Habit of Wealth

Through God’s promises, we participate in the divine nature. But if we want to express the divine nature in our human nature, we must form habits and the very first habit we must form is the habit of recognizing God’s provision. 

Do you often find yourself saying, “I can’t afford it”? One of the worst lies is tucked up in this statement. It’s considered bad taste to talk about money how much you have or don’t have and the same is true of spiritual riches. We talk as though our heavenly Father has cut us off without a cent. We think it’s a sign of modesty to say, “It was a real struggle, but I got by.” Meanwhile, all of God Almighty is ours through the Lord Jesus Christ. If we obey God, he will tax the last grain of sand and the remotest star to bless us. 

What does it matter if our external circumstances are difficult? Why shouldn’t they be? If we indulge in the luxury of misery and give way to self-pity, we banish God’s riches from our lives. No sin is worse than self-pity, because it erases God and puts self-interest on the throne. It opens our mouths to spit out streams of complaint, and our lives become constantly craving spiritual sponges, with nothing lovely or generous about them. 

When God is beginning to be satisfied with us, he will impoverish every source of phony wealth in our lives, until we learn that true wealth lies only in him. If we aren’t consciously aware of the fact that his majesty and grace and power are being manifested in us, God holds us responsible. “God is able to bless you abundantly, so that in all things at all times, having all that you need, you will abound in every good work.” (2 Corinthians 9:8)

Learn to lavish the blessings of God on others, and his blessings will come through you all the time.

[Oswald Chambers]

2 Peter 1:4 ...  Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises: that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.

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Submission to Gods Will

Our wills are naturally selfish. We love to have our own way. It's not easy to submit to the will of another, unless there is some strong motive that impels us to submission. The carrying out of our wills in a selfish way, only leads to more selfishness and to a stronger inclination to have our own way. It is this selfish inclination in the will, that makes it necessary for God to demand submission from us.

His will is never selfish, but always benevolent. The cheerful doing of it always leads to an increase of benevolence in us. Therefore, when God demands us to submit our wills to him, he is doing that which is best for us. The more consideration for others and true benevolence is developed within us the more our natures are purified and exalted and the more we are able to fulfill the purpose of our creation.

Submitting to God is often the hardest of all tasks, yet it's the most necessary, if we're to be exalted to fellowship with God and enjoy the highest development of our faculties and powers. Selfishness always tends to degrade. Its ignoble exercise tends to dwarf and blight the finest things in our characters. The adoption of a submissive attitude toward God and his will, paves the way for the natural development of those qualities within us which are most worth developing, and which ennoble us most when they're developed. The more our souls run out God-ward, the more like him we become; and the more like him we become, the happier and more useful we are. Unselfish devotion to benevolent service toward God and toward our fellow man, enriches the heart and life as nothing else can do, and leads the way to happiness, peace, and contentment, which make one truly blessed.

Submission to God is the one necessary thing in order to enjoy the Christian life. The more fully we are submitted to his will, the more cheerfully we can carry it out, and the sweeter and richer will be the joy of doing it. Reluctant submission to God is not real submission. Reluctant obedience is never real obedience. It's only when the heart responds to God willingly and cheerfully, that the power of such service to make one joyful is realized. We must conquer our reluctant wills. "The essence of sacrifice of self is the sacrifice of the will. Unwilling offerings are a contradiction, and in fact, there are no such things. The quality of unwillingness destroys the character of the offering and robs it of all sacredness. Reluctant Christianity is not Christianity."

True nobility of both the inner and the outer life comes from submission to, and cooperation with, God. The nature of our relations with God depends upon the extent of our submission to him.

[Charles Naylor]

Matthew 6:10 ... Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven.

Philippians 2:13 ... For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure.

Colossians 1:9 ... For this cause we also, since the day we heard it, do not cease to pray for you, and to desire that ye might be filled with the knowledge of his will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding; ❤

If I could Hear Jesus ...

The priesthood of Jesus is unlike anything this world has ever known. Earthly priests came and went, bound by mortality and sin. But Jesus, the sinless Son of God, lives forever. His priesthood is permanent, unchanging, and perfect.

And because He lives forever, He is able to save completely. Not partially. Not temporarily. Completely. From the deepest guilt; from the power of sin to the punishment, it deserves. He is mighty to save. No believer is ever beyond His reach.

