Isaiah 24:11 – “There is an outcry in the streets concerning the wine; All gladness turns to gloom.  The joy of the earth is taken away into exile.” LSB

I pray that you will have a phenomenal day today. I pray your path will be smooth and all opposition will be silenced and removed. I ask that the windows of heaven be opened and God’s superabundance be poured upon you. 

The word in this text does not seem to be a good word.  “The Joy of the earth is taken away into exile.”  On the surface, that is depressing. The prophet was speaking of the growing evil and destruction.  He told the people of God to enter their rooms and close the door for a time. Does that sound familiar?  Remember what Jesus said about prayer?  Enter your closet (room), close the door, and pray.  He said God would come and visit the iniquity (judge it) of the earth’s inhabitants and expose the corruption.

Isaiah 26:3 is a powerful word of encouragement – “The steadfast of mind, you will keep in perfect peace BECAUSE they trust in You!”   

The way of the righteous is upright, and He makes their paths level.  Troublesome times are here, filling men’s hearts with fear.  Evil is abounding on every hand, but we have the promise of peace and protection for the believer.

There is a condition in which we can live that is limitless.  Abiding in the vine.  Jesus said in Luke 15:7 – “IF you abide in Me, AND My words abide in you, ask WHATEVER you wish, AND it will be done for you.”  Done for not just given to.  God will be an active player in the process.  He will do it.  That means we just believe and receive.  Do not muddy the stream trying to do His part.

In Luke 16, Jesus said that Luke 15 was given to keep us from stumbling—to provide us with a steadfast mind that keeps us in Perfect Peace!

Let me offer several thoughts for encouragement:

• Focus on God, not the conditions around us.
• Engage in hopeful intercession, not fretful pleading.
• Know that for a fruit tree to bear fruit and the most fruit possible, it must be properly pruned. 

Pruning means removing useless and unnecessary things. Then, we produce fruit prolifically. Dark times appear to be on the horizon and, in a measure, already are here. Evil will become even more evil, but those abiding in the Vine with steadfast minds will be Kept! No Fear!

What are we to do?  We are to trust God and pray!  His promise is peace and protection. We have hope even in times of hopelessness.   We have peace in the midst of storms.  We are of steadfast minds, and that assures us of His peace, power, and protection. 

Therefore, let us set our hearts to seek Him first above everything and trust Him in all things!  He has never and will never fail!

May the God of all peace wrap you in His perfect Peace and give you comfort and confidence in this hour of trial!

Jeremiah 17:15 – “Where is the word of Yahweh?  Let it come now!” LSB

In my personal life, family is foremost, second only to God’s person and purposes. Today, the lament of Jeremiah captured my thoughts. In Jeremiah 16:17, the prophet declared, “My eyes are on all their ways; they are not hidden from My face, nor is their iniquity hidden from My eyes.”

Jeremiah recognized that God promised to cause them to know His power and might.  They would know His name – Yahweh in its fullness!   He warned against following our human hearts and minds and urged us to trust Yahweh entirely.  He recognized that God had placed two doors before them and us.  Jeremiah 21:8 – “Behold, I set before you the way of life and the way of death.” 

The option before us is to seek what we want or what God wants. We confuse and mix our desires with God’s purpose and harm ourselves in many ways. In Acts 28, the apostle Paul quoted Isaiah and reminded the people that it is possible to hear and not hear, see and not see, and become so filled with our minds confused to the point that we hear and see but do not understand.  

Understanding results in heart enlightenment and returning to God fully, which produces healing of the whole person, body, soul, and spirit.  The prophet’s question is germane today: “Where is the word of the Lord?”  It is in our hearts, minds, hearts, and mouths.  It is in our circumstances.   It is in the yearning of our hearts.  It is in our total surrender to His purposes.

Always remember that God is not taking from us when we give up something to seek Him.  He gives us more!  But it is more that is rooted in Him and devoted to Him.  God must be First, Second, Third, etc.  If God is FIRST, there is no second because second would be to divide the Heart.  If He is FIRST, what we call second becomes part of Who He is. 

