Tag Archive | Jesus

Love the Lord – Part 5

and you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength.’ — Mark 12:30

When it comes to love I am weak. Loving is hard work. And when I try to grasp loving the Almighty God I am overwhelmed with my weak inability. But then I am encouraged in God’s word that reminds me it isn’t up to me. All that is required is surrender to God and allow His strength to give me the ability to love Him. The Lord will give us strength as we seek the Lord and His strength. As we seek Him through His word we draw closer to our Lord resulting in a deep, intimate love. (1 Chronicles 16:11; Psalm 29:11)
The strength to love the Lord is my song and I long to glorify Jesus Christ in all I say and in all I do. The strength of His love in me just overflows in all I say and do. I can do all things through Him who strengthens me through that wonderful relationship with Jesus. (Psalm 118:14; 1 Peter 4:11; Philippians 4:13)
So love Him with all your strength and seek Him continuously to ensure you have the strength to love Him.
Continually seeking Him,

Sharon

1 Chronicles 16:11 Seek the Lord and His strength; Seek His face continually.
Psalm 29:11 The Lord will give strength to His people; The Lord will bless His people with peace.
Psalm 118:14 The Lord is my strength and song, And He has become my salvation.
1 Peter 4:11 Whoever speaks, is to do so as one who is speaking the utterances of God; whoever serves is to do so as one who is serving by the strength which God supplies; so that in all things God may be glorified through Jesus Christ, to whom belongs the glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen.
Philippians 4:13 I can do all things through Him who strengthens me.

Love the Lord – Part 4

and you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, — Mark 12:30

The best way to love the Lord with all our mind is to have the mind of Christ, received via the Holy Spirit that lives within us. With the Holy Spirit’s help we can truly love Him with all we are. (1 Corinthians 2:16)
We can begin by asking the Lord to test our mind so we can be made new in the attitude of our minds; and put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness. (Psalm 26:2; Ephesians 4:22-23) What better way to love our Lord.
We then need to set our mind on the things above like whatever is true, honorable, right, pure, lovely, whatever is of good repute, if there is any excellence and if anything worthy of praise, dwell on these things. Our focus on these things places us in the proper attitude of worship to truly love the Lord as He deserves. (Colossians 3:2; Philippians 4:8)
So let me encourage you to set your mind on loving the Lord and be greatly blessed.

Continually seeking Him,

Sharon

1 Corinthians 2:16 For who has known the mind of the Lord, that he will instruct Him? But we have the mind of Christ.
Psalm 26:2 Examine me, O Lord, and try me; Test my mind and my heart.
Ephesians 4:23-24 to be made new in the attitude of your minds; and to put on the new self,created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness.
Colossians 3:2 Set your mind on the things above, not on the things that are on earth.
Philippians 4:8 Finally, brethren, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is of good repute, if there is any excellence and if anything worthy of praise, dwell on these things.

Love the Lord – Part 3

and you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, — Mark 12:30

How do we love our Lord with all our soul? We need help because we are not able to love God on our own. Ezekiel 18:4 says, “Behold, all souls are Mine;”. Our souls belong to God. Because He is our God and our souls are His, our natural desire is to thirst and pant for Him.
He gives us the desire to cling to Him, to earnestly seek Him. As we seek Him our soul grows to love Him more and more. Seeking Him through His word it helps us to know Him and the more we know Him the more we love Him. In this we can rejoice and praise Him!!!
So seek Him earnestly through the word of God, prayer, and praise.

Continually seeking Him,

Sharon

Ezekiel 18:4 Behold, all souls are Mine; the soul of the father as well as the soul of the son is Mine. The soul who sins will die.
Psalm 63:1 O God, You are my God; I shall seek You earnestly; My soul thirsts for You, my flesh yearns for You, In a dry and weary land where there is no water.
Psalm 42:1-2 As the deer pants for the water brooks, So my soul pants for You, O God. 2 My soul thirsts for God, for the living God; When shall I come and appear before God?
Psalm 63:8 My soul clings to You; Your right hand upholds me.
Psalm 119:75 Let my soul live that it may praise You, And let Your ordinances help me.

