Ecclesiastes 3:11 – “He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in their heart, yet so that man will not find out the work which God has done from the beginning even to the end.”

Ecclesiastes 3:15 – “That which is has been already and that which will be has already been, yet God seeks what is pursued.”

I believe that it is appropriate to remind people of how a word can be beneficial and transformative. As we read Scripture, we discover that sometimes, a single word transforms our thoughts in a life-altering manner.

In Ecclesiastes 3:11, that word is “In Its Time.”  You may think, well, it is, but it is not, but it is.  Are you confused yet?  In v. 15, we read, “That which has already been and that which will be has already been, yet God seeks what is pursued.”

What is, is, and what will be is? God seeks what is pursued. That is a revelation of God’s heart. He seeks to provide and bring into the present what we pursue. He wants to give us the kingdom. We keep asking Him to create what He has already created. Too frequently, we ask God to do what He has already done.

It is a real problem that results in our limiting ourselves to what we see, but we do not have eyes to see that it already is, and God only waits for us to hold on to it in faith.

Ecclesiastes 4:3 speaks about the dead and the living and says something incredible.  The one who has never been is better than the living or the dead.  That indicates that all people exist in God, even before conception or birth.  (Note 3:15 once again.)

Then, almost as an aside, but germane is Ecclesiastes 7:10, where we are chastised for nostalgic yearning for the good old days.  Today is the day the LORD has made, and it always was and always will be.  It is filled with God’s person, promise, purpose, potential, and power.   We only see the immediate, but God is eternal.  That is the foundation of Ecclesiastes 9:10, “Whatever our hand finds to do, do it with everything in us.”  The finished product is within our reach, but we must reach for it.

We need to determine in our hearts that we will not look back at what was or even what we perceive to be.  Instead, look into the eternal realm and pursue what is in God.

• If you want peace, it is. 
• If you need provision, it is. 
• If you want guidance, it is. 
• If you want power. It is. 
• If you want your family in the kingdom, they are. 

If we can accept it, Jesus finished work on the Cross, and His disarming the devil made All Things Possible!   In God, what was is, is, and what will be is.  Jesus is the same yesterday, today, and Forever!

So, today, claim your dream; it is more than a dream!  May God be with you as you enjoy this wonderful day. He has created it!

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!