Who's Your Friend?

Psalm 139:1 "O Lord, You have searched me and You know me."

 

How many friends do you have?  How many are so close that you really and truly feel that they know you...really know you?  At best a handful, right?  We have friends we are close with, friends we trust, but what friends do we really open up to about all our hopes, dreams and secrets...for most of us not many, or sadly for some that number would be zero.  But even if you search your heart and search your friend pool and you find that there are few to none there is still great news...God knows you!  I believe it was Max Lucado who once said, "God not only knows your story, He wrote the book." {I may not be recalling this quote 100% accurately here.} To me it is awe-inspiring and unbelievable that my awesome God, who made the heavens and the earth, whom heaven cannot contain, who existed before there was time, He loves me so much that He truly knows me.  He knows who I am, who I want to be and who He wants me to be.  Our Lord and our Savior is also our Best Friend...if we let Him be.  God has searched us, He knows us, He created us and He has a perfect plan for our lives to prosper and have hope.  But will we let Him in?  Will we allow ourselves the comfort of having a friend that great to come to with all our sorrows and all our joys?  I am ever trying to get to that point where I tell it all to God the same way I call up my best friends and "spill the beans" with them.  The more we come to God with our friendship the more I think we will find that His friendship has always been there waiting for us to realize, "What a Friend We Have In Jesus."  Please join me in prayer:

 

Dear Lord,

We come to You to give thanks for Your amazing friendship.  You have shown a pure and awesome example on how to be a true friend.  Please help us to follow Your example and offer our friendship with open hearts and open arms and without expecting the love to be returned.  Please also help us to come to You to share in all our good and bad times as true friends do and help us to remember that You really do know us better than anyone else ever will.  We thank You for the earthly friends that we do have and pray for the blessings upon them to be many for they are blessings to us.  Lord, we are continually thankful for those You have blessed to lead us in our spiritual journeys, our priests and clergy.  Please persevere Your favor and guidance in their lives so that they may rightly maintain the path of leading us to You.  God, may You please also remember those who serve us in the military, police, fire rescue and armed forces.  They offer protection to us in our times of need and we pray that You daily grant them Your supernatural protection.  Father You are the ultimate healer and Your healing is the only true healing.  We know many who need Your healing, spiritually, physically and emotionally, please grant this especially to Summer, Sharon, Melissa, Morgan, Phyllis, Carolyn, Randy, Emily, Brenda, Sheila, Mr & Mrs Jones, Darlene, Brandy's Mom, Nancy, Fran, Rob, Cathy, Alex, Melissa, Benjamin, Amber and all those who we individually name to you now... Please wrap them each in a Spiritual hug of Your comfort and peace allowing them rest in Your strong and loving arms.  Finally, we lift up to You Mike, Deanna and Lauren and ask that You please grant Mike & Deanna peace and hope as they await Lauren's birth and also please grant Lauren a safe arrival and a healthy, long life devoted to You.  We ask all these things may be done yet not according to our will rather be it done according to Yours.  In Jesus name.  Amen. 

***Quick Note***

I will have no computer access this weekend and will be unable to forward Daily Verses or Weekly Thoughts.  I pray that if you are celebrating Easter this weekend than your celebration may be blessed and filled with God's holy, loving presence.  I will email some belated thoughts late Sunday or early Monday.

Love through Christ,

Niki

Called To Live A Holy Life

I Thessalonians 4:7 "For God did not call us to be impure, but to live a holy life."

 

We've all heard it..."No one ever said life would be easy"...and giving up all impurities is hard work!  However, how rewarding would it be to watch God work in our lives more and more as we let go of the things that separate us from Him?  We'll never be perfect, only God can accomplish that...but we can sure work hard to limit the bad choices we make, right?  My impurities seem endless when I forget that God's already forgiven me of them.  The ones I know I need to work on the most are able to be overcome when I re-shift my focus and let God take control of all of my life.  Have I gotten to that point in my life where I am living a holy life?  No, I'm not there yet, yet I think the first step in changing anything in our lives is to admit we need to change, the second step is to truly desire that change and the third step is to give the controls over to God and keep them in His hands.  He is calling us to lead a holy life, to dedicate our lives to Him and to His work...that is our purpose, that is what it's all about...not the hokey-pokey, not the bigger house or better job it is about living for Him and He is calling us to do so...He's given us the instruction manual, we just need to get in there and read, absorb and take action!  Are you with me?  Let's dive in together!  Please pray with me:

