Seeing everything in life as an opportunity to worship God!
Ps 32:3-7, 1 Pet 1:6-8, Rom 8:37, Gal 4:7, Rom 8:17, Isa 54:17, 1 Cor 15:57, Although I am unable to say much today, I do want to share this song and the Scriptures that go with it so that you and I can worship to it and receive encouragement through the texts sited above! … Read more
There is so much comfort that comes with knowing someone is with us! We aren’t facing this life without help or community. Our Lord wants us to know that we are not facing anything in this life without Him being with us. Mary was told to name her Son Jesus, Immanuel, to assure us that God is with us. Psalm 23:6 reassures us that God walks through even the darkest valleys with us. His rod and staff provide protection and leadership in those dark valleys!
It is our God that broke the chains of sin in our lives. My King came and rescued me! I sing my praises to the God who provided a complete solution to my helpless situation! His love fills my heart now. In Him I find my refuge, and joy is the result of looking to Him for all of these things!
So, what is the key to stopping this from happening? Faith. I truly believe that our lack of peace in times of trials comes from our fundamental belief in God. As we seen in both Job and Horatio’s experience, both losing just about everything they had in horrible circumstances, they were able to respond with an unwavering trust that God’s ways are good and right. They were able to declare with absolute certainty that the Lord’s will is best and they will accept His purpose.
Although I do understand how a person can be sorrowful at this time, I still feel a real call to exhort everyone to choose joy! Joy is a choice, it is an invitation to come and behold the King! When the Wise Men of Matthew 2 saw the star that was pointing them to the Babe, they shouted joyfully and went to Him immediately! This would be my encouragement to you as well! Shout for Joy, Jesus is here!
He came to “Save us all from Satan’s power when we were gone astray”! The bible tells us that we all like sheep have gone astray, and Jesus is the Good Shepherd that came to restore us to the Father again. God, the Son, truly is the hope for all mankind and has been born to give us all life! I pray that you are experiencing that hope and life, and that your life is not lived in a constant state of distress.
The Advent, or arrival, of Peace truly became accessible to humanity when Jesus arrived in this world! He is our peace!
Peace is equivalent to wholeness, oneness, rest, and stillness. It is interesting to think about the word peace in that way, because for me when I think of peace I usually think of it in terms of the absence of war, or chaos. Well, although that is true, it goes far beyond the absence of something by giving us the presence of something else instead – wholeness!
The plan that included a Babe in a manger, resulted in all of humanity having access to forgiveness and reconciliation to the very God we offend and reject daily! God is not holding the worlds sins against them, but pleading with us all to be reconciled to Him through Jesus! That means that He removed the very thing that was blocking all of us from experiencing Him – sin. Christ became that sin for us, so that we can finally stand righteous before Him!
This thing that happened in Bethlehem is happening in hearts all around the world! People are responding to the invitation to have peace with God through a Divine experience with the Christ who dwells in the realm of glory forever! Have you?
Worship the God of our salvation today, thanking Him for giving us the Christ for our peace!
It is so important to keep our eyes fixed upon the Savior of our souls in these times. Maybe you can’t see Him anymore in your situation, my encouragement to you is to quiet yourself enough you to listen for and hear His voice leading you out of your storm!