Tag: God’s way

God’s Undeserved Favor

On By Ed AlgreenIn Answered Prayer, Appreciation, Grace, Needs, Praise, Recognize God, WorshipLeave a comment

DATE POSTED Sunday, 2022-04-24
WRITTEN AT: Citra, FL

SCRIPTURE FROM: 1 Corinthians 1:4-5; 7:9;
TRANSLATION: Easy-to-Read Version (ERV)

BIBLE TEXT: 4 I always thank my God for you because of the grace that he has given you through Christ Jesus. 5 In him you have been blessed in every way. You have been blessed in all your speaking and all your knowledge.
 7 Now you have every gift from God while you wait for our Lord Jesus Christ to come again. 8 He will keep you strong until the end so that on the day when our Lord Jesus Christ comes, you will be free from all blame. 9 God is faithful. He is the one who has chosen you to share life with his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.

APPLICATION: Paul was overwhelmed that a church, such as the one at Corinth, who had not been very faithful at all, yet it was now evident that they had been graced by God, and it showed in their demeanor and in their love of him and others. Often in today’s churches, we seem to think that those who are graced by God’s favor, are the real religious ones. But I believe that God specifically chose to be glorified through the Corinthians so that it was obvious that it was His grace at work in them. Ever got disappointed when you attended a new church and discovered that it was just an ordinary kind’a looking guy who stood in the pulpit to bring the sermon for the day? Yet by the time he concluded his teaching and preaching you were floored at the amazing way that God used him! My mind goes back to a Father’s Day, when a layman was elected to bring the Word at church that day. He had no seminary training, he was seldom involved in teaching around the church, but because of his relationship with his Master, He opened himself up as God’s messenger for that day. It was evident that God’s grace was all over that man that day, for many left that service totally blessed by God and overwhelmed by His grace to His humble servant chosen to represent Him that day. Perhaps you might recall a time when you were challenged to visit a faithful member of the church who you always looked up to in their faith and knowledge of the Lord and His Word. You may have been humbled to make the visit, but you were probably exceedingly nervous about going to minister to them. I hope that you may have left that home, or hospital bed, that night feeling overwhelmed by the grace of God that overshadowed you and filled you during your visit. A time that I felt used of God, was in agreeing to teach a Sunday School class in a large church I attended. You see, I allowed Satan to make me nervous about ministering to a group that contained many retired missionaries and pastors. Not long afterwards I remember a missionary complimenting me for teaching that past Sunday. I then realized that when God gives us an opportunity to represent Him, we have no need to become nervous, for if He calls us to it, He will guide us and give us the wisdom to make it through that job in a way pleasing to Him. I was awaken to the fact that when we are called by the Master, we should humble ourselves before the Great I Am, and not worry about the accolades from our role models that may be in the class that day. There are words in a song that I love to sing ‘Jesus loves even me’! You see, we may put so much pressure on being perfect, that we overlook the fact that the only Perfect One is the one guiding us and giving us the opportunity to be His hands and His feet here on earth. Let’s learn to soak in His grace and allow Him to lead us. Because He is perfect, our efforts to reflect His majesty will be pleasing to Him. That’s all that matters! The lost will be saved because of their encounter with Jesus Christ, not because of their encounter with a pretender, like we may sometimes portray to others. God’s grace is sufficient for every need, if only we will humble ourselves to allow Him to minister through us!

BLESSING(S) NOTED: Because of God’s faithfulness, many have become children of God. I believe He’s still working on the rest! His grace is sufficient for even you as you seek to follow His will!

PRAYER: Precious Lord, I thank You for Your wondrous grace that saved many who might read this devotional. My deepest prayer is that Your grace will be sufficient and meet the needs of the unsaved who might happen across this devotional today. I pray that it will be the answer to their prayers and fill the most important need of their lives. Thank You for Your grace to a sinner such as I, and for convicting me of my sin. Thank You for adopting me as your loving child! May the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable to You, my Savior and Lord. AMEN!

FOOTNOTE: There are two more pages on my blog that will provide you with additional information, one of them being ‘To Know Jesus’. If you have been challenged to make a decision today after reading this devotional, please click on the above page, or speak with a local Bible Teaching Pastor, or contact me at NuggetsFromGodsWord@outlook.com. Please allow someone to pray with you and give you help and/or encouragement as you begin, or continue your walk with Jesus. Words underlined in my blog might indicate a link to a song that came to mind as I wrote the devotional. Feel free to click on the link and listen as you continue to read or pray. If this devotional was forwarded to you and you would like to see more, please go to Nuggets From God’s Word and read more, or you may freely subscribe for a daily email conveniently containing each day’s devotional. You may also visit me on Spotify and listen to Nuggets while you’re out and about. I would encourage you to find a church home near by your home, and attend as frequently as you could. Get to know God, and allow His people to encourage and strengthen you in your Christian walk, while making every effort to be a blessing to them. God is at work among His people! Please consider growing in your faith, as you worship with fellow believers!

