Tag: jesus

Habits of Faith: Does God Expect Us to Believe in Ourselves? Exodus 4:10

Exodus 4:10-13 New American Standard Bible 1995

10 Then Moses said to the Lord, “Please, Lord, I have never been [a]eloquent, neither [b]recently nor in time past, nor since You have spoken to Your servant; for I am [c]slow of speech and [d]slow of tongue.” 11 The Lord said to him, “Who has made man’s mouth? Or who makes him mute or deaf, or seeing or blind? Is it not I, the Lord? 12 Now then go, and I, even I, will be with your mouth, and teach you what you are to say.” 13 But he said, “Please, Lord, now [e]send the message by whomever You will.”

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.

Perhaps we have heard of Roger Bannister.

For years, experts said that it was impossible for a human to run a mile in less than four minutes.

And they appeared to be right, that is until 1954, when a young medical student proved them all wrong.

They had told him his heart would explode, but young Roger didn’t believe that.

He believed he could, and even had a special pair of lightweight leather shoes made to help him run.

When the shoemaker asked him how long he would need them, he responded “not very long…less than 4 minutes!”

That’s the power of believing in yourself!

You won’t always hear it from the pulpit, you wont always hear or have it taught in any bible study but I deeply believe that God expects each of us to develop a healthy measure of self assurance, self-confidence, self esteem, of self worth.

When God spoke miraculously from a burning bush and called Moses to lead the children of Israel out of Egypt, listen to how the aged Moses first responded:

Exodus 4:10 New American Standard Bible 1995

10 Then Moses said to the Lord, “Please, Lord, I have never been [a]eloquent, neither [b]recently nor in time past, nor since You have spoken to Your servant; for I am [c]slow of speech and [d]slow of tongue.”

Exodus 4:13 New American Standard Bible 1995

13 But he said, “Please, Lord, now [a]send the message by whomever You will.”

We might think God would be impressed by those humble responses; that Moses was showing himself to be truly humble. But we would be wrong!

The anger of the Lord was kindled against Moses.

Exodus 4:14 New American Standard Bible 1995

Aaron to Be Moses’ Mouthpiece

14 Then the anger of the Lord burned against Moses, and He said, “Is there not your brother Aaron the Levite? I know that [a]he speaks fluently. And moreover, behold, he is coming out to meet you; when he sees you, he will be glad in his heart.

Why was that? Because he didn’t believe in himself, even when God clearly did.

Exodus 4:11-12 New American Standard Bible 1995

11 The Lord said to him, “Who has made man’s mouth? Or who makes him mute or deaf, or seeing or blind? Is it not I, the Lord? 12 Now then go, and I, even I, will be with your mouth, and teach you what you are to say.”

God expected Moses to have faith that God is all he needed to succeed; and God likewise in these modern times expects us to respond in faith and belief as well.

When we don’t believe in ourselves, we are diminishing and questioning the quality of God’s handiwork.

Psalm 139:14-18 New American Standard Bible 1995

14 I will give thanks to You, for [a]I am fearfully and wonderfully made;
Wonderful are Your works,
And my soul knows it very well.
15 My [b]frame was not hidden from You,
When I was made in secret,
And skillfully wrought in the depths of the earth;
16 Your eyes have seen my unformed substance;
And in Your book were all written
The days that were ordained for me,
When as yet there was not one of them.

17 How precious also are Your thoughts to me, O God!
How vast is the sum of them!
18 If I should count them, they would outnumber the sand.
When I awake, I am still with You.

It’s not a sin to believe in yourself; it’s an expectation of the Creator God who formed you in His own image and likeness, filled you with His Holy Spirit, and has perfectly equipped you to perform every good work created for you to walk in. (Ephesians 2:8-10; Titus 3:1.)

In truth, we ought to believe it is a sin to not believe in yourself!

There are many Christians who think they are being humble, but they are simply listening to the voice of the adversary.

They are deceived about their identity in Christ, thinking they are just inadequate, insignificant, and therefore unable to succeed.

And because they see a predominance of failure in their future, such a measure of failure they don’t, wont even try to do the things God has called them to do.

In order to develop the faith that pleases God (Hebrews 11:6), we should first look into God’s mirror at ourselves and hear His voice on the matter:

James 1:22-25 New American Standard Bible 1995

22 But prove yourselves doers of the word, and not merely hearers who delude themselves. 23 For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks at his [a]natural face in a mirror; 24 for once he has looked at himself and gone away, [b]he has immediately forgotten what kind of person he was. 25 But one who looks intently at the perfect law, the law of liberty, and abides by it, not having become a forgetful hearer but [c]an effectual doer, this man will be blessed in [d]what he does.

When you read and meditate on God’s Word, you will learn to hear the voice of God speaking to you, giving you a true picture of who you really are in Christ:

1. Understand That We Are All Originals and Unique

Ephesians 2:8-10 New American Standard Bible 1995

8 For by grace you have been saved through faith; and [a]that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; 9 not as a result of works, so that no one may boast. 10 For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them.

Ephesians 2:8-10 New Living Translation

8 God saved you by his grace when you believed. And you can’t take credit for this; it is a gift from God. 9 Salvation is not a reward for the good things we have done, so none of us can boast about it. 10 For we are God’s masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things he planned for us long ago.

What is a masterpiece?

The very best work of an artist!

It also describes a piece of art that earns recognition; a work of genius, one of a kind.

In other words, you are not an accident or an experiment, you are a work of genius that deserves recognition.

Anything that is a duplicate does not have the same value as an original, and does not qualify as a masterpiece.

What’s the point?

In order for you to truly believe in yourself, you need to celebrate your God created uniqueness as His masterpiece!

Allow your significance and originality to define you, not confine you.

Discover your uncommon message born from your unique purpose and begin to increase the significance of that message.

Since you are God’s creation and not an accident, your very existence on this planet is proof that the world needs that special something that God gave to you – so celebrate it, as God does – and never compare yourself with anyone else.

When you compare yourself against others, your self perception will become skewed; you will either get an unrealistic sense of inferiority, or an equally unrealistic idea of superiority – neither of these circumstances is ever true.

Your measure of success is not how you are doing compared to someone else, it’s how you are doing compared to what God intends for you to accomplish!

2. Understand That You Are Priceless

Many people think that the value of a work of art is determined by what others will pay for it.

There is some measure of truth in that, but I think the better understanding is that the true value of a thing is determined by what the master artist is willing to sell it for!

If someone is offered millions, even billions, for the purchase of a particular piece of art, say the Mona Lisa, and yet says, Sorry, not for sale, never for sale, then that item is actually absolutely priceless to them.

And here is the truth about us – when sin entered the world, Satan’s deception stole us away from our Father, the Master.

But there is even more deeper truth we can witness to from Peter who lost all of his confidence in himself when he refused to publicly acknowledge being with Jesus in the courtyard three times, looked into Jesus’ eyes and so betrayed Him. (Matthew 26:69-75)

Then Peter got his confidence back as he shared some very intimate time with the resurrected Jesus by the seashore. (The Love Motivation – John 21:15-17)

Peter admonished the followers to “Prepare your minds for action, be sober in spirit and fix your hope completely on the grace to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ, to not be conformed to the former lusts which were yours in your ignorance, … but like the Holy One … be holy yourselves also in all your behaviors …” because it is written, “You shall be holy, for I am holy.”

God does not lack any confidence in Himself and neither did Jesus, His Son.

Peter recognized that self confidence which Jesus publicly exhibited as he wrote to the Jewish followers the ultimate ransom required for our return would be our testimony, the testimony of the priceless blood of the Son of God himself:

1 Peter 1:13-19 New American Standard Bible 1995

13 Therefore, [a]prepare your minds for action, [b]keep sober in spirit, fix your hope completely on the grace [c]to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ. 14 As [d]obedient children, do not [e]be conformed to the former lusts which were yours in your ignorance, 15 but [f]like the Holy One who called you, [g]be holy yourselves also in all your behavior; 16 because it is written, “You shall be holy, for I am holy.”

17 If you address as Father the One who impartially judges according to each one’s work, conduct yourselves in fear during the time of your stay on earth; 18 knowing that you were not [h]redeemed with perishable things like silver or gold from your futile way of life inherited from your forefathers, 19 but with precious blood, as of a lamb unblemished and spotless, the blood of Christ.

In other words, God said to the enemy… we are all priceless and not for sale! 

Yes, we are all a 100% priceless, original creation.

When we start seeing ourselves as such, we will too start believing in ourselves!

3. Understand We Are Each Bursting with Potential

Potential is a dormant ability, reserved power, untapped strength, unused success, hidden talents, and uncapped capability -it’s all you could ever be, including what you have yet to become and the things you have not yet done.

It’s the length of your reach, before you have begun to stretch; it’s how far you can go, before you’ve even started to pack for the trip, topped off the gas tank!

Potential is unexposed ability and latent power, and you are overflowing with it.

Moreover, you are all full of max potential the Kingdom of God is desperately waiting to experience.

John 14:10-14 New American Standard Bible 1995

10 Do you not believe that I am in the Father, and the Father is in Me? The words that I say to you I do not speak on My own initiative, but the Father abiding in Me does His works. 11 Believe Me that I am in the Father and the Father is in Me; otherwise believe because of the works themselves. 12 Truly, truly, I say to you, he who believes in Me, the works that I do, he will do also; and greater works than these he will do; because I go to the Father. 13 Whatever you ask in My name, that will I do, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. 14 If you ask Me anything in My name, I will do it.

How can we begin to understand and access our potential?

Realize the potential of a thing is related to its source.

We know that a tree can never be more than a tree, because it comes from a tree; a dog can never be more than a dog, because it comes from a dog, etc.

