Daily Devotional Day & Night

HAPPY TUESDAY!

Today’s scriptures are about the impact of Love. As most of you know by now, love is my favorite subject. No matter how much the enemy tries beat it out of me, God’s love is much stronger and valiant in my heart. As we grow in our Faith walk, God’s love penetrates our heart. Yet we’re still in the world, so we experience the evil of the world as well, which can often times harden our heart. Throughout our faith walk, each day a part of that hardness melts away, and is replaced with the love of God. It’s likened to a fire that burns the impurities off of a raw God nugget, which makes it a valuable commodity once cleansed of its impurities. As an unsaved man, we couldn’t begin to understand the love of God, because we hadn’t yet experienced it for ourselves. However, when we make the conscious decision to accept Jesus as Lord, His Spirit enters our heart, and sparks the flame.

There’s a huge difference between earthly love, and Godly love. God loves unconditionally; can you understand the concept of that? Can you imagine loving someone so much that you forgive them no matter what they do. Jesus taught us in His Sermon on the Mount: “You have heard that it was said, ‘Eye for eye, and tooth for tooth.’ But I tell you, do not resist an evil person. If anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to them the other cheek also. And if anyone wants to sue you and take your shirt, hand over your coat as well.” (Matt. 5:38-40) Can you imagine doing this? What would happen if someone slaps you, how much strength would it take for you to not only refrain from slapping them back, but to give them the other cheek? You have to be filled with a lot of love [unconditional love even] to sacrifice yourself, lay aside your pride, and let someone slap you and do nothing. However, I get where Jesus was coming from. He’s instructing us to love each other no matter what. There has to be a reason why someone wants to slap you. They’re obviously very angry and hurt over something that transpired in the past, which may not have anything to do with you. When you turn and give them the other cheek, you’re letting them know that no matter what you do, I’m going to love you anyway, because God loves me.

Of course Jesus wants us to relate this to every aspect of our life, because the cure for hate is love. Love is the only thing that could overcome evil. If we solved every problem, or overcame every struggle with love, we win every time. I notice as my spirit matures love comes naturally. I have the ability to quickly forgive, which helps me heal faster. Jesus warned us: “Behold, I send you out as sheep in the midst of wolves. Therefore be wise as serpents and harmless as doves.” (Matt 10:16) With this great amount of love overflowing in me, I’ve quickly learned how to be in tune with my Spirit of discernment, which helps me to make wise decisions. It allows me to see through some people, so I can love them, but love them from a distance. We are still human, and we have our vulnerabilities and weaknesses, which will bring us to breaking points. Worldly people will hate and persecute that which they don’t understand, so it’s by love that we’ll be able to build up a tolerance, and pray for those who spitefully use us, and means us harm. Does that mean that we’re going to hang out with them, and be their BFF? Hardly, but it does mean that we’ll love and forgive them regardless.

I love you, which is why I write daily—I want you to feel what I feel in my heart. I can only love you, because I’m filled with the love of Jesus Christ. Once you’re filled with His love, you’ll be able to recognize true earthly love. Love is at the core of everything that God does for us, and should be in everything that we do for Him. When we’re doing a favor for a friend, taking care of a stranger, being there for our spouse and children, we’re doing it from deep down in our heart, because we love God, and He loves us. I don’t know how many times I’ve been “slapped”, and have had to turn the other cheek, and I can now honestly say that there is no love lost, yet it took some time to get there. I’m so grateful that I’ve reached this point in my life, but it’s still a daily journey. I’m still human, and still get upset and extremely angry sometimes, but I never lose that feeling of love for anyone. It takes a lot of practice and prayer, but it works. It makes your heart lighter, and you’re free to fellowship with God, with no hindrance. When you hate or have an unforgiving heart, you only hurt yourself—bitterness is a way of life that you choose.

