My thoughts and my life

My prayer for you for today is that you will remember that you are saved out of mercy and that God has incredible patience with you out of His great love, in Jesus name. 1Timothy 1:15-16 This is a trustworthy saying, and everyone should accept it: "Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners"—and I am the worst of them all. But God had mercy on me so that Christ Jesus could use me as a prime example of His great patience with even the worst sinners. Then others will realize that they, too, can believe in Him and receive eternal life. Mercy - But God had mercy on me. What a powerful statement Paul makes to Timothy here in the first chapter of his letter. Paul briefly tells of his past and how God changed him to become his messenger to the gentiles. Paul says that Jesus came into this world to save sinners and that he is the worst of them all. Do you feel like that, do you feel that you are the worst sinner? God’s mercy goes beyond that, it goes beyond your sins...

My prayer for you for today is that you will allow the Lord to lead your hearts into a full understanding of His love and the patient endurance that comes from Jesus, in Jesus name. 2 Thessalonians 3:2-5 Pray, too, that we will be rescued from wicked and evil people, for not everyone is a believer. But the Lord is faithful; He will strengthen you and guard you from the evil one. And we are confident in the Lord that you are doing and will continue to do the things we commanded you. May the Lord lead your hearts into a full understanding and expression of the love of God and the patient endurance that comes from Christ. Believers. It is inevitable that we will meet many non-believers in our journey with God, some will be open to hear the message of Jesus and some will even accept this truth, but there are those whose hearts have been hardened and they will never see nor understand the gospel of Jesus. It is sad that they will continue to live their lives oblivio...

My prayer for you for today is that you will live a live worthy of God’s call and that He will empower you in every aspect of your life to accomplish this, in Jesus name. 2 Thessalonians 1:11-12 So we keep on praying for you, asking our God to enable you to live a life worthy of His call. May He give you the power to accomplish all the good things your faith prompts you to do. Then the name of our Lord Jesus will be honoured because of the way you live, and you will be honoured along with Him. This is all made possible because of the grace of our God and Lord, Jesus Christ. Worthy - Living a live worthy of God’s call. I was just telling our prayer group yesterday how hard it is firstly making the choice to live fully for Jesus and secondly then living a life worthy of God’s call. We are so easily set off course when things are difficult and many lose their way and become mild Christians.  My dear friend, I don’t want you to fall away. I don’t want you to give up...

My prayer for you for today is that you will remain dedicated to the Lord through all your persecutions and that through this you will grow stronger in your relationship with the Lord, in Jesus name. 2 Thessalonians 1:5-8 And God will use this persecution to show his justice and to make you worthy of his Kingdom, for which you are suffering. In his justice he will pay back those who persecute you. And God will provide rest for you who are being persecuted and also for us when the Lord Jesus appears from heaven. He will come with his mighty angels in flaming fire, bringing judgment on those who don't know God and on those who refuse to obey the Good News of our Lord Jesus. Persecution. Every day we are victimized by a relentless enemy and he will use everything in his power to break you and make you lose hope. It is in our safe places where he will always try to create the most destruction. I find that at my work I am constantly challenged by waves of attacks on eve...

My prayer for you for today is that you will be a true friend to those around you, encouraging them and being patient with them, in Jesus name. 1 Thessalonians 5:14 Brothers and sisters, we urge you to warn those who are lazy. Encourage those who are timid. Take tender care of those who are weak. Be patient with everyone. Care. Today the Holy Spirit just wants to remind us on how important we are to people we know and to people we meet.  A patient heart, a tender warning and an encouraging word can change the worst of days. It is not only you that faces the enemy on a daily basis, but everyone is under constant attacks to bring them down and to create distance between them and the Lord. Therefore it is even more important that we take care of each other so that everyone you know will not feel alone in their struggles but will be encouraged by a caring friend. Paul makes four important statements that we can focus on today: Warn those who are lazy – Laziness is a ter...

