Psalm 143:5-8

⁵ I remember the days of old;
I meditate on all Your works;
I muse on the work of Your hands.
⁶ I spread out my hands to You;
My soul longs for You like a thirsty land.  Selah

⁷ Answer me speedily, O LORD;
My spirit fails!
Do not hide Your face from me,
Lest I be like those who go down into the pit.
⁸ Cause me to hear Your lovingkindness in the morning,
For in You do I trust;
Cause me to know the way in which I should walk,
For I lift up my soul to You.

When your spirit is broken within you, usually the flesh uses it as the opportune moment to take advantage. We all have been hurt by someone in our lifetime at some point or another. When the world throws all the wickedness it has at us, we can stand strong by the power and might of Jesus Christ through His Holy Spirit. Although it is impossible in our own strength to bless those who persecute us, nothing is impossible with God. The Holy Spirit is able to do all things. It then becomes easier for us to take the beating the world tries to lay upon us. However, how do we handle when the people we love and hold the closest to our hearts hurt us? Not the type of hurt based on appearances or bad jokes, but the type of hurt that makes you question any and everything they ever said to you. Was any of it ever true? When the faith of their hands and feet we called to be in conjunction with the faith proclaimed from their mouth, where did they stand? The answers to these questions can either draw you closer or utterly break or severely bruise your spirit.

Heartbreak and deception always comes from within. The world can try to knock down the strength the Holy Spirit puts within us to withstand evil and temptations but if it can infiltrate to the core of what or who you hold closest to you, the pain can be unbearable. I’ve been hurt before in my lifetime but Jesus Christ wiped that pain away and made life worth living. What the world once did to us is wiped away by the love of Jesus Christ.

There is another type of pain the world knows nothing about and that if it were possible for it to attack us with that type of pain, we would be utterly destroyed. However, the world cannot break into the family of Christ. Sometimes the words or actions of those who you love most and thought were the closest to you can give shocking revelations at the most unexpected times.

As painful as these feelings and situations maybe, the grace of God and the love of Jesus Christ must abound more. From our human point of view, this seems to be more impossible compared to blessing those who persecute us.  How do we work through the pain caused by those who we love? The simple and at the same time difficult answer is to allow the Holy Spirit “from our innermost being, to gush forth torrents of living water.” (John 7:38) When those feelings overcome us, as tough as it is to allow the Holy Spirit to take control, it is essential that we all Him to lead us and guide us every step of the way. Through all and all, however we may feel, “God’s grace is sufficient for us, for God’s strength is manifested and made perfect in our weakness.” (2 Corinthians 12:9) Whatever may be said or done to us, let us continue to walk in God’s great grace and abide in the precious love of Jesus Christ to handle any situation or personal feeling we may be having.

Psalm 3:3-4

³ But You, O LORD, are a shield for me,
My glory and the One who lifts up my head.
⁴ I cried to the LORD with my voice,
And He heard me from His holy hill.  Selah

Have we left our first love? Many times we get so busy being involved in serving the Lord that we forget all about loving the Lord. Then whatever it is that we do becomes a burden for us and we feel the weight of the world upon us. This is how the enemy traps us. We end up Being Under Satan’s Yoke. Have we left our first love? Join us in this special message directly from the heart of Jesus Christ, our Lord and our Deliver on how much He loves us and desires us to return back to Him, our first love.

Revelation 1:8

“I am the Alpha and the Omega—the beginning and the end,” says the Lord God. “I am the one who is, who always was, and who is still to come—the Almighty One.”

Revelation 2:1-7

“Write this letter to the angel of the church in Ephesus. This is the message from the one who holds the seven stars in his right hand, the one who walks among the seven gold lampstands:

² “I know all the things you do. I have seen your hard work and your patient endurance. I know you don’t tolerate evil people. You have examined the claims of those who say they are apostles but are not. You have discovered they are liars. ³ You have patiently suffered for me without quitting.
⁴ “But I have this complaint against you. You don’t love me or each other as you did at first! ⁵ Look how far you have fallen! Turn back to me and do the works you did at first. If you don’t repent, I will come and remove your lampstand from its place among the churches. ⁶ But this is in your favor: You hate the evil deeds of the Nicolaitans, just as I do.
⁷ “Anyone with ears to hear must listen to the Spirit and understand what he is saying to the churches. To everyone who is victorious I will give fruit from the tree of life in the paradise of God.”

2 Kings 3:3-14

³ Solomon loved the Lord and followed all the decrees of his father, David, except that Solomon, too, offered sacrifices and burned incense at the local places of worship. ⁴ The most important of these places of worship was at Gibeon, so the king went there and sacrificed 1,000 burnt offerings. ⁵ That night the Lord appeared to Solomon in a dream, and God said, “What do you want? Ask, and I will give it to you!”

