Tag: Christian Kinds of Stuffs

You need the truth of God’s Word to uproot any wrong belief. This is why it’s so important to get into His Word and take time to meditate upon verses that reveal God’s unwavering and unfailing love for you.

For instance, if you find your mind drifting into anxious thoughts over the smallest things, I encourage you to memorize and quote today’s scripture: “You will keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on You because he trusts in You” (Isa. 26:3).

Whenever I feel stressed or worried about something, I pull away from life’s hustle and bustle and simply meditate on God’s promises. Sometimes I like to drive to a quiet park, and as gentle anointed music plays in my car, I feed on and speak His Word, allowing it to permeate my spirit: “God’s Word declares, ‘You will keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on You.’”

And I tell the Lord, “Yes, Lord, it is You who will keep me in perfect peace. Perfect peace comes from You. I just need to rest in Your grace and keep my mind on You. I don’t need to think about what to do about this challenge. As I trust in You and keep my mind stayed on You, You will lead me and guide me. My trust is not in my own strength, but in You and You alone, Jesus.”

What am I doing here? Instead of allowing stress and worry to get to me, I’m training my heart to see how God sees my challenges.

The bigger God becomes in my heart, the smaller my challenges become. In fact, many times when I just relax and keep my mind on the Lord, His peace and wisdom begin to flow in me, and the challenge that I was previously so worried about becomes minute and inconsequential in the presence of Almighty God.

Are you faced with an insurmountable circumstance today? Learn to see what God sees by meditating on His Word, and let His peace drive out your anxiety. Let His wisdom direct your paths.

What mental movies are you playing in your head today? Are they thoughts of defeat and despair or thoughts of victory and favor? Faith is simply saying what God says about you and seeing what God sees in you and your situation.

It takes a thought to heal a thought. Unlike the world, which teaches you to empty your mind to achieve peace, God’s way is to fill your mind with fresh, powerful, and redeeming thoughts.

The apostle Paul tells us, “Fix your thoughts on what is true, and honorable, and right, and pure, and lovely, and admirable. Think about things that are excellent and worthy of praise” (Phil. 4:8 NLT). So it’s not just trying to blot out bad thoughts with your willpower. It takes a thought to replace another thought. It takes a right belief to replace a wrong belief. You need God’s truth to replace the enemy’s lies that have kept you in bondage.

My friend, if a wrong, bad, or negative thought is lodged in your mind today and you can’t seem to shake it, stop trying! Perhaps you’re lying in a hospital bed and can’t help but think of the worst-case scenario. You’re attempting to suppress it, but it’s not working. Well, stop! Please stop trying to erase it from your mind. That won’t work. What you need to do is replace that destructive thought with a thought that’s from God. That’s the only way to deal with a wrong thought and begin the healing process.

Start to meditate on truths such as, “Surely Jesus has borne my sicknesses and carried my pains. The chastisement for my wholeness fell upon Him, and by His stripes, I am healed. With long life He will satisfy me” (Isa. 53:4–5 and Ps. 91:16). Begin to play mental movies of yourself getting well, being discharged from the hospital, having fun with your kids, or going on a nice holiday!

I want you to know that when God becomes Jehovah Shalom, the God of peace, in your life, He doesn’t just soothe your emotions. He will lead you with His peace.

For example, you may be making some decisions at your work, for your children, or perhaps even where and when to travel for your vacation. Talk to Jesus about it. He will lead and guide you with His peace.

If there is peace from the Lord, go with that decision. If there is an absence of peace and you feel a sense of restraint, back away from it.

You will find that guidance from the Lord comes very easily when God manifests Himself as Jehovah Shalom. In His peace, decisions don’t feel forced and full of strife. In His peace, there is a rest. His peace will guide you supernaturally to be at the right place, at the right time, with the right people.

In Judges 6, the Midianites were terrorizing Israel day and night, destroying their crops and pillaging their livestock. The Lord assured Gideon, who was hiding from the Midianites, that He was with him and called him a man of valor, to which his response was: “O my lord, if the LORD is with us, why then has all this happened to us? And where are all His miracles which our fathers told us about, saying, ‘Did not the LORD bring us up from Egypt?’ But now the LORD has forsaken us and delivered us into the hands of the Midianites” (Judg. 6:13).

Doesn’t Gideon remind us of ourselves? Instead of hearing what the Lord had just called him, he began to complain. “Why has the Lord forsaken us?” Astoundingly, the Lord simply turned to him and said, “Go in this might of yours, and you shall save Israel from the hand of the Midianites. Have I not sent you?” (Judg. 6:14).

