I Can Count on His Promise

“I know what I’m doing,” says the Lord. “I have it all planned out—plans to take care of you, not abandon you, plans to give you the future you hope for. When you call on me, when you come and pray to me, I’ll listen. When you come looking for me, you’ll find me. Yes, when you get serious about finding me and want it more than anything else, I’ll make sure you won’t be disappointed. I’ll turn things around for you. I’ll bring you back from all the countries into which I drove you, and bring you home to the place from which I sent you off into exile. You can count on it” (Jeremiah 29:11-14, MSG).

Sometimes I forget that God knows what He is doing. It is in these moments when I try to take control, I discover only discouragement and failure. But not only that—as I try to handle what only He can handle, fear takes root. Fear will not only separate me from His peace. It will keep me from feeling His perfect love (1 John 4:18). God knows what He is doing. I don't have to know His plans, but I do need to trust and have faith in His love for me. How can I not trust the very one who gave His life for me? When I seek Him with all my heart and desire Him more than anything else, I will discover more faith to believe in His faithfulness to me. If I persevere to do His will each day, I shall receive His promise (Hebrews 10:35-36). He will bring me out of the place where I have felt alone, where I have suffered and felt abandoned. He will turn things around for me. I can trust Him for it. I can count on it. It is His promise.

Knowing His Presence

“He will never leave you or forsake you” (Deuteronomy 31:6b).

Do I believe this promise that he will never leave or forsake me? It is a guarantee. If I don't feel His presence all the time that does not mean He has forsaken me. He doesn't change (Hebrews 13:8), and He doesn't leave. 

When I have something in my life that is wrong, I don't feel a closeness to God. I have an uneasiness that lets me know I need to make a change in my attitude, thought-life, or action. When there is something that blocks His presence in my life, I have no peace because my life is not surrendered to Him completely. I feel He has left me, but He hasn't. He is still there waiting for my return. The feeling of separation that comes with sin is very real, but it does not come from Him. When I haven't surrendered my life, I have forsaken Him. 

When my life is surrendered to Him, I have a peace from believing and knowing that He is with me. Though His supernatural presence is comforting, inspiring, and joyful, I do not need to constantly have a sensory feeling of His closeness to know He is with me. I have His guarantee. I know His peace that passes understanding even when all around feels dark. I know in whom I believe, and know He is able to keep me safe no matter what happens. There is the deepest joy that comes from choosing to believe by faith that He is with me. With that joy comes the feelings of completeness for which my heart has so longed. The days He graces me with feelings of His amazing presence mean so much more, because I have chosen to believe in Him on days when life has been hard.

If I have something is my life I know is not right, I must let it go. If I have wrong attitudes and thoughts, I must lay them on His altar. Then I shall know His presence. He is my strength when I feel weak. He is my peace when I feel shaken. Feelings depend upon moods, circumstances, and outward pressures. His peace comes from within and never without. I may be influenced by circumstances, but He never is. His promise is always kept. To have His peace that passes understanding, I give Him all that I feel and choose to believe in what He has promised. He will never forsake or leave me.

Because He Loves Me

“'Because he loves me,' says the Lord, 'I will rescue him;
  I will protect him, for he acknowledges my name.
He will call on me, and I will answer him;
  I will be with him in trouble,
  I will deliver him and honor him.
With long life I will satisfy him
   and show him my salvation'” (Psalm 91:14-16, NIV).

Psalm 91 is an incredible psalm of God's protection. One of my friends has memorized this whole psalm to encourage herself when she faces fear of the unknown or something that she knows is coming against her. She has the assurance that He is not only with her, but that He will rescue her.The last two verses of this psalm offer great promise. If you are going through a difficult time that overwhelms your heart, read these verses over and over until they permeate your soul.

“Because He loves me” is the whole basis for His loving protection. It is the whole basis for who He is. God is love. Often when in torment or fear, we forget this fact. If I know Him and He is Lord of my life, He will protect me because he loves me! He will keep me safe. When I face harm or pain or terror, I can call to Him. I can pray and lay all of my fear on His altar (Hebrews 4:16), and He answers with His loving assurance that no matter what might come against me, it will not prevail (Isaiah 54:17). When I face trouble, I am not alone. He is with me. He is not only with me. He carries me through what I cannot handle. He delivers me from the worst that might happen. Often I feel that I am going through a hardship alone, because I don't feel His peace. At such times I haven't kept my thoughts on Him, but on my problem. When I keep my mind on Him and His faithfulness, He will keep me in His peace no matter what I face (Isaiah 26:3). Today, whatever might come against me or whatever lie the enemy might send my way, I know God loves me. I can believe in Him. He is greater than anything else in my life. He loves me with His perfect love. He satisfies my soul with His love all the days that I live, and reveals to me the joy of my salvation. Because I love Him with all that I am, I can receive with joy every ounce of the love that He is!

