Admirably Purposeful

You know the times in which we are living. It’s time for you to wake up. Our salvation is nearer now than when we first became believers.

Romans 13:11 God's Word Translation

How many times have you said, "One of these days, I'm going to..." Did you?

Did you make any New Year resolutions? One of the definitions for "resolute" is to be "admirably purposeful." I love that phrase. Does it describe the intent behind your resolution?

Nothing will ever just happen "one of these days" - and nothing will ever just change "one of these days" unless we are admirably purposeful toward making it happen.

There are 2 times that it scares me most to hear "one of these days." One is when we share the Gospel of Jesus Christ and the person's response is "One of these days, I'll do that, but before then, I need to..." or "I want to..." The other is when we get a nudge in our heart to share the Gospel or reach out to someone and we ignore it thinking that we will do it one of these days and it turns out that the person didn't have many more days...

We know the times in which we are living. It’s time for us to wake up. Our salvation is nearer now than when we first became believers.

Prayer:

Father,
           Help us to walk out Your Word in 1st Corinthians 15:58 - to be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in Your work, knowing that our labor is not in vain. Help us to live our lives admirably purposeful all of our days. In Jesus' Name we pray. Amen

My Resolution

No temptation has overtaken you except such as is common to man; but God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will also make the way of escape, that you may be able to bear it.
1st Corinthians 10:13 NKJV

So, how’s it going with your New Year resolution(s)? Do you make one and stick to it, or do you have a list of them and hope for the best? I used to be so bad about not keeping them. And since I was so bad about them, I decided I needed accountability.

I hate to admit this, but I never used to consult God. I always just made my own list. However, I have learned to bring God into it. I ask Him what should be #1 on my list to correct/improve for the year… The upside to having God as your accountability partner is that He’s with you all the time. The downside to having Him as your accountability partner is your flesh will be screaming because He’s with you all the time. LOL. It’s okay to laugh if you want to, but He’s very faithful about providing the answer and reminding me, if I should start to slack off. And I must say at the end of the year, I am much improved in that area because of His leading…and pushing…and pulling…

All kidding aside, I am so grateful for God's faithfulness and His mercy and His grace and His unfailing love and...

The wake-up moment for me was when I realized that making the choice to follow Him in the first place should already have brought that kind of commitment to my life. The other thing I’ve learned is that when I made the list on my own, I was not able to keep it on my own. When I follow God’s choice, He gives me His strength to overcome and I am victorious through Him.

So, here’s my resolution. I will follow Christ.

Prayer:

Father,
           We resolve to follow You. More of You will fix whatever’s wrong in our lives. We want more of You, Lord. In Jesus’ Name we pray. Amen

Different

Create in me a clean heart, O God. Renew a loyal spirit within me.
Psalm 51:10 NLT

It's interesting to me how we spend the last week of December praying for change, hoping for it to happen come the first of the new year, even make resolutions to effect said change, but by day three, most are ready to quit or at the very least, to compromise.

Globally, the number one resolution is usually losing weight or getting healthier... but cutting out sugar is harder than we expected. We'd like to walk more so we can be fit, but to get in 10,000 steps a day is an awful lot like exercise... And eating more healthful foods actually requires food prep and cooking. Who has time for all that? The truth is, we want to be different, but we don't want to do what it takes to actually make it/us different.

Do we do the same thing with God in the new year? The number one Christian resolution is spending more time in God's Word. We're going to read the Bible through in a year, but by the end of the first week, we're behind and trying to catch up on the reading! Yes, praise God, His mercies are new every morning, but we can't honestly expect a difference if we're not willing to DO things differently.

