Some wise words from Anne Graham Lotz.
“For you are all sons (those who inherit) of God through faith in Christ Jesus. And because you are sons, God has sent forth the Spirit of His Son into your hearts, crying out, ‘Abba, Father!’ Therefore you are no longer a slave but a son, and if a son, then an heir of God through Christ.”
Galatians 3:26, 4:6-7
Therefore go and make disciples of all nations,
baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the
Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey
everything I have commanded you. And surely I am
with you always, to the very end of the age.
Matthew 28:19-20
Dear Heavenly Father, we praise you.
You are the LORD, the God of Israel, their Maker, the Holy One of Israel, the LORD Almighty, the God and Savior of Israel, the righteous God and Savior, and there is no other.
Before you every knee will bow and every tongue will take an oath that in you alone are righteousness and strength. In you the descendants of Israel shall be justified and shall glory.
We pray for your protection over your beloved Israel, for her deliverance and salvation.
May you be glorified and may Yeshua HaMashiach be worshipped.
It’s in the name of Jesus Christ, the name above all names that we pray, amen.
(Taken from Isaiah 45)
Though this is our heart’s desire, the world seems to be making it easier every day. More and more I see the world offers nothing I want, nothing of real and lasting value, but Jesus holds everything.
Just give me Jesus.
Give Me Jesus
by Jeremy Camp
I’ve talked about The Chosen, the series about the life of Christ, and the Christmas special that started it all, and I want to share with you that Christmas special.
You are taken back to the night when the angel of the Lord spoke to the shepherds, shining God’s light into the dark of night, and into the spiritual darkness that filled the whole world.
This tiny, promised Christ child brought hope and joy for anyone who would turn and follow Him, and He still does.
My prayer is that if you’ve never turned to Him in faith, you would do that today, right now. In your own words call out to God and and tell Him you need Him, that you believe He sent His Son, Jesus, the Savior, as both the Spotless Lamb given as a sacrifice for our sins and the Shepherd who would continually lead us, and that you desire to follow Him.
And if you’ve put your faith in Jesus in the past but you’ve walked away, a little or a lot, it’s not too late. God loves you and He’s waiting for you to return. Call on your Heavenly Father, confess your sins, and turn and follow Jesus again with your whole heart.
God’s Word says “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.” 1 John 1:9
Believe this, and He will do it, and the peace of God will fill your hearts, even in the middle of the turmoil we face in the world, as much today as it was in the time of Jesus’ birth.
There is no better gift to give the Lord, and nothing else He desires more, than our hearts.
I pray this Christmas Special blesses you as much as it does me.
Merry Christmas!
Dear Heavenly Father, we praise you. We praise you for your sovereignty and your holiness. We praise you because you are worthy of all praise.
Father, we always give you thanks, but during this week when we’ll stop for a day to observe all we have to be thankful for, before the turkey and the stuffing and the pie, we want to honor and bless you by thanking you for all you are and all you’ve done for us.
For many it may be difficult to see what there is to be thankful for. Father, give us hearts that are softened toward you and willing to be thankful, even as a sacrifice to you. We pray that throughout the week you would put on our hearts all we have to be grateful for, for every good gift that’s come from you.
Thank you for Jesus and for His sacrifice on the cross that paid for our sins, that He took the punishment that should have been ours. We are deeply and eternally thankful, Lord.
Thank you for the gift of your Holy Spirit who indwells us and leads us, teaches us, comforts us, strengthens us and fills us with your peace that passes all understanding.
Thank you for calling us your children and providing us with everything we need. Thank you for being with us at all times, never leaving or forsaking us, but constantly shining your light and joy into our lives, especially when it seems as though the world around us is falling apart.
Thank you for your faithfulness to keep every one of your promises, like preparing a home for us with you.
Thank you for the people you’ve placed in our lives, for their love, the spiritual fellowship we share, and the friendship we enjoy.
Thank you for every big thing and every small thing we can sometimes overlook in the busyness of our lives.
Thank you for the sun and moon, clouds and rain, breezes and fresh air, flowers and trees, lakes and oceans, sunrises and sunsets, and even for the pets that make us smile.
Thank you for blessing us so abundantly.
And Lord, thank you for prayer. Thank you for allowing us, through Jesus, to come before you with every need, every desire, every fear, every hope, and for hearing us when we do, and for answering us according to your perfect will.
Thank you, Father. Help us to be a people who are always mindful of your blessings and overflowing with thanksgiving.
In Jesus’ name we pray, amen.
STEADFAST
The Lord has been putting this word on my heart lately.
Remain steadfast.
“Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour. Resist him, steadfast in the faith, knowing that the same sufferings are experienced by your brotherhood in the world.”
1 Peter 5:8-9
This is Peter telling us this.
Peter, the one who told Jesus he would never deny Him – even if he had to die with Him.
Peter, one of the apostles whom Jesus took and asked him to pray the night before He was arrested, and then fell asleep.
Peter, the one who impetuously drew his sword and cut off the ear of the high priest’s servant.
