FOR GOD SO LOVED

Today’s Text: For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.
(John 3:16)

Today’s Thoughts: God loves us so much that He was even prepared to send His Son to save us, knowing that he was going to be mocked, beaten, humiliated and murdered. Watching those last scenes of Christ’s life must have broken the Father’s heart. God knew all this would take place. He knew His Son would have to die if we were to live even before He created us, yet He still did. God and Jesus were both prepared to pay the price. That’s how much you are loved. All we have to do is believe in Christ. Believe that He is all He says He is. Believe that He truly does love you, and then love Him back. Show Him that you love Him by living to please Him. God loves you more than you will ever be able to comprehend – love Him back.

Today’s Testimony: At my church we often have what we call a Praise and Worship Service in which we share testimonies and sing songs together, as well as have a number of groups or individuals sing. A few years ago we had one and the topic was Praise God for Salvation. I thought the topic was a good one, and with me, whenever I hear of an interesting topic – I write a song. I therefore wrote a song which shares that title. Today I’d like to share the words of that song with you. However I’m only going to insert the chorus at the end.

Praise God For Salvation

Guilty, condemned, destined to die
We could not save ourselves, though some people try
Satan stood there smiling – he thought the battle had been won
But his joy soon turned to worry when God said He’d send His Son

Pardoned, redeemed, given a second chance
To live for Jesus Christ in every circumstance
We can live forever it is up to you and I
If we give our hearts to Jesus we will not have to die

This gift of grace is for you and me
But the greatest thing about it is that it is free
We just need to accept it and give our Lord control
He has promised He will cleanse us and once again make us whole

Lord I praise You for salvation
For the plan You worked out before creation
I praise You for coming to die so that we might have life
Lord I praise You for Your sacrifice
You died in our place
What an awesome gift of grace
Lord I praise You for salvation

Lord I praise You for salvation

Today’s Task: Praise God for salvation. Thank Him for sending His Son to die in your place. Thank Him that He loves you that much. Please accept His gift of salvation if you haven’t already. Christ gave His life for you – give your life to Him.

Today’s Thanks: O Lord I thank You that You so loved the world that You gave Your one and only Son to suffer and die so that we could have the chance to live eternally. It makes no sense because we are so unworthy, but I thank You that You think with the heart of a loving God and not with a heart like ours. I thank You for Your amazing gift. Help us to accept it. I praise You for salvation. Amen.

WE CAN ALWAYS REJOICE

Today’s Text: Although the fig tree shall not blossom, neither shall fruit be in the vines; the labour of the olive shall fail, and the fields shall yield no meat; the flock shall be cut off from the fold, and there shall be no herd in the stalls: Yet I will rejoice in the LORD, I will joy in the God of my salvation. (Habakkuk 3:17, 18)

Today’s Thoughts: No flowers, no fruit, no produce, no livestock – that’s a pretty bad situation. If farming is ones livelihood and there is nothing to take to market, the farmer has a huge problem. What about in our lives? What if everything was taken away from us? Would we still be able to rejoice simply because we still have God? Would we be able to rejoice to know that even though all earthly things are taken away, we still have salvation and therefore a bright future in Heaven with the Lord? Would we? We need to be so close to the Lord and trust Him so completely that nothing else matters. To rejoice when life is crumbling at your feet is definitely not easy, but God can help us to find peace and joy in Him.

Today’s Testimony: Four years ago my twin sister and I were asked to sing at a program at the women’s prison in Durban. A few ladies from my church visited with some of the inmates regularly and the program was the graduation of those who had completed one or more Bible correspondence courses. That was the first time I’d ever been inside a prison.
Once the women were all seated they started singing. I have never heard singing like that in all my life. They were singing in Zulu and from the bottom of their hearts. It was so loud, but so beautiful. There must have been about a hundred of them all singing and praising their God.
These people were in prison – away from family and former friends and the comforts of home, but still they could rejoice. I wish you could have heard them sing. They were so polite and friendly. You could see that Christ had entered their hearts and made a difference in their lives.
If people in prison can praise the Lord like that, then surely we can too. And yet, yes, they have shelter and at least something to eat, some people do not even have the benefits of those in prison. But prison is definitely not a happy place. The life-style in prison is not enviable. But these people are still able to have joy in Christ; they can still wear a smile and praise their Saviour who has set them free from the chains of sin. Some will get out of prison and begin a new life – this time with Christ at their side; others may never get out of prison, but no matter whether they go or stay, many have found the most valuable Friend they will ever have and they will never cease to praise Him. I want to learn to rejoice in the Lord at all times no matter what “prisons” I am in. Don’t you?

