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youngdisciples · 2 years

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“May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.” - Romans 15:13

Paul's prayer for the Christians in Rome found in this verse is often used in churches today as a closing benediction. It is a powerful statement about what God can do in the heart and mind of every Christian.

Paul makes this request of the God of hope, another beautiful name for God. He is the only lasting source of hope we have for meaning in this life, and for a life beyond death. Paul asks that the God of hope fill these believers with all joy and peace "in believing" or as they trust in Him. In other words, Paul is not asking God to simply dump joy and peace into their hearts without cause. He is asking that as these believers trust in God, their faith will bring joy and peace to their hearts. In other words, help them to keep believing so that they can experience joy and peace.

Finally, Paul asks that they might have this joy and peace in believing so that they may abound with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit. Paul is asking God to give them more than just regular human hopefulness. He is asking for supernatural, Holy Spirit-powered hopefulness.

What a fantastic prayer to ask God for others or for ourselves. What more could we wish for other believers than to be filled with joy and peace and abounding in hope?

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youngdisciples · 2 years

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“You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart.” - Jeremiah 29:13

The preceding verse of our verse today is a very popular verse. This is usually used or wished every time someone who is close to us celebrates their birthday. However, people usually just look at that verse and ignore everything else. Meaning, people only read the promise, and do not read what is after. We have to understand that indeed God has given us a lot of promise and blessings. However, we always claim that we cannot find God, yet we have to understand that He is always there. He never walked away from us, He stayed faithful and He stayed protecting us.

Now, let us understand that the fault is not with God, but it is with us. We cannot find Him because we are not seeking Him, we are not seeking Him with all our hearts. It might be so easy to receive a blessing especially if God promised to prosper us, however, we expect it to be magically given to us. We expect that it will just fall down from the sky. So, that is the wrong part. God is not our personal genie, He is our God and yes, He is a promise keeper. However, we must understand that we should seek Him. How can we find Him tho? We have to know that our verse has given us this answer. If we seek Him with all our hearts, we will find Him.

Seeking God is not just through learning stuff about Him from our grandparents or parents, seeking God means having a close relationship with Him. It’s establishing that deep relationship with Him through the Word. We will never find God in the quotes we post, or in one or two verses we read online. The only way we will find God is through His Word, and if we seek Him through it with all our hearts. Therefore, we should remember that God did not leave us or walked away from us. If we cannot find Him, then maybe we are not seeking Him. Let us therefore search for Him with all our hearts, and build a personal relationship with Him through reading His Word day and night.

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youngdisciples · 2 years

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“You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart.” - Jeremiah 29:13

The preceding verse of our verse today is a very popular verse. This is usually used or wished every time someone who is close to us celebrates their birthday. However, people usually just look at that verse and ignore everything else. Meaning, people only read the promise, and do not read what is after. We have to understand that indeed God has given us a lot of promise and blessings. However, we always claim that we cannot find God, yet we have to understand that He is always there. He never walked away from us, He stayed faithful and He stayed protecting us.

Now, let us understand that the fault is not with God, but it is with us. We cannot find Him because we are not seeking Him, we are not seeking Him with all our hearts. It might be so easy to receive a blessing especially if God promised to prosper us, however, we expect it to be magically given to us. We expect that it will just fall down from the sky. So, that is the wrong part. God is not our personal genie, He is our God and yes, He is a promise keeper. However, we must understand that we should seek Him. How can we find Him tho? We have to know that our verse has given us this answer. If we seek Him with all our hearts, we will find Him.

Seeking God is not just through learning stuff about Him from our grandparents or parents, seeking God means having a close relationship with Him. It’s establishing that deep relationship with Him through the Word. We will never find God in the quotes we post, or in one or two verses we read online. The only way we will find God is through His Word, and if we seek Him through it with all our hearts. Therefore, we should remember that God did not leave us or walked away from us. If we cannot find Him, then maybe we are not seeking Him. Let us therefore search for Him with all our hearts, and build a personal relationship with Him through reading His Word day and night.

