Strength in the Lord- 7/31/21

Posted on July 31, 2021 by wondermedia

Photo by Quang Nguyen Vinh on Pexels.com

To “seek His face always” is good advice. I must do that!

Where does strength greater than us come from? Isn’t it too easy to only seek the Lord after certain things?

I know that I have done that time and time again. Too often I don’t think of talking to Him at nearly all times, it seems only after I fail do I seek Him in many cases.

It is good to look to Him afterwards but shouldn’t we seek Him always with all our hearts?

After all He has done so much for us and impacted our lives in amazing ways we should have a commune with Him and talk to Him in prayer and listen to what He wants for us by reading His word.

He wants us to draw strength from Him so that He can impact our lives.

He wants us to look to Him so that He is glorified should we need to stand up for Him or share the gospel so that more come to be family in Christ. But we mustn’t forget that to live for Him is no once a week thing, we must be like Christ 24/7, always and in Him at all times. Like I’ve said before that doesn’t mean we should give up every day hobbies like drawing or writing (just examples) but we must be tapped in to His glory to reflect the servant of Jesus.

We must remember what the Lord is for us and also to know who He is.

The LORD is my strength and my shield: my heart trusts in him and he helps me. My heart leaps for joy, and with my song I praise him. Psalm 28:7

What praiseworthy statements! To be defended by Him to trust Him and be helped by Him. May we remember the joy He gives and praise Him.

The Lord Jesus is worthy to be praised always, no matter how the circumstances turn out in life.

I had something disappointing happen in my life recently but I pray that I not walk away from Him concerning it or be tempted to fall back on things.

Sometimes we think we are sure of a “future.” And then those things don’t seem to pan out.

But I trust in Jesus to guide me in the way of everlasting though things seem unsure or like I don’t know what could happen either way.

I remember the things I used to do about this kind of thing. I’d feel lost and then fall into depression.

Yet I don’t see to do that now. I can only pray for the person and not do things that are immature and seek Him more instead. I don’t know what that is right now in a way but I will look to His will.

But I must seek His face, how often?:

Look to the Lord and His strength; seek His face always. 1 Chronicles 16:11

We should seek His face always! “Always?”

You mean we shouldn’t look to Jesus only after we sin?

We must do our most for God with what time we have left because He is worth it.

Not because He gives us strength but because He is Lord of Lords. Ones we should worship and live for because we are meant to do so.

Strength is nothing when it is not dependent on God. Let’s live our lives in the only way God wants so that we can be blessed and see our lives the way He really sees us. Amen.

Note: I re-edited this to keep from being too personal in a certain way to avoid being unfair talking about another person who might not be able to defend themselves. I write this in love and hoping no one could feel hurt by this.

Devotions A Pure Heart- 7/28/21

Posted on July 28, 2021 by wondermedia

I read Psalm 51 before work yesterday. Had very little time to do any deep study or meditating on it before the bus showed up. Guess what we are going over now…?

What does it mean to be “pure?” Does it mean completely untainted by the world? Or is it that one is on a path that they wouldn’t normally be on because they are apart from a direction that is their own sin?

We can only be pure by the blood of Christ. It is His life where He gave it by dying on the cross for our sin that we can be set apart for the will of God.

He died for us, was buried, and rose again so that we can have a relationship with God that couldn’t happen before that time.

After Jesus’ physical life on earth we can know Him but also be restored during our walk with Him. Sometimes we get “dirty” from old habits and the world sticking on us like some gross grit. We feel we might not be worthy to be servants of God. But He loves us so much and wants us to want to stay with Him in relationship He will if we ask bring us back and be refreshed in the spirit.

I feel like daily I need His restoration. I know I’m not alone in that as even if we might not do habitual sin we unintentionally sin too. We need God even if we think we might be “good.” We are not as we need the strength of Christ from the heavenly father every day!

Prayer to be right with God is needed as also is being in tune to knowing God’s will. We must have pure intentions to live a godly life. It is important as we then know what we can do for Him also.

If you learned about King David from the bible you might think he had it all together. But he was a representative for a king who followed God and he fell into bad things, to put it lightly. He did some bad actions! I have already touched on those in a previous entry but will reiterate it here.

