Tag: The Heart

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They Grow

JUNE 27

MATTHEW 6:15_But if ye forgive not men their trespasses…

What goes up must come down. If God’s forgiveness relates to your forgiveness, God’s unforgiveness relates to your unforgiveness. 

A transformed life is a product of salvation and the ability to forgive. Salvation is an instantaneous, eternal experience. Transformation is a process. Love is a process. They grow. As you grow in relationship with Jesus, you grow in your ability to give true, straight-from-the-heart love. It is the way natural byproducts work.

The ability to forgive has to be a byproduct of the love you gain from heart transformation. Hard hearts cannot produce forgiveness. The natural byproduct of hard hearts is unforgiveness.

A relationship with Jesus is not just I need to be sure I’m not going to hell. It is about:

I hear the knock of Jesus on my heart’s door.

I feel the love He brings.

I feel His forgiveness.

I want to love like He loves me.

I want to forgive like He forgives me.

I want to live as His disciple.

I want to be His salt and light.             

PRAYER

Heavenly Father, Thank You for the natural byproducts of transformation. In the powerful name of Jesus, Amen.                 

Christ is salvation—He is my salvation

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I AM

JUNE 25

MATTHEW 6:14_Your Heavenly Father will also forgive you.

Take a moment right now and praise God for His willingness to forgive! Praise His heart filled with “mercy that endures forever.”  

God has a name: I AM. The perfect name for the only, true, living, and creating God. HE IS “the kingdom, the power, and the glory, forever, amen!” And HE IS forgiving.

The Lord Jesus Christ gave up the perfection of heaven to live in a wicked world. There was no other way for you to receive forgiveness and salvation. If there is anything earth people need—it is forgiveness. 

This verse leads back to your Horizontal Ledger.  Jesus knew this principle was so against your natural instinct He repeated it. When He teaches a principle a second or more times—take heed! This is not something to leave on the back burner.

If you forgive others for trespassing into your life, the Heavenly Father forgives you.

To be sure, you’ve done plenty of trespassing.          

PRAYER

Lord Jesus, When I step off the path of Your teaching, I begin to trespass into places I should not be. Praise You for forgiving me. In the powerful name of Jesus, Amen.

Christ forgives my trespasses—He calls me to forgive!

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Blows Me Away!

JUNE 22

MATTHEW 6:13_and the glory…

What is glory anyway? Merriam Webster defines it as worshipful praise, honor, and thanksgiving; resplendence and magnificence. That’s the Lord God! 

God uses His authority and control for good: to give love and mercy to creation.

We’ve already read 1 John 4:17 (KJV). It needs to be repeated along with verse 16. “16 And we have known and believed the love that God hath to us. God is love; and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him. 17 Herein is our love made perfect, that we may have boldness in the day of judgment: because as he is, so are we in this world.”

God’s love can dwell in me! I can stand bold on Judgment Day. I stand bold because the power of God’s love worked within me in this life. I don’t have to wait for eternity to love like God. I can do it now. God gives me the ability to share in His glory.

God’s love shining through me gives light to my surroundings. Because it is God’s love, it shines from me with resplendence and magnificence! That blows me away!

The kingdom, and the power, and the glory belong to the Holy God of Heaven. He wants to place it inside my heart. How can I turn that down?! 

PRAYER

Resplendent God, I praise Your glory! I worship You and all Your glory. I truly stand amazed in Your presence! In the powerful name of Jesus, Amen.

Christ is Glory—I want His glory in my life!

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A Fly in the Ointment

  JUNE 15

MATTHEW 6:12_as we forgive our debtors.

MATTHEW 6:12_as we forgive our debtors.

When God pays your sin debt, the kicks you used to experience in sin begin to disappear. If they don’t, then in the words of the great Miss Clavel: “Something is not right!” (Madeline – Ludwig Bemelmans).

You sin because it supplies some kind of satisfaction. It may be physical, emotional, or financial. When it no longer produces satisfaction (which is the nature of sin), you sink deeper into it. The deeper, the harder to come out.

When redeemed by the Savior, sin begins to lose its hold. There is no joy in sin for the saved. Just when things look good for the debtor, Jesus adds another piece to the pattern: a fly in the ointment.

Jesus’ prayer causes vertical forgiveness, from God to you, to be based upon horizontal forgiveness, from you to your offenders. This means God forgives you in the way you forgive those who wrong you.

I declare! Jesus just won’t let you get by with anything!

It takes a lot of love to hold people to accountability.

If you confess, repent, and ask God’s forgiveness, why should that have anything to do with those who wronged you? They need to do their own confessing, don’t they?

The truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, is: your offenders and their confession is between them and God, but you forgiving them is between you and God.

A clear sign you have been redeemed is you want to forgive. Old sins lose their grip and hard hearts soften! 

PRAYER

Great Redeemer, Thank You for not only saving me, but changing me. In the powerful name of Jesus, Amen.                                                               

Christ redeems me—He changes me!

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All the Time!

 JUNE 14

MATTHEW 6:12_our debts…

Your sin debt is too great. You will never be able to pay. It will remain in God’s ledger for eternity. To pay the debt according to the law keepers, you will have to keep every law, on your own—no indwelling Holy Spirit’s power. Humanly impossible!

To pay the debt according to Jesus, you will have to have a pure heart—likewise impossible! This looks like some kind of double jeopardy. You need a solution that can overcome the impossible! Where can you find that? Oh, wait! You have a key!

Use the key, unlock the treasure chest, and discover something incredible. The Messiah Savior has already solved the problem! He gave His life to cover all your debts. Only Jesus could do it because only He is the perfect Son of God. 

To make things even better, Jesus sent the Holy Spirit to dwell in your heart. The Spirit draws you further and further away from sin and causes you to hunger for holiness. Your taste for sin diminishes. When you do sin, the Spirit sends conviction. You humbly ask the Father for forgiveness. 1 John 1:9 (KJV), “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”

God is good all the time, and all the time God is good!

PRAYER

Holy Savior, Thank You for paying my sin debt which I could never pay.  In the powerful name of Jesus, Amen.

Christ is the Savior—He saves me!