Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.
– 2 Corinthians 3:17 (NIV)
It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery.
– Galatians 5:1 (NIV)
In him and through faith in Him we may approach God with freedom and confidence.
– Ephesians 3:12 (NIV)
But now that you’ve found you don’t have to listen to sin tell you what to do, and have discovered the delight of listening to God telling you, what a surprise! A whole, healed, put-together life right now, with more and more of life on the way! Work hard for sin your whole life and your pension is death. But God’s gift is real life, eternal life, delivered by Jesus, our Master.
– Romans 6:21-23 (MSG)
When trouble surrounded me, I cried out to the Eternal; He answered me and brought me to a wide, open space.
The LORD, the LORD Himself, is my strength and my defense; He has become my salvation.
– Isaiah 12:2 (NIV)
Do not be afraid. Stand firm and you will see the deliverance the Lord will bring you today. …The Lord will fight for you; you need only to be still.
– Exodus 14:13,14 (NIV)
I love you, Lord; You are my strength. The Lord is my rock, my fortress, and my savior; my God is my rock, in whom I find protection. He is my shield, the power that saves me, and my place of safety. I called on the Lord, who is worthy of praise, and He saved me from my enemies. The ropes of death entangled me; floods of destruction swept over me. The grave wrapped its ropes around me; death laid a trap in my path. But in my distress I cried out to the Lord; yes, I prayed to my God for help. He heard me from His sanctuary; my cry to Him reached His ears. Then the earth quaked and trembled. The foundations of the mountains shook; they quaked because of His anger. Smoke poured from His nostrils; fierce flames leaped from His mouth. Glowing coals blazed forth from Him. He opened the heavens and came down; dark storm clouds were beneath His feet. Mounted on a mighty angelic being, He flew, soaring on the wings of the wind. He shrouded Himself in darkness, veiling His approach with dark rain clouds. Thick clouds shielded the brightness around Him and rained down hail and burning coals. The Lord thundered from heaven; the voice of the Most High resounded amid the hail and burning coals. He shot His arrows and scattered His enemies; great bolts of lightning flashed, and they were confused. Then at your command, O Lord, at the blast of your breath, the bottom of the sea could be seen, and the foundations of the earth were laid bare. He reached down from heaven and rescued me; He drew me out of deep waters. He rescued me from my powerful enemies, from those who hated me and were too strong for me. They attacked me at a moment when I was in distress, but the Lord supported me. He led me to a place of safety; He rescued me because He delights in me. The Lord rewarded me for doing right; He restored me because of my innocence. For I have kept the ways of the Lord; I have not turned from my God to follow evil. I have followed all his regulations; I have never abandoned His decrees. I am blameless before God; I have kept myself from sin. The Lord rewarded me for doing right. He has seen my innocence. -Psalm 18:1-34 (NLT)
But in thinking about love and grief we must be careful not to confuse either with that sentimentality which is part of cheap grace. The kind of loving grief I’m talking about involves acceptance of the precariousness of life and that we will all die, but our wholeness is found in the quality rather than the quantity of our living. Real love, between man and woman, friend and friend, parent and child, is exemplified for us in the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ who offered us and still offers us the wholeness of that costly grace which gives us the courage for healthy grief.
We live in a time where costly grace is what makes life bearable; more than bearable – joyful and creative, so that even our grief is part of our partnership in co-creation with God.
– Madeleine L’Engle
For everything there is a season,
a time for every activity under heaven.
A time to be born and a time to die.
A time to plant and a time to harvest.
A time to kill and a time to heal.
A time to tear down and a time to build up.
A time to cry and a time to laugh.
A time to grieve and a time to dance.
A time to scatter stones and a time to gather stones.
A time to embrace and a time to turn away.
A time to search and a time to quit searching.
A time to keep and a time to throw away.
A time to tear and a time to mend.
A time to be quiet and a time to speak.
A time to love and a time to hate.
