Seek And Delight In The Lord

The scripture Matthew 6:33, But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well, has been a significant one in my life as a follower of Jesus. When I heard it the first time was during Whitney Houston’s funeral when Bishop Jakes talked there. I can still remember his voice saying this scripture and me hanging on the words trying to understand the meaning. At first, for awhile I have thought it means to put God first in my day, my life and He will take care of me. I do think it has this meaning but there is also a deeper meaning or maybe another meaning to me since I have matured. I have been thinking what “His righteousness” means. Jesus is our righteousness which means right standing with God. Only through Jesus can we have right standing with God. So, to seek His righteousness, I need to seek Jesus. Since I am born  again, I already have sought Jesus and now have His righteousness. I have put Him first and now I have right standing with God and have access to God’s Kingdom living. Because this is true, God gives me everything else I need.

This gives way to delighting myself in God. Psalm 37:4, Take delight in the Lord,
    and he will give you the desires of your heart.  Another word for delight is captivate. When I have great pleasure and captivate myself with Jesus and God, He gives me the desires of my heart. What He wants us to desire is Him first. A heart that desires God above all else is the delighted, fulfilled person. Not only that but God directs the steps of the one who delights in Him and establishes his way. Psalm 37:23, The steps of a [good and righteous] man are directed and established by the Lord,
And He delights in his way [and blesses his path]. So, God will direct which way to go in life and you have the assurance that you are living in His will and purpose for your life. And to make it even better God blesses your path. Your life will be full of blessings!

Salvation Day

I was reading my daily scripture I get in my email and it read: John 14:20,  On that day you will realize that I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I am in you.

For the first time I thought what day is Jesus talking about? You would think He’s talking about His Second Coming. I went to my Bible and read from the beginning of Chapter 14 and I have had a revelation of this scripture. Jesus is talking about your salvation day. In the verse before,19, it says,  Before long, the world will not see me anymore, but you will see me. Because I live, you also will live. The world doesn’t see Jesus. Satan has blinded the world from seeing Jesus. Only when we are made alive in spirit through God’s Holy Spirit do we recognize Jesus. When this happens we then see Jesus as He really is, ALIVE and GLORIOUS! When we are “born again”, what has happened is, is the Truth has been revealed and realized in our hearts.

We then know Jesus is God and they are one and now Jesus lives in me through the Holy Spirit. This is being “born again”. When you realize and “see” Jesus is alive and He is your Savior, you too will live just as He says in the scripture.

A Full Life or Long Life?

Which would you choose? This question came to me this morning as I was watching the Today show they were talking about eating to have a longer life. This struck me because I have been reading 1000 Gifts by Ann Voskamp and she talks about living a full life. She contemplates dying and when we actually get to that point, are we going to feel full or empty? I really loved how she put it. Now when I see something about living a long life I wonder which would really be the best? In my own opinion I think living the full life long would be the ultimate life but if I had to choose I would want the full life. If life was empty, then a long empty life would just be miserable.

You may want to know what a full life looks like. As Jesus said, He came to give us life to the full. I have really meditated on that verse in the past and now Ann has revealed the key to unlocking the full life. It’s gratitude for everything you love. It’s not just feeling the gratitude but writing them down. Writing them down gives the moment a space, a sacred space that is a gift from God. This is what Ann talks about in her book. She says writing them down is the actual receiving of the gifts. She emphasizes to carry a little notebook with you which causes you to be aware of life happening and write them down as you go. I started this today and already have over 30 gifts! She says we hurry through life and miss the small stuff which is really the big stuff. We don’t pay attention to what really matters and to what is right in front of us. God is in every moment if we will just recognize Him there. When we do this we are living each moment to it’s fullest. We have given the moment a name, we have made the space in the moment holy. This is all God wants, communion with us and this is how we do it. God’s presence is the answer to all our longings, all our emptiness. Instead of filling the gaps with “things” we need to fill the gaps with thankfulness and recognize the gifts God is continually giving.

I know myself that I have lived some empty life. I can’t get it back but I can vow today to live a full life. I refuse to get to my dying day and wish I had lived more fully. This is the answer to not being afraid to die. When you know without a doubt you lived fully in God’s presence, you know without a doubt you will live in His full presence in eternity.

Lent Week 1 Day 5

Today is a poem/prayer talking about the suffering people and the miserable ones. I wrote my own prayer adapted from the one in the Mosaic Bible.

Asking God to show me these ones so that I can pray for them and help me to see Jesus in everyone. Help me to be honest and patient with people remembering that You love them too. I pray for Your Spirit to be in me to bring forth praise and singing that others would see Christ in me. And Your Spirit would spread and grow. With Your Spirit living in me, I will never grow tired or weary of doing good. I thank those through prayer who have died for our freedom. Help me to love those who hate me and help me through Your Holy Spirit to change the world. Amen.

Trail to the Tree- Day 5- Let Loose!

The scripture reading is about the angel who made the announcement to the shepherds about the Savior being born. When they heard and went to see they let loose in praise! Ann says: Today we can’t help ourselves! We are spilling with the Good News! We must speak, announce, that great joyful event that is meant for everybody, worldwide!

This reminds me of the day I received the Good News! I was at my kitchen table watching The Gospel of John and it finally clicked that Jesus is MY Savior and He is ALIVE! I wanted everyone to experience what I experienced. It is so wonderful that you can’t keep it to yourself and you want everyone to have it!

Day 1- Get your thinking straight and be in God’s presence

Day 2- Be reading the Bible and trust God

Day 3- Reverence, worship and praise God and Jesus for who God is and what Jesus has done.

Day 4- Be faithful to Him and He will be faithful to fill you. Look to Jesus with gratitude and prayer.

Day 5- Notice the miserable and suffering, ask God to reveal them so I can tell them the Good News that there is hope and there is a Savior, His name is Jesus!