This blog is designed to create community for believers and provide support for seekers. I encourage all readers to share their faith in an effort to lift and encourage one another.
Philippians 1:9-11 “And this is my prayer: that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight, so that you may be able to discern what is best and may be pure and blameless until the day of Christ, filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ—to the glory and praise of God.” ~Philippians 1:9-11
Father, I pray this prayer from Philippians for myself and for all who are reading this. Give us the love that learns and understands You. Give us eyes to see Your “pure and blameless” will here on earth. Fill us with the fruits of Your Spirit, that we may minister to others, share Your glory, and give praise to our almighty God.
Remember the last time you received a gift-wrapped package from someone? Picture the box, wrapped in iridescent white paper, and tied with a beautiful bow. When you were handed this gift, what did you do? Did you open it immediately, eager to see what was inside? Did you want to personally thank the one who gave you such a gift? I suspect that most would open the gift right away so the giver of the gift could see the pleasure on your face as you received this present. But did you ever take a beautifully gift-wrapped package, put it on a shelf or in the closet, and leave it there unopened? I can’t imagine doing such a thing, can you?
After you gave a gift to a loved one, would you be offended if that person never opened it? Would it bother you if you paid a good deal of money to purchase this gift, only to have it sit, unopened, on the shelf? Or what if you hand-made a gift, and spent countless hours laboring, in love, to create something special? Would you be upset if the recipient of this gift didn’t even open it?
The one who longs to give us good gifts is God, our heavenly father. We are quickly able to receive His gifts of love and peace. We may at times neglect to use these gifts, but we have opened them and have expressed our gratitude to God for His generosity.
There is one gift from God, however, that we often find difficult to open: the gift of forgiveness. Psalm 86:5 (NKJ) says, “For You, Lord, are good, and ready to forgive, and abundant in mercy to all those who call upon You.” Unfortunately, many of us believe that our sins are just too terrible, so we cling to them. We know God forgives sins, but He surely won’t forgive this? We just can’t force ourselves to untie the bow and tear open the paper to receive the gift of forgiveness. Sometimes the problem is that we can’t forgive ourselves. “How could I have ever done that horrible thing?” we might wonder, and the beautifully wrapped package stays on the shelf, untouched.
God paid a great deal to give each of us this gift of forgiveness. For thirty-three years God’s son lived as a man on this earth, away from His home in heaven. That’s a long time to work on a gift of love. And He paid a high cost for this gift, too: He paid with His life. Don’t you think He would want us to open this gift?
Father God, forgive me. Forgive my many sins, both those I have recently committed and those of long ago that I harbor in my heart. Help me accept Your gift, wrapped in love and the sacrifice of Your son. Help me take it off the shelf, unwrap it and accept the forgiveness inside.
I John 1: 8-9 “If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.”
“I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know him better. I pry also that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, and his incomparable great power for us who believe. That power is like the working of his mighty strength….”
What a beautiful prayer from scripture. This is my prayer for you. Read it again. Perhaps we should all be praying it for one another. Will you pray with me?
“Faith never knows where it is being led, but it loves and knows the One who is leading.”
― Oswald Chambers
Lord, just as the tiny mustard seed can grow into a mighty tree, enable my faith to grow. Show me the path you’d have me take and give me the faith to walk that path, step by step. Even though I may not know what lies around the bend, let me trust in you for each of those steps since you know what is best for me. Thank you for loving me enough to guide me along this path of life.
What about you? What events have helped you to grow your faith and to worship the God who guides your steps?
Have you ever watched the potter at work? He centers a lump of clay on the wheel, creates a small indention in the middle, then pours water over the clay. As the wheel spins, his hands deftly shape the clay until he has created his pot in the shape he wants.
In scripture God is compared to a potter. Can you see him at work, creating with clay, molding and shaping each vessel until it’s the perfect shape and size? Each of us is carefully, lovingly, uniquely formed by our Lord’s hands.
Unfortunately, in our human perceptions, we view ourselves, the vessels he is shaping, and wish we were different. “Perhaps a different shape or size would be better,” we think, or we wish to use this pot for a different purpose. We constantly resist his hands, molding us to his will. But God, in His wisdom, knows what he is doing, and our wishes to change often illustrate how much we doubt his wisdom. Still, we constantly try to “correct” what God has made.
At times we look at others and wish to change them. “If this pot were just a little wider,” we mistakenly think, “it could be used for a different purpose. If this pot had a slightly different shape, it would be beautiful.” We try to change that vessel into our image. When we do that, we doubt God’s wisdom, and we doubt His handiwork. The clay never dictates to the potter what shape it should be; neither does it tell the potter how to shape other pots.
God created the world in seven days, yet he constantly refines and perfects us. Can you see him at His wheel? He pauses a moment, steps back, looks, and says, “It is good.”
Father, make us aware of your hand in our lives, shaping and molding each of us into your image. Help us to yield to Your hand and to Your judgment of the size, shape, and purpose for each of your precious vessels.
Isaiah 64:8: (NKJ): “Yet, O Lord, You are our Father; We are the clay, You are the potter we are all the work of are Your hand.”
“Right now, we wear our souls on the inside. But one day we will be “clothed in righteousness” as we wear our souls on the outside, brilliant and glorious.”
-Joni Eareckson Tada.
Thank you, Jesus, for enabling our souls to live in eternity with You,
Growing Our Faith Together 