In other words, the potential of a thing is directly related to its source.

In fact, it is the source of a thing which ultimately determines the capacity of its potential.

Fortunately, the book of Genesis tells us who our source is:

Genesis 1:26-28 New American Standard Bible 1995

26 Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; and let them rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the [a]sky and over the cattle and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” 27 God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them. 28 God blessed them; and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth, and subdue it; and rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the [b]sky and over every living thing that [c]moves on the earth.”

Knowing this then, that the potential of a thing is related to its source, and that our source is God, we know that our potential is actually unlimited because our source is unlimited!

To access your potential, you must stay connected to your Source!

A grape vine is an interesting plant.

The vine, which is the thick wooden part running from the ground up the pole, is the only part of the plant that contains life ability.

None of the life of the plant is found in the branches, or those little green tendrils on the side with the grapes hanging from them.

If you were to break one of those green branches off and plant it in the ground, it would wither and die because there is no life ability in it.

Each small branch depends on life flowing up from the vine, to survive.  

And as Jesus said:

John 15:5-7New American Standard Bible 1995

5 I am the vine, you are the branches; he who abides in Me and I in him, he  bears much fruit, for apart from Me you can do nothing. 6 If anyone does not abide in Me, he is thrown away as a branch and dries up; and they gather them, and cast them into the fire and they are burned. 7 If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you.

In order for us to realize our full potential, we must stay connected to our Source – God, Jesus, the Holy Spirit – otherwise yes, we will all fall short.

But if we stay connected, we can indeed accomplish much.

That’s who we are.

As odd as it may seem to the natural mind, the fact is we are a child of Almighty God, and we have each been created with the potential to do powerful things.

When we are connected to the Source, we have our Heavenly Father’s ability on the inside of us to do every good work He has destined for each one of us to do.

4. Understand What God Sees Is Completely True

God doesn’t see like man sees.

God sees the diamond in the rough, the potential amidst the problem, the prize at the bottom of the cracker jack box.

It is not what you or anyone else sees that actually matters, but what God sees.

He sees the end from the beginning of our lives, knows our potential even when we’re not acting like it, are faithless, are off track, or have no track record at all!

When we focus on these temporary things, we have a hard time believing in ourselves and in also accepting that we are what God sees and says we are.

But the fact is – God knows better! He knows exactly who He created us to be.

And that’s the message we will get when we look into the mirror of God’s Word.

God always believes in us, and therefore, we must also believe in ourselves.

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

Let us Pray,

Psalm 16 New American Standard Bible 1995

The Lord the Psalmist’s Portion in Life and Deliverer in Death.

A [a]Mikhtam of David.

16 Preserve me, O God, for I take refuge in You.
2 [b]I said to the Lord, “You are [c]my Lord;
I have no good besides You.”
3 As for the [d]saints who are in the earth,
[e]They are the majestic ones in whom is all my delight.
4 The [f]sorrows of those who have [g]bartered for another god will be multiplied;
I shall not pour out their drink offerings of blood,
Nor will I take their names upon my lips.

5 The Lord is the portion of my inheritance and my cup;
You support my lot.
6 The lines have fallen to me in pleasant places;
Indeed, my heritage is beautiful to me.

7 I will bless the Lord who has counseled me;
Indeed, my [h]mind instructs me in the night.
8 I have set the Lord continually before me;
Because He is at my right hand, I will not be shaken.
9 Therefore my heart is glad and my glory rejoices;
My flesh also will dwell securely.
10 For You will not abandon my soul to [i]Sheol;
Nor will You [j]allow Your [k]Holy One to [l]undergo decay.
11 You will make known to me the path of life;
In Your presence is fullness of joy;
In Your right hand there are pleasures forever.

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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Habits of Faith: Loving Ourselves and Loving Others as God First Loved Us is Going to Take Time. 1 John 4:7-10

1 John 4:7-10 The Message

God Is Love

7-10 My beloved friends, let us continue to love each other since love comes from God. Everyone who loves is born of God and experiences a relationship with God. The person who refuses to love doesn’t know the first thing about God, because God is love—so you can’t know him if you don’t love. This is how God showed his love for us: God sent his only Son into the world so we might live through him. This is the kind of love we are talking about—not that we once upon a time loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as a sacrifice to clear away our sins and the damage they’ve done to our relationship with God.

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.

As Christians, we are encouraged to love one another which includes ourselves.

So in a world where love is defined in many different ways, who better to look at and follow His example than God, who is love (1 John 4:8)? 

Like 1 John 4:16 explains, “And so we know and rely on the love God has for us. God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in them.

1 John 4:7-10 New King James Version

Knowing God Through Love

7 Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. 8 He who does not love does not know God, for God is love. 9 In this the love of God was manifested toward us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through Him.  10  In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins.

Please, in this moment, stop what you are thinking about to take a few seconds or minutes and think about all the undefinable depths of love Jesus has for you.

Depending on the day, the time of day, circumstances of the day, perhaps you feel a barrier, because we may know all too well, how we often fail, falter, take our eyes off our King, and at times maybe even want nothing to do with Him.

But God is here to tell all of us right now that in those exact moments, Christ’s all-encompassing love is yet all the more present and there to sustain you!

For He has chosen all of us, though we each will fail, called each of us His own, though we will certainly falter, that we all have a place at His table even when our gaze is not perfectly fixed and laser focused on the divine host. 

So, in the coming moments, in the hours, days ahead do think about how Christ’s love for you is like a consuming ocean you cannot swim away from. 

Do think about that He is the greatest joy in times of both defeat and triumph. 

Do think about that He is your deepest comfort, hope, in your most trying of sorrows. Oh, what love he has for his children…Oh, what love he has for you!

So, now is as good a time as any, join me in praising God, for His persistent love.

Praise God, that He continually reveals to us what love is even right now.

Praise God, that he first loved us which enables us to, therefore, go and love on others exactly where they are. 

So today, remainder of this week, continually, let there be no shortage of love from the children of God especially during the times we are all experiencing.

Ask Jesus right now, to reveal to you how to love others through you as He has so graciously, so indelibly, covered you in his love.

Love Others First – but be sure to include yourself because you matter to God.

For many, love is a reciprocal response.

Someone loves us, so we love them back.

This all started with God, as 1 John 4:19 tells us, “We love because He first loved us.”

So what if, like God, we just start loving other people first?

So, what if, like God, while loving others, we also included ourselves – first?

Often this is easier said than done.

Especially if, maybe like me, you’ve experienced a time when someone decided they just didn’t like you or when that someone was YOU not loving yourself.

In these cases, we usually don’t know why or what is the reason behind their feelings or even our own feelings for that matter. 

When something like this happens, we can choose to overlook their attitudes toward us and love them anyway.

Sometimes our unconditional love will win them over, but sometimes it doesn’t. 

Still, that’s the risk we take when we choose to love others first.

In these situations, we get a taste, a very small glimpse of what God has been dealing with down through the ages in loving those who don’t love Him back. 

In everyday life, we’re given countless opportunities to step out and love others in our homes, churches, workplaces, and communities.

We have countless opportunities where we can choose to even overlook our own feelings in the matter-considering God’s love for His own Son through the ages.

Love others and ourselves Even When It’s Messy

God knows loving men and women in their sins is pretty messy. 

God knows exactly how well we love others, how well we will love others.

God knows how well we love ourselves, how well we will love ourselves.

But, God cuts through all that messiness with this indelible truth …

Romans 5:8 explains, “But God demonstrates His own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” 

Likewise, parenthood helps many men and women understand how God could love us in our messes.

It’s also good training ground for learning how to love others in their disarray. 

All around the world, moms and dads face unpleasant scenarios in taking care of children.

From diaper disasters, food mishaps, exploring incidents, and more, parents push through the chaos to keep loving and caring for their children.

Likewise, loving others can be messy, especially when walking through various situations with them that are uncomfortable, unpleasant, or inconvenient.

Love others and ourselves Sacrificially

Real-life TV shows of love, romance, and marriage often give insight into how individuals view love and what they believe loving one another involves.

Frequently when a prospective bride or groom is asked how they fell in love with the other person, his or her answer involves how the other person’s love makes them a better person or feel special and loved.

But what if once married, the other person stops making them feel like a better person – what happens if they stop feeling loved by their spouse or children?

For many couples, whether married for a few years or longer, with children or not, they start to realize that love isn’t about how a spouse makes us feel but rather establishing just what costs are we willing to pay to show them love.

Are we willing to give up our pride, selfishness, resources, plans, and more if needed to love our husband or wife or dare to go ahead, including ourselves?

John 3:16 describes the high cost God was willing to pay to demonstrate His love to us “For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life.” 

God demonstrated the high cost of loving others and how to love sacrificially.

He deliberately, intentionally, paid the ultimate price to prove His love to us. 

As the Author, Creator, and only Source of love, He modeled what it means to express love to those around us by loving us first, loving us in our messiness of our breakdowns, break ups, faults, failures and sin, and loving us sacrificially.

Intersecting Faith and Life:

Are you willing to lovingly reach out to others this week?

Are we willing enough, daring too, to lovingly reach out to ourselves this week?

If so, ask God to help you love others, being sure to include loving yourself like He loves you by loving self and them first, sacrificially, and in their messiness.

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

Let us Pray,

Psalm 23 New King James Version

The Lord the Shepherd of His People

A Psalm of David.

23 The Lord is my shepherd;
I shall not [a]want.
2 He makes me to lie down in [b]green pastures;
He leads me beside the [c]still waters.
3 He restores my soul;
He leads me in the paths of righteousness
For His name’s sake.

4 Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,
I will fear no evil;
For You are with me;
Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me.

