COVENANT LOVE

lifewords 02.16.11

covenant love

I'm praying for you now on this beautiful February 16. This week I'm praying that the Lord would give you an even greater capacity to understand and receive His love for you.  He calls you His beloved today.  He loves you with an everlasting love.  When we understand how we are loved and cherished by Him, we will be completely set free of fear, insecurities, condemnation, selfishness and be able to love others freely with His love. In God's Word we discover different words used concerning God's love for us. Many times the word "agape" is used to convey this unconditional, lavish love. (John 3:16) Another word frequently used for love, mercy, and  loving-kindness in God's Word is "hesed" and has the idea of covenant love. An example of this is found on Hosea 2:21 where God is addressing Israel as His covenant bride. "I shall betroth you to Myself forever, I shall betroth you in uprightness and justice, and faithful love (hesed) and tenderness."  It is also the word used Psalm 136, 26 times in every verse  declaring "for His (hesed) covenant love is everlasting." It  can be trusted and will never fail. We can't earn it, increase or diminish it by our works. But we can receive it, trust in it and be so transformed and filled by it that it that it enables us to fulfill the commands Jesus gave us to love the Lord our God with all, and love others as ourselves and fulfill the Great Commission with which He has charged every believer. Our understanding of this HESED love will affect our relationship with the Lord, our relationships with others and every motivation of our heart. We can trust in His love today!  Psalm 33:18-22 is another Psalm that speaks of this covenant love. As you read it, meditate on each part.

 

  Behold,  The Eye of the Lord is on those who Revere Him (worshipping with awe),on those trusting in His MERCY (hesed - covenant love), to save their soul from death, to keep them alive in famine.  Our soul waits (depends upon and hopes in) for the Lord; HE is Our Help And Our Shield.  Yes,In Him our heart shall rejoice; for WE HAVE TRUSTED IN HIS HOLY NAME.   Let Your LOVING KINDNESS (COVENANT LOVE), O Lord, BE UPON US,  ACCORDING as we hope in You.

 

Oh that we would remember, trust in and declare His covenant love for us today!

Renewing Our Minds III

 

 

lifewords 02.03.11 renewing our minds III, Psalms You are the Lord's beloved today and He loves you with an everlasting love.  His mercies toward you are new every morning.  What an honor it was to pray for you today, knowing He is a God Who answers prayer!  He is faithful! The book of Psalms is amazing! Each morning I love to saturate my mind in its life giving words. As I read and meditate and speak the powerful words of the Psalms out loud, or sing them, it causes my gaze to become fixed on our magnificent Lord. The clamor of my circumstances and all my thoughts concerning the demands of life become swallowed up in the glory of His presence and the reality of the truth of His Word.  Spending time in the book of Psalms each day has been one of the great joys of my life and an anchor to me in every season. I can't wait to fellowship with the Lord in the book of Psalms each morning before the sun rises! Throughout the days, powerful verses from Psalms dominate my natural thinking. If you read/meditate on 5 psalms a day, you can read through the book each month.  Doing so in the mornings will position you in the presence of the Lord and renew your mind to His majesty, faithfulness and love. Doing so before bed will keep God's Word in your mind as you sleep! Oh never do it because you feel like you have to, for it will just become another item on your checklist!  Be intentional about it, but approach your time in Psalms with great anticipation and joy and invite the Holy Spirit to reveal truth to you. The Lord will minister to you personally, and many times will illuminate a verse that will be a Word for you for that very day! The Psalms will bring you comfort and strength through trials,  refresh you in desert seasons, help you to trust in His unfailing love, keep your motives in check and help you to praise Him at all times. Be sure to go beyond just reading, but speak the words out loud so you can hear them! Pause frequently to worship and praise the Lord. You may even just begin to sing the words....oh the joy of worshipping the Lord as you declare or sing these words of the psalms to Him. Great strength and joy and hope will come to you.  Then throughout your days, speak the life-giving words to your family, talk about them with those in your life, encourage others...you will be amazed how the Lord will minister to them! Here are three verses from Psalms that will fortify and anchor you today as you meditate on them!  You are so loved. Psalm 27  The Lord is my light and my salvation; Whom shall I fear?  The Lord is the strength of my life; of whom shall I be afraid? Psalm 91:1,2  He who dwells in the secret place of the Most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty.  I will say of the Lord, "He is my Refuge and my Fortress;My God, in Him I will trust." Psalm 86:10,11 For You are great, and do wondrous things; You alone are God.  Teach me your way, O Lord; I will walk in Your truth; Unite my heart to fear Your Name.  I will praise You , O Lord my God, with all my heart, And I will glorify Your Name forevermore.  For great is Your mercy toward me. amy stoehr 390 Mimosa Ave. Vista, California 92081

