The life we live with Jesus IS WONDERFUL! We receive salvation as a free gift, because our Lord paid for it in full, totally, forever for all our sins, past, present and future. But to keep our salvation, we have to renounce to everything that may take the place of our Lord. We are required to live pure lives, fully committed in total obedience to our Heavenly Father.

God never requires anything of us that we cannot do or that He has not not equipped us for first. The Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of the Living God, suffered so much because He loves us and wants to have us with Him in Heaven for eternity, so that we can say as Paul said:

• 2 Corinthians 4:16-18 For this reason we never become discouraged. Even though our physical being is gradually decaying, yet our spiritual being is renewed day after day. And this small and temporary trouble we suffer will bring us a tremendous and eternal glory, much greater than the trouble. For we fix our attention, not on things that are seen, but on things that are unseen. What can be seen lasts only for a time, but what cannot be seen lasts forever.


If Paul is calling the tribulations that he faced, “small and temporary trouble,” we truly have no excuses to bend under the trials of every day life. And we know that no matter how tough the troubles are that we face, none could be worse than what our holy and innocent Lord suffered in our place! And He did it all from love for each of us.

• John 3:16 “For God loved the world so much that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not die but have eternal life.”

What could be more wonderful than knowing that:

- Jesus is the true shepherd, who knows us way better than we know ourselves and tells us that we can learn to know and grow in Him. We get to closer to God as we dig deeper into His Word, trying to learn more about Him and His will toward us, the less we will doubt His love, power and desire to bless us.

• John 10: 14,15 "I am the good shepherd. As the Father knows me and I know the Father, in the same way I know my sheep and they know me. And I am willing to die for them.”

- Jesus knows us and we can follow Him:

• John 10:27 "My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me”

- Christ gives us eternal life and no one can snatch us out of His hand, as long as we are willing to stay there!

• John 10:28 "And I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; neither shall anyone snatch them out of My hand."'

- God the Father is sovereign, omnipotent, the greatest over all and we are in His hand. No one can snatch us from there!

• John 10:29 "My Father, who has given them to Me, is greater than all; and no one is able to snatch them out of My Father’s hand.'"

- Jesus and the Father are one and they live in us, through the Holy Spirit. What else could we want?

• John 10:30 "I and My Father are one"

In conclusion, I think we can agree with Paul:

• Philippians 4:13 I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.

C. Pușcaș

We communicate with God through prayer. We are called and created to pray uninterrupted. Through prayer, we are connected with the Holy Spirit, we ask advice and He is giving it to us. Only then, can we make good decisions, think in a Biblical way, renewing our minds which heals our brains and keeps us close in the presence of Jesus. The world of science proves over and over the truth that man is created to communicate non-stop with his "source" (The Creator). Even if the studies would not admit the whole truth, we know that “the source” is God.

Paul urges us to pray without ceasing, at any time, without discrimination and to do it persistently! He also urges us to do something very important - to live in a state of joy. Joy and prayer are very good friends. We can find the true joy, sincere, full, lasting only through the Holy Spirit, when we enter the presence of God. We enter in the presence of God only through prayer and worship. Sincere, persistent prayer that is praising the Lord and giving thanks for all that He is and has done in our lives, brings us into God's presence.

• Ephesians 6:18 praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, being watchful to this end with all perseverance and supplication for all the saints

 

• 1 Thessalonians 5:16-17 Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, in everything give thanks; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.

 

• Philippians 4:4-6 Rejoice in the Lord always. Again I will say, rejoice! Let your gentleness be known to all men. The Lord is at hand. Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God

If we do not feel the need to pray, to communicate with God our Father, it's time to ask ourselves what is wrong. As Christians it is normal to want to communicate with the Lord and Creator, as we feel the need to communicate with our loved ones. The desire to tell God about our problems or our victories, our worries, needs or achievements is the essence of the Christian life. Without this fellowship, we can not be God's children.


Dear Lord, please increase our passion and desire to spend time with You, to know You more through studying the scripture, prayer and worship and to become more and more like You. Thank you Lord!

C. Pușcaș

A Christian with no real prayer life, is powerless. He has no protection, no counseling from the Holy Spirit. He is also missing the light of Jesus (which brings clarity to any issue) and the wisdom that comes from God. All these causes him to become an easy target for the devil's attacks.

Through prayer we communicate with God; we access His power; ours hearts are being filled with joy and with His peace, that is beyond human understanding; we are strengthening ourselves in the Lord and in His mighty power, as Paul advises us to do in Ephesians 6:10.

God tells us through the prophet Jeremiah, that He is the one who makes plans and carries them out, and we need to call on Him, if we want Him to respond. Would this be just a formally call? We all know that is not so. 

God answers those who are sincere and seek him desiring to get an answered. His desire is to communicate with us, to strengthen our steps on the path of faith; He is revealing us things that we can't learn from someone else. Of course He wants us to have faith, to receive what He is revealing to us and act accordingly.

• Jeremiah 33:2-3 Thus says the Lord who made it, the Lord who formed it to establish it (the Lord is His name): "Call to Me, and I will answer you, and show you great and mighty things, which you do not know."

Being "born again" of the incorruptible seed of the Holy Spirit, changes "our inner man." That is our spirit and this will transform it completely, as it will become one with the Spirit of God. But we will not be able to keep it "renewed" without a constant and devoted prayer life.

David shows us the solution for moments of despair, in Psalm 40. Many theologians say that this is a prophetic psalm of David, referring to Jesus in times of despair in the garden of Gethsemane. Whether this is about David, or it is prophetic, about Jesus Christ, the message is the same. In tough times, if the child of God, trusts totally in Lord God, his desperate cry for help, will receive an answer. Our Heavenly Father has all power in heaven and on earth and intervenes to save us, no matter how severe our situation is. You may say that Lord Jesus still had to go through the ordeal of arrest, mockery, scourging and crucifixion for the sins of whole humanity, even if He prayed. Is true, but Lord Jesus ended His prayer as shown in Luke.
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• Luke 22:42 “Father,” He said, “if You will, take this cup of suffering away from Me. Not My will, however, but Your will be done.”

He knew that this was the purpose of His coming to earth, and that His Father heard His cry ("deesis" in the original Greek = prayer, supplication, need, demand) and gave him supreme power to go through the ordeal. God does that for all His children, never leave us alone and always choose the most beneficial for us, even though many times we think we had a better solution. 

Jesus did not sin and never erred, it was perfect in his living, and still had a constant and dedicated life of prayer. He spent time daily, in the presence of the Father, and that refilled Him with the Holy Spirit. We need to pray with faith, to ask God's help in all aspects of our lives and seek to enter the presence of God on daily basis, way more than Jesus did. Only living filled with Holy Spirit and led by Him, we will see the promises of the Bible being fulfilled in our lives.

• Psalms 40:1-4 I waited patiently for the Lord; and He inclined to me, and heard my cry. He also brought me up out of a horrible pit, out of the miry clay, and set my feet upon a rock, and established my steps. He has put a new song in my mouth— praise to our God; many will see it and fear, and will trust in the Lord. Blessed is that man who makes the Lord his trust, and does not respect the proud, nor such as turn aside to lies.

Carmen Pușcaș