If you feel like you’re at a place in life where you’ve never really experienced love, then it’s time to give Jesus a try. Learn about His life, and you’ll learn about what it is to live in love. This will allow you to give and receive it freely as well. The first step to experiencing the love of God first hand is to accept Jesus as Lord. Take a few minutes to take the God Quiz right now. Remember, you can’t live life to the fullest, if you don’t know what you’re living for. My favorite verse today is: Walk in love, as Christ also hath loved us, and hath given himself for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling savour. (Ephesians 5:2)

ENJOY! http://www.bible.com/scripture-detail.php?juli=2455622&dtype=Scripture

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I love you!

Daily Devotionals Day & Night

HAPPY WEDNESDAY!

I pray all is well with everyone, and you're enjoying this beautiful fall "hump day". I'm doing well, looking forward to a relaxing weekend. I've been so busy lately I haven't realized how much my housework has backed up. I only need to do some deep cleaning, so it isn't that serious, but I have my weekend open to work on that. I still haven't seen Tyler Perry's new movie, "I can do bad all by myself". I heard it was really good, so I'm going to see a matinee on Saturday for sure. Grandma continues to do well, she did some therapy yesterday, and was able to get up and walk the hallway a bit. I'm so happy about her progress, God is so good! I've found a publisher for my book, and am looking forward to being published by the end of the year, Praise God! I have a few challenges, but it's nothing that God can't handle. I need your prayers for that as well, because I need financial support, as well as the mental focus and tenacity. Procrastination is my middle name, and I'm working on breaking out of that, with God's help. Have a wonderful day, and be blessed family!

Today's scriptures are about our purification process. I think the refinement process is one of the most misunderstood parts of the Christian life. Most of us think being Christian’s means that we're not supposed to experience any heartache or pain. When we do go through trails and tribulation, we often blame God, or asked to be delivered from them. However, God isn’t a Genie that grants our every wish, He has a job for us to do, and He’ll do whatever it takes to see that through. He knew each of us from the creation of earth. He knows exactly what we lack, in addition to our strengths. He’s given us free will, so He knows that the devil will temp us in every way, and what we'll fall for. He refines us, to get us to better think the way Jesus thinks. All mankind have a sense of curiosity, and despite the fact that we're all given boundaries, we continually test our limits. This started at the beginning with Adam and Eve. God told them that they would "surely die" if they ate from that tree, but they did it anyway. Disobedience is expected because of our sinful nature, and God has to chastise us to make us righteous. He will never seriously hurt us, but He will allow us to touch the fire to make us truly understand that it's hot. Sometimes we won't learn from our mistakes until we're burned. The refinement process is like the purification of precious metals, such as gold or silver. The metal is found in the dirt, and it's often a lackluster and dull nugget. When this metal is put in fire, all of it's impurities are burned away, and it becomes bright, shinny, and pliable. There's a thin line between purifying the metal and destroying it. When we are saved, we're similar to that dirty nugget of gold. We have great value to the Kingdom of God; we just need to be cleaned up a bit. Jesus blood washes our Spirit, but we need to get our outside to match our inside. God puts us through the fire in order to mold us into the righteous beings we were created to be. If you're going through something painful right now, just know that God is allowing this for a reason, but He's always there to see you through it. If you prayed for deliverance, but are still going through, then God's intentions may not be to deliver you from it, so He'll be right there bring you through it. Be steadfast and true to the Lord, continuing to Praise Him every single day. No matter what you're going through, He's working to make you better. It's written in Hebrews 13:5: The Let your conduct be without covetousness; be content with such things as you have. For He Himself has said, “I will never leave you nor forsake you.” Purification is the process of removing impurities from something, and in some cases things need to be added along the way. Remember to ask God for the lessons behind your pain, and He will reveal them to you, in hopes that you will grow from them. If you don't know Jesus as Lord, then you're still that dirty, dull gold nugget, waiting to be discovered and cleaned up. Jesus is waiting to hear from you, He's a prayer away. My favorite verse today is: I ... will refine them as silver is refined, ... they shall call on my name, and I will hear them: I will say, It is my people: and they shall say, the Lord is my God. (Zechariah 13:9)

ENJOY! http://www.bible.com/scripture-detail.php?juli=2455105&dtype=Scripture
http://www.intouch.org/site/pp.aspx?c=cnKBIPNuEoG&b=4943197
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I love you!