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“Dear children, let us not love with words or speech but with actions and in truth.” - 1 John 3:18

Following his application in verse 17, John summarizes the need for Christians to act on love, not just think about it. It is important to communicate love through our words, but we must also do so through our actions. Jesus gave a similar warning to the Pharisees in Matthew 15:4–9. Just as truly saving faith will produce good works (James 2:17–19), truly loving another person will produce loving actions. This verse once again uses the Greek root word agape, meaning a selfless, sacrificial love.

Jesus not only spoke about love, He provided powerful actions to match His teachings. John 13 offers a clear example in which Jesus washed the feet of His disciples to teach them to serve one another in humility. His death on the cross offered the most powerful evidence of love "in deed and in truth." He endured suffering, ridicule, and death from those who should have recognized Him as the Messiah. Yet His actions also included His resurrection, offering love in action that changed the course of history.

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“My son, do not despise the Lord’s discipline, and do not resent his rebuke” - Proverbs 3:11

The Word of God is a library of wisdom and encouragement, that we would do well to heed. One such pearl of sound advice is that chastening is an important way that God deals with His children - for the chastening rod of God develops in us a spiritual maturity and a godly character.

The chastening of the Lord should never be compared with a judge, passing sentence on a criminal but rather as a loving father disciplining his beloved son. The chastening of the Lord is carried out in love and wisdom and for our best interest, in order that we might be partakers of His holiness. He knows the plans that He has for each of our lives and His chastening rod is to ensure that we do not miss out on His best purposes.

As with an earthly father the chastening of the Lord may result from a rebellion and sin, and his disciplines would be to bring us to repentance. At other times His chastening may be used to prepared us for a particular blessing that He desires to give us - but His chastening rod is equipped to do both.

No matter what form the chastening of the Lord takes and no matter how much pain and hurt we may experience - His correction is always carried out in love. So whether our chastening is to correct a disobedient heart or to perfect an obedient walk, let us not despise His chastening of the Lord, nor grow weary of His correction, but rather embrace it for our good and for His glory.

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“Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword?” - Romans 8:35

For all the troubles we’ve faced, there are a lot of moments when we are always doubting the existence of God. If not, then we are doubting if He truly loves us or if He cares for us. Let’s reflect right now and ask ourselves, how many times have we ever doubted God’s love towards us? How many times have we made sure that we won’t rely on God’s love because we think it’s doubtful and we can’t be so sure about it? Then during those times, if we have the answer, did it ever occur to you that there are also many times that God has the right to leave you and to forsake you because you are a nasty sinner?

However, God did not do that because He is faithful, and He is a promise keeper. He promised to never leave us or forsake us. He promised to love us and to forgive us for our sins. So, our verse today is asking us rhetorically if who can ever separate us from the love of God– shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine? Or nakedness, or danger, or sword? Now, the answer to that is on the next few verses, but let us focus on this verse. Whenever we are troubled, let us assess ourselves, did God really leave us? Or we chose to walk away from Him? In the first place it is us who walk right into that trouble. During hardship or persecution, if we were able to survive, can we really say that He left us? Or during famine or nakedness, can we say that He left us?-- because until now we are alive and healthy. Lastly, during danger or sword, really? Did He leave us? Did His love leave us?

Of course not! No one can indeed separate us from the love of God. Those situations above are listed because those are the most common situations we face every day, those are the most common situations we face that we always doubt the love of God. However, it is us who are walking away from God. It is us who kept on trying to get away from the love of God. His love is always there for us to accept but it is us who rejects it, who blindly walks out of His love and tries to pin it on God for walking out of our lives.

Therefore, let us always check ourselves, and make sure that we are not blindly rejecting His love. Let us assess ourselves if it’s really God who stopped loving us, or it’s us who is rejecting Him. We have to understand that no one can really separate us from the love of God. We are loved, we are always treasured and we are even forgiven because Christ died for our sake– this is how much God loves us and there is nothing or no one can ever separate us from His love.

