Daily Bread Archives

January 28, 2023January 29, 2023

Be Renewed Trough Him

³¹ but they who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint.~ Isaiah 40:31

The strength of the Church is fleeting. We’re tired and weary. It feels like we’re fighting a pointless battle sometimes. Obstacle after obstacle tries to slow us down and bring our run to a halt. And sometimes, our cross just feels too heavy to carry anymore. But here’s the thing, we don’t have to run the race worn out, struggling with all of this stuff.

God promised that if we spend time in His presence, He would renew us. So many of us Church folks are dying of thirst and exhaustion on the race set before us because we’re trying to run in our own strength and stamina. We aren’t strong enough to successfully run this race. We have to rely on God. We have to rely on Christ Jesus. We have to rely on His Holy Spirit. There’s no doing this alone. We’re too weak, but the LORD God is our strength. He is our strong tower. He is our Rock. He is our breath. He is our everything. Spend time with Him, and you won’t be weary or tired in this race we call life.

LORD God, please help me to desire to want to spend time with You. Help me to love You the way You deserve. Help me to be like David, who knew how to come in and go out. Please give me a heart of worship and praise. Teach me how to be renewed in You, LORD, so that I might hear, well done my good and faithful servant with whom I am well pleased, at the end of my race. In Jesus’ name, I pray, amen.

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Rejoice in the LORD

⁴You shall not worship the Lord your God in that way. ⁵But you shall seek the place that the Lord your God will choose out of all your tribes to put his name and make his habitation there. There you shall go, ⁶and there you shall bring your burnt offerings and your sacrifices, your tithes and the contribution that you present, your vow offerings, your freewill offerings, and the firstborn of your herd and of your flock. ⁷And there you shall eat before the Lord your God, and you shall rejoice, you and your households, in all that you undertake, in which the Lord your God has blessed you. ~ Deuteronomy 12:4-7

God instructs Israel to rejoice in all situations because rejoicing can be considered an offering to the LORD that is connected to the love of God. God does not want us to walk around with our faces made up and our countenance fallen. He wants us to express and show His love because He is a God of love, and He wants and expects us to abide in His love. You cannot abide in God’s love without rejoicing, for He is a good good Father who gives a million little miracles to each and every one of us. All good things come down from the Father of Lights. Rejoice in the LORD, and He will strengthen you because you no longer lean on yourself but on Him.

Peace. Love. Go Forth and Rejoice in the LORD.

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Seek His Joy

⁷If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. ⁹As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Abide in my love. ¹¹These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full. ~ John 15:7, 9, 11

It’s all about RELATIONSHIP. Jesus said if you abide in me and my words in you, that is relationship. Now listen to me. You cannot maintain a good and proper relationship without communication. Meaning: You have to actively pray and seek the LORD. You have to actively praise and worship the LORD. You have to regularly read and study your Bible so that Jesus can speak to you.

Now benefits: You can ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you, and then Jesus reiterates the requirement: Abide in my love. It’s imperative, essential, and critical that we establish, nurture, and maintain that relationship if you want the benefits, that is.

Therefore, if we meet the requirement, then we can have the benefit. The benefit is: Ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for us. This word “wish” is a strong desire or too long for eagerly.

Now, I want you to understand that this is not a Christmas list that you hand over to God. Oh LORD, You know how I’ve been longing for a Lamborghini, and voila, it’s parked off in the driveway the very next morning. Unfortunately, it doesn’t work that way at all. I wish it did. I have a few things on my wish list that I wouldn’t mind asking for and getting. But it’s not like that.

The next benefit is this: That His joy may be in us, and our joy might be full; that is: to make complete. It’s joy unspeakable and full of glory. Joy that the world cannot give, nor can it take it away. The kind of joy that the heathen does not recognize, nor can he comprehend it. It’s joy in times of trouble. Joy in times of persecution. Joy in times of hardship. Joy in the good times. And joy in the bad times. Your joy is complete.

Peace. Love. Go Forth and Seek His Joy.

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Don’t Live In Yesterday

¹ I am the true vine, and my Father is the vinedresser. ²Every branch in me that does not bear fruit He takes away, and every branch that does bear fruit He prunes, that it may bear more fruit. ³Already you are clean because of the word that I have spoken to you. ⁴Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me. ⁵I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing. ~ John 15:1-5

The bottom in Jesus’ discourse is to abide and “Bear Fruit.” Jesus said that He, Himself was the Vine, and we are the branches. Jesus doesn’t just use any old frivolous analogy here to describe His relationship with us, and ours with Him, and the Father’s obligations in the whole plan of fruit-bearing.

Let me describe the vine for you. The grapevine has a trunk that comes up out of the ground, and then there are two arms of the vine stretching out on each side called canes—a perfect picture of the Crucified Messiah.

Now from the two arms, several shoots grow vertically. Those shoots are the branches that are us, the Christians, the Body of Christ. The growing upwards is a perfect picture of our relationship that we have with Jesus. Our relationship with Him is a vertical one. Our prayers, our intercessions, our requests, they all go upward to Jesus. We even raise our hands upward in worship.

