Category: living by faith

For the word of God is alive and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart.
— Hebrews 4:12 NIV

The Holy Spirit guides and strengthens Christians in multiple ways (e.g., Romans 8:13-14, Galatians 5:16-26), including through Scripture. The Holy Spirit inspired Scripture and uses Scripture to teach, rebuke, correct, and train us so we can be useful to God and equipped to do good things in the world (2 Timothy 3:16-17). This influence of the Spirit means that the Spirit penetrates into the areas of our being using Scripture to remake us more and more like Jesus (2 Corinthians 3:18). The real question for me, and I think for you, is whether we are intentionally asking the Spirit to remake us as we open the word of God. Are we hungering and thirsting for the righteousness of our Lord, and are we longing for the compassion of Jesus that only Spirit-led people can live?

O God, you are my God, and I hunger to be like you in righteous character and gracious compassion. May the Holy Spirit have your way in my heart and remodel my life to be a living echo of the life of your Son, Jesus, my Savior. In his name, I pray. Amen.

Blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked or stand in the way of sinners or sit in the seat of mockers. But his delight is in the law of the Lord, and on his law he meditates day and night.
– Psalm 1:1-2 (NIV)

I get to choose which sources of information I feed my mind. But this privilege and freedom is also a responsibility. God longs to bless me, but that blessing remains dormant until my heart delights in knowing and doing his will.

Wondrous Creator, just as you fashioned such a beautiful world and put me together in my mother’s womb, I also ask that you create in me a desire to know your truth and an insight in how to live that truth. I know your Holy Spirit is in me to help me in this journey, but I want so much to please you and bless you because of all the ways you have blessed me. In Jesus’ name I pray. Amen.

Blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked or stand in the way of sinners or sit in the seat of mockers. But his delight is in the law of the Lord, and on his law he meditates day and night.
– Psalm 1:1-2 (NIV)

I get to choose which sources of information I feed my mind. But this privilege and freedom is also a responsibility. God longs to bless me, but that blessing remains dormant until my heart delights in knowing and doing his will.

Wondrous Creator, just as you fashioned such a beautiful world and put me together in my mother’s womb, I also ask that you create in me a desire to know your truth and an insight in how to live that truth. I know your Holy Spirit is in me to help me in this journey, but I want so much to please you and bless you because of all the ways you have blessed me. In Jesus’ name I pray. Amen.

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…

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.

He is like a tree planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in season and whose leaf does not wither. Whatever he does prospers.
— Psalm 1:3

We have become accustomed to instant service and rapid results. Waiting for a few minutes in a fast food line is stressful for many people. We know what we want and we want it NOW. Some kinds of earthly delight can feed our hearts for a short time, but when difficulties come, our hearts will wither in the drought. Delighting in the LORD and in his will for us, however, provides us with ongoing and ever-fresh joy. Out of this lifestyle comes both short-term and long-term benefits and a resiliency that withstands life’s worst droughts.

Dear God, Holy One of heaven, I do find my delight in you and your ways and find refreshment in your abiding Spirit. Please give me the wisdom to seek your will every day of my life. In Jesus’ name I pray. Amen.

The Lord confides in those who fear him; he makes his covenant known to them. My eyes are ever on the Lord, for only he will release my feet from the snare.
– Psalm 25:14-15 (NIV)

Where does true deliverance come from? Only from God. Deliverance is found in God through deep reverential respect for his holiness and might, through living in covenant relationship with him, and through maintaining our focus on him. Any other roads to deliverance are false and ultimately prove themselves to be a snare. Like the tight rope walker whose eyes are not on the ground or the surroundings, but on the rope in front of him where he will walk, so too our eyes must be on the Lord. Only by looking to him will he lead us to safety.

Precious Father, you have done so much to save me. You who are so holy and righteous, have reached down to take my hand when I was a sinner and in rebellion to your love. Teach me your ways. Correct the wrongs in my life. Guide me into the ways of your truth. I want to not only be saved from my sin, but from days of uselessness and frustration. Make me a vessel that can be used to honor you. In Jesus’ name I pray. Amen.

