January 26

I’m not feeling so well today. I’m tired, bloated, crampy and truth be told, I don’t want to do much today. But there is one thing I refuse to pass up today – that is getting alone with God. I simply cannot live without pausing and soaking up His love, grace, peace and forgiveness.
Oh Lord, here I am at Your throne of grace. I am humbled before You. I am Yours to do with as You please and see fit. Holy Spirit, I pray that You will cleanse my heart and mind. Make me worthy to be drawn closer to You. Touch my mind and my heart so that I am see how Your word applies to my life today. I thank You for this time to spend in Your presence. In Jesus’ Name I pray, Amen.

Reading today: Romans 6: 1-14 Dead to Sin, Alive in Christ
This section is so jam packed with Truth, I could spend days just reading sentence by sentence. But the whole section is like a nice full plate – all of it to be enjoyed. This answers the question one of my elementary age students asked last week, “If Jesus died for us then why do we still have to die”? In just 14 short verses Paul answers this question. I’m not going to specifically address this – read it for yourself and see what God says. What caught my eye in the Scripture is the truth of being dead to sin. Sin is that temptation we all fall into. We all have a temptation. Yours may be different than mine, and not affect me at all. Be careful though, this is not the idea of what is good for you is good for you, and what is good for me is good for me. Sin is sin. It may look different, but it is still sin. The other aspect of sin is selfishness. I have been thinking lately about the Old Testament happenings. People then weren’t distracted like we are today. Their lives were a lot more simple. TV, email, blogs, didn’t exist to take their minds away from God. We are selfish people. And in our society today, we are 100% wrapped up in ourselves. That is the basis for most sin. If we are so concerned about ourselves, we can’t be completely concerned about God. And that sin of selfishness separates us from God. Verse 6, “For we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin – because anyone who has died has been freed from sin”. Allowing sin to die from us is what baptism symbolizes. When I surrender my life to God every morning, I am dying to sin, so that God will reign and not sin. So today – I am alive. Alive for God, alive through God, alive because the Holy Spirit lives within me.

I tried to end in prayer but I was so distracted. All I could do was think of all the things that I needed to do today. So I grabbed a pad and pencil and jotted them down as they came to mind – one after another. Oh brother! The battle was against sleepiness too! Even worse! Then a song came on: Byron Cage, This is the Air I Breathe. Look it up! That snapped me out of my funk. So I closed by praying that song. “And I...I’m desperate for You….And I ….can’t live without You…this is my daily Bread”. Refreshed!

I desire to walk in the Power of God today!
I prayed for many people and circumstances. I asked God to guide me every step of the day. And I prayed that the Holy Spirit will reach far through this blog to touch many lives.

Be blessed and refreshed today!