What? First, the Lord Jesus calls this man who is in hiding “a man of valor.” Now, He calls this complaining man, who is mad at God, to go in that might of his and save Israel? Shouldn’t it be, “Be gone from My presence, you stinking complainer, I must have found the wrong guy”?

I am so glad that the Lord is not like you and me. He always calls the things that are not as though they are (Rom. 4:17).

And I believe that as you receive a revelation of how the Lord is the God of peace in your life, you may be fearful and complaining now, but like Gideon, God will send you to be a testimony of His protection. He will send you to all your friends, coworkers, and loved ones who are bound by fear, and He will use you to deliver them from fear!

It gives me such assurance to know that the Lord can deliver us from trouble. But do you know what’s better than being delivered from trouble?

Not getting into trouble in the first place.

My friend, don’t just seek miracles and protection from God without seeking the wisdom from Him to stay protected and out of trouble. There are times when the challenges we face are beyond our control.

But I’ve found that often, we experience His protection when we follow the Holy Spirit and lean on His wisdom when making decisions. Every day, we need His wisdom, just as we need His protection. After all, Proverbs 4:7 tells us that “wisdom is the principal thing,” and in all our getting, we need to get wisdom.

The Bible tells us that Christ has become for us wisdom from God (1 Cor. 1:30). So what we really need is the Lord Jesus. We need to lean on Him and draw close to Him daily. He is our wisdom, and only He can cause us to always be at the right place at the right time. I believe that many troubles and dangerous situations can be completely avoided when we don’t depend on our own wisdom and planning but involve the Lord in all that we do (Prov. 3:6).

Oftentimes, wisdom and divine protection work hand in hand. Knowing that we can trust God for His protection certainly does not mean that we willfully put ourselves in precarious situations.

We need to apply wisdom and heed the Lord’s leading through the wise counsel of the people around us, such as our leaders in the local church and our spouses. Proverbs 11:14 tells us, “Where there is no counsel, the people fall; but in the multitude of counselors there is safety.” For instance, if your spouse has been telling you that you have a problem with speeding, please take heed.

While there can be divine protection, do not be foolish and think that you can do whatever you want and nothing untoward will ever happen to you. I pray that as you involve the Lord and learn to walk in wisdom, you’ll begin to walk in a greater measure of peace, protection, and success.

I want to talk to you today about experiencing God’s kind of peace in the midst of fearful circumstances. My friend, peace is not the absence of trouble in your life. It is not the absence of turmoil, challenges, or things that are not harmonious in your physical environment.

It is possible to be in the midst of the biggest crisis in your life and still experience peace. That’s the true kind of peace that you can experience with Jesus—peace that surpasses understanding. Naturally speaking, it does not make sense for you to feel completely at rest and at peace when you are in dire straits, but supernaturally, you can be filled with peace!

The world defines peace, harmony, and tranquility based on what is happening in the sensory realm. The world’s notion of peace would look something like this: A man lying in a hammock on a white sandy beach in Hawaii with luau music playing softly in the cabana, coconut trees swaying in perfect unison, and warm, blue waves rolling languidly along the shoreline. The world calls that peace—until reality kicks in and the transient peace that was experienced just moments ago dissipates into thin air!

You see, my friend, you cannot use your external surroundings to permanently influence the turmoil that you are feeling inside. Only Jesus can touch what you are feeling inside and turn that turmoil into His peace. With the Lord by your side, and from that abiding peace within, you can influence your external surroundings. It’s not the other way round.

With Jesus, transformation is always from inside out and not outside in. He puts a peace and rest in your heart that is so secure, you can face any challenge without worry or stress, regardless of your negative circumstances and environment.

This devotional is taken from the book 100 Days of Favor—Daily Readings from Unmerited Favor.

Many believers are worried that when people receive the revelation of their total forgiveness in Christ, they will grow lax, take sin lightly, and go on to lead godless lives. They are worried that such teaching places no emphasis on sanctification or the desire to live holy, God-glorifying lives.

So allow me to explain here that while you have been justified and made righteous by the blood of Jesus or perfected forever, sanctification is an ongoing process in your growth as a Christian. This is why the author of the book of Hebrews says that we are being sanctified even though we are perfected forever by Christ’s one act of obedience at the cross (see today’s scripture).

