7/26 Colossians 1:13
For he has rescued us from the one who rules in the kingdom of darkness, and he has brought us into the Kingdom of his dear Son.
LIGHT
No longer in darkness we are surrounded by the Light. Jesus is the light and He will not permit the darkness to overrun us. Now we have someone who takes up our case and runs interference for us. We are not alone and we are partakers of His victory.
Author - Clay Corvin
7/25 Colossians 1:10-12
Then the way you live will always honor and please the Lord, and you will continually do good, kind things for others. All the while, you will learn to know God better and better. We also pray that you will be strengthened with his glorious power so that you will have all the patience and endurance you need. May you be filled with joy, always thanking the Father, who has enabled you to share the inheritance that belongs to God’s holy people, who live in the light.
JOY
Joy in the Lord is an inner knowing that the Lord will never leave you nor will He permit you to be defeated. We belong to God. He is our Father and He loves us. Every thought that the Lord has towards you is for good. Joy knows this in the day-to-day activities of our life. Not a hope, not a promise, not something we will have by and by but in fact a real knowing in the now that we belong to the Lord and He is involved in everything that happens to us. Joy is living as a child of God.
7/24 Colossians 1:7-9
Epaphras, our much loved co-worker, was the one who brought you the Good News. He is Christ’s faithful servant, and he is helping us in your place. He is the one who told us about the great love for others that the Holy Spirit has given you. So we have continued praying for you ever since we first heard about you. We ask God to give you a complete understanding of what he wants to do in your lives, and we ask him to make you wise with spiritual wisdom.
KNOW
You can know what the Lord wants you to do. Simply ask Him. He will tell you. The problem is that we filter everything we think, hear and say with a selfish filter. How does this affect me? What will I gain? How will it make me look? Instead we should be saying pick me Lord I will do it!
7/23 Colossians 1:6
This same Good News that came to you is going out all over the world. It is changing lives everywhere, just as it changed yours that very first day you heard and understood the truth about God’s great kindness to sinners.
GOOD NEWS
Jesus died on the cross to pay the price of our sin. His death, burial and resurrection pays a price I cannot pay and gives me a gift I cannot earn-forgiveness of my sin and membership in the family of God. What do I do? Ask Jesus to come into your heart, forgive your sin and save you. If you have done that ask the Lord to encourage you today.
7/22 Colossians 1:3-5
We always pray for you, and we give thanks to God the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, for we have heard that you trust in Christ Jesus and that you love all of God’s people. You do this because you are looking forward to the joys of heaven — as you have been ever since you first heard the truth of the Good News.
HEAVEN
We are here and now creatures. This world is not our home and yet it is hard for us to imagine what the next world will be like. Paul gives us some indication of the afterlife as he encourages us to pray for one another. Heaven will be a place where we will be close to the Lord and one another. Community is difficult to accomplish and hard to maintain. In heaven, community will be the norm. No tears there nor will their be any loneliness. Pray for others. This is an activity of the saved.
7/21 Colossians 1:1-2
This letter is from Paul, chosen by God to be an apostle of Christ Jesus, and from our brother Timothy. It is written to God’s holy people in the city of Colosse, who are faithful brothers and sisters in Christ. May God our Father give you grace and peace.
GRACE
Grace is simply the Lord giving us what we desperately need but cannot earn. I need grace every minute, every hour, every day of my life. My human arrogance, divine ignorance and desperate foolishness require that each day the Lord pour out His grace upon my life and me. Life lived without Jesus is in reality death. Lord give me life.
7/20 Psalm 6:8-10
Go away, all you who do evil, for the LORD has heard my crying. The LORD has heard my plea; the LORD will answer my prayer. May all my enemies be disgraced and terrified. May they suddenly turn back in shame.
CONFIDENCE
Confidence is knowing the truth and living in the promise. The Lord will take care of us. That is a truth. Whatever our personal situation we can live with the complete confidence that the Lord will take care of us. We belong to Jesus from now until forever.
7/19 Psalm 6:6-7
I am worn out from sobbing. Every night tears drench my bed; my pillow is wet from weeping. My vision is blurred by grief; my eyes are worn out because of all my enemies.
TROUBLE
In this world we will have trouble. The Lord is concerned about our personal issues. Give Jesus your worries and problems. Trust Christ to take care of you and He will.
7/18 Psalm 6:4-5
Return, O LORD, and rescue me. Save me because of your unfailing love. For in death, who remembers you? Who can praise you from the grave?
NEED
We need the Lord. We need Him so fully, so completely that it is hard for us to function without His presence. We need the Lord and He will not depart from us. We need the Lord so that we can praise Him for all that He does for us every minute of every hour of every day.
7/17 Psalm 6:1-3
For the choir director: A psalm of David, to be accompanied by an eight-stringed instrument. O LORD, do not rebuke me in your anger or discipline me in your rage. Have compassion on me, LORD, for I am weak. Heal me, LORD, for my body is in agony. I am sick at heart. How long, O LORD, until you restore me?
RESTORATION
Restoration is available if we ask. Restoration comes when we are filled with Jesus and recognize that the Lord is willing but we often refuse. Do you see your obstinate actions? Are you burdened by your selfishness and foolishness? When you come to Jesus with a full awareness of your need and confess this to the Lord you will be restored with a full sense of awareness of His presence. The Lord never moved. We wobble, walk, run away and when confronted by our desperate situation need to journey back to Him.