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“Whoever claims to love God yet hates a brother or sister is a liar. For whoever does not love their brother and sister, whom they have seen, cannot love God, whom they have not seen.” - 1 John 4:20

This verse is the fourth of five times John mentions liars in this letter (1 John 1:10; 2:4, 22; 4:20; 5:10). Love for others, especially fellow Christians, is a primary commandment from Christ. So, a person who exhibits hate for others, but claims to know God, is lying. A liar says he knows God but does not keep His commands (1 John 2:4). A liar denies Jesus is the Christ (1 John 2:22). Here, we are told that a liar says he loves God but hates other people.

The second part of the verse adds an explanation, moving from the "seen" to the "unseen." It is more difficult to love someone you cannot see than someone you can see. If a person cannot love those they see, they cannot reasonably claim to love those they cannot see. This verse explicitly declares that a person cannot truly love God while hating other people. The person who claims to love God must also show love for others.

This also ties into the idea that, since we cannot see God in all of His divine essence, love is meant to be the way God is seen. Both in ourselves, and in the world, God's love is meant to be the way humanity "sees" Him.

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“Everyone who sins breaks the law; in fact, sin is lawlessness.” - 1 John 3:4

As we tread on these trying times, when everyone is trying to act right or trying to push their own opinions as something that the world should accept because they think it’s right, let us go back to the real reason why we have law and why we have a basis on what to follow. We are all sinful, no one is righteous and there is no one who is right enough to redeem themselves. Paul even wrote in one of his letters that there is no one who is righteous but only the Son of God who came to save us and imputed His righteousness on us. Now, everyone who sins breaks the law, and that is not situational because we are sinful. No one is above the other person and no one is under another person.

God did not give us the law so that we can act right or so that we can claim that we are above it. God gave us the law so that it will point us to our sins. Thus so that whoever sins will break the law because we are sinful and we have always been breaking the law. Person A is not better than Person B just because he or she is better at understanding a situation or the law. Both are in need of God’s grace and mercy because both sinned in their own way and broke the law. After all, sin means lawlessness. John carefully explained that sin is indeed lawlessness because why would we sin if we understand the law, right? Well then it is because we are sinful by nature and that we cannot stop sinning because that’s what we desire the most.

Therefore, we need God’s grace and mercy to change this nature. The law is there to point us to our sin and make us see that we are indeed sinful. We are not righteous just because we know more than other people know. Neither are we better than other people because we make right decisions in life. At the end of the day, we are sinful and we need God’s grace and forgiveness so that we will be saved. Again, no one or nothing can save us aside from Christ– not our ideologies, not our lifestyle, not even our charities can keep us away from the impending fires of condemnation. Only through Christ that we are saved and be called righteous.

Thus, we have no right to say anything against our brothers and sisters that they are choosing wrong or that they are dumbly following something stupid. We all have sinned and fall short in the glory of God. We are not “more” righteous than other people because we are smart, but we are all the same sinners who are begging for scraps of bread under our Master’s table. Instead of condemning other people, guide them in the path of the Lord, and let God show them His love and mercy. Again, everyone who sins breaks the law, therefore we are all lawbreakers and lawless people. So, we all need God’s mercy, grace and forgiveness.

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“In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus” - Philippians 2:5

The joy of the Lord is our strength and we are called to rejoice evermore, to pray without ceasing and in everything give thanks.. for this is God's will for all His children. And as believers we are called to live in unity with one another, but all too often people can deliberately or unintentionally quench our joy, causing our mind to spin out of control and our spirits to become discouraged - and so we are called to let the Word of Christ dwell in us richly and to let HIM guard our hearts.

It is hard enough when the criticism and contention comes from the outside world, but when the unity of brothers and sisters in Christ is broken through false teachings or disagreements within the body, the pain is so much greater.. but the sure remedy is to take every thought captive to Christ and to: let this mind be in us that was is Christ Jesus.

Paul was keen to identify and address disunity within the body of Christ at Philippi, for he knew that the favour, fragrance and joy that percolates from Christian unity can evaporate when unrest and contentions are aloud to fester.