My prayer for you for today is that you will be an encouragement to those around you and that you will be encouraged, in Jesus name. 1 Thessalonians 5:11 So encourage each other and build each other up, just as you are already doing. Encourage. It is funny how it is sometimes so easy to be harsh to someone than to rather say something encouraged. We can so easily bring people down and find it so hard to uplift them. There are also thousands of books that will teach us how to be positive and how to live our lives, which is great. To me there is only one book and that is the Bible and one example and that is Jesus Christ. He never turned away from people. He ministered among the outcasts, the lepers and even the hated tax collectors. He saw good in everyone and in the end died for all even you and me. When compared to Jesus I fail miserably, yet with God all things are possible and that is where my thought for today comes in, my reminder. I believe that when we are filled with...

My prayer for you for today is that you will always be prepared so that you will not be surprised when the day of the Lord is upon us, in Jesus name. 1 Thessalonians 5:2 For you know quite well that the day of the Lord's return will come unexpectedly, like a thief in the night. Be prepared. Paul writes here in Thessalonians 5 that our lives must be lived in such a way that we will not be surprised when the day of the Lord is here.  He continues in verse 5 with “For you are all children of the light and of the day; we don't belong to darkness and night. So be on your guard, not asleep like the others. Stay alert and be clearheaded.” This made me think of Matthew 25, where Jesus told the Parable of the Ten Bridesmaids "Then the Kingdom of Heaven will be like ten bridesmaids who took their lamps and went to meet the bridegroom. Five of them were foolish, and five were wise. The five who were foolish didn't take enough olive oil for their lamps, but t...

My prayer for you for today is that you will live to please God, in Jesus name. 1 Thessalonians 2:4 For we speak as messengers approved by God to be entrusted with the Good News. Our purpose is to please God, not people. He alone examines the motives of our hearts. Please God. God alone examines the motives of our hearts, my goodness this statement made by Paul surely made me think this morning. How many times do we do something for someone just to please them yet inside we are angry about it. God not only sees the deed but He also sees the intentions behind it. We must be so careful about the way we commit our lives to please. We must please God in everything we do, from the smallest “hallo” up to your commitment in a relationship. We are so easily blinded by the enemy in who God is in our daily lives and in how we behave and treat other. We forget that God is not just somebody that we must keep happy. He is God and ultimately holds your salvation in His hands.  My ...

My prayer for you for today is that the idols of this world will have no effect on your life as you serve a living and true God, in Jesus name. 1 Thessalonians 1:9-10 For they keep talking about the wonderful welcome you gave us and how you turned away from idols to serve the living and true God. And they speak of how you are looking forward to the coming of God's Son from heaven—Jesus, whom God raised from the dead. He is the one who has rescued us from the terrors of the coming judgment. Idols. Don’t you just love the show – idols? All the glamour and excitement, the surprises and the sorrow, and all that leads up to the final episode where the best idol is crowned. I must say Idols have shown us some wonderful and really weird people, and people with truly amazing talents. The world we live in today is world of idols, and out of all of them I think that most people fall for fame and fortune. People always want to be popular and have lots of money to throw around to im...

My prayer for you for today is that you will highlight Jesus in your way of life, in Jesus name. 1 Thessalonians 1:5 For when we brought you the Good News, it was not only with words but also with power, for the Holy Spirit gave you full assurance that what we said was true. And you know of our concern for you from the way we lived when we were with you. Live. I often talk about the way we live our lives and how we should be ambassadors for Jesus wherever we are. I think when you suddenly find yourself on God’s side and you realize how wrong your life has been it is sometimes embarrassing. This to me must be the hardest mind shift that you should make and that is to put the past behind you and to focus on what lies ahead.  It is so easy to fall back into old habits when you feel unworthy of God’s love. I think we miss so many lives by not noticing the need because we live a life not close to God. It all starts with you, you have to forgive, forget and ask for forgiveness...

