Thurs Devo - Valuable Gift

What was the most valuable gift you received this year? What’s the most valuable gift you’ve ever given or received?

Nine years ago on Christmas Eve, Joe surprised me with an engagement ring! Besides being the most valuable material Christmas gift I’ve ever received, I gained Joe as a partner for life!!! The latter is priceless.

Did you know God considers you and me precious and valuable? Jesus purchased us back as a valuable gift for God.

Revelation 5:7-10     ⁷ He [the Lamb] went and took the scroll from the right hand of him who sat on the throne. ⁸ And when he had taken it, the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders fell down before the Lamb. Each one had a harp and they were holding golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of God’s people. ⁹ And they sang a new song, saying:

“You are worthy to take the scroll
    and to open its seals,
because you were slain,
    and with your blood you purchased for God
    persons from every tribe and language and people and nation.
¹⁰ You have made them to be a kingdom and priests to serve our God,
    and they will reign on the earth.”

Knowing how valuable you, your prayers and your service are to God, what priorities and goals will you set for this New Year?

Happy New Year!
Alice

Right Here and Now

I pray that from his glorious, unlimited resources he will empower you with inner strength through his Spirit.  Then Christ will make his home in your hearts as you trust in him. Your roots will grow down into God’s love and keep you strong.  And may you have the power to understand, as all God’s people should, how wide, how long, how high, and how deep his love is.  May you experience the love of Christ, though it is too great to understand fully. Then you will be made complete with all the fullness of life and power that comes from God.  Ephesians 3:16-19

As people, we spend a lot of time focusing on what’s ahead.  Some of us get caught up into the past.  Very rarely do we focus on the here and now.  We too often look at our own spiritual growth and development and usually say one of two things.  One, we look to God saying, Lord, please do something for us to understand your will for our lives or remove this barrier that is in front of me.  Those who dwell in the past become depressed because the past represents the old you; the one who sinned and always said or did the wrong thing at the wrong time.  However, there is a select few who get it.  They realize the future is what God holds for them and the past is what God forgave them of.  What matters most is that we are thankful to God in the here and now, and He removed the chains that held you up in the past and liberated you to go forward into the future.

God loves you exactly where you are, and has done everything in your life to put you in position to do great things right now.  If you are like me, you might look at your life and ask what God sees in a sinner like me.  I know I still am subject to sin, but I am far from the person I used to be when Christ saved me.  Through His grace, I am given the opportunity to humbly get back up and learn in my quest to do better.  That is what growth is.  It is messy, painful, and often unwanted.  Paul in today’s verses prays for us to both embrace the transformation that we are undergoing and appreciate it today.  Through it all, we come to find achievement, maturity, and greater understanding of God’s will for our lives.  Your failures through God’s love and grace help shape you.  They do not however define you.  Furthermore if you are too focused on the future as to how you will get better, you may miss on what God is trying to show you right now.  If we know God is all knowing and all powerful and we trust in Him completely, would it make sense that you are right where God wants you right now?  All that has happened occurred because God allowed it to.  Our goal is to embrace the person we are now; flawed but loved by the Almighty God who is the only one who is perfect.

God has put you right where you need to be today.  You may not be where you want to be, and you might not be happy with how you got here.  But today, God is what He has always been in your life; present and with you every step of the way.  So as Paul hopes, let us all experience Christ love in its fullness so that we will realize today that we can do anything!  How can you focus on the here and now more?  What will you do with the strength God has given you?  My prayer is that rather than dwelling on the past or focusing on the future, we pause and embrace the person God has made you right here and now.  Amen and may you have blessed and Happy New Year!

Tues Devo: Hope

Romans 5:1-5 “Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom also we have obtained our introduction by faith into this grace in which we stand; and we exult in hope of the glory of God. And not only this, but we also exult in our tribulations, knowing that tribulation brings about perseverance; and perseverance, proven character; and proven character, hope; and hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out within our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us” (NASB)

Hello,

As we get ready to cross into the New Year, the concept of hope is talked about or referred to quite often. We gear up for the next year and think about where we will improve, look for what may be in store, and hope it is better than the last year (even if the last year was good as well). The problem is that we have begun to use a different word for hope. We seem to make is synonymous with “wish” or “dream” – but that is not the way this is looked at here in scripture. Here hope is seen as what is to come, but what is not in question. As you look at the cascade of events in these verses the reason they lead to hope is that by going through tough times in full reliance on God, we begin to see things more clearly from His perspective. We are more in step with what He desires and walk more closely with Him. As we do that, we remember who He truly is, that His end game is perfect and will come to pass and that He wants what is best for us in that perspective all along the way.

Where is your hope going to be placed this new year?

Will Hill