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 :-)

God Is Going to Turn It All Around!

Sometimes I find myself getting into the hum drum of life wondering, "When is this situation going to change?" I'm praying and believing God to make what is "not yet," "already!" Am I the only one who feels that way from time to time?

God always speaks...sometimes we see Him, hear Him louder than other times, but last week, God simply revealed...again...just how everything in our lives is under His jurisdiction. His gaze is always upon us. The Bible says in Luke 12:7, "But even the very hairs of your head are all numbered."

I was relaxing and drifting off to sleep with the rain tapping down on the window, the trees were blowing, the sky was a bit dark in the daytime, and it was perfect sleeping weather. But I also fell asleep with cares on my heart and was talking with the Lord. Not even 20 minutes later, I woke up and the sun was brilliantly shining, I saw the shadows of the sun against the leaves, the sky was blue. It was a fabulous bright day. God reminded me that He can turn things around in an instant. He can change our situation, our heart around. It's just a matter of time. 

One of my favorite songs is by Misty Edwards, "Turn It All Around."

Ecclesiastes 3:11 says, "He hath made every thing beautiful in his time:" As children of God, we have that assurance. Everything is working together for our good. (Romans 8:28)

Be blessed!