Do You Want to Be Rich?

Scripture_Matthew 5:3
Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

Greetings: Praise God for this day, for His eternal word which is a lamp unto our feet in the corridor of life. Today, I desired to finish part 2 of the previous devotion I Will Make You! But all I kept hearing in the spirit is this phrase...Blessed are the poor. The world in which we live says the opposite...You must be full of knowledge, worldly wisdom, and basically, full of yourself, to make a life for yourself, by yourself. But if we are full of ourselves, how can we have the capacity to receive from God? Selah . . . As I write this to myself and let you in on the conversation, I pray that you be blessed.

Meditation:

First, what is a beatitude? Stacy's definition: The attitude that the Lord wants us to become. Wikipedia gives more insight. The term Beatitude comes from the Latin adjective beatus which means happy, fortunate, or blissful.

In the scripture, Jesus had called a few disciples, students, close followers, and went about doing good healing multitudes of people suffering from all manner of disease who then  followed Him.  Jesus and His disciples went into a mountain and  the Lord shared a number of teachings, the Beatitudes, with the multitude. They are also referred to as the Sermon on the Mount. 

In the first discourse in Matthew 5:3, Jesus  pronounces a blessing upon the poor in spirit saying happy, fortunate, and blissful are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. The KINGDOM of HEAVEN! 

There is just one thing, only those of us who agree that we are poor in spirit can receive this gift. Perhaps if we compare ourselves with one another, we will see that we are not that bad, not too poor. But if we gaze upon the Lord, His word,  what we immediately know for sure in the vision of such holiness is our spiritual poverty.

When we acknowledge that we are a poor people the Lord has drawn into divine relationship with Himself, we can receive the Kingdom of Heaven from the King of glory, Jesus Christ. We are poor, yet rich because we have Jesus. These "Be Atitudes" are impossible to attain to on our own...they are just not natural. Attaining to them is a divine, supernatural work of the Holy Spirit.  Can I spare you some heartache trying to do it by yourself? We will review them in the coming weeks together. Let's pray.

Prayer:

Dear Lord, thank you for your word. Please grant us the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Jesus Christ. Thank you for enlightening the eyes of our understanding that we may know what is the hope of our calling and the riches of the glory of the Lord's inheritance in the saints. Help us to be poor in spirit that we may receive the exceeding greatness of your power because we believe, according to the working of your mighty power which was won in Christ when he rose from the dead and was set at the right hand of all power in heavenly places.

Thank you Lord that all things are under your feet. (Ephesians 2:17-22). My financial situation is under your feet. My impoverished thoughts, attitudes are under your feet. I thank you that you delight to answer this prayer for it is your will. In God, I will praise your word. I am poor and needy, yet you think about me. You are my help and my deliverer (Psalm 40:17). Please grant us the kingdom of heaven. We receive it by faith and believe you to manifest the reign of your kingdom in and through our lives on earth as it is in heaven.

For thine is the kingdom, the power and the glory, forever and ever. Amen.

Eternally yours.

I Will Make You

Scriptures_Matthew 4:19; Mark 1:17

(Matthew): And he saith unto them, Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men.

(Mark): Come ye after me, and I will make you to become fishers of men.

Meditation: (Part 1)

Are there not enough television shows that promise a fabulous make over? I know at times in my life, I wanted to have a make over because I so wanted to be this or that. Granted, I believe that a new mind needs a new hair do, but the new wardrobe, hair do, new shoes, new car, new job, new city...those things are wonderful additives, but what so many of us really desire is more than the exterior change...we want to be made new! We want to possess a new outlook on ourselves, on life, on the world. Don't you?

When the Lord Jesus spoke the words in the two scriptures above, he was  at the beginning his work on earth which was, essentially, to do good, destroy the works of the evil one, lay his life down to die for us, and be resurrected.

To frame it a little more, Jesus had just overcome great temptation in the wilderness to choose a different pathway for his life. He was fully God and fully man, living on earth and could have chosen to make himself a king with all the earthly glory the title and status affords, exalt himself throughout all the world, but instead, he stayed the pathway leading to the cross where he would be mocked, scorned, beaten, and brutally killed (which was the Father's good plan and agreement all along).

Along this journey, we too can be tempted to pursue the way of the world, the accolades and what society deems as "making it," or settle for less while having an inner knawing of the soul because you know you were created for so much more and the vision is still foggy.

Selah (Let's pause and think about that.)

Alternatively, we can inquire of the Creator of the universe who created us by His divine design and seek what He has in store for us. Any creator, inventor knows exactly what the creation is supposed to do, how it will be achieved, and how to fix it when things are not functioning properly, need replacement or maintenance. How much more is our Heavenly Father, who knows the thoughts he thinks toward us, thoughts of peace to bring us to an expected end, well acquainted with our frame? (Jeremiah 29:11) He knows we are but dust filled with His breath.

God gives us talents, skills, the capacity to become who He desires us to become, but there are blessings we cannot receive until we know Him in His fullness and believe. (I didn't write the last part, it is from a beautiful song.) When we invite Jesus into our hearts, surrender our lives into His hands, and cultivate this new relationship, we can know our Father's heart...by His word.  He will reveal His desire for us, toward us, and make us to become a jewel in His crown. God's words have the power of the Holy Spirit behind them to accomplish what he sends them to do. 

Part two of this meditation will follow.

