Remain thankful always

Greetings:

When the waves of strife drive our faces into the dirt, we must not give up, lose heart, or stop trusting God.

That's the time to get up, dust off and be thankful.

The Apostle Paul didn’t learn contentment overnight, but it was over time through a great deal of suffering that he learned not to overlook the basic, small provisions of God, but to be thankful for them.  With mere food and covering, he could be content. 

Sometimes, God allows suffering to help us be mindful of all of the many smaller graces that He has given us in our lives.  It is easy to overlook things and take them for granted.  We should be thankful to God for them, as insignificant as they might seem.  Just comparing our life to somebody who is in a worse state does not necessarily make us feel better.  But if we thank God that we have the things that we realize that others might not be so fortunate to have, then our thanksgiving can change our perspective and bring us contentment. 

We need to maintain Paul’s attitude of thankfulness for all things and in even the most dire and unfair of circumstances.  We need to make a point of it to thank God for the blessings that He gives us each and every day. 

We ought to wake up every morning and our first thoughts ought to be 'Thank you, Lord'.

We ought to yell it loud so the devil himself can hear our commitment and love for God.

One of the first steps into spiritual decay is to refuse to or neglect to give God thanks after experiencing his goodness and seeing his power manifested on our behalf. If we fail to acknowledge God,  we can begin to feel proud and self-sufficient, which is a dangerous road to walk on.

Rather, we need to acknowledge God’s provision in everything as it says in Proverbs 3:5-6 so that we can stay on the straight and narrow path. 

In 1 Thessalonians 5:18 (Amplified Bible) we read, “Thank [God] in everything [no matter what the circumstances may be, be thank

ful and give thanks], for this is the will of God for you [who are] in Christ Jesus [the Revealer and Mediator of that will].”

This verse says that it’s God’s will for everyone who believes in Jesus to be thankful. There are some things that happen in our lives that we are truly thankful for. But some things that happen are really difficult.  Let’s look really closely at the verse. Some might think that this verse says to be thankful FOR all of our circumstances. But the verse actually says to be thankful in all circumstances. The original Hebrew word for 'in' that is used here means 'in the middle of' or 'during'.

In other words, no matter what is happening in our life, we can be thankful.

Be blessed.

Don't let yesterday use up too much of todày

Greetings:

God values the emotions he created in us. The Bible bursts with emotion from Genesis to Revelation and God is often the main character in these scenes.

Our God is different from the array of other gods that we have seen through history – those carved out of people's imaginations and out wood, metal or images of spiritual darkness.

Our God loves, forgives, feels our pain.

He's a God of mercy, grace and power we can't even understand.

Showing emotion is natural.

But those who do show a lot of emotion are sometimes labeled  as shallow, loony, crybaby, hysterical and weak.

If we shed tears a little too often, we're perceived as unstable or wimpy.

On the other hand, if we rarely show emotion, people say we're cold-hearted. It's easy to see why some of us  become so uptight about others' judgments that they tiptoe through life walking on emotional eggshells.

Just relax. Don't worry about what other people say or think about you. Be yourself and listen to God's direction.

Importantly, we need to remember that God gives us the ability to learn how to be ourselves, express emotions and come to the relaxed peace of his presence.

In Galatians 5:22-23 (NLT) we read, "But the Holy Spirit produces this kind of fruit in our lives: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. There is no law against these things!"

We must not lose touch with God, even when life is tragic or very busy. We have to be careful not to do to much for God that we miss God in the process. What I'm saying is, we can get to busy doing 'God things' in the church that we miss what God is telling us or directing us to do.

There must be a balance.

We must simply stop ourselves and reach out to touch reality, both physical and spiritual, otherwise, we can gradually drift away from the very one who gave us life and vibrancy in the first place.

People can get spiritually burned out as well and become too busy and consumed with 'church things' that they grow weary in life away from the church. Some can even loose touch with their families because they are too busy working  for the Lord.

God calls us to lead a balanced life.

Why do you think ministers and others go away to retreats – away from the pressures and rat-race of normal life and try to get closer to God through relaxation.

I'm guilty of not doing this enough. It's hard for me to unwind and just relax. But God is still working on me. He's not done yet, I have to confess.

Be blessed.

Ditch the crutches; find the rock

Growing in and walking the Christian life is a process.

Sometimes we are bruised coming in and are little fearful not knowing if we have the strength to endure the journey as a Christian.

How many of you have ever broken or sprained a bone in your leg, ankle or foot?

What did the doctor do? Generally, some part of your recovery process involves using crutches until your injured limb gains enough strength to hold your weight and function normally.

I have used crutches on a couple of occasions and I can tell you crutches are no fun to use. They are sometimes painful and frustrating.

However, the crutches helped me to navigate until I healed enough to throw them away. It was much better using the crutches than it was to hop around on one leg like a crippled rabbit.

A crutch is a noun that describes a long staff of wood or metal having a rest for the armpit, for supporting the weight of the body. A crutch is something that supports or sustains.

A common charge laid against God and Christianity by non-believers is,  “They’re just a psychological crutch for weak, needy types.”

The implications here is that strong, independent people don’t need a “crutch”. They can make it on their own.

But the truth is we all have psychological crutches –– the need to be loved, for example, and the need for companionship.

Author and former pastor Bob Prall writes,“If Christianity is a psychological crutch, then Jesus Christ came because there was an epidemic of broken legs.”

Prall says everyone needs assistance.

“The question is, what will you lean on? Christianity provides what atheism or other religions never can: spiritual fulfillment, peace, and forgiveness,” he wrote.

When you come to rely on your mental or emotional crutches permanently, your spirit, your courage, your passion and your zest for life become weak. They waste away from lack of use.

The crutches of self-doubt, low self-esteem, wavering confidence, hopelessness, purposelessness and sheer frustration have crippled many of us and rendered our spirit weak. We’ve hobbled around long enough using those same old tired excuses as to why we can’t seem to get on a good foot. It’s time to break the crutches and get back to our life.

What's your spiritual crutch? What's the thing or things holding us back from getting closer to God? What's the thing holding us in our comfort zone and stunting our spiritual growth?

There is nothing wrong with leaning on something as long as we are leaning on the Lord.

Deuteronomy 33:27 says, “The eternal God is your refuge, and underneath are the everlasting arms.”

In Isaiah 41:10 we see one of my favorite scriptures, “So do not fear, for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you; I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.”

The truth is when all of our own crutches are broken and removed and all the we have left is God –– that God is more than enough.

Be blessed.

