Confess Jesus to Man

Tim Tebow kneeling before a crowd of people.

FOCUS

Luke 12:8-9
I say to you, whoever confesses Me before men, him the Son of Man also will confess before the angels of God. 9 But he who denies Me before men will be denied before the angels of God.

THINK

The person who professes to be a Christian and lives his life according to the commandments of God will be acknowledged before the angels of God. Imagine approaching the throne of God and He begins to tell the angels all about you. In the scripture you see the word confess which also means acknowledge. Acknowledge means to admit to be real or true and to show or express recognition or realization of. Just think God is going to admit what is real or true in your life and express that realization to His angels. How magnificent is that! Your praises will be sung to the angels.
On the other hand the person who denies knowing God before men will not be acknowledged before God's angels. It will be like God never knew you. Is that what you want to be denied before God. Not even to be acknowledged or recognized. How sad! The angels will never know you. That can all be taken care if you choose to accept Jesus as your Lord and Savior, develop a relationship with Him and acknowledge to people what God has done for you. Your reward will be in heaven. You can have a little bit of heaven here on earth. God can be your father.

ACT

I must tell others about God and what he has done for me. I must open up and reveal that I make mistakes, have problems, and need to rely on God more. I am weak, but God is strong. Are you?

PRAY

Lord, help me to be genuine, loving, kind and considerate. Help me to make the right choices and let your light shine through you. Use me. My heart is willing, but I cannot do anything without you. You are my all in all. Thank you for the opportunity to speak to others about YOU. Give me the words to speak and the actions to do. Amen.

Fear

FOCUS

Psalms 64: 9
All men shall fear,
And shall declare the work of God;
For they shall wisely consider His doing.

THINK

Fear is defined as "a distressing emotion aroused by impending danger, evil, pain, etc., whether the threat is real or imagined; the feeling or condition of being afraid. Synonyms: foreboding, apprehension, consternation, dismay, dread, terror, fright, panic, horror, trepidation, qualm."    Fear can come in the form of
abandonment
being bad, corrupt, evil, defective
being controlled by others
being deprived
being harmed                                                                                                      
being incapable
being of no value, worthless
being unloved
being useless
change
conflict
death
defeat
diminishment, decline
disease
doing wrong
failure
fragmentation
hurting others
ignorance
incompetence
incorrect decisions
injury
insecurity
invasion of boundaries
isolation
lack
limitation
loneliness
looking stupid
loss
loss of connection
material loss
meaninglessness
no identity
pain
people
personal insignificance
possessiveness
poverty
public speaking
rejection
relationships
responsibility
self-exposure
self-expression
selfishness
separation
sexuality
shyness
success
unknown
vulnerability

When we face fear, we turn either of two ways. We turn toward God or we turn away from God. If we turn away from God, we are saying we can take care of the problem ourselves and thus we lie to ourselves. God gave us the ability to call out to Him in times of fear. We can talk to HIM through prayer. We can read the Bible. We can talk to others who have experienced the same kind of fear.
Or we can think that we can overcome fear in our own power. That is Satan's demons attacking us at our vulnerabilities or weakest points. We don't have the power to overcome. We may overcome for a season, but the real power comes from God. What are you going to do to overcome fear? Let God take control or let it up to the demons?

ACT

Reach out to God for help. He alone can help us overcome.

PRAY

Lord, I come to YOU and ask for Your power to overcome my fears. Help me to gain strength from YOU. I depend upon YOU for I am weak. I ask you for wisdom, discernment, and knowledge. All these things I pray in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.

OTHER NOTES

" Pray as if everything depends upon God. Act as if everything depends upon you "

God is...

