Good, Perfect, and Acceptable!

Isaiah 50:4 "...morning by morning He wakens me and opens my understanding to His will."

Good morning,

If you are alive this morning thank the Lord; He is the One Who wakes us up!  But He does so much more than that. He give us life and an eye-opening comprehension of how He wants us to live. 

He wants us to be blessed, joyful, at peace, healthy, and forgiving.  He wants us to be patient, kind, and loving.  He wants us to live by the golden rule, and keep our comments to ourselves.  He wants us to rely on Him when we need to make decisions  -  big or small  -   and He wants us to trust Him for all our needs. He wants us to fully embrace that He is a gracious God and be thankful  every day all day. Most importantly, He wants us to invite Jesus into our hearts so that we can have eternal life. 

All of the above is  described in the Bible as "good, perfect, and acceptable."

Why would any of us resist welcoming something good, perfect, and acceptable into our lives?  Do we really think we can do better on our own?  What would our lives look like if all those things God wants for us were 100% happening right now in our families?

As we rise up out of bed every day, we have also been given the capacity to open up our lives to God's best for us. Let's let Him in!

PRAYER: Dear Lord, We welcome Your good, perfect, and acceptable will into our lives.  Make us sensitive to Your life-giving and life-changing instruction.  In Jesus' name, AMEN~

Later You Will Understand~

John 13:7 Jesus replied, "You do not realize now what I am doing, but later you will understand."

I am an insanely curious person.  I like to know why things happened, where they happened, and what happened.  I like knowing stuff and learning new stuff, and if I’m watching TV and a name pops up that I recognize I will immediately go to the internet and do some research.  Just recently I got up to speed on Scott Baio.  Those of you who lived through the 1970s will recognize the name!

The point is I like to know…and yet there are so many things I do not know and do not understand.  Why is there so much suffering?  How can it be that there are millions upon millions of subscribers to websites dedicated to helping someone cheat on their spouse? Why do so many people get away with such bad behavior?  Why do children get sick? Why do good children happen to bad parents and no children happen to good parents?  Why does God allow XYZ…?

Sometimes the amount of unanswered questions is maddening; there are so many things I DO NOT UNDERSTAND.  But Jesus assures us that one day we will understand.  In the meantime, what are we to do?

The Bible states that our goal should be getting to know God.  Having all the answers will not lead to eternal life, peace, and hope, but knowing Him will (see John 17:3).

One way we get to know Him is by spending time in His presence through prayer.

PRAYER: Dear Lord, It is sometimes overwhelming to see all the crazy stuff happening around us, and there is so much we don’t understand.  One day we will have answers, but for now we focus our attention on You.  We shift our thoughts from all that confuses us to You.  We purposely meditate on Your goodness and on Your promises that You are with us helping us every day.  In Jesus’ name, AMEN~

An Eye-Opener~

Ephesians 1:18-21

I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which He has called you...

Let's dive right into our study of these verses.

What the Bible is saying is that before you can know the hope, you have to have an eye-opening understanding of God. Your heart might be in the right place, but your understanding has been blinded by everything that is wrong with your life and the evil in the world. Trust me when I tell you that I speak to a lot of folks who have very narrow and wrong views of God.

Yet, when we purposely set out to have an ongoing and vibrant relationship with Christ, immediately our understanding of God starts to change. Wrong thinking is transformed. Truth takes hold and crowds out false and negative thinking. Ever known someone who entertains wrong thinking? "I am not good." "I am worthless." "I will never amount to anything." "Nobody loves me." "Things are never going to get better."

It's dangerous, self-defeating, and leads to depression. You can stop it in your own life or in the life of someone you love by praying that the eyes of their heart would enlightened--opened to the Truth that they are so incalculably beautiful that Jesus gave up His life for them.

Honestly, dear people, I find myself often pausing as I write these DEVOs because I am overcome with such joy at the profound depth of God's love for me.

PRAYER: Dear Lord, Thank You that no matter what anyone else thinks, You proved that we and those we love are worth saving. Open the eyes of our hearts today, especially for (fill in the blank) that we may understand the hope that is ours. In Jesus' name, AMEN~