His Word today is – Come unto Me and rest!   Seek FIRST the Kingdom and His Righteousness. Then, all will be supplied.

What is the Word of the LORD?  He Is Lord!

I urge each one to propose in your heart that today, your consuming desire is for Him to be the LORD OF ALL!   He will lead you to the highest and best.  You will lack nothing because He is everything!  What a life that is, and the Bible declares that as a believer, it is yours!

Have a Great Day in Jesus today, and Rest in His Promises and Love!

Matthew 18:21-22, 35 – “Then Peter came and said to Him, “LORD, how often shall my brother sin against me and I forgive him?  Up to seven times?”  22 Jesus said to him, “I do not say to you, up to seven times, but seventy times seven…35 My heavenly Father will also do the same to you, if each of you does not forgive his brother FROM YOUR HEARTS.”  LSB

Forgiveness is an absolute requirement in Christianity.  We must be forgiven, and we must forgive!  Jesus revealed the depth of true forgiveness and the only forgiveness that God recognizes – FROM THE HEART!

In what we call the Lord’s prayer, some translations refer to it as debt.   Forgive our debts as we forgive our debtors.  When we are wronged, it creates a debt mentally – they owe me.  I want to share something that I believe will resonate and prove valuable.

I know of a woman whose granddaughter had been murdered, and the murderer was not captured for a long time.   She had deep bitterness, hate, and unforgiveness.   Before he was caught, she had forgiven and released him.  She had a measure of release and freedom.   But the pastor knew the release was not total. 

The pastor asked her what else was bothering her.  She revealed that an uncle had raped her as a child.  She held deep bitterness and said, “He owes me.”  The bitterness in her heart changed her countenance.  The pastor asked where he was now, and she said that he was dead. 

The pastor asked what cemetery he was in.  She asked why.   He said I have a shovel, and we will dig him up and let you drag around his bones and slap his skull to get some satisfaction.   She laughed and said, “What good would that do?”  The pastor said – exactly!   You have to forgive and release.   She did and got totally free, and joy overflowed in her infectiously until the day she died.

Unforgiveness blocks forgiveness, and forgiveness brings total release.   Forgiveness must be from the heart. If the debtor asks for forgiveness, we must forgive. If they do it again, we forgive again. We receive healing and release even if they do not.

God considers it so necessary that He made it a requirement to receive His forgiveness.  I am not suggesting that we can earn God’s mercy, but we can resist, refuse, rebel, and block forgiveness for ourselves.

Do you want total peace?  We all need forgiveness to determine in our hearts that we will Always Forgive from the Heart!  We want peace and release; this is the only way to obtain it.

We must not let the devil gain an advantage over us. One way he does this is through unforgiveness and unresolved offenses.

You can be Free, but to be Free, you must set others Free!   Let Jesus guide you today, and you will find the pathway to freedom!

Lamentations 3:22-24 – “The lovingkindness of Yahweh indeed never cease, For His compassions never fail.  They are new every morning; Great is Your faithfulness.  Yahweh is my portion, says my soul, Therefore I will wait for Him!” LSB

Let me share some things that God quickened into my heart in this passage.  I hope they inspire and encourage you.

God’s love and mercy Never ends!   Hallelujah!  God’s compassion is without measure!  His love, mercy, and compassion are new every morning because He is faithful, and He is our portion.  Lamentations 3:49 – “My eyes pour down unceasingly without stopping.”   The prophet expressed his remorse over his and Israel’s failure.   His lament’s message is also encouraging; if God sees, He will act!

1 Corinthians 3:21-23 gives several indispensable things for developing right thinking, which produces right living!   Notice the progression, “…For ALL THINGS belong to you.” (v.21). He repeated it at the end of v.22. In v.23 – “and you belong to Christ, and Christ belongs to God.”

We have the propensity to worry and fret over stuff.  We see our troubles, needs, lacks, powerlessness, and inadequacy, but here we read Everything Belongs to Us!    WOW!  Did you hear that?  Everything belongs to you and me as believers!

