365 Promises

[Hosanna]

Promise #351:
I am very close to those who have a broken heart.

Psalm 34:18 (WEB)
Yahweh is near to those who have a broken heart,
and saves those who have a crushed spirit.

King David knew a thing or two about heartache, whether it was being overlooked by his father when he was a shepherd boy, being chased down by a murderous father-in-law, or being publicly exposed for his deadly secret sins.

Amid his pain and suffering, David discovered that God was very close and was always ready to save those with a contrite spirit. If God is near to those with a broken heart, as David said He was, what does that mean for us today?

With all of the horror in the world, I can only imagine that our God and Father is walking alongside every brokenhearted person on the planet, whether they are aware of His presence or not. I don't think this idea is too much of a stretch because, in Acts 2:17, we read that at Pentecost, God poured out His own Spirit on all people. So, if that is indeed the reality, God is closer than we could possibly imagine.

In some Christian circles, though, we are afraid to expose our own personal brokenness for fear of being judged. Yet it was David, called a man after God’s own heart, who wrote Psalm 34. If you read David's life story, you will know that he was not speaking in a hypothetical context but from his own life experiences.

No matter what depth of despair you might be contending with in your life today, may this promise encourage you that your heavenly Father is very near.

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Responsive Prayer:

Father, I thank You for being close to me when my heart is broken, and I thank You for saving me when my spirit feels the crushing weight of disappointment and despair. I pray that I will be aware of Your nearness and Your comforting love, which will sustain me no matter what I face today.

In Jesus’ name, I pray, Amen.

 

[Hosanna]

Promise #352:
If you pray to Me in secret, I will reward you openly.

Matthew 6:6 (WEB)
But you, when you pray, enter into your inner room, and having shut your door, pray to your Father who is in secret, and your Father who sees in secret will reward you openly.

Beginning in Matthew 6:9, Jesus taught His disciples to pray a very special prayer, which we call the Lord's Prayer. Many people know this very popular Christian prayer by heart, as I am sure that it is the most recited prayer of all time. Jesus is very clear about who we are to direct this prayer to: Our Father who art in heaven.

Just before Jesus instructs them on what to pray, He tells them how to pray. He tells His disciples to find a quiet spot away from the hustle and bustle of life and spend some quality time with their heavenly Dad.

In today's promise, Jesus tells us that if we develop a secret, intimate prayer life with our Father, God will reward us openly. Our Father loves it when His kids come to Him when we are the only ones who know about it!

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Responsive Prayer:

Father, I thank You that I can come to You at any time with any need, and You hear my prayers. Help me to nurture these private moments with You so that the intimacy and love You desire to share with me may grow each day. And thank You, Father, for Your generous heart that loves to reward Your children openly when they come to You earnestly in prayer.

In Jesus’ name, I pray, Amen.

December 19

Promise #353: I will provide what you need every day. Matthew 6:11 (WEB) Give us today our daily bread. In Matthew 6:9-14, we read the prayer that Jesus taught us to pray... 9 After this manner...

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[Hosanna]

Promise #353:
I will provide what you need every day.

Matthew 6:11 (WEB)
Give us today our daily bread.

In Matthew 6:9-14, we read the prayer that Jesus taught us to pray...9 After this manner therefore pray ye: Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name. 10 Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven. 11 Give us this day our daily bread. 12 And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors. 13 And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil: For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever. Amen. (KJV)

Since we know that Jesus encouraged us to ask, seek, and knock, with the promise that our God and Father would hear our prayers, we can only assume that our heavenly Father will answer everything we pray in The Lord's Prayer.

In verse 11, Jesus teaches us to ask our Father to provide our daily bread. If Jesus told us to ask for daily provision, then it was because He knew that His Father would provide what we need every day. We only need to ask and trust Him to provide because that is what good fathers do.

So don't be afraid to pray to your heavenly Father today and say... "Give us this day our daily bread.”

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Responsive Prayer:

Father, I thank You for being the ultimate source of every good and perfect gift I receive. Help me today to recognize that You love it when I come to You boldly and ask, seek, and knock. So, Father, I come today, knowing that You are a good father who gives good gifts to His children, and I pray for the daily bread I need to sustain me.

December 21

Promise #355: I will strengthen your inner being by the power of My Spirit. Ephesians 3:16 (WEB) that he would grant you, according to the riches of his glory, that you may be strengthened with power...

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[Hosanna]

Promise #354:
I will seek after those who worship Me in spirit and truth.

John 4:23 (WEB)
But the hour comes, and now is, when the true worshippers
will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father seeks such to be his worshippers.

Jesus speaks to a Samaritan woman at a well when He says that the Father seeks out those who will worship Him in spirit and truth. The Greek word for seeking is 'Zeteo,' which Strong's Concordance describes as... to seek a thing in order to find it, to aim at something, to strive after, to crave, etc. This very active word describes how God feels about those who turn their hearts toward Him.

When Jesus tells us that His Father is seeking after those who will worship Him in spirit and in truth, He is giving us insight into His Father's heart. While we are called to live a life of being God pursuers, God Himself is chasing us! He longs for our attention more than we long for His! And He seeks out those who will present their bodies as living sacrifices because their lives are a sweet-smelling fragrance in His nostrils.

