Day 251: My Life and Soul Depends on It

Isaiah 55:3

“Come to me with your ears wide open. Listen, and you will find life.

I will make an everlasting covenant with you. I will give you all the unfailing love I promised to David.”

When I read this scripture I am reminded of Romans 10:17. It reads, So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God. This is where our faith lies, in the word of God, hearing his word and believing it brings us to have faith in Him and trust in not only what He can do but also who He is. He is our heavenly father. Jesus is our risen Savior. We know these things from the word of God, we were not there to witness them but we have faith and we believe that Jesus came to save us and what He did on that cross 2500 years ago is still saving souls today. In the word of God lies everything we need, our soul thrives on this beautiful book full of love letters from our father. This is why it is so very important that we hear the word of God but listen as well because as the scripture states above, in it we find life.

Listening to God, and coming to Him with open ears as explained in the scripture above is our way to life. Through His word we live, we thrive, we grow, in every way possible. We are living on borrowed breath. Everything that we are depends on God. Our lives depend on the word of God, the state of our souls depend on the word of god. The life we live is because of the word of God. I have talked to many people who view the bible as a rule book, it’s not. It’s so much more than that and way more important than being told what we cannot do. No His word is a book of love letters, it is a book of stories of who God is and what He has done, in the lives of His people and prophecies of what He will continue to do. It’s is full of wisdom and knowledge, love is the very foundation of our faith. In the bible we find not only commandments but we find how much God loves us, we get a glimpse of the magnitude of His love for us. We see how He is in constant pursuit of our hearts, we see the lengths He goes through just to make sure that we have life. To make sure that we have a relationship with Him. The word of God has life written all over it.

We are constantly looking for the secrets of life. We want to know how to survive this crazy bumpy sometimes unbearable road we are on. But I feel like God is telling us, I have the answer. You want the key to life, I got it. Just listen to me, Listen to my word, come to me with open ears and I will tell you how to obtain this everlasting life. I will guide you, I will give you a teacher. You want to know what it’s like to really live? I’ll give you a life you never thought you’d have. But first, you have to listen, come to me with yours ears and heart wide open. I have all the answers, but you gotta listen to me. It’s imperative that we listen to Him.

Through His word we find that we have an everlasting covenant with our father in Heaven, He says, all that unfailing love I promised David, yeah I want to love you the same way. I want to love you and I want you to know that I love you. God’s love is unfailing, literally it never fails. No matter what, we can always depend on His love. We can find hope in knowing that if no one else loves us, our God does and that’s better than being admired by millions.

All this to say, everything we are is because of everything He is. We are nothing without Him. Our very existence depends on Him. Allow your soul find solace in the word of God, knowing that every word written on those pages is ordained and inspired by the living God. We are because god is…

Reflection

1. Do you believe that everything you are is because of everything God is?
2. What is your initial response to what we talked about today. Be elaborate and explain.

Prayer Time

Allow your answers to the above questions guide your prayer today, have a conversation with god. Just take the time to listen and respond to Him. Whatever that looks like to you.

I love you and I hope you have an amazing day or evening! Be sure to share this with someone and come back tomorrow for Day 252!

Day 246: WE LIVE! (Know your Worth)

1 Corinthians 7:23

God paid a high price for you, so don't be enslaved by the world.

1 Peter 1:18-19

Knowing that you were ransomed from the futile ways inherited from your forefathers, not with perishable things such as silver or gold, but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without blemish or spot.

I think we are all under the common knowledge of the cost of our salvation. We know the price Jesus paid so that we could be saved, and live a life free of sin and shame. We know John 3:16, and how powerful the message is of this beautiful scripture. The scripture tells us that God loves us so much, the scripture states that he “so loved the world”. He loves us so much that He sent His son, his only son, to die so that we may have an everlasting life. So that we may be saved and have a relationship with Him. Jesus came to earth and willingly gave up His life because He loves us so much. Through these actions of selfless and unconditional love, we live. We live freely, and unbound to anything or anyone. We live free of guilt, shame, sin, fear, regret, our past. Free of it all, we live. I want to talk about two major points today, starting with us as the body of Christ knowing our worth, as well as knowing that life is worth living.

Know your worth

Matthew 6:26

Look at the birds. They don’t plant or harvest or store food in barns, for your heavenly Father feeds them. And aren’t you far more valuable to him than they are?

Do you understand that you are worth more? What I mean is to God, you are worth the life of His son. Let’s think about that for a minute. You are valuable to God. We are the things He loves most. Out of all creation, and we can all agree that we have seen some astoundingly beautiful things in our lifetime. We have seen beauty beyond words, and even in that light, when God looks at us, we are more beautiful. We can be standing in the middle of the most beautiful place on Earth, but in God’s eyes we are the most beautiful thing on earth or even in the universe. We are more valuable in His eyes. Knowing this truth, how are we to go through life? Knowing that we are so worthy in the eyes of God, how are we to carry ourselves? We cannot walk around defeated or without confidence because our father in heaven has the victory and He has given it to us. Our father in heaven has given us the biggest confidence boost of all time. One of the biggest parts of life is knowing or finding our worth. Many times we will come to the conclusion that we have been selling ourselves short. If we want to survive in life, we must know our worth. It’s imperative that we understand our worth. To do that we must look to God and His word.

