Tag Archives: Jesus

“Thank You” Doesn’t Seem Sufficient

11 Nov

I’m not in a habit of posting my personal prayers here, but this morning my time spent with my Heavenly Father was an expression of love that I want all the world to experience. I pray that as you read this you will open your hearts to a real, approachable God who loves you and wants your love in return.

My Father – my Lord – my King, and my Friend; my Counselor – my provider – You are so good, and so kind. You are beyond earthly words. My heart overflows with love for You. You are so immersed in everything around me. I see You in all things. You are my anchor. I am tethered to You and that brings security to my heart and soul. I search for words to express my love and adoration, but I cannot find them. My  heart is filled with gratitude for the peace and joy You bring to my heart.

Thank You doesn’t seem sufficient. I am grateful that You can see my heart, and know my every thought. All I have, and all I am are because of You. I could do nothing on my own. You open my eyes to many new things – things I would not know – they are beyond my capacity and my abilities. You create in me new things each day. I want the world to know You. I want them to know You are a real, and personal God available on a level that no one else is. You give me a love the world cannot possibly give because it is beyond their ability.

Even through all my hurt and pain – my weaknesses – my faults – my mistakes – my habits – You still love me with a love I can’t understand or explain. You satisfy my every longing. My every fear melts away because I know You are there shielding me. Nothing can breach the barricade you have place around me.

In every sorrow I have experienced – in every loss – in every trial and tribulation – You rise above them. Your presence and Your Spirit engulf me. You put all the pieces of my broken heart back together. You replace all doubt and fear with faith and hope in the future.

No matter how weak and frail my mind and body might become, You hold me in the palm of your hand as I look to You, knowing You are not going to let anything touch me that will destroy my spirit. I will be with You forever, and forever – no matter the state of my body or my mind or my emotions. My Spirit is one with Yours, and nothing by any means can hurt me.

Thank You, My Father, for a love the world cannot give – for Your peace that far exceeds my understanding – for the assurance that I will spend eternity with You and all those who have gone before me, and who will come after me.

In the mighty, precious blood and name of Jesus, Your Son, I pray. Amen

NOTE: – I shared this prayer with you because I want you to know Jesus Christ, our Lord and Saviour and the Holy Spirit. There is no other love or thing in this world that can fill any void in your life except for Him. There is no other God – no pill – no drink – no sex – no material thing – no experience that will ever satisfy you like the love, joy and forgiveness given to you by God. All you have to do is ask Him. Ask Him to forgive you of your sins, your mistakes and anything that concerns you. It’s not difficult – He will meet you right where you are – just as you are. He will give you what nothing else in this world can give you – the love and acceptance you long for.

I pray for every soul that reads this prayer. I pray that through it you will gain a sense of God’s outrageous love for you – so much so that He really did sacrifice His one and only Son, Jesus, so that you and everyone in the world as the choice of everlasting life in heaven with Him over hell and damnation. He loves you so much that He wants you to love Him because you want to, not because He can make you do it.

This will be the most important decision you ever make. Your future depends on it.

May the peace of God that passes all understanding be with you.

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A Done Deal

24 Jan

Following is my latest entry to a weekly writing challenge at FaithWriters.com:

Pat Robertson said, “The Bible is not only a book about an ancient people but also a book as current as today’s newspaper headlines.” I would add that the same goes for God. He is not ancient. He is just as relevant today as He was when the Bible was written.

Having said that, let me introduce you to the God of the universe whose being is endless – whose love is endless – whose understanding is endless – and whose forgiveness is endless. He is my creator – my redeemer – my constant companion and my friend. You can have all of this – His love and His friendship, too. God made it simple. All you have to do is ask!

There is no form to fill out, no special requirements, no ceremony required. You don’t have to change anything to make yourself acceptable. Your invitation for Him to come into your heart, and your request for Him to forgive your sins, is all that is required. He loves you just as you are and wants you as His own. He won’t turn you away.

We were all born into a world full of sin and somehow inclined to discriminate about it. We have the idea that there are some sins that aren’t as bad as others. That is just not true. To God, sin is sin.

From the moment – the very moment – you invite Jesus into your heart and ask Him to forgive your sins, it is a done deal! You have a brand new, clean heart and are instantly a part of the family of God – His child. The simplicity of it may be hard to accept. He is, after all, the God of the universe and everything in it.

