4/15/2024 0 Comments Waiting = Being AvailableWhen I looked up the word “wait” in the dictionary, it had several definitions. One was “to be ready and available.” Another was “to remain stationary in readiness or expectation.” At the wedding in Cana, Jesus’s mother waited expectantly for Him to act when there was a crisis at the wedding. In our waiting and wondering, God has a plan in place and blessings in store.
Questions for further thought: 1. In what ways are you making yourself ready and available to God while you wait on Him and His leading? 2. How are you waiting in readiness or expectation for Jesus’s answer to a long-time prayer? Challenge: As you wrestle with waiting on God’s timing for the things going on in your life, hold onto the promise of Matthew 17:20 “… Truly I tell you, if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you.”
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4/12/2024 0 Comments Boldly SurrenderingAfter Jesus explained to his disciples how he would have to suffer, he made the radical statement that true followers must give up their lives. This is another example of the “upside down Kingdom.” Hold tightly to control of your life and you’ll lose it. But surrender to Jesus, who proved his absolute love for us, and your life will be saved for eternity. Humbly giving him authority seals us as his own and allows us to boldly approach the very throne of God!
Questions for further thought: 1. How valuable do you consider your soul? 2. Does the way you interact with the world match up with that value? Challenge: Jesus paid a high price for you. There is no reason to question his love. Like children who trust their parents to know what’s best and care for their needs, we can depend on our Lord. Therefore, allow yourself to experience the joy and freedom of letting him take charge! 4/11/2024 0 Comments Jesus' ExampleIf anyone had the authority to control their situation, it was the Son of God. Yet even in the midst of his tormented thoughts, our Savior showed us how to submit to the Father. Jesus prayed for relief from the suffering but placed the outcome in the Father’s hands. His intimate dependance on the Father gave him the strength to let go of his own desires and follow through with God’s plan.
Questions for further thought: 1. When have you struggled to follow through with what you know God wants you to do? 2. What does Jesus mean by, “the spirit is willing, but the body is weak”? Challenge: Make prayer your first response anytime you face a challenge or important decision. Train your brain to ask God first about everything, all the time. 4/10/2024 0 Comments Worry Is WorthlessThinking you have to be in control of everything often leads to worry and worry easily leads to trying to control the world around you. It’s an unproductive cycle and shows a lack of faith in God’s provision. God never promised that our lives would play out the way we think is best, but Jesus reminds us that He provides for simple plants and animals, and loves us, His children, exponentially more. We need to trust in His pure love and believe that whatever the Lord decides to allow in our lives will ultimately be for our good.
Questions for further thought: 1. Like Jesus said, what is the point of worrying? Is there really any benefit? 2. What worry dominates your thoughts the most? What would help you give that burden to the Lord? Challenge: Consider the meaning of “Seek the Kingdom of God above all else.” The NLT Study bible suggests this means to adopt God’s value system, pursue His purpose in the world, and submit to His authority. Are you seeking the Kingdom? 4/9/2024 0 Comments Experienced ObedienceAbraham’s unquestioning obedience to God, when told to sacrifice his son, is amazing! By this time, he was quite old and had immense experience – both in failing to trust God and in choosing to obey. He had followed God’s leading when told to go to a new land, but later tried to take matters into his own hands when God’s promise of a son seemed to take too long. Abraham had learned throughout his life that submitting to God brought blessing, unlike the heartache caused by doing things his own way.
Questions for further thought: 1. When have you experienced the regret of doing life your way instead of God’s way? 2. In what way is God currently asking you to submit to His will? Challenge: Have courage and follow through with however God is prompting you to trust Him. Each time you take a step of obedience and experience the Lord’s provision, your faith will grow. As a person who is a “recovering control freak,” I commiserate with how hard it is to “not depend on your own understanding.” (v. 5) That’s really what we are doing when we try to control everything and everyone around us; we’re thinking we know best. This approach to life also shows a lack of trust in the ability of our all-powerful, all-knowing, and all-loving God. Thinking I have to be in charge of everything sounds silly when put that way, huh?
Questions for further thought: 1. Be honest with yourself: on a scale of 1–10, how would you rate your trust in the Lord? 2. What area of life (or person in your life) are you currently trying to control? How’s that working out for you? Challenge: Just to be clear, self-control is not what we are trying to avoid. Self-control is a fruit of the Spirit and is needed to stop trying to control everything outside of yourself! Take another look at verses 11-12. Are you currently running from God’s discipline? Decide today to welcome His correction because He loves you and delights in you! 4/5/2024 0 Comments Eternal WorkmanshipIn the first part of the passage, we see that mankind was dead, disobedient, demonic, and destined for destruction. That’s the bad news. However, look closely. The good news begins in verse 4 with the words “But God”. We were dead, but God made us alive in Christ. We were not merely in need of a helping hand; we were not sinking swimmers in need of a raft; we were stone cold dead – spiritually lifeless, without a religious pulse. But He loves the loveless, gives life to the lifeless, and is merciful to those deserving none. There was nothing we could do to earn this salvation. We are saved by the grace of Christ through faith alone, not because of any works. This does not mean, however, that our good works are pointless. They are not the root of our salvation, but the necessary fruit of it. God has prepared good deeds for us and equipped us to do them. He desires for us to demonstrate the reality of a life lived in Christ by the way we conduct our lives. Let us now walk in a manner worthy of what He has called us to!
