Good Morning Surrendered, Empowered, Following Friends of Jesus! Amen! May that be me and us Lord! May we surrender, earnestly seek and follow You. Empower us in our weakness to be all in and about Your business Your way. Thank You for hearing our prayers, being with us, molding us and going before us with favor. When we are weak, You are strong and Your grace is sufficient. You are all we need! Come! Fill us and lead us to our purposes today. Mold us, Potter. Send us! Use us for Your glory! Your Kingdom come and will be done. Send me! May we see and follow well, unite in small groups that connect to neighbors and do what we can with what You have provided and to sow lavishly. Thank You! Help us to be in the world but not of it. Forgive us for our Pharisaical, judgmental ways. Purify us that we would be ready when You lead. Give us prepared hearts and willing hands and feet. Thank You. May we become your dynamic movement and the people and gathered group You have made us to be. Yes Come! Be glorified as we learn to live and love like Jesus more in '24. Amen.
I keep seeing all these pharisaical posts about the last supper spoof at the Olympics. First of all I don't have cable or pay much attention to anything on TV. They have their liberal agendas front and center and are very worldly. Why fill your mind with that crap? They do what worldly people do. Should we be appalled or expect anything different? NO! Should we be on the look out for every sin and attack on God like the Pharisees and want to force people to our standards? NO! Jesus said to love--even those who persecute you and to expect hateful attacks. He also reminded His disciples to expect it because they hated and attacked Him and they would continue to laugh at, mock and even persecute His followers. We are called to be different. We are no longer citizens of this worldly kingdom led by Satan. We are missionaries here. Would you travel to a jungle tribe that never heard of Jesus that did ungodly things and point fingers and demand to conform to your ways? No! You'd go, try to connect and help them to come to know God and then help them to embrace God's ways and then to change. Hate for Jesus, His ways and His followers is to be expected. We are to be different. We are to love always and be more like Jesus. He promises to help us. Keep your focus on Him and chose to walk in His ways who loved us while we were enemies. He prayed this for us in John 17: 13-19. What's He saying to you?
13 “Now I am coming to you. I told them many things while I was with them in this world so they would be filled with my joy. 14 I have given them your word. And the world hates them because they do not belong to the world, just as I do not belong to the world. 15 I’m not asking you to take them out of the world, but to keep them safe from the evil one. 16 They do not belong to this world any more than I do. 17 Make them holy by your truth; teach them your word, which is truth. 18 Just as you sent me into the world, I am sending them into the world. 19 And I give myself as a holy sacrifice for them so they can be made holy by your truth.
Stop the finger pointing! We were once sinners too. But by the grace of God we have been saved. Who do you see Him at work on and how might He want you to go love them and be His hands and feet? Who are you praying for earnestly for God to transform and bless. Stop complaining and go change the world by His love! Yesterday after teaching us about Ephesians 3, Sarah reminded us that God and His ways are a mystery and beyond comprehension. We often think we have it all figured out and surely our ways and preferences have to be His instead of allowing His heart and mind to transform and lead us. He knows those who will come and is at work in uniting them into His Body. It's our time to focus on those people. It's our time and mission to go love and make disciples like Jesus who actually ate and partied with tax collectors and sinners. Sarah asked, "How do you view yourself in the Kingdom?" She reminded us that Paul called himself the vilest of sinners...BUT GOD! God transforms us, our hearts and choices as we die to self and allow Him control. Don't be a noise maker and clanging gong and finger pointer. Instead remember God's grace and love that continues to hang out with sinners like us and mold us to His image. Then go love like Jesus. Turn off the noise. be still, listen and follow His whispers. Allow Him to use you to transform the world around you one soul at a time that He has prepared for you. Thank Him and ask for His help. Keep earnestly praying and following and processing with friends of Jesus. One day, one step of faith at a time with Jesus. That's all God asks and is Jesus' easy yoke for you. Now what will you do about that today? What is the next step the Holy Spirit is stirring you to take? Follow Him and just be and bring love. Sink your roots deep into Love and draw His grace deep into your soul. May we be known as the people who love like Jesus, not the finger pointing Pharisees people of the world think we are and keep trying to trigger. Die to self. Just love! Know peace. Let God work. Follow Jesus! Amen! And know joy! And remember, we cannot do this well on our own. We need God and each other! PTL!