5 You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies;
You anoint my head with oil;
My cup runs over.
6 Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me
All the days of my life;
And I will [d]dwell in the house of the Lord
[e]Forever.

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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Habits of Faith: Our Commitment to Prayer! Daniel 6:10

Daniel 6:10 The Message

10 When Daniel learned that the decree had been signed and posted, he continued to pray just as he had always done. His house had windows in the upstairs that opened toward Jerusalem. Three times a day he knelt there in prayer, thanking and praising his God.

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.

Habits of Faith

Spiritual disciplines can be an important part of our finding God through the fog of our lives.

That’s what helped sustain Daniel in his faith.

A spiritual discipline is a habit that people develop to deepen their relationship with God.

Personal devotions may combine one or more disciplines into a daily routine: praise, worship, prayer, Bible reading, and perhaps meditation or journaling.

Other spiritual disciplines may include joining together for worship or studying the Bible in a small group.

The discipline of fasting can help us rediscover what really feeds us, and the discipline of tithing our share can help us all recall who really pays our bills.

Spiritual disciplines help us to practice finding God during times when the fog has cleared.

It’s hard to find God in a moment of panic, but it’s much easier if we’ve already developed a daily pattern of centering ourselves in Him.

It’s easier to release our worries to God at the end of a tough day if we have learned to release every other day to him in an evening prayer.

And it’s a lot less difficult to remain steadfast to God’s call when you have been serving Him in a deliberate and intentional way for months or even for years.

When you encounter a sudden fog bank in life, it can be almost impossible to figure out how to find God in the midst of it all.

Spiritual disciplines help us to reorient us so we can find God’s strength and peace, even in the thickest fog.

What Does Daniel 6:10 Teach Us?

What does Daniel 6 10 teach us?

One of the things it teaches us is that Daniel was committed to serve God even if he was going to suffer for it.

For Daniel, a daily habit of his humbling himself, giving thanks to God was not something that was dispensable.

Daniel is committed to give God thanks even if it was going to cost him his life.

He considered it the single greatest commitment, the single greatest discipline to serve His great God.

Habit of Faith: A Commitment to Prayer

Daniel 6:10 Amplified Bible

10 Now when Daniel knew that the document was signed, he went into his house (now in his roof chamber his windows were open toward Jerusalem); he continued to get down on his knees three times a day, praying and giving thanks before his God, as he had been doing previously.

Making that short-termed commitment is not too hard.

It is moving that short termed commitment into that disciplined consistency that comes harder to us—yet it is an essential key to mature spiritual growth.

The often sporadic nature of our commitment is seen in short-lived exercise programs, Bible memorization, reading plans, and New Year’s resolutions.

How many of us start something well, only to later abandon it!

But equally, you and I have probably encountered people who are incredibly consistent and disciplined.

They arrive at work, they walk their dog at the exact same time every day or collect their mail with such precise timing that you could set your watch by it; and when they set themselves to undertake a task or learn a new skill, they do so with a diligence that leaves you in no doubt that they will surely complete it.

“he continued to get down on his knees three times a day, praying and giving thanks before his God, as he had been doing previously.” Daniel was a man who had exhibited such disciplined consistency when it came to his prayer life.

His life was not marked by bursts of enthusiasm followed by chronic inertia.

He clearly prayed whether he felt like it or not.

There were probably times when he got up from his knees feeling really blessed and other times when he left feeling really flat, but in spite of it all, he kept on.

He prayed and he prayed and he prayed, no matter the circumstances.

That’s discipline!

When a crisis hit, it didn’t create Daniel’s disciplined lifestyle; it revealed it.

After King Darius issued an edict that made it illegal to pray to any god or man other than him for thirty days (Daniel 6:7), Daniel could have rationalized his obedience to the king rather than to the Lord.

He could have reasoned that because he’d stored up such phenomenal credit on the strength of all his years of prayer, he could be let off for a month.

Apparently, though, such a thought never even crossed his mind.

Instead, he continued in prayer just “as he had done previously.”

Surely there was a definite and direct and indelible link between Daniel’s life of prayer and the bravery he showed in obeying the God of Israel rather than the “do it now or die” commands of the most powerful king in the known world.

Our Lord told us, too, that we “ought always to pray and not lose heart.”

Luke 18:1 Amplified Bible

Parables on Prayer

18 Now Jesus was telling the disciples a parable to make the point that at all times they ought to pray and not give up and lose heart,

We are not to close prayer down for a while if we don’t feel like it or have little spare time for a season.

If we want to live for Jesus, minister in His name, participate in His Kingdom work even when we are under pressure, our prayer lives must be consistent.

We must come to regard prayer as a fundamental element of our faith, not merely a nice supplement.

The door is wide open for you to demonstrate the same kind of consistent commitment to prayer as Daniel did.

Through regular discipline, prayer can become your natural reaction to every situation in your life.

Be it still resolved, do you still need to set aside a time each day when you will pray and give thanks to your God, come what may?

Wherever God takes us, whatever we do, however His plan unfolds, may our prayers be unceasing.

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

Let us Pray,

God of truth, sometimes I not sure if I’m actually hearing your voice, or if it’s just my own thoughts or even another spirit. Sharpen my spiritual hearing, Lord, so I can recognize your words when you are speaking to me. Help me know it’s really you, with no doubt or second-guessing. When I’m asking for your guidance in important decisions, give me your peace that surpasses understanding with your answer. Help me remember that your words to me will never go against your written word in the Bible. Give me a clear mind and push out all my confusion. God, help us to practice finding you, help us to discipline our life, may our day begin and end with you. 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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Let Us Lean into God’s Compassion. Psalm 86:11-17

Psalm 86:11-17 The Message

11-17 Train me, God, to walk straight;
    then I’ll follow your true path.
Put me together, one heart and mind;
    then, undivided, I’ll worship in joyful fear.
From the bottom of my heart I thank you, dear Lord;
    I’ve never kept secret what you’re up to.
You’ve always been great toward me—what love!
    You snatched me from the brink of disaster!
God, these bullies have reared their heads!
    A gang of thugs is after me—
    and they don’t care a thing about you.
But you, O God, are both tender and kind,
    not easily angered, immense in love,
    and you never, never quit.
So look me in the eye and show kindness,
    give your servant the strength to go on,
    save your dear, dear child!
Make a show of how much you love me
    so the bullies who hate me will stand there slack-jawed,
As you, God, gently and powerfully
    put me back on my feet.

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.

Can anyone truly say that they are slow to anger?

We strive to be slow to anger, but we are all always a work in progress.

It helps when we remember we need mercy and grace every day.

We must all confess that we miss the mark, but I know God is slow to anger.

And when we are angry at ourselves for being quick to anger, we know that God looks on us with an unmatched and much undeserved kindness.

His eyes fill with steadfast love, and He helps us through the mess our anger creates for ourselves and anyone else who is in the very near vicinity of it.

We will so freely admit around others we’re so grateful God is compassionate.

To be compassionate means their is within us an empathy to feel sorrow for someone else’s suffering, with a longing, a stirring desire and effort to help.

We see God’s compassion for us in the person of Jesus Christ.

Through Jesus, we can have forgiveness and salvation.

Our lives change when we meet Jesus so that we can know of God’s great compassion – His compassion helps us live for him alone in our day to day.

There is always an action behind compassion.

As we lean into God’s compassion, we begin to see his actions in our lives.

We experience His mercy when we mess up once again.

We know his grace when he encourages us to fall forward into his arms, and He helps us to have courage to be able to stand again when the floor is all we want.

All through the Old Testament, we see how full of mercy God was to his people.

Then in the New Testament, we see Jesus’s compassion on the crowds.

Jesus delivered his good news of freedom, healed the brokenhearted, and gave sight to the blind of eyes and heart.

From the Old Testament we should recall God’s Prophet Jonah who did not understand the Lord’s compassion for the Ninevites and why he, Jonah should be the only one from God to communicate that message of compassion.

He ranted and raved against God, vowed that he would do everything in his power to avoid fulfilling God’s command, ran away from God’s command and ended up spending three days and nights in the belly of a whale before he finally obeyed God, fervently warned the people of Nineveh of imminent destruction.

The Ninevites repented, and God extended compassion to them.

He did not destroy them. Instead of rejoicing, Jonah thought this was very wrong and in the end He pouted in anger because God was compassionate.

We can learn much from Jonah.

For one, to obey right away.

Second, to remember how much we need mercy and grace.

We are not perfect.

We do not have it all together.

Yet, it’s so easy to look at everyone else’s failings and refuse to see our own.

We want to experience God’s compassion, but do we want everyone even our greatest enemy to experience His compassion?

Truth be told, In our most honest moments, we struggle to say yes.

We want God’s acts of compassion toward us.

We want Him to forgive us, to help us, to bless us.

But when we have been angered, when we have been wounded by someone’s betrayal – as Judas betrayed Jesus, we (humanity) want punishment for them.

If there are 100 people out there who are reading this devotional out there in the world, it is reasonably safe to believe no one can confess that “I am not slow to anger,” and when pressured a tiny bit they struggle to show mercy and grace.

But God. by His living Word, He steps in to our anger and answering our prayers reminds us all that we need His compassion just as much as everyone else does.

This truth from Psalm 86:15 keeps us humble and fully reliant on his grace.

Throughout my Cardiac Rehab struggles I’m prayerful for his steadfast love and His strength to extend compassion when I could be compassionless like Jonah.

First, compassionate with myself to not be so angry at myself for my setbacks.

Second, compassionate towards my wife, family and friends who try to help me.

It’s tempting to respond like Jonah – to get flaming angry, want to run away.

But, maybe Jonah did not fully realize how compassionate and merciful God was towards him in letting him live in the belly of the fish while being guided to the shores of his final destination being Nineveh that he could fulfill his mission.

