Everyday

As I found my time in the word just now, as the children lay asleep...I am struck by the fact that every day that I make the time for Jesus, he teaches me something amazing that I would have missed if I had not gone to His word that day...

He leads me down the path of understanding and shows the light for the way of righteousness and my heart longs for it even though my flesh fights the discipline of doing a study everyday.

"But by faith we eagerly await through the Spirit the righteousness for which we hope." Galatians 5:5

Part of "eagerly awaiting" in my opinion means that we run towards whatever we can find that has His name on it! Anything that His fingers have touched is appealing to us, and all that speaks His truth is what sings to our souls! In short, we are in love!

Heaven (ie..eternity with Christ) is our ultimate fixation and living for Him on earth is a direct result of our love for Him.

Obviously, in this world there are many distractions. The lusts of this world long to pull our affections away from our eternal love and they do so quite persuasively.

That is why the every day time with Him is that much more important with each passing day.

"You were running a good race! Who cut in on you and kept your from obeying the truth? That kind of persuasion does not come from the one who calls you!" Galatians 5:7,8

Obviously, the pressures were there in the days of Paul, only a few short years after Jesus left the earth, and they are unmistakeably evident in our day and age.

Everything buys for your attentions, bright flashing lights, and bells and whistles call for your eyes to wander from the truth, and they are much louder the less you are in the word.

This has been my experience, when you step away from His truths for even a day or two, the sounds of the flesh begin to ring in your ears in ways that they never used to.

"So I say, live by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the sinful nature!" Galatians 5:16

The sinful nature is what comes naturally to us as sinful people, its doing the things of the Spirit that take a little more work but in the end are far more gratifying.

An eternity with Christ is this:

"And the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant looking for fine pearls. When he found one of great value, he went away and sold EVERYTHING he had and bought it." Matthew 13:45

Have you ever loved something so much that you would sell all you had to have it? Imagine that in ten-fold and we will not have even scratched the surface of the joy of heaven.

We think as humans that if we can have it all, (and by all I mean anything our flesh desires) we will have peace, joy and contentment...

Perhaps I sound like a broken record to some of you, preaching my source of peace, joy and contentment, but I cannot stop speaking of it until the day I am there!

The word tells me is so great I will sell all I have for it! There isn't anything on earth I want bad enough to sell all I have, except perhaps ensured safety for my children all their days, but I already know that they are safe in Christ so I will not fear that.

SO friends I ask you...do you agree? And if you do, will join me in the goal to meet with Christ daily so that we can become daily strengthened by Him and His truths? Without that daily strengthening, we will become weak, and when we are weak, we make choices the reflect our weakness rather than our strength in Christ. Don't worry about what happened yesterday, repent and move on in that repentance...and then today pick up the word, spend time in prayer, sing songs from your heart to His...proclaim your love to Him as He covers you with His love for you.

I wish the whole world could feel the love of Christ, and the only way it will is by the way it's people show His love to others, and encourage them as I pray I am doing for you who read this.

"The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love." Galatians 5:6b

And the only way we will even have the desire to express that love, is by being in the presence of the giver of life..love..joy...peace..and contentment.

I hope I don't bore you readers of my constant talk of Him who created, but I can find no other topic that exceeds His importance. I am such a sinner myself it's my utter thankfulness for forgiveness that I speak out of. Every day I think..."How can He love me when I am such a sinful person?" But He does friends, and if He can love the likes of me, He will love you as well.

If nothing else, pick up your Bible just for today, and see what He might have for you. My guess is you will be shocked at His words to your heart. He loves you so!