Divinely Brave and Focused

Have you ever been in a situation where our Father has or is asking you to speak for Him in a way that may have been or is challenging -not exactly comfortable??? Moses is an example of one who was called by God to speak to Pharaoh and Ezekiel was also called to speak to the King of Tyre!!! While challenged, both of these leaders were able to do so with courage because our Father helped them!!! I sooo love how when our Father calls us to do something in life that He also enables us to do so!!! He doesn’t leave us to ourselves!!! He tells us in His Word:

“For it is God who works in us to will and to act according to His purpose.”

Jesus is our ever-present help for all of us as His kids of faith!!! Oh what better help is there – I know not any better than the God of the Universe who understands all of life, is all powerful and all love and lives inside of us as His kids of faith!!! While our Father guides us each individually, there are some things we can be encouraged by in reflecting upon Ezekial’s example, for instance. He was able to speak hard truth to the King of Tyre because God had deposited in him these things:

• Dream – He saw what God saw – a preferred future
• Desire – He had a desire to see change and to be part of the solution
• Decisiveness – He recognized what needed to be done and he chose to step in
• Daring – His courage to act outweighed his fear
• Dedication – He remained committed to fulfilling his call, whatever the cost
• Direction – He had a clear plan for change
• Dependence on God – He relied on God to do what only He could do

In another instance, our Father called Ezekial to talk to His people Israel and Judah as symbolized by the names Oholah and Oholibah. Some things that brought Ezekial victory in talking about what needed to change are these things that make for good pondering for ahead of and during a conversation:

• Compassion – Ezekiel hurt as he recalled the difficult circumstance
• Forthright – Ezekiel spoke honestly and directly to the issues
• Specific – Ezekiel gave specifics to the problem
• Clear – Ezekiel spoke simply about the consequences of the behavior
• Redemptive – Ezekiel communicated for the purpose of restoring the people
• Hopeful – Ezekiel ended with words of hope for the future

Oh I sooo love all of that because it just brings about good understanding and hope and that is our Father’s heart!!!  HOPE – having only positive expectations and that is what results when we as our Father’s people look to our Father to bring divine help into all of life!!! YOU, dear one, have the ability to be a big difference maker as you continue to let our Father speak through you as He leads you!!! As our Father told Joshua, the same is true for us as His kids of faith:

“Be strong and of courage; do not be afraid nor be dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.”

Oh, Jesus makes us brave as this song says here and for good reasons, so rock on saint as Father leads you to partner with Him to make a divine difference as you journey the divine trail together!!! A powerful team you and Father are!!! That’s sooo awesome!!! 🙂 That just makes me smile!!! With Jesus, you can do all things through Him who gives us strength!!! What is He calling you to partner with Him in??? He will enable you to carry it out divinely!!! Ruh, ruh, ruh!!!

Joshua 1:7; Exodus 3; Ezekial 23:36-39, 28:1-19; Philippians 2:13

 

Always Pack Hope

Oh one thing is for sure in this life, life is always happening for us here and as we are on the move through experiencing life, it is sooo important to always pack with us hope!!! I have often heard it said, it you had to move from your home in a hurry, what would be the first thing you would pack with you??? That is a very interesting question!!! If we had time to make a grand plan, we would probably all choose wisely, but if circumstances were such we couldn’t take time to pack more than one thing,  I would honestly have to say that for me, it would be my Bible that I would grab in a hurry!!! I say that because it is the source of my Father’s heart spoken to me and while I know He is capable of speaking to me through His Spirit, He also speaks to us as His kids of faith through His written Word!!! Why I choose that first in my life is because Jesus is my forever hope and no matter what circumstances we may find ourselves in life, His hope and promises to us as His kids are our peace, guidance and key to having an attitude of victory!!! His Spirit is the supernatural power to provide all else that we need as we look to Him for help!!!

The Apostle Paul understood this when he said:

“…I have learned to be content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want. I can do everything through Him who gives me strength.”

Philippians 4:12-13 NIV

This is not to say that a person should endure all things around them if it is in their power to better a situation divinely, but if led by the Spirit of the Lord to remain where they are, the Lord gives to His kids of faith the strength to be able to do so as they await His plans for them, knowing that He will  work good through whatever circumstance He calls us to endure. Sometimes it is a matter of timing and for the divine things to play out to bring about the perfect plan!!! Oh, He is sooo smart beyond us as His kids and I attest He is able to do more than we can ever ask or imagine!!!

