Tag: From Our Father’s Heart

“I am moved when you love deeply. It is the heart of Jesus in action. Your caring for others with reckless abandon is the way He loved. He had no fear of the consequences of His love. In fact, His love for you drove Him to the cross. It delights Me when you do the same.

“Love those who hate you. Love those who do not know how to love you back. More than likely, it will cost you. When it does, you come to Me. I will heal you and equip you to love again. It is My way. It is the way of the cross. It is the way to My heart. It is the way to freedom for you. It is the way to real life!”

II Ch. 16:9 NIV

“For the eyes of the Lord range throughout the earth to strengthen those whose hearts are fully committed to him...”

Matthew 5:43-45 NIV

43) “You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’

44) But I tell you: Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you,

45) that you may be sons of your Father in heaven. He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous.”

II Cor. 5:20a AMP

So we are Christ’s ambassadors, God making His appeal as it were through us.

 

When was the last time you became passionate about the Lord’s plans? For that matter, when was the last time the Lord’s plans for your life took priority over the other demands you face each day?

God is clearly requiring each of us to make Him our priority. Still, most of us agonize over the demands of simply living out each day - paying the rent, providing for food, etc. To stop, even for a day, and spend it entirely with the Lord should He ask us to do so would be beyond comprehension for some of us. We are convinced that the answer is heart commitment.

Merry and I believe that each and every one of us, who call ourselves Christians, must make a choice to live Christ’s life passionately throughout our very ordinary days. We are to approach the tasks and the people placed before us with His kind of zeal and unquestioning love, presenting every one of them as an offering to the Lord for His glory. We are convinced that this life is not so much about what we do as it is about the One for whom we are doing it.

If everything that we become involved in is truly offered to the Lord and placed under His Lordship, the fluff will fall away and the eternal purposes of God will become priorities to us. Living Christ’s passionate life unto the Lord will change us and those around us who are looking for answers. Take our stuff and replace it with Your stuff, Lord.

Give me Your heart, Lord,

Jim Corbett

“Risk everything! Invest all that you have in My work. Do not limit Me by your limited faith. The only reason you have been given breath is to complete My plan for your life. Everything you have is Mine. I bought it with the blood of My Son, Jesus. Ask Me how you are allowed to use it. I will show you if you open your hands and your heart to My work.”

Joshua 24:15 NIV

“But if serving the Lord seems undesirable to you, then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your forefathers served beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you are living. But as for me and my household, we will serve the Lord.”

2 Chr. 16:9a NIV

“For the eyes of the Lord range throughout the earth to strengthen those whose hearts are fully committed to him...”

Isaiah 30:21 NIV

Whether you turn to the right or to the left, your ears will hear a voice behind you, saying “This is the way; walk in it.”

Matthew 21:28-31 NIV

28) “What do you think? There was a man who had two sons. He went to the first and said, ‘Son, go and work today in the vineyard.’

29) “‘I will not,’ he answered, but later he changed his mind and went.

30) “Then the father went to the other son and said the same thing. He answered, ’I will sir,’ but he did not go.

31) “Which of the two did what his father wanted?”

 

So many of us rob from God because we feel that what He has given us is also owned by us. Little do we know that we are classified as stewards of everything and owners of nothing. That includes our very life.

Father God is looking for faithful stewards, not selfish owners. Which are you?

Teach me to own nothing but Your love, Lord,

Jim Corbett

“Have you ever considered each moment I give you to be a treasure? I do! You will be called to account for them. None of them can ever be redeemed. Jesus died for your right to spend them with Me. Do you now see how valuable they are? Spend them wisely. Dedicate each moment of your day to Me. Use them for My work. They are limited. When your allotted time is used up and I call you home, will I be able to say, “Well done”?

“Repent now of all the time you have wasted. Begin to cherish your every breath. I have called them into being. I own each one of them. Use them wisely!”

 Psalm 127:1 AMP

Except the Lord builds the house, they labor in vain who build it; except the Lord keeps a city, the watchman wakes but in vain.

Proverbs 20:24a AMP

Man’s steps are ordered by the Lord….

