God always seeks to do a new thing in our hearts. Let’s be ready with open hearts!
Happy New Year!
A New Thing
Category: Glory
The Beauty of a Mom
The beauty of a mom is in the way she reflects the glory of the Lord.
She shines with His nurturing heart and gives herself away. She sees when no one else does. Her mind treasures every precious moment. She gives her attention to every call.
She smiles at every growing step, and longs to rush in at every stumble. Wisdom tells her when stand back, and when to step in.
Her love overflows the same when she smiles at an accomplishment as when she disciplines. Thoughts of her children never cease.
Whether you’re a mom of little ones or your children are grown, let us always seek to be filled with the LORD that we might shine with His glory in all we do, and our lives speak of His goodness and grace.
Charm is deceptive, and beauty is fleeting;
but a woman who fears the Lord is to be praised.
Proverbs 31:30
Keep Believing
“And immediately the father of the child cried out and said with tears, ‘Lord, I
believe. Help my unbelief.’”
Mark 9:24
Twenty-seven and a half years ago I believed in Jesus Christ as my Lord and my Savior.
Since then I have had countless opportunities to believe in His love for me despite my circumstances, to believe He had a plan in the middle of confusing trials, to believe He heard every prayer, to believe He understood me in my pain, to believe He was not finished with me even when it felt like He was.
For some funny reason, it’s always been easier for me to believe in God for the “big” things rather than the smaller ones.
I knew God would provide us a place to live; I knew God would provide a job for my husband; I knew God would bless my little son at Christmas when we couldn’t.
But, oh, those countless “little” things… When I’ve trusted in my eyes more than I’ve believed; when I’ve trusted in my understanding more than I’ve believed; when I’ve trusted in my own effort more than I’ve believed.
And I wonder how much I’ve missed out on, how many more blessings I would have had if I’d taken that same belief I had at salvation and applied it every, single time.
“Abram believed the Lord, and He credited it to him as righteousness. “
Genesis 15:6
God puts a lot of stock in belief.
It’s not about what we do, it’s not about who we are, it’s about Whom we believe.
And there is only One worthy of our belief.
If we are going to be followers of Christ, we will daily, consciously, make the decision to take the belief we had at the moment of our salvation, and believe Him for everything else.
Why would I ever believe that Christ died for the sins of a singular, unimportant, obscure little girl who lives 2000 years after His death and resurrection, called her by name, and then somehow think He forgot about her afterward?
He hasn’t, and He never will.
My belief in Him need not ever waiver.
He sees each and every one of us, and He is intimately acquainted with our comings and goings, with our every trial – big and small, with every tear, with every, single, solitary detail.
Nothing gets by Him.
The truth is, it’s a choice. Every day we have the choice to believe in Him – to believe He’s there right by our side, to believe He’s with our loved ones, to believe He wants the best for us, to believe He’s in our futures, to believe He’s bigger, much, much bigger, than our past mistakes.
While we can’t lose our salvations, unbelief is as much a sin after we’re saved than it is before.
The absence of belief in Christ for a particular situation will create a vacuum that’s usually filled with fear, and that can create a whole slew of messes in our wake.
Choosing belief in Christ or to be moved out of fear will determine the decisions we make and the roads we take.
I know it’s hard to keep believing sometimes when the trials seem out of control, when the world around us is a big, complicated mess.
But keep believing anyway.
I know when I’ve stood in belief in my prayers for a situation, God has answered. It’s when I waiver in my belief in prayer that He waits until I stand on faith in who God is – my Loving Savior – to answer me. He desires belief because it is the pathway to our righteousness.
God knows we’re all a work in progress, though, that the sanctification of our souls is not yet fully realized, that it is what we and the Lord are moving toward.
As with every sin, when we repent – when we turn around and do the righteous thing – in this case, choose to believe in Him, and ask God to help us with our unbelief, He will forgive us and set us back on the right path.
We then consciously walk on that path of belief, in full faith and trust in Him – in who He is, in His plans for us, in His love for us, in His grace and mercy that are continually poured out because of His goodness and faithfulness.