HIS BLESSINGS

“If you fully obey the Lord your God and carefully follow all his commands I give you today, the Lord your God will set you high above all the nations on earth. All these blessings will come on you and accompany you if you obey the Lord your God” (Deuteronomy 28:1-2,NIV).

How many of us really make a determined effort to follow the Lord's command to live a surrendered life? Perhaps we don't because following Christ means sacrifice. We want to follow Him, but it means giving up who we are for who He is. It is going to cost us. Selfishness and pride are two of the first things that must die. Following Christ also takes up our time and uses our energy. We sometimes make our Christian walk circumstantial and based on our feelings instead of God's desires. But if we sacrifice our feelings and follow His will in all circumstances, God's blessings “will come upon us and accompany us”.

It is God's desire to bless His children who make a commitment to follow Him. His blessings are His gifts which flow when we sacrifice our personal desires for His, and live an obedient life. Sacrifice without obedience has little meaning. Sacrifice is whatever we lose for His sake, and obedience is whatever we give. Obedience is our offering to Him that comes when we realize that the sacrifice of ourselves is not about us. It's all about His love that gave His life for us. He was obedient to death on a cross for us. How can we not respond in return with an obedient life that praises His love, and gives up all that is necessary for His sake?

Never live for the sake of His blessing. Always live for the sake of His love. We must never regard sacrifice and obedience as a means to earn God's blessings. Then pride enters, and makes us see God's blessings as a reward for all we have lost and given. Sacrificing our desires for His desires and living a committed life brings blessings because of God's love for us—not based on our efforts. His blessings are an outpouring of who He is. He is the love which gave His life for ours on Calvary. He is the love that is only completed in us when we give all of who we are to Him. His blessings flow as a result of who He is, and never because of anything we have done. “I have come,” Jesus said, “that they may have life, and have it to the full” (John 10:10b). God wants us to experience the fullness of our relationship with Him. In living a sacrificially obedient life, that is what we receive.

In these verses in Deuteronomy God's blessings are intertwined with our obedience. His direction is very clear. If we fully obey the Lord our God and carefully follow all His commands, His blessings will come to us. And His blessings are the very best. Different from any humanly-inspired gift we might receive, His blessings will change our very lives. We will learn that sacrificial obedience brings His abundant life. In giving all of ourselves to Him, we shall receive all that His chosen for us. His blessings are beyond whatever our human mind might conceive. They are more than our human heart can hold. They are of Him, divinely-inspired and given out of the greatest of all love.

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Am I Going to the Banquet?

 We have just received an invitation to the greatest banquet of all time. Are we going to accept it? Are we going to say “yes”? Accepting the invitation means we are willing to make the commitment of believing by faith in the redeeming love of Jesus Christ. It means that we accept all the other responsibilities that the invitation requires. Our “yes” is not only for the banquet. It is for a surrendered life.

In Luke 14:15-23, Jesus shares the parable of the great banquet. Just as in this parable, we, too, are invited. But also just like the parable, there are those of us who will make excuses not to attend. The excuses in the parable were reasonable, but they were not sufficient enough to refuse the invitation. Isn't this true in our lives? What are our excuses that keep us from serving the Lord? Is it inconvenient or does something else seem more important? The banquet to which we are invited calls for our complete surrender. It calls for obedience and for letting go of everything in our lives that hinders our total commitment.

God does not want any excuses. He desires our love and an undivided heart which gives Him full allegiance. He longs for our loyalty and faithfulness. We are called to “go out to the roads and country lanes and compel them to come in, so that my house will be full” (Luke 14:23b). We are to compel the lame to come and be healed—the blind to come and see. Yet we, in our own lameness and blindness, have enough trouble compelling ourselves to come and be healed. God loves us even when we have allowed excuses to hinder our love and commitment to Him, But that forgiving love does not give us a license to reject Him. He will discipline us because of His great love. It is never an issue of His love. It is always one of ours for Him.

If we reject His invitation, then we will experience a separation from His unconditional love that no human love or attempt at fulfillment can ever bridge. “How shall we escape if we ignore so great a salvation” (Hebrews 2:3a)? Rejecting His invitation and not surrendering to Him, will keep us out of His great banquet.

There is an invitation on the desk of my heart. I can’t ignore it. I know it is there. It waits for me to pick it up and respond with every fiber of my being. It calls for my surrender, and for my obedience. Am I finally willing to allow God to have my heart and life? Do I desire His will more than my own? Am I through with excuses that keep me from knowing the depths of His love? I will accept His invitation to the greatest of banquets by surrendering my life and my will to Him. It is at that banquet that I will one day not only see my loved ones, but my Savior, who gave His life for me.

