Month: March 2022

No temptation has overtaken you except such as is common to man; but God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will also make the way of escape, that you may bear under it. (1 Corinthians 10:13)

When you or I are considering the promises of God, it is invaluable to keep His faithfulness in view. Our present verse helps us focus not on our temptation, trial or testing; but focus on the faithfulness of God and His promises to us.

The setting for our meditation is temptations or (testings). “No temptation has overtaken you.” It is interesting to note that this word translated temptation could also be rendered as “testing.” This gives insight into the frequently asked question raised during difficult times: ‘Is this the enemy, or is this the Lord?” In the midst of the battles of life, the enemy of our soul wants to tempt us into wrong responses like doubt, fear, or compromise. Yet, God uses all things to work together for our good, by tests to exercise our faith in Him. Appropriately, this is one place in Scripture which can be used in both situations. Thus, in any temptation or testing, we can be assured that our struggles are not unique. Because “No temptation {or, testing} has overtaken you except such as is common to man.” Whatever we struggle with, the Lord has dealt with it innumerable times before.

More significant than the commonplace nature of our difficulties is the faithfulness of God: “but God is faithful.” This is pivotal to our belief and trust in God, inspite of our impossibilities. Too often, we find ourselves fearful and doubtful at the challenges we’re facing. We sense or own inadequate strength and lack of resources as unreliable. We are concerned that we may prove to be unfaithful when we keep our eyes on ourselves instead of looking to the Lord. God wants us to concentrate on His faithfulness.

After reminding us of God’s faithfulness, the Spirit brings forth two promises that provide hope to those in temptations and testing’s. First, God will not allow battles that are inappropriate for our stage of spiritual growth. “He will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able.” Second, God will lead the way out of your battle. He “will also make the way of escape.” If we respond in godly faith to the enemy’s fiery arrows, the Lord will not allow him to destroy us. Whatever the difficulty involves, the Lord will see us through “that you may be able to bear it.” We can count on God fulfilling these promises, because “God is faithful.”

Dear Lord, Thank You for exposing the lie of the enemy that my trials are unique. Thank You for promising to see me through and bring me out from underneath it’s condemning weight. Lord, help me to rest my expectations on Your faithfulness, and for Your glory. In Jesus name, Amen.

The Pharisees also came to Him, testing Him, saying to Him, “Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife for just any reason?” And He answered and said to them, “Have you not read that He who made them at the beginning ‘made them male and female,’ and said, ‘For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh’? So then, they are no longer two but one flesh. Therefore, what God has joined together, let not man separate. (Matthew 19:3-6)

When Jesus answered the Pharisees about marriage, He knew they were not really interested in the true meaning of its commitment, but rather in how they might trap Him contradicting the law of Moses. So instead of beginning with the laws in Deuteronomy, He went all the way back to the beginning, in Genesis. The Edenic law, Jesus reminded his listeners of what God created in the true characteristics of marriage.

What God designed when He established the first marriage teaches us positively what He had in mind for a man and a woman. If we build our marriage after God’s ideal pattern, we will not have to worry about divorce laws.

Marriage is a divinely appointed union. God established marriage to procreate the earth and established a man’s need for suitable companionship through a helper comparable to him. And the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall on Adam, and he slept; and He took one of his ribs and closed up the flesh in its place. Then the rib which the Lord God had taken from man He made into woman, and He brought her to the man. And Adam said: “This is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; She shall be called Woman. because she was taken out of Man.” Therefore, a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and they shall become one flesh. And they were both naked, the man and his wife, and were not ashamed. (Genesis 2:21-25)

Marriage is an illustration of the loving and intimate relationship between Christ and His church (Ephesians 5:22-33). Paul called this a “great mystery” that is, a profound spiritual truth that was once hidden but is now revealed by the Spirit. Christ loves the church, cares for her, and seeks to cleanse her, making her as adorned bride awaiting her Groomsman. One day Christ will return for His bride, the church and present her faultless and in purity in the glory of heaven.

Happy marriages are not by accident. They are the result of commitment, love, mutual understanding, sacrifice, and hard work. If a husband and wife are fulfilling their marriage vows, they will enjoy a growing relationship that will satisfy them and keep them true to each other. Except for the possibility of sudden temptation, no husband or wife would think of a relationship with another person that crosses the boundaries of marriage. Proverbs 5 :15-23 tells us, that married love can be compared with drinking pure water from a fresh well and being unfaithful between husband and wife like drinking from a polluted well.

