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 John 12:27-28 “Now my heart is troubled, and what shall I say? ‘Father, save me from this hour’? No, it was for this very reason I came to this hour. Father, glorify your name!” |
Glory In The Grind When did Jesus bring God the Father the most glory? When all his needs were met? When there were no waves in the water? When everyone was well? When there was enough wine at the wedding and enough food to feed five thousand? No! Rather, when there was lack and need and weakness.  The
Apostle Paul learned this lesson so well that he could actually pen these
words “Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so
that Christ’s power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ’s sake, I
delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in
difficulties. For when I am weak, then (in God) I am strong.” II Corinthians
12:9-10My
gracious God has taught me the same lesson in these past months; to embrace
feelings of fear, anxiety, weakness and insufficiency as opportunity to walk
by faith and experience God’s sufficient grace that enables me to bring Him
glory in the grind.Our Savior
brought God glory when He was willing to come in the form of a baby.
(Philippians 2:6-7) When He was tempted forty days by the devil and sinned
not. (Luke 4:1-13) When they hurled insults at him and he did not retaliate.
When He suffered and made no threats. (I Peter 2:23) And when he humbled
himself and became obedient in death, even death on a cross! (Philippians
2:8)Anyone can
bring God a measure of glory when the going is good. But the real glory for
God is in the grind, when the going is not good. When the baby cried all
night and you must draw your strength from God to shine for Him through the
day. When the diagnosis is cancer and you continue to proclaim that your God
works all things for good. When you are treated unlovely and you entrust
yourself to God and respond with His love. (I Peter 2:19-23) Whew, now
that’s when God gets the glory!When the
going is not so good, let’s endeavor, through the power of His Spirit that
is at work in us, to bring Him glory in the grind! Prayer Father God, You who are able to do immeasurably more than all I can ask or imagine, according to your power that is at work within me. I invite you to empower me at all times, especially when I am weak, in need and/or afraid, so that I may bring you glory in the grind as my Savior did. Thank you for being my stronghold, my ever present help in time of need. Work in and through and for me so that I can show the world your amazing love, that they may know you too. To You be the glory in Christ Jesus, forever and ever. Amen. Additional Scripture John 11:4; Ephesians 3:20-21; Romans 8:17; I Corinthians 1:31
Becky Curtis
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NOTE: This page contains 5 devotions. Pick
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| Jeremiah 29:11,12,13 (NKJ) For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope. Then you will call upon Me and go and pray to Me, and I will listen to you. And you will seek Me and find Me, when you search for Me with all your heart." |
God's Agenda Satan struggles for the hearts of men. He wants their thoughts and affections. He wants their attention. If he can't get that accomplished, then he will try his best to plant fear in a person's heart. If that doesn't work he will try to appeal to one's affections and emotions. He will try to make it appear that something that is a sin is really good. When will we become wise enough to see the truth? How many times will we be deceived by the lie? Only the Holy Spirit can guide us though this mine field. God's will
is for you to have a future and a hope. God wants His peace to be in your
heart, not Satan's fear and deception. This is an internal battle, not a
visible one like Gettysburg or Waterloo. Man's heart has always been the
real battlefield. But Jesus paid for the redemption of man's heart, now it's
just a matter of who will except God's gift? Will we choose life or will we
choose death?Some
people had the idea that Jesus would lead an army against the Romans that
had taken over Israel. This was not His plan. His plan was an internal,
eternal victory. A victory of the heart.Prayer Lord, so many times our agenda is to save ourselves, while your agenda is to save others. Forgive us for self preoccupation. Give us the victory over self. In Jesus’ name. Amen. Additional Scripture Colossians 1:9; Matthew 12:50; Ephesians 5:17
Charlie Morgan |
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| Isaiah 64:8 (NIV) Yet, O Lord, You are our Father, we are the clay, You are the potter; we are all the work of your hand. |
Soft Clay I have a good friend that is a potter. She creates beautiful bowls and platters and stains them such beautiful colors. Then she puts them in a kiln and fires them for a very long time, under extreme heat. I’ll bet you know where I am going with this one already, don’t you? You may be surprised at the outcome of this devotion though, because anyone can take clay, fashion it into something resembling a bowl, have a potter fire it and it will be set in history for ever. But it takes a master-potter to make it into something else; something rare and worthwhile. Sally, who
is my friend the potter, does beautiful work that is seen in homes all over
the country, including mine. I am inspired each time I enter her shop in a
town by my home. Hundreds of pieces of her pottery adorn the shelves, in
groups that match in color and style. Some with stars and stripes, some with
leaves, some with green and blue-green swirls, like the set I own. The
stains are allowed to drip down and swirl around the pieces so while each
one resembles the other, it is unique unto itself. Last year I dropped one
of my cups. Replaceable? Perhaps. Able to be reshaped and re-worked?