Perhaps He knew God’s nature because he experienced for himself, but he was slow to learn as he grew angry when God showed compassion to the Ninevites.

People whom in his mind he still believed and still felt didn’t deserve it.

We know the Ninevites gave up their evil and violent ways.

They humbled themselves before God, and He responded in compassion.

But, how much did Jonah actually humble himself before seeing God’s victory?

Humility is key in learning to let go of our anger and to receive God’s strength to extend compassion to others.

The book of Jonah ends with God asking Jonah a question, (Jonah 4) and we’re left wondering what happened to him and whether or not there was any change.

Why did Jonah stay angry?

Why did he still harbor resentment toward God?

Why was Jonah so slow to learn to be slow to anger and abounding in mercy?

Intersecting Faith and Life:

The next time we find ourselves struggling with anger, remember Jonah.

Let him be an example of how not to respond so quickly, so often, with anger.

Jonah appreciated God’s compassion for himself, but he grew angry when God showed compassion to people he felt did not deserve it.

What about us in 2024?

God’s compassion extends to all. 

Lean into it and encourage others to lean into it as well.

As we do, we will experience God’s grace, mercy, steadfast love, and strength.

In turn, we will learn to be slower to anger and be quicker to show compassion.

Lord Have Mercy, Christ Have Mercy, Mercy on Me

Psalm 103:7-12 New King James Version

7 He made known His ways to Moses,
His acts to the children of Israel.
8 The Lord is merciful and gracious,
Slow to anger, and abounding in mercy.
9 He will not always strive with us,
Nor will He keep His anger forever.
10 He has not dealt with us according to our sins,
Nor punished us according to our iniquities.

11 For as the heavens are high above the earth,
So great is His mercy toward those who fear Him;
12 As far as the east is from the west,
So far has He removed our transgressions from us.

When Jesus said on the cross, “They do not know what they are doing” (Luke 23:34), he was teaching us a lot about ourselves – what we do with our anger.

We have an uncanny ability to remain blind to our sin and how deeply it cuts God’s fatherly heart.

But when Jesus said, “Father, forgive them,” he was also teaching us about God.

“Father, forgive. …”

These words go well together because the Bible affirms that, above all else, God is a God of mercy!

“The Lord is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in love.”

As our heavenly Father, it is in God’s very character to forgive.

Again and again, when we come back from the strange ways of our ignorance, our anger and foolishness, we find God waiting for us with a welcoming heart.

He is ready—even eager!—to forgive us when we return home.

God’s heart is not quick to condemn but, rather, to forgive.

“God did not send his Son … to condemn the world, but to save the world through him” (John 3:17).

In Jesus’ plea from the cross, then, we have both the hard brutal truth about ourselves and the glorious truth about God:

“Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.”

Thanks be to God that still today Jesus prays, “Father, forgive them,” on our behalf (see Romans 8:34; Hebrews 7:25).

Practice leaning into God’s Compassion – for the sake of self and for others.

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

Let us Pray,

Our Father, which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy Name. Thy Kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth, As it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our trespasses, As we forgive them that trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation, But deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom, The power, and the glory, For ever and ever. Amen.

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Our Question for Today: How DO We Know Our God Is Good? Mark 10:18

Mark 10:17-19 New King James Version

Jesus Counsels the Rich Young Ruler

17 Now as He was going out on the road, one came running, knelt before Him, and asked Him, “Good Teacher, what shall I do that I may inherit eternal life?”

18 So Jesus said to him, “Why do you call Me good? No one is good but One, that is, God. 19 You know the commandments: ‘Do not commit adultery,’ ‘Do not murder,’ ‘Do not steal,’ ‘Do not bear false witness,’ ‘Do not defraud,’ ‘Honor your father and your mother.’ ”

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.

Jesus’ reply to the rich man here is full of surprises.

First, in response to being called “Good teacher,” Jesus says, “only God is good.”

Was Jesus saying that he is not God?

No, Jesus answered this way because the rich man saw him as just a man—a good man, but still just a man.

As the rich man stood before Jesus, he was also confronted with the fact that he himself was just a man and not as good as he had thought.

Ultimately, only God is good. (And, of course, Jesus himself is good because he too is God, but he is not drawing attention to himself here.)

In our everyday lives, we use the word good to describe all kinds of things.

We say, “Good morning.” We appreciated a good breakfast. Seeing that the weather is good, we go out to work or to play or meet with our good friends.

The Bible, however, mainly uses the word good to refer to what is pure and holy.

The point Jesus is making is that only the perfect and holy God is truly good.

And yet, as we each find forgiveness through Jesus and we are restored to a right relationship with God, we gain the ability to do good and to be good.

All who are clothed in the righteousness of Christ and act for his glory will one day hear the words “Well done, good and faithful servant!” (see Matthew 25:21, 23).

Question for Today: How We Know That God Is Good?

Mark 10:17-18 Amplified Bible

The Rich Young Ruler

17 As He was leaving on His journey, a man ran up and knelt before Him and asked Him, “Good Teacher [You who are essentially good and morally perfect], what shall I do to inherit eternal life [that is, eternal salvation in the Messiah’s kingdom]?” 18 Jesus said to him, “[a]Why do you call Me good? No one is [essentially] good [by nature] except God alone.

“Why do you call me good?” Jesus asked. “Only God is truly good.” Mark 10:18

God is good in so many ways–the way He provides for us, He guides us, and He watches over us–but it goes even deeper than that.

God’s goodness is who he is, and we are created in his image, so, therefore, we share his goodness.

God’s goodness shows up in our lives every single day.

Although we often think of His goodness when something big happens, His goodness abounds all the time–in every hour, minute, and second of the day, in the smallest of things around us – but how do we recognize this goodness?

Here are five examples of God’s goodness in our everyday lives.

1. Waking Us Up

Psalm 5:1-3 New King James Version

A Prayer for Guidance

To the Chief Musician. With [a]flutes. A Psalm of David.

5 Give ear to my words, O Lord,
Consider my [b]meditation.
2 Give heed to the voice of my cry,
My King and my God,
For to You I will pray.
3 My voice You shall hear in the morning, O Lord;
In the morning I will direct it to You,
And I will look up.

Every day that God wakes us up is an example of his goodness.

This means we are still working towards the purpose and gifts He has given us.

It shows us that He isn’t finished with us yet and that we still have a mission to fulfill.

We shall not grumble and complain about getting out of bed and going to work.

We should be happy that we are still breathing and living for him.

Many are worse off than us who need to see our light shining in the world every day.

2. Pouring His Favor on Us

Psalm 5:11-12 New King James Version

11 But let all those rejoice who put their trust in You;
Let them ever shout for joy, because You [a]defend them;
Let those also who love Your name
Be joyful in You.
12 For You, O Lord, will bless the righteous;
With favor You will surround him as with a shield.

On the days when we are surrounded by the smallest and most significant of blessings, we know that God is pouring his favor on us.

This can be anything from your coworker bringing you your favorite coffee to your boss calling you in their office to discuss a project or raise or promotion.

We need to pay attention to all the little things in our day, both big and small, that are a blessing to us. A lot of times, it’s the little things that mean so much.

3. Protecting Us

Psalm 121 English Standard Version

My Help Comes from the Lord

A Song of Ascents.

121 I lift up my eyes to the hills.
    From where does my help come?
2 My help comes from the Lord,
    who made heaven and earth.

3 He will not let your foot be moved;
    he who keeps you will not slumber.
4 Behold, he who keeps Israel
    will neither slumber nor sleep.

5 The Lord is your keeper;
    the Lord is your shade on your right hand.
6 The sun shall not strike you by day,
    nor the moon by night.

7 The Lord will keep you from all evil;
    he will keep your life.
8 The Lord will keep
    your going out and your coming in
    from this time forth and forevermore.

Every continent on earth has mountains.

Some are cold, rugged, and difficult to climb. Others are favorite vacation spots.

Still others are sources of water, timber, and other natural resources.

Those who live within view of a mountain range are reminded daily of God’s greatness and our smallness.

Psalm 121 asks us to consider that same contrast.

Setting out for their trip to Jerusalem for a festival, pilgrims often sang this song to remind each other of the dangers of the journey ahead and of the assurances of God’s protection.

God is greater than any so-called god of the hills or mountains—the Lord God is earth’s Creator.

God is more powerful than any force of the sun or moon—the Lord created them too.

The false gods of other ­nations might have had to take vacations, but not the Lord God Almighty, who never slumbers or sleeps.

When we set off on a journey—whether it is a trip of hundreds of miles or only a few steps—we can remind ourselves, as those pilgrims did, we travel with God.

We need not fear the dangers of the road or threats from others; every step of our way is seen by God, who watches over us.

Our God, the Creator of earth’s highest mountains and deepest valleys—and everything in between—is also the protector of our small lives.

4. Speaking to Us through Prayer

Psalm 66:16-20 English Standard Version

16 Come and hear, all you who fear God,
    and I will tell what he has done for my soul.
17 I cried to him with my mouth,
    and high praise was on[a] my tongue.[b]
18 If I had cherished iniquity in my heart,
    the Lord would not have listened.
19 But truly God has listened;
    he has attended to the voice of my prayer.

20 Blessed be God,
    because he has not rejected my prayer
    or removed his steadfast love from me!

Prayer is our most powerful connection to God.

It is how we express our thanks and gratitude, make our petitions known, and intercede for others.

Sometimes we get an answer of “yes,” sometimes, “no” and sometimes, “wait.”

Sometimes, He gives us specific instructions and, sometimes, He is silent.

Other times, He speaks to us and provides us with an answer in the most surprising of ways.