Love the Lord – Part 2

and you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart — Mark 12:30

“with all your heart”
How? By a new heart given by God. (Ezekiel 36:26) My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart (Psalm 73:26). The Lord will circumcise your heart to love the Lord (Deuteronomy 30:6:). It is all about Him, isn’t it? God is love and He is the One who enables my heart to love Him. Mind boggling.
What can we do? Pray asking the Lord to create in me a clean heart, O God (Psalm 51:10) and search me, O God, and know my heart (Psalm 139:23). We need to set our heart to seek the Lord (2 Chronicles 12:14). We need His word — please receive instruction from His mouth and establish His words in your heart (Job 22:22).
I do my best to follow Your commands. You are the One who gives me the desire (willing heart, understanding) (Psalm 119:32).
We need a relationship with Jesus Christ so we can love the Lord our God with all our heart.

Continually seeking Him,

Sharon

Ezekiel 36:26 Moreover, I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; and I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh.
Psalm 73:26 My flesh and my heart may fail, But God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.
Deuteronomy 30:6 Moreover the Lord your God will circumcise your heart and the heart of your descendants, to love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, so that you may live.
Psalm 51:10 Create in me a clean heart, O God, And renew a steadfast spirit within me.
Psalm 139:23 Search me, O God, and know my heart; Try me and know my anxious thoughts;
2 Chronicles 12:14 He did evil because he did not set his heart to seek theLord.
Job 22:22 Please receive instruction from His mouth And establish His words in your heart.
Psalm 119:32 I shall run the way of Your commandments, For You will enlarge my heart.

Love the Lord

and you shall love the Lord your God — Mark 12:30

The commandment is to love the Lord, our God. How can we possibly love God who is love? (1 John 4:8) We could not even come close to measuring up to His love. We are incapable of loving God on our own. We need the help of the Master. With salvation comes the Spirit of God living in us. The love of God living in us enables us to love Him. We can love Him because He first loved us. (1 John 4:19) And if we love Him we will keep His commandments — to love the Lord, our God.

John 14:15 “If you love Me, you will keep My commandments.

Continually seeking Him,

Sharon

1 John 4:8 The one who does not love does not know God, for God is love.
1 John 4:19 We love, because He first loved us.

Hiatus

“Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, 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.”
Matthew 11:28‭-‬30 NASB

I am going to take the advice of my Lord and go to Him. I am weary, burdened, loaded down, yes, heavy-laden. I will take the yoke of my God upon myself and learn from Him so I may find rest for my soul and continue to be a servant for the good of God’s Kingdom. He promises that He will satisfy the weary ones and refresh, fill, everyone who languishes. I am seeking God’s righteousness and I know He will satisfy my soul. Just as Jesus would go seek time with the Father, I will be taking some time to learn, seek, and rest in the Lord.
Jeremiah 31:25/Matthew 5:6 NASB

God bless your ministry, your souls, your time and I hope to be returning soon refreshed, renewed, restored.
God bless you. 

🌹Continually Seeking Him, 

Sharon 

Wrestling with God

Now he arose that same night and took his two wives and his two maids and his eleven children, and crossed the ford of the Jabbok. He took them and sent them across the stream. And he sent across whatever he had.
Then Jacob was left alone, and a man wrestled with him until daybreak. When he saw that he had not prevailed against him, he touched the socket of his thigh; so the socket of Jacob’s thigh was dislocated while he wrestled with him. Then he said, “Let me go, for the dawn is breaking.” But he said, “I will not let you go unless you bless me.” So he said to him, “What is your name?” And he said, “Jacob.” He said, “Your name shall no longer be Jacob, but Israel; (Israel means He strives with God or God strives) for you have striven with God and with men and have prevailed.” Then Jacob asked him and said, “Please tell me your name.” But he said, “Why is it that you ask my name?” And he blessed him there. So Jacob named the place Peniel, (which means “the face of God) for he said, “I have seen God face to face, yet my life has been preserved.”
Genesis 32:22‭-‬30 NASB

Have you ever wrestled with God?

You may not think you have but every believer has wrestled with God. We all experienced the struggle to admit we are sinners before a perfect, Holy God. We wrestled with and still wrestle with the control of our lives. We struggle with the idea of complete surrender to an all-trustworthy God. We wrestle with the commands of God to be obedient to His word, His will.
Let us be like Jacob and continue to wrestle, persistently in prayer, until the blessing comes.

