His Love...

This morning as I sat to read the devotion, the scripture that was for today was from Jeremiah 31:3 - "Yea, I have loved thee with an everlasting love". As I read this scripture, it really didn't stir my feelings. However, I went ahead to read the devotion. At the end of it as I closed my eyes to focus my attention on the Lord, I felt the very presence of the Lord, the embrace of my heavenly Father. I suddenly was overwhelmed.

The very longing to be loved and feel belonged is a longing that exists in every soul. I have a loving husband and  a daughter who love me a lot. My parents, sister and my all other members of my family love me dearly. I have no lack of being loved. Yet to be loved by the very God who created us is awesome.

We are designed in such a way that nothing could really fulfill our souls except by the love of Jesus. I realized that this morning when I felt the loving embrace of my heavenly Father. The Lord loves each one of us with an everlasting love and to feel that love and embrace is like that of a little child in the arms of her mother- secure, belonged, loved and accepted. Wow! This is the love of Christ...And I know that nobody in this world can give this love. We cannot buy this love, we only need to run to Him to receive it.

Your Choice?

We all know that gossip and swearing is bad. We don't need to be taught about it. These days there are news that state that bad habits such as these is good for you. We would have come across books like 7 Spiritual Laws for Success, or even 10 good ways to communicate to your children. Those are good books that help us better our lives, relationships and well being. However, if you were to be told that being bad is good because it releases feel good hormones that can reduce stress or anxiety, what would be your response? Would you take it just because these are research based studies which prove that these feel good hormones help in reducing stress or anxiety?

If you tell someone to cast their anxiety on the Lord because He cares for those who trust Him, people may find it difficult to accept and do the same, though it is something easy to do. But if you ask someone to be a little bad by being a gossiper or casual swearer it will be easy for them to follow. Because the general tendency of the carnal nature is to yield to temptation and sin and not to stand for doing the right. Because to do right and be right it requires some amount of bleeding (I mean in terms of crucifying the self and pleasing God) which is difficult. Hence many people choose the ways of the world rather than the ways of God...

Which way is yours?

Colossians 2:20 (Amplified Bible)

If then you have died with Christ to material ways of looking at things and have escaped from the world's crude and elemental notions and teachings of externalism, why do you live as if you still belong to the world?[Why do you submit to rules and regulations?--such as]

His Presence...

Whenever we are frustrated, disappointed and discouraged, the first thing we do is to run away from God. Because deep down inside us we feel that God could have saved us from this negative situations of hopelessness and despair if only He had intervened. However, we find that running away from His presence does no good to us. It only intensifies our hurts and disappointments.

For in His presence we find hope for tomorrow and strength for today. May we continue to be in His presence knowing that He is our heavenly Father who knows how to take care of His children's need.

1 Chronicles 16:27 (Amplified Version)
Honor and majesty are [found] in His presence; strength and joy are [found] in His sanctuary.

His Assurance...

Sometimes we are exhausted waiting to see a breakthrough in our lives and it gets us to wonder if God is really working anything for us? If all we worship a God so powerful and great, how difficult is it for Him to send us a provision or meet a particular need? We get so disappointed not understanding His ways for us.

Rev. Selwyn Hughes often states that God's delays are not His denials. There may be lot of obstacles on the way. There may be missed opportunities. But God purposed them all. We are not all that wise to understand His ways. Yet to know deep down inside our hearts that He is working on our need and His delays are to steering us towards that provision or need which He has got for us  is the calm assurance we can have as of now. 

Isaiah 30:15 (TNIV)

This is what the Sovereign LORD, the Holy One of Israel, says:

   “In repentance and rest is your salvation, 

   in quietness and trust is your strength",

May we take that calm assurance from His word...