The problem is that we do not believe it.  We believe it theoretically, but it is not who we are.   It is true that we profess it because it is in the Bible, but we do not see it as ours experientially.  We do not see ourselves as worthy or spiritual enough.  Satan steals our hope and faith, and we relegate that truth to the super saints or to be enjoyed in eternity rather than now.

Consider the reality that “if” that passage is true and all things truly belong to us because we belong to Christ and He belongs to God, why do we struggle with the promise?

• The need is for us to have our minds reprogrammed. 

The only way to do that is to guard our lips, protect our eyes and ears (what we watch and listen to), and be careful how and what you allow to enter your consciousness.

• We have to change how we talk. 

Say what God says, not what you see or hear from the devil, others, or circumstances.   Say what God says.  Agree with God.  Whatever we agree with, we give power to.

Abraham believed in hope.  It was not hope that he believed in, but he believed, and as he believed, he hoped.  He hoped in what he believed.  It was hopeless and impossible, but God said, and he chose to agree with God.

Therefore, we need to decide that no more negative or defeatist words or thoughts will be in us.  We need to decide that if God said it, no matter what we see, we will agree with God even to death.  Nothing will shake us from our confidence in Him.

This is a new day of victory, rejoice!  God with God, and He will go with you and lead you to victory!

Ezekiel 14:3 – “Son of man, these men have set up their idols in their hearts and have put right before their faces the stumbling block of their iniquity. Should I be inquired by them at all?

As I read this, heavenly thoughts become so powerful that they invade my consciousness.  Those thoughts can be and should be translated into daily living.  In this, God uncovered a condition that still exists today.  What condition is that?  It is having idols of the heart.  Not inanimate objects manufactured but in our hearts.  This results in stumbling blocks before the face becomes the focus of the heart, mind, and eyes.

What is an idol?   A brief definition of an idol is anything that becomes the focus or takes away from the focus on God and His purposes.   It requires no soul searching because its design is self-serving.   Its root is in selfishness.  It involves no surrender of the heart because its purpose is self.  It allows life without repentance and brings no conviction – it is about self. If we allow anything to become our focus, where God is less than first, it becomes an idol and a stumbling block.

In Ezekiel 14:7, God told Ezekiel that the person who does that and then seeks the prophet for a word will be visited by God Himself.  You may say that is good.  NO!  It means God shows up in correction.   God will not share our hearts, but if He is FIRST, He brings us abundant life.  We are not deprived when God is FIRST.  But we must be careful not to allow any idols in our hearts.

I Corinthians 8:6 brings revelation – we exist for God and through Jesus.  In v.3, we read, “If anyone loves God, he HAS BEEN known by Him.”  If God knows us as His children, we receive our inheritance in Him.  That brings fullness and fulfillment. 1 Corinthians 10:31 – reminds us that Everything we do, we do for the glory of the Lord.  We must not allow our hearts to become divided. 

The injunction is that God must be First!  God is a covenant maker and covenant keeper.  His covenant cannot be fully known if we allow anything to infringe upon His place in our hearts. 

A good question would be, “Do we have idols of heart?  Have we put stumbling blocks before our faces?”   I am unable to answer that for anyone but me, but the Holy Spirit will.  Remember that even unintentional idols are stumbling blocks and become strongholds.  They hinder the flow of God’s fullness in us.

The question then is, “What do we do?”   We must seek God, asking Him to reveal any idols of the heart in us.  It may require prayer, fasting, meditation, and studying the Word.  God is willing to show us anything that holds our hearts in a way that diminishes His place.   Intentional or unintentional?   God does not desire to deprive us but to fulfill us. We must cry, “Father, please expose any idols in our hearts.”

Our future and hope have been birthed in God’s heart.   He wants to make us complete.  Completion is only realized in Total Surrender to Him.  God will reveal to every willing heart His purposes and desires.  Victory through surrender.   Ask Him to show you, and He will.  You can be free!

Have a fantastic day as you walk with Jesus in your heart!

