><//>--------------------Thought for the Day
I have learned to live one day at a time. I have finally realized the great fact that all I have is "right now – today." This sweeps away all vain regret and it makes my thoughts of the future free of fear. The "now" is mine. I can do what I want with it. I own it, for better or worse. What I do now, in this present moment, is what makes up my life. My whole life is a succession of "now(s)". I will take this moment, which has been given to me by the grace of God, and I will do something with it. What I do with each now, will make me or break me.
Am I living in the "the now?"
><//>--------------------Meditation for the Day
No Unemployment
The way of conquest over the material, the temporal, which all My disciple’s should know, is learned by conquest of the physical, the self-life, in each of us.
So seek, in all things, to conquer. Take this as a very definite Guidance. Circumstances are adverse. Temporal power, as money, needs to be forthcoming.
Then seek daily more and more to obtain this self-conquest, and you are gaining surely, though you may not see it, conquest over the temporal forces and powers.
Unemployment would cease if man realized this.
If he has not the work let him make himself a conquering force, beginning with the conquest of all evil in himself, then in his home, then all around him. He will have become a force that will be needed, and must be employed.
There are no idle hours in My Kingdom. Waiting may seem a time of inactivity as for as the outer world is concerned, but it can, and should, be a time of great activity in the inner life, and the surrounding material plane.
><//>--------------------Prayer for the Day
Father, we pray that we may strive to over come our selfishness. We pray that we may achieve the right perspective of our position in Christ and in the world. Amen.
A Disciple’s Reflections – God Doesn't Say -NO- Pt II
Dearest beloved, let us continue our discussion about assured answered prayer.
There is a question I once had posed to me that had shaken my entire life. Allow me to share this question with you.
The question was "Do I comprehend the Power that would be unleashed in the world for good were most believers to walk in the BELIEF that we should?"
Imagine our lives demonstrating the result of answered prayer in the eyes of the world. This is what the devil, being a thief, steals before all else, because it is the most powerful, valuable, and precious gift a believer has that can be used against him. I wish to help all believers brought into contact with me to take back from the devil what has been so easily handed over to him. Let us not continue in the same error as our forefather Adam committed.
There is NOTHING more important to a believer for a victorious, happy, and useful life than the power of God in this evil world. Therefore, let us continue mining this precious truth until we get all that the Lord makes available to us.
Belief
Let us continue to understand that which most pleases God, and let us also remain aware that this is why we were created in the first place – to please Him. Nothing has more effect on the response we receive regarding our prayers, then having the attitude within us to please God above all else. This is not really difficult. For that which pleases God is revealed in the Bible in the Life of Yeshua, Jesus, just as He appears – no real digging required.
…and without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to Him must believe… and that He rewards those who earnestly seek Him.
– Hebrews 11: 6
I must always remember that it isn’t so much what I say as it is what I do. We’ve all heard of – 'talking the talk' –, but it is those who – 'walk the walk' – who know the reality of answered prayer.
To walk by faith is simply to believe what God says, and nothing can please Him more than that. We may stumble, and appear as clumsy in our walk as babes, but because it’s based on believing God, it’s worth more to Him than a life of great worldly success from those who trust in themselves or in the things of man.
I’ve had to ask myself the question above many times since my new birth. Do I seek the Kingdom of God, (spiritual life) first knowing that all else will be added unto me? Or do I seek all else first, and think that God will be added unto me? For the answer, all I need do is look how I’m behaving and what my priorities are in my life right now – today.
Dear one, here's a few more questions one should continue to ask daily. 'What do I seek more, a wife or husband, or drawing closer to God?' I prefer the latter since if God wills that I marry, then I can leave the whole thing up to Him, and it will happen. Am I happier doing what I like to do, or in what God wants me to do? Well, on this one we would think doing the will of God would be more to our liking, but in many cases this is not true, at least not at first.
Obedience to the will of God is much akin to jumping into a pool with cold water. It can be really uncomfortable at first, but eventually we get acclimated and then prefer it, and in some cases, actually glory in it.
Let us look at the example of our Lord who at one point sweats blood at the thought of obeying God's will. Some thought that He was sweating at the thought of the Cross, but that's not the case. He was sweating blood at the thought of becoming Sin, and being separated for the first time in all Eternity from His Father, Our Father.
That's the only cup He desired passing Him by, yet He took it, and now it's His greatest glory. Forever, we will honor Him for all He has done for each of us on that Cross, many of whom weren't even yet born.
Using myself as a personal example when I finally, after much delay, obeyed God and took a humble service job I didn’t want. It turned out to be the most enjoyable and profitable endeavor I ever had in my life. Go figure!
That’s just the way it is when we trust in Him for everything, and trust Him completely. Let us also remember how our Father turned a Cross of humiliation and death into the greatest glory for all time for Messiah. Certainly, He can turn our minor crosses, by comparison, into the glories of our lives as well. Precious one, this is God's intent if we would only believe and trust in Him for everything.
What does all this have to do with answered prayer, one may ask?
Allow me to share this that we may all have knowledge of the truth and be free.
When we are living a life based on our concerns instead of God’s concerns, then in all things we are going to be miles from His will. Our prayers will be more like whining, or that of a spoiled child asking for things that will do us no good, or actual harm. God responds to those prayers pretty much as we would – as though the self-involved prayers were more like childish noise.
I became aware long ago that God may very well have given us children that by their behavior we can see what we are doing to Him.
He initially turns His ears from selfish prayer giving us room to come around on our own, as we often do with our own children. Then, if we don’t get the message, He begins to discipline us, as an earthly parent would, to bring us around to His way of thinking. Let us consider that all those bad things that happen to good people is really one way that God applies His loving discipline to our lives.
Let us also take note of one more important fact, dear one.
Prayers that originate in the human self are as grit in the heart of God. But the prayers of men or women who live to please God and keep Him in the center of their thinking find that their prayers come from Him in the first place. When a righteous man or woman prays he or she simply send back to God that which He has placed on their hearts. God and man, in perfect agreement, leads to perfectly answered prayer.
We believers already know we are only perfect because of what Yeshua, Jesus, has done. That's a blessing that never changes.
I wonder how many years the Jewish people prayed for their Messiah only to miss Him when He came to them. Why? They couldn't see Him because they had their own agenda apart from God. They had an agenda that would appear normal to men, but nonetheless, apart from God. This is not too different from the deeds of America's enemies. They do things that make sense to some men, but are far from the heart of God.
Let us not do the same by living our lives in our own desires, but rather let us live with Messiah in mind, let us dwell in the desires of God's own heart.
We will then know the joy of joys when experiencing continually – the Power of answered prayer. Let us rejoice together beloved as we are awashed in the power, mercy, and the love of God
More to come...
Today's Verse – Witnesses Must Have Power
But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth. – Acts 1:8/NIV
Thought... God has a plan to reach the world with his grace. We start where we are and reach out to those around us. We then share the story of Jesus with those in region. Then we reach out and take the gospel all over the world. As we offer ourselves to be used, we also trust that Holy Spirit's power and presence will go with us.
Prayer... Father, use me to reach those around me with your grace. bless our congregation as we share Jesus with those in our city. Father, I also ask that you bless our outreach efforts world-wide. Please use us to fulfill your plan to reach all nations with the message of Jesus, in whose name I pray. Amen.
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Please have a blessed day, be hopeful, be encouraged, and know you are not alone.
-Gods Calling- compiled by A. J. Russell.
-Twenty Four Hours A Day- Hazelton (adapted)
Phil Ware offers Today's Verse.
Barry Gray writes A Disciple’s Reflections.