While he was supposed to be a man of God leading Israel he went out of his way to peer out on the roof of his house. There he spotted a beautiful woman and desired her. He coveted her so much he sent her husband out to the frontlines in war to ensure he would die so he could then marry her!

God punished him for being so wrong in those actions.

His family then faced a lot of consequences and David for years as if in grief watched as ones he loved saw terrible things because of what he did.

It seems Psalm 51 touches a little on his sin about sending a man out to die (“Deliver me from the guilt of bloodshed, O God,…” Psalm 51:14). It is in part of that verse.

I don’t think God released Him from that but He was able to keep David in focusing fully on Him. Psalm 51 almost seems like a lamentation, a crying out to be healed.

Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me. Psalm 51:10

It was inspired into being a very catchy hymn that many might know but at its core it is a reflection of God changing the heart of the sinner.

The song goes “Create in me a clean heart, O God/ And renew a right spirit within me.”

Even in our own perils we need God to rescue us and help us. We can be our own enemies. Not just that but actions do have consequences.

We need Christ daily to rescue us from the pits that we put ourselves in. And if we do well enough in keeping our old habits at bay it is as if we are dead to sin and alive in Christ as it says in the book of Romans 6:11.

What could keep that from being so is to hate that sin because it no longer rules us as it did when lived completely in sin. We must live in His way and see that living for God is a blessing and better than when we lived for ourselves.

With the attitude that Paul would beseech with the Ephesians, we must not have hearts that are stuck in what can dishonor God. He said in NIV (New International Version) that that those believers must not even “let” even a “hint of immorality” be a part of their lives. That was because they were deep in the fleshly desires that made them seem more like the world and less like believers who shine the light for Christ.

Do you have a “pure heart?” Do you want one? To live for Him means we must first know that we cannot live any way to get to heaven.

There is no way for man (man or woman) to get to heaven by their own means. That means that we all fall short because of sin. And that also means to fall short of sin means one will go to hell if they die.

But you must know there is a hope. That hope to live to one day to go to heaven is Jesus! Jesus Christ died in our place, He was the perfect “lamb of God” who died for our sin, was sacrificed for the world so that we could one day know Him and live in Heaven forever.

Do you want to know that life? I encourage you then to pray this prayer:

God, I heard that I can have a pure heart if I can know You. But I can’t have that relationship because of my sin. I can’t do that because there is no way of my own effort I can go to heaven. But I know Your Son gave His life, dying for my sin so that I can have that relationship with You. My sin died on that cross because Jesus paid the ultimate price for it. I want to live for You Jesus but to know You God every day so that I can seek Your will in what You want for me. Thank You for the privilege of getting to know You. Thank You for Your son Jesus Christ.

I pray You will be restored to find a church that can be true and You follow Christ and know what God wants for You.

And thank You Lord for knowing what is on my heart and for Jesus who makes hearts pure!

Devotions Anchor- 7/21/21

Posted on July 21, 2021 by wondermedia

Ugh. I need extra hobbies haha…

Is it tough to stand your ground?

In a short answer yes.

It feels like we kind of compromise all the time about what to do in life, whether it be our rebelliousness to not do His Will or if someone is stubborn about their wants and will make sure you give in because they will not have things a different way.

Parents go through this. They have a tough job of not only keeping a child or more from danger but to in a lesser but important effort keep them to know what they can and can’t do.

Yet the child may not want to listen.

That is when you have to be like an anchor! Unmovable on your stance on the matter.

If you give in they will see your weakness. They might even try and try again to get you to that stage because they know what to do now to push your buttons.

But to be standing our ground is also on the world as well.

Every day we stray further from truth in God and also in our lives if we don’t stay anchored to His word.

Matthew 7: 24-25 talks about having a “house” built on a rock, a firm foundation compared to say sandy hills or a place where storms come and and it will not stay up.

After horrid storms came other types of houses would fall from this yet with this one “it did not fall because it had been founded on the rock” (last part of 25).

Also we must think just what keeps us strong. Is it self-confidence? No.

We have great strength that doesn’t come from us or this world:

This hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and steadfast, and which enters the Presence behind the veil. Hebrews 6:19

I was a little unsure about the many aspects of this verse though to be honest.