What we say does matter

Greetings:
The way we think does matter in our Christian walk.
What we choose to think about and dwell on in our lives will make or break you as to what type of person you will end up becoming and how you are able to serve God.You know it doesn't even have to be a major, catastrophic event to send us back to the land of negative thinking. 
It can be something as simple as someone cutting us off in traffic or pushing ahead of us in checkout line at Walmart.What gives those seemingly simple occurrences of every day life so much power to literally throw us into a tizzy all over again?
Evangelist/teacher Joyce Meyer in her book, “Battle Field of the Mind” tells us not to entertain negative thoughts like: "If I don't expect anything good to happen, I won't be disappointed if it doesn't." She says, “These thoughts are obstacles in your mind, and simply recognizing them will pave the way to your freedom. As Christians, we need to learn to fight for our thoughts, because our minds don't automatically come into agreement with God's plans.”
Have you voiced negative things about yourself, like:
• I never do anything right.
• I'll never change.
• I'm ugly.
• I'm fat.
• I'm dumb.
• Who could ever love me?
Are you afraid to believe anything good might happen because of past disappointments or shortcomings
Matthew 12:37, says, “The words you say will either acquit you or condemn you.”In Proverbs 23:7 (NKJ) we see where it says, “For as he thinks in his heart, so is he.”That tells me it is important how and what we think
Before I became a Christian, I didn't understand this way of thinking and at times even despised those “happy people” who were thinking that way.That's changed.I now see the people who are not happy and fulfilled, and who are always pessimistic and depressed all the time, and have negative attitudes towards anybody and anything, are all choosing to think and dwell on the negative side of life.I choose now to see the glass half-full, instead of half empty.
In everyday life, I choose to look something as simple as a weather forecast a little differently.The weatherman might say there is a 30 percent chance of rain today, but really he ought to be saying there is a 70 percent chance that it won't rain today.It's all in the way we think.Call on the Holy Spirit is to be the Master Surgeon of your mind. 
Ask God through the Holy Spirit to take out what He does not want to be operating in your mind and thought process, and put in what He does want to be operating in it.The truth is, God doesn’t work in us through negative attitudes full of self-pity, laziness, passivity or an “everybody owes me” perspective.God works through faith. But before we can have faith, we have to have hope. Hope comes from the way we think and view our next step.
Focus your mind and thoughts on the things of God to boost your faith and get rid of what Joyce Meyer calls that 'stinkin thinkin'.
Be blessed.

An attitude of hope filled with prayer

Greetings:
You’ve heard about the guy who was asked if he thought ignorance and
apathy were the two greatest problems of human nature.
He responded, “I don’t know and I don’t care!”
Well, Paul doesn’t want to see that kind of attitude in the church.
In Romans 12:12 (NLT), Paul offers exhortations about dealing with our
attitude towards difficult circumstances.
“Rejoice in our confident hope. Be patient in trouble, and keep on praying.”
I like the Good News Bible version of Romans 12:12 which says, “Let
your hope keep you joyful, be patient in your troubles, and pray at
all times.
Rejoice in hope. It seems like enough of a request to patiently endure
tribulation, but we're supposed to be rejoicing all through the whole
thing.
This mandate doesn't apply exclusively to when we're facing
tribulation, but rather in our day by day attitude, no matter the
circumstances.
How many of you know on some days it's easy to rejoice; the sun is
shining, people are nice to us, and things are going our way?
However, those days don't last forever, and at some point life won't
be such a cooperative bed of roses.
How can we rejoice when life begins to seem like an endless trail of
misery and broken hopes and pain?
There's a song on “The Bible” movie sound track that deals with hope.
The lyrics talk about our craving for hope. It's very true. We all
must possess a desire, a craving for hope in our lives.
In Romans 8:24 we read, “For in this hope we were saved. But hope that
is seen is no hope at all. Who hopes for what they already have?”
Faith and hope are closely related. It's kind of like describing to
someone how chocolate tastes. Can you really put that in words?
This is the hope in which we were saved.  The hope that since Jesus
Christ died to forgive our sins and since we have accepted His
matchless gift, we now are in an unbreakable relationship with Him.
That's not a hope that can be broken by persecution, broken
relationships, shattered dreams, or anything else Satan can throw at
you.
We are also directed to be patient in tribulation.
Most of us have no clue about the tribulation that the Apostle Paul
experienced. Paul tells us II Timothy 3:12, “Indeed, all who desire to
live godly in Christ Jesus will be persecuted.”
The devil, though fighting a war already lost, will stop at nothing to
tear us down, whether through circumstances that tempt us to give up
our moral standards or through outright, vocal opposition to our
beliefs.
How does God ask us to handle tribulation? With patience.
That's the hard one for me.
We can patiently endure, knowing that no tragedy of any scale can
budge the Lord's plan for us.
The key to any problem in our life is to be steadfast in prayer.
Keep praying no matter what.
We will always be faced with circumstances we cannot handle or
control, people we cannot understand, and choices we cannot make.
We need to be in tune with the Holy Spirit to get through it. Seek his
presence in prayer. Ask for his direction in our lives. Ask for favor
when we are surrounding by circumstances that seem to be swallowing us
up. Pray for peace in the midst of the storm.
When we feel confident in our own ability to solve problems and make
decisions, we will end up eventually spiraling out of control and bad
things will continue to happen.
We must entrust our lives including our choices, relationships,
secrets, time, friendships, and everything else to God.
When you're thinking of what courses to take, wondering how to respond
to somebody you really can't stand, or struggling with a loss that
nobody else seems to think is a big deal or understand simply take it
to the Lord in prayer.
Be blessed.

Let it go, let it go.

Greetings:
Too many times we want to hang on to the 'me' in a situation and not let our trust rest with God.
We want to put God in control, but we either won't put it all on the altar or we'll pick it up before God has moved.
I'll admit letting go for me is no easy task.
I like to be in control and I am learning to trust God for things that are beyond my control.
I am constantly reminded that I serve God best when I'm stepping aside in obedience and watching God work. It's then that I realize that God really is in control.
I remember the action of Moses' mother. She physically let her baby go when she put him in the basket and placed it in the water to save him. Because she trusted God, she was given the opportunity to do more for her son than she could of ever hoped for.
What does it say in Psalm 50:15 in the Amplified Bible?
It reads: “And call on Me in the day of trouble; I will deliver you, and you shall honor and glorify Me.”
This morning, I ask you to join me in asking God to help us to be able to get out of the way and let go and let God work in our lives.
Letting go is not giving up.
Giving up is quitting.
Letting go is allowing God to direct our paths and next moves.
Letting go puts God in charge.
Letting go releases the power of God's Word to remedy the situation based on scripture.
We need to let go of our own will. We must claim as our own the difficult prayer that Jesus prayed in Luke 22:42: “Father, if you are willing, take this cup from me; yet not my will, but Yours be done”.
Be blessed.

Trust in all things

Greetings:
God tells us many times in The Bible to simply trust him.
We know that trusting God many times involves waiting, praying and diligently seeking his will.
As Christians we maintain a unique discipleship that is based on faith that finds expression in deed, not feelings.
How many of you have dreamed of something or a certain situation only to find yourself soon disappointed, mad at God and angry when those dreams fall apart?
I've been there too many times.
But you know, taking our frustration out on God will never provide the answer or the solution we are seeking.
In 1 Corinthians 2:5 we read: “So that your faith might not rest on man's wisdom, but on God's power.”
In man's eyes and man's limited wisdom something we seek or want might seem logical so we pray for it. But in God's eyes the time might not be right, the object of our prayers might not be in God's will or we me might have just missed it.
In Romans 12:12 we read, “Be joyful in hope; patient in affliction.”
Remember practice makes perfect. 
Our practice always starts with prayer and ends with prayer.
Pray that God opens the eyes of our heart to see him, hear him, seek him and feel his presence.
It's not always easy to praise God when the dark clouds are looming overhead. But know for sure that God does answer the prayers of those who diligently seek Him.
Be blessed.