 

Heavenly Father,

We come to You in humble thankfulness for all You have given us.  Your grace, mercy and blessings overflow even though we will never come close to deserving them.  We repent this day of our sins, our impurities which separate us from You.  We ask that You forgive us these sins and cleanse ours souls from all impurities.  Please take control of our lives Lord and lead us to live a holy life for You.  Father we continually thank and praise You for our clergy. We ask that You may please keep them in Your blessing that they may continue to rightly teach us Your Word.  God we also ask that You please grant Your extraordinary protection and supernatural blessings to our service men and women who put their lives on the line every day to protect us from those who would harm us...please grant that Your favor may go before them and completely surround them daily.  Lord, we are fully aware that Your healing is the true and only healing that we need.  We've come to realize there are many who we love and cherish that are in special need of Your miraculous healing hand for physical, emotional and spiritual healing.  We come to You today and ask that You may grant Your healing to Summer, Sharon, Melissa, Morgan, Phyllis, Carolyn, Randy, Emily, Brenda, Mr & Mrs Jones, Darlene, Nancy, Fran, Rob, Cathy, Alex, Melissa, Benjamin, Michelle, Heidi and all those who we individually name to you now...  Please wrap them each in a Spiritual hug of Your comfort and peace.  Finally, we lift up to You Mike, Deanna and Lauren and ask that You please grant Mike & Deanna peace and hope as they await Lauren's birth and also please grant Lauren a safe arrival and a healthy, long life devoted to You.  We ask all these things may be done yet not according to our wants but according to Your will.  In Jesus name.  Amen. 

 

For those of you who are celebrating your holy week this week I wish you a week filled with the Spirit of God as you reflect on the last week of His life before the cross and a most blessed Palm Sunday.  As an Orthodox Christian my family and I will not celebrate this week as our church calendar works out a little differently for the Easter celebration.

 

Have a blessed weekend and week ahead!!

Love through Christ,

Niki

Need a Reminder? I do!

Psalm 3:3-4, 8 "But You are a shield around me, O Lord, my Glorious One, who lifts up my head.  To the Lord I cry aloud, and He answers me from His holy hill...From the Lord comes deliverance.  May Your blessing be on Your people."

 

I know sometimes I seem to be going back to the same type of message over and over...I do worry about sounding like a broken record.  However, then I think if I need to be reminded constantly that God is our deliverance, our shield and He is always with us through it all, then maybe {hopefully} you do not get tired of reading this...hopefully, you need to be reminded of this as well.  I think that is part of why it is said so many places and so many ways throughout His precious Word because He knows we are "weak" and in need of His help and His comforting presence.  I know too often a lot of us try to take on the world on our own and compared to us alone it's a big world and it can become quickly overwhelming.  But when we rely on our God, when we tell our problem, situation, etc. how big our God is and let Him take care of the rest than we can focus our energy on Him and on listening to Him for the right direction for our lives.  God will lift up our heads and bless us beyond our imaginations if we do not limit Him by having faith only in ourselves.  Please pray with me:

