Daily Bread Archives

November 6, 2020November 5, 2020

The Goodness of The LORD

“I am still confident of this: I will see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living. Wait for the Lord; be strong and take heart and wait for the Lord.” ~ Psalm 27:13-14

Sometimes we are tricked into thinking that we have hope only in eternity, and this life is only filled with hardships. The truth is, we can see the goodness of the LORD in this life, as well as the life to come if we pray and believe and wait on the LORD. Sure there will be obstacles and hardships, that’s unavoidable, but we are also promised the good along with the bad. It won’t just be all bad; wait upon the LORD and seek Him. When you seek Him with all of your heart, He will answer.

Heavenly Father, there are many of Your people who may be somewhat disheartened with life. LORD, please minister to these needs today. Heal sick bodies, restore broken relationships, give favor and success to those who are job hunting, and give wisdom to the businessmen and women. Father, bring hope to the hopeless situation. Bring joy and peace to turmoil.

In Jesus’ name, I pray, amen.

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His Peace

“²⁷Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid.” ~ John 14:27

Jesus knew what was ahead, so He planned for it. Every stripe on His back was for you. Every thorn in His brow was for you. Every nail in His wrist. Everything Jesus did was for you. But He didn’t stop there; He left us His peace. He gave us the peace that got Him through the betrayal, through the hurt, through the cross. He gave that to us. Don’t be deceived by the thoughts that can plague your mind, but instead lean on Jesus. I know it doesn’t sound good enough. I know it is difficult. I know it sounds like foolishness, but if you believe that Jesus can cleanse you from all of your sins, He can give you peace as you live your life here on Earth.

Don’t lose hope, trust in the LORD. Hold to His promises, and believe that you will have peace. Stand up to thoughts that plague your mind. Refuse to accept them. Encourage yourself in the LORD, for He is good. Don’t give up. Don’t give up. Fight for your life. Jesus said, “I come to give life and life more abundantly.” Your life is more precious than any gold or silver. God Himself formed you. The creator of the universe loves you. You are not worthless. You are not without purpose. You are not meaningless. You are not pathetic. You are chosen. You have more value than you could ever know or understand. Your life has meaning. Don’t give up. Hold to the promises of our LORD and Savior.

LORD God, we ask that You intervene in my life. Come to my rescue and protect me. Come to my rescue and defend me. Stand in our defense LORD God and rebuke every thought that tries to destroy me. Destroy every thought tells me I’m not good enough. That tells me I should just give up, for You, oh God, has given me a new life. I am a new creation in You. I am a Child of God. Thank You, LORD God, for all that You are doing and will do in my life. I place my life in Your hands, LORD God. I ask that You lead me out of this torment and into Your Holy Peace.

In The Name of Jesus, I pray, Amen.

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Sow Into Jesus

“¹⁵If you love me, you will keep my commandments. ¹⁶And I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Helper, to be with you forever, ¹⁷even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive because it neither sees Him nor knows Him. You know Him, for He dwells with you and will be in you.” ~ John 14:15-17

We often don’t quote all of these verses together. We often forget the first part, “If you love me, you will keep my commandments.” We have to first love Jesus. How do we do that? We keep His commandments. That means we resist temptation, strive to live a life mirroring Jesus’, share the gospel with the lost sheep, and live exemplary lives. We don’t just choose the verses we want and ignore the ones we don’t. We hold all scripture as God-breathed, then, and only then, will we receive The Helper. The Holy Spirit.

Through Him, we will be able to overcome any obstacle. When we don’t know what to pray, He intercedes on our behalf. When we don’t know what to say, He speaks for us. The Holy Spirit guides us, teaches us, and protects us. But the only way to reap the benefits of The Spirit is by sowing into Jesus.

Peace. Love. Go Forth and Sow Into Jesus.

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The Action of Love

“For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life.” ~ John 3:16

Love is an action word, even for God. God so loved… that He gave… In order to fully express one’s love, one must accompany the expression “I love you” with an action. It’s not good enough to simply tell someone you love them; you must show them that you do. As faith is incomplete without a corresponding action, so is love. Love is not something we measly say, but something we live and do.

Heavenly Father, please help us to show our love not only in word but also in deed. I pray that today Your love will shine in the hearts of Your people, and those that feel unloved will be shown a love that will bring a smile to their faces and an everlasting warmth to their hearts. In Jesus’ name, I pray, amen.

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Be Justified By The Blood

“²⁰Surely there is not a righteous man on earth who does good and never sins.” ~ Ecclesiastes 7:20

Let this be words of encouragement, as well as words of humility. No person on Earth does only good things and never sins, so you’re not alone. You’re not the only one who has struggled or still struggles. But that doesn’t mean that you will always struggle. It’s like an even playing field that we enter into when we are born. Your sin is never too taboo or too wrong for God because I guarantee you, you’re not the first to come before Him with that sin.

As these are words of encouragement, these are also words of humility. We are all born with a sin-nature in need of God’s eternal salvation. We all struggle with sin, and no sin (that leads to death) can be justified by being “better or less taboo” than another sin. ALL sins should be taboo because the body wasn’t created for sin, nor sin for the body. Since we all have a body, all sin should be labeled as taboo to us because none of us can justify our sins as being okay because they’re “not as bad” as someone else’s sin. We all need to be justified by the redeeming blood of Jesus Christ and made new through the Holy Spirit.

Peace. Love. Go Forth and Be Justified Through The Blood.

