What god is there in heaven or on earth
who can do anything like Your works and Your mighty deeds?
Who in the heavens can be compared to the Lord? Who among the sons of the mighty can be likened to the Lord? … O Lord God of hosts, who is mighty like You, O Lord? Your faithfulness also surrounds You. § Among the gods there is none like You, O Lord; nor are there any works like Your works. § For Your word’s sake, and according to Your own heart, You have done all these great things, to make Your servant know them. Therefore You are great, O Lord God. For there is none like You, nor is there any God besides You, according to all that we have heard with our ears.
“Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor have entered into the heart of man the things which God has prepared for those who love Him.” But God has revealed them to us through His Spirit. § The secret things belong to the Lord our God, but those things which are revealed belong to us and to our children.
Deut. 3:24; Ps. 89:6, 8; 86:8; 2 Sam. 7:21–22; 1 Cor. 2:9–10; Deut. 29:29
He who glories, let him glory in the Lord.
Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom, let not the mighty man glory in his might, nor let the rich man glory in his riches; but let him who glories glory in this, that he understands and knows Me, that I am the Lord.
I also count all things loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as rubbish, that I may gain Christ. § I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes. § I have reason to glory in Christ Jesus in the things which pertain to God.
Whom have I in heaven but You? And there is none upon earth that I desire besides You. § My heart rejoices in the Lord … I rejoice in Your salvation.
Not unto us, O Lord, not unto us, but to Your name give glory, because of Your mercy, because of Your truth.
1 Cor. 1:31; Jer. 9:23–24; Phil. 3:8; Rom. 1:16;
15:17; Ps. 73:25; 1 Sam. 2:1; Ps. 115:1
What God commands you and me to do, He equips us for. It’s that simple!
If you want to discover your spiritual gifts, start obeying God. Responding to His command with “I can’t” is invalid, because He will never command you to do something that He has not equipped and empowered you to do. As you serve Him, you will find that He has given you the gifts that are necessary to follow through in obedience. Any of them. All of them. And if you lack any that you need, God will bring people alongside you who have the gifts that you don’t. Working together, you will accomplish the task to the glory of God.
And that’s the body of Christ! That’s the church. Individual members of the family, each obeying his or her call, exercising the particular gifts the Spirit has given, so that our work is not in vain but produces eternal results. So . . . get to work! You’re equipped!
Pray for one another, that you may be healed.
Abraham answered and said, “Indeed now, I who am but dust and ashes have taken it upon myself to speak to the Lord: Suppose there were five less than the fifty righteous; would You destroy all of the city for lack of five?” So He said, “If I find there forty-five, I will not destroy it.”
Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they do. § Pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you.
I pray for them. I do not pray for the world but for those whom You have given Me, for they are Yours … I do not pray for these alone, but also for those who will believe in Me through their word. § Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ.
The effective, fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much. Elijah was a man with a nature like ours, and he prayed earnestly that it would not rain; and it did not rain on the land for three years and six months.
James 5:16; Gen. 18:27–28; Luke 23:34; Matt. 5:44;
John 17:9, 20; Gal. 6:2; James 5:16–17
As for man, his days are like grass;
as a flower of the field, so he flourishes.
For the wind passes over it, and it is gone,
and its place remembers it no more.
So teach us to number our days, that we may gain a heart of wisdom. § What will it profit a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul?
Surely the people are grass. The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God stands forever. § The world is passing away, and the lust of it; but he who does the will of God abides forever.
Behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation. § Use this world as not misusing it. For the form of this world is passing away. § Let us consider one another in order to stir up love and good works, not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as is the manner of some, but exhorting one another, and so much the more as you see the Day approaching.
Ps. 103:15–16; 90:12; Mark 8:36; Isa. 40:7–8;
1 John 2:17; 2 Cor. 6:2; 1 Cor. 7:31; Heb. 10:24–25
In the midst of our suffering, it can often be difficult to glimpse the glory to come. Suffering is so immediate and can seem so permanent that we can easily lose sight of the big picture. The pain can be so crushing and our hearts can be so broken that we just don’t understand why! Why me? Whenever that question tends to fill my mind, I hear Him whisper to my heart, “Anne, why not you? Just trust Me! Trust Me to be with you. Trust Me to bring you through. Trust Me to be enough for you. Trust Me – because I love you!”
When I don’t understand why, I trust Him because . . . God loves even me!
Are you hurt because you’ve thought that if God truly loved you, you would be exempt from pain and problems and pressure? Lay your hurts at His nail-pierced feet – and just trust Him because He loves even you!
The house to be built for the Lord must be exceedingly magnificent.
You … as living stones, are being built up a spiritual house. § Do you not know that you are the temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you? If anyone defiles the temple of God, God will destroy him. For the temple of God is holy, which temple you are. § Your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own. For you were bought at a price; therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God’s. § What agreement has the temple of God with idols? For you are the temple of the living God. As God has said: “I will dwell in them and walk among them. I will be their God, and they shall be My people.” § [You] having been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being the chief cornerstone, in whom the whole building, being fitted together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord, in whom you also are being built together for a dwelling place of God in the Spirit.
1 Chron. 22:5; 1 Peter 2:5; 1 Cor. 3:16–17; 6:19–20; 2 Cor. 6:16; Eph. 2:19–22
He is before all things.
The Amen … the Beginning of the creation of God. § The beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in all things He may have the preeminence.
The Lord possessed me at the beginning of His way, before His works of old. I have been established from everlasting, from the beginning, before there was ever an earth … When He prepared the heavens, I was there, when He drew a circle on the face of the deep … when He assigned to the sea its limit, so that the waters would not transgress His command … I was daily His delight, rejoicing always before Him. § Indeed before the day was, I am He.
The Lamb slain from the foundation of the world. § The author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.
Col. 1:17; Rev. 3:14; Col. 1:18; Prov. 8:22–23, 27,
29–30; Isa. 43:13; Rev. 13:8; Heb. 12:2
