I pray... He May Strengthen You With Power..."

Ephesians 3:16 "I pray that out of His glorious riches He may strengthen you with power through His Spirit in your inner being." It is amazing what just a little open mindedness toward God can do! When we turn and take a step of faith in the right direction, God usually starts to effect the change we've been hoping and praying for in our lives. It's like getting approved for credit! God blesses on "credit" because He can see what we are going to do already. He is just waiting for our hearts, minds, attitude to get in line with His plan for our lives! He already knows we will blow it at times. Perfection is not the goal, but progress is sufficient!  We just need to have the right attitude and we can even pray "Grant me a willing spirit to sustain me..", as David did in Psalm 51:12 "Restore to me the joy of your salvation and grant me a willing spirit to sustain me". This is all in line with the mindset of repentance. In other words, "Okay God, we've tried it my way, I am ready to do it your way". Then the pathway to receiving His glorious riches is unobstructed, you are ready to receive strengthening, power and anything else God has been waiting to give you.

He gives strength to the weary...

Isaiah 40:29 "He gives strength to the weary and increases the power of the weak." I don't know about you but this is very comforting. To know that God loves the underdog, the long shot. Those of us who life seems to have been especially difficult for. With so many people suffering right here, in these Unites States  of America. Hunger, disease of all kinds, financial difficulty of epic proportions, just to name a few. Let's not be weary of doing good. Sometimes this blessing is right around the corner, so to speak. If we endure and do not give up hope in Him to be our shield, our refuge, a very present help in time of need. Some people site this as reason not to follow Him. But He said, "in this world you will have trouble, but take heart, I have overcome the world. Hope is only as good as the One we place hope in. Sometimes God WILL allow more than we can handle to bring us to the end of ourselves, to empty the vessel so He can fill it with something better. But we must stop relying depending only on what we can do, which is finite, and start depending on Him to do what He knows is best for us. His resources are unlimited. The increase in power comes when you look to Him to do what you cannot do, to fulfill needs daily. So try it.  Daily ask, and believe you receive and He will come through in an amazing way. Many times it will be through a person or source you would least expect it to come through. Sometimes He will point out something that needs to change in your life first. You may have to give up depending on the "idol" that has helped you and say, " Okay Lord, you win, I want what You have for me! I am willing to trust that it is better than the thing I am giving up" It is my prayer that God will touch you today in such a way that you cannot help but be grateful for the need you suffered through, because the reward was so worth it. I pray that He you see blessings begin with the first step toward doing it His way. May God richly bless you, my beloved brothers and sisters in Christ. And for those who may be sitting on the fence, come down and taste and see that The Lord is good!

We love because He first loved us

1 John 4:19

We love because He first loved us.

God has this amazing ability to love us while we are hating Him. Any parent of an unruly child can relate.

But think of this: Would you be willing to give up your only son, who had never disobeyed or displeased you, knowing you would have to witness his death, in order to save, say, they neighborhood bully? The worst behaved child you had ever seen? 

God did something very similar by giving up Jesus, His only Son in exchange for our eternal souls to be saved. 

What's more, once we are saved and in God's family, we still have the dual nature.  The old sin nature that will go in the ground when we die and the new "spiritual man", the one that wants to please God and the 2 natures are at war with each other.

Even so, it is God's Holy Spirit that now resides in us that enables us to love Him back. So, "We love because He first loved us" and continues to do so every second of every day. Without Him, we cannot love God with all our heart, mind and strength for 5 minutes, let alone a life time. Amazing love!

Faith is the substance of things hoped for

Hebrews 11:1

Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.

God can say so much with so few words. But we love proof. Proof that Jesus is God. He spoke as one having authority, predicted the day and the way He would die. Then He demonstrated His power over death by rising from the dead. The Godhead was demonstrated in God the Father speaking in an audible voice. "This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well-pleased." Mathew 3:17 NASB

No other explanation for the empty tomb makes any sense to me. Many have set out to disprove the bible and the ones who gave it an honest investigation were convinced the bible is true. It is my hope, as well as the hope of many other generations past that we would stop fighting Him and accept His invitation to be saved from certain destruction. What's more to have a loving relationship with The Lover of Our Souls.