Paul knew that the most effective cure for a loss of peace and a lack of joy is a mind that is focused on Christ - a mind that is submissive to the leading and guidance of the Holy Spirit - a humble mind that seeks to esteem others as more important than themselves - and so we are called upon to be of one mind, having the same love for one another and living in perfect harmony - with a singular focus.. the Lord Jesus Christ.

“Unity' of the body however should not be confused with “uniformity'. Spiritual unity is from the heart. It comes from within and is guided by the Spirit of God and founded upon the Word of God. Uniformity is a reaction to the outside pressures of a worldly mindset. It compromises the truth of God's Word and is spawned from a carnal worldview.

The joy of the Lord is indeed our strength and we are called to rejoice evermore, pray without ceasing; give thanks in all things and live in godly unity with one another - but we can only do this as we allow the Word of Christ to dwell in us richly and the Mind of Christ to inform our actions and attitudes.; our thoughts and our motives.

Let us therefore seek to keep away from contention; factions; strife and selfishness, which are so often birthed from pride; conceit; arrogance or ignorance - and let us live a spirit of lowly humility.. where we regard the needs of others as more important than our own.

Let us submit to the work of the Holy Spirit in our lives and walk in spirit and truth so that we may live godly in Christ Jesus. Let us seek to live in total dependence on our heavenly Father and in godly unity with our brothers in Christ - and let us pay heed to Paul's earnest entreaty to : Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus. so that our words and deeds, actions and attitudes may be a true reflection of our Saviour Jesus Christ.

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“The Lord is my rock, my fortress and my deliverer; my God is my rock, in whom I take refuge, my shield and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold.” - Psalm 18:2

David was known to be a man after own God’s heart, with our verse today, we will understand his relationship with God. He described God in a lot of ways which shows how deep was his relationship with God. Now, we all know that David was a fighter, and with his description of God, we can see that he was a fighter, and in every battle he faced, he fought with God. He declared that the Lord our God is his rock, his fortress, and his deliverer. So, we know that whenever he fought his battles, he saw God as his shield, as his victory, as his refuge, as his strength, and even as his stronghold when times are awful.

Aso, as we reflect on this verse, we will then realize that we ought to be like David. We must be like David who sees God as his everything. We should not just see God as our God of convenience. We should not just approach God or acknowledge Him when we need Him, or when it is our convenient time to approach Him. Instead, we must see God as our God and Lord of our lives. So, we must not just approach Him when we need Him or when we have time to remember Him. We must always see Him as our God who is always there for us, and we must always depend on Him.

Therefore, we should always keep in mind that as children of God, we depend on Him. We must not try to be so independent because we know that we are nothing without Him. Let us always understand that everything we do, we must always do it for the glory of God. As we fight everyday’s battle, let’s fight it with God. May we always be like David who is a man after own God’s heart. We must always remember to make Him as our rock, our fortress, our strength for we need Him, and indeed we get our strength from Him. Thus, let us always depend on God and get the strength that we need from Him.

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“For I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more.” - Hebrews 8:12

What a great and important truth we need to know. We are sinful, we are awful, we are beyond redemption, but God is our complete opposite. He is good, He is awesome, and He is our Redeemer. Now, our verse today reminds us that God is always ready to forgive us. Even during the time when our Savior was still promised, He was always ready to forgive them. It’s nothing different now, God is still opening His arms widely for all of us– so ready to forgive us and accept us.

When the prophecy was fulfilled, when Christ came to the world and saved us from our sins, God open the doors of opportunity for us to accept our Savior and repent. So, now that when Christ saved us and set us free, we know that we are forgiven and have the chance to turn away from sins, and come back to our Creator. We must accept Christ as our Lord and Savior, and know that we need Him so that we can be redeemed. It’s important that we will understand that we need redemption, and there’s really no other way. We are redeemed only through Christ and there’s nothing we can do that will be able to save us from our sins.