Today’s Task: Rejoice in the God of your salvation no matter what is happening in your life. If it is difficult, start by praising Him for the things that you do have and are thankful for – it could be as simple as water, food, a beating-heart, friends and family. With time the Lord will help you to rejoice fully, regardless of what you are going through. We will always have God even if we have nothing else – thank Him for that blessing. God loves you and has made salvation available to you – praise Him for that. Ask the Lord to give you a peaceful trust in Him so that you can rejoice at all times. Remember that He cares about you.

Today’s Thanks: O Lord I praise You that Your joy is available to each one of us. Lord life is definitely not always easy; help us to rejoice in You even when things are really rough. Help us to trust You. We thank You that You are trustworthy. We thank You for all the blessings that we do have, even though we have got trials. Please give us the strength to endure the trials so that we can be closer to You on the other side. I thank You that You are with us in every trial. I thank You that You care. Please put praise in our hearts right now – You deserve it. We love You Lord. Amen.

NOT OURSELVES, BUT CHRIST

Today’s Text: For we preach not ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord; and ourselves your servants for Jesus' sake. (2 Corinthians 4:5)

Today’s Thoughts: We live to exalt Christ. When we preach or witness we do so in order to exalt Christ, not ourselves. We are but the humble instruments that the Lord has chosen to use to proclaim Himself to the world. Our hearers are meant to see through us and see Christ and Christ alone. Our priority is to show Christ to the world – it does not matter if the world sees the messenger as odd, as long as they see Christ. We need to proclaim Christ to a lost and dying world at all costs. Show them God – show them God’s heart.

Today’s Testimony: Usually when I speak in public I am open and honest (not that I’m not always honest when speaking, but I probably don’t always open up totally if it’s unnecessary). Then afterwards I feel so transparent, by which I mean that others can see right inside me and see a better glimpse of who I am, faults and all.
One night after presenting a topic to a group of people, I said to the Lord, “O Lord, I feel so transparent.” The Lord then said to me, “Good, you’re supposed to be. They’re meant to see right through you and see Me.” Then I said, “That’s not what I meant, but thanks Lord.”
Yes I might have revealed a bit of my human nature; yes others may have been able to see that Lindy isn’t perfect – but that’s a good thing. Only my God is truly perfect. If I had to share pieces about myself, good and bad, in order for my God to be glorified then that’s the way it must be. Whenever I speak I am simply the messenger. I am not important – the one who gave the message is. I preach Christ and Him alone. I am nothing worthy of praise. But my God deserves total praise. I hope that as you have been reading and as you continue reading Today’s T’s you see right through this messenger and see Christ. Every testimony is shared in order to reveal how great my God is. My God truly is great!

Today’s Task: Preach Christ. Don’t allow others to think highly of you as a messenger. Exalt Christ and Christ alone. Share Him with the world. Tell them how great your God is. Do not get discouraged if the world thinks poorly of you as a person – make sure you are living for Christ and then focus on exalting Him. Ask the Lord to help you to become and stay transparent so that all those you speak to will only hear Christ’s message and see Christ. Reveal to the world your God of love. Introduce them to your Saviour.

Today’s Thanks: O Lord I praise You that we do not have to worry about what the world thinks of us – all that matters is that they get a true picture of You. Help us to live our lives so that all can see You in us. Help us to proclaim You and You alone. Please Lord, help us to die to self so that we never want to exalt ourselves but only You. Teach us to be humble servants of Yours. I thank You that You have given us the privilege of showing Your true character to the world. Lord I praise You because You are all-worthy of praise. We love You Lord. Amen.

GOD IS OUR HELPER

Today’s Text: Hear, O LORD, and have mercy upon me: LORD, be thou my helper. (Psalm 30:10)

Today’s Thoughts: Is there anything that you need help with? God can help us no matter what our problem is. We definitely don’t deserve His intervention, but in His mercy, because He loves us, He is more than willing to come and help us. We can take all our problems to the Lord and He will help us in accordance with His will. God is our Helper – our loving helper.

Today’s Testimony: Do any of you write songs? If you do, maybe you can relate to the testimony I’m going to share. Sometimes my songs build off a topic that I think would be interesting; sometimes I’ve needed a song to fit with a certain topic; but quite a few times lately the Lord has just popped a tune and some words into my head and I’ve built on that. Now that I find totally amazing!
The other day was one of those times. I was thinking about something, and the Lord popped a tune and a few word into my head about the topic I was thinking about. Now have you ever tried to remember a song and couldn’t think of the words or tune? Sometimes while my songs are still fresh I land up forgetting those details. Lately I’ve been recording the pieces I have of any new songs onto my phone to listen to if I have a problem. But with this song, when the Lord gave it I couldn’t just drop everything and run and record it, so I decided I’d do it a bit later. But when I had finished what I was busy with I completely forgot all about it. Then the next day I remembered but couldn’t recall the exact words or the tune. I therefore took the problem to the Lord. He had given both the words and the tune in the first place, so He could bring them back to my mind. I kept trying to think of the words, and then finally the Lord brought them back to my mind. Shortly thereafter He helped me to recall the tune too. I kept the song in my mind until I could go and record the piece I had. Once I recorded that piece the Lord and I added another piece and I recorded that. Both the words and tune are stuck in my mind now. God is so good! He can help us when no one else can.