Because the Apostle Paul had his hope set on our Father, he was able to maintain a positive attitude even on what appeared to many as rotten days!!! He realized that his attitude had a source for its strength and that source was fixing his eyes on the One who loved him perfectly, saw him where he was and had a forever eternal plan of bliss for Paul that would far outweigh his short stretch of life on this earth!!! Because Paul had such a close intimate relationship with Jesus and he understood our Father’s heart for him, he was able to sit inside of prison cells and sing like a bird to his best friend in all the world JESUS!!! Oh what a sweet relationship they forever have, delighting in each other forevermore!!! They both knew what it was to love each other enough to sacrifice in life for each other and that to me is just precious food for thought!!!

Sooo, if I had to suddenly move from home in a hurry, what I would take with me is my Bible and my sweet friend Jesus who is always with me, my forever hope, rescue, peace, guidance and key to having an attitude of victory wherever I am!!!

Where do you need Jesus to help you to sing in life, dear one??? Jesus wants to be your sweetness in life and He has sacrificed much for you to have closeness to Him as your forever best buddy through faith in His sacrifice on the cross for the sins of all people – including you and me!!! It is He who sees you where you are and is working for your good constantly!!! Enjoy His loving presence with you always!!! Much love to you!!! You can do all things you need to with Jesus with you!!! Me, too!!! Oh, Jesus just makes me smile!!! 🙂

I love this song here.

Jesus In the Differences

Oh we live in a world of diverse people, amen?!! I am thankful that we have a holy God who sets the standard of what is good and right for us in life and His Spirit guides us each one individually as we look to Him.

Our Father gives us wisdom regarding eternal issues and absolute truths, but what about those “gray areas”–subjects that are questionable and maybe even fuzzy. Christians can differ on these issues and still be part of the same organization and/or family with the help of our Father’s Spirit with us!!! He leads each one of us individually!!! YAY!!! For example, for one person having a glass of wine may not be an issue before the Lord for one, but to an alcoholic struggling to overcome addiction that is destructive to their success in life, it can be a big issue!!! Oh the enemy of this world laughs at destroying people!!!

There can be various examples where on some issues, scripture may not declare a definite right or wrong. So what to do??? Here are some thoughts to consider in pondering Romans 14 as we interact with others with different opinions from our own:

• Be open, not condescending (vv. 1-3)
• Remember that everyone answers to the Lord individually. (v. 4)
• Cling to our own convictions spoken to us individually by the Lord. (v. 5)
• Whatever our values, our motive should be to please our Father’s heart as it is best for us. (v. 6-9)
• We are ultimately accountable to the Lord. (v. 10-12)
• We should not cause anyone to stumble (v. 13)
• We can hear the thoughts of others for a wise person is open to godly wisdom, but we should not let others impose their values on us and vice versa. Our Father is the only one authorized to lead us personally. (v. 14)
• Make love our highest aim. (v. 15)
• Major on the majors and minor on the minors. (vv. 16-18)
• Pursue peace and adding value to people. (v. 19)
• Let us not destroy anyone by imposing our values on them. (vv. 20-22)
• Anything is of wrong motive that is not done out of personal faith in Jesus. (v. 23)

These are good things to keep in mind dear family and in it all, we can know that one thing is true, everybody struggles in relationships because of the flesh and the enemy of this world and our Father extends us each loving and forgiving grace through our faith in His finished work on the cross.

Through our faith in Him, He sees us all as righteous, holy, without blemish and without accusation – with no condemnation!!! Bless Him!!! Even Jesus had challenges in this world and He was perfect!!! As His kids, it is important to see ourselves with the right mindset in remembering that it is He who works in us to will and to act according to His purpose, so we can rest in His personal guidance for us each one in all our relationships!!! YAY!!! Sweet Jesus victory is ours as He says:

“…in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loves us.”