Leaves and grapes only grow from new shoots each year. Therefore, all of the old shoots are cut off and thrown away. This a very good example of the lesson that we cannot live in yesterday’s glory or survive on yesterday’s miracles. We have to keep seeking more. Jesus encouraged His disciples (and us) by telling them that they would do greater things than even He did. Time is so short we can’t afford to dwell in past miracles as if God has stopped working. God is the God of new things. His desire is to continuously do new things in your life until you have become perfected in Christ Jesus.

Peace. Love. Go Forth and Seek New Miracles.

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The Power of a Testimony

Many Samaritans from that town believed in him because of the woman’s testimony, “He told me all that I ever did.” So when the Samaritans came to him, they asked him to stay with them, and he stayed there two days. And many more believed because of his word. They said to the woman, “It is no longer because of what you said that we believe, for we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this is indeed the Savior of the world.” ~ John 4:39‭-‬42

One of the most powerful weapons we have as Christians is our testimony. You don’t have to know the Scripture better than the greatest preacher. You don’t have to be able to explain every controversial verse in the Bible. All you need to witness is your testimony because in it is the power of God. That’s all this woman used. All she did was say what Jesus had done in her life, and many Samaritans believed in Jesus because of what she said. It stirred something in them to seek Jesus out for themselves. That is a powerful thing.

The enemy will try to tell you that you’re not good enough to witness or you don’t know enough Scripture to witness. All you need is your testimony. That’s it. There is power in a changed life. It’s even more powerful to live your testimony. I remember being a child and not really liking my uncle. He was rough, to say the least, but when he got saved, there was a physical change in him. His language changed. He was loving. He was kind. I genuinely enjoyed his company. If his testimony didn’t affect anyone else, it affected his 13-year-old because I truly saw the power and love of God change Him. Your testimony isn’t just for you. It’s so that others can see Christ in you. Don’t keep your testimony to yourself. Share your testimony with others. Live your testimony as my uncle did. Let your light shine so that others might see Christ in you.

Peace. Love. Go Forth and Live Your Testimony.

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Keep The Faith In Every Season

For thus says the Lord: Your hurt is incurable, and your wound is grievous. There is none to uphold your cause, no medicine for your wound, no healing for you. All your lovers have forgotten you; they care nothing for you; for I have dealt you the blow of an enemy, the punishment of a merciless foe, because your guilt is great, because your sins are flagrant. Why do you cry out over your hurt? Your pain is incurable. Because your guilt is great, because your sins are flagrant, I have done these things to you. Therefore all who devour you shall be devoured, and all your foes, every one of them, shall go into captivity; those who plunder you shall be plundered, and all who prey on you I will make a prey. For I will restore health to you, and your wounds I will heal, declares the Lord, because they have called you an outcast: ‘It is Zion, for whom no one cares!’ Thus says the Lord: Behold, I will restore the fortunes of the tents of Jacob and have compassion on his dwellings; the city shall be rebuilt on its mound, and the palace shall stand where it used to be. ~ Jeremiah 30:12-18

When you go through a season of tribulation and hardships, the Devil will whisper in your ear that God doesn’t care. He’ll tell you that God’s forgotten about you or that God can’t be real because if He was, this wouldn’t have happened. But if we return to God and remain faithful, the LORD will redeem us. We were once separated from God, but now because of the redeeming blood of Jesus, we are called Children of God.

Don’t listen to the lies of the enemy. Don’t look at the circumstance or situation you’re in. Focus on God. Focus on the promises of God. Focus on the love of God. Focus on God. Don’t let anything distract you or separate you from Him. Cling to the LORD, and the LORD will cling to you.

LORD God, please give me the faith to endure any and every season that comes my way. Give me the faith in the good and the bad. Strengthen my faith, LORD God. In Jesus’ name, I pray, amen.

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Pray and Watch For Restoration

And the Lord restored the fortunes of Job, when he had prayed for his friends. And the Lord gave Job twice as much as he had before. Then came to him all his brothers and sisters and all who had known him before, and ate bread with him in his house. And they showed him sympathy and comforted him for all the evil that the Lord had brought upon him. And each of them gave him a piece of money and a ring of gold. ~ Job 42:10-11

Job has one of the hardest stories to grasp in the Bible. He was such a righteous man that he was the wager of God and Satan. Satan is allowed to torment Job and afflict him for a certain amount of time. It wasn’t just superficial things that Satan took from him and afflicted him with. Job lost everything. He lost his children. His fortune. His health. It was so bad that Job’s wife told him to curse God and die. Job’s response is, shall I only accept good from God and not also the bad? Wow. What a response. In spite of it all, Job didn’t lose sight of the God whom he served. And because of this, Job’s reward was double what he had.

I used to think this was the end of Job’s story, but there was more. Job wasn’t an only child. He had siblings. Nevertheless, they didn’t come to him. They didn’t check in on him. They didn’t comfort him. There was no communication between Job and his siblings until after the LORD restored to Job all that he lost and more. So many of us would see that as them using him. I know I sure would feel used, but what if Job’s trial was used by God in order to restore his relationship with his siblings? God takes what the Devil meant for our evil and makes it for our good.

