Category: living by faith

Sanctify them by the truth; your word is truth.
– John 17:17 (NIV)

God’s promises, God’s Scripture, and God’s clearest message of all, his Son, are truth. But only the last of these is truth, grace, deliverer, friend, Lord, Savior, brother, Redeemer. Looking for something that is missing in your life? Troubled by circumstances that seem to be beyond control? Your answers are in the page of scripture awaiting your discovery.

Father God, give me a holy passion to know your truth and live it in both word and deed. Make my life a reflection of your Word, who both proclaimed and lived your truth. In the name of Jesus, your ultimate Word, I pray. Amen.

Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light for my path.
– Psalm 119:105 (NIV)

God’s promises and God’s Scripture, helps us find our way in a pluralistic world of competing voices and lights our path in time so given to cynicism and despair. What such great grace we have to know God’s will in our own words! Now if we will only walk in the light!

Loving Father, thank you for giving me your truth in Scripture. To know that you love me enough to communicate in language so I can hear and read your message is truly awe inspiring to me. Make my heart hunger for your truth revealed in your Word. I want to grow to be a righteous and gracious child in your family. With all my love I pray to you in the name of my Savior, Jesus. Amen.

It is God’s will that by doing good you should silence the ignorant talk of foolish men. Live as free men, but do not use your freedom as a cover-up for evil; live as servants of God.
– 1 Peter 2:15-16 (NIV)

What does the world most need to hear from me today? A life tuned to the melody of grace that I claim I believe. Doing good, being like Christ, is Peter’s answer to opposition, cynicism, and even persecution. We are free in Jesus, but being free means that we don’t have to pretentiously prove we are free. Instead, we can live for him who died to conquer death and renounced absolute heavenly freedom so we could find it. We are free to serve others, and most of all to serve God.

Holy Father, my Great Emancipator, you have freed me from sin, law, and death at the cost of your precious Son. I open my heart to you today to say I love you. I and want to thank you for this gift of incredible redemption. Please accept the actions of my life and the words of my mouth and the thoughts of my mind and the emotions of my heart today as my offering of thanks. In the name of Jesus, my Sacrifice and your holy Son, I pray. Amen.

Christ died for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God. He was put to death in the body but made alive by the Spirit.
– 1 Peter 3:18 (NIV)

Having stood over the open graves of friends, family, and strangers, I know the appearance and feel of death’s finality and our human frailty. But Christ’s death is that great reminder that death is a matter of perspective and faith. I believe God raised Jesus from the dead and that Jesus is the first fruits of those of us who believe in him. He is alive, not just in Spirit, but in bodily form. Because Jesus lives, so will we!

Almighty God, thank you for the gifts of your grace, Spirit, forgiveness and life. Most of all, thanks for the gift of your Son, who brought life and immortality to life in me through your salvation. While I have no great desire to die, I know I can look through death to you and your victory in me through Jesus. Please give me the courage to live for you every day until that day you take me home. In Jesus’ name I pray. Amen.

“The blind receive sight, the lame walk, those who have leprosy are cured, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the good news is preached to the poor.”
– Matthew 11:5

The clear sign of the Messiah’s presence was a time of true blessedness for all who knew and followed him. His actions — his miracles and compassion shared with others — gloriously displayed the anticipated Messiah’s coming. If this was true with his first coming to earth, imagine how much more gloriously blessed the Lord‘s people will be when he returns in his glory! The good news preached by Jesus is the anticipation of even more fantastic news when he returns to take his disciples home to the Father!

Lord God Almighty, I praise you for the time of blessing that accompanied Jesus’ first coming to earth. I anticipate even greater rejoicing at his return and the glorious blessings that await his disciples, my brothers and sisters in Christ, when our Savior returns in glory. In anticipation of that Day, I thank and praise you in the name of Jesus, my Savior, King, Friend, and Lord. Amen.

I urge, first of all, that requests, prayers, intercession and thanksgiving be made for everyone – for kings and all those in authority, that we may live peaceful and quiet lives in all godliness and holiness.
– 1 Timothy 2:1-2 NIV

God wants us to be a praying people. But more than that, God wants us to pray for people. The blessing of that kind of prayerful life is that we get to live peaceful and quiet lives full of godliness and holiness. So pray, dear friend in Jesus, pray as if world peace depends upon it, because it does!

Majestic and Holy God, your greatness is beyond my mind to grasp but your grace reaches me and teaches in a new way each day. Forgive me when my prayer life has not been passionate. Forgive me for letting my prayers focus only on what is wrong. Use your Spirit, O God, to ignite a hunger in my soul so that I come to find satisfaction only in you and your presence. In the name of Jesus Christ and through the intercession of the Holy Spirit, I pray. Amen.

As you come to him, the living Stone — rejected by human beings but chosen by God and precious to him — you also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.
– 1 Peter 2:4-5

The church is the temple of the living God. God lives in us through the Holy Spirit. But unlike the many temples built during this time, God’s true temple must not be allowed to crumble or suffer decay due to lack of interest or disrespect by God’s people. We are not lifeless stones. We are God’s living temple. We are still being put together by Jesus, perfectly formed and joined together, and made acceptable to God through his efforts.

Father God, form us into your temple. Make us holy. Purify our hearts. Draw us ever closer to your character and compassion. As we offer our individual bodies to you as living sacrifices, please draw us closer to each other and build us into the people you want us to be. In Jesus’ name I pray. Amen.

“The tragedy of life and of the world
is not that men do not know God;
the tragedy is that, knowing Him,
they still insist on going their own way.”
– William Barclay

This is also why you pay taxes, for the authorities are God’s servants, who give their full time to governing. Give everyone what you owe him: If you owe taxes, pay taxes; if revenue, then revenue; if respect, then respect; if honor, then honor. – Romans 13:6 (NIV)

I really do hate paying taxes. But I have to admit, I enjoy many of the privileges and blessings that those taxes afford. Paul reminds us in Romans 13, that civil authorities are God’s tools to hold back anarchy, chaos, and lawlessness. As a Christian, I’m immune to most laws because my faith in Jesus is going to regulate my behavior far more strictly than a legal code. But I do have a responsibility (I “owe” it, Paul says) to be a good citizen, a good financial manager, a nice respectful neighbor, and a person who willingly honors those who have merited it.

Almighty God, I pledge my allegiance to you. You alone are Sovereign, Ruler, and King. But because you call me to honor my government, because you have so richly blessed me to be in a land such as this, because you have lavished your grace on me so richly, I commit to live today in a way that honors my allegiance to you, my citizenship in my country, and my respect toward those whom I meet this day. In Jesus’ name I pray. Amen.