Spiritual Power

Spiritual Power

“Starting Your Day With Jesus” Lifestyle Series

By Mel D Westbrook

The Book Introduction

Using The Truth/Prayer Pages

Jesus will be teaching you a truth then lead you into praying for that truth. Each page has power truths and power prayers. Today read about the purpose of Power Truths. Then, tomorrow read about the purpose of Power Prayers. From then on, you will read three Truth/Prayer Pages each day for five days. Please read the purpose of Power Truths today. NOTE: This is a five-day program; you skip Saturday and Sunday.

The Purpose Of “Power Truths”

Week One Day One

What Is Your Original Purpose?

This introduction is used in all the “Starting Your Day With Jesus Lifestyle Series” studies and prayers. If you have read this introduction before, it may seem repetitious. But, it is vital that you stay aware of where Jesus is taking you and what you are doing to get there.

What kinds of people are you having to deal with every day? Do you find that, as a Christian, it hard to do what Jesus wants your relationships to be? With the kind of people you have to deal with, how does He expect you to treat people with unity, truth, compassion, fairness, and love? How do these things work in business, dating, marriage, a family, or with an enemy or adversary? How do you take what you learn in the Bible and apply it to the way you live life? How do you do it in such a way it actually empowers you to succeed in life in a better way than ever before? You and Jesus will be able to solve these issues together here.

Does The Bible Help With Your Life?

Have you ever read a requirement in the Bible, and wondered what would happen if you applied it to your business or a relationship? What would happen to your business or your friends if you went around just telling them the truth? It can look like you would be a lot more successful if you mainly concentrated on your needs, likes, preferences, and interests. To start loving others and concentrating on their needs, can appear to hurt your goals, plans, and future; but, it actually enhances them. Wisdom from Jesus will make the difference.

What makes you win in life? What causes people to want to be around you? Why would someone want to do business with you, marry you, be your friend, or stop being your enemy? What kind of a person would you need to be to win at life and it make you and those around you happy. What is Jesus, the truths of the Bible, and Christianity offering that would make your life so much better that you wish you had lived that way all of your life?

Did You Know There Are Two Lifestyles?

There are two approaches to life; one involves dishonesty and the other involves honesty. One involves selfishness and the other involves love. One involves goals that end at death and the other wins now and in eternity. One involves loving things and using people and the other involves loving people and using things. One involves following the teachings of the world and the other involves following the teachings of Jesus. The thing about these two lifestyles is, one abuses people and the other blesses, helps, befriends, and cares about people.

Would You Like To Grow With Jesus?

What if you are already too busy to add one more thing to your life? What if you already have a full schedule? What if you are already doing as much as possible trying to have a relationship with God? Why would you add something like this to your busy schedule?

It’s true you can’t just stop your life to let Jesus teach you. But, would reading and praying over three pages a day really be that hard? Rather than a simple “thought for the day” or some self-help concept, what if Jesus took you into steady, continued growth in your relationship with Him? What if He took you into incredible principles and taught you how to succeed at everything you do? Studying a truth and then praying and asking Jesus to put it in your life is a powerful way of making your life so much better than it has ever been.

How Is The Bible Relevant To Your Every Day Life?

What about your life? Would you like Jesus to teach you how to succeed in a business, a marriage, a family, a career, or your life? Are you willing to let Him help you grow in your relationship with Him? Have you ever considered how wise Jesus is? What would happen if you included Him in all the decisions of your day? He will help you think of incredible things that will enhance your plans. You can simply read and pray through three pages a day for five days a week and Jesus will help you learn how to walk and talk with Him all day long.

What about your happiness? Have you ever thought a certain thing or person would make you happy and it didn’t? Have you ever got something that made you happy for a while and then it gradually lost its excitement? How would you like Jesus to guide you into those things that bring true happiness that lasts for a lifetime? How about starting your day with happiness?

What Is Your System For Life?

What is life all about? Jesus and the Bible are like turning on the light in a dark room. Most people are trying to “feel” their way through life. They are trying to imagine and guess what life is all about. They find themselves going down dead-end paths, running into obstacles, and falling over things they weren’t able to see. Jesus is the light of the world. He illuminates the issues and circumstances you face so you can see and understand what you are dealing with. This is called truth. On each page, you will be letting Jesus teach you a truth and then empower you to pray and invite Him to put it into the attitudes, character, and behavior of your life. That is worth the little time it takes to read and pray three pages a day.

Do You Know What Causes You To Win Or Lose?

What about your success? Did you know there are certain areas of your attitudes and character that are causing you to win or lose at life? These two things are Jesus’ priority. He knows that if you have bad attitudes, you will fail. How is your character? You may feel like your attitudes and character are pretty good. Have you ever dealt with a person who seemed to be unaware of their faults? Their people-skills were poor; but, they didn’t seem to know it. It is difficult for you to see your own faults. Jesus will lovingly and gently help you improve.

Who do you like? Do you like those who are trying to use you to get what they want? Do you like those who lie to you so you will meet their needs? Do you like those who will cheat you, if they think they can get by with it? Do you like those who talk down to you because they think they are superior to you? Improving your attitudes and character are how Jesus helps you treat people the way you like being treated. When they find out that you are real and trustworthy, it becomes much easier for them to be around you. Jesus wants to teach you how. Win/win relationships are all about doing to others what you want them doing to you.

Your Team

Jesus’ people are praying that you are blessed in a special way. They are praying that you have a close relationship with Jesus.

People Are Praying This For You:

Eph 1:16-17 (NIV) I have not stopped giving thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers. I keep asking that the God of your Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may GIVE YOU the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know Him better.

Eph 1:18-19a (NIV) I pray also that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which He has called you, the riches of His glorious inheritance in the saints, and His incomparably great power for you who believe.

Eph 1:19b-21 (NIV) That power is like the working of His mighty strength, which He exerted in Christ when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly realms, far above all rule and authority, power and dominion, and every title that can be given, not only in the present age but also in the one to come.

This concludes your reading and praying for today.

The Purpose Of “Power Prayers”

Week One Day Two

Living Life For A Purpose

How Do You Turn Information Into A Lifestyle?

If you were a hoarder, you would fill your house with all kinds of things. They may be very useful; but, you would have forgotten why you obtained them. Working on your LIFEstyle is about using what you learn, and living life as God gives it to you. This keeps you from just “hoarding” a bunch of information.

Let’s say you got a degree and was licensed as a professional. What if you worked at a fast-food place, getting minimum wages, while getting your education, degree, and license? But, suppose you kept working as a fast-food worker after you paid the price, learned the information, earned the degree, and were licensed to take advantage of your training. You didn’t make the changes in your lifestyle. Jesus’ methods keep this from happening.

What Makes Jesus’ Truths Different?

Have you seen people going on a strict diet, lose a lot of weight, but later gain it all back? They didn’t make dieting and exercise a part of their lifestyle. Your lifestyle is permanently changed by you “doing what it takes” to get where you need to go so you can continue living there. By exposing yourself to Jesus’ principles, you develop a lifestyle.

How can Jesus take three-page chapters and turn those principles into a new lifestyle for you? First, He helps you understand His truths. Then He helps you ask Him to put those truths into your life by providing you relevant prayers based on those truths. Plus, He helps you be thinking about what you studied and prayed about. All during your day, He helps you see how you can use His principles in your daily life.

How Does Jesus’ Life Help Your Life?

A baby goes through many stages in becoming an adult; they try to pattern their life after adults. If they saw how much smaller, weaker, and untrained they were, they might get discouraged and not try. You have been born again; this time you were born into the family of God. You started out as a spiritual infant. As a beginner child of God, you are to become a mature, trained, adult child of God. Jesus will help you grow into all these things.

Jesus is your pattern for adulthood; But, you must see Him as your example. Jesus is the Creator of the universe; He is God; of course He is able to do what He did. As a spiritual beginner, you may see how small, weak, and untrained you are; you may not be willing to try. You may not know you are to be a spiritual adult someday by following Jesus’ examples and training. Jesus can get you ready to live in God’s Kingdom by helping you now.

What Is Jesus Trying To Teach You?

If a baby doesn’t innately know the reason they have a small version of an adult body, they won’t develop properly. They must desire to watch, practice, grow, and gradually learn how to live life as an adult. You are never going to be God; but, you are a child of God; you are to watch Jesus, practice, grow, and gradually learn how to live life as a spiritual adult. Jesus IS God; but, it is still His desire to show you how to live His adult, Jesus-life as a child of God.

You were born as a human so you could have a body and a life to be trained with. It is a limited life because your attitudes and character haven’t been developed to a place where you can be trusted with supernatural, God-sized power. If you yield to Jesus’ training, your attitudes and character will be developed properly. Then Jesus will gradually give you opportunities to work together with Him. He and you will be able to train and help those around you to experience Jesus’ power and truths in their life.

Are You Ready To Learn How To Live The Jesus-Life?

Ask Jesus to help you understand vital truth issues. Like in the rest of these things in this book, spiritual understanding only comes from Jesus. If you read and understand these things, you can be sure it is because Jesus is empowering you to understand. If you read and don’t understand, all you have to do is ask Jesus to help you understand. If you pray and still don’t understand, then ask Jesus to help you bring it back up when He is ready to explain it to you.

1. Be Born Into It

John 3:3 (NIV) In reply Jesus declared, “I tell you the truth, no one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again.” You know what human birth looks like; it is a small version of a human, starting out for the first time on this planet. They usually have all the physical equipment, but, don’t know how to use it or take advantage of it. They have a lot of growing to do physically, mentally, spirituality, and in experiences. They have a long way to go to be an adult human; but, they seem to have the desire, hope, and determination to get the job done.

You were born again; your second birth made you God’s child, a member of His family, and a citizen in His Kingdom. Now you need to allow all of this become a reality in your heart and mind. You know you have been born into it. Now allow Jesus to help you know the other things you need to know.

2. Know You Are Born Again For Eternity

1 Pet 1:23 (NIV) For you have been born again, not of perishable seed, but of imperishable, through the living and enduring word of God. Being born again is different from being born as a human. The human “seed” of your parents produced a life that is perishable and heading for death. You do all that growing physically, mentally, and in experiences; but, if you aren’t born again, you lose it all at death. Being born again through the “seed” of God is imperishable; you live forever. But like human birth, you have some growing to do; you start from spiritual infancy and mature into an adult child of God.

3. Trade Your Human Life For Jesus’ Life

Gal 2:20 (NIV) I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, Who loved me and gave Himself for me. If you want to, you can spend all your time learning how to succeed as a human. If you do, you will forfeit your eternal Jesus-training. As an untrained Christian, you will enter into eternity with very little spiritual skills, abilities, experiences, or training. Your opportunities will be extremely limited. However, even if you only give Jesus a few minutes of your time each day, He will use it to help you succeed now and for eternity in many ways.

As a child of God, you have some growing to do. Jesus will help you learn to live in the spirit realm where your Father lives. As a new born-again beginner, you don’t know much about this new realm. But, Jesus provides you examples through His life and teaching. He will teach and show you what an adult child of God looks like. It will take a lifetime to learn; but all of it will work now and last for eternity. Let Jesus show you how to trade your life for His.

4. Trade One Lifestyle For Another

John 14:12 (NIV) I tell you the truth, anyone who has faith in Me will do what I have been doing. He will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father.

What if a young child didn’t see their parents as someone they were to pattern after? What if they thought they could never be like them? That is what happens to a lot of Christians. They don’t understand the lifestyle Jesus is trying to give them. Yes, Jesus is God; but, He lived His life as a human, spiritual adult. He did it so you can accept His lifestyle as yours.

5. Trade One Inheritance For Another

Rom 8:17 (NIV) Now if you are children, then you are heirs--heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed you share in His sufferings in order that you may also share in His glory. What if you see the Bible and Jesus’ life as not have anything to do with your life now? How would it affect your life if you knew your life now was influencing your eternal inheritance? What if you found out that you could be making investments in eternity by living a certain way here? Did you know that your success here affects your success in eternity?

6. Appreciate Your New Birth And New Inheritance

Now if you are children, then you are heirs: What did you inherit when you became a child of God? Dear friends, now you are children of God, and what you will be has not yet been made known. But you know that when He appears, you shall be like Him, for you shall see Him as He is (1 John 3:2). Just like a human child will automatically grow up looking a lot like their parents, there are parts of you that are automatic in Christian growth. But, there are skills, knowledge, experiences, abilities, and training your parents have that you didn’t get.

7. Take Advantage Of Your New Birth And New Inheritance

Now if you are children, then you are heirs--heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ: Not all of Christianity is automatic; a human baby inherits their characteristics from their parents. But, what they do with them is up to them. That is the way Christianity is; you inherited God and His provisions. That is automatic; but, what you do with all this is the next big issue.

You aren’t here just to learn how to live as a human, you are mostly here to learn how to live as a spirit being. You are to let Jesus use the things you learn about living as a human to teach you about living as God’s child. You have applied yourself to learning a lot about being human; and, you have applied yourself to learning how to live as God’s child. Now it is time to start living as a child of God.

8. “Do What It Takes”

If you need a drink, you have learned how “to do what it takes” to get one. If you need to chew some food, you know how to do it. If you need to pick something up, you have learned the process of accomplishing that. But, do you know how to hunger and thirst after righteousness? Do you know how to “chew” spiritual truths? Do you know how to move spiritual issues from one place to another? Learning how to walk in the Spirit, digest God’s truth, have eyes and ears that can see and hear what Jesus is teaching, is what you are dealing with now.

A Prayer For You To Always Pray For Yourself And Others

Jesus’ people are praying Ephesians 1:17-23 for you. It contains such vital requests before God that it has been converted into a prayer for you and those around you. As others pray it for you, please join them by praying this modified prayer for yourself and your friends.

I keep asking that the God of my Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give me the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that I may know Him better.

I pray also that the eyes of my heart may be enlightened in order that I may know the hope to which He has called me, the riches of His glorious inheritance in the saints, and His incomparably great power for me, who believes. Jesus, help me see, know, and understand the hope, the riches, and this power.

That power is like the working of His mighty strength, which He exerted in Christ when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly realms, far above all rule and authority, power and dominion, and every title that can be given, not only in the present age but also in the one to come. And God placed all things under His feet and appointed Him to be head over everything for the church, which is His body, the fullness of Him Who fills everything in every way. Jesus, I ask that I would receive a full revelation and vision into all this power that is available to me; and, I ask this in Jesus' name. Amen.

It would be good for you to pray this prayer for yourself and those around you regularly.

This concludes your reading and praying for today.

Spiritual Power

A Study In 1 Corinthians 13:4-8a

Version: 25.10.08

Truth/Prayer Pages Chapter One: Introduction

Week One Day Three

An Open Book Test

Did you know there’s a final exam we are all being given that decides whether or not you succeeded in life? Did you know you are taking that test right now and will be given a passing or failing grade in eternity? Most of us hate tests; but, we hate them because we didn’t do all it took to be ready for them. What if you knew all the answers that were to be on the test; what if all you had to do was live your life a certain way and you would automatically pass the test?

Jesus, help me see that passing Your final exam has to do with me doing things that really make me happy, cause me to enjoy life, and produce a lot of friends. Show me that there is a way for me to be pleasing to You and have an adequate amount of money, possessions, positions, power, prestige, popularity, pleasure, and accomplishments. Help me realize that passing Your final exam will help me get relational, financial, emotional, physical, and spiritual success right now in this life and in my eternal life as well.

Salvation And Justification Start You Off

John 3:16 (NIV) For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life. What if someone took a test with you who knew all the answers? Jesus is volunteering to join you and work with you to help you succeed. He has it all set up for helping you win at life and pass the final exam; He paid all the prices and suffered all the consequences for all your failures. He did what it took for you to start life over and be able to pass your final life-test with great victory!

Jesus, help me get a fresh start in life and be able to take my life-test, as if I hadn’t already messed up. Show me that it is to believe in, trust in, and rely on You; this is empowering me to be well on my way to life success. By accepting Your salvation, I am allowed to start my life-test over. Plus, You are offering Your life, so I can have Your help with my life. This is a special win for me; because You are the best there is in winning at life. And, You are the One Who will be giving me my final grade.

Born To Win

John 3:17 (NIV) For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through Him. Some test-developers use trick and misleading questions to try to keep people from passing the test easily. In this verse, you see Jesus’ deep desire to help you succeed at life and pass your final exam. Jesus wants to help you get high grades in life and in eternity. He wants to help as many people succeed at life as are willing to allow Him to.

Jesus, show me that if anyone fails to win at life and flunks the final exam, it will be in spite of Your incredible provisions and power. Help me understand that if it weren’t for all of us having a God-given free will, we would all pass without any problem; God could make me or program me to do all the right things; but, He doesn’t want robots or slaves.

Exercising Your God-Given Free Will

John 3:18 Whoever believes in Him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because he has not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son. People who decide to go on hurting themselves, other people, and God’s wonderful plan for all of us, are being selfish and lack compassion. Since Jesus’ salvation empowers you to succeed by setting you free from things that cause you to do damage to yourself and others, it is wrong, bad, and evil for you to not take advantage of it. Since it is a way to be able to love your neighbor as yourself (Mark 12:31), there would have to be something wrong with you not to do it.

Jesus, make it clear to me that what I see is a way for me to succeed in life with great results without having to cheat, mislead, defeat, or take something away from anyone else; it’s a way for everyone involved to win together with me. You offer me a way to start getting win/win solutions to life. You are showing me how to not only win myself, but to help others be able to win with me. You have given me spiritual power to be incredibly successful in life.

A Better Way To Live

Whoever believes in Him is not condemned: This is you not flunking the life-test; this is you taking advantage of free gifts. They are so you can succeed by being a blessing and help to others. There’s no law that says you have to win by defeating others. There’s no law that says you should make it to the top without taking everyone with you. There’s no law that keeps you from involving yourself in win/win situations that are a mutual benefit to all involved.

But whoever does not believe stands condemned already: Jesus, teach me that You make it illegal for me to make it to the top, beat the competition, succeed at all costs, get ahead, be anything I want to be, or win by cheating anyone, lying to anyone, misleading anyone, defeating anyone, or stealing from anyone. If I totally believe in You and take advantage of Your gift of salvation, I will receive Your spiritual power to make it to the top, win, succeed, and get all my needs met Your way.

It’s A Wonderful But Difficult Life

Whoever believes in Him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because he has not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son: This is how a person passes or fails Jesus’ test; without believing in Jesus for everything you do, you will never be able to produce win/win situations for all involved. As simple as it sounds, win/win situations are not as easy as you might think. The truth is, you are going to need a lot of help from Jesus, so you will be able to live such a life. You need Jesus’ knowledge, foreknowledge of the future, understanding, wisdom, and supernatural power.

Jesus, teach me that those who try to make it on their own, end up telling someone a lie to get what they want. Without Your help, I will have to take something away from someone else to reach my goals. Without the resources You provide, I will have to mislead someone in order for me to get them to do what I want. In other words, I will end up using methods and motives that hurt me and other people. To prevent this, help me be looking at rules, attitudes, goals, commitments, character, hope, and love for winning the life-race in the next chapters.

This concludes your reading and praying for today.

The Spiritual Power Truth/Prayer Pages

A Study In 1 Corinthians 13:4-8a

Truth/Prayer Pages Chapter Two: Introduction

Week One Day Four

Spiritual Power

John 3:16 (NIV) For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life.

DESIRE: Jesus, I realize that the first step in any situation with my heavenly Father is to be willing to be helped. In John 3:16 I see that He did what it took to set me free from sin and eternal separation from Him. The Gift has been provided; the work has been done; the sacrifice has been made; and all I have to do is start with a desire to be helped. Help me desire spiritual power, so I can live a life that blesses me, those around me, and Your plan.

STUDY: Jesus, once I desire to have spiritual power, I have to know where to go to get it. Help me not go to places, learn things, and believe things, trying to get help with something that no human can help me with. Help me not take a long time to finally learn that studying the Bible is the only answer available to empower me. Help me keep going to it, trusting it, and making it, my only source of getting the wonderful spiritual power that God offers.

PRAY: Jesus, after I finally get to the place where I see I will always need help and commit myself to always being helped by You, and after I finally make studying the Bible my only real source of getting that help, let me always turn to You and pray and ask You for Your help. That is the way I experienced salvation and justification. When I prayed and asked God to give me Your gift of salvation, I experienced a supernatural miracle instantly. Help me see that spiritual power comes through the same process as my salvation and justification.

BELIEVE: Jesus, I have had to be willing to desire help from You; I have had to be willing to start studying the Bible and learn what was available and how to get it; I have had to be willing to pray and ask You to give me all the Bible is telling me is available. But, it took me quite a while to learn that it isn’t up to me to believe I have those things I desire, study and learn, and pray to You for. Help me realize that it isn’t until You speak Your faith into me that I really start believing for spiritual power. Help me see that I cannot move on until I experience that assurance, that knowledge, that power to believe I have what I have been desiring, studying about, and praying for.

LOVE: Jesus, things really got tough when I first started trying to love myself, other people, and You with my love. It took more than I was able to give, when I tried to love people who did all kinds of things I didn’t like. But, once I started learning how to love myself, other people, and You with God’s love, a new kind of power started flowing out of my words and deeds. Teach me how to yield to a love that supersedes all love. Show me that Your spiritual power only flows through Your love.

FAITH-ACTION: Jesus, I am gradually starting to desire the right things, starting to study and learning those things You want me to know, starting to pray for those things You knew I needed, You have started to empower me to believe I have those things I need, You have empowered me to want and be doing all those things with Your love, and now You are ready to flow through me with spiritual power because You have been working on my attitudes and character. Help me see that You couldn’t give me spiritual power until I would yield to it with love, grace, mercy, forgiveness, and compassion.

THANKFUL: Jesus, I thank You for not giving me spiritual power prior to this. I thank You for making my attitudes and character Your top priority. Help me continue to appreciate all You have been doing in my mind and heart. Help me spend a lot of time worshipping You, praising You, and expressing my love to You for heading me from salvation and justification into sanctification. Spiritual growth was vital to me being able to be trusted with Your spiritual power flowing in and through me.

Focusing In On God’s Purpose

John 3:17 (NIV) For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through Him. Your first look at the power to succeed was Jesus providing you with salvation and justification. Then He started working on your sanctification, which is spiritual growth. No one can succeed without these three provisions working in their life. If a person gains the whole world and loses their soul (human life), all their efforts will have been in vain. It may look like they were a tremendous success; but, it will end being a total failure.

For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world: Jesus, help me learn that God’s love is the spiritual power to succeed. Teach me what it means that “God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son.” Show me that this love is how God opened the door to not only temporary success but to eternal success. Make it clear to me that when I am given truth, power, opportunities, and provisions for succeeding through love and I don’t take advantage of them, I not only fail, I become totally responsible for that failure. Help me take advantage of the fact that God is willing to give me His love, so I have the spiritual power to succeed in a way that blesses me, other people, and God’s plan.

Focusing In On Your Responsibility

John 3:18 (NIV) Whoever believes in Him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because he has not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son. Once the provision is supplied, you become responsible for receiving it.

From everyone who has been given much, much will be demanded; and from the one who has been entrusted with much, much more will be asked (Luke 12:48b). Jesus, it doesn’t seem like the power to succeed would have anything to do with the power to fail. Help me understand that, if the demand is, I yield to Your provisions and power, then the demand empowers me to succeed without pressure. Let me use Your spiritual power to block pressure. Make these requirements be my pathway to freedom and peace, not pressure.

Focusing In On The Gifts Of God

John 3:16 (NIV) For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life.

Whoever believes in Him shall not perish: To fail at life is called perishing; it is the term that indicates that a person has died a spiritual death and is eternally separated from God. Why would a person fail or perish when God has given them all they need to be a tremendous success in this life and in eternal life? It could be because they think it will be too hard! They could think they would have to give up something too important! They could think a lot of things that aren’t true. And, these thoughts can keep you from getting spiritual power.

Whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life: What causes a person to desire to be successful; what drives them to study, pray, believe, love, take faith-action, and be thankful? Why pay a lot of money, spend a lot of years, and expend a lot of effort to become a professional? It all comes down to the goal a person has “burning” deep down in their heart. If your goal is to be close to God, then you are a candidate for spiritual power.

Letting Earthly Success Teach You About Eternal Success

Jesus, I can have a great desire to get money, possessions, positions, power, popularity, prestige, pleasure, and accomplishments. I am the kind of person who really wants to apply myself. If I have this passion for being someone, doing something great, and accomplishing something important, would these desires I have, contain anything that You would be interested in? Would You be able use desires like these?

I Want To Be The Greatest

Mark 9:33-34 (NIV) They came to Capernaum. When He was in the house, He asked them, “What were you arguing about on the road?” But they kept quiet because on the way they had argued about who was the greatest. It doesn’t seem like these guys would be picked by Jesus. However, they were the perfect candidates for being His disciples. Jesus didn’t make any mistakes in picking them. They had the potential for being world changers. You may not think you have the right ingredients for being given spiritual power. But, just like Jesus’ disciples, all you needed was a major work on your attitudes and character.

Mark 9:35 (NIV) Sitting down, Jesus called the Twelve and said, “If anyone wants to be first, he must be the very last, and the servant of all.” Jesus, teach me that Your disciples weren’t lazy; they weren’t passive; and they weren’t goalless. They had deep desires, goals , and passions. You just needed to redirect these desires, passions, and goals into the power of love. Help me see that You aren’t expecting me to come to You with all the right attitudes and character traits. You are looking for me to have all the right desires to yield to You.

Focusing In On The Success Of God

Phil 3:13-14 (NIV) Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.

Jesus, help me ignore the possibility of failing and focus on the possibility of winning. Let me want to win so much that I am willing to do whatever it takes to press on toward the goal to win the prize. Let me see what winning in You looks like, so I can start pressing on toward it. Empower me to take faith-action on the rules, attitudes, goals, commitments, character, hope, and love for winning the life-race in the next studies and prayers.

Truth/Prayer Pages Chapter Three

New Rules For Winning The Life-Race

Week One Day Five

The Learning Curve

No matter how great a learner you are, no one starts out being able to do things perfectly the first time they try. It is especially hard to learn to do things one way and then start doing them a different way. You learned to win by competing with other people; and now you are having to unlearn it. To be the best, you learned to zero in on yourself and make sure you were better than those around you; and now you are having to unlearn it. You learned that to win you, have to be able to defeat others; and now Jesus is requiring that you totally unlearn it.

Phil 2:3-4 (NIV) Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves. Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others. Jesus, help me be ready to yield to Your spiritual power through a new way of life. A life that doesn’t allow me to defeat, win over, be better than, be smarter than, be greater than, or walk over people to get to the top. Show me how to win a race by spending all my time taking water to those dehydrated, encouraging those who were getting discouraged, and assisting those who were running out of energy.

Changing The Rules Of The Race

You learned the rule that the winner is the first one over the finish line; but, now you must unlearn it. In Jesus’ life-race, the rules are different. Jesus said: “So the last will be first, and the first will be last (Mat 20:16).” That is definitely a totally different rule than the one you learned. In Jesus’ life-race, the one who gets the most people over the finish line is the winner.

Jesus, if I make sure everyone running a race gets over the finish line, I will be the last one over it. Help me believe You would declare me the winner of the race. Teach me that the first person over the finish line didn’t allow themselves to be distracted by anyone else. They put their best efforts into making sure they were the fastest, the healthiest, the most fit, the most prepared, and the most committed to beating everyone else. And, show me that You would declare them last in the race. The last will be first, and the first will be last.

Learning How To Be First In Jesus’ Life-Exam

What would it take to be a person who had a lot of friends, knew how to establish meaningful relationships, was good in business relations, and was able to produce win/win situations routinely? Romans 5:1-5 gives you the steps into the attitudes and character it takes to win at life. Let Jesus take you through this in the next chapters. Allow these principles to influence the way you think. Him take you through the following verses to see how life really works.

Rom 5:1-2 (NIV) Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through Whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God.

Rom 5:3-4 (NIV) Not only so, but we also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope.

Rom 5:5 (NIV) And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out His love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, Whom He has given us.

Jesus, at first glance, these words may not make a lot of sense to me. But, help me take them a little bit at a time, so they will blossom into a beautiful way of life that is only possible through the provisions that You have already provided for every person. Help me take a look at these powerful truths, so I can yield to Your spiritual power.

Good Intensions

Rom 5:1 (NIV) Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Okay, you now know what the rules are. You can feel ready to start helping people get across the finish line. You can feel the excitement of knowing what life is all about. You are confident that you can do this! So, you roll up your sleeves and start going out getting everyone over the finish line. But, where’s the finish line? Which people need to be helped? What do they need help with? And, how are you going to succeed at life, make a living, and pay your bills while doing this?

Therefore, since you have been justified: Jesus, help me always keep in mind that justification started me off with a perfect record with God. I am getting ready to start out with a new set of rules; and, I am actually starting out with a new way of life. But, understanding the rules, a willingness to go live by them, and a determination and commitment to do them isn’t enough. Help me see that I have a problem that You have to help me with.

Good Intensions As A Disciple

What if Jesus starts you off with a perfect record and you simply mess up again? Rom 7:15 (NIV) I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do. What if you were running in a race and you wanted to help everyone over the finish line? So, you tried to give water to someone who didn’t want it. What if you started encouraging someone who wanted to make it on their own? What if you pushed someone across the finish line who didn’t want to go? Your intensions would be good but your technique would need improvement. Jesus must help you do the right things, with the right people, at the right time.

Jesus, help me not turn this new way into the old way by focusing on me winning the race by helping others. Help me not just adjust the rules and add them to selfishness. Help me see that the new rules must be controlled through love. Show me how to all these new rules to not be rules at all. Let me go around helping people because I love them.

We All Make Mistakes

Therefore, since we have been justified through faith: Salvation took care of all the sins you had already committed. Justification takes care of those you are or are going to commit. It gives you a perfect record! All the mistakes and mistreatment of yourself and other people has been removed from your record with God. Why would God consider you to be a person who is obeying all the rules of the life-race, when we all know you really aren’t.

Jesus, teach me how this works. Teach me that if I studied for years, learning how to be a surgeon in school, but hadn’t done any surgery, if I “decided” to open up an office and start cutting on people, they would be in danger. If my first patient had a tumor on their brain, and, if I decided I was qualified for the job, I would probably end up getting taken to court. I know that all professionals start out as novices; they all need to be mentored! So, show me that God gives me a perfect record with Him, so it won’t damage my relationship; but, I am a novice.

Under Supervision

Justified through faith: Intern: a student or trainee who works, sometimes without pay, at a trade or occupation in order to gain work experience. Synonyms: trainee, apprentice, novice, probationer, student, learner, beginner, disciple. All people make mistakes; but, these people make the most mistakes. They are involved in the profession; but, they lack experience.

Jesus, teach me that faith is a trust or dependency on You, Who know how to make this type of life work. When I hurt myself and other people, if I weren’t justified and given a perfect record with God, I would be held responsible for my mistakes. Show me that if I had a malpractice suit against me, I probably made a really bad mistake. Help me see that the way for a new professional to be protected, from being sued, is to be under the training and supervision of a mature, experienced professional. So, when I accepted Your salvation and justification, I came under Your leadership, mentoring, responsibility, and protection.

Those accepting Jesus’ salvation and justification become His students and are called disciples. When this happens, Jesus takes on all the responsibility for all your thoughts, feelings, words, and deeds. It is like the head of a department checking all your work, looking for any mistakes, and then “signing off” on your work. When they put their signature at the bottom of your work, they are making themselves responsible for any mistakes they don’t notice or correct.

Faith In Jesus

Therefore, since you have been justified through faith, you have peace with God through your Lord Jesus Christ: You now have a perfect record and you have a way for it to stay perfect by having faith, trust, and a reliance on Jesus to watch over your behavior. Those who believe, trust, and rely on Jesus for the actions of their life, have accepted Him as their supervisor, boss, mentor, and head. He is only accepting responsibility for those who want to do those things He says are right and correct. If you do things on purpose that you know He is against, then you are rejecting His supervision, protection, leadership, expertise, and superiority; you then go it alone.

Jesus, help me always realize that justification gives me a perfect record with God only. It doesn’t mean I or other people like and accept what I do as a trainee, student, and disciple. I and they don’t always like the way I am living my life with them. When I accidently or mistakenly do things that hurt me and those around me, You have it all covered, as a part of my training, learning, and gaining experiences. You look over my deeds for the day, talk to me about areas where I need improvement, help my errors to work out for everyone’s good anyway, and then “sign off” on all of it; teach me that, that is justification through faith.

The New Rules

1 Cor 9:26-27 (NIV) Therefore I do not run like a man running aimlessly; I do not fight like a man beating the air. No, I beat my body and make it my slave so that after I have preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified for the prize. Jesus, teach me and empower me to live on the basis of these new rules. Help me run my life-race based on them. Show me that, as long as I am familiar with them, I can run the race based on them and be used by Your spiritual power. Teach me that these are the rules God accepts and gives me rewards because I follow them. Help me understand that they are important for me to know and follow, so I won’t be disqualified from the race.

This concludes your reading and praying for the week.

Truth/Prayer Pages Chapter Four

New Rules For Winning The Life-Race

Week Two Day One

This Is Where You Are

Rom 5:1-2 (NIV) Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through Whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which you now stand. And you rejoice in the hope of the glory of God.

Therefore, since you have been justified through faith: Basically you start out credited as having already won the race. Since you are already saved and justified through already believing the truths of Romans 10:8-10 and Romans 5:1-2, you are a winner! This sets you free to lay that issue down and concern yourself with getting other people across the finish line. But, you still face responsibilities for physical concerns; you still have to eat, wear clothes, have transportation, have a place to live and sleep, and many other physical needs. How can you drop those issues and just help people across the finish line? Jesus has a way for you to accomplish this assignment based on a win/win system.

Therefore, since you have been justified through faith, you have peace with God: Jesus, I now have peace with God. Since I have peace with God, I have access to His provisions. Let me join Your plan where I am able to help people across the finish line while getting my own needs met. Help me involve myself in win/win goals, plans, decisions, and actions. Open the door to the great blessings of Philippians 4:19.

Phil 4:19 (NIV) And my God will meet all your needs according to His glorious riches in Christ Jesus. Jesus, let this Scripture ease my mind, so I am not worrying about neglecting my needs while taking care of other people’s needs. Help me to just concentrate on them knowing that You are concentrating on me.

Now You Can Get Started With Faith-Action

Luke 6:38 (NIV) Give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over, will be poured into your lap. For with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.

Give, and it will be given to you: Jesus, teach me about money, possessions, positions, power, prestige, popularity, pleasure, and accomplishments in greater detail. If I am going to use these things to help people, then I have to have a way to get that started. When I read Luke 6:38, help me not just think about money; let my giving involve all eight of these things. Teach me how to share them, as God provides them to me. Show me that Your race isn’t me trying to just get myself across the finish line. Teach me what it means that the last will be first, and the first will be last (Mat 20:16).

Faith-Action Starts With A Little Bit

Give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over, will be poured into your lap: Most of us start out in life with only a little bit of money, possessions, positions, power, prestige, popularity, pleasure, and accomplishments. You were taught by the world to guard them, work on increasing them, save them, invest them, and make sure you use them for your own benefits. But, you are moving into a new way of life that is based on Jesus’ rules. You are working on a plan that includes a lot of people around you. You are taking advantage of the fact that therefore, since you have been justified through faith, you have peace with God.

Jesus, take away the fear and the worry that this new system won’t work. Help me trust You more than I trust money, myself, and the world system. Help me see how much faith I have had in myself and all those things the world had me involved in. Then help me look to You for a faith that will be greater than any faith I ever had in any of those things.

Faith-Action Starts Based On A Relationship

Give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over, will be poured into your lap. For with the measure you use, it will be measured to you: Taking advantage of your relationship with your heavenly Father allows you to work with Him to choose people to include on your team. It won’t do any good to give and expect that it will be given to you, if you aren’t doing it with Jesus. You don’t take this rule from Jesus and try to use your own judgment, intellect, skills, and talents.

Jesus, teach me that to give, and it…be given to me, is to join You in living Your life. Take the guidance systems of my life and give me the experiences, methods, and applications of the Luke 6:38 rule. Let my training be like a car with two steering wheels, accelerators, and brakes. I yield to You doing most of the driving; but, I also get hands-on training in how to live in the spirit realm while following this Luke 6:38 rule.

Trading Your Life For A Better One

Gal 2:20 (NIV) I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, Who loved me and gave Himself for me. Let Jesus use the basics of what happened to you at salvation and justification, as an example, so you will better understand His rules for living in the spirit realm.

1. Faith-Action Is, Giving Up Your Old Life

For you know that your old self was crucified with Him so that the body of sin might be done away with, that you should no longer be slaves to sin--because anyone who has died has been freed from sin (Rom 6:6-7).

I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live: Jesus, empower me to die out to and give up my old life; I do it willingly and with full knowledge of all its implications. Since I accepted Your death as my death, I willingly gave up my old life; now I ask You to empower me to live my new life with You, so You can allow Your spiritual power to flow through me.

2. Faith-Action Is, Learning How To Live Your New Life

Now if you died with Christ, you believe that you will also live with Him (Rom 6:8).

I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me: Jesus, now that I have a new life, it involves in new rules. You have given me Your life so I can be able to do what I could not do before. From this point on, teach me how to live a whole new way of life. Let me live this new life while under Your complete supervision. Help me really want to learn how to live it; help me hold lightly to the “steering wheel” of my life. Show me how to navigate this new life with its new rules.

3. Faith-Action Is, Being Willing To Turn The Controls Over

Rom 6:9 (NIV) For we know that since Christ was raised from the dead, He cannot die again; death no longer has mastery over Him.

The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God: Jesus, teach me how to produce win/win situations for everyone involved. Teach me how to get and use money, possessions, positions, power, prestige, popularity, pleasure, and accomplishments to help people. Give me a lot of hands-on training with You. Do this, so You can teach me how to do it. Move me from my old life to my new one without experiencing damage. Influence my thoughts, feelings, words, and deeds so my relationships will take on this new way of doing things.

4. Faith-Action Is, Turning The Controls Over

Rom 6:10-11 (NIV) The death He died, He died to sin once for all; but the life He lives, He lives to God. In the same way, count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus.

The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, Who loved me and gave Himself for me: Jesus, help my confidence, trust, faith, and dependency to grow in You. Help me relax and allow You to teach me how to hear Your voice, recognize Your influence, and be receptive to Your leadership. You live inside me through the presence of the Holy Spirit. Lead and teach me through the power of the Holy Spirit. You, our heavenly Father, and the Holy Spirit are one in ways that I lack the ability to totally understand.

As the Holy Spirit speaks to your conscience, as Jesus speaks faith into you, and as your heavenly Father causes ideas and feelings to pop up in your mind and heart, you don’t have to concern yourself with Who’s doing it. Mark 12:29 (NIV) “The most important one,” answered Jesus, “is this: ‘Hear, O Israel, the Lord your God, the Lord is one.” Just allow Jesus to represent the totality of God in your life for the moment. You will be simply learning how to follow and obey Him and His guidance anyway; so, there is no need to make this complicated. You will never be able to figure out the make up of God anyway.

John 16:15 (NIV) All that belongs to the Father is Mine. That is why I said the Spirit will take from what is Mine and make it known to you. Jesus, this is how it really works. Help me not get involved in trying to figure out what God’s relationship is with me from a trinity perspective. Help me just allow the Bible to give me hints, as to what You, the Father, and the Holy Spirit do. Help not try to go beyond what it says. Help me just accept each Scripture at face value and not read anything else into it.

This concludes your reading and praying for today.

Truth/Prayer Pages Chapter Five

New Attitudes For Winning The Life-Race

Week Two Day Two

Rom 5:1-2 (NIV) Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through Whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God.

Examining Two Types Of People And Two Types Of Destinations

Rom 5:1-2 (NIV) Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ: What is the difference between a person who does things that hurt people on purpose, and a person who accidently hurts people? Which one gets peace with God? What is the difference between a person who hurts people, but is doing everything possible to quit, and a person who does it and refuses to get help? Which one gets peace with God? In Romans 7:15-25 you have a perfect example of a person who is hurting themselves and others; but, they are very upset about it and are looking for a cure.

1. Getting It Fixed By Joining The Type That Get It Fixed

If you don’t have time to take a quick look at these verses in Romans 7:15-25, then the important verses are Romans 7:15 and Romans 7:24. In them you see the right attitudes. You are wanting to have spiritual power flow through you from Jesus. And, as you know, your attitudes and character have been worked on so as to get you ready for it. Here are the issues.

