Tag Archives: Assurance

Devotions, Kingdom of God, Life, Motivation, PINOGAM

Grassy Hillside thought Who, Why, What

Hillside Thoughts for Monday – Day 287 of the year 2024 – October 14

Matthew 6:9-13 “This then is how you should pray: Our Father in Heaven, hollowed be your name, your kingdom come, you will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.  Give us today our daily bread. And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. And lead us not into temptation but deliver us from the evil one.”

—————————————————–

Jesus considers three things: character, conscience, and conduct.  When we establish an equilibrium between these three things of “Who am I”, “Why I do”, and “What I do”, then we will have a balanced life.

When we set our lives in order before God, we have a new character, the “Who am I” for me is a Child of God. Once my character has been set, then my motive, my “why I do”, becomes clear. My motivation in life is to conform to God’s will.  My why must conform to my who. Finally, and only when my character defines my conscience, then and only then can I do. Actions speak louder than words, but both must conform to the who and the why.  The “What I do” must align with the “Why I do.”

Seeing ourselves as children of God, conforming to His image, will result in doing. When all three are in line, can we live valiantly, peacefully, joyously, and lovingly in the Kingdom of Heaven.  We can have our bread, we can forgive, we can resist temptation and we can be delivered.  That is enough.

# Just Larry

Devotions

Miracle of Peace

Thought for March 28–

John 14:26-27 “The Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have told you. Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you.  I do not give to you as the world gives.  Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.”

——————————————————–

Everywhere I look, there is everything but peace. Wars,  political infighting, and the declining health of those I love, all wanting to steal my inner tranquility.

Like B. J. Thomas sang, “The rain keeps falling on my head, And just like the guy whose feet are too big for his bed, nothing seems to fit,” Life doesn’t conform to my standards.  Yet there is still a feeling of peace in my soul.  Praise God!  My sins are forgiven.  I have declared to be at peace with God.  God is at peace with me. Today I will experience the peace that is simply incomprehensible. I trust in a God that loves, cares, draws, forgives, restores, destroys fear, and limits trouble within my heart.

I live with peace within myself, I live in peace with one another, I live at peace with God.  When things change inside me, things change around me.”

#

Devotions

I will keep on keeping on

Psalm 9:1-4 “I will give thanks to you, LORD, with all my heart; I will tell of all your wonderful deeds. I will be glad and rejoice in you; I will sing the praises of your name, O Most High. My enemies turn back; they stumble and perish before you. For you have upheld my right and my cause, sitting enthroned as the righteous judge.”

—————————————————————

David wrote these words to be sung somberly and mournfully.  To the tune of “The Death of a Son.” It could have been written in response to the death of his first son by Bathsheba was dead and he had fallen into despair.  These words were sung in response to heavy grief.  Things were not going well.  Times were tough.  There was discord in his Kingdom.  It was not to be a light and airy piece about shouting from the roof tops the praise to God.  Life while comfortable, was full of disappointment and unrealized expectations. To borrow a line from a 60’s TV show, “Gloom, despair, excessive misery, if it were not for bad luck, I’d have no luck at all.” 2020 and 2021 have not been the best for us all.  Masks, shots, and social distancing seems to have taken the zest from life.

Yet today, I will not be overcome by the dirge of the world and simply “give thanks with all my heart, for all that God has done.  I will sing the praises of God.  I will keep on keeping on; always looking forward and not back. 

Devotions

Of clothing and grass

1 Comment

Matthew 6:28-30 “So why do you worry about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin; and yet I say to you that even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. Now if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is, and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will He not much more clothe you, O you of little faith?

The world has become bi-polar. Everything is poured into one of two buckets. Everything seems to be either good or bad. There is no middle ground which allows judgement. One bucket is much larger than the other. The smaller of the two is filled with the good, pure, lovely, heartwarming, and beautiful. But these wondrous things barely cover the bottom of the bucket. The sides of the bucket are rarely wet. The problem is that it is easy to give into negativity. It is hard to see the good in world. The hilltop lecture is telling me to be more cognizant of the beauty of life. God loves beauty. He created beauty. I may not as well dressed as Solomon or seen as beauty in your eyes. Yet, God delights in the adornment he supplies. I am a new creature born in beauty before God. It is filling my good bucket today. God supplies me with everything I need to do what God has for me today.

Uncategorized

April is ASSURANCE Month, Day 29

God did not appoint us to suffer wrath but to receive salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ. He died for us so that, whether we are awake or asleep, we may live together with him. 1 Thessalonians 5:9-10*

May a sweet feeling of assurance fill our hearts for a moment with a sweet glow. For a twinkling of an eye, we let that experience wash over us.  There have been events of blessing in my life.  They have happened in good time and in some not so good times. In these occasions I have given God all the glory.  But what about the in-between times? The very experience of God’s presence is not enough to keep me all the time.  I have discovered it is the assurance of faith that is the best of all.  It endures whether I am blessed or not. Assurance is the benefit of faith.  I live and breathe in the constancy of assurance. It is held on the level of perfection because it is bound on a promise of God who never changes.    

Uncategorized

28th day of assurance

April is ASSURANCE Month, Day 28When you were dead in your sins and in in the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made you alive with Christ. He forgave us all our sins, having canceled the charge of our legal indebtedness, which stood against us and condemned us; he has taken it away, nailing it to the cross. Colossians 2:13-14

Why was Jesus destined for the cross? Why would he submit his head to be crowned with thorns and his back bloodied? Why would a blameless and a perfectly loving person have to die? He submitted to it for me. It was so I can have my own personal shortcomings and willful disobedience separated from me. All that would weigh me down and slow me are rolled away. It is only at the cross where I can see the light of forgiveness and assurance.

Devotions

April is ASSURANCE Month, Day 27

But when the kindness and love of God our Savior appeared, he 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, whom he poured out on us generously through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that, having been justified by his grace, we might become heirs having the hope of eternal life. Titus 3:4-7

April has been a month of revelation of the importance of assurance in my life.  To be well grounded in the Word of God, to accept God’s promises, to walk in the light as He is in the light.  Not because of anything I have done or even deserve.  I live in the assurance of God loving me. It is God dwelling in me as I realize this presence and know to whom I belong. One is salvation the other the assurance of it.

Devotions, Uncategorized

April is ASSURANCE Month, Day 18 – Romans 5:6-8

You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous person, though for a good person someone might possibly dare to die. But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

Joy is a completed, accepted, and settled assurance of God.  Joy comes from knowing that God is still in control.  Joy comes from a quiet confidence of our forgiven past, current care and resignation to God in my tomorrows. Joy is the assurance that everything, everything, everything is going to be alright. And in that joy of assurance, I am determined to give all praise and credit to God in everything.