Daily Bread Archives

March 5, 2021March 5, 2021

Diamond In The Rough

³Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, ⁴and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, ⁵and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us. ~ Romans 5:3-5

When we go through tribulations and struggles, if we hold to God and trust in His name, we will come out on the other side stronger than ever. So, when we become stronger, we gain endurance. In other words, what once tripped us up won’t continue to trip us up. The more we overcome, the more we begin to transform into the perfect image of God. And when we transform, we are filled with hope that cannot be shaken, nor can it be taken away.

So, don’t be discouraged when trials and tribulations come because when you make it to the other side, you will be stronger. Never forget that when diamonds are only made under intense pressure, and that’s what we are becoming, perfect diamonds. So, don’t be discouraged, trust in God and He will strengthen you.

Peace. Love. Go Forth and Become A Diamond.

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Fight The Good Fight

¹ The Lord said to Moses, “Get going, you and the people you brought up from the land of Egypt. Go up to the land I swore to give to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. I told them, ‘I will give this land to your descendants.’ ²And I will send an angel before you to drive out the Canaanites, Amorites, Hittites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites. ~ Exodus 33:1-2^NLT

The LORD sent an angel before the people of Israel to drive out their enemies before them. He didn’t abandon them in the land with their enemies; He sent an angel out ahead of them. God doesn’t change, so if He did it for the people of Israel in the days of Moses, He’ll do it for us today.

Our enemies today are spiritual and not physical. 2,000 years ago, God didn’t just send out an angel before us; He Himself went before us. He paid our debt for us. All we have to do is resist the Devil, and he will flee. It won’t be a walk in the park, just like how the Israelites still had to fight, we still have to fight, but just like the Israelites had won before they started their battles, we have won before we start our battle as well. We just have to fight; we can’t sit aside and wait for the victory to happen for us. It’s been given into our hands if we put on our spiritual armor and fight.

Peace. Love Go Forth and Fight The Good Fight.

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Fear Trumps Faith

¹⁰When Pharaoh drew near, the people of Israel lifted up their eyes, and behold, the Egyptians were marching after them, and they feared greatly. And the people of Israel cried out to the Lord. ~ Exodus 14:10

The people of Israel had just left Egypt. They were finally free. They were now on their way to their promised land. Then all of a sudden, Pharaoh and his army were on their coattails, and they were afraid.

Because of fear, their faith and all that they hoped for disappeared. It was completely drained from their body because of what they saw with their eyes. This is where some of us are today. We’ve just been freed from our sin. We’re on the way to our promised land when the very sin we just overcome comes after us again, so we start doubting God’s promises. We start doubting that we have overcome. We start doubting that we can stay sober, stop lusting, stop greed, stop pride, etc.

Fear tells us we’re not good enough. Fear tells us that we can’t do it. Fear tells us that nothing has changed, will ever change, or could ever change. But faith tells us that we are more than conquerors. Faith tells us that we are saved and justified by the blood of Jesus. Faith tells us that we are no longer our past, but we are a new creation in Christ Jesus.

Faith in Christ Jesus is how we overcome fear. Faith in who we are and who we will be is how we overcome. We overcome fear through our faith.

Peace. Love. Go Forth and Trump Fear With Faith.

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Correct Your Eve

⁶So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate, and she also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate. ⁷Then the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were naked. And they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loincloths. ~ Genesis 3:6-7

For the majority of my life, I thought Adam was way across the garden and didn’t see any of this taking place. Turns out Adam was right next to Eve. He saw his wife about to sin, saw her sin, and then partook in sinning with her. He didn’t stop her, he joined her, and because of that, he allowed all sin to enter the world.

¹² Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned—
Romans 5:12

Now see if Adam had just spoken up, neither one would have sinned. If you see your brother falling, slipping, messing up, you need to say something, not just for their sake, but for yours as well. See, Adam didn’t say anything, and he then sinned as well.

This is the same with us today; imagine if we corrected, with love, those who sinned. Imagine if we stopped being politically correct and started calling sin sin. Imagine how many lives we could save. Correction isn’t an easy thing to do; it can be uncomfortable, especially in today’s society. But correction is the only way that we can grow as a Church, people and get closer to perfection.