We may say to ourselves, (I know, I have done this myself), "But I am a pretty good person. I don't kill, steal,etc. I treat others as I would like to be treated".

That's great and God commends us for good behavior like this. But there is an inherent problem with the human race... sin. Adam and Eve handed it down as the only 2 people who had a choice. The rest of us suffer for our parents' sin. They chose to disobey God by believing that He was holding out on them by not allowing them to eat from that one tree, "The knowledge of good and evil".

They traded in a perfect creation with no sin, death, aging, or illness, for a lie. The devil has been using the same method ever since on us. Why change your game plan when it practically works every time?

But those of us who accept God's invitation and invite His Holy Spirit to indwell us have a "Helper". One who offers us a way out. Though it doesn't feel like it sometimes, we really have been given a second chance to meet God's standard of perfection. If we accept a foreign perfection. The one achieved by the life lived on this earth by Jesus Christ. If we put on Christ, then when God looks down from heaven, he doesn't see us as we are but as His Son, in Whom He is well pleased and thus the relationship with our Creator is restored. Some day all creation will also be restored and those of us who have chosen this relationship restoration, will see paradise lost has become paradise restored.

I know because God promises so and He hasn't broken a promise yet, nor will He ever. Please join us friend, won't you?

Romans 12:2

Romans 12:2

Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is--His good, pleasing and perfect will.

This is one of the things the church as a whole, I feel, is failing at today. Instead of impacting the culture, the church has taken on a "User Friendly" approach and has subsequently ended up resembling the culture. This is largely impart to ignoring the disciplines of abiding in Christ.

Christ is where the power is in this relationship and if we ignore that relationship, we suffer for it.

Psalm 34:15 The eyes of the Lord are on the righteous and His ears are attentive to their cry. We cannot count the times that God has helped us, sometimes without our even being aware. But we are always grateful to be rescued from difficult, painful circumstances.  He may not give us what we want for reasons only He knows as He has the big picture and can see the full ramifications of a decision He makes. However, I have found, He ALWAYS gives us what we need.

Isaiah 41:10

Isaiah 41:10 So do not fear, for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you; I will uphold you with My righteous right hand. This is it. Our marching orders are clear in our consciences and we take a step of faith not able to see our way clear or know the outcome. Only that God promises to take care of the consequences of obedience to His last instruction to us, that is, the one we're wrestling with and even wondering, "are you sure, God? You want me to do what?"

Proverbs 23:18

Posted: 04 Feb 2012 02:10 AM PST

There is surely a future hope for you, and your hope will not be cut off.

When God speaks of being cut off, He means we will not have reason to lose hope as so man others feel who do not have God on their side. Lots of teachers like to talk about us all being loved by God, which is true, however, Jesus said, "whoever is not for me is against me". So we can be enemies of God without even feeling hostile, maybe even attending church. The deciding factor that our Lord said is to "abide in me, and I in you". To abide means to dwell with, stay with, to be of the same mind.

We must put on the mind of Christ, having our minds renewed daily to cleanse us from the carnality and tendency towards wanting to be against God. A fresh filling of the Spirit of God who actually indwells the true believer, is our only hope of doing anything good, because it is God who is doing it through us as we ask Him to. His mercy is fresh every morning.

He is a God of another chance. On our own, when we fail to put on Christ in the morning, we are no different than the unbeliever as many of us have seen in ourselves and others all too often.

Matthew 5:6 Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.

Sometimes we read this verse with a pain in our heart from all the ways we mistreat each other. How we know the world should and could be a better place. With Jesus eminent return, we have this promise that will be fulfilled. It could be today . Even so, Come Lord Jesus! Amen.

Galatians 6:9 
English Standard Version (ESV)

"And let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap, if we do not give up."

Is it just me? This is so perfectly timed for today. I would love to get some feedback on this and have people share their experiences, good or bad.
How is God using this or any other scripture verse in your life today?

May God richly bless you in all you do.