No sin is too dark for His cleansing blood. No soul is too entangled in sin for His delivering hand.

This complete salvation flows from a wondrous truth: He always lives to intercede for His chosen and redeemed people. Even now, in this very moment Jesus is interceding for US. He is not pleading for mercy as one who is uncertain of the outcome. Rather, as the crucified and risen Savior, He presents His perfect sin-atoning sacrifice before the Father. His nail-scarred hands are the eternal evidence that the price has been paid in full, the wrath of God has been satisfied, justice has been upheld, and His mercy flows freely.

We are not kept by our own power, but by the power of God. If we had to keep ourselves, we would be like the spider's web swept away by the first rough wind of temptation or persecution. The saints shall never perish. They are not only saved, but safe. They are not only pardoned but preserved. The same grace that chose them and redeemed them also secures them to the end!

If I could hear Jesus praying for me in the next room, I would not fear a million enemies. Yet distance makes no difference He is praying for me.

What comfort this brings to every believer. When our prayers falter, His do not. When our faith is weak, His intercession is strong. When Satan accuses, Jesus speaks. We do not stand before God on the strength of our own performance, but on the everlasting merit of our High Priest. Our Priest lives; and while He lives, His people are safe. The unchangeable Christ is the rock of our confidence. Your salvation is as secure as His throne in Heaven!

[Charles H. Spurgeon]

Hebrews 7:24-25 ... But this man, because he continueth ever, hath an unchangeable priesthood. Wherefore he is able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him, seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for them.

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Shoes of Peace

Have you ever tried to walk through a thorn bush in flip-flops? Not recommended. The "Shoes of the Gospel of Peace" are about readiness. They allow you to stand firm when the ground gets shaky. If you’re feeling anxious or disconnected, it might be because you’re barefoot in a spiritual forest. You need shoes with traction. 

The Practical Application: Before you leave the house (or open your laptop), decide that you will be a carrier of peace. Peace isn't just the absence of noise; it’s a quiet confidence. If a meeting gets heated or a family member is being "extra," remember your shoes. You are standing on the solid ground of God’s peace. You don’t have to join the chaos. You brought your own atmosphere.

         

                                                          word-of-encouragement.com

Proverbs 4:11-12 ...  I have taught thee in the way of wisdom; I have led thee in right paths. When thou goest, thy steps shall not be straitened; and when thou runnest, thou shalt not stumble. ❤

Most Sparkling Diamond

 A believer's last day is his best day! Death is a change of enjoyments. It is a change of our more dark and obscure enjoyment of God for a more clear and sweet enjoyment of Him. The best believer in this world, who enjoys most of God--he is still much in the dark and does not enjoy God clearly.

Ask those who live highest in the enjoyment of God, "What is your greatest burden?" They will tell you: "That our views of God are quite darksome, so that we cannot see Him face to face, whom our souls dearly love."

Death is a change of our imperfect and incomplete enjoyments of God, for a more complete and perfect enjoyment of Him. One has beautifully said: "The glorious things of Heaven are so many, that they exceed number; so precious, that they exceed estimation; so great, that they exceed measure!"

There are no complaints in Heaven, because there are no needs. Oh, when death shall give the fatal stroke, there shall be an exchange of this wilderness world, for the glories of Heaven!

Here in this present world, the saints receive grace; but in Heaven, they shall receive glory! God keeps the best wine until last. Here we have but some sips and tastes of God; the fullness is reserved for the glorious state. He who sees most of God here on earth, sees but his back parts; His face is a jewel of such splendor and glory, that no eye can behold but a glorified eye.

The best of Christian is able to take in only a glimpse of God; their hearts are like the widow's vessel, which could hold only a little oil. Sin, the world, and creatures take up so much room in the best hearts that God gives Himself out little by little; as parents give sweets to their children. But in Heaven God will communicate Himself fully and at once to the soul! Grace shall then be swallowed up in glory!

Death is a change of a more inconstant and transient enjoyment of God for a constant and permanent enjoyment of God. Here on earth, the saints' enjoyment of God is changeable. But in Heaven there are no clouds arising between the Lord and a believing heart. In Heaven there are nothing but kisses and embraces; nothing but a perpetual enjoyment of God! When once God takes the soul unto Himself, He shall wipe away every tear.

