How to see our marriage through God's eyes
It states in the beginning that God created man and women, "where two become one". It was the design of the bond with which God speaks of us needing that bond to complete ourselves. We are like God in that we need companionship with others, a relationship to grow and confide in. In 1Peter 4:8, Peter talks about the idea of loving each other, because love covers over a multitude of sins. It is this sentiment that rings so true in a marriage. We must learn to lean on our spouse, support each other and realize that neither of us is perfect. We do make mistakes and sin againist our God and others as it is in our nature. But is the forgiveness and love that are the greatest gifts we have received from our heavenly father. It is through our Savior Jesus that this forgiveness and love shines. It is also what God asks of us in marriage. We all struggle for perfection and what we expect from a marriage can sometimes be more than we should expect.
It is the reason that if God is first in our lives and we trust that he can provide for all our needs and humble ourselves before our spouse we can gain a marriage of trust, love and compassion. To understand our partner we must first understand the role that God plays in our lives, and how he can bring us closer through a reliance and trust in our Lord and Savior first and foremost. I know what you are thinking....I can handle it, I know what my spouse is thinking and what he wants from me....but just by saying that you are saying that you don't need God or his compassion. Jesus came to this earth to save us from ourselves and bring our relationship with God to a point where we confide in Him asking for help and guidance, not independence. We should be striving for a closeness and dependance on Him, not ourselves. That is where most people get it wrong. We try to do it on our own. We try to trust in ourselves and our mates to get all we need. We believe that is what God is asking of us as his children....to be individuals and trust in our own judgement and fall on own shoulders.
I have learned that through the years, if I try to depend on ourselves or our husbands we can begin to drag everyone down with us. I learned to depend on no other besides God, to gain strength, compassions and understanding I can only get from our Father in Heaven. I have made mistakes and walked away from him, thought I needed some time from the Lord and even tried to solve my problems without asking for help from him. I have seen troubles knock on my door and thought they would go away. I know that most people don't seem to want to ackowledge that they need a God or that they can't be truly happy without him, but I speak from personal trials. He is important to balance and health of any relationship whether husband, father, mother, or child. He is the reason we are so relational and want to have a close bond with our husband, the reason we leave our parents and "safe" home to venture into the world and learn more about not only ourselves but our partners in life, husbands.
Thank you Amanda, for allowing me this time to reflect on life in my marriage and how that can reflect on who my girls will want to marry and partner up with.
God bless, Kim Swiczkowski
The greatest commandment....Love
The Lord ask two things from us and it is written several times in this bible. One such time is when the Pharisees as Jesus what is the greatest commandment, trying to throw Jesus off as God commanded his people to obey all this commandments. But Jesus replies..."Love , the Lord your God with all your heart with all your mind and with all your soul. This is the first and greatest commandment. The second is like it,'Love your neighbor as you love yourself'. But this is a reference to early commands written in Old Testement. (Deut. 6:5 &; Lev 19:18). This same command is again brought up as we enter the end of our time....1John 4:7-16.
God says through Paul....."My beloved friends, let us continue to love since love comes from God. Everyone who loves is born of God and experiences a relationship with God. The person who refuses to love doesn't know the first thing about God, because God is love—so you can't know him if you don't love. This is how God showed his love for us: God sent his only Son into the world so we might live through him. This is the kind of love we are talking about—not that we once upon a time loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as a sacrifice to clear away our sins and the damage they've done to our relationship with God.
My dear, dear friends, if God loved us like this, we certainly ought to love each other. No one has seen God, ever. But if we love one another, God dwells deeply within us, and his love becomes complete in us—perfect love!
This is how we know we're living steadily and deeply in him, and he in us: He's given us life from his life, from his very own Spirit. Also, we've seen for ourselves and continue to state openly that the Father sent his Son as Savior of the world. Everyone who confesses that Jesus is God's Son participates continuously in an intimate relationship with God. We know it so well, we've embraced it heart and soul, this love that comes from God."