May the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be pleasing in your sight, O Lord, my Rock and my Redeemer.
–  Psalm 19:14

God does so much for us. He is the Strength and Promise that undergirds our lives. He is the One who has saved us from sin and death. Our worship comes from our gratitude for what he has done, recognition of who he is, and anticipation of what he is going to do. But worship can never be compartmentalized to just fit into church places or quiet times. Worship involves every aspect of life. That is why it is so important for us to tune the words of our mouths and the motives of our hearts to God’s will and work. Then private worship, whether alone in quiet or in a group with Christians, becomes the tuning time for our hearts and lives so that our public worship, our lives lived out in the world, will play the song of God to a world who has not yet heard his tune.

Holy and Almighty God, I want this day to be a day of worship and honor to you. May my life praise you: not just in thought, not just in words, but also in action. In the name Jesus I pray. Amen.

How great you are, O Sovereign Lord! There is no one like you, and there is no God but you, as we have heard with our own ears.
2 Samuel 7:22 (NIV)

“I am Yahweh, who saved you out of Egypt. You must never have any other god, but me!” The Lord God Almighty at the beginning of the Ten Commandments reminded us of this central, seminal, and consummate truth. What else is there to say?

Holy, Righteous, and Only Living God, I hold you in the highest place in my heart. Forgive me when I do not hold you in the highest place in my life. Empower me with your Holy Spirit to give up all the little things that distract my allegiance to you and interfere with you being the Supreme and Sovereign God in my day to day life. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

 

Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more important than food, and the body more important than clothes?
— Matthew 6:25

Disasters are not going to stop happening. We all can be assured that, as we go down life’s road, we will face storms—storms that bring pain and loss; storms that leave aching hearts, broken lives, and shattered hopes in their wake; storms that turn our brightest dreams into our worst nightmares. 

These difficult events remind us that we are small and vulnerable compared with the unpredictable and uncontrollable forces of nature. They remind us of the brevity of life and the urgency of making sure that we’re ready to stand before God at a moment’s notice. 

We need to focus not on what can be torn down by the storms of life but on what stands for eternity—the image of the Cross that reaches across the centuries and down through the ages to this present time, reminding us of God’s love for all mankind. 

This is the love described in John 3:16: “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.”

God loves you so much that He wants you to spend eternity with Him in Heaven. That is the reason Jesus Christ, the Son of God, came into the world—to take away our sins. He did this by taking upon Himself the punishment you and I deserve through His death on the Cross. But Jesus didn’t stay on the Cross. God raised Him from the dead, and His resurrection gives us hope—hope for this life, and hope beyond the grave.

The love of God is stronger than sin—stronger than death itself—and stronger than any storm you will ever face. 

The question each of us must answer is this: What is my life’s foundation?

Father in Heaven, protect and comfort people caught up in the storms of life and bring them to the light and truth of your love and salvation. Amen

Don’t be misled: No one makes a fool of God. What a person plants, he will harvest. The person who plants selfishness, ignoring the needs of others — ignoring God! — harvests a crop of weeds. All he’ll have to show for his life is weeds! But the one who plants in response to God, letting God’s Spirit do the growth work in him, harvests a crop of real life, eternal life.
– Galatians 6:7-8 MESSAGE

While we must commit to following Jesus as Lord, the power to bring growth in us comes from the Holy Spirit. Real life, the life that grows and matures and reproduces itself, is the work of God’s Spirit going on inside us. The Spirit produces God’s fruit in us and brings in God’s ultimate harvest: “real life, eternal life.” This growth work comes from the Spirit!

Father, I love you and want to honor you with righteous character and holy compassion in my life. Yet I confess, the more I try to produce this character and compassion on my own — without depending on your strength, your word, and your Spirit — the more I fail. I find myself prideful of my accomplishments or resentful of others and their accomplishments, or I just simply fall back into my sinful and addictive behaviors. So I offer my heart, my body, and my mind to love you, and I offer myself as a living sacrifice. As I do this, I ask that you fill me with your Holy Spirit and empower and guide me by your Holy Spirit, who brings true life. In Jesus’ name, I pray. Amen.