My payer for you for today is that you will work diligently knowing that the master that you are serving is Christ, in Jesus name. Colossians 3:23-25 Work willingly at whatever you do, as though you were working for the Lord rather than for people. Remember that the Lord will give you an inheritance as your reward, and that the Master you are serving is Christ. But if you do what is wrong, you will be paid back for the wrong you have done. For God has no favorites. Willingly. Have you ever had that feeling that you just don’t want to get up? You know that I wish I could just stay in bed and forget that it is time to get up and go to work. At some stage everyone must feel like that and I am sure some more than others. It must be harder if your job is not something that you are passionate about and you just do it to survive, and then there are our co-workers, our colleagues, the people we work with can have a negative impact on our job satisfaction. In all of this we ...

My prayer for you for today is that God will bring peace in your life that will rule your hearts, in Jesus name. Colossians 3:14-15 Above all, clothe yourselves with love, which binds us all together in perfect harmony. And let the peace that comes from Christ rule in your hearts. For as members of one body you are called to live in peace. And always be thankful. Harmony. It is sad that the devil will use anything in His power to hurt us and to break our faith. He is the master of chaos and pain and as soon as your relationship with God becomes stronger he will try and bring you down. I always say it is much easier to give advice than to accept advice. We can be so stubborn at times and yet when the walls start to fall we seek help. What is so amazing is how God can bring peace into your life so quickly as soon as you call upon Him in times of sorrow. With the sickness of our baby boy and quick unexpected change in his condition that led to his hospitalisation, I could f...

My prayer for you for today is that you will forgive as God forgave you, in Jesus name. Colossians 3:12-13 Since God chose you to be the holy people He loves, you must clothe yourselves with tenderhearted mercy, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience. Make allowance for each other's faults, and forgive anyone who offends you. Remember, the Lord forgave you, so you must forgive others. Tender-hearted.  Then Peter came to Him and asked, "Lord, how often should I forgive someone who sins against me? Seven times?"  - "No, not seven times," Jesus replied, "but seventy times seven! (Matthew 18) I think this must be the one place I have fallen so many times in my life, to have mercy and to be kind and gentle and to be patient and most of all, to accept other people’s faults. Accepting the fact that other people also have faults is a daily struggle and I think in most of our daily skirmishes this can be quite an uphill battle. Isn’t it funny that w...

My prayer for you for today is that your focus will be on the realities of heaven so that we will all share in His glory when Jesus returns, in Jesus name. Colossians 3:1-4 Since you have been raised to new life with Christ, set your sights on the realities of heaven, where Christ sits in the place of honor at God's right hand. Think about the things of heaven, not the things of earth. For you died to this life, and your real life is hidden with Christ in God. And when Christ, who is your life, is revealed to the whole world, you will share in all His glory. Home is where the heart is. I love going home to my parents, taking the long drive through all the places you have travelled so many times before. Driving down into the valley overlooking all the farms and seeing all the green pastures as the sun touches it all revealing the beauty of God’s creation. It is such a beautiful place nestled in the heart of what is now called Limpopo, with its life giving rivers...

My prayer for you for today is that you will continue to follow Jesus with a passion deeply rooted on His foundation, in Jesus name. Colossians 2:6-7 And now, just as you accepted Christ Jesus as your Lord, you must continue to follow Him. Let your roots grow down into Him, and let your lives be built on Him. Then your faith will grow strong in the truth you were taught, and you will overflow with thankfulness. Going home. Going back to your roots can be an emotional journey. What a blessing to have been able to go home to my parents over the weekend and to see our family again. As I listened to my niece telling me how they went back to our old farm to see it again after so many years and how that brought back so many memories, I can’t help to think that each day should begin with a return to Jesus journey. Paul says that you must let your roots grow down into Him and you must let your lives be built on Him. My dearest friend, each day should begin like that. Each da...

My prayer for you for today is that you will seek wisdom and knowledge from Jesus so that you will never be deceived, in Jesus name. Colossians 2:3-4 In Him lie hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. I am telling you this so no one will deceive you with well-crafted arguments. Treasures. We are so often misguided by clever ideas and well-argued statements that we can so easily be overwhelmed into silence. It is the enemy’s strategy to make bold assumptions with no proof but merely an idea to bring so many people to a point where they start to question the wrong side. All the wisdom and knowledge is in God and yet we seek guidance at so many wrong places and we listen so easily to the wrong people. Let us return to God and seek His presence and His wisdom, so that those with wrong ideas and well-crafted arguments have but no influence on us as we remain focussed and guided by God in Jesus Christ our saviour. My dear friend, ask God to be your translator wh...

