For all things are for your sakes, that grace, having spread through the many, may cause thanksgiving to abound to the glory of God.
2 Corinthians 4:15 (NKJV)
Grace causes us to be thankful because grace is the revelation that everything we need has already been made available. As we walk in this by faith, one day and one moment at a time, our gratitude gives glory to God. And God’s glory always shows itself in the lives of His people as the very manifestations of His favor and goodness.
Keep thy heart with all diligence; for out of it are the issues of life.
Proverbs 4:23 (KJV)
What goes on in our lives can be traced back to what is in our hearts. Jesus is in the heart transformation business! When we let Him into our hearts, He will mold and shape us from the inside out, He will radically change our hearts so we can receive and become instruments of His grace and goodness in every area of life.
Pleasant words are as an honeycomb, sweet to the soul, and health to the bones.
Proverbs 16:24 (KJV)
The words we speak can either be pleasant to our soul and bring health to our physical bodies, or similarly our words can bring about sorrow and even sickness. Let us be in the habit of speaking God’s Word over our lives, over the people we encounter, and over situations and circumstances. God’s Word will always bring joy to our souls, and He always confirms His Word with signs and manifestations following.
As newborn babes, desire the sincere milk of the word, that ye may grow thereby: If so be ye have tasted that the Lord is gracious.
1 Peter 2:2-3 (KJV)
The Word of God is the spiritual food for our born again spirit. Just as we require physical food in order to be physically strengthened, so too our recreated spirit requires spiritual food in order to become strong within us. And so let us be fed and nourished by His Word daily, and in so doing may we taste of the joy and the fullness of life that is in Him.
For this reason we also thank God without ceasing, because when you received the word of God which you heard from us, you welcomed it not as the word of men, but as it is in truth, the word of God, which also effectively works in you who believe.
1 Thessalonians 2:13 (NKJV)
As we receive the Word of God with a receptive heart of faith, the Word works in us effectively. Through the Holy Spirit it will mold us and shape us from the inside out, producing in our lives the very nature and character of who we are in Christ.
For he who would love life and see good days, let him refrain his tongue from evil, and his lips from speaking deceit. Let him turn away from evil and do good; let him seek peace and pursue it.
1 Peter 3:10-11 (NKJV)
Our words come out of what is in our hearts. As we deliberately fill our hearts with God’s Word and as we allow the love of Jesus to saturate us, we will find our words coming into alignment with life and peace. Let us be mindful of the tremendous power of our tongue, and let us purpose in our hearts to speak only words of life.
But of him are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption:
1 Corinthians 1:30 (KJV)
Jesus has become our wisdom, our righteousness, our sanctification, and our redemption. And so let us remember to not look to ourselves, but to Him. Being in Christ means that He has become our sufficiency unto whatever need may arise. As we meditate daily on this truth, accepting it in our hearts by faith, we will see the fruits of it showing up in our lives.
For the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God. For it is written, he taketh the wise in their own craftiness.
1 Corinthians 3:19 (KJV)
Let us place our faith only in the power of God, and not in what we might consider the wisdom of this world. Worldly wisdom will oftentimes try and get us to doubt the promises of God, yet we are called to realize that no amount of worldly limitation can prevent us from receiving what God has already promised us in His Word.
Beloved, let us love one another: for love is of God; and every one that loveth is born of God, and knoweth God. He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love. In this was manifested the love of God toward us, because that God sent his only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through him.
1 John 4:7-9 (KJV)
Everything God has done for us through the finished works of Jesus is rooted in His perfect love for us. To know and experience the love of God, we look to Jesus and receive the fullness of what His grace has made available. In this we will find ourselves blessed and being a blessing.
Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God;
Philippians 4:6 (NKJV)
It takes a daily training of the mind to rid ourselves from the unproductive habit of worry, and instead take our needs and requests to God in simple and childlike faith. And so whatever need may arise, let us receive by faith the supply, the deliverance or the healing that God by His grace has already set before us.