Memories of this date linger; still seeking the truth

Greetings:
It's funny how a date in our lives sticks with us years and years later.
Today is that date in my life – August 23.
The year was 1958 – 59 years ago.
I was a five-year-old adopted kid, who was learning to be a part of my 'new' family in a small town in southern Indiana. I had been with my family since I was babe, about six weeks old.
My exact memory of that particular date is a bit fuzzy in my mind – years have a way of doing that – but the impact of what happened on that day lives on in my life and through prayer and study of God's Word have come to understand the sting of death much better.
On that day, my dad passed away – the victim of a heart attack at the age of 47.
The life of my mother changed that day,  as well as my life, the only son of this very special couple, also changed.
My particular memory of just who my Dad was is not vivid. It was a long time ago. 
I am told, he was very good athlete – especially in basketball.
I am am told, he was a kind, hardworking man, who loved his country and volunteered to serve in the United States Army during World War II. He was a religious man devoted to the Catholic Church, who went to Mass on Sunday and who wore a St. Christopher medal – which I still have –– around his neck for protection during his combat duty in New Guinea and the Philippines.
I know he and my mother, who is also now deceased, decided late in life to adopt a son, their only child.
As I grew older, I've often thought about the 'what-ifs', what if my Dad hadn't died.
I don't say that to complain or murmur about the way things turned out, but there is a void there that I don't think you can understand unless you've gone through it.
But those 'what-if' thoughts have been in my thinking pattern from time to time.
I'm sure I missed out on some things that two-parent kids experience in the process of growing, but my mother – one of the strongest persons I know even though she stood just over 5-feet tall and weighed  a few pounds over 100. She was a trooper, who took up the parenting reins alone, making sure I had everything  I needed and wanted in most cases.
As a young teen, I remember being angry when the other guys in my class would talk about doing things their their Dads – like hunting and fishing and learning about tools and working with wood.
I became heavily involved in Boy Scouts, which was a good outlet for me to be mentored and learn many of the things that my Dad surely would have taught me.
But there was a void.
Since 1988, I have been searching for my biological parents, possible siblings and any relatives. I have done the DNA test through Ancestry in recent weeks and have talked with and corresponded with several cousins, who were identified through DNA matches, which is exciting. The search goes on to find info about my biological family.  I was born in 1953 at St. Elizabeth's Home for unwed mothers in Indianapolis, IN. Having a baby out of wedlock 60 plus years ago was something of a shame. The Catholic Church, which operates the home, has my birth records sealed up tight. I pray someday I know the truth.
I say all of this to say, this day still stands out in my memory as a day that is special, but death has a new meaning since I've come to know Christ.
I hope and pray that my Dad knew Christ and had accepted Christ as his personal Savior before his time on this earth ended.  I don't have any way of knowing that and that is probably the toughest part of this all for me to accept and understand.
Once we breathe or last breath, it's too late to decide then to follow Jesus. 
Though the inscription on many tomb stones often reads "Rest in Peace," but the truth of the matter is that most people do not welcome the peaceful rest of the grave. They would rather be alive and productive. Thus, it is not surprising that the subject of death and what happens after our death always has been a matter of intense concern and speculation. After all, the death rate is still one per person. 
In the Old Testament there many references to death found in the poetic or wisdom books like Psalms, Job, and Ecclesiastes. In the New Testament the view of death comes from the perspective of Christ’s victory over death. 
Through His victory over death on the cross, Christ has neutralized the sting of death. He has abolished death. He has overcome the devil who had power over death. He has in His hand the keys of the kingdom of death as we read in Rev 1:18). He is the head of a new humanity as the first-born from the dead (Col 1:18). 
And very importantly, He causes believers to be born anew – born again – to a living hope through His resurrection from the dead as we read in 1 Pet 1:3.
Christ’s victory over death affects the believer’s understanding of physical, spiritual, and eternal death. The believer can face physical death with the confidence that Christ has swallowed up death in victory and will awaken the sleeping saints at His coming.
Believers who were spiritually "dead through trespasses and sins" have been regenerated into a new life in Christ as we read in Ephesians 4:24. 
Here's the deal and the fact of the matter, unbelievers who remain spiritually dead throughout their lives and do not accept Christ’s provision for their salvation (John 3:16), on the Day of Judgment will experience the second death that we read about in Revelation 20:6; 21:8. This is the final, eternal death from which there is no return.
Now if that doesn't get your attention and make you think and act, then you better check your pulse, because you are dead already.
I have no doubt that my Dad loved God,  my mother and I. That is a comfort. 
But did he love and follow Jesus.? Had he accepted Christ? That's an unknown that I can't answer.
God knows. 
I pray I'll get to see my Dad again in heaven. There's a lot of catching up that we have to do.
Be blessed.

We are uniquely made unique

Greetings:
God created us with our own unique physical traits, personalities, character, temperaments, talents and abilities.
Even in what we call identical twins, there are differences.
We each have our own unique identifying feature that's called a fingerprint. There are no two of them the same.
God created us different for a reason to fill a need in his overall plan.
Look to the skies on the next clear day and night.
You see a sun, a moon and many different stars.
None of the stars are the same.
In 1 Corinthians 15:41 in the Amplified Edition we read, “The sun is glorious in one way, the moon is glorious in another way, and the stars are glorious in their own [distinctive] way; for one star differs from and surpasses another in its beauty and brilliance.”
As Christians, let it be each of our goals to find our individual role and place in God's plan. When  we struggle to be like others, we lose our identity, our uniqueness our individuality that our Creator intended for each of us.
We are all called to be ministers. That doesn't mean we will ever step behind a pulpit and preach, but we do have a job and a calling in the body of Christ. When we do it, we should do it as to the service of Christ.
In 1 Peter 4:10-11, it becomes clear what our role as members of The Church is.
It reads in the NIV, "Each one should use whatever gift he has received to serve others, faithfully administering God's grace in its various forms. If anyone speaks, he should do as speaking the very words of God. If anyone serves, he should do it with the strength God provides, so that in all things God may be praised through Jesus Christ...."
Look at a tree. It has many branches. Each branch is different and unique in size and structure but are attached to a central trunk that bears nourishment  from the roots and promotes grow in each of those branches.
Let God be our tree trunk, providing us with spiritual food to promote our spiritual growth and maturity.
Let us be satisfied that we are different. But in our state of being unique individuals, we can learn our role, our purpose, our own ministry in service to God as one body.
Be blessed.

