2:5-11 Paul gives us a very clear picture of Jesus’ deity “Make your own attitude that of Christ Jesus, who, existing in the form of God, did not consider equality with God as something to be used for His own advantage…” (NLT). Throughout Jesus’ earthly ministry He gave clues about His deity when he said things like, “Your sins are forgiven” or calling the angels
Furthermore, God’s will is mentioned in the prayer to emphasize not the works of the disciples but ultimately to glorify God for orchestrating all things and being the ultimate provider. It is petitioning for His will to be done on earth so that it is His will that empowers and enables people to follow his commands to love one’s enemies and to also pray for them (Hinkle, 2002). The following words ‘daily bread’ in the Lord’s prayer signify not only food but includes every need of a person and the word ‘debts’ refer to the sins of human nature (Tolar, ). Asking God for the daily provisions, for forgiveness and delivering from one’s enemy are petitions directly to God to grant those who are praying for each prayer request to be answered. Jesus is teaching his followers to ask God with complete trust in His faithfulness so that they are empowered to abide by Jesus’ precepts in his sermon and not rely on their own strength (Hinkle, 2002).
He strengthens through prayer, he strengthens through the word, he strengthens through worship and he strengthens through fellowship! He will strengthen you! Paul had been through so much in his life, shipwrecks, stonings, beating with rods, prisons, hunger, thirst, often in the deep, beatings, punishments. But he said, “I can do all things through Christ that strengthens me!” The thing that must be done! The obstacle that must be faced!
Without faith it is impossible to please God for he that cometh to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of them that diligently seek Him. Hebrews 11:6. Children of God, confess your faults one to another, and pray one for another, that you may be healed. The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much. James 5:16.
He came for the specific purpose of saving man. His first love. God came and brought the book of life. God came and he wrote the book of life. The Holy Scripture records in John, "But there are also many other things which Jesus did; were every one of them to be written, I suppose that the world itself could not contain the books that would be written."
I urge you to explore those areas just mentioned and ask God again and again who He wants us to be for Him as that can be specific for each of us. But in in addition to this, part of God’s plan is for us to become more and more Christ-like as the years go by and to use us to bring others to him. I need you to imagine something so would you close your eyes for a second please. Think for a moment about the person or persons who helped you come to Christ. What did they tell you about Jesus?
DAY 10: PERFECT PEACE Jesus gives you His perfect peace. We know this to be true because we read it in the Bible, and we can trust the Bible to be true, because it was Jesus who inspired it. That means, He spoke to people and told them what to write. You may have some fears and worries that bother you? Jesus loves you and wants to take away those fears and worries.
Because God loves us, we want to follow the Word of God. We want to be like Jesus and abide in the Word as the Word abides in us. We want to share in the mission of Jesus Christ and soak in the glory of God. We are not ashamed of God. We are not ashamed to live in the Prince of peace or embodiment of the King of kings.
Verse 23, Jesus is saying that the fulfillment of God’s prophecy has come and that God is seeking people to worship Him in Spirit and in truth (Do we really know the truth?) Verse 24, Jesus is telling the woman that they should worship God in Spirit and in truth for God is Spirit and He is truth (Do we worship God in the truth?) Verse25, the woman speaks of His hope in the Messiah, who will reveal all the spiritual truth about God when He comes. (Do we know what we hope for in our life) Verse 26, Jesus has revealed Himself to be the Messiah that she is waiting for (have we accepted the truth that we should live according to this
As we live in a society where everyone is increasingly all about themselves, people are constantly searching for a purpose. As Christians, we can know our purpose if we dig a little bit into God’s special revelation: the Bible. Colossians 1:16 (Msg) says, “For everything, absolutely everything, above and below, visible and invisible… everything got started in him and finds its purpose in him.” This verse shows us that our purpose is greater than ourselves, it is of God. God made everything with an eternal purpose in mind. It is hard for us to wrap our minds around this, but his plan is greater than we can ever imagine.