Daily Thought – Present suffering for future glory!!
Word: For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us. Romans 8:18
Thought: When we go through suffering in our day to day lives, we tend to question why these happen when God is in control. God does allow suffering in the life of His children. Do we live stressed up and worried with all the sufferings or we look at the future glory and all the current sufferings turnout to be nothing? If we are on the earlier, we need to think if we really are waiting in absolute faith on the day we are going to be glorified by Him or we are wavering on our faith and if our faith is strong, then the present sufferings should appear nothing more than a passing cloud. Are we fixing our eyes on temporal things that we loose sight of eternal glory which is going to be there forever. After we experience the salvation in our lives, let us live a life which is more focused on our eternity and let our priorities be aligned to the same.
Prayer: Dear Lord, help me to walk in thy spirit, that my current sufferings are diminished to nothing and help me live a life thinking of the glory when we meet you face to face.
Daily Thought – What are we banking on?
Word: For what benefit is it for a person to gain the whole world, yet forfeit his life? Mark 8:36
Thought: The Lord is very clear on this statement and it is speaking to each of us. When it comes to investing our money, we ensure we do to get the best returns; When we invest in our work, family or self we will invest our efforts to get the best returns, but do we invest on something which is eternal and everlasting or we tend to ignore it most part of our lives? We get closer to the end of our life on earth every moment and there is a life which is waiting for eternity. Are we foolish to invest for the moment and do we life and cherish life for the moment or be wise and invest ourselves in the Lord. Let us think a moment that every minute of our life we live to gain the world or gain our life for eternity – if it is still the former, let us submit to the Lord this morning and change our lives to live a life which gains for eternity and not for the worldly gains. Let us invest on earth for what is eternal and not on what is temporal and fades away like a flower which is blown by a wind. Let us not be uncertain on this, let us be certain that we have gained our life for eternity and bank on the Lord and grow rich in Him and receive the eternal joy and lasting treasures He has in store for us.
Prayer: Dear Lord, even this morning help us to bank on you and let us invest our lives in you Lord that we receive everlasting treasure from you. Change our minds on the way we perceive our lives and help us to live for eternity in this short life on earth.
Daily Thought – Do we walk with the Lord?
Word: “Woe to the rebellious children,” says the Lord,“Who take counsel, but not of Me, And who devise plans, but not of My Spirit,That they may add sin to sin; Who walk to go down to Egypt,And have not asked My advice,To strengthen themselves in the strength of Pharaoh,And to trust in the shadow of Egypt! Isaiah 30:1,2
Thought: Due to the enormous knowledge we gain from many other sources than the true pure word of God, we tend to move to Egypt and try to live in the Strength of the pharoah. We devise strategies and great plans with masterminds and the counsel of mighty men, but forget to seek the advice of God in our ways. It might be in our secular world, family or ministry, we should always listen to God who is best counselor and greatest adviser of all times and all situations. When we tend to rely on strengths of people, we move away from the path of God and fall to sin our trust is the Lord shifts to trust on people and we are deceived. We should be very careful in our walk in all walks of our life to walk with him in all our ways and listen to his plans, else we fall to strategic plans which are not from the spirit, but according to the flesh which causes us to sin and move away from him. Wait on the Lord, get the plans devised by him and have him as your strength and receive the counsel from the spirit which will lead you according to the will of God.
Prayer: Dear Lord. help me today to walk in your way and to have you as my strength in everything and let my strength not rely on the people of the world. Let your spirit advice me on the path I should take and counsel me on the way I should go. Amen.
Daily Thought – God or World – you decide!!
Daily Thought: No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be loyal to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon. Matthew 6:24
Word: This is a word which is familiar to us, but we tend to ignore it as much as possible as we consider our wealth to be a blessing from God. These words come from the Lord after explaining through the ‘Beatitudes’ what is to be truly blessed. When we receive the so called blessings of the world, let us make sure that we are not loving them and continue to crave for them, but be content and look up to God to understand what He wants us to do with those blessings. Jesus warns just above it “For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also” – do we know where our treasure is? Jesus very clear here saying we cannot serve God and wealth – let us always make sure our positions and possessions are a glory to God and not a glory to them and making us serve them rather than serving God. When we move jobs and places what is our aspiration – if it is crave for more worldly blessings, let us stop and reexamine ourselves if our love for the Lord is more than the love of our worldly possessions. If we continue to amass wealth thinking it is a blessing from God and continue to live a merry life, there might be a danger, so let us make sure our service and love is to the Lord more than anything else and let not the wealth take control of our lives.
Prayer: Dear Lord, provide me enough that I could handle and help me to love you more than the world and all the possessions I have. Let them not take control over my love for you and help me to serve you in all situations. Amen.
Daily Thought – Reconciling and forgiving before praying!!
Word: And whenever you stand praying, if you have anything against anyone, forgive him, that your Father in heaven may also forgive you your trespasses. Mark 11:25
Thought: We memorized the Lord’s prayer when we were young and continue to say it often, but many a times we do not mean it when we say – this is part of it which is very important when we pray. Before we start to pray every time or at least at the end of the day, let us forgive the people who have done wrong to us knowingly or unknowingly. Remember, the forgiveness is not from the mouth but from the heart. How many times when we pray that we are not able to pray for some people or hypocritically pray – the Lord sees our heart and we rather not pray than to pray with a grudge in the heart. All of us sin and we need forgiveness from the Lord, but if we are not able to forgive the small mistakes done by people around us, how much ever good deeds we do, the Lord will not forgive us. We, who receive mercy from the Lord which is countless, need to merciful and forgiving others, else the Lord will not forgive us – this has been clear on Jesus’ teachings and explain through the parable of the Unforgiving servant. Let us forgive before asking forgiveness to the Lord and reconcile with others before praying to the Lord.
Quote: “To be a Christian means to forgive the inexcusable because God has forgiven the inexcusable in you.” ― C.S. Lewis
Prayer: Dear Lord, help me forgive others, the way you forgive us. Let all the pride in my heart be thrown away that I am able to look at people the way you look at them that I will be able to forgive them the way you forgive them and receive your mercy. Amen.
