Monthly Archives: May 2020

…continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you to will and to act according to his good purpose-. (Philippians 2:12-13 NIV)

Fear in this verse refers to an awareness of God’s awesome presence.  Recognize that God is on your side.  He wants to help you.  The Lord is your shepherd.  He wants to guide you into those things that will fulfill His good plan and purpose in your life.

You’ve heard the Latin phrase carpe diem or seize the day—David’s motto might have been coram deo, which means living life in the presence of God.  It is one way of accounting for David’s rich outpouring of poetry and praise, graciously preserved by God in His Word.

An awareness of God’s presence in your life will lead you into praise and thanksgiving.

How do you see God at work in your life?

“He who loves his brother abides in the light” ~(1 John 2:10a NKJV)

Have you ever felt heavy, depressed, and “out of it” in your spirit—like everything was dark around you?  When I think of depression, I think of darkness.

When I am depressed, I ask the Holy Spirit to examine my heart to see what is really behind that depression.  I believe that in every circumstance, behind any depression, is some unconfessed sin.

If you have some unresolved sin in your life, it is as though you are walking inside a dark cloud.  When you look at life around you, you need to peer through the darkened mist—and everything looks gloomy and depressing.

But if, instead you walk in the light, you will not be depressed.  Jesus tells us that we are the light of the world and that we are to let our light so shine that men will follow our example and glorify our Father in heaven.

Dear Heavenly Father,

Today help us to see that if we have sin in our lives, it is an area of darkness.  It keeps us from the light.  And when we are “out of it,” it’s usually related to some area of darkness.  Let the Holy Spirit shine His light in those areas and expose the sin so that we might confess it and be free.

In Jesus’s Name,

Amen.

Faith is contagious.

The greatest lesson of faith you can pass on to your own children is the example of faith they see daily in your life.

Your children will see your faith, feel your faith, and hear your faith—in turn, they will repeat your words of faith and model your works of faith.

If you give thanks often for good things that come your way, your children, who overhear you, will learn to do the same.

If you give praise to God for His presence in your life, your children will overhear you praising God and will also praise Him.

How can your family praise God together?

“You will keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on You, because he trusts in You.” (Isaiah 26:3 NKJV)

Sometimes it is difficult to keep our minds “stayed” on the Lord.  When we look at our circumstances and the difficulties around us, it is easy to pick up those difficulties and really fall apart with them.   have sometimes found that I have had to discipline my mind severely.  When my soul wanted to worry and worry and worry, my mind would react with fear.

To combat this, I began to memorize certain chapters of the Bible.  One time I memorized the book of James.  Another time I memorized the book of Matthew.  Even another time I memorized the book of Proverbs.  Those are some of the sweetest, richest times in my life because I had my mind so filled with the Word.  I would go over the scriptures early in the morning, again at noon, and one more time before I went to sleep.  My mind became so saturated with the Word that I maintained tremendous peace.  Of course, having the Word of God in your heart gives the Holy Spirit the opportunity to bring it to your mind at other times when you need peace.

Dear Heavenly Father,

Help us to take the scriptures so seriously that we don’t PLAY with them; we USE them, literally, in our daily walk.

In Jesus’s Name,

Amen.