Victory247

“Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth”   Matthew 5:5 (NIV)

The word ‘meek’ was used to depict the Roman horse. These horses were big with rippling muscles. They had the power and girth to trample and reek serious havoc if they were to run wild amongst the village. But they were very tame and obedient to the rider.

The common feeling we get from hearing the word ‘meek’ is a timid, feeble being that cowers into a corner. But Jesus was referring to the Roman horse, massive strength that is under control.

Most of us go through times when our lives seem to be spinning out of control. We get too busy and too overwhelmed with responsibilities. As we try to control our tail spin, something side tracks or side swipes us. We scramble to get organized, but we realize we need to take time to sleep and eat. Friends, spouses, children, family get neglected, which creates even more spinning.

The last thing we think we have time to do is the first thing that we need to do. Meet with God. Give Him our concerns, struggles, and time management. Stop the bleeding by sitting at His feet with requests and pleas of dependence. Then whisper prayers throughout the day.

As we depend on God and His Holy Spirit for our daily strength and character, we have massive power to stop the frantic tail spin, live life well, and even have time left over to help others.

PRAYER FOR TODAY

Heavenly Father, help me to depend on You moment by moment, so that You can instill meekness into me; controlled strength. In Jesus’ Name. Amen.

“Flee the evil desires of youth, and pursue righteousness, faith, love and peace, along with those who call on the Lord out of a pure heart”   2 Timothy 2:22 (NIV)

‘Flee’ doesn’t mean just to not partake in our impure desires. It means to turn the other way and RUN! I heard a saying that rings in my head if I’m watching something that shows too much skin, or if I’m hanging around with guys who are being dishonest and unethical. That saying states; “If you don’t want to sin, stay out of sin’s orchard”.

If you are trying to lose weight, don’t hang out at a Dairy Queen. If you are struggling with gossip and mean talk, avoid those conversations. If you are dealing with lustful thoughts, don’t peruse the internet late at night…  The ‘evil desires of youth’ will destroy our hearts, our inner joy, our inner peace. Instead, pursue God’s stuff and we will develop that inner fulfillment and joy.

When we fail, confess it and start over. It’s a battle that is worth entering. The more wins, the more joy and peace.

PRAYER FOR TODAY

Heavenly Father, I need Your strength to help me to FLEE. Keep convincing me that wrongful actions and words are never worth it, especially when I find myself in “sin’s orchard”. In Jesus’ Name. Amen

“The LORD is my strength and my shield; my heart trusts in Him, and I am helped” Psalm 28:7 (NASB)

When I think of a ‘shield’, my mind wanders back to my youth watching great battle scenes with knights, lances, big swords, and whatever that ball with spikes attached to a swinging chain is called. The ‘shield’ was protection.

Occasionally, I come across a particular scenario that I find very humorous. An adult man holding a woman’s purse for her. “Awkward!”. He has to make sure that he grasps it like he doesn’t really care about the purse, the loaf of bread hold is my favorite.

She is basically saying, “You are someone I can completely trust to protect this bag of valuable stuff. She knows he will be a shield to all snatchers and thieves.

We all need a shield of protection with our insecurities, self-worth, frustrations, secret fears, and hurts. God wants us to hand Him our “purse of stuff”.

PRAYER FOR TODAY

Heavenly Father, help me to open up to You and continually hand You my “valuable stuff”. I know You are always there to be my help. In Jesus’ Name. Amen.

“There will be terrible times in the last days. People will be lovers of themselves… without self-control… lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God”   2 Timothy 3:1-4 (NIV)

Our minds seem to always go to; “what can I do that will be fun?” Or, “what will make me feel good?” Believe me, I desire fun, but it’s like chasing a shadow. Try to catch up to it and the shadow goes away from us. Walk away from it, the shadow pursues us!

