Paid In Full

A young man was getting ready to graduate from college. For many months he had admired a beautiful sports car in a dealer’s showroom, and knowing his father could well afford it, he told him that was all he wanted.

As Graduation Day approached, the young man awaited signs that his father had purchased the car. Finally, on the morning of his graduation, his father called him into his private study. His father told him how proud he was to have such a fine son, and told him how much he loved him. He handed his son a beautifully wrapped gift box.

Curious, and somewhat disappointed, the young man opened the box and found a lovely, leather-bound Bible, with the young man’s name embossed in gold. Angry, he rose his voice to his father and said “With all your money, you give me a Bible?” and stormed out of the house.

Many years passed and the young man was very successful in business. He had a beautiful home and wonderful family but realized his father was very old and thought perhaps he should go to him. He had not seen him since that graduation day. Before he could make arrangements, he received a telegram telling him his father had passed away and willed all of his possessions to his son. He needed to come home immediately and take care of things.

When he arrived at his father’s house, a sudden feeling of sadness and regret filled his heart. He began to search through his father’s important papers and saw the still gift-wrapped Bible, just as he had left it years ago. With tears, he opened the Bible and began to turn the pages. His father had carefully underlined a verse, Matt.7:11, “And if ye, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more shall your Heavenly Father which is in Heaven, give to those who ask Him?”

As he read those words, a car key dropped from the back of the Bible. It had a tag with the dealer’s name, the same dealer who had the sports car he had desired. On the tag was the date of his graduation, and the words PAID IN FULL.

How many times do we miss God’s blessings because we can’t see past our own desires?

Buy Your Mouse Mats Here

We Are What We Eat

Everything that comes into our bodies, minds, ears, eyes and thoughts, feeds us. This applies to both good foods and unhealthy foods.

Accordingly, we need to be very careful about what we allow into our bodies, and through our senses.

Just as a regular diet of unhealthy food can make us sick in body and can result it in premature death, if we allow unhealthy food to enter through the eyes, ears and thoughts, we will become unwell in mind, emotions and in spirit. This can lead us into harmful addictive behaviour that will hurt us, our relationships with friends and loved ones, and our relationship with God.

Unhealthy foods include;
  • Negative thoughts that come into our minds, negative words, messages, and communications we allow in through our ears, negative messages or images we allow in through our eyes, and any negative words we allow out through our mouths. We need to guard ourselves and filter what we allow into our lives, and what we send out through our mouths or actions.
  • Our tongues can be a power for good to bring life and encouragement to others, Psalms Psalms 37:30; or they can be a power of destruction if we sew negative or hurtful words into the lives of others. Psalms 39:1; Proverbs 25:23 Proverbs 15:4; Psalms 120:2;
  • Any harmful content through radio, television, movies, websites, magazines, books, photographs, or images. This includes pornography, looking at any person who is not your spouse with lust, bigotry, anything that blasphemes the name of our Lord and takes his name in vain, anything that contains offensive and obscene language, or anything else that would cause us harm.

We cannot always control what we hear and see in the course of our daily lives, but we can control what we allow into our homes, into our hearts, and into our lives that might negatively impact us.

We are NOT suggesting that we should not read, listen to or watch secular entertainment or material; only that we need to be careful to filter out and reject anything that would harm us and grieve the heart of God.

Food for life;

It goes without saying, that the number one choice of life-giving food for the spirit and soul is the Word of God. Without a healthy daily diet of the word of God in our lives, we will starve and waste away spiritually, Isaiah 55:1-3. The recorded Word of God is what God uses to speak to us and into our lives. It is the very anchor and foundations our lives are built on, and how we may appropriate the promises of God for our lives and the lives of others when we pray.

If we don’t have the word of God in our hearts and lives, we have no foundation to support us when the storms of life blow our way. The primary reason many of us struggle with sin and in many other areas of life is that we neglect to consume this most essential and life-giving food for a healthy mind, spirit, and soul; Ps 119:9-16.

