INTRODUCTION:
• How we live our lives is vitally important. • There are principles that guide each one of us. • These could be positive or negative guidelines by which we live our lives. • If we will live by God’s principles, we can expect to see His favour and blessing on our lives. • If we live by what ‘seems good unto us’ it can often take us down a path we would later regret. • Have you ever considered what are the guidelines or principles by which you live your life? • Are there some that should be changed or substituted with God’s principles? • If we can discover these principles and develop them into spiritual disciplines, we will be able to make sense of life. • The earlier we discover and apply these, the better, but it is never too late to begin! • They are like spiritual disciplines that we can apply to our daily lives. • Here are some of those guidelines and principles to help you get started. 1. FORGIVENESS • We can live a life during which we can receive forgiveness from God. 1 John 1:9 ‘If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.’ • Jesus paid for our sins in full – we can know what it means to be forgiven. Colossians 2:14 ‘He canceled the record of the charges against us and took it away by nailing it to the cross.’ • God has removed our sin from us. Psalm 103:12 ‘As far as the east is from the west, so far has He removed our transgressions from us.’ • Have you ever thought why the Bible says that God has removed our sin from us as far as the East is from the West? Why did He not say as far as the North is from the South? This is one of the greatest pictures of God’s love. The North and South pole are definite points. You can actually go to those spots. By there is no East or West pole. When you get there you can still go further to the East. So in a very real sense, when God says He has removed our transgressions as far as the East is from the West it means that He has totally and forever removed it. • Forgiveness is not just something we receive; it is also something we can give! Mark 11:25 ‘And when you stand praying, if you hold anything against anyone, forgive him, so that your Father in heaven may forgive you your sins.’ • How often we long for mercy for ourselves and our mistakes but we demand justice when others make mistakes or do us harm. • Our lives should be guided by the principle of receiving forgiveness and extending forgiveness. • Perhaps there is an area in your life or past that you need to bring to the feet of God and ask Him to forgive you. Do it now! • Perhaps there is someone that you have not released and you still carry an IOU. It’s time to take a moment and extend forgiveness to them. Do it now! 2. LIVING ONE DAY AT A TIME • Many people live in a day and time that has not yet arrived. • They live worried about tomorrow or the future and in the process they miss the moment they have in front of them. • We should consciously enjoy the day we have. • We should live today as if it was our last day. • Matthew 6:34 ‘Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.’ • Matthew 6:25 ‘Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more important than food, and the body more important than clothes?’ • Luke 10:41 ‘Martha, Martha,’ the Lord answered, ‘you are worried and upset about many things!’ • Don’t live worried and upset about many things. • Live for the moment. • Live in the present and not in the past or in the future. • Be present in the present. • Living in the past leads to regret and living in the future leads to fear. • Living in the moment is the key to finding fulfillment. 3. RECEIVING NEW MERCY • God is a faithful God. • He is your faithful God. • His word tells us that His mercies are new every morning. • Lamentations 3:23 ‘Great is His faithfulness; His mercies begin afresh each morning. • We need to live with the knowledge that each day we can start afresh and receive His new mercies. • Don’t drag your past mistakes, failures and disappointments from yesterday into your today. • Often when I awake in the morning, I will just take a moment and receive God’s new mercy for me for the new day. • When we live by His new mercy each day we don’t have to bogged down by what we may have done, but we can step up to take advantage of the new day and its new opportunities without hesitation and hindrance. • In the same way, we cannot do it on our own. • We need God and we need His mercy and His grace each day to help us. • We need to live life by His strength. • So take a moment and receive new mercy from Him now and each day of your life! 4. LIVING A PRINCIPLE-CENTRED LIFE • Different people are motivated by different things. • But we must be careful not to be motivated by things that are not God’s principles. • Some people are motivated by materialism. Their actions, choices and decisions reflect their materialism. • Other people are motivated by acceptance or the desire to be liked. As such they will make choices and decisions based on whether they will get the desired outcome of acceptance. • Still other people are motivated by selfishness and it in turn effects how they live their lives and the choices they make. • But if you live by these things, they will eventually destroy you. • But when we live our lives by God’s principles, it leads to life and blessing. • Our lives should be lived in a principle-centered way. • We should make the quality decision that God’s way and principles are the best things for our lives and we are going to apply them and live by them in our daily lives. • We must be determined that we will stand by these principles and not be swayed by prevailing social norms and pressures. • 2 Timothy 3:1-5 There will be terrible times in the last days. People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good, treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God— having a form of godliness but denying its power. Have nothing to do with them. • John 3:19-21 Light has come into the world, but men loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil. Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that his deeds will be exposed. But whoever lives by the truth comes into the light, so that it may be seen plainly that what he has done has been done through God. • Here are one or two principles that you can consider: • Don’t try to understand everything. Don’t try to figure everything out. Don’t try to reduce God to a formula, just stick to the principles. Isaiah 55:9 ‘As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways and My thoughts than your thoughts.’ • Give and it shall be given unto you. Luke 6:38 Give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over, will be poured into your lap. For with the measure you use, it will be measured to you. • Remember the principles of honesty, integrity and consistency. 5. LIVE IN THE LIGHT • John 3:19-21 Light has come into the world, but men loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil. Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that his deeds will be exposed. But whoever lives by the truth comes into the light, so that it may be seen plainly that what he has done has been done through God. • Look at this phrase: But whoever lives by the truth comes into the light! • As we live by the truth and principles of God we ‘come into the light’! • That’s where I want to live. • How about you? • Let’s live by God’s word and His principles. • As you do this you can live in His light and enjoy His blessing and favour on your life. • When we choose not to do this we step out of the realm of light and into darkness and wickedness! • Proverbs 2:12-13 ‘Wisdom will save you from the ways of wicked men, who leave the straight paths to walk in dark ways.’ • Wicked men leave the straight paths. • Righteous men and women stick to the straight paths. • Hebrews 10:23 ‘Let us hold tightly without wavering to the hope we affirm, for God can be trusted to keep His promise.’ Psalm 119:156 Your acts of compassion are many in number, O LORD. Give me a new life guided by your regulations. Live One Day At A Time (Author Unknown) There are two days in every week about which we should not worry; Two days which should be kept free of fear and apprehension; One of these days is YESTERDAY, With its mistakes and cares, Its faults and blunders, Its aches and pains. YESTERDAY has passed forever beyond our control. All the money in the world cannot bring back YESTERDAY. We cannot undo a single act we performed. We cannot erase a single word we said. YESTERDAY is gone. The other day we should not worry about is TOMORROW; With its possible adversities, its burdens, its larger promise. TOMORROW is also beyond our immediate control. TOMORROW, the sun will rise, Either in splendor or behind a mask of clouds; But it will rise. Until it does, we have no stake in TOMORROW For it is as yet unborn. This leaves only one day - TODAY. Any man can fight the battles of just one day. It is only when you and I add the burdens of those two awful eternity's - YESTERDAY and TOMORROW - That we break down. It is not the experience of TODAY that drives men mad. It is remorse or bitterness for something which happened YESTERDAY And the dread of what TOMORROW may bring. Let us, therefore, live but ONE day at a time. By: Andrew W Roebert These notes may be shared with others. Comments are closed.
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