Rise and shine and give God all the glory, honor and praise! What a beautiful day lies ahead and He has some great plans for you to discover and step into! PTL!
God Morning Restored, Refreshed, and Ready Servants of the Most Hight God! Winter is waning and Spring is coming. God has allowed us a season to refresh and He is restoring all the enemy has stolen from us. We are readying for what's next. The sap of new life is flowing through us. New buds are beginning to sprout. Oh what a glorious time to be part of God's family! Rejoice!
When I worked as a gardener, my one customer insisted that I had to prune his Crape Myrtle's right after the first frost. Every plant has their season when pruning is best done. I feel like we have been pruned at just the right time. We are abiding in the Vine and receiving His nourishing life giving sap as we are being readied and restored to burst forth and beautiful color and vibrancy. Spring is coming and the buds are readying for some great fruit ahead. Can you sense it? It's coming! As we abide and endure through this season of preparation, be assured that as we persevere and endure earnestly in Christ we have some greater things coming! PTL! Keep seeking, knocking, praying for restoration and new fruit and keep offering yourself for God to use as you fulfill your part in His Body well.
Check out our devos below and spend some time with our Vine and THE Potter. Remember how we are gifted to go love like Jesus and how He loved sacrificially and lavishly and calls us to the same. Even in the book of Acts, we see how His disciples led the early church to sow lavishly in love of God and for others. Ask God to give you His giving, blessing heart and His mind to steward well all His blessings and to sow into His plans with your time, talent, treasure and gifts. And always remember that God knows what we need before we ask, BUT He wants us to ask. We can grow in Christ and service and produce very good fruit as we seek God and His Kingdom with all our heart, trust Him to provide where He guides and to allow us to grow in relationship with Him and each other and even those He is drawing as we labor together for His glory and worship with all our being! He is Jireh--enough! He is our provision and guide. He is our God Almighty who created and gifted you to go and do His will for such a time as this! PTL! Allow Him to restore, refresh, ready and then use you as you step out boldly in faith to go love like Jesus and change the world! Amen!
I can't wait to hear the stories as we work on our words and seek to Become More in '24! More like Jesus and doing more of what we are created and gifted to do! This is the year of the Lord's favor and the year of restoration and new life! Proclaim it! Live it!
Upper Room: Restored
But now, Lord, you are our father. We are the clay, and you are our potter. All of us are the work of your hand. - Isaiah 64:8 (CEB)
Some time ago, I experienced several life changes. I resigned from my job to move several times because of my husband’s work. During one of those moves, I was led by God to be baptized. Six months after I was baptized, my husband and I went through a hard time; my marriage was in crisis. He talked about a separation and later asked that I leave the house. At the same time this was happening, my grandmother, who had been like a mother to me during my youth, died. Two months later, my father died.
Unable to understand what was happening, I was filled with incredible suffering and my heart was broken. I fell to my knees and asked God, “Why did you take everything?” I entered a prolonged season of prayer and fasting. With anguished
urgency I began to read the Bible, and the Holy Spirit led me to this passage: “Record my misery; list my tears on your scroll — are they not in your record? Then my enemies will turn back when I call for help. By this I will know that God is for me” (Ps. 56:8-9, NIV). An inexplicable peace washed over me. My life, the vessel that was broken into pieces, could be made new again. God was at work sustaining, molding, and refining the fragments of my heart. This process not only restored my life but my marriage as well and filled me with God’s peace.
TODAY'S PRAYER
Dear Lord, grant us the wisdom to trust you to mold and remake us according to your will. Amen.Our Daily Bread:
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On her wedding day, Gwendolyn Stulgis wore the wedding dress of her dreams. Then she gave it away—to a stranger. Stulgis believed a dress deserved more than sitting in a closet collecting dust. Other brides agreed. Now scores of women have bonded on her social media site to donate and receive wedding dresses. As one giver said, “I hope this dress gets passed from bride to bride to bride, and it just gets worn out and is in tatters at the end of its life because of all the celebrating that’s done in it.”
The spirit of giving can feel like a celebration, indeed. As it is written, “One person gives freely, yet gains even more; another withholds unduly, but comes to poverty. A generous person will prosper; whoever refreshes others will be refreshed” (Proverbs 11:24–25).
The apostle Paul taught this principle in the New Testament. As he said his goodbyes to the believers in Ephesus, he gave them a blessing (Acts 20:32) and reminded them of the importance of generosity. Paul pointed to his own work ethic as an example for them to follow. “In everything I did,” he said, “I showed you that by . . . hard work we must help the weak, remembering the words the Lord Jesus himself said: ‘It is more blessed to give than to receive’ ” (v. 35).
Being generous reflects God. “For God so loved the world that He gave . . .” (John 3:16). Let’s follow His glorious example as He guides us.
By Patricia Raybon
REFLECT & PRAY
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What good gift have you given recently? How did your gift help someone?
Dear Father, please open my hands to give to others with Your love in my heart.
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SCRIPTURE INSIGHT
Proverbs 11:24-25 provides winsome images that illustrate principles of generosity and stinginess. “One gives freely, yet grows all the richer; another withholds what he should give, and only suffers want. Whoever brings blessing will be enriched, and one who waters will himself be watered” (esv). Contrary to human reasoning and self-preservation, giving can result in gain and emptying to fullness. Closed hands, clenched fists, and hoarding are inconsistent with the gospel and the teaching and example of Jesus (see Luke 6:38). In 2 Corinthians 8:9, Paul summed up the generosity of Christ: “You know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that you through his poverty might become rich.”
Arthur Jackson |
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