Needs

Luke 12:31 NLT

Seek the Kingdom of God above all else, and he will give you everything you need.

Remember all the things on our Christmas list? The children probably had every good thing they saw on television commercials on their lists. Even parents have a long list of needs. Few received all they had on their list even though they may have prayed for them as well.

You see, our needs list usually contains our wants and not those things we really need. I believe our Father God wants us to be happy, but that does not mean He will give us all we think will make us happy. Our happiness from receiving things is usually short lived.

Think back about all those things you really needed to have last Christmas. Now try to remember the last time you actually used them. Perhaps you do not even remember where they are. So much for really needing them.

I believe that Father God supplies all we need to live here on this earth in these earthly vessels. He heals us. He delivers us. He guides us down the path of righteousness. As we accept where we are, He moves us up to a better place. He supplies all we need to do what He has for us to accomplish our purpose while here on earth.

Plans

Psalm 119:35-37 NLT
Make me walk along the path of your commands, for that is where my happiness is found. Give me an eagerness for your laws rather than a love for money! Turn my eyes from worthless things, and give me life through your word.

From the time we are young children we are programmed in this culture to ways of making money. Money is related to the source of happiness. We make it and then buy things to make us happy. How do we know this? The ads on television tell us. And the shows and movies we watch depict people with things being happy.

But after we get that new thing and many find them under their Christmas tree, we are happy for a while and then want something else. Often the desire to get it is so great that we go into debt to purchase it and are paying for it long after our interest in it has gone on to something else. And that debt does not add to our happiness, it adds to our unhappiness.

Instead of living off the plans those in marketing make for us to follow, we need to look to our Father God. He knows the beginning and the end. He knew us before we were born and will be with us as believers after we are long gone from this earthly life. He knows what makes us happy and it is not what we are being told on the television.

Help us Lord. Help us to seek your face and your plans for our lives. Give us a desire to know your Word and to listen for Your voice each day. We want to follow the path you have for us, not our own plans. We want to seek You and not lean to our own understanding or earthly desires. In Jesus name we pray.

Called to be Holy

2 Timothy 1:9 NLT
For God saved us and called us to live a holy life. He did this, not because we deserved it, but because that was his plan from before the beginning of time-to show us his grace through Christ Jesus.

I cannot count how many times I have heard believers speak about not deserving God to do things for them. They seem to think they have to earn His grace; earn answers to prayer, and even earn a healing. That is not how it works.

None of us have ever done what would be needed to deserve being saved. And if we had to deserve His grace to stay saved, none would be able to do that either. That is why no one could be saved under the law for it was impossible for anyone to fulfill it.

According to the dictionary, Grace is the unmerited favor of God toward mankind. It cannot be bought or earned by works. It is a free gift of our Father God to a needy mankind. And Paul is telling us here that it has been God's plan all along. He knew the plan and Jesus was integral to that plan. His birth, death and resurrection gives us freedom and everlasting life. We live forever with Him.

God has called us to be holy as He is holy. And holy does not mean going around doing good things all the time. Holy means to be set apart for sacred use. And that is what we are to be, ready to be used by Him as He needs us.

Harmony

Romans 15:5 NLT
May God, who gives this patience and encouragement, help you live in complete harmony with each other, as is fitting for followers of Christ Jesus.

The enemy does all he can to cause us to live in disharmony with friends and relatives. Some families are so far apart on issues of this world. Some are so angry with other family members that they have forgotten the meaning or reason for forgiveness. He who overcame this world has forgiven us. Why can't we forgive?

Without forgiveness how can there be harmony? And forgiveness has nothing to do with how we feel. It has to do with a choice we must make to forgive others. Ours is not to judge others for their actions. No, it is ours to forgive them no matter what we believe they have done. Once we have done that we can move forward in harmony.

God is patient with us. Think of all he has seen us go through and yet He has forgiven us all of it. And Jesus died on the cross just for you and I.

So help us, Father. Help us to forgive and to give to others the patience and encouragement you give to us. Help us to live in harmony with all your children. In Jesus name.

Surrendering

2 Corinthians 13:11 NLT
Be joyful. Grow to maturity. Encourage each other. Live in harmony and peace. Then the God of love and peace will be with you.

There are thousands of self help books out there making tons of money for their authors. And then the lectures series to talk about what they wrote about. You have probably been to at least one lecture in your lifetime.

Here we have the ending thoughts as Paul closes his second letter to the church in Corinth. If we would just take the time to read and meditate on the truths stuffed into this thousand plus year old manuscript with sixty six books. Everything we need for a happy and fruitful life is right there.

But most people, believers or not, run to the bookstore to grab the latest book by their favorite author on how to be the person they want to be. We spend so much time looking for ways to get around God and do it ourselves. We even justify doing it using logic like "God gave us the brain to figure it out for ourselves."

I do not think God gave us His Word so we could use the material to write books to tell us how to become the person we want to be. All we need to know are the truths found right in our Bible. But we have to read it and then read it again and again. It is a never ending book always alive with just what we need for our walk each day.

True success comes when we surrender ourselves to Him. It happens when we give our life and our worldly desires to Him. When we do that it is easy to be joyful, grow to maturity in Him, encourage others, and live in harmony and peace with other believers. Only then will the God of Love and Peace be with us.

Boasting

1 Corinthians 1:30-31 NLT
God has united you with Christ Jesus. For our benefit God made him to be wisdom itself. Christ made us right with God; he made us pure and holy, and he freed us from sin. Therefore, as the Scriptures say, "If you want to boast, boast only about the Lord."

It is hard to go for a ride and not see at least one of those bumper stickers that boast about their child. Things like "My child is an honor student", "My child is student of the month", "My child is...." and so on.

When we get a promotion, an award, bowl a perfect game, get a raise, win a raffle, hit a home run, or something else that honors us our family members may boast about it. And that is fine. But self boasting gets pretty old with our friends and family. Okay for them to boast about us. That makes us feel good, but boasting about our self comes off as arrogant pretty soon.

When we are following the guidance of Holy Spirit and do as God asks us the results may be pretty amazing. It may even seem to others that we did something that was great, something to be praised. They want to boast about us.

We must be careful with our response. We may have been the one to stretch forth our hands, the one to pray for them, the one Holy Spirit used to speak words of wisdom to. But, it was not us. It was the touch of Jesus and the words of Holy Spirit.

Even though we feel pretty good about what happened, we cannot take any credit for it. We stepped out as Holy Spirit directed us and let Him use us to fulfill the need. We must give all the credit to God. It is He that removes our burdens, heals all our diseases, and fills us with His peace. Thank you Jesus!

His Presence

John 16:33 NIV
I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.

Peace seems to be associated with quiet. I remember my mother wanting to have some peace and quiet in the house. But I do not think she was referring to the kind of peace John is speaking about. That peace is in the knowing that with God everything is alright.

No matter what is going on around us in the world, if we are practicing His presence, we can be at peace. The turmoil still exists. We are just not there. We are with our Father in Heaven.

When we are busy solving all the problems of others, our friends, children, and perhaps even our spouse we are not practicing the presence of God. When we stay out of the lives of others and just pray for them, when we give our troubles to Him knowing we can depend on Him to take care of them, or when we communicate with our Father God all day long, that is where we find true peace.

Our cares, given fully to Him bring us into His presence by taking us out of the world's reality. In the spirit is where our peace resides. And that is where we need to be.

Practice being in His presence today, not once but all day long. The more we practice the easier it becomes to slide out of this flesh and into the spirit with Him.