ReFocus

Sylvia Gunter has once again written a wonderful devotion:

Listen to Zephaniah 3:17. “The LORD your God is with you, he is mighty to save. He will take great delight in you, he will quiet you with his love, he will rejoice over you with singing.” Listen again from the Amplified Bible. “The Lord Your God is in the midst of you, a mighty One, a Savior who saves! He will rejoice over you with joy. In his love he will rest in silent satisfaction. He will exult over you with singing.”

Receive your Father’s smile today. All the affectionate imagery you can muster is only a dim picture of how he feels about you. You have not yet heard or seen or known the majesty of all his great love. You have longed and ached for a father’s embrace, and you have a Father whose heart longs for you. Be blessed as you receive his embrace. Look into his eyes to see him and yourself reflected there. He loves you in the way you were created to be loved. He loves you with his love as strong as death. He has come to overwhelm you with his love. He will pour out over your life everything you need. He has saved the best till now.

One thing is necessary: live at his feet and rest in his presence. Let his peace permeate your mind. Let his love calm your heart. As your Abba delights in his Beloved Son in whom he is well pleased, he delights in you in the same way, because he is in you and you are in him. The prayer of Jesus was “Father, let them know deeply that as you love me, so you love them, they in me and I in you” (John 17:21,26 paraphrased). He loves you beyond anything you deserve or can earn.

Let his love be the foundation of your life, and you will be filled again and again in all the promises he has spoken to you. He wants you to know that you are beloved in the Beloved Son and complete in the finished work of the cross, where he dealt with all sin, wounds, words, and other hurtful things that separate you from his love. God delights in you. There’s power in that little phrase. “I am the one God likes.” We need to live in this truth: “God LIKES me” today, every day, every moment. That doesn’t mean we do everything right, but when we do something wrong, we come to a throne of grace and find mercy to help us in our need. Be blessed as you receive mercy and grace there, that empowering presence of the Spirit to believe the truth and live in it. Allow God to remove all that causes offense.

Coach your soul to let go of the past, the pain, the problems. Turn your back on them as you face your Father. Be blessed with joy and a different peace and a greater rest than you have ever known. Be blessed with refreshing and renewal in his presence, as you pursue all that he has created you for.

Spirit, be blessed in your Father’s house where there’s a party in your honor, to celebrate you, just as in Luke 15. He is an extravagant Father. Be blessed as he rejoices over you with great gladness. Be blessed in the wonderful sound of the Lord himself exulting over you in happy song.

I have been reading an absolutely wonderful book. It is ‘God Meant It For Good’ by R.T. Kendall. It is a fresh look at the life of Joseph. I don’t know that I have enjoyed a book as much as I have enjoyed this one. The chapter on forgiveness is the best I have ever seen. To erase the bitterness, we need to focus on real forgiveness.

Joseph demonstrated total forgiveness when he forgave his brothers.

1. Total forgiveness is when we protect the one we forgive. In Genesis 45:1, Joseph asked everyone to leave the room except his brothers. Why? because he did not want anyone to know what they had done to him.

2. Total forgiveness wants to make a person feel completely at ease. In Genesis 45:3, the brothers were troubled…and then Joseph asked them to come near.

3. Total forgiveness will not even allow the person to feel bad or angry with himself. In Genesis 45:4-5, Joseph says, do not be grieved or angry with yourselves.

4. Total forgiveness acknowledges that God was in charge thru the whole ordeal. ‘God did send me before you to preserve life!’

5. Total forgiveness is demonstrated when we keep someone’s sin hidden from the person who means most to him or her. Joseph said, tell dad that God sent Joseph before you to Egypt to preserve life for you.

Isn’t it time to totally forgive…in light of the cross. Aren’t you glad God totally forgave?