First Jesus, remind me about the Romans 7:15-25 people, who can see that they are hurting themselves and others and are very upset about it: Rom 7:15 (NIV) I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do. It was normal for me as a trainee, apprentice, probationer, student, novice, learner, beginner, and disciple to not be all that good at the new rules for Your life-race. But, help me see that I have to be making progress by taking my want and hate and applying Your spiritual power to those issues.

Second Jesus, the Romans 7:15-25 people can see that they are hurting themselves and others and are trying to find out how to get it fixed: Rom 7:24 (NIV) What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? You only help those who use their God-given free will to ask You to help them with things that are hurting them and others. Help me understand that I can’t just be upset about it. I have to “do what it takes” to use Your spiritual power to win over these issues.

2. Getting It Fixed Through Justification

Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through Whom: You can see here that Jesus was willing to give you a perfect record, so you can be a trainee, apprentice, probationer, student, novice, learner, beginner, and disciple. You can see that God has been willing to overlook your sins, mistakes, shortcomings, and novice approach to life. But, you have to care about the fact that you are still hurting yourself and others. And, you have to be willing to turn to Jesus for more advanced training and opportunities to experience results.

Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through Whom we have gained access: Jesus, teach me that the next big issue, besides justification, faith, peace, and You is—access. I have been using my perfect record to allow me to communicate with God, whenever I wanted to. But, it is vital that I take advantage of it to bring spiritual power into living a righteous life.

3. Getting It Fixed Through Faith In The Right Person

Romans 7:15-23 shows you a person who hasn’t yet realized they can’t solve this problem by themselves. In these verses the word “I” is used twenty-six times. They have the right attitudes, wants, and desires; but, Romans 7:24 reveals that they still don’t realize it is going to take Jesus’ help for them to get this problem fixed. Rom 7:24 (NIV) What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death?

Jesus, show me the difference with a person who is hurting themselves and others and thinks they can handle this problem by themselves, and a person who realizes they are going to need You help with it. Why should I fail at life, when I have You, Who has the power I need for success? I thank You that I found out that the answer to the Romans 7:24 question is You!

4. Getting It Fixed Through Your God-Given Free Will

Rom 5:1-2 (NIV) Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through Whom we have gained access by faith:

As long as the person in Romans 7:15-23 kept looking to themselves, themselves was what they were stuck with. They were on their own while trying to solve and cope with a supernatural problem. Even though they had powerful and wonderful attitudes about not hurting themselves and others, God still waited until they cried out to Him for His help. Your God-given free will makes the decision as to whom you will have faith. And, that controls whether or not you ever move from living like Romans 7:15-23 to living on the benefits of Romans 7:24-25.

Jesus, show me what faith has to do with whether or not You will help me. If I put my faith in myself, show me why You won’t just go ahead and help me anyway. Since the Bible has taught me that God has a total commitment to allowing me to use my God-given free will to make my own decisions, help me see that, that is why I need Your incredible spiritual power.

5. Getting It Fixed Through Grace And Free Gifts

Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through Whom we have gained access by faith into this grace: What if you owned the whole world; what if you had all the resources, money, possessions, positions, power, prestige, popularity, pleasure, and accomplishments? If you gave someone something for free, it would be easy for you because you could simply replace it. God can create anything; except for Jesus, He can give as much as He wants and replenish it by creating more. Grace or free gifts are easy for Him to supply as long as it doesn’t involve a sacrifice by Jesus.

Jesus, help me see that when people, groups, companies, and even friends do things for free for me, they typically want something in return. They don’t actually do it for free, if a friend wants me to appreciate what they do. So, I get used to the world’s philosophy that there is no such thing as something for free. Help me be delivered from believing that there are always strings attached. Help me realize that You don’t have a hidden agenda. You don’t have needs; You are perfect. You are doing everything You do because You love me.

6. Getting It Fixed Through Remaining In Jesus

· Salvation: Jesus, You taught me to use my God-given free will to accept salvation.

· Justified: You taught me how to be justified, which gave me a perfect record with You.

· Faith: You helped me move my faith from being in myself to putting it in You.

· Peace With God: You are “signing off” on my accidental failures while helping me grow in my relationships with myself and other people.

· Through Your Lord Jesus Christ: You got me ready to use Your training and power to establish win/win relationships with others.

· Through Whom You Have Gained Access: You gave me a special connection to God’s knowledge, foreknowledge of the future, understanding, wisdom, power, and love; that really makes a huge difference.

· By Faith Into This Grace: From now on Your gracious gifts of brilliant ideas will be popping up in my mind; Your gifts of special emotions will strengthen my heart; Your gifts of unique abilities will come to me as power-gifts necessary to change my behavior and enhance my relationships; and Your control of my circumstances will force them to work for my good.

· In Which You Now Stand: From now on I just have to keep looking to You for helping me stay where I am. You are in it all; You are helping me learn how to take advantage of my position in You by standing there.

7. Getting It Fixed Provides You With What’s Next

Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through Whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God: What if you already had the happiness, joy, value, confidence, esteem, and peace you were looking for? What if you were in business, marriage, friendships, and other relationships with all your needs already cared for? What if you weren’t looking to business partners, a spouse, your family, or other people to make you happy? What if you were already happy and were helping others get what you have?

Jesus, “rejoice in the hope of the glory of God” is showing me a way to approach life while already having it all. Help my happiness not be dependent on a business deal, my spouse, a raise or promotion, a friendship, or circumstances. Let my happiness already be in place, so my life starts off with great potential. Help me just stand in all the provisions of God.

Jesus, help me already be happy, filled with joy, and already satisfied with myself and life. Show me that, that make it easy to reach goals, get along with people, and succeed in life. Keep me from entering into relationships hoping they will meet my needs. I am not looking to things and people; I am looking to You. You fill my heart with the thrill of helping everyone across the finish line and me winning first place by doing it.

This concludes your reading and praying for today.

Truth/Prayer Pages Chapter Six

Growing Attitudes For Winning The Life-Race

Week Two Day Three

Rom 7:15 (NIV) I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do. Jesus help me realize two things here. Romans 7:15-25 is about the failures and difficulties I have with the words and deeds in my human relationships. Romans 5:1-2 is about what salvation and justification did for my relationship with God.

Salvation, Justification, And Sanctification

Salvation took care of those things you did in the past that were offensive to God.

Justification takes care of those things you do in your current life that are also offensive to God. Sanctification starts helping you stop doing those things that are offensive to God. The more you stop doing those things that are offensive to God, the more you will stop doing those things that are hurting you and those people affected by you. That is you taking advantage of your peace with God so you can have peace with yourself and those around you.

Jesus, if I fail in my relationships with people, I fail in life. Help me not succeed with things and fail with people. Help me not continue to experience that what I want to do to people I do not do, but what I hate doing to people I do. My people skills lack a special spiritual power and special training from You; teach me how to use the power that makes true success in life possible. Take over the guidance system of my life; I give You permission to do so.

Steps Into Sanctification

Rom 7:24 (NIV) What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death?

1. You Must Ask Jesus To Help You Realize Something Is Wrong

What a wretched man I am: No one wants to feel bad about themselves; no one wants to see they have done some bad things to others; and, no one likes feeling like they are a bad person. If God gives you a perfect record with Him, why doesn’t it also include your relationships with people? The truth is, it does; but, only from God’s perspective.

Jesus, if I hurt myself and others, I am glad You don’t count it against me. If I sin against myself and other people, You don’t put it in my record as a sin. But, help me realize that the only people You do this with are those who really care about the way they are treating themselves and others. Help me apply The Seven Biblical Principles, so You can use them to make major changes in my behavior.

2. You Must Get Jesus’ Help With Asking This Question

Who will rescue me from this body of death: Jesus, a desire to treat people the right way can only come through Your love. Give me a desperation that helps me yield to this love; help me study what it is; and, help me ask for it. Help me apply The Seven Biblical Principles so I won’t apply The Six World Principles to my life.

The Six World Principles

James 4:1-3 (NIV) What causes fights and quarrels among you? Don’t they come from your desires that battle within you? You want something but don’t get it. You kill and covet, but you cannot have what you want. You quarrel and fight. You do not have, because you do not ask God. When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures.

3. You Must Pray To Give Up The Six World Principles

1. Desires: Desires that battle within you: You want something but don’t get it.

2. Kill: Jesus told you that calling people names is a process of murder (Mat 5:21-22).

3. Covet: You want what other people have. You want their money, possessions, positions, power or influence, popularity, prestige, pleasure, and accomplishments.

4. Quarrel: You try to convince people to give you what they have because you want it.

5. Fight: You try to take them down; you try to get what they have by attacking them.

6. Wrong Motives: You try using Bible principles and God to get what you want.

Jesus, set me free from the desires that battle within me. Help me want the right things, so I do get them. Deliver me from assassinating people’s character; cleanse me from coveting what others have; teach me how to communicate with people through love rather than quarrelling with them; help me develop win/win situations for everyone involved rather than fighting with them. Remove all wrong motives from my heart.

4. You Must Ask Jesus To Apply The Seven Biblical Principles

Therefore, since you have been justified through faith, you have peace with God through your Lord Jesus Christ, through Whom you have gained access: You now have access to your heavenly Father through salvation and justification. You don’t have to rely on using world principles for winning at life.

Jesus, my way never did get success anyway. All I was able to get was money and possessions for the sake of having things. But, as I started turning the control of my life over to Your navigation, You showed me a way that is far better and totally successful.

Jesus, I have gained access to God through Your salvation and justification. Because of You, I can now take advantage all His provisions. Teach me how to get money, possessions, positions, power, popularity, prestige, pleasure, and accomplishments that are through spiritual power. Give me a life that takes advantage of the rules in the spirit realm. Teach me a way to live Your life that creates godly relationships.

5. You Must Ask Jesus To Teach You How To Live Life With The New Rules

The last will be first, and the first will be last (Mat 20:16). If you ask Jesus to take the “driver’s seat” of your life and you sit in the passenger’s seat, He will put a “steering wheel, brakes, and accelerator” on your side too. He will be in control; but, you will get the hands-on experiences and training as if you are doing them.

Jesus, I don’t know how to take money, possessions, positions, power, popularity, prestige, pleasure, and accomplishments and use them to help myself and other people with win/win situations. Teach me how to yield to You and allow You to guide me into them. Take me into those things that will show me how to totally have faith, trust, reliance, and dependency on You running my life. Take control, moment-by-moment and issue-by-issue, as I give You permission each moment over each issue.

This concludes your reading and praying for today.

Truth/Prayer Pages Chapter Seven

New Goals For Winning The Life-Race

Week Two Day Four

Rom 5:3-4 (NIV) Not only so, but we also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope.

Suffering

And we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God. Not only so, but we also rejoice in our sufferings: Okay, this doesn’t sound all that good; up until now, it has all sounded good. You are going to be involved in helping people with win/win situations. You are going to be helping those who need to get over the finish line; and Jesus is going to be pronouncing you as the winner! But, who said anything about suffering?

Jesus, help me see how much You have done for me. Help me see all the wonderful things You have to offer me and those around me. Make it clear to me that Satan is keeping large quantities of people from experiencing all these wonderful things. You have commissioned me to make them aware of what I am experiencing. But, help me see that Satan and his people aren’t going to allow me to share these things without a fight.

Two Types Of Suffering

You can suffer with a job or career that is at the bottom with no chance for advancement; or, you can suffer through doing what it takes to get involved in a career with a lot of opportunities to work your way to the top. Suffering or not suffering isn’t an option in life. You are going to have to face pain and suffering as a person without anything or a person who paid the price to “make something of themselves.”

We rejoice in the hope of the glory of God: Jesus, if I allow my society to be taken over by the devil, I am going to suffer persecution because I am a Christian. If I help my society get to know You and accept You, I am going to suffer because I helped them rejoice in the hope of the glory of God. Help me choose to suffer because I am sharing all the wonderful things You have and are doing for me. Help me not let my society slide into evil because I am not helping them come to You and rejoice in the hope of the glory of God too.

Jesus Makes The Decisions Easier

Let’s take a look at Jesus, the most successful of all; He knows what it takes to succeed at life. He lays out some obvious but not so pleasant things for you to consider. Others might try to “sugar coat” what it takes to win through the world’s systems. When they are writing books or selling you one of their seminars, they may try to keep you from seeing all the problems you are going to face. But Jesus always tells you the truth; He never misleads you or draws out a picture without all the facts. Let Him show you what He is doing as a great success in life.

Steps To Living Jesus’ Way Of Life

1. Look At The Rewards Rather Than The Price

Heb 12:2 (NIV) Let you fix your eyes on Jesus, the Author and Perfecter of your faith, Who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.

Jesus, help me understand the joy set before me. Help me do what Jesus did and see why I am on this planet. Show me that it isn’t just about me crossing the finish line. You are exposing me to all this spiritual power, so I can assist as many across the finish line as possible. Then help me see the joy I will experience, when we all meet in heaven.

2. Trade For The Best Goals

1 Cor 9:25 (NIV) Everyone who competes in the games goes into strict training. They do it to get a crown that will not last; but we do it to get a crown that will last forever.

Jesus, You have taken me into all this strict training so I and those I bring to You will get a crown that will last forever. I agree that suffering in life isn’t an option, and I agree that I shouldn’t suffer for nothing. So, I also agree that I should only get involved in suffering for those things that provide me with the greatest rewards. Help me run in Your race where I don’t have to be the fastest, the fittest, or the healthiest; I just have to help as many as I can to cross the finish line with the greatest amount of speed, fitness, and health.

3. Only Choose The Very Best Trainer

Heb 4:15 (NIV) For we do not have a High Priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have One Who has been tempted in every way, just as we are--yet was without sin. There are a lot of people who are failures in life but represent themselves as being experts. They hold lots of credentials and titles because of their research in books, because they have published a book, or because they have a position through their studies and degrees.

Rom 5:8 (NIV) But God demonstrates His own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Jesus, the world is full of people in high positions who got there by campaigning, publicizing themselves, promoting their works, or making promises they don’t even try to keep. Help me see the difference in the way You think, feel, talk, and act. Help me be that kind of person while having Your spiritual power. You have all power and authority; but You are still demonstrating sacrificial love for me. I want You to train me.

4. Make The Right Choice

Rom 8:18 (NIV) I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us. It’s easy to get excited about something, start getting involved in it, and then find out what kind of suffering and commitment it takes and quit. But, if you don’t just look at the suffering, you can find a motivation for sticking with the goal. What about the glory that will be revealed in you?

Jesus, help me see that my goal is awesome! I only have to suffer for a short period of time and then I get the rewards for eternity. And, those rewards are beyond any aspect of temporary suffering. Help me apply myself to studying all the things I will inherit, if I am willing to share You with the people around me.

5. Listen To Jesus

Jesus, help me realize that this spiritual power helps me be willing to do those things that are incredibly rewarding. Help me hear what You are saying in this passage and receive the spiritual power to do it. I want to enter into eternity and be thrilled that I made the right decisions here on earth. Help me make my stay here be extremely productive.

This concludes your reading and praying for today.

Truth/Prayer Pages Chapter Eight

Worthy Goals For Winning The Life-Race

Week Two Day Five

Rom 5:3-4 (NIV) Not only so, but you also rejoice in your sufferings, because you know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope.

Your Assignment

Everyone Uses The Seven Life Principles For Setting Your Goals

DESIRE: We all desire something; you have desires that create wishes, dreams, goals, plans, strategies, systems, and lifestyles. You may have to give them up, so you can “make ends meet,” “pay the bills,” “get ahead,” or “just make do;” but, you still want them to come true.

Jesus, my desires definitely influence my goals, dreams, and plans. Help me desire those things You provide by You lifting my spiritual eyes to what You have ahead of me. Sometime I allow myself to get distracted, bored, or satisfied. Help me see that if my desires are properly inspired, I will be glad all through eternity that I had an intense desire for You.

STUDY: Study isn’t a new concept either; whether you like studying or not, you have had to pay the price to reach some goal. You have to study for a job, study to help someone else, study to fulfill a dream, study so you can pay your bills, or study for entertainment; but, you study a lot of things; and, it involved a certain amount of sacrificing time, effort, or money.

Jesus, there are times when studying the Bible, these books, other Christian books, or devotional material, I find myself just doing it to get it done, skipping it, or allowing my mind to wander. Help me see the incredible, eternal goal I am preparing for. Let my studies be so relevant that they help me be willing to suffer anything, so as to reach my eternal goal.

PRAY: This is where things seem to change; just because a conversation with God is called prayer, you can get the impression it is something different. Most of us talk; we all use some form of communication. Whether it is by mail, notes, emails, social media, meetings, phone, or two-way radio, you communicate with people or you won’t get anything accomplished; that’s the way it is with Jesus. He wants to talk to you about changing the way you suffer and why.

Jesus, it seems strange to ask You to help me suffer. And, it isn’t that I want You to put pain on me. I just know that if I really share You with others, there is going to be suffering involved. I will suffer inconvenience, I will suffer rejection, I will suffer a loss of friends, I may even suffer a loss of income. But, I want to do what I know is right; and, I know that if You don’t give me the spiritual power to do it, I will avoid all suffering, if possible.

BELIEVE: We all believe a lot of things; you trust some people and not others. You rely on certain people and things; you expect them to always work and always be true; you base your life on them; you accept many people as authorities, experts, and professionals and give them control over parts of your life. And, they cause a certain degree of suffering because of it.

Jesus, I believe You are asking me to be willing to face opposition, rejection, persecution, and suffering. I know that I must put my total faith, trust, dependency, and reliance on You, or, I won’t do it. But, if You pour Your faith into me, so that I receive spiritual power, I believe I will face anything just so I can share You with those who want You. Speak faith into me, so I can be empowered to be bold and courageous in the face of suffering for You.

LOVE: You know the difference between love, like, and lust. You can love some people, like other people; and lust after others. You know the difference between a relationship with a person because of how much they mean to you, and to just want pleasure, money, friendship, or things from them. You can pretend to love or like some of them just so you can get something out of them. You can “act” friendly just so you don’t feel like you are an evil person.

Jesus, when people are suffering because they haven’t heard about You, help me see them and care. Open my heart with such an intensity that I forget about my suffering and reach out to them. Help me be willing to be inconvenienced, spoken against, resisted, maligned, persecuted, and rejected. Help me not let anything stop me from helping those who want Your help. Let Your love empower my love, so I pay the price for helping hurting people.

FAITH-ACTION: You can’t just listen to instructions and not follow them; you know education must be applied. Leaders won’t allow you to ignore what they ask you to do, or just listen and not do it. They want you to do what they tell you. You use faith-action to trust things, wear things, drive things, fly in things, live in things, and use things. You use faith-action to call on people, work together with them, depend on them, rely on their honesty and good judgment, and even marry one of them. Can you use it to agree to suffer with Jesus?

Jesus, You want me to do those things for others that I would want done to and for me. If I were in other people’s places, that don’t know You, don’t have all You have given me, and would love having what I have, help me see that I would want them to share it with me. Help me do what needs to be done to give them all that You have given me. Help me love my neighbor, as myself and take faith-action in their behalf.

THANKFUL: You wouldn’t want to always be the one, in a relationship, that was always being kind, faithful, or benevolent. You wouldn’t want to do all kinds of wonderful things to people who couldn’t care less that you did it. Jesus wants you to be thankful for what He does for you.

Jesus, as I move forward in helping people in spite of the suffering, help me thank You for empowering me with spiritual power to do the right things. Help me see how wonderful it is that You have helped to love those who want to know You and serve You.

This concludes your reading and praying for the week.

Truth/Prayer Pages Chapter Nine

New Commitments For Winning The Life-Race

Week Three Day One

Suffering Produces A Commitment

Rom 5:3-4 (NIV) Not only so, but you also rejoice in your sufferings, because you know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope.

Jesus’ Type Of Perseverance

But you also rejoice in your sufferings, because you know that suffering produces perseverance: It takes a lot of time and cooperation with Jesus for you to grow into this new way of life. Let’s say you studied for years, stayed up late at night, took a lot of hard tests, and had to do a lot of things to become a certain professional. If you had to pay a great price for getting that position, then you wouldn’t give up and quit that profession carelessly. Human perseverance would carry you through the training and give you appreciation for the reward.

Jesus, help me see what this Scripture says and realize that perseverance is one of the number one keys to success. But, help me not decide that perseverance is something I am going to commit myself to and “make up my mind” to stick with You “no matter what.” Help me understand that the person described in Romans 7:15-24 is such a person. They believe they can “gut it out,” “make up their mind,” “try real hard,” “do their best,” and “give it their best effort.” Instead, help me realize that this where I make the transition from human effort to spiritual power. This is where I look to You and ask for suffering to produce perseverance.

Jesus, teach me that the main point of these verses is, I need Your power, provisions, and training to get where I need to go and be the person I need to be. Make it clear that perseverance isn’t a human characteristic or ability; it is something I ask You for. Help me understand that I can’t suffer without asking You for the ability; and, I can’t persevere without asking You for the ability. Help me see that, if I use my own determination or perseverance to be in this relationship with You, it will be far below what I get by having faith in You. Plus, I would cheat myself out of the power-relationship I would have through looking to You.

Experiencing The Miracle

When Jesus gives you His perseverance, at first it will feel like the perseverance and determination you had before. It will feel like you have made up your mind; but, it will be stronger, more reliable, more consistent, and get a lot more results. That is the confusing thing; it feels like you are a determined person, who has made up their mind. But, if you don’t give Jesus the credit for this feeling, you break the thankfulness mandatory requirement. Believing that you got this perseverance from Jesus is vital.

Jesus, help me understand that You take control of the training in my life by monitoring my will; You are always checking my desire. You only get full control, by me constantly inviting You into each thing in my daily activities. Make it clear that anytime I don’t think things like, “Jesus what should I do in this situation?” from that point of that decision, I am in human effort. But, if I do include You, You give me spiritual power to do it. Jesus, help me see that my day goes something like this: “Jesus, is this the right thing to do?” “Jesus, is this the way You want me to feel?” and, “Jesus, what do You want me to say?” Including Your name in my thinking process, invites You in.

The Seven Biblical Principles And Perseverance Through Jesus

You may feel like you have gone through The Seven Biblical Principles enough. You may have them memorized; you may have used them so many times that you can say them backwards. But, these are seven mandatory requirements of Jesus. If just one of them is missing, it can hinder or even block off the answer to your prayer. The Seven Biblical Principles are great diagnostic tools for finding out what mandatory requirement is missing. But, they are even better for making sure you get your prayers answered in the first place.

If you want Jesus’ perseverance, here’s what you do:

1. Jesus, I ask You to help and empower me to desire perseverance. Since perseverance is to be willing to endure situations where I am suffering, there may be some area where I really don’t want perseverance.

2. Jesus, I ask You to help and empower me to know what to study together with You, so I will know and understand what perseverance is and how to have it. Since perseverance is a new concept to me, I may be missing a truth that would empower me to persevere.

3. Jesus, I ask You to help and empower me to pray the right prayers, so I can get Your type of perseverance. Since it is typical for me to try to use my determination, commitment, and making up my mind, help me keep my eyes on You for Your perseverance.

4. Jesus, I ask You to help and empower me to get Your faith, so I can believe I have Your type of perseverance. Since I won’t get anything from You, if I doubt, help me have Your faith stabilizing my faith.

5. Jesus, I ask You to help and empower me to be motivated by Your love, so I will use Your type of perseverance the right way and for the right reasons. Since I won’t be able to persevere, if I don’t love You and the people I am persevering for, help me yield to Your love only.

6. Jesus, I ask You to help and empower me to start joining You in faith-action, so I will be able to start living on the basis of the fact that I have Your type of perseverance. Since I sometimes just want to learn these things and not actually get involved, help me join You and go out where the hurting people are. Help me start saying things they need to hear, so I am invading Satan’s territory and causing resistance, rejection, and persecution.

7. Jesus, I ask You to help and empower me to have a thankful heart all during the time I am persevering. Help me rejoice and be glad, because great is my reward in heaven.

What if you get tired of joining Jesus in The Seven Biblical Principles all the time?

1. If Jesus doesn’t help you desire perseverance, He won’t make you get it. Mark 11:24 (AKJV) Therefore I say unto you, What things soever you desire, when you pray, believe that you receive them, and you shall have them.

2. If you don’t persevere with Jesus in study to find out what it is, that it’s available, and how to get it, the Bible tells you He won’t reveal it to you. You must know the truth before it will set you free. John 8:32 (NIV) Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”

3. If you don’t persevere with Jesus in prayer and ask Him for it, the Bible tells you He won’t give it to you. The Bible tells you that you do not have because you do not ask God. James 4:2 (NIV) You want something but don’t get it. You kill and covet, but you cannot have what you want. You quarrel and fight. You do not have, because you do not ask God.

4. If you aren’t willing to persevere with Jesus in waiting on Him to give you the faith, so you can believe you have it, the Bible tells you God won’t be pleased. Heb 11:6 (NIV) And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to Him must believe that He exists and that He rewards those who earnestly seek Him.

5. If you aren’t willing to persevere with Jesus in learning how to yield to God’s love, so you are motivated by it, the Bible tells you God will consider all loveless thoughts, feelings, words, and deeds to be worthless. 1 Cor 13:1-3 (NIV) If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames, but have not love, I gain nothing.

6. If you aren’t willing to persevere with Jesus in taking faith-action, the Bible tells you God will allow you to live far below the full potential. James 2:14 (NIV) What good is it, my brothers, if a man claims to have faith but has no deeds? Can such faith save him? James 2:17-18 (NIV) In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead. But someone will say, “You have faith; I have deeds.” Show me your faith without deeds, and I will show you my faith by what I do. James 2:20 (NIV) You foolish man, do you want evidence that faith without deeds is useless?

7. If you don’t join Jesus in The Seven Biblical Principles, you won’t have anything to be thankful for. Col 4:2 (NIV) Devote yourselves to prayer, being watchful and thankful. Rom 1:21 (NIV) For although they knew God, they neither glorified Him as God nor gave thanks to Him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened.

This concludes your reading and praying for today.

Truth/Prayer Pages Chapter Ten

More Commitments For Winning The Life-Race

Week Three Day Two

Rom 5:3-4 (NIV) Not only so, but you also rejoice in your sufferings, because you know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope.

Getting Perseverance: A Spiritual Power-Relationship With Jesus

1. Pray For The Power To Persevere By Desiring The Very Best

Rom 8:5 (NIV) Those who live according to the sinful nature have their minds set on what that nature desires; but those who live in accordance with the Spirit have their minds set on what the Spirit desires. What does Jesus want you to persevere in; what is it He wants you to stick with “no matter what?”

Eph 2:10 (NIV) For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do. Perseverance comes from you doing good works, which God prepared in advance for you to do. When you do, the world isn’t going to appreciate you not conforming to their systems, methods, and policies. You will suffer, when you refuse to do selfish, competitive, finance-motivated things. But, here is the perseverance Jesus is asking of you: Gal 6:9 (NIV) Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up.

Jesus, give me Your perseverance so I can have a power-relationship that only takes hold of my heart and mind, if it is the right thing for me to desire. Give me a determination, excitement, intense desire, and commitment that only come when they are desires that are what the Spirit desires. Give me Your perseverance that will only excite me and take me with You into things that are good for me. I can lock onto and get excited about a lot of things that would hurt me. Help me be focused in on the very best for me and those around me.

2. Pray For The Power To Persevere In Studying The Bible

2 Tim 3:16-17 (NIV) All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work. Jesus’ perseverance only takes effect when the Bible says something is good for you and others. But, once you take that good thing out into the world, it clashes with greed, covetousness, competition, selfish ambition, and misinformation. You will be asked to tell people things that aren’t true about your product. You will be asked to talk someone into getting something that isn’t the best for them. You will be asked to help your company or team at the expense of another company or team. What do you do? Pray!

Jesus, since Your perseverance only works on things that are Scriptural, when it shows up, I know what You are wanting me to commit to. Let me feel this drive, this focus, and this mind-set that leads me into the things in the Bible. Let Your perseverance keep me on track when all kinds of resistances, distractions, roadblocks, and dead-end streets come my way.

3. Ask For The Power To Persevere In Only Praying For Good Things

Rom 8:26-27 (NIV) In the same way, the Spirit helps you in your weakness. You do not know what you ought to pray for, but the Spirit Himself intercedes for you with groans that words cannot express. And He Who searches your hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints in accordance with God’s will.

When Jesus’ good comes in contact with the world’s system, you will be resisted. When you present Jesus’ way of life to worldly people, they will disagree. When you refuse to only live by Biblical principles, you will be pressured. But, the Holy Spirit joins into your time of prayer; He helps you get the spiritual power in your knowledge, understanding, and wisdom. You don’t know how to be a great influence on a world of people who are totally different from what Jesus wants out of you. But, Jesus is able to join you, if you ask.

Jesus, when I study the Bible trying to live Christianity out in the world, let the Spirit point out Scriptures about things I need. Then let Him put this intense desire to start praying for that Scripture to be fulfilled in me. Let it become something I realize I can’t live without. Even if, prior to this experience, I didn’t even think I needed it, when I see it in Your Word, let me start feeling like I have to have it. Let it become groans that words cannot express.

However, as it is written: “No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love Him”--but God has revealed it to you by His Spirit. The Spirit searches all things, even the deep things of God (1 Cor 2:9). Jesus, I am facing the world; help me take these things I didn’t know I should want and help me realize that I must persevere in prayer until I have them. Help me be an influence on others.

4. Pray For The Power To Persevere In Believing The Truth

Heb 12:2 (NIV) Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the Author and Perfecter of our faith, Who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. When you, as a Christian, go out into the world to live the Christian life, you know you need things you don’t have yet. The temptations, the pressures, the difference in the lifestyles, and the difference in philosophies are obvious. Almost everything the Bible says is the opposite of how the world lives, believes, and aspires to.

Jesus, as I live among the people of the world, they believe very different from what Your faith is empowering me to believe. Help me see the value, benefit, and miraculous blessings that they will get, if they will put their faith and trust in You. When I am tempted to conform, strengthen my faith in You, the Bible, and the Christian life. Help me be sure and certain that Your way is the only way for me and others to live (Heb 11:1).

5. Pray For The Power To Persevere In God’s Love For Life

Rom 5:5 (NIV) And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out His love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, Whom He has given us. 1 Cor 13:8a (NIV) Love never fails. 1 Cor 13:13 (NIV) And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love. If you don’t love the people out in the world, there will be a lot of things you won’t tell them. When you know you are going to experience pressure, disagreement, misunderstanding, and persecution, if supernatural perseverance isn’t coupled with God’s love, you will let them stay in their sins and destructive life.

Jesus, Your love is making me more and more aware of other people and their needs. It is taking me through all my own desires, needs, and wants. And, it is teaching me through them about what others desire, need, and want. It is helping me feel the same pressure, drives, and hungers that I have for my own self. And, it is empowering me to feel the same thing for them. Help me learn to always include those around me in my goals, plans, and decisions. Empower me to want to help them succeed just as much as I want to succeed.

6. Pray For The Power To Persevere Taking Faith-Action In Living The Jesus-Life

John 14:12 (NIV) I tell you the truth, anyone who has faith in Me will do what I have been doing. He will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father. You know what those around you are doing. You know what they believe. You know they are very different in their lifestyle than you. You can get stuck at desire, study, prayer, believing, and love. Without Jesus’ spiritual power helping you with suffering and perseverance, you won’t be able of open your mouth and say what is needed to be said.

Jesus, Your life empowers me to do those things You were doing when You were here in Your physical body. Help me do those things You want to continue doing just as if You were still here in Your body. But now, do them in and through my body and bodies all over the world. Do the same ministry, but on a larger scale through me a lot more yielded people.

7. Pray For The Power To Persevere Being Thankful For Living The Jesus-Life

Eph 1:15-16 (NIV) For this reason, ever since I heard about your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for all the saints, I have not stopped giving thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers. When you start getting better at taking the Bible and the breakthroughs in your life and sharing them with others, that is when you should start thanking Jesus for the spiritual power. He is taking you from a place where you had no idea what to say to people, who were very different from you, and empowering you to have great conversations with them about Jesus and the Bible. That is an incredible miracle! Spend a lot of time thanking Him for it.

Jesus, once I am living the Jesus-life of perseverance, help me see that I am ready to join You in applying The Seven Biblical Principles to the Galatians 5:22-23 character-of-God things listed there. Help me realize that You aren’t just taking me into a life of perseverance. You are taking me on stair steps up to the next great provision of God. Suffering together with You produces perseverance; and, persevering with You produces character.

This concludes your reading and praying for today.

Truth/Prayer Pages Chapter Eleven

New Character For Winning The Life-Race

Week Three Day Three

Rom 5:3-4 (NIV) Not only so, but we also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope.

Commitment Produces God’s Character

But you also rejoice in your sufferings, because you know that suffering produces perseverance; and perseverance produces character: God primarily cares about what kind of a person you are. He isn’t impressed with you using perseverance to make a lot of money, accumulate many possessions, gain power, get a great position, be extremely popular, have a lot of prestige, experience a lot of pleasure, or have a lot of accomplishments. He wants you to use perseverance for better treating people while getting these things.

Jesus, when the Bible tells me that perseverance produces character, make it clear to me that it is talking about producing one of the most important things in my life. My final exam from You has to do with character, according to Matthew 25:31-46. Help me believe that success in life is only achieved through me using methods and having motives that direct me into treating people with love and respect. So, help me pay close attention to this issue of perseverance. It is going to take a lot of it for me to learn how to produce win/win situations.

Getting The Character Of God Ahead Of Time

Gal 5:22-23 (NIV) But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law. While being out in the world, what if you entered into business, marriage, friendships, family relationships, and a relationship with yourself while already having these character traits? How would people see you and treat you, if you treated them with these character traits? You just need to pray and ask Jesus to give you the spiritual power to establish relationships with them.

What Jesus Wants To Do For You:

· Jesus, give me the desire to treat people with the power of the fruit of the Spirit.

· Jesus, lead me into studying the Scriptures that help me know how to yield to them.

· Jesus, help me keep praying until I see them start to flow out of my behavior.

· Jesus, speak faith into me, so I can believe You gave them to me.

· Jesus, give them to me because they become my motivations of love.

· Jesus, help me go out into the world and practice taking faith-action as I learn how to live on the basis of the fact that You gave them to me as God’s power-character.

· Jesus, as I start treating the people of the world with the fruit of the Spirit, help me immediately start thanking and praising You for the miracle.

Jesus’ Type Of Perseverance Produces Character

No one desires, studies about, prays for, gets faith to believe, yields to God’s love for, and then never has any more problems with the character traits of Galatians 5:22-23. It takes a lot of perseverance to get them functioning as your character in your daily activities. You will fail to yield to one of them and have to go apologize to someone. You will mishandle a situation and have to go make it right. But, as long as you yield to Jesus’ perseverance, these character traits will show up through practicing faith-action. The more they show up, as your character, the less you will always be apologizing and having to go making things right with people.

Jesus, I can see how the fruit of the Spirit are going to open doors for me to share You and the Bible with people in the world. If I am already treating them with love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control, that establishes a relationship that brings trust, friendship, and openness. Then as I add Biblical principles to our conversation, we already have a relationship that assists openness, unity, and comradery.

Desiring Jesus’ Type Of Character

What if you desired those things that are most important to God? But, what if you read the Bible and found out that God wasn’t impressed with certain types of your accomplishments? What if you found out that He would reject them unless you achieved them through righteousness and godliness? What if you found out that having good character needed to be your greatest and most important goal? What if you allowed this goal to enter into your heart and mind and inspired you to put everything you had into it? That would be the fulfillment of: Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled (Mat 5:6).

Jesus, help me realize that, in the process of getting money, possessions, positions, popularity, prestige, power, pleasure, and accomplishments, I need to use the Beatitudes. Show me that, if I yield to God’s power-attitudes of being poor in spirit, mourning, meekness, hungering and thirsting for rightness, mercy, a pure heart, peacemaking, and a willingness to be persecuted I will become the kind of person You can use to help the hurting. In the process of getting things, my priority, goal, plan, and method for getting them would be to obtain them while having attitudes and character that really cared about the people around me.

Getting Your Priorities Straight

Your primary goal is godly character. Your secondary goal is to get things for producing win/win situations. Your priorities get straight, when you care more about how you achieve things than what you achieve. Were they through love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control? If not, then you didn’t reach your goal.

Jesus, help me see that it takes a lot of suffering, sacrifice, effort to produce money, possessions, positions, popularity, prestige, power, pleasure, and accomplishments, and they are just temporary rewards. Show me that it takes the same type of suffering and perseverance to produce character that lasts for eternity. I don’t reduce the suffering by going straight for these things; I just end up with the wrong goals, plans, and accomplishments. I end up with things that don’t last; and, I end up having an eternity with God but nothing else.

Christian Behavior Matters

Examining The New Rules

1 Cor 3:12-13 (NIV) If any man builds on this foundation using gold, silver, costly stones, wood, hay or straw, his work will be shown for what it is, because the Day will bring it to light. It will be revealed with fire, and the fire will test the quality of each man’s work.

1 Cor 3:14-15 (NIV) If what he has built survives, he will receive his reward. If it is burned up, he will suffer loss; he himself will be saved, but only as one escaping through the flames.

Choosing Character Over Things

If what he has built survives, he will receive his reward: A lot of Christians don’t realize their rewards in eternity are based on: “his work will be shown for what it is.” They know about the moment when the Christians and the unsaved will be separated and judged in Matthew 25:31-46. But, they don’t know about the fact that the Christian’s works will be evaluated. So, a lot of them don’t see any need for working on their character and attitudes.

Jesus, perseverance produces character; help me make my character a priority over things. Help me care more about how I accomplish things than what or how much I accomplish. Show me that this is like building with gold, silver, and costly stones; these materials are not flammable; and, they are very valuable. Teach me God’s system, so I will better know how to live my life. Help me know what matters and what doesn’t matter all that much.

Choosing Things Over Character

If it is burned up, he will suffer loss: Here’s a Christian who has misunderstood God’s principles for life; they are either new or untrained. Rom 7:15 (NIV) I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do. These Christians’ works aren’t using gold, silver, and costly stones to build their life with; they are using spiritual wood, hay or straw. Nothing they are doing, producing, and accomplishing is counting for eternity. They will be saved, but only as one escaping through the flames.

Jesus, teach me that the words want and hate, show when people are Christians. But, their character and attitudes need a lot of work. You are teaching me that perseverance produces character, because character builds with spiritual gold, silver, and costly stones. You are teaching me how to move out of the Romans 7:15-25 life into the Romans 8:1-30 life, because that changes my building material; my eternal rewards will start growing and increasing.

This concludes your reading and praying for today.

Truth/Prayer Pages Chapter Twelve

Producing Character For Winning The Life-Race

Week Three Day Four

Rom 5:3-4 (NIV) Not only so, but you also rejoice in your sufferings, because you know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope.

Praying To Work With People Where They Live

Most people pursue happiness by getting money, possessions, positions, power, popularity, prestige, pleasure, and accomplishments. And, since they made them their goal, that causes their focus to be on things rather than on people. People become expendable; people lose their importance except for how they might serve to help reach that goal; but, here’s God’s plan.

Mat 6:33 (NIV) But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. Jesus, speak through the Bible and teach me how to get all of these things by the process of Your type of perseverance and character. Help me be a person who doesn’t have a character that can be corrupted by money, possessions, positions, power, popularity, prestige, pleasure, or accomplishments. Help me be trusted with them, so You can use me in a mighty way. Show me that this is the way I will be able to influence people.

Praying For The Tools For Working With People

Perseverance That Builds Character

Gal 6:9 (NIV) Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up.

Let you not become weary: Perseverance is the power that Jesus gives you so you do not become weary. It empowers you to stick with doing good, so it will bring the people around you to Him. No matter what it costs, you stick with Jesus, His goals, plans, and methods for you and your friends. You keep doing good to them even when you are persecuted for it.

Jesus, help me not give up; set Your goals, rewards, and benefits in front of me. Help me be inspired by them in such a way that they keep me persevering and pressing on. Keep me from allowing anything to discourage me, distract me, or prevent me from succeeding in You.

Character

Let us not become weary in doing good: Character is the power Jesus gives you, so you are able be doing good. Once you know you have this power-character in your life, you can then pursue your secondary goal of things to help people with. This character, from Jesus, keeps you from hurting yourself or those around you because of things.

