All,

I hope this finds you well!  I realize I have not written in a long time.  God pressed it on my heart recently to pick up things again.  As always, know that you are loved and prayed for and as always, I only want to be an encouragement, not a hindrance or contribution to email clutter!  So if any want to be taken off of my emails, please let me know, and I’ll do so.

Given the number of persons being written to, I imagine there are a great many different seasons of life being encountered.  For some, this is a season of gladness and prosperity, and for others it is a season trials and brokenness.  My encouragement today, is that Jesus will meet you wherever you are, and has a word all of us.  I’ve titled this Word for the Day message, “a new beginning”, because each day, each morning, and each moment is an opportunity for a new beginning.  The mercies of God never come to an end, they are new every morning (Lam 3:23-24).  Each of us, regardless of what season we are in, start off the day the same way facing the knowledge that there is nothing good in us.  We know that unless we daily (and moment by moment) choose to pick up our cross and follow after Jesus, we will follow after our flesh’s desires to reject God.  Paul says this in Romans 7:18 this way – “For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out.”   Knowing this, every one of us each morning, and as often as we pray, must in humility and repentance call out for God’s mercy and grace, to keep us from temptation, deliver us from evil, and grant our hearts superior affections for the Creator God, rather than the things in the world.  This is the heartbeat of knowledge of sin and faith in Jesus, and is like breathing for a Christian.

As an aside, I can speak of my own life, and tell you that whenever I believed things to be “going well” and whenever I rested in my own abilities, instead of approaching God in humility, I fell away from God and into sin 100% of the time.  I did not heed the warning from 1 Corinthians 10:12 – “let anyone who thinks that he stands take heed lest he fall.” God is merciful to discipline and restore us out of His love (Heb 12:4-5), but how much better for us, if we simply walked in humble repentance from our flesh and self-seeking will to seek and beg for greater joy in the Lord each day?

So if we approach God with a spirit of humility today in this way, what does God promise?  2 Chronicles 7:14 – “if my people who are called by my name humble themselves, and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their land.”  Psalm 149:4 – “For the Lord takes pleasure in his people; he adorns the humble with salvation.”  James 4:6 – “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.” 1 Peter 5:6-7 – “Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God so that at the proper time he may exalt you, casting all your anxieties on him, because he cares for you.”   God promises to hear you if you humble yourself before him.  He promises to give grace to you, and to heal your heart.  He promises to bear your burdens as you bring them to Him.  How does God accomplish this?  Jesus.  “For God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.” (2 Cor 4:6-7) God will strengthen you “with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith—that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. (Eph 3:16-19)  Jesus is our only hope and provision.  All of the promises of God to us find their “Yes” in Jesus (2 Cor 1:20).  He is our portion, and the Love of God towards us through Jesus is more than enough to satisfy the longing of our hearts, and more than enough for a new beginning.

Grace and Peace,

Adam