Jesus paid an enormous price so we wouldn’t have to. He died on the cross to make it happen. I can’t explain it. But, I experience His love, His guidance and His friendship every day.

When you invite Him into your life, you may not feel any different, but you will be. Your heart will be cleansed of all sin and the Holy Spirit of God enters into your clean heart. He then becomes your teacher, your helper and your counselor. He speaks to you by making an impression in your spirit (your heart) of what is true and what is false.

God is a Spirit. We relate to Him with our spirits (hearts), not our souls (emotions), or our bodies (flesh). Being a child of God is all about faith. Living by faith means we don’t make decisions by what we see or by circumstances that may pressure us. We go to God in prayer, and apply our faith. We believe that He hears us and will guide us into all truth by His Holy Spirit as He promised.

The next step is to become acquainted with God. You can get to know Him intimately by reading the Bible. The deep things of God can only be understood by those who have accepted Him.

God inspired men long ago to record the events that were taking place before and after Jesus was born, so we would have examples to follow and could learn about His ways. In Bible times people were ordinary, like us. They made mistakes, big ones. But God loved them enough to use many of them to do great things. We too, can learn how to know God’s will and how to avoid making bad choices as we study His Word and the Holy Spirit reveals truth to us.

You can also talk with God any time – He is always listening. He will communicate with you and He will make certain you recognize His voice in your spirit. As you make decisions, the Holy Spirit will guide you through a situation with peace in your heart or the absence of it, depending on the course of action He wants you to take.

Knowing and experiencing God is like nothing you have ever known. Your relationship with Him will be unique. He will make Himself known to you so that you will experience Him personally and learn just how much He loves you.

Becoming a child of God doesn’t mean that you will have no more adversity. Indeed, you will. But, He will be with you every step of the way. He will never leave you or forsake you. He is yours and you are His through all eternity.

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Can You Just “Be”?

18 Jun

I have been writing about Walking With God.

Have you ever noticed that we have such an empty feeling when we are alone? I mean really alone. By that I mean when we finally sit down – when we are away from the crowd – we pick up a newspaper or turn on the TV – or our music – or try and get away in a book of some sort or some other type of activity.

Still, something always seems to be missing. That emptiness inside that we can never quite manage to satisfy. We may be able to suppress it briefly, but, eventually that feeling finds a way to surface. There is a void in our lives that only God can fill. That’s a given. God created us for fellowship with Himself. He wants our friendship. He didn’t just create this world so we could have a bunch of fun and a bunch of stuff.He didn’t give His son, Jesus, to die on the cross so you and I could have everything we want that makes us happy and keeps us content. Nor, did He intend that each of us have a different set of rules and standards to live our lives by.

I don’t believe we understand friendship and fellowship with God. I think the idea of God wanting to be our friend is just too inconceivable for us. It may even seem a bit sacrilegious. To some of  us it may even lower His dignity in our eyes. After all, He’s God – creator of the universe – maker of all things. He has more important things to do. Besides, we can’t see Him. We can talk to Him and hope He is listening, but we can’t be really sure – can we?

On top of that, our time is really limited. We have a job or daily chores to do and we have all those activities that we have to achieve in order to live up to those internal standards.When we finally do get a little time that we have determined to be “our time” we’ve still got a long list of things we really want to do.

Have you noticed what place “doing” holds in our lives? What about just “being”? When it comes to “being” we don’t know how. “Being” doesn’t fill any of those voids inside. When it comes time to just “be” we must fill that void with something – the TV or the radio – a magazine or a book – alcohol -drugs – something.

Have you ever stopped to consider that the void that is there can never truly be filled until we allow God his rightful place in our hearts? I’m sure many of you must be thinking about now that you have given God that place.

I want to dispel the notion that walking with God in obedience is easy. The Word tells us that we must take up our cross daily to follow God. Our example, Jesus, was crucified. He was made to pick up his cross. He had been so beaten that he could hardly pick up that cross. At one point, he fell and another man helped him continue up to Golgatha.

