Good Morning Patiently Waiting Kingdom Seekers! Patience, patiently waiting and seeking first God's Kingdom are choices we need to make, maybe hourly. How are you doing with that. I already had the opportunity to choose to be patient and allow God to be the Lord of my day and it's only 7 AM! Old nature me would have been all grumbling, mad, and all jammed up trying to get my urgent agenda done. New me is still here seeking God and listening and writing this blog which is my journal notes for today. We are learning and growing into our new nature. We are getting better at seeking first His Kingdom and righteousness. We are getting better at patiently waiting and better at choosing well from all kinds of other choices that come our way daily, even hourly. PTL! Keep working at choosing better. Ask Jesus to be the Lord of your day as you actively, expectantly, with thanksgiving trust Him and stay active about His Kingdom business assigned you for today. AMEN! So be it! Help us Lord!
Check out our devos for today below and just pray into these and allow them to inform your thinking and choices today. God has great plans for you! Rejoice!
PTL for the amazing journey He has allowed us to choose to enter with Him! Keep your eyes fixed on Him. Keep seeking first His kingdom and righteousness and keep trusting as you actively wait on Him. And know His shalom! Amen
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Upper Room: Amazing Journey
Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight. - Proverbs 3:5-6 (NIV)
On a September evening in 1967, I was camping out on the side of an extinct volcano on the island of Rishiri, near the northern Japanese island of Hokkaido. The sky was blue-black and the stars brighter than imaginable. As I admired the beauty of God’s handiwork, I began thinking about my life. Soon I would be 21. Where would I be decades from now? What would I be doing?
Now, 54 years have passed. Several years ago, I realized that my questions that evening on Mount Rishiri, and all those questions I had about life in those early adult years, had been answered.
The verses quoted above were written in the front of a small Bible my girlfriend (now my wife of 55 years) gave me as I entered the US Air Force. While those words meant much to me in my early years, they mean even more to me now in the autumn of life.
Looking toward the future, I have only a few simple questions remaining in comparison to those early years. Yet one thing I know for certain: by trusting my Creator, living the way of Christ, and being surrounded by my Christian family and friends, my remaining questions will be answered by a faithful God.
TODAY'S PRAYER
Dear Lord, thank you for your guidance as we make our way through life. We trust you to direct our steps on this remarkable journey. Amen.
Our Daily Bread:
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The morning commenced like a track meet. I practically jumped out of bed, launching into the teeth of the day’s deadlines. Get the kids to school. Check. Get to work. Check. I blasted full throttle into writing my “To Do” list, in which personal and professional tasks tumbled together in an avalanche-like litany:
“ . . . 13. Edit article. 14. Clean office. 15. Strategic team planning. 16. Write tech blog. 17. Clean basement. 18. Pray.”
By the time I got to number eighteen, I’d remembered that I needed God’s help. But I’d gotten that far before it even occurred to me that I was going at it alone, trying to manufacture my own momentum.
Jesus knew. He knew our days would crash one into another, a sea of ceaseless urgency. So He instructs, “Seek first [God’s] kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well” (Matthew 6:33).
It’s natural to hear Jesus’ words as a command. And they are. But there’s more here—an invitation. In Matthew 6, Jesus invites us to exchange the world’s frantic anxiety (vv. 25–32) for a life of trust, day by day. God, by His grace, helps us all of our days—even when we get to number eighteen on our list before we remember to see life from His perspective.
By Adam Holz
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How can we turn to God first each day? On stressful days, what helps you trust Jesus with things demanding your immediate attention?
Father, thank You for your invitation to relinquish my anxiety and to embrace the life of abundant provision You offer me each day.
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SCRIPTURE INSIGHT
Much of God’s kingdom consists of what’s unseen. In Matthew 6:1, Jesus pointed out that the Pharisees were doing their good deeds to be seen by others. In contrast, He instructs us to give to the poor without others noticing (vv. 1–4). He tells us to pray in secret (vv. 5–6) and not to amass treasure in this visible world but in the world to come (vv. 19–20). Yet the life of faith also includes a trust in our heavenly Father because of what can be seen. Here Jesus points to the birds and the lilies as evidence of His care for us (vv. 26–34).
Tim Gustafson |
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Charles Stanley:
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