When a husband and wife are faithful to the Lord and to each other and obeying the Scriptures like 1 Corinthians 7:1-5, Ephesians 5:22-33, finding satisfaction nowhere else, their relationship will be one of deepening joy and satisfaction in the Lord and with each other. This couple will know how to make the most out of life, complementing each other, and capitalizing on each other’s strengths to form an effective marriage relationship team. Never being mentioned separately in marriage, and ministry, always abounding in the work of the Lord’s hands upon them. Bringing forth demonstrations of patience, mature understanding, and compassion between them for God’s glory.

Lord Jesus, we invite You to come and rule in our marriage. We do want a marriage relationship that lasts a lifetime, be glorified in our earthly marriage to follow after what is divinely written about what You desire marriage to be like. As You shape our hearts into being the man, and woman, husband and father, wife and mother, father in-law, and mother in-law, grandfather, and grandmother You created us to be. By Your Spirit’s power, create in us, the examples to bring a lasting legacy of Your great love and faithfulness in marriage and family life that will be like a “cemented footprint” as a reminder in our children’s home and family life. Lord Jesus, come fill our marriage and heart of our family with Your love, Your peace, Your presence, and with Your Spirit’s power. In Your name we pray. Amen

I say then, “Walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lusts of the flesh. For the flesh lusts against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; and these are contrary to one another, so you do not do the things you wish. But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law.”

Galatians 5:16-18

When you experience the inner conflict of your flesh, the Holy Spirit who lives in the life of the believer, wants us to remember this, I have been set free by Christ, I am no longer under any bondage to the law (5:1-12). But I need something–Someone–to control my life from within. That Someone is the Holy Spirit (5:13-26) and through the Spirit’s love, I have a desire to live for others, bearing the fruit of the Spirit that glorifies God, and not just live for myself (6:1-10).

Just as Isaac and Ishmael were unable to get along, so the Spirit and flesh (the old nature) are at war with each other. While we are born again in Christ, we are still wrestling with the sinfulness of our flesh. It can be so alarming that before we were in Christ, our sin may not have bothered us at all. But now as a Christian, we have the Holy Spirit in us who convicts us of our sin.

The writer of Hebrews chapter 12 viewed the trials of the Christian life as spiritual discipline that could help the believer mature through God’s chastening to whom it is said, “For whom the Lord loves He chastens, and scourges every son He receives” (12:6). Chastening is the evidence of the Father’s love.

We cannot overcome sin and its desires on our own. We cannot do the work God has called us to do in our own strength. We need a Helper, who is the Holy Spirit and as we read His Word, and pray to the Lord to search our hearts, it’s through the Holy Spirit’s power within us that we can say, “no” to the things of our sinful flesh reckoning ourselves dead to the old life, but alive to God in walking by His Spirit and in His power.

In Roman’s 8:5, Paul said it this way, “Those who live according to the flesh have their minds set on what the flesh desires; but those who live in accordance with the Spirit have their minds set on what the Spirit desires.” Yes, we are in Christ and have His Spirit living in us. But we still have to choose daily to walk in the Spirit. As we spend time in God’s Word, learning of Him, praying and seeking to know His will for our life. Our minds will be transformed, and if we let God transform us into new persons in Christ, we will become original creations of His. God transforms our minds and makes us spiritually minded by using His Word, as we memorize it, meditating and making it a part of our daily life. God will make our inner selves to be more like Christ.

Dear Friend, submit to the Holy Spirit today. Ask God to forgive you of your sins and ask Him to bring you eternal life He offers through Jesus Christ. Ask Him to lead you. Fill your mind with God’s Word and let the power of the Holy Spirit have free rein to work in you and help you overcome your battle with the flesh.

Lord Jesus, I invite You to come and rule in my life. I do want Your Holy Spirit to empower me to say, “no” to my sinful flesh and live my life for You.

In Jesus name, Amen

I will say of the Lord, “He is my refuge and my fortress; My God, in Him I will trust.” Psalm 91:2 (NKJV)

The psalmist is declaring that he will trust the Lord regardless how difficult his circumstances may be. And so let’s take a closer look at what it means to have trusted in the Lord and to speak these words as well.

