The Perfect Joy, Peace and Strength Found by Abiding in Jesus

John 15:4
Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me.

Where do we find ourselves today? Are we happy with our circumstances? Are we challenged by our trials? Are we frozen by our fears? These questions are irrelevant if we are abiding in Jesus. If we follow His command to abide in Me, we will not have a care about where we are, what we are doing or what is going on around us. In this place of abiding, we will find our lives filled with the perfect joy, strength and peace of the Lord. Whatever we find ourselves doing will be completely satisfying and will bear much fruit. What freedom and power we find when we abide in Our Savior!!

On the other hand, if we are leaning on the world or on our own natural abilities, we soon find out how fearful and impotent we are. Just as the passage suggests, we are destined to experience a withering away when we separate ourselves from the True Vine. We are sure to enter into a poor, fruitless condition. Why would we ever consider living in any other way except fully dependent on the True Vine?

Let us bring our fears to the Lord and let Him deal with them. Let us vanquish the giants in our lives in the name of the Lord. Let us bow in awe and wonder before Almighty God, acknowledging His great power and might. Let us become the mighty warriors that He has created us to be.

Prayer
Heavenly Father, we bow in awe and wonder before You. We acknowledge and thank You for the fullness of the joy and the power that we receive when we abide in Your Son. We pray for the strength to place all of our fears and worries at Your feet. We ask for the courage to move forward knowing that all things are possible when we place our trust in Our Savior. May we always seek the grace, nourishment and strength that we need from our all-sufficient source, Jesus Christ. We ask all these things in His precious, holy and mighty name.

The Rewards of Responding to “Come to Me”

Matthew 11:28
Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.

At some level, we all take on the heavy burdens of this world. We all seek to escape from the stress filled grind that most of us experience in some form from our day to day activities. Jesus invites all of us who labor and are carrying burdens to come to Him. He promises that He will provide us with the rest that we need.

But be assured that “I will give you rest” does not mean “I will hold your hand while you lay in bed languishing in your burdens.” It means, “I will pull you out of the darkened state that you are in. I will pull you from the oppression of the enemy. I will give you the spirit of a new life, but I expect you to let go of your old life.”

Why do we insist on hanging on to the old things that do nothing but hinder our progress toward finding the rest that is promised to us? Why do we accept anything less than the full measure that God has set aside for us? It is all about our commitment. When we come to Jesus, we are committing to leave everything of this world behind in exchange for a personal relationship with Our Savior.

Let us abandon the callings of our flesh as we surrender our lives to Jesus Christ and allow His Spirit to guide all that we do. Let us take victory over all of our trials as we live in submission to Our Savior. Let us receive the peace that He promises us as we respond to His command, “Come to Me.”

Prayer
Heavenly Father, we thank You for providing a refuge for us – a place where we can be free from the burdens that the world tries to lay on us. We praise You for providing the comfort that we can find nowhere else except through our relationship with Your Son, Jesus. May we be drawn by the Holy Spirit to respond to the words of promise, “Come unto me.” May we learn to live our lives in the vitality and might that You offer us in Christ. We ask all these things in the name of the One who provides our comfort, Jesus Christ.

Finding Joy When Happiness Eludes Us

Luke 21:19
By your endurance you will gain your lives.

Jesus warned His apostles of the hard times to come. He foretold the trials and persecution that they would suffer after He left. He comforted them with His promise that if they persevered in the ways of God and in the truths that He had given them, they would possess peace and joy in their souls. He also told them that the world would not be able to take away their joy if they lived in the fullness of His presence.

So it is with us. We have our own trials to bear in our lives. The Lord teaches us to let nothing disturb or distress us. He instructs us not to submit to the moodiness that might come upon us due to our circumstances. We must take on the Spirit of the One who dwells within us. We must endure, knowing that we have already been given victory over our circumstances. We must allow Jesus to do His work in us, overcoming the moodiness that our flesh would like to lay on us, so that we can press on and do the work that He calls us to do in the world. May we learn to patiently bear all afflictions on our bodies, bear all attacks and indignities tossed our way by our critics and bear all difficulties dealt to us by the world.

