“If we love our Christian brothers and sisters it proves that we have passed from death to eternal life.” 1 John 3:14

When the truth of God touches our hearts, we know we cannot overcome the hardness of heart and pride just by the force of our own reason.  It is only through death to ourselves that we can pass into life.  There is no real conversion from the life of sin until we realize that our whole nature must be parted with, but we discover that in ourselves we cannot do it.

Through this despair we lose all our life to find a new one in God.  Here faith, hope and true seeking for God are born.  But  up to this point, faith and hope and turning to God in prayer have been practiced only by obligation and method.  They are not living qualities of a new birth until we have stopped feeling any confidence in ourselves.

We must feel within the reach of divine love.  We must feel that God created us to be a habitation of His own life and Holy Spirit.  In dealing with us, LOVE is God’s bait.  It will put its hook into the heart and make us realize that nothing is so strong, so irresistible, as divine love.

By Andrew Murray

From: ‘Teach Me to Pray’
Used by permission.
published by Barbour Publishing, Inc.

FURTHER READING

Sacred Romance

You are the Beloved

Falling in Love with Jesus

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The post The Despair of Self can be found at Thoughts about God.

“Bless His glorious name forever! Let the whole earth be filled with His glory. Amen and Amen!  Psalm 72:19

What a prospect – this earth, now under the power of the evil one, renewed and filled with the glory of God.  Though it is hard to believe, it surely will come to pass; God’s Word is the pledge of it.  God’s Son, by His blood and death, conquered the power of sin.  The power of God is working out His purpose and the whole earth will be filled with His glory!

But it is a difficult work.  It is two thousand years since Christ ascended the throne, and yet hundreds of millions have never learned the name of Jesus. Of the rest, there are millions have never learned the name of Jesus.  Of the rest, there are millions called by His name, yet they don’t even know Him.  This work of bringing the knowledge of Christ to every creature has been entrusted to the Church that thinks little of its responsibility and of the consequence of its neglect.  Will the work ever be done?  God’s power and faithfulness are pledges that one day we shall see it – the whole earth filled with the glory of God.

What a wonderful prayer!  For it is a prayer: “Let the whole earth be filled with His glory. Amen and Amen!”  Every believer is called to this prayer.  How wonderful to know that true prayer will indeed be answered!  What a joy to seek Gods’ face and, with confidence, pray with perseverance until the earth is full of His Glory!

By Andrew Murray
used by permission

From: ‘Teach Me to Pray’
published by Barbour Publishing, Inc.

FURTHER READING

Expect to See God’s Glory! –  by Francis Frangipane

Seeing God’s Fingerprints –  by Sylvia Gunter

The Lifter of my Head – by Rev.Palitha Jayasooriya

The post The Earth Filled with His Glory can be found at Thoughts about God.

“The Lord your God will cleanse your heart…. so that you will love Him with all your heart and soul.” Deuteronomy 30:6

God greatly desires our love. 

It is the nature of all love to want to be acceptable and to be accepted.  God longs to have the love of our whole heart.

How can we love God with all our heart and soul?  In the same way that we receive salvation – through faith alone.  Paul says, “I live my life in this earthly body by trusting in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me” (Galatians 2:20).  When we take time to wait upon God and remember how God sought to win our love through the gift of His Son, we shall realize that God has a strong longing for our love.

Our hearts are blind.  It is easy to forget that God longs for the love of His child.  Once we believe it, we will feel constrained to wait before God and ask Him to let His light shine into our hearts.  As the sun gives us its light, God is a thousand times more willing to give us the light of His love.

As we wait silently before God, we become strong in the assurance of faith.  God, who longs for our love, is almighty and will fill us with His love by the Holy Spirit.

Take time each day to love God and believe Him with firmer faith.  God will work within us, granting the desire to love Him with our whole heart.  He will enable us to prove our love by keeping His commandments.

by Andrew Murray
Used by Permission

FURTHER READING

•    I Love the Lord – by Phil Ware

•   Keep Yourself in God’s Love – by Katherine Kehler

•   Overwhelming Love by Bill Bright

The post The First Commandment can be found at Thoughts about God.

“I pray for you constantly, asking God …. to give you spiritual wisdom … I pray that you will begin to understand the incredible greatness of His power.” Ephesians 1:16-17, 19

This is one of the great texts that will make our faith strong and bold.  Paul was writing to believers who had been sealed with the Holy Spirit.  Yet he felt the need to pray for them for the enlightening of the Holy Spirit.  They needed to know that it was the mighty power of God that was working in them.  It was the very same power by which God raised Christ from the dead.

When Christ died on the cross, He died under the weight of the sin of the world and its curse.  When He descended into the grave, it was under the weight of all that sin that He was buried.  The power of death had apparently conquered Him.  But the mighty power of God raised Christ from the dead to a place of honor at God’s right hand.