In the same way, when we are constantly seeking pleasure, life gets shallow. We seem to lose fulfillment and enjoyment. But when we are making better efforts to have times of prayer, checking out scripture, and serving others, then life’s enjoyment and fulfillment seem find us.

PRAYER FOR TODAY

Heavenly Father, remind me to seek times with You. Remind me to think of others needs, not just my own. I know I can trust You for life’s fulfillment, pleasures, and enjoyment. In Jesus’ Name. Amen.

“The Lord be with your spirit. Grace be with you.”  2 Timothy 4:22 (NIV)

I’m not exactly sure what Paul meant by this verse, but I do have an understanding about ‘grace’.

‘Grace’ reminds me of the word “room”. Room to grow. Room to make mistakes, learn from them, and start over. Room when we sin; confess it and ask God to keep changing me. Helping to put more and more distance between my wrongful actions, words, or thoughts.

As a basketball coach, I learned a lot from watching poor coaching. During each practice there is usually time set aside to let the players scrimmage. Hopefully, they will attempt to apply all the skills they are learning from the drills they have gone through earlier in the practice session. I found that the weaker coaches continually stop the scrimmage time to interject correction. The better coaches actually let the players play for longer periods of time before they stop play for a correction. The really good coaches stopped play mainly to praise the players for actually executing a drilled skill they are learning.

The good coach takes notes, then drills the players the next day over the weaknesses they observe in the games and scrimmages. God is a great coach. He lets us go through our lives without zapping us every time we mess up. He’s a coach who is grace-oriented. Therefore, we can safely regroup at some point each day to let Him train us in the game of life. We need to sit before Him and plead to Him to drill us, adjust us, praise us, and teach us. He won’t force it on us, yet He longs to bless and fulfill us.

PRAYER FOR TODAY

Heavenly Father, thank You that You give me room. Help me to give grace to others. In Jesus’ Name. Amen

“To Timothy my true son in the faith: Grace, mercy and peace FROM God the Father and Christ Jesus our Lord”  2 Timothy 1:2

Paul is writing to his very close friend, Timothy. He wishes him some pretty major stuff. Grace, mercy, and peace. It’s easy to read right over this verse to get to the rest of the letter and not notice the word ‘FROM’.

Grace (freedom to make mistakes and grow from them), mercy (knowing we are completely and undeservedly forgiven), and peace (inner calm and contentment) are all FROM God. We need to ask for these “big 3”, not try to just conjure them up on our own.

PRAYER FOR TODAY

Heavenly Father, in the midst of this hectic life, I am asking You to keep developing grace, mercy, and peace in me. Then help me show them to others. In Jesus’ Name. Amen.

“Even though I walk through the darkest valley, I will fear no evil, for You are with me; Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me.”  Psalm 23:4 (NIV)

The shepherd had a really tough job back in those days. He had to lead his sheep, and protect his sheep. This was all day, out in the hot sun. Also interesting to note is that sheep are very dumb animals who truly can’t make it on their own. He’s not calling us dumb, but compared to Him, we are.

I can imagine the conversation with the rebellious, self sufficient sheep; “Listen Mr. Shepherd, I can take care of myself from those lighting fast wolves with sharp teeth. And if I get stuck in a tough situation, I will use my slow, uncoordinated, awkward body to escape.”…”Well Mr. Sheep, I will take care of you and help you meet all your needs.” “Okay Mr. Shepherd, that’s not a baaaad idea.”

The main tool the shepherd had was the staff. It had a hook on one end, and a sharp point on the other. The hook was useful to pull the dumb sheep out of holes, bushes, or other messes they would get themselves into. The pointed end was to protect and fend off attacks from predators like wolves.

God uses His staff in our lives. His hook is there to pull us out of messes we get ourselves into, or situations that seem impossible to overcome. Also, we can call on Him to protect us, with the sharp end of the staff, from a world of people who want to take advantage of us.