Jeremiah 29:11 – “For I know the plans that I have for you, declares Yahweh, plans for peace and not calamity, to give you a future and a hope.”  LSB

In the Book of Jeremiah, we read about Israel’s bondage in Babylon and the promise of God in 29:11. They were exiled in hopelessness, and in that state, God reminded them to remember His promise and purpose.   In difficulty, they could Hope!

In Jeremiah 31:21, God told them to set up road marks and guideposts and set their hearts on the highway to victory. Jeremiah 31:31-34 brings us the promise of a New Covenant.

In Romans 5:1, Paul reminds us that this life is a life of faith.   Justification by faith brings peace.  Then, in Romans 5:2, he says something amazing, yet not.

Through faith in Jesus, we obtain our introduction into God’s Grace.  Notice it is an introduction, not a completion.  It is more than a casual acquaintance.  It leads to covenantal intimacy.  An introduction is the door, a beginning, and this is the door to fullness.   But we have to walk through the door.  It is not saved to sit, soak, and sour but to Grow into the full measure in Christ.

Then, he introduces the dastardly subject of afflictions, troubles, trials, and difficulties.  Consider them:

• Afflictions bring about (not produce) but bring perseverance into the mix.   Perseverance is a walked-out experience.
• Perseverance results in proven character.  Tried holiness, tested sanctification, and trustworthiness.
• Proven characters result in the birth of hope in the heart.
• Hope will not put us to shame.  Interesting statement.  Full assurance.  No discredit.  Vindicated.  There is more, but all this is produced Because of God’s Love that is poured out into our hearts.

Alan Jackson has a country song – “Ain’t Got Trouble Now.”  One line says – “Ain’t got troubles now.  Had ’em before, and I’ll have some more, but I Ain’t got troubles now.”  In Jesus, our trials become doorways to growth and victory.   We tend to fight, resist, grumble, complain, and woe is me.  But, if we understood that in Christ, there are times to trial and that through Him, they make us strong and whole, we would not just cede to them but use them to grow and glow.

We are people of Hope for whom God has plans for good.  We are people of perseverance, hope, and proven character who are never put to shame because we are people of The Name! 

Our Covenant is one of eternal Hope.  Therefore, we can rejoice because we are counted worthy to endure hardship for His Name.  We can and need to embrace the work of maturity through trials and become a person of faith.

Remember you are loved by God and entered the door to His immeasurable grace through faith.  You can overcome because you are an overcomer.  So, embrace God’s promise and believe He has a good plan for your life.  You will encounter difficulties but set your heart daily to seek Him first and live in His presence.  He will bring you to a place of spiritual maturity where you can represent Him and manifest Him!

May the Grace of God guard you and the peace of God comfort you as you embark on today’s journey!

Jeremiah 33:3 – “Call to me and I will answer you and show you great and mighty things which you know not.”

No weapon formed against you or any tongue of falsehood and judgment will be able to stand.  God is your defense. Stand still and see the deliverance of God.

Jeremiah 33:3 is a powerful reminder of God’s invitation and promise linked to prayer, surrender, and commitment.

• CALL to Me.
• AND I WILL ANSWER you.
• AND I WILL TELL you things you do know, things that are great and mighty.

There has to be an acceptance of the invitation Call upon God.  Nothing happens until we call.  We are invited to enter the Courts of Heaven, Throne Room, and Ask.  We have not because we either do not Ask or else we carnalize it and make it about us.  I need, I want, or I something.  Me, me, me!

Next, we must Hear.  God promises to answer, but unless we are conditioned to hear, we tend to say, “God isn’t saying anything. ” That is not what He said.  He said Call, and I Will Answer! If He promises to answer, but we do not know what He said, does that mean that He did not answer?  Maybe we did not hear.  Maybe what He said was not what we wanted to hear.

I see a correlation or connection between this and Romans 6-10. Romans 7, Paul lamented over the struggle of flesh and Spirit, and heart and flesh. Romans 8:1 – “THERE is therefore no condemnation to them who walk in the flesh after the Spirit of Jesus Christ. “In this passage, there is a frequently missed revelation.   It follows the disclosure of the battle between carnality and spirituality.  Our heart wants to do right, but our flesh disobeys.   Therefore, as we recognize that we are forgiven, we can be free of the condemnation of that conflict.  

