Spiritual Forecasts for 2008
The Spiritual Forecasts section contains exciting news and messages related to how God's Spirit will be moving in our world and working in our daily lives.
This is a time to prepare yourself for a deep and meaningful journey into the depths of your very souls. Faith must be nurtured in order to survive and be productive for the Lord Jesus Christ! The following list should help guide you on your journey:
Remember – to develop a strong personal relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ.
Regenerate – to reform your life spiritually and morally.
Renew – to replenish or to restore your spirit and soul.
Reflect – to mirror the life of Jesus Christ. The Lord set the example for us to follow in Ephesians 5:1-21.
Open your hearts and dwell upon the following message and hopefully your spirits will soar to new heights.
“The Vine and the Branches”
I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener. He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful. You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you. Remain in me, and I will remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me.
I 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. If anyone does not remain in me, he is like a branch that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned. If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be given you. This is to my Father’s glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples.
As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love. 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. I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete. My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends. You are my friends if you do what I command. I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master’s business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you. You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit – fruit that will last. Then the Father will give you whatever you ask in my name. This is my command: Love each other.”
Let it be so in your life!
Love & Blessings,
Cheryl
Prayer Chain International
In 2008, let us come alive in our faith! We need to get serious and really develop a deeper spiritual relationship with our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.
Before we can find faith we must first understand what faith is. To put it simply, faith is placing our trust in God. This sounds simple enough, but in practice many people find it difficult to do. This is because we often have unreasonable expectations of God. We are not seeking the same relationship with God that he wants to have with us. We have a tendency to forget that God wants to be a member of our family and would like to be treated as such. Let’s take a look at a few of the ways we tend to treat God and examine them in greater detail.
- Sometimes we like to think of God as the proverbial Genie in a magic lamp. We set God aside on a shelf somewhere until such times when we find ourselves in desperate need and don’t know what else to do. Then we take the lamp off the shelf and rub it, expecting the Genie to appear and grant us our 3 wishes. In some cases, we take this one step further and we offer him an ultimatum that says, “I’ll only believe and trust in you if you do what I want.”
And what happens when God doesn’t grant our wishes? Many of us turn angry and bitter and blame God for the entire situation. Others of us totally deny God and become atheists who conclude that there must not be any God since we didn’t get what we wanted.
Does a good and responsible parent give into every wish and demand that their child has? I guess we need to ask ourselves if it is really reasonable to expect God to give us everything we want when we want it. Furthermore, is our harsh reaction when he doesn’t give us what we want really justifiable?
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- Other times we tend to treat God like he is a convenience store. We only shop there when we really need something and it happens to be convenient for us. We all know the store is there and we take it for granted that it always will be there when we need something.
Perhaps you may know someone like this. You might even have a friend or family member that treats people like this. You never hear from this person except when they need something from you. They never call you just to find out how things are going for you. They never really show any concern or compassion for what you are going through, but they are certainly hanging around when they need something from you. They prey on your giving and caring nature to try and get you to satisfy their needs, but they really could care less about yours.
Maybe we need to ask ourselves how we feel when people try to take advantage of our good hearted and caring nature. If we don’t like it when people do this to us, would it stand to reason then that God may not be very fond of it either?
So the question now becomes how should we treat God? The answer is really quite simple. We should treat God like he is a member of our own family. We should treat him the same way we would want our own family to treat us. We should share both the happy and the sad times with him. We should be grateful for the gifts and provisions that he has provided for us. When you learn to treat God like a member of your own family your trust and, therefore, your faith in him will grow. After all, he was the creator of all things and, therefore, the Father of us all. Is there really any greater love than the love a parent has for his children? Honestly, if we can’t trust God to have our best interests at heart, who could we trust?
"Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your paths straight." – Proverbs 3: 5-6
Come forth all you who are faithful and true to our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ!
Love & Blessings,
Cheryl & Scott |
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