Thank God I'm Forgiven Friday! Amen! What amazing grace our Abba Father has shown to a wretch like me! Thanks Lord!
Good Morning Confessing, Repenting Saved By Grace, Forgiven Loved Ones of the Lord! Hallelujah! Often we struggle to understand that Jesus' sacrifice covered for all time the sin of repentant followers like us. Sometimes it's hard for someone to come to Christ because they can't conceive how God's amazing grace and love works. Some can never seem to let go of the guilt and compulsion to try to earn forgiveness and give up. May God help us to receive His forgiveness, extend it to others and help many to receive and walk in His loving forgiveness. Amen. Check out the thread through our devos for today speaking into this. What's God saying to you and what will you do about it? Who might help you to have some clarity or accountability in your repentance.
Start with harvest Prayer's blogs and truths. We are created, called, gifted and empowered to go love like Jesus and to live on this earth as citizens of heaven. Our often failure at this may lead to guilt and feeling we will never qualify to be God's and His vessels of grace. Then work through Our Daily Bread's reminder to have a repentant heart. Charles Stanley reminds us that God is always loving, wise and kind and His ways and thoughts are not like ours. Stop limiting God or trying to stuff Him into the box of your understanding. The Upper Room wraps this all together with the reminder that in Christ, we are a new creation. It reminded me pf Eph. 2:10, "You are God's masterpiece, made new in Christ (that means forgiven and reborn--a new creation with new potential) to do all He created you to do." Amen! Thanks Lord! Your sins are forgiven and erased. You matter and have purpose because of God's great love for you and all who will come. Amen! Remember our words matter and carry great power and our own thinking can get in the way often. Proclaim and pronounce God's love, mercy, grace and forgiveness over you and others and ask for help to live powerfully forgiven in Christ sent to make Him known. Repent mean to change the way you think and act--it's renewing your mind. Ask for help with that and start pronouncing blessings and God's promises over you and circumstances and others too. Walk in the power of His love and forgiveness today!
Walk in His love, grace and joy today and know His peace beyond understanding. He really loves you and has great plans just for you just as you are! PTL!
Harvest:
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August 23 - Be Kingdom Minded
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Jesus brought the Kingdom of God to the physical dimension. He wanted His followers to understand how it functions, and how to live within it. He wanted them to become kingdom minded followers:
The Mustard Seed. Mark 4:30-32 “To what can we compare the kingdom of God, or what parable can we use to present it? It is like a mustard seed that when sown in the ground, even though it is the smallest of all the seeds in the ground—when it is sown, it grows up, becomes the greatest of all garden plants, and grows large branches so that the wild birds can nest in its shade.”
Like Little Children. Mark 10:14-15 “Let the little children come to me and do not try to stop them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these. I tell you the truth, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a child will never enter it.”
Called to Love. Mark 12:29-31, 34 “The most important is: ‘Listen, Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength.’ The second is: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.”… “You’re not far from the kingdom of God.”
When we understand how the Kingdom of God operates, we can engage it, be encouraged by it, and flourish in it as we live. We can also love others who belong to the kingdom.
Lord, first and foremost, I repent for when I’ve ignored and not valued Your kingdom. I repent for insensitivity to Your Holy Spirit and any time I’ve lacked the faith to recognize the Kingdom of God growing in a person or a territory. I repent for not receiving Your Kingdom like a child. I repent for every time I haven’t loved You with all my heart, soul, mind, and strength, and when I haven’t loved my neighbor as myself.
I declare I will be a kingdom-minded follower of Christ. I declare I will see and know the Kingdom of God in people and territories. I declare I won’t doubt the influence and power of sharing the Kingdom of God with others. I declare I will live with childlike faith. I declare I will receive the Kingdom of God with childlike faith. I declare I will love You, Lord, with all my heart, soul, mind, and strength. And I will love my neighbor as myself. I’m so grateful, Lord, that You make all this possible.
Thank You for transforming and blessing me with the right perspective: with eyes that see, with ears that hear, with a heart and a will aligned with Yours. I want to be the vessel You can depend upon.
I praise You for making me a powerful vessel that understands Your Kingdom— a person who loves You and others righteously and fervently. You’re worth it!
--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.
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- Praise God for his unconditional love (1 Corinthians 13).