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Surrendered for Peace

“There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear,” (1 John 4:15a, NIV).

The love of God must control my heart and mind, or fear will rise to defeat my faith. When the love of Christ is perfected in my heart, fear cannot claim me. If I grow spiritually and allow His love to change me, I will discover that in my weakness I have His strength. With His love claiming my heart, fear cannot claim my mind. Letting Him have control frees my mind from the constant struggle of how I need to make things right, and allows Him to make things right. With God in control, I can face all that comes my way without fear.

Daily I surrender myself to Him–my time, my work, my priorities, my thoughts, my ideas, my preconceptions, and all my life. I choose to believe only Him. He is Truth. I am not. He is Life. I am not. He is Peace. I have none. He is Joy. I can't manufacture it. He is “ALL”, and I am just me. Each day I lay myself upon His altar, and make an offering of my life–of any strength and my many weaknesses. I yield any strength to His control so that He might use it for His glory. I yield my weaknesses so that His power, exemplified in my life, might honor only Him (2 Corinthians 12:9). I wish to offer Him everything that I have and all that I am. It is in giving myself away that I shall receive. I shall receive His “ALL” instead of the little that I am.

And I shall have peace.

Choose His Grace

“Hold on to the pattern of wholesome teaching you learned from me—a pattern shaped by the faith and love that you have in Christ Jesus. Through the power of the Holy Spirit who lives within us, carefully guard the precious truth that has been entrusted to you” (2 Timothy 1:13-14, NLT).

You have been bought with the most costly price–the sacrificial gift of a life given so you might live in freedom and in victory. Through the years you have learned more and more of Him, and grown in Him. You have lived a life surrendered to His will, and you have been obedient to His Word. Yet, suddenly you find yourself poised on the brink of destruction. You know in your mind and heart the difference between what is right and wrong, but the enemy has made his way look comforting, attractive, and rewarding. Perhaps your motives were at first pure, but as time progressed you have not guarded your heart, and you have been drawn into an emotional attachment that will ultimately destroy your life in Jesus Christ.

Choose the life that Jesus offers. Don't allow the lure of what temporarily soothes to claim your heart and mind. That balm does not last. Your balm lies in Gilead. He is your only hope. Hold on to what Jesus has given you. Don't forget the love you have found in Him. Through the power of the Holy Spirit that lives within your heart, stand strong. Cut those ties that will destroy you, and look to Him, the author and the finisher of your faith. You have not been abandoned. You have been drawn with an everlasting love that will never fail you.

Choose life and blessing instead of death and destruction. Seek Him and only Him. You will not only guard your heart from that which will destroy you, you will guard the precious truth that He has entrusted to you. You will know freedom and victory in Him because you have chosen Him over anything else. Never again will His loving grace be second. It will be the most costly treasure of your life.

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BELOVED

“Beloved, I pray that in all respects you may prosper and be in good health, just as your soul prospers” (3 John 2, NASV). “Beloved, I wish above all things that thou mayest prosper and be in health, even as thy soul prospers” (3 John 2, KJV).


When I first read these words in 1979, I didn't know how they would impact my life. I had been told that I had cancer. As I read the first word, the Lord placed my name after it. He called me “beloved”. He wished above everything else for me to prosper, to thrive, and have good health. That was His will for my life. My mind focused completely on these words, and I decided they were His promise for me. He wanted me well! I read the second half of the verse, “even as thy soul prospers”. He certainly wanted my soul to prosper more than anything else. I decided to seek Him in His Word. I needed hope, and that is where I knew I could find it. He healed me that year of cancer, and I will praise Him forever for His miracle. But it was not until a few years later that I came to understand the depth of that verse in my life.


According to this verse, when my soul prospers spiritually His promise is for good health for my life. My soul thrives as I seek Him. The more I know Him the less stress consumes my life. I prosper in every way–spiritually, physically, mentally, and emotionally. With spiritual growth, I know I am His “beloved”, and I can believe in His promise of good health even when I haven’t experienced it. With a prospering soul, I receive God's greater faith to believe. With greater faith I learn to persevere and trust God for His best in my life–whatever He decides that best should be. Sometimes it is not what I perceive it should be, but I have learned that His way is greater than mine (Isaiah 55:8). By continually giving Him my concerns and worries and fears, I learn that I don't have to be anxious (Philippians 4:6). My constant striving to trust and have faith is over, and I can rest in Him. My mind and heart remains on Him, and I have His perfect peace (Isaiah 26:3).