We should take heart especially during this holiday season....the birth of our holy son of God, our Savior....he did for others before he did for himself. Even on the last day of his fellowship with disciples, he washed their feet (a sign of reverence and servitude) and then sat down as equals to eat one last supper before dying on the cross for our sins. He took on our burdens with no questions asked and obeyed his father's wishes. He took on our sins to help bring us closer to our God, to allow us to have a true relationship with our Heavenly Father.
Matthew Henry says that, "As the Spirit of truth is known by doctrine (thus spirits are to be tried), it is known by love likewise; and so here follows a strong fervent exhortation to holy Christian love: Beloved, let us love one another, 1 John 4:7. The apostle would unite them in his love, that he might unite them in love to each other: “Beloved, I beseech you, by the love I bear to you, that you put on unfeigned mutual love.” He continues by saying that love has several meanings in this passage:
One is "From the high and heavenly descent of love: For love is of God. He is the fountain, author, parent, and commander of love; it is the sum of his law and gospel: And every one that loveth (whose spirit is framed to judicious holy love) is born of God, 1 John 4:7. The Spirit of God is the Spirit of love. The new nature in the children of God is the offspring of his love: and the temper and complexion of it is love. The fruit of the Spirit is love, Gal. 5:22. Love comes down from heaven."
Second is, "Love argues a true and just apprehension of the divine nature: He that loveth knoweth God, 1 John 4:7. He that loveth not knoweth not God, 1 John 4:8. What attribute of the divine Majesty so clearly shines in all the world as his communicative goodness, which is love. The wisdom, the greatness, the harmony, and usefulness of the vast creation, which so fully demonstrate his being, do at the same time show and prove his love; and natural reason, inferring and collecting the nature and excellence of the most absolute perfect being, must collect and find that he is most highly good: and he that loveth not (is not quickened by the knowledge he hath of God to the affection and practice of love) knoweth not God; it is a convictive evidence that the sound and due knowledge of God dwells not in such a soul; his love must needs shine among his primary brightest perfections; for God is love (1 John 4:8), his nature and essence are love, his will and works are primarily love. Not that this is the only conception we ought to have of him; we have found that he is light as well as love (1 John 1:5), and God is principally love to himself, and he has such perfections as arise from the necessary love he must bear to his necessary existence, excellence, and glory; but love is natural and essential to the divine Majesty: God is love. This is argued from the display and demonstration that he hath given of it; as, 1. That he hath loved us, such as we are: In this was manifest the love of God towards us (1 John 4:9), towards us mortals, us ungrateful rebels. God commandeth his love towards us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us, Rom. 5:8. Strange that God should love impure, vain, vile, dust and ashes! 2. That he has loved us at such a rate, at such an incomparable value as he has given for us; he has given his own, only-beloved, blessed Son for us: Because that God sent his only-begotten Son into the world, that we might live through him, 1 John 4:9. This person is in some peculiar distinguishing way the Son of God; he is the only-begotten. Should we suppose him begotten as a creature or created being, he is not the only-begotten. Should we suppose him a natural necessary eradication from the Father’s glory or glorious essence, or substance, he must be the only-begotten: and then it will be a mystery and miracle of divine love that such a Son should be sent into our world for us! It may well be said, So (wonderfully, so amazingly, so incredibly) God loved the world. 3. That God loved us first, and in the circumstances in which we lay: Herein is love (unusual unprecedented love), not that we loved God, but that he loved us, 1 John 4:10. He loved us, when we had no love for him, when we lay in our guilt, misery, and blood, when we were undeserving, ill-deserving, polluted, and unclean, and wanted to be washed from our sins in sacred blood. 4. That he gave us his Son for such service and such an end. (1.) For such service, to be the propitiation for our sins; consequently to die for us, to die under the law and curse of God, to bear our sins in his own body, to be crucified, to be wounded in his soul, and pierced in his side, to be dead and buried for us (1 John 4:10); and then, (2.) For such an end, for such a good and beneficial end to us—that we might live through him (1 John 4:9), might live for ever through him, might live in heaven, live with God, and live in eternal glory and blessedness with him and through him: O what love is here! Then,"
Thirdly he states, "The Christian love is an assurance of the divine inhabitation: If we love one another, God dwelleth in us, 1 John 4:12. Now God dwelleth in us, not by any visible presence, or immediate appearance to the eye (no man hath seen God at any time, 1 John 4:12), but by his Spirit (1 John 4:13); or, “No man hath seen God at any time; he does not here present himself to our eye or to our immediate intuition, and so he does not in this way demand and exact our love; but he demands and expects it in that way in which he has thought meet to deserve and claim it, and that is in the illustration that he has given of himself and of his love (and thereupon of his loveliness too) in the catholic church, and particularly in the brethren, the members of that church. In them, and in his appearance for them and with them, is God to be loved; and thus, if we love one another, God dwelleth in us. The sacred lovers of the brethren are the temples of God; the divine Majesty has a peculiar residence there.”