Therefore, we are reminded with our verse today that God does not count our sins anymore and will forgive us for all our wickedness. However, this is not because we are good, but it is because He is good by existence and that no matter how wicked we are, He remained faithful, loving, and patient to us. So, because of Christ, we are saved and because of Him, we are forgiven. Thus, we must understand that it has nothing to do with us, but it has all to do with Him. For it us He who should increase, not us. May we continue to remain humble and accept that we need a Savior because we are wicked. GOOD NEWS! Our God does not count our sins anymore, and He will always ready to forgive us if we repent and accept Christ as our Lord and Savior.

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“Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one.” - Deuteronomy 6:4

Following the judgements in Eden, the flood and the tower of Babel man continued to rebel against the Lord and delighted to serve and worship the creation rather than the Creator, and so God took the little nation of Israel to be His chosen people.. His holy, set-apart mouthpiece on earth - to proclaim the good news of a coming Messiah, through Whom all the families of the earth would be blessed.

And to the tiny nation of Israel, God made a covenant - that if they would worship Him, trust Him and serve Him alone - He would bless them abundantly, but if they rebelled against Him and worshipped false god's - they would be punished.

God's covenant with Abraham was unconditional but the covenant with the nation of Israel depended upon their faithfulness and the first condition was the “Shema' - the Jewish confession, which means “to hear', and which states: Hear, O Israel! The LORD is our God, the LORD is One.

Living in the center of a corrupted, polytheistic, pagan world, Israel was to proclaim their one, unique God. Morning and evening the God of Israel would be confessed to be the one, only, unique, eternal - living God... affirming Jehovah : Yahwey : Elohim as ONE - and He was to be honoured through their lives and they were to share the good news of God's love and faithfulness to the nations - but Israel failed to keep their covenant with God

But the God of Israel is infinitely wise and gloriously faithful to His people, and although in His great omniscience He knew they would fail to keep their part of the covenant with Him, He had foreordained that He would one day send His only begotten Son to pay the price for their rebellious failure and multitude of sins. God secreted the Person of the Lord Jesus within Israel's very confession - that THE LORD our God is ONE. Within the Shema was a precious reference to the ONE Who would set aside His eternal glory and be born in the likeness of sinful man - so that He would save His people from their sins.

By confessing of the Lord is ONE with the plural word: “ELOHIM', the nation of Israel has for many centuries unwittingly delivered a shaded confession to the unity of the Trinity - the oneness of the Godhead - the uniqueness of Father, Son and Holy Spirit - the tri-unity of the YHWH:- Creator of heaven and earth - Who alone is to be worshipped and glorified for ever and ever, amen

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“And if we know that he hears us—whatever we ask—we know that we have what we asked of him.” - 1 John 5:15

The confidence we have right now on the promise of God is something we gained or received from the wisdom that He showered on us. We are undetermined, we are doubtful, and we are unfaithful. However, we have to see that God is the complete opposite of us. He is determined, He is sure, and He is faithful. He always fulfills His promises and He never fails to help us and support us at any cost. Now, we have to understand whatever we do, we have to know that we are incapable of being faithful, but God is very much faithful.

So, our verse today reminds us that God is faithful in our lives. We only just have to know that He hears us, then He gives us the faith and the hope to know that He will answer our prayers and He will give what we need. However, we also have to understand that He is for us, and He always has our best interest in heart. This means that if we pray for something that is not good for us, then of course God will say no. He is not a genie who answers wishes, but He is our God who looks out for us. Again, He is for us, and He always wants us safe, loved, graced, and forgiven.

Therefore, as loving as He is, He will always give us what we ask of Him given that it is good for us. He is not deaf because He hears; He is not greedy, because He is gracious; He is not selfish, because He is patient; He is not hateful, because His love abounds. Thus, we must always understand that whatever happens, God is always for us and we must not be afraid to ask Him and to pray to Him because He has our best interest in heart. He is for us, and He will always support us. Just like how He sent His Son Jesus Christ to be our Lord and Savior. He is our God, He is our refuge, He is our Provider. Praise and glory belong to Him. Now and forever, amen.