PRAYER FOR TODAY

Heavenly Father, like the sheep to the shepherd, help me to be dependent on You to guide, protect, and watch over me. Lead me to green pastures (Psalm 23:2). In Jesus’ Name. Amen.

“He will give you another Counselor to be with you forever— the Holy Spirit of truth…He lives with you and will be in you”   John 14:16-17

When we trust Christ with our lives by receiving His payment on the cross (see “Start the Victory” atop victory247.org), we gain access to an amazing resource. It’s the ministry of the Holy Spirit that indwells our being.

Many times, we avoid or don’t know that we can tap into this resource. It’s like having a feature on a new cell phone that we either didn’t know that we have, or just choose not to use.

The way to access this “feature” or “app” is by surrendering parts of our lives to God. Also, by asking Him to direct and empower us as we go throughout the day. The more we depend, the more direction, comfort, and fulfillment He can bring to us. This feature can grow into more advanced features if we read and apply God’s principles laid out in His bible.

Two daily and continual prayers that will download this amazing resource; “I can’t do this alone, but You can through me”, and “Lord, I messed up, I want to start over”.

PRAYER FOR TODAY

Heavenly Father, I want You to empower and direct my life. I need You. Please remind me to daily depend and surrender. Thank You that I can continue to start over when I mess up. In Jesus’ Name. Amen.

“What does the LORD require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God”  Micah 6:8 (NIV)

Sometimes we read the bible and have to read between the lines to try to figure out what He is saying to us. But today’s verse gets right to the point.

What does He want us to do and be? 1-Act justly; be fair, don’t cheat.   2-Love mercy; don’t have to “get even with” or “get back at” those who wrong us, let Him take care of it, and move on. 3-Walk humbly with our God; hang out with Him as we go through our day.

I remember taking walks with my toddlers when walking was new to them. They would take seven steps to my one. They got distracted so easily, but knew I was right there. They would find a rock or piece of glass, tread through the nearest available puddle, lose their balance veering off the edge of the road…

My favorite part of the walk was when they would tug on my pants, extend both arms, and proclaim the magic word; “up”. It’s like a humble acknowledgment that they need a break, “I’ve done my own thing, now I need a hug and a ride to where we are going”.

I loved those times. I wasn’t going anywhere in particular, I just wanted to walk with my child.

God longs to walk along side us. He will redirect us when we take a poor turn, pick us up when we trip, gently takes away sharp objects, steers us around the deep puddles…if we would merely humble ourselves to acknowledge His presence, assistance, and wisdom. And when we need a break, being humble enough to extend our arms to Him and say, “up”.

PRAYER FOR TODAY

Heavenly Father, give me the strength to treat others right, and remind me to walk and talk humbly with You. Thank You that You want to direct me in life, and carry me when I need a break. In Jesus’ Name. Amen.

“…God loves a cheerful giver.  And He is able to make all grace abound to you, so that in all things at all times, having all that you need, you will abound in every good deed”  2 Corinthians 9:7-8

We have a natural tendency to go throughout our day with thoughts of our own “needs and wants” being met. We are directed by our longings to meet those “needs and wants”. And we complain and get frustrated when someone or something blocks our strategies of meeting those “needs and wants”.

God is telling us in today’s verse that He can “make all grace abound”, and “in all things at all times” give us “all that we need”. How can He do this? What do we have to do?… Give!

The challenge is to stop merely thinking about our own needs and look at others. Each day, take the time to compliment or encourage someone. Help someone. Give something to someone. Pray for some family, friends, and even a foe. This will unlock doors, open windows, and even remove the roof for God to enter that selfish shell we have built up over the years.

If we do any of this giving, with His strength, we are opening ourselves up for God to invade our lives to “dissolve that selfish shell”. Watch how He blesses and fills.

PRAYER FOR TODAY

Heavenly Father, make me a giver of encouragement, help, gifts, and prayers. Thanks that You long to meet my needs, and fulfill my life. In Jesus’ Name. Amen.