FOCUS

Psalms 62:5-8

My soul, wait silently for God alone,
For my expectation is from Him.
6 He only is my rock and my salvation;
He is my defense;
I shall not be moved.
7 In God is my salvation and my glory;
The rock of my strength,
And my refuge, is in God.
8 Trust in Him at all times, you people;
Pour out your heart before Him;
God is a refuge for us. Selah

THINK

In this passage the author, David, is talking to his soul. Soul, wait for God alone. Then the author talks about expectations. Expectations are expectancy, anticipation; hope, trust. My expectancy, my anticipation, my hope, my trust is from God. He is my rock and my salvation. God is the One to whom I go. As a rock, God is being dependable, unchanging, or providing firm foundation. God is all three things. God is my salvation because He provided Jesus as the atonement for my sins. God is my defense. He offers security, preservation, safeguard, support, advocacy, and justification. Because God is all of that,David will not be moved. I place my trust in God for my salvation and my glory. My glory is celebrity, dignity, distinction, eminence, exaltation, grandeur, greatness, honor, illustriousness, immortality, kudos, magnificence, majesty, nobility, praise, prestige, renown, reputation, splendor, sublimity, and triumph. God will supply all that. Man will not. From God, the author gets his strength. Strength meaning power, force, and might. God is also my refuge. This means God is a place of shelter, protection, or safety. Trust God at all times for all things. Trust is a certainty, belief, faith, assurance, and a confidence. Pour out your heart to God. Tell him all things that concern you. God will offer protection, safety and a shelter to get you through the situation.

ACT

Change the David to yourself. Talk to your soul. Reassure your soul that God will take care of you. He will offer you hope, trust, God is dependable, unchanging, providing a firm foundation, providing salvation. security, preservation, support, justicfication. Place your trust in God for salvation and God will give you dignity, distinction, exlatation, greatness, honor, renown,reputation, splendor, and triumph. From God you will also receive strength, power, force, and might. God will be the One to whom I run toward. I need to tell him of my concerns, troubles and needs. God will offer me protection, safety, and shelter to get through any situation that comes along.

PRAY

Lord, help me to be like David. Help me to put my trust in you. You will give me so much in return for my trust in you. It is amazing what you will do for me. Thank you for your love, concern, shelter, power, and might. I cannot live this life on earth without YOU. Amen.

 

Let me be acceptable to YOU

Let the words of my mouth, and the meditation of my heart, be acceptable in thy sight, O LORD, my strength, and my redeemer.            Psalm 19:14

Thoughts

Let the words that come out of my mouth be pleasing to God. Let me think on the words of the Lord, let those words go into my soul and bubble forth when I need them to buoy my spirit. Let my words and thoughts be acceptable to the Lord. The Lord is my strength and my redeemer.

ACT

I can be careful what words I use. I can read the Bible and pray. I can mediate and let the words seep into my soul so that I can use them when I need them.  What goes into my head will come out of my mouth.  Do I really want to be disrespective to my God?  Do I want to be disrespectful to my fellow man?  Do I want to be disrepectful to myself?  Words can uplift or they can destroy.  It is up to me to gurard my thoughts and my words.  I must rely upon YOU for You give me strength to face each day.

PRAY

Lord, let the words of my mouth and the mediatations of my heart be pleasing unto you, O Lord, for you are my savior and my redeemer. You give me strength when I am weak. I depend upon you. Amen.

God is our help and our shield

Our soul waits for the Lord;
He is our help and our shield.
For our heart shall rejoice in Him,
Because we have trusted in His holy name.

Let Your mercy, O Lord, be upon us,
Just as we hope in You. Psalm 33:20-22

Our soul waits and yearns for the Lord because He is our help in times of trouble. He is also our shield. He protects us from physical and spiritual danger. We should rejoice in HIm because we have trusted his holy name. We call out to you, O Lord, to have mercy on us just as we have hope in YOU.

Father God, thank you that we can come to you and we can wait upon You to help us in times of physical and spiritual trouble. YOU are our protector and our shield. Because of this we need to rejoice in YOU for we have trusted in your holy name. Lord, have mercy on us just as we have hope in YOU. Thank you, Lord, for allowing us to talk to you in prayer. Amen.