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Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective. — James 5:16 Thoughts on Today's Verse... To confess and be rid of our guilt of sin is to do three things with our sin: Recognize sin for what it is in God's eyes - to confess literally means to call our sin the same thing God does. Get rid of our secrets and be honest with another Christian about that sin. Receive prayer from a righteous disciple of Jesus and receive forgiveness and healing from that sin. James' language is powerful and clear. He wants us not only to experience forgiveness, but he also wants us to be healed from our past sins. Rather than hide, rationalize, dismiss, or ignore our sin, James and his brother Jesus want us to embrace God's path to full healing. Let's confess our sins to one another so we can be healed! My Prayer... Holy Father, I have sinned. I now confess my own personal sin of ________...

For Christ's love compels us, because we are convinced that one died for all, and therefore all died. And he died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again. — 2 Corinthians 5:14-15 Thoughts on Today's Verse... What are you living for? What drives your life? What is the compelling motivation for your life? While these are all important questions, the most important question, however, is this: "Who am I living for?" Only one person can ensure that my life will count in meaningful ways after my body quits working ( 1 Corinthians 15:57-58 ). Only Jesus enables me to confidently know that I will never die ( John 11:25-26 ). He has already died for me and conquered death! If my body fails, the living part of me will go to be with Jesus, awaiting the resurrection ( 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18 ; Philippians 1:19-24 ). If he was willing to do all of this for me, then I'm for sure going to live for him a...

In Christ we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God's grace. — Ephesians 1:7 Thoughts on Today's Verse... Forgiveness! What a sweet and precious gift. What we were powerless to fix or pay for, God did for us in Jesus. He gave us the gift of forgiveness. With him, each day is a fresh start and a rebirth of the springtime of our souls. But my, such a terrible cost he paid to give it to us! Jesus paid for what we could not afford so we could find "the riches of God's grace" in Jesus. Praise God! My Prayer... Thank you, Father, for your anguish and cost to forgive my sins by the blood of your Son. I refuse to take the cost of my sin lightly. I commit to live for your glory in appreciation for your grace. In the name of him who sacrificed all for my salvation and gave me the gift of "the riches of God's grace," I pray. Amen. The Thoughts and Prayer on Today's Verse are written by Phil Ware. Y...

Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. — Hebrews 12:2 Thoughts on Today's Verse... "He drives where he looks, he drives where he looks!" That statement by Nan, a wife disgruntled by her husband's driving, absolutely spoke the truth. Vail invariably would turn the steering wheel in the direction he was looking, terrifying all of us who rode with him as he looked around. This principle is also true of each of us and our lives: "We live where we look!" What our hearts seek and what our minds focus on steer us toward our goal, like a heat-seeking missile following its target's exhaust. That's why we must "fix our eyes on Jesus." We focus upon Jesus to both know him and become like him ( 2 Corinthians 3:18 ). Our lives will follow where we look. So let's fix our gaze and focus our hearts o...

Now as Jesus was going up to Jerusalem, he took the twelve disciples aside and said to them, "We are going up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man will be betrayed to the chief priests and the teachers of the law. They will condemn him to death and will turn him over to the Gentiles to be mocked and flogged and crucified. On the third day he will be raised to life!" — Matthew 20:17-19 Thoughts on Today's Verse... One thing the Gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John) make clear: Jesus' death on the cross was no accident - it was no tragedy outside the will of God. Jesus knew the challenge that awaited him in Jerusalem, and he walked into his horrific challenge to deliver us from the same fate he suffered. His trust in the Father's "third day solution" opened the doorway for God to secure victory for Jesus and all of us who build our futures through our faith in him ( Colossians 2:12-15 , 3:1-4 ). The question for us is straightforward: Will we face our challe...

The fool says in his heart there is no God. — Psalm 14:1 Thoughts on Today's Verse... At one time or another, most of us raised an angry fist to fate and cursed the darkness. Each of these actions is equally ineffective. To deny the existence of God is something else altogether. To rob heaven of God is to rob ourselves of grace, hope, and future. How foolish to forget that behind a Creation of wonder, order, variety, beauty, power, and pattern is the Grand Creator. He is far greater than his handiwork, and we dare not ignore, deny, or dismiss him, for then we become our own gods, left to only worship ourselves and the beauty created for us. How small our world becomes when we do deny there is God ( 1 Corinthians 1:18-32 ). My Prayer... O LORD God Almighty, Creator and Sustainer, we thank you for not only being there always as the great "I AM," ( Exodus 3:13-15 ; Hebrews 13:5-6 ) but being with each of us this very day. Please use us, your children, to awaken our skeptical...