Trusting in the Lord is difficult partly because He works on a different time frame than we do. While we may want immediate results for example, “I’ve fasted and prayed for the Lord’s healing, or deliverance from this stronghold in my life, yet the Lord has not moved as we would want Him too. Oh, dear friend, waiting on the Lord is so much apart of our trusting in Him and His Word of promise to us. Because He sees the bigger picture and because He so often works behind the scenes in our life; we don’t often know He is at work in our life. We know from Scripture the Lord was willing to wait 400 years before the Israelites returned to the Promised Land. God is a mystery to us at times when He allows prayers to sometimes remain unanswered.

But trusting in the Lord is worth it. He has proven to be faithful in our lives and in the world. And His greatest demonstration of His faithfulness is Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection. His promised Messiah that would come that Isaiah prophesied 800 years before that Messiah would set people free from sin and it’s consequence of death and eternal separation from God. Jesus suffered a cruel death and paid the price of our shame that we might have eternal life in Him. So even if right now our circumstances are difficult, we can be confident that the Lord is good. . . He proves His goodness through the cross of Christ.

When we choose to articulate that we trust in the Lord, we are training our hearts and minds to think rightly of God. The Lord is our refuge and fortress, sometimes though when things are hard, it might feel foolish to say that we trust God. Articulating truth of His Word of promises which fill the pages of Scripture, reminds us of His goodness giving us hope and stirs a renewed trust in Him. The psalmist wrote for us a declaration if you will by training our minds to think in accordance with this truth from the Bible. As we train ourselves to speak aloud the truth from God’s Word, we will grow in our belief in that truth, and put our hope and trust what Christians are called to embody.

Dear Lord, I am so grateful that You are everything that I need. There is nothing too hard for You, when things are too hard for me. You are the One who upholds me and supports me. You give me strength when no one else can. Help remember to turn to You and cling to the hope that You give us when we rely upon Your Words in the Scriptures. Father, thank You for Your love we receive from reading and meditating on Your Word, declaring Your truth to be our promises for life. In Jesus’ name, Amen

He gives power to the weak, and to those who have no might He increases strength. (Isaiah 40:29)

When life is unfolding hard and very painful lessons it can feel as though it’s impossible to understand why God would allow hurtful pain that is mixed with fragile emotions and to expect us to remain faithfully trusting while we wait upon Him to intercede for us. How could He possibly use any of this for good?

While we see more unnecessary heartbreak. He sees where we are and the exact pieces and parts of us that must be yielded into His nail pierced scarred hands of grace that protects us and provides for us His strength working through our circumstances whatever is needed. God, our Master Potter forms us and shapes our broken parts and pieces by adding in His living water filling our empty hearts and molding us into new vessels filled with His Spirit’s power that will bring Him honor. “But we have this treasure in earthen vessels that the excellence of the power may be of God and not of us (2 Cor. 4:7).

Do you know that wise experienced potters not only know how to form beautiful things from clay, but also know the importance by adding some dust from previously broken pottery to their clay this type of dust is called “grog.” When shattered just right, the grog dust added to the new clay will enable the potter to form the clay into a larger and stronger vessel than before. How? you may ask. Because it can now withstand fires much hotter and when glazed these pieces end up having a much more beautiful finish than they would have before. We read in Isaiah 45:9, “Woe to those who quarrel with their Maker, those who are nothing but potsherds among potsherds on the ground. Does the clay say to the potter, ‘What are you making?’ Does your work say, ‘The potter has no hands?’ God’s relationship to all created things is compared to that of the potter to the clay–neither can we see or ever know all that God who created us is doing or has in mind for us in this life without our fully trusting in His working in us.

A potsherd by definition; (broken piece or fragment of a broken vessel or pot) can lie on the ground and be nothing more than a constant reminder of our brokenness. It can also be used to continually scrape our wounds and painful sores from this life (Job 2:7-10) and never more when kept in our hands. But when we surrender our broken potsherd pieces into the Master Potter’s hands, in His skillful loving hands, we can trust all the broken places in our life that need to be and will be shattered just right and then reused again to make us stronger and even more beautiful than before (Jeremiah 18:1-6).

He gives strength to the weary and increases the power of the weak

Isaiah 40:29

Prayer:

Lord, I’m choosing to trust in You in all the broken places in my life. For You heal the brokenhearted and bind up their wounds (Psalm 147:3). May You show Your lovingkindness to Your servants who welcome Your molding and shaping us into what You have for our lives. In Jesus name, Amen