Our problem is that we often beat ourselves up over acts we call sin. Still, here we see freedom from condemnation and realize this is a continuous work in us, not an instantaneous reaching of maturity and spiritual perfection.

We are saved through Hope!  Hope is not what we have but what we long for.  What we hope for, we persevere to achieve or gain.  God’s foreknowledge of our reception or rejection of The Gospel allowed Him to preplan (predestine) our future.  He called us, justified us, and is glorifying us in Christ.

Romans 8:35-39 is incredible.   Who can separate us from the love of Jesus?  What can steal from us or become a wall between us and the love of God?  Here is the thought, capsulized, that dropped into my heart.   Stop focusing on acts and focus on Him.  Believe His Word.

God said to Call, so let us start calling.  Let the Spirit of God expand our vision to see the Kingdom, not just your situation.   Our situation is minor compared to His Kingdom’s purposes. Let us set our hearts to Hear!  Ask for a hearing ear.  He said He would answer, and God cannot and will not lie. We can be assured that God loves us enough for Jesus to die and will never stop loving us.  Mistakes do not define us unless we make them the focus.  

We are all flawed vessels being transformed into Him.  We are three-part beings – Spirit, Soul, and Body.  We are saved in our Spirits, express ourselves through our Souls (mind, will, emotions), and live on earth in our Bodies.  The body will die, but our spirits are eternal.   The real you and me is who we are in our spirits, not what we do in our flesh or how we express ourselves in our souls.  Born again in our spirits, we are NEW Eternal beings.  The key is yielding our entire being to The Holy Spirit so the real us (spirit) can be manifested in body and soul.

The Bible affirms that there is no condemnation in Jesus!  If the enemy bring condenmnation, reject it, and declare – I AM A NEW CREATION IN CHRIST JESUS!  Shout it! My flesh is being brought into subjection to Christ, and until it is, I will live in Hope and press toward the goal.  I reject condemnation over mistakes because Greater is He Who is IN me… 

I realize this is an incomplete presentation, but it is part of what the Lord would have us consider and muse upon.  Begin rejoicing in your heart, mind, and spirit that you are transformed!  Do not make the acts or mistakes of the flesh the qualifier for receiving from God.  You do not earn favor; it is Grace, not work.   Expect His best even if you are not your best.

Have a fantastic day today, knowing that The Living Creator God loves you!

Jeremiah 51:15 – “The LORD has made the earth by his power, he has established the world by his wisdom, and has stretched out heaven by his understanding.”

Today’s theme is God’s immensity!  His deep love and our responsibility before Him and to ourselves and others.  Sensing our responsibility to God is readily apparent to most.  Sensing or knowing our responsibility to ourselves is visible to many.  But to others?  Well, that is a horse of another color. 

We sometimes allow stinkin’ thinkin’ to prevail.  “Do you know what they did?  Do you know they are not living, right?  Do you know they keep making the same irreligious mistakes?  My responsibility to others, what is that?” We need to see that anything in God requires us to see what Jeremiah declared: God is the Creator with all power and wisdom.  He knows all.

Jeremiah 51:36 – “Therefore thus says the LORD Behold, I will plead your cause, and take vengeance for you; I will dry up the sea of Babylon, and make her springs dry.”

God pleads our case, and when retribution is proper, He exacts vengeance – We Do Not!  But we sometimes try to and pray against them rather than for them!  That is a vast difference. 

We discover in Romans 12-15 that the consistent message is that the strong spiritually care for the spiritually weak. That is taxing and requires more effort, compassion, and patience than most have learned.

If, as Romans 12 declares, I belong to God totally and have a gift or gifts from Him, my purpose is peace and nurture of others.  In Romans 12:18, he says, “If possible. So far as depends on you, be at peace with everyone.”   We protest, “But Lord…”  Romans 13:10 reminds us that love does not do evil against others.  Love for God, which allows us to love ourselves rightly, is translated into loving the unlovable and the loveable.   Hard?  Yes, but commanded by God.   Not manufactured or pretended but an outflow of the love in us.