Jesus, work on my heart, mind, life, and behavior; help me be pure in heart so I can’t be corrupted by any thing. Let me be so healed, trained, and transformed that no thing will be able to redirect me, distract me, bait me, or trap me. Empower me with perseverance.

Results

At the proper time: The results of perseverance producing character is, at the proper time you will have spent all your time, effort, and money helping the people described in Matthew 25:31-46. There Jesus lays out your final exam, as He tells you what life is really all about. You will have devoted your life to feeding the hungry, giving drink to the thirsty, including strangers, clothing those needing them, looking after the sick, and visiting those in prison.

Jesus, empower me to help the people described in Matthew 25:31-46. Help me teach them how to trade their current suffering for a suffering that counts for eternity. Let me show them how to use it to get perseverance; then let me help them use perseverance to get character; let me help them, so they too will be trustworthy with things and live a life that fulfills this test.

People

For at the proper time you will reap a harvest: Because perseverance produced character, Jesus can trust you with money, possessions, positions, popularity, power, prestige, pleasure, and accomplishments. The world teaches you that these things are the harvest. But, these things aren’t the harvest; they are the tools for helping you reap a harvest. As you use things to help people, you reap a harvest of friends, associates, partners, and team members.

Jesus, help me realize that the reason I get these kinds of results is because I have allowed You to put Your power-perseverance in my life; and, it produced Your power-character in me. Because You have given me these things, the people around me are prospering with money, possessions, positions, popularity, power, prestige, pleasure, and accomplishments, so we all can keep helping more and more people for the rest of their lives.

Suffering

For at the proper time you will reap a harvest if you do not give up: Going to work every morning, so you can take care of yourself is much easier than including others in your efforts. “But we also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; and perseverance produces character” is talking about you giving up suffering just for yourself and start suffering with other people; let Jesus show you how it works.

Mat 11:28-30 (NIV) Come to Me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.”

Making The Trade

Come to Me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest: Jesus, help me desire You to take care of all my needs, efforts, and burdens. Help me study and pray, so I turn the care of my life over to You; let that free me, so I can care for others. Help me move into a lifestyle where I start involving myself in win/win situations. Let me wait on You to give me Your faith, so I can believe I have been given the knowledge, understanding, wisdom, and power to mutually help all involved in my life. Empower me to open my heart to Your love, so I will be motivated by it in all I do. Join me, as I start practicing faith-action. Then, as all this takes place, help me express my thankfulness for You transforming all these people.

Moving Into Team Relationships

Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light: Taking faith-action, so you will only be involved in win/win situations, isn’t easy. Working with those you are workings with and only have good relationships, isn’t easy. It takes a lot more planning, negotiating, strategizing, compromising, and working together as a team. There is only one way it can become easy, and, that is for Jesus to make it be easy.

Jesus, since You have taken the tremendous weight of all my needs, wants, desires, and pressures, set me free to be unified with all those people around me. Help me mix my needs with their needs and start working in unity with them. Help us become one; make us no longer be individuals fighting for our best interests. Empower us to work together to unite all our needs; let it be so that You can mutually get the team’s needs met. Teach me how to do this; help me move into a life that is easy and all my burden become light, so I can do this.

This concludes your reading and praying for today.

Truth/Prayer Pages Chapter Thirteen

New Hope For Planning The Life-Race

Week Three Day Five

Rom 5:3-4 (NIV) Not only so, but we also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope.

Character Produces Hope

And we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God. Not only so, but we also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance produces, character; and character produces hope: This is a three-step process of heading into success in life and eternal rewards:

1. You have asked God to help you be willing to go through the necessary suffering. You have agreed that everyone suffers, so you want to suffer for the very best reasons.

2. You have asked God to give you His type of power-perseverance so you won’t give up on life and eternal success no matter what. With it you know you will stay the course.

3. You have asked God to give you the character of Galatians 5:22-23 so you will already have everything you need concerning life and eternal success. That helps you keep your faith and trust in Jesus rather than in things, yourself, or people. And, it will empower you to already be who you need to be before you enter into win/win relationships.

You Typically Start With Misunderstanding

As God starts transforming the way you treat yourself and other people, it shows you what He is all about. At first you read all the commandments, rules, instructions, things God calls sins, and the things He calls righteousness, and you get offended, frustrated, pressured, and confused. You don’t start out seeing life and its rules with clarity; you typically miss the main point. It is difficult for you to see life and your activities in it from God’s perspective.

Jesus, when I first looked at the Bible and God’s attitudes, I saw Him being demanding, strict, confining, and against things I considered fun, pleasurable, and beneficial. Because I wasn’t able see the final, end result of those things God calls sin, I just saw what they were offering in the first place. This caused me to feel like God was against me and the life I wanted to live. Show me that this is how my unsaved friends feel; they don’t want to give up fun.

Hope

Hope is a feeling and an attitude that is very similar to faith. Jesus gives you faith for those things God has already done for you. In other words, if God has already provided you with salvation through the things Jesus did, then it takes faith for you to accept it. You have to believe He did what He says He did; and, you have to accept the fact that He is telling you the truth about it; that is faith. Hope deals with the future. Hope deals with why you are here on this planet. It brings you into dreams, goals, plans, and strategies that help you reach your very best destination. It puts a desire in your heart that takes you into an awesome eternal future.

Jesus, teach me that hope is me believing God is going to do those things He says He will do. I believe He is telling me the truth about those things too; but, show me that I do this with hope rather than faith. Teach me that hope is a powerful expectation for the future; and, it’s based on things I am getting through faith. Since I have already experienced things that God has given me through faith, I see He is honest and trustworthy enough to be believed about things He is promising for my future. Help me understand that this builds hope.

From Character To Hope

Gal 5:22-23 (NIV) But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law.

What would cause you to trust someone with just a verbal promise? Why would you allow them to promise you something and not make them sign a contract, make a down payment, pay cash for it, or at least allow you to hold something in security until they paid for it. Good character makes a person trustworthy. If you know and experience the righteousness, holiness, purity, and integrity of God for yourself, then hope in Him grows. His character helps you trust Him with your future relationship with Him. You must base your life and future on hope.

The Character God Has, Flows Into You

Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control: Jesus, when I experience this kind of character from God, in the way He treats me, I see how wonderful it is. I see how it affects God’s thoughts, feelings, words, and deeds toward me. As I experience it from Him to me, I grow to appreciate the way it heals my heart; I start wanting it in my own character. Teach me that as I allow it to flow through me, I will see how it blesses and heals those around me. Help me use things to be a blessing to people.

Jesus, show me that once I start desiring, studying about, praying for, receiving Your faith for, yielding to the love of, and taking faith-action on these Galatians 5:22-23 character traits, I see they are the things that cause me to trust God. They produce friendships and heal and bless me. As I see how powerful and transforming these character traits are, and as I see that God is full of them, I start allowing Him to pour His great hope into my for the future. Help me see that this is what my friends need to see in me, so they will get Your hope for their future.

The Present Influencing The Future

What if you found out about some wonderful things that were coming your way? What if someone, who was extremely reliable, promised you things that you knew they would do. What if someone, who knew a lot about future events, told you wonderful things were going to happen to you? Hope would raise up in you and inspire you to do more, enjoy life more, have exciting expectations, and feel positive about your future.

Jesus, if I didn’t believe that all my hard work would produce an income, I wouldn’t do it. If I didn’t have any hope that getting an education would give me a better future, I wouldn’t put out the effort. If I felt so hopeless that it was hard for me to get up in the morning to face the day, I may not get up. I don’t know what the future holds for me. But, I have to have enough hope to help me at least try to get a better future. I have to have a little hope for the day; or, I won’t even want to get involved in it. Let character produce hope for my future here and for my eternal future.

The Glory Of God

And we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God: What makes God so wonderful, so exciting, and so trustworthy? There is an awesome, glorious, and dynamic aspect of God that flows from Him into you. Who He is and how He treats you is a great part of what builds hope in you for the future. The more you learn about how great, wonderful, and loving God is, the more you get a hope inside you that inspires excitement for your earthly and eternal future.

Jesus, help me understand that if I have God’s hope, I have an excitement in me that helps me aspire to a lot more than if I didn’t. If I have learned how wonderful and trustworthy God is, I am able to have a hope that empowers me to make investments, start greater plans for the future, set much more exciting goals, and live a life that is filled with great expectations for my future. Let the glory of God fill my life with great hope, vision, and inspiration.

The Effect Of Hope On Your Future

Luke 19:12-15 (NIV) He (Jesus) said: “A man of noble birth went to a distant country to have himself appointed king and then to return. So, he called ten of his servants and gave them ten minas. ‘Put this money to work,’ he said, ‘until I come back.’ But his subjects hated him and sent a delegation after him to say, ‘We don’t want this man to be our king.’ He was made king, however, and returned home. Then he sent for the servants to whom he had given the money, in order to find out what they had gained with it.

Degrees Of Hope In Your Future

Luke 19:16-19 (NIV) The first one came and said, ‘Sir, your mina has earned ten more.’ ‘Well done, my good servant!’ his master replied. ‘Because you have been trustworthy in a very small matter, take charge of ten cities.’ The second came and said, ‘Sir, your mina has earned five more.’ His master answered, ‘You take charge of five cities.’

No Hope For The Future

Luke 19:20-24 (NIV) Then another servant came and said, ‘Sir, here is your mina; I have kept it laid away in a piece of cloth. I was afraid of you, because you are a hard man. You take out what you did not put in and reap what you did not sow.’ His master replied, ‘I will judge you by your own words, you wicked servant! You knew, did you, that I am a hard man, taking out what I did not put in, and reaping what I did not sow? Why then didn’t you put my money on deposit, so that when I came back, I could have collected it with interest?’ Then he said to those standing by, ‘Take his mina away from him and give it to the one who has ten minas.’”

Jesus, You are giving me “minas” or resources, so You will give me great opportunities and assignments in my eternal future. You are trying to inspire hope in me that will empower me to really apply myself now. You are trying to help me change my perspective about money, possessions, positions, power, prestige, popularity, pleasure, and accomplishments. They are part of the “minas” You are giving me and helping me increase. Help me get the same hope the first servant had, so I will apply myself and I spiritual power to their very best degree.

This concludes your reading and praying for the week.

Truth/Prayer Pages Chapter Fourteen

Applied Hope For Planning The Life-Race

Week Four Day One

Rom 5:3-4 (NIV) Not only so, but we also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope.

Structuring Your Plan Based On God’s Plan

When first saved, you don’t see what God is doing, why He’s doing it, and where He’s taking you. You just know you have needs to be helped with. To apply The Seven Biblical Principles in the right way and to cooperate with God, you must understand what He is doing.

Establishing A Spiritual Power Relationship With God

1. A Perfect Record Was Vital

Therefore, since you have been justified: Jesus, I didn’t know I lacked a relationship with God while I was still in sin. I didn’t know I had to have a mediator to talk to Him. I didn’t know that if I didn’t get a perfect record with Him, I was doomed; thank You for justification.

2. Faith For Justification Was Vital

Therefore, since you have been justified through faith: Jesus, I didn’t know what Your kind of faith was; I didn’t know that my lack of faith and trust in what God said was offensive to Him. Thank You for speaking faith into me when the gospel message was presented to me.

3. Getting Peace With God Was Vital

Therefore, since you have been justified through faith, you have peace with God: Jesus, sometimes I thought I already had peace with God; I didn’t think I was that bad. I thought my good deeds might balance out my bad ones, and me be accepted by God. Other times, I thought I had been too bad and was already doomed. Thank You for my peace with God.

4. Accepting Jesus As Your Savior Was Vital

Therefore, since you have been justified through faith, you have peace with God through your Lord Jesus Christ: Jesus, I had my reasons for accepting You. Salvation wasn’t clear to me. I didn’t know about my perfect record through justification. I didn’t know about spiritual growth and power through sanctification. Thank You for teaching me so much about all of it.

5. Having Access To God Is Vital

Therefore, since you have been justified through faith, you have peace with God through your Lord Jesus Christ, through Whom you have gained access: Jesus, I thought I could talk to God anytime I wanted. I didn’t realize it took all of these things to give me access to Him. Now I have a direct-access relationship with Him. Thank You for this access.

6. Faith For Access Is Vital

Therefore, since you have been justified through faith, you have peace with God through your Lord Jesus Christ, through Whom you have gained access by faith: Jesus, I came into a realm where faith is a vital issue; but, I had almost no training or information about what this kind of faith is. But, You are now the Author and Perfecter of my faith, because my conversations with God must all be based of faith. Thank You for speaking faith into me for salvation and justification and for continuing to speak faith into me now.

7. Grace And The Gifts Of God Are Vital

Therefore, since you have been justified through faith, you have peace with God through your Lord Jesus Christ, through Whom you have gained access by faith into this grace: Jesus, I live in a world where nothing is free; I know there are strings attached to every “free” thing that comes my way. Thank You for helping me believe that God is telling me the truth, that everything from God is a free gift, and that there are no strings attached. Thank You for helping me live in a realm where everything is based on grace, mercy, and gifts.

8. Standing Is Vital

Therefore, since you have been justified through faith, you have peace with God through your Lord Jesus Christ, through Whom you have gained access by faith into this grace in which you now stand: Jesus, I didn’t know about standing in it all. You finished it all; it is all completed; and now, all I have to believe that it is all done. Thank You for giving me all these provisions that can all be obtained by me standing in faith. Eph 6:13-14a (NIV) Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground; and after you have done everything, to stand, stand firm then.

9. Hope Is Vital

Therefore, since you have been justified through faith, you have peace with God through your Lord Jesus Christ, through Whom you have gained access by faith into this grace in which you now stand. And you rejoice in the hope of the glory of God: Jesus, You are teaching me that hope is dealing with my future; it deals with those things God is going to do for me in eternity. I have just read and prayed about all the tools, provisions, power, and transforming changes God has provided for me getting ready for that future. Help me know why I have and how must these tools, provisions, spiritual power, and transforming changes God has provided. Thank You for making all of them available to me.

10. Suffering Is Vital

Therefore, since you have been justified through faith, you have peace with God through your Lord Jesus Christ, through Whom you have gained access by faith into this grace in which you now stand. And you rejoice in the hope of the glory of God. Not only so, but you also rejoice in your sufferings: Jesus, when I joined You for salvation, I didn’t know I was joining You so I could rejoice in my sufferings. I didn’t want to get involved in something that added more suffering than I was already experiencing in life.

Jesus, now that I know Christianity involves suffering, help me not quit, worry about it, or misunderstand it. Also, help me not limit my cooperation to those parts that don’t involve suffering. Help me not try to use The Seven Biblical Principles to keep suffering from coming my way. Instead, help me understand it, embrace it, and allow it to do its work in me.

11. Character Is Vital

We know that suffering produces perseverance; and perseverance produces character; and character produces hope: Jesus, concerning suffering producing perseverance; and perseverance producing character; and character producing hope, help me be ready to desire, study what they are, pray for, ask You to give me the faith so I can believe I have, yield to God’s love concerning, take faith-action based on the fact that I have suffering producing perseverance; and perseverance producing character; and character producing hope. Now, I am thankful for these incredible truths giving me all these wonderful things.

Jesus, let Your type of suffering produce special qualities in me; let it pay off with great benefits; but, help me realize it means going against a system. Empower me to do what is right no matter what the consequences are. Help me follow Your principles and system even though popular opinion is contrary to it. Help me make a commitment to Your excellence even though I am criticized, resisted, made fun of, persecuted, and rejected by some people.

Making The Things Of God A Top Priority

Those who want to be successful in any profession or area of life must be willing to face opposition from those who don’t want them to succeed. There are many people who feel it is their responsibility to make sure no one gets ahead of them. They won’t pay the price themselves; but, they are willing to do whatever it takes to make sure you don’t succeed.

Successful people of every walk of life, face the fact that they have to live a much more focused and committed way of life; they are different than the average person. They don’t fit into the typical categories that a lot of the people around them do. Society at large doesn’t like people who are different; they resist those who don’t conform to their rules, styles, and behavior patterns. If they are willing to suffer, pay such a price, and make such sacrifices to be the best in this world, ask Jesus to help you be willing suffer, pay the price, and make sacrifices for eternal rewards. Jesus will help you win over their resistance to your efforts to succeed.

Mat 5:11-12 (NIV) Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of Me. Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you. Jesus, help me not allow the suffering that comes through the resistances I get from my body, the world, and Satan to hinder my success in and through You. Empower me to handle such suffering with great joy and excitement. Let me succeed in spite of all resistance. Help me share my successes with those around me by creating win/win situations for all involved.

This concludes your reading and praying for today.

Truth/Prayer Pages Chapter Fifteen

Love For Running The Life-Race

Week Four Day Two

Believe This Is True Of You!

Therefore, since you have been justified through faith, you have peace with God through your Lord Jesus Christ, through Whom you have gained access by faith into this grace in which you now stand. And you rejoice in the hope of the glory of God. Not only so, but you also rejoice in your sufferings, because you know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope (Based on Rom 5:1-4 NIV).

Because you were willing to desire the things in Romas 5:1-4, study and learn them, pray and ask for them, believe Jesus gave them to you, yield to God’s love to motivate you in them, and take faith-action based on the fact that you can join Jesus in living them, you are now ready to start thanking Him for giving you the spiritual power to live by a whole new way of life.

Jesus, You gave me a whole new way of life through my studying and praying for Romans 5:1-4. I am now ready to suffer for the very best You have for me, and for what I will inherit in eternity. Your power-perseverance is my new ability to commit. It produced a new character from God; and, His character produced hope for my future. So, I am now ready to receive the spiritual power that enables me to succeed in life through Your type of success.

Once You Believe The Previous Truths, This Is You

Rom 5:5 (NIV) And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out His love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, Whom He has given us.

Believing In Things That Haven’t Happened Yet

And hope does not disappoint us: If you believe in yourself, you will experience quite a few disappointments. There are a tremendous amount of things that can go wrong because you don’t have much control over your health, your circumstances, and other people’s reactions to you. And, there are so many other inadequacies in you for fulfilling your project or vision. Your knowledge, understanding, wisdom, abilities, skills, talents, power, resources, and control are extremely limited in comparison to Who God is and what He has.

Jesus, teach me that I may get disappointed in God because I lack the ability to appreciate what He is doing. But, show me that my disappointment is invalid and in error. As I learn how great, wonderful, loving, and trustworthy God is, I will resist all temptation to be disappointed in Him. Even if I don’t understand why things are happening the way they are, I will know that the character and attitudes of God are trustworthy. I will know He is making them work out for my good; that builds hope for my future. I know God is going to make sure the right things happen, according to Romans 8:28.

God’s Love And Generosity

And hope does not disappoint you, because God has poured out: God doesn’t lack a great love and generosity toward you. He doesn’t need any improvement in His willingness to give you wonderful and supernatural things. If you lack anything that He could give you, it isn’t because of some bad attitude or character trait in Him. He is the only One Who loves you more than you are capable of loving yourself. No one can see what is the very best for you like God does. No one wants you to experience the incredible and spectacular things that He wants you to have. You can’t even imagine or envision the wonderful plans He wants for you.

Jesus, help me believe that when God pours something into me, it is a lot more than I will ever need and more than I can ever use. He thinks from a supernatural and superior place than where I am able to think or live. He doesn’t have to be conservative, limited, stingy, careful, or restricted, because His resources are unlimited. But, help me realize that there are things I have, that cause God to have to limit, be careful, or restrict the flow of His blessings and provisions to me. And, it is vital that I know what those things are, so I can get them fixed.

The Power That Opens The Door

And hope does not disappoint you, because God has poured out His love: Only those people who yield to God’s love are people who can be trusted with God’s provisions. God can bless, prosper, increase, and give these people just about anything He has to offer. His love, when yielded to, transforms a person into someone who can be trusted to be fair, generous, honest, and compassionate with themselves and everyone else.

Jesus, help me always believe that God’s love is capable of creating me into being a trustworthy person with His incredible resources. He generously pours His love into every Christian’s life. Reveal to me that God’s love is the power to see life and relationships with clarity and understanding. Show me that it opens my feelings, thinking, words, and deeds into being empowered to treat myself and those around me with only good things. Give me this spiritual power to create win/win situations for me and those around me.

Transformed Rather Than Improved

And hope does not disappoint you, because God has poured out His love into your heart: Your heart is the place where you are being controlled; it’s where you are pushed, directed to plan, influenced to set goals, and made to think, feel, say, and do things. Once you get God’s love in there, you have the potential to see major changes in all you are and all you say and do. That gives you the motives for wanting to produce win/win relationships with other people.

Jesus, let God’s love change who I am; let it flows naturally out of me; teach me that I will help me live in a yielded relationship with You. God’s love is a power that keeps me from just “acting like” I care, “trying to live” the right way, putting forth “my best efforts” to do and say the right things, and trying to “force myself” to make the right improvements in my behavior. I do what I do because I am who I am--Transformed, not improved!

Getting God’s Help

And hope does not disappoint you, because God has poured out His love into your heart by the Holy Spirit, Whom He has given you: It is really hard to play a game that didn’t come with any rules, assemble a device that lacks instructions, or take advantage of something that you don’t know what it is. Along with God’s love comes the One Who knows how to help you use it in the right way. You are given the Holy Spirit to live inside you so you can have direct guidance from Him. But, God’s love, the Holy Spirit, salvation, justification, sanctification, healing, blessings, and all God has to offer you is controlled by you and your God-given free will. If it your free will isn’t governed by love, it will resist the things of God.

Jesus, teach me that my God-given free will decides how much I take advantage of God’s love. I decide whether or not and how much I yield to Your help, Your empowering, and Your training through the Spirit. Teach me that the main issue Romans 7:15-25 deals with is my desire. It is a person who has very little knowledge or understanding about Christianity. But, they have one of the most important things Christianity and You have to offer. Their God-given free will is being empowered to desire to do right things and stop doing wrong things. Give me a deep desire to treat myself and others the way You want me to.

Jesus, show me that God’s love and You, through the Holy Spirit, are all I need to be a person who becomes what I need to be in order to live the way God wants. Teach me that the freedom of living the love of God without having to fake it, produce it, act like it, or imitate it is an awesome miracle of God. Help me yield to it and You through the Holy Spirit, so I can be transformed into being the love of God.

This concludes your reading and praying for today.

Truth/Prayer Pages Chapter Sixteen

Power-Love For Running The Life-Race

Week Four Day Three

Rom 5:3-5 (NIV) Not only so, but we also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out His love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, Whom He has given us.

From Hope To Faith

Rom 5:5 (NIV) And hope does not disappoint you, because God has poured out His love into your hearts by the Holy Spirit, Whom He has given you. As was said, faith deals with those things God has already done. Hope deals with those things God says He is going to do. Rom 8:24-25 (NIV) For in this hope we were saved. But hope that is seen is no hope at all. Who hopes for what he already has? But if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently.

Jesus, let my hope, that gives me the power to believe God is going to give me His eternal Kingdom, motivate me to live a godly life. Let it empower my desire with such intensity that I pursue righteousness, holiness, godliness, and purity. Then empower me to yield to You, so I can share these attitude and character changes with those around me. Let me be so loving, caring, and including that I bring many people to You.

From Faith To Faith-Action

One day, as you were reading your Bible or when someone told you about it, you found out that God had already poured out His love into your heart by the Holy Spirit, Whom He has given you. All you had to do was believe God’s Word and accept it in faith. Then, you just had to take faith-action and live on the basis of the fact that you have God’s love in your heart.

It doesn’t do any good to have a million dollars in the bank, if you don’t take advantage of it. It doesn’t do any good to have a car, if you don’t drive it. It doesn’t do any good to have God’s love in your heart, if you don’t yield to it. But, what if the reason you didn’t take advantage of a million dollars in the bank, owning a car, or having God’s love in your heart is because you don’t know how to draw out the money, drive a car, or yield to God’s love?

Some Problems With Faith-Action

1. Jesus, what if I am dealing with a person I don’t like and I don’t desire to treat them with God’s love?

2. Jesus, what do I do, if I am not willing to study the Bible and find out how to properly yield to God’s love and treat difficult people with love?

3. Jesus, what if I am in a lot of situations where I don’t feel like God’s love would be appropriate, so I refuse to pray and ask You to help me do it anyway?

4. Jesus, what if I would rather use human techniques of fighting, quarreling, gossiping, disagreeing, coveting, and undermining people, so I refuse to yield to God’s love and demonstrate to people what a wonderful and loving God You are?

5. Jesus, what if I want to get even, get revenge, hold a grudge, refuse to forgive, and give someone a talking to, so I refuse to allow God’s love to influence my thoughts, feelings, words, and deeds?

6. Jesus, what if I like my life the way it is? What if I like the way I deal with people? What if I feel I know a better way to do business, run a marriage, lead a family, establish friendships, and deal with strangers, so I put the things of God, the Bible, and His principles on the shelf and refuse to allow them to influence and change my life?

Some Misunderstandings About God’s Love

Suppose someone does something that “makes you mad.” Suppose you typically do something right back to handle the situation. If you are a new or untrained Christian, you will first do or say what you normally do or say. Then after you had done it, the Holy Spirit will point out that you misbehaved. If you are a new Christian or an untrained one, you will try to make yourself feel better about it, try to justify it, try to explain it away, try to push the feelings in your conscience away and repress them, and decide that what you did or said wasn’t all that bad.

Jesus, use 1 Corinthians 13:4-8a to show me all the things God’s love is capable of doing, as I go about my day interacting with people. Help me see that since God has poured out His love into my heart by the Holy Spirit, it helps motivate me to desire to help people, I want to study and learn how to treat them better, I spend more time praying and asking You to change the way I behave, I look to You for the faith, so I can believe I will treat people better; I will take faith-action and start practicing producing win/win solutions and provisions. And, as I start demonstrating, through my behavior, how awesome You are, I will thank You for it.

Being Trained And Growing Spiritually

New and untrained Christians don’t know about The Seven Biblical Principles.

1. They don’t know that, if they start desiring to treat people better, Jesus will respond to their God-given free will.

2. They don’t know that, if they start studying their Bible, they will learn truths that will set them free from bad behavior.

3. They don’t know that, if they pray, Jesus will consider that an invitation to help them with the power to change.

4. They don’t know that, if they look to Him for faith, He will speak His faith into them and all of a sudden, they will be able to believe they have been changed.

5. They don’t know that God has poured His love into their heart and that all they have to do is yield to it.

6. They don’t know that, once they have done all these things they are empowered to take faith-action and live a much better way of life around their friends, associates, spouse, family, and strangers.

7. They don’t know that when Jesus does these miracles in their life that they need to be thankful and tell Jesus how appreciative they are that He has helped their relationships so much.

Jesus, move me beyond being a new or untrained Christian. Teach me the love of God aspects of Your spiritual power. When someone does something I don’t like, teach me how to not react to it the way I have always reacted. When the Holy Spirit points out to my conscience that I reacted inappropriately, empower me to stop and apply The Seven Biblical Principles. Help me find out why I treated them the way I did. When I fail, help me go back and make it right. It may take a lot of asking just to get the desire to go back and make it right; but, empower me to do it, so I can tell them that I am a Christian and I am sorry that I didn’t treat them the way You want me to. Give me Your spiritual power to live the Jesus-life.

The Daily Battle

If you react or respond to people in a wrong way, you will want to make yourself feel good about it. The Holy Spirit is causing you to feel guilty and you don’t want to feel bad about what you did or said. When He causes you to feel like you should go make it right, you will try to get out of it. You may promise Him that if He will let this one slide, you won’t ever do it again. But, you have hurt yourself, other people, and Jesus’ reputation. However, something really great comes out of it, if you tell them that, as a Christian, you don’t want to hurt them.

Jesus, help me make it my goal to not do or say bad things in the first place. As a new and untrained Christian, I typically spent most of my time going back and making things right. Help me get motivated by love to stop doing these things in the first place! Help me see that it is so much better to do it the right way than have to go back and make it right. Let me yield to God’s power-love for prevention rather than cure.

Moment-By-Moment And Issue-By-Issue

If you get to the place where you are ready to live on the basis that you have the love of God in your heart, then you will start doing this:

1. You will start desiring to find ways to demonstrate it to the people around you.

2. You will start studying with the purpose of learning how Jesus treated people.

3. You will start praying and knocking on the doors of opportunity to share Jesus’ love with the people around you.

4. You will start believing that Jesus has given you His spiritual power to start living the Jesus-life around people.

5. You will start demonstrating God’s love in ways that will empress people with the wonderful things Jesus has done in your behavior.

6. You will let Jesus join you in taking faith-action to empower you to start reacting the way He wants you to react.

7. You will spend time with Jesus getting help finding new ways to demonstrate His love to people. You will show your appreciation for this new way of life by telling people how thankful you are for what Jesus has done in your life.

Jesus, help me start living on the basis of the fact that Your Word says I have Your love poured into my heart. Use the Scriptures in this study to train me on how to yield to Your love. Make me into a person who does the right things in the first place.

This concludes your reading and praying for today.

Truth/Prayer Pages Chapter Seventeen

God’s Love For Running The Life-Race

Week Four Day Four

Power To Love And Power To Be Loved

Rom 5:5 (NIV) And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out His love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, Whom He has given us.

Let Jesus take you back to the assignment He gave you in Matthew 7:12: So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you, for this sums up the Law and the Prophets. But, what if you don’t have much esteem, feelings of value, or love for yourself? What if you have disappointed yourself, done things you are ashamed of, and have been put down by a whole lot of people? What if all those people you love, admire, and accept their opinions as valid are telling you, you are worthless and useless?

Jesus, help me see that, if I feel like I deserve bad things happening to me, if I don’t think good things should be coming my way, and if I basically hate who I am and what I do, then doing to others what I would have them do to me would not be a good thing. Since God has poured out His love into my heart by the Holy Spirit, Whom He has given me, let His love empower me to feel loved and appreciated; let it heal my attitudes toward myself.

Disappointing Yourself

And hope does not disappoint you: All the damage you have done to yourself and all the damage others have done to your confidence and esteem are healed by God’s love. As you yield to it, you feel God’s love accepting you, caring for you, appreciating you, and valuing you. God’s love fills your heart and helps you have a love for yourself that empowers you to start having a wonderful hope and dream for your future.

Jesus, show me that I can stop being disappointed in myself, because I am no longer a product of my own creation. I am no longer the results of all my decisions and reactions to life. I am being allowed, by You, to start all over. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come (2 Cor 5:17)! I am now a beautiful person, who has been recreated by the God of the universe. You have started me over and have given me a whole new life that is shaped by You. With all these benefits, Jesus, I can see how I am positioned for having wonderful relationships with the people around me.

The God Factor

And hope does not disappoint you, because God: You are no longer living life all by yourself. You no longer have to try to be your own best friend; you can trust God to love you even more than you love yourself. You no longer have to just have and get human resources. You have been accepted into God’s family and are now getting all the rights and privileges of being His child; you are a child of God! That raises your value, your status, and your potential.

Jesus, teach me that the resources of God became available to me, when I accepted Your salvation. Your mind, that can think incredible and powerful thoughts, became available to me.

1 Cor 2:16 (NIV) For who has known the mind of the Lord that he may instruct Him?” But we have the mind of Christ. So, Jesus, when the Holy Spirit tells me something that would typically be over my head, help me see that Your mind empowers me to understand these things. Who I am and what I can do has increased supernaturally; and, I can now understand how to take advantage of it.

Hope For The Future And Faith For Now

And hope does not disappoint you, because God has: The moment the Bible says something has already been done and provided, is the moment you need to use faith rather than hope for it. “Because God has” is telling you this provision has already been done inside you. Faith is simply a matter of you believing God is telling you the truth. Since the Bible says that “God has,” then you need to pray and ask Jesus to give you the faith to know this is true in you.

Jesus, as You said before, hope deals with my future; it is Your power to know God will do what He says He is going to do. Teach me that this kind of hope is dependent on the experiences faith gives me. Since “God has” done a lot of things for me already, I have experienced them. I can now hope for all kinds of future promises without seeing them yet! I can do all this studying, praying, and growing with a great hope for my success in eternity.

Love For You And Through You

And hope does not disappoint you, because God has poured out His love: Before you can ‘love your neighbor as yourself (Mark 12:31),’ you need to have God’s love help you properly love yourself. As God heals your relationship with yourself, since He poured out His love in you, you are ready to start loving your neighbor as yourself. You must understand and experience God’s love in you, so you can know how to properly yield to it for others.

Getting To Know God’s Love

And hope does not disappoint you, because God has poured out His love into your heart: Jesus, teach me that righteousness is the way of life that empowers me to only do good things to myself and others. Let God’s love show me how to treat myself in a good way. There were a lot of things I thought were good for me; but, once I saw the end results, I realized I was wrong. Let God’s love raise my standards for what I want and try to get for myself.

Jesus, the major place where I suffer the greatest damage is in my heart. It is the place where I would typically be able to love myself and others. But, because it has been abused by me, circumstances, and other people, it got hardened and self-protective. Let God’s love soften and bring healing to it, so I can start loving again.

The Truth About God’s Love

And hope does not disappoint you, because God has poured out His love into your heart by the Holy Spirit: The Holy Spirit is also called the Spirit of truth; John 16:13 (NIV) But when He, the Spirit of truth, comes, He will guide you into all truth. He will not speak on His own; He will speak only what He hears, and He will tell you what is yet to come.

Jesus, let this truth set me free, that the Holy Spirit helps me get, understand, and apply to my life. John 8:32 (NIV) Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free. Help me experience this freedom in my heart. Let it do so many good things to me that it gives me an incredible story to tell the people around me. Let it do so many things to my heart that I become a living example of what God’s love is all about. As I grow in more and more success in life, help me become a better and better example of God’s love.

Going From Suffering, Perseverance, Character, And Hope, To God’s Love-Power

Romans 5:1-5 laid out the steps you needed to get you ready for 1 Corinthians 13:4-8. It got you ready to yield to and use the love of God for yourself and for your win/win relationships with others. It helped you see how to yield to God’s love and take advantage of it for Jesus’ type of success in life.

Jesus, empower me to be willing to suffer whatever resistance I may run into. Help me with those things that try to keep me from succeeding, as I involve myself in win/win relationships. Empower me to persevere all the way to the top of true success in life. Help me get more and more of God’s character, so I will be the kind of person who lives the win/win life naturally. Inspire a powerful hope for the future. Prepare me for what to start praying about love.

God’s Love Characteristics

The main reason you would fail in life would be because of the way you treated yourself, other people, and God. Your financial, emotional, spiritual, and even your physical condition are all effected by these relationships. And, the main reason relationships fail, is because of this love issue. When you lack the abilities that God’s love gives, the way you think, feel, talk, and act do damage to you, those around you, and God’s wonderful plan for you.

Jesus, I desperately need the characteristics found in 1 Corinthians 13:4-8a. As I go over that list of the characteristics of God’s love, let it empower me to treat myself, others, and God the right way. Show me that the more I fail in being able to succeed in my relationships, the more I do damage to all other aspects of my life. Let Your love change this chain of events.

Jesus, thank You for getting me ready to see what God’s love looks like and what I am praying to yield to. Teach me what kinds of things it does and what kinds of things it keeps me from doing. As You take each characteristic and spend a chapter on it, help me see it, understand it, believe in it, and allow You to apply it to my attitudes and character.

This concludes your reading and praying for today.

Truth/Prayer Pages Chapter Eighteen

Transforming-Love For Running The Life-Race

Week Four Day Five

Rom 5:5 (NIV) And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out His love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, Whom He has given us.

Suffering, Perseverance, Character, Hope, And God’s Love-Power

What if you had to make up your mind, create your own determination, and force yourself to be willing to suffer for the cause of Christ? What if you had to provide your own type of perseverance for living the Christian life and succeeding in this temporary life? Wouldn’t it be impossible for you to make such changes in your own character that God would be willing to trust you with His spiritual power? How would you ever get enough hope that it started giving you the eternal perspective?

Jesus, I am glad I don’t have to love the Lord my God with all my heart and with all my soul and with all my mind and with all my strength (Mark 12:30). Where would I be, if I didn’t know about and take advantage of the fact that God has poured out His love into my heart by the Holy Spirit, Whom He has given me? What would I do if I didn’t learn how to desire, study, pray, believe, love, take faith-action, and be thankful? Help me use these truths to take advantage of Your love in my heart. Teach me that they are the way to love.

Suffering, Perseverance, Character, And Hope through God’s Love-Power

You have to keep praying and asking God to make it clear to you that He isn’t looking for what you can do for Him. He is wanting you to find out what He has been and can continue to do for you. You can’t win God’s respect by suffering for Him. He wins your respect by giving you His love-power enabling you to suffer for Him. You don’t need or want to just suffer; there has to be a cause, a purpose, and a goal set out in front of you that makes suffering worth it.

Jesus, as we move into examining what God’s love does and doesn’t do, help my heart be prepared for being willing to suffer for certain kinds of people. Help me understand the situation these people are going through. Let love reveal the suffering people are experiencing, so I can face whatever I have to, in order to help them. Let their enemies become my enemies, their problems become my problems. Empower me to use my God-given advantages and spiritual power to help them.

The Investment In Suffering, Perseverance, Character, Hope, And God’s Love-Power

Rom 8:18 (NIV) I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us.

You know you must expose yourself to a lot of training to become a professional. You know you must “pay the price” for learning how to help people in your field of expertise. You know you must do a lot of persevering, suffering, sacrificing, self-denying, having the right attitudes and character, and a strong hope for what your future will be like. You know that if it is anything worthwhile, it will take a lot of your time, effort, and money. And, if it is something that has to do with God and the things of God, then you know it is well worth the investment.

Jesus, I have been willing to make a lot of sacrifices and suffer a lot of stress and pain, so I could accomplish things that will only last a short time. I worked on my attitudes and character, so I would have the people skills to build relationships. But, none of it was empowered by Your love. Help me “pay the price” to learn how to yield to a love that will give me true success. Show me that Your love is what I have been looking for all my life.

Training For Suffering, Perseverance, Character, Hope, And God’s Love-Power

1 Cor 9:25 (NIV) Everyone who competes in the games goes into strict training. They do it to get a crown that will not last; but we do it to get a crown that will last forever.

Wouldn’t it be great if you had this kind of attitude and commitment to those things that really matter? Is it because you lack enough desire? If that is it, what would you do get one? Ask, seek, and knock are your answers to a weak, inadequate, or inappropriate desire. The same is true, when you have difficulty studying, praying, believing, loving, taking faith-action, or being thankful. Through asking, seeking, and knocking Jesus gives you His type of desire, His plan for your studies, His will for your prayers, His faith to believe, His love to motivate you with the right reasons, His power to take faith-action, and His power-love to help you be thankful.

Jesus, help me with a love that gives me the kind of attitudes and character that will bring me into a commitment for those things that really matter. Train me in the procedures of asking, seeking, and knocking. Let them so activate Your love in my life that I excel in it. Help me see that Your love is truly the power to put me on the right track in life. Show me how it works so I can yield to it and grow in it.

Isa 54:17 (NIV) No weapon forged against you will prevail, and you will refute every tongue that accuses you. This is the heritage of the servants of the LORD, and this is their vindication from Me,” declares the LORD.

Jesus, I receive this creation of truth into my heart, mind, and life. Through Your power, I read it, believe it, and live it. No weapon forged against me will prevail, and I will refute every tongue that accuses me. This is the heritage of me, a servant of the LORD, and this is my vindication from You. Let this confession of faith be my way into Your vindication. Help me see that if I trust in this vindication, then I won’t be affected by people’s rejections, accusations, persecutions, and resistances. Help me feel my vindication, so I won’t allow anyone to stop me from helping hurting people find You.

Getting The Power To Succeed

Praying That God Will Prepare You For Any Suffering

Continue praying for God to empower you to be willing to suffer whatever resistance you may run into. Realize you are going to face difficulties, roadblocks, disappointments, dead ends, setbacks, failures, weaknesses, and difficult people on your journey into success. The question is, how will you react to these resistances, persecutions, and temptations? Will you be ready, committed, determined, focused, and unwavering? Will you have the necessary attitudes that have prepared you for suffering; or, will you get knocked off track or stopped?

Apply The Three Keys To Suffering, Perseverance, Character, Hope, And Love

The power to succeed comes to you from God; and, His power comes through you applying the three keys to all of Christianity. Ask God to get you ready. Seek His truths that He caused to be written in the Bible. And, knock on the doors of opportunity to demonstrate your love for others who are suffering by asking Jesus to prepare their hearts for Him.