No matter what, He always answers, and we need to look for those answers every day.

In issues big and small, He will often nudge our hearts and draw our attention in the right direction.

5. Guiding Us

Psalm 31:1-4 English Standard Version

Into Your Hand I Commit My Spirit

To the choirmaster. A Psalm of David.

31 In you, O Lord, do I take refuge;
    let me never be put to shame;
    in your righteousness deliver me!
2 Incline your ear to me;
    rescue me speedily!
Be a rock of refuge for me,
    a strong fortress to save me!

3 For you are my rock and my fortress;
    and for your name’s sake you lead me and guide me;
4 you take me out of the net they have hidden for me,
    for you are my refuge.

We make a thousand little decisions a day, everything from deciding whether we will do our tasks well or whether or not to take on a ministry or a mission.

Sometimes, in our decision making we have to slow down, determine whether an opportunity is right or wrong for us and if we should follow a particular path.

In these moments, God is guiding us.

We need to stop, take a breath and pay attention.

How do we feel in our hearts?

How do we feel in our gut?  

We need to be still and listen to that small voice we know so well.

Listen to him whispering to our hearts about what choices are right for us.

Pay attention to the signs He sends us.

This is his way of guiding us and nudging us to our best selves, so that we may live in the gifts and graces we have been given and the purpose He has for us.

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

Let us Pray,

Psalm 23 English Standard Version

The Lord Is My Shepherd

A Psalm of David.

23 The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.
2     He makes me lie down in green pastures.
He leads me beside still waters.[a]
3     He restores my soul.
He leads me in paths of righteousness[b]
    for his name’s sake.

4 Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,[c]
    I will fear no evil,
for you are with me;
    your rod and your staff,
    they comfort me.

5 You prepare a table before me
    in the presence of my enemies;
you anoint my head with oil;
    my cup overflows.
6 Surely[d] goodness and mercy[e] shall follow me
    all the days of my life,
and I shall dwell[f] in the house of the Lord
    forever.[g]

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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Recognition of Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Day; As His Message, as God’s Message, Is Now Committed Unto All Of Us. 2 Corinthians 5:16-20

2 Corinthians 5:16-20 Easy-to-Read Version

16 From this time on we don’t think of anyone as the world thinks of people. It is true that in the past we thought of Christ as the world thinks. But we don’t think that way now. 17 When anyone is in Christ, it is a whole new world.[a] The old things are gone; suddenly, everything is new! 18 All this is from God. Through Christ, God made peace between himself and us. And God gave us the work of bringing people into peace with him. 19 I mean that God was in Christ, making peace between the world and himself. In Christ, God did not hold people guilty for their sins. And he gave us this message of peace to tell people. 20 So we have been sent to speak for Christ. It is like God is calling to people through us. We speak for Christ when we beg you to be at peace with God.

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.

Dr. Martin Luther King and the Kingdom Of God

In the United States today we commemorate the life and work of Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. (MLK).

As well we should.

Dr. King stood before the thousands who had gathered – said he had a dream …

A significant God-sized dream …

Dr. King dreamed about the kingdom of God—where the children of former slaves and the children of former slaveowners would see each other as family, and the message; where everyone would share equally in freedom and justice.

Dr. King also did what he could to influence people to refocus their mindsets into God, so to make that kingdom dream real, even at the cost of his own life.

Even today, we are challenged mightily to be true unto that same dream to see all people not by the color of their skin as Christ saw people, but God’s children.

In a word, reconcile the world to God.

As if God Himself is communicating to His Creation … through His Son and through his messengers like Dr. Martin Luther King … His desired message …

Apostle Paul writes to the Corinthian followers that the word of reconciliation has been committed to us by God and that God makes His appeal through us.

He is in us.

Emmanuel, God with Us …

Emmanuel, God within us …

John 14:15-17 Easy-to-Read Version

The Promise of the Holy Spirit

15 “If you love me, you will do what I command. 16 I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper[a] to be with you forever. 17 The Helper is the Spirit of truth.[b] The people of the world cannot accept him, because they don’t see him or know him. But you know him. He lives with you, and he will be in you.

And He’s doing it, and that is what saves us from fear and from uncertainty and stumbling from mistakes in the work of witnessing.

Our reasoned logic, our wisest arguments, and so on are of no effect whatsoever in this topic, except as they be the living expression of the Holy Spirit within us.

He will do his work; all we need to be is to be bold enough, courageous enough, ready enough to respond to the situation, depending on Jesus to do His work.

This relieves one of the greatest fears that keep people from witnessing.

It should help us tremendously to realize that we do not have to pump up our courage, “to gird our own loins” and tackle a situation in which we hardly know what we are coming into at all – because we know that God is already on the job.

We may be talking to somebody that is a stranger to us.

We do not know what their background is, what their ability is, what their mental acumen is, or anything of the sort.

We do not need to know.

All we need to know about or do is just carry on a normal conversation about ordinary things.

If we can but look to the Lord to find an opening to insert just a word that will switch the conversation over toward the things of Christ, that may lead the time towards deeper conversation about the deeper things, more meaningful things.

If this is a prepared heart, that person will respond.

If it is not one that the Holy Spirit has prepared, then they just won’t respond.

Therefore, the work of testifying and witnessing to God’s message is impossible until the Holy Spirit has made the person ready to receive God’s message alone.

We do not practice this work of witnessing without realizing that sometimes the initial response is sometimes different than what we would hope, expect.

One may discover that the person is often belligerent at first, but has a hungry heart underneath.

One learns to be quick at perceiving that and paying no attention to what he says, but instead speaking to what he is displaying in their own inner hunger.

But any kind of response is a good response, an open door opportunity as long as it is an open door by which you could pursue the subject deeper and further.

We do not need to pray for the Holy Spirit to prepare hearts.

He is already preparing them.

He has them prepared all around us.

Jesus said, Don’t you have a saying, ‘It’s still four months until harvest’? I tell you, open your eyes and look at the fields! They are ripe for harvest (John 4:35).

These prepared, hungry hearts, hearts yearning for answers, are all around us.

Our ministry and mission is simply to be so available to the Lord, that as we have the kingdom opportunity to make contact from day to day, we can be used of Him to find who they are, learn about them, and carry this witness forward.

As children of God, we represent the family of God, whether we are aware of it or not.

The world will judge our Father based on our words, behaviors, and attitudes.

Jesus challenges his followers to let their light shine into the world’s spiritual darkness.

Our deeds, good or bad, beautiful or ugly, will reflect an image of the Father that others will see.

If we are a Christian, we each, without exception, bear the name of Christ.

We represent Jesus quite literally wherever we go.

The Bible goes as far as to call us “Christ’s ambassadors” to the world.

Christ made His appeal to the world through Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King.

In 2024 and beyond, Christ is now making His appeal to the world through us.

He sends us forward to share his transforming love with our neighbors, friends, relatives, coworkers—through every single one we encounter on any given day.

We carry the family name of Jesus Christ wherever we go, in whatever we do.

On this Martin Luther King Day 2024, How well do we carry the name of Jesus?

Walk through today expecting the Holy Spirit to give you opportunities to share the truths of Jesus and be an ambassador of reconciliation.

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

Let us Pray,

Here is a prayer of Dr. King’s prayers from a collection titled, “Thou, Dear God”: Prayers That Open Hearts and Spirits (edited by Lewis V. Baldwin):

1)  Prayer to forgive us for what we could have been but failed to be

O Thou Eternal God, out of whose absolute power and infinite intelligence the whole universe has come into being, we humbly confess that we have not loved thee with our hearts, souls and minds, and we have not loved our neighbors as Christ loved us. We have all too often lived by our own selfish impulses rather than by the life of sacrificial love as revealed by Christ. We often give in order to receive. We love our friends and hate our enemies. We go the first mile but dare not travel the second. We forgive but dare not forget. And so as we look within ourselves, we are confronted with the appalling fact that the history of our lives is the history of an eternal revolt against you. But thou, O God, have mercy upon us. Forgive us for what we could have been but failed to be. Give us the intelligence to know your will. Give us the courage to do your will. Give us the devotion to love thy will. In the name and spirit of Jesus we pray. Amen. (p. 7)

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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Sit Down, Be Still, Pay Attention, Be Ready, Be Alert and Be Seen By Jesus. Matthew 5:1-2

Matthew 5:1-2 New Living Translation

The Sermon on the Mount

5 One day as he saw the crowds gathering, Jesus went up on the mountainside and sat down. His disciples gathered around him, 2 and he began to teach them.

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.

One day as He saw the crowds gathering …

As many times as I have read this passage, I realize that somehow I have always read past, glossed over, those very first words … One day as HE SAW the crowds.

Now I have to confess I don’t really appreciate the way I learned the Beatitudes.

I’m in my early 60’s now and I think I’m only starting to observe, understand, what’s really happening in this passage at the beginning of The Sermon on the Mount, courtesy of a recently fantastic sermon and sweet, wonderful context.

I’ve been able to by rote rattle off “Blessed are the poor in spirit… blessed are those who mourn… blessed are the meek” and most of the rest of them for quite a while.

Because I was given that passage to memorize during my early adult studies.

And it sounded deep, and beautiful, but also a little empty and off.

I’d learned that Matthew 5:2-12 was a passage known as The Beatitudes, and that the word “blessed” being repeated some nine times here meant “happy.”

Okay – that is pretty much all I have ever heard preached or taught about it, it is all any Bible teacher or preacher I have ever had ever really focused – “blessed.”

Except now, as I sit here, as I sat there in that Church pew, sitting still, listening and paying attention and recalling a moving wonderfully preached sermon on the Matthew 25 Christian, I am observing things differently about this passage.

