Seek the Lord

Amos 5:4 "This is what the Lord says to the house of Israel: "Seek Me and live;""

 

Our awesome God has given us so much to be thankful for and so many reasons to praise His holy name.  Amazingly, He does not ask for much: repentance & faith...as we continue to grow in our faith we begin to learn how important it is to seek Him above all else.  God has given us all the tools to live we just need to seek Him and He will show us how to use them!

 

Dear Lord,  I want to thank You for Your many awesome and saving promises throughout Your precious Word.  Please help me to always seek You that I may truly live, a life devoted to You and filled with Your grace and mercy.  Amen.

***Quick Note***

I will have no computer access this weekend and will be unable to forward Daily Verses or Weekly Thoughts.  I pray that if you are celebrating Easter this weekend than your celebration may be blessed and filled with God's holy, loving presence.  I will email some belated thoughts late Sunday or early Monday.

Love through Christ,

Niki

 

Ashamed?

Romans 1:16 "I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes: first for the Jews, then for the Gentile,"

 

Are we truly unashamed?  Do we speak His Word in everything we do, in every situation?  I think if we are truly unashamed then talking about His Word will come as easily as talking about the weather...only God doesn't guess whether it's going to rain or shine!

 

Dear Lord,  We thank You for Your gospel and all of Your precious Word.  Please help us to reach that level of faith where we are 100% unashamed and able to freely talk of Your awesome power, love, grace and salvation.  Amen.

Wednesday's Verse: God Is The Answer - No Matter The Question

James 5:13 "Is anyone of you in trouble?  He should pray.  Is anyone happy?  Let him sing songs of praise."

 

It reminds of when I was little and at Christmastime we would say, 'Jesus is the reason for the season.'  Except here Jesus is not just the reason...He is the answer.  No matter what you are feeling or going through take it to God because He is the answer to your situation good or bad.

 

Holy Father, Thank You for being our answer to whatever this world throws at us.  Please help us to remember to come to You in good times and bad and everything in between.  Amen.

Tuesday's Verse: Stop Contemplating

Psalm 117 "Praise the Lord, all you nations; extol Him, all you peoples.  For great is His love toward us, and the faithfulness of the Lord endures forever.  Praise the Lord."

 

Ok, so my "verse" is a whole chapter but this chapter is only 2 verses long...trying to wrap our mind around the vastness of God's love for us would have us figuratively chasing our tails.  So what I like to do, when I start to feel nearly overwhelmed at all God has given me, an unworthy sinner, is to stop contemplating and start praising!

 

Dear God,  We thank You for all You have given us through Your mercy and grace.  We do not deserve any of it and cannot fully comprehend Your love for us.  We choose to praise You instead of trying to make sense of it.  We want to praise You all the days of our life!  Amen.

Monday's Verse: Not By What We've Done

Titus 3:5 "5he saved us, not because of righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy. He saved us through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit,"

 

During Lent we focus a lot on Jesus life, death and we celebrate on Easter His resurrection which has saved us from our sins.  It is especially important that we remember, as we reflect on this, that it is not by anything we have done that God gave His Son to save us it is purely because of His mercy and grace.  How amazing and unfathomable is our loving Father!!!

 

Dear Lord,  Thank You for Your sacrifice and our salvation through You and the cross.  Please forgive us our sins and cleanse our souls through the power of the blood.  Amen. 

Rescue Me?

Daniel 6:27 "He rescues and He saves; He performs signs and wonders in the heavens and on the earth.  He has rescued Daniel from the power of the lions."

 

God does rescue, and He does save...He does these things when His timing is right...sometimes that makes us feel we are being left hanging on our own but we are never alone.  There is a Christian song on the radio that I love to sing along with, "I cry out with no reply and I can't feel You by my side but I'll cling tight to what I know, You're here and I'm never alone."

 

Dear God,  Thank You for being our Protector and our Deliverer.  Please help us to cling tight to You and to the knowledge that You never break Your promises and that means You will never leave us.  Amen.

Before The Womb!!

Jeremiah 1:5 "Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart; I appointed you as a prophet to the nations."

 

God may be talking to Jeremiah here however I believe He tells each of us this very same thing but it is a fill in the blank in a way, "I appointed you as a _______."  You may be a teacher, a mom, a friend, a preacher, or hundreds of other important things but the most important piece to remember is that God knew us and appointed us to our callings even before He formed us in the womb!

 

Thank You Father for knowing and love us so much that You planned our life's path even before we existed!  Please help us to keep this in our minds whenever we feel insignificant, alone or unloved.  Amen.

Like A Child

Luke 18:17 "I tell you the truth, anyone who will not receive the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it."

 

When we "grow up" we (hopefully) want to know more and we dive into learning as many answers about God, heaven, eternal life, Jesus life and death and so much more.  However, as great as it is to want to know Him more we still need to accept that He will not always reveal all the answers to us.  Just as a small child believes Jesus loves her/him because Daddy and Mommy and the priest all say it is in the Bible so must we still accept that He loves us and died for us without doubts in our hearts!

