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"You make known to me the path of life..."
Psalm 16:11 Recently I have taken Psalm 56:3 as my daily strength and guidance. The verse says, "What time I am afraid, I put my trust in you." Every day I take whatever I may be feeling and plug it in to that verse. What time I am ____________, I put my trust in you. This list can include; afraid, sad, needing guidance, overwhelmed, feeling sick in my body, grieved, etc.. Any feeling or need we may have can be plugged in to this verse, and then we can trust. It is as if we acknowledge our need and then place it in the hands of the Father by putting our trust in His care. This is a beautiful reminder every day that we do not carry life's burdens alone. Matthew 6:25a points this out and admonishes us not to have anxieties.. "Therefore I say unto you, Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink; not yet for your body, what ye shall put on..." Matthew 6:25a In my morning quiet time as I was going over Psalm 16:11 I noticed the same pattern. "You make known to me the path of life.." As we seek His guidance, help, comfort, victory over: fear, grief, sadness, etc... We can rest in knowing that He will make known to us the path that leads to life in any area of our lives. These verses bring great comfort, guidance, and much needed strength to our lives as we take the wisdom found in them and apply them to our daily needs. What comfort and guidance we find in God's word as we allow it to light our path and satiate our soul. We serve a great God. One who brings comfort, guidance, peace, healing, knowledge, wisdom, joy, deliverance, and anything at all we could possibly be in search of. I read this beautiful devotion this morning from my Streams in the Desert. Blessings to your day. He worketh - Ps 37:5 The translation that we find in Young of “Commit thy way unto the Lord; trust also in him; and he shall bring it to pass,” reads: “Roll upon Jehovah thy way; trust upon him: and he worketh.” It calls our attention to the immediate action of God when we truly commit, or roll out of our hands into His, the burden of whatever kind it may be; a way of sorrow, of difficulty, of physical need, or of anxiety for the conversion of some dear one. “He worketh.” When? Now. We are so in danger of postponing our expectation of His acceptance of the trust, and His undertaking to accomplish what we ask Him to do, instead of saying as we commit, “He worketh.” “He worketh” even now; and praise Him that it is so. The very expectancy enables the Holy Spirit to do the very thing we have rolled upon Him. It is out of our reach. We are not trying to do it any more. “He worketh!” Let us take the comfort out of it and not put our hands on it again. Oh, what a relief it brings! He is really working on the difficulty. But someone may say, “I see no results.” Never mind. “He worketh,” if you have rolled it over and are looking to Jesus to do it. Faith may be tested, but “He worketh”; the Word is sure! —V. H. F. “I will cry unto God most high; unto God that performeth all things for me” (Ps. 57:2). The beautiful old translation says, “He shall perform the cause which I have in hand.” Does not that make it very real to us today? Just the very thing that “I have in hand”—my own particular bit of work today, this cause that I cannot manage, this thing that I undertook in miscalculation of my own powers—this is what I may ask Him to do “for me,” and rest assured that He will perform it. “The wise and their works are in the hands of God.” —Havergal The Lord will go through with His covenant engagements. Whatever He takes in hand He will accomplish; hence past mercies are guarantees for the future and admirable reasons for continuing to cry unto Him. —C. H. Spurgeon
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"These things I have spoken unto you, that in me ye might have peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world."
John 16:33 "Beloved, think it not strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, as though some strange thing happened unto you. But, rejoice, inasmuch as ye are partakers of Christ's sufferings; that, when his glory shall be revealed, ye may be glad also with exceeding joy. If ye be reproached for the name of Christ, happy are ye; for the spirit of glory and of God resteth upon you: on their part he is evil spoken of, but on your part he is glorified. But let none of you suffer as a murderer, or a thief, or as an evildoer, or as a busybody in other men's matters. Yet if any man suffer as a Christian, let him not be ashamed; but let him glorify God on this behalf." I Peter 4: 12-16 In recent conversation the topic of suffering with Christ came up while discussing Romans 8:17 which says, ""And if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together." The conversation went something like this... I don't like that..the suffering part. It's too hard sometimes and I don't like it. (To which I responded) Yes, but the key word in that verse is "with". We are not suffering alone and we do not suffer for no purpose. To suffer "with" Christ means that He is walking through the "suffering" with us. In our study in Nehemiah it shows the incredible amount of consistent attacks from the enemy to thwart their progress in building the wall of Jerusalem. As Nehemiah is leading the people to defend themselves and continue work on the wall we get a glimpse of the godly character and leadership that he had. True godly leadership will always defend and uphold the people of God and lead with integrity, selflessness, and boldness in the face of evil. In our battles with evil we may not always see this kind of leadership. In my own life I have been fortunate to learn from very bold and godly people who had hearts like Nehemiah. This has taught me to try and replicate their leadership qualities. I don't know if there is anything more disheartening than finding one's self in a difficult situation and having no godly leadership to cover the situation. Just recently I have seen two very disheartening situations which were not covered with the godly leadership that it needed and the end result was much heartache and damage. This literally breaks my heart.. for all the parties involved and this is where my conversation started referenced above. To suffer is one thing, but to remember that if we suffer for doing what is right then we do not walk