Peace. Love. Go Forth and Correct Your Eve.

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Protect Your Mind With The Helmet of Salvation

¹⁷and take the helmet of salvation, ~ Ephesians 6:17a

The Helmet of Salvation not only protects the mind from the lies of the enemy with the assurance of Salvation, but it also gives security by knowing what the promises of God are for us. And there are several actions a believer can take to keep this helmet fastened and functioning:

Renew our minds. Our minds are battlefields. The outcomes of those battles determine the course of our lives. Romans 12:1-2 instructs us to renew our minds by allowing the truth of God’s Word to wipe out anything contrary to it. Old ideas, opinions, and worldviews must be replaced. We must allow God’s truth to continually wash away the world’s filth, lies, and confusion from our minds and adopt God’s perspective.
Reject doubts that arise from circumstances. Human beings are sensory creatures. What we cannot fathom with our five senses, we tend to disregard. If we allow them to circumstances may convince us that God does not really love us or that His Word is not true. It is impossible to have faith and doubt at the same time. God rewards our faith. With the helmet of Salvation firmly in place, we can choose to believe what appears impossible (Hebrews 11:6; 1 Peter 1:8- 9).
Keep an eternal perspective. When life crashes in around us, we must remember to look up. Our Salvation is the most precious gift we have received. Keeping our eyes on that can help us weather life’s storms. We can choose to live our lives by the motto, “If it doesn’t have eternal significance, it’s not important” (see Matthew 6:20; 1 Corinthians 3:11-13).
Remember that victory is already accomplished. When we consider ourselves “dead to sin but alive to God” (Romans 6:11), we eliminate many of the opportunities Satan uses to entrap us. When choosing sin is no longer an option for us because we recognize ourselves to be “new creatures” (2 Corinthians 5:17; 1 John 3:9), we effectively cut off many avenues of failure.
Find all our hope in Him. Psalm 73:25 says, “Whom have I in heaven but You? Besides you, I desire nothing on earth.” Our helmet is most effective when we treasure what it represents. The Salvation Jesus purchased for us cannot share the place of importance in our hearts with earthly things. When pleasing the Lord is our supreme delight, we eliminate many of Satan’s lures and render his evil suggestions powerless.

As we wear the helmet of Salvation every day, our minds become more insulated against the suggestions, desires, and traps the enemy lays for us. We choose to guard our minds from excessive worldly influence and instead think about things that honor Christ (Philippians 4:8). In doing so, we wear our Salvation as a protective helmet that will “guard our hearts and minds in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 4:7; Isaiah 26:3; 1 Peter 1:5).

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The End Never Justifies The Means

³ Then when Judas, His betrayer, saw that Jesus was condemned, he changed his mind and brought back the thirty pieces of silver to the chief priests and the elders, ⁴ saying, “I have sinned by betraying innocent blood.” They said, “What is that to us? See to it yourself.” Matthew 27:3-4^ESV

The Scripture states that when Judas saw that Jesus was condemned, he changed his mind. It sounds to me that that was not his initial intention. It seems like Judas was trying to force Jesus’ hand. He wanted to see the kingdom restored to Israel and wanted it now. He didn’t want, nor did he expect it to be, a spiritual kingdom. Judas was expecting a physical kingdom that he could see and touch now. He was expecting Jesus to be the anointed king that would free Israel from the tyranny of their Roman oppressors.

Remember, they had just had the Triumphal Entry into Jerusalem. Everyone was singing and rejoicing. This seemed like the perfect time to force his will upon Jesus. Force Him to take the throne. But it was not God’s timing. It may have seemed like the perfect timing, but it wasn’t God’s timing, and that makes all the difference. We have to be extremely cognizant of God’s timing, or we will miss the boat completely, and someone else will take our place.