A time for war and a time for peace.
– Ecclesiastes 3:1-8 (NLT)
The Lord is close to the brokenhearted;
He rescues those whose spirits are crushed.
– Psalm 24:18 (NLT)
God blesses those who mourn,
for they will be comforted.
Ungratefulness can be traced to a failure to find benefits in everything we experience and an unwillingness to trust God to fulfill our deepest needs.
– Gary Smalley
I realize anew that, just as we must learn to obey God one choice at a time, we must also learn to trust God one circumstance at a time. Trusting God is not a matter of my feelings but of my will. I never feel like trusting God when adversity strikes, but I can choose to do so even when I don’t feel like it. That act of the will, though, must be based on belief, and belief must be based on truth.
– Jerry Bridges
Begin to rejoice in the Lord, and your bones will flourish like an herb, and your cheeks will glow with the bloom of health and freshness. Worry, fear, distrust, care – all are poisonous! Joy is balm and healing, and if you will but rejoice, God will give power.
– A.B. Simpson
Those who live in the shelter of the Most High
will find rest in the shadow of the Almighty.
This I declare about the Lord:
He alone is my refuge, my place of safety;
He is my God, and I trust Him.
For He will rescue you from every trap
and protect you from deadly disease.
He will cover you with His feathers.
He will shelter you with His wings.
His faithful promises are your armor and protection.
Do not be afraid of the terrors of the night,
nor the arrow that flies in the day.
Do not dread the disease that stalks in darkness,
nor the disaster that strikes at midday.
Though a thousand fall at your side,
though ten thousand are dying around you,
these evils will not touch you.
Just open your eyes,
and see how the wicked are punished.
If you make the Lord your refuge,
if you make the Most High your shelter,
no evil will conquer you;
no plague will come near your home.
For He will order His angels
to protect you wherever you go.
They will hold you up with their hands
so you won’t even hurt your foot on a stone.
You will trample upon lions and cobras;
you will crush fierce lions and serpents under your feet!
The Lord says, “I will rescue those who love Me.
I will protect those who trust in My name.
When they call on Me, I will answer;
I will be with them in trouble.
I will rescue and honor them.
I will reward them with a long life
and give them my salvation.”
As Jesus and His disciples were on their way, He came to a village where a woman named Martha opened her home to Him. She had a sister called Mary, who sat at the Lord’s feet listening to what He said. But Martha was distracted by all the preparations that had to be made. She came to Him and asked, “Lord, don’t you care that my sister has left me to do the work by myself? Tell her to help me!”
“Martha, Martha,” the Lord answered, “you are worried and upset about many things, butfew things are needed—or indeed only one. Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken away from her.”
– Luke 10:38-42 (NIV)
Taste and see that the Lord is good. Oh, the joys of those who take refuge in Him! Fear the Lord, you His godly people, for those who fear Him will have all they need. Even strong young lions sometimes go hungry, but those who trust in the Lord will lack no good thing.
– Psalm 34:8-10 (NLT)
For the Lord God is our sun and our shield. He gives us grace and glory. The Lord will withhold no good thing from those who do what is right.
– Psalm 84:11 (NLT)
This is a comprehensive promise, and is such an assurance of the present comfort of the saints that, whatever they desire, and think they need, they may be sure that either Infinite Wisdom sees it is not good for them or Infinite Goodness will give it to them in due time. Let it be our care to walk uprightly, and then let us trust God to give us everything that is good for us.
– Matthew Henry
“No good thing will He withheld,” but how is this true, when God oftentimes withholds riches and honors, and health of body from men, though they walk never so uprightly; we may therefore know that honors and riches and bodily strength, are none of God’s good things; they are of the number of things indifferent which God bestows promiscuously upon the just and unjust, as the rain to fall and the sun to shine. The good things of God are chiefly peace of conscience and the joy in the Holy Gost in this life; fruition of God’s presence, and the vision of His blessed face in the next, and these good things God never bestows upon the wicked, never withholds from the godly, and they are all cast up in one sum where it is said, “Blessed are the pure in heart (and such are only they that walk uprightly) for they shall see God.”