I sat down, I sat still, and I paid attention and I listened to the message as if I was being preached to by Jesus Himself – as if Jesus were looking directly at me.

Now, as I read the Beatitudes passage again, the first words I observe are the one’s which communicate – “that one day, Jesus saw the crowds gathering.”

I sit here writing this devotional with that first verse in my mind and I have to wonder to myself – “If Jesus saw the crowds gathering, how many saw Jesus?”

How many in the gathered crowd were observant enough to see Jesus coming?

How many people in the crowd were observing Jesus as He was observing them?

How many in the crowd knew who Jesus was?

How many actually paid attention to His arrival?

How many sat down versus remained standing giving Jesus their full attention?

I see a new teaching coming to this crowd and I wonder about their attitudes?

I see the people that Jesus saw, I begin to wonder about them as if I was there.

I observe that the people listed here at first didn’t sound very happy to me.

More than that, knowing these words came from Jesus, it sounded as if Jesus was commanding his followers to be mourners and peacemakers, merciful and persecuted – they had heard similar messages from more hypocritical mouths.

I can see their eyes rolling, hear them saying one of those examples of upside-down living in the Kingdom of God we know now were part of Christ’s teaching.

But something entirely different happened here – the people sat down, they sat still, they paid attention to the teacher, they listened, they were seen by Jesus.

Think about where this passage appears.

These are the FIRST WORDS of The Sermon on the Mount.

The very beginning.

The first thing Jesus has to say, what and who He observes, what He did, how he did it, after he “saw the crowds” from Galilee, the Decapolis, Jerusalem, Judea and the region across the Jordan referenced at the end of Matthew Chapter 4.

He’d been teaching and healing and proclaiming the good news, and many are gathering.

And what kind of people are in this crowd?

I think we know.

We know because this is the introduction to the largest uninterrupted session of teaching we have recorded from Jesus.

And in an introduction, it’s common to address your audience directly.

Its common to want to draw the attention of your audience to your message.

It is common for the writer to want future readers to draw their attention to the moment, into the moment, to get them to sit down, sit still, and to observe the whole scene, to listen, pay attention to message. ultimately, to be seen by Jesus.

Jesus we are told, sees the crowds.

He goes to a higher place from which to see them, then sits down and rests among them.

I can imagine a lot of eye contact and a few deep breaths before Jesus, who sees into their souls and knows every cell of their bodies, speaks right to their hearts and directly into the exact issues of their life that have brought them to his feet.

He gestures to a group gathered nearby and says, “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.”

An attention grabber par excellence! What a strange way to start a sermon.

Unless it’s actually the most beautiful way to speak to someone there could possibly be.

Who are the “poor in spirit,” after all?

I never really knew, until I heard a sermon about this Sermon during a time I am being treated for my post open heart surgery anxiety and depression .

For the first time in my life, I certainly related to being “poor in spirit.”

And Jesus continues his way around the crowd, next finding those who are mourning.

His heart breaks for them, too.

Maybe sees someone meek shyly lurking near the edge.

He knows some are there because they have a deep longing for truth and righteousness.

He finds some rich in mercy who may be downtrodden or taken advantage of in life.

He sees the pure and the peacemakers, and know the loneliness these types can experience, but tells them they will see God and be called children – part of his family.

And finally, the persecuted, the cast-out, the misfits, who dare to seek him out anyway.

He sees and addresses them all, all these types who are drawn to want to know God.

HE SEES THEM.

HE SEES THEM ALL

He sees you!

He sees me!

Before Jesus has anything else to say, He sees you.

And what’s more, He knows what you’re going through.

He knows whether you are pure in heart or poor in spirit, that very condition has brought you to him in a way thirsting for self or needing nothing could never do.

And He wants you to know: not only do I see you, not only has your character or your current life situation brought you to me, but I have a nugget for each and every one of you, a warm blanket to your chill, a silver lining to your dark cloud.

You, poor in spirit, you feel ill at ease in this world.

Jesus sees you, and wants you to know, yours is the Kingdom of Heaven.

A time is coming when you’ll know peace and a deep, rich purpose.

There is reason to hold fast in faith.

You, mourner, you feel abandoned and lost.

But Jesus sees you and wants you to know: lean into those who will pamper you, cry with you, feed you and comfort you.

That’s got to be a good, good feeling, and one you’ll certainly be able to hang onto and want deeply, authentically, to reciprocate to others in turn.

You, feeling meek, mild, powerless. Jesus sees you.

He knows things aren’t easy, but he wants you to know you have an inheritance!

The meek in the world are given nothing. Jesus says he plans to give them everything.

Talk about a silver lining.

You, the merciful, Jesus sees you.

He knows your forgiving heart, and he knows maybe this causes you to feel walked over at times.

He also knows you will be shown mercy for having treated others as you would want to be treated.

It goes on and on through the list.

Before Jesus teaches anything, he lets you know he sees you there ready to learn from him, that he appreciates how this very thing has brought you to him, and that there is good news on the flip side of your coin.

What a difference!

Be still, sit still, take a rest on this hillside now and go through The Beatitudes again only this time calmly, quietly, with wisdom and insight, considering what it was that first brought you to the feet of Jesus because: He SAW YOU FIRST!

And observe exactly how that very condition has caused you to be called blessed.

Ask others to observe you – communicate exactly how and what and why they see and observe how that condition has caused you to be called, to feel, blessed.

Happy.

Amen.

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

Let us Pray,

Psalm 121 The Message

121 1-2 I look up to the mountains;
    does my strength come from mountains?
No, my strength comes from God,
    who made heaven, and earth, and mountains.

3-4 He won’t let you stumble,
    your Guardian God won’t fall asleep.
Not on your life! Israel’s
    Guardian will never doze or sleep.

5-6 God’s your Guardian,
    right at your side to protect you—
Shielding you from sunstroke,
    sheltering you from moonstroke.

7-8 God guards you from every evil,
    he guards your very life.
He guards you when you leave and when you return,
    he guards you now, he guards you always.

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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Our Kingdom Presence: Cultivating a Honeycomb of Humble and Gracious, Encouraging Words. Proverbs 16:24 

Proverbs 16:24 English Standard Version

24 Gracious words are like a honeycomb,
    sweetness to the soul and health to the body.

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.

It’s true.

People are drawn to those who speak to them and about them kindly.

Speaking to others in a kind manner is a characteristic that we don’t come in contact with today like we use to.

IT TAKES VERY LITTLE COURAGE TO CLICK SEND.

In the past when anyone wanted to speak poorly about someone, they did it behind their back (still a terrible thing to do) but today, in this age of the smart phone and the internet, people get to “hide behind” their computer screens and phones and we get a whole lot more wild, bold with how we respond to others.

You don’t even have to share your name.

You can send something “anonymously” and hide your computers address.

If one was inclined, they can just be blatantly mean and remain anonymous.

SWEETNESS TO THE SOUL

I think today, more than ever before, it’s incredibly refreshing to hear kind and gracious words – such rare words have a huge impact on our mind and our body.

Like the verse says in Proverbs 16:24

Proverbs 16:24 King James Version

24 Pleasant words are as an honeycomb, sweet to the soul, and health to the bones.

I know how much my soul grieves, I know that I have felt sick to my stomach for days when someone has been downright mean toward me and I have felt a renewed sense of joy and energy when I hear true encouragement and praise.

Words affect our entire being. And they can remain a part of our souls makeup for the rest of our lives. I can remember as a child things I was told, both good and bad, and even today I really have to battle all the lies to embrace the truth.

I WANT TO BE REMEMBERED AS KIND AND LOVING

As one who is getting more mature in their years, if I leave one Kingdom legacy, I believe I would want it to be that I left others feeling good about themselves.

Not because I lied to to be politically correct, to over inflate their egos, to butter them up or with man’s wisdom made things up to baby them into feeling good.

But because I truly found the good in someone and left them feeling like I saw that piece of them and treated them in a way that they felt loved and respected.

Even when I have to share something negative, I want to turn to God, I want to strive to do it in a way that is gracious and kind – I want to turn them onto God.

There really are ways to give constructive criticism, to not be so blunt and so disrespectful, both in our every day lives and our social media lives. There are real people on the other side of that screen, who feel hurt, pain, joy, and love.

CHOOSE TO SPEAK LIFE

We each have the power to speak life and/or death into those around us.

We each can make a person feel either incredibly small or incredibly loved.

We need to be more careful with our words.

With our friends, with strangers, and for sure with our families- the ones who sometimes get the brunt of our frustrations.

So, in these days of 2024, stand out from the crowd – please have the courage to be kind – have some courage to speak life into those we come into contact with.

CULTIVATING A HONEYCOMB OF GRACIOUS WORDS

Proverbs 16:24 Amplified Bible

24 
Pleasant words are like a honeycomb,
Sweet and delightful to the soul and healing to the body.

What words are you putting out into the world?

Are we choosing our words thoughtfully, are we taking every opportunity to be Kingdom builders, Kingdom edifiers, speaking to encourage and uplift others?

our words “adding honey” sweetening the lives of those who hear, read them?

Or, are we following the Social Media trend to be anonymous, speak your mind, speak truth to set someone straight, or put another in his or her rightful place?

Maybe you try to be encouraging but others just push your buttons to the point where you feel like you have to say something, anything or you’ll simply burst!

It’s so easy in heated moments of conflict to get caught up in the latest political, social, fashion, or celebrity debate, say things you’ll wish later you hadn’t said.

So if you and/or I have slipped up in our words a few times, we are not alone.

James 3:2 describes how, “We all stumble in many ways. Anyone who is never at fault in what they say is perfect, able to keep their whole body in check.”