Jesus Christ went through all he did for us. He died for our sins. He died so we could spend eternity with Him. He died to save us from living a life of torment in hell, apart from Him. He also died to give us power to overcome our enemy, satan, here on this earth. After his death on the cross and before his resurrection, He went down to Sheol (hell) and took away the keys. He took our place in hell.

It is the responsibility of each individual to discover God’s truth for themselves. When we read a book (even this one) or hear a sermon, we are yielding to another person’s interpretation. We read books and go to church and listen to other ministers tell us about God’s Word. That’s wonderful. There are some Spirit-filled, anointed messengers of God’s Word out there. However, there are also some who are not so anointed to teach God’s Word. How are we to know the difference? It becomes clear after listening to a few different speakers that they don’t all agree on about how God’s Word should be interpreted. So, what do we do? Who do we believe? Understand, it is the Holy Spirit who opens our hearts and gives us understanding.

God wants fellowship and friendship with each one of us. He gave His Son to die on the cross to give us eternal life with Him. His death gave us spiritual power over our enemy, satan, and power to do the things Jesus did – even greater things. He has already given us all the answers in The Scriptures.In order to walk with God and follow Him in obedience we must spend time with Him. We must pick up the Bible on some sort of regular basis and give God the opportunity to speak to us, to teach us, to love us.

The Scriptures tell us that we will have trials. It also clearly tells us to expect persecution and misunderstanding and heartache and sickness and even death, and even how to live victoriously. The Old Testament was given to us to give us examples of how things were done in those days and how God dealt with His people.The New Testament teaches us about how God gave His Son, Jesus to come and shed his blood to cover our sins and the power we need to walk through this world.

Our lives are so busy. Almost everything we do today has been streamlined to make our lives easier, faster and smarter. But, there is one thing that hasn’t changed and will never change and that is God’s Word.

We have come to rely on so much of the world’s ever-increasing technology. The pace of our lives has become faster and faster. We move so fast that we can hardly even find the time to spend with God. We talk to Him on the run. That’s okay. We should talk to Him all the time. Many of us give Him a few minutes each day and call it our quiet time. There’s not a thing wrong with that either. However, I believe God wants so much more for us.

Continued. . .Come back later for more of Walking With God

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If God Promises Me That I Am An Overcomer – Why Do I Still Have Problems?

11 Jun

Spending time daily in prayer and with God’s Word is the answer to developing our relationship with Him and allowing Him access to our hearts so that we can make necessary changes in the way we think and feel about the circumstances that surround us.

God’s Word tells us that in this life we will have trouble, but Jesus came that we might overcome the trouble that faces us in this world. Being a believer is like having on an invisible armor that shields us from every kind of evil that we can imagine. God’s grace is sufficient for everything we need. Our part, our responsibility, is to spend time with our Lord, loving Him, acknowledging Him in all we do. As we keep our mind stayed on Him throughout the day and turn to Him when we have a question or concern, He is there for us.

• 11 For he will command His angels concerning you to guard you in all your ways; 12 they will lift you up in their hands, so that you will not strike your foot against a stone. 13 You will tread upon the lion and the cobra; you will trample the great lion and the serpent.

Verses 11 through 13 of Psalms 91 tell us that God commands His angels concerning us, that they are to guard us in all of our ways. It is so! Angels unaware are around us, to guard us, to keep us from harm, to help us when we need it. Verse 13 is God’s way of telling us that He will protect us from the dangers around us that would try to destroy us. Further, he is telling us that we are the ones who will be victorious!

Our God gives us every reason to trust Him. It won’t take long to realize that God is real. He is alive today, here, now! If we will be sensitive to the situations around us every day, we will see God in action on our behalf. We must make a choice to be aware of God’s work in and around us. That is one of the ways we acknowledge God in everything we do.

• 14 “Because he loves me,” says the LORD, “I will rescue Him; I will protect Him, for he acknowledges my name. 15 He will call upon me, and I will answer Him; I will be with Him in trouble, I will deliver Him and honor Him. 16 With long life will I satisfy Him and show Him my salvation.” NIV

God tells us in verse 14 of Psalms 91, that it is because we love Him that He rescues us, and protects us, because we acknowledge His name. And, in verse 15 He says that if we call upon Him He will be with us in trouble and He will deliver us and honor us. Wow! How awesome is that! Further, He says He will satisfy us with a long life and show us His salvation. This means that God will show us, He will teach us His ways.