through this alone. We are walking "with Christ." I reminded the person in our conversation that Christ, as the most important example of godly leadership in history, and as our savior, walked through every kind of suffering that we could ever face. He leads us by example. As our savior, Christ showed us not only how to face opposition, but how to respond to the suffering we will face. Scripture tells us that we will face tribulation, but we can be of good cheer. As my conversation continued with my friend I soon realized that they were dealing with the hurt of being wounded by ungodly leadership but in the name of Christianity. This kind of hurt is very troubling and can cause much damage to a person. I gently reminded them of Jesus himself and how it was the religious leaders of his day that followed his whole ministry to cause trouble and eventually his death. Paul also had this same trouble with the religious leaders of his day. There were certain leaders who would follow Paul from town to town just to stir up trouble and try to get him imprisoned. This reminder that they are in good company brought some encouragement to their hurt. This painting by Rembrandt of Storm on the Sea of Galilee reminds us of the verses that tell us that Christ is with us in all of our suffering and storms in this life. He knows exactly how it feels to be betrayed by those who use his name wrongly and he knows the pain of rejection. His promise to us is that we will never walk alone. The hurt and pain we feel, He has already felt and will be with us as we face the same kind of hurt. Remembering the key word in that verse about our sufferings is vital to our walk. WITH Christ is with us. Not only is He with us, but He has already walked through it before us. Our hardships, pain, and hurts all have purpose and that is that we will be glorified with Him and be heirs with Him. Look up my friends. And remind yourselves that Christ is with you and will never leave you nor forsake you no matter what people may do in His name you can rest in the fact that He sees all and nothing is left undone in His sight. Rest in the fact that He is with you and sees you and will hold you through all that you walk through. Be encouraged as you continue your journey and know that God never fails those who walk with Him and continue in His ways. "But the Lord is faithful, who shall stablish you, and keep you from evil." II Thessalonians 3:3 Within twenty-four hours of the installation of the Ten Commandments monument at the Arkansas State Capitol it was destroyed. (It has since been reinstalled.) As a nation - a world- the foundation of godly principles have been eroded. My girls and I are deep conversationalists. We love to sit and solve the problems of the world, and reminisce over historical events. Often our conversations have led us to the delayed judgement of God toward the injustices in the world, innocent blood shed, and complete disregard of Him and His Word. I weep over the amount of innocent blood shed that has come through the abortion industry and cry "how long?" We have come to a place in time that we can even kill a baby on a table after birth and "label" it legal... This mindset and hardness of heart does not come overnight. It is the result of year after year of turning from God and His laws until we are conditioned to accept more and more levels of evil. How can we call ourselves anymore a civilized people? Sometimes it seems as if the world as a whole has turned it's back to God. The fundamental principles found in God's Word are there not only to govern but to protect and guide. If all the hearts of all man would turn to God's Word as their guide the world could return to a place of peace. "If My people"... All people... All of God's people, all of us, need to come in unity and as a whole, humble ourselves, pray, seek His face, and turn from any wicked ways. This. This is how our land can be healed. Every person turning to God in humility & repentance. A return in the moral fabric of our country to the basics of God's laws and ways would heal our land. In our Women's study group we have been studying Nehemiah and his leadership in the rebuilding of the wall in Jerusalem. Nehemiah 1:4-11 is a record of his prayer after he heard the news of Jerusalem's devastated state. This is the prayer I want to pray now for our nation. Nehemiah includes himself in the sins of the people and in prayers for repentance. What an incredible servant leader and example. ~ Nehemiah's Prayer ~
As soon as I heard these words I sat down and wept and mourned for days, and I continued fasting and praying before the God of heaven. And I said, “O Lord God of heaven, the great and awesome God who keeps covenant and steadfast love with those who love him and keep his commandments, let your ear be attentive and your eyes open, to hear the prayer of your servant that I now pray before you day and night for the people of Israel your servants, confessing the sins of the people of Israel, which we have sinned against you. Even I and my father's house have sinned. We have acted very corruptly against you and have not kept the commandments, the statutes, and the rules that you commanded your servant Moses. Remember the word that you commanded your servant Moses, saying, ‘If you are unfaithful, I will scatter you among the peoples, but if you return to me and keep my commandments and do them, though your outcasts are in the uttermost parts of heaven, from there I will gather them and bring them to the place that I have chosen, to make my name dwell there.’ They are your servants and your people, whom you have redeemed by your great power and by your strong hand. O Lord, let your ear be attentive to the prayer of your servant, and to the prayer of your servants who delight to fear your name, and give success to your servant today, and grant him mercy in the sight of this man.” Nehemiah 1:4-11 My prayer for our nation, our state, our churches, our leadership, all people, is that we could all follow Nehemiah's example and lead others by praying the prayer given here. My heart hurts for our nation. We can put labels on everything or we can just call it sin in need of repentance whatever the sin is on every level..this nation needs to bow before God and pray...only He can heal our land. “If we acknowledge our need for God, he will help us.” ― Ben Carson, Think Big: Unleashing Your Potential for Excellence |