⁶ Solomon replied, “You showed faithful love to your servant my father, David, because he was honest and true and faithful to you. And you have continued your faithful love to him today by giving him a son to sit on his throne.

⁷ “Now, O Lord my God, you have made me king instead of my father, David, but I am like a little child who doesn’t know his way around. ⁸ And here I am in the midst of your own chosen people, a nation so great and numerous they cannot be counted! ⁹ Give me an understanding heart so that I can govern your people well and know the difference between right and wrong. For who by himself is able to govern this great people of yours?”

¹⁰ The Lord was pleased that Solomon had asked for wisdom. ¹¹ So God replied, “Because you have asked for wisdom in governing my people with justice and have not asked for a long life or wealth or the death of your enemies—¹² I will give you what you asked for! I will give you a wise and understanding heart such as no one else has had or ever will have! ¹³ And I will also give you what you did not ask for—riches and fame! No other king in all the world will be compared to you for the rest of your life! ¹⁴ And if you follow me and obey my decrees and my commands as your father, David, did, I will give you a long life.”

John 3:16

¹⁶ For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.

Romans 5:6-11

⁶ When we were utterly helpless, Christ came at just the right time and died for us sinners. ⁷ Now, most people would not be willing to die for an upright person, though someone might perhaps be willing to die for a person who is especially good. ⁸ But God showed his great love for us by sending Christ to die for us while we were still sinners. ⁹ And since we have been made right in God’s sight by the blood of Christ, he will certainly save us from God’s condemnation. ¹⁰ For since our friendship with God was restored by the death of his Son while we were still his enemies, we will certainly be saved through the life of his Son. ¹¹ So now we can rejoice in our wonderful new relationship with God because our Lord Jesus Christ has made us friends of God.

Ephesians 2:8-10

⁸ God saved you by his grace when you believed. And you can’t take credit for this; it is a gift from God. ⁹ Salvation is not a reward for the good things we have done, so none of us can boast about it. ¹⁰ For we are God’s masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things he planned for us long ago.

Philippians 1:6

And I am certain that God, who began the good work within you, will continue his work until it is finally finished on the day when Christ Jesus returns.

In Matthew 10:22, Jesus tells His disciples “And you will be hated by all for My name’s sake. But he who endures to the end will be saved.”

Are you willing to give up your position, your name, everything that you have worked to be, and to be hated by the world for the name of Jesus Christ? With our hearts, we boldly say “yes” with certainty, but I urge you to continue to pray that our flesh can become as strong as our hearts. After giving our lives over to the Lord Jesus Christ, He is in control of our hearts; we say “God knows our hearts,” which yes He does, but if we do not pray and develop our flesh to walk in the light that God has shined on our hearts, how will God knowing our hearts benefit His will? God sees our hearts, but the world sees our flesh, so we must train our our flesh to perform the tasks and duties God commands our hearts to fulfill. How do we do this? We can’t! However, we can do all things through the Lord Jesus Christ whom strengthens us!

Paul says in Acts 21:13, “What do you mean by weeping and breaking my heart? For I am ready not only to be bound, but also to die at Jerusalem for the name of the Lord Jesus.”

With the certainty that Jesus gives us, and the love that He has for us, those who truly believe and completely trust in Him have no limitations to sharing the gospel. Many people reject it, but some do accept Christ into their lives after hearing the love that Christ has for them. As Paul expresses he becomes all things to all men with the hope of winning a few for Christ Jesus. At times, we will be persecuted, ridiculed, even attempts to hurt us because we share the love of Christ to the world. Let us share the same assurance and confidence that Paul has in Christ and live without fear or limitations. It is a beautiful love story how Christ died for our sins while we were still sinning; we should be honored to live without limitations, even including death, for His name, His life, and for the fact that He still lives today!

In Paul’s epistle to the Romans, in chapter 6 verse 23, he writes “For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

Many people and/or some particular religions believe that they can balance their sins and their good works to make it heaven. They try to keep a scorecard or a tally system to see if they sin this much, and if they do this much amount of good works, hopefully God will over look their sins. However, what we fail to understand is we are dead to God when we sin. We are born sinners, so when we are born in the flesh, our spirits die in the eyes of God, until we repent and are born again. As Jesus said, we MUST be born again! Due to the fact that we are dead in our sins, we can do 99.9% of good in our lives and 0.1% of sin in our lives, and we will still be condemned to eternal damnation. You wonder, “I thought this God you speak of is merciful, graceful, loving, and caring.” My friends, HE IS! That’s why He sent His ONLY begotten SON to so that all who believe in Him can have everlasting life. What more can we ask for? Our sins will always outweigh any good that we do in our lives. Just the fact we are born sinners outweighs any good that we can ever do. If we look forward to judgment day to be judged for our works, and we haven’t asked Christ Jesus to cover our sins with His precious blood, in all honesty God will not even know of your good works. The same way we are blinded by sin, God is blinded by our sins and is unable to see our good works. That is why we cannot work for salvation or save ourselves. If we could, then we did not to be saved and God made a mistake by allowing His Only Son to die on a cross for our sins. Our sins will never disappear, but surely they will be covered with the blood of Christ, God’s sacrifice for us. God will always know we sinned, but He will not be able to see them because it is covered by the precious blood of His Son. For those who stop reading the Bible at the gospel of John, please keep reading as it clearly and explicitly describes why our good works mean nothing to God until we accept Christ. Amen.

