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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Tuesday... I wonder what would happen if we didn't take the credit?

Nehemiah 6:16b (NLT), "They realized this work had been done with the help of our God." Tuesday... I wonder what would happen if we didn't take the credit? Over in the Old Testament in the book of Nehemiah it tells of a major task that through the leadership of Nehemiah was accomplished. The walls of Jerusalem had been torn down and God had laid it on Nehemiah to build those walls back up. It was definitely an almost impossible task but Nehemiah 6:15-16 says, "So on October 2 the wall was finished - just fifty-two days after we had begun. When our enemies and the surrounding nations heard about it, they were frightened and humiliated. They realized this work had been done with the help of our God." Now, we so many times want to take credit for doing the impossible. It would make such a difference for us. But I wonder what would happen through us if God got the credit? Psalm 96 tells us what we are to do. Verses 2-3 says, "Sing to the LORD; praise his name. ...

Thursday... Maybe we need this word today.

Psalm 57:1b (NIRV), "There I will stay until the danger is gone." Thursday... Maybe we need this word today. There are words in life that give us confidence no matter what we are facing. Now we have to believe them in order for them to have an impact. David wrote Psalm 57 while he was in a cave hiding from Saul who wanted to kill him and he says in the last part of verse 1, "There I will stay." It was a safe place and Saul didn't know that he was there. But he doesn't stop there. With confidence he said, "There I will stay until." And until is definitely a word of faith and confidence. "There I will stay until the danger is gone." Do we need that today? Let me give you the whole verse. In verse 1 David says, "Have mercy on me, God. Have mercy on me." And that is a great place to start in times of trouble. Maybe that is what we need to pray today, "Have mercy on me, God. Have mercy on me." It is so great to have someone...

Tuesday... We just have trouble listening.

1 Corinthians 13:7 (NLT), "Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance." Tuesday... We just have trouble listening. Over in Jeremiah 25:4 (NLT) it says, "Again and again the LORD has sent you his servants, the prophets, but you have not listened or even paid attention." And Jeremiah went on to tell what was going to happen. There will be consequences if we do not listen to what God says through his Word. Now the Apostle Paul over in 1 Corinthians was having a problem with some professed Christ followers who were having trouble at listening. And we too can have problems at listening. We can think that being a Christ follower means we do a lot of finger pointing and we give up on people who don't do what we say. We can even do that in our families. But Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 13:7 (NLT), "Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance." In verse ...

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