God is calling us to repent. That's admitting we are sinners that fail often, confess, change our thinking and ways. That becomes possible because we have come to Christ and are forgiven. Ask God to give you His eyes. ears, heart, mind, passion and compassion in preparation for His new things for you. Ask Him to purify you and us as His set apart (holy) people and to sanctify and ready you and us to go and love well. You know sometimes it feels like when we play hide and seek and He says, "Ready or not here I come!" May He find us ready!
Charles Stanley talks about repenting and learning to walk more like Jesus. Our Daily Bread reminds us that God is at work and wants to be King of our hearts. Is He? He tells us to not fear and like Mary and Daniel heard, He can say to you, "You are highly esteemed" in God's eyes. He doesn't point fingers. He lovingly receives us as we are and gently corrects. That's our model and example to follow. The Upper Room reminds us that He is with us always, even in the unknown and hard things. Keep trusting Him. Don't lean on your own understanding. The Word for You Today reminds us to keep depending on God. I have prayed to not be called to anything that I can do on my own, that I would need to depend on God. He's gracious to answer that prayer. It can be scary stepping into the unknown in faith. That is required, though, and He promises to be there and to walk with us. He is enough and His grace is sufficient. Amen!
You are custom made for such a time as this, not to do your own thing your own way. We are called to die to self, follow earnestly and go live and love more like Jesus. How does the Holy Spirit want to help you with that today? William Booth (founder of the Salvation Army) said, "Work as if everything depended upon work and pray as if everything depended upon prayer." Really, that's earnestly pursuing God and for doing His ways earnestly. I am not sure what has changed in me to pursue this earnest living, except that I have earnestly prayed for God to take control of me and help me to earnestly pursue His plans and best for me. I am feeling a change and becoming different from what and how I was. Please continue Lord and sustain me. Would you consider praying that over you and our Body and then taking the next step of faith God is revealing? He has great plans awaiting you to discover as you do. Daylights burning! It's time to get earnest. God is pursuing and preparing this remnant for some awesome things to come--His Kingdom to come and will to be done! Amen!
CS:
ODB:
|
Pilgrim is a musical based on The Pilgrim’s Progress, an allegory of the life of a believer in Jesus. In the story, all the unseen forces of the spiritual world are made visible to the audience. The character of the King, representing God, is present onstage for almost the entire show. He’s dressed in white and actively blocks attacks from the enemy, tenderly holds those who are in pain, and nudges others to good works. Despite his indispensable role, the main human characters can’t physically see the King, only the effects of what He does.
Do we live as if the true King is active in our lives, even when we can’t physically see Him? In a time of need, the prophet Daniel received a vision from a heavenly messenger (Daniel 10:7) who’d been sent in direct response to his faithful prayers (v. 12). The messenger explained that spiritual warfare had delayed his coming and angelic backup had to be dispatched (v. 13). Daniel was reminded that even though he couldn’t see God, he was surrounded by evidence of His care and attention. “Do not be afraid, you are highly esteemed,” the messenger encouraged him (v. 19). At the end of Pilgrim, when the main character reaches heaven’s door after many tribulations, he joyfully cries out for the first time, “I can see the King!” Until we see Him with our new eyes in heaven, we look for His action in our lives today.
By Karen Pimpo
REFLECT & PRAY
|
|
How do you see God’s work in your life? Where do you struggle to believe that He’s with you?
King Jesus, please help me remember that You’re near.
|
|
|
|
|
|
SCRIPTURE INSIGHT
Deported to Babylon as a teenager, Daniel distinguished himself to become the trusted adviser to the kings of two of the world’s superpowers—the Babylonians and Medo-Persians. Chapters 1-7 tell of the prophet’s interactions with three kings—Nebuchadnezzar, Belshazzar, and Darius. Chapters 8-12 deal with God’s predetermined plans for the Jews (Israel) and the gentiles (the world). Affirming God’s sovereignty and authority as the ultimate King of history, Daniel proclaims, “Wisdom and power are his. He changes times and seasons; he deposes kings and raises up others” (2:20-21).
