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. ...

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Thursday... Yet, now this is true.

Colossians 1:22a (NLT), "Yet now he has reconciled you to himself through the death of Christ in his physical body." Thursday... Yet, now this is true. Now Paul a prisoner in Rome is writing a letter to a church in Colossae. And in Colossians 1:21 (MSG) he says, "Once you were alienated from God and were hostile in your minds, engaging in evil deeds" The NLT says "This includes you who were once far away from God. You were his enemies, separated by your evil thoughts and actions." And that is where so many in this world live today. They are blowing it and they don't know what to do. Yes, they are hostile in their minds and they are engaging in evil deeds but there is Good News. Now Paul in verses 19-20 sets the stage for an answer to those who don't want to live that way. He says, "For God in all his fullness was pleased to live in Christ, and through him God reconciled everything to himself. He made peace with everything in heaven and earth b...

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