Jesus, I know I am going to suffer a lot of different things in my life. I know I can’t anticipate what these things are going to be. I know things will happen to me that I didn’t expect or prepare for. But, I know You know what they are and that You will get me ready for them.

1. Jesus, put a powerful desire in my heart to help hurting people.

2. Lead me into the Scriptures I am going to need, so I am ready to push through any opposition that tries to keep me from getting to those who want You.

3. Make sure I have already prayed all the prayers I need to pray, so as to have invited You into all my encounters with resistance and all my opportunities for sharing You with those who are ready to accept You.

4. Fill my heart with faith, trust, reliance, and a complete dependency in You all during challenges, so I will believe and not quit.

5. Help me love those who are hurting, so no matter what I suffer, I will press on until I get to where they are.

6. Empower me to take the kind of faith-action that reaches those who need and want You. Let it be a faith-action that doesn’t allow anything to stop me.

7. Then help me be thankful for all the people You help me minister to through this outreach.

Practice Putting Prayers Together With God

Ask Jesus to help you produce prayers for the rest of these statements. Ask Him to help you keep praying for being ready for suffering, and having perseverance, character, hope, and love.

1. Pray about those things that try to keep you from succeeding.

2. Pray about your win/win relationships.

3. Pray that God empowers you to persevere all the way to the top of true life success.

4. Keep praying for more and more of the character of God so you will be the kind of person who lives the win/win life naturally.

5. Keep asking God to inspire a powerful hope for the future.

6. Pray that you will find out what to start praying about concerning God’s love.

This concludes your reading and praying for this week.

Truth/Prayer Pages Chapter Nineteen

Examining God’s Love Characteristics – Patience

Week Five Day One

Two Major Parts To God’s Love

You are now ready to get to know and experience the realities of God’s love. 1 Corinthians 4-8a tells you what God’s love looks like. It tells you how it empowers you to live with yourself and those around you. And it tells you how it produces win/win situations. It also tells you what kind of relationship it gives you with God. There are two aspects to God’s love; the first part is what it does for you. The second part is what it empowers you to do for others.

Jesus, as You take me through these five verses, containing the characteristics of God’s love, and as You take me through each chapter, help me be impacted by the individual concepts within those five verses. Help me see what each of these power-characteristics do for me. Let them help me understand how they empower me to treat people with love. Use each chapter show me what kind of love-power God works in me. Then use them to help me examine how God empowers me to treat others through His love.

This Is Not A To-Do List

It is easy for you to read what God’s love empowers you to be able to do and think it is telling you how to live. You aren’t being told what to do; you are being told what God’s love is trying to do in and through you. It is taking to your God-given free will, trying to get it to yielding to each characteristic of God’s love. The power is in these love characteristics. The Seven Biblical Principles will help you see if there are any blockages to each love-characteristic.

Patience

1 Cor 13:4 Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud.

God’s Patience With You

Love is patient: This isn’t talking about human love; you might be able to muster up a little bit of patience just because it’s someone you love. You typically give a little bit of “leeway” or special grace to those you want to be friends with. But, God and His love aren’t just a little bit patient. Rom 5:8 (NIV) But God demonstrates His own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. You were in a condition that was damaging you, those around you, and God’s wonderful plan for everyone’s life; but, He loved you and wanted to heal you.

Jesus, teach me how to use the special power-attitude in the Beatitudes called mourning. Let it help me see things about myself that I can’t see on my own. Sometimes I use the world’s system of forgiving myself, justifying myself, explaining away the bad things I do, and try to make myself feel good about them. But, show me that this just keeps me from seeing how much I have hurt myself, the people around me, and the people You want me to go help.

Mourning

Mat 5:4 (NIV) Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted. This is a moment when God takes you through a process of looking at your life and helps you see all the things you did to yourself and others that were wrong, bad, or evil. It doesn’t start out being a pleasant experience; but, it is a very healing one. All the self-forgiveness, self-justification, and trying to explain away the bad things that you said and did, actually hurt you deeply. It just pushed them deep down into your heart and festered there.

Jesus, help me appreciate this process of mourning. Show me that the more things I did that I needed to get God’s forgiveness and healing for, actually built walls of hardness and a lack of love. I started feeling less and less sensitivity to what I was doing to the people around me. Help me see that it damaged my relationships with these people; and, it also damaged me. I was losing my ability to respect, appreciate, and honor myself and others. It was the root cause for depression, helplessness, hopelessness, guilt, disrespect, and even a self-hatred.

Heart Healing Through Mourning

When you allow God to use the powerful process of mourning to take you into this locked up area of your heart, you start remembering and understanding things in your past that have been stored up in your heart. God helps you accept the truth about these thoughts, feelings, words, and deeds of your past. He uses your mind to remember things you heart turned into feelings.

Jesus, teach me that mourning starts, as God helps me feel bad about things I said and did. He helps me tell Him how sorry I am for doing those kinds of things. As I repent and apologize for each one that He brings to me memory, help me understand that a peace, joy, and freedom enters into my heart. Healing will flood into that area that had been damaged and corrupted. I will start getting God’s love, respect, appreciation, and honor into my heart for who He has made me, in spite of what I do. Thank You for my perfect record’s protection.

Truth

A lot of the reason you don’t feel like God has been all that patient with you is because you sometimes don’t feel like you have been all that bad. Your process of self-forgiveness, self-justification, and excusing yourself for saying and doing things, has kept you from facing your true self; it caused a double standard. You forgave yourself and held other people responsible for their wrong, bad, and evil words and deeds. This double standard caused you to be patient with yourself and impatient with others.

Jesus, help me not see myself as being superior to others. Show me that impatience will naturally flow from me, if I do. Take me into mourning; help me be able to see how patient God has actually been with me. Let this help me yield to God’s patience, as He empowers me to be patient with others. Help my love relationship with God grow, as I allow Him to show me how patient He has been with me.

Your Patience With Others

You may be trying to tell someone something or teach them something and they aren’t understanding it. You may be wanting someone to do something for you and they aren’t taking it seriously or acting like it is all that important. When you get upset with them and want to respond to them negatively, that is your signal that you are not being patient.

Jesus, help me be looking for the moment when I feel frustrated with someone. First, help me understand that it isn’t a moment when I try to be patient. Show me that, that will just cause the frustration to build up to a point where I explode. Teach me that it is a moment when I take advantage of the love God has given me. Help me understand that there will be two choices presented in my mind. Satan presents frustration for me to yield to. And, the power of God’s love-patience will be right there also. If, at that moment, I pray for You to help me choose love, I will react with spiritual power and good behavior that represents You to them.

Seven Steps Into Patience

At the moment you feel impatient, it is your signal to turn to Jesus and ask for His help to empower you to yield to His love. If you try to be patient, you will fail; you will feel impatience build up in your heart until you can’t control it any longer. Patience comes from God’s love; praying and asking Jesus to help you yield to His love will produce patience in you and will then flow through you to the people around you. This will draw people to you.

If you lack the desire to be patient because you feel the person doesn’t deserve it, you won’t ask for it. If you don’t study and find out how to be patient, it will never come. If you don’t pray for it, you will end up being impatient. If you don’t believe in the power of God’s love-patience, you will put your trust in you. If you don’t love the person you are trying to be patient with, you won’t care that you are frustrated. If you don’t take faith-action, Jesus will give you patience; but, you will never use it.

1. Jesus, help me start desiring patience even in cases where I feel they don’t deserve it.

2. Jesus, as I study these truths about God’s love-patience, help me realize that each person will need it applied to them in a different way; teach me all those ways.

3. Jesus, as I pray and ask God for His wisdom and power for applying His love-patience. Help me trust that He knows the best way for it to be used in each situation.

4. Jesus, give me faith, so that during times when frustration and impatience is pushing me to the limit, help me believe I have Your love-patience.

5. Jesus, help me yield to Your love, especially when I don’t even want to like someone.

6. Jesus, help me take the faith-action of being patience, even when it doesn’t feel like I have it. Help me base my actions on my faith that You did give it to me.

7. Jesus, every time I am patient and especially when it seemed like it was impossible for me to be patient, help me thank You for the miracle.

This concludes your reading and praying for today.

Truth/Prayer Pages Chapter Twenty

Examining God’s Love Characteristics – Patience In Action

Week Five Day Two

1 Cor 13:4 (NIV) Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud.

That’s The Way I Was Born

You may have been born with a “short fuse,” a “quick trigger,” a “hot temper,” or an automatic impatience. You may have “always been” an emotional person who wears your feelings “on your sleeve.” You may blame it on your nationality, your parents, your personality, or on your past experiences. But, all that acceptance of it just “being the way you have always been,” will keep you the way you are. Faith in your past produces failure in your future.

Jesus, I know that the first step for any improvement, growth, or success will always start with whether or not I desire it, think I need it, or feel it would help me. Rather than yielding to Your love-patience, I have excused myself. I have blamed it on what people deserve. The world taught me to blame everything and everyone for my problems. Articles, programs, books, talk shows, psychology, psychiatry, sociology, and popular opinions are all telling me that things aren’t my fault; Heal me from all of that; and give me Your teaching on this.

You Have Been Born Again

2 Cor 5:17 (NIV) Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come! When the old has gone and the new has come, it doesn’t force you to take advantage of that fact. Nothing in Christianity, your relationship with God, or your spiritual relationship with people is pushed on you. The old has gone and the new has come, but they have only come as a provision for you to decide to take advantage of.

2 Cor 6:1 (NIV) As God’s fellow workers we urge you not to receive God’s grace in vain. Jesus, I can’t do these things under my own power or abilities; but, You won’t do it either, if I don’t desire it, study and find out that it exists and how it works, pray and ask You for it, get Your faith so I can believe I have it, love myself, those around me, and You, take faith-action and start practicing living on the basis of the fact that I have it. And, then being thankful for the miracle of patience starting to flow through my behavior. I receive You grace!

It’s Not Your Fault!

The world taught you things you have “always” believed about yourself, other people, circumstances, your abilities, what your goals should be, and how life works. Prior to The Three Keys and The Seven Biblical Principles, you were left with the only tools you knew. You wanted to obey Jesus; you wanted to treat people the right way; you wanted to be able to at least like yourself. But, try as you may, you fell short of the Jesus life.

Jesus, when I am impatient and I can’t seem to get control over it, help me not neglect the diagnostic abilities of The Seven Biblical Principles. Help me not go back to confusion, failure, accepting myself the way I have always been, excusing myself, or condemning myself. Help me never get tire of using these tools to keep winning over my struggles.

Making It Right

Mat 5:23-24 (NIV) Therefore, if you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift there in front of the altar. First go and be reconciled to your brother; then come and offer your gift.

1. Check Your Relationship With God

If you are offering your gift at the altar: Jesus, when I am paying tithes, giving offerings, walking around the house singing praise, trying to apply The Three Keys, or trying to use The Seven Biblical Principles, if You are holding me responsible for something that I haven’t taken care of, help me realize it can keep me from being able to move forward.

2. Check Your Relationship With God Concerning People

If you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember: Jesus, when I am trying to apply The Seven Biblical Principles to yielding to patience and aren’t having success with it, let ideas pop up in my mind that remind me about issues I have already had with people. When You cause me to remember the incident, help me not want to dismiss it because I don’t feel like it is an issue any more. Help me not decide it is already settled and shouldn’t need any more effort. Help me discuss this issue with You to see what You want me to do.

3. Check Your Relationship With People

If you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother has something against you: Jesus, help me see that it doesn’t have anything to do with what I think or feel, it has to do with what the other person thinks or feels about the issues. You don’t just care about me, You care about those around me too. As You take care of my needs and flow through me to meet the needs of others, give me Your love-patience, so I will be open to You flowing through me to meet the needs of people that I have problems with.

4. Realize Your Relationship With People Comes First

If you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift there in front of the altar: Jesus, it would seem like my relationship with God is much more important than my relationship with people. But, help me always keep in mind that my relationship with people effects my relationship with God.

Jesus, when I am at the altar, I need to get some quick help from You. Let me ask You to help me not try to justify what I did; help me not try to bargain with You by asking You to let me off the hook if I promise I will never do it again. Empower me to go; tell me what You want me to say; and help me show this person how much I love and respect them.

5. Realize Your People-Relationships Means You Are Cooperative With God

If you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift there in front of the altar. First go and be reconciled to your brother: Jesus, teach me that it is very important to not leave my gift at the altar and leave You at the altar too. When You send me to go do something, help me invite You to go with me. Help me be listening to You before I leave my place of worship, as I leave to go reconcile something with others, while I am going, when I get there, while I am there, and when I come back.

6. Get Ready To Move Forward In Your Relationship With God

If you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift there in front of the altar. First go and be reconciled to your brother; then come and offer your gift: Jesus, help me apply these truths as I am growing in my relationship with You. Help me be able to spend less time being required to go back and make things right. Help me use The Seven Biblical Principles while I am involved with people so I will have less misunderstandings and failures.

Reconciling With Humans

What you say and what people hear you saying are often two different things. As you pray for the ability to yield to God’s patience, Jesus will help you during your conversations with people. He will slow you down and help you make sure you stay “on the same page” with those you are talking to. Love-patience isn’t a matter of you saying what you have to say. You must ask more questions to make sure you are properly communicating. He will help you become more concerned with them understanding than making sure “you have your say.” Ask Jesus to show you how to have this kind of patience that prevents misunderstands.

This concludes your reading and praying for today.

Truth/Prayer Pages Chapter Twenty-One

Examining God’s Love Characteristics – Kindness

1 Cor 13:4 (NIV) Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud.

Week Five Day Three

God’s Kindness To You

Love is kind: The reason God is kind to you is because God is love. 1 John 4:8 (NIV) Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. The first aspect of God’s love is to help you start experiencing His kindness to you through His love. Titus 3:3 (NIV) At one time we too were foolish, disobedient, deceived and enslaved by all kinds of passions and pleasures. We lived in malice and envy, being hated and hating one another.

Titus 3:4-7 (NIV) But when the kindness and love of God our Savior appeared, He saved us, not because of righteous things we had done, but because of His mercy. He saved us through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit, Whom He poured out on us generously through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that, having been justified by His grace, we might become heirs having the hope of eternal life.

Learning Through Experience

Rather than having to learn all about kindness through just reading and studying it, God wants you to see what He has done and is doing for you. As you see how kind God is to you, it helps you understand what kindness is and what it does. Open your eyes to all the wonderful things God does for you personally, it inspires the love of God in you and helps you yield to it.

James 1:17 (NIV) Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, Who does not change like shifting shadows. Jesus, show me that every good thought I think, every good thing I feel, and every good thing I experience comes from God. God’s kindness is why I experience all the good things I get in life. Let the realization that every good thing comes from God help me keep noticing the kindness of God. Help me not get any good thing and not realize they are His kindness to me. Let it help me learn and appreciate what God’s kindness is like.

How To Yield To Kindness

You don’t want to allow The Three Keys To All Of Christianity to become a ritual; you need them to be a lifestyle. You must see them as your transportation into yielding to kindness; they are God’s way of moving you into all His characteristics of love. When He tells you to be kind; you must be able to do that. You must know exactly how He is expecting you to do it.

Jesus, if You tell me to be kind and I misunderstand how I am to be patient and kind, I will fail. I will miss their benefits; I will feel like I am failing God, myself, and others. And, I will be confused, frustrated, disappointed, and blocked off. Help me see that these three keys can keep that from happening. But, if I use them and I still don’t experience kindness, help me then turn to The Seven Biblical Principles. Do I want to be kind? Do I know what the Bible says is kindness? Am I trying to get kindness from God by asking Him for it? Do I know when I have kindness? Why do I want kindness? What am I going to do about it, once I know I have it? And, will I appreciate it once I become kind?

God’s Kindness Through You To Others

The more you experience and give God credit for all the kindnesses He gives you, the more you learn and feel kindness for others. God’s love is already inside you; but, you have to practice allowing it to express itself. You will always have two possible responses to all decisions. There will be the selfish, self-serving, personal-gratification decision and the win/win decision. There will be the impatient and unkind reaction and the patient and kind reaction. Ask, invites Jesus’ spiritual power into the situation. Seek helps you intensely want to do it Jesus’ way, and knock gives you love for others and prepares their heart for your kindness.

Jesus, teach me that kindness through me to other people is one of God’s ways to show them what His love is all about. As I start listening to Your training and influence, through the Holy Spirit, God uses kindness as a “tool” to help me develop win/win situations between me and other people. However, help me realize that there will be a certain resistance I will experience from a source I may not suspect.

Getting Kindness To Flow Through You

It is great experiencing God’s kindness to you; but, when it comes time to start allowing His kindness to flow through you to others, there is a strange blockage that occurs. Prior to you being unkind to a person, you can feel desires to be unkind from the drives and attitudes of your body. It is important for you to be aware that your body is much more like some animals are. It has survival instincts, animalistic urges and sex drives, and it is very selfish and self-centered.

Jesus, help me always keep in mind what the Bible says about me, as a spirit being, and my body, with its animalistic character or sinful nature: For in my inner being I delight in God’s law (Rom 7:22 NIV). As I go about my day working with people, teach me that it isn’t just a matter of You and Satan. There will be some “legitimate” reasons for why I need to mislead, misrepresent, and misinform someone. I have bills to pay that I have incurred because my body needs food, clothes, warmth, protection, and transportation. If I need aggression, craftiness, shrewdness, and deviousness, so I can pay my bills, I may not want to be patience and kind. Help me trust You to supply my needs through patience and kindness.

Cleaning Out Any Blockages

Rom 7:23 (NIV) But I see another law at work in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within my members. This is where you will feel a certain amount of pressure coming against the influence of God’s love. As you know, your body has a problem the Bible calls, “the sinful nature.” Just because it is animalistic doesn’t mean it isn’t civilized, subtle, crafty, and skilled at getting its way. Its drives, urges, cravings, and passions will be enhanced by Satan. He will take them and give them some incredible reasons for why you should be impatient and unkind.

Jesus, when I am here studying and praying about kindness, I’m in full agreement with it. But, when I’m in “real life,” I experience opposing thoughts, unusual needs, confusing situations, and conflicting decisions. Help me handle these things with faith. Help me believe that, if I go with Your way of love, my God will meet all my needs according to His glorious riches in Christ Jesus. And, my God will meet all my friends’ needs according to His glorious riches in Christ Jesus (Phil 4:19 NIV). Empower me to go with win/win.

Pray Immediately When These Show Up

A lack of kindness can develop over a period of time. It can show up as works of your body found in Galatians 5:19-21. This passage in the Bible gives a very clear word picture of what the animalistic behavior of your body looks like. That means they are easy to detect.

The acts of the sinful nature are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery (excessive indulgence in sensual pleasures); idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God. Not only do you fail here, you fail in eternity too; this is a total lack of love.

You Need God’s Love-Power

Jesus, help me see that I could watch a pack of wolves interacting with each other and see a very similar behavior as described in Galatians 5:19-21. I would see the basic animalistic motivations my body has. Help me see and understand what I am dealing with, as it relates to the weaknesses, drives, desires, urges, passions, and pressures of my body.

Jesus, when unkindness shows up as hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions, and envy, help me see that I am not dealing with some minor glitch in my character or attitudes. I’m not even dealing with some temporary issue that will simply go away with time. Knowing all of these things can only help, if I use this information to encourage me to turn to God. Help me do that by using The Three Keys and The Seven Biblical Principles to lead me into diagnosing where my body and the devil are trying to find a weakness or open door.

Living Out God’s Kindness

1. When you feel one of these desires of your body, it is your warning that it is time to pray and ask God to influence your desire with His love-kindness.

2. As you go about your day, jot down any areas where you need to do more studying, so you can get better at it.

3. All during your day, as you run into confusion or difficulties applying God love-kindness, keep praying for His help and spiritual power.

4. If you find yourself struggling with believing that you can fulfill God’s love-kindness, look to Jesus for faith, so you can believe you can do it.

5. As you are making a decision, and are faced with body desires and God’s love-kindness, concentrate on the benefits of going with God. Reject thoughts of what could happen, if you do go with God.

6. Keep practicing taking faith-action by stepping out and doing the right thing. Believe that Jesus has empowered you to live by His love-kindness.

7. Be sure not to forget to be thankful, as you see yourself going with God’s love-kindness.

Jesus, show me that this kind of success is one where those around me enjoy my company. They feel my respect, my appreciation, the way I notice them and honor them, and my way of including them in my life and in the lives of others. They will join me because they like me and want to be a part of who I am and what I do. They are much more prone to be patient and kind to me, because of the way I treat them. Show me that these relationships produce much more quality results, because we are all working together. We are being kind to one another. We are being patient with one another. And, I am showing them what You are all about.

This concludes your reading and praying for today.

Truth/Prayer Pages Chapter Twenty-Two

Examining God’s Love Characteristics – Power Kindness

Week Five Day Four

1 Cor 13:4 (NIV) Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud.

Identifying The Problem

Gal 5:19-21 (NIV) The acts of the sinful nature are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery (excessive indulgence in sensual pleasures); idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God. These are the drives of your body.

Jesus, my body is run by an entirely different set of motivations and rules. When it influences me, I get some pretty distorted views about life. My body has one or more of these things listed in Galatians 5:19-21. It has varying degrees of influence from them. Some of them are pressuring me with a great amount of pressure in one area and little or no pressure in others. Set me free from these sinful nature issue and fill me with Your love-kindness.

Jesus, as I go through the list of the power-characteristics of God’s love, help me see that I will have more problems yielding in one area than other areas. If I find it difficult to be kind to people because my body is addicted to hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions, or envy, help me understand that, that malady must be dealt with first. Once You have shown me which one or ones are causing the problem, help me ask for deliverance and then believe You gave it to me. Then let me take faith-action and start practicing Your kindness again. If I am still having problems, let The Seven Biblical Principles diagnose me and find what is blocking Your kindness.

Having Difficulty With Kindness

It is hard being kind if you hate someone, or find it easy to yield to hate. If your body is always pushing discord or factions, God’s love is needed to be applied. If your body is always motivating you to feel jealousy or envy, you need God to help you love them. If you are motivated by your body through selfish ambition, you need God’s love to help you see them as being a part of you. Ask Him to help you start identifying with their pains, hurts, and needs.

Jesus, help me desire to see other’s needs. Help me study the Bible to see how You want me to love them, as myself. Help me to pray, when I am being unkind. Help me to look to You until I feel Your faith empowering me to believe I am set free from the acts of the sinful nature. Help me yield to Your love even when it’s hard. Help me practice taking faith-action by realizing I have the power to be kind. I thank You for hearing and answering my prayer.

Getting Help Dealing With The Sinful Nature

Suppose you are struggling with sexual immorality; you are “kind” to some people, but for the purposes of satisfying that bodily pressure. If you are only “kind” when your body’s passions are met, you will have a hard time being motivated or desiring to be kind to other people. Any time your kindness has strings attached, hidden agendas, requirements for appreciation, needs for reciprocation, or other stipulations, kindness has been contaminated by the sinful nature.

Jesus, help me defeat the strong influences from my body in the areas of the sinful nature. Help me be kind to those who can’t or won’t be kind to me. Set me free from fake kindnesses that flow out of the sinful nature of my body. Help my kindness be motivated by Your love, so I can start building relationships that will last. Heal me, so people won’t be able to find any hidden agendas or motivations of the sinful nature. Let my kindness be so pure and real that long-term relationships grow into them loving You.

Getting Power To Deal With The Sinful Nature

One of the dangers of dealing with the sinful nature, is for you to spend too much time looking for the blockages. It could be possible for you to spend much more time going over Galatians 5:19-21 than over Galatians 5:22-23 or 2 Corinthians 13:4-8a. What you are looking for is a quick identification of where your body is giving you trouble. Then you want to quickly go back to those things that drive them out.

Jesus, show me that things like idolatry and witchcraft don’t get removed out of my life by just desiring to get rid of them, studying how to get rid of them, praying to get rid of them, and looking to You for faith, so I can believe I am rid of them. I must take faith-action and crowd them out by using love-power.

Jesus, Your love is the spiritual power to crowd out the things of the sinful nature. Help me believe in the power of Your love to force them to disappear, fall off, and cease to pressure me. When I am making a decision during my day, help me choose Your kindness and reject a desire of my body or Satan. Show me how I am abusing myself and other people, when I involve myself in the acts of the sinful nature. Give me the power to be kind all day long, every day. Show me how much happier I and others will be, once I yield to Your spiritual power to make decisions that involve kindness.

The Power Of Love-Kindness

Kindness from God’s love shows you how sexual immorality, impurity, and debauchery (excessive indulgence in sensual pleasures) are hurting you and those people you involve yourself with. God’s kindness opens your eyes to the great damage of idolatry and witchcraft. It sets you free from being involved in hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions and envy. You just have to believe that Jesus’ power-kindness is greater, more rewarding, and more liberating than anything the acts of the sinful nature have to offer. Ask Jesus to show you how damaging they are, and how wonderful His love is.

Jesus, help me always realize that the power isn’t in The Seven Biblical Principles; it is in the love characteristics that I get through them. Show me that these seven principles are the vehicle, the mode of transportation, or the path to my destination of love and all the other provisions of God. Teach me that the acts of the sinful nature aren’t what I spend my time getting rid of by using The Seven Biblical Principles on them. The Seven Biblical Principles bring Your great power of God’s love into me and that drives out each problem we identify.

Jesus, help me quickly identify the acts of the sinful nature. Then help me look to Your love-kindness to drive out that sinful characteristic. Help me realize that Your love-kindness has the power to give me ideas and feelings that motivate me to treat myself and others in kind ways. Show me that my life and my relationships will grow and improve as it is yielded to. Help me see that the reason I fail in various areas of my life is because I lack this power. Help me make Your love-kindness be a part of my business, my marriage, my family, my friendships, and with people I don’t like, so they become relationships that grow in You.

This concludes your reading and praying for today.

Truth/Prayer Pages Chapter Twenty-Three

Examining God’s Love Characteristics – Free From Envy

Week Five Day Five

1 Cor 13:4 (NIV)Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud.

God Isn’t Envious Of You

Love does not envy: It is easy to see how God would love you with patience and kindness, so you can have this kind of relationship with Him, learn what they are, learn what they do, and learn how to share them with others. But, how does He show you His love concerning not envying? If God had the slightest particle of something like envy, then He would be constantly trying to make you give things to Him. Rather than Him only giving you good, He would constantly be wanting anything you got that was good.

Jesus, help me examine the false gods, humans created. They believed they were constantly demanding sacrifices from them. They believed they required human, child, and animal sacrifices that were to please these false gods. They believed they wanted the things they had. They thought they were demanding them to give up some of their most prized possessions.

Jesus, help me see that the animal sacrifices God required, in the Old Testament, were just for the spiritual disease of sin. It was to “cure” the sins they had committed against themselves, other people, and God. He didn’t need their sacrifices; He didn’t use their sacrifices for Himself, He didn’t demand that they sacrifice their children, or, give Him their most prized possessions. They needed to make these sacrifices for themselves and their problems.

God Has Everything Already

God treats you with generosity, an open heart, and with unlimited resources. You don’t have anything that God looks at and wishes He had. You can’t buy anything from Him because you don’t have anything God needs you to trade. As you come to God, you must learn how to relate with your God, Who has everything. Therefore, since He doesn’t need anything, you may wonder what He wants from you; He wants a love relationship with you.

Your Lack Of Envy Toward Others

You Inherited God And His Provisions

You can envy other people if you haven’t truly experienced the situation God lives in. Since God has everything, He doesn’t have to want, take, steal, cheat, mislead, or demand anything from anyone to get a need fulfilled. God exists in completeness; there is nothing missing in Him; there isn’t anything He can’t supply to Himself and to you; and there isn’t anything anyone can do for Him that isn’t already taken care of within Him; so, envy isn’t necessary. Phil 4:19 (NIV) And my God will meet all your needs according to His glorious riches in Christ Jesus.

Jesus, help me see that I also live in abundance, envy isn’t necessary for me either. It is just a matter of getting God’s help to realize that I don’t need what others have. That is because there’s a lot more and a lot better where that came from. I inherited God and am co-heir with You, so I live in generosity and prosperity. Rom 8:17 (NIV) Now if we are children, then we are heirs--heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in His sufferings in order that we may also share in His glory. Help me not look at what others have and wish I had it or desire to take it away from them; God has things that are better to give me.

You Need A Lot Of Things

You live in a situation where you have a lot of wants, desires, needs, and lacks. There are certain things you can get for yourself, there are certain things you have to get from others, and there are certain things you can’t afford, can’t make happen, and can’t see any way of obtaining. You are used to limited supplies, missing resources, and inadequate provisions.

Jesus, when God starts demonstrating His love to me without envy, let it introduce me into a world where all things are unlimited. Help me see that in that environment, envy isn’t necessary because things are unlimited. Help me start living on the basis of this truth: Phil 4:19 (NIV) And my God will meet all your needs according to His glorious riches in Christ Jesus. I confess with my mouth and believe in my heart that this verse is true of me.

A Relationship Without Envy

The path to envy starts with you comparing what you have or can do with someone else. The moment you start comparing is the moment you need to listen to the warning of God in your conscience. You need to only desire what you get from God; this is an issue where you use The Seven Biblical Principles to deal with your desire.

1. Jesus, help me not desire to have what someone else has. Help me just desire those things You provide me. I only want those things that flow through You.

2. Jesus, help me not study through motivations of envy. Help me not try to learn how to be successful by beating out the competition or winning by cheating or misleading others.

3. Jesus, help me not pray for those things that are influenced by envy. Help me not ask You to give me things that others have. Help me not want what others have.

4. Jesus, help me believe I have been delivered from envy by speaking faith into me. Help me believe that all my needs have already been met through God.

5. Jesus, help me love people enough to not envy or covet those things they have.

6. Jesus, empower me to take faith-action, so I can live on the basis of the fact that I have been delivered from envy through my relationship with my heavenly Father.

7. Jesus, empower me to always see the results of these prayers and be thankful for them.

Apply these principles every time you experience feeling envious of other people’s money, possessions, positions, power, prestige, popularity, pleasure, or accomplishments.

Yielding To God’s Love

You can’t just see and understand that all your needs are met through God. You have to allow God to deliver you from the tendency to be envious; Satan works on tendencies. If you tend to compare yourself with others and what they have, that is an open door. If you get your value based on your money, possessions, positions, power, prestige, popularity, pleasure, or accomplishments, that is an open door to Satan. That is the area where you need to apply The Three Keys, so you can ask Jesus to give you God esteem. Ask Him to help you apply the seek key, so you want this with intensity. Ask Him to help you knock on the doors of opportunity to be generous with others rather than envying or coveting what they have.

Jesus, protect me from comparing myself, my abilities, and my possessions with others. If I need anything, if I lack anything, teach me that it isn’t because someone else has it. Show me that You gave it to them because You love them. Help me see that I don’t need other people’s things; I need my things from You. Only You have what I need; You alone can give me my things. I rejoice that others have the same type of things I need because God provided it to them. Even though others have something similar to what I need, I still don’t need theirs. Help me just keep looking to You for mine. You have an unlimited supply that can provide everyone with the things they need; I believe You will never run out.

Living In The Realm Of Abundance

The spiritual power of God’s love help you get your eyes off of other people’s successes, possessions, and accomplishments. Because you love them, you see their lack, suffering, pain, and limited resources. You want them to be blessed, helped, healed, and prospered. You want to join them and create win/win situations so both of you can be blessed. God created this world and the universe from nothing; He has the ability to increase you and your friends’ resources in an unlimited way. Let your relationships be based on the love, generosity, and abundance of God for all who are involved with you.

Jesus, as You set me free from envy and covetousness, through God’s love, let it change my focus. Rather than looking at, comparing, and wishing I had or could take things away from someone else, help my eyes move to God. Move me to the place where I trust Him to provide me with what is the very best for me. Help me be the source of the very best for others. Let Your unlimited supply flow into me like a river. And then help me allow it to flow out of me like a flood. Help me not be a lake that receives but won’t let it flow out. Since You have an unlimited supply, help me release Your blessing from me to others.

This concludes your reading and praying for this week.

Truth/Prayer Pages Chapter Twenty-Four

Examining God’s Love Characteristics – Getting Free From Envy

Week Six Day One

1 Cor 13:4 (NIV) Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud.

Love Does Not Envy

Envy, jealousy, and covetousness can come through you not wanting others to have what they have. If you want to be unique, then you can want to be the only one who has something. If God is blessing you, you can want others to be envious, jealous, and covetous of you and what you have. You will be able to diagnose this in yourself, if you find yourself bragging, showing off, or trying to impress people.

Jesus, help me not be blessed by You and want to be unique. Help me not want to see any envy, jealousy, or covetousness in others concerning what I have, what I can do, or what I can say. Heal this by filling my heart with Your love, generosity, and compassion. Help me desire the very best for everyone. Help me totally embrace Your win/win approach to life. Give me the ability to see others hurts, pains, needs, and wants and desire to take those things You have given me and share them with others. Help me see that a river must release the existing water, so the next water can flow in.

The Seven Unbiblical Principles

1. Jesus, show me that if I desire to feel envy, jealousy, or covetousness, or I want others to feel that way about me, I open my heart and allow it in.

2. Jesus, if I open the door and allow envy, jealousy, or covetousness into my heart, show me that I will study, think about, meditate on, and even do research on how to satisfy the influences of these attitudes. If I talk to people about how I feel, hoping to get their “input” on the matter, let me see my study is in the wrong place. If I draw up plans for how I would be able to change the way things are, help check with You. Let me study Your Bible to see how to live Your way of life and get everything through You.

3. Jesus, protect me from praying and asking God to give me those things I feel envy, jealousy, or covetousness for. Help me not try to use You to get things others have. Help me not try to convince myself that somehow God’s will wasn’t accomplished for me. If I start trying to explain to You and to those around me why things aren’t the way they should be, let me see it as a warning. If, rather than praying, I ask other people to help me get those things I feel I deserve, if I solicit their help and enlist their sympathy, involvement, and support, help that warn me that I need to repent and be healed.

4. Jesus, if I try to produce faith, so I will be able to believe that my envy, jealousy, or covetousness is going to be rewarded, help me see the faith-source. If I take all my research, reasoning, support and sympathy from others to help me be convinced that I am thinking and doing the right things, show me it isn’t Your faith.

5. Jesus, if I try to convince myself that I am “really” doing what is best for everyone involved, help me see my love-source. If I try to distort the concept of love and separate it from this list and give it a different definition, warn me. If I go around and talk to those people who are being affected and try to “prove” to them that I really care about them and what is best for them, help me see my true motives.

6. Jesus, if I try to take faith-action by putting my plan into effect, show me whose plan it is. If I try to live on the basis of the fact that I know what is best and I am making sure it is implemented, show me the human effort. Help me not take my ideas, attitudes, and personal evaluations and “successfully” made them a reality.

7. Jesus, when I have successfully made things happen my way, help me not try to give You the credit. Help me not try to be thankful for Your help in me accomplishing this human-effort project.

You can feel like you have best used The Seven Biblical Principles to fulfill the will of God. But, God’s principles were used to full human desires, efforts, and dreams. Pray and ask Jesus to protect you from using His principles for your goals.

The Power To Not Envy

How do you get off track and end up having the acts of the sinful nature (Gal 5:19-21)? What do you have to do to be susceptible to envy, jealousy, or covetousness? It takes you thinking! You must decide that the way you think and feel is the right way. You must believe you have your best interests in mind. If you don’t take every opinion, every thought, every feeling, and every decision to God, you will step out of the realm of love.

Jesus, help me be sincere in my relationship with You. Let Your power-attitude of being poor in spirit produce humility in me (Mat 5:3). Before I “head out” in a direction that I feel is the right one, lead me through The Seven Biblical Principles so You can evaluate my heart.

Jesus, if I think, feel, talk, and act out of envy, jealousy, or covetousness, if I do what I do because I am prideful or selfish, if I am about to make a decision that will take me in the directions of the acts of the sinful nature, help me doubt my information, my attitudes, my opinions, my motivations and bring them to You for Your evaluation.

Freedom From Envy, Jealousy, And Covetousness

Before you decide you are free from these things; before you convince yourself that you have pure motives; and, before you become sure you are doing the right thing; it is best to back up and ask God a few questions:

DESIRE: Jesus, what is my true desire in this matter? Do I really want Your will; or, do I have my mind made up?

STUDY: Am I basing my decision on the Bible? Have I been applying the right Scriptures; or, have I used the Bible to try to justify my actions? Was I sincere in my studies; or, did I try to find Scriptures that would support my opinions?

PRAYER: Am I praying for the right things? Are my prayers asking for things You know are the very best for me; or, am I deciding what is best for me and then coming to You and asking You to give them to me?

BELIEVE: Am I trying to get You to give me faith for something I have decided You should give me faith for; or, am I waiting to see if faith comes, so I will know whether or not it is something You want me to be able to believe I have?

LOVE: Am I wanting this thing because I want to produce win/win situations for everyone involved; or, am I just wanting this for my own selfish reasons? Have I worked on my way of looking at things by justifying my thinking; or, have You really put this in my heart out of love?

FAITH-ACTION: Am I about to act on something that is what You want for me and those around me; or, am I about to put something into action that will damage me and others? Are You empowering me to do this; or, am I just using my own determination, skills, talents, beliefs, and plans to achieve it?

THANKFUL: Have I been doing things on my own and been trying to give You the credit for them? Have You done things for me and I didn’t appreciate them?

Once you have brought these issues to Jesus, you have opened the door to His evaluations. Now it is a matter of you waiting and allowing Him to give you the answers to these questions. Go over these prayer-questions again; allow Him to cause ideas and feelings to pop up in your mind and heart. Let Him show you anything that may need further prayer and evaluation.

Jesus, as You heal all of these things in me, show me that I will experience a change in the directions of my life. As each question deals with things that will distract me or get me on track with You, help me yield to Your guidance. Help me believe that my life-path will be influenced by the answers to these questions. Convince me that the reason I end up at a certain destination will be because of the answers to them. Help me pray from my heart; help me pray with faith in You; help me allow You to bring healing to any areas where I am being pushed or lured in the wrong direction.

This concludes your reading and praying for today.

Truth/Prayer Pages Chapter Twenty-Five

Examining God’s Love Characteristics – Free From Boasting

1 Cor 13:4 (NIV) Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud.

Week Six Day Two

God Doesn’t Have To Boast

Love does not boast: When God and the Bible say things like: “For even if there are so-called gods, whether in heaven or on earth (as indeed there are many “gods” and many “lords”), yet for us there is but one God, the Father, from Whom all things came and for Whom we live; and there is but one Lord, Jesus Christ, through Whom all things came and through Whom we live (1 Cor 8:5-6).” it isn’t boasting; it’s the truth.

Jesus, help me see that, if God doesn’t tell me the truth about Himself, I won’t be able to know or take advantage of His provisions. When He tells me how great and wonderful He is, He is helping me get life-freeing information. Show me that God doesn’t have to embellish or stretch the truth through some kind of boasting. His is as great as everything He has said and represented Himself as being. He is only telling me the truth.

God Is Even Greater Than He Is Telling You

It is vital that you realize that you lack the mental ability to comprehend how great God really is. You can’t understand how loving and wonderful He is because of your human limitations. So, those things God says about Himself and His abilities, attitudes, character, and behavior are only a small presentation of Who He really is and how great He really is.

Jesus, show me that when I listen to God telling me about Who He is and what He is providing, I am being loved. Help me not see it as boasting; help me see it as the truth that will set me free. Help me realize that only God knows how great He really is. There is no one who can properly represent Him and all He has to offer. Teach me that it is vital that I see Him in all His glory, so I will be able to trust Him and join Him in who He wants me to be.

God Can Do Things That Would Be Wrong For You

The things that are true about God, many times aren’t true about you. Because you don’t have the knowledge, foreknowledge of the future, understanding, wisdom, and power that God does, you make a lot of mistakes. Even if you are right on track at the moment doesn’t mean you will remain there. But, what God says about Himself was true, is true, and always will be true.

Jesus, teach me that God doesn’t change, make mistakes, or misrepresents Himself. He knows everything, can do anything, is everywhere, and is outside time with no past, present, or future. I can’t say any of those things about myself and it be true. So, show me that boasting is not only wrong for me, God doesn’t boast to talk to me. Boasting puts the emphasis on me, who doesn’t deserve it, and takes it away from God, Who does deserve it.

