PRAYER PRACTICE
SPOKEN PRAYER: Out loud, pray for God to speak to you through your reading. Praise God for giving us His word. Ask the Spirit to help you read with faith, and to live out what you hear from God through the passage.
DAILY READING
REFLECTION
Let the AMEN Resound!
by Pastor Dave Mann
Amen! Yes! Let it be so!
This paragraph is one of the most affirming and positive passages in the entire Bible. The apostle Paul has stated and restated in many different ways that God desires the best for us. God wants to do whatever is necessary for our ultimate blessing and salvation. He is even willing to send his one and only begotten Son to die so that we can live forever with him in purity and righteousness.
“Yes” in Christ.
“Amen” is spoken to the glory of God.
He anointed us.
He set his seal of ownership on us.
He put his Spirit in our hearts as a deposit.
He guaranteed what is to come.
Nevertheless, there are times in our lives when the wily whispers of the Enemy lean into our hearts with the thought that God has forgotten us, that God is against us, that God does not really love us all that much.
Listen to what God really wants us to hear:
I am not against you. Even when it feels like I’m against you because I’m not giving you what you want or what even feels reasonable or what other people get. I’m never your enemy and I’m never out to hurt you or deprive you of what is good.
No. I am for you. Always. Because I love you. And it’s because I want the very best for you that sometimes I have to keep you from the second-best, or even what seems good, or perhaps what we both know isn’t right or true. [heathercking.org]
What, then, shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who is against us? He who did not spare His own Son but delivered Him over for us all, how will He not also with Him freely give us all things? (Romans 8:31-32) Paul continues to write that Christ is the only one who has the authority to condemn us, but he is the one who chose to give his life for us!
O Lord Jesus, forgive me when I listen to the Enemy and start once again to doubt your love for me. In your Word and in your demonstration of outstretched arms, you have guaranteed that your steadfast love is everlasting. Thank you! Amen and Amen!
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