Romans 8:37 NIV

JESUS

Our Father’s grace is sufficient to find us and see us through all of our lives as we trust in Him as this song says here!!! I sooo love that thought!!! It just makes me smile!!! 🙂

Calling the Divine to Reign

New day greetings, precious family!!! I want to encourage our hearts today to make prayer a priority in life and I say that because prayer is the calling of the divine to reign in our lives and in the lives of others!!!

This was the experience and the encouragement of the Apostle Paul who saw firsthand the results of people praying!!! He was one who understood hardship in life and he shared these thoughts about it with the church in Corinth:

• He wanted them to not be uninformed about the hardships they suffered. He told the people they were under great pressure, far beyond their ability to endure, so that they despaired even of life!!! Yikes!!!
• He told them that he saw good through what they experienced, saying “this happened that we might not rely on ourselves, but on God, who raises the dead.”
• He told the people how God had delivered them from deadly peril and that He will deliver us.
• He shared that he and his companions set their hope that God will continue to deliver them with the help of their prayers.
• He shared his confidence that many would give thanks for the gracious favor granted to them in answer to the prayers of many.

There are special things that happens within us personally when we pray:

• It gives us hearts that are compassionate towards others.
• It helps us understand our need for our Father – that life is beyond our own capabilities to make it happen.
• It draws us close to our Father.
• It gives us hope for good outcome.
• It strengthens our faith as we see the faithfulness of our Father in answering prayers in the best ways, showing us He is with us and hears us!!!
• It brings peace and self-control.
• It reduces stress, therefore, it brings better health.
• It unites and bonds relationships together.
• It gives us experience of genuine faith that we can share with others.

WOW!!! Given all of these thoughts, prayer is a good thing!!! I love the thought that prayer is calling the divine to reign in our lives!!! What is Father laying on your heart to pray about His divine help with, dear one??? What are you going through that you need to ask others to pray for you about??? They are Father’s gift for you and me, too!!! What have you been asked to pray for by others??? This is our Father’s promise to us as His kids:

“Then you will call on me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you.”

Jeremiah 29:12NIV

Running to Jesus for the divine – love this song here!!!

Forever Farming for Jesus

A farmer who has the vision of farming is always thinking about the upcoming harvest. He has dealt with last year’s harvest at the appropriate time and then leaves it to work towards the upcoming harvest!!! The same is true for us as our Father’s kids of faith in this world!!! Jesus told a parable in Mark 4:2-20 about a sower of seed and there is much to learn from it as we seek to go into life as His Kingdom Ambassador’s to bring about the harvest that Jesus is working on presently in this world.

In this parable that Jesus tells, there are some great things to ponder and I want to share them with you here:

• A lot of seed must be scattered to produce a harvest. Jesus is the provider of the seed for us each to scatter.
• Not all soil produces that we scatter seed upon, but we cannot reap anywhere if we do not sow. We don’t know if we don’t try!!! We should sow and leave the rest to our Father.
• We must continue sowing in faithfulness as Jesus encourages us to do, because He says one day a harvest will happen!!! Our faith in what He tells us compels us to sow what He gives us.
• The soil that produces will multiply seed; we will reap more than we sow with the help of Jesus.
• We must believe in the seed we sow. Trusting that the seeds of Jesus’ Truth are the quality seeds to sow for life to happen!!!
• When a harvest is produced, all the efforts of the sowing are worthwhile. We sow in hopeful expectation!!!
• We are not responsible to make the growing happen, but only for the sowing of the seeds given to us!!!
• We are saved despite the outcome of the harvest by the provision of God’s grace through our faith in His efforts on the cross for us and not by our works of sowing seeds for Jesus. We don’t have to sow, but we get to and it is His love in us that compels us to do so!!!

Jesus ends His parable by saying “He who has ears to hear, let him hear!”

Do you hear Jesus talking to you??? What is Jesus saying to you about sowing seeds for His Kingdom harvest??? Where is He asking you to sow??? Oh, we can trust Him to give us the seeds He wants us to sow moment by moment as we go out into the field He calls us to and how exciting it is going to be to see what happens!!! Life as a Jesus farmer is a divine adventure for sure!!! I love doing life with the King!!!