Your Boasting With Others

Boasting Is Wrong

2 Cor 10:17 (NIV) But, “Let him who boasts, boast in the Lord.” Bragging on yourself is to lift yourself up by representing who you are with words. Boasting or bragging makes you your own witness and testimony. You are trying to convince people of something that should only be proven by your life. If you are as great as you are saying you are, then you shouldn’t have to boast. People should be able to see your greatness and identify it for themselves.

Jesus, as You live Your life in and through me, I will do very great things. But, if I boast, that would mean I am taking credit for things I had help with. You gave me the character traits and attitudes that are loving and caring, boasting makes it look like I developed them myself. Help me see that I hurt myself and those around me because of what boasting is indicating.

Being Misled

What if someone told you they could help you but they were just boasting? What if you hired someone in a position that they used boasting to get? What if you married someone whose life was based on boasting and not truth? In every case you would be misled into trusting someone who didn’t have what they said they had. Human boasting cheats those around them.

Jesus, if I love someone, I will tell them the truth about me. If I am not or can’t do something, help me demonstrate love by keeping people from expecting things they can’t expect from me. Show me that boasting draws people into my life under false pretenses and brings disappointment, failure, and damage to them. Teach me that truth flows through love.

Boasting

Boasting can be caused by a person’s feelings of inadequacy, not feeling loved or appreciated, and having low esteem. They want people to see them as being important, worthy of love and respect, and a person who should be trusted. Boasting is an effort to try to get others to accept them and want to be around them. However, boasting typically drives people away.

Jesus, help me realize that boasting can create hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions, and envy in those around me. They want to be just as important, loved, respected, and appreciated as I am. It can create competition that assumes one person must be superior to or better than the other. As I learn how to have God esteem and God confidence, let it set me free from boasting. Help me show what God is doing in and through me.

Jesus, show me that all I have to do is desire to be free from boasting, study and learn what God esteem and God confidence are, pray and look to You for freeing me from boasting, believe You gave me freedom from boasting, yield to love, so I don’t use boasting against people, take faith-action through God-esteem and God-confidence rather than self-esteem and self-confidence. Thank You for my God-esteem and God-confidence that set me free from boasting.

This concludes your reading and praying for today.

Truth/Prayer Pages Chapter Twenty-Six

Examining God’s Love Characteristics – Replacing My Boasting

Week Six Day Three

1 Cor 13:4 (NIV) Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud.

Boasting: An Attitude Of Superiority

1 Cor 4:7 (NIV) For who makes you different from anyone else? What do you have that you did not receive? And if you did receive it, why do you boast as though you did not?

Equality In Relationships

For who makes you different from anyone else: You may not go around putting other people down; but, you can try to lift yourself above them. Love puts you on an equal level; you don’t see anyone above another. If you value people based on their money, possessions, positions, power of influence or authority, or their accomplishments, then you treat people differently.

Jesus, help me produce win/win situations for all involved; but, let there be an atmosphere of equality. Help me not feel superior, or, try to make myself out to be better. Set me free from justifying inequality in my dating, marriage, family relationships, business, friendships, and my treatment of strangers. Let my success in life be based on win/win methods that are based on love. Show me that love isn’t going to make me better or worse than anyone else.

Equality In God’s Love

What do you have that you did not receive: If God gives you something, you must understand that it isn’t because you are superior. The heart of God is to love everyone equally. Jesus’ salvation, justification, and sanctification are for anyone who wishes to take advantage of them. They come as free gifts of grace and mercy. If you join His family and Kingdom, then you are joining a society that operates in win/win, unity, equality, and a love for everyone.

Jesus, as long as I apply The Seven Biblical Principles to the things that are win/win, in unity, with equality, and a love for all, I will see them produce to the top of their potential. If I try to use them to “improve my situation,” just take care of my needs, help me “get ahead,” win over others, or give me something to brag about, all of a sudden these seven principles don’t work for me. Help me use them to bring glory, honor, and praise to You.

Obscuring The Source

And if you did receive it, why do you boast as though you did not: What if you bought a beautiful and tasty cake from a bakery, but you told everyone you baked it? You would be stealing the honor, credit, and accomplishments from the bakery. Plus, you would create expectations from those around you for things you wouldn’t be able to provide.

As long as you keep pointing your successes to Jesus, there will never be a time where He won’t be able to live up to your recommendations and testimony. The pressure comes off of you, once you give up trying to be special. It also comes off of you, when you allow Jesus to do all the great things in and through you. And, people turn to Jesus by you giving Him the credit.

Jesus, help me go back to those I bragged to and make it right. Let me make it clear that You are the reason I am who I am, have what I have, and can do what I do. Let me share the truth with them. Empower me to help them look to the One Who works miracles and blessings in their lives. Help me stop bragging, so I can enter into win/win situations with You and others.

Separating Yourself From Bad Company

Jude 1:16 (NIV) These men are grumblers and faultfinders; they follow their own evil desires; they boast about themselves and flatter others for their own advantage. Boasting doesn’t just come as a single fault, it typically comes as a “package deal.” People who start involving themselves in boasting will typically become:

· Grumblers and faultfinders,

· They follow their own evil desires,

· They boast about themselves,

· They flatter others for their own advantage.

Jesus, when I grumble, find fault, boast, and flatter, it’s because I feel like I’m not getting the proper treatment I need. I gripe because I feel people don’t treat me with the respect “I deserve.” I find fault because the people around me don’t measure up to the cooperation I feel I have coming to me. Help me not build these negative relationships with the people around me. Set me free from boasting and all these other things that come with it.

Jesus, when I try to take care of myself rather than letting You do it, I follow my own evil desires. The more I grumble and find fault, the less I see my attitudes as being evil. Help me not boast about myself; help me care about Your love for me rather than other’s respect. Help me not flatter others for my own advantage, so they will give me things I think I deserve. Let me see that this is an evil power that takes me away from spiritual power.

Two Sources Of Boasting

Worldly Boasting

1 John 2:16 (NIV) For everything in the world--the cravings of sinful man, the lust of his eyes and the boasting of what he has and does--comes not from the Father but from the world. Worldly boasting isn’t putting anyone down. You aren’t criticizing or demeaning them; you are just lifting yourself up. But, if you involve yourself and those around you in win/win relationships, you help people feel accepted, loved, respected, and appreciated on an equal basis with you. You get the spiritual power to become successful, because the people around you feel loved.

Godly Boasting

2 Cor 12:9 (NIV) But He said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for My power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. Jesus, help me see that The Seven Biblical Principles only work for those who realize they need the power-relationship with You. Self-boasting makes me feel like I don’t need You. But, boasting in my weaknesses seems like it would cause people to doubt my abilities; teach me how this works.

Giving Credit Where It Belongs

2 Cor 10:17 (NIV) But, “Let him who boasts boast in the Lord.” You represent Jesus, when you let people know why you are, can do, and have what you have. It takes the credit from you; but, it helps people get their confidence in Jesus rather than you. Jesus makes you successful in life; people can see you are successful. Boasting in Jesus just shows them why you succeed.

Jesus, I can’t stop bragging about myself without You helping me. It comes natural for me to say that I did something; I know I couldn’t have done it without You; but, it feels weird to say things like, I did this with Jesus’ help. No one else is going around giving You the credit for their accomplishments, unless they are in church. How is it going to look to the world if I am always giving You the credit for what I am, what I do, and what I have? Help me with this.

Getting Wisdom From God

If you don’t include how Jesus is helping you with life, how will they find out? If you don’t explain how Christianity works, how will people become Christians? Jesus will give you special wisdom for how to give Him credit without it being a strange way to talk. Just because you can’t think of a way to help people realize how wonderful Jesus is being to you, doesn’t mean there isn’t a way that He can think of. See if you can use The Seven Principles to help you get wisdom for this. Once you meet those seven requirements, it will be amazing how much your conversations will change.

Jesus, I do desire to be able to tell people all the wonderful things You are doing for me. I have seen You and Your disciples start up conversations in the Bible as I study it. I do want to keep praying for the ability to say things that strike up a conversation about how You can solve these people’s needs. I know that if I wait on You to speak faith into me, I will have a powerful faith that will believe that I know how to talk about You to those around me. I am convinced that, as I yield to Your love, it will help me want to help them with Your Biblical principles. I believe that I will find myself taking faith-action and starting up meaningful conversations with people. Thank You for hearing and answering my prayer.

This concludes your reading and praying for today.

Truth/Prayer Pages Chapter Twenty-Seven

Examining God’s Love Characteristics – Free From Pride

1 Cor 13:4 (NIV) Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud.

Week Six Day Four

God Is Free From Pride

Love is not proud: This takes credit for things that belong to another; John 15:5 (NIV) I (Jesus) am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in Me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from Me you can do nothing. That isn’t pride; it is the truth of the matter. Jesus isn’t taking credit that belongs to you, when He says things like this. You really can’t do anything without Him.

Jesus, I didn’t create the universe I live in or the world I live on; You did! I didn’t give myself the body I live in or the life I have; You did! I didn’t give myself the talents, intelligence, or advantages I was born with; You did! If I didn’t have all the resources Your world and Your provisions have made possible for me, I couldn’t do or be anything; I wouldn’t even be here.

Pride Steals Respect And Honor

Rom 13:7 (NIV) Give everyone what you owe him: If you owe taxes, pay taxes; if revenue, then revenue; if respect, then respect; if honor, then honor. God not only doesn’t steal or cheat you out of your accomplishments and honor, He actually gives you credit for things you accomplished through His gifts and power. He shares all His glory and honor with you through grace and mercy. Rather than being filled with pride and trying to make you give Him your praise, worship, and thanksgiving for things He didn’t really do, He does more for you than you will ever be able to credit Him for. And, when you praise Him, it puts things in perspective.

1 Cor 4:7 (NIV) For who makes you different from anyone else? What do you have that you did not receive? And if you did receive it, why do you boast as though you did not? Jesus, reveal to me that this never happens to God; He is the Creator, the Originator, and the Source of all good things. He doesn’t have to be filled with pride and go around bragging on Himself. He is the generous giver of all the good I will ever experience. James 1:17 (NIV) Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, Who does not change like shifting shadows.

Freedom From Pride

Rom 5:8 (NIV) But God demonstrates His own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Instead of stealing and cheating others out of credit for who they are and what they do, God sacrificially demonstrates a love for you that you don’t deserve and can’t earn. Instead of pride, He laid His life down for you. That is the opposite of pride.

Mat 20:28 (NIV) Just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life as a ransom for many. Jesus, this is the example, You, the Creator of the universe give me. You are the opposite of pride; You spend Your time, efforts, and resources blessing, loving, and sharing Yourself with me. You are the most incredible example of love.

God Isn’t Proud

Rom 8:28 (NIV) And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love Him, who have been called according to His purpose. God doesn’t take credit for things He didn’t do because He doesn’t need to. Since He is the source of all good things and says all good things come from Him, it isn’t pride because all good things do come from Him. If you get something good, you know it came from God. If you get something that looks good but doesn’t turn out good, you know it didn’t come from God. If you get something and it ends up working out for your good, you know it was God forcing it to work together for your good.

Jesus, when I read the Bible and God tells me about all the good things He is doing for me, wants to do for me, and is going to do for me, show that I am being exposed to those things that can’t come from any other source. Teach me that the Bible is pointing me to God because He is my only source of all good provisions. And, if that weren’t true, God wouldn’t have had it written in the Bible. He only allowed truth to be written in the Bible because He loves me.

Your Freedom From Pride

Getting Cheated Out Of A Relationship

Since you didn’t create the universe you live in or the world you live on, and since you didn’t give yourself the body you live in or the life you have, and since you didn’t give yourself the talents, intelligence, or advantages you were born with, you have a lot of things to be thankful for rather than being prideful of. Let Jesus help you see that the only way you are able to accomplish anything is through all the provisions He has given you.

Jesus, help me see that pride keeps me from seeing all the miracles, blessings, and help that are coming my way from God. Show me that pride often keeps me from coming to You for help, blessings, and miracles in the first place. It keeps me from seeing the universe, the world, my life, my body, my talents, my intelligence, and my advantages I as born with. Help me not just take them all for granted. Help me not allow pride to make me feel like I deserve them rather than seeing the love of God in them.

Misunderstanding The Principle

James 4:6 (NIV) But He (God) gives us more grace. That is why Scripture says: “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.” Why does God oppose the proud? Because those who are proud are obscuring the goodness and greatness of God. He is the One Who can heal them and all those around them. Prideful people cheat themselves and others from being able to find the answers to all their problems, needs, and wants. This is a very unloving characteristic! You fail to have the power to succeed because the credit is going to the wrong place. It cheats and steals the truth from everyone.

Jesus, if I saw someone eating candy that was filled with a deadly poison, I would try to talk them out of eating it. I would oppose them and what they were doing. Help me see that, that is why God resists or opposes the proud because pride is a killer. Help me see that in the case of pride, it doesn’t just kill the person who has it, it tries to kill the people who are around it. It cheats all of them out of being able to believe in You, Who can help them.

Humility Is Being Honest

James 4:6 (NIV) But He (God) gives us more grace. That is why Scripture says: “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.” Being humble is simply being honest about the good in your life. It’s being honest enough to give God the credit for all the good things that happen. Honesty gives Him credit for empowering you to only do good things to yourself and other people (righteousness). What if you helped someone with a project and did most of the work? But, if they took all the credit and acted like they did the whole thing, that would be dishonest; and that is a lack of humility.

Jesus, when I fail to give God praise and thanksgiving for all the wonderful things that happen to me, teach me that I lack humility. Remind me that God doesn’t need my praise and thanksgiving; I need to give it to Him. Make it clear that a lack of appreciation cheats me out of feelings of love and respect for my heavenly Father; that cheats me out of the relationship. If I experience all kinds of blessings, healings, and miracles, but, don’t even realize they are from Him, that keeps me from feeling love from Him and love toward Him.

Pride Hurts Those Around You

God opposes the proud: People can see great and wonderful things happening to you and give the credit to you being a very lucky, smart, or talented person. It doesn’t come natural for people to see God working and blessing your life. They come up with all kinds of reasons for why you are having such a wonderful life. But, typically they won’t think it is God doing all these good things to you and for you; that hurts their relationship with Him.

Jesus, help understand that for people to love and appreciate God, I must help them realize that all these good things happening to me are coming from God. Show me that the reason God opposes the proud is because they cheat others out of finding out how wonderful their life would be if they would only allow God to come into it. Help me keep people from thinking that I am lucky, have good karma, or have something different and more special than them. Help me protect them from misconceptions, so they won’t go away empty.

Humility Spreads The Good News

God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble: Why would God give grace to a person who yields to His power of humility? Because you will never deserve these good things from Him. You will never be able to buy, trade, or earn the right to get these good things. So, God allows humility to open the door to all of them. He gives grace to the humble by giving them miraculous, supernatural, and wonderful gifts they can’t purchase.

Luke 12:48b (NIV) From everyone who has been given much, much will be demanded; and from the one who has been entrusted with much, much more will be asked. Jesus, show me that, if I am not growing and allowing God to use what He has already given me, He won’t keep pouring on more into me. That would make me more responsible for all of that too. Since pride keeps me from feeling love, respect, and appreciation for the gifts of God, I don’t see them as gifts. I see them as rewards for things I have earned, paid the price for, and made happen. If God gave me more and more, it would make me responsible for things I couldn’t appreciate. Make me a humble person, who is seeing, appreciating, and yielding to all those things God is giving me.

This concludes your reading and praying for today.

Truth/Prayer Pages Chapter Twenty-Eight

Examining God’s Love Characteristics – From Pride To Humility

Week Six Day Five

1 Cor 13:4 (NIV) Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud.

Love Is All About A Relationship

Love takes people who are struggling with being able to work together and puts the ingredients in it that gets them cooperating with each other. Love takes a person who has walls and barriers around them and helps them be able to understand other people’s perspectives. When people talk to them, they can feel that person’s heart. They not only can understand other people’s situation, they are empowered to get ideas that help both of them have their needs met.

Jesus, show me that people in marriage, business, and friendships often only see what the relationship is doing or could do for them. If one of them feels like they are being cheated, neglected, or not getting a benefit from it, it is easy for them to step out of the relationship. This looks like freedom; it appears to be an easy way to solve the problem. But, You put a desire in me to experience stability, unity, love, respect, commitment, and friendship. Help me see that pride is what is destroying all these relationships; set me free from it.

Pride Creates Detachment

If a person is proud, their superior attitude only survives in selfishness, self-centeredness, self-esteem, and self-confidence. It makes their world be all about them; it removes sensitivity to the needs of others. It narrows their focus and causes them to abuse, walk on, mistreat, be oblivious, unaware, and unreceptive to other people. They may not see it; but, these walls created by pride, keep them from getting feedback from those around them. People don’t like being treated inferior. They want to take a prideful person down “a notch or two.”

Jesus, pride causes me to concentrate on how I would go about reaching my goals, getting my needs met, and making sure I get what I want. Heal this lack of being able to identify with those around me. Heal me from being cut off from being able to produce win/win situations. Heal me, so I can relate to others. Heal me, so I can find out what others need. Heal me, so I won’t find it hard to care about those who have what I want. Heal me, so I won’t offend, alienate, hurt, separate myself from, and stay detached and aloof from people, and then wonder why people don’t like me. Set me free from pride, so I can yield to humility.

The Starter Rule

Mat 7:12 (NIV) So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you, for this sums up the Law and the Prophets. It comes as a great shock to the prideful person, when they find out that they are not unique. It is a real eye-opener when they discover that people don’t like a lot of the things they don’t like. When Jesus teaches the prideful person how to use the way they feel and apply it to others, it is a major awakening. They are surprised to find out that they are to take their self-awareness and use it to understand other people.

Jesus, help me go from not knowing what others want, go from only knowing what I want, and take what I want and start using it to see what others want. Help me not use The Seven Biblical Principles the wrong away. Help me not use them to find out what others want, so I can get what I want. I may want to be rich and assume that everyone wants to be rich. Help me see that this is a beginner’s rule. I can only do to others what I would have them do to me, if I find out where our difference in desires are.

Advanced Training

Just because you like green doesn’t mean everyone does. Just because you like sports doesn’t mean all do. God’s humility helps you do to others, things you want done, at the core of your desires. If you are given a gift you hate, something is wrong with the gift giver. They didn’t do to you what they would have you do to them. When people do things for you, you want them to find out where you want their help. You don’t want them just assuming they know.

Jesus, doing to others what I would have them do to me requires that I find out what they want. Pride would cause me to assume I am the center of the universe. I would assume that if I like it, then everyone else should like it. But, when other people assume that about me, I don’t appreciate or react kindly toward them or their assumption. If I don’t want people forcing their opinions and preferences on me, then other people won’t like it either. Help me first find out what I would have them do to me and then how to do that for them.

The prideful person has a lot to learn about their differences and the people around them. Jesus needs to be allowed to open their eyes to a whole new world with people in it. If you are suffering with pride, then you can allow Jesus to take you through The Seven Biblical Principles and help you overcome it. If you find that you don’t properly relate to others, that is a good sign you need this. If you have always thought that someone liked you, only to find out they don’t, you need Jesus’ help with pride.

The Seven Biblical Principles will help:

1. Jesus, help me desire to find out how I can best help a person find those things that they need, the things that are meaningful to them, and those things they want.

2. Teach me, through studying the Bible, how to move into the root areas of what is best for helping a person with those things they need, the things that are meaningful to them, and those things they want.

3. Help me pray prayers that open my heart, melt walls, heal wounds, and create sensitivity to people’s needs, wants, and interests.

4. Give me faith in all the right places, so I will be able to believe that I have been healed from pride.

5. Let Your love flood into my heart and help me see things from other people’s perspective.

6. Empower me to take faith-action and start living humility out rather than pride.

7. Help me be thankful, as I am able to actually identify with people on a deep level in their heart and mind.

This concludes your reading and praying for this week.

Truth/Prayer Pages Chapter Twenty-Nine

Examining God’s Love Characteristics – Free From Being Rude

1 Cor 13:5 (NIV) It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs.

Week Seven Day One

Progressing In Yielding To God’s Love

You have finished the list of God’s love characteristics in 1 Corinthians 13:4, and are moving into the God’s love characteristics in verse five. These aren’t things you are being asked to produce through human love, these are characteristics God produces in you. And, the way for you to yield to them is to apply The Three Keys To All Of Christianity and The Seven Biblical Principles to them. When you are dealing with the supernatural things of God, you need supernatural tools to help you with them. They focus your attention directly on God.

Jesus, help me not get bored, tired, or ritualistic with The Three Keys and The Seven Biblical Principles. As I keep seeing them being the answer to one issue after another, help me understand that You are keeping the procedures for my spiritual growth simple. If I had to use a whole new set of tools for every issue I face, living the Christian life would get so complicated that I would get discouraged. Help me appreciate the simplicity of these two toolsets. Help me see how they work on everything I need from You.

Back To Human Effort And World Training

When you are trying to grow in an area, it is easy to read the Bible or study a Bible principle and try to produce it by “putting out your best efforts.”

Here’s what The Seven Biblical Principles do:

1. They help you take your eyes off of yourself and look to God for the desire to yield to His love. This helps you get a miracle in your desire that you couldn’t produce yourself.

2. They help you look to God for information and transformation through Bible study about His love. This helps you give up world training that will never work in Christianity.

3. They help you look to God for getting His help and power to do these things through prayer. As you go through your day, prayer created this constant communication and close relationship with you and Jesus.

4. They help you look to God for getting the faith necessary to be able to believe you received the help. With out faith, it is impossible to please God (Hebrews 11:6). This helps you look to Jesus for faith (Heb 12:2). His faith never doubts because doubting keeps you from getting anything from God (James 1:7).

5. They help you look to God for being able to be motivated by and yield to His love. According to 1 Corinthians 13:1-3, without love, all you do will count for nothing.

6. They help you look to God for taking faith-action, so you can practice living on the basis of the Biblical facts. According to Matthew 7:24-27, if you don’t put Jesus’ words into practice, your life will be destroyed by the challenges of life.

7. They help you look to God, notice all the miracles He is giving you, and be very thankful for each and every one of them. According to Romans 1:21, a lack of being thankful can cause your thinking to became futile and you foolish heart to become darkened.

Jesus, the world has thousands of books to teach me how to handle all the problems in my life. Some of them disagree with other books on the same subject. If I buy a book for every issue I face with life, read them, and try to apply the principles in all of them, it will take a lifetime getting ready to live my life. But, help me see that my life would be over just about the time I was ready to live it. Plus, if they aren’t Biblical principles, even if I lived one life being trained by the world and lived a second life trying them, I would discover they don’t work.

Jesus, as I keep looking to God through The Seven Biblical Principles, let them keep me from feeling the pressure to produce these things on my own. They show me how to yield to each of these characteristics, provisions, and power of God’s love. Help me realize that it’s easy for me to study each love-item and not know what to do about it. Help me understand that what I do about it is yield. It is a list of what God’s love is going to do to and through me.

God Isn’t Rude

Love isn’t rude: If anyone has the right to be rude, it’s God; He is so much more superior to you. He would have the right to treat you with rude treatment and be justified in His attitudes. But, instead, He was willing to come down to your level and join you in your humanity. Jesus took on the “likeness” of human flesh and humbled Himself before your heavenly Father. Even though He was and is God, He showed you how to not be rude to people.

Jesus, if God were rude to me, I would feel like shrinking back from Him. It would cause me to see my inferiority and not feel free to address Him or feel worthy to seek a relationship with Him. But, rather than Him being rude to me, He uses a system of grace and mercy. He not only isn’t rude to me, He uses these two systems do away with the concept of worthiness. This helps me feel totally accepted by Him. Because of them, my relationship with God totally ignores what I deserve or don’t deserve. This is the opposite of Him being rude.

Grace And Mercy

Grace is a God-concept that makes all that is good come from God; and it comes as a gift. Deserving something because you earned it, does not exist in your relationship with God. He isn’t rude to you because you are His child and His love for you accepts you on that level. He doesn’t expect His children to be as great and powerful as He is. But, just as soon as you get to the place where His gifts won’t hurt or damage you, He generously gives them to you as gifts.

Jesus, teach me that mercy is a God-concept that gives me gifts of forgiveness, cleansing, and totally rids me of everything I am and do that would be deserving of some kind of bad results, repercussions, or punishment. Teach me that since the concept of deserving or not deserving has been completely removed from my relationship with God, I don’t experience any rudeness from Him. His love is open and pure toward me because of His grace and mercy.

Your Freedom From Being Rude

Passing Grace And Mercy On

Pride, arrogance, feelings of superiority, prejudices, partiality, clicks or exclusive groups, and disrespect can cause you to be rude to people. If you find yourself being disrespectful, unloving, uncaring, and inattentive, it is your warning that you need help from God. It is an indication that grace and mercy aren’t concepts you are yielding to. It is an indication that you base your relationships on the issue of what people deserve or don’t deserve.

Jesus, help me understand that being rude has to do with me feeling like people don’t deserve my respect, love, appreciation, or acceptance. I feel like there is something about me that is superior to them. Show me that it can have to do with me having more money, possessions, positions, popularity, prestige, power, pleasure, or accomplishments than them. I am rude because having these things or having more of them has made me feel like I am better than them; but, make it clear to me that God doesn’t evaluate things that way.

Yielding To God’s Love

God wants you to see people as being much more valuable than things. Rudeness devaluates people, makes them feel inferior, hurts their esteem and confidence in God. It puts them down; and tries to make them get involved in the issue of deserving and not deserving acceptance, love, appreciation, and respect. Rudeness hurts your relationships; and, because God is working some very wonderful things into you, it cut others off from being able to see and experience them from you. They have a hard time seeing you as their friend.

Jesus, as I learn how to have a very close relationship with my heavenly Father, I become much more valuable to those around me. I can often be people’s major way into the things of God. However, rudeness can seem to not be all that big of a deal, if I don’t see things that way. Help me realize that, if I offend people, they will avoid me or ignore what I have to offer. That prevents some from experiencing God through me.

Jesus, the power to succeed with Your type of success is resident in these characteristics of God’s love. It is easy to see that rudeness hurts my marriage, my business, my clients, my friendships, and my acquaintances. Help me yield to God’s love, as my power to not treat myself, others, or God with a rude attitude. As I yield to His love, let all my relationships get the power through me to succeed by win/win solutions and methods.

This concludes your reading and praying for today.

Truth/Prayer Pages Chapter Thirty

Examining God’s Love Characteristics – Giving Up Rudeness

Week Seven Day Two

1 Cor 13:5 (NIV) It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs.

Physical Rewards

Your body gives pleasure, when you do things that make you feel superior. But, the Holy Spirit gives you guild feelings by speaking to your conscience. Rudeness then causes a “bitter/sweet” experience because of the difference between your body and the Holy Spirit. Those who want to go on being rude will try to suppress the influence of the Holy Spirit. Those who want freedom from rudeness will resist the rewards of the body and listen to the Holy Spirit. That is the moment-by-moment and issue-by-issue decisions you make during your day.

Jesus, teach me the two forms of yielding to the Holy Spirit. Show me the difference between yielding as a new or untrained Christians and as a mature Christian. Help me see that being rude, as a new or untrained Christian, I feel guilt from the Holy Spirit. He helps me make it right with the person I am rude to. Help me see that as a mature Christian, I yield the Holy Spirit before I yield to being rude. Instead, I say something loving and kind. As You cause me to grow, mature and be trained, my life moves out of Romans 7:15-25. I start living the Romans 8:1-30 life. That empowers me to yield to Your love in 1 Corinthians 13:4-8.

Characteristics Of Self-Esteem

Those who have the negative characteristics listed in 1 Corinthians 13:4-5 are still living as a new or untrained Christian. They are making decisions during their day that are motivated by getting their esteem and confidence through things like being rude.

People with self-esteem, boast trying to show people how wonderful they are; they demonstrate pride because they see themselves as being superior; they are rude because they feel superior and therefore lack tolerance and respect for others, they are self-seeking because they see themselves as being the most important; they easily get mad because they can’t tolerate any lack of respect, appreciation, or superior treatment; and they keep a record of wrongs because people have to be punished for not respecting, appreciating, and treating them right.

Jesus, heal me from the core problem of wanting to feel superior. Make it a priority issue in me for listening to the Holy Spirit’s early warning. Help me treat people with Your love before I yield to being rude. Let me live the Romans 8:1-30 life, where I don’t have to keep going and apologizing for doing the wrong thing. Help me love people enough that I treat them as if they are a part of me.

Holding People Back

God’s object is to lift people up, encourage them, build faith in them, inspire them, and help them be great successes. Then He wants these people who have received all these wonderful attitudes and blessings from Him to share them with others. Being rude to a person hurts them, if they are open to it. If you are the one who is rude, then the damage was done by you. You set the person back; you caused them to doubt, to quit, and to get discouraged. Because you don’t want to do these things, you are reading your Bible, praying, reading and praying the prayers in this book, reading other good Christian books, listening to good Christian music, attending church and small groups, and only exposing yourself to things that help you.

Replacing The Seven Biblical Principles With Human Effort

1. Jesus, if I try to make myself desire to be set free from being rude, I will be a desire like the one found in Romans 7:15-24.

2. If I study the Bible and try to obey it, I will face a lifestyle that is way over my head.

3. If I consult world systems, ask my friends, and use world training to be free from being rude, I will be motivated by selfish reasons for why I am being nice.

4. If I try to believe in myself and have confidence that I can stop being rude, I will act like a respectful, kind person; but, it will just be an act and not the real me.

5. If I try to love people, I will call sex “making love,” I will love people like I love a song, a house, a car, or an article of clothing; or I will love people for what I can get out of them.

6. If I try to take faith-action and try to stop being rude, it will be a business technique, a method to get my way, a system to make me feel better about myself, and a procedure for me reaching yet another one of my goals.

7. If I think I have been the one who helped me stop being rude, I will be thankful for my own abilities and start bragging on myself.

Ask Jesus to help you apply The Seven Biblical Principles to lead you into a close and intimate relationship with God. He alone can heal you from being rude. He alone can set you free from the heart damage that is causing you to be rude in the first place.

This concludes your reading and praying for today.

Truth/Prayer Pages Chapter Thirty-One

Examining God’s Love Characteristics – Free From Self-Seeking

1 Cor 13:5 (NIV) It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs.

Week Seven Day Three

God Is Not Self-Seeking

Love is not self-seeking: What if God only cared about Himself; what if His relationship with you was self-seeking? What if He created you just so He could bully you, torment you, use you, and force you to serve Him? Him giving you a free will has caused Him a lot of problems and issues. Jesus wouldn’t have had to come to earth, minister to you, teach you principles that you could ignore if you wanted to, and then die for you.

Jesus, since God wanted me to have a free will, He has had to do a lot of work trying to get me to accept Him and what He has to offer. He has had to care about what I think, what I want, and what I am willing to accept. He has had to demonstrate a self-sacrificing love by sending You, His one and only Son to be my Savior. Thank You for not being self-seeking.

God Offers Win/Win Relationships

It is God that teaches you how to have a mutually beneficial relationship with those around you. He is the only One Who knows and understands how to create situations where everyone involved is able to win. He is the only One Who properly resists self-seeking attitudes, procedures, and relationships. With His power and authority, He could have felt totally different toward you. He could have looked at you as a pet, a toy, or a novelty.

Jesus, my body, the world and Satan taught me to make sure I wasn’t cheated, lied to, stolen from, misled, or abused. You teach me a type of team work that includes everyone. You teach ne to include all kinds of people into my team. You resist any kind of self-seeking within a marriage, family, friendship, company, club, corporation, group, organization, or nation. Everyone on this planet is included in His provisions, salvation, justification, sanctification, and relationships. Show me how that works.

With God You Have To Exclude Yourself

John 3:16 (NIV) For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life. Rather than God being self-seeking, He opened the doors to the whole world. Requiring that you believe in Jesus before you get it, is a way to keep things from being forced on you. God’s provisions are available to all; but, they only come to those who want them. You open or close the doors to all these provisions by believing in Jesus or not. The door “knob” is there for all who want to turn it and open the door. That is the way God treats you. That is the replacement for self-seeking.

Jesus, help me to embrace my heavenly Father’s way of treating me. Help me open my heart to His approach to relationships with people. I love the way He treats me! I request this replacement for me being self-seek to crowd out any self-seeking attitudes. Help me have the attitudes and character that are win/win rather than being self-seeking. Help me see beyond myself. Help me be able to see clearly what others are going through and need. When I am talking to them, help me be listening for little clues as to where they are hurting.

You Decide What You Get

John 3:17 (NIV) For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through Him. Providing salvation for the whole world is the opposite of God treating you with a self-seeking attitude. He is inviting everyone into the great and wonderful things He has. One exclusion has to be in place; without this exclusion, wrong, bad, or evil people would access these provisions and gifts. The deadly and very contagious spiritual disease of sin is excluded. God’s objective is to allow people to choose whether or not they are willing to give it up.

Jesus, I willingly give up all sins. I am opening my heart and mind to Your sanctifying, spiritual growth power. I open my heart to all the truths of the Bible. I pursue You with all the passions of my heart. I believe in You and all You have to offer. I submit to You love and yield to it flowing through me to others. I yield my body, my schedule, my plans, my goals, and my activities of my day to You. I thank You for helping me see what the priorities of life are.

You Are Free To Accept Or Reject Self-Seeking

John 3:18 (NIV) Whoever believes in Him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because he has not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son. Self-seeking is a system where a person has a point “A” to point “B” mentality. Self-seeking uses things like cheating as a method for getting their needs and wants met. They don’t care that they caused other people to get cheated out of something; they just don’t want to do without them. It involves lying; the person will tell you what you want or need to hear, so you will do what they want you to do. It involves stealing; the person will do whatever it takes to get their needs met. It involves misleading; they will cause you to think you are getting one thing and end up getting something else.

Jesus, show me that things like sex outside marriage doesn’t require a person to have any kind of concern for the other person’s relational, financial, emotional, or physical needs. The person gets their pleasure and then leaves them without accepting any responsibility for them. Help me see that sex was designed by God to unite a man and woman and turn them into one person. From the point of having a sexual relationship, they are no longer two people but just one. Teach me that Your way in things like this are the total opposite of being self-seeking.

Freedom From Self-Seeking

Whoever believes in Him is not condemned: From that moment on The Three Keys To All Of Christianity and The Seven Biblical Principles point the way to yielding to God’s love. Since God’s love produces a life free from self-seeking, ask God to help you get desires that aren’t self-seeking; ask Him to lead you into studies, in the Bible, that aren’t self-seeking; ask Him to help you pray prayers that aren’t self-seeking; ask Him to give you Jesus’ faith so you can believe you are free from being self-seeking; ask Him to open your eyes through love, so you can see how self-seeking hurts people; ask Him to teach you how to take faith-action, so you are able to start producing win/win situations for everyone involved. Then thank Him for setting you free from being a self-seeking person.

Jesus shows you how this works in His statement:

John 15:10 (NIV) If you obey My commands, you will remain in My love, just as I have obeyed My Father’s commands and remain in His love. This looks like a closed, self-seeking relationship with Jesus and your heavenly Father. It sounds like all you have to do is obey Jesus’ commands and you are in this exclusive relationship; but, what is Jesus’ command?

John 15:12 (NIV) My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you. This isn’t self-seeking; it isn’t selfish; and it is a much more wonderful way of life! The power-gift of God’s love drives out self-seeking in you. That brings a great life to you and those around you.

This concludes your reading and praying for today.

Truth/Prayer Pages Chapter Thirty-Two

Examining God’s Love Characteristics – From Self-Seeking To Love

Week Seven Day Four

1 Cor 13:5 (NIV) It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs.

From Self-Seeking To Team Work

It feels like you have to be the one who makes sure you are taken care of. Since most everyone else is making sure they are provided for, then all their concentration and efforts are going toward them and their needs. That leaves you having to take on the full responsibility for you and what you need. But, once you move into the Jesus-life, you are no longer alone. He invites you to join Him in a way of life where you help people start changing this self-seeking pattern. As you start concentrate on others, they see you make them a part of you, feel what they are going through, join them as a part of a mutual life, and allow Jesus to show you how you can work together with them to accomplish common goals.

Jesus, if I join a team without self-seeking desires and motivations, all the other members of the team start learning a new way to treat one another. As we work through the details of how to produce win/win situations, You will give me Scriptures that point the way. You will give me Biblical examples that illustrate ways of accomplishing our goals. Help me allow Your love to blend, melt together, unify, and produce love for the other members of the team. Flow through me into the other members, so they can do the same.

Authority Rather Than Love

Luke 22:25-26 (NIV) Jesus said to them, “The kings of the Gentiles lord it over them; and those who exercise authority over them call themselves Benefactors. But you are not to be like that. Instead, the greatest among you should be like the youngest, and the one who rules like the one who serves. If a team lacks a leader, then how would that team be able to function? If a team has a leader but doesn’t have the submission and cooperation from the group, how are they going to accomplish anything? Luke 11:17 (NIV) Jesus knew their thoughts and said to them: “Any kingdom divided against itself will be ruined, and a house divided against itself will fall….”

Jesus, if money, possessions, positions, power, popularity, prestige, pleasure, and accomplishments unify the team, then each person is trying to get the most of these things for themselves. Help me show them how to get them, but, use them to help all of us win. Help me yield to You, so I can be an example of how to give up self-seeking. Empower me to be an example of how to help all involved to cross the finish line first. Let unity, teamwork, comradery, friendship, and love demonstrate a type of joy that nothing else can give.

Superiority Rather Than Love

Phil 2:3 (NIV) Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourself. That doesn’t sound like you are entering into win/win relationships. If you consider others better than yourself, then it would seem like you are making yourself their servant. You would see yourself as being inferior; you would lose your confidence and esteem. But, that isn’t the direction Jesus is taking you; He is helping you get set free from being self-seeking. If you think you are better at something than someone else, then you will take over. But, if you see someone as better than you at something, then you will make room for their contribution.

Jesus, I sometimes think love is for me to find someone in an inferior condition and me be the hero coming to their rescue. I frequently help people because I see myself as being superior to them. They lack something that I am “in a position” to supply their lack. Help me not grow in Bible knowledge and think I got to a place where I can teach the ignorant my great Bible knowledge. When You prosper me financially, help me not take my wealth and help “the suffering poor.” Help me not find myself “serving” from a superior position.

Love: Freedom From Self-Seeking

Phil 2:4 (NIV) Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others. Jesus, You are always teaching mutually beneficial relationships. If I sacrifice myself the way You sacrificed Yourself, then there is a major sacrifice, but, for a very rewarding goal for me too. Heb 12:2 (NIV) Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the Author and Perfecter of our faith, Who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. Help me do this too.

Everyone Wins

Who for the joy set before Him: Jesus, prior to coming to earth and giving up Your awesome heavenly position, a joy was set before You. You were about to pay a major price; but, You were presented with a major joy. You were going to provide me with an incredible provision; You were adding a whole lot of friends to Your family; and You were going to be greatly appreciated, loved, and worshipped for Your sacrifice. You went into Your suffering with this great joy set before You. Set a great joy before me to motivate my sacrifices.

Everyone Suffers

Who for the joy set before Him endured the cross: Jesus, trying to learn how to produce win/win situations for everyone involved doesn’t come without a price. When I am surrounded by selfish, greedy, covetous, self-seeking, and envious people, it isn’t easy for me to live this kind of Christian life. People are going to misunderstand me; they are going to resist me; they will make fun of me; and they will try to take advantage of my honesty and integrity. Help me not just be doing this for them; help me see the great joy in front of me. Show me that You are promising great rewards here on earth and in eternity for my sacrifice.

Everyone Pays A Price

Who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, scorning its shame: Jesus, if I get my eyes off of the goal, the rewards, and the benefits, it will be too much of a sacrifice for me. Help me not concentrate on the sacrifice and the suffering rather than why I am making the sacrifice and cooperating with the suffering. If I make a sacrifice for nothing, I don’t have the joy in front of me. I don’t enjoy pain; I am more than willing to avoid it. Help me want You and Your provisions with all my heart. Then I will be willing to do what it takes to get it.

Everyone Gets Rewarded

Who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God: Jesus, You are now the Savior of the world; You have added a whole new dimension to what You have accomplished. You are back in heaven; but, You hold titles, positions, and have authority over additional things You have accomplished.

Mat 28:18 (NIV) Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to Me….” Help me be willing to pay this price for learning how to work with humans trying to produce win/win solutions and situations. I know that the joy You have set before me will be well worth the effort, sacrifice, and suffering.