Romans 12:1
Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship. (NIV)

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Responsive Prayer:

Father, I thank You for the two-way interaction that occurs when I present my body as a living sacrifice to You. In that moment of divine exchange of our hearts, I am not only pursuing intimacy with You, but You are longing for intimacy with me. Such a thought is too wonderful for me to fully understand, but I pray for a deeper revelation of the mutual bond of affection that You desire to cultivate with me every time I worship You with all my heart.

In Jesus’ name, I pray, Amen.

December 21

Promise #355: I will strengthen your inner being by the power of My Spirit. Ephesians 3:16 (WEB) that he would grant you, according to the riches of his glory, that you may be strengthened with power...

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[Hosanna]

Promise #355:
I will strengthen your inner being by the power of My Spirit.

Ephesians 3:16 (WEB)
that he would grant you, according to the riches of his glory,
that you may be strengthened with power through his Spirit in the inward man;

In today's promise, the Apostle Paul is praying that our God and Father would strengthen our inner being by the power of His Spirit. We all need supernatural strength to flow from our spirit; it is important to know that the source of that strength comes from God alone. In Zechariah 4:6, the Lord says... ‘Not by might nor by power, but by my Spirit,’ says the LORD Almighty. (NIV)

I like how the Amplified Bible translates Ephesians 3:16...May He grant you out of the rich treasury of His glory to be strengthened and reinforced with mighty power in the inner man by the [Holy] Spirit [Himself indwelling your innermost being and personality].

The strength that we need today comes from only one place: the rich treasury of God's glory, which flows directly from God's Spirit to our spirit. So look to God for your strength and not to your own resources.

It is not by our own self-effort or personal goodness that we will have the power to live a godly life, but through the free gift of the Holy Spirit that God has already given us as a deposit to guarantee our inheritance (2 Corinthians 1:22).

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Responsive Prayer:

Father, I thank You for empowering me with the strength of Your Spirit so that I may be rooted and grounded in love. Help me to trust in Your Spirit’s power to guide me rather than my own abilities to handle life on my own, so I can live fully according to Your plan for my life today.

In Jesus’ name, I pray, Amen.

December 22

Promise #356: Cast your burden on Me and I will look after you. Psalm 55:22 (WEB) Cast your burden on Yahweh, and he will sustain you. He will never allow the righteous to be moved. There are many...

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[Hosanna]

Promise #356:
Cast your burden on Me and I will look after you.

Psalm 55:22 (WEB)
Cast your burden on Yahweh, and he will sustain you.
He will never allow the righteous to be moved.

There are many places in the Bible where we are encouraged to cast all our cares on God. In today's promise, King David invites us in Psalm 55:22 to cast all our burdens on the Lord, and He will look after us. The New Living Translation Bible says Psalm 55:22 this way... Give your burdens to the Lord, and he will take care of you. He will not permit the godly to slip and fall.

When I think about this promise, I envision someone carrying a backpack full of rocks, each rock representing a care or concern. God invites us to take all of our rocks out of our backpacks and throw each one onto His big, strong shoulders. The reality is that we were not created to carry such burdens.

Medical studies tell us that up to 80% of all illnesses are stress-related in some way. This statistic further demonstrates that the human body was never created to carry such stress in our backpacks. So, what can we do in response to today's promise? Empty your backpack of all your cares and cast each one upon God, and for He cares for you!

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Responsive Prayer:

Father, I thank You for loving me and for not wanting me to carry the weight of the world on my shoulders today. Please give me the wisdom and courage to cast each of my cares onto Your big, strong shoulders so I can truly live a care-free life today. Help me believe that this is what You want me to do because You care deeply for me.

In Jesus’ name, I pray, Amen.

December 23

Promise #357: Jesus died so that you and I could be reconciled. 2 Corinthians 5:18-19 (WEB) 18 But all things are of God, who reconciled us to himself through Jesus Christ, and gave to us the...

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[Hosanna]

Promise #357:
Jesus died so that you and I could be reconciled.

2 Corinthians 5:18-19 (WEB)
18 But all things are of God, who reconciled us to himself through Jesus Christ, and gave to us the ministry of reconciliation; 19 namely, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself, not reckoning to them their trespasses, and having committed to us the word of reconciliation.

The greatest promise that we could ever receive from our God and Father was the promise of reconciliation. Jesus came to the earth two thousand years ago to be the invisible God's expressed image and provide the way for us to become part of His extraordinary family through the work of the cross.

Because of Jesus' death, burial, and resurrection, we are now legitimate members of the family of God and joint heirs with Jesus Himself. There is no more excellent gift or honor that God could bestow upon us than to have the power to become His children (John 1:12-13).

And now, we, too, have been called into this glorious ministry of reconciliation, where we can invite others not yet in our Father's house to be reconciled to God through the gift of Jesus Christ! What an incredible gift the Father has given us, to be His co-laborers in the harvest field, inviting orphans and prodigals alike to come home through Jesus.

May we all have many opportunities to share in the ministry of reconciliation to others this Christmas season.

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Responsive Prayer:

Father, I thank You for the tender heart You have toward every person on the planet, and for sending Your only begotten Son as the way You reconciled the world to Yourself. I pray that I will be an ambassador of this message of reconciliation to everyone I meet this Christmas season because that is the reason Jesus was born in a manger two thousand years ago.

In Jesus’ name, I pray, Amen.

December 24

Promise #358: Now is the day of salvation and the time to receive My favor. 2 Corinthians 6:2 (WEB) for he says, “At an acceptable time I listened to you, in a day of salvation I helped you. ”...

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