This time of year brings lots of memories and most surround the time at family gatherings were gifts were given and received. I’m thankful that we serve a God that knows our every need and is ready to give if we will just ask, seek, and knock that he will hear an answer according to what our needs are. Many times we ask for the wants in life and all we need to do is seek out God for what we need and he’s ready to give.

Parents have the instinct to be on guard for the children and to protect them against all harm.  Husbands should be so for their family as a whole.  The military has personnel stationed to watch for activity that might endanger the installation at which they are stationed.  God in turn, has set watchman for our souls.  They come in the form of preachers and pastors, Sunday school teachers and yes, I believe in the Christian leaders of the home - mom and dad... we live in a time when the truth needs to be shared and in doing so, we are watching for the souls those we love.

FAITH: it's the word Christians used to express their overwhelming trust in God.  It simply means we BELIEVE God.  Sometimes that strong belief is easy.  Other times, when it goes a little contrary to our thinking, believing takes a little more strength and trust.  But, in the end, believing God is all it takes.

We sing the Stars Spangled Banner... we say the Pledge to the Christian Flag at Vacation Bible School.  We fly the flag of the United States with honor and we display the Christian flag in our churches in remembrance of Christ.  Every day though, we have a flag flying over us that we can't necessarily see but we sure can feel - that's the Love of God above and around us each day that we should never forget - the banner of Love we should cherish so much.

You and I call break the law unless you can tell me that you never go over the speed limit by one mile per hour!  The Bible speaks heavily of the Law as given my Moses.  But, it then speaks heavily of the lack of the ability of the law to save mankind.  I'm not justified by what I do and how well I maintain compliance with laws.  I'm saved by grace given as a gift from God because of Calvary.

No one has a perfect life.  No one has it easy all the time.  Even folks that we think might have it made have hidden struggles they deal with.  Life is a series of good time and not so good times.  Seasons of health and seasons of sickness.  Times of happiness and times of sadness.  It almost sounds like Solomon writing Ecclesiastes.  But this is more about the daily ups and downs of life - the see/saw we get on every day.  All the time, God is good!  He's never moving - it's us that needs to hop off the teeter totter once in a while.  But let's give God thanks no matter where we are...

Being without someone we love is very difficult.  We miss them.  We want to be back with them.  Parents would give their lives for their children to continue theirs; they would do all they could out of love to protect them.  Husbands are to love their wives to the point of giving their life for them as Christ did for the church.  Christ loved us before we ever thought of loving him.  We have had passions of the past and loves we would never let go of.  But, as a Christian, we should love Christ above anything or anyone and the Bible has tough scriptures to point us in that direction.  For us to fully understand Calvary, we have to understand a love greater than any love we've ever known.  Then we will understand the call to forsake all and follow Christ.

Train up a child in the way he should go and when he is old he will not depart from it. Proverbs 22:6. The last thing we need to do is turn a child away when he has a question. Jesus taught that to us as well but with a much deeper spiritual meaning. We are to approach God as a little children, childlike, needy, and humble. Not as the know it all Pharisees of the Bible.

Experience has been official to those who come after us! It also keeps us from maybe making the same mistakes twice. Either way we can give our experiences to others as Paul did to Timothy. He used words and phrases to encourage him to stand strong in the Christian faith. This daily devotion gives you some of those words throughout the book of second Timothy.

The Bible says to pray without ceasing given a sense of it being something regularly obtainable before God. But I know that that praying without ceasing is more of a mindset than an act. Seeking God is not always easy and it’s not his fault but ours. But in the day that we live, knee time just want it’s gonna take to push through the times that we live in the situations that keep ramping up before us. We have the opportunity to boldly approach the throne but we are the one that hinders that; not God. So let’s push forward with our prayer life and afflict ourselves before an Almighty God and get in touch with him in our time of need.