Jesus, You were already the Creator of the universe; You were already the Creator of us humans; but, You wanted to be the Savior of the world too. You wanted to make it possible for me to join You in all You shared with God. Help me have this type of love that is completely free from being self-seeking. Help me be willing to devote myself to win/win ways of life, business deals, marriage relations, family situations, friendship struggles, and even with people I don’t like.

Everyone Can Share In His Glory

Rom 8:17 (NIV) Now if you are children, then you are heirs--heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed you share in His sufferings in order that you may also share in His glory. You aren’t just looking at rewards; you are looking at God-sized rewards. You are looking at generosity and sharing that God offers. Once you are set free from self-seeking, you are able to have this God-sized generosity flow through you into the lives of other people.

This concludes your reading and praying for today.

Truth/Prayer Pages Chapter Thirty-Three

Examining God’s Love Characteristics – Free From Bad Anger

1 Cor 13:5 (NIV) It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs.

Week Seven Day Five

God Isn’t Easily Angered

Love isn’t easily angered: What if it was easy to make God mad? What if God was easily upset and would do something drastic to you in one of those moments? What if you had to talk to Him and make sure you didn’t say anything that would “set Him off?” What if He was watching you all the time, day and night, just waiting for you to make a mistake? What if, instead of grace and mercy, He was all about punishment and discipline?

You Do Anger Producing Things

Jesus, God sees things on a much higher plane; He sees my thoughts, feelings, words, and deeds with a clear picture of what they are doing to me and those around me. It is totally clear to Him what hurts me and other people. He sees my behavior and knows exactly how my decisions are going to turn out. It could be easy for Him to get frustrated and angry with me.

Jesus, I make an incredible number of mistakes and do an incredible amount of wrong, bad, and evil things to myself and others. If I could see my life through God’s eyes, I know I would be appalled, and devastated at my behavior. Show me that just because the Holy Spirit only speaks a small amount of things into my conscience, doesn’t mean that is all I am doing wrong, bad, or evil. But, God’s love for me doesn’t flow out of Him being easily angered.

Not Easily Angered Works For You

2 Pet 3:9 (NIV) The Lord is not slow in keeping His promise, as some understand slowness. He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance. If you think you have been mistreated and given a good reason for being mad at someone, what about how much you do that could provoke God to anger? That would be a sobering realization. God’s love is showing you how to overlook things that you feel justified in getting mad about.

God’s Power-Patience Helps

Jesus, You taught me, in the beginnings of this study, that God’s love is patient. Patience is God’s power to help me overlook things I feel give me the right to be mad. Since anger comes from my heart, as an emotion, help me keep in mind that it doesn’t think logically, and, can’t be reasoned with logically. Let my relationship with God and His love show me the importance of Him being patient with me. But, help me realize that it doesn’t change my heart. If I don’t experience the power of God’s love in my heart, help me understand that it will drive me into emotions that hurt me and those around me.

Rom 5:8 (NIV) But God demonstrates His own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Jesus, help me see that rather than God getting angry with me and pouring out judgment on me, You came and died for me. Make it clear to me that, that is God’s reaction to things that could make Him mad.

The Two Aspects Of Anger

Anger actually has good and bad aspects to it; there are godly reasons to be angry; and, there are human reasons for being angry. The Bible tells you in Ephesians 4:26-27 (NIV) “In your anger do not sin:” Do not let the sun go down while you are still angry, and do not give the devil a foothold.

Jesus, it is easy to see, in the Bible, that God isn’t against anger; it just has to do with how hard it is to make me angry, what I am angry about, how long it lasts, and what I do with it. The Bible tells me in James 1:19-20 (NIV) My dear brothers, take note of this: Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry, for man’s anger does not bring about the righteous life that God desires. Help me be slow to get mad.

Godly Anger

Here is Jesus’ example of God’s anger being exhibited in us: Mark 3:4-5 (NIV) Then Jesus asked them, “Which is lawful on the Sabbath: to do good or to do evil, to save life or to kill?” But they remained silent. He looked around at them in anger and, deeply distressed at their stubborn hearts, said to the man, “Stretch out your hand.” He stretched it out, and his hand was completely restored. This is how God treats you; He is your example.

Jesus, You didn’t do anything to these people except give them a disapproving look; from there, You moved on and helped the man being abused by the people in this evil organization.

Your Freedom From Being Easily Angered

The Goal To Apply The Seven Biblical Principles To

The objective here is to be quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to become angry.

Quick To Listen: Quick to listen is similar to being slow to speak. It is difficult to be listening when you are talking. Being quick to listen can also have certain aspects of not being self-seeking. If someone is trying to tell you their side to an argument, you are having with them, and you are busy thinking about what you are going to say next, you aren’t being quick to listen.

Jesus, teach me that quick to listen means I sincerely want to hear their side. Show me that the only way I am going to be able to love others enough to feel their pain and see their situation is to be quick to listen. Let me see that love helps me want to hear their side and be willing to identify with their feelings and situation.

Slow To Speak: You can listen and get to the place where you “think” you understand what is being said. But, you may not be getting their point; so, you ask questions and listen some more. After you have already done a lot of listening, being slow to speak means you use your turn to find out even more about their situation.

Jesus, teach me that asking questions is talking; but, it is a vital part of me being quick to listen and a vital part of me being slow to speak. Help me say something like: “Let me see if I am getting what you are saying. I hear you saying that…. Is that what you are saying?” Then help me go back to listening again. Let God’s love-power help me get to know a person so well it is hard to get mad at them.

Slow To Become Angry: This is the same thing 1 Corinthians 13:5 is saying with not easily angered. This is the hard part; emotions come from your heart and your heart doesn’t listen to reason or logic.

Jesus, anger can flare up without warning and push me hard; if I am going to be slow to become angry and not easily angered, it is going to take the supernatural power of God. Use The Seven Biblical Principles as my doorway into the supernatural power of God. Let them keep me from trying to not be angry and help me get started looking to God for His help.

Using The Seven Biblical Principles To Help You Live Out A Scripture

James 1:19-20 (NIV) My dear brothers, take note of this: Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry, for man’s anger does not bring about the righteous life that God desires. Let Jesus show you how to get a Scripture to come alive in your life by using The Seven Biblical Principles. He can help you keep adding more and more Scriptures to the activities of your relationship with yourself, other people, and God.

Activating The Scriptures Through The Seven Biblical Principles

My dear brothers, take note of this: Jesus, as I read this first issue. Help me see how I would stop and take it through The Seven Biblical Principles, as I get God’s help to take note of this. In other words, help me see that this is saying that I need to give this passage my full attention; and, I need Your help focusing on this issue rather than reading it and moving on to the next verse.

Everyone should be quick to listen: Jesus, help me see that this would be my second issue I take through The Seven Biblical Principles, so I can get Your help to be quick to listen. Help me take each aspect of The Seven Biblical Principles and see where I stand on me being quick to listen.

Everyone should be … slow to speak: Jesus, help me examine my life, attitudes and character as I go over this third issue. Help me take the issue of me being slow to speak and use The Seven Biblical Principles to see if I am slow to speak. If I am not, help me find out which of the seven mandatory requirements of God are missing or blocking it off.

Everyone should be … slow to become angry: Jesus, help go over this fourth issue of me being slow to become angry. Help me take it through The Seven Biblical Principles; help me see if there is any of the seven mandatory principles that are keeping me from being slow to become angry.

In each case you look to Jesus to help you desire it, study about it, pray and ask for it, look to Jesus for faith to believe you have it, yield to God’s love concerning it, practice taking faith-action on each issue in the verse. In other words, you then go out into life and start practicing being quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry. Then as Jesus helps you get breakthroughs concerning the requirements of this verse, express your thanks for His miracles in your new spiritual breakthroughs.

This is how you start living out the Scriptures that you read, study, and pray over in God’s Word.

This concludes your reading and praying for the week.

Truth/Prayer Pages Chapter Thirty-Four

Examining God’s Love Characteristics – Identifying Bad Anger

Week Eight Day One

1 Cor 13:5 (NIV) It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs.

How To Be Slow To Become Angry

Inviting God Into Your Bible Study

In the previous chapter, you looked at a great example of you allowing God to be a part of your life through The Seven Biblical Principles. You want to get closer to God; but, without some kind of a plan to accomplish that, it remains just a wish. You want to live the Christian life all day long; but, if you don’t “do what it takes” for that to happen, you stay where you are.

Jesus, I can set Bible study goals that interfere with my spiritual growth. I have set goals to read through the Bible every year; but, if that is my only goal, then I rush through it without really growing spiritually. If I were going to be tested on one of its books, I wouldn’t read it, as if I were just trying to read through it in a year. If I am trying follow its instructions, I won’t just set a goal to read a certain number of chapters. Help me also read the Bible with You in mind; let me sit down and read it together with You.

Ways To Approach The Truth

My dear brothers, take note of this:

1. These can be just words your eyes pass over as you read the Bible.

2. You to make a note in your journal, but never go back and apply them to your life.

3. These words can cause you to make a commitment to apply them to your life.

4. You can read these words and feel like they don’t apply to you.

5. You can decide that, when you have more time, you will really dig into them.

6. You can memorize these words, so you can quote them.

7. You can read these words and make a study out of them for a lesson you teach.

8. Or, you can read these words and allow God to help them have an effect on your desires, your studies, your prayer time, your faith to believe, your love, the faith-actions of your daily activities, and your thankfulness for their results. “My dear brothers, take note of this:” is calling you for an action that brings about a spiritual result.

This can give you an idea of what Bible study is in addition to Bible reading. Reading your Bible is important for getting the big picture. But, Bible study is important for getting it into your life. Many study the Bible to get the smaller, more detailed aspects of the Bible. They dig down into its finer points, so they can get more meaning. But, if they just get more meaning and no life-transformation, they fail to respond to the whole purpose of the Bible.

Jesus, how do I study the Bible and respond to its whole purpose? Teach me that I must ask You to put a Scripture in me. Then I seek to understand what that Scripture means. Then I knock on the doors of opportunity to share that meaning with others, just as soon as I get a life-transformation in that area of my behavior. Show me that without The Three Keys, I wouldn’t know how to respond to its purpose; I would just know I should.

Fulfilling The Purpose Of The Bible

My dear brothers, take note of this:

1. Jesus, help me study the Bible and not just read it.

2. Help me not just make a note in my journal, but never go back and apply it to my life.

3. Help me not just decide I am going to start living it.

4. Help me not read these words and decide they don’t apply to me.

5. Help me not just determine that, when I have more time, I will really dig into them.

6. Help me not just memorize these words, so I can quote them.

7. Help me not just make a study out of them for a lesson I can teach.

8. Help me read these words and allow You to cause them to have an impact on my desires, my studies, my prayer time, my faith to believe, my love, the faith-actions of my daily activities, and my thankfulness for the spiritual results I get from them. “My dear brothers, take note of this:” is calling me for an action that brings spiritual results.

Taking Out The Time

What do you miss when you read the Bible with one of those first seven approaches? If the Creator of the universe says, take note of this, what if you decide to really listen? What if you think, wow, I had better really pay attention to this next statement? What if you think, no, I have heard all of this before? What do you miss, if you don’t immediately ask Jesus to help you take note of this? It may seem like a religious ritual; it may seem like too much repetition; you may decide it doesn’t take that; and you might get tired of “jumping through all these hoops.”

Jesus, there are steps for performing almost everything I do during the day. I go through steps every day for getting ready for work. I go through steps every day for doing my job at work. I go through the same steps every day for driving my car. On and on it goes, as I do what it takes to eat, take care of personal hygiene, work on looking good, keep feeling good, and learning new things. Help me be willing to go through the same steps for growing in You and living life with You.

But, When It Comes To God….

With God, you decide you don’t want to be too legalistic, too ritualistic, too mechanical; you don’t want to feel obligated or be too repetitious. But, when it comes to the things of world, you change the rules. Typically, 75 percent of everything you do during your day is done from habit. You do about 75 percent of your daily activities without giving them much thought. You drive to work without having to study how to get there. You get dressed without reading a manual on how to do it. But, you can get tired of doing The Seven Biblical Principles.

Jesus, show me why I have to turn a knob to open a door, why I have to flip a switch to turn on a light, why I have to take steps to go across a room, and, why I have to do all those things I do in order to get the things I want. Show me that I accept: “That’s just the way it works.” “That’s just the way life is.” “That is just what it takes.” I have my pat answers for life; I accept things the way they are and what it takes to use them. But, when it comes to You, I can get frustrated with having to do things a certain way. Set me free from this attitude.

Gal 6:9 (NIV) Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up. Jesus, help me not be willing to follow the rules, take the steps, get into a habit, and become familiar with the things of the world and not be willing to do them with You. Help me see that much of the way things work in the world are similar to the way they work in the spirit realm. Help me be willing to “do what it takes” to grow, learn, and be transformed by You. Keep me from getting tired of following Your rules, obeying Your commandments, and fulfilling Your steps into all You have to offer.

Following A Recipe

Just like a pie wouldn’t turn out very good if you made it without following the proper procedures, Bible reading, prayer, devotions, family relationships, marriage, business, and daily activities don’t turn out very good, if you fail to “do what it takes.” So, what if you aren’t slow to speak, quick to listen, and slow to become angry? How many things during the day would have gone better if you had? How much better would your relationships be right now, if you were? But, how are you going to approach this vital area?

Should you wish you could do better in this area? Should you keep failing in this area and try to learn from your mistakes? Should you just accept the fact that, that is the way you are? Should you feel better about yourself by realizing that no one else really listens? Should you justify yourself by forgiving yourself, so you won’t feel so bad? Should you excuse yourself by telling yourself that they really didn’t deserve to be treated better? Should you just try to do better next time? Or, should you apply The Three Keys and The Seven Biblical Principles and get God’s power to be able to do what the Bible is trying to help you with?

Jesus, since I have paid the price, done what it takes, dealt with the learning curve, and worked my way to the top in the world, help me see that obeying You, submitting to Your ways of doing things, and “doing what it takes” is well worth my time and effort. Help me be patient, faithful, committed, and dedicated to these new procedures in You. Help me have attitudes that are cooperative with You and Your training in my life. Give me the attitudes and character that help me to be the very best there is in You.

This concludes your reading and praying for today.

Truth/Prayer Pages Chapter Thirty-Five

Examining God’s Love Characteristics – Free From Bad Records

1 Cor 13:5 (NIV) It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs.

Week Eight Day Two

God Keeps No Record Of Wrongs

God Gives You A Perfect Record

Love keeps no record of wrongs: If God didn’t give you justification with salvation, you would just be forgiven for all your past sins. But, just as soon as you committed another one, you would have to get salvation all over again. Salvation provides God’s forgiveness for all your past sins. Salvation is God not keeping a record of everything wrong, bad, and evil you have done in the past to yourself, other people, and His great plan for your life. Justification, however, gives you a perfect record for all your present and future wrong, bad, and evil things you do to yourself, others, and God’s plan, as long as you don’t do them on purpose.

Jesus keep reminding me that, when I willingly come to You for salvation and justification, they provide me with a special desire. They help me see what the Holy Spirit has been telling me in my conscience for most of my life. They give me a clear picture of why He has been pointing out these good and bad things. Show me that my first response to God’s love, through salvation and justification, is to see how bad and how good things really are.

Knowledge Brings Responsibility

James 4:17 (NIV) Anyone, then, who knows the good he ought to do and doesn’t do it, sins. The knowledge the Holy Spirit has been speaking into your conscience made you aware of what you were doing to yourself and others. That knowledge made you responsible for your deeds. When you went ahead and did wrong, bad, or evil things against your conscience, you sinned because you did it on purpose. You knew it was wrong, bad, or evil and willfully did it anyway.

Jesus, thank You for salvation changing my attitudes toward sin; my conscience let me know I was doing things I shouldn’t be doing; and, I not only agreed with it, I actually tried to respond to the Holy Spirit’s leading. But, I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do. And if I do what I do not want to do, I agree that the law is good (Rom 7:15-16 NIV). Thank You for teaching me about The Three Keys.

Justification Brings A Perfect Record

Because your body has animalistic drives and desires, and, because these drives and desires are strong, you sinned; and, that sin went on your record. Prior to salvation and justification, God was keeping a record of your wrongs. But, after salvation, all record of your past sins was erased. And, after justification, your current and future sins were turned into misdeeds. As long as you don’t sin on purpose, all your wrong, bad, or evil deeds are held against your body. You, a spirit being, have a perfect record with God. God keeps no record of your wrongs.

Jesus, teach me that the reason I don’t sin on purpose is because God has poured out His love into my heart by the Holy Spirit, Whom He has given me (Rom 5:5b). God’s love empowered me to be able to see what wrong, bad, and evil things were doing to me, other people, and God’s plan for everyone’s life. But, just because I want to do all the right things doesn’t mean I do them. So, now You are working on sanctification. It is spiritual growth that gives me spiritual power to start actually doing right, good, and righteous things.

The Learning Curve

John 8:32 (NIV) Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free. New and untrained Christians lack a lot of Bible knowledge; and that means missing truths. It takes time to discover all the truths the Bible provides. And, it takes time to understand what all of them mean. Plus, it takes time to learn how to get Jesus’ help applying them to your life. In addition to all of that, no one’s perfect! That brings you back to Romans 7:15-25; Rom 7:18 (NIV) I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out.

Jesus, I still do things that hurt me and those around me, even though I am a Christian. So, thankfully, You provide me with justification that doesn’t hold all these mistakes against me. You give me a perfect record with You. Therefore, as I am learning all these truths and being set free, I thank You, Jesus, that You keep no record of my wrongs.

You Keep No Record Of Wrongs

God’s Love Empowers You To Forgive

In the prayer that Jesus told you to be praying He said: “Forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors (Mat 6:12).” Since God is giving you a perfect record and not keeping a record of your wrongs, He is wanting you to yield to His love, so you can be empowered to not keep a record of other people’s wrongs; in other words, you forgive them of these wrongs.

Jesus, teach me that without me yielding to God’s love, I may try to forgive and forget what wrong, bad, or evil things people have done to me, but my heart still feels the pain of wrong done to it; it still holds a grudge against the one who caused it. But, help me see that God’s love can go deep down into the damaged areas of my heart and heal it. Show me that once my heart is healed, it becomes easy to forgive and then give the person a perfect record with me.

God’s Love For Everyday Living

Frequently you will use things people have done to you in the past as part of your arguments with them. Grudges, revenge, retaliation, a lack of forgiveness, and your assessments of people typically come from your record of their wrongs. Forgiveness helps you not hold a grudge against people who have wronged you. But, it takes God’s power-forgiveness to do the job.

Jesus, sometimes I struggle with grudges, desiring revenge, wanting to retaliate, lack being able to forgive, and keeping negative assessments of people. Because of that, I will notice every little thing they do; and, I make a mental note of it. This causes me to get angry, want to get even, be argumentative, and reject them. Empower me with Your power-forgiveness.

It’s A Step-By-Step Procedure

It’s your responsibility to go back to your mental record of someone’s wrong deeds and forgive them of each item. You can’t forgive them in general; you need to get God’s healing in your heart concerning each deed. God’s love empowers you to forgive; and it heals each individual wound a person inflicts on you, if you apply it to each individual offense. Each individual issue you forgive someone of, brings healing in your heart in that specific area of damage.

Jesus, I typically try to get God’s help with forgiving a person; but, usually they have done more than one thing to you; and, I my heart has kept a record of their wrongs. I try to get God’s healing and power of forgiveness for that person, so I won’t have to remember all the little, gory details of it all. But, my heart is damaged in multiple areas by that person. I keep feeling specific areas of pain and resentment against them after forgiving them in general.

Jesus, help me allow You to remind me of all the things a person has done and get Your power to forgive each one of them individually. Help be healed of each item on my list. Let that give them a perfect record concerning everything they have done to me; and, let it give me heart-healing in each individual issue in all those areas.

This concludes your reading and praying for today.

Truth/Prayer Pages Chapter Thirty-Six

Examining God’s Love Characteristics – Deleting Bad Records

Week Eight Day Three

1 Cor 13:5 (NIV) It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs.

You Need It As Much As They Do

John 20:23 (NIV) If you forgive anyone his sins, they are forgiven; if you do not forgive them, they are not forgiven. It doesn’t seem possible that you could bind someone’s sins against them. But, even when Jesus’ salvation and justification gives a person a perfect record and eternal life, that doesn’t automatically give them a perfect record with you. It gives them a perfect record with God; but, they may have to come back to you and make some things right with you. When someone hurts you, it is your turn to forgive them for that specific issue, even if they don’t come back and make it right with you.

Jesus, forgiveness is impossible for me; help me get Your power-forgiveness, so I can be healed of all the records of wrong that are held in my heart. Heal me not only in the memories in my mind, let me feel a true forgiveness in my heart. Help me not want people to have to pay for things they have done to me. Let me so forgive them with Your power-forgiveness that I literally want them to be forgiven and blessed by You.

A Final Judgment For Christians

1 Cor 3:11-13 (NIV) For no one can lay any foundation other than the One already laid, which is Jesus Christ. If any man builds on this foundation using gold, silver, costly stones, wood, hay or straw, his work will be shown for what it is, because the Day will bring it to light. It will be revealed with fire, and the fire will test the quality of each man’s work.

Jesus, it may seem like Your salvation and justification gave me a perfect record and I can live and treat people any way I want. Help me not feel like my relationship with You is all that matters. Help me not think that, as long as You have forgiven me of all my past, present, and future sins, it doesn’t matter what people think or feel. Help me see that 1 Corinthians 3:11-13 says that this way of thinking can cheat me out of a lot of eternal rewards.

The Rules Set For A Christian’s Judgment

1 Cor 3:14-15 (NIV) If what he has built survives, he will receive his reward. If it is burned up, he will suffer loss; he himself will be saved, but only as one escaping through the flames. Jesus, 1 Corinthians 3:14-15 tells me that people can’t damage my salvation; but, they can affect my eternal rewards. I can judge their behavior from my perspective and decide they did me wrong; then I can either hold a grudge or try to work it out. You won’t force me to forgive people; but, there are natural and eternal consequences for my lack of forgiveness. Help me forgive them for each issue, so my natural and eternal life will be greatly benefitted.

Mat 6:14-15 (NIV) For if you forgive men when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive men their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins. Forgiving other people not only brings heart healing, it brings your heavenly Father’s forgiveness. It doesn’t matter whether a person deserves your forgiveness or not. You need to forgive them, so you can be forgiven and healed of all the damage they did to you.

Jesus, I can see how important forgiveness is to You. Help me be able to forgive in a godly and supernatural way. Help not just think I have forgiven them; help me to know You have empowered me to totally forgive then. Then when Satan tries to bring the issue up in my mind or feelings in my heart, help me resist him by knowing You did give me the power to totally forgive them of that issue.

It’s The Right And The Best Thing To Do

Once you bring your desires before God and get His help with them,

Once you bring your studies before God and let Him direct them to Scriptures on forgiveness,

Once you bring your prayers before God and allow Him to guide them in the right direction,

Once you look to Jesus for His faith so you can believe,

Once you yield to God’s love and allow it to fill your damaged heart with understanding,

Once you start living your life on the basis of faith-action,

You can forgive, get rid of all bad records, and love people you couldn’t love before. And then you can thank Him for empowering you to forgive.

Throwing The Bad Record Book Away

1. Jesus, check my heart for why I wouldn’t desire to get rid of a list of things a person has done wrong to me. Rather than forgiving them, could I be using it to hurt them back? Is it because I want to be able to do damage to their friendships with others? Do I want to have enough “dirt” on them that I feel I can justifiably gossiping and backbiting them? Is it because I want to tear them down so I can feel better than them? Whatever my reason, empower me to desire to forgive them.

2. Jesus, why would I ignore Scriptures that deal with loving and forgiving people? Why would I skip over using Scriptures that deal with this subject? Why would I major on Scriptures that provide forgiveness for me but not ones that deal with me forgiving others? Why would I postpone a study that teaches me how to forgive? Help me study forgiveness for others using Your great love.

3. Jesus, why wouldn’t I pray for You to empower me to forgive other people? Why wouldn’t I talk to You about every little detail and ask You to help me forgive and be healed? Is there any chance that I don’t want You to forgive them? Am I trying to keep my feelings a secret from You? Am I experiencing guilt about the way I feel and think You wouldn’t understand? Does it hurt so bad that I don’t want to even talk to You about it? Help me get the forgiveness I need from You. Empower me to forgive and be healed from the damage it did to me and to others.

4. Jesus, why wouldn’t I want You to give me the faith to believe I have the power to forgive? Do I feel my doubts are too strong? Am I so identifying with the pain in my heart and mind that I think it will be impossible for me to believe? Do I want to be given the faith so I can believe? Help me know I have the power to forgive.

5. Jesus, why wouldn’t I yield to God’s love and allow its power to help me get rid of my record of wrongs? Why wouldn’t I open my heart to it and allow it to take away all the pain, the memories, and the influences it has over my present and future? Help me ask You to empower me to trade Your power-motivator of love for my body-motivator of anger, hatred, revenge, getting even, or disappointments in these people.

6. Jesus, why wouldn’t I want to start taking faith-action and start living on the basis of healing and forgiveness? Wouldn’t I rather have my days based on Your love? Wouldn’t I rather make my decisions based on love rather than on a record of all the bad things people have done to me? Help me start my day with excitement, joy, love, peace, and happiness rather than start with feelings of disappointment, resentment, depression, and a lack of forgiveness.

7. Jesus, once You empower me to forgive, why wouldn’t I express my thankfulness to You? Is it because I forgot? Is it because I gave myself the credit? Is it because I haven’t seen enough forgiveness in my heart that I don’t appreciate the people I have forgiven? Help me express my thankfulness, as You empower me to forgive each person. Help me not wait until I have forgiven them all.

This concludes your reading and praying for today.

Truth/Prayer Pages Chapter Thirty-Seven

Examining God’s Love Characteristics – Free From Bad Records

1 Cor 13:5 (NIV) It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs.

Week Eight Day Four

When Does God Keep No Record Of Wrongs?

God Doesn’t Forgive Everyone

There is one more aspect of not keeping records of wrongs. You learned how to get God’s power to forgive a person’s wrongs, bad, and evil deeds against you; you do this by you keeping no record of wrongs. You saw that His love has the power to set you free in such a way that you give that person a perfect record with you. But, what about evil people who will keep on hurting you and doing damage to you? If you forgive them and forget everything they have done to you so far, you will keep putting yourself in a position of continuing to be abused.

John 3:18 (NIV) Whoever believes in Him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because he has not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son. Jesus, help me keep in mind there are two types of people in this world that do things that are wrong, bad, or evil. There are those who do things accidently or because of their weaknesses, and those who do them on purpose. Teach me who the people are that God holds accountable: “Anyone, then, who knows the good he ought to do and doesn’t do it, sins (James 4:17).” Teach me how to forgive but to stay aware of their character.

Avoid Evil People

If you know an abusive person, then your responsibility is to stay away from them as much as possible. You may even have to separate from a spouse for a while, so as to avoid abuse. You must forgive them of each and every bad deed. But, you must not provide them with more opportunities to be abusive. They are never going to learn that Christianity doesn’t require you to put yourself in abusive situations, if you don’t stay away until they can get the victory over it.

Don’t Fight Back….Give, Then Get Away!

Luke 6:29 (NIV) If someone strikes you on one cheek, turn to him the other also. If someone takes your cloak, do not stop him from taking your tunic. Jesus, help me not read this and think I have to stay in the abusive situation and keep turning the other cheek. Show me that, that would make Christianity an abusive way of life. Teach me that God does not require me to keep staying with them and do good things while they do evil to me. In this case, if they strike me on one cheek, I turn to them the other also and then get away from them. If someone takes my cloak, I do not stop him from taking my tunic. After giving them my tunic, teach me that it is then my responsibility to get away from them.

Long Distance Relationships

Luke 6:35 (NIV) But love your enemies, do good to them, and lend to them without expecting to get anything back. Then your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High, because He is kind to the ungrateful and wicked. You can do good things to abusive people without putting yourself in harm’s way. You just have to keep your distance while praying for them and sending them things that will help them see your love. You don’t get close enough for them to keep on doing evil things. However, there are people who can’t even handle a long-distance relationship with you.

Getting Ready For Difficult Assignments

Mat 7:6 (NIV) Do not give dogs what is sacred; do not throw your pearls to pigs. If you do, they may trample them under their feet, and then turn and tear you to pieces. Jesus, teach me that these are people who would flare up and try to do me harm even if I try to do good things for them in a long-distance relationship. Show me that if I make any contact with them, it makes them angry and causes them to try to do evil things to me. Help me understand that these are people I have to ask You to help me avoid at all costs.

Don’t Use Human Reasoning

Doing the right things isn’t a matter of you reading the Bible and deciding how to handle an enemy, an abusive person, or a bad situation. When you read Scriptures like Luke 6:27-36, you can’t just read it and ignore it; but, you can’t just decide what it means and try to live it either.

Jesus said in Luke 6:27-30 (NIV) “But I tell you who hear Me: Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you. If someone strikes you on one cheek, turn to him the other also. If someone takes your cloak, do not stop him from taking your tunic. Give to everyone who asks you, and if anyone takes what belongs to you, do not demand it back.

Luke 6:31 (NIV) Do to others as you would have them do to you.

Luke 6:32-34 (NIV) If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? Even ‘sinners’ love those who love them. And if you do good to those who are good to you, what credit is that to you? Even ‘sinners’ do that. And if you lend to those from whom you expect repayment, what credit is that to you? Even ‘sinners’ lend to ‘sinners,’ expecting to be repaid in full.

Luke 6:36 (NIV) Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful.”

Getting Ready To Do The Right Thing

Scriptures like this take The Seven Biblical Principles to help you with them:

1. Jesus, show me that this is a situation where I must desire to do the right thing, not the thing I “think” is the right one. It isn’t even what people tells me is the right thing. Help me wait on You, while desiring to hear from You as to what You say is the right thing.

2. Jesus, help me study the Bible and You show me what the right thing is. Help me find Scriptures that show me what You want me to do about an abusive or evil situation.

3. Jesus, help me pray and ask You to help me do the right thing and give me spiritual power to do it. As I pray give me answer to my prayers by showing me what the right thing is. And then give me the power, as You join me in doing the right thing.

4. Jesus, help me keep praying until You give me the faith to believe I know what the right thing is, and that You have given me the power to join You in doing it. Teach me that part of the power You give me is a knowledge that causes you to know it is the right thing. Your faith empowers me to be sure, be certain, and join You to go do it.

5. Jesus, help me take the right thing and pass it through this list of God’s love. Satan may tell me that I am not being loving, when I separate myself from an abusive person. He may try to make me feel guilty about not staying in the abusive situation. He may try to push me back into it too soon, by telling me to forgive them and trust that they have changed. Help me never go back until You tell me to go.

Jesus, teach me that God’s love can consist of holding a person responsible for their deeds, so You can change them. You may want me to love them enough to withhold my relationship from them, until they allow You to change them. Show me that if I don’t respond to Your teaching, I can get in Your way, by reestablishing my relationship with them too soon. Tell me if and when they are ready.

6. Jesus, help me be ready to take faith-action and join You to go do the right thing. If You want me to reestablish the relationship and I feel fear, help me practice using faith-action to take the chance. If you want me to stay away from them, help me take faith-action by trusting You and practice staying away for as long as You want me to.

Jesus, teach me that faith-action involves practicing knowing when I have heard from You, knowing when I have been empowered by You, and knowing that I have received those things I need from You and am ready to live on the basis of that fact.

7. Jesus, as I start doing the right thing, help me immediately see that it is You making it all possible. Help me thank and praise You for guiding me into such a clear and certain decision. Help me see all the things You helped me with, so that I was able to know and do the right thing, when I could have been impossible for me to do it.

This concludes your reading and praying for today.

Truth/Prayer Pages Chapter Thirty-Eight

Examining God’s Love Characteristics – Identifying Bad Records

Week Eight Day Five

1 Cor 13:5 (NIV) It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs.

God Speaks With Wisdom, Love, And Power

Recognizing Wrong Information

The voice of guilt isn’t the same as the voice of love telling you to forgive. Worrying that you may not be showing enough love isn’t the same as Jesus telling you to help someone. Being afraid that you are too harsh or strict isn’t the same as Jesus helping you love and care for people. Those who want to do the right thing, can be pushed by Satan to do things that get them hurt. People with loving, tender hearts, can respond to satanic guilt, worry, fear, or pressure to reestablish a relationship. They can want to do the right thing so bad they forgive and then do things Jesus didn’t want them to do.

Love

Jesus, help me not respond to guilt, worry, fear, or pressure. Teach me that this is a case where I am trying to do the right thing. It is a place where I am evaluating the situation and I am concerned that I am not being a good Christian. Show me that this is me being concerned about myself. I am being afraid I’m messing up and getting myself in trouble with You. I’m not getting ready to do something because I love and care for that person. I just don’t want to get myself in trouble. Teach me that this isn’t what love is all about; a win/win procedure is where I am allowing You to create a situation where everyone involved is helped.

Wisdom

Jesus, rather than responding to guilt, worry, fear, or pressure, help me look at each situation with wisdom. You aren’t asking me to harden my heart against someone; You aren’t asking me to just worry about my own righteousness and not care how that affects others; and, You aren’t asking me to just drop the issue and go on with my life. Help me allow You to tell me what You want me to do. Give me a set of relationship rules where I can love a person without doing anything that would put me in harm’s way, and without doing things that cheats that person out of seeing they are doing wrong. Keep me from doing things that prevent You from being able to deal with their spiritual condition.

Power

Jesus, rather than responding to guilt, worry, fear, or pressure, give me the power to do the right thing. Work the circumstances out where You way takes me into a natural flow. Rather than you having to create meetings, events, and procedures to “fix” the situation, orchestrate better situations and times for me to work on the relationship. Empower me to do the right thing; if I don’t “try to make things happen,” and if I don’t just “let time heal all wounds,” You will give me Your wisdom for how You want me to handle it and then give me the power to do it. Help me to wait on You to provide the wisdom and power.

God Expects You To Seek His Wisdom, Yield To His Love,

And Wait For His Power

Desire

Jesus, this is where I must desire to do the right thing. The situation can get so stressful that I just want to ignore it. Satan can get so accusative that I just want to give in and go back to exposing myself to abuse. The person can so pressure me, that I find myself just doing what they want. Help me desire what You want me to do.

Study

Jesus, lead me to the Scriptures You want me to consider. Help me not just use the Scriptures I am familiar with; help me discover other, more relevant Scriptures that I haven’t considered. Then after I feel I have studied the issue long enough, help me bring these Scriptures to You and allow You to interpret them. Tell me how to use them. Cause certain Scriptures to speak to my heart in a special way and indicate that others don’t apply to this situation.

Pray

Jesus, when I feel overwhelmed, I can worry that it isn’t You speaking to me. I can read Scriptures that seem to take me in several different directions. I can think and feel one way one moment and a totally different way the next. My circumstances and my relationships can change from looking “pretty good” one moment and horrible the next. I can get tossed back and forth to the point where I get fatigued, confused, and frustrated.

Jesus, when I want to “get this abusive thing resolved” or want to “just let nature take its course” that won’t mean it’s what You want. When things get too difficult, when I just don’t know what You want me to do, and when I start to get confused, frustrated, and mad, help me pray. Help me with the circumstances; help with my confusion; and help me relax and let You solve it, heal me, and fill me with feelings from Your love. Help me tell You how I feel, where I am having trouble, and spend as much time as possible praying and listening to You.

Believe

Jesus, when You speak faith into me, it changes my heart and mind. It gives me faith to know what to do; it gives me the assurance for which way is God’s way. I become sure and certain as to the path I need to take (Heb 11:1). Teach me that this is the experience I am desiring, studying about, and praying for. Things can be very confusing, frustrating, and maddening prior to You giving me the faith for what You want me to believe.

Jesus, start me out with relational faith; speak a vital, foundational faith into me that I can keep and rely on all the time. Give me a faith, trust, reliance, and a dependency on the trustworthiness of my heavenly Father. I know He will help me some way. Somehow, He will show me what to do. Then with relational faith, help me desire, study, and pray for You to speak provisional faith into me for this abusive situation I am currently facing. Once You do that, help my heart and mind get an assurance and a knowing for how to handle this abuse.

Love

Jesus, it is tempting to jump right into faith-action, once I get Your specific faith. Before that there was a lot of “living in the dark.” I desired to do the right thing; I searched the Scriptures to find what the right thing is; and, I prayed, asking God to tell me which Scriptures to apply. But, once You speak You faith into me, I know exactly what I should do. My heart and mind enter into peace; I can feel secure in the knowledge; and I can feel like I am ready to “go do the right thing.” But, teach me that there is one more very important step.

Jesus, teach me that love is the power to do the right thing in abusive relationships. Keep me from doing the right thing but for the wrong reason. When it starts out being the right thing, but, gets contaminated with ulterior motives, heal my heart from a hidden agenda. Help me not use Your wisdom and power to accomplish a personal goal. If You want me to stay away from a person, help me do it for Your reason. Let this keep me from doing or saying things that shouldn’t be said or done. Help me not mix my agenda with Yours and hurt the situation.

Faith-Action

Jesus, Your faith and love give me Your power to act; without them I lack the ability to know what to do. Without love I lack the motivation for why I am saying or doing it. Faith and love get me on the right track and empower me to go do what I was unable to do before. Help me take action through You giving me Your supernatural power to do miraculous, healing, and transforming things.

Thankful

Jesus, help me look back on how confused, how stressed, how upset, how angry, and how wrong I was about what to do. Help me see how far You took me from where I was to where I am now. Help me see how wonderful You have been in helping me find the answers and do the right thing. Help me express my thankfulness and appreciation to You. Help me praise You for everything You do during these difficult situations.

This concludes your reading and praying for the week.

Truth/Prayer Pages Chapter Thirty-Nine

Examining God’s Love Characteristics – Rejoicing In Truth

1 Cor 13:6 (NIV) Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth.

Week Nine Day One

God Does Not Delight In Evil But Rejoices With The Truth

Heb 12:5-6 (NIV) And you have forgotten that word of encouragement that addresses you as sons: “My son, do not make light of the Lord’s discipline, and do not lose heart when He rebukes you, because the Lord disciplines those He loves, and He punishes everyone He accepts as a son.”

Jesus, show me that God doesn’t enjoy seeing me suffer even during times of His discipline or punishment. He loves me supernaturally; He feels my pain greater than I do. He disciplines and punishes me for my good only. His relationship with me is with a deep desire for me to experience His blessings, miracles, and compassion. Make it clear to me that, if I have to experience pain in order for me to get to the place where I can get good, then and only then will He allow me to be exposed to painful issues.

You Have To Rebel

Your relationship with your heavenly Father is one of Him trying to help you understand and trust Him. He does as much for you as you will allow, so you can get to know Him and His attitudes better. He knows you will love and trust Him, if only you will give Him a chance to prove Himself. But, if you misunderstand and rebel against Him, you do things that hurt you and those around you. That leaves Him no choice but to allow you to get the results of your misdirection.

Heb 12:7 (NIV) Endure hardship as discipline; God is treating us as sons. For what son is not disciplined by his father? Jesus, show me that the results of me not listening to my heavenly Father produces many types of hardship. In these cases, He doesn’t have to discipline or punish me. He just allows me to do the things I think are best for me. The only reason He tries to show me a better way of life, the only reason He speaks to me by the Holy Spirit, and the only reason He talks to me through the Bible, is so I won’t suffer hardship!

Hardship

Heb 12:11 (NIV) No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it. It is true that hardship comes as the results of bad decisions and actions on your part. But, there is one thing different in the hardship that comes to Christians. Rom 8:28 (NIV) And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love Him, who have been called according to His purpose.

Jesus, teach me that for everyone, even those who aren’t yet Christians, who are sincerely wanting to do the right things, their hardship is structured and controlled by God, so it can’t destroy or misdirect them. Help me see that I don’t just get the results of my bad decisions and actions. Show me that God forces the results to have healing characteristics. He makes sure they come in a form that actually helps me see what I should have done. He helps me see why I need to allow Him to guide me and protect me. Make it clear to me that God doesn’t delight in evil but rejoices with the truth.

You Don’t Delight In Evil But Rejoice With The Truth

Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth: When someone does something you don’t like and they fall into bad circumstances, you can have a tendency to be glad “they got what they deserve.” You may not tell anyone how you feel; but, you can find yourself feeling a little better after they suffer some bad event. When you face this battle with your emotions, it is time to pray and ask God to help you with your attitudes.