As a believer you cannot become more righteous but you can become more sanctified or holy in terms of how you live your life. Justification by faith happened instantaneously—the moment you received Jesus, you were forgiven, cleansed, perfected in righteousness, and saved. You were also sanctified in Christ (Heb. 10:10).

However, it is important to understand that the revelation and outworking of your sanctification in Christ is progressive. This means that the more you grow in your relationship with the Lord Jesus, the more holy you will become in every area of your life.

I remember a precious brother writing to my ministry describing how the revelation of our forgiveness in Christ brought him into an intimacy with God that he had previously only dreamed about. “Previously, when I was trying to be a good Christian,” he said, “I was only crawling along, inch by inch. But now that I’ve got hold of grace, I’m running in my relationship with God! The more I learn about God’s amazing grace, the more I desperately want to glorify Him with my life!”

What a beautiful, true-life picture of what really happens when a person sits under teaching that uncovers the undiluted gospel of glorious grace! The revelation of forgiveness does not detract from nor is it at the expense of right living. Instead, it is the fuel that makes right living happen.

Merriam-Webster Online describes sanctification as “the state of growing in divine grace as a result of Christian commitment after conversion.” You see, it is all about growing in grace.

Establish yourself in the gospel of grace. Paul told Timothy to be “strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus” (2 Tim. 2:1). Peter encouraged believers to build a strong foundation with these closing words in his last epistle: “Grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ” (2 Pet. 3:18).

My friend, grace produces true holiness. The more you grow in grace—the more you are washed, again and again, by the water of the word of God’s grace—the more you grow in sanctification and holiness, and the more you allow the Holy Spirit to correct habits and thinking that keep you in bondage.

Beloved, when you experience the grace of our Lord Jesus, the allure and passing pleasures of sin fade in the light of His glory and grace. It will set you free to have the kind of relationship you’ve always longed for with God, one that is intimate, powerful, and full of peace, joy, and good fruit!

This devotional is taken from the book Glorious Grace—100 Daily Readings from Grace Revolution.

Imagine this: you are about to enter into a time of worship in church, and as the leader gives the invitation, he asks you and all the other believers to first search your hearts for any sin that would keep you from the Lord’s presence. Tell me, what happens to your heart when you begin to search for sin? And what happens to your worship?

One of the things that I was taught during my formative years as a Christian was that I had to search my heart for sin before worshiping the Lord. I felt as though I was entering a dark and dingy storeroom full of cobwebs each time I did so. I pictured myself peering around and searching for all my sins with a little torchlight. Been there? And the more I searched, the more I found and the more I felt unworthy to enter God’s holy presence.

Instead of being more conscious of the beauty and love of my Savior, I became more and more conscious of my sins, uncleanness, and guilt. Initially, I would have my hands, and I would be all ready to praise and worship God. But the more I searched my heart for sin, the more my hands would hang down with dejection.

How could I worship God? How could I have the courage and audacity to enter His courts with praise?

As I grew and matured in the things of God, I realized that the idea that you had to be “right” before you could worship Jesus is man’s tradition. For instance, the woman in Luke 7, who came to Jesus with an alabaster flask of fragrant oil, fell at His feet and worshiped Him. She washed His feet with her tears and wiped them with her hair before anointing them with the oil.

The Bible clearly records that the woman was a sinner, and many believe that she was a prostitute, but it says nothing about her stopping to search her heart or confess her sins before she worshiped Jesus. She worshiped Him just as she was, and after that, Jesus said to her, “Your sins are forgiven.”

I believe that the devil has tried to rob us of this tremendous truth. Whatever your need is, whether you are mired in debt, trapped in a particular sin, or fearful for your future, come to Jesus.

He is your Savior. He is your healer. He is your provider. He is your peace. He is your forgiveness. He is your “I AM” (Ex. 3:14), which means that He is the great “I AM” for whatever you need Him to be in your situation.

Whatever lack you may be facing right now, He loves you, and He is your solution. Come and worship Him just as you are, and He will meet you at your point of need. You don’t have to worry about the mistakes you have made because you are worshiping your forgiver. You don’t have to worry about your sickness because you are worshiping your healer. If believers really knew this truth, even wild horses would not be able to stop them from coming to worship God!

Beloved, come and worship with the boldness and confidence that this woman did. You will hear Jesus say, “Your sins are forgiven. Your faith has saved you. Go in peace.”

This devotional is taken from the book Reign in Life—90 Powerful Inspirations for Extraordinary Breakthroughs.