Dear Lord,

We know You will and do deliver us from all we encounter according to Your will.  We also know in our hearts that Your are always with us no matter where we go and no matter what we are going through.  Please continue to remind us that You will answer us, lift us up and bless us.  Father we continually thank and praise You for our clergy. We ask that You may please keep them in Your blessing that they may continue to rightly teach us Your Word.  God we also ask that You please grant Your extraordinary protection and supernatural blessings to our service men and women who put their lives on the line every day to protect us from those who would harm us...please grant that Your favormay go before them and completely surround them daily.  Lord, we are fully aware that Your healing is the true and only healing that we need.  We've come to realize there are many who we love and cherish that are in special need of Your miraculous healing hand for physical, emotional and spiritual healing.  We come to You today and ask that You may grant Your healing to Summer, Sharon, Melissa, Morgan, Phyllis, Carolyn, Randy, Emily, Brenda, Sheila, Mr & Mrs Jones, Darlene, Brandy's Mom, Nancy, Fran, Rob, Cathy, Alex, Melissa, Benjamin, The Wood family and all those who we individually name to you now...  Please wrap them each in a Spiritual hug of Your comfort and peace.  Finally, we lift up to You Mike, Deanna and Lauren and ask that You please grant Mike & Deanna peace and hope as they await Lauren's birth and also please grant Lauren a safe arrival and a healthy, long life devoted to You.  We ask all these things may be done yet not according to our wants but according to Your will.  In Jesus name.  Amen. 

Have a blessed week ahead!

Love through Christ,

Niki

Priceless Sacrifice

John 3:16--17 "For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life.  For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through Him."

 

I think the verse John 3:16 holds a special place in most of our hearts, we've probably heard it hundreds of times since our first experience with Christ.  I really like reading it together with the 17th verse though because here it really reinforces the concept that He takes us just as we are.  God does not want to condemn us and His new blood covenant with us is through the blood of His Lamb, His one and only Son, and all He asks from us is to believe.  Okay, so when we believe than we usually want to act in a more pleasing way for God, we acknowledge that we need to repent of our wicked ways so He may forgive us our sins and wash us clean by the power of that blood...but God has really done all the work, it is not work that makes us His children, it is faith.  Faith that He loved us, His adopted and chosen people, enough to send His one and only Son to suffer and die as a man so that we may all be reunited with Him in heaven when He calls us home.  Faith that He has a plan to prosper our lives and give us a hope and a future in Him.  Faith that His Son died on that cross to saves us from certain death without condemnation.  Faith that no matter how hard we fall away He will always accept our humble repentance and fold us back into His arms as He washes our sins away and wipes the slate clean so that we can start anew, blameless as His Lamb.  This amazing gift driven by a love deeper than we can fathom is the ultimate "MasterCard commercial"...Priceless!  I cannot help but get excited and humbled all over again every time I read these verses.  It reignites my faith over and over again to know that God does not condemn me, He is saddened by my mistakes but He has already taken care of them and He sees me as His new creation all over again when I repent and believe.  Please join me in prayer:

 

Dear Heavenly Father,

Thank You for Your ultimate sacrifice, Your one and only, blameless Son.  Thank You for the grace of salvation through Him and forgiveness by His blood.  We truly praise Your holy name for this incomprehensible love and mercy that You have given to us.  Please help us to remember that You did this solely from that love and not to condemn us but to save us.  Please also help us to remember that if we feel like we are falling away from You and Your perfect plan for our lives that we need to come to You in complete repentance so that You can wash us clean in the blood of the Lamb.  Lord, we are continually thankful for those You have blessed to lead us in our spiritual journeys, our priests and clergy.  Please persevere Your favor and guidance in their lives so that they may rightly maintain the path of leading us to You.  God, may You please also remember those who serve us in the military, police, fire rescue and armed forces.  They offer protection to us in our times of need and we pray that You daily grant them Your supernatural protection.  Father You are the ultimate healer and Your healing is the only true healing.  We know many who need Your healing, spiritually, physically and emotionally, please grant this especially to Summer, Sharon, Melissa, Morgan, Phyllis, Carolyn, Randy, Emily, Brenda, Sheila, Mr & Mrs Jones, Darlene, Brandy's Mom, Nancy, Fran, Rob, Cathy, Alex, Melissa, Benjamin and all those who we individually name to you now... Please wrap them each in a Spiritual hug of Your comfort and peace allowing them rest in Your strong and loving arms.  Finally, we lift up to You Mike, Deanna and Lauren and ask that You please grant Mike & Deanna peace and hope as they await Lauren's birth and also please grant Lauren a safe arrival and a healthy, long life devoted to You.  We ask all these things may be done yet not according to our will rather be it done according to Yours.  In Jesus name.  Amen. 

 

Love through Christ,

Niki