Learn to walk trusting God

Greetings:
God's Word tells us to trust him and not lean unto our own understanding.
That's easy to say and hard to do.
Pastor/author Rick Warren says, “The biggest mistake people make when we're overwhelmed is focusing on the problem. We don't look to God. We put our eyes on the problem instead of God.  When you ask many people, “How are you doing?” they say, “I'm doing OK — under the circumstances.” What are you doing under the circumstances? Who put you there? Why don't you get on top of the circumstances? Circumstances are like the mattress on your bed. Get on top of them, and you'll rest easy. Get underneath them, and you're going to suffocate.”
Do we view every event, every sorrow, every prayer with the unshakable conviction that God is totally, spotlessly trustworthy?
That's where we mess up. We want to trust in anything rather than the Lord. We'll trust in our own abilities, in our boss's judgment of us, in our money, our doctor, even in an airline pilot. But the Lord?
It's easy to trust in things we can see.
That's where faith comes in.
Hebrews 11:1 reads, "Faith is the confidence that what we hope for will actually happen, it gives us assurance about things we cannot see."
When you really trust in the Lord, we feel as if the weight of the world has been lifted off our shoulders. The pressure's off us now and on God, and he can handle it perfectly.
When we believe Him we open the doorway of our Spirit to let Our Father move in His power mightily through us.  He will never do anything against our will or desires.  All He asks us to do is trust and believe Him.
In Mark 9:23 Jesus said to a man, "If you can believe, all things are possible to him who believes."
All of our coins and paper currency contain the statement, "In God We Trust".
We need to put that statement into action in our lives.
My prayer this morning is simple.
I want to love Him more, seek Him earnestly, and trust Him with every day, every circumstance, every desire that I have.
God's thoughts, God's ways, God's plan, God's timing – they are still mysteries to me, and they are so much higher than I am.
I need to trust Him to teach me to trust Him.
It takes time. It takes patience. It takes prayer.
Be blessed.

Let God breathe life into you

Greetings:
Recently I had to add some air in my car tires and I was reminded that a tire usually loses air pressure slowly.
This can greatly affect the efficiency of our car in terms of ride comfort and fuel economy.
I also learned that air in tires is so important that we now have to pay for it when it is in a 'fix-a-flat can or at a local convenience store.
I  remember the days when a service station provided tire check free of charge, but I guess air these days has a new value.
I can still drive on under-inflated tires — just not very efficiently.
Likewise, we lose “efficiency” in our Christian life the same way tires lose air pressure –– very slowly. When we finally are stopped dead in our tracks by sin or failure, it’s usually not because of a blow-out. It is usually because we failed to perform daily spiritual maintenance such as prayer, worship, Bible study, service to others, and obedience.
Have you checked your spiritual air pressure lately? Are you operating for the Lord at peak efficiency? Be warned that failing to perform daily spiritual maintenance can ultimately leave you stranded.
So how can we ensure that our faith won’t leave us stranded?
How can we have a “pumped-up” faith that will go the distance?
These answers are in 1 Thessalonians 3 where Paul states, “Afflictions are not accidents—they are appointments.”
1 Thessolonians 3:7-6 (Amplified Bible) says , “Brethren, for this reason, in [spite of all] our stress and crushing difficulties we have been filled with comfort and cheer about you [because of] your faith (the leaning of your whole personality on God in complete trust and confidence).
Because now we [really] live, if you stand [firm] in the Lord.”
Standing firm in the Lord is sometimes an uncomfortable place to be. But, if we are prepared and pumped up in our spirit we can march forth with confidence, like a well-prepared athlete who knows his or her ability because they have worked hard behind the scenes in preparation.
If we want to build a rock-hard faith we will have to increase our intensity and prepare our faith.
Faith is like a muscle — we’ve got to use it or you’ll lose it.
Sometimes we've got to push ourselves to the limit.
If we really believed that Jesus was going to return today, would we would work out with a renewed intensity, vigor and sense of urgency. Prayer, worship, praise and service to others would not be a chore, but something we delight in.
God has a purpose in all of the afflictions we face and we must depend upon Him to bring us through the fire. The fire is not so hot if we have prepared ourselves and built up our faith.
Be blessed.

Let God be your light

Greetings:
Reading the Psalms we discover that David often cried out for help, most of the time in anguish and despair.
He usually yelled for God's attention, when all else had failed.
Does that sound familiar?
David was a strong man, but the strongholds of evil were heavy upon him and when he was backed in a corner, he always cried out to the Lord for help.
Does that sound familiar in your life? It sure does in my own life.
We wait and wait and sometimes we pray a meek prayer and try to work things out on our own.
How many times does that work?
In Psalm 88, we see the depth of despair we can fall in.
1 O Lord, God of my salvation,
    I cry out to you by day.
    I come to you at night.
2 Now hear my prayer;
    listen to my cry.
3 For my life is full of troubles,
    and death[b] draws near.
4 I am as good as dead,
    like a strong man with no strength left.
5 They have left me among the dead,
    and I lie like a corpse in a grave.
I am forgotten,
    cut off from your care.
6 You have thrown me into the lowest pit,
    into the darkest depths.
7 Your anger weighs me down;
    with wave after wave you have engulfed me. Interlude
8 You have driven my friends away
    by making me repulsive to them.
I am in a trap with no way of escape.
9  My eyes are blinded by my tears.
Each day I beg for your help, O Lord;
    I lift my hands to you for mercy.
10 Are your wonderful deeds of any use to the dead?
    Do the dead rise up and praise you?
11 Can those in the grave declare your unfailing love?
    Can they proclaim your faithfulness in the place of destruction?
12 Can the darkness speak of your wonderful deeds?
    Can anyone in the land of forgetfulness talk about your righteousness?
13 O Lord, I cry out to you.
    I will keep on pleading day by day.
14 O Lord, why do you reject me?
    Why do you turn your face from me?
15 I have been sick and close to death since my youth.
    I stand helpless and desperate before your terrors.
16 Your fierce anger has overwhelmed me.
    Your terrors have paralyzed me.
17 They swirl around me like floodwaters all day long.
    They have engulfed me completely.
18 You have taken away my companions and loved ones.
    Darkness is my closest friend.”
Our lives often get complicated really fast. Like David, we find that there are no easy answers.
If we look objectively at life, we often see the frayed ends where confusion rules. It was never meant to turn out this way.
Like David, we sometimes believe that God has forgotten us. It does seem impatience is a significant issue with many of us. Often when it gets really bad, we find ourselves turning to surrogates to fill the gap – alcohol, drugs, immorality and the list on and on.
How many of you know that life sometimes get to a point where we can't see any relief. There is a  constant, gnawing pain, which can be physical, emotional, or spiritual.
Saturated with despair, and then glazed with desperation, we must extend our human condition and just accept that things are not always what they should be.  We must conclude that this darkness is within our capability and experience.  It could happen to you, or anyone! You are vulnerable. We all could slide into the dark.
But in Psalm 13 (NLT), we find David's answer and our answer.
It says, “Turn and answer me, O Lord my God! Restore the sparkle to my eyes, or I will die.”
I  love this version because it says ”sparkle”. David spoke of being restored. He seeks a reason to keep living.
David goes on to say, “Don’t let my enemies gloat, saying, “We have defeated him!”. Don’t let them rejoice at my downfall. But I trust in your unfailing love.  I will rejoice because you have rescued me.
I will sing to the Lord because he is good to me.”
How many of you know that you can have a sparkle in your eye, even when things are going bad?
How many of you know that in the darkest hour, God is always there?
Often good jewelers display their diamond necklaces on a black background.
Why?
The darkness intensifies the brightness of the jewels. They become even more beautiful when displayed  in a manner that makes them 'pop out' in their beauty.
Life is like that.
When we are at our darkest hour, let's do what David did. He sang and praised the Lord when his world was crashing down and gained his strength from it.
Always remember that the darkest part of the night is just before dawn.
Those of us who know deep down the “blackness of darkness” have just started to savor the light.
Be blessed.