My prayer for you over this awesome time is that you will be reminded of the amazing gift God gave us in the resurrection of Jesus and that you will tell it wherever you go and in all that you do, in Jesus name. Colossians 1:28-29 So we tell others about Christ, warning everyone and teaching everyone with all the wisdom God has given us. We want to present them to God, perfect in their relationship to Christ. That's why I work and struggle so hard, depending on Christ's mighty power that works within me. Resurrected. I am always amazed at this time of year as we enter the Easter weekend. Even now after so many years the enemy cannot quiet the defeat he had in the resurrection of Jesus. What an amazing time to not only celebrate our freedom from sin but to share the amazing miracle with those that are still lost or does not fully understand the implications of a life without Jesus. Jesus stated it so clearly that if you deny Him here on earth He will deny you in heave...

My prayer for you for today is that they enemy will find no place to accuse you and that you will know that you have been reconciled to God, in Jesus name. Colossians 1:19-20 For God in all His fullness was pleased to live in Christ, and through Him God reconciled everything to himself. He made peace with everything in heaven and on earth by means of Christ's blood on the cross. Reconciled. I love this comparison “reconciled”, God reconciled everything to himself. In the payroll world we know that to reconcile is to balance the input with the actual events. We balance figures on our systems to the values we paid and only when all is reconciled and balanced we submit to the receiver of revenue. When I look at the word reconciled, to me it means God took you and balanced you to Him so that you can be and look like Him. Awesome isn’t it? Jesus came and made all this possible, but you have to look at the next section from verse 21:  This includes you who were once far away f...

My prayer for you for today is that you will once again know how great our God is and that you will worship Him with all your heart, in Jesus name. Colossians 1:15-17 Christ is the visible image of the invisible God. He existed before anything was created and is supreme over all creation, for through Him God created everything in the heavenly realms and on earth. He made the things we can see and the things we can't see—such as thrones, kingdoms, rulers, and authorities in the unseen world. Everything was created through Him and for Him. He existed before anything else, and He holds all creation together. Laminin. When I first heard Louie Giglio talk about laminin I was just amazed at what I saw. Coming across this passage this morning and looking at laminin once more I can’t help but to be amazed over and over again. Our God is an awesome God and with something like this, how can you not believe. My dear friend this is a faith booster for you this morning. Accor...

My prayer for you for today is that you will remember the prize that was paid for your sins and that you will thrive in knowing that you are free from sin, in Jesus name. Colossians 1:13-14 For He has rescued us from the kingdom of darkness and transferred us into the Kingdom of His dear Son, who purchased our freedom and forgave our sins. Forgiven. Today’s reminder is a reminder of the amazing love an awesome God has for each of us. Jesus came into this world and destroyed the kingdom of darkness and with this He rescued us from eternal death into a life where we can have eternal life. I can’t help but to imagine the humiliation, the pain and the suffering He took out of love to break an eternal curse and with this He purchased freedom for all. So I have a song in my head that I wish to share with you today – Amazing love from Hillsong. I'm forgiven, because you were forsaken I'm accepted, you were condemned I'm alive and well, you're spirit is within ...

My prayer for you for today is that you will have endurance and that God will strengthen you so that you will endure to the end, in Jesus name. Colossians 1:11-12 We also pray that you will be strengthened with all His glorious power so you will have all the endurance and patience you need. May you be filled with joy, always thanking the Father. He has enabled you to share in the inheritance that belongs to His people, who live in the light. Endurance. It is always funny to watch spectators, they always know more than the athletes and there are those that thinks they could do it better than the actual athlete. It is a different story going through months of preparation and then finally standing on the field to compete. The race of life is much the same. When we stand on the outside living a mild life, we are easy to find fault in the lives of those that is living for Christ, but the minute we step into the race we realise how hard it is and so many give up and just remai...