True Faith

Read John 2

Jesus turns water into wine at a wedding in Cana to demonstrate His deity to His disciples.

INSIGHT
In John 2:24 we read, "But Jesus did not commit Himself to them." The word commit is the same word that is translated "faith" or "believe" in other places in the Bible. It gives us additional insight concerning the concept of faith in the Bible. Faith is more than just intellectual understanding. Once someone understands the Gospel, he must make a personal commitment to it. He must entrust himself to it. In reality, to believe in Jesus Christ is to commit one's self to Him.

PRAYER
Offer your praise to Jesus, who, as God, offers us salvation:
Be exalted, O Lord, in Your own strength!
We will sing and praise Your power(Psalm 21:13).
Sing to Him a new song;
Play skillfully with a shout of joy.
For the word of the Lord is right,
And all His work is done in truth.
He loves righteousness and justice;
The earth is full of the goodness of the Lord (Psalm 33:3-5).

Pause for personal praise and thanksgiving.

Pray this confession to the Lord as you seek to keep your life free from sin:
Good and upright is the Lord;
Therefore He teaches sinners in the way.
The humble He guides in justice,
And the humble He teaches His way. . . .
For Your name's sake, O Lord,
Pardon my iniquity, for it is great (Psalm 25:8-9, 11).

Confess any sins that the Holy Spirit brings to your mind.

Now pause to pray this affirmation to the Lord:
Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own? For you were bought at a price; therefore glorify God in your body andin your spirit, which are God's (1 Corinthians 6:19-20).

As you make your requests known to the Lord, pray for:
greater wisdom in decision making,
the needs of your friends,
your activities for the day.

Offer this closing prayer to the Lord:
Now may the God of patience and comfort grant you to be like-minded toward one another, according to Christ Jesus, that you may with one mind and one mouth glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ (Romans 15:5-6).

Be the Tree :)

5 This is what the LORD says:
"Cursed is the one who trusts in man,
who depends on flesh for his strength
and whose heart turns away from the LORD.

6 He will be like a bush in the wastelands;
he will not see prosperity when it comes.
He will dwell in the parched places of the desert,
in a salt land where no one lives.

7 "But blessed is the man who trusts in the LORD,
whose confidence is in him.

8 He will be like a tree planted by the water
that sends out its roots by the stream.
It does not fear when heat comes;
its leaves are always green.
It has no worries in a year of drought
and never fails to bear fruit."

Do you trust him with your everything? What about when "the heat" comes- when it gets hard- do you dig your roots deep into God and his word or do you topple over like a tree after a bad storm that does not have a deep root system?

Pray this confession to the Lord as you seek to keep your life free from sin:
You were dead in trespasses and sins, in which you once walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience (based on Ephesians 2:1-2).

Confess any sins that the Holy Spirit brings to your mind. Now pause to pray this affirmation to the Lord:
We are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were pleading through us: we implore you on Christ's behalf, be reconciled to God. For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him (2 Corinthians 5:20-21).

As you make your requests known to the Lord, pray for:
greater courage in evangelism,
the work of missions in Europe,
your activities for the day.

Offer this closing prayer to the Lord:
Since I am surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, . . . let me run with endurance the race that is set before me (based on Hebrews 12:1).

Blameless

In Psalm 101 David writes, "I will be careful to lead a blameless life- when will you come to me? I will walk in my house with blameless heart. I will set before my eyes no vile thing."
Blameless: free from or not deserving blame; guiltless: a blameless child.

Sometimes it is hard when the enemy is tempting us with so much: pride, lust, arrogance, gossip, anger, fear; Yet we are called to live a blameless life- one that is free from guilt and blame which comes from standing up and choosing not to pursue those things by not setting before our eyes or hearts no vile thing.

So what?

What do you need to remove from your eyes or your heart?
Today you can have freedom from those things and walk away with boldness

Pray this confession to the Lord as you seek to keep your life free from sin:
Our eyes look to the Lord our God,
Until He has mercy on us.
Have mercy on us, O Lord, have mercy on us! (Psalm 123:2-3).

Confess any sins that the Holy Spirit brings to your mind.

Now pause to pray this affirmation to the Lord:
But as for me, I will come into Your house
in the multitude of Your mercy;
In fear of You I will worship toward Your holy temple (Psalm 5:7).

As you make your requests known to the Lord, pray for:
a greater love for the God Man - Christ Jesus,
the needs of your extended family,
your activities for the day,
whatever else is on your heart.

Offer this closing prayer to the Lord:
Hear me when I call, O God of my righteousness! (Psalm 4:1).