It is that very same power that is working in us every day of our lives.  The God Who said to Abraham, “Is there anything too hard for the Lord?” (Genesis 18:14),  pledges to work His power in us, too, if we will learn to trust Him.

Pray in faith to God and trust His Holy Spirit to enable us to claim nothing less that the exceeding greatness of this Resurrection power working in us.

By Andrew Murray
used be permission

From: ‘Teach Me to Pray‘,
published by Barbour Publishing, Inc.

FURTHER READING

• To Whom Will You Compare God?   by Darren Hewer

• We Have Seen His Glory: Adore Him  by Roy Lessin

• How Does God do It?  by Katherine Kehler

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The post The Exceeding Greatness of His Power can be found at Thoughts about God.

“Your attitude should be the same that Chris Jesus had.” Philippians 2:5

What was the attitude that was in Christ Jesus? 

“Though He was God, He did not demand and cling to His rights as God. He made
Himself nothing; He took the humble position of a slave and appeared in human form.  And in human form He obediently
humbled Himself even further by dying a criminal’s death on a cross.” (Philippians 2:6-8).

Self-emptying and self-sacrifice, obedience to God’s will, and love to men, even unto death of the Cross – this was the character of Christ for which God so highly exalted Him.  It is the character of Christ that we are to imitate.  He was made in the likeness of men, so we could be conformed into the likeness of God.

Self-effacement and self-sacrifice that God’s will might be done and that man might be saved – this was the attitude of Christ.  He lived only to please God and to bless men.

Don’t say that this is an impossibility.  What is impossible with men is possible with God.  We are called to work out this salvation of a Christlike character with fear and trembling; for

“God is working in you, giving you the desire to obey Him and the power to do what pleases Him” (Philippians 2:13)

As we pray, let this be our one aim:  to have the attitude that was in Christ Jesus.

By Andrew Murray
Used by permission

From: ‘Teach Me to Pray‘
published by Barbour Publishing, Inc.

Further Reading

• The TRUE Foundation by Francis Frangipane

• Fight Like Jesus Fights – by Jon Walker

• Seeing Like Jesus – by Marilyn Ehle

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The post The Christlike Life can be found at Thoughts about God.

“And the world hates them because they do not belong to the world, just as I do not. They are not part of this world any more than I am.” John 17:14, 16

In His last night Jesus took pains to make clear to His disciples the impassible gulf between Him and the world and also between them and the world (John 16:16-21).  He had said of the Spirit: “The world at large cannot receive Him, because it isn’t looking for Him and doesn’t recognize Him.” (John 14:17).  “The world would love you if you belonged to it, but you don’t. I chose you to come out of the world, and so it hates you.” (John 15:19)

One great mark of the disciples was to be as little a part of the world as Christ was.  Christ and the disciples had become united in the cross and the Resurrection; they both belonged to another world, the kingdom of heaven.

Why is it that faith in the Holy Spirit is practiced so little by Christians?

The world rules too much in the lives of Christians.  The “world offers only the lust for physical pleasure, the lust for everything we see, and pride in possessions” (1 John 2:16) – all this robs the heart of its desire  for that true self-denial necessary for receiving the Holy Spirit.

by Andrew Murray
Used by permission
From: ‘Teach Me to Pray‘
published by Barbour Publishing, Inc.

Further Reading

•  The Spirit Filled Christian Life Explained

• Suppressing the Holy Spirit by Ashlea Massie

• The Holy Spirit Enlightens – by Bill Bright

The post Not of This World can be found at Thoughts about God.

“Examine yourselves to see if your faith is really genuine.” 2 Corinthians 13:5

Christ is in me. What a difference it would make if we could take time every morning to focus on the thought.  Christ is in me.

Christ made it clear to His disciples.  The Spirit would teach them; “When I am raised to life again, you will know that I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I am in you” (John 14:20). Through the power of God we who believe were crucified with Christ and raised again with Him.  As a result Christ is in us! Through faith in God’s Word, the Christian accepts it.

Paul expresses this thought in the prayer of (Ephesians 3:16); “I pray that from His glorious, unlimited resources He will give you mighty inner strength through His Holy Spirit.”  Notice that it is not the ordinary gift of grace, but a special revelation of the riches of His love that Christ may dwell in your heart by faith.  Have you been able to grasp that?

Paul said: “I fall to my knees and pray to the Father” (Ephesians 3:14).  That is the only way to obtain the blessing.  Take time in prayer in His presence to realize: ‘Christ dwells in me.”  Even in the midst of your daily schedule, look upon your heart as the dwelling place of the Son of God.  Then Christ’s words: “Those who remain in me, and I in them, will produce much fruit.” (John 15:5) will become your daily experience.