Jesus, help me understand that this situation is more of an attitude. It is more about a thought or feeling than something I am saying or doing. Help see that it is a place where I don’t do or say anything that brings about revenge, justice, judgment, or I getting even with someone. It is an attitude where you wish or hope something bad happens to a person who cheated me, lied to me, stole from me, or misled me. But, help me remember that grace and mercy are the systems God used in His relationship with me. Help me want grace and mercy for them.

Constructive Criticism

God wants you to help people with their bad behavior. He allows you to point out things people do to you that are wrong. He just requires that you do these things in such a way that you help them grow and make changes in their behavior. If you just wish something bad happens to them, it keeps you from being able to hear the wisdom of God on how to go about helping them change.

Practice, Practice, Practice:

It’s those secret things you feel that you often neglect; if no one can see how you feel, you might just let it go. But, bad attitudes have a tendency to turn into other bad things.

· Jesus, help me not fail to desire to yield to God’s love enough to not delight in evil but rejoice with the truth. If I keep having trouble with this, help me do more prayer and study, so as to strengthen my desire.

· Jesus, help me have all the information about what is evil and what is truth. Help me study how to be a person who does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth.

· Jesus, help me pray for all the things I need to pray for, and if I can’t seem to pray the right prayer, help me apply Romans 8:26-27 to get the Holy Spirit’s help.

· Jesus, help me believe that I have received the power to become a person who does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. And if I need some examples, help me spend more time with You in the Gospels and in times of prayer.

· Jesus, help me be motivated by God’s love; help me go through the love list in 1 Corinthians 13:4-8a and see where I am failing. And, help me spend time praying and asking God to help me with my love motives.

· Jesus, help me be able to take faith-action because I am new, inexperienced, or need a lot more practice, so I can become a person who does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth; so, help me keep on practicing.

· Jesus, if You have helped me with anything that I haven’t been thankful for, I repent, I ask for Your forgiveness, and ask that You empower me to never neglect being thankful ever again.

The key to all of this desiring, studying, praying, believing, loving, practicing living it out in faith-action is to get the incredible results that come from God. This puts you in a place where you can increase your relationship with Him by spending time with Him thanking Him, worshipping Him, and praising Him for all He has done for you. You have applied yourself to learning how and getting better at careers, sports, education, hobbies, and all kinds of other things. If you have to learn how to get good at living a righteous life with God, it should be something you are willing to do.

This concludes your reading and praying for today.

Truth/Prayer Pages Chapter Forty

Examining God’s Love Characteristics – Rejoicing In Truth

Week Nine Day Two

1 Cor 13:6 (NIV) Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth.

Applying Information And Getting Experience

Why won’t they let you read books and take a class and go out and fly a plane? Why won’t they let you take a test proving you know the information about doing brain surgery and start cutting on people? Why can’t you just learn the information and go out and have immediate success in life? The apprentice may have received a better education than the master craftsman; but, there is no comparison between knowing the information and having years of experience.

Jesus, I am like a new graduate who has a lot of theories about how to be successful in their new career. I have put my theories to work and experienced failure. I am starting to realize that it is more important for things to actually work than what I think will work. I have opinions, information, instructions, beliefs, philosophies, and convictions; but, if I apply them to real life and they don’t work, help me be willing to give them up.

RESULTS

Results On The Inside

The master craftsman gets a lot more positive results than the apprentice. Their current beliefs, opinions, philosophies, and convictions are “tried and proven.” Much has changed since they first started out in their profession. The guess work has been replaced with things that get results. They could have been stubborn and refused to give up their opinions, beliefs, philosophies, and convictions. They may have spent a lot of time trying to improve and perfect them. But, in the end, only those things that worked really stood out as being true.

Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth: Jesus, help me realize that only God knows how I really feel on the inside; I can act like I really hate it when something bad happens to someone I don’t like. I can feel pretty good about myself since I didn’t have anything to do with the bad happening to them. I may be sitting in a group of people who are all delighting in the evil that happened to this person; and, I may not say one bad thing. But, on the inside, I may be glad about the evil that happened; but, I am only “acting” like a good Christian.

Jesus, if I apply The Three Keys To All Of Christianity to an insincere heart, they will fail to bring results. Help me not try to act like a Christian or try to impress anyone; help me be a Christian and please the One Who knows what I am thinking and feeling. Help me allow You to take me step-by-step through The Seven Biblical Principles and let You identify this “secret” attitude. Set me free from hidden feelings that no one but You can address. Make me into a person who does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth.

Love Is The Power To Succeed

“Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth” is not telling you how to act, what to do, or how to present yourself as a Christian. The love of God and each of these love-power traits are telling you what it has the power to produce in you. This isn’t a list of rules for how to be a good Christian; it’s what God’s love has the power to do in your relationships. It isn’t what you can do for God; it is what God and His power-love can do for you. As a matter of fact, it is a power that already has been poured into your heart (Rom 5:5).

Jesus, make me into an experienced Christian; help me find out that the only way to not delight in evil but rejoice with the truth is to learn how to yield to Your power through faith. Nothing changes inside me unless Your power is yielded to by believing I have it. Help me live by faith and not by sight (2 Cor 5:7 NIV). Help me know that this power-love item is speaking this power into me, so I do not delight in evil but rejoice with the truth.

Love Can Make You Real

Wanting Good Results

Jesus, help me desire this list of things in 1 Corinthians 13:4-8 to speak each individual power-love characteristic into me. When I feel glad that someone is getting what they deserve, help me realize that it is Satan trying to get me to believe I feel that way. Help me say to myself and to Satan, I desire God’s power-love to empower me to not delight in evil but rejoice with the truth. Help me know I desire this for a fact and not doubt it.

Searching For Good Results In The Bible

Jesus, help me come into these studies of the Bible knowing that it speaks truth into me. Help me not study the Bible, as if it is just giving me information. Help me see myself actually not delighting in evil but rejoicing with the truth. Help me know that this Biblical statement activated this part of God’s power-love in me. Help me know Your love healed this area of my heart and mind. Let it motivate me to study with a purpose and with faith in the Bible.

Reaching Out To God For Good Results

Jesus, I know that according to Romans 5:5 that I have God’s love already in my heart. Help me understand that I am just praying for You to activate each item of its power into my life. At the Bible speaks a truth into me, help me pray and ask You to take that power-love item and use it in my daily activities. Help me not just want it to be in me; help me want You to take control of it and use it to change my behavior.

Waiting On Jesus, Brings Good Results

Jesus, help me realize that the Bible is just information to me until You speak faith into me. Your faith is causing me to believe that I do not delight in evil but rejoice with the truth. The Bible spoke that fact into me; but, Your fact empowered me to believe it is true of me. Otherwise it would just lay dormant inside me with me gaining no benefit from it.

Love Is The Power That Gives You Good Results

Jesus, I have looked at God’s love as one general attitude and emotion. Now I see the different facets of it. In this situation, it is the power-love aspect of me not delighting in evil but rejoicing with the truth. Now I can have people do wrong, bad, or evil things to me; and, I can love my enemies and pray for those who persecute me (Mat 5:44 NIV). This is a major change in my character and attitudes. Thank You for Your power-love items.

Living A Life Of Good Results

Mat 5:44-46 (NIV) But I tell you: Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be sons of your Father in heaven. He causes His sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. If you love those who love you, what reward will you get? Are not even the tax collectors doing that? Jesus, now I can take faith-action through Your power-love and experience spiritual power to do what You taught. Your love is definitely the only way for me to take faith-action and live the Christian life.

Love Brings The Results Of Joy And Thankfulness

Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. Jesus, this sets me free from the pain and depression of delighting in evil. It gives me the freedom, joy, and thankfulness of rejoicing with the truth. Thank You for such powerful, transforming things Your power-love is doing in me. Even when I am facing people-issues that would typically affect me negatively and maybe ruin my day, I have Your power-love protecting my heart and mind.

This concludes your reading and praying for today.

Truth/Prayer Pages Chapter Forty-One

Examining God’s Love Characteristics – Always Protects

1 Cor 13:7 (NIV) It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.

Week Nine Day Three

God Always Protects You

Love always protects: There are an incredible number of things that try to come your way that are negative. Wrong, bad, and evil things come at you and immediately you need to look to the power of your heavenly Father. Once these negative things are handled by Him, they end up working for your good. Rom 8:28 (NIV) And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love Him, who have been called according to His purpose.

Eph 3:20 (NIV) Now to Him Who is able to do immeasurably (AMP: Superabundantly) more than all we ask or imagine, according to His power that is at work within us. Jesus, You protect me spiritually, physically, relationally, financially, and emotionally. When I am protected by You, help me not take it for granted. When everything is going smooth, help me not assume that things are going that way because they “happened” to work out that way. Show me they are happening according to Your power that is at work within me.

You All Face Problems, But….

The way God’s protection works, is by Him making sure that all things work for the good of those who love Him. Even those things that happen to you that you don’t like, they are being influenced and manipulated by God. There are things that are going to happen to you just because you are a human in this world. But, when they happened to you before you accepted Jesus as your Savior, all things did not work for your good.

Jesus, help me realize that it is God Who is making all things work for the good of those who love Him. Let that help me feel protected by God. I know Romans 8:28 is telling me that God is watching over my situations. Show me that I can’t get this kind of protection from any other source. As God always protects me, everything passes through His knowledge, foreknowledge of the future, understanding, wisdom, power, love, grace, and mercy.

You Always Protects Others

1 John 4:19 (NIV) You love because He first loved you. Your experiences with God’s protection help you see how He wants you to protect others. As God protects you by making things work out for your good, you see how to help good come to others. First, He gives you His love as a power to love your neighbor as yourself. Then He demonstrates His love in you, by making all things work for the good of those who love Him. As He always protects you, you see how to love others by protecting them; and, you show them how to get God’s protection in their lives.

Jesus, teach me the procedure for demonstrating my love from God by making others innocent until proven guilty; help me believe the best of them. I protect them from me, other people, and bad circumstances. This love from God empowers me to so identify with others that I actually feel their feelings. Help me not assume how they feel; help me spend time with them finding how they feel. Then help me protect them by praying for them and helping them.

Resisting Misunderstandings

Prov 15:1 (NIV) A gentle answer turns away wrath, but a harsh word stirs up anger. You can read yourself into people; if you have bad attitudes, you can assume others have the same kind of attitudes. But, if the love of God is yielded to, you can assume those around you aren’t reacting with bad attitudes. And, if they do, you can still protect them from your bad treatment by not responding back with the same kind of attitudes.

Jesus, when someone says something I don’t like, help me not resent it and do something back that they don’t like. Help me see how You are protecting me. Help me spend time thanking You for Your wonderful protection. Help me take the way I feel about how others treat me and submerge it into my appreciation for Your protection. Let it heal my hurt attitudes.

Yielding To Understanding

The road to success or failure happens through one relationship issue at a time. When you choose to say or do something with one person, it sets a positive or negative pattern in your life-path. It is like steering your car; if you make a wrong turn, it takes you in a wrong direction. If you persist in going down wrong roads, you will get farther and farther away from where you want to go. It is important to see this principle in the way you protect or don’t protect people.

Jesus, Your love helps me put myself in other people’s situations in a positive way. Loving my neighbor as myself brings me into a unity or team relationship. When someone says or does something that is offensive, help me start asking questions to find out why. Help me protect the relationship rather than trying to protect or defend myself.

Choosing The Right Kind Of Protection

Self-protection fights the protection that comes from the love of God. If you want to be mad at someone, you won’t be able to protect them because of your God-given free will. If you want to understand a person’s situation, so you can develop a win/win solution, then you willfully open up to God’s love that is in your heart. Your will navigates the Christian life.

Jesus, as I enter into a conversation with a person, help me be thinking about what You want me to ask them. Help me start asking them gentle, nonthreatening questions. Let it help me better understand why they are talking and acting the way they are. Let our conversation lead me into a love and concern for what they are going through.

Protecting People From Other People

Jesus has already taught you how to “turn the other cheek” and then avoid hostile people. He taught you how to avoid evil people as much as is possible. But, others read things like Luke 6:27-31 and don’t realize that these are unexpected events. They don’t know Jesus isn’t trying to get them to put themselves into abusive situations and relationships; and, He isn’t trying to get them to stay in abusive situations and relationships. He is just saying that, that is how to react to a person if such an occurrence should happen unexpectedly.

Jesus, since You have taught me Bible truths and how they work, let me help people be protected from abusive situations by teaching them the truth about evil people. Help me protect them by teaching them how to get Your guidance for how to have distance relationships. Let me help them handle and then avoid enemies, abusive people, and abusive relationships.

Jesus, teach me how to help people tell the difference between those who may be able to be helped and those who must be avoided at all costs. Help me teach them how to apply The Three Keys to these situations in order for them to always be protected from those around them. Help me teach them that, that’s the way God’s love works.

This concludes your reading and praying for today.

Truth/Prayer Pages Chapter Forty-Two

Examining God’s Love Characteristics – Always Protecting

Week Nine Day Four

1 Cor 13:7 (NIV) It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.

Trying To Use Love In A General Way

Love always protects: This is a general statement about love; it tells what it will typically produce in and through your life. But, it is there, as a constant thing, but, doesn’t make you always react the same way every time. It has the power to help you always protect those around you. But, you can resist that power, if you don’t want to protect someone. Like all the provisions of God, love is manifest on a moment-by-moment and issue-by-issue basis. You are free to yield or not yield to it, depending on what you decide to do.

Jesus, Your love has the power to help me always respond with protection. It is always there ready and waiting in every situation. I can become a person who always protects those people I get the opportunity to protect. Help me allow Your love to turn me into that kind of person. Help me not base my decisions on only protecting those who deserve it; make me into a person who always protects, so people can see Your love in action.

A Change Of Plans

Suppose you are in a situation where you really want to defend and protect someone. They are being attacked by others; so, you apply The Three Keys by asking God to empower you to have the knowledge, understanding, wisdom, and power to know what to do for them and be able to do it. Then Jesus empowers you with faith, love, information, a grasp of the situation, and a great and wise plan for protecting them. But, suppose that later on in the year you see someone else being abused but you see them as getting what they deserve.

Jesus, I don’t always have the desire to get Your help protecting some people. Because of my lack of desire, Your work in my life through The Three Keys is no longer being taken advantage of. I get real breakthroughs with some people but don’t demonstrate love to others. Help me not just yield to Your love based on whether or not I like a person. You didn’t base Your salvation, justification, and sanctification on whether or not I was likeable. Help me yield to “love always protects” for all people without the issue of personal preference.

The Seven Biblical Principle Relationship

The seven principles aren’t just a list to check off. If you don’t like someone, it affects God. He responds to love relationships. If your desire is biased, your Scripture interpretation is prejudiced, you only pray for certain people, you only want faith from Jesus to believe for good things for your friends, you love those who love you, you take faith-action helping people who have helped you, or you aren’t thankful for the way Jesus is helping people you don’t like, your use of those principles will be contaminated.

Jesus, help me realize that The Seven Biblical Principles are all about relationships; they aren’t about living out a formula. Help me see they are seven major, very important things I need in my relationship with You; they are seven things You really care about. Show me they work or fail based on my relationship with You and other people. Show me that You accept my love based on how I apply it to other people. If my love is contaminated in my relationships with others, it is contaminated with You.

A Difference Of Opinion

You can have a friend named Sally that you really enjoy; you may spend a lot of time with her and cherish her company. But, you might know someone else named Mary who can’t stand Sally. Mary doesn’t want to be around Sally or even talk to her. You may also like Mary and enjoy who she is. As you talk to Mary about Sally, you might try to find out why she feels the way she does. But, suppose Mary is determined to not like Sally; nothing you say can change her mind. That can be the way things work with God; He loves people that you can’t stand. He wants you to protect them; and, you can’t even get through the first step of The Seven Biblical Principles of desiring to protect them.

Jesus, I know You honor my God-given free will. But, I can get to a place where my desire is in trouble. If I don’t desire to protect someone, I don’t have to; but, that can hurt my relationship with You. It is an issue that I can’t love someone You love. It is a matter of me needing to desire to love someone You love. In that case, help me back up one step below desire: Help me be willing to be willing to desire it. Even though I am not willing to always protects everyone, help me be willing for You to work on my desire.

Wanting The Seven Biblical Principles To Work

Jesus wants to help you do things you have never been able to do before. He wants to take you places that are wonderful and very exciting. He has three prayers and seven steps that will take you into a great life that counts for here and in eternity. But, there are times when you don’t want what He wants. You don’t always like what He likes. There are times when you don’t see things the way He sees them.

The Three Keys and The Seven Biblical Principles could work for you; but, you may not see the need for it. You may not agree that God’s way is best for you. You may not see how it could possibly work out for your good. And, you may not see anything wrong with the way you want to do it. If that happens, your God-given free will keeps them from working for you.

Jesus, help me realize that I can’t always start with point “A” and go straight to point “B.” I can’t just pray and ask You to help me always protect people with Your love. There are going to be things I feel, thoughts I have, and attitudes I embrace that bring me to a halt. I can run into a brick wall; I can come to a dead-end street; and I can’t seem to get my relationship with You moving forward. I know something is wrong; but, I can’t seem to fix it.

It’s A Relationship

God isn’t just picky about The Three Keys and The Seven Biblical Principles. He isn’t hung up on rules; He isn’t just offended because you didn’t do them right. He cares about you, the person who is using them. He is a very gracious, merciful, and loving heavenly Father. You already know that salvation and justification prove He will overlook a lot of things. Giving you a perfect record with Him is supernatural proof. There just comes a point in your life where you need additional help beyond The Three Keys To All Of Christianity and The Seven Biblical Principles.

Jesus, if I have the right friends, if I make the right decisions, if I have the right attitudes, and if I apply the right principles, You know how wonderful and exciting my life will be. You want me to have all You have to offer; You want to take me into a life that is rewarding and meaningful; and You want to bless me and all those around me. Help me realize it is just a matter of me understanding and feeling the same way You do. Help me get the ideas, feelings, and opinions that You have; let me give You a lot more cooperation. Take me into the wonderful and dynamic things You want to cause to start happening in my life.

This concludes your reading and praying for today.

Truth/Prayer Pages Chapter Forty-Three

Examining God’s Love Characteristics – Always Trusts God

1 Cor 13:7 (NIV) It love always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.

Week Nine Day Five

The Eight Power-Attitudes Of God

Mat 5:3 (NIV) Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

Mat 5:4 (NIV) Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.

Mat 5:5 (NIV) Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.

Mat 5:6 (NIV) Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.

Mat 5:7 (NIV) Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy.

Mat 5:8 (NIV) Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.

Mat 5:9 (NIV) Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called sons of God.

Mat 5:10-12 (NIV) Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of Me. Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.

When it comes to always trusting and things like it, you can enter into a stalled relationship with God. People can’t always be trusted. So, God gives you a new assignment. He will step in between you and humans and just ask You to always trust Him. The toolset that helps you, when you and God reach an impasse is, The Eight Power-Attitudes Of God.

Jesus, help me renew my commitment to Your Eight Power Attitudes Of God. Take me into them so I can be healed of things that I feel I can’t solve in my relationship with You. My God-given will has blocked me off from God because I just can’t see myself always trusting some humans. Help me transition from that to always trusting God.

A Teachable Spirit

Mat 5:3 (NIV) Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Jesus, help me reopen my heart to You. I know You won’t ask me to do anything that isn’t right. Help me be poor in spirit, so You can help me face issues where I just don’t see how You are asking me to do what is best for me. I know You aren’t asking me to just do it. I know I am Your friend where You want to help me understand why You are doing what You are doing.

Jesus, heal my heart and mind, so I don’t have them made up and blocked off. Show me why I fear always trusting not working out for my good. Help me see that I am cutting You off by saying no. Use God’s power-attitude of me being poor in spirit to help me come to You with an open heart, one that lets You teach me how always trusting will work.

A Humble Spirit

Mat 5:4 (NIV) Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted. Jesus, I am sorry I allowed my feeling toward some people to interfere with me being willing to always trust. I failed to realize I wasn’t having a problem with trusting them; I was having a problem with trusting You. Help me yield to Your power-attitude of mourning and repent of my resistance.

Jesus, I am sorry for allowing fear and rebellion to enter into my relationship with You. Please forgive me and help me never do it again. Empower me to take anything like this and remain neutral. Help me not just decide that I can’t do it and say no. Help me come to You and ask You to help me at least be willing to be willing. If my mind is made up, then my God-given free will blocks off further communication. Help me never do that.

A Submitted Spirit

Mat 5:5 (NIV) Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth. Jesus, use Your power-attitude of meekness to renew my respect for Your knowledge, foreknowledge of the future, understanding, and wisdom. Help me yield to it and accept that You are my final authority for all my decisions and actions. Help me see that, if I disconnect from Your principles on any issue, I will end up regressing it. Even if it really looks good for me and seems to be proving to be good for me, the end result won’t be the good I anticipated.

Jesus, help me bring this issue of always trusting and all other such issues before You with meekness. Help me let Your power-attitude of meekness empower me to reestablish You as my final authority. Help me lay these issues that are bothering me before You and trust You to handle them with love. Help me see that You will never force me. Help me stop acting like You will. I know I can bring any issue before You and You will help me understand.

A Hungry Spirit

Mat 5:6 (NIV) Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled. Jesus, help me realize that what I am resisting is righteousness. You are asking me to be righteous by always trusting. Help me see that I am not opening myself for abuse. I am giving people the benefit of the doubt. I am making them innocent until proven guilty.

Jesus, help me see that You always have a righteous reason for asking me to do anything. You are righteous, holy, godly, pure, and perfect. Help me reembrace my trust in Your righteousness. Help me always trust, so I can be a righteous person, who lets people get small assignments and opportunities, so they can prove themselves. Even if I don’t think I am going to like them, help me be righteous and give them the kind of a chance You gave me.

A Merciful Spirit

Mat 5:7 (NIV) Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy. Even if I have to establish a distance relationship with an abusive person, help me regularly ask You if there is anything I need to do to demonstrate mercy to them. Help me not make any decisions one way or the other. Help me just keep my heart and mind open to Your will. Help me see that I am always trusting by not judging them or condemning them. Help my heart be neutral, so You can be the judge, as to what I am to do next.

Jesus, You have been merciful to me. I deserved to be punished for things I did to myself, other people, and to You. Give me Your power-attitude of mercy, so I don’t feel any desires for revenge, judgment, punishment, or retaliation against an abusive person. Help me always trust by believing that if anything can be done to help people I don’t like or trust, You have the power and wisdom to change them into a new creation in You.

A Spirit With A Pure Heart

Mat 5:8 (NIV) Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God. Jesus, empower me with Your power-attitude of a pure heart. It comes easy for me to make decisions and come to conclusions that aren’t true. People I don’t like, strangers I don’t know, and abusive people have issues I don’t understand. Help my heart to be pure, so I don’t have any opinions, assumptions, or preconceived notions about them. Help me leave the judging to You.

Jesus, help me be pure in heart, so I can live my life in complete surrender to You. Help me trust Your evaluations of those that have hurt me, cheated me, lied to me, and stolen from me. Help me see that as I yield to Your power-attitude of being pure in heart, I can go on about my business and leave all this in Your hands. Help me experience the freedom that I get from trusting You with these people. There many other people that I can enjoy their friendship.

A Peace-Making Spirit

Mat 5:9 (NIV) Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called sons of God. Jesus, if I am to be the one who is to bring peace to a relationship, help me yield to Your power-attitude of being a peacemaker. Let the peace in the fruit of the Spirit be resident in my mind and heart, so I already have peace before I try to share peacemaking with those who are difficult, abusive, and argumentative. If I have a history with them, help me not be contaminated by it.

Jesus, empower me to be willing to experience and share peace with those I don’t like, those who have hurt me, and those I don’t feel like I can trust. Help me trust You with it, so I can be neutral in bringing peace to the relationship.

A Rejoicing Spirit

Mat 5:10a (NIV) Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness. Jesus, if there is an area where I must suffer through a relationship, help me be willing. Help me not seek it; but, help me be willing to always trust in those areas where You need me to. Help me suffer any abuse that helps You transform the life of an individual. Help me do what it takes to bring redemption to someone who looks like they are least likely to be born again.

Jesus, if I need to work my way through people who abuse me, lie about me, persecute me, and hurt me just so I can get to someone who wants You, help me be willing to always trust You in the matter.

This concludes your reading and praying for this week.

Truth/Prayer Pages Chapter Forty-Four

Examining God’s Love Characteristics – Still Trusts God

1 Cor 13:7 (NIV) It love always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.

Week Ten Day One

God Starts With Trust

2 Pet 3:9 (NIV) The Lord is not slow in keeping His promise, as some understand slowness. He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance. If you have decided that someone is a “lost cause,” then you won’t do anything to help them. But, if you feel there may be some hope that they might change, at some point, there are things you might do to test the situation from time to time.

Jesus, You know everything; You remember the past in full clarity; You see the present in every detail; and, You see the future like it has already happened. It could be easy for You to use Your knowledge about what every person is going to do and just work with those who were going to accept Your salvation; but, You don’t.

God’s Love Starts With Trust

Rom 5:8 (NIV) But God demonstrates His own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. God doesn’t just wait until you are a Christian to love you. He goes ahead and demonstrates His own love for you…while you were still a sinner. In other words, it is like giving people “the benefit of the doubt.”

Rom 5:6 (NIV) You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. Jesus, You even died for those You knew were going to reject You. It didn’t matter; You died for them, so You could also die for those who will accept You. We all start out as sinners; we all look like we will never accept You as our Lord, Savior, and soon coming King. But, whether we accept You or not; You died for us anyway.

Always Trusting Makes Good Things Possible

John 3:16 (NIV) For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life. Salvation didn’t get forced on anyone; but, it also didn’t get held back from anyone. Whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life. Trust opens the door to whoever even though many may reject you; Jesus went ahead and provided it for everyone, everywhere.

Jesus, You don’t just love those who deserve to be loved; You love me even though I don’t deserve it. I can’t do anything to deserve to be loved by You ; but, You love me anyway. Even if I reject that love, You didn’t do it because You weren’t loved. I am not trustworthy; I have lived a life of sin; but, You gave me Your trust, so I could use my God-given free will to take advantage of it, if I want to.

You Start With Trust

Love always trusts: This is a scary one; it’s a situation where you are deciding whether or not to trust people that you don’t know their character or attitudes. This could cause you to be vulnerable or gullible around strangers and casual acquaintances by trusting them. It’s easy for God to go ahead and trust people; He can see inside and know their attitudes and character. You have to learn what kind of people you are dealing with by experimentation. Sometimes you don’t find out someone’s not trustworthy until it is too late.

Jesus, how am I going to always trust everyone and not get hurt? How can I trust people and yet be protected from potential damage and defeat? Show me how You approach trust. Help me see that I need a kind of trust that allows people to prove themselves while giving me a certain amount of protection through God’s wisdom.

Following Jesus’ Example

John 2:23-25 (NIV) Now while He (Jesus) was in Jerusalem at the Passover Feast, many people saw the miraculous signs He was doing and believed in His name. But Jesus would not entrust himself to them, for He knew all men. He did not need man’s testimony about man, for He knew what was in a man.

Jesus, this shows me that there are degrees of trust. You didn’t just throw Yourself and Your ministry into people’s hands without applying certain tests. You would not entrust Yourself to them, for You knew all men. People didn’t get Your full trust; But, You gave them enough trust, so as to offer them those things that proved who they really were. In other words, I trust them enough to give them a test of trustworthiness.

Starting With Trust

Obviously “always trusts” is much the same thing as “always protects.” You take the position that everyone is innocent until proven guilty. Let’s say you know a person who typically does wrong, bad, or evil things. You could write them off; you could always assume that everything they do will always be that way. How would you go about trusting them?

Jesus, Your love-trust isn’t a trust where I endanger myself. You aren’t asking me to be gullible. I don’t invite strangers into my home, business, family, circle of friends, or personal areas of my life; You require that I let them prove themselves before I do that. But, help me see that I always give them enough trust, so they always have the opportunity to prove themselves. People can’t prove themselves, if I don’t give them some kind of chance.

Tests Of Trust

Trust gives you a way to test people to see if they can gain even more of your trust. If you always trust, then you will always be giving people opportunities to prove themselves trustworthy. You will never give up on them for as long as they don’t do what it takes to completely sever the relationship. But, there is a way where some do things that cause you to have to take your trust away from them and place the trust issue in God’s hands.

Trusting God Concerning Some People

Jesus, help me always keep in mind that there are people to avoid; I have to leave them in God’s hands. They are to be dealt with by God alone. I don’t cut them off myself with my attitudes; but, I do separate myself from the physically.

Jesus, You said in Matthew 7:6: Do not give dogs what is sacred; do not throw your pearls to pigs. If you do, they may trample them under their feet, and then turn and tear you to pieces.” I don’t know who these people are; show me that there are those who start out being evil but eventually accept Your salvation. Paul was one of those people.

Only God Can Handle Certain People

Acts 9:1-2 (NIV) Meanwhile, Saul (Paul) was still breathing out murderous threats against the Lord’s disciples. He went to the high priest and asked him for letters to the synagogues in Damascus, so that if he found any there who belonged to the Way, whether men or women, he might take them as prisoners to Jerusalem.

Jesus, help me see that at this point in Paul’s life, no one could trust him with their life. Every Christian had to place their trust in God to handle him. Through “always trusting” they could pray for him; but, they couldn’t trust him so much that they spent time with him.

Our Results In Always Trusting In God

Acts 9:3-6 (NIV) As he (Paul) neared Damascus on his journey, suddenly a light from heaven flashed around him. He fell to the ground and heard a voice say to him, “Saul, Saul, why do you persecute Me?” “Who are You, Lord?” Saul asked. “I am Jesus, Whom you are persecuting,” He replied. “Now get up and go into the city, and you will be told what you must do.”

Jesus, show me that if I give people assignments or tests by being friendly to them and they respond abusively, I must always run these people through You and the Holy Spirit. Help me not just simply trust them with other parts of me life, because I don’t know what their character and attitudes are; I must wait for a verdict. Let me trust strangers enough to give them my friendliness, my smile, some beginning conversations, and an opportunity to respond back with good attitudes.

Always Trust God First

When you pause and wait for the truth to come out of strangers, God’s love-trust keeps you from jumping to a negative conclusion. The kind of trust you provide those who typically do wrong, bad, or evil, is to give them as many tests and assignments as God allows. Not that you trust them enough to join them in a relationship; you just take a neutral trust attitude, as you wait to see if, at this point, this test, this assignment is them being good or bad.

Jesus, teach me that people must earn my full trust; my relationships are on a case-by-case, issue-by-issue basis. If a very good friend does something bad to me, help me trust them, but, go to them to hold them in accountability. But, help me trust that they did it accidently. Show me that if an enemy does the same thing, I take the same approach. If a friend or an enemy proves to have done something bad, wrong, or evil on purpose, I forgive them but approach them with a future relationship of caution but no judgment. Help me trust them enough to wait to see if God changes them in the future.

This concludes your reading and praying for today.

Truth/Prayer Pages Chapter Forty-Five

Examining God’s Love Characteristics – Keeps Trusting

Week Ten Day Two

1 Cor 13:7 (NIV) It love always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.

Trying To Figure People Out

You need to know who you are dealing with; you need to know what a person’s motives are for why they are doing what they are doing. Do they have some hidden agenda; are they being honest with you; are they just telling you what you want to hear; and, will they stick with you through thick and thin?

Each person’s body creates a very formidable barrier between them and other people. You are locked out of what is going on inside a person. We have all become very skilled at causing people to think we are one thing, when we are another. You know what people are looking for; and, you know how to show that to them. This is an issue that has to be considered in the always trusts procedure.

Jesus, You look deep down inside a person and know who they really are. A person may be giving me the impression that they are someone else while reserving the right to be who they want to be. How can I always trust people who can fool me so completely? I can enter into some of the most intimate relationships and not find out who a person is until years later. I can be shocked to find out that a person is capable of doing some of the things they do. How can I be so wrong about someone “I thought I knew?”

Jesus, as I deal with such a mysterious, complicated, and even dangerous situation, help me always trust using Your knowledge, foreknowledge of the future, understanding, wisdom, and power. Help me feel checks in my spirit, when I am dealing with someone who is not trustworthy. Help me feel good in my spirit, when I am trusting people who can be trusted. Help me learn how to give people small, less important assignments, so they can demonstrate who they are. Show me what tests to give them that would reveal who they really are.

Asking The One Who Knows

Jer 17:9-10 (NIV) The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it? “I the LORD search the heart and examine the mind, to reward a man according to his conduct, according to what his deeds deserve.”

God knows all the things a person has ever done; He knows what kind of person they are now; and, He knows what kind of person they will be in the future. He knows more about them than they even know about themselves. In 1 Corinthians 12:10, there is a gift from the Holy Spirit that can help you know who you are dealing with. It is called: distinguishing between spirits. It doesn’t test the person’s spirit. It tests the spirit that they are yielding to.

Jesus doesn’t want you operating blind; He is willing to help you not only go in the right directions yourself, He will help you make good decisions as to who you get involved with. But, you must listen to a small voice inside you that is telling you who they are.

Jesus, I can reject people You want me to establish very important relationships with. And, I can accept people You want me to stay away from. Help me learn how to read Holy Spirit warning and approval feelings in my spirit. Help me with testing people, evaluating them, getting to know them, and making decisions about them based on Your always-trusts love. Give me the gift of discernment from Your Holy Spirit, so I can know them.

Choosing How To Apply The Seven Biblical Principles

Love always trusts: What if you asked God to make you a more trusting person? But, what if He did and you trusted the wrong person? What’s the best way of applying The Three Keys where you don’t end up getting the right thing but using it the wrong way? Getting things from God and using them yourself, is a problem. That is why you need to join Jesus, when you take faith-action. He will make you a more trusting person with wisdom. You will have a power-trust that you use to give people small assignments that test their attitudes and character.

Jesus, give me a trust that is based on Your evaluation of a person. Help me yield to always trusting everyone around me while asking You who to spend time with and who to avoid. Take my trusting heart and lead it into certain relationships and away from others. Keep me from having to go around trying to “size people up.” Keep me from being suspicious of everyone until they prove themselves trustworthy. Let me freely enter into relationships because I am connected to the One Who knows everyone and everything. Help me listen for that small voice in my spirit that warns and encourages.

Letting God Apply The Seven Biblical Principles

You are being told that love always trusts; but, only God knows how that should represent itself in your life and relationships. So, you come to Jesus with an open heart for Him to decide how to make this all happen. Let Him show You how that plays out in real life. Don’t assume you know what that looks like. And, even if you have already seen Jesus apply it to one situation, that doesn’t mean you should use the same method with another situation.

Jesus, help me come to You with a poor spirit, mourning, meekness, and a hunger and thirst for Your righteousness. Help me see that I must have God’s power-attitudes so I can be receptive to Your guidance. If I feel a warning or an encouragement from the Holy Spirit in my spirit and I don’t feel the same way about the person, help me stop and pray for my opinion to be dropped. Help me realize that His evaluation of that person is perfect.

Questioning God The Right Way

Jesus, the Bible says that love always trusts:

· How does that work?

· What would that look like in my business?

· How would I go about yielding to this power in my marriage?

· What kind of relationship would it help me with in my family?

· Would You help me see some examples of it in the Bible?

· What would keep me from trusting the wrong person?

· How do I trade me protecting myself for You guiding me in my trust relationships?

· What does Your kind of trust look like in life?

If questions like this are a part of you letting God shape your desire, the Scriptures you study, the prayers you pray, the faith from Jesus that you seek, the aspects of love you yield to, the faith-actions you try to take, and the thankfulness you express, then Jesus is in control of your approach to always trusts. Your mind remains open; your heart is coming to God as a little child; you are teachable and transformable; and you are being sincere in your relationship with Him.

This concludes your reading and praying for today.

Truth/Prayer Pages Chapter Forty-Six

Examining God’s Love Characteristics – Always Hopes

1 Cor 13:7 (NIV) It love always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.

Week Ten Day Three

God Always Hopes

God Gives You Faith For The Present

Love always hopes: You start out with a faith relationship with God. In other words, God starts your relationship with Him by telling you what He has already done for you. He gives you information in the Bible that tells you what He has done and then explains how to use faith to get it. Faith is simply a matter of you reading about things God says He has done and believing He is telling you the truth about it.

Jesus, as I find out about those things God says in the Bible, that He has provided for me, help me understand that I am to believe He is telling me the truth. And, help me take faith-action by starting to live on the basis of that fact. Help me not just have faith to believe I have it. Help me understand this Scripture in James 2:17 (NIV): In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead. But, help me see that the only way I would be able to take this action would be because God had already provided it for me.

God Gives You Hope For The Future

Love always hopes: As you get enough experiences with God through faith providing you with results, and as those results come from all those things God has already provided, you gain personal experiences and successes with God. Through those experiences and successes, you grow in your trust relationship with Him. Through those experiences with Him you learn that He always tells the truth about those things He says He has done.

Jesus, teach me the difference between hope and faith. Teach me that hope is the attitude I am to have about those things God says He is going to do. Show me that I am responsible for applying hope to these things. But, teach me that this isn’t the kind of hope the world uses in saying, I hope something good will happen. The world uses hope as being a weak, maybe even desperate, last gasp, positive thought, that hopefully “something” good might happen. They say: “Well, I sure hope so!” Teach me that this isn’t the same kind of hope.

Hope Based On Faith-Experiences

As you experience one answer to prayer after another, you develop a history with God. You experience His honesty, faithfulness, integrity, and trustworthiness. Since He has always told you the truth about those things He has already done, you develop a faith-based hope in what He says He is going to do.

2 Pet 3:13 (NIV) But in keeping with His promise you are looking forward to a new heaven and a new earth, the home of righteousness. Jesus, once I have had enough faith-experiences with God and then find out that God is going to provide me with a new heaven and earth, let that make my hope strong. Help me understand that I can’t use hope like I use faith. Teach me that faith can be used to produce total, immediate, and permanent results. Hope, on the other hand, can’t produce immediate results because the promises haven’t been provided yet; but, I know they will!

You Always Hope

Love always hopes: Your people-relationships are based on trust and hope. Always trusting is actually putting a certain amount of faith in a person. Always hoping is to have a certain amount of anticipation that they will do better in the future. There are people who already have godly character and attitudes; you can trust or have faith in them. But, there are people that you can’t put your full faith and trust in; they aren’t who they need to be yet. You hope they will allow God to make the changes in them; but, you don’t know whether or not they will.

Jesus, hope is taking me into relationships with failing friends, enemies, strangers, and casual acquaintances. If someone has failed me, has a history of doing wrong, bad, or evil things, or I have given them some trust-tests and they failed them, help me hope they might improve sometime in the future, so I can give them another chance. Show me that when they have failed me or my tests, hope empowers me to come to You to see if I can give them another opportunity. Help me understand that if I cut people completely off and don’t yield to love-hope; they may change and never get a chance to become my friend.

Jesus, whether it is a person that is in such a bad spiritual condition that I can only pray for them, or, it is a person that I can only give very small tests and assignments, help me always hope enough to keep doing whatever You allow. Let hope for their future leave the door open for them to get into a trust relationship if at all possible.

Inspiring Change

Those who are receiving your hope may need a certain amount of input from you. If they aren’t those people God will only allow you to pray for, then you can supply them with a certain amount of hope for a future relationship with you. You are responsible for allowing people to know where their sins, shortcomings, and failures are. But, a lot of the people around you are using self-esteem and confidence rather than God-esteem and confidence to run their lives. If you correct a person with self-esteem and confidence, you will hurt them a lot. If you start pointing out their failures, shortcomings, mistakes, and sins, they will take it personal.

Jesus, teach me that hope from God’s love, lays out goals, rewards, benefits, and opportunities to people, so they can be motivated to improve. Show me what kind of benefits You will give the person I am trying to start a relationship with. If a person has areas where improvement is needed before I can establish much of a relationship with them, help me show them what kind of benefits they would get, if they allow You to change them.

God’s Example

It is true that you get a lot of benefits right here, right now from God through faith. But, God also helps you want to keep on growing spiritually, so you will get all the eternal benefits too. Rewards, benefits, opportunities, special relationships, and all kinds of things are possible for those who allow God to change them. If you didn’t have all this hope for the future, you would fail to do what it took to get ready for eternity. Your eternal perspective is based on hope.