Jesus is the most sparkling diamond in the ring of glory! It is Heaven and happiness enough, to see Jesus and to be forever with Him. One has said, "For Jesus to be with Paul, was the greatest security but for Paul to be with Jesus, was the chief happiness!"

Oh, what a glorious change this is! Methinks these things should make us long for our dying-day and account this present life to be but a lingering death. 

[Thomas Brooks]

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1 Thessalonians 4:17-18 ... Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord. Wherefore comfort one another with these words.

Ecclesiastes 7:1 ... A good name is better than precious ointment; and the day of death than the day of one's birth. ❤

PriDE MONth

 You cannot spell Pride Month without D E M O N.

Isaiah 14:12-15 ... How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! how art thou cut down to the ground, which didst weaken the nations! For thou hast said in thine heart, I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God: I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation, in the sides of the north: I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will be like the most High.  Yet thou shalt be brought down to hell, to the sides of the pit.

Daniel 5:20-21 ... But when his heart was lifted up, and his mind hardened in pride, he was deposed from his kingly throne, and they took his glory from him: And he was driven from the sons of men; and his heart was made like the beasts, and his dwelling was with the wild asses: they fed him with grass like oxen, and his body was wet with the dew of heaven; till he knew that the most high God ruled in the kingdom of men, and that he appointeth over it whomsoever he will.

1 Timothy 3:6 ...  Not a novice, lest being lifted up with pride he fall into the condemnation of the devil.

Proverbs 16:18 ... Pride goeth before destruction, and an haughty spirit before a fall.

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J.U.N.E.

Let June be ....

J Jesus first in everything.

Matthew 6:33 ... But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.

U Unshakable faith in Him.  

Hebrews 11:1 ... Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.

N New mercies every morning.

Lamentations 3:22-23 ... It is of the Lord's mercies that we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not.  They are new every morning: great is thy faithfulness.

E End each day with gratitude. 

1 Thessalonians 5:18 ... In every thing give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you.

[OneGodMinistries.242]

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Ocean of Life!

The Psalmist deposited the precepts and promises of God in his heart and proved their value and efficacy to preserve him from sin, to comfort him in trouble, and to cheer him in a dying hour.

Just so, Christians must "let the Word of Christ dwell in them richly, in all wisdom." (Colossians 3:16) This will preserve them from sin and make them wise unto salvation.

The Word must be deposited in our hearts and woven into our natures by carefully reading and meditating upon it. "Do not let this Book of the Law depart from your mouth; meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do everything written in it." (Joshua 1:8)

The Word is the perpetual standard of all moral excellence. All its precepts tend to purity. Its doctrines present the most powerful motives against sin.

When the Christian looks at the sufferings and death of the Redeemer in His intense agony, in His bloody sweat, in His transfixing on the cruel cross, in the desertion of His Father, in the endurance of the penalty of sin, then he sees in all these unparalleled sorrows, "the exceeding sinfulness of sin!"

Why is he redeemed? "Christ gave Himself for us--to redeem us from all wickedness and to purify for Himself a people that are His very own, eager to do what is good!" (Titus 2:14)

Why is he regenerated? "Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!" (2 Corinthians 5:17)

Why is he adopted into God's family but to bear the image of Him who adopts.

What is the tendency of all the doctrines of grace which he has received? "For the grace of God teaches us to say 'No' to ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright and godly lives in this present age!" (Titus 2:11-12)

Why is he preserved? "May God Himself, the God of peace, sanctify you through and through. May your whole spirit, soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ!" (1 Thessalonians 5:23) "But now He has reconciled you by Christ's physical body through death to present you holy in His sight, without blemish and free from accusation!" (Colossians 1:22)

Above all, when he contemplates the character of his Savior His ardent love, His ineffable meekness, His profound humility, and his perfect obedience, then he perceives such a bright constellation of virtues, that he is dazzled by their splendor, and longs and prays to be impressed with the image and likeness of Jesus.

Thus, the Word of God is hidden in his heart as his counselor, as his guide, as his pattern!

The Word of God is the Christian's compass and chart, by which he is steered safely over the tempestuous ocean of life!

[William Nicholson]

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Psalm 119:11 ... Thy word have I hid in mine heart, that I might not sin against thee.

2 Timothy 3:16-17 ... All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: That the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works. ❤

The Myth of Mother Nature!!