Wrestle: to contend, as in a struggle for mastery; grapple

Continually Seeking Him, 

Sharon 🌹

Home of The Holy Spirit

The God who made the world and all things in it, since He is Lord of heaven and earth, does not dwell in temples made with hands; nor is He served by human hands, as though He needed anything, since He Himself gives to all people life and breath and all things; Acts 17:24‭-‬25 NASB1995

God, You are the Lord, who created the heavens and stretched them out, who spread out the earth and its offspring (vegetation), who gives breath to the people on it and spirit to those who walk in it, the God who made the world and all things in it! Behold, to You, God, belong heaven and the highest heavens, the earth and all that is in it. Who is able to build a house for You, for the heavens and the highest heavens cannot contain You? And yet You dwell in the believer! For we are the temple of the living God; just as You, God, have said, “I will dwell in them and walk among them; And I will be their God, and they shall be My people”. Help me God to remember that I am Your temple, the temple of the Holy Spirit of God, dwelling in me, whom you have given me, God, and that I am not my own. Thank You God for Your Spirit within me who will cause me to walk in Your statutes, and guide me to be careful to observe Your ordinances. To You be the glory, God, in and through me for Your will to be done. In the perfect name of Jesus I pray, amen.  Isaiah 42:5/Deuteronomy 10:14/2 Chronicles 2:6a/2 Corinthians 6:16/1 Corinthians 3:16/1 Corinthians 6:19/Ezekiel 36:27 NASB

🌹However, you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. But if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Him. Romans 8:9 NASB

Continually Seeking Him, 

Sharon 

Hallelujah! Glory to Our God.

I will give thanks to You, O Lord my God, with all my heart, And will glorify Your name forever.
Psalms 86:12 NASB

Why?

For great is the Lord and greatly to be praised; He is to be feared above all gods.
Psalms 96:4 NASB

For the Lord is a great God And a great King above all gods,
Psalms 95:3 NASB

Thus . . .

I will give You thanks with all my heart; I will sing praises to You before the gods.
Psalms 138:1 NASB

Where shall I praise You, God?

Praise the Lord! I will give thanks to the Lord with all my heart, In the company of the upright and in the assembly.
Psalms 111:1 NASB

Praise the Lord! Sing to the Lord a new song, And His praise in the congregation of the godly ones.
Psalms 149:1 NASB

I will give You thanks in the great congregation; I will praise You among a mighty throng.
Psalms 35:18 NASB

That is one of the great things about being with a body of believers at church, singing praises and worshiping God!
“Praise You among a mighty throng”, takes me away to heaven imagining all the saints of the Lord singing praises to our God. O what a day, and eternity, that will be.

🌹Then I heard something like the voice of a great multitude and like the sound of many waters and like the sound of mighty peals of thunder, saying, “Hallelujah! For the Lord our God, the Almighty, reigns.
Revelation 19:6 NASB

Hallelujah and amen!!
Have a blessed and glorious weekend. 

Continually Seeking Him, 

Sharon 

Jesus Prayed

Jesus prayed in the evening:
After He had sent the crowds away, He went up on the mountain by Himself to pray; and when it was evening, He was there alone.
Matthew 14:23/Mark 6:46 NASB

Jesus prayed in the early morning:
In the early morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house, and went away to a secluded place, and was praying there.
Mark 1:35 NASB

Jesus prayed before choosing the 12 Disciples:
It was at this time that He went off to the mountain to pray, and He spent the whole night in prayer to God.
Luke 6:12 NASB

Jesus prayed at His baptism:
Now when all the people were baptized, Jesus was also baptized, and while He was praying, heaven was opened,
Luke 3:21 NASB

Jesus prayed at the Transfiguration:
Some eight days after these sayings, He took along Peter and John and James, and went up on the mountain to pray.
Luke 9:28 NASB

Jesus prayed in the Garden of Gethsamane:
They *came to a place named Gethsemane; and He *said to His disciples, “Sit here until I have prayed.”
Mark 14:32 NASB

Jesus prayed on the cross:
 “Father forgive them; for they know not what they do”
Luke 23:34
“My God, My God, why hast thou forsaken me?”
Matt 27:46, Mark 15:34
“Father, into thy hands I commit my spirit”
Luke 23:46

Jesus taught prayer:
It happened that while Jesus was praying in a certain place, after He had finished, one of His disciples said to Him, “Lord, teach us to pray just as John also taught his disciples.”
Luke 11:1 NASB

And Jesus has instructed us to pray:
Keep watching and praying that you may not come into temptation; the spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.”
Mark 14:38 NASB

pray without ceasing;
1 Thessalonians 5:17 NASB

🌹But Jesus Himself would often slip away to the wilderness and pray.
Luke 5:16 NASB

Jesus, the Son of God, often slipped away to pray. How much more do we need to slip away to pray?

Continually Seeking Him, 

Sharon