Today’s Task: Ask the Lord to be your Helper. Trust Him to help you no matter what your trouble is. Know that He can help you with anything and everything. All our successes are only because the Lord is helping us. We can do nothing without Him. Thank Him that He is merciful enough to help sinful people like us. Praise your Helper.

Today’s Thanks: O Lord I praise You that You are willing to help Your children. I thank You that You know how to help us in every situation. Please help us to trust in You and to take all our problems to You. Lord I thank You that You help us even though we are unworthy. I thank You that You love and care about us enough to do so. Lord we invite You to be our Helper. We praise You and thank You in Christ’s name. Amen.

GOD BLESSES HIS PEOPLE

Today’s Text: The LORD hath been mindful of us: he will bless us; he will bless the house of Israel; he will bless the house of Aaron. (Psalm 115:12)

Today’s Thoughts: The Lord has never forgotten us – we’re always on His mind. He loves us and loves to bless us. Sometimes God will grant us the blessings we’ve asked for; other times he’ll bless us in ways we had not asked. God knows about the blessings we need even when we are totally unaware of them. God cares about us so much. He will bless His people.

Today’s Testimony: I’ve mentioned before that I’m studying through UNISA. Correspondence with the university is mostly done via post, internet or phone. UNISA makes most of the past exam papers available online and I always download them. I usually download them shortly after the semester starts. I’ve always thought I’d do that just in case they decide to remove some of the older papers. I never thought that that would really happen, but now I know that it is possible.
God is so good! I haven’t always downloaded the past papers straight away, but this time the Lord made sure I did. A while before the exam period started I went to check to see if they had any newer papers available. One of the papers that I had downloaded was no longer there. The day before my last exam I went online to check because I had only three past papers for that module, and I couldn’t remember if I had had four at one stage and misplaced it. I thought that if those were the only ones they had available then I had all the papers I could, seeing I was missing the latest one. There were no past papers available – not a single one. I went to check out the online discussion forum and at one stage quite a few of the students had been asking each other for past exam papers. There were a few students that could help. I’m not sure how many papers they had though. God is so good! Those papers really helped me.
Just for those who may be wondering – the format of the paper had changed from half written and half multiple-choice to all multiple-choice. And even this fact was a total blessing. I really prefer multiple-choice exams to written ones. I’m assuming that they removed the past papers to avoid confusion due to the change in format. Although, one of the past papers was also all multiple-choice. Then it could have been the fact that past papers are often not available for multiple-choice exams, as was the case with the first exam I wrote for this semester. But whatever their reason for removing the papers, my God had His reason for getting me to download them in advance, seeing I don’t know when they were removed. God wanted to bless me when I didn’t even know I needed blessings in that area until afterwards. He blessed in the changing of the paper format, and He blessed in getting me to download the past papers in time. God is truly so good!!!

Today’s Task: Praise the Lord for His blessings. He loves to bless us. If you are in need of a blessing today – ask Him for it. If it is what is best for you, God will grant it. Be ready to count your blessings – don’t miss a single one. Remember to share testimonies of your blessings with others – they need to know how great your God is. Trust in God and be blessed.

Today’s Thanks: Lord I thank You that You love to bless Your people. I thank You for all the blessings we’ve received so far. Help us to count our blessings. Lord I thank You for all the blessings that we are totally unaware of and that we will only know about when we meet You face-to-face. Please help us to trust You to provide us with all the blessings that we need. I thank You for Your great love. I thank You that You are continually mindful of us and never forget us. Help us never to forget and forsake You. We love You Lord. Amen.

THE LORD KNOWS HOW TO DELIVER US FROM TRIALS

Today’s Text: The Lord knoweth how to deliver the godly out of temptations, and to reserve the unjust unto the day of judgment to be punished. (2 Peter 2:9)

Today’s Thoughts: Temptations may refer to the things that entice us to sin, or it can be another word for trials. Any trial ultimately has the potential to cause us to give up and turn away from God and His ways. I definitely do not want to give in to the temptation to quit when I face trials. But we cannot stand firm during tough times on our own, God is the only One who can pull us through. He knows just how to deliver us from our trials, and spare us from walking the wrong way. We may want the trial removed, but God may see it best to simply help us to make it through. He will do what’s best. He can deliver us, and He will. He does not want us to stray and one day reap the consequences – He loves us far too much. But ultimately, the choice is ours. He has offered us all He can.