Job’s siblings didn’t just come to him after he was restored. They comforted him and had sympathy for him. Their love for their brother was restored. Not only that, but they also brought gifts for him. Why would they bring gifts? Could it be an apology for the distance? Maybe they were jealous like Cain was of Abel. Maybe they were bereaved by the blessings and favor Job had received from God. Maybe they felt less than around him. The Bible doesn’t say, but we can safely assume there was distance between them. And when God restored Job, He restored his relationships with his siblings as well.

Be encouraged. Lay your desires of reconciliation at the feet of Jesus. Pray for His favor. Pray for His forgiveness. Pray for His restoration.

Peace. Love. Go Forth and Pray and Watch For Restoration.

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Be Satisfied In His Love

Satisfy us in the morning with your steadfast love, that we may rejoice and be glad all our days. Make us glad for as many days as you have afflicted us, and for as many years as we have seen evil. Let your work be shown to your servants, and your glorious power to their children. Let the favor of the Lord our God be upon us, and establish the work of our hands upon us; yes, establish the work of our hands! ~ Psalms 90:14-17

The love of God satisfies us. It’s the miracle grow that brings forth all of the other Fruit of the Spirit. Often time, we want the favor of the LORD and for Him to establish everything we do, but we don’t want to first be satisfied by His love. Without dwelling in His love, we can’t produce any fruit or receive His promises. We have to first dwell in His love and produce His love from our hearts.

In other words, the love of God has to change you. You have to have a desire for the things of God, enjoy the things of God, seek the things of God, and remain in the things of God. The things of the world are shiny, and they often distract us, but they don’t last. They, and the earth itself, will one day flee from the presence of God. One day, they will be no more, but the promises and the good things of God will never pass away. When you dwell in the things of God, they carry on into the next life because seeking the things of God prepares treasure for you in Heaven. And where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

LORD God, please help me to leave behind the things of this world. Help me to become attached only to You and Your kingdom. Let Your kingdom come, and Your will be done on earth as it is in Heaven. Remove any desires from me that aren’t of You. Help me to be satisfied in Your love and to stop seeking out the world and its poison apples. Teach me to love You the way You deserve. In Jesus’ name, I pray, amen.

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Pray For Comprehension

⁵ If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him. ~ James 1:5

So many of us read the Bible and never fully understand what God is saying to us. We know Bible verses, but we don’t know how to put them into practice or how to use them. The Bible is our sword; therefore, when we don’t know how to use our sword, we are like a child wildly wielding a sword, expecting to defeat our well-trained enemy.

We can’t overcome our enemy if we don’t know how to use our Heavenly weapon from God. It’s only by these Heavenly weapons that we have the chance of overcoming the enemy. And it’s only through understanding how to use our weapons that we can overcome our enemies. Therefore, spend time in prayer seeking the wisdom of God. Seek the wisdom of understanding the knowledge that you already have.

Dear LORD, please open my spiritual eyes so that I may see the spiritual connotation of Your Word. Show me what You mean when You wrote, and not what I want to see or what I believe. Teach me according to Your Word that You spoke, not what I interpreted. Remove the blinders of my biased beliefs from physical and spiritual eyes so that I might see Your Truth, Your way, and to fully comprehend it all. In Jesus’ name, I pray, amen.

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Confess In Court

¹⁶ For I will not contend forever, nor will I always be angry; for the spirit would grow faint before me, and the breath of life that I made. ¹⁷ Because of the iniquity of his unjust gain I was angry, I struck him; I hid my face and was angry, but he went on backsliding in the way of his own heart. ¹⁸ I have seen his ways, but I will heal him; I will lead him and restore comfort to him and his mourners, ¹⁹ creating the fruit of the lips. Peace, peace, to the far and to the near,” says the Lord, “and I will heal him. ~ Isaiah 57:16-19

God looks down on us and sees our hearts. He sees the filth we think about and the evil sins we commit. God sees what we do in secret that we’re ashamed of and what we do in public and are proud of. God sees it all, yet, God still loves us to the point of death. God bore our punishment on Himself so that we might be saved from our sins. None of us are deserving. None of us are worthy. None of us are better than the other. We are all flawed, and we are all filled with sin, but God’s love can penetrate that sin and cleanse you.

We may be red as crimson with our sin, but the love of God will cleanse us and make us white as snow. But we have to first confess our sins to God. Yes, He already knows them because He sees us committing them. We’re not confessing so that He can hear us. We’re confessing so that the Devil can hear that there is nothing He can hold against us. We’re confessing our sins so that we might bring them up in court, and the court might rule in our favor to have our record expunged. Because of the redeeming blood of Jesus and the molding of His Holy Spirit, we are no longer that person but a new creation.

LORD God, help me confess all of my sins before You so that the Devil may never use them against me again. Expunge my record and throw it into the Sea of Forgetfulness. Cleanse me of all of my sin, LORD God, that I might dwell in Your Holy presence. Thank You for redeeming me, even though I am so unworthy. Thank You for Your love and compassion. In Jesus’ name, I pray, amen.

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