Judas was so focused on His own idea of what Jesus was supposed to be that he missed out completely on who Jesus was. He was in church every Sunday, best friends with the lead pastor; he even preached some Wednesday nights, and yet he had no spiritual discernment. On the outside, Judas was the epidemy of Christianity, but on the inside, he was spiritually dead. He was just going through the motions. He had no relationship with God. This why Jesus says,

“²¹Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. ²²On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’ ²³And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.’”
Matthew 7:21-23

See, it’s not about the amount of good you do. It’s not about how many times you go to church a month. It’s not about how close you are with the pastor. It’s not even about how much time you spend in your Bible; it’s all about your relationship with God and our obedience to Him. It doesn’t matter if we say we love God or not; it’s how we live our lives. Judas was best friends with Jesus, he ‘loved’ Jesus, but he didn’t live his life as if he did. He only honored God with his lips.

¹³And the Lord said: “Because this people draw near with their mouth and honor me with their lips, while their hearts are far from me,”
Isaiah 29:13a

We have to seek the will of God. We have to seek Him to know Him. We can’t allow ourselves to fall asleep spiritually so that we can know the will of the one who created us.

Heavenly Father awaken the sleeping spirit within us today. Open our blind eyes and our deaf ears. Set a fire in our soul for You, oh LORD. Fill us with a desire to seek Your presence and Your will. Open our eyes that we may see You for who You are so that we may see Your plan for our lives. Help us to follow the path that You have paved out for us. Guide us with Your Holy Spirit. In Jesus’ name, I pray, amen.

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Follow His Commands

⁴²So the people of Israel followed all of the Lord’s instructions to Moses. ⁴³Then Moses inspected all their work. When he found it had been done just as the Lord had commanded him, he blessed them. ~ Exodus 39:42-43^NLT

The people of Israel weren’t blessed until they did everything the LORD had commanded them was done as the LORD commanded them. They understood that the LORD had standards that they had to meet. They didn’t make excuses; they didn’t get upset and call it unfair; they didn’t get offended; instead, they did exactly as they were told. They strove for God’s approval.

In our world today, we have no standards to reach. We’re easily offended. We make excuses. Why? Could it be that we’ve become lazy? Is it because we’ve become selfish? Or maybe we’ve become prideful, so everything offends us? I think the root of it all is the lack of love. Instead of seeing God’s commands as a guide to loving Him, we see them as a list of do’s and don’ts that stop us from having fun.

God doesn’t take away good from us; He protects us from evil. God’s commands are for our good, and yet we rebel and expect God to still bless us. We can’t live our lives as if He doesn’t exist and then expect Him to open the windows of Heaven and pour down blessings upon us. We have to abide in His love if we want to benefit from His love.

⁹As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Abide in my love. ¹⁰If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and abide in his love. ¹¹These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full.
John 15:9-11

Seek after God and follows His commands, then watch as the windows of Heaven open and pour down blessings on you more than you could imagine.

⁵You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies; You anoint my head with oil; My cup runs over.
Psalms 23:5

Peace. Love. Go Forth and Follow His Commands.

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Remember Your Relationship With God

¹ At the Lord’s command, the whole community of Israel left the wilderness of Sin and moved from place to place. Eventually they camped at Rephidim, but there was no water there for the people to drink. ²So once more the people complained against Moses. “Give us water to drink!” they demanded. “Quiet!” Moses replied. “Why are you complaining against me? And why are you testing the Lord?” ³But tormented by thirst, they continued to argue with Moses. “Why did you bring us out of Egypt? Are you trying to kill us, our children, and our livestock with thirst?” ~ Exodus 17:1-3

Sin is our Egypt. When we first leave sin, we’re all excited and on fire for God. We’re the first ones to be at Church on Sunday morning. We read our Bible. We seek God. Everything is new and exciting. But then we hit a hiccup. Maybe we don’t spend as much time in prayer as we did. Maybe we miss a day or two of reading. Then all of a sudden, sin starts knocking at our door. Temptation after temptation is showing up all around us, and we start feeling those past desires start to build up again, and we start to desire the past that we left behind.

This is where the Israelites are at. They were so focused on the obstacle in their way; they were willing to go back to their slavery. That’s how we are. We get so caught up with the battle in front of us. The drought that we have to go through, that we forget the slavery that we’ve just escaped. We forget the relationship we just gained with God.

When droughts come, we have to remember our relationship with our God.

¹³Jesus said to her, “Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, ¹⁴but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again. The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”
John 4:13-14

When we are craving our past, we have to remember that nothing is more satisfying than God.