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Be A Berean

“¹¹Now these Jews were more noble than those in Thessalonica; they received the word with all eagerness, examining the Scriptures daily to see if these things were so.” ~ Acts 17:11

As a Church, we’ve lost our desire to study the Bible. We’ve become content with not knowing Scripture. It’s become okay not to know if something is in the Bible or not. If something is a sin or not. How to get saved? Can you really lose your Salvation? Do you need to be baptized?

We’ve gotten rid of the need to actually know God and His Word. We’re satisfied just knowing that God is God, and that’s it. We don’t search for anything else. We can no longer defend our own beliefs. We don’t check to see if what the Preacher is preaching is accurate. We’re too busy for that, but we’ll find time to read about our favorite celebrities. Watch our favorite movies and T.V. shows. Hang out with our friends.

By no means are any of these things wrong by themselves, but when it comes to placing them above God and the things of God, that’s when it becomes an idol. That’s when it becomes a sin. That’s why the author of the book of Acts was bigging up the Bereans. They were hungry for the Word of God. They desired to know the truth. They were awake and growing, but we’ve fallen asleep. No one grows during a Spiritual Sleep; instead, they begin to die. Spiritual Slumber leads to Spiritual Death. And the worst part is, you won’t even know you’re dying. You won’t be able to stop it unless you wake up. Unless you build a true relationship with Jesus. The only way to do that is to read and study your Bible, worship, pray, go to Church, and follow in His footsteps.

Peace. Love. Go Forth and Be A Berean.

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You Have Overcome

“⁴Little children, you are from God and have overcome them, for he who is in you is greater than he who is in the world.” ~ 1 John 4:4

John said we have overcome because we are from God, with the Spirit of God living inside of us, and there is no power on earth that can match. Do you need power to overcome? There is power in the blood. Once you accept Jesus Christ as your LORD and Savior, you are empowered with the Holy Spirit. No matter what obstacle stands in your way, or what sin is keeping you in chains, you can overcome with the help of God, for you are not alone. Jesus overcame so we shall overcome as well.

Our Father, help us to forsake the wrong and choose the right. Teach us how to connect with your power so that we can indeed overcome, for there is forgiveness, healing, peace, and joy in your presence. Help us to receive today. In Jesus’ name, I pray, amen.

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What Do You Want?

“The craving of a sluggard will be the death of him because his hands refuse to work.” – Proverbs 21:25 ^NIV

What do you want in life? Success? A spouse? A family? A job? To lose weight? Get in shape? Spiritual growth? Run a 10k? Get your degree? We all have desires. We all have dreams. There is something that all of us want, but not all of us get them. The majority of the time, our biggest problem is us. We allow laziness, procrastination, fear, lack of determination to overtake us. We’ll settle for less than because we don’t want to put in the work, or we’re too afraid to fail.

But what do you want? Because success won’t hunt you down, neither will a job, weight loss, a spouse, or anything you want in life. You have to go out and take it. You have to go out and fight for it. Work for it. It’s not enough to want it. It’s not enough to pray for it. Sure God will help you, but you have to do your part, get the ball rolling. Once you get the ball rolling, God will help His children. Don’t give up. Don’t give in. Do. Don’t wait for tomorrow to do what you can today because tomorrow may never come. Don’t wait for the perfect time because there is no such thing as perfect timing.

Whatever you do, do it to the best of your abilities. Give it everything you have. And as you go through your day, I pray this blessing over you, “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 90:17 ^ESV) Decide what you want in life. Get the ball rolling. Don’t wait for tomorrow. Do it today.

Peace. Love. Go Forth and Get The Ball Rolling.

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Two Sons

“²⁸What do you think? A man had two sons. And he went to the first and said, ‘Son, go and work in the vineyard today.’ ²⁹And he answered, ‘I will not,’ but afterward he changed his mind and went. ³⁰And he went to the other son and said the same. And he answered, ‘I go, sir,’ but did not go. ³¹Which of the two did the will of his father?” ~ Matthew 21:28-31a

The first son had no intention of working in the vineyard but changed his mind and did as his father asked. The second son, however, had all the intention in the world but either couldn’t spare the time or completely forgot because of distractions. Be very careful of distractions that cause you to neglect your promises, especially to God and to your family. Like the proverb says, “Good intentions pave the way to Hell.” Keep your promises even if it hurts, finish what you started, and stop putting off until tomorrow what you can do today because that tomorrow may never come.

Our Heavenly Father, please help us in this area. First, do not put off salvation, for today is the day of repentance; tomorrow is promised to no man. Second, not to put off telling someone else of the Good News so that they too may live and not die. Thirdly to keep all the promises we swore we would keep, for You take no pleasure in fools. Lastly, the plans and God-given creative ideas that formulate in our minds for businesses and new inventions and ministries that never get acted upon because of procrastination or fear of failure. Would you rebuke the spirit of procrastination and please help us to put these ideas into action. For we ask it all in Jesus’ name, amen.

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The Spirit of Procrastination

“Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened.” ~ Matthew 7:7-8

Jesus is saying here that if you want something, you must pursue it. It does no good to say, “I want a good college education, but never study or do homework.” Or to say you want this or that but never fill out the application for it. Likewise, you can’t have the full blessing of God if you never seek the face of God. Let us determine this year to ask, seek, and knock.

Heavenly Father, please rebuke the spirit of procrastination and grant us the determination to ask, seek, and knock. So that our prayers and requests will be heard and answered. In Jesus name, amen.

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