Year: 2022

“And God is able to make all grace abound toward you; that ye, always having all sufficiency in all things, may abound to every good work:” 2 Corinthians‬ ‭9‬:‭8‬ ‭KJV‬‬. There are times in life when we go through difficult situations and realize again how weak we are in ourselves. Perhaps we begin to wonder if we will be able to make it through with peace and victory. Our concern is not about God’s power or willingness to help, but about our ability to lay hold of what He provides for us. These words remind us that God not only has all the grace we need, but He is well able to make His grace active in our hearts and lives in the full capacity that we need it. When we feel unable, let our faith rest in the truth that God is able! He is able to extend to us all the grace we need for every situation. And when His marvelous grace fills our hearts, we will have sufficient for everything we ever face. With His grace abounding in us, we will be able to accomplish the good work He calls us to. When the Apostle Paul faced one of his greatest trials, he pleaded with God to remove it. But when he finally received the word of the Lord, he discovered something far better. Jesus said to him, “My grace is sufficient for you”. No matter what we face, let us rest our souls in that same promise. His grace is sufficient.

“He sent redemption unto His people: He hath commanded His covenant for ever: Holy and Reverend is His name.” Psalm‬ ‭111‬:‭9‬ ‭KJV. In this brief chapter the psalmist is praising God for His mighty works. He describes God’s works as great, honorable and wonderful. He says that we are to remember God’s works. Verse 6 says “He has showed His people the power of His works…” But it is when we understand verse 9, that we truly see God’s greatest work of all. Of all the great and mighty works of God, nothing is so great as when “He sent redemption to His people!” This is what God did when Jesus came into this world. 1 Corinthians 1:30 tells us “Christ is made unto us redemption…” This is the mighty work Jesus did when He suffered, bled and died upon Calvary’s cross! And now, we have redemption through His blood! This is His mightiest work, when He provided for us undeserving creatures, this great salvation. May God help us to understand and rejoice in this glorious redemption that He has so freely provided to us! When God sent His Son into this sin cursed world, He was sending our Redemption. Oh how blessed we are to know that He is our Great Redeemer! How wonderful it is to know that Jesus has redeemed us from the hand of the enemy and redeemed us to God!

Thursday Devo
“…and His Name shall be called…The Prince of Peace.” Isaiah‬ ‭9‬:‭6‬ ‭KJV‬‬. To experience personally this truth of Jesus as our Prince of Peace is one of the greatest blessings of Christian life. Everything about sin and this ungodly world work to destroy peace. The powers of hell work every day to disturb and to rob us of this blessed peace we have in Jesus. Our enemy hates to see God’s children living with the peace of Heaven in our souls. On our own, we could never remain at peace. But when we understand that Jesus is our Prince of Peace and the Mighty God, we discover that His power to preserve our peace is far greater than any power of evil that works against us. As the Prince of Peace we should understand that His peace extends only to those who are citizens of His spiritual kingdom. Romans 14:17 tells us “the Kingdom of God is peace…”When the psalmist said “peace be within thy walls” it was a prophetic reference to spiritual Jerusalem. Those who are redeemed walk in peace within the walls of salvation. Each of us have the choice to live in this kingdom of peace if we will. As we do, we have the assurance, that our Prince of Peace will keep our souls in His perfect peace.

“…and His Name shall be called… The Everlasting Father…” Isaiah‬ ‭9‬:‭6‬ ‭KJV‬‬. When Jesus came to this world one of the most important things He did was to reveal the Fatherhood of God. He said to His disciples, “If you have seen Me, you have seen the Father”. On many occasions He spoke to them of the Father. The things that He did and said were all evidence of the Father working in and through Him. One of the tragedies of sin was that it caused mankind to lose sight of the Fatherhood of God and develop wrong ideas about Him. And still today, much of our religious world has wrong ideas about God. People live under false ideas of a Sovereign King Who rules only in justice. Others see Him as an unmerciful Judge. They have an unholy dread of Who He is and what He will do. But above every thought we have of God should always be the word ‘FATHER’. He is the Sovereign King, but the King is our Father. He is the Judge of all, but the Judge is our Father. And unlike human fathers, God is always a good, faithful and perfect Father. This is why scripture tells us, “His compassions fail not, His mercies are new every morning”. Because a perfect Father understands His children. He knows that we are creatures of the dust who desperately need Him every moment. Let these words be often upon our minds, ‘God is my Everlasting Father.’

“…and His Name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The Mighty God…” Isaiah‬ ‭9‬:‭6‬ ‭KJV‬‬. One of the wonderful things about Jesus is His Omnipotence. This means that He is Almighty. There is no limit nor end to His power. How glad we are that He is not a weak or limited God like the false gods of this world. This should give us great confidence when we place our lives in His hands. Because He is the Mighty God there is no power in existence that can separate us from His love! Because of His power we can be sure that He is far greater than anything or anyone that will ever come against us. When He calls us from sin and promises to make us new creatures in Christ, we can be sure that He has the power to accomplish that work in us. When temptation comes we can always depend on His Mighty power working in us to protect us and help us to overcome. And when we face circumstances that are impossible to us on a human level, we can know that ‘Nothing is impossible to Him!’ As little children, many of us learned the words to the song, “My God is so great, so strong and so mighty, there’s nothing my God cannot do!” Now as more mature Christians, let us put into practice that kind of faith in our Lord and Saviour. He is still the Mighty God.