Be humble and wise

Greetings:
God's Word talks a lot about being humble and coming to the realization that we are nothing without God.
As I prayed this morning about what to share, an inner voice tugged at my heart and said, “Be humble and rise.”
Being humble is not human nature, but God-inspired through his Holy Spirit.
We do not become humble instantly when we accept Christ and begin to follow him. Becoming humble is a process, a walk along a learning path that does have some bumps, curves and challenging terrain.
When we are humble we don't have as many problems with pride, arrogance, ego, self-exaltation, haughtiness, and self-will.
When we are humble God is able to work through us in a manner in which he desires.
The benefits for 'me' and 'I' slip from our thinking and actions and the 'we' in harmony with God becomes more prominent.
Look at James 4:6-10 (NLT) and we get a clearer picture about what being humble before God means and how it impacts our lives.
“God opposes the proud but favors the humble. So humble yourselves before God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Come close to God, and God will come close to you. Wash your hands, you sinners; purify your hearts, for your loyalty is divided between God and the world.  Let there be tears for what you have done. Let there be sorrow and deep grief. Let there be sadness instead of laughter, and gloom instead of joy. Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up in honor.”
The Bible says a humble heart trembles before God’s Word.
Read on to Isaiah 66:2 (NLT). It says: “My hands have made both heaven and earth; they and everything in them are mine.  I, the Lord, have spoken! 'I will bless those who have humble and contrite hearts, who tremble at my word'.”
Are we trembling as we read God's Word or just reading it and not truly understanding what God is telling us?
Those with humble hearts don’t read God’s Word carelessly, but rather with hearts that are tender and open to hear what God’s Word might have to say to them to convict them or teach them.
When we are humble we take God’s Word seriously and soak it up like a sponge and the act of hearing it with great reverence and persistence.
When we are humble we actually believe God's Word rather than just read it.
There is a love and value for what God says that clearly sets apart the humble from the proud.
Two of the greatest people in the Bible –– Moses and Jesus Christ –– are the hallmarks of humility and should prove as an example of the way we need to strive to be like God in order that we can work for God.
If we seek to be happy, to be led by the Holy Spirit, and be like Moses and Jesus, we need to possess humility.
Humility must be the object of special desire and made a part of our character through prayer, faith, study, and discipline.
Pride is a part of the human nature, a terrible inner force with a Satanic origin. We must depend on the supernatural power of the Holy Spirit to acquire humility.
We must acknowledge that there‘s nothing good in ourselves, except as we are made a servant unto God.
We must let our natural self die in order to become a vessel to the glory of God.
The humble heart values the welfare of others ahead of its own.
Philippians 2:3-8 (NLT) says, “Don't be selfish; don't live to make a good impression on others. Be humble, thinking of others as better than yourself. Don't think only about your own affairs, but be interested in others, too, and what they are doing. Your attitude should be the same that  Christ Jesus had. Though he was God, he did not demand and cling to his rights as God.  He made himself nothing; he took the humble position of a slave and appeared in human form.  And in human form he obediently humbled himself even further by dying a criminal's death on a cross.”
The Christian experience becomes beautiful, exciting and blessed, when we realize how God is everything. Then, we become able to embrace a sense of being nothing to make way for God.
For Christians, this awareness of the nothingness of ourselves to experience the richness of life through God is the essence of humility.
Humility leads us to humbly admit our need for God.
Humility will lead us to appreciate God, trust God's will for our lives, and give God the glory for all we are and all we will be in the future.
Being humble allows us to say with confidence, “Lord, not my will, but Yours be done”.
Be blessed.

Hope increases our faith

Greetings:
In studying the Word of God we see the words hope and faith used in many instances.
Are they one in the same?
What is hope and how is it different than faith?
We have probably heard –– My hope is with the Lord, my faith is in the Lord. 
How are these really different? 
Hope is a looking forward to the future with great expectations that things will turn out well.  It is looking forward to a vacation or a special event.  Hope is joyful anticipation.  Hope is having a positive outlook, being optimistic.
Faith is the solid foundation that we stand upon at all times.  It is the here and now of our belief.
In Hebrews 11:1 we do read that hope and faith are intermingled. It reads: “Faith is the confidence that what we hope for will actually happen; it gives us assurance about things we cannot see.”
Read Jeremiah 17:5-8 and you'll better understand the kind of hope God is talking about.  You will be able to rest of the promise and hope of good things.
“This is what the Lord says: "Cursed are those who put their trust in mere humans and turn their hearts away from the Lord. They are like stunted shrubs in the desert, with no hope for the future. They will live in the barren wilderness, on the salty flats where no one lives. "But blessed are those who trust in the Lord and have made the Lord their hope and confidence. They are like trees planted along a riverbank, with roots that reach deep into the water. Such trees are not bothered by the heat or worried by long months of drought. Their leaves stay green, and they go right on producing delicious fruit.”
Paul reminds us in Romans 8:24-25 (NLT): “We were given this hope when we were saved. If we already have something, we don’t need to hope for it.  But if we look forward to something we don’t yet have, we must wait patiently and confidently.”
In Psalm 10:17 (NLT), we read: Lord, you know the hopes of the helpless. Surely you will hear their cries and comfort them.
And we get good advice in Psalm 94:19 (NLT), which reads: “When doubts filled my mind, your comfort gave me renewed hope and cheer.
Hope is an uplifting, spiritual feeling, a deep rooted conviction to believe.
Hope gives us strength in the bad times. Hope gives us the push and the 'keep on going' drive when our body and mind tells us to stop and give up. 
In simple terms, our faith gives us hope in the Lord. Our faith that God will keep his promise gives us hope.
Be blessed.