“Father, please help us when we are tempted to not believe in you. To not believe in all you say you are. To not believe in your love for us. To not believe in your plans for us. To give way to fear instead of believing in your holy perfection and your promises to us. Please help us choose belief over fear, self, the world, or anything else outside of you. May our constant belief in you be witnesses of your glory and power. In the Name of Yeshua Hamashiach, amen.”
Victory
“When the perishable has been clothed with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality, then the saying that is written will come true: “Death has been swallowed up in victory.”
‘Where, O death, is your victory?
Where, O death, is your sting?’
The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.
Therefore, my dear brothers and sisters, stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain.”
1 Corinthians 15:54-58
The apostle Paul wrote these passionate words in a letter to a church he founded in Corinth, Greece. I can imagine the pleading of his heart as he wrote to encourage them to not be lured back into the materialistic and immoral world that churned around them.
He reminded them, and us, that this life is not all there is. There is a resurrection, Christ being the first, and because of Him, we will follow.
We no longer belong to this world, and our victory is not here. Our victory has already been won through Christ – the gift of our immortal souls and our resurrection to the next life with Jesus Christ, our Great Reward.
There is no shortage of attention-grabbers whether it’s social media, or the news, or just the busyness of our own lives. They can suck us in, altering our perspectives from spiritual matters to earthly ones, and rob us of doing the work for which we’ve now been called.
Not much has changed in the 2000 years since Paul wrote to our brothers and sisters in Christ.
All of us who have put our faith in Christ know how difficult it can be to keep our hearts and minds focused on the Lord, especially when the world revels in sin all around us.
After all, sin looks fun, and we can feel like we’re missing out on something. Well, we are, but nothing good. We miss out on the consequences of those sins; we miss out on feeding our flesh but not our spirits; we miss out on a life of fruitlessness. We miss out on leaving our faith behind.
But Paul reminds us there is so much more given to us in its place.
We have a real Christ-given hope that when our bodies die, our immortal souls will live on for eternity in the joy and peace of the presence of God.
While, tragically, those who lived for the temporary thrills of this short life will abandon all joy and peace when their mortal bodies die, and their souls will be given over to judgment and eternal death.
While we who have put our faith in Christ may have to give up a few things here, we already have the ultimate victory through the Lord Jesus Christ.
So, what do we do? We get back to work. We let go of the distractions of this world and stand firm in the faith, being about our Father’s business and fulfilling the calling given to each of us just as our brothers and sisters in Corinth did almost 2000 years ago.
“Let nothing move you.”
Nothing. Don’t look to the left or to the right at what others are doing. Don’t worry what others may say about your faith in God. Don’t worry about what can be done to you, even if it means your earthly life, because we already have the victory.
Look to Christ and “give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord.”
The text in the Greek puts it like this: “always abounding in the work of the Lord.”
Abounding is the Greek word perisseuō which means “to superabound, be in excess, be superfluous; to excel, abundance, be the better, enough and to spare, exceed, excel, increase, be left, redound, remain (over and above).”
If there’s anything we should strive to do with excellence, it’s our work in the Lord.
He’s not only given us life, but He’s give us an abundant afterlife. He sees our labor in His name, and He will reward us with eternal treasures worth far more than the trinkets of this life.
Heavenly Father, please help us keep our minds focused on you and not get sidetracked by the world or even by fear. Help us serve you with all our hearts, with the excellence that you deserve, that through our lives the world may see your love and grace and you may be glorified in the salvation of many. Thank you for the victory you’ve given us by clothing us with immortality and preparing a home for us in heaven with you. We praise your glorious Name, Jesus, and pray it all in your Name, amen.
Sunday Praise
“God is exalted in his power.
Who is a teacher like Him?
Who has prescribed his ways for Him,
or said to Him, ‘You have done wrong’?
Remember to extol His work,
which people have praised in song.
All humanity has seen it;
mortals gaze on it from afar.
How great is God—beyond our understanding!
The number of His years is past finding out.”
Job:36:22-26