I started breaking it down by looking up the word steadfast.

“Steadfast” means: firmly fixed in place : immovable. also : not subject to change the steadfast doctrine of original sin (Source: merriam-webster.com)

To be immovable. That sounds like the “anchor” mentioned above. It is the hope that is not from us that makes us firmly fixed in place.

Also I have some commentary on the other apsects.

Interestingly there was some info on anchors from a bible standpoint in this source too:

It is about having a sense of confidence in Christ. “the inner place behind the curtain” represents the way in which Christ precedes us

Put together these images create a powerful message of reassurance. Christ has “anchored” our hope of “refuge” in the very presence of God: the “inner place.”

The anchor was usually not in the exact place as the ship itself (was usually carried far away from the ship) our hope is not in this world. (www.bibleref.com, paraphrased)

So in all we must remember the confidence we have in Christ. Also we need to not be moved about aspects of the Christian life. Our life is built on hope and true strength. If it was built on our strength it would not last a single “storm.”

It is all through the love of God by sending His son Jesus to die for us and we in turn are revived and must reflect the living for God that He showed.

Devotions Life like Light 7/9/21

Posted on July 9, 2021 by wondermedia

Had a nice dream last night. At least that was good, haha. Seemed to do something to do with me being a servant of God.

Sometimes the hardest things to do are the very things that go against our nature, the things we are used to doing!

To live for goodness that is in God through His Son Jesus is like a struggle with our sin. At least I have many times felt this way, where we know now what we had done before was wrong but it just seems too tempting to not give in to it again.

Even if we avoid what we were once used to doing though we still sin! There is something about our nature since the fall of Adam that which we still have the sinner’s life but in the case of following Jesus we just won’t do the old stuff it seems anymore.

And that is a blessing to live in the holy Spirit of the Father. But life in Christ will also involve leading others towards the life of Christ.

And some of those things involve forgiving people who have done wrong to you.

Yes it is tough but it seems that though it is something we won’t want to do in our stubbornness while happening to be in the walk in Christ, it is an action we must do!

In the last part of Luke 6:37 it says “Forgive and you will be forgiven.”

While that verse mentions many things involved in the ones who want to follow God (I hope to reference this in more depth some other time hopefully!) I want to focus on this part.

It seems with people I know it is a huge carnal idea to not forgive.

People don’t like it. I used to struggle with it, especially with people I apparently thought were not as good as myself, which was wrong. “But they did that to me, why should I forgive them..?!”

But forgiveness is something God wants us to do. Maybe one day those people will see the change in us and want to follow Christ. Would you want to see people you think might never know the Lord to one day do that? That is my hope too!

Proverbs 3 also describes something that reflects something we must not do though we could be used to the latter: To trust in what we may not “see.”

Proverbs 3:5 states: “Trust in the LORD with all your heart, And lean not on your own understanding”

That means putting complete and total trust in what we might not notice or see. We must trust and depend on what He wants us to do. Not only that, we must be sensitive to the holy spirit.

We must as we live and have fun in life think of what in our hearts is what we should do for Him. We must be “in tune” to God’s will and seek what He would want over what we might expect in life, say working endlessly to one day get a huge house and be extremely rich.

Do you follow God? I hope to live well but I don’t know or want to imagine having a ton of money like upper-class rich people. I bet I would do nothing but worry about how much I have every week for the rest of my life, haha!

Nope, I don’t think I’d want that. My opinion though.

It’s okay if you one day live well. But if you want to follow the Lord are you giving things and taking time for others to be a servant for Christ? Do you care about who you know over how much is left in your accounts at the bank?

Live for His goodness.

We must also tell of Christ and His impact in our lives. Proverbs continues on with a second sentence closely linked to the first by a semicolon. Proverbs 3:6:

In all your ways acknowledge Him, And He shall direct your paths.

So should we credit Him for the amazing things that have happened in our lives? Do you have an amazing story that only Jesus could have done within it all in your life?

We should acknowledge Him as He will be known and glorified and we will continue to seek out His will as others want to find out what this life is all about.

We need Christ to direct our way through life, otherwise there are some very bad ways, directions to go.

Jesus also told His first followers about the important aspects of life for God, His Father.

