Prayer: Father God thank you that indeed your love is steadfast and your mercies ARE new for us every morning and even during the day and night. Every moment, every next moment you are loving us and we are grateful. Sometimes God, life is so very hard and we need to pause and remember. Thank you that you ARE with us, loving us and caring for and about us. Help us to set aside the cares of this day and simply “be” with you for this time. Bless each one here in the area of their deepest need. In Jesus name amen.
Yesterday was a tad difficult. I needed to “remember what I know” and so the LORD helped me think-write and this is what I wrote:
Sometimes the greatest gift we can give another is the gift of our presence.
Sometimes being present and loving someone during a difficult season is a hard gift to give.
But often during crucial times of life, the gift of “presence” is the most valuable thing we CAN give another.
To listen to a heart that is breaking and simply love them.
To remain present with them and not run away is priceless.
Each evening God sends a reminder that He is present to us.
He does the same each morning.
Abba has promised never to abandon us.
His mercies are new every morning.
They are new every morning;
Great is Your faithfulness.
“The Lord is my portion,” says my soul,
“Therefore I hope in Him!”
Lamentations 3:22-24
The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases;
his mercies never come to an end;
they are new every morning;
great is your faithfulness.
The Lord is my portion,” says my soul,
“therefore I will hope in him.”
Lamentations 3:22-24 ESV
Now you see why I picked that opening song.
The truth is GOD is with us. He is walking through life with each of us. He knows what is going on and helps us in ways we often miss at the time, but looking back we recognize that indeed God was with us.
In this passage we are promised:
His love is STEADFAST.
His love NEVER CEASES.
His mercies NEVER END.
And in fact we get NEW mercy every morning.
God’s faithfullness is GREAT.
God is our portion (think heritage, birthright).
And therefore our part?
To HOPE in Him.
I want to use a Slyvia Gunter devotional next.
It is about or titled:
The Light Of God's Face.
And is based on Genesis 1:1,3-4.
Hear the Word of God in Genesis 1:1,3-4. "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. And God said, 'Let there be light,' and there was light. God saw that the light was good, and he separated the light from the darkness."
Hear (recognize, know, remember) the sound of God's voice that continually speaks his creative power in you and to you.
Listen to James 1:17. "Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows."
Be blessed in the light of your Father's face.
Be blessed in his good gifts of mercy and peace.
Be blessed in his unchanging intention toward you.
Look and see him gazing at you in rapt attention.
Receive his download from the light of his eyes.
Receive long gazes from the light of his countenance.
Let your Abba transcend your wounds--spiritual, emotional, and physical-- and any scar tissue which has formed there.
His grace and blessing are in the light of his face toward you (Ps 67:1).
Join the psalmist's request in Psalm 31:16. "Let your face shine on your servant; save me in your unfailing love." Receive the unfailing love of your Father in the light of his eyes. You are your Father's precious one. You are his, you belong to his family of light. He turned you from darkness into his kingdom of light for a place in his inheritance in light (Col 1:12-13; Acts 26:18). He is your Lord, and you are who you are because you are in him. You have value, worth, belonging, and abundant acceptance. He cherishes your company. You are blessed to see his name Jehovah-Nissi, Banner of the Lord, over you as a canopy of love. You are blessed to see that he makes beauty for ashes out of the darkest things, as he moves on the face of the turmoil of your life and speaks light in you.
Listen to Psalm 36:9. "In your light we see light." Receive the light of his heart toward you. The light of his face shines on you. Receive it because you are in Christ, in his cross, his resurrection, and his ascension to the right hand of the Father, and you are seated in him there. Rest there at his strong right hand and feel his strength as his light rises in you and consumes all darkness. Claim that light, and Christ in you, the hope of glory, will shine. Receive his light that lights your way. Receive the light of his flame of correction, burning away the chaff. Receive his purifying light with joy. Receive his light that warms all coldness.
God lifts you up and holds you, everything you love, everybody you love, and your future. He is holding you near in his arms of love. He has invested gifts of love in you all along. God will stir up all the gifts and graces he has placed in you for the right season. He will redeem every blessing with your name on it.
Receive his blessing in continuous moments of stewardship of life in the light of his face.
"The Lord bless you and keep you;
The Lord make his face shine upon you and be gracious to you;
The Lord turn his face toward you and give you peace" (Num 6:24-26).
Be blessed in the name of One who said, "Let there be light" (Gen 1:3).
In Ephesians, as Paul prayed for his disciples he asked God to do what only God could do, to take the written word and make it a living epistle in their transformed lives.
These personalized, paraphrased scriptures are powerful swords of the Spirit.
Pray them for the people for whom you are concerned that they keep growing up to maturity in Christ.
Tonight, we can pray them also for ourselves.
God will delight to answer the desires of His own heart as you pray His Word for the people you love and/or yourself.
If you can, read outloud with me. If you are not in a place where you can do that, then just let the truth and love of God wash over you tonight.
Ephesians 3:15-20
We call You, Father, and we pray
that from Your glorious riches You will strengthen me with power through Your Spirit in my inner being,
that Christ may dwell in (my {loved one’s}) heart through faith,
that I will be rooted and established in love,
that I (or my loved one) may have power, with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ,
that I will know this love that surpasses knowledge,
that I will be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.