Isaiah 2:22 AMP

Cease to trust in [weak, frail, and dying] man, whose breath is in his nostrils [for so short a time]; in what sense can he be counted as having intrinsic worth?

Hebrews 12:12-13 NLB

12) So take a new grip with your tired hands and stand firm on your shaky legs.

13) Mark out a straight path for your feet. Then those who follow you, though they are weak and lame, will not stumble and fall but will become strong.

 

Because of our daily struggles and pursuits, we forget that every breath we take is important to God. Daily life often overshadows the importance of God’s plans for us. We forget that He has given us limited time to do His work and that we will be called to account for the time we have been given on this earth.

How do you plan your days? Is every moment dedicated to God? Does He have complete charge of your every breath, or do you go about your business as if there will be no accounting of your time? You have been bought with a price, the precious blood of Jesus. Isn’t it time to make each moment of your life count?

I give them all to You, Lord,

Jim Corbett

“I love honest, full relationships. Jesus spent His life, so that you could be restored and with Me forever. I designed marriage, so that your life could be full, so that you could have a companion, someone who notices your life and cherishes it. Make this relationship your priority on earth.

 “I also build holy alliances with fellow believers. These alliances are formed by Me, so there is someone to walk with you in seasons of your life. They are ordained in heaven and built by My Holy Spirit. Observe who they are in your life.

“Cherish those I bring to you. Find those who are trustworthy. Invest in them. Pour into their lives as Jesus poured into yours. When I add My presence to any relationship, it thrives and flows with the integrity of My love. It honors Me.”

Eph. 5:21 AMP

Be subject to one another out of reverence for Christ (the Messiah, the Anointed One).

Phil. 2:1-5 NIV

1) If you have any encouragement from being united with Christ, if any comfort from his love, if any fellowship with the Spirit, if any tenderness and compassion,

2) then make my joy complete by being like-minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and purpose.

3) Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves.

4) Each of you should not look only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others.

5) Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus.

 

A person walking in a spirit of compassion takes on the needs of others as if they were his own. There is no separation between a person’s needs and his desires for those needs to be met in someone else’s life. It is the spirit of God giving His kind of compassion for another.

Teach me to love those I am given by You, Lord,

Jim Corbett

“Do you know that I hold you in the highest regard? You are My ministers of the eternal covenant that I have established for the good of all mankind. I hold you very dear to My heart. For many reasons, I must train and refine you. Never do I enjoy seeing you go through challenges to your faith and your commitment, but they are necessary. You have a great responsibility. You are a steward of the most important event in the history of mankind.

“My covenant with you is what the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus is all about. Now you have the privilege of demonstrating it to the world and to the angelic beings. With that privilege comes the corresponding responsibility of presenting it properly. That is what My training is all about.

“Submit to My hand. Embrace My love.  As you grow, you will discover more wonders than you could ever imagine. The more I can trust you, the more I can reveal to you. I delight in you.”

Ephesians 3:10-12 AMP

10) [The purpose is] that through the church the complicated, many-sided wisdom of God in all its infinite variety and innumerable aspects might now be made known to the angelic rulers and authorities (principalities and powers) in the heavenly sphere.

11) This is in accordance with the terms of the eternal and timeless purpose which He has realized and carried into effect in [the person of] Christ Jesus our Lord.

12) In Whom, because of our faith in Him, we dare to have the boldness (courage and confidence) of free access (an unreserved approach to God with freedom and without fear).

1 Cor. 4:2 AMP

Moreover, it is [essentially] required of stewards that a man should be found faithful [proving himself worthy of trust].

2 Cor. 5:20a NIV

We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us.

 

Those of us, who are in training, focus most of the time on who we are not rather than on how our Father sees us. We see ourselves as mistake-making, sin-committing people who wonder if we will ever get this life we’ve been given in proper order. He sees us as His representatives, His deeply loved children, His reason for the cross. We, as mankind, are the only ones He has chosen to represent Jesus. There is no higher honor anywhere!

Thank You, Father,

Jim Corbett