 

Dear Lord, Thank You for sending Your Son to be the ultimate example and to teach us some of what we would have never understood and ultimately for sacrificing His life to save ours.  Please help me to always trust You as a small child would, never doubting that You will work all things to good and someday call me home to You.  Amen.

Our Shepard

Ezekiel 34:11 "For this is what the Sovereign Lord says: I Myself will search for My sheep and look after them."

 

How amazing is our God!  He is our Shepard! As such, He searches for us when we have gone astray...when we make a mistake and fall away from Him, our Lord is searching for us even before we know we need to go back to Him...so wen we do realize it...He's already there, right beside us, ready to pick us up and carry us back to His flock.

 

Dear Father, Your love, grace and mercy set me into awe the more and more I get to know You.  Thank You for searching for me and looking after me even when I do not have You in my sight.  Please help me to keep You in my heart and feel Your presence securing me in my life.  Amen.

Rejoice!

Romans 5:11 "Not only is this so, but we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation."

 

I could probably focus a long amount of time to this verse but here is my sole focus today: rejoice!  Rejoice in our reconciliation with God, rejoice in our Lord and Savior, rejoice in this day He has made!  We have so much to rejoice in every day no matter where we are or what we are going through so today I encourage you to join me in praising God and shouting rejoice!

 

Dear Lord,  Thank You for forgiveness, for Your love and unfailing mercy, for everything You have given to us...please help me to always see what I have to rejoice about in You.  Amen.

Encouragement Comes From Us Too

Hebrews 3:13 "But encourage one another daily, as long as it is called Today, so that none of you may be hardened by sin's deceitfulness."

 

When I read this verse I felt like I have on two hats.  I try to do this each morning with these daily verses, however when I face the negativity at work I do not always encourage...more often than not I commiserate.  God knows we need each other and that's why so many times throughout His Word He encourages us to encourage (and lean upon) each other.

 

Dear Father,  Thank You for the ultimate encouragement...Your holy and precious Word!  I am grateful to be able to read it freely and find the answers You have given us in it.  Please help me to remember that not only do You encourage us and give us hope but also You have called upon us to do the same for each other.  Amen.

The Secret To Content

Phillippians 4:12 "I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty.  I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether living in plenty or in want."

 

I know I have said this before about another verse but this is one of those verses that I read and think, "I want that!"  I want to master the secret of being content in every situation.  I think I am close but I need to work on it some more, you know?  I guess what we need to focus on is the only thing we need...which is God. He will take care of the rest in His time.

 

Dear Lord,  Thank You for always providing for our needs.  Please help us to focus on you and know that even when we feel that we are in want, we are really in Your hands.  Amen.

Focus on Him

II Corinthians 4:18 "So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen.  For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal."

 

In short, focus on the eternal stuff, not the stuff of this world...right?  I think the more we focus on God the less the matters of this earth will seem so monumental.  I think the more we focus on God the more we will cling to Him and keep our hope in Him.

 

Dear Father,  Thank You for Your eternal promises!  Please help me to keep focused on You and Your eternal promises every day that I am awaiting Your call home.  Amen.

Comfort in Suffering

Psalm 119:50 "My comfort in my suffering is this: Your promise renews my life."

 

We all go through tough times and in the times of trial it may sometimes be hard to feel comfort from God and want to praise Him through our storms.  However, this verse really nails it...God's promise renews our lives and so we know He will deliver us from our suffering in His time.  He makes us whole and new every day through His amazing promises.  Let's cling to that!

 

Dear God,  Thank You for all of Your promises which You so graciously reveal to us through Your precious Word.  Please help us to cling to You and Your promises to comfort us in our times of suffering.  Amen.

Monday's Verse: Day of Rest

Hebrews 4:9 "There remains, then, a Sabbath-rest for the people of God"

 

I can confess that I have not always kept the Sabbath day as a day of complete rest...I've done laundry, dishes, the checkbook... But I am coming to realize that I do need to rest, it is not a suggestion, it is one of God's 10 Commandments which is also in the New Testament as still remaining.  Maybe, just maybe, if we rest when we're supposed to then we will find it easier to have enough energy to face our week of work.

 

Dear Lord,  Thank You for Your example and command to rest.  Please help me to remember that the Sabbath is for rest and that I should keep from working on it.  Amen.

The Lord Does Not Change

Malachi 3:6 "I the Lord do not change.  So you, O descendants of Jacob, are not destroyed."

 

In so many situations change is almost inevitable...so it is so refreshing and reassuring to know that God does not change.  Not ever!  He is the same yesterday, today and forever and I am personally able to better face other changes in my life because I know in my heart, my soul and my mind the He is the one constant and sturdy Rock in my life forever.

 

Dear Lord,  I am incredibly grateful that You are constant, that You do not change.  Please help comfort me with this promise from Your precious Word as I face the changes of this world and grant me the wisdom to dwell on Your world as the only one that truly matters.  Amen.