K. T. Sim |
|
|
|
|
|
UR: God in the Unknown
My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever. - Psalm 73:26 (NIV)
I’m recovering from a strained calf muscle, my second in a few short months. This, along with creaky joints when I get out of bed in the morning and a glimpse in the bathroom mirror, remind me I’m getting older. I sometimes wrestle with aging and the fear of the unknown future. What will become of me if I lose my spouse? What if my body or mind fail and I can no longer care for myself or live in my home?
And then I remember my source of peace and turn to the words that calm my fears: “Even in your old age and gray hairs I . . . will sustain you. I have made you and I will carry you: I will sustain you and I will rescue you” (Isa. 46:4). These words help me to settle into God’s loving embrace and to look to the future with more anticipation than dread. I have no need to fear the unknown because God will not abandon me.
Even though I cannot know the future, I feel safe and secure under God’s protection and take comfort in scripture. I know my body will change, but God’s love for me will not. And I look with anticipation and great joy to the end of my earthly journey, when I will meet Jesus face to face. Until then, I will trust in the One who calms all my fears and walks with me through the unknown.
Today's Prayer
Dear heavenly Father, thank you for your promise to be with us through all the days of our lives. Amen.TWFYT:
Harvest
|
|
July 29 - Lord of the Sabbath
|
|
|
Constantly people looked at Jesus and watched what He and His disciples did. In particular, the Pharisees observed with critical hearts, and challenged Jesus concerning the disciples’ activities on the Sabbath. Why did they break the Sabbath laws?
As Jesus taught the Pharisees, let Him also teach us:
- Mark 2:25-28: “Have you never read what David did when he was in need and he and his companions were hungry—how he entered the house of God when Abiathar was high priest and ate the sacred bread, which is against the law for any but the priests to eat, and also gave it to his companions?” … “The Sabbath was made for people, not people for the Sabbath. For this reason the Son of Man is lord even of the Sabbath.”
- Mark 3:3-5: So he said to the man who had the withered hand, “Stand up among all these people.” Then he said to them, “Is it lawful to do good on the Sabbath, or evil, to save a life or destroy it?” But they were silent. After looking around at them in anger, grieved by the hardness of their hearts, he said to the man, “Stretch out your hand.” He stretched it out, and his hand was restored.
The Lord isn’t legalistic. He established the Sabbath as a time of rest because humanity needs rest. On the Sabbath He wants to bless us, not to confine us. He doesn’t want to keep starving disciples from eating, endangered animals from rescue, or sick or injured people from healing.
Yes! You’re Lord of the Sabbath. You’re Lord of everything. I acknowledge and bless You for that. I serve a spectacular God! Lord, I repent for when I’ve behaved in a legalistic fashion. When I’ve applied a godly rule while missing Your intent. Reveal in my life where I might be doing this. I desire to follow Your law congruently with Your heart’s intent. I desire to bring godly tenderness into every situation. I desire to serve You uprightly and according to Your ways, not the ways of humanity. I declare that all my choices will be based on my personal relationship with You. I declare that I will walk uprightly and love You, Lord, with all my heart, soul, and strength, and that I will look at Your Word with the understanding of Your heart. Thank You for opening my eyes to legalistic, ungodly behavior. Thank You for breaking me free from oppressive misunderstandings of Your Word. Thank You for expanding my heart to reflect the fullness of Your heart. Thank You for letting me rest in You. I praise You that You’re a merciful God, operating with the best intentions and practices. I praise You for establishing rest for Your people. I praise You for Your consistency and perfect virtue. I cherish You, Lord.
--Adapted from Praying What Jesus Says by Natasha Miller. This book is available at prayershop.org. Use the code CONPSP3 at checkout to receive an additional 10% discount.
|
|
- Praise God that birth and conception are miraculous and a special gift from God.
- Thank him for planning all your days before you were even born (Ps. 139:16).
- Confess any dissatisfaction over the gifts and abilities God has given you.
- Commit yourself to God daily and, like Paul, be content in whatever situation he has placed you (Phil. 4:11).
- Ask God to bring personal peace as a member of your family.
- Pray that children in your family circle and among your friends may be blessed with godly parents who are good examples and who discipline them in love (Prov. 22:6).
|
|
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.
Connection (Devotions for Everyday Life) © 2024 is a free devotional published daily by Harvest Prayer Ministries. Subscribe here. |
|
|
LISTEN ONLINE