Peter, the one who vehemently denied Christ three times.
But all that doesn’t make him less credible; it makes him more.
He’s saying don’t do what I did! He learned what the devil had been up to and he wanted to warn his brothers and sisters in Christ to be aware.
To remain steadfast in the faith – steadfast in our convictions, steadfast in the truth, steadfast in our reliance upon Christ and Christ alone, now and forever.
The devil’s ways are the same as ever. he’s looking for people who are at a weak place, who aren’t being alert and vigilant to the devil’s ways, who aren’t steadfastly trusting in the power and righteousness of Jesus Christ.
Right now, when the world seems like a raging sea, is an opportune time for the enemy to try to discourage us, to trip us up, to question Jesus, and maybe even walk away from Him, even a step.
But we who are in Christ can confidently “lay hold of the hope set before us. This hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and steadfast, and which enters the Presence behind the veil, where the forerunner has entered for us, even Jesus, having become High Priest forever…”
Hebrews 6:18b-20
No matter what happens in this life, we don’t have to give in to fear and be tossed around in the waves of confusion. We have an anchor of hope.
We have the promises of God, all of which in Christ are yes and amen. His promises are for this life and extend all the way behind the veil that lies between this life and the next.
Our sure hope, our anchor in rough seas, is that Christ is with us now, and He will surely call us to live with Him in His home where we’ve laid up treasures beyond comprehension, and where love and peace and joy are the way of life.
And we’re reminded of this hope every time we pray, every time we read God’s Word, and every time we enter into fellowship with our brothers and sisters in Christ.
Our steadfast anchor of hope will keep us steadfast, too.
“Therefore, my beloved brethren, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your labor is not in vain in the Lord.”
1 Cor 15:58
If there’s anything God shows us about Himself in His word it’s that He is a personal God. Yes, He loves the whole world, but He also sees and loves the individual.
He saw Hagar and her son a distance away, alone in the desert, waiting to die, and had compassion on them.
He saw Hannah, alone in the temple, weeping and praying for a son, and granted her request.
He saw Mary, a humble worshipper of God, and made her the mother of the Messiah.
He saw the Samaritan woman, sitting alone by the well, and gave her hope through the greatest message of all time.
He saw the man with leprosy, and having compassion on him, healed him, restoring his life.
He saw the woman who had bled for twelve years when, in faith, she touched His cloak and was healed.
He saw John, alone on the island of Patmos, and gave him a vision of the Son and of His coming kingdom to give the world.
He sees you right now, too, and whatever you’re going through He has compassion for you.
Father, give me your eyes.
Isolation can give us a lot of time to think, and sometimes there’s nothing more dangerous than being inside our own heads.
We can start looking around, comparing our situation, our lives, to others and feel like we’re coming up short. Our piece of the pie seems like a sliver, and other’s a whopping piece with ice cream, or whipped cream, or both, slathered all over it.
And the truth is, we all have things in our lives we wish were different.
There is much that others enjoy as a given part of life that I will never know.
At the beginning of Psalm 73, Asaph ponders the prosperity of those who are wicked. Though they live foolishly, they enjoy good health, they have no troubles, they aren’t plagued by common human burdens (he thinks).
And here he was, he thought, keeping his heart pure and his hands innocent, and yet every day brings a fresh round of pain and affliction.
Until, he says, he entered the sanctuary of God.
We he got his focus off himself and onto God, then he understood the final destiny of the wicked. Ultimately, all they had gained will come to absolutely nothing when they face God at the final judgment.
And finally Asaph writes, “My flesh and my heart may fail…”
There is much discussion about what Asaph meant by this. Did he mean his flesh and heart failed him when he fell into bitterness and envy of others? Or did he mean that eventually his flesh and heart will fail when he dies and moves on from this life? Maybe both.
“… but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.” Psalm 73:26
Asaph is finally able to take a wide and godly perspective and realize that because he has God in his life, he doesn’t have just a sliver of pie, or even a big piece. He actually has the whole pie.
Yes, his own heart may fail, but God is His strength, and His portion, his inheritance, in this life and in the next.
Forever.
Yes, I may have missed out on a lot in this life, and maybe that’s a good thing because it showed me how much I needed God.
But God (Elohiym – the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit) is my portion. And when everything in this life is gone, I will still have my Portion. I will have my relationship with God through Christ, and the faith and character and everything else He’s built on that Foundation through the many years I’ve walked with Him.
And it will last forever.
So the reality is, I haven’t missed out on one bit. I have God and all He is! And if you know Jesus, so do you. We have the Creator of the universe, our heavenly Father, the keeper of our souls and the One is able to make all grace abound toward us and bless us abundantly, our Lord and Savior and Friend and Brother and Co-Heir in the faith, Jesus, and our Comforter and Peace Giver, the One who seals us for eternal life, the Holy Spirit.
We can never come to the end of the list of His blessings. And anything we missed in this life that He deems important He will more than make up for in the next.
So instead of focusing inward or outward, let’s look up. We have more pie than we could ever eat.