Wow, I love how he sums up our life with our God by three little phrases: the Lord dwells in us, He that loves God knows him, and love is of God. All this said it is important in our walk of Faith to have love, know love and give love to others. This helps us Christian disciples have a connection with our Heavenly Father and with others. God wants a relationship with us, that is why he created us and he wants us to know love and give it. He spoke to Adam in the garden of Eden about this very topic....Genesis 2:19-24
"The LORD God said, “It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper suitable for him.”
Now the LORD God had formed out of the ground all the wild animals and all the birds in the sky. He brought them to the man to see what he would name them; and whatever the man called each living creature, that was its name. So the man gave names to all the livestock, the birds in the sky and all the wild animals.
But for Adam no suitable helper was found. So the LORD God caused the man to fall into a deep sleep; and while he was sleeping, he took one of the man’s ribs[g] and then closed up the place with flesh. Then the LORD God made a woman from the rib[h] he had taken out of the man, and he brought her to the man." God goes on...."“This is now bone of my bones
and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called ‘woman,’ for she was taken out of man.” That is why a man leaves his father and mother and is united to his wife, and they become one flesh."
So for this the first week of December, I ask you to take the time to think about how you love others and show God's love. He is our Father, our Savior and our Rock....show him how much that means to you and show your neighbor God's love for his children.
My dear, dear friends, if God loved us like this, we certainly ought to love each other. No one has seen God, ever. But if we love one another, God dwells deeply within us, and his love becomes complete in us—perfect love!
This is how we know we're living steadily and deeply in him, and he in us: He's given us life from his life, from his very own Spirit. Also, we've seen for ourselves and continue to state openly that the Father sent his Son as Savior of the world. Everyone who confesses that Jesus is God's Son participates continuously in an intimate relationship with God. We know it so well, we've embraced it heart and soul, this love that comes from God."
We should take heart especially during this holiday season....the birth of our holy son of God, our Savior....he did for others before he did for himself. Even on the last day of his fellowship with disciples, he washed their feet (a sign of reverence and servitude) and then sat down as equals to eat one last supper before dying on the cross for our sins. He took on our burdens with no questions asked and obeyed his father's wishes. He took on our sins to help bring us closer to our God, to allow us to have a true relationship with our Heavenly Father.
Matthew Henry says that, "As the Spirit of truth is known by doctrine (thus spirits are to be tried), it is known by love likewise; and so here follows a strong fervent exhortation to holy Christian love: Beloved, let us love one another, 1 John 4:7. The apostle would unite them in his love, that he might unite them in love to each other: “Beloved, I beseech you, by the love I bear to you, that you put on unfeigned mutual love.” He continues by saying that love has several meanings in this passage:
One is "From the high and heavenly descent of love: For love is of God. He is the fountain, author, parent, and commander of love; it is the sum of his law and gospel: And every one that loveth (whose spirit is framed to judicious holy love) is born of God, 1 John 4:7. The Spirit of God is the Spirit of love. The new nature in the children of God is the offspring of his love: and the temper and complexion of it is love. The fruit of the Spirit is love, Gal. 5:22. Love comes down from heaven."
