This is my online devotional today posted through The Life online devotional ministry that I write for once a month. He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature, and he upholds the universe by the word of his power. After making purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high.HEBREWS 1:3

We are created to exemplify the Lord, to have his image stamped deep into our hearts. We certainly cannot represent him in our own strength.When metals are heated in a crucible, the dross comes to the surface so it can be skimmed off. The dross is not exposed until it faces the intensity of the fire. The same is with our hidden sin.He purifies our faith purified in the crucible of our trial. Through the refining fire, he brings our sin-dross to the surface and removes it. He exposes our ‘alloy’ of buried lies that we have believed. These lies lose their power and control when brought into the light. We then renounce them and affirm the truth. Here is a verse of a song called “Nothing Is Impossible”: Your character is forged in me. Your anvil strong and true. You bring me through the fiery trials—my faith refined-secured. Your will is accomplished as I yield to your hand. My thoughts are united with your purpose and plans. As I walk in the path you choose You establish my heart. I serve you with thanksgiving and praise. You alone are worthy, O my Lord. Fiery trials are essential tools that God uses to forge his character in us. Hidden sin-dross weakens our faith and tarnishes our witness. The more we embrace the Lord in our trials, the more we will reflect him to those around us. Father, thank you that your presence is with us in our fiery trials. As we cling to you, you expose and remove our dross of hidden sin from our hearts. I am so grateful that you are absolutely trustworthy. When my faith is weak, you remain faithful because you cannot deny yourself. Song of Encouragement: “O to Be Like Thee” https://youtu.be/-94zKQ8dSwg

Offenses is another word for transgressions. Isaiah 53:5 says, “But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities.” Verse 11 says, “He shall see the labor of His soul, and be satisfied. By His knowledge My righteous Servant shall justify many, for He shall bear their iniquities.”

Iniquity ~ anything that we do independent of God. Just think for a moment how many sins you committed ~ countless offenses that He bore on the cross for you. His free gift of grace abounds to all who will believe.

Jesus bore our offenses so that we could be justified. Salvation means that we stand right now before a holy God blameless ~ as though we never sinned. As I type this, these truths are reverberating in my mind. We have been absolved of all guilt. If you carry guilt for something in the past ~ it is a lying burden that you can cast off right now! Let these truths set you free!

Reading in context, Romans 4:23-24 was written about Abraham believing. It was accounted to him for righteousness. It says, “Now it was not written for his sake alone that it was imputed to him, but also for us. It shall be imputed to us who believe in Him who raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead. “

Verse 25 says, “Who was delivered up because of our offenses, and raised because of our justification.” Then speaking of Adam, verse 15 says, “…For if by the one man’s offense many died, much more the grace of God and the gift by the grace of the one Man, Jesus Christ, abounded to many.”

Verse 16 says, “And the gift is not like that which came through the one who sinned. For the judgment which came from one offense resulted in condemnation, but the free gift which came from many offenses resulted in justification.”

When Abraham faced his impossibility, Romans 4:19 says, “And not being weak in faith, he did not consider his own body, already dead (since he was about a hundred years old) and the deadness of Sarah’s womb.”

What weakens our faith? Constantly staring at the impossibility blocks our vision of God’s ability. Asa cried out, “…it is nothing for You to help…” Abraham did not allow unbelief to creep into his thought processes.

Hebrews 11:1 says, “Now faith…” Not dialoguing in our minds what God might do, but rather fixing our minds on Jesus ~ the Author and Finisher of our faith. 1 Thessalonians 5:24 says, “He who calls you is faithful, who also will do it.”

Our faith only remains consistent when we are persistent to acknowledge that apart from Him we can do nothing. Trust. Confidence. Assurance. These three words describe the fruit of consistent faith. Mark 9:22 says, “…Have faith in God.”

1 Corinthians 15:58 says, “Therefore, my beloved brethren, be steadfast, immoveable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your labor is not in vain in the Lord.” Consistent faith is the moment by moment acknowledgment that we cannot do anything apart from the Lord.