Offering of praise

Greetings:
Having a time of praise and worship is key to recharging your inner spirit and soul. One of my favorite songs that sets the tone for worship for me is “Sing Alleluia to the Lord”.
The words are simple.
“Sing alleluia to the Lord
Sing alleluia to the Lord
Sing alleluia.
Sing alleluia.
Sing alleluia to the Lord”
With or without music, this song soothes my spirit and puts me in a mode of praise and worship that is so relaxing.
Allelulia –– as it is translated in the Greek –– comes from a Hebrew phrase –– 'hallelu yah' –– which means Praise the Lord. 'Hallel' is the Hebrew word for 'praise', and 'Yah' is the short form of 'Yahweh - the name for God. What gives a punch to my singing, “Hallelujah,” is that Jah (Yahweh) is not a generic word for God, but the personal name of the God of Israel.
For good reason, in the Bible, the word 'hallelujah' appears at the beginning of 10 of the Psalms (106,111-113,135,146-150).
Psalms 104-150 are frequently referred to as the 'Hallel Psalms or Praise Songs', because of their frequent repetition of 'hallelujah'.
To praise God is to worship, honor, and glorify Him.
The psalmist says in Psalm 92:1: 'It is good to praise the Lord and make music to your name, O Most High.'
The Psalms are full of praise to God, many of them written in times of great trial, affliction and tribulation when it would not be the natural thing to praise God. If we praise God even when we do not feel like it or our circumstances do not warrant it, we soon find that our hearts are cheered, our faith is strengthened, and joy springs up within our spirits.
Praise God, he gives us grace to go through each thing we face.
As I read in 2 Corinthians, Paul prayed for something to be taken away that bothered him and the Lord said, “My grace is sufficient for you and my strength is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore, he decided to glory in his weakness because he was made strong in Christ’s strength.
As we sing the song 'Alleluia', let us draw from it the strength, like Paul, to rise up and sing in glory no matter what we face because Yahweh is with us wherever we go.
Listen to the song an view the images at the following link and soak in the words and rise up and have a great day.
Be blessed.
https://youtu.be/AsOujgLEy0o

Good works will not get you in; there is more

Greetings:
Good works won't get us to heaven.
We can't ever do enough good things, serve on enough good church committees, or raise enough money through good and noble works or teach enough Sunday School classes or sing in the choir to get us into heaven.
No matter how hard we try, we can not do enough good things to impress God  for him to give us a 'free pass' through the gates of heaven.
I'm not saying good works are a bad thing.
Quite the contrary. We as Christians are looked to to do the good works, to care of the sick, to feed the hungry and help the poor. We are looked to head up efforts to raise the money so our churches will grow and save more souls, to reach out to the world and help spread the 'good news' that Jesus died on the cross for our sins and shortcomings. We are called to fervent prayer and commanded to tell a sinful world about God's mercy and forgiveness.
But those good things or good works won't open the guarded gates of heaven for us.
The one teaching that sets Christianity apart from other religions in the world is the teaching of God’s grace, his undeserved love to each of us.
We need to recognize that we are by nature, sinners and don’t for a minute deserve God’s love.
But we are blessed that he gives it to us anyway. 
We don’t need to do good things in order to earn eternal life with God.  We don’t need to perform certain rituals or keep certain laws in order to get into heaven. 
Jesus already did that for us with his perfect life and his atoning sacrifice for our sins.
God has been pouring out his grace upon us since the very beginning of time.
God was caring for us even before he created Adam and Eve. 
In Genesis 1:26-26 we read that the entire world was created for the good of mankind, the crown of his creation .
After Adam and Eve sinned against God, he didn’t get rid of the world and start over again saying he must have messed up.
No, he promised to send us a Savior to fix everything.
It's a fact that God cares for each and every one of us even before we came into the world.
King David proclaimed to God in Psalm 139:13-16 (NLT): “You made all the delicate, inner parts of my body and knit me together in my mother’s womb.
Thank you for making me so wonderfully complex! Your workmanship is marvelous—how well I know it.
You watched me as I was being formed in utter seclusion, as I was woven together in the dark of the womb.
You saw me before I was born.  Every day of my life was recorded in your book. Every moment was laid out before a single day had passed.”
 Although God has made and cared for each one of us, we are still plagued by our sinful natures passed down from Adam and Eve.  Because of this, we can’t possibly live a worthy enough life  to earn or work our way into heaven and live with God forever. 
A person doesn’t get to heaven by doing good things or being viewed by the world as a "good person."
 Paul tells us, in 2 Corinthians 5:21 (NLT), “For God made Christ, who never sinned, to be the offering for our sin, so that we could be made right with God through Christ.”
Jesus took our sins upon himself and gave us his righteousness, so God no longer sees the sins that made us guilty of breaking his Law.
Christians call this justification, which is a legal term for being declared “not guilty.”
When we are saved and accept Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior, we need to believe it and accept it and be forgiven.
That's the starting point, not the end.
God looks at our record and sees no crimes, no sin, because Jesus put all of that on his record.  Because of Jesus’ atonement, God looks at us and sees what Jesus did, not what we did.
There’s no need for us to earn the “not guilty” verdict because Jesus has already earned it for us.
If you’re declared “not guilty” by a judge or a jury in a modern day court of law, you don’t go back into the courtroom and try to convince the judge and the jury that you really are innocent. 
In the same way, God has declared us innocent – forgiven.
Be blessed.

Stop and smell the roses

Greetings:
God reminded me on this day that I need to “stop to smell the roses.”
It's a shortcoming of mine, but I'm working on it.
How many of you know when God reminds you of something, it's sometimes a reprimand?
I, like many others, fail to stop, look around and enjoy what we've been blessed with on this place we call planet Earth.
Stop and smell the roses' is a cliché reminder for each of us, to stop rushing, stop working late and stop being too busy, even in church work.
Our time granted on this Earth passes too quickly. We are urged to stop and enjoy the day, the moment and the minute that we are blessed with.
Each minute that we miss, is time lost and it will not return to us again.
Psalm 8 (NIV) is a humble reminder to me to look around outdoors this morning and just soak in the goodness of God. It also reminds me of God's love for each and every one of us.
It reads: “Lord, our Lord,  how majestic is your name in all the earth!
You have set your glory in the heavens.
Through the praise of children and infants you have established a stronghold against your enemies, to silence the foe and the avenger.
When I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers,
the moon and the stars, which you have set in place, what is mankind that you are mindful of them, human beings that you care for them?
You have made them a little lower than the angels and crowned them with glory and honor.
You made them rulers over the works of your hands; you put everything under their feet: all flocks and herds, and the animals of the wild, the birds in the sky, and the fish in the sea,  all that swim the paths of the seas.
Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth!”
As I look into the calmness of the darkened pre-dawn sky, I see the moon just above the tree line looking east. The sky is still filled with stars. There is a stillness in the air except for a chorus of cicadas and crickets.
 Evening is the time to really immerse oneself in the sound sensations of the summer sky.  It is the combination of the cicadas being more vocal and active in the evening and the hearing sense being heightened as the darkness unfolds and the visual senses are less engaged.  Nothing is more peaceful than sitting outside in the evening, eyes closed, quietly letting the cicada sounds envelop me with pure peace and happiness.
Looking at the night sky is a welcome contrast for me as a photographer who is constantly peering the countryside looking for an image to capture during the light of day.
I look to the heavens and I feel the smallness that David alludes to in Psalm 8.  We are so infinitely small, but all big compared to the vastness of God's creation.
God wants to know us and include us in his earthly and heavenly plans. The glory of his infinite creation is seen in his particular care for David in Psalm 8.
It's just another reminder of how majestic Our Lord really is.
Be blessed.