If you are struggling, let 3 John 2 take root in your soul. Seek Him, pray, and learn about His love for you. Invest your life in God, and He will invest in you. You will realize that with spiritual growth and maturity comes His promise of healing. You will have the greatest peace, and you shall know that you are His “beloved”.

Friendship

“One who has unreliable friends soon comes to ruin, but there is a friend who sticks closer than a brother” (Proverbs 18:24, NIV).

“Friendship is one of the sweetest joys of life,” C.H. Spurgeon wrote. “Many might have failed beneath the bitterness of their trial had they not found a friend." This is the kind of friend I wish to be–one who knows I can't solve a problem or fix an issue, but who realizes that in listening to my friend's heart, I have given the very best I can give. I want to be a faithful sounding board, encourager, and someone my friend can lean on.

Have you ever tried to help a friend, and ended up hurting him instead? Was it something you were certain would bring relief, but all it did was bring more pain? Sometimes in an attempt to lessen a friend's pain and ease a breaking heart, we attempt to fix something that we don't really understand. Only the Holy Spirit does. Sometimes the Holy Spirit does guide and give direction to encourage our friend, but it is always His place to do the work. We can't fix anything. Only He can. Look at Job's friends. Job didn't ask for their advice, but they gave it anyway. They believed that they were helping Job with their insight. All they did was hurt him with their judgments and accusations. They really didn't understand the larger picture, and neither do we.

If a friend shares his heart, he has trusted you enough to make himself vulnerable to what you think of him and to your assessment. If your friend comes to you seeking advice, pray for God's wisdom and always extend the grace of honesty without judging him. If you are a loving friend, and not a “Job” friend, you will know that you don't have all the answers, but you will carefully listen. If the Holy Spirit gives you insight, you will only offer that insight, and not place any expectation upon your friend. You make a suggestion, and also make it clear that you love him no matter what–that you do not have all the answers. God extends free will to us, and we must do the same. We can't demand anything of anyone, but we can love completely with His love that sees potential without passing judgment. There is no greater love than when we give ourselves for our friends. We must lay down all our human judgment or preconception or expectation. We must release all this so then we are free to love. We just love with His love, and then all things are possible. 

 

My friend, if I ever make mistakes that hurt you, please forgive me. I don't do them on purpose. I try to be the best friend that I can be, but I often fail. When I hurt so much for you and want desperately to help, I often confuse you, and try to fix things that I should never attempt to fix. The best I can do for you is pray for you and ask the Holy Spirit to make me sensitive to your needs, and keep me from making mistakes or saying things that hurt you. I will always pray for your needs, your healing, and for God to heal any pain that comes into your life. If He wishes to use me, I will make myself available. But I will never assume it is my place to do anything but surrender to Him. If you come to me asking for advice, I will pray for His guidance and His heart. I pray that in our mutual surrender, we will know His peace and joy and have a greater sensitivity to Him and to each other. I pray we both discover those unfathomable depths of His unconditional love.

Least to Be Greatest

“For it is the one who is least among you all who is the greatest” (Luke 9:48b, NIV).

Sometimes the last thing I understand in my Christian life is the importance of taking care of small things. In my heart and mind I may tell myself I am ready to die for Christ, but then I don't live for Him in the small details. A real disciple takes care of every area of his life. He surrenders all in his life which separates Him from God's love.... his actions, his thoughts, his motives, the small details. He makes himself least so that Jesus might become more.

Christ became the least for me. He made himself the least in His father's eyes when He took on my sin. He was perfect in every way. Spotless without deceit or jealousy or hate or bitterness or greed or His own agenda, He said “yes” to His father's plan for saving my life. That acceptance meant the perfect love Jesus had with His own father would be broken, and His father would be unable to look upon the ugliness of my sin in His own son. But Jesus made himself least and gave His life so that sin's ability to destroy my life would be broken. Sin that had forever separated me from God's perfect love was crucified on that cross...once and for all. From the least He became the greatest. He was raised from the dead into newness of life for me. He lives with His father in heaven forever exalted for His sacrificial gift that promises abundant life now and eternal life forever. He may be with His father, but I am not alone here on earth! I have the gift of the Holy Spirit to lead, guide, and empower my life. All I must do is accept the love that gave His life for me. Daily I surrender to be least so that he might be the greatest.

 

Jesus made the greatest sacrifice. He calls me to lay down all that I am so that I can receive all that He is. I have accepted that call, and I am a disciple of the Savior who gave His life for me. Just as Jesus did for me, I must make myself least for the sake of others. I must learn sacrifice of my own desires. I must overcome prideful wants, agendas, plans, and purposes. I will choose His will above my own. I will learn to be His servant in the least thing, because He became the least for me. Then I may learn to be His servant in the greatest.