Prayer takes the Soldier of The Cross to the Bottom Line.

     What are you praying about?  A physical need?  A trying circumstance?  A  pressing financial issue?  How about your own longing for His Presence?

     The Holy Spirit leads the one who prays.

     Come before Him in simplicity and honesty.  Soldier, He is the supreme Listener. 

     What is the issue today? 

     Soldier, you have a Place to go.  You have One who listens and who holds the stars in place.  Could you possibly want more?

     Tell him about it today.
     Aloud.

 Do all things without murmurings and disputings.
                                     Philippians 2:14

    What does this verse mean?  Exactly what is says.

     Complainers create and atmosphere that is repugnant to those who are eager to serve cheerfully.    It is one thing to call it as it is.  It is another to swarm over a matter and knead it in order to proclaim the extent of one's own ability to see how bad things are.

     Complainers bear a mark on the personality and  loose the ability to see clearly.  If there is no turning, the complaining becomes recreational, then habitual and finally dominates all thought and conversation.

    Complainers are always looking for ratification and want to find other complainers.

     The King of Glory is asking that we take up The Cross and follow Him.  Things fall quickly in perspective for the one who tells the Lord that he is eager to be changed and that he will agree with God.

     Soldier of the Cross,  memorize the Word.  Repeat verses aloud.  The Holy Spirit will bring them to mind.

     The battle is in the mind.  Take every though captive and lead it away.  Begin in prayer.  Agree with Him.

     Grace always exceeds the offense.

     Many seem to think that the grace of God is equal to our sin. That is not the case. His Grace far exceeds anything we could ever do or think of doing. 

     Such is the nature of Grace.

     Soldier of The Cross, it is a stunning thing that our sins have been forgiven.  Were it not for the fact that His Grace is infinite, we could never be forgiven.  

     Grace is available to those to whom the Blood is applied.  It is not cheap, and the farther we go with Him, the more we understand the awesomeness of the Grace of God.

     Freely we have received.  Freely we should give.

     Remember, we are sojourners and pilgrims.

     Those who see beyond this life are able to enjoy things that are missed by those who are desperately hunting for a place to plant their treasure.

     We are passing through.  Our treasure is to be laid up in the Beyond, where there is no decay and increase is eternal.

     Soldier of The Cross, this must be considered in prayer.  Coming before the Lord about this matter means having His perspective.  It means there is the freedom to let go of thing s that are not productive.  It means an added freedom in the tasks that otherwise seem tedious.

     We have the Indwelling Holy Spirit.  We are not alone.  We are not without direction.  We are not without encouragement.  We lack for nothing.

     Soldier,  look up and move on!

      There is always more.

     There is more of Him.
     There is more He needs to do in you.
     There is more he can do for you.
     There is more you can do, even when you feel straight-jacketed.
     There is more ministry that awaits you.
     There is more delight in Him to be experienced.
     There is more you can give.

     Life in Christ means being born into the experience His own Life without measure, limited for us only in God's design of time.

     Soldier of The Cross,  you serve a God who is not limited.  the human mind is not able to wrap itself around this truth.  It must be accepted by faith.  We know it is true because the Indwelling Holy Spirit gives witness.  It is just that the flesh is so drawn to the gravity of limitation.

     Tell the Lord you will be available for anything He has.  Ask Him to change you.  
     Tell Him today.
     Tell Him aloud
   
  
   

      So many Christians are probing into the past, attempting to find healing.

     Certainly there are some things that must be addressed.   But time can not be erased or reexperienced.  It is Light that dispels darkness.  there must be a pursuit of God.  Yes, we are to drop the things that "so readily encumber" in order to run the race.

     Some hunt a feeling of well-being and are only looking for relief.  The well-adjusted Believers I have met are those who are sacrificially doing something for someone else and who have vigorous and consistent prayer lives.

     Soldier of The Cross, your story may be hair-raising.  I do not mean to sound cavalier about terrible experiences or secrets that are a burden.  The issue is, there is no healing of freedom without the Cross.  It is the place of the death of the flesh and it is how He has designed us.

     He died to set us free.  That freedom is found in Him. It is not possible to know deep peace while avoiding assembling together.  It is not possible to know deep peace by analyzing the past.  There must be God's Word.  There must be prayer. 

     Much is said about prayer.  Yet, even many in ministry have sagging prayer lives. 

     His Own can experience vast freedom while contained in a tiny cell. 

     It is not about the past.  It is about the Lord.

     Soldier, when you are not sure how to pray about a matter, it is always good to let the Lord know that your bottom line is that He would be glorified.

     After all, no one knows how to approach specifics in prayer about every matter.

     The issue is agreeing with God.  He has made Himself implicitly clear on all matters in His Word.  That is to say, He has let us know all we need to know in order to approach the Throne of Grace and present things to the One who holds the stars in place.

     He is in control or He is not.  And the way to experience the rest that can be found in this wonderful truth is, in prayer.  You must pray aloud if it is physically possible.  I have often found myself on airplanes putting a blanket or jacket over my head in order to snatch some privacy.

     If you do not formulate words and put yourself in a physical position of prayer, you will find your thoughts deteriorating into wool-gathering.

     Once you have been born again, nothing is more valuable than learning to trust the Lord.

     Soldier of The Cross, have you determined to agree with God?

     We are always encouraged by being reminded of the bottom line.  And, the bottom line is that He knows more than we.

     Do you agree?  What does that mean?  It means obedience to His Word.  It means you agree that in spite of your own worm's eye view of the situation, you choose His way, in His time.

     The Cross.   The death of the flesh.

     Is there anything better?    Of course not.  There is nothing else.  There is no one else.

     Look up and move on!

      The devotional life is the measure of one's determination to pursue God.

     I have heard it said that having personal devotions can be just a religious exercise.  I do not believe that.  If one is in the Word and in prayer- real prayer that is aloud and led of the Spirit, there is fuel for the prayer and the one who prays has an audience before the Ultimate listener.

      A personal quiet time is the first thing to go when someone is out of fellowship.  Moreover, the devotional life cannot be sustained over the long haul without the indwelling Holy Spirit.

     It is not possible to know Him without being with Him.  He can be known in the Body, in fellowship with one another, in the Word, in nature and many other ways.  But unless there is a consistent devotional life, there can be no intimacy with Him.

     Soldier, protect this privilege and treasure.

     Soldier of The Cross, make sure your thrill is in Him rather than the search.

     There are many who love to debate, just for the sake of the tussle.  While we are to have an answer for our Hope,  there is no benefit in intellectual sparring just for its own sake.

     There are some brilliant and gifted apologists, and we enjoy reading them and listening to them.   The benefit is not in the tussle, but it is in the surfacing of Truth.

     The deeper, the simpler.