Even when a farmer is out fishing, he is sooo often pondering the harvest!!! You can never take the farming out of the farmer, it is said and as a farmer for Jesus, that is sure true in my heart!!! My heart has a passion to always sow seeds of the love, grace and Truth of Jesus as long as I shall live!!!

I agree with what this song says here.

Life Interceded with Grace

Our Father works in mysterious ways!!! Have you seen that?!! It makes life such an exciting adventure!!! 🙂 I love it!!! Learning to trust in Jesus beyond our own understanding in life is important!!! He is always at work and doing new things, so learning to walk by faith, led by His Holy Spirit moment by moment is important!!! Christianity is all about having faith that our acceptance by our Father is through our faith in Him and His finished work on the cross and it is not achieved through the religion of performing based on following a set of rules.  Walking in a close love/grace relationship with Jesus, letting Him guide us divinely through life by His Spirit is a gift!!! He wants to be our best friend always!!! Talking to Him (praying) as we would a dear friend, looking to Him as our personal Savior from sin, studying His written Word (the Bible) and listening to His Spirit speaking to you and you are off to victory in being led by Him divinely!!! Thoughts from His Word:

“For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,” declares the Lord.

Isaiah 55:8 NIV

“Not by might nor by strength, but by my Spirit, says the LORD of Heaven’s armies.”

Zechariah 4:6 NIV

“For it is He who works in us to will and to act according to His purpose.”

Philippians 2:13 NIV

Our Father gives us His Word to guide us in life, but not every life decision is spelled out in the Bible – like what specifically to have for dinner tonight!!! We do know from our Father’s Word that He desires that it be good for our bodies as they are His holy temples in which He dwells so He desires that we take good care of them!!! Given that, we can seek His Spirit’s help further when we desire His wisdom specifically. He is always available for us!!! He says that if we remain in Him and He in us, that we will bear much fruit!!! 🙂

He tells us:

“Cast all your cares on Him for He cares for you.”

1 Peter 5:7 NIV

“If any one of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault and it will be given to him.”

James 1:5 NIV

In all of our daily living, He guides us each one personally in carrying out His will, His plan and His purpose!!! He sees the big picture of where He is taking us and no one person can know that apart from hearing the voice of God to each one of us personally. Hence, stepping with the guidance of the Holy Spirit moment by moment is key to following Jesus!!!

At one point in my life, as a new Christian, I was sooo fired up to do as much as I possibly could because I was sooo excited about living life fully out of love for Jesus, that I planned out my life on a monthly calendar as to what “I” wanted to accomplish in life.

 

I filled every crevice of time with my plan!!! What I discovered is that our Father often had a better plan and I learned that it is important to having a mindset that is open to stepping with His Spirit through life as it made a whole lot less frustration when “my” scheduled was interrupted by God’s divine plan for the best life for me daily!!!

Oh, He is sooo smart!!! Praying over our commitments as we plan and posting His guidance to a calendar is important. Our Father tells us this:

“Delight yourself in the Lord and He will give you the desires of your heart.”

Psalm 37:4 NIV

“Commit your plans to the LORD, trust also in Him, and He shall bring it to pass.”

Psalm 37:5 NIV

What these verses are saying is that when we seek after the heart of Jesus, He is going to give us a heart to carry out His will, His plan and His purpose for the divine use of our time. As we commit life plans to Him, the results are in His hand to bring the divine to pass. As we prioritize in life the including of God in our planning and His heart for us as we step with Him into life, He will reward and satisfy us in the end results!!! We can trust Him to lead us!!! We cannot manage time, but we can manage ourselves by seeking our Father’s heart for what we do in our daily lives. It begins with our heart attitude of rather than saying “Yes, I will plan on this or that”  to say as the Apostle Paul wrote:

“If it is the Lord’s will, we will live and do this or that.”

James 4:15 NIV

Our sweet Jesus welcomes us to journey life divinely with Him, family!!! Welcoming the Holy Spirit to intercede His grace into our lives is a blessing to us as this song says here.

