven.

We can only take our character and the new life God gives our bodies.

Only Creator God can be absolutely and perfectly trusted with our souls.

Remember: We have an enemy who is out to kill, steal, and destroy our souls in hell (Genesis 3:1-7, John 10:10, 1 Peter 5:8-9).

No human can prevent that from happening to us; only God can save our souls! 

While it’s great and very important and critical to have people in your life who you can trust, ultimately you should never trust another imperfect human (and we are all imperfect – by the way) with something as utterly sacred as your soul.

Why?

Because we are mere mortals who are all sinners saved by God’s grace (Ephesians 2:8-9).

We have faults.

We make mistakes.

We have flaws.

We have wandering personalities with all manner of biases and prejudices.

Isaiah 53:6 New American Standard Bible

⁶ All of us, like sheep, have gone astray,
Each of us has turned to his own way;
But the Lord has caused the wrongdoing of us all
To ^[a]fall on Him.

We will all inevitably let people down.

We will all inevitably experience failure.

We will all inevitably fall in and out of love with people.

We will all inevitably have good days and bad days and days of catastrophe.

We are each fighting different battles—both visible and invisible—every day.

And even the most educated, wise, and “perfect”—by the world’s standards or Christian standards—person has their array of flaws, faults and utter failures .

Even on a good day, on the greatest days of our lives, we can fall into doing bad things or make choices and decisions that alter the course of our and others life.

Bottom line:

We sinful humans cannot be trusted completely no matter how much we love people because at the end of the day, we’re flawed creatures and we’re not God who is all-knowing, powerful, wise, and equipped with a love that never fails!

All of this reminds me of those Bible verses that admonishes us to trust God who is # 1 and not put our trust in princes, mere mortals who cannot save us.

Psalm 118:5-9 New American Standard Bible

⁵ From my distress I called upon ^[a]the Lord;
^[b]The Lord answered me and put me in an open space.
⁶ The Lord is for me; I will not fear;
What can man do to me?
⁷ The Lord is for me among those who help me;
Therefore I will look with satisfaction on those who hate me.
⁸ It is better to take refuge in the Lord
Than to trust in people.
⁹ It is better to take refuge in the Lord
Than to trust in noblemen.

There is so much high wisdom within those verses from Psalmist King David.

I know that it’s easy for us to look to royalty or other well-respected authorities or famous people to represent us, to advocate to plead our cause, to fight for us, to be there for us, to take care of us and our needs in all available circumstances.

But at the end of the day, they’re just like us—flawed imperfect sinful humans who don’t have the power to grant us eternal life in Heaven nor do they have the ultimate power to send us all to hell – Why do we put our trust in these people?

Let me clarify: You and I do have to be able to trust people on a basic level to have and share relationships, to connect, to love, to survive and thrive in life.

But you and I should never trust any imperfect person so completely that we believe they’ll always be there for us and they’ll never fail – because they will.

And if they never leave you nor forsake you as a friend or spouse here on earth, when it’s their time for them to die they will 100000% leave us here on Earth.

Because, thanks be to God, absolutely every human has an expiration date.

But thanks be to God, the good news is that God, our Eternal King, lives forever through all eternity!

Revelation 1:8 New American Standard Bible

⁸ “I am the Alpha and the Omega,” says the Lord God, “who is and who was and who ^[a]is to come, the Almighty.”

So please, from Alpha to Omega, entrust your soul to your Maker, not mankind.

From Alpha to Omega, He will absolutely take good care of us IF we trust Him.

More good news:

From Alpha to Omega, God is the most trustworthy force in the entire universe!

From Alpha to Omega, I hope these timeless words have encouraged your heart.

From Alpha to Omega, May I pray for you?

In the name of God, the Father and God the Son and God the Holy Spirit,

Let’s Pray: 

Dear God,

My Alpha and My Omega, Thank You for being the Lover of my soul. Thank You for always being there for me. Help me to trust you with my life, my heart, my dreams, my plans, my loved ones, and most importantly, my soul. I trust You to take good care of it and usher me into eternity with You. With my whole soul, I love You, Lord.  Bless the Lord, O My Soul and all that is within me! In Jesus’s Name, I pray. Amen.

Glory be to the Father,
and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost;
as it was in the beginning,
is now, and ever shall be,
world without end. Amen, amen.

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