⁵You have multiplied, O Lord my God, your wondrous deeds and your thoughts toward us; none can compare with you! I will proclaim and tell of them, yet they are more than can be told.
Psalms 40:5

¹⁸For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us.
Romans 8:18

Temptation and drought will come, but if we stay seeking God, then we will always be satisfied. We will never be thirsty, hungry, or unsatisfied again. Always remember that when we are in God, our cup runs over. He gives us everything we need and showers us with His blessings.

⁵You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies; You anoint my head with oil; My cup runs over.
Psalms 23:5

Peace. Love. Go Forth and Remember Your Relationship With God.

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Be A Part of The Body

¹⁴When Moses’ father-in-law saw all that Moses was doing for the people, he asked, “What are you really accomplishing here? Why are you trying to do all this alone while everyone stands around you from morning till evening?” ¹⁵Moses replied, “Because the people come to me to get a ruling from God. ¹⁶When a dispute arises, they come to me, and I am the one who settles the case between the quarreling parties. I inform the people of God’s decrees and give them his instructions.” ¹⁷“This is not good!” Moses’ father-in-law exclaimed. ¹⁸“You’re going to wear yourself out—and the people, too. This job is too heavy a burden for you to handle all by yourself. ~ Exodus 18:14-18^NLT

God created you for a specific purpose. You don’t have to take everything on by yourself. God didn’t create you to do everything. He has created many people to do many different things. Look at how Paul puts it,

¹⁴For the body does not consist of one member but of many. ¹⁵If the foot should say, “Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body,” that would not make it any less a part of the body. ¹⁶And if the ear should say, “Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body,” that would not make it any less a part of the body. ¹⁷If the whole body were an eye, where would be the sense of hearing? If the whole body were an ear, where would be the sense of smell? ¹⁸But as it is, God arranged the members in the body, each one of them, as he chose. ¹⁹If all were a single member, where would the body be? ²⁰As it is, there are many parts, yet one body.
2 Corinthians 12:14-20

We each have a specific purpose of fulfilling in our lives. If we try to take on too much, then we aren’t just taking away a job from someone else, but we can’t take on more than we can handle. We can’t take on everything; that’s why we are one part that makes a greater body.

Sometimes it’s hard to ask for help, but not even God does everything alone. He never acts on earth without the help of us. He doesn’t need our help, but He makes us a part of His plan. We have to learn to ask for help. We have to grow as one single body together.

Peace. Love. Go Forth and Be A Part of The Body.

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Let God Hold Up Your Arms

⁸While the people of Israel were still at Rephidim, the warriors of Amalek attacked them. ⁹Moses commanded Joshua, “Choose some men to go out and fight the army of Amalek for us. Tomorrow, I will stand at the top of the hill, holding the staff of God in my hand.” ¹⁰So Joshua did what Moses had commanded and fought the army of Amalek. Meanwhile, Moses, Aaron, and Hur climbed to the top of a nearby hill. ¹¹As long as Moses held up the staff in his hand, the Israelites had the advantage. But whenever he dropped his hand, the Amalekites gained the advantage. ¹²Moses’ arms soon became so tired he could no longer hold them up. So Aaron and Hur found a stone for him to sit on. Then they stood on each side of Moses, holding up his hands. So his hands held steady until sunset. ¹³As a result, Joshua overwhelmed the army of Amalek in battle. ~ Exodus 17:8-13^NLT

Moses couldn’t hold his arms up for the whole battle by himself. He needed help. There’s a spiritual battle going on right now over our lives, and we are Moses. The arms that we are holding up are our actions and decisions. We can’t make good decisions on our own. Our heart is inherently evil, so we need the Holy Spirit to guide us and the blood of Jesus to wash us clean.

^²Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.
Romans 12:2

We’re not strong enough to hold up our own arms, so we have to depend on the Holy Spirit, who transforms us, and Jesus, who took our sins away. We have to lean on God so that the battle waged for our soul will be won in our favor.

⁵Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. ⁶In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will make straight your paths.
Proverbs 3:5-6

Peace. Love. Go Forth and Let God Hold Up Your Arms.

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Category: Daily Bread

Diamond In The Rough

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