Before I get into today’s QT I just wanted to share how awesome my day was. It wasn’t awesome because work was any different or because we had a great Trustees meeting at church. It was awesome for 1 simple reason. My heart was aligned with the Lord all day! Once I left church after the Trustees meeting, I started to pray and prayed for almost 30 minutes. Prayed for all the prayer items on my PrayerMate app and then for my family and finally for myself and my day at work. Confessing specific sin and asking for the Lord’s strength to fight the flesh all day long… especially at work where it can be very difficult to remain positive and empathetic. Because of this time with the Lord in the morning on the way to work, my mind, heart and inner man were connected with the Spirit of the Lord within me. I found myself being super grateful for the full heart and content mind and spirit knowing that I was operating in the will of the Lord and honoring Him. He rewarded me with His peace and contentment that would normally not be there when I am being Self-Sufficient (one of the sins I confessed this morning).
And not only the creation, but we ourselves too, who have and enjoy the first fruits of the [Holy] Spirit [a foretaste of the blissful things to come] groan inwardly as we wait for the redemption of our bodies [from sensuality and the grave, which will reveal] our adoption (our manifestation as God’s sons). For in [this] hope we were saved. Romans 8:23-24b [AMP]
This passage today wraps up an explanation of what I experienced today. I know that I should expect to suffer like Christ until He takes me home or until He returns. I also know that I will go through trials and experience loss while here on earth while I serve him….but, days like today I get to ‘have and enjoy the first fruits of the Holy Spirit’. I may still groan inwardly as I await the redemption of my body from sensuality and the grave, and it is in this hope of redemption that I am saved. Through that prayer and communion with the Lord today, I received a strength in the hope that I so much more to look forward to that what I will persevere through down here. The first verse in my reading today confirms this.
For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us.
Romans 8:18 [NKJV]
Application:
Today’s application is a ‘post thought’ because I received the blessing and grace the Lord offered me today because of what I applied today in my time with Him before work. What I can’t do is fall back into a self-sufficiency that neglects to apply the focus in the right place…on what the Lord has for me that day rather than how I can make it the best day.