“…and His Name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor…”Isaiah‬ ‭9‬:‭6‬ ‭KJV‬‬. What a great blessing it is to have Jesus Christ as our personal Counselor. He is the only One Who knows and understands us exactly as we are. He knows our deepest needs. He sees our weaknesses and our strengths. Because He is omniscient, His counsel is always perfect and unfailing. How different it is when we come to Jesus for counsel rather than people around us. People see only what is on the outside, but He sees our hearts. Many people who give advice have some motive or agenda of their own, rather than our spiritual good. But Jesus always counsels with the purest motive. His great love for us moves Him to tell us only what is best for us. And thank God, Jesus is never too busy to listen! He is always willing to receive us and minister to our true needs. But how can we benefit from Jesus as Counselor if we do not humble ourselves and go to Him for counsel? This is one of the ways we know if He is truly our Lord. When He is our Lord, we always seek His counsel. We do not make decisions on our own. One of the great blessings of allowing Him to counsel us and direct our steps is that it places the responsibility on Him. It removes from us the burden of always trying to figure things out. When we open our hearts to His counsel, He speaks and we obey.

“…and His Name shall be called Wonderful…” Isaiah‬ ‭9‬:‭6‬ ‭KJV‬‬. On this day that we set aside to remember the miraculous and glorious birth of our Lord and Saviour Jesus, let us realize, that everything about Jesus is truly Wonderful! Of all the good things God has blessed us with, of all the love we enjoy with family and friends, there is nothing so wonderful as Jesus. The fact that He was willing to come was Wonderful. His lowly birth, taking on our flesh to identify with our condition, was Wonderful. His perfect and holy life was Wonderful. His great mercy and compassion for suffering souls was Wonderful. His power to heal and restore broken lives was Wonderful. And then, to consider His suffering in our place, His atoning death upon Calvary’s cross for our sins, and all that He did for us in making His soul an offering for our unworthy souls, is the most Wonderful thing our minds can comprehend! But then, how Wonderful it was that death could not hold Him! On the third day, He arose victorious over death, hell and the grave. How Wonderful He is in providing for us this great salvation. So today, on this Christmas Day where we celebrate Jesus’ birth, let us rejoice with the songwriter, “A Wonderful Saviour is Jesus my Lord!” I hope and pray that you have a wonderful Christmas!

“For unto us a Child is born, unto us a Son is given: and the government shall be upon His shoulder: and His name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace.”Isaiah‬ ‭9‬:‭6‬ ‭KJV‬‬. In this beautiful prophecy of the birth of Jesus, the prophet is inspired to write many things about Who Jesus would be to those who will trust Him. But before He can be to us all of those things, we must first place the government of our lives upon His shoulders. This is called the Lordship of Jesus Christ, which is a very clear New Testament truth. This means that when we come in true faith to Jesus, we accept Him as our Saviour and submit to Him as our Lord and Master. It means He is the One Who governs our lives! It is sad that in so much of the professing church today, this truth is being neglected and even denied. Many who claim to be believers openly reject Jesus’ authority over their lives. But let us be clear, that is apostate religion. That is not the true faith that the early church contended for. True salvation means that we trust Him as our Saviour and Lord. To those who deny His Lordship over their lives, they miss out on the joy and reality of Who He is. They are left with only a form of religion with no power. But for those who humbly accept Jesus as Lord, they will experience how Wonderful He truly is.

“The people that walked in darkness have seen a great Light: they that dwell in the land of the shadow of death, upon them hath the Light shined.”Isaiah‬ ‭9‬:‭2‬ ‭KJV‬‬. In this chapter there are several beautiful prophecies of Jesus Christ. In this verse the Holy Spirit inspired the prophet to write of spiritual conditions that would exist when Jesus would enter this world. It would be a time when most of the covenant people of God walked in darkness. Their hopes were so dim it seemed as if they were living in the shadow of death. But how things began to change when Jesus came! In the midst of all that darkness came the One Who was the Light of the world! The Light of Hope began to shine in their hearts. Jesus came to rescue fallen man from the hopelessness of sin and satan’s tyranny. What a wonderful thing it was when His glorious light began to shine into hearts that had been walking in darkness. And because of Who Jesus is, His Light has continued to shine for over 2000 years since He was born into this world. To every soul that walks in darkness He is willing to shine the light of His love into their hearts. To everyone who lives in the dark shadow of hopelessness, Jesus will shine the light of hope and make life truly meaningful. Let us place all of our hopes in the Saviour Whose Light is still shining. And let us rejoice that we who once walked in darkness have seen a Great Light.

“He turneth the wilderness into a standing water, and dry ground into watersprings.” Psalm‬ ‭107‬:‭35‬ ‭KJV‬‬. This verse describes what God does in the hearts of those who put their trust in Him and praise Him for His goodness. The wilderness and dry ground are describing a spiritual condition of heart and soul that is barren and drought stricken. Our souls are created to need the spiritual living water that comes only from God. There is an inner hunger in our hearts for fellowship with our Heavenly Father. When we neglect this, our soul becomes like a dry and barren wilderness. Over 2000 years ago, Jesus Christ was born into a world that was spiritually a dry, waste howling wilderness. Sin had destroyed the relationship that God created us for. But what a joy it is to know, Jesus came to restore what sin had destroyed! He came to give living water to thirsty souls. He came to be a well of springing water that would cause the desert to blossom as the rose. All of these physical descriptions represent what Jesus can do in the soul of man. And what a joy it is to know He is still doing this today! So in those times when our soul feels dry and barren, let us come to Jesus and He will be our Well of Living Water. He will flood our souls with His love and goodness.