Questions for further thought: 1. In what ways do you see God’s eternal workmanship actively at work in your life? 2. In what ways have you been trusting in other things to save rather than the finished work of Jesus alone? Challenge: The universe does not exist as a series of random events. The One who carefully orchestrated the family line of Jesus is in absolute control over all things in order to accomplish every purpose He intends. Battle your anxieties with the truth, and entrust your plans to God’s wise and powerful control over the world. 4/4/2024 0 Comments He Will Finish It!The Lord will finish what He starts. Everything we are experiencing in our lives as Christians is changing us. The good and the bad, the joy and the suffering. God is using all of it to mold and shape us. The process is called sanctification, and God always means it for good. So often change is characterized as not such a good process, but that’s not a true statement in light of Scripture, is it? The truth is, change may not be pleasant or easy, but it is for our good and God’s good. It is also not complete. I so resonate with Paul when he says in Romans 7:15, “I do not understand my own actions. For I don’t do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate” Have you ever felt like that? I don’t know about you, but I have tried the “try harder, do more” routine as I have tried to “be more like Christ” in my own strength. This ended up failing miserably. We aren’t finished yet and we are a work in progress through Christ’s power, not our own. God’s plan for us isn’t finished, but we still judge His work based on our limited view and unfinished plan. How comforting for us to know that until we take our last breath, God’s work in us is still in progress. He will finish what He starts!!
Questions for further thought: 1. What does it mean to you that God will finish what He starts? 2. Is there anything you have been unwilling to let God change in you? Challenge: Let the Lord thoroughly examine you that He would find those things that He could change for your good and His glory. Ask the hard question: Lord, what is it in me that you desire to change? Wait expectantly for an answer. He will finish it! 4/3/2024 0 Comments Sufficient for YouGod does not dispense grace the way a pharmacist fills a prescription: “Here, take two of these, and call Me in the morning.” He is the grace. He is the strength. His presence is the power. All we need comes through intimacy with Him. No matter what we face, He is the complete answer. “Sufficient for you is the grace of Me,” He promises. He doesn’t hand us what we need and then go somewhere else, off to solve someone else’s life crisis. He comes to stay. “I am with you always” (Matthew 28:20b). God’s grace is completed in our weakness. And until you realize you’re weak and you recognize the need for His grace, you can never fully experience it. Even that understanding of your own need is a gift of grace. The perfect power of Jesus’ grace can’t be fully realized until weakness is rightfully acknowledged. The moment when you’re overwhelmed by your absolute helplessness is the moment you are ready to hear Jesus say, “Sufficient for you is the grace of Me.” In other words, “I am all you need.” Because He is the grace, you need Him. He will go with you every step of the way. He is a faithful friend, always with you. When a trial threatens to overwhelm you, when you feel a keen sense of your own weakness and insufficiency, remember His promise: “Sufficient for you is the grace of Me.” He is the grace you need.
Questions for further thought: 1. In what ways are you weak? 2. Why is that such a powerful promise? How have you experienced it to be true? Challenge: The perfect power of Jesus’ grace can’t be fully realized until weakness is rightfully acknowledged. God doesn’t send us grace, like a FedEx overnight shipment. He is the grace. Ponder these things this week in your prayer time with the Father. 4/2/2024 0 Comments Discipline is Love?I once heard it said that “God’s love is not a pampering love, but a perfecting love”. I also realize that is not just God’s goal just to save us, but to change us. Perhaps it is shocking to us, when reading the above passage, how tough Biblical Christianity is. Yet even more shocking, perhaps, is how soft and untested many Christians are who have not faced any sort of persecution. The writer points his readers squarely to Jesus, “Consider Him who endured from sinners such hostility against Himself, so that you may not grow weary or fainthearted” (v.3). We are to draw courage from Jesus’ steadfast example of honoring God no matter the cost. Believers should appreciate those who are changed and transformed into Christlikeness, thanking God for their example and for the grace of Christ evident in their lives. They have known the deep privilege of suffering discipline as the children of God. “The Lord disciplines the one He loves, and chastises every son whom He receives. It is for discipline that you have to endure. God is treating you as sons” (vv.6-7). May God use this passage to help those who face trials to see them as fatherly discipline toward “the peaceful fruit of righteousness” (v.11). And may He move those of us who do not face persecution to pray for our brothers and sisters who do.
Questions for further thought: 1. Where are you facing trials right now? 2. (Even though they are hard) In what ways could looking as these trials as love from our Heavenly Father change your outlook on the situation? Challenge: When God is challenging and correcting our lives, it can be a painful process. Remember that He disciplines those He loves (Heb.12:6). Pray that you would be humble and teachable during the loving work of transformation. |
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April 2024
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