Monday... This loan will be paid in full.

Have you found it hard to pay back your loans? Christmas is a time that we so much want to give but we just don't have enough so we find it easy to use those credit cards or find someone who will give us a loan but then comes the new year and we have to pay them back and it is so hard. And in turn, it is usually an impossible time for us to give a loan, isn't it? But God is wanting us to give Him a loan?

And that is a loan that we really want to give, isn't it? Now, it's not that He needs what we have but He knows others that do, so when we are giving to them we are in fact giving a loan to God. And this is the perfect time to do it.

Here is how Proverbs 19:17 (MSG) puts it. It says, "Mercy to the needy is a loan to God, and God pays back those loans in full." And that is a loan we really do want and need to give.

But we in our self-centered focus and our high opinions of what we think tend to want to give judgement and criticism more than mercy. It is not natural for us to give mercy so we need to go to God and get a loan from Him. And that is a loan that He will pay in full because He knows that we also really, really do and will need mercy.

Verse 17 in the Amplified Bible says, "He who is gracious and lends a hand to the poor lends to the Lord, and the Lord will repay him for His good deeds." So many need grace and a helping hand and in turn so do we.

Now that is a tremendous place to give a loan to and the return is unbelievable. And that is a loan that He knows we need to give. It really is.

This is the time of the year that we celebrate the greatest gift even given and if this is what He wants then we need to give it. Again, "Mercy to the needy is a loan to God, and God pays back those loans in full." Yes, yes! #todaysbeginning

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Monday... He did it by Himself

Isaiah 44:24b (AMP), "I am the Lord, Maker of all things. Who alone stretches out the heavens, Who spreads out the earth by Myself." Monday... He did it by Himself. Many have a tendency to think very highly of themselves and what they can do. Oh we do have great ability but we are not the source. Yes it is important to have self-confidence but we are limited. The prophet Isaiah in 44:9-10 (NLT) says, "How foolish are those who manufacture idols. These prized objects are really worthless. The people who worship idols don't know this, so they are all put to shame. Who but a fool would make his own god - an idol that cannot help him one bit?" Now later in verse 24 (AMP) he writes, "For the Lord, your Redeemer, and He who formed you from the womb says, 'I am the Lord, Maker of all things, Who alone stretches out the heavens, Who spreads out the earth by Myself.'" I love that. "By Myself." Now we do need confidence but we are foolish to ma...

Friday... We have this hope of expectancy.

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Friday... Yes, we can know this to be true.

Psalm 12:6 (NLT), "The Lord's promises are pure, like silver refined in a furnace, purified seven times over." Friday... Yes, we can know this to be true. Maybe this is what you want to say in this day in which we live. Psalm 12:1-2 (MSG) says, "Quick, I need your helping hand! The last decent person just went down, all the friends I depend on gone. Everyone talks in lie language; lies slide off their oily lips. They doubletalk with forked tongues." Do you ever feel that way?" Have you found that to be true? Well David the writer of this Psalm continues and says in verse 6 something to encourage us, to lift us up, to give us hope. Psalm 12:6 (NLT) says, "The Lord's promises are pure, like silver refined in a furnace, purified seven times over." The Message Paraphrase says verses 6-8 this way, "God's words are pure words, pure silver words refined seven times in the fires of his word-kiln, pure on earth as well as in heaven, God, keep ...

Todays Beginning

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