R is for Righteousness

1st Writes is participating in the 2013 April A to Z Blogging Challenge.

This year our theme is "Attributes of God from A to Z".

Join us each day as we explore

the characteristics of our awesome God!

Photo by xandert on Morguefile.com

The word righteous speaks of being in a right standing with God. The scriptures tell us that there is none righteous. No one can be in a right standing before God on his or her own. God's word tells us plainly that we all have sinned and come short of God's glory. But our God is righteous and through his Son, that righteousness—that right standing—is passed on to us.

So many times we find ourselves struggling with guilt, sin, and failure...But our God reminds us in His word in 1 John 1:9 that as we confess our sin, he will forgive and cleanse us from that unrighteousness that we abhor and make us righteous in his sight. Jesus sacrifice on the cross puts us in right standing with the Father once again. We have been made righteous through Christ, the Righteous One.

©2013 Carol Isbister

M is for Merciful

1st Writes is participating in the 2013 April A to Z Blogging Challenge.

This year our theme is "Attributes of God from A to Z".

Join us each day as we explore

the characteristics of our awesome God!

Photo courtesy of wikimedia.org

The Lord our God is merciful and forgiving,

even though we have rebelled against him."

Daniel 9:9

We know that our God is merciful and extends grace to all even though we don't deserve it. At times the grace and mercy of God is beyond our human comprehension. When we tell the Lord we are truly sorry, He immediately extends mercy to us - so much so that it sometimes takes our breath away. Other times we find it difficult to accept. Are we able to extend mercy to others as He does to us? We can only do so through the supernatural work of the Holy Spirit in our hearts.

It is the mercy of God that melts and transforms our lives. God's mercy takes a hardened sinner and turns him or her into a Christ-like saint of God. That is each one of us. As we examine our lives, we find that we are hopelessly lost and cannot help ourselves or others...but the mercy of God steps in and we are changed from glory to glory. Thank God for His mercy extended to us through our wonderful savior.

©2013 Carol Isbister

F is for Faithfulness

1st Writes is participating in the 2013 April A to Z Blogging Challenge.

This year our theme is "Attributes of God from A to Z".

Join us each day as we explore

the infinite characteristics of our awesome God!

Photo by Pam Williams

The old hymn of the church, "Great Is Thy Faithfulness" declares the faithfulness of God in song. The verses speak of the changing of the seasons, the dawning of each morning and the awareness of God's steadfastness.

He is a God who doesn't change, whose character and holiness never waiver. Most importantly, we are blessed by His unchanging love, poured out to us on a daily basis.

The knowledge of God's faithfulness has carried my family through the joy and the heartbreaks, through the feast and the famines of life.  Whatever we face, God is always present.

The long-cherished song of the church makes a grateful child of God want to shout it to the housetops--GREAT IS THY FAITHFULNESS!

He is a faithful God.

©2013 Carol Isbister