Let us be determined to allow nothing to disturb us, distress us or steal our peace. Let us learn to live joyfully in the presence of Jesus Christ under all circumstances.

Prayer
Heavenly Father, we thank You for granting us victory through Jesus over everything in the world that tries to take our joy away. We rejoice in knowing that we can have joy even when happiness eludes us. We pray that You will teach us how to seek the strength we need when our mood turns us toward our problems instead of our solution, Your Son, Jesus. May the world see our joy in all circumstances so that they may be drawn to the One who provides it. We ask all these things in the name of Our Stronghold, Jesus Christ.

Surrendering to the Yoke of Christ

2 Corinthians 12:10
For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong.

When our family relationships are at the breaking point, when the bill collectors are knocking at our door or when serious afflictions are threatening us, we run to Jesus for a supernatural remedy to our maladies. When we are weak and near defeat, perhaps even near death, we run to Jesus for His grace to strengthen us and comfort us as we go through our trials.

He promises to be our strength in every one of our times of weakness or trial. He promises to lighten our burdens as we surrender to His yoke. It is during these times that we feel His presence so clearly. It is during these times of pain that we experience the fullness of His love. It becomes a blessing to have tribulation in our lives.

Unfortunately without trial, we tend to lean away from God. We tend to move out of His presence. We tend to let the joy of life overshadow the true and perfect joy that is available to us through an ongoing, intimate relationship with Our Savior.

Let us turn to Jesus for our strength in the good times and the bad times. Let us be mindful of the presence and power of Jesus Christ as we enjoy the blessings that we have been provided in our lives. Let us experience the peace and power of being yoked to Him in our times of trial. Let us allow Jesus to be our all-sufficient Lord.

Prayer
Heavenly Father, we thank You for Your promise to perfect Your strength in our weakness. We thank You for the comfort of knowing that You are always there. We praise You for providing Your Son, Jesus, so that through Him and in Him we can experience the fullness of Your love. Help us, Father, to find contentment in all things as we seek to live in Your shadow and not under the influence of the world. We pray, Lord, that Your Holy Spirit will inspire us to develop an ongoing, intimate relationship with Your Son that is not affected by our circumstances. We ask all these things in the name of Our Rock and Our Redeemer, Jesus Christ.

Unfathomable Faith in the Promises of God

Genesis 22:2
He said, “Take your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love, and go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains of which I shall tell you.”

Did anyone, other than Jesus Himself, have to endure a greater test than Abraham? Can you imagine yourself standing over a loved one, especially your child, with knife in hand? Can you picture yourself ready to offer him or her as a living sacrifice? Can you even conceive of the idea that you would have gotten as far as picking up the knife?

To have to end the life of your child by the act of your own hand, who could endure such a test? Only a person of unfathomable faith in the promises of God could stand up to such a trial. When Abraham headed up the mountain with Isaac, he held the promise from God that God would make Abraham a great nation. Abraham believed that the promise could not be fulfilled without Isaac.

Abraham makes two comments that indicate that he faced his trial girded by faith in God’s promises. The first confirmation of his faith came when he saw the place of sacrifice from afar. He told the servants that had joined him and Isaac, “Stay here with the donkey. I and the boy will go over there and worship and come again to you.” The second confirmation of his faith came when Isaac asked where was the lamb for the sacrifice. Abraham responded, “God will provide the lamb for Himself for the burnt offering, my son.” And so it was that Abraham became a great nation as he stood with his knife ready, waiting in faith for His God to fulfill His promises.

God will test each of us. He wants us to build up our faith in Him. He wants us to live with complete confidence that He will provide all that we need to endure that which we may feel is unbearable.

Let us take strength from the story of Abraham and Isaac. Let us rejoice in knowing that God will always provide a way for us to fulfill the plan that He has for our lives and for the lives of those that we serve.

Prayer
Heavenly Father, we thank You for covering us in the many promises of comfort, provision and strength that You have revealed to us in Your Holy Word. Test us, O Lord, to build our faith in who You are. Strengthen us, O Lord, that we may pass the tests that prepare us for our place in Your eternal kingdom. Comfort us as we endure the trials. Build up in us the faith of Abraham. May we rejoice in seeing the fruits of our faith. We ask all these things in the name of the Author of Our Faith, Jesus Christ.