Jesus (told) his followers that they will be the ones to carry his light forth into the dark places of the world and the human heart. Source: connectusfund.org

(Sorry, I do a lot of internet searching. Usually though it’s not a full piece of the source, hope this one is part of something good!)

This is describing context to what Jesus was doing when He shared this which was told in the book of Matthew:

You are the light of the world. A city that is set on a hill cannot be hidden. Matthew 5:14

Do you see your life in all of these aspects of following Christ? You might not want to do all of this stuff right away but know that God does life-changing things in people who simply follow His commands.

And He will bless our lives in ways we might never see coming! All because of grace and living in tune to God’s will through His Son. Amen.

Devotion- 7/3/21

Posted on July 3, 2021 by wondermedia

Doing well. Physically I still need to get stuff worked out but…

To believe in the One who has changed you brings amazing changes. Just like to know a friend and you might have certain qualities. Over time, those qualities are like mutual changes: you become like them, they become like you.

But this is a completely different kind of relationship: You change for the better and God stays the same. But you have every moment to be newer to be “better” than you were before.

And this “Friend” just wants the best for you.

The opening verse is from Romans, possibly my favorite writer in the bible:

Do not be conformed to this world… but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God. Romans 12:2

From ‘whichever version I use.’ No one could guess it, haha. Just kidding it’s from the NKJV, the New King James Version.

Note that I separated it a little. That was not a separation in the text but it is important.

We must not be like the people in this world. There are people so stuck in sin they might need someone to talk to at the very least, while this world it is hard sometimes to even fake interest!

There are many though in the opposite spectrum who do care, but is there anyone who can tell them just what changed their lives? More importantly is there a Godly Person who has completely turned them around, or might they equate their experience in life as “I just changed my attitude…” and that’s the end of their personal story?

I hate being stuck in my own sin. It’s no fun. I shared that before, how I was feeling like I was being dragged through my old life and it would not let me go..!

I don’t want anyone to not know there is a love in something that will be like the shackles of sin have been removed and a love moves the heart and will change their life in a way that they couldn’t have imagined!

Because by the grace of Jesus I was shown there was a life that was worth living for my own self.

We must also know that His yoke is easy His burden is light:

“Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you, and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. ‘For my yoke is easy and My burden is light.'” Matthew 11:28-30

Jesus had amazing words to share to the people He loved dearly who He wanted them just to have a close relationship with His Father.

He guided them and knew that what the Father wanted was what He grew up learning about and He knew they needed for their persnal lives too.

We need to remember that His way is perfect (Psalms 18:30). We must shine like stars in the sky (Philippians 2:15) if we want to really live for goodness. Sure if you “fall” there is mercy to speak to Christ and be picked back up, there is such wondrous grace in Jesus that it is worth telling in this awful disease-spotlighted world.

How worth it is to tell of this wonderful transforming grace? It’s worth everything!

Devotions A Quick One- 6/18/21

Posted on June 18, 2021 by wondermedia

It’s easy to lean on the old self, by going back to ways one is used to and also feeling like there is no other “way” Psalm 73:26. But that would not be right in the Lord! Though the flesh is weak Paul has said in the New Testament that we should not be like our old selves just because we can be forgiven; we should always seek His wisdom before thinking the ways that were once “normal” to us. Since that way was paid by Christ’s blood, we have no reason to keep following that way.

Sinning by, for example, “looking” at things that aren’t right is not right in the eyes of the Lord. Which is why we must trust fully and totally in something that has been living in us all this time but also follow and trust He will guide us through all things as well. To follow the Lord and see him as the defense and strength to our lives brings so many great things to our lives including the joy to be strong but in His power and also to be able to carry on (Psalm 28:7).

We also must remember just what He has done in our lives, stop thinking of ourselves, and pray for others and help them. To actually care wholeheartedly is easy to claim we do but it might not be something one actually does. It is easy to say that one cares but then only pursue one’s own personal goals. But if you’ve seen miracles in your personal life or have heard the amazing things other people have gone through we should have the hope to be like nurses or people who deeply and genuinely care. Be like Christ but think of what He does where He “heals” and helps tend to “wounds” for others which He is. He is compassionate (Psalm 147:3). So of all these things, what can we do for Him….?

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