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“If any of you lacks wisdom, you should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to you.” - James 1:5

It has been said that a knowledge of one's own ignorance is the beginning of wisdom and that recognising our lack of wisdom is a prudent step towards understanding. Scripture qualifies this by reminding us that the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom and that a knowledge of the holy brings understanding.

Life is full of pitfalls and snares, and we often make wrong choices, but it is comforting to know that no matter what trials we may be called upon to face, or what foolish choices we have made in the past, we can go to the Lord and ask Him for godly insight and spiritual understanding, and He has promised to give us all that is needed for the task.

In this passage, James, the half-brother of the Lord Jesus, is particularly referencing the wisdom we need when compassed about by the various difficulties we encounter in our everyday lives and the tough choices we are all required to make. Until Christ's resurrection, James was at enmity with God and scornful towards his older sibling. It must have been shocking for this young man to discover that the brother whom he had treated with such contempt, during his life, was his Lord and his Saviour.

This bondservant of Christ may have lacked wisdom in his earlier days but was ready to admit his folly and willing to share with us how easy it is to gain godly wisdom and spiritual understanding. James began his lesson on wisdom by pointing out that the suffering of this life produces patient endurance, which will furnish us with spiritual maturity. "However," he continues, "if any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, Who gives to all generously and without reproach, and it will be given to him."

There are times when we do not know what to do or which way to turn, and I am sure that James was shocked and mortified when the resurrected Christ visited his petulant, younger brother. But James was a young man with a teachable spirit, who was quick to embrace the wisdom of faith he lacked, and encourages those of us who are deficient in spiritual insight to ask the Lord for the necessary wisdom we need – and not to doubt that He will provide for us liberally.

James also knows that trusting the Lord for godly wisdom as we travel through life.. is a tool the Lord uses to test and strengthen our faith in Him, and which helps to produce in us the patient endurance that is so needful for our spiritual growth – but we are reminded to stand fast in the faith unwaveringly – if we are to honour the Lord Who bought us with His precious blood, and to come forth as gold.

How much we all need God’s heavenly wisdom in the tests and trials of life’s disappointments and difficulties, which are so much a part of our everyday lives. How much we need His guidance in the choices we have to make, a willingness to admit our faults, a readiness to learn the lessons God desires to teach us, and an eagerness to put into practice the truth we have learned.

We all want to finish the work that God has given us to do and to learn the lessons He desires to teach us along the way. We all desire to grow in grace and in a knowledge of Jesus and we all long to cultivate an undivided heart, that is unruffled by life, as we submit to the guidance of the Holy Spirit and walk in spirit and in truth.

Awareness of our lack in any of these areas of our Christian walk or recognising that life’s problems are swamping our fainting hearts is wisdom indeed – and a prudent step towards solving such problems is to ask the Lord for wisdom. Truly, a knowledge of our spiritual ignorance is a step towards godly wisdom, and recognising our lack of godly wisdom is a prudent step towards growing in grace, maturing in the faith, and gaining an understanding of our privileged position in Christ and all that He has done for us.

God knows that we are weak and frail and He knows that the testing our faith can cause us to complain or murmur or to become unsteady in our Christian walk.. but God provides all the wisdom we need to maintain a steady heart, patient endurance, and an unwavering, uncompromised faith in Him. God delights to give generously to all who ask – but we must be prepared to ask Him, to listen to His voice, and to obey His Word.

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youngdisciples · 2 years

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godlovesyou biblejournaling “But who am I, and who are my people, that we should be able to give as generously as this? Everything comes from you, and we have given you only what comes from your hand.” - 1 Chronicles 29:14

Since last time, we reflected on how we are always foolishly worrying about things that are already provided by God. We worry about our food, our safety, our financial problems, our health when we know that we only have to depend on God and trust Him that He is always there for us. After all, all things work together for the good of His people. Now, we will then look back to the time of King David. Our verse today is King David’s prayer. This is such a nice verse because it reflects both our dependence and our awe of God.