The word of God is the bread and food of life that sustains us, and is the living water that quenches a dry and thirsty soul; John 1:1-5; John 6:32-35; John 6:47-49; Psalm 19:8-11; Jeremiah 15:16.

The Word of God is also our sole defense against the enemy when he throws temptation in our paths. It is a formidable weapon and a mighty two-edged sword (Eph 6:16) that we must use to defeat the enemy, just as Jesus did when he was tempted by the devil in the wilderness; Luke 4:1-13. Here Jesus is tempted three times by Satan and in the face of every temptation, Jesus defeats the enemy by speaking the Word of God into the situation.

As we daily read and meditate on God’s word and allow it to penetrate our hearts and lives, we allow God to speak to us, we start to get a glimpse of the heart and mind of God and get to know him more intimately. As we grow in our understanding and knowledge of The Word, our love for God and His word grows and draws us ever closer to Him until we come to love Him so much, we get to a place in our lives where we don’t want to do anything that would grieve the heart of our Heavenly Father.

The word of God is the WELL OF LIFE AND POWER that helps us overcome sin, and nourishes us so that we can grow to reach our full potential and fruitfulness in and for God.

Without the word of God, we cannot pray effectively. To pray effectively and appropriate God’s promises for our lives and those we pray for, our prayers must be based on the will of God as revealed in his word. Where God promises us something in his word, it is proof of God’s will for us to receive it in His timing, when taken in the context of the promise God has made. In Psalm 138:2 we read that God places his word above his name. This means that when God promises something, it becomes a law to Himself that He is bound to keep and cannot break. This is because God is holy and cannot lie.

God is not a man, that He should lie; neither the son of man, that He should repent: hath He said, and shall He not do it? Or hath he spoken, and shall He not make it good? Numbers 23:19

This is the message which we have heard from Him and declares to you, that God is light and in Him is no darkness at all; 1 John 1:5

That by two immutable things, in which it was impossible for God to lie, we might have a strong consolation, who have fled for refuge to lay hold upon the hope set before us; Hebrews 6:18

Paul, a servant of God, and an apostle of Jesus Christ, according to the faith of God’s elect, and the acknowledging of the truth which is after godliness; In hope of eternal life, which God, that cannot lie, promised before the world began; But hath in due times manifested His word through preaching, which is committed unto me according to the commandment of God our Saviour; Titus 1:1-3
When we understand this principle, we see that every promise that God has made in His word, where the promise declares His will for us (His children) to receive, can be respectfully claimed and appropriated for our lives with all boldness and assurance when we bring God’s promises for or lives to His throne in prayer.

As the word of God gets into our hearts, so faith grows in our lives to believe that God will deliver on his promises to us. How does faith come?

Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God; Romans 10:17

In Hebrews 11:6; we learn that without faith it is impossible to please God. This reinforces in us the importance of feeding and meditating on God’s word, so that faith can build and grow in our lives, and so we will be able to live lives that truly please God. As we grow in God’s word and faith, so will our joy, our strength, and our love for God increase.

Let's pray together.

Heavenly Father;

We thank you for your Holy Word which contains everything we need to feed and nourish our minds, souls, and spirits, to guide and direct us in paths of righteousness, and to build faith in our lives according to your promise in Romans 10:17 so that we can take hold of your promises for our lives. We thank you that your word is a mighty weapon and two edged sword Eph 6:16 and we pray that you will help us to use and master your word effectively to defeat the enemy whenever he puts temptation in our way, by speaking your word into every situation we face. We pray you will help us to daily meditate on your word, to store and keep your word in our hearts so that we will grow closer to you, please you, become more like you, and increase in our love for you. We pray that you will give us wisdom in what we allow to enter into our lives through our senses, for the strength and determination to reject anything that we know will harm us, and we pray that you will direct and guide us by your Holy Spirit so that we will make wise decisions and choices in our lives. We ask this in Jesus’ name, Amen.