By Andrew Murray
Used by permission.
From: ‘Teach Me to Pray‘
published by Barbour Publishing, Inc.

Further Reading

•  Christ in Me Working Through Me

• The Living Word Inside Me Makes the Difference

• How to be Saveds

The post Christ in Me can be found at Thoughts about God.

‘By His mighty power at work within us, He is able to accomplish infinitely more than We would ever dare to ask or hope.” Ephesians 3:20

In the great prayer which Paul had just written, he had apparently reached the highest expression possible of the life to which God’s mighty power could bring the believer.  But Paul is not content.  In this doxology he rises still higher and lifts us up to give glory to God
as “able to accomplish infinitely more than we would ever dare to ask or hope.”  Pause for a moment to consider what ‘infinitely more’ means.

Think of the words,

“he has given us all of his rich and wonderful promises” (2 Peter 1:4).

Think of

“the incredible greatness of his power for us who believe him.“

This is the same mighty power that raised Christ from the dead: (Ephesians 1:19-20).  With these words Paul hopes to lift our hearts to believe that God is able to do

‘infinitely more than we would ever dare to ask or hope.’

The power of God that works in us is nothing less than the exceeding power that raised Christ from the dead.  This should cause us to think that there is something that God will do in us that is beyond all our imagination.

As we worship Him in prayer, let us believe that the Almighty God, who is working in our hearts, is able and willing to fulfill every one of His exceeding great and precious promises.

By Andrew Murray
Used by permission.

From: ‘Teach Me to Pray‘,
published by Barbour Publishing, Inc.

Learn more about knowing Jesus at: http://thoughtsaboutgod.com/four-laws/

The post Exceedingly Abundantly can be found at Thoughts about God.

“There are three things that endure – faith, hope and love – and the greatest of these is love.” 1 Corinthians 13:13

Today is wholly devoted to the praise of love. The first three verses of 1 Corinthians 13 speak of the absolute necessity of love as the chief thing in our religion.

“If I could speak in any language in heaven or on earth. . . if I had the gift of prophesy . . . if I had the gift of faith so that I could speak to a mountain and make it move . . . if I gave everything I have to the poor and even sacrificed my body . . . but if I didn’t love others” then, three times repeated, “I would only be making meaningless noise like a loud gong or a clanging cymbal . . . what good would I be? . . . I would be of no value whatsoever.”  If I have not love, I am of no value.

There are fifteen things said about love, but one sentence sums up its whole nature: “It does not demand its own way” (verse 5). And again: ‘Love will last forever” (verse 8). Prophesies, unknown languages, and knowledge shall vanish away.  Even faith and hope shall be changed into sight.  But love lasts forever.

“Love does not demand its own way.” Think and pray about this.

“Love will last forever” Consider all that means.

“The greatest of these is love.” Let this love rule in your life.

God is love. ‘God is love, and all who live in love live in God, and God lives in them: 1 John 4:16

Let your heart be filled with love so that, by God’s almighty power, you may be a witness to the transforming power of love.  Then you will be a blessing to all around you.

By Andrew Murray
Used by Permission
From: ‘Teach Me to Pray‘, published by Barbour Publishing, Inc.

Further Reading

• Keep Yourselves in God’s Love

• Love is Patient and Kind – a story of a man on a bus

•  Salvation Explained

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The post A Song of Love can be found at Thoughts about God.

“All night long I search for You.“.  Isaiah 26:9

What is the best and most glorious thing that a man needs every day and can do every day?  Nothing less than to seek, to know, to love, and to praise God Himself.  As glorious as God is, so is the glory which begins to work in the hearts and lives of people who give themselves to live for God.

Have you learned to seek this God, to meet Him, to worship Him, to live for Him and for His glory?  It is a great step forward in the life of a Christian when we truly see this and consider fellowship with God every day as the chief end of our lives.

Take the time to ask yourself whether knowing your God and loving Him with your whole heart is the utmost desire of your heart.  You can be certain that God greatly desires that you should live in this intimate fellowship with Him.  He will, in answer to your prayer, enable you to do so.

Begin today by speaking these words to God in the stillness of your soul:

“O God, You are my God; I earnestly search for You.  My soul thirsts for You; my whole body longs for You … I follow close behind You” (Psalm 63:1 & 8).

“(I) search for Him with all (my) heart” (Psalm 119:2).

By Andrew Murray
Used by permission
From: ‘Teach Me to Pray‘,
published by Barbour Publishing, Inc.

Further Reading

•  Stepping Into a Personal Revival

•  What is Your Standard for Living?

•  Salvation Explained

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The post The Desire for God can be found at Thoughts about God.