Today’s Testimony: While sitting in my first exam for this last semester a car alarm started going off. I figured the car probably belonged to someone else in the exam room and therefore wasn’t going to be silenced very soon. An alarm going off in the middle of an exam does not exactly contribute to concentration, so I prayed that the Lord would intervene. The alarm immediately stopped, but then immediately continued going off again. I prayed again and then diverted my attention back to my exam paper. A while later I realized that the car alarm had stopped.
I had prayed for the alarm to stop, but the Lord chose rather to help me to drown out the sound and focus on my exam paper. Then later He intervened and the alarm stopped, but I was totally unaware that it stopped when it did.
We’ve all had problems. We’ve all had troubles that attract out entire attention – trials that we wish would disappear. Sometimes God will intervene and remove our problems, but other times He may choose to help us to rather focus on the things that really matter and stop devoting our attention to our troubles. Stressing about them won’t help. Praying about them will help in one way or another – God knows what is best for each of us in every situation.
God answers prayer. He may not always answer them the way we would have liked, but He always answers. He knows how to deliver us from trials.

Today’s Task: No matter what trials you are facing, know that the Lord knows how to intervene. Trust His wisdom. Trust His love. Remember that God always knows what is best. Resist the temptation to give up and forsake the Lord – He hasn’t forsaken you. God is right there with you in every trial. He will bring you through. Choose to remain in Him. Trust Him.

Today’s Thanks: O Lord I praise You that You are good and that You are God. I thank You that You know how to deliver us from temptation and trial, and I thank You that You will if we ask you to and allow You to do so. I thank You that You will always do what’s best for us. Please help us to trust You. I pray that we will stand on Your side one day because we clung to You in the midst of temptation and trial, and not be found on the other side to reap the results of our sin. Please help us to remain faithful to You. I thank You that You care about Your children. Amen.

GOD KNOWS WHAT WE NEED

Today’s Text: And seek not ye what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink, neither be ye of doubtful mind. For all these things do the nations of the world seek after: and your Father knoweth that ye have need of these things. (Luke 12:29, 30)

Today’s Thoughts: Whenever we have needs that we cannot satisfy, we so often worry. It might be daily provisions, it might be medical matters, it may be any financial struggle, or any other stressing situation, but God knows exactly what we really need no matter what our trouble. He doesn’t want us to worry. He wants us to place our trust in Him and remember that He knows our every need and will intervene to provide it in accordance with His will. God loves us so much. He looks after all His children.

Today’s Testimony: One day, about three years ago, I noticed that although my toothpaste was at the end of the tube, it just didn’t seem to be running out. I didn’t need it to last any longer – I had a new tube waiting. So, seeing I didn’t need this miracle, I asked the Lord about it: “Lord, why is my toothpaste not finishing?” He answered, “Child, if I can provide the things you don’t need, how much more will I provide the things you do need.”
The Lord has always provided for my needs. I can’t say that I have always had enough faith to believe that He will, but after so many years of miracles, I really should start trusting Him more. He truly has never not come through for me – if only I could remember that whenever I face a trial. I invite you to trust Him fully to always do what’s best.
Just above where this story is recorded in my prayer diary, I wrote something that I’d heard a few days before: “Today’s test is tomorrow’s testimony”. Life’s not always easy, but we must remember that God knows what we truly need to happen in our lives and He will intervene in the way He knows best. We may face trials today, but if we keep trusting in God we will soon have a powerful testimony to share, because God always comes through for His children – believe it!

Today’s Task: Trust that God knows what you really need. Place every care and concern at His feet. He so often blesses us with the things that are not necessary – how much more will He bless us with the things that are necessary. Know that God loves you. Know that He cares about your every need. Please trust Him to intervene. And then when you’ve witnessed a miracle – please don’t forget to share the testimony. The whole world needs to see and know that God is good, and that God is love.

Today’s Thanks: Lord I thank You that You so often bless us with things that are not needs. But more than that I thank You that You always bless us with the things that we do need. You know what’s truly best for us. Help us to realize that what we think is the best answer to our problems might not truly be best from Your all-seeing, all-knowing viewpoint. Please help us to trust You in all things, and to praise You no matter what the outcome. Help us to tell others what You’ve done for us. I thank You that You care about every single one of us. I thank You that You will always come through for us. We love You Lord. Amen.