Still, Scripture reminds that,

“Those who consider themselves religious and yet do not keep a tight rein on their tongues deceive themselves, and their religion is worthless” (James 1:26).

Maybe we have been surprised by things we have heard or have read by other Christians and perhaps even our own words at times have caught us off guard?

Proverbs 13:3 gives incentive for choosing to be careful with your words, describing the difference it can make in your life to do so, stating,

“Those who guard their lips preserve their lives, but those who speak rashly will come to ruin.”

If you struggle with speaking careless words, ask God to, “Set a guard over my mouth, Lord; keep watch over the door of my lips” (Psalm 141:3).

As well, Psalm 34:13 urges to

“Keep your tongue from evil and your lips from telling lies.”

When you do, Proverbs 12:14 encourages that from the fruit of your lips you will be filled with good things.

Proverbs 12:14Easy-to-Read Version

14 People get good things for the words they say, and they are rewarded for the work they do.

Likewise, Proverbs 16:23 describes how, “The hearts of the wise make their mouths prudent, and their lips promote instruction.”

Speak truth, Speak of God, Speak Jesus, Speak Holy Spirit, ask God to direct your speech so that your words are helping to build up the faith of those around you.

As Colossians 3:16 urges, “Let the message of Christ dwell among you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom through psalms, hymns, and songs from the Spirit, singing to God with gratitude in your hearts.”

What is the object lesson of Proverbs 16 24?

As Proverbs 16:24 tells us, pleasant words are like a honeycomb, bringing sweetness to the soul and health to the bones.

We want to be known for the fruit of our gentleness and for the fruit of our compassion and be using our words to uplift and encourage those around us.

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

Let us Pray,

Psalm 34:1-10 The Message

34 I bless God every chance I get;
my lungs expand with his praise.

2 I live and breathe God;
if things aren’t going well, hear this and be happy:

3 Join me in spreading the news;
together let’s get the word out.

4 God met me more than halfway,
he freed me from my anxious fears.

5 Look at him; give him your warmest smile.
Never hide your feelings from him.

6 When I was desperate, I called out,
and God got me out of a tight spot.

7 God’s angel sets up a circle
of protection around us while we pray.

8 Open your mouth and taste, open your eyes and see—
    how good God is.
Blessed are you who run to him.

9 Worship God if you want the best;
worship opens doors to all his goodness.

10 Young lions on the prowl get hungry,
but God-seekers are full 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.

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As We Have Accepted Christ Into Our Lives: Freedom From Worldly Rules. Colossians 2:6-7

Colossians 2:6-7 New Living Translation

Freedom from Rules and New Life in Christ

6 And now, just as you accepted Christ Jesus as your Lord, you must continue to follow him. 7 Let your roots grow down into him, and let your lives be built on him. Then your faith will grow strong in the truth you were taught, and you will overflow with thankfulness.

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.

Parents quickly understand the necessity of rules in order to keep children safe.

Six years ago, when I ventured into pre-school teaching for four and five year old’s, I learned for toddlers, the rules are very simple but often life or death!

Rules like listen to your mom and dad, listen to your teachers, sit up straight, don’t run out into the street; don’t touch a hot stove; don’t run into a burning campfire; don’t jump into the water without a life jacket before you can swim …don’t get lost.

When they reach school age, the rules include manners- respecting their teachers and other adults in their lives; and honesty, reading, and studying hard for tests instead of their peering over onto another classmate’s paper.

As they grow older, and they observe people, the rules become a more tangled mess of life, morality we, ourselves, struggle alongside our kin to maintain.

At any age, rules more often allow us to frame how we become the best version of ourselves rather than always inhibiting us from experiencing life to the full. 

A rule, as a noun, is defined as a principle or regulation governing conduct, an action, procedure, arrangement, etc.

As a verb, to rule means to control or direct; to exercise domination power, to have authority, or influence over; to govern.

I found it interesting that the heading before today’s verses, in the NLT translation of the Bible, reads: “Freedom from Rules and New Life in Christ.” 

Jesus didn’t come to abolish the necessary growth we obtain through following rules; He came so we would have freedom, “to be free indeed,” to benefit from complete obedience, though we cannot obtain perfection this side of heaven.

Christ Jesus makes up for our lack.

Freedom From Rules?

Matthew 5:17-18 The Message

Completing God’s Law

17-18 “Don’t suppose for a minute that I have come to demolish the Scriptures—either God’s Law or the Prophets. I’m not here to demolish but to complete. I am going to put it all together, pull it all together in a vast panorama. God’s Law is more real and lasting than the stars in the sky and the ground at your feet. Long after stars burn out and earth wears out, God’s Law will be alive and working.

Two spiritual poisons are deadly to the soul: legalism and lawlessness.

Legalism implies that God loves and accepts us because of our performance.

We ingest this toxin when we look favorably at our own brief history of good behavior and think and then (gasp) come to believe that’s why God loves us.

Lawlessness says we are free to live however we wish because God’s love is not based on our good works.

We ingest this toxin anytime we brush aside the importance of obedience to God or we self reason and self rationalize then (gasp) minimize some sin in our life.

Jesus warns against both.

To those who insist that God’s law is unimportant, Jesus says he has come to obey God’s law perfectly.

Obedience to God matters so absolutely much that Jesus had to keep God’s commandments perfectly (fulfilling the law) so that we might have salvation.

At the same time, also Jesus warns that if we try to gain God’s approval based on our moral and ethical performance, our goodness must then surpass that of the Pharisees and teachers of the law – “be the wisest above everyone’s eyes.”

They were high and mighty religious authorities and experts famous for their “obedience to the law” but still so far from perfect, as Jesus often pointed out.

The Gospel is that although we cannot obey God’s law, Jesus fulfilled it for us.

Then he was punished for our sake as a law-breaker so that God might view us as law-keepers!

As the gospel truly lives in us, may we live a life of obedience to God that flows from deep gratitude to Jesus, who frees us from both legalism and lawlessness.

Freedom from rules, through Christ, releases the pressure of a burden we can never hope live up to. Jesus was the perfect sacrifice, willing to walk out the will of His Father to free us from the burden of our own sin …and lack of obedience.

Though our hearts are often in the right place as we wake each day to follow Jesus, we carry with us a hopeless entanglement of sin that trips into our daily lives and then, prayerfully rolls over into our confession of them in the next.

Grace-filled and unfailing in love for us, God made a way for us to be forgiven and a chance to repent …to change. 

From the Parable of the Sower, we know that seedling planted in the ground slowly makes its way up through the soil and breaks through to see the sun.

Our lives are a continual process of blooming where we are planted.

Paul uses the illustration of our “being rooted in Christ,” the Life Application Bible explains, “Just as plants draw nourishment from the soil through their roots, we draw our life-giving strength from Christ.

Colossians 2:6-7 The Message

From the Shadows to the Substance

6-7 My counsel for you is simple and straightforward: Just go ahead with what you’ve been given. You received Christ Jesus, the Master; now live him. You’re deeply rooted in him. You’re well constructed upon him. You know your way around the faith. Now do what you’ve been taught. School’s out; quit studying the subject and start living it! And let your living spill over into thanksgiving.

The more we raise up, draw our strength from him, the less we will be fooled or entangled by those who falsely claim to have life’s answers apart from Christ.”

Our Life Now On God’s Terms, New Life In Christ.

Romans 8:1-2 The Message

The Solution Is Life on God’s Terms

8 1-2 With the arrival of Jesus, the Messiah, that fateful dilemma is resolved. Those who enter into Christ’s being-here-for-us no longer have to live under a continuous, low-lying black cloud. A new power is in operation. The Spirit of life in Christ, like a strong wind, has magnificently cleared the air, freeing you from a fated lifetime of brutal tyranny at the hands of sin and death.

Today’s verses from Paul’s letter to the Colossians I pray encourage us to keep raising up, a life straining for the light and to let our roots grow down into Him.

Perennials are those plants that return year after year and spread out each time they come back to life in the Spring.

I like to plant things that tend to grow and spread out without my obvious lack of a green thumb to hindering their life cycle.

What begins as a spacious garden soon overflows with fresh wildflowers.

I love giving nature a space to take over in my yard and plodding out to pick fresh blooms each day as more and more cut through to the light of the sun. 

Our lives are new every day, just as God’s mercy is new every day.

He is faithful to complete His promise of our new life in Christ.

We are a new creation in Him, and it doesn’t happen overnight!

A bulk of the change occurs progressively over time, season after season, and year after year.

“New life in Christ starts and continues when we acknowledge Him as leader over all we are and do,” just as the Life Application Study Bible explains;

“Then we must accept his leadership daily by being rooted, built up, and strengthened in the faith.” 

Intersecting Faith and Life

Ephesians 2:16-22 The Message

16-18 Christ brought us together through his death on the cross. The Cross got us to embrace, and that was the end of the hostility. Christ came and preached peace to you outsiders and peace to us insiders. He treated us as equals, and so made us equals. Through him we both share the same Spirit and have equal access to the Father.

19-22 That’s plain enough, isn’t it? You’re no longer wandering exiles. This kingdom of faith is now your home country. You’re no longer strangers or outsiders. You belong here, with as much right to the name Christian as anyone. God is building a home. He’s using us all—irrespective of how we got here—in what he is building. He used the apostles and prophets for the foundation. Now he’s using you, fitting you in brick by brick, stone by stone, with Christ Jesus as the cornerstone that holds all the parts together. We see it taking shape day after day—a holy temple built by God, all of us built into it, a temple in which God is quite at home.

Today’s verses talk of freedom in Savior Christ overflowing with thankfulness as a result of the truth we are being taught.

Gratitude is a natural by-product of knowing God.

It’s impossible to know Him and not be able to grasp gratitude, even in the worst and hardest of times.