Second is, "Love argues a true and just apprehension of the divine nature: He that loveth knoweth God, 1 John 4:7. He that loveth not knoweth not God, 1 John 4:8. What attribute of the divine Majesty so clearly shines in all the world as his communicative goodness, which is love. The wisdom, the greatness, the harmony, and usefulness of the vast creation, which so fully demonstrate his being, do at the same time show and prove his love; and natural reason, inferring and collecting the nature and excellence of the most absolute perfect being, must collect and find that he is most highly good: and he that loveth not (is not quickened by the knowledge he hath of God to the affection and practice of love) knoweth not God; it is a convictive evidence that the sound and due knowledge of God dwells not in such a soul; his love must needs shine among his primary brightest perfections; for God is love (1 John 4:8), his nature and essence are love, his will and works are primarily love. Not that this is the only conception we ought to have of him; we have found that he is light as well as love (1 John 1:5), and God is principally love to himself, and he has such perfections as arise from the necessary love he must bear to his necessary existence, excellence, and glory; but love is natural and essential to the divine Majesty: God is love. This is argued from the display and demonstration that he hath given of it; as, 1. That he hath loved us, such as we are: In this was manifest the love of God towards us (1 John 4:9), towards us mortals, us ungrateful rebels. God commandeth his love towards us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us, Rom. 5:8. Strange that God should love impure, vain, vile, dust and ashes! 2. That he has loved us at such a rate, at such an incomparable value as he has given for us; he has given his own, only-beloved, blessed Son for us: Because that God sent his only-begotten Son into the world, that we might live through him, 1 John 4:9. This person is in some peculiar distinguishing way the Son of God; he is the only-begotten. Should we suppose him begotten as a creature or created being, he is not the only-begotten. Should we suppose him a natural necessary eradication from the Father’s glory or glorious essence, or substance, he must be the only-begotten: and then it will be a mystery and miracle of divine love that such a Son should be sent into our world for us! It may well be said, So (wonderfully, so amazingly, so incredibly) God loved the world. 3. That God loved us first, and in the circumstances in which we lay: Herein is love (unusual unprecedented love), not that we loved God, but that he loved us, 1 John 4:10. He loved us, when we had no love for him, when we lay in our guilt, misery, and blood, when we were undeserving, ill-deserving, polluted, and unclean, and wanted to be washed from our sins in sacred blood. 4. That he gave us his Son for such service and such an end. (1.) For such service, to be the propitiation for our sins; consequently to die for us, to die under the law and curse of God, to bear our sins in his own body, to be crucified, to be wounded in his soul, and pierced in his side, to be dead and buried for us (1 John 4:10); and then, (2.) For such an end, for such a good and beneficial end to us—that we might live through him (1 John 4:9), might live for ever through him, might live in heaven, live with God, and live in eternal glory and blessedness with him and through him: O what love is here! Then,"
Thirdly he states, "The Christian love is an assurance of the divine inhabitation: If we love one another, God dwelleth in us, 1 John 4:12. Now God dwelleth in us, not by any visible presence, or immediate appearance to the eye (no man hath seen God at any time, 1 John 4:12), but by his Spirit (1 John 4:13); or, “No man hath seen God at any time; he does not here present himself to our eye or to our immediate intuition, and so he does not in this way demand and exact our love; but he demands and expects it in that way in which he has thought meet to deserve and claim it, and that is in the illustration that he has given of himself and of his love (and thereupon of his loveliness too) in the catholic church, and particularly in the brethren, the members of that church. In them, and in his appearance for them and with them, is God to be loved; and thus, if we love one another, God dwelleth in us. The sacred lovers of the brethren are the temples of God; the divine Majesty has a peculiar residence there.”
Wow, I love how he sums up our life with our God by three little phrases: the Lord dwells in us, He that loves God knows him, and love is of God. All this said it is important in our walk of Faith to have love, know love and give love to others. This helps us Christian disciples have a connection with our Heavenly Father and with others. God wants a relationship with us, that is why he created us and he wants us to know love and give it. He spoke to Adam in the garden of Eden about this very topic....Genesis 2:19-24
"The LORD God said, “It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper suitable for him.”
Now the LORD God had formed out of the ground all the wild animals and all the birds in the sky. He brought them to the man to see what he would name them; and whatever the man called each living creature, that was its name. So the man gave names to all the livestock, the birds in the sky and all the wild animals.