It is when we think we can handle it that we fall because of pride. PrIde. Note the capital I in the middle of the word. Pride always reaches into our own resources. I was just reading Romans 4. I love that chapter. Verse 18 says, “Who, contrary to hope, in hope believed…”

Verse 20 says, “He did not waver at the promise of God through unbelief, but was strengthened in faith…” Amplified says, “…he grew strong and was empowered by faith as he gave praise and glory to God.” Here we find a key to remaining consistent in faith ~ thankfulness in the face of our impossibility.

2 Chronicles 14:11 says, “And Asa cried out to the Lord his God, and said, Lord, it is nothing for You to help, whether with many or with those who have no power; help us, O Lord our God, for we rest on You, and in Your name we go against this multitude. O Lord, You are our God; do not let man prevail against You!”

Verse 12-13 says, “So the Lord struck the Ethiopians before Asa…So the Ethiopians were overthrown, and they could not recover, for they were broken before the Lord and His army…”’Verse 12-13 says, “So the Lord struck the Ethiopians before Asa…So the Ethiopians were overthrown, and they could not recover, for they were broken before the Lord and His army…”

What impossibility do you face? Have you been crying out to the Lord? Be assured He hears you just like He did Asa. There was a great victory. Yet at the end of Asa’s life he did not seek the Lord.

Paul said in 2 Timothy 4:7, “I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.” Help us Lord to finish our race with our eyes on You.

Psalm 119:145-147 was written about crying out. Verse 145-146 says, “I cry out with my whole heart; hear me, O Lord! I will keep Your statutes. I cry out to You; save me, and I will keep Your testimonies.”

I love Psalm 34:6 which says, “This poor man cried out, and the Lord heard him, and saved him out of all his troubles.” I have pondered this verse for years. The Lord saved him out of all his troubles. Saved means delivered him out by taking him through, as He did with the three Hebrew young men. Daniel 3:25-27.

The power in crying out is the acknowledgment that we can do nothing on our own. There is no inkling of pride. There is no looking to self. It is a wholehearted dependence. Let’s look at Asa’s example. He had an army of 580,000. The other army was a million men and 300 chariots. 

Psalm 119:148 says, “My eyes are awake through the night watches, that I may meditate on Your word.” In 2016 the Lord took me through a season of meditating in the night. He would wake me up with a phrase from Scripture. I’d meditate on that in the wee hours of the morning. When I got up at 4:00 I would sit and type it all into my computer.

The result was 35 short ebooks, all written and mostly published in 7 1/2 months. Then He revealed that He wanted me to compile them into five paperbacks ~ seven chapters each. He amazingly orchestrated the 35 ebooks into one subject per book. 

I began that process, but on January 2, 2017 I had a brain injury that stopped me in my tracks ~ no computer work until 2019. Victorious Garden: true heart forgiveness was the first one. The last one, Emotional Freedom: releasing the heart, was published in 2022.

Psalm 25:14 Amplified says, “…He will show them His covenant and reveal to them its (deep, inner) meaning.” 1 Corinthians 2:10 Amplified says, “Yet to us God has unveiled and revealed them by and through His Spirit, for the (Holy) Spirit searches diligently, exploring and examining everything, even sounding the profound and bottomless things of God (the divine counsels and things hidden and beyond man’s scrutiny).”

Our dedicated time of quiet with the Lord yields fruit that glorifies Him. Quiet time and abiding are synonymous ~ John 15:7-8. Fruit comes from abiding ~ being not doing.

Psalm 51:6 says, “Behold, You desire truth in the inward parts, and in the hidden part You will make me to know wisdom.” Consistently reading through our Bible, observing to do it, and spending time with the Lord brings course correction. He leads us into experiential truth that sets us free and keeps us free.

We embrace His truth by making it our own. We do that through inculcating His word until it is part of our thinking processes. Establishing a quiet time is essential for spiritual growth.

Colossians 2:7 says, “Rooted and built up in Him and established in the faith, as you have been taught, abounding in it with thanksgiving.” Rooted. Established. Steadfast. Immoveable. Those are fruit-words of a quiet time ~ developing a secret history with the Lord.

Embrace means wholehearted acceptance. Psalm 119:140 says, “Your word is very pure, therefore Your servant loves it.” John 14:21 says, “He who has My commandments and keeps them, it is he who loves Me….” It is in our love relationship with the Lord through His word, that He is able to reveal Himself to us.

Psalm 25:14 says, “The secret of the Lord is with those who fear Him, and He will show them His covenant.”