This verse points us to the right mindset that everything we have right now is not ours, but of God. David was a good king, and we all know that a king almost has everything. However, he was able to declare and question what he had during that time. He was able to see and understood that everything he can offer and everything he has, came from God. He knows that the faithfulness, the faith, the generosity, in short, everything he had was a gift from God. Even his faithfulness and obedience are still grace and mercy from God. So it is just fully right to give God what is rightfully His.

Therefore, we must always remember to be good and to always remember that everything we have now is from God. What we own, what we call our own comes from God. Even David, who was a good king recognized that his achievements and everything he own came from God. Thus, may we be like David, may we always put in our mind that our achievements and everything we own came from our God. We did not achieve all of these on our own, but it was because of the grace of God, and only because of Him we can have all these things. So, let us not forget to thank Him and to give Him everything that is rightfully His– glory, honor, praises, adoration, and more.

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youngdisciples · 2 years

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“Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they?” - Matthew 6:26

It is very easy for us to think about all the unfortunate stuff. We always think about our personal problems, our financial problems, and how we can never survive this selfish world. Now, our verse today is actually like a slap in our face. It’s all about how foolishly we are worried about things, and how we should be faithful in God. We are so foolish to worry all the time about how we will not have food on our tables or how we are financially poor we are. However, God wants to remind us that even birds in the air do not sow or reap or store in barns, they still got food to eat. Our Father in heaven feeds them, how much more us?

God wants us to understand that we are special and that we are truly loved by the God who made the heavens and earth. We will not be rejected, we will not be left out because our God loves us so much. Even the birds in the air or other animals are able to exist without the knowledge on how to make food, or how to produce because God takes care of them. So, we are the most precious creation, and God loves us so much that even His Son came to the world to save us from our sins. We must always remember to ask God for help. We must be dependent on Him. Foolishly worrying about things that can promise to provide is foolishness.

Therefore, instead of just foolishly worrying, we must become faithful to God. Let us depend and submit everything to God. After all, He is our Provider. He provides us with everything we need to survive. He even provides us with luxurious things, and He provides us with a lot of things that we don’t need because He is a God of favors too. Thus, we must never worry about tomorrow, for God is our provider and He will not forsake us. He will always be there to support us and love us. May we never forget this truth and may we always praise our God who saved us from our sins, who created the heavens and the earth, and who increase our faith.

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youngdisciples · 2 years

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“In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us through wordless groans.” - Romans 8:26

As children of God we have been born from above and have a new human spirit – our new life in Christ. Before we were born again we had a spirit that was dead in trespasses and sins but when we accepted Christ as our Saviour we were given a new life in Christ - a new, free human spirit, which is able to commune with His Holy Spirit - Who is enabled to guide us into all truth. This is why as children of God we should live our life in spirit and in truth so that we may enjoy 'Spirit to spirit' fellowship with the Lord, day by day.

A life that is lived in spirit and truth is a life that is led by the Holy Spirit of God, Who came to indwell our hearts and guide our lives the moment we were born from above –and He speaks to us quietly through our enlivened human spirit. The Holy Spirit knows the thoughts of our heart and the deep yearnings within our soul and He reaches out to us through our spirit. He longs to lead and guide us into all truth and He is grieved if we choose to live our life according to our old fleshly nature, which was severed at the cross – for when we live our life in spirit and truth He takes the deep cravings of our heart – cravings that we ourselves do not understand and He intercedes for us with groanings that cannot be expressed in words.

Sometimes the deepest desires of our hearts are hidden within our being. Sometimes we ourselves do not even understand what our secret hopes, and hidden hurts are - but they become a thirst in our soul – a thirst that we cannot quench ourselves. But the Spirit joins with us to help in our weakness, because we do not know what to pray for as we should, and so He Himself intercedes for us with unspoken groanings.

He takes the deepest prayers within our hearts and beautifies them and perfects them and answers them in the way that is best – this is why our hearts should be always open to say – Thy will not mine be done.

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