This is the day the Lord has made! Let us rejoice and be glad in it! Pray that we enter His courts with praise and that we worship in Spirit and Truth. That's in praise and His Word. Is your heart ready? Come! Let us worship our King!
Good Morning! For me this has been a week! We've all endured some of those times. It's been like one thing after another thrown at me. I've been spiraling down the dark hole like water draining from the sink--spinning and being sucked in. BUT GOD! He is my shield, my strength, and my help in times of trouble. Thanks to being prepared for such a time as this and with the Holy Spirit's help, I've been able to stay focused on God. hold loosely to my plans and agendas and allow God to steer and lead through. Proverbs 3:5-6 has come alive as I acknowledge God in all my ways, turn off the noise and stop leaning on my own understanding. What an awesome, loving Daddy we have and know! Have you ever experienced anything like this? Someone may need your redirecting, prayers and help to refocus. God is for us and wants us to succeed. Sometimes life just happens as we live in this fallen world. But remember, we are not of this world, are we? Keep your focus on God and His ways. Stay humble and supple in His hands. Allow the Holy Spirit to help. Invite that! Then be still and watch what God has in store as you remain faithful and focused always.
I'm now counting on God to bring His unfinished message to life through me as we wrap up 1 Peter 5. In it we read to cast all anxiety unto God. He is faithful and will take it, refresh and renew us and strengthen us for the journey ahead. PTL! The Upper Room speaks to us about when life is uncertain and choosing faith. I think it ties to our 1 Peter study too. Check it out below. And Our Daily Bread is a study of love in action. Jesus washed the feet like a humble servant and called us to do the same and love as He has loved us. Serving redirects us and look around at who might need your loving service and do it. Our church vision statement or motto is "Learning to live sacrificially and love lavishly like Jesus." How's that going for you? Armor up and focus on being Jesus like and incarnating Him and His ways and all of a sudden you will realize you have moved through the trial and troubles and have stepped onto the level highway God has prepared for you! That's been my experience often--even this week. COME Lord! Have Your way with me! Refine, equip, protect, refocus and send me as Your beloved, redeemed child on mission with you for such a time as this! Live and love through me! Thanks! Amen!
UR: Life Is Uncertain
You do not even know what will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes. - James 4:14 (NRSVUE)
Ten years ago, my brother-in-law died suddenly from cardiac arrest. Within seconds, his two kids were left fatherless and their young mother became a widow. In the years since, Jesus has sustained the family and helped them through their grief. Though everything else in their lives changed, God did not.
Though in the blink of an eye we may lose everything, God never abandons us. Sometimes in moments of sorrow we can see God’s love for us more clearly. In a day, Job lost his children and possessions. His life, once brimming with blessings, looked like a curse. But he remained faithful, saying, “Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked shall I return. The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord.”
God desires such faith from us — that our devotion to God would remain strong even when we face struggles in life. May we hold on to God’s promises, for they are true. We can take heart knowing that the God who helped Job in his deepest grief is with us too.
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's Prayer
O God, help us to trust in you and you alone, no matter what we face. Amen.
ODB
Handle with Care
A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. John 13:34
Stradivarius violins, cellos, and guitars are among the most treasured musical instruments in the world. Crafted during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, the pieces are rare and invaluable. Something so precious deserves the utmost care. So when a Stradivarius cello—worth more than $20 million—fell off a table during a photo shoot, it was truly shocking!
Just as a Stradivarius must be handled carefully, so must our relationships. We’re to love others because Christ demonstrated His love toward us. In John 13:34, Jesus gave His disciples a command that requires careful attention: “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another.” Why did Christ call it a new command? It was new because it was rooted in the way Jesus loved people. This new command to love wasn’t careless or casual but intentional, precious, and sacrificial. Loving this way would lead to discipleship, self-denial, and possibly even death for the disciples. This care for one another would be how they survived in a difficult and hostile world after Christ’s departure. And Jesus told them, “Everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another” (v. 35).
Let’s carefully and sacrificially love others—reflecting Jesus’ precious and priceless love.
By Marvin Williams
REFLECT & PRAY
Why is it difficult to show love to some people? What can help you love them in a way that reflects the love Jesus revealed?
Dear Jesus, thank You for sacrificially loving me. Please help me love others the same way.
SCRIPTURE INSIGHT
John 13 forms the prelude to Jesus’ Upper Room Discourse (ch. 13-17)—His final teaching time with His disciples before going to the cross. Throughout the discourse, He speaks of the need for those who believe in Him to love one another (13:34-35; 15:12, 17). But before speaking about that important truth, He modeled it by taking upon Himself the place of the lowliest servant and washing His disciples’ feet (13:2-12). He went on to explain that this act was to set an example to them of humble sacrificial service (vv. 12-17). This humble service found its fullest expression when Christ said, “Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends” (15:13). Those powerful words would be enacted in a few short hours as Jesus would lay down His life on the cross to take away the sins of the world. Because of His sacrificial love for us, He can help us sacrificially love others.
LISTEN ONLINE
