“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.
“Each of you should use whatever gift you have received to serve others, as faithful stewards of God’s grace in its various forms.” 1 Peter 4:10 NIV
God has given you all kinds gifts.
Some come through as talent.
Others are revealed through character.
Some are gifts to you as well as through you that bring such joy that you can’t wait to share them.
Some are so close to your heart that you are afraid to reveal them.
The gift that you are with your smile and words, your hands and heart, how you cook or clean, create or organize, how you lead and follow, bless and pray is meant to be given, not hidden.
Salt is made for seasoning.
Light is made for lighting.
Gifts are made for giving.
The more precious they are to you, the more powerful they will be for others.
The gifts you have been given are to be given away: to serve, to love, to mend, to tend, to bless, to build.
God uses the gifts He has given you to introduce others to the gift of Jesus.
Ask God to use whatever gifts He has given you to let others know how much He loves them.
Surrender your fear.
Don’t overthink it, simply step out in faith, believe God and do it today.
“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.
“So that your faith might not rest in the wisdom of men (human philosophy) but in the power of God.”
1 Corinthians 2:5 AMP
When your faith rests in the wisdom of man, it will falter because at it’s best, it is a human attempt to explain divine power.
When your faith rests in your own feelings, it will surge and wane like the waves of the sea.
When your faith rests on your past experience, it can morph into whatever you have experienced, good or bad.
When your faith rests in the Son of God it is like a solid rock upon which the waves of emotion break, the wisdom of men shatters and He becomes the foundation of truth that gives your experience perspective.
Don’t make your decisions based on how you feel, what others say, or what happened in the past.
Ask Jesus to lead you and He will. The One who died for you, rose again and sits at the right hand of God will show you the way forward.
He is bigger than your fears, knows what to do with your worries, and is working behind the scenes to bless you.
May today be filled with the promise of the finished work of Jesus and bring you to a new level of faith that is not tossed by emotions but anchored in God’s unchanging love for you.
Cindy Grasso 