Romans 14:1 instructs us to accept the one who is weak in faith and not judge them or look down on them. Remember, we were weak and still are in some areas.  We live for, in, and through Christ.  In that respect, we live for others and are our brother’s keeper.

Romans 15:1 – “Now we who are strong ought to bear the weakness of those without strength and not just to please ourselves.”  It is not about us!  Romans 15:7 tells us to accept one another JUST AS Jesus accepted us. 

We accept people, but we do not endorse or justify evil.  We pray for, love, and provide godly examples rather than spewing forth condemnation and judgment.  We are not God.  We, too, have flaws. 

Romans 16:17-20 is powerful and revelatory.   A professing Christian who causes division and dissension is to be noted.  They cause others to stumble and war against the body’s unity.  We do not embrace or enable evil, BUT we love and pursue peace (God’s peace, not just an absence of conflict).

We must focus on our responsibility to God and ourselves, get that in harmony with God’s Word, and respond to others JUST AS Jesus. Then…  Romans 16:20 – “The God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet.”   Peace will come to our house (our homes, businesses, and churches).

• First is the right view of God and our purpose.
• Second is the right view of who we are and how we are to live and think.
• Third is others, strengthening the weak, encouraging everyone, and demonstrating the Love of God to everyone.

I encourage you to ask the Father to help you prioritize rightly and relate biblically and godly.  Ask Him to transform you into manifestations and demonstrations of Jesus.   Then, we can declare, “Father, I give myself to You.” 

Today is the day of a new journey that produces God’s Peace and Power.  No weapon can stand, and no stronghold can remain.  We bow to You and set our hearts to be Who You said we are.

May today overflow with God’s goodness and presence and propel you to new heights in Jesus!

Jeremiah 4:3 – “Break up your fallow ground, and do not sow among thorns.”

In both Jeremiah and Acts, the message is clear.  Judah was backslidden and following false gods.  God was pleading with them to repent and return. He promised that if they did, He would fulfill His Covenant with them.

Fallow ground is untilled ground that has laid idle.  Stumps, roots, rocks, and weeds are present.  They have to be removed.  It is challenging work.  It requires diligence, persistence, patience, and commitment.   It has to be the undaunted purpose.  No thorns can be left. They will choke out the seed.  Remember the parable Jesus gave in the New Testament about the several types of soil?  It came from here. 

If we give God a heart that is ready to receive and totally surrendered, He will produce a harvest in us.  The Word prunes our vines and prepares our hearts for planting.

Acts 20:32 – “And now I commend you to God AND to the Word of His Grace, WHICH IS ABLE to build you up and give you THE inheritance among those who have been sanctified.”   

To be Sanctified is to be set apart and fully committed to God. That conveys the same idea as breaking up the fallow ground of the heart. The Inheritance is not just an inheritance but The Inheritance! 

Therefore, if we commit ourselves to God and allow the Holy Spirit to help us break up and prepare our hearts to receive, He will bring us into the Full Kingdom Inheritance He has prepared.   It is the Father’s good pleasure to give us the kingdom.

Remember, our focus must be singular – It must be GOD!  Our hearts must not be divided.  How do we break up the fallow ground of the heart?

• Repentance.
• Surrender.
• Prayer.
• Study the Word.
• Guard our lips.
• Exercise discipline.
• Seek Him.
• Be thankful and grateful.
• Speak to ourselves in Psalms, Hymns, and songs of the Holy Spirit.  (Sing in the Spirit with your understanding of what God puts in your heart.)
• Make time for the Word, prayer, praise, and fellowship with the Holy Spirit.

The process requires preparing the fallow ground of the heart, getting it ready for planting, then comes the harvest.  It is an ordered process and cannot be reversed.  It is first Preparation, then planting, followed by the Harvest.

Determine that you will allow the Holy Spirit to break up the fallow ground of your heart so you can receive the seed of the Word and see the harvest of God.  This is your day to bring a new Harvest.

Have a momentous day in the LORD and begin the process of preparation to be filled to overflowing with Him and His purposes.