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~ by Wild At Heart

Today’s Daily Reading is an excerpt from Morgan Snyder's book “Becoming a King”

Whatever else we observe about the life of Jesus, we know this to be true: at every moment, Jesus modeled what it looks like to live as God’s Son. It was the bedrock of his life that allowed him to become the cornerstone of restoration for all of mankind. It’s amazing to think that even Jesus needed to receive the validation of his Father before he launched into his life’s mission. I wonder what it was like for him to hear those words from his Father: “Son, you are the real deal. You have what it takes. I delight in you” (Matt. 3:17, my paraphrase). His Father’s constant validation was a holy reservoir from which Jesus drew strength for the rest of his days...

by Mark Maulding

It doesn’t matter if you are a Christian or not; you are going to experience suffering in this world. In fact, we are told we will definitely experience suffering. Jesus famously said:

John 16:33 (TPT) “And everything I’ve taught you is so that the peace which is in me will be in you and will give you great confidence as you rest in me. For in this unbelieving world you will experience trouble and sorrows, but you must be courageous, for I have conquered the world!”...

~ by Mark Maulding

Romans states this comforting truth:

Romans 8:28 (NASB) “And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose.”

Did you know this verse is surrounded by scriptures focusing on our suffering? The Holy Spirit is writing through the Apostle Paul to encourage and comfort every son or daughter in Christ. Here we are told an amazing truth. Our God is so sovereign, which means in control, that He can use everything that happens in our lives, the delight and the difficulties of life, and use them for our good. This does not make us irresponsible in any way. God is lovingly involved, working in our lives all of the time, in every decision, success and failure and uses it for our good beyond our human understanding. He doesn’t cause sins we commit but is still there when we do them ready to turn even those and the consequences into His good for us.

~ by Wild At Heart

Before we go any farther in our search, I need to make the offer of Christianity clear: There is a way to be good again. The hope of Christianity is that we get to live life like Jesus. That beautiful goodness can be ours. He can heal what has gone wrong deep inside each of us. The way he does this is to give us his goodness; impart it to us, almost like a blood transfusion or mouth-to-mouth resuscitation. We get to live his life — that is, live each day by the power of his life within us. That’s the hope: you get to live that life. “But there is a reality of being in which all things are easy and plain,” wrote George MacDonald, “oneness, that is, with the Lord of life.” He makes us whole by making us holy. He makes us holy by making us whole.

~ by Wild At Heart

This motive — reverence for God — is a slippery one. This lets in a great deal of the clutter that gets between us and God, because it seems like the proper thing to do.

“Papa, I come to you this morning” has a totally different feel than “Almighty God and Everlasting Father.” Even if you do not start out that way, addressing God with a coat-and-tie formality you would never have wanted between you and your dad will end up starching the relationship. “Papa” is what Jesus gave us.

~ by Wild At Heart

To make room for God to fill the vessel of our soul, we have to begin moving out some of the unnecessary clutter that continually accumulates there like the junk drawer in your kitchen. Everybody has a junk drawer, that black hole for car keys, pens, paper clips, gum, all the small flotsam and jetsam that accumulates over time. Our souls accumulate stuff, too, pulling it in like a magnet. And so Augustine said we must empty ourselves of all that fills us, so that we may be filled with what we are empty of. Over time I’ve found no better practice to help clear out my cluttered soul than the practice of benevolent detachment. The ability to let it go, walk away — not so much physically but emotionally, soulfully...