- Thank him for showing you in Christ how to love others unconditionally.
- Confess your lack of love when you’ve failed to meet God’s standards and requirements.
- Commit yourself to allowing his love to flow naturally through you, resulting in spontaneous acts of love (1 Jn. 3:18).
- Ask God to let the Holy Spirit work in you daily so that “love deeds” are a “natural” way of life.
- Pray that God will help you do something spontaneous today to reflect his love to one who is outside of the family of God (Lk. 6:27-31).
Prayer Pointer
“True prayer is a way of life, not just a case of emergency.” —Anonymous
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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.
Connection (Devotions for Everyday Life) © 2024 is a free devotional published daily by Harvest Prayer Ministries. Subscribe here. |
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ODB:
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A friend had violated the vows of his marriage. It was painful to watch him destroy his family. As he sought reconciliation with his wife, he asked my counsel. I told him he needed to offer more than words; he needed to be proactive in loving his wife and removing any patterns of sin.
The prophet Jeremiah offered similar advice to those who’d broken their covenant with God and followed other gods. It wasn’t enough to return to Him (Jeremiah 4:1), though that was the right start. They also needed to align their actions with what they were saying. That meant getting rid of their “detestable idols” (v. 1). Jeremiah said that if they made commitments “in a truthful, just and righteous way,” then God would bless the nations (v. 2). The problem was the people were making empty promises. Their heart wasn’t in it.
God doesn’t want mere words; He wants our hearts. As Jesus said, “The mouth speaks what the heart is full of” (Matthew 12:34). That’s why Jeremiah goes on to encourage those who would listen to break up the unplowed ground of their heart and not sow among the thorns (Jeremiah 4:3).
Sadly, like so many people, my friend didn’t heed sound biblical counsel and consequently lost his marriage. When we sin, we must confess and turn from it. God doesn’t want empty promises; He desires a life that’s truly aligned with Him.
By Matt Lucas
REFLECT & PRAY
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In what areas of your life do your words not match your actions? What patterns do you need to change?
Father, please forgive me when my actions fail to match what I profess to believe.
For further study, read Part of the Problem—Understanding the Power of Words.
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SCRIPTURE INSIGHT
“Break up your unplowed ground and do not sow among thorns” (Jeremiah 4:3) is an agricultural reference readily grasped by Jeremiah’s contemporary audience. Modern readers, however, may not fully comprehend it. Just as a farmer wouldn’t plant his crops on unplowed ground, neither would he sow seed in a field without first clearing it of thistles and briars. So, too, God won’t plant His life-giving message of salvation in a heart that doesn’t repent of wrongdoing.
The reference in verse 4 to circumcision (“circumcise your hearts”) is also more easily understood by ancient Jewish culture. Circumcision was a physical sign of being set apart as God’s people—an integral part of His covenant with Abraham fifteen hundred years earlier (Genesis 17:10-14). God is far more interested in an inward change of attitude than in our outward religious symbolism and rituals.
Tim Gustafson |
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CS:
UR: New Creation
So then, if anyone is in Christ, that person is part of the new creation. The old things have gone away, and look, new things have arrived! - 2 Corinthians 5:17 (CEB)
Today’s quoted verse helps me know I am forgiven of my past sins and mistakes. Though I had shared the good news of Christ with my brother, for a long time he could not accept the forgiveness of Jesus. Many times I told him that Jesus loves him, and he would say, “A wicked man like me? Your Jesus must be desperate.” My brother could not believe that Jesus would love a thief and a drug addict.
This had been going on for some time. I had been praying for him nonstop. One day while meditating on 2 Corinthians 5:17, I went to my brother and explained to him that in Christ, the old is gone. His face brightened. He received Jesus as Lord of his life. I have kept reminding my brother that the old has gone and his sins have been forgiven and will not be remembered anymore (see Isa. 43:25).
Today my brother is active in church, and he is full of life. He is off drugs and is dealing with his addiction step by step. Glory to Jesus. Knowing that we are new creations in Christ gives us confidence to approach God’s throne of grace. We can lay aside our guilt and worship God freely without any condemnation.
Today's Prayer
Thank you, Lord, for the new life we have in you. Thank you for forgiving our sins. In Jesus’ name. Amen.
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