But for Adam no suitable helper was found. So the LORD God caused the man to fall into a deep sleep; and while he was sleeping, he took one of the man’s ribs[g] and then closed up the place with flesh. Then the LORD God made a woman from the rib[h] he had taken out of the man, and he brought her to the man." God goes on...."“This is now bone of my bones
and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called ‘woman,’ for she was taken out of man.” That is why a man leaves his father and mother and is united to his wife, and they become one flesh."
So for this the first week of December, I ask you to take the time to think about how you love others and show God's love. He is our Father, our Savior and our Rock....show him how much that means to you and show your neighbor God's love for his children.
God is our Strength and our Savior, Redeemer....are you following Him?
God,it is our worship and praises that should show our outward signs that God is present in our lives and the Holy Spirit is present in our daily lives.....Do you show that?
do you wake every day and praise him all the days, even the ones that make you kneel and cry, begging for the Lord to take away the hurt? do you remember as you pray that God lost his only son for your sins? take a moment to reflect with me on why our God is holy, and why he is our Savior, Abba Father and Redeemer! Is he touching your hand and guiding your daily walk in life or are you like the nagging child asking for God to follow you to the next isle to get what you want? The Lord is waiting to take your hand and lead you down the path of righteousness and wants us to follow his lead, not do your bid!
The book I am focused on is "Celebration of Discipline and it asks each of us to take a moment and pause , rewind and redo our walk in/with Christ! The current chapter is Submission....can you submit to your God? Become a servant for Christ and work on your daily walk to learn to focus and come where he guides you to a closer. inimate walk with our Savior and Redeemer to a place that is Heaven!
Join me on this journey....it won't be easy but you will be stronger and closer to God!
God,it is our worship and praises that should show our outward signs that God is present in our lives and the Holy Spirit is present in our daily lives.....Do you show that?
do you wake every day and praise him all the days, even the ones that make you kneel and cry, begging for the Lord to take away the hurt? do you remember as you pray that God lost his only son for your sins? take a moment to reflect with me on why our God is holy, and why he is our Savior, Abba Father and Redeemer! Is he touching your hand and guiding your daily walk in life or are you like the nagging child asking for God to follow you to the next isle to get what you want? The Lord is waiting to take your hand and lead you down the path of righteousness and wants us to follow his lead, not do your bid! The book I am focused on is "Celebration of Discipline and it asks each of us to take a moment and pause , rewind and redo our walk in/with Christ! The current chapter is Submission....can you submit to your God? Become a servant for Christ and work on your daily walk to learn to focus and come where he guides you to a closer. inimate walk with our Savior and Redeemer to a place that is Heaven!
Join me on this journey....it won't be easy but you will be stronger and closer to God!
Life in Christ
I love Jesus and all he has done for me....I can't imagine life without him and I know that it is only because of him that I am here today. I love that he can come into a town with no one and light up the people he touches, he makes them feel secure and loved. He shows us that God is bigger than anything we shall face. This is all done with a simple touch of his hand and a smile. He needs no words for everything in is his spirit and actions. He shows others kindness and passion for our God. This week I have a challenge for all my Christian friends.....take a moment to get to know him through scripture, through your own actions and love. You see this week is VBS at a friends church and I am making it my weekly challenge to touch another with his love, and faithfulness. I am hoping that God speaks to me guiding my actions and words as I try to begin anew. I was once told that I can do anything through him who strengthens me. It is true, I found this out over 5 years ago...moving to a new town, struggling with my relationships and learning to be a good mother and wife. No one can prepare you for the calm before your storm, and no one can heal you like God. He spoke to me, comforted me, told me he was not going anywhere and loved me. He showed me things that no one else could have, he gave me strength to go on, to love others as they don't always deserve, and to respect others despite my feelings. It was not about me but about him, dying on the cross for my sins and knowing that I would not always be on mark with rightgeousness, love and kindness. He knew that I would fail and try again, that I would suffer pain not even close to his and want to give up. He wanted me to fall and learn, grow closer to him and understand a bit better of what he stands for , what we died for. I know a bit more, I still don't have the bible memorized and I know that I will fall again, try to turn to my own strength and try to help myself get up....but I will need him. He is there waiting for me to turn to him and accept him with all my heart....to know him inside out and have my heart filled with his love!