In the John 8:14, Jesus says to the Pharisees “Even if I bear witness of Myself, My witness is true, for I know where I came from and where I am going; but you do not know where I come from and where I am going.”

I am at peace because Jesus has comforted my spirit and soul. He assuredly told us He knows exactly where He came from, and exactly where He is going. Now He asks us to follow Him which means if we follow Him, He will lead us to the same place He resides. Jesus, the Christ, provides us with perfect completion for our lives. Before we came to know and truly trust in Christ, our lives were some type of crazy movie with alternate endings, but we all died in the end. Once we came to Christ, He told us exactly where we are going, and were are no longer anxious. Our souls are calm because we have that certainty. There is no other person who has been able to tell their followers where they are going because they did not know where they came from or where they were going themselves. That feeling of uncertainty definitely leaves their followers in fear their entire life. However, Christ completes our hope because He IS our salvation and our redeemer. In Christ, the Kingdom of God is no longer a hope, but a promise. God always keeps His promises, so most assuredly, we know where we are going. My spirit and soul rests in that certainty.

If you are yet to find that certainty, or you are in search for perfect completion in your life, please don’t hesitate to email us at faithfulservant@selflessfaith.com.

In John 9:25, after Jesus healed the man who was born blind, and the blind man was vigorously questioned by the Pharisees on the validity of his eye sight being restored. They advised Him to give the glory to God because the man who healed him (Jesus) is a sinner. In John 9:25, the blind man responds, “Whether he is a sinner or not, I don’t know. One thing I do know. I was blind but now I see!”

One thing is for sure, all though we once were blind as well, all those who believe in the Lord Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior and have a personal, intimate relationship with him, we are now able to see. No matter what people say against Christ, with various methods to make Him seem that all He has done is not true, or the Bible full of errors amazes me by the amount of ignorance possessed by ‘man‘. We are so quick to accept a history book with information (which constantly proves what the Bible said thousands of years ago), but we reject the true History book that tells us about all creation. It amazes me how the book that is not a history book has so much history in it, and a book that is a history book has barely any history in it. Regardless of the fact, we once were blind and followed the ways of the world. Christ Jesus provided us the Light that our spiritual eyes needed so they may be opened, our chains of slavery to sin sin broken, and our lives to have been healed. No matter what people say, let us be convinced and persuaded, that we will not be separated from the love we have in Christ. Neither death or life can severe, heights or depths can measure the amount of love Christ has for us and the love we have for him. Amen.

Jesus says in John 14:15 “If you love me, you will obey what I command.”

There is a difference being weak in spirit and going against the Spirit. When we are weak in spirit, we allow the Holy Spirit to begin to be a light to our path, and although we may stumble as toddlers in the faith, we are striving to build up strong spiritual legs. As time passes, we become strengthened as long as we humble ourselves. However, if we blatantly go against the Holy Spirit, how can we honestly say we love God? The way we dress and carry ourselves which bring lustful or deceitful thoughts to those who witness us, or the profane words that come from our mouths that preach hate, envy, greed and more are the same mouths and bodies that say they love God. Acts 5:1-9 speaks on lying to the Holy Spirit and how the lives of Ananias and his wife were taken in an instance. Let us pray for those who are constantly lying to the Lord our God their eyes be opened and realize that God knows all things. He is giving an opportunity to repent and turn from our lying wicked ways. Love has no measure so take the time to look at yourself in the spiritual mirror and ask the question: “Do I really love God?” If the answer is yes, let’s obey His commands. God bless!

John 15:14-15 in the Amplified Bible reads:

¹⁴You are My friends if you keep on doing the things which I command you to do.

¹⁵I do not call you servants (slaves) any longer, for the servant does not know what his master is doing (working out). But I have called you My friends, because I have made known to you everything that I have heard from My Father. [I have revealed to you everything that I have learned from Him.]

We are never alone. If you have ever felt that this world has left you out or left you behind because of the fast pace it moves at, remember that Jesus calls us His friend. This is a friendship far greater and far more worthy than any friendship we can ever experience on earth. Never doubt God’s love for us. He tells us exactly how much He loves us in John 3:16. Then Jesus tells us exactly how much He loves us in John 15:9. Then He shows us how much He loves us by dying on the cross. As Jesus said, there is no greater love than someone who would lay down His life for His friends. He laid down His life on the cross for us, and in turn, that makes Him our friend!