We give You all the glory, for You are able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to Your power that is working within us.
Did you enjoy that? Father we pause here and ask for you to accompolish what we just prayer in each of our hearts and the hearts of those we love. We thank you for your wonderful, indwelling, steadfast love. We bless you in this day in Jesus name amen.
Next we are going to visit some verses on peace.
Scriptures on Peace - The Bible is filled with verses that can bring peace in the middle of struggles, worries, and fear.
If we ask God, He promises us HIS peace "that passes understanding"! We can use the verses below when we feel overwhelmed and do not know the next step to take.
The best thing we can do when we are filled with anxiety and worry is to find a quiet place to pray, read Scripture, and listen to encouraging worship music.
God wants us to have a life lived to the fullest and that includes being at peace!
Use this prayer for peace of mind to calm your anxiety and stress.
Almighty God, We bless you for our lives,
we give you praise for your abundant mercy and grace which
we receive.
We thank you for your faithfulness even
though we are not that faithful to you.
Lord Jesus, we ask you to give us all around
peace in our mind, body, soul and spirit.
We want you to heal and remove everything that is
causing stress, grief, and sorrow in our lives.
Please guide our path through life and make our
enemies be at peace with us.
Let your peace reign in our family, at our place of work, businesses and everything we lay our hands on.
Let your angels of peace go ahead of us when we go out
and stay by our side when we return.
In Jesus’ name, Amen.
Colossians 3:15
15 Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, since as members of one body you were called to peace. And be thankful.
Dodi Note: “Let” implies an intentional choice, doesn’t it?
We are called to live in peace and in part we enter that peace/rest by being thankful.
Galatians 5:22
22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness,
Dodi Note: A wonderful list of the FRUIT of the Holy Spirit and again, we grow this fruit by simply “being” with God. Intentionally.
1 Peter 3:11
11 They (we) must turn from evil and do good; they must seek peace and pursue it.
Dodi Note: Again a choice. Turning from evil when we want to pitch a fit or get even and choosing to do good. Seeking and pursuing peace. I am thinking that peace does not just fall in our lap but that we have an active part. Even if the action is to “be still and know”.
1 Peter 5:7
7 Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you.
Dodi Note: This is a great one. CAST ALL our anxiety on Him. Why? He, God cares for us.
Sometimes that is not easy. But I do think it is possible to recognize when we are becoming anxious and “cast” it on Jesus more and more quickly.
Isaiah 26:3
“You will keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on You, because he trusts in You.”
Dodi Note: YAH!!!! My favorite verse is here.
John 14:27
“Peace I leave with you, My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.”
Dodi Note: This is such a precious promise. Jesus said he had to go…to the cross actually…in order that He could give/leave/impart to us his Shalom. But look… a choice again on our part. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.
John 16:33
“These things I have spoken to you, that in Me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world.”
Dodi Note: Jesus NEVER said or promised us life would be easy or go just the way we wish it would. In fact he did inform us that in this world we will have problems but he also told us to (action again) take COURAGE because He has OVERCOME the world.
Isaiah 32:17
“The work of righteousness will be peace, and the effect of righteousness, quietness and assurance forever.”
Dodi Note: Do you like this? The WORK of righteousness wiil BE peace and the EFFECT of it quietness and assurance.
Isaiah 52:7
“How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him who brings good news, who proclaims peace, who brings glad tidings of good things, who proclaims salvation, who says to Zion, ‘Your God reigns!’”
Dodi Note: This refers to Jesus but also to us as we live out our Christianity and trust of Jesus in front of others.
2 Corinthians 13:11
“Finally, brethren, farewell. Become complete. Be of good comfort, be of one mind, live in peace; and the God of love and peace will be with you.”
Dodi Note: Paul is speaking to the Believers in Corinth. But also to us. These are clear directions. Become complete. Another action
. Be of good comfort, maybe to one another, but also receiving comfort directly from God. Be of one mind… be in agreement with the basic truth of the Gospel. We can worship differently. Some may like quiet music, others bouncy music. We might like communion every Sunday or maybe only once a quarter and so on. But we must agree on the elements of truth of Salvation found in Jesus. Then also we are to live in peace with one another and then WHEN or AS we do that…GOD (who is both LOVE and PEACE) will be WITH us.
Ephesians 2:14
“For He Himself is our peace, who has made both one, and has broken down the middle wall of separation.”
Dodi Note: Jesus Himself is our Sar Shalom. The Prince of Peace. And both jew and gentile, American or New Zelander or Australian or German or whatever are joined as brothers and sisters in Christ Jesus.
The next two verses reapeat basically the same directions:
Ephesians 4:3
“Endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.”
Ephesians 6:15
“And having shod your feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace.”
The last two verses tonight will be our closing prayer.
1 Thessalonians 5:23
“Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you completely; and may your whole spirit, soul, and body be preserved blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.”
2 Thessalonians 3:16
“Now may the Lord of peace Himself give you peace always in every way. The Lord be with you all.”
Slyvia’s Devotionals https://thefathersbusiness.com/devotionals/