What an awesome God, who saves us before we know we need it and is always there to forgive no matter the cost! I pray that today, others will come to know our God and his son better. I pray that you will find the time for him as he is always there. I pray that one day, there will be no suffering and pain so that we might grow closer. That we will all know him and love him, follow his path and return to him in heaven.
God bless.....Have a blessed week.
~"I will sing of the LORD’s great love forever;
with my mouth I will make your faithfulness known
through all generations.
2 I will declare that your love stands firm forever,
that you have established your faithfulness in heaven itself.
3 You said, “I have made a covenant with my chosen one,
I have sworn to David my servant,
4 ‘I will establish your line forever
and make your throne firm through all generations.’”[c]
5 The heavens praise your wonders, LORD,
your faithfulness too, in the assembly of the holy ones.
6 For who in the skies above can compare with the LORD?
Who is like the LORD among the heavenly beings? "
Psalm 89:1-7
What an awesome God, who saves us before we know we need it and is always there to forgive no matter the cost! I pray that today, others will come to know our God and his son better. I pray that you will find the time for him as he is always there. I pray that one day, there will be no suffering and pain so that we might grow closer. That we will all know him and love him, follow his path and return to him in heaven.
God bless.....Have a blessed week.
~"I will sing of the LORD’s great love forever;
with my mouth I will make your faithfulness known
through all generations.
2 I will declare that your love stands firm forever,
that you have established your faithfulness in heaven itself.
3 You said, “I have made a covenant with my chosen one,
I have sworn to David my servant,
4 ‘I will establish your line forever
and make your throne firm through all generations.’”[c]
5 The heavens praise your wonders, LORD,
your faithfulness too, in the assembly of the holy ones.
6 For who in the skies above can compare with the LORD?
Who is like the LORD among the heavenly beings? "
Psalm 89:1-7
Tis the Season to be jolly.....Fa la la la la la la la
Venturing out this week, you will see much that surrounds us. I am more concerned with that which we do not see. The Lord has opened my eyes many times, but it is more than once. He is helped me to see those who are suffering and living a life without Christ. Jesus has helped me to see the true meaning of the season of his birth. It is to open our eyes to those who know not the Lord, to help us to see those around us who walk blindly away from the our Lord into the worldly possession that they surround their lives with. Those possessions that we can not take with us, yet occupy most of our time. With this time, God ask for us to starve ourselves of such worldly things to give them up for Godly time. Do we not owe our God, the one who sent his only Son to save us, that time. So I take time each morning to praise him for all he has done and will do in my life. I try to open my eyes to those around me in pain and suffering and help them. Show them that my life means something to the Almighty and bring hope to a life which might have been lived for the glory of man and allow others to see our King in Heaven. He asks me to make time for others, to heal those who suffer, to bring cheer to those who are in pain, to pray for those who are in chains, to sing to those who have lost the way, to bring faith to those with none, to be a family to those without one, to be a friend to those in need of someone, to bring my possessions to those with none. I would like to be the Mother to those without one, but God has called me to be a friend and family to those without someone to care for them. He is asking all of us to use them? Take some time in prayer to ask the Almighty to grant you some peace, love and joy during this season. Ask him to grant you time to spend with Him and for Him!
Forget not that this time of year is to reflect on what we could do better, pray for guidance in your journey with Him and sing of Christmas cheer for those who have none.
Love and glory be to my King, AMEN.
Forget not that this time of year is to reflect on what we could do better, pray for guidance in your journey with Him and sing of Christmas cheer for those who have none.
Love and glory be to my King, AMEN.
I am thankful for....peace, love and joy from Christ
As God has given us all that we need:peace, love and joy; we must take the others with that in mind. There will be loss, pain and war, but if these are the things we set our eyes on we will miss out of the joys of life and heaven. I have read a book by Ted Dekker about heaven and how church has lost the meaning of such a word. We don't want to discuss death, nor where we will go after life here on earth is over.