Prayer:

Father,
            Have mercy on me, O God, because of your unfailing love. Because of your great compassion, blot out the stain of my sins. Wash me clean from my guilt. Purify me from the sin of complacency. For I recognize my rebellion; it haunts me day and night. Purify me from my sins, and I will be clean; wash me, and I will be whiter than snow. Do not banish me from your presence, and don’t take your Holy Spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of your salvation, and make me willing to obey you. In Jesus' Name we pray. Amen

Bread Lovers

Jesus said, “I tell you the truth, Moses didn’t give you the bread from heaven. My Father did. And now he offers you the true bread from heaven. The true bread of God is the one who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.”
“Sir,” they said, “give us that bread every day.”
Jesus replied, “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never be hungry again."
John 6:32-35a NLT

How are you doing with your New Year resolution(s)? I'm sure you know the number one resolution is to lose weight/get healthy, yet on average, more than 80% fail to keep their resolution. It's not easy. I don't want to admit that I've tried most of the diets that are out there, and I think I could be more successful if someone else would cook the food. I really enjoy a lot of the recipes but I hate to cook. That being said, the only recipe I didn't mind making on a regular basis was the alternate bread recipes. I would fire up the oven even in the summer and knead the dough because I.love.bread...of any kind.

One of my favorite Scriptures used to be Give us this day our daily bread...  The reality is, as you well know, that's a request for provision, not as a response to polyphagia. However, just as we require sustenance for our physical needs to live, how much more do we require sustenance for our spiritual wellbeing? John 1:1-2 tells us, In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. In Scripture, bread is symbolic of the Word of God, and Jesus confirms it when He tells us He is the Bread of Life, the true bread. 

Think about this for a moment. We don't physically fast 6 days a week on a regular basis, so why would we think we could fast spiritually for ANY days, let alone from one Sunday to the next with no bread in between? In a world obsessed with fat-free, zero-calorie, and net carbs, we need to become Bread lovers once again.

Prayer:

Father, 

          Let us be able to say and live our lives as Job declared, I have treasured the words of His mouth more than my necessary food. In Jesus' Name we pray. Amen

Nothing

I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing.
John 15:5 NKJV

New Year Resolutions. Fitness regimens. Weight loss plans. Fasts. All efforts to improve ourselves - to make our lives better. Great starts, no doubt. However, the success of any of these lies in answer to the question - has Christ been included in our choices? Do we believe we can succeed without Him? Proverbs 19:21 NLT tells us, You can make many plans, but the Lord’s purpose will prevail.  So let's consult Him from the get-go.

Paul directs us in Romans 12:1-2a in the Message Bible paraphrase, So here’s what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life—your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life—and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for him. Don’t become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You’ll be changed from the inside out.

You want change in your life? Seek God. He tells us plainly, for without Me you can do nothing.

Nothing!

Prayer:

Father,

           Help us to fully realize that apart from You we can do nothing that will last. We invite You into every part of our lives, Father. We want to accomplish Kingdom living. In Jesus' Name we pray. Amen

Resolute

You know the times in which we are living. It’s time for you to wake up. Our salvation is nearer now than when we first became believers.
Romans 13:11 God's Word Translation

There's been much talk in the last week about how quickly this year has ended and how much didn't get done because there seemed to be no time to do it. Almost as if someone pulled a month or so out of the calendar year to shorten it. Of course, we know that didn't happen, but it seems that way.

Have you come up with a resolution for the new year? Is it short term or long term? Is it eternal?  According to the University of Scranton, Journal of Clinical Psychology, "People who explicitly make resolutions are 10 times more likely to attain their goals than people who don't explicitly make resolutions." You know, people who are resolute in their resolutions.

If you look up the word 'resolute', it is defined as "admirably purposeful, determined, unwavering, steadfast, unshakable." Do any of those describe the intent behind your resolution?

How many times have you said, "One of these days, I'm going to..."  Think about that for a moment. Then answer this question: Have you done whatever it was that you were going to do "one of these days"?  Nothing will ever just happen "one of these days" - and nothing will ever just change "one of these days" unless we are admirably purposeful and determined.

There are two times that it scares me most to hear "one of these days." One is when we share the Gospel of Jesus Christ and the person's response is "One of these days, I'll do that, but before then, I need to..." or "I want to..." The other is when we get a nudge in our heart to share the Gospel or reach out to someone and we ignore it thinking that we will do it one of these days and it turns out that the person didn't have many more days...

We know the times in which we are living. It’s time for us to wake up. Our salvation is nearer now than when we first became believers.

