“I am writing to all who have been called by God the Father, who loves you and keeps you safe in the care of Jesus Christ.”Jude 1:1 NLT
I want you to know that today you don’t have to strive to take care of “number one” because you are already in the care of Jesus.
You don’t have to stress to win the approval of others because you are already accepted by Jesus.
You are called by God to come near to Him.
You don’t have to wait until tomorrow.
You don’t have to wait until someday when you are good enough or until you get your life all together or until you “get better” at whatever you are trying to get better at.
Today is the day to receive all His love and power.
Don’t wait for someday...live in the truth of God’s love for you today.
Take delight in the LORD, and he will give you the desires of your heart.” PSALM 37:4
Which side of the comma are you living in?
Delight or desires?
What you focus on determines what you experience.
Take delight in the Lord,
or
And he will give you the desires of your heart?
When you are focusing on delighting (joy, great enjoyment, and pleasure) in the Lord, the world is a wide-open space for you to experience with someone you love.
When you are focusing on the desires of your heart, the world is a small closed space where you can only see what you don’t have and envy what everyone else seems to have.
Living on the delight side of the comma means that your focus is on your relationship with God and trusting Him with the rest.
There is sweet freedom found in delighting in your relationship with God while letting Him holdyour desires.
He is a good Father and knows (and loves) you more than you know (and love) yourself.
“By an act of faith, Abraham said yes to God’s call to travel to an unknown place that would become his home. When he left he had no idea where he was going.”
Hebrews 11:8 MSG
God is calling you to step out of your comfort zone today.
To get where God has called you, you have to leave the place you are.
Maybe God is calling you to leave the shelter of some strategic comfort zones:
life as you know it
habits that hold you hostage
mindsets that mold your world
The good news is that for every comfort zone you step out of, Jesus has a promise for you to step into and His love to guide you.
God has a rich inheritance waiting to be claimed by you.
It is the inheritance of an unhindered relationship with Him every day.
It is more than a new plot of land, in Jesus, it is a new way to live your life.
Abraham left his country behind to go after his God-given destiny.
May your courage grow as you bravely choose to step out of your strategic comfort zones one “step of faith” at a time.
What “way of life” needs to go by the wayside today?
What habit is holding you hostage?
What mindset is holding you back from going after what God has called you to?
“The Lord is good, a refuge in times of trouble. He cares for those who trust in him.” Nahum 1:7 NIV
Every time you step out in faith in Jesus, it is a risk.
Being faithful to Jesus may look like being a failure to the world.
He may ask you to leave what you know, sacrifice whatever is needed, and embrace a temporary difficulty for the hope of a future promise.
Know that even though the risk seems great, a life lived in faith in the Son of God means that every cross He asks you to bear leads to a resurrection to a new kind of life you have never lived before.
This is the prayer I am whispering over you today, “Jesus, take care of my friends as they step out in faith. Thank you that they are trusting you as they face risk. Reward them with courage and vision and do what only You can do – the impossible in them and through them. In Your Name, Amen”
“By faith, barren Sarah was able to become pregnant, old woman as she was at the time, because she believed the One who made a promise would do what he said.” Hebrews 11:11 MSG
We are born dreamers.
As children, we see the world around us and dream about being a part of it.
We dream about what our place in the world will be, what we will do, and who we might become.
The dreams revolve around us and what it will mean for us if those dreams come true.
As we grow up, there are some dreams that hold onto us more than we hold onto them.
It is those dreams that feel devastating when they shatter and remain unfulfilled.
We put them in the realm of impossible.
When the Lord told Abraham that Sarah would give birth, she overheard it and laughed (Genesis 18:11). She laughed not because she thought it was funny but because she thought it ludicrous. The dream of having children probably died when she was in her 60s or 70s. She had accepted her barrenness.
My friend, God often challenges what you have already accepted.
He will speak a word to you that seems impossible.
Something that seems ludicrous.
Something that you gave up on and now He is asking you to pick up again.
He is asking you to dream again but this time to dream it differently.
How? By placing your hope not in what the dream will do for you but in what God wants to do through you.
God asked Sarah to dream again. She knew she could not make it happen, she already tried. But somewhere deep inside she chose to trust God to do the impossible.
My friend, put your hope in God today.
And when He calls you to believe in the ludicrous dream again, say yes.
“But now that you’ve found you don’t have to listen to sin tell you what to do, and have discovered the delight of listening to God telling you, what a surprise! A whole, healed, put-together life right now, with more and more of life on the way! Work hard for sin your whole life and your pension is death. But God’s gift is real life, eternal life, delivered by Jesus, our Master.”
ROMANS 6:22-23 MSG
It is Jesus clothed in the white garments of resurrection, bearing the fresh scars of the crucifixion declaring to the universe that the power of sin is broken.
The power of sin in your life can feel like a noose around your neck that day by day begins to tighten until you feel trapped, choked and bound.
It is a lie.
You do not have to live in its bondage anymore.
Through Jesus, you are set free.
The power and control has sin has been broken.
You are free from its endless demands, requirements, small print and a false sense of control.
Jesus took that noose upon His own neck for you.
He took the penalty it demanded, death.
Then He conquered death in a blaze of glory and held freedom in His hands.
Wherever shame lurks and condemnation whispers, wherever fear and anxiety choke, wherever lies and rejection linger – Jesus is.
He is love, power, mercy and forgiveness.
He washes away the stains of your past and brings to you new hope for your future.
The power of sin has been broken.
You are set free to live life saturated in His love and filled with His power.
“From inside the fish, Jonah prayed to the Lord his God.” Jonah 2:1 NIV
When is the best time to pray?
– when you are running from God.
– when you have been disobedient and rebellious.
– when you have done your own thing, your way and find yourself in the center of a devastating storm.
– when you realize that God is BIGGER than your fear and STRONGER than the storm.
– when you are in the very center of something that is far bigger than you and you have no power to get out of it.
– when you are ready to let go of your preconceived ideas of what God is calling you to and willing to serve wherever you are, with whatever God has given you, right now.
“Praise be to the Lord, to God our Savior, who daily bears our burdens.”PSALM 68:19 NIV
Every day also brings old memories that linger, mistakes still bearing consequences, fears that refuse to die, emotional baggage that demands space and attention.
Every day brings new choices to make, new challenges to face, new fears to conquer, new burdens to bear.
God will bear your burdens every day.
Old, new, heavy or light.
Everyday.
You may not know what burdens will be thrust upon you today but God does.
He stands with open arms and strong shoulders to bear them for you.
Cindy Grasso 