– Charles H. Spurgeon
For He gives His sunlight to both the evil and the good, and He sends rain on the just and the unjust alike.
I cling to You;
Your strong right hand holds me securely.
– Psalm 63:8 (NLT)
For your Creator will be your husband; the Lord of Heaven’s Armies is His name! He is your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel, the God of all the earth.
– Ephesians 54:5 (NLT)
Revere the Lord your God, serve Him, cling to Him, swear by His name alone!
– Deuteronomy 10:20 (CEB)
…cling tightly to the Lord your God as you have done until now.
– Joshua 23:8 (NLT)
Husbands, you must love your wives so deeply, purely, and sacrificially that we can understand it only when we compare it to the love the Anointed One has for His bride, the church. We know He gave Himself up completely to make her His own, washing her clean of all her impurity with water and the powerful presence of His word.
– Ephesians 5:24-26 (VOICE)
Hezekiah trusted in the Lord, the God of Israel. There was no one like him among all the kings of Judah, either before him or after him. He held fast to the Lord and did not stop following Him; he kept the commands the Lord had given Moses. And the Lord was with him; he was successful in whatever he undertook.
– 2 Kings 18:5-7 (NIV)
Men ought to give their wives the love they naturally have for their own bodies. The love a man gives his wife is the extending of his love for himself to enfold her. Nobody ever hates or neglects his own body; he feeds and looks after it. And that is what Christ does for His body, the Church. And we are all members of that body, we are His flesh and blood! ‘For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh’. The marriage relationship is doubtless a great mystery, but I am speaking of something deeper still—the marriage of Christ and his Church. In practice what I have said amounts to this: let every one of you who is a husband love his wife as he loves himself; let the wife reverence her husband.
– Ephesians 5:30-32 (PHILLIPS)
Let us be glad and rejoice,
and let us give honor to Him.
For the time has come for the wedding feast of the Lamb,
and His bride has prepared herself.
She has been given the finest of pure white linen to wear.”
For the fine linen represents the good deeds of God’s holy people.
And the angel said to me, “Write this: Blessed are those who are invited to the wedding feast of the Lamb.” And he added, “These are true words that come from God.”
A world of confusion and disappointment results from trying to believe without obeying. This puts us in the position of a bird trying to fly with one wing. We merely flap in a circle and seek to cheer our hearts with the hope that the whirling ball of fathers is proof that a revival is under way.
– A.W. Tozer
Loving God means keeping His commandments, and His commandments are not burdensome.
1 John 5:3 (NLT)
And he is, to them, ‘a stone of stumbling and a rock of offence’. Yes, they stumble at the Word of God for in their hearts they are unwilling to obey it—which makes stumbling a foregone conclusion. But you are God’s “chosen generation”, His “royal priesthood”, His “holy nation”, His “peculiar people”—all the old titles of God’s people now belong to you. It is for you now to demonstrate the goodness of Him who has called you out of darkness into His amazing light. In the past you were not “a people” at all: now you are the people of God. In the past you had no experience of His mercy, but now it is intimately yours.
– 1 Peter 2:7-9 (PHILLIPS)
Jesus said, “I will do what the Father requires of Me, so that the world will know that I love the Father.”
John 14:31 (NLT)
‘Listen to and obey My voice, and I will be your God, and you shall be My people; and you will walk in all the way which I command you, so that it may be well with you.’
– Jeremiah 7:23 (AMP)
By your words I can see where I’m going; they throw a beam of light on my dark path. I’ve committed myself and I’ll never turn back from living by your righteous order. Everything’s falling apart on me, God; put me together again with your Word. Festoon me with your finest sayings, God; teach me your holy rules. My life is as close as my own hands, but I don’t forget what you have revealed. The wicked do their best to throw me off track, but I don’t swerve an inch from your course. I inherited your book on living; it’s mine forever— what a gift! And how happy it makes me! I concentrate on doing exactly what you say— I always have and always will.