The perfect timing of God many times takes time

Greetings:
What does “God's perfect timing” mean?
As I prayed God showed me a few scriptures that offer comfort and wisdom as I ponder and meditate on God's direction.
One of my favorites is Proverbs 3:5-6, which states: “Trust in the Lord with all of your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him and He will make your paths straight.”
In 1 Peter 5:6-7 we read: “Therefore humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you at the proper time, casting all your anxiety on Him because He cares for you.”
Romans 8:28 says, “And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose.”
And in Isaiah 40: 29-31 we read: “He gives strength to the weary, and to him who lacks might He increases power. Though youths grow weary and tired, and vigorous men stumble badly, yet those who wait for the Lord will gain new strength; they will mount up with wings like eagles, they will run and not get tired, they will walk and not become weary.”
I take comfort in knowing God loves me.
God is perfect.
God doesn’t make mistakes.
God works all things for good.
God is eternal.
God is forgiving.
God's grace is sufficient.
God cares.
God is kind and wise.
God's provision is all we need.
God is faithful, even when our faith is weak.
God enables us to do all things in His strength.
God is showing me that it is all a process that just takes time.
Be blessed. 

Staying charged up with God

Greetings:
So many times I pray for God to strengthen me. Over and over I call out to him to make me stronger, but I still fail, and fail and fail.
But I keep praying, God strengthen me.
Does that sound like something you have prayed?
Then it hits me between the eyes and my eyes are opened.
I’m praying for the wrong thing. Instead of asking for God to strengthen me, I need to be praying for God to be my strength, the source of my power, my faith.
Look at 2 Corinthians 12:9-10 NLT and you'll get a better perspective of what I mean from the words of Paul.
He writes: “Each time he said, 'My grace is all you need. My power works best in weakness.' So now I am glad to boast about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ can work through me. That’s why I take pleasure in my weaknesses, and in the insults, hardships, persecutions, and troubles that I suffer for Christ. For when I am weak, then I am strong.”
God's  power is made perfect in our weakness.
That means instead of asking God to remove the things that plague me – my  pride, my laziness, my fears of may things in life maybe all this time I should have been praying for God to be my strength in all these things.
We need to stop asking for Him to make us different than we am. Stop trying to be something we am not. Stop pleading for Him to take away all of our  “thorns”.
We have had it all backwards.
We need to understand we are insufficient, but His grace is sufficient.
We are weak and God's power is made perfect in that weakness.
We want to hide our problems, fix them and then celebrate our victories. Instead, we need to boast gladly of our weakness.
Trying to make ourselves spiritually strong only leads to fatigue, frustration and doubt, yet Christ’s unending power rests in us.
God's power and strength never grows dim and never needs recharged. We do.
Sometimes the strongest among us are the ones who smile through silent pain, cry behind closed doors, and fight battles that nobody knows about.
They draw their strength from a super-strong God that we serve.
In Deuteronomy 31:6 we read that God goes ahead of us in our time of trouble to prepare the path.
It is written: “So be strong and courageous! Do not be afraid and do not panic before them. For the Lord your God will personally go ahead of you. He will neither fail you nor abandon you.”
Understand that I am discontent with my own weaknesses and difficulties, but I can choose to have contentment knowing God has a plan for it all. God's strength shines in my times of being weak. He gets the glory and praise for my life victories.
Let us engrave Philippians 4:13 (NLT) in our hearts – “For I can do everything through Christ, who gives me strength.”
Lord I pray, keep me weak, so that You might be my strength.
Be blessed.

Can we be weak and still be strong?

Greetings:
Have you ever felt weak, rundown and tired in your faith?
Have you ever been battered with disappointment, confusion, pain, sickness grief and true sorrow?
Can a person be weak and still be strong?
Those are interesting questions that many of us have asked.
But those questions are answered by the Apostle Paul in 2 Corinthians 12:9-10 where he writes: “Each time he said, “My grace is all you need. My power works best in weakness.” So now I am glad to boast about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ can work through me. That’s why I take pleasure in my weaknesses, and in the insults, hardships, persecutions, and troubles that I suffer for Christ. For when I am weak, then I am strong.”
I don't have the answer to why bad things happen to seemingly good people, but they do.
The problems in our life are often blessings in disguise. We must learn to view them from this spiritual point of view.
The greater the burden placed upon us, the greater the faith required to “hang-in-there.”
 It takes faith to continue living for God when things turn for the worse in our life. It's easy to be happy and praise God when everything is going great, but the true test is to continue in your walk and increase you faith in time of trouble or burden.
Exercising of our faith and the trials that go with it will make us more mature and stable in the Lord if we will be patient and not give up.
I don't know of one Christian who is invincible. We are not Superheroes.
We do get knocked down.
Proverb 24:16 (NLT), it says: “The godly may trip seven times, but they will get up again.  But one disaster is enough to overthrow the wicked.”
The key is to keep getting up when we are challenged. Keep trusting in God.
Thankfully, I have learned that my problems are really rainbows in disguise.
Keep praying and praising and the rainbow will come when we realize that our weaknesses are really our strengths and our strengths weaknesses.
Be blessed.

Trust God, not matter what

Greetings:
God keeps stressing to me the importance of having faith in each of our lives.
In The Bible in Hebrews 11:6, it says it is impossible to please God without faith. If we want to please God, then we have to grab on to faith and never let go.
Faith is taking God for His Word and believing the promises in it.
Knowing what God's Word has to say about something gives us the ability to believe it. Our faith should be based upon God's Word, not some made-made promises, ideals or doctrine.
Faith believes in the unseen. If we could see it, it would not be faith.
Faith is not some kind of make believe fairytale stuff.
Faith is trusting God.
It doesn’t mean I sit and wait for the Lord to have a plane fly overhead with a banner reading:“Go this way!”  That would make it pretty easy to know a direction to go in a situation we are facing. God doesn't operate like that.
We all have promises from God already given to us in his Holy Word – The Bible.
God says, 'I am for you, not against you' ;'I have a plan to prosper you and help you'; 'I am with you. I will provide'.
God Wordsbsays by the stripes that Jesus took for our sins, we are healed.
God Word says faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God.
 No matter what hurdles, challenges, circumstances, situations, hurts, bruises, wounds we face, when we look with eyes of our faith to our Lord, we see the Lord calling us.
His hands are outstretched like when I was teaching my small daughters to walk – and said to them, “Come on, you can do it. Come on, come to me.”
We must never forget Hebrews 11:6 which states, “And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him.”
It is hard to take direction from God on some days and in some things without our own human conditions attached to it. That is where faith comes in.
When God speaks to us, we need to step back and put what we feel away, put what we think away and put the whys away and just do it.
We know it's God's direction if we have peace in our heart, even when our carnal mind might be telling us something different. Stand on faith and believe.
Be blessed.

