Happy Monday! Joy of the Lord is my strength.

Ever consider that being happy today is a choice? Are you alive? You have a reason to be happy. With the joy of the Lord as our strength, no matter what happens we can say Happy Today, no matter what day it is.

We can’t control what others do or say but we can control how we choose to respond! On the Happy Today Calendars site, we read, “Every day we are faced with a decision that will determine how the rest of our day is going to be.” So we have a choice, even right now as you are reading this message, and only you can control how you will respond.

Yesterday I had the pleasure of being a church for the last sermon on redemption based on the book of Hebrews. The sermon was focused on verses 20-21 from Hebrews 13 and how God is with us right here, right now, and we don’t need to be searching out there for fulfillment. Just like when we can’t find our phones and we use the “Find My Phone” feature it pings our phones to point to the reality it was with us the entire time.

‘Now may the God of peace— who brought up from the dead our Lord Jesus, the great Shepherd of the sheep, and ratified an eternal covenant with his blood— may he equip you with all you need for doing his will. May he produce in you, through the power of Jesus Christ, every good thing that is pleasing to him. All glory to him forever and ever! Amen. ‘

Hebrews 13:20-21

What God does for us:

He gives us peace

From this, we learn God gives us peace in a world filled with tension and battles. Let’s lean into God rather than trying to find things in this world that will numb us, provide us escape, and produce temporary comfort or peace. Jesus provides us with a peace we can keep with us everywhere we go. His peace is available in the midst of the storms of life. In the midst of a situation, He can put you at peace, a real peace that surpasses all understanding. The greatest thing that robs us of peace is sin and Jesus dealt with it on the cross once and for all to provide us peace with God. For us to be able to live at peace with others requires that we have peace with ourselves and to have peace with ourselves only happens when we have peace with God!

He equips us with all we need to do His will

Do you think you need to be qualified before God can use you? I know from a story I shared many years back that I learned that God doesn’t call the qualified but qualifies the called. Evidence is found throughout the stories of the Bible when we see Moses who studders, is called to speak before Pharoah to let God’s people go, David as a shepherd boy bringing lunch to his brothers taking on Goliath on the battlefield, Gideon who was a cupbearer, and Peter an uneducated fisherman with a temper called to start and lead the church are but a few examples. God is the one who equips us to be able to do immensely more than we ask, think, or imagine. We need to keep our focus on His will and purpose for our lives as we can trust and hold onto the reality that He will equip us with all we need to do His will. God equips us with purpose! Let’s pause for a moment to get off the hamster wheel of performance and find ourselves getting frustrated. Instead, let’s pursue God’s purpose and will for our lives so that we can live life with excitement beyond our own capacity. Let’s spend time in God’s Word to hear and learn what it is God wants us to do. Like in Mark 12 where we learn we are to love God and love our neighbors. Similarly, we learn in Matthew 28 that we are to go out into the world and make disciples of all nations, that’s right tell everyone.

He produces good in us

To produce takes time and a process. You can force fruit to be. You won’t have the same experience with fake fruit either. God is working to produce the fruit of the Spirit in and out of us. We can’t try to force it by doing it in our own strength. Putting on a facade or faking it won’t do the trick either. Let’s accept it is a process and even though salvation is immediate when we receive Jesus into our hearts as Lord and Savior, sanctification is a process we need to live through. So let’s choose to walk out today in a relationship with Jesus. Let’s pray to hear from God rather than just give him a list of things like a genie in a bottle which He is not. Let’s pray for others with intercessory prayers. Let’s lean in so that God can work through the process in us the heart and character of Jesus.

Nearness to God –> Produces

Doing things in our own efforts –> Projects

Let’s choose today to live our lives so that in living out our purposes God gets all the glory forever and ever.

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Today’s Reading:

‘Praise the Lord; praise God our savior! For each day he carries us in his arms. Interlude ‘

Psalms 68:19

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So the decision is yours. You get to choose how today will be. It’s not based on situations or circumstances but your choice to walk it out with Jesus and accept His peace, His purpose, and His process in order to produce in a way where God receives the praise, the honor, and the glory in Jesus’ name.

Did you read or hear something today that felt like a new revelation? Would you be willing to leave a comment or question? Are you walking your life with God? Have you made the decision to invite Jesus into your life so that you can have the divide covered? Have you invited Jesus to be Your Lord and Savior, paying the ultimate price to cover the original sin for we have all missed the mark, all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God, and we all need Jesus, our Lord and Savior to help us be forgiven and reconciled back to God! Could today be your day?

Let’s pray: