January 22 – Resting While Working

“So there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God. For the one who has entered His rest has himself also rested from his works, as God did from His.” Hebrews 4:9-10 (NASB)

Resting is trusting in the midst of trials and testing. It’s well for us to be aware of the benefits Christian faith which God gives us to experience. In these days as attacks on our faith by the enemy grow more and more overt, we can find a promise of rest in today's verse. This concept of resting began a long time ago. God rested after the creation of the universe. In the Old Testament God wanted His people to rest on His promise to take care of them. They often disappointed Him by trying to work things out their own way. God is still eager for us to rest upon His promises. We rest on His promise to give us eternal life when we believed on Jesus as our Savior. He wants us to know that our ultimate promised rest is not realized fully during this life on Earth. That rest is ours today and it will be fully realized in the Messiah’s Kingdom. Now we hold an earnest of the promise. Instead of worrying about things, let's rest on God goodness and love today and remember the promise that has been given to each of us.  

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November 25 – Thanksgiving Day (USA)

“He sent out his word and healed them, and delivered them from their destruction. Let them thank the Lord for his steadfast love, for his wondrous works to the children of man!” Psalm 107:20-21 (ESV) 

Needing to be ‘healed’ or ‘delivered’ from something destructive happens. Some have experienced God’s benevolent grace and love this way. All of us have had serious needs from time to time where we felt the need for deliverance or healing. We have reason therefore to be thankful to God. No one is without something that they have thanksgiving for. This day we celebrated Thanksgiving Day in the USA. Our brothers and sisters north in Canada, celebrated Thanksgiving on the second Monday of October. Whenever we pause for a national day of thanksgiving, it is good to remember and keep in mind the reason we do that. We all have reasons to make every day a day of Thanksgiving.  Today's verses provide examples of reasons for giving thanks to the Lord. He is certainly worthy of our thanks. He has done so much for each of us. He has loved us and because of His great love. He offered His Son and He went to the cross for us. He has brought us into His family. Even if we are not with our physical family let's be thankful that God has brought us into His family.

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August 08 – The Good of Doing Good Works

“Let us not lose heart in doing good, for in due time we will reap if we do not grow weary. So then, while we have opportunity, let us do good to all people, and especially to those who are of the household of the faith.” – Galatians 6:9-10 (NASB)

We stress frequently that we cannot earn salvation and eternal life by doing good works. It is the gift of faith that brings us the grace we need to believe in Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior. But good works are not to be forgotten. Doing good is a commandment in the Bible. We are promised that the good works we do in obedience to God will result in a harvest of righteousness. What we reap is lives that are saved from the wages of sin – death. (Romans 6:23) Humans can be a bit impatient however. When we do not see the positive results of our work for God, we are tempted to give up. We might even call it ‘burned out’ and we are also tempted to lose heart. Our calling as faith believers is to stay on task and trust that in due time, we will see results. Our good works are for all people, demonstrating the love and sacrifice Christ made for all the world. And even more, for all in the faith who are called children of God. When is the time to do good? It is “while we have opportunity” means NOW. 

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November 17 – Profound and Great

“For you make me glad by your deeds, Lord; I sing for joy at what your hands have done. How great are your works, Lord, how profound your thoughts!” Psalm 92:4-5 (NIV)

We have chosen these verses especially because of the words where the psalmist is worshipping God for His thoughts. We don’t know God’s thoughts as a mind-reader because no one can know God that way. But the psalmist still knows that God’s thoughts are marvelous. He says, “how profound your thoughts?” What was it that made him marvel at the depth of God’s thoughts? In his first words he was happy about what God was doing. He found God’s works to be great and wonderful and it gave him joy. Sometimes we are tempted to ask why God should allow something difficult to happen in our lives. We struggle with the consequences of attacks that come at us from our enemy. “Why us O Lord? Why did this happen now?” We do not understand and we question His goodness. But God is good all the time and even though he allows some things which test our faith to happen, He never deserts us. He thinks about us and he keeps track. How much better to trust His goodness and know the His thoughts, though deep are wonderful. We trust Him.

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October 13 – Not Our Doing

“For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.”  Ephesians 2:8 (ESV)

As we often stress, context is important when studying the Bible. Since verses and chapters were not a part of the Bible when it was written, they provide an artificial sense of division and compartmentalization. Our Verse explains for us “the incomparable riches of His grace” promised in verse 7. Then, we note the words “and this is not your own doing;”  Some want to say the ‘this’ is the grace and others want to say it is the faith in the previous sentence. But it is likely Paul’s intention for saying saying ‘this’ is to refer back to the concept of salvation in the previous four verses. What we find in the salvation we receive is: God’s riches in mercy; His great love with which He loves us; making us alive in Christ while still dead in our sins; promising that we are positionally raised up with Christ; positionally seated with Christ in heavenly places; promising to show immeasurable riches of His grace and kindness in Christ Jesus. The Apostle Paul wraps all these promises (the ‘this’ which is not our doing) into the promise that by grace we have been saved through faith. 

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August 23 – Works Won't Work

"But if it is by grace, it is no longer on the basis of works; otherwise grace would no longer be grace." Romans 11:6 (ESV)

The people of God were once under the obligations of the Law to live according to the Law in order to be righteous in the sight of God. Doing the works and following the rules by not breaking the law. When the law was broken, a sacrifice became necessary to cover the sin of breaking the law. But from the beginning, God promised to provide a way to restore our standing with Him. Most people believe that God saves good people. So be good, moral, decent, ethical. Say the prayers over and over. Pray five times a day facing East. Doing so will earn credits with your god but such a way is impossible with God because no person can keep such requirements perfectly. And, what level of good is good enough? Is it 90%? Maybe 66% is enough to get one in through the gate. It is 0% because. God demands perfection. There is nothing, we can do that makes us good 100%. Only Jesus Christ was able to do that. For it is by grace which is a gift from God that we are saved. It is not grace if we have to earn our place.

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December 11 – Waiting While He Works

“From of old no one has heard or perceived by the ear, no eye has seen a God besides you, who works for those who wait for him.”  -  Isaiah 64:4  (ESV)

Is it not our normal understanding that we are the ones working for God?  How often, then, do we take the time to think about and meditate on this truth from God's word in Isaiah – God loves us and demonstrates who He is and what He is like by the work He does for us.  But God does not need a job and is not our employee. That is NOT how He works for us. For as we have in our passage today, no one has ever heard or seen a God like our God.  His promise of working for us means He is doing what we cannot do.  We are weak and He gives us strength.  We find ourselves defenseless and He is our shield and protector.  We are foolish and need His wisdom.  We are lost and in need of rescue by God.  It is in our utter helplessness that God works to provide us while we wait for Him. He freely gives understanding to us because our understanding is faulty.  He does the work for us that we cannot do.  God the Giver, gets the glory, praise and honor with thanksgiving from us.  

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March 30 – Worth the Study

“Great are the works of the Lord; They are studied by all who delight in them.”   Psalm 111:2 (NASB)

Taking time to pause from our daily routine and busy lives to think about our Lord God, who is our Heavenly Father, is a good practice to have.  We all have times in our day between other responsibilities where we can choose what to think about.  This verse is a good one to guide us in this practice.  We believe that there is much encouragement for us here in today's promises.  Our Lord has done great things – in fact great things are all God does.  Small or large, what God does is significantly great on any of the scales we use.  Our verse speaks of pondering or studying the works of the Lord.  When we study something we give it a lot of attention and a lot of time thinking about it.  We take time to see God working in our lives or the lives of our friends and we can ponder on those things.   Why do this?  Because we actually delight in thinking about what God does.  It fills us with joy and encouragement because it is really worth thinking about how God loves us, and cares for us, and what He promises to do.  

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November 5 – Always Accomplish, Never Forsake

“The Lord will accomplish what concerns me; Your lovingkindness, O Lord, is everlasting; Do not forsake the works of Your hands.”  Psalm 138:8 (NASB)

Each day we look at a verse or two in our Bible and we look for the promises God has made that we can find there.  We know that when God promises us He will absolutely keep that promise.  David is affirming his belief in this in today's verse.  Promise number one is that our Lord God will, without fail, accomplish what concerns each of us each day because he is involved in our lives.  Other versions say that the Lord will “fulfill His purpose” or, that “He will vindicate”.  God's work is our salvation and growth in the Holy Spirit.  Another promise is that God's love is steadfast and endures for ever for it is everlasting lovingkindness.  The last promise David declares is his confirmation plea to God to not forsake or abandon His work.  David knows, and so do we, that God will never forsake us and He will never abandon His work in our lives. We have assurance of that certainty.  Let's affirm these promises today.  God is at work and He will accomplish what He intends to do. 

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October 26 – Close To Us

“We give thanks to You, O God, we give thanks, For Your name is near; Men declare Your wondrous works.”  Psalm 75:1 (NASB)

What is it that we give thanks to God for in our day to day life?  The psalmist, in this verse gives thanks to God because His name is near.  That seems a bit unusual, doesn't it?  We believe and know that God is near to each of us but what does it mean that His name is near?  It is a promise that we can trust in as we read the next expression in the verse which refers to God's works.  His deeds which are wonderful,  are all done in His name.  As we learn and hear about them, we share the things God is doing, and we realize that His name is truly close to us.  We respond with thanksgiving to God.  How wonderful to know and trust that God's name is near and if His name is near, we know that He is near.  We are encouraged to speak out, to declare what we know.  “Thank you Lord for all the wonderful deeds You are doing,” becomes our response to this promise.

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September 2 – Rest by the Grace of God

“So then, there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God, for whoever has entered God's rest has also rested from his works as God did from his.” Hebrews 4:9-10 (ESV)

The author of these words is reminding us and pointing back to the time when God created the world.  We remember that the Bible tells us that after God had finished the work of creation, He rested (Genesis 2:2).  This meant that the work He had planned to do was all done.  Our verse today also reminds us that God wants us to rest too.  We can call this the rest of faith.  God doesn't want us to continue to keep trying to be good enough to earn this rest.  He wants us to accept what Jesus has done for us through faith-believing and to allow His work to make us good enough.  He offers us rest and He has made it possible for us to enter that rest.  We really do not please God by trying harder, we please Him by trusting what He has already done for us and trusting Him to work in our lives each day – even today.  This is the promise of rest we have been given.  Not because we did it but because Jesus did it for us and we believe it by faith.

If these short posts bring encouragement to you, please share with others. 

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April 14 – Pure and Good

“...our great God and Savior Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness and to purify for himself a people for his own possession who are zealous for good works.” Titus 2:13b-14 (ESV)

The Apostle Paul writes this letter to Titus* who had traveled with Paul and been his helper, especially in Crete. Paul is encouraging Titus and instructing him on what message Titus needed to teach. It is not surprising that when our Lord wanted to choose out a people to be His very own He would want them to be as much like Him as possible. Since He is holy and pure He would want His people to be pure too.  He is good and He would want His people to be good. Our verse reminds us that this is why Jesus gave Himself on the cross. He died to pay the penalty for our sins and to set us free from sin so that we would desire to do good instead of evil. If we have accepted Jesus as Savior then we belong to Him He wants to help us be like He is – pure and good.

*Who is Titus?


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March 15 – Thinking Deeply

“Great are the works of the Lord; they are pondered by all who delight in them.”  Psalm 111:2 (NIV)

The writers of the Psalms in our Bible often express thoughts with which we can identify. Today's verse is an example. Our God does great things because He is great. When we remember that He created the universe and that he controls this great universe, we realize that He is able to do marvelous things. In our verse the psalmist states that the things that God does gives us something to think about, to ponder, which means considerably thinking about it and often.  Isn't that what it means when we ponder? It is not a fleeting thought but a contemplative thought to consider how great the works of the Lord our God are. So when God does something for us or for people close to us, let's not forget it. Let's think about it. Let's ponder it because its an important subject worth spending some time thinking about and thanking God for. 

September 7

“How great are your works, Lord, how profound your thoughts!”  Psalm 92:5 (NIV)

Let us think of what God has done and is doing for us. There are several ways for us to know about the marvelous works of God. We can go out where we can see God’s wonderful creation in nature. Or we might go outside at night and see the planets and stars which He has made. But we can also see signs of His working in the events of our lives and of others. What we see can inspire praise to God. So, how about God’s thoughts? Some of these are revealed in what we see, others is what He has revealed in His word. The more we understand His thoughts, the deeper they are shown to be. So let us join today with the psalmist in praising God for His works and His thoughts.

June 5

“I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well.”  Psalm 139: 14 (NIV)

We have many reasons for praising God. The psalmist was thankful for the way God had made him. We maybe complain sometimes when we have aches and pains and our bodies become weary. We need sometimes, to stop and think how well the various aspects of our bodies are coordinated and how well they work together. Yes we need to thank our great creator for the way He made us. David realized that he was wonderfully made, body, soul and spirit – all working together to praise God. And we can do that too. Let us live to the praise of His glory.