Prayer:

Father,
           Help us to walk out Your Word in 1st Corinthians 15:58 - to be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in Your work, knowing that our labor is not in vain. Help us to live our lives admirably purposeful for all of our days. In Jesus' Name we pray. Amen

Priorities

But the Lord said to Samuel, “Do not look on his appearance or on the height of his stature, because I have rejected him. For the Lord sees not as man sees: man looks on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart.”
1st Samuel 16:7 ESV

Did you make any New Year resolutions? The top two resolutions for last year were about making some sort of self improvement or losing weight. Three weeks later, how are you doing with those? What are your priorities? What are you looking for? What's most important to you?   

Maybe you decided this would be the year you would finally read the Bible all the way through but you're already 10 days behind... According to www.statisticbrain.com, 42.4% of "those who make resolutions never succeed and fail on their resolution each year." Before you get totally discouraged, statistics also show that "People who explicitly make resolutions are 10 times more likely to attain their goals than people who don't explicitly make resolutions." Explicitly. Write it down. Remember that God told Habakkuk, (in 2:2 NKJV), Write the vision And make it plain on tablets, That he may run who reads it.  (Not in context, but the concept is appropriate.) Keep it in front of you. Set attainable goals. 

Prioritize. You might never sit down to read all 10 days in one sitting, so you're tempted to just give up. However, you might accomplish two days' reading in one sitting in which case, you'd be back on track in 10 days (or 1½ days' reading and be caught up in the next three weeks). 

You may be asking, what does this have to do with priorities and our Promise for Today? In my mind, resolutions are about decisions to change and setting priorities. Making decisions for better health are good. You'll look better, feel better, live longer perhaps; but God doesn't look at our appearance. He looks at our heart. So are we setting priorities to please people or please God? 

Prayer:

Father,
            We pray as King David instructed his son, Solomon - to know You and serve You with a whole heart and a willing mind because You search all hearts and understand every plan and thought. Your Word promises that if we seek You, we will find You. Holy Spirit, guide us in our priorities. In Jesus' Name we pray. Amen

* One of These Days

You know the times in which we are living. It’s time for you to wake up. Our salvation is nearer now than when we first became believers.
Romans 13:11 God's Word Translation

How many times have you said, "One of these days, I'm going to..." 

Think about that for a moment. Then answer this question: Have you done whatever it was that you were going to do "one of these days"? 

There's been much talk in the last week about how quickly the year ended and how much didn't get done because there seemed to be no time to do it. Almost as if someone pulled a month or so out of the calendar year to shorten it. Of course, we know that didn't happen, but it seems to have passed very quickly... and here we are at Day 2 of another new year. 

Did you come up with a resolution for the year? Is it short term or long term? Is it eternal? It may seem a bit premature to ask, but how are you doing with it? 

Losing weight/getting healthy is the number one New Year resolution, followed closely by getting organized. According to the University of Scranton, Journal of Clinical Psychology, "People who explicitly make resolutions are 10 times more likely to attain their goals than people who don't explicitly make resolutions."  You know, people who are resolute in their resolutions.

If you look up the word 'resolute', it is defined as "admirably purposeful, determined, unwavering, steadfast, unshakable." Do any of those describe the intent behind your resolution?

Nothing will ever just happen "one of these days" - and nothing will ever just change "one of these days" unless we are admirably purposeful and determined. 

There are 2 times that it scares me most to hear "one of these days." One is when we share the Gospel of Jesus Christ and the person's response is "One of these days, I'll do that, but before then, I need to..." or "I want to..." The other is when we get a nudge in our heart to share the Gospel or reach out to someone and we ignore it thinking that we will do it one of these days and it turns out that the person didn't have many more days... 

We know the times in which we are living. It’s time for us to wake up. Our salvation is nearer now than when we first became believers.

Prayer:

Father,
         Help us to walk out Your Word in 1st Corinthians 15:58 - to be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in Your work, knowing that our labor is not in vain. Help us to live our lives admirably purposeful all of our days. In Jesus' Name we pray. Amen