Good Morning Very Loved, Loving, Becoming to God Becomers! I just can't get off that theme as we have been working on becoming all that we were created to be and be all-in working on our custom made and custom gifted to achieve assignments for God! What blessing and joy we can know as we live more fully like Jesus and go love better like Him! God loves us and calls us by name and sends us to love like Him! He loves us so much and desires for us to reach our fullest potential that he shows us refining, patient love too as we get pruned to produce more and better fruit. PTL! And thank God for our freedom to choose Him, His ways, His best and to die to self, take up cross and follow Jesus. Check out our devos below and worship, adore and offer much thanksgiving! Also check out the praying a Psalm idea with Kim's Blog from harvest ministries below. See you today on Zoom Huddle and / or tonight at our Thanksgiving Eve Eve taco Tues celebration. Come and worship! PTL with hearts filled with gratitude and thanksgiving. Be ALL you CAN be!
Here's some prayer starters from Harvest Prayer that tie to our devotions today. How awesome is our God! PTL!
"Praise God, the One who is your "Light and Salvation" Ps. 27:1). Thank Him for shining His saving light in your darkness, Confess times when you've prefered to live in darkness of sinful actions and habits rather than in the light of Jesus. Commit yourself anew to living in His light. Ask God to surround you every day this week with His Light and Salvation. Pray for opportunities to spread God's light in the lives of family members and friends who do not know Jesus as Savior and Lord. Ask God to touch lives with the Gospel. Intercede for outreach ministries of your church and denomination. Pray for financial needs to be met. Ask that they will clearly show forth the light of the Good News through their ministries. [PTL for doing that already at St. Matts.] Ask that the love of Jesus will meet needs and sooth every hurting heart. Pray by name for someone you know who has yet committed to life in Christ. Ask God to reveal how you can be a spiritual help to that person. " Amen and ask God to show you who to invite OR BRING ALONG TO ONE OF OUR GATHERINGS THROUGH CHRISTMAS AND FOR COUAGE AND THE OPPORTUNNITY TO INVITE.
Pray with much thanksgiving and expectation for BIG GOD things and every little one too! he loves to answer our prayers from hearts filled with thanksgiving and love!
Kim's Blog: https://www.harvestprayer.com/creative-prayer-idea-a-psalm-of-thanksgiving/
ODB: Pronounce this Isaiah verse over you...He who created you...calls you by name...(read it all out loud inserting your name for Israel. Pronounce your prodigals returning!)
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As a boy, Ming found his father harsh and distant. Even when Ming was ill and had to see the pediatrician, his father grumbled that it was troublesome. Once, he overheard a quarrel and learned his father had wanted him aborted. The feeling of being an unwanted child followed him into his adult years. When Ming became a believer in Jesus, he found it difficult to relate to God as Father, even though he knew Him as Lord of his life.
If, like Ming, we haven’t felt loved by our earthly fathers, we may face similar doubts in our relationship with God. We may wonder, Am I a burden to Him? Does He care about me? But while our earthly fathers may have been silent and distant, God our heavenly Father comes close and says, “I love you” (Isaiah 43:4).
In Isaiah 43, God speaks as our Creator and as a Father. If you wonder whether He wants you to live under His care as part of His family, hear what He said to His people: “Bring my sons from afar and my daughters from the ends of the earth” (v. 6). If you wonder what you’re worth to Him, hear His affirmation: “You are precious and honored in my sight” (v. 4).
God loves us so much that He sent Jesus to pay the penalty of sin so that we who believe in Him can be with Him forever (John 3:16). Because of what He says and what He’s done for us, we can have full confidence that He wants us and loves us.
By Жасмин Го
REFLECT & PRAY
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What’s your experience of relating to God as a Father? How can you remind yourself that you’re precious to Him?
Father, I want to live each day as Your child, precious and honored in Your sight.
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SCRIPTURE INSIGHT
Twice in Isaiah 43, God’s precious people are commanded not to be afraid: “Do not fear, for I have redeemed you” (v. 1), and “Do not be afraid, for I am with you” (v. 5). The pattern of “fear not . . . for” followed by a divine action is consistently repeated in Scripture when God instructs His people not to be afraid (see Genesis 15:1; Deuteronomy 31:6; Isaiah 41:10). To restrain fear, some promise, action, or truth about God is stated. Redemptive action (an act of rescue or salvation) comes into view in Isaiah 43:1. Though a tough path lay ahead for the Israelites (v. 2), their Savior would be with them (v. 3). God’s presence restrains fear (v. 5). How reassuring to know that regardless of where life leads, we needn’t fear. The psalmist said, “Even though I walk through the darkest valley, I will fear no evil, for you are with me” (Psalm 23:4).
Arthur Jackson |
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UR: The True Gardener (BLOOM you children of God!)
Jesus said, “I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener.” - John 15:1 (NIV)
Every spring I anticipated the white and lilac blossoms of my wisteria bursting from the branches. I was always surprised by their beauty. But for the last two years my plants have had fewer blooms. Virginia Creeper vines were slowly strangling my wisteria. Every time my husband and I removed a vine, another one would take its place.
Similarly I have allowed my own circumstances to stifle my relationship with God — losing my son in a car wreck, caring for my mother as she slowly slipped away due to Alzheimer’s, and watching my husband struggle with cancer. I was trying to handle all of this alone and found it hard to give control over to God. Instead, I began questioning the challenges. Why was I experiencing so much heartache?
As time passed, I realized I could never bloom alone. I needed to remember the promise of Jesus. He is the true vine, and when we remain connected to Christ, we can find new life springing from heartache or despair.
TODAY'S PRAYER
Dear Lord, help us to turn to you for help so that our love for you can bloom, bringing joy to our lives and glory to you. Amen.Charles Stanley: (Is this you? Bringing Jesus alive? Letting Jesus live and love through you?)
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