"For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope" - Jeremiah 29:11 God let's us know that He knowingly coordinates our lives; that we each have promising plans for our future. The more we experience God, the more we are able to trust that He lovingly holds our future, and the better equipped we become to follow His plan for us. We must also remember that God is not limited by our perspectives. His idea of hope may be one that we cannot readily accept; His thoughts become our thoughts the more we know Him.
"Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest" -Matthew 11:28 Overloaded schedules, obligations, constant work, stress, - through the parts of life that wear us down and break out spirits, God promises that we will find rest for ourselves, body and soul, when we wholeheartedly seek to rest in Him. Resting in Him requires us to acknowledge the weight of our everyday, recognize our limits, and still our hearts to provide Him space to bring peace.
“And my God will meet all your needs according to the riches of his glory in Christ Jesus.” - Philippians 4:19
“Keep your lives free from the love of money and be content with what you have, because God has said, ‘Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you.’ - Hebrews 13:5 When we seek God to meet our needs, God will give us all that we require. He will never leave us with less than what He knows we need. Again, we must not forget that His perspective is not limited by our own; what we think we need and what He knows we need are often different. With grace, God will also show us what we are better off without.
"But whoever listens to me will dwell secure and will be at ease, without dread of disaster." -Proverbs 1:33 Similar to God's promise of welfare in our future, God also promises us security in our relationship with Him. We must trust that God will protect us from the ways the Enemy tries to create conflict in our lives -if we let Him. God does not promise us a life free of hurt, but He does promise us spiritual protection, eternally. When we seek Him, the Holy Spirit guides us away from spiritual disaster. The Enemy is unable to consume us if we allow God to protect us.
“For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” - Romans 6:23 When we accept the gift that Jesus gives us, when we trust in our hearts that He gave His life for us on the cross, forever freeing us from our debt for sin, we are promised eternity with God in Paradise - a life without hurt, worry, want for anything. There is nothing we can do to deserve this any less or any more.
"For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God- not the result of works, so that no one may boast." - Ephesians 2:8-9
“If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.” - Romans 10:9 Again, there is nothing we can do to deserve the gift Christ gave us any less or any more. Because of God's endless mercy and forgiveness,we are forever offered this gift; we are forever provided with the opportunity to be forgiven of our sins - we simply have to trust with our hearts that it's true. If our salvation was dependent upon our behavior, then it would not be the work of Jesus.
This is a place where I hope to collect notes from all our campaigners. It's impossible to come to every one & sometimes it's just necessary to look back and revisit.