Casting Our Burdens Upon the Lord

Psalm 55:22
Cast your burden on the LORD, and he will sustain you; he will never permit the righteous to be moved.

It is obvious from this verse that we are to have burdens in our lives. But God in His mercy promises us that He will not give a burden that is larger that the provision that He will grant to overcome the burden.

God gave His own Son a cup of sorrow and suffering that was so intense that Jesus sweat blood as He faced His upcoming crucifixion. But Jesus did as the verse commands, He cast His burden upon the Father. Thus He was provided with all He needed to face the Cross and rise from His trial in victory.

No affliction or tribulation is joyous. They are all troublesome. Some are much heavier than others. At times they even seem to gather together or to extend much longer that we would care to bear. The total of it all adds up to the burden we face. Our relief is to look to Jesus Christ who bore it all on the Cross and took it away from us.

Let us cast our burdens upon the Lord. Let us claim the promise of Our Heavenly Father that He will not let His righteous children fail. Let us rest upon His providence and promise. Let us rejoice in His faithfulness.

Prayer
Heavenly Father, we thank You for Your promises that we can lean on as we deal with the cups of sorrow and suffering that we must swallow. We thank You for using our trials to build our faith in who You are. We thank You for insuring our victory through Your Son, Jesus. We thank You for insuring our righteousness through the presence of the Holy Spirit in our lives. We pray for Your mercies to be granted us each day as You release fresh supplies of strength and comfort just as we need them to overcome our trials. We ask these things in the name of the One who gave His life for the ransom of many, our all sufficient Lord, Jesus Christ.

By the Fullness of His Grace

2 Timothy 2:1
You then, my child, be strengthened by the grace that is in Christ Jesus.

Paul wrote the words in this passage to his helper, Timothy, to prepare him for everything that the world was going to throw at him. Paul alerted Timothy that there would be many trials that he would endure. He encouraged him by reminding him that he would be strengthened by the One who sent them out to preach to the people. Paul exhorted Timothy to rely completely on the grace of God and not to turn to his own ways to find his strength.

When the worst that the world can throw at us comes along, we need to be rooted and grounded in our faith in the grace that is provided to us. Our strength and our security will rest upon the faith that we build in the strong, immovable, unalterable love of God that is provided through His grace that is in His Son, Jesus.

As we find ourselves challenged by life, we can be comforted by Paul’s instruction to Timothy. Jesus Christ will never leaves us. When we turn to Him for our direction and our strength, our path is secure. By the fullness of His grace, we are enabled to fulfill our ministries, bear all trials and afflictions and stand against all persecution.

Let us march boldly forward in our walk with Our Savior. Let us open our minds and hearts to receive the abundant grace that He has set aside for us. May His power to overcome all that comes against us be released in our lives.

Prayer
Heavenly Father, we thank You for the grace that we receive through our relationship with Your Son, Jesus. We exalt the name of Jesus, who provides the strength that we need to overcome all of the trials and issues in our lives. We ask, Lord, that the Holy Spirit teach us how to rely solely on the fullness of the grace available to us through our relationship with Our Savior. We pray that our firm reliance on Your Son will release His power and His Spirit into our lives and our ministries. We ask all these things in the name of the One who became flesh so that we might receive Your endless grace, Jesus Christ.

Our Smallest Care is Important to Him

Psalm 56:11
In God I have put my trust, I shall not be afraid. What can man do to me?

It is amazing how often we struggle with the issues of the day, wondering how our particular situation is going to get resolved. How little faith we have in Almighty God through whom all things are possible. But what may be even more amazing is how we have no faith that Almighty God is interested in the smallest needs in our lives when His Word proclaims that He knows the count of every hair on our heads. Our smallest concern is as important to Him as our greatest need.

Through the continuous and sometimes onerous trials that we have passed through in life, we should have learned to patiently wait on the Lord to take us from darkness into the light. Yet we seem to become frustrated by the small stuff and lose patience. More importantly we lose confidence in an Almighty God who cares for us so much that He bottles all of our tears and observes them with tender love and concern.