Love protects in many different ways. Love protects from the harm of gossip from our own mouths or others’. Love protects physically, even to the point of giving up our lives for our loved ones if necessary -there is no greater love. Love protects by praying spiritual, emotional, and physical protection over a person. Love seeks to protect one’s marriage. Love steps up to protect the vulnerable. When dating, love protects the virtue of the other person. Love covers over a multitude of sins.
– Susie Stewart
God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble.
– Psalm 46:1 (NIV)
There is no greater love than to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.
– John 15:13 (NLT)
You are my hiding place. You will keep me out of trouble and envelop me with songs that remind me I am free.
– Psalm 32:7 (VOICE)
He who takes refuge in the shelter of the Most High
will be safe in the shadow of the Almighty.
He will say to the Eternal, “My shelter, my mighty fortress,
my God, I place all my trust in You.”
For He will rescue you from the snares set by your enemies who entrap you
and from deadly plagues.
Like a bird protecting its young, God will cover you with His feathers,
will protect you under His great wings;
His faithfulness will form a shield around you, a rock-solid wall to protect you.
You will not dread the terrors that haunt the night
or enemy arrows that fly in the day
Or the plagues that lurk in darkness
or the disasters that wreak havoc at noon.
A thousand may fall on your left,
ten thousand may die on your right,
but these horrors won’t come near you.
Only your eyes will witness
the punishment that awaits the evil,
but you will not suffer because of it.
For you made the Eternal [your] refuge,
the Most High your only home.
No evil will come to you;
plagues will be turned away at your door.
He will command His heavenly messengers to guard you,
to keep you safe in every way.
They will hold you up in their hands
so that you will not crash, or fall, or even graze your foot on a stone.
You will walk on the lion and the cobra;
you will trample the lion and the serpent underfoot.
“Because He clings to Me in love,
I will rescue him from harm;
I will set him above danger.
Because he has known Me by name,
He will call on Me, and I will answer.
I’ll be with him through hard times;
I’ll rescue him and grant him honor.
I’ll reward him with many good years on this earth
and let him witness My salvation.”
The Lord is compassionate and merciful, slow to get angry and filled with unfailing love.
– Psalm 103:8 (NLT)
Be not angry that you cannot make others as you wish them to be, since you cannot make yourself as you wish to be.
– Thomas a Kempis
Human anger does not produce the righteousness God desires.
– James 1:20 (NLT)
There is nothing that so much gratifies an ill tongue as when it finds an angry heart.
– Thomas Fuller
Fools vent their anger, but the wise quietly hold it back.
– Proverbs 29:11 (NLT)
Anger itself is not wrong. All emotions are created by God – It’s just that sin taints emotions. Sort of like fruit that goes bad. Worry is concern gone bad. Fury is anger gone bad.
– Jennifer Smith
Sensible people control their temper; they earn respect by overlooking wrongs.
…humbly accept the word planted in you, which can save you.
– James 1:21 (NIV)
…In simple humility, let our gardener, God, landscape you with the Word, making a salvation-garden of your life.
– James 1:21 (MSG)
But blessed are those who trust in the Lord
and have made the Lord their hope and confidence.
They are like trees planted along a riverbank,
with roots that reach deep into the water.
Such trees are not bothered by the heat
or worried by long months of drought.
Their leaves stay green,
and they never stop producing fruit.
– Jeremiah 17:7-8 (NLT)
Blessed is the one
who does not walk in step with the wicked
or stand in the way that sinners take
or sit in the company of mockers,
but whose delight is in the law of the Lord,
and who meditates on his law day and night.
That person is like a tree planted by streams of water,
which yields its fruit in season
and whose leaf does not wither—
whatever they do prospers.
Susie Stewart 