The beauty of silence

Greetings:
Let us begin this morning by bathing ourselves in the beauty of silence.
Enjoy the stillness, the tranquility, the peace of just soaking in the quiet time.
Too often we get caught up in the sounds of busy all around us in a very busy fast-paced world that thrives on robbing us of our time of silence.
I wonder at times if we don't let the noise of the world keep us from hearing the voice of God.
Silence is indeed hard to find.
There seems to be no escape from loud music, loud machines, noisy generators, and loud voices.
But the kind of noise that endangers our spiritual well-being is not the noise we can’t escape, but the noise we invite into our lives.
Some of us use noise as a way of shutting out loneliness.
Some of us use noise as a way of shutting out our own thoughts. Hearing other voices and opinions keep us from having to think for ourselves or dwell on our own problems.
Psalm 131:2 says, “I have calmed and quieted my soul.”
Don't let the chatter and loudness of the world all around us keep us from hearing what God has to say. But to hear, we have to be able to listen.
If we look to scripture we find that even at his busiest time, Jesus always sought out a place of solitude where he could have his own conversation with God.
Mark 1:35 says, “Very early in the morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house and went off to a solitary place, where he prayed.”
In Luke 5:16 we read: “Jesus often withdrew to lonely places and prayed.”
That place of silence is a place where God has our full attention
That place of silence is a place where we can pray and listen.
That place of silence is a place where we can pour out our souls and open our hearts to God's direction, his plan and a place to receive comfort from the loving arms of God.
That place of silence is a place where are burdens can be laid down and real inner healing can begin.
Everyone has a different place where they can find silence.
For myself, it's very early in the morning in the office area of our home. Another place for my silence is sitting on the deck of my home and hearing nothing but the sounds of nature. It is there that I can have my time to have a conversation with God.
We must remember not to let the busy sounds of the world keep from letting us hearing voice of God.
Be blessed.

God is able

Greetings:
Life has knocked me down on the seat of my pants and stepped on me more than a few times.
I've seen and experienced things I didn't want to ever see or feel.
I have experienced many sorrows and personal failures.
But I don't feel sad about it. I am glad and rejoice that the God I serve is more than able.
God is able to lift us up when we can't do it ourselves.
God is able to encourage us when all we see is darkness and no hope.
God is able to open doors where there are no doors.
God was able when I was running the other way and making poor choices to reach down and touch me.
God's love never abandoned me, faltered or failed.
God's mercy enabled me to get back up.
God has been there for me, even when I wasn't there for him.
I remember the lessons learned and the love felt from God.
In 1 Thessalonians, the Apostle Paul is writing to Christians living in the Greek town of Thessalonica whose faith is undermined and tested. To help them, he encourages them to remember.
Why? Because there’s something extremely powerful about remembering.
Remembering God’s work in our past is the key to getting perspective to do God’s will in the present.
In his letter, Paul reminds them about what God did in their lives and the cost that was involved to deliver the Gospel message to them. Paul also reminds them of God’s motherly and fatherly love and how God used him and others to care for them.
He wrote in 1 Thessalonians 2:1-2L "You know, brothers and sisters that our visit to you was not without results. We had previously suffered and been treated outrageously in Philippi, as you know, but with the help of our God we dared to tell you his gospel in the face of strong opposition."
Also look at 2 Corinthians 4:7-16 in New Living Translation to get a clear look at the faith and perseverance of Paul.
It reads: “But this precious treasure  –– this light and power that now shine within us –– is held in perishable containers, that is, in our weak bodies. So everyone can see that our glorious power is from God and is not our own. We are pressed on every side by troubles, but we are not crushed and broken. We are perplexed, but we don't give up and quit. We are hunted down, but God never abandons us. We get knocked down, but we get up again and keep going.  Through suffering, these bodies of ours constantly share in the death of Jesus so that the life of Jesus may also be seen in our bodies. Yes, we live under constant danger of death because we serve Jesus, so that the life of Jesus will be obvious in our dying bodies. So we live in the face of death, but it has resulted in eternal life for you.  But we continue to preach because we have the same kind of faith the psalmist had when he said, "I believed in God, and so I speak." We know that the same God who raised our Lord Jesus will also raise us with Jesus and present us to himself along with you. All of these things are for your benefit. And as God's grace brings more and more people to Christ, there will be great thanksgiving, and God will receive more and more glory. That is why we never give up. Though our bodies are dying, our spirits are being renewed every day.”
Just like the Thessalonians, we need to remember. To get perspective, we need to step back from the problems at hand and see them in light of history, our experiences, and who God really is.
Always remember, God is able.
Be blessed.

Five minutes for God

Greetings:
Sometimes just finding five minutes for God seems like a chore.
Sometimes devotions do not really seem like devotion, but work.
Have you ever been to a point that you wondered if God is even there, if he hears your prayers and if he is ever going to answer your prayers?'
Sometimes our faith does grow weak because our time with God is not where it needs to be. During times of doubt we can feel that it is difficult to have faith. 
Where is God in our difficulty?
How can you increase your faith when you see no evidence for it?
God’s Word remains the solid rock that we need when we're surrounded in this world by sin, trouble and doubt.
Spending time reading God's Word every day to combat the secular attitudes and actions around us is not an option, but a necessity. God's Word provides an armor of protection and helps our faith and soul weapons to grow in size, caliber and fire-power intensity.
Is abandoning ship and swimming toward shore the right way to navigate through stormy seas the right approach to take when crisis hits our lives?
Is God still God in the bad times just like He is in the good times?
The truth of the matter is, hard times are exactly that — hard.  But how we approach those hard periods in our lives determines whether we’ll just survive, thrive or sink altogether.
Being prayed up will help fear and doubt to stay beneath our feet where it belongs.
Fear is the believer's greatest enemy. When a believer has fear, he cannot have believing faith.
Fear paralyzes, frustrates and cripples us into indecision and no action.
Fear involves torment as in 1 John 4:18 where it states, “Fear is the prison of the heart.”
Trusting God in hard times requires refusing to be frightened, refusing to be immobilized, refusing to panic and learning to stand firm on God's Word.
The times in my life when the biggest storms struck, it was by faith and trusting God that I emerged.
I was battered and a bit beaten down, but God brought me through it because I was able to reach down and exercise faith and trust the things that I could not see, and watched as God moved in mighty ways.
God didn't promise us smooth sailing, but he did promise to be with us at all times.
We can not forget that God is God, and He is more than able to deliver us every time. Period.
No matter what the prevailing conditions in your life are, believe what it says in Ephesians 3:20 NLT: “Now all glory to God, who is able, through his mighty power at work within us, to accomplish infinitely more than we might ask or think.”
Faith is not the power of positive thinking or positive reinforcement or a gimmick.
Faith is not found within the will and understanding of our human mind.
Faith is not by any human effort at all except by the intake and breathing in of the Word of God and believing what that Word says.
In Hebrews 11:1, faith is defined. It reads, “Faith is the confidence that what we hope for will actually happen; it gives us assurance about things we cannot see.”
Have the faith of a little child and just believe.
In Matthew 21:21-22 NLT, we read, “Then Jesus told them, “I tell you the truth, if you have faith and don’t doubt, you can do things like this and much more. You can even say to this mountain, ‘May you be lifted up and thrown into the sea,’ and it will happen. You can pray for anything, and if you have faith, you will receive it.”
So the key is to get prayed up and studied up and your faith will increase. It be standing ready when tribulations and troubles confront you.
But first, give God the time he deserves.
Be blessed.