May we all come full circle just as David, the Psalmist, did. May we be in constant recognition of the fact that the Lord is our helper. May we move forward fearing no man, for man has no power but what God has given him. Through our trials, may we all praise God knowing that He is faithful to meet our every need.

Let us make David’s affirmation of Almighty God’s power the foundation for our daily resolve. Let us rejoice and trust in Him to be who He says He is in all things big and small.

Prayer
Heavenly Father, we thank You for Your faithful promises to meet our every need. We praise You for giving us sufficient grace to get through every trial. We pray, Lord, that You will grant us the faith to trust in You for everything in our lives. We ask that Your Holy Spirit teach us to come to You boldly with what seems impossible and also come to You confidently with the smallest things that are troubling us. May Your grace and power in our lives never be diminished because of our lack of understanding. We ask all these things in the name of the Son seated at the right hand of power, Jesus Christ.

Defeating Everything Thrown Our Way

Romans 8:37
No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.

You just found out that your company is planning massive layoffs and your department will be hit hard. Or maybe the school called to let you know that your child is being bullied. Or perhaps you discovered that your family is being ostracized because of your Christian beliefs. How are you responding to your circumstances? Are you depressed? Are you in despair? Are you fearful?

Jesus teaches us that we should expect these types of trials in our lives. To think that we will not have challenges or trials because we are children of God is in direct opposition to what Jesus teaches us. So expect tribulation, but take courage for in all theses things we are more than conquerors through Our Savior.

Do not miss the importance of Jesus teaching us that “in all these things” we will be more than conquerors. Because Jesus Christ has paid the price in full for each of us, we can and will rise up and find joy in the midst of all of our troubles. The undaunted presence of Jesus Christ makes the world’s challenges impotent. No thing nor no power can put a wedge between us and the love of God that provides our resilience. Not only will we overcome, but our faith, our trust in God and our joy will increase through the experience.

Let us stand tall against the enemy. Let us rejoice and have faith for the victory is ours.

Prayer
Heavenly Father, we thank You for liberating us from our present sufferings by providing the hope that comes from the freedom and glory that has been set aside for us through Your Son, Jesus. We exalt His precious name for making us conquerors over evil and our own flesh. We pray for the courage and the strength to face and defeat every trial that the enemy throws our way. We rejoice in knowing that the victory is ours because it was first won on the Cross. We ask all these things in the name of Our Blessed Hope and Assurance, Jesus Christ.

Overcoming the Tribulations of the World

John 16:31
Jesus answered them, “Do you now believe?

The apostles spent three years with Jesus. Yet when He was ready to leave them, He had to take a lengthy amount of time explaining to them who He was. When He completed His explanation, He posed a question to them, “Do you now believe?”

Are we not just like the apostles? Even though we have spent years in prayer, years in the reading of the Word, years in worship and years in serving God, we manage to lose our sense of who Almighty God really is and the certainty of all the promises that He has given us through His Son, Jesus Christ. Sadly, as if Jesus Christ left the earth and left us to our own wiles, we turn toward the world for answers. We somehow find ourselves overlooking that our all-sufficient Lord provided us with a Wonderful Counselor who stands ready to supply our every need.

Let us be reminded that Jesus promised that His Holy Spirit would be with us and would comfort and guide us. To believe otherwise is to have a complete lack of faith. To believe otherwise is to deny what Jesus said He came to earth to do. “These things I have spoken to you, so that in Me you may have peace. In the world you have tribulation, but take courage; I have overcome the world.”

Let us take courage as Jesus commands us. Let us believe fully in the promises of Jesus Christ.

Prayer
Heavenly Father, we thank You for the comfort and guidance that You provide through Your Holy Spirit. We bless the name of Jesus who came to earth so that we may have peace and we may overcome the tribulations of the world. We pray, Father, that Your Holy Spirit will help us to dig deep into our relationship with You. May we dig so deep that we never again turn to the world for counsel without having gone to You first. Help us, Lord, to believe for more than we can imagine is possible through our own efforts. Teach us how to wait on You for Your good and perfect timing in all things. We ask these things in the name of the One that is with us until the end of the age, Jesus Christ.