Music: "Help My Unbelief"

Jesus Wants You To Know...

"When you start to feel lonely or afraid or worthless, call out My Name. Tell Me you trust Me. Speak out loud, if you are in a place where you can do that. If not, even a whisper will do. The devil will know that you are not alone - that I am by your side, fighting for you. And then, like the cowardly bully that he is, he will run away."

Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.

James 4:7

"Jesus Calling for Kids" by Sarah Young

Free For Sure

So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.

John 8:36 (NIV)

One of the things the Holy Spirit has set us free from is the bondage of the flesh. In Romans 7 Paul described the onslaught of the flesh that sought to bring him under its control.

But then in chapter 8 he makes this great declaration of freedom. The flesh no longer has a vise-lock on you. If you know Jesus Christ, a new person has been placed inside your old flesh. You are a new person, but you are a new person living in an old house - your flesh, your body that has become so contaminated by sin that God views it as worm food. The flesh is bound for the scrap heap, but it's going down kicking and screaming.

Praise God, then, that although we are still living in this old prison-house of our flesh, we don't have to be its prisoner. The Holy Spirit has set us free from the law of sin and death. I have been liberated from having to follow my passions. I am not perfect. I fail, just as you do, but we no longer have to be in slavery to the flesh.

But don't get the big head about your freedom, because Paul reminds us in 2 Corinthians 4:7, “We have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the surpassing greatness of the power may be of God and not from ourselves.” This is God's work.

When we try to get free in our own power, there isn't much to draw on. So we stay in bondage. That's why, for example, Christian counseling has to be more than helping people understand the history and causes of their problem.

If you come to me as your pastor, and I don't help you understand how the Spirit works in freeing you from your problem, how you are to walk in the Spirit, what it means to depend on the Spirit, and how you appropriate the Spirit's power, then I am asking you to use your human resources to solve a problem you can't solve.

The “law of sin and of death” is so strong the only thing that can break it is the “law of the Spirit of life.”

You are free not because of you, but because there is a greater Power at work in you.

Excerpt from "Time to Get Serious" - Tony Evans

Prayer: Deeper

5 Yes, my soul, find rest in God;

    my hope comes from him.

6 Truly he is my rock and my salvation;

    he is my fortress, I will not be shaken.

7 My salvation and my honor depend on God;

    he is my mighty rock, my refuge.

8 Trust in him at all times, you people;

    pour out your hearts to him,

    for God is our refuge.

Psalm 62:5-8 (NIV)

God, pull me like a magnet into your presence. Let me sink deeper and deeper into your love, past every distraction. You are the core of who I am; the center of all I do and think. You have unlocked my heart and poured in your Spirit. Such a beautiful mystery - you in me and I in you.

At times I can do nothing more than wait on you in absolute stillness. I may not hear your voice or feel you near, but you give me a sense of peace that all is well. Even when you seem far away, it is my delight to lavish you with my songs of love and whispers of adoration. You are worthy of my affection - always.

Oh, but then there are the times when your tangible glory touches my skin, hovering so close that I wonder if I can finally touch you. Your beautiful love floods my senses, making me fully aware that you are here. You never forsake me. Without fail, you always come.

Excerpt from "Prayers On Fire" by Brenna Stockman

Plant The Seed Of Faith

You can till the soil, pull the weeds, and drop the seed in the furrow - but you can't command life to burst out of a dry kernel. Our greatest source of spiritual exhaustion is trying to force germination. We put in the work, say the prayers, or invest in a relationship, and then anxiously hover over the ground - demanding immediate proof of progress. When nothing breaks through the soil right away, we panic and try to manufacture visible fruit with our own hands.

Paul dismantles this frantic striving with a reality check: “I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth. So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God who gives the growth.” (1 Corinthians 3:6–7)

Look at the clean line Paul draws: faithfulness is your assignment - the miracle is God's jurisdiction. When you cross that boundary, obedience turns into obsession:

- Anxious hovering is disguised unbelief: Checking the topsoil every twelve hours doesn't accelerate the harvest - it only damages the roots.

- Silence beneath the surface isn't stagnation: Just because nothing has broken through doesn't mean God is idle. He does His deepest work in the dark long before anything catches the sun.

- Your responsibility ends at the watering can: You're called to sow truth, act with integrity, and show up faithfully. The internal transformation belongs to the King.

Do the practical work in front of you with excellence, cover the ground in prayer, and take your hands off the dirt. Trust the God who gives the growth to finish what He started.

- David Delfeld

Provided by "I Am With You Always"