Where is the grace of the Holy Spirit guiding you in your life today, dear one??? I ask myself that question as I inquire of the Lord’s heart for me every morning and I am excited about what my Father has for me daily!!! WOOOHOOO!!! Jesus with us makes for a great divine adventure each day as we hold on to His righteous right hand to lead us well. He always just makes me smile!!! 🙂 Enjoy your journey of life with He who loves us perfectly!!! He loves doing life with us as our best friend always!!! Blessed kids are we with Him in life!!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Yes to Jesus Victory

Oh when our Father puts a passion upon someone’s heart for His will for their lives, it is a moving force that is unstoppable with Him backing us!!! This is seen very strongly in the man of Jesus who did not take no in going to the full extent of what our Father’s purpose for Him in life was meant to be!!! Bent on victory, yes He was!!! Oh, I just love His heart and mindset for our Father’s heart!!! Jesus was determined to give His people victory and it consumed Him because He knew that His followers could operate in total security if He endured the cross!!! It was that very mindset that was the joy set before Him that enable Him to endure the cross!!! Bless Him for His love for each one of us as His kids of faith who are now forever secure through His victory of conquering the cross!!!

No struggle is too big for God. No question is unanswerable. No problem is too difficult. The resurrection of Christ trumpeted good news from the graveyard!!! In spite of the dark prospects, in spite of the big problems, in spite of the bad predictions–Jesus practiced the mindset of divine victory, decisively defeating even death itself!!! YYYEEESSS!!! Victory on the cross by Jesus is good news for us as His children of faith in more ways than one!!!

His victory on the cross has:

• rescued us by His grace from all from the wages of sin that is death and forever separation from God.
• made us heirs of forever life in the Kingdom of heaven with Him, with all the glorious riches of Christ Jesus as His royal family.
• sealed us with His Holy Spirit living in our hearts upon believing, so we will never be snatched from security in Him
• enabled us to have His personal guidance through His Spirit in us to guide us and remind us of Truth here and now
• empowered us as His children to have the supernatural working of His Spirit in us to enable us to live the Christian life, to will and act according to His purpose for us.
• given us peace that we are reconciled to God and that we can cast all cares on Jesus by approaching His throne of grace with confidence, knowing He will divinely help us and work all things good for us so that we are more than conquerors in all things through Him who loves us. Oh, He makes victory happen as we seek it!!!

The disciples of Christ had the same mindset as Jesus – they were bent on victory for their Father. How exciting to be part of a team that has the same “go, fight and win” attitude to make Jesus victory happen!!! I love that!!! An alternative to Jesus winning is not acceptable to them!!! Their heart is like Jesus’ heart – “never, never give up” “victory at all cost” “without Jesus victory, no divine survival.”Wooohooo, I’m going for Jesus victory!!!” Where has Jesus given your heart a passion for victory in life for Him and His Kingdom, dear one??? If He is calling you to it, He will see you through it!!! 🙂 Oh that just makes me smile!!! Sweet victory in Jesus – love this song here – love the thought that faith shall be our eyes and we shall rise in His victory won for us whenever and wherever He calls our name!!! Do you have faith in what He did on the cross for you and your personal sin and His ability to bring you victory in your own personal life here now and forever??? Worthy is the lamb of my all for His victory in and through this life He has given to me!!!

Chosen For High Purpose

Mary, the mother of Jesus was a woman who was knowledgeable of our Father’s Word that a Messiah was coming into the world. When she became aware of this, it was not her immediate understanding that she would be the one to carry the very Son of God within her vessel in order to bring about the fulfillment of Jesus entering the world!!! In the right timing, however, she understood when visited by the angel of the Lord that it was to be her highest purpose in life!!! It is interesting that with this high calling upon her life, there came with it the same issue the very Messiah would have Himself in carrying out the highest call upon His life and that was battle with the enemy of this world!!! YIKES and WOOOHOOO!!! The enemy’s first attack upon her was putting question in her mind that her being a virgin could even conceive of the Messiah.  We see this in her response to the angel of the Lord with “I am a virgin.”  The good news is that the enemy was defeated with the reassuring Word of the angel of the Lord that “with God all things are possible.”