God Made It Turn out for the Best

On By Ed AlgreenIn Answered Prayer, Appreciation, Needs, Praise, Recognize God, WorshipLeave a comment

DATE WRITTEN: Saturday, 2021-03-06
WRITTEN AT: Okeechobee, FL

BIBLE REFERENCE: Genesis 50:16-20
TRANSLATION: Contemporary English Version (CEV)

BIBLE TEXT: 16 So they sent this message to Joseph: …. 17 Now we ask you to please forgive the terrible things we did. After all, we serve the same God that your father worshiped.
When Joseph heard this, he started crying.
18 Right then, Joseph’s brothers came and bowed down to the ground in front of him and said, “We are your slaves.”
19 But Joseph told them, “Don’t be afraid! I have no right to change what God has decided. 20 You tried to harm me, but God made it turn out for the best, so that he could save all these people, as he is now doing. 

OBSERVATION: I believe that most family divisions, murders and in-fighting is caused by revenge seekers, and hatred, that builds up over time because one did not get their own way and because of jealousy. It was no different in Bible days, but in the case of Joseph, we see where the end-result was quite the opposite. Oh that we may use this man of God to help us re-mold our lives into better servants for the most high God.

APPLICATION: If someone steals, we want to cut off their fingers and/or seek revenge through the courts. If someone murders, we want to kill the murderer in revenge, or have the legal system put them to death. If a family member pulls away and has little, to no, contact with parents and siblings, we are ready to disinherit them and cut them off from all family decisions. But is life that ‘cut and dry’? Does it always favor us in the way that others behave or act towards us? In John 3:16 we are told that God loved the world so much that He gave His one and only precious Son. Be reminded that ‘the world’ is not clarified to indicate that He really meant that it was for the rich that He sent His Son, nor the saved, nor just Americans, but that He did this for the world at large. Words from an old children’s song reads: ‘All are precious in His sight’. So as imitators of God; as His children; and as a people committed through salvation, and obeying the commands of God, why are we so different to our Maker? In the story of another child of God – Joesph, we could read in Genesis where his brothers were so jealous of the love his dad had for him, that they thought of killing him, but then decided to just starve him to death by throwing him in a dry well, although they ultimately sold him to passerby travelers, hoping that they nor their dad would ever see him again. But Joseph stayed true to His Maker for he: served the king faithfully; he used every opportunity to give God credit when speaking with others; and he sought God daily for wisdom and direction. This was true in the king’s court, and while in prison (because of false accusations). Jospeh saw God’s word come true through the very dream that caused division between he and his brothers, for they showed themselves before him on bended knees pleading for him to sell grain to them. Friends, God had a plan for Joseph, and He used very unlikely circumstances to get him in position, and to humble the brothers of Joseph who were out to kill him. Is our God still capable of working out His plan in our lives, and in the lives of those that we come into contact with – for His good? I have no doubt that our awesome God is just as powerful, loving, wise and unpredictable (in man’s eyes) as He always was. Joseph said that God worked out His plan for the best of many in the land, so we should not question God when He’s sending us in a different direction than we envisioned for ourselves. God’s plan will turn out for the best, and nothing we can devise could ever beat that. So trust God, be obedient to Him and follow His commands, so that you may be a part of the ‘best’ plan!

PRAYER: Dear God, please forgive us for giving so much credit to ‘happen chance’; to ‘good luck’; to us being deserving of such a blessing; and to any work that we feel like we have done to deserve Your love, wisdom and direction. May Your will be done oh Lord, and may my readers and I be obedient servants so that we may be a part of Your plan. Oh that You may receive honor and glory from everything we are involved in and everything that we share with others. Thank You for reminding us of the awesome work You did in the life of our ancestor, Joseph. I believe You can do it again – even in, and through our lives, as You work out Your plan in our lives. We serve an awesome God, and I praise You for Your goodness and Your plan for us! AMEN!

FOOTNOTE: There are two more pages on my blog at https://NuggetsFromGodsWord.org that will provide you with additional information, one of them being ‘To Know Jesus’. If you have been challenged to make a decision today after reading or listening to this devotional, please go to the above page, or speak with a local Bible Teaching Pastor, or contact me at NuggetsFromGodsWord@outlook.com. Please allow someone to pray with you and give you help and/or encouragement as you begin, or continue your walk with Jesus. If this devotional was forwarded to you and you would like to see more, please go to Nuggets From God’s Word and see all of my posts, or you may freely subscribe for a daily email conveniently containing each day’s devotional. I would encourage you to find a church home near by your home, and attend as frequently as you could. Get to know God, and allow His people to encourage and strengthen you in your Christian walk, while making every effort to be a blessing to them. God is at work among His people! Please consider growing in your faith, as you worship with fellow believers!