Today’s beautiful verses, written by the apostle Paul, I pray remind us all of the amazing gift of freedom we have as we embrace life within the love of Christ.

If ever we find ourselves feeling burdened by rules, we can be assured the guilt is not rooted in Him!

But freedom is.

We are free to admit our weaknesses, run to Him in our lack, and know without a doubt He sacrifices His perfect life so we could live ours to the full.

He is with us, always.

Let’s release the pressure, follow Jesus, allow our roots to grow down in Him, and our lives be built on Him.

Let’s proclaim freedom, embrace the promise Paul penned: Then our faith will grow strong in the truth we are taught, and we will overflow with thankfulness.

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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The One Invitation of All Invitations: ‘O Come On, My Soul, Let’s Listen to God, Come, Let Us Rest in God Alone. Psalm 62

Psalm 62 New King James Version

A Calm Resolve to Wait for the Salvation of God

To the Chief Musician. To Jeduthun. A Psalm of David.

62 Truly my soul silently waits for God;
From Him comes my salvation.
2 He only is my rock and my salvation;
He is my [a]defense;
I shall not be greatly moved.[b]

3 How long will you attack a man?
You shall be slain, all of you,
Like a leaning wall and a tottering fence.
4 They only consult to cast him down from his high position;
They delight in lies;
They bless with their mouth,
But they curse inwardly. Selah

5 My soul, wait silently for God alone,
For my [c]expectation is from Him.
6 He only is my rock and my salvation;
He is my defense;
I shall not be [d]moved.
7 In God is my salvation and my glory;
The rock of my strength,
And my refuge, is in God.

8 Trust in Him at all times, you people;
Pour out your heart before Him;
God is a refuge for us. Selah

9 Surely men of low degree are [e]a vapor,
Men of high degree are a lie;
If they are weighed on the scales,
They are altogether lighter than vapor.
10 Do not trust in oppression,
Nor vainly hope in robbery;
If riches increase,
Do not set your heart on them.

11 God has spoken once,
Twice I have heard this:
That power belongs to God.
12 Also to You, O Lord, belongs mercy;
For You [f]render to each one according to his work.

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.

Matthew 11:28 New King James Version

28 Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.

Whenever you receive invitations, you probably find yourself asking the same sorts of questions: Who is it from? Who is it for? Why does it matter?

This verse presents one of the loveliest invitations in the whole of the New Testament—but to understand it best, we must ask those same questions.

First, this is a personal invitation.

It is not an invitation to a program, nor is it an invitation to a religion or to a philosophy to be included alongside Hinduism, Buddhism, Confucianism, New Age-ism, humanism, or any other “ism” found among today’s worldviews.

It is an invitation from Jesus Himself – He is bidding each of us, “Come to me.”

The significance of the invitation lies in who is issuing it.

In the Gospels, Jesus declares who He is: the Messiah, the Savior of the world, the Son of God (see John 4:25-26; 1 John 4:14).

By virtue of this identity, Jesus should anticipate, should expect, even could command an instant response—but instead, here – He extends an invitation.

And who does He invite to come? “All who labor and are heavy laden.”

This invitation is all-inclusive.

It doesn’t single out a certain group among a larger group based on arbitrary standards invented by academia and culture, but it describes all of humanity.

Each of us absolutely need to hear these words over again, because there’s not one person who isn’t figuratively pushing around a wheelbarrow filled with all the cares, responsibilities, fears, and failures that surely make up his or her life.

Why does all this matter? Jesus invites us to find “rest for your souls.”

He’s speaking in eternal terms of a rest that never fails.

He’s beckoning us towards a banquet, He doesn’t even ask us to provide clothes.

We show up for the banquet just the way we are.

God takes all our “Here are my fears, doubts” and “Here are my good deeds” clothes so many of us like to dress up in, calls them rags, and tosses them aside.

He takes all the self deprecating self debasing “I’m so bad and messed up that there’s no hope” clothes and unceremoniously tosses all of them aside too.

In their place, He covers us over with “the robe of righteousness” (Isaiah 61:10), which is provided by Jesus Christ Himself.

When we find our doubts weighing us down like a millstone, we can rest from our striving to make something of ourselves or to earn heaven for ourselves when we come to Jesus, receive all we need, all we could ever need, from Him.

This is the invitation of all invitations that our doubts do not want any part of.

O’ Come On, My Soul, Let’s Listen, Let’s Rest In God!

Psalm 62 Easy-to-Read Version

To the director, Jeduthun.[a] A song of David.

62 I must calm down and turn to God;
    only he can rescue me.
2 He is my Rock, the only one who can save me.
    He is my high place of safety, where no army can defeat me.

3 How long will you people attack me?
    Do you all want to kill me?
I am like a leaning wall,
    like a fence ready to fall.
4 You want only to destroy me,
    to bring me down from my important position.
It makes you happy to tell lies about me.
    In public, you say nice things,
    but in private, you curse me. Selah

5 I must calm down and turn to God;
    he is my only hope.
6 He is my Rock, the only one who can save me.
    He is my high place of safety, where no army can defeat me.
7 My victory and honor come from God.
    He is the mighty Rock, where I am safe.
8 People, always put your trust in God!
    Tell him all your problems.
    God is our place of safety. Selah

9 People cannot really help.
    You cannot depend on them.
Compared to God, they are nothing—
    no more than a gentle puff of air!
10 Don’t trust in your power to take things by force.
    Don’t think you will gain anything by stealing.
And if you become wealthy,
    don’t put your trust in riches.
11 God says there is one thing you can really depend on, and I believe it:
    “Strength comes from God!”

12 My Lord, your love is real.
    You reward all people for what they do.

Psalm 62 is a window into David’s heart and reminds us to trust in God alone.

Like many of the psalms he wrote, David starts with praise and God’s Truth before he navigates into his struggles and emotions.

Even in 2024, it is an intelligent strategy that is abundantly helpful to all of us.

Spending time daily in God’s Word helps us view life through His perspective. 

The psalmist states that because God is his rock, salvation, and stronghold, he won’t be shaken (verses 1-2).

As the Psalmist reflects further upon trouble, his doubts and the enemy, David prays, counsels his own heart to entrust all fear and frustration into God’s care.

As if to go heart to heart with his innermost self to plead, “O’ Come on, my soul, let’s listen to what God says about this,” he remembers what he has learned:

Rest in God alone, my soul, for my hope comes from him. He alone is my rock and my salvation, my stronghold; I will not be shaken. My salvation and glory depend on God, my strong rock. My refuge is in God. Trust in him at all times, you people; pour out your hearts before him. God is our refuge. Selah Psalm 62:5-8

The Psalms remind us that God created us with feelings and emotions that help us respond to life’s experiences.

They are beautiful because God created them.

Doubts cause us to question who, what and why standing in front of us.

Sadness helps us respond to grief.

Fear helps us flee danger.

Anger helps us respond to injustice.

Best of all, love leads us to express care and affection.

However, the fall of man has tainted emotions like these with sin, and we often automatically default to our human nature, which can absolutely keep us from experiencing the purity and peace we can have in our Lord and Savior Christ.

Here, we get stuck in feelings like fearfulness, hopelessness, and unforgiveness instead of freedom.

Feelings can begin to define, box us in rather than help us process and emote.

Yet, praise the Lord because of the finished work of Jesus at Calvary; we can live free rather than stuck or enslaved to sin. (John 19:28-30)  

As we read throughout the Psalms, over a lifetime David learned God’s Truth.

Amid the struggle, he listens to God’s Truth.

Beautifully, he then leads others to rely on God’s Truth.

As it says in Psalm 62:8, “Trust in him at all times, you people; pour out your hearts before him. God is our refuge. Selah”  

Learn!

Listen!

Invite!

Lead others!

By the power of the Holy Spirit, this is the beautiful pattern of writing God’s Word on our hearts, weaving His wisdom into our souls, so that we have it to anchor and encourage ourselves and can then share the good news with others. 

Life absolutely, abundantly challenges us for the rest of our days here on earth.

It’s okay to feel, but by the transformative power of the Word of God, but as a child of God, we don’t have to live stuck in a downward spiral or a stagnant pit.

Whether we have a friend nearby to sit with us as we process our emotions or whether you sit alone today, cling to what God says about your circumstances.

Think about the words you might tell a friend going through the same thing.

We are too hard on ourselves, and perhaps today, you need to give yourself the grace and pep talk anchored in God’s Truth that you would give a friend today.

“O’ Come on, my soul, let’s listen to God! O’ Come, Let Us Rest in God Alone!”

Just as I am, without one plea
But that Thy blood was shed for me
And that Thou bidst me come to Thee—
O Lamb of God, I come, I come.[1]

1 Charlotte Elliot, “Just As I Am, Without One Plea” (1835).

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

Let us Pray,

Psalm 100 Easy-to-Read Version

A song of thanks.

100 Earth, sing to the Lord!
2 Be happy as you serve the Lord!
    Come before him with happy songs!
3 Know that the Lord is God.
    He made us, and we belong to him.
    We are his people, the sheep he takes care of.
4 Come through the gates to his Temple giving thanks to him.
    Enter his courtyards with songs of praise.
    Honor him and bless his name.
5 The Lord is good!
    There is no end to his faithful love.
    We can trust him forever and ever!

Father God, thank you for the gift of your Holy Spirit, who counsels me and ministers to my heart and my soul daily. Friends are a gift and a blessing, but none can fill the perfect friendship of Your Son, Our Savior Jesus Christ. Help my soul to always listen to your Truth. Settle my soul, Help me speak kind words and thoughts to myself that are gentle, encouraging—just as I would walk with, talk to, a friend in need today. 

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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