Mary herself faced the issue that if she was to carry forth the highest purpose for her life, that it would be that she would be seen in the eyes of God as “blessed among women” for having been chosen and honored as the one to give birth to the Son of God. WOW!!! What an honor truly!!! But with it, would also be that she would also have to face that society would not divinely understand and ridicule and reject her, not just as long as she carried the babe within her as a woman with child before wedlock, but also in walking in the raising up of the Messiah!!! To many, the fact of their mind was that she was pregnant by a man out of wedlock to be forever scorned as unworthy. The ridicule would not only follow her personally, but all of her family – Joseph, Jesus and her other children. I wonder if she also knew that in carrying out her highest purpose that she would also face the pain of seeing her son not agreed with as to who He said He was. They would instead call him, a lunatic and crucify him as a criminal. Mary could’ve said no to God out of all of these fears and in not wanting to face the pain of the reality of it, but instead she chose to take the high road of thinking in trusting God and hence, her response was “I am the Lord’s servant! May everything you have said come true.”

The really good news is that Mary listened to God to the blessing of all of us!!! As it was in Mary’s life, it can also be true in everyone’s life when there are times when we as people may have the question put before us by the enemy “How can God use you in this way?” “How could this be?” “How could God use you at all?” But when faced with these doubts and questions, the wise will respond to the Lord as Mary did “I am your servant! May it be as You have said.”

Mary had the greatest treasure in all of life – a personal relationship with God that was her highest purpose in all of life!!! She didn’t back down from carrying out His purpose for her life for nobody!!! Nor should we as our Father’s children!!! The world may say you will fail, but God says with Him, your purpose is possible and going to happen as we look to Him!!! His purpose for you will prevail!!! It is He who created all things and holds all things together who works in us to will and act according to His purpose!!! Vessels of Jesus in us through our faith in Him, we are!!! Jesus is yours and you are His as this song says here!!! Now how exciting is that beyond all things of this earth?!!

Where is our Father calling your heart to go with purpose into the world with Him at work in you, dear saint???  Will it be for you as our Father has said??? If Father is calling you to it, He will see you through it and the ultimate choice will be in following Jesus!!! Where do you need to trust Jesus to see you through??? Oh that thought of His victory just makes me smile and I’m a gal following Jesus with you as He leads me step by step!!! As it was said to Mary, so it is with you “Blessed are you as His child!!!” Me, too!!! I am proud of you for going for Jesus!!! He has chosen you for high purpose!!! Let’s keep going in our purpose together with Jesus in us forever!!! As a result of Mary’s faithfulness to God, all the people of the world were forever gifted with the privilege of having a personal Savior from sin by faith in Him!!! Praise the Lord for her faithfulness!!! 

Luke 1:26-38 NIV

Growing Close to Jesus

Getting to know Jesus and developing a close relationship of intimacy with Him as our beloved Father has to start somewhere and it takes time to develop and grow in Him!!!

Why we should want to develop and grow in Him is because as we do, our life experience and our love relationship with Him becomes sweeter and sweeter!!! As I reflect upon our Father’s Word today, I see that there are three levels of growth and development in our walk with Jesus discerned as talked about by the Apostle John as he writes to children, youth and the matured. He says he writes to them in particular ways because of the stage of development they are in with regards to Christ. No matter at what age someone begins their walk with Jesus, these are the stages of growth in our relationship development with Him:

Stage 1 – Children stage

• “I write to you dear children, because your sins have been forgiven on account of His name.”
• “I write to you, dear children, because you have known the Father.”

In this stage of development, we learn the basic understanding that because of Satan’s prideful influence in the Garden of Eden to turn people away from God, all people have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. Through our faith in Jesus who was God Himself coming into the world and dying on the cross in our place to pay the penalty of sin for each one of us, we are forever rescued from sin’s wages, reconciled to God and made the children of God, forever secure in being part of His royal family and heirs of all the glorious riches of God’s heavenly paradise!!! We then learn that the Spirit of Jesus lives in our hearts and is always with us, speaking to us to remind us of truth and to guide us in what is of Him as we journey through life with Him. We learn to pray and study our Bible and have fellowship with others who know Him. We learn He has good plans for us in life and that it is good to tell others about His goodness to us!!!

Stage 2 – Youth stage

• “I write to you because you are strong, and the Word of God lives in you, and you have overcome the evil one.”