renewing Our Minds

lifewords 2.02.11 renewing our minds II How awesome is God's Word!  How lavish His love for us! His mercies are new every morning. His Word should be our continual delight today as we intentionally think about that which is true!  The Bible has so much to say about being deliberate in how we think. This morning I'm thinking of the great commandment Jesus gave us in Luke 10:27.  "Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind"  We are to love God with everything in us, including all of our mind!  Our thought life should be a reflection of love for Him and His Word. Paul talks about our lives as a daily battle in which we must be engaged as warriors.  The war we are waging is fought with spiritual weapons. In  2Cor 10, the Holy Spirit reveals through Paul's writing  that the battlefield of this war is our mind, our thought life.   2 Corinthians 10:3-5 (NKJ) For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh.  For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds, casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ." Amazing!  What if we really began to deliberately cultivate the habit of bringing every thought captive to the obedience of Christ?  Oh how powerful it would be if the instant a thought came floating through our minds that was contrary to God's Word we were skilled in casting it down quickly! Imagine what kind of men and women we would be. Every thought of fear, doubt, hatred, unforgiveness, prejudice, selfishness, ignorance, anger, impurity,  pulled down, taken captive, rendered powerless and cast away before it had a chance to take root. Replaced with thoughts of God's faithfulness, His Word, His love..not being conformed to this world, but transformed by the renewing of our minds.  Imagine what would come out of our mouths to bless people. What kind of husbands and wives and parents we could be if the Word of God saturated our thought life.  Imagine  the reflection of Christ we would be to a dying world, in our sphere of influence and beyond.   Imagine what the Church of the living God would to look like as we submit ourselves to God's Word in all of our thinking, on purpose, intentionally. I believe in every  instruction God gives us in the Word is His grace to accomplish it.  The precious Holy Spirit will help us to do 2 Corinthians 10:3-5. As we read and hear and meditate on and study God's Word each day, and invite the Holy Spirit to help us to bring every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ, the Lord Jesus Christ will be glorified in and through our lives and we will walk in His victory! You are Cherished. amy stoehr 390 Mimosa Ave. Vista, California 92081

Thinking Right

lifewords 2.01.11 thinking right

Oh how incredible is the abiding presence of our Lord! I pray that it will be a John 15  month. For in His presence is His life, His love, His peace and fullness of joy.  He is our All in All. In Him is Wisdom.  In Him is healing. In Him is Victory.  In Him is RIGHT THINKING.       God's plan for us as new creation people is for our minds to be renewed to the truth of His Word. How we decide to think according to God's Word must be intentional.  It must be on purpose.  Otherwise, circumstances, situations, and emotions will be our navigation system and limit our forward movement in God!   This year, let's be transformed by the renewing of our minds! Remember Psalm 1 about the person who is blessed, because his delight is in the Law of the Lord and in that Law he meditates day and night? "He will be like a tree planted by rivers of water, that brings forth its fruit in its season, whose leaf also does not wither,   and whatever he does shall prosper. "  God's plans are sure, His grace abounds, but we can sabotage ourselves by disobeying Him in the area of our thinking.  Here is an excerpt from Philippians 4 concerning our thinking. It would be great to read it multiple times!   "Summing it all up, friends, I'd say you'll do best by filling your minds and meditating on things true, noble, reputable, authentic, compelling, gracious-the best, not the worst; the beautiful, not the ugly; things to praise, not things to curse. Put into practice what you learned from me, what you heard and saw and realized. Do that, and God, who makes everything work together, will work you into his most excellent harmonies." Phil. 4:8 (Message)   Let's abandon mediocre thinking, declare war on fear and anxiety, and take every thought captive to the obedience of our King. When thoughts of un-forgiveness attempt to infiltrate.....lets nail them to the cross.  Thoughts of selfishness, self preservation, self exaltation, must be replaced with thoughts based on Galatians 2:20. When impure thoughts, racing thoughts, negative thoughts try to dominate, let's do Phil. 4:8, 9. Let's check ourselves not to think the worst, but the best.  Love! Let's make our mind meditate on God's Word, His truth, His ways.  Think excellently on purpose. Intentionally make February 2011  a month of renewing our mind to God's truth, and ask the Holy Spirit to  illuminate our understanding and propel us to a whole new level of Spirit led thinking. If we are to grow up in God we must grow up in our thinking and our willing obedience to fix our minds on His Word. You are cherished!