Jesus, help me always keep in mind that God has allowed me to inherit Him and His provisions. He made me a member of His family and a citizen of His Kingdom. I am co-heirs with You and share in Your life. I have the Bible telling me about all the future miracles, blessings, prosperity, and opportunities that will be available. But, help me realize that the only way I know this is through Your power-hope.

Following God’s Example

You need to follow God’s example in helping strangers, enemies, casual acquaintances, and people who have failed you. They need you to tell them what kind of hope you have for a future relationship with them. This can inspire them to open up to God’s help in their life. You can then give them small trust-assignments that test these changes from God.

Jesus, help me allow You to show me people’s potential. Help me use the Biblical truths to get to know strangers, learn how to expand my relationships with casual acquaintances, and learn how to properly treat enemies, by telling them what is possible in the future. Show me that there are certain things I need from them; and, there are hopes, dreams, goals, and plans they need from me. If they know what it will take for them to grow in their relationship with You and me, then it helps them know what to do next and why.

Hope For The Future

One thing you need to keep in mind though, if you don’t follow these procedures through the love of God, you can present your “requirement for the future” from pride, arrogance, bullying, and conceit. You need to be sure to pray and ask Jesus to help you present this love-hope through His wisdom and guidance. You want to develop win/win team relationships rather than superiority relationships.

Jesus, help me not try to manipulate people to bring them under my control, to get them to do what I want them to do, or to impress them with my great leadership. Help me come to You as a little child and get Your great plans for these people’s future. As I listen to their plans, dreams, and goals, help me draw out what You could do through them and me, if we worked together to reach them.

This concludes your reading and praying for today.

Truth/Prayer Pages Chapter Forty-Seven

Examining God’s Love Characteristics – Hope For The Future

Week Ten Day Four

1 Cor 13:7 (NIV) It love always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.

Love-Hope That Fills You With Dreams, Goals, And Plans

First, you have to allow God to inspire you; you have to allow Him to put a special dream in your heart. Without this dream, all your days will run together; you will get up in the morning and go through your day without anything to draw you into great goals and plans. If you live for the basics, then all you have is a boring life. Mat 6:31-33 (NIV) So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall you eat?’ or ‘What shall you drink?’ or ‘What shall you wear?’ For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.

Jesus, as You give me Your love-power to succeed, I must have a dream in my heart that Your love-hope is giving me. Let it give me the excitement and desire to succeed at something. If I get all the things of God--His attitudes and character and His provisions for life--and don’t have a goal from Him, then I will be trained and ready, but, nowhere to go. Let there be something that motivates me to go through all the struggles and difficulties of life. Give me Your reason for pressing on into the great things of God. Give me God’s plan and goal for my life. Show me why I need all these things that God is putting into my life.

Love-Hope That Helps You Trade Visions, Dreams, Goals, And Plans

Jesus’ salvation doesn’t typically find you lacking some kind of goals and plans. You may have goals and plans that are very exciting to you; or, you may have given up on any hope for the future. You may have hoped you would do some exciting things with your life; but, all kinds of people and circumstances killed any chance of you realizing your dreams. So, you settled for short-term things like a vacation, a hobby, a party, time after work, the weekend, or a day where you did what you wanted to do.

Jesus, take money, possessions, positions, power, prestige, popularity, pleasure, and accomplishments and turn them into tools for me to have some of the greatest goals in life. You put a desire inside me to do good things for people. Even when I was at my worst, since I hadn’t destroyed my conscience, I wanted to feel like I was benevolent. I was only good to a few select people; but, I prided myself with this attitude. It would have been difficult for me to feel good about myself, if I hadn’t done a few good things for people. Show me Your way of using Your love-hope to give people like me a chance to have a wonderful future.

Giving People Hope

Whether it is a team, a group, or a few friends, if you set a goal to do something important or beneficial to others, you can get excited and get a feeling of purpose. Being able to work together with others over a common goal has special effects on your emotions. When you feel a part of others and are doing things you enjoy, it lifts you up and helps you enjoy life. However, there are times when you don’t get ideas or plans for doing special things. But, you love it when others come up with great ideas for you to do.

Jesus, help me realize that just because this is the way I have always been, doesn’t mean this is the way I will always be. You can change a person who is usually shy, reserved, quiet, timid, and maybe even withdrawn into one who has vision and hope. I was born again; I am a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come (2 Cor 5:17b)! As I apply The Seven Biblical Principles to each issue in my life, each time I do it, I get changed into a different person. Help me keep growing, becoming, developing, and changing into someone who can enhance the life of another person through Your love-hope.

A Dream Was Born

God gave you a certain body, a certain family and environment, certain talents, skills, interests, strengths, and desires. You were born again and empowered to see things happen that are unique to you. You were helped to be someone who can help other people. You weren’t designed to help every kind of person; other people were born and born again to help them.

Jesus, You are making me enjoyable to be around; You are helping me learn how to fit in with others. Before, I had to sacrifice certain aspects of myself, my dedication, my honesty, my goals, and sometimes my morality. Now, You are showing me how to help people experience their dreams without giving any of these things up. Help me be able to lead my friends into Your love-hope, so they can do things that are right, good, and righteous.

Inviting People Into Your Lives

Every person you meet will have certain issues in their personality that aren’t good; we are all like that. Every person you meet will have needs that have to be met, goals they would like to reach, problems they would like solved, and friendships they would like to have. The fact that love always hopes means that God has given you the power to help them with these things. When people see you have hope for them, it encourages them. When they get encouraged, hope grows inside them for themselves.

Jesus, there are times when I don’t have much hope for me or my future, or, much hope for helping others. But, Your love-hope can lead me into being empowered to give others the hope they didn’t have before. Empower me to help some of the most critical, judgmental, negative people in the world. Let them be transformed into people filled with hope for themselves and others. Even change people that I have “no hope” of them ever changing.

Is It True That People Never Change?

Just because a leopard can’t change its spots and a zebra can’t change its stripes doesn’t mean God can’t put spots on a zebra and stripes on a leopard. Mat 19:26 (NIV) Jesus looked at them and said, “With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.” As long as God hasn’t told you not to contact a person, you can offer to give them opportunities to join you in accomplishing things. Even with those relationships that God wants you to only have distance relationships with, you can suggest things you and they can do separately.

Jesus, help me make a list of potential people I would like to see changed. Help me bring them before You and allow You to give me ideas. Help me come up with things they can do either with me or for me that will help them change. Give me Your incredible wisdom and power to accomplish this. Give me guidance for what You want our relationship to be.

Igniting A Glimmer Of Hope

Jesus, give me a person that I would like to help grow into a person of good influence.

1. Put them on my heart as someone You want me to start desiring special things for.

2. Open my heart to You and help me start studying You Word to find Scriptures You want me to begin asking to be fulfilled in their life.

3. Help me start praying and asking You to show me what You want to do for them. Help me be constantly asking You if there is anything You want me to pray for.

4. Help me present them to You, so You can give me faith to start believing that special things are going to happen in their life.

5. Help me have a real and sincere love for them. Open my heart and empower me to yield to a very specific love-hope for them. Help me yield to You as the One Who wants to see them succeed with You and the people around them.

6. Give me faith for certain things for them, so I can put them into action. Help me start doing everything You tell me to do for them so they can fulfill Your plan for their life.

7. As You start changing their life in these ways, help me be extremely thankful. And, as Your miracles become clear to them, help me lead them into being thankful.

This concludes your reading and praying for today.

Truth/Prayer Pages Chapter Forty-Eight

Examining God’s Love Characteristics – Always Perseveres

1 Cor 13:7 (NIV) It love always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.

Week Ten Day Five

God Always Perseveres With You

Love always perseveres: Mat 5:48 (NIV) Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect. Good luck with that! God has a perfection that is supernatural with unlimited power and abilities. When God looks through the eyes of His perfection at one of us, it would devastate us to understand what He sees. There are so many imperfections in you as compared to Him. But, God’s perseverance has provided you with salvation and justification, so you can be observed by Him through them. This gives you perfection in your record with Him.

Rom 8:32 (NIV) He Who did not spare His own Son, but gave Him up for you all--how will He not also, along with Him, graciously give you all things? Jesus, help me see how much God perseveres and puts up with my shortcomings, sins, failures, and mistakes. He perseveres with me concerning the way I treat myself and other people. His perseverance with me required that You take on human form, join me here on earth, and even die for me. My relationship with God is Him offering me the ultimate perseverance; it has taken a lot of grace and mercy.

You Aren’t Easy To Get Along With

Heb 2:6-8 (NIV) But there is a place where someone has testified: “What is man that You are mindful of him, the son of man that You care for him? You made him a little lower than the angels; You crowned him with glory and honor and put everything under his feet.” In putting everything under him, God left nothing that is not subject to him. Yet at present we do not see everything subject to him.

Jesus, it’s taking a lot of supernatural work; but, God’s perseverance helping me, so I can be trusted with money, possessions, positions, power, prestige, popularity, pleasure, and accomplishments. Teach me that through me being empowered with His love, I can be helped to treat myself, other people, and His plan with great attitudes and character. Show me that God’s plan is to crown me with glory and honor and put everything under my feet.

Love Is Vital To Your Success

Yet at present we do not see everything subject to him us humans: If you put all God’s provisions, power, and wisdom in the hands of the wrong people, they could literally destroy this world. Satan has a plan in place where he puts a person in as ruler over the world; the Bible calls him Antichrist. Satan is going to give him money, possessions, positions, power, prestige, popularity, pleasure, and great accomplishments but for evil. Some of the worst wars have been over Satan trying to set up this Antichrist kingdom. He has always had some group of people who wanted world domination.

Jesus, because of God’s perseverance, He has set Satan’s plans back and is giving me a little more time to get myself and as many people as possible ready for His Kingdom. But, help me see that soon God will allow Satan to set up his kingdom; and, the world will see the huge difference between wrong, bad, and evil and right, good, and righteousness. Help me believe that God’s love-perseverance is vital to those in His Kingdom and family.

You Are To Always Have Perseverance With Others

We Just Want What We Can Get Out Of You

Life could be less complicated if you could just eliminate the “people factor.” Relationships with people can be some of the most complicated aspects of life. A lot of businesses have “solved” the people problem; they have developed a system where people come in for work and “leave all their problems and issues at home.” These leader’s attitudes are that they don’t want to know what these people’s problems, issues, difficulties, and crises are. If you try to bring any of them into the work place, you will get warned, reprimanded, and if it persists, be fired.

Jesus, I have learned to say “fine” when asked how I am doing. People are just “trying to be nice,” when they ask me these things. If a cashier asks me if I found everything alright, I can either be gullible and tell them the truth and get ignored; or, I can just say “yes” and get ignored. I have learned how to use people, get what I can get out of them, and then leave them with “their own problems;” it’s called, “doing business together.” I figure I have enough problems of my own; I feel I don’t have time to be helping someone with theirs. I have to handle my own problems by myself, why should I help someone else with theirs?

Perseverance Through God’s Love

“Love always perseveres” means that you give by “putting up with” a lot of things with people. It means you give by opening yourself to finding out how they are really doing. And, it means you give by allowing them to lean on you. It is true that a business isn’t going to allow you to interfere with their employees “during business hours.” During those times, all such relationships on a human level are ban. It is all about “making a profit,” “succeeding in business,” and taking care of “the bottom line.” You are finding that machines can do what you used to do. And, you are finding out that humans can be turned into machines.

Jesus, teach me that “Love always perseveres” means that I give by sticking with a person “thick or thin,” “for better or worse,” and “until death do we part.” We don’t even do that in marriage anymore, much less in the business place. You said in Matthew 25:40 (NIV): “The King (You) will reply, ‘I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of Mine, you did for Me.’ Then You said in Matthew 25:45 (NIV) “He (You) will reply, ‘I tell you the truth, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for Me.’ Help me see that “business” relationships aren’t acceptable.

We’ve Got A Long Way To Go

If you can do business with a cashier and not even know their name, it is going to be impossible for you to persevere with them. If you have a whole bunch of employees and you don’t want to know what they are going through at home, then persevering is out of the question. If all you do is argue and present your side to the issue in your marriage, then perseverance is a lost cause. It’s hard enough “putting up” with people who have left their real problems at home.

Jesus, help me see that, if I am going to move from casual acquaintances, business relationships, and strangers to the concept that love always perseveres, then it is going to take a lot of work with The Seven Biblical Principles. I will have to go from just wanting to “get the job done” to getting to know people. Show me that if I learn how to love people rather than just turning their problems over to the Human Resources department, I will have to let You create a whole new way of life for me. If I am going to always persevere then I can’t just divorce them, fire them, change jobs, dump them, reject them, or ignore them.

Asking Jesus Questions

Jesus, how do I run a business and get involved with people’s problems?

Jesus, how can I take out time to be personable, when I have so much to do?

Jesus, what do I do, when people need help I don’t feel like I can give?

Jesus, what is the best way to be persevering and not let people take advantage of me?

Jesus, when am I being persevering and when am I being gullible?

After Jesus shows you the answer to these questions, take those answers and ask Him to help you desire perseverance. Ask Him to help you study the Bible and get Scriptures that help you persevere with people. Ask Him to help you pray until you can feel perseverance growing in your heart. Look to Him to give you faith to believe you have His power-perseverance operating in your relationships. Ask Him to help you grow in His love-perseverance. Ask Him use this love-perseverance and help you take faith-action based on the fact that you have it and are ready to live it. Then thank Him for giving you such a powerful love.

This concludes your reading and praying for this week.

Truth/Prayer Pages Chapter Forty-Nine

Examining God’s Love Characteristics – Constant Perseverance

Week Eleven Day One

1 Cor 13:7 (NIV) It love always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.

The Power To Succeed At Life

You are coming to the end of your study on God’s love being The Power To Succeed. You have seen what God’s love looks like, so you can yield to it. You can see that it is a supernatural power that is only produced by you using The Three Keys To All Of Christianity and The Seven Biblical Principles to activate it and to get it operating in you.

Here are the attitudes and characteristics that you have been applying The Three Keys and the seven principles to: 1 Cor 13:4-8 (NIV) Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails.

Jesus, help me realize that I may not remember much of what I have studied. It may seem like I have read and prayed it and then forgot it. Show me that You aren’t only trying to give me information, You are giving me transformation. Help me look at my life and see how much You have changed me through all of these truths I have studied. Reveal to me how much You have honored everything I have studied and answered every one of the prayers I have prayed.

The Power To Succeed In Relationships Brings Success In Life

You are responding to God’s love that has been poured into you; you are yielding to a power that transforms your behavior. Here is the list of all the power-characteristics that God’s love has put into you so far. As you applied The Three Keys and The Seven Biblical Principles, God empowered you to do or not do all these things. As you read them and confess your faith over them, remember what your life was like and how all these things are now taking place.

1. Jesus, I will be patient with myself, other people, and Your plan.

2. I will be kind to myself, other people, and Your plan.

3. I won’t be envious of other people or what they have.

4. I won’t boast or brag on myself, my possessions, or my accomplishments.

5. I won’t be proud about myself, my possessions, or my accomplishments.

6. I won’t be rude to other people.

7. I won’t be selfish or self-seeking.

8. I won’t be easily angered.

9. I won’t keep record of wrongs.

10. I won’t delight in evil but will rejoice with the truth.

11. I will always protect myself, others, and God’s plan through win/win solutions.

12. I will always trust God concerning every relationship and trust those He approves of.

13. I will always have hope for the future and provide hope for those around me.

14. I will always be persevering with myself, other people, and Your plan.

These are fourteen of fifteen spiritual power-characteristics from God’s love. You learned how to get them flowing through your thoughts, feelings, words, and deeds. They are empowering you to have relationships with yourself, other people, and God that bring true success in your life. Perseverance gives you the power to yield to all of these things and keep yielding to them. Rather than you gaining the benefits of these dynamic motivations every now and then, it helps you grow into exhibiting them all the time. Perseverance will keep them all creating incredible spiritual power for all you yield to.

The Spiritual Power To Succeed Through

The Seven Biblical Principles Being Applied To Your Life

It is easy to see how your life is going to be much more successful, as you continue to yield to God’s love; it helps you treat yourself and others right. God’s love-power is helping you resist attitudes and desires that fight life-success. However, you can’t expect these power-characteristics to just take over and change you from now on. You are looking at a love influence that you have to choose moment-by-moment and issue-by-issue.

Jesus, You have joined me in a love lifestyle; help me persevere in applying them to each decision I make and action I take. Help me grow in my abilities to yield to them all through my day. Help me want them to influence each issue, decision, and action all during my day. Help me always “do what it takes” to get and keep them working in my life. Change and influence a circumstance, an issue, a decision, or an action through Your love-power.

As you are going through your day, and as you are about to face an issue, make a decision, or take an action, ask Jesus to join you in the process. Ask Him to help you base it on spiritual love power that creates win/win situations and solutions for all involved.

Perseverance and The Seven Biblical Principles help:

1. Jesus, help me keep the desire to live under the power of You love-power.

2. Help me keep going through the Bible looking for the material to study, so I can gain more and more truths about what they are, what they do, and how to yield to them.

3. Help me continue praying for open doors of opportunities to demonstrate them all day long, every day.

4. Help me keep my eyes fixed on You to speak faith into me, so I can believe that God’s love is helping me discover new ways to apply them to more and more situations.

5. Help me always be yielding to God’s love-power in the face of some of the most difficult situations and people I have to deal with.

6. Empower me to keep practicing taking faith-action by living on the basis of the fact that God’s love-power is giving me incredible ways of living with You for others.

7. As Your love-power flows through me all during my day, let me be constantly expressing my thankfulness for the incredible results Your love-power is producing.

This concludes your reading and praying for today.

Truth/Prayer Pages Chapter Fifty

Examining God’s Love Characteristics – It Never Fails

1 Cor 13:8a (NIV) Love never fails.

Week Eleven Day Two

God’s Love Never Fails You

Love never fails: Jesus, show me what happens when I yield to God’s love. Teach me that it never fails to help me succeed in life and in relationships. It is the power to succeed with myself, with other people, and with God’s wonderful plan for me. Help me see that it is just a matter of me accepting the importance of yielding to God’s love, so I am able to get the right type of success. Show me what God has in store for all those who yield to His love.

Under Supervision

Yet at present you do not see everything subject to him: Jesus, help me understand that I start out on the bottom of the life-success stairway. There are many things that must happen to me before You can trust me with money, possessions, prestige, positions, popularity, power, pleasure, and accomplishments that come from You.

You made him a little lower than the angels: Jesus, You start me out in a body, on a planet where I am not able or powerful enough to do much damage to myself or other people.

You crowned him with glory and honor and put everything under his feet: Jesus, help me see that it is like being born in a rich, royal family. I am in a position that is already put in place. I am destined to be crowned…with glory and honor and have everything put under my feet. But, if I were to take possession of all these provisions of God right now, I would be an incredible danger to myself and everyone else.

In putting everything under him, God left nothing that is not subject to him: Jesus, show me what would happen to me and the rest of the world if I got the money, possessions, power, prestige, positions, popularity, pleasure, and accomplishments right now. Help me see what I would do with all of it, if I didn’t have God’s love-power motivating all my thoughts, feelings, words, and deeds.

Under Jesus’ Supervision

Heb 2:9 (NIV) But we see Jesus, Who was made a little lower than the angels, now crowned with glory and honor because He suffered death, so that by the grace of God He might taste death for everyone. Jesus is the One Who lives out the love of God; He has been given all authority and has been crowned with glory and honor by taking on the likeness of all humans. He inherited it all for you, so He can teach you how to inherit it all.

Rom 8:17 (NIV) Now if we are children, then we are heirs--heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in His sufferings in order that we may also share in His glory.

HERE’S GOD’S PLAN: What is man that You are mindful of him, the son of man that You care for him? You made him a little lower than the angels; You crowned him with glory and honor and put everything under his feet.” In putting everything under him, God left nothing that is not subject to him. Part of this has happened and part of it is going to happen. The part that has happened, you must apply faith to. The part that is going to happen, you must apply hope to.

HERE’S HOW IT WORKS: Rom 8:13-14 (NIV) For if you live according to the sinful nature, you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the misdeeds of the body, you will live, because those who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God.

Jesus, teach me that the love of God empowers me to put to death the misdeeds of the body by helping me do to others what I would have them do to me (Mat 7:12). And it is empowering me to love my neighbor as myself (Mark 12:31). Show me that this is done by me being led by the Spirit of God, because I am a son of God (Rom 8:13-14).

This Is A Circular Concept

You are led by the Spirit of God through the power of God’s love that is in all the sons of God. Only those who are sons of God have the power of God’s love, so they can be led by the Spirit of God. And, only those who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. In other words, to be led by the Spirit of God is to be led through the power of the love of God. And, the only people who have this love of God are those who are sons of God.

Jesus, make it clear to me that those who refuse to be led by the Spirit of God are not sons of God. This is because they run their lives using motivations that aren’t from God’s love. And, show me that those who are not sons of God cannot be led by the Spirit of God because He leads everyone through God’s love. So, help me break this chain and move into the Spirit of sonship. Reveal to me how to do it, so I can have the power to be led by the Spirit of God motivating my behavior through God’s love.

HERE’S WHAT HAPPENED: Rom 8:15 (NIV) For you did not receive a spirit that makes you a slave again to fear, but you received the Spirit of sonship. And by Him you cry, “Abba, Father.” This is your power to know He is your heavenly Father. This is your power to pray to your heavenly Father. This is your relationship with your heavenly Father.

You Do What You Do By Being Who You Are

Jesus, make it real to me that the Holy Spirit, made me a son of God and gave me sonship. He makes it possible for me to love my heavenly Father so much that I say: “Dear Father!” Through being born again, God has poured out His love into my heart by the Holy Spirit, Whom He has given me. Teach me that this gives me the power to not only say: “Dear Father” to my heavenly Father, it empowers me to use it to love my neighbor as myself. Help me understand that this is how I go through my day yielding to God’s love-power.

HERE’S HOW I KNOW IT HAPPENED: The Spirit Himself testifies with my spirit that I am God’s child (Rom 8:16 NIV). Jesus, teach me that the Holy Spirit gives me the knowledge and assurance that I am God’s child. Empower me to know this, so I am ready to learn about God’s plan for all human Christians. You have made me ready to start moving into the life of all things being under my feet.

HERE ARE MY BENEFITS OF WHAT HAPPENED: Jesus, now if I am a child, then I am an heir--heir of God and a co-heir with Christ, if indeed I share in His sufferings in order that I may also share in His glory (Rom 8:17 NIV).

HERE’S WHAT IT IS GOING TO TAKE: If indeed you share in His sufferings in order that you may also share in His glory. Jesus, teach me that, as God’s child, I inherit Him! And, I become co-heirs with Christ. All I have to do is pay the price by being willing to resist the world’s systems and get involved in my heavenly Father’s win/win system. Show me that this will involve me suffering, because I will be going against the world’s people.

If indeed you share in His sufferings: The world isn’t going to like you changing the system; but, if you love God more that it, then you will “do what it takes” to inherit God and be co-heirs with Jesus. God isn’t asking you to suffer alone; He isn’t asking you to face the world by yourself; He is offering a system that will bring a lot of people over to His win/win approach to life. But, it will all be new to them; it will be very different from what they are used to.

HERE’S WHAT IS GOING TO HAPPEN TO ME: In order that you may also share in His glory: Jesus, help me see that not everyone, but a lot of people will join me in living the truly successful life. You will help me lead a lot of people into this life of success. Even those who don’t end up committing to this way of life will still want to be a part of the win/win principle with me. I will gain a lot of friends who will eventually join me.

HERE’S WHAT I PRAY FOR: If indeed you share in His sufferings: Jesus, show me that it takes time for me to learn how to live the win/win way of God’s love and true success in life. It takes times of disappointment, confusion, mistakes, failures, having to go back and make things right, and having to do things over again. But, help me realize that this is my part of joining You in Your sufferings. Teach me that, if I join You in Your sufferings, I become co-heirs with You in all the provisions of God. I declare that I believe it is worth the sacrifices!

This concludes your reading and praying for today.

Truth/Prayer Pages Chapter Fifty-One

Examining God’s Love Characteristics – It Never Fails Anyone

Week Eleven Day Three

1 Cor 13:8a (NIV) Love never fails.

Love Never Fails

Would you like to live a life where you never failed? It would be a successful life that moved smoothly forward without mistakes, roadblocks, misunderstandings, or missing results. Since you are not perfect, it isn’t likely you will ever experience this. But, isn’t it nice to know that if you perfectly apply the system, it will produce a perfect result? When you mix a failing system with failing people, you get a lot of failure. Love never fails you, never fails God, and, never fails those around you. If everything is done in love, you get perfect results every time.

Jesus, if I fail to get the kind of results I was looking for, then I know it had something to do with love not being perfectly applied to the situation. It makes troubleshooting a lot easier when I know where to look for the problem. Help me find the point where I, someone else, or the plan lacked some aspect of love. Help me always believe that, once that is corrected, I will be back in the realm where love never fails.

Varying Degrees Of Success

Dreams, goals, plans, and relationships based on love won’t be perfect. And to the degree that it is applied, is the amount of success experienced in that project. In other words, if you don’t apply it perfectly, that doesn’t mean you will fail to get any good results. There will be varying degrees of success in every plan you implement. Simply because you tried to do it all in love, you will get success in those areas where you succeeded to apply love.

Jesus, show me that the more I involve love in all the aspects of a plan, the more I get success in that plan. Help me always keep in mind what love looks like, how to yield to it, how to use it, and how to share it with those around me. Help me keep going over the list and allowing it to show me. Remind me of all those things I have studied about and prayed for.

Letting God Lead

I Really Want It

Jesus, there will be times when I will have to suffer, if I apply God’s power-love to a situation. It will be the true answer to the problem; but, the people over me will not want to use it. The people around me won’t want to be involved in it. And, the people I would use it on, won’t want to receive it. Let my desire to please You, be so strong that I refuse to do it any other way but through Your love.

I Really Want To Understand It

Jesus, each situation will be different, as I go about my day. Show me that I must study and learn how it is applied to various situations, and when it is being contaminated by other motivations. As I study the Bible, help me be looking for instructions, guidelines, examples, and warnings. Let it be that the more I get the truth about love, the more I know what and how to apply Your power-love to very different situations.

I Have Invited God To Be A Part Of It

Jesus, teach me that the reason You explained each item in Your power-love was, so I would be able to cooperate with You. Help me understand that You didn’t do it, so I would know how to use and apply it. Help me stay in cooperation with You by always praying that You help me look to You even when it looks just like another situation I have had to deal with.

I Have Jesus’ Faith For It

Jesus, all this studying and praying for Your training and power has made major changes in me. I feel like I know so much more about Your love. But, help me realize that I still have to wait on You to help me believe I can yield to that particular characteristic of love. Even thought it is inside me, I still have to allow You to pick which aspect of Your power-love You want to use. Help me keep waiting on You to speak faith into me, so I will know what You want me to believe.

I Am Allowing God To Examine My Heart

Jesus, I know I have Your power-love in me, know what it looks like, know what it does, and know how powerful it is. Help me stay aware that I can contaminate it. There won’t be anything wrong with Your power-love; I will just add my opinion to it. As I keep having one success after another, I can get faith in myself. Give me an immediate warning from the Holy Spirit in my conscience. Empower me to respond to His warning and repent. Help me stay inside Your love, be pure, and stay yielded to You, so people will only get Your power-love.

I Am Willing To Face The Consequences Of My Decisions

If indeed you share in His sufferings in order that you may also share in His glory. As you know, not everyone is going to want you to be successful. It is true you are doing the right things; it is true you are doing it for a good purpose; it is true that you have a good heart in the matter; and it is true you are helping a lot of people. But still, not everyone is going to appreciate your efforts, your motives, your methods, or your successes.

Jesus, as I take faith-action based on Your power-love, help me succeed in spite of the fact that some people will talk to others about me; they will talk against me to my face, and they will take an active part in trying to tear me and my efforts down. Some will even devote their lives to trying to keep me from moving ahead in this love-success from You. Help me win over their envy, jealousy, covetousness, greed, hatred, factions, gossip, backbiting, and all kinds of other types of persecution against me.

Who Do You Care The Most About?

It’s now a matter of where, why, and how you get your money, possessions, positions, power, popularity, prestige, pleasure, and accomplishments. Persecution will be very painful and life-threatening to you. You may fear losing your job, your money, your possessions, your positions, your power, your popularity, your prestige, or your pleasure. When they threaten you and your way of life, you must not give in to their pressure and quit.

Jesus, help me get all these things from You, then there will be nothing they will be able to do to me. Help me not want their money, so it won’t matter that they withhold financing, salaries, bonuses, and payments from me. Help me not want their possessions, so it won’t matter what they try to take from me. Help me not want their power, prestige, popularity, positions, pleasure, or accomplishments, so it won’t matter what they think of me.

People Who Need Your Help And Want It

Jesus, keep the suffering from stopping or slowing me down. Keep me from failing those who will be helped by me. Empower me to love the people who want and need my help, so I won’t allow people to keep me from them. Keep my focus on those who will be mightily blessed, changed, and loved. Make them so important to me that other people can’t influence what I think, feel, say, or do. Empower me to live Your example of what You did in the face of misunderstandings, persecution, and opposition. No matter which life I choose, I will have to do some suffering in order to get where I want to go; but, the rewards from You are eternal.

Truth/Prayer Pages Chapter Fifty-Two

Examining God’s Love Characteristics – Never Fails To Produce

1 Cor 13:8a (NIV) Love never fails.

Week Eleven Day Four

God’s Plan For You

Love never fails: Heb 2:6-8 (NIV) But there is a place where someone has testified: “What is man that You are mindful of him, the son of man that You care for him? You made him a little lower than the angels; You crowned him with glory and honor and put everything under his feet.” In putting everything under him, God left nothing that is not subject to him. Yet at present we do not see everything subject to him.

Jesus, I am learning how to love myself, others, God, and His plan. The above Scripture proves God’s love, generosity, and plan for me, as a human Christian. Teach me that the plan is in place; but, I have to yield to every one of those aspects of His love listed in 1 Corinthians 13-4-8, so I can be trusted with His plan. You are teaching me how to give my life over to You, so You can train me how to inherit God, His plan, and be coheirs with You.

Living In God’s Plan

Rom 8:13-14 (NIV) For if you live according to the sinful nature, you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the misdeeds of the body, you will live, because those who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God.

Rom 8:15-16 (NIV) For you did not receive a spirit that makes you a slave again to fear, but you received the Spirit of sonship. And by Him we cry, “Abba, Father.” The Spirit Himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children.

Rom 8:17 (NIV) Now if we are children, then we are heirs--heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in His sufferings in order that we may also share in His glory.

Jesus Your Mentor

Heb 2:9 (NIV) But we see Jesus, Who was made a little lower than the angels, now crowned with glory and honor because He suffered death, so that by the grace of God He might taste death for everyone.

The Success That Comes Through Jesus

If indeed you share in His sufferings: Jesus, it isn’t easy to go against the crowd, to run my business on a win/win basis, and to learn a whole new way of living; but, You make it worth me yielding to Your way of life. You have taught me that a successful life is where everyone involved in any deal, solution, goal, or plan, benefits mutually because love never fails! It won’t fail me; and, it won’t fail others.

In order that you may also share in His glory: Jesus, help me take Your power-love and learn how to live win/win situations, solutions, decisions, and plans. You have taught me the three toolsets of The Three Keys To All Of Christianity, The Seven Biblical Principles, and The Eight Power-Attitudes Of God. You have taught me the fifteen aspects of Your power-love. These things build relationships that are loyal, unified, cooperative, friendly, and a team with win/win situations. They produce true success because they produce real relationships.

Love Never Fails

Wanting The Right Motives

Jesus, as I keep desiring to have this type of spiritual power in my life, it motivates me to open my heart and mind for staying involved in being taught by You. I want You to teach me how to love You, myself and others enough to learn the win/win way of life.

Learning How To Have The Right Motives

Jesus, as I read my Bible and do these studies, I am looking for the information, knowledge, understanding, and wisdom for how to put together the win/win way of God’s love. I am hunting for all the methods for getting involved in them for the rest of my life. Teach me that the way for me to make sure my desires are the best desires is to check them with the Bible.

Asking God For The Right Motives

Jesus, as I pray, I ask You to help me become a person who lives the win/win way of You love. I ask You to turn me into a win/win person, so it won’t just be a technique or an act. By prayer I invite You to speak You transforming miracles into me and my life. Help me always believe that the way to act on my desires is to pray and ask You to give me the things I desire.

Having The Right Motives

Jesus, as I look to You for the faith to believe I have this love from God, I invite the Holy Spirit to point out any areas of resistance I have to the win/win life of God’s love. I wait on You to create a knowing and an assurance that I have been empowered to yield to God’s love. I get the power to believe I am able to do those things in 1 Corinthians 13:4-8a. I believe that the way for me to turn my desires into reality is to allow You to tell me I have them.

Yielding To The Right Motives

Jesus, as I yield to God’s love, I allow myself to ask people questions, listen to their conversations, about themselves, and feel their concerns, their pain, their confusions, and their needs. I yield God’s love to help me be aware of what is going on in the lives of those around me. I allow myself to feel other people’s feelings, so I can better understand what it is going to take to produce win/win ways of life through God’s love for them. I believe that the way for me to make sure my desires aren’t selfish is to expose them to God’s love.

Living Based On The Right Motives

Jesus, as I start practicing faith-action and start living on the basis of the fact that I have God’s love, I invite You to help me produce win/win situations. I realize I am new to this way of life; help me allow for mistakes, failures, misunderstandings, and problems. But, I keep looking to You to help me keep practicing the win/win way of God’s love. I believe that the way for me to have my desires to show up in my everyday living is to put them into action.

Appreciating The Right Motives

Jesus, as I start getting Your spiritual power to live this win/win way of life, help me immediately start thanking You, praising You, worshipping You, and giving You the glory and credit for these great miracles through Your power-love. Help me not only express my appreciation to You, help me tell everyone I know about Your power-love. Help me lead them into giving their live over to it.

The Fulfillment Of The Commandments Of Jesus

The major way for you to check out your desires is to expose them to the commandments of Jesus. If your desires don’t match up with Jesus’ desires, then you need to reexamine why you desire the things you do. Jesus’ desires are all about everyone winning; He lays out commandments that point you all in the right direction. No honest person can disagree with the commandments of Jesus. Let Him give you a quick look at them.

Jesus said in John 13:34-35 (NIV) “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this all men will know that you are My disciples, if you love one another.”

The Bible says in Romans 13:9-10 (NIV) The commandments, “Do not commit adultery,” “Do not murder,” “Do not steal,” “Do not covet,” and whatever other commandment there may be, are summed up in this one rule: “Love your neighbor as yourself.” Love does no harm to its neighbor. Therefore, love is the fulfillment of the law.

Jesus said in Mark 12:30-31 (NIV) “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ The second is this: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no commandment greater than these.”

Jesus said in John 14:15 (NIV) “If you love Me, you will obey what I command.

Jesus said in John 15:12 (NIV) My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you.

This concludes your reading and praying for today.

Truth/Prayer Pages Chapter Fifty-Three

Examining God’s Love Characteristics – God’s Love Never Fails

Week Eleven Day Five

1 Cor 13:8a (NIV) Love never fails.

It Takes Commitment

What did you not know anything about, before you started your career, that you can now do very successfully? What training helped you understand what it took to be good at it? Did you have to really commit yourself to doing what it took? Did you have to suffer, by working hard, by intense study, by being tested, and by being corrected? As you look back on all the prices you paid for being able to do what you do now, was it worth it? As you see how much your life has changed, by being willing to put out the effort, would it have been possible, if you hadn’t committed to it?

1 Cor 9:25 (NIV) Everyone who competes in the games goes into strict training. They do it to get a crown that will not last; but we do it to get a crown that will last forever. Jesus, help me be the person who has the best dream, sets the best goals, gets involved in the best plans, and sticks with them; let me succeed in this life and in eternal life. You have the best dream, goal, plan, and life; help me with the problem of strict training.

There Are Two Approaches To Life

There is a way that looks easy; it is like the two roads Jesus talked about: “Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it (Mat 7:13-14).”

The way into eternal life are restrictive; a person has to be willing to make some trades and some sacrifices; but, the rewards are incredible. The road to sanctification (spiritual growth) is also like that; it takes a willingness to make more trades and sacrifices; but, the increased rewards are more than worth it.

Jesus, remaining unsaved leads to destruction; remaining unwilling to get involved in spiritual growth leads to failure in this life and a lot less rewards in eternal life. Help me not join those who are lazy, even though it looks like they have an easy life. Help me not join those who don’t have to study as hard, don’t have to apply themselves as much, don’t have to work on their dreams, goals, plans, or systems for life; they can just coast. When it comes time for all the benefits of commitment, dedication, sacrifice, and suffering, let me be a part of that group.

Laziness Is Selfishness

When the firemen come to put out a fire, the only reason they can help a person whose house is on fire is because they paid the price. The only reason a store has all the supplies a person needs is because the owner did what it took. The only reason prepared and frozen meals can be purchased is because someone else cooked them. Lazy people absorb a lot of the things others have worked to provide; but, they don’t make any contributions to the needs of others. They just want to get what they want and need with as little sacrifice or effort as possible.

Jesus, ambitious people have to give up things, spend their money on things, make sacrifices for things, and suffer things. While others are having fun and taking their ease now, the ambitious person does what it takes to be a tremendous blessing and help to a lot of people. Help me be that kind of person and not one who uses people. Help me supply jobs, products, and services to people who need them. Deliver me from being a lazy person who wants hand-outs, benefits without work, and their needs met without being concerned with anyone else.

God’s Love Makes The Difference

A business person may be ambitious, they may serve a lot of needs and are better than a lazy person. But, they can fail to meet the most important need of all; they can fail to meet the need of caring, getting involved in a life, meeting needs that can’t give back, and building relationships that are meaningful and satisfying. If all your physical needs get met but you feel unaccepted, unloved, disrespected, alone, depressed, and hopeless, then the most important need has been ignored and neglected.

Jesus, an unloved person can have the best of everything else and be depressed. They can associate with a crowd of people and feel lonely. Help me give them money, possessions, positions, power, popularity, prestige, pleasure, and accomplishments through a love relationship. Since things don’t bring love to people, help me provide relationships of love. Help me realize that I can’t just provide all kinds of things to people and it meet their most important need. Let me provide the love that gives them their reason for being alive. Let me also provide Your love, joy, peace, patients, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control (Gal 5:22-23).

God’s Love Makes Life Real

You can learn how to tell people what they want to hear; you can act like you really care about them. You can become extremely good at trading and creating transactions that look beneficial. You can appear to be serving the public and look like you are very benevolent. Your skills for how to get your needs met while manipulating people can grow. You can smile, show an interest, act personable, spend time, and be very friendly to those who have what you want.

Here Are Some Things You Will Need

A Lot Of Applying The Seven Biblical Principles

Luke 6:27-28 (NIV) But I (Jesus) tell you who hear Me: Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you.

Luke 6:29-30 (NIV) If someone strikes you on one cheek, turn to him the other also. If someone takes your cloak, do not stop him from taking your tunic. Give to everyone who asks you, and if anyone takes what belongs to you, do not demand it back.

Luke 6:31 (NIV) Do to others as you would have them do to you.

Luke 6:32-34 (NIV) If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? Even sinners love those who love them. And if you do good to those who are good to you, what credit is that to you? Even sinners do that. And if you lend to those from whom you expect repayment, what credit is that to you? Even sinners lend to sinners, expecting to be repaid in full.

Luke 6:36 (NIV) Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful.

The Spiritual Power To Succeed In All Of Life

Jesus, I struggle in areas where I give something, do something, or show appreciation for something and don’t get anything in return for it. It looks like following these commandments would make me poor. But, help me not just ignore them; help me realize that only through Your power-love will I have the wisdom, desire, and spiritual power to live this way.

Help me understand these Scriptures, apply them, be responsible for “doing what it takes” to carry them out. Help me do this through The Three Keys To All Of Christianity, The Seven Biblical Principles, and The Eight Power-Attitudes Of God.

Jesus, teach me how to desire to carry them out, study more about them, pray and ask for Your knowledge, understanding, wisdom, and power to carry them out, look to You for Your faith, so I can believe I have what it takes to do it, yield to God’s love, be ready to take faith-action to live them out. Then help me be thankful that You make all these wonderful tools available to me, so I could carry them out. Teach me that the only way to live a life of love is through Your mighty power giving me everything I need to do it.

This concludes your reading and praying for this book. CONGRATULATIONS!