In this stage of development, we learn that we find our strength in Jesus in seeking relationship with Him, trusting  Him to work in us to will and act according to His purpose, to empower us to stand in resistance to the enemy so that we overcome him and live in the victory life that is through Jesus with us!!! It is learning to stay connected to Jesus and that through Him, we can do all things through Him who gives us strength. If He is calling us to it, we learn to rely upon Him to enable us to do it!!! This is the stage of life where our Father’s goodness and plan for us is wrestled out and tested true!!!

Stage 3 – Maturity stage

• “I write to you because you have known Him who is from the beginning.”

In this stage of development, life is not without challenges by any means, but we have learned through our experience from the beginning of first having learned about Jesus, trusting in Him as our Savior, then walking with Him through life experiences that have taught us reliance upon Him and His power in everything – trusting in Him in all things!!! It is knowing the sweet intimacy of a deep-rooted love relationship with Him that is beyond all other relationships that comes from what life has taught us with Him with us!!! It is having found contentment with who we are in Christ and in His sovereignty in our lives!!! It brings with it the ability of resting all anxiety in He who loves us with unfailing, unconditional love, who is always victoriously working for us and always working good through all of life circumstances for us. It is a soul at peace with our loving Father, sold out in faith in Him and in full reliance upon Him, wanting to live to His full glory because we love Him so!!! We are secure in His loving grace, knowing apart from Him we can do nothing and that through Christ we are seen in our Father’s eyes as righteous, holy, without blemish, without accusation and without condemnation.  He sees us as righteous through the cross, but until Jesus returns, we are always in a state of learning and growing through life. Upon this earth, we will never know all that Christ knows!!! When He returns, the old life will be completely gone and we shall be like Him in paradise!!! Oh now that just makes me smile!!! Jesus with us until then makes us brave in all of this life as this song says here!!!

 Why is growing in Him to maturity important??? This is what He tells us in His Word:

“It was He who gave some to be apostles, some to be prophets, some to be evangelists, and some to be pastors and teachers, to prepare God’s people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ. Then we will no longer be infants, tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of people in their deceitful scheming. Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will in all things grow up into Him who is the Head, that is, Christ.”

“In this world you will have trouble, but take heart for I have over come the world.”

“Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.”

“For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith–and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God–“

No matter what stage of growth we are in our relationship with Jesus in life, this we can know, our Father loves us all equally the same through our faith in Him and nothing we do or don’t do in this life will make Him love us any more or any less!!! Through our first utterance of faith in Him as our personal Savior, He is forever committed to being our Father and loving us impartially as His royal children forever part of His beloved family!!! His Holy Spirit in us seals that up for all eternity!!! Rest in His perfect love for you wherever you are in life, dear one!!! I’m resting in Him with you!!! Let us enjoy the precious love relationship that we have with Him, together forever and let us trust Him to enable us to grow in Him!!! Where are you and what do you need to trust Him with??? He will work in us and guide us to help us!!! Much love to you, dear family!!!

1 John 2:12-14; Ephesians 2:8, 4:11-15; John 14:27, 16:33 NIV

The Sweet Meeting of Jesus

This world holds many examples of father figures to every person born upon the earth!!! Perhaps your earthly experience with a father has been a wonderful one and perhaps not!!! Perhaps you never knew him?!! All the examples of fatherhood that the earth holds can not even begin to compare with our Father in heaven who loves us with perfect unfailing, unconditional love through our faith in His love that sacrificed Himself on a cross to rescue us all from the wages of sin so that we can have forever life with Him who is a good, good Father to us as this song says here!!!

“For God so loved the world that He gave His One and only Son that whoever believes in Him will never perish, but have everlasting life.”

John 3:16 NIV

Jesus loves us perfectly and the day we meet Him face to Face is going to be a glorious day!!! Here are a few more thoughts to ponder about that here.

It is hard to imagine that delightful day as this song says here, but we can know it will not be a day of fear!!! Rest in knowing you are loved by the King today and with Him forever through faith in Him as your Savior from the wages of sin, dear one!!! If you have not yet asked Him to be your Savior from your personal sin, just talk to Him like a friend and ask Him to forgive you from all sin and fill you with the presence of His Holy Spirit in you right now!!! I’m a gal going with you in life continuing to share the good news so as many people as possible  understand the wonderful Father in heaven that we have so they too can have peace and victory forever!!!