Good thoughts...

January 1 – God has a master plan for your life, and that plan does not change. It is a plan designed specifically for you. It is a plan that God intends for you to live out fully, beginning at the moment of your birth and continuing until the moment of your death. God’s plan for you has a purpose, a blueprint for your particular life, a character-development plan, a communication plan, a call to service, a guidance plan, and a blessing plan….Your destiny is to be the person God has created you to be.

John 10:10 I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly.

January 2 – God is involved with you every moment of your life. You cannot shut Him out or turn Him away. There is not a single moment or situation with which He is unfamiliar or uninvolved. He cares about every thing that you care about. God is concerned with the things that we worry or are nervous about. He cares about our feelings and our problems.

Psalm 145:18 The Lord is near to all who call upon Him

January 3 – We must choose to pursue wisdom. It’s up to each of us to determine how we will walk through this life. Wisdom…must be sought out and pursued. The person who walks in wisdom is very aware of his life, how he affects the world, and how the world affects him. He recognizes that every person faces three enemies in life: the world system, the flesh, and the devil. He seeks to know God’s plan and purpose – not only for his personal life but also for every situation involving other people around him.

Ephesians 5:17 Do not be unwise, but understand what the will of the Lord is.

January 4 - God’s peace is not an escape from reality. We are not transfixed or somehow mentally “removed” from feeling pain or struggling….Rather, peace is an undergirding rock-solid foundation so that no matter the tears we cry or the sorrow we feel, deep down inside we know with an abiding assurance that God is with us. God is in control, and the joy of the Lord is going to emerge far greater than any depth of agony we may be experiencing.

1 John 4:4 He who is in you is greater than he who is in the world.

January 5 – If there ever was a group who should have been able to live a consistent Christian life by just doing their best, it was the apostles. Think of all their advantages. They had been trained by the Master. They had seen lame men walk, blind men see, and the dead rise….They had even performed miracles themselves!...Yet in their last encounter with the Savior, He let them know that they were still missing something….They would need more than their human spirit to carry them….They needed the Holy Spirit.

Acts 1:8 You shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you.

January 6 – Be quick to serve others. In giving, you will receive. There’s an old but try phrase, “To make a friend, be a friend.” To give acceptance to others is to receive acceptance. To widen your circle of friend to include others is to be included in the broader circles of their lives. Jesus taught, “Give, and it will be given to you.” When you give to others a sense of belonging, you feel a greater sense of belonging.

Luke 6:38 Give, and it will be given to you.

January 7 - Paul defined the Lord’s work as “whatever you do.” Because we are servants of God, everything we do is considered part of that service. God makes no distinction between what is spiritual and what is secular….All of us who know the Lord – homemakers, bankers, mechanics, assembly line workers, construction workers – are involved in God’s work….It takes just as much dependency on the Holy Spirit to do any of these jobs well as it does to preach a sermon or sing in the choir. In some cases, it takes much more.

Colossians 3:23 Whatever you do, do it heartily, as to the Lord and not to men.

January 8 – In Christ, we are made ready, we are equipped, for any crisis or circumstance that may come….The children of Israel wandered in a wilderness, but their shoes didn’t wear out, even though they wandered there for forty years. When the children of Israel needed water, God supplied it. When they needed food, He sent manna….When they were surrounded by enemies, He delivered them. His means were sovereign and supernatural, and His provision was complete and sure. We can trust the Lord to do the same for us.

Colossians 2:10 You are complete in Him, who is the head of all principality and power.

The Greek word for peace means to “bind together” something that has been broken or disjointed. I think this is a superb illustration for how alienated men and women – so often feeling empty and disconnected from each other and God – can find a way to unity and wholeness. God’s peace comes to them when they are united by faith with God. This Greek word also refers to a prevailing sense of quietness and rest in a person’s heart and emotions….Peace is synonymous with being tranquil, serene, untroubled, and calm.

Colossians 3:15 Let the peace of God rule in your hearts.