Who is regulating affairs on this earth today: God, or the Devil? That God reigns supreme in Heaven, is generally conceded; but that He reigns supreme over this earth, is almost universally denied if not directly, then indirectly. More and more are men relegating God to the background, in their philosophizing and theorizing. Take the material realm. Not only is it denied that God created everything, by personal and direct action, but few believe that He has any immediate concern in regulating the works of His own hands.

It is common to hear disasters explained as impersonal "Forces of Nature," or mere outcomes of "Natural Laws," or "Bad Luck." Yet Scripture shatters that notion: War, pestilence, floods, storms, earthquakes, fires all flow from the eternal decree and providential governance of our holy God. When hurricanes lash the coast, or fires consume forests we must not bow the knee to the myth of "Mother Nature" but humble ourselves before the One who "commands and raises the stormy wind." (Psalm 107:25)

Nahum 1:3, "He displays his power in the whirlwind and the storm. The billowing clouds are the dust beneath His feet." Every blast of wind and crack of thunder, fulfill His wise and holy will.

When disaster strikes, our natural impulse is fear and bewilderment. Yet believers are called to recognize God's sovereign hand in every storm and tempest of life. We do not cower at chance events, for there is no "chance" with Him. We should pray with assurance, knowing that "God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose." (Romans 8:28)

Earth and air, fire and water, hail and snow, stormy winds and angry seas all perform His sovereign pleasure. It is God who withholds the rain, and it is God who gives the rain when He wills, where He wills, as He wills, and on whom He wills.

Either God governs or He is governed.  Either God rules or He is ruled.  Either God has His way or men have theirs.

No revolving world, no shining of star, no storm, no creature moves, no actions of men, no errands of angels, no deeds of Devil nothing in all the vast universe can come to pass, otherwise than what God has eternally purposed.

Here is an anchor for the soul, both sure and steadfast. It is not blind fate, unbridled evil, man or Devil but the Lord Almighty who is ruling His world, ruling it according to His own good pleasure and for His own eternal glory!

[A. W. Pink]

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Ecclesiastes 7:14 ... In the day of prosperity be joyful, but in the day of adversity consider: God also hath set the one over against the other, to the end that man should find nothing after him.

Isaiah 45:6-7 ...  That they may know from the rising of the sun, and from the west, that there is none beside me. I am the Lord, and there is none else. I form the light, and create darkness: I make peace, and create evil: I the Lord do all these things.

Psalm 135:6 ... Whatsoever the Lord pleased, that did he in heaven, and in earth, in the seas, and all deep places. ❤

Thou Art Great!!

Lord, how great You are, beyond words, beyond comprehension, beyond anything my mind can fully grasp or my heart fully express.

Your greatness is displayed everywhere I look, in creation's vastness, in miracles recorded in scripture, in my own life where You've shown up time and again.

Teach me to live with constant awareness of Your greatness, not just acknowledging it intellectually but responding with awe, wonder, and worship that flows from really seeing who You are.

You are great in power, creating universes with a word, great in love, pursuing humanity relentlessly, great in mercy, forgiving what should be unforgivable.

Help me never lose my sense of wonder at Your greatness, never become so familiar with You that I forget how magnificent, how mighty, how marvelous You truly are.

Remind me that the greatness I see is just a glimpse, that what I comprehend is only a fraction of Your full glory, that eternity won't be long enough to explore Your greatness completely.

Give me a heart that responds to Your greatness with worship, with surrender, with trust, knowing that a God this great is worthy of my complete devotion.

Let my life declare how great You are, not just in words but in how I trust You, follow You, and give You the honor that Your greatness deserves.

In Jesus' name, Amen.

                                                                  faithfulgrace.com

Psalm 86:10-12 ... For thou art great, and doest wondrous things: thou art God alone.  Teach me thy way, O Lord; I will walk in thy truth: unite my heart to fear thy name.  I will praise thee, O Lord my God, with all my heart: and I will glorify thy name for evermore.

Psalm 145:3 ... Great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised; and his greatness is unsearchable.

Psalm 95:3 ... For the Lord is a great God, and a great King above all gods. ❤

Puppet

 

Psalm 14:1 ... The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God. They are corrupt, they have done abominable works, there is none that doeth good. 

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