Life is worth living

Jesus gave his life so that we can have life. That’s how much He loves us. But also that is how important we are to Him. That’s how important our lives are to Him. He didn’t just give up His life for no reason. There was something He knew that we didn’t. Jesus knew our worth, He knew that we were created for a purpose and He could not allow our lives to be destroyed and continuously corrupted by sin. Our lives are worth living. Our lives are meant to be lived. Our lives are so important that He would give up His to make sure we have ours. That means we have a purpose, There is a reason for us to be here, So much so, that Jesus gave up His life to make sure we can live. God sent His son to make sure we can live. We’re here for a reason. If we had no purpose, if our lives didn’t matter why would Jesus give up  His life for ours?

All this to say, know your worth and know that your life has a purpose. You have a purpose. You are here for a reason. Jesus did something for us that no one else could do, He gave us a chance to live.  Money couldn’t do it, only love could.

Reflection

1. Do you believe that your life is important to God?
2. Do you believe that you are here for a reason?
3. Are you aware of your worth?

Prayer Time

Allow your answers to the above questions guide your prayer today. Have some time of silence and solitude with God. Spend time with God, just take the time to think about how much He loves you.

I love you and I hope you have an amazing day or evening. Be sure to share this with someone and come back tomorrow for Day 247!

Day 112: The Way He Loves Us

If we ever wanted to know what the love of God looks like, we can always refer to the book of Hosea. God used Hosea and his marriage to Gomer as a perfect example of how He loves us, even in our mess.

Hosea 1:2

When the Lord first began speaking to Israel through Hosea, he said to him, “Go and marry a prostitute,  so that some of her children will be conceived in prostitution. This will illustrate how Israel has acted like a prostitute by turning against the Lord and worshiping other gods.”

God gives Hosea specific instructions, He tells Him to go and marry a prostitute. You read right, God told Him to marry a prostitute. Someone He knew could not be faithful. Someone who would run off with other men, and sell her body to them, even though she had a husband at home that would not make her pay for it. She had someone at home who would love her for everything she is and not use her for everything she has. But the twist in this, is that Gomer represents Israel, and Hosea represents Him. How Israel turned to other gods so often, and could not remain faithful. But God has always been there, He does not stop loving them. And to take that a bit further, we are Gomer, we are the ones that cannot stay faithful.

Hosea was in for a world of pain and heartbreak when he married Gomer. He was marrying someone who could not love Him in the way he loved her. She was too occupied with her life, too occupied with the lifestyle she was leading before she met Hosea. Hosea had to deal with the fact that His wife was not only out there sleeping with other men but she was somewhere sleeping with other men, for money. Hosea knew that she was worth so much more, but Gomer didn’t know her worth. That must have been heartbreaking. I wonder how he felt, having to go get his wife from those forbidden places where she was being used by so many different men.

This is what we do to God when we choose to sin, when we choose to be unfaithful or live a life outside of His will. We are allowing our spirit to be used and corrupted by so many different things and God has to come and clean us off every time. He does it because His love for us is so strong. God loves us so much and that will never change, but can we imagine how heartbroken He is when we decide to turn away from Him. We may not be a prostitute, like Gomer, but we all have our form of prostitution. When we knowingly engage in sin, we are being unfaithful to God. When we walk away from Him and His word, we are breaking His heart. God knows our worth in the same way Hosea knew Gomer’s worth. How heartbreaking it must be for Him to watch us throw away our potential, and walk around as if we are worthless.

Hosea 3: 1-2

Then the Lord said to me, “Go and love your wife again, even though she commits adultery with another lover. This will illustrate that the Lord still loves Israel, even though the people have turned to other gods and love to worship them.” So I bought her back for fifteen pieces of silver and five bushels of barley and a measure of wine.

The most beautiful part about it all is that God can be angry at us, but He will always look at us and say, “But I love you.” He loves us so much.

God tells Hosea to go love His unfaithful wife. Go find her eventhough she is committing adultery with another man, love her. God doesn’t say leave her, He says love her. And it will be a symbol of how he stills loves israel even though they have turned to different gods. God is not into giving up on His people, even when we deserve to be left out in the desert. He says I will never leave you but I will forever love you.

Hosea then goes and buys his own wife. He goes down to the place where a man of God should not have been. Hosea was a prophet, and the place where Gomer was, was not a place a prophet should be. He had to go to some pretty low and dirty place to get his wife back, and not only that, he had to pay for her. His own wife, he had to pay for to release her from the hands of the men who only wanted her for sex.

God did the same thing for us, when we are in the unclean and dirty places. He will walk that path to find us and bring us home. Not only will He do that but He was and is willing to pay the price to cut the ties. He paid the price so that we would not be bound by where we once were. God sent His son, He sent Jesus down into these places of sin so that we could be delivered. Jesus came and found us, and paid the highest price for our soul, His life, He gave his life for us.

John 3:16

For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten son, so that whoever believes in Him, should not perish but have everlasting life.

God loves us so much that He sent His son in pursuit of our hearts. The very hearts that turned away from Him, He came seeking them. Jesus walked in places the religious people refused to go, but one of His own was in that dark place. Hosea went down to that place because his wife was down there and He  had to go get her. Jesus ate with sinners, and walked into the homes of sinners, but there was a soul that needed to be saved.

Reflection

1. Can you recall a time in your life where you have been like Gomer?

Prayer Time

Allow you answer to the above question guide your prayer. Take to time today to reflect on the passages today, and read through the full chapters. If there is anything in you that is causing you to turn away from God, bring it to Him. Confess, and repent and allow God to give you a new heart. Talk to God today, whatever it may be talk to Him. this is between you and God, no one else, let Him work on you.

I love you and I hope you have an amazing day or evening. Share this with someone, and be sure to come back tomorrow for Day 113!