This one chapter in the Bible is so powerful! They are not just words – they are WORDS OF LIFE! These are God’s Words – His promises to us. Meditate on these promises – memorize these words and turn to them when any of life’s difficulties try to hinder you in any way.

Acknowledgement of His Word is a powerful way to pray. Repeat this to God in prayer. He encourages us to “prove Him” – meaning God Himself will demonstrate to us that we can trust Him, that His Word is real, it is true – it works! God will confirm to us in many ways that He is listening and that we can trust Him.

If God Promises Me That I Am An Overcomer – Why Do I Still Have Problems?

All throughout history we read of the trials and tribulations of God’s people. They struggled in so many ways. When they were obedient to God, they were victorious. When they were rebellious, they paid consequences.

Some believe that the Old Testament is not relevant to us. That could not be further from the truth! It is in the Old Testament that we learn so much about who God is. The Old Testament is just that – it is a testament, evidence of our beginning. We learn from the recordings of the scribes how the people of that time lived, how God led them, protected them, provided for them and corrected them.

The world has obviously changed – it has progressed in tremendous ways. However; God’s children today are basically the same. We share the same struggles, the same victories, and the same rebellion. The Old Testament was given to us as an example. It is full of truths that will impress upon our hearts what God’s ways are like – yes, they are the same. He tells us He is the same yesterday, today, and forever. – Circumstances may have changed, but basically, the root causes are the same.

How Can I Be Triumphant When Circumstances Are So Difficult?

There are some people who believe that once you accept Jesus and become born again, you are instantly changed into a new personality. Once we accept Jesus and invite Him to rule and reign in our lives our hearts are instantly changed and our names written down in the Lamb’s Book of Life. However; our personalities do not change instantly. At this time our lives do become new and we begin a new way of life. God has no expectations of our becoming immediately changed. He accepted us just as we are. God is aware of our past our present and our future. The blood of Jesus covers our sin — past, present, and future. We are the reason He gave His life upon the cross. It was our sin that sent Him to that cross to die.

It is extremely important that we know right up front that our enemy, satan, will come immediately to try to steal, kill, and destroy. He cannot. We are now in God’s care, under His wings of protection. His Word tells us that “there is therefore, now, no condemnation to those who love the Lord”. This means that we, now being born again, have all of God’s promises, His word, God Himself to protect us. God loves us with an unconditional love. The depths of His understanding are beyond measure. After all, remember, God gave Jesus, His only son, to die on our behalf. With such an act of love and unselfishness as that, how could we question whether or not God will do anything else for us, as long as it is in His will, for our good!

His Word also tells us that God came to give us abundant life. We cannot interpret this to mean, “Oh boy, now I can have whatever I want”. Another important fact we need to understand from the beginning of our new walk is that God’s ways are not like our ways. For this reason, we acknowledge God in all we do day by day.

God is definitely on the cutting edge. We sometimes think we’re way ahead of God, that He is old-fashioned. Nothing could be further from the truth. Walking with God is the most exciting thing you will ever experience in your life. Nothing can compare to it. Having God in our lives is bigger than any problem, any heartache, and any trouble of any kind that we can experience. His love is so dynamic, so powerful, so exciting, and that far exceeds anything else we can think or imagine.

Who’s In Control?

So many people believe that we have no control over how we feel or how we act. Therefore, we can be tossed back and forth, wavering, undecided, and confused. Our feelings may change from one day to the next, depending on our surrounding circumstances. We may give in to whatever circumstances are present at the time. We may be completely unsettled. We could be unpredictable and difficult to be around.

God wants us to be on an even keel. He wants us to trust Him in all things and to be at peace no matter what the situation. It is possible – – it can happen! We may still have questions and that is OK with God. We may have concerns and that is OK. Fear may try to grip us, that is not OK. This is where we call upon God and take Him our questions, our concerns, and even our fears.

Reading and meditating upon God’s Word will allow our hearts to be in a position to receive what God has to say to us. His Holy Spirit will speak to our hearts and bring comfort and possibly, direction. The direction He gives us may simply be to wait on Him. That does not mean that we do nothing. It means continuing our daily lives and allowing Him the time He requires to “make all things work together for good according to His purpose for our lives”.

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