Here is a devotional that sums it up.
People are seekers of the benefits of God:peace, love, joy and heaven, but they lack the connection, relationship with God to attain such benefits. God wants his people to seek him (Am 5:4), not just his benefits. He wants people who are looking for a relationship with Him, people who are wiling to sacrifice for that relationship- not because he wants to see them suffer but because he knows the benefits suffering brings. Peace joy and hope shine most brightly in5s this peace give you confidence to do (Ro 5:2)? You can have access to and a relationship with the Creator of the universe!
Having a relationship with God produces hope. (Ro 5:2-5) How is hope developed? How is this hope different from the world's hope? The Holy Spirit in the One who fills us with the love of God.
This hope produces joy. Just as Paul learned he secret of contentment (Php 4:12), you can learn the secret of joy. What us Paul's secret? (Ro 15:3, Php 1:4-6) How does this attitude allow you to view your sufferings in a new way (Ro 5:3-4; Jas 1:2-4; 1 Pe 1:6-9)?
You will only gain true peace, joy and hope through having a relationship with God. That relationship can only be developed in Jesus Christ. And your experience of it can only be accomplished by the Holy Spirit. Though suffering is often a part of the Christian life people anticipate with fear, God uses it to produce deep and lasting peace, joy and hope.
Here is a devotional that sums it up.
People are seekers of the benefits of God:peace, love, joy and heaven, but they lack the connection, relationship with God to attain such benefits. God wants his people to seek him (Am 5:4), not just his benefits. He wants people who are looking for a relationship with Him, people who are wiling to sacrifice for that relationship- not because he wants to see them suffer but because he knows the benefits suffering brings. Peace joy and hope shine most brightly in5s this peace give you confidence to do (Ro 5:2)? You can have access to and a relationship with the Creator of the universe!
Having a relationship with God produces hope. (Ro 5:2-5) How is hope developed? How is this hope different from the world's hope? The Holy Spirit in the One who fills us with the love of God.
This hope produces joy. Just as Paul learned he secret of contentment (Php 4:12), you can learn the secret of joy. What us Paul's secret? (Ro 15:3, Php 1:4-6) How does this attitude allow you to view your sufferings in a new way (Ro 5:3-4; Jas 1:2-4; 1 Pe 1:6-9)?
You will only gain true peace, joy and hope through having a relationship with God. That relationship can only be developed in Jesus Christ. And your experience of it can only be accomplished by the Holy Spirit. Though suffering is often a part of the Christian life people anticipate with fear, God uses it to produce deep and lasting peace, joy and hope.
How do I find the such a throne of Grace?
~Beth Moore's Praying God's Word
We have now entered a new life in the Lord. We are coming to this world as new beings ready to worship, lift up your name and become servants in this cause. We were saved and must continue to remind ourselves that it is all because of you that we are free. I think many of us struggle with life in this world and of this world and yet we tend to try to solve our own problems and forget to turn towards our maker allowing him to work in our lives. He is our Father and made us in his image that we might come to know him....do you know him? I have learned his grace.
How do you find the throne of Grace in your lives?
We, all, like sheep, had gone astray, each of us had turned to his own way; but the Lord laid on You, Jesus the iniquity of us all (Isa. 53:3-6).
O Lord, because of You are my help, I sing in the shadow of Your wings. My soul clings to You; Your right hand upholds me (Ps. 63:7-8)
When Your kindness and love appeared, You saved me, not because of the righteous things I have done, but because of Your mercy. You saved me through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit, whom You poured out on me generously through Jesus Christ my Savior, so that, having been justified by Your grace, I would become an heir having the hope of eternal life (Titus 3:4-7).
We have now entered a new life in the Lord. We are coming to this world as new beings ready to worship, lift up your name and become servants in this cause. We were saved and must continue to remind ourselves that it is all because of you that we are free. I think many of us struggle with life in this world and of this world and yet we tend to try to solve our own problems and forget to turn towards our maker allowing him to work in our lives. He is our Father and made us in his image that we might come to know him....do you know him? I have learned his grace.
How do you find the throne of Grace in your lives?
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