Absolutely not. The best I can hope for is maybe to use it in a mosaic of
some sort. It’s still in pieces in the back of my cupboard. This cup is done
for. It certainly won’t hold liquids again. I had really forgotten about it,
until now.I know a
Potter who is different, however. He has amazing abilities with clay, the
clay that we call human. He has the ability to take already shaped, fired
and broken, hard clay pieces and mold them! He can take the clay and work it
again! In God’s hands, we become soft and pliable. He refashions us, mending
the weak spots. He doesn’t just glue us together, putting us back together
with God-like super glue. He actually makes us soft and into a brand-new pot
shaped like Jesus! I am excited as I write this because this revelation just
came to me this week! Me, a very broken pot! Ever notice that when God mends
a pot, it doesn’t leak anymore? It may break again, but He just scoops it up
and gives it a new being!God is so
good! Ask Him to scoop you up and remold you. His hands are so warm and
gentle and His ways are so good! Praise the Master Potter who is Father, Son
and Holy Spirit. One!Prayer You are the Potter, I am the clay. Mold me and make me into Your ways. I am broken, Lord, and the sharp pieces hurt. Remold me into a shape that is Jesus. Amen. Additional Scripture Daniel 2:22; Matthew 10:26; John 2:19
Cheryl D. Wyatt
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| John 21:18-19 Jesus said this to indicate the kind of death by which Peter would glorify God. Then he said to him, "Follow me!" |
A Life Of Glory I have been contemplating the fact that God shows up best when I am weak. I have spent the last five years of my life fighting daily the weaknesses of my flesh. Struggling, praying, crying, repenting, begging. I’ve struggled to live vulnerably with my brothers and sisters, exposing these things and being honest instead of hiding them. I have
come to a complete standstill in my spiritual life as I have faced my
inability to glorify God as I wished. To live a pure life, free of the love
of the things of this world, devoted to him alone. But now I finally grasped
it. When I am weak, He is strong. It isn’t about me.When I
have my act together, people look at me. When I am at my best, people look
at me. It’s in my weakest moments though, when God comes through and does
what I can’t, that He gets the credit He deserves and everyone looks at Him,
not me.It isn’t
license to sin, or to remain as we are. But a reminder, that all we can do
is yield to Him, then allow Him to do what He does. This way will not build
self-pride. There is nothing to brag about save the fact that God did what
we could not do in our weakness. Now I see. We are to be humble servants who
can only reflect the glory of God.Have you
ever seen light reflected off a mirror? You can’t see what is holding the
mirror because the reflection is so bright it makes it disappear. All a
person can see as they look at a mirror is the light. It’s not about us,
it’s about someone else. It’s about Jesus Chris, and reflecting Him to the
world. We do that by living, by suffering and experiencing joy, in sickness
and health, in times of wealth or need, even by our death. Allowing the
needs of our lives to glorify the One who is able to do what we can’t.Prayer Lord, no longer do I ask for you to remove my weakness. I no longer ask for the key to mastery over it. Instead, I give it to you Lord. I give you all the shame it has produced, all the anxiety, all the condemnation I have poured over myself for my inability to love you more and leave it behind. I no longer ask for my will in this matter. I yield to yours. Wrap my weakness around your will and use it in some way. Let it be an example of your patience if you wish, on view to the world, or change it. I finally leave the choice to you. Thank you for loving me anyway. Weaknesses and all. Forgive me, for in pride I wanted to look like you instead of reflecting you. I thought that was what you wanted. Thank you for your revelation, grace and peace in this. Amen. Additional Scripture I Corinthians 1:26-31; II Corinthians 12:9-10; I Timothy 1:16-17
Lisa Sowry
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| Micah 6:8 He has shown you, O man, what is good. And what does the Lord require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God. . |
God's Will. What Is It? As I wrestle with religious laws and rules for holy living, my heart’s desire is to live a life that is pleasing to God. I say to him daily, “Your will be done.” I found this requires a death to my pride, my prejudicial thinking, loving others who may seem unlovable and to lay down my agenda for the day, every day. I focus on
this Micah 6:8 because God tells me to love what he loves, just as he loves.
It is so simple and yet I try to make it into something complex and
unobtainable. “To act justly” means I have to ACT in fairness. Christ died
for sinners and it is through grace that we are saved. Then justice hardly
seems to make sense, in my thinking. Is it fair that God loved murderers,
adulterers, thieves and liars? Is it fair that Christ suffered for them and
for me and for you? When I look at God’s sense of justice, I realize there
is NONE without sin. ( I John 1:8) Christ died for all sinners. So I realize
I must ACT in that definition of justice, not in what the world calls
justice. Christ said, “Turn the other cheek.” Whoa! That is some hard stuff!
Not something I can do on my own. I need HIS spirit to live like that!Then the
Lord says to “love mercy,” which again calls me to be like him - not like
me. I have to be kind and gentle, full of compassion, even if I think
someone is wrong. Wasn’t Christ’s death unmerciful? Wasn’t he beaten, mocked
and tortured? Yet, after all was said and done, His last words were,
“Forgive them, Father, for they know not what they do.” So does mercy mean
forgiving as I have been forgiven? Oh no! I feel another dying moment! My
will, that is.Now, God
calls me to walk humbly with him. Oh, I am humbled! Because I cannot love
like this or act like this without God’s help and without his mercy and
grace upon me; without humbling myself and confessing my desire for revenge
when I’m wronged, or repenting of my anger when someone else is hurt by
someone’s selfishness or thoughtlessness. When I am reminded I am forgiven,
I say, “Father, forgive them for they know what they do and forgive me
because I know and I do it anyway.” Humility means to admit you know less
than God and are not God and to know HIS WILL is better than yours. I am
humbled by his grace, by his mercy, by his love.God’s
will? It is simply put in John 13:34: “A new command I give you. Love one
another as I have loved you.” So, we must love one another. Any questions?
Prayer Oh Lord, you have loved me when I didn’t deserve it, when I didn’t even know it and when I was least worthy of it. Your mercy carried me through. I want to please you and live in your will. I know my will gets in the way so many times, so I repent of my wrong attitudes, my wrong desires, my wrong behaviors and ask that your Spirit lead me into loving others as you have loved me. Give me grace and mercy to do so, that I may walk humbly, giving you the glory! May you be glorified by my life! Amen. Additional Scripture Romans 8:27; Romans 12:2; I Peter 3:17 and 4:19; Micah 6:7-8
Sherry Canfarelli
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