Prayer:

Dear Heavenly Father, I praise you for you are so good to me. Thank you for inviting me to know you. I don't want an exterior make over to look different, I want to be made new from the inside out into the person you desired by your design. Please reveal to me day by day who you are and who I am in you and help me to wait on you, for my flight instructions come from my Heavenly controller who is also Master of the universe. 

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Thank you Master, Jesus. You are the reason I live and move.

Eternally yours,

Amen.

My Beloved

Scripture_Matthew 3:17

And lo a voice from heaven, saying This my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. 

Meditation:

I love this scripture. This is the first time we see beloved in the New Testament which God the Father declares over Jesus at His baptism. Beloved means esteemed, dear, favorite, worthy of love.

God loves everyone He created and desires us to be reconciled to have a relationship with Him. All we have to do ask Jesus to come into our heart, forgive us of our sins that he died a horrible death to forgive, and receive His peace. When we do this and live to please God, we become God's beloved.

As followers of Jesus Christ, we are loved just as much as God loves Jesus! Do you know that you are beloved of God?? I mean really? This is so wonderful...I will spend the rest of my life searching the height, the depth of His love which is eternal. We will never get to the bottom of His perfect love which cast away our fears.

In the meditation scripture, the voice of God declared to all who surrounded Jesus at his baptism that Jesus is beloved and well pleasing unto him. When we make the choice to be fully immersed in the life of God, He speaks the same words over us--that we are His children, we are beloved, and well pleasing. This declaration is not a one-time thing, but this is the song the Lord sings over us. 

Zephaniah 3:17 says, "The Lord in the midst of thee is mighty; He will save, he will rejoice over thee with joy; He will rest in his love, he will joy over thee with singing."

Up to this point in Matthew, what did Jesus do to please the Father? After all, don't we have to do a lot of good things to make God love us more and more? Jesus had not performed any miracles. He simply lived in obedience to God.

As a baby, Jesus' parents brought Him to the temple and dedicated Him to God as was the custom. But when Jesus matured as an adult and consciously made the decision to live a consecrated life unto His Father, as an example to us, He was baptized which means to be immersed as if by water. This baptism was a sign to everyone around that he is set-apart to fulfill the will of God. He died to His own will, and came out of the waters of baptism dedicated to God.

This is what pleased the Father, and at this time, the Spirit of God descended upon Him as if by a dove. 

We do not obey the Bible perfectly, but we can live blamelessly before God which means honestly. We come to Him when we blow it. We seek His counsel from His word, and we get up and walk with God again. When we have the desire to live whole-heartedly before God, he takes our desire, and our very desire, not fully realized, pleases Him! It moves His heart. We can be sure that God declares over us, "This my beloved son, my beloved daughter in whom I am well pleased." Further, He says that we are worthy of love.

Prayer:

Abba Father, I thank you for loving me and calling me your own. I desire to live wholly for you. Please help me to live knowing that you are well pleased with me, and that I am worthy of love simply because I am yours. You make me worthy because you are worthy. Then Lord, I can share the joy and peace with others who do believe that you love them. May your love cover the earth as the waters cover the sea. 

Eternally yours,

Amen.

Working with Jesus

Scripture_Matthew 3:15
And Jesus answering unto him, Suffer it to be so now: for thus it becometh us to fulfill all righteousness. Then he suffered him.

Meditation:

This scripture talks about Jesus' response to John who was to baptize him. John, being a forerunner of Jesus, knew that Jesus was the lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. He knew that he was not worthy to even untie his shoe, but Jesus had invited him to fulfill his part in the great plan of God.

What I love is the humility of the Lord. He is the son of God in the flesh and fully God, yet he allowed is "protege," so to speak, to join him in fulfilling all righteousness. Notice that Jesus says "it becometh us." What a savior! As believers in Christ, we too are co-laborers and joint-heirs with Christ (Romans 8:17). Nothing was above the Lord. He who knew no sin, still went through the process of baptism as an example for those of us who follow him. He could have skipped this process, but if he had, those around Him would not have seen the heavens open...they would not have heard the voice of the Father say from heaven, "This is my Son, hear him." They would not have beheld the glory of God and the presence of the Holy Spirit resting upon Jesus as a dove. The seemingly little things we do out of obedience to the Lord yield the joy and the glory of God we may never experience if we do not obey.

Prayer:

Dear Lord, you are so meek and humble, yet all powerful. Thank you for inviting me to walk with you.  Help me to trust and obey, as the song we sing...for there is no other way to be happy in you Jesus.

Eternally yours,
Amen.

Meditations on Who We Are & Becoming in Christ

I pray you are blessed and encouraged today, for God is good and His mercy is from everlasting to everlasting. I am writing a series of meditations on Who God Says We Are from the Bible. The first series will review the red-letter words of Jesus Christ, although there may be occasional scriptures like the first two meditations that are not in red letter, but are God's declaration.

Day by day, we are bombarded with information in the media that we are not this enough or that enough. We may even, at times, think thoughts about ourselves that are contrary to what the Lord declares because of our circumstances and trials that test our faith to the max, so we think. Some people in our midst may  not think well of us and share the info. We may even be blessed to have cheerleaders in our circle, but there is no greater cheerleader than Almighty God. The word of God is pure, tried in the fire seven times. His words never return to Heaven void without accomplishing what He has sent it to do. So we can be assured that as we pray His word and truth, we are on good ground and can shout a resounding AMEN! It is so. Let it be as you have spoken it.

My prayer through this study is to grow stronger in the grace of God and that you will be encouraged and strengthened. You might not need them today, but tuck these words away in your reservoir of truth that will continually set us free!

The textbook is: The Holy Bible :-)