Good Morning Chosen, Loved and Sent Children of the Most High God! We are so loved. PTL. Chosen! Prepared and sent to fulfill our created purposes. That begins, grows and goes with LOVE! Yesterday we looked at the spiritual gifts in 1 Cor 12 and Eph. 4 that were shared to remind us to seek after the gifts that are to be used in love to bless others and grow God's Church. We then encountered Paul's admonition to seek the more excellent way found in 1 Cor 13--LOVE!
We were created in love as God's masterpieces to go love as we allow Him to use us just as we are and grow us into His greater things! He has some awesome custom made plans for you to discover as you abide in His love and share His love and that leads to the abundant life we are promised in Christ. Check out our devotionals below as you still yourself, abide in love and ready to go love well today.
God is Love! Love lives in you! And you were created and are being prepared for Love to go forth from you and change the world around you for such a time as this. God placed you here for His purposes. We all matter and we all have an important part to carry out that we are custom made and gifted to accomplish. Plus we have the help of the Holy Spirit to direct and correct us. PTL! Choose the most excellent way. Choose Love and share Love well today as you allow Love to transform your thinking and guide you, even today! Love God! Love people! Love yourself! Share Love well! Amen. You are made for such a time as this to go live and love more like Jesus everyday! Choose well friends of God! Amen
Maybe We Were Made for these Days! (Not maybe! we are!) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0qXn2I449qs
Love God and Love People: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t-29WLQ3trA
End today with the Harvest Prayer blog--awesome stuff to engage God through and pray!
Charles Stanley:
ODB:
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With the American Civil War spawning many bitter feelings, Abraham Lincoln saw fit to speak a kind word about the South. A shocked bystander asked how he could do so. He replied, “Madam, do I not destroy my enemies when I make them my friends?” Reflecting on those words a century later, Martin Luther King Jr. commented, “This is the power of redemptive love.”
In calling disciples of Christ to love their enemies, King looked to the teachings of Jesus. He noted that although believers might struggle to love those who persecute them, this love grows out of “a consistent and total surrender to God.” “When we love in this way,” King continued, “we’ll know God and experience the beauty of His holiness.”
King referenced Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount in which He said, “Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be children of your Father in heaven” (Matthew 5:44–45). Jesus counseled against the conventional wisdom of the day of loving only one’s neighbors and hating one’s enemies. Instead, God the Father gives His children the strength to love those who oppose them.
It may feel impossible to love our enemies, but as we look to God for help, He’ll answer our prayers. He gives the courage to embrace this radical practice, for as Jesus said, “with God all things are possible” (19:26).
By Amy Boucher Pye
REFLECT & PRAY
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Who is your enemy? If you feel conflicted about loving those who oppose you, how could you submit those feelings to God?
Loving God, You’ve made me—as well as those who hurt me—in Your image. Help me to see them as You do.
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SCRIPTURE INSIGHT
In the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5-7), Jesus radically redefined what the people understood as their responsibility to the law of Moses. Christ said He didn’t come to abolish the law but to fulfill it. Then He introduces six topics—murder, adultery, divorce, oaths, retribution, and love for enemies—with a version of the phrase “you have heard that it was said” followed by “but I tell you.” What’s interesting about Jesus’ explanation of what “you have heard” is that only a portion of it is recorded in the Old Testament. The other elements are likely part of the Mishnah, the traditions and interpretations of the Pharisees that placed further restrictions on people and had been elevated to be equal with the law of Moses. At least part of what Christ was doing was dismantling the power of the Pharisees’ interpretations and returning to the core of the law as God intended.
Dive deeper into the Sermon on the Mount.
JR Hudberg |
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UR Out of My Comfort Zone:
Jesus said, “I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.” - John 10:10 (NRSVUE)
Many years ago, I was asked to go on a mission trip abroad. I declined because of numerous conflicts — family activities, work demands, and other commitments. I thought the next trip would fit my schedule better. But after a few more years and opportunities, I still had not participated.
Then in 2005, I was invited to go on a mission trip to Guatemala. Even though many of the same conflicts existed, I felt God nudging me to go. As I prayed about the opportunity, I realized that my conflicts were really excuses to avoid stepping out of my comfort zone.
I did go on that trip, followed by seven more trips over the next eight years. As we offered our help to those we encountered, I also gained a better perspective on the meaning of “abundant life.” The people we met possessed joy, peace, and love for God — the abundant life — that made a lasting impression on me.
That first trip was a small investment of time, but a big step in my walk of faith because I was willing to leave the familiar and move forward in faith trusting God.
TODAY'S PRAYER
God of second chances, open our hearts so that we will be ready to respond to your call. Help us to be obedient to you, to discern your will for our lives, and to go forward in faith. Amen.
TWFYT
Harvest Prayer:
February 12 - Cry Out for a Heart to See the Lost Saved
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Brothers, my heart’s desire and prayer to God for them is that they may be saved. (Romans 10:1)
The prayer of World Vision’s founder, Bob Pierce, has been rightfully and often repeated: “Let my heart be broken with the things that break the heart of God.”
Injustice, illness, poverty, and devastation are in the news and on our minds every day. There are many reasons to grieve for ourselves and others. We know that Jesus’ heart is tender to all the burdens we bear, but nothing moves his heart like the lostness that is found in a soul that is separated from him. Our eyes quickly move to the physical depravity of the world and somehow skip naively over the only permanent loss in all of eternity.
Every problem that steals our sleep and wrestles peace from our minds is temporary. Someday, there will be no more sickness, violence, hatred or lack. Everything will be made right in the eternal kingdom of God. All will be well for those who are forever in the heart and arms of Jesus, but for those who have not given their lives to Jesus, all will be lost. To live and die without Christ is to face the only permanent loss known to man.
God’s greatest desire is that all the world would know his Son and be found safe for eternity in him. Let’s ask Jesus to put his heart of compassion within us and to move our hearts to pray and work for the salvation of many.
Gracious heavenly Father, thank you for sending Jesus to die on the cross for my sins and the sins of the world. I repent for my lack of compassion and urgency to see the lost saved. Forgive me for apathy and shortsightedness. Cleanse me of all selfishness and arrogance. I ask you, Father, to change my heart and make it break for what breaks your heart. I ask you to give me a heart of compassion and a will to witness in every way possible. Holy Spirit, fill me with your presence and anoint me with your words so that I may witness passionately and continually for you. Give me a heart to pray and not give up until your will is done in bringing many to righteousness.
--Adapted from Praying God’s Word Over Your City: 40 Days of Prayer for A Transformed Community by Trey and Mary Anne Kent. This book is available at prayershop.org. Use the code CONPSP3 at checkout to receive an additional 10% discount.
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- Praise God, the one who rescues and saves (Dan. 4:27).
- Give thanks for specific ways he is caring for you right now.
- Confess any areas in which you are worrying instead of praying and accepting his loving care (Phil. 4:6-7).
- Commit a concern to God, thanking him for his care for you.
- Ask him to help you believe in his willingness to handle it.
- Pray that your family and friends may be rooted and established in love and may have “power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that [they] may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God” (Eph. 3:18-19).
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| Prayer Points taken from Patterns for Prayer by Alvin VanderGriend. This book is available at prayershop.org. Use the code CONPSP3 at checkout to receive an additional 10% discount. |
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