Promise for Today - Trading the Truth

 They traded the truth about God for a lie. So they worshiped and served the things God created instead of the Creator himself, who is worthy of eternal praise! Amen.

Romans 1:25

I get angry when people take truths and principles from the Word of God, then pull them out and twist them and turn them and pervert them until they're hardly recognizable - and then want to claim them as The Secret or the latest, greatest discovery of THEIR OWN. How to do this and how to do that and how to live positively and on and on it goes, and none of it gives honor to Whom honor is due. None of them credit God as the Author and Creator. The credo of mankind today - worldwide - "It's all about me! It's all about what I want!" It's all about greed, and greed, my friend, equals lust. In the King James Bible, it reads, "lust of the flesh, lust of the eye, and the pride of life..." 

1st John 2:15-17 The Message reads, "Don't love the world's ways. Don't love the world's goods. Love of the world squeezes out love for the Father. Practically everything that goes on in the world—wanting your own way, wanting everything for yourself, wanting to appear important—has nothing to do with the Father. It just isolates you from him. The world and all its wanting, wanting, wanting is on the way out—but whoever does what God wants is set for eternity."

Mark 8:36 warns us, "For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?"

You need something? Go to God. You want to know something you've never known? Go to God. You want to live positively? You want true peace? Contentment? All that you truly NEED? GO TO GOD! Go to Him as your Father, the Creator, Almighty God. El Shaddai, El Elyonah, Adonai. 

Who are we that He is mindful of us? Let's get it in the proper perspective. He is God and we are NOT! Don't trade the Truth for anyone or anything. 

Prayer:

Father,
         You alone are God. You alone are the Creator! You are righteous and You are holy and merciful and full of grace!  You alone are worthy to be praised! Our lives and our only hope is in You alone! Break the scales off our eyes and the chains from our hearts! Help us to show those living in this lost and dying world who You are and that it's You they're really looking for. In Jesus' Name we pray. Amen

What You Need

[Jesus speaking] "So don't worry about these things, saying, 'What will we eat? What will we drink? What will we wear?' These things dominate the thoughts of unbelievers, but your heavenly Father already knows all your needs. Seek the Kingdom of God above all else, and live righteously, and he will give you everything you need."

Matthew 6:31-33 NLT

I'm going back to one of my landmarks to give God praise yet again, to testify to you who I know God to be, and to remind myself of what I know. 

I had a bill come in that was totally unexpected. I was not happy. I talked about it to several of my friends. You know, complaining,  ‘Oh Woe is me... Wah Wah! Call the Wahmbulance...’ 

Then God talked to ME about it.

I don't mean physically came down and talked to me. I mean Scripture that I've read popped into my head or I was reminded by something I heard or read elsewhere. Till finally, I asked God to forgive me for not trusting Him in all things. I'm ashamed about how quickly I'd forgotten His provision for me. I slapped myself like a V-8 commercial and said aloud, "God, You are my Provider. You have always been and You always will be. I choose You. I don't know how You will, but I know YOU and I know You will."

The next day, in going through some files at the office, I found an expense report that was six months old. It had no marking that it had been processed, so I called and asked about it. It had not been processed. It was a little less than one-third of the unexpected bill, but I thanked God for it. Unexpected provision. Then I got a check in the mail from an insurance company to inform me that in closing a case, they discovered they had underpaid me... an amount that, combined with the expense report, paid in full the unexpected bill.

...but your heavenly Father already knows all your needs... I'm not talking about prosperity or a Gimme God. He's not a good luck charm. He knows what we NEED. It's as true today as it was then.

What do you need? Do you need a Savior? You need peace? You need wisdom? You need healing? His Word promises that He will give us everything we need. Maybe it's not always the way we plan or think, but when we go to Him, when we trust Him, God supplies what we need for the demands on our lives. 

Prayer:

Father,

          You are all I need. Thank You for always being there for me in spite of myself. Help me to get me out of the way of what You want to do in my life. In Jesus' Name I pray. Amen

What Do You Want?

Do not judge others, and you will not be judged. Do not condemn others, or it will all come back against you. Forgive others, and you will be forgiven. Give, and you will receive. 
Luke 6:37-38a NLT

So often, we want to be the judge of what we want and or need from life. We want to make our own decisions about those things that concern us. Well, what DO we want out of life? Peace. To love and be loved. Make a decent living. Have people like us and not be judged by them. Maybe not necessarily in that order.

What do we need out of life? Security, Love, Forgiveness... Also, maybe not necessarily in that order.

Want and need are actually two very different criterion; yet, if we follow God's instruction, we find both. If we don't judge, we won't be judged. (Love) If we forgive, we will be forgiven. (Forgiveness) If we give, we will receive. (Security) It's rather straightforward. It really is as simple as our Promise for Today lays it out for us. Judge for yourself.

Prayer:

Father,
         Open our eyes of understanding and soften our hearts to receive Your Word. Give us wisdom, O God. Help us to know and understand Your will for us. We want to live as You would have us to live, holy and acceptable unto You. In Jesus' Name we pray. Amen

What I Want

[Paul writing] I thank Christ Jesus our Lord, who has given me strength to do his work. He considered me trustworthy and appointed me to serve him, even though I used to blaspheme the name of Christ. In my insolence, I persecuted his people. But God had mercy on me because I did it in ignorance and unbelief. Oh, how generous and gracious our Lord was! He filled me with the faith and love that come from Christ Jesus. This is a trustworthy saying, and everyone should accept it: “Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners”—and I am the worst of them all. But God had mercy on me so that Christ Jesus could use me as a prime example of his great patience with even the worst sinners. Then others will realize that they, too, can believe in him and receive eternal life. All honor and glory to God forever and ever! He is the eternal King, the unseen one who never dies; he alone is God. Amen

1st Timothy 1:12-17 NLT

What I want...

Father,

          Thank You for Your faithfulness and trustworthiness in our lives. Thank You for always keeping Your end of the Covenant even when we've broken ours. Father, we want to be faithful to You. We want our hearts, our minds, our souls - our wills to be faithful to You and to Your ways. We have not been. We've been faithful to our flesh and to our feelings. Please forgive us, Lord. Let us - help us to be people who can and who will be faithful - fully trustworthy to Your will for our lives.

Help us to see past the failures and inabilities in our lives and to put them behind us. Let us see and hear only what You would have us to do and be. Cause us to put You first. Help us to die to our flesh - to be dead to our worldly desires and alive to only You. Let it be said of us, Father, that we are faithful because of You. Cause our will to line up perfectly with Yours. Put a guard over our words - Your arm around our shoulders and Your hand over our mouths. We don't want to be a toothache or a twisted ankle like is written in Proverbs 25:19.

Thank You for all the immediate responses to our heart's desires. Forgive us, Lord, of ALL our unfaithfulness. Forgive us for all the times we have failed You. Replace our wandering hearts with whole hearts toward You and what You would have us to be and do. Father, Your Word tells us so we KNOW that You are at work in us both to WILL and to DO...

Give us the strength, the courage of conviction. Cause the Holy Spirit to bring all things to our remembrance - such things as are needful and necessary to complete the work You have assigned to our lives. Father, in our daily - everyday lives - we have not been faithful. We own that and ask You to change our hearts. We pray Your Word in Isaiah 64:8, O Lord, you are our Father. We are the clay, and you are the potter. We all are formed by your hand.  We want to be more like You, Father. Engrave Your image on our hearts. Cause our love to be agape. In Jesus' Name we pray. Amen