Let's Not Wait Until We are at the End of Our Strength To Utilize God's Power...

From Beth Moore’s Study Daniel: Lives of Integrity, Words of Prophecy:

 

“One of Satan’s most effective schemes is simply to wear God’s people out.  Satan uses exhaustion and profound discouragement to persuade us to give up opposing him.  We must not give up! As believers in Christ in whom the Spirit of God dwells, Satan may be able to wear out our human strength, but he cannot wear out the Holy Spirit’s.  We can call upon God’s supernatural strength to fight the good fight of faith and persist in our proclamation of Christ, the son of the Most High God.

 

            The Apostle Paul said in Colossians 1:29, “To this end I labor, struggling with all his energy, which so powerfully works in me” (emphasis Beth’s).  We who are Christians have God’s “all surpassing power” in our “jars of Clay” (2 Cor. 4:7).  Let’s not wait until we are at the end of our strength to utilize it! Let’s call on God to fill us with His all surpassing power day in and day out.  His “incomparably great power” is accessible daily for those who believe!  This power is the same power He used to raise Jesus from the dead (see Eph. 1:19-20).

 

What more could we need?”

 

AMEN!

Trials and Triumph

When we go through trials let's remember 2 Corinthians 4:16, 17 & 18...

 

"Therefore we do not lose heart.  Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day.  For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all.  So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. for what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal."

 

As Beth Moore says, "When we're going through difficulties, they never seem light or momentary, but remember Paul is comparing them to 'an eternal glory that far outweighs them all.' "

 

Also, remember that when we receive Christ as our Savior, we ignite the ire of His enemy, satan.  Ephesians 6:12 tells us that we're in a spiritual battle between God & satan and that's why we need to apply the strong armor of God in Ephesians 6:13-18 each morning to protect our minds and hearts against the attack of the enemy throughout the day ahead.

 

The battle is that God wants to give us eternal victory by working His glory in and through our trials and satan wants to bring us defeat by causing us to struggle and fall.  Beth Moore puts it this way, "Hardships are inevitable because of the glorious nature of God and the heinous nature of satan."

 

"Recognizing the inevitable nature of hardships can motivate us to redirect our energies.  Fear of trials sometimes depletes more energy than facing trials!  Once we accept the inevitability of hardship, we can redirect our focus from fear of trials to faithfulness.  In the face of tribulations, we often sense a heavenly strength filling our souls right on time."

 

Let's allow God to redirect our energies toward getting to know Him and love Him through His Word, so we can be equipped for anything that comes our way.

 

I think that if God had not taught me to rely on the promises of His Word and made Himself the love of my life, I would have been tempted to quit when facing certain trials.

 

Ask God to help you redirect your energies toward faithfulness instead of fear or worry about what is happening in your life or as to what might happen.  HE is in control and we can trust Him 100%!!

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FAITH

"I trust in your Word"  Psalm 119:42

 

The strength of our faith is in direct proportion to our level of belief that God will do exactly what He has promised.  Faith has nothing to do with feelings, impressions, outward appearances, nor the probability or improbability of an event.  If we try to couple these things with faith, we are no longer resting on the Word of God, because faith is not dependent on them.  Faith rests on the pure Word of God alone.  And when we take Him at His Word, our hearts are at peace.

 

God delights in causing us to exercise our faith.  He does so to bless us individually, to bless the church at large, and as a witness to unbelievers.  Yet we tend to retreat from the exercising of our faith instead of welcoming it.  When trials come, our response should be, "My heavenly Father has placed this cup of trials into my hands so I may later have something pleasant."

 

Trials are the food of faith.  Oh, may we leave ourselves in the hands of our Heavenly Father!  It is the joy of His heart to do good to all His children.  Yet trials and difficulties are not the only way faith is exercised and thereby increased.  Reading the Scriptures also acquaints us with God as He has revealed Himself in them.

 

Are you able to genuinely say, from your knowledge of God and your relationship with Him, that He is indeed a beautiful Being?  If not, let me graciously encourage you to ask God to take you to that point, so you will fully appreciate His gentleness and kindness, so you will be able to say just how good He is, and so you will know what a delight it is to God's heart to do good for His children.

 

The closer we come to this point in our inner being, the more willing we are to leave ourselves in His hands and the more satisfied we are with all of His dealings with us.  Then when trials come, we will say, 'I will patiently wait to see the good God will do in my life, with the calm assurance He will do it."

 

In this way, we will bear a worthy testimony to the world and thereby strengthen the lives of others.

 

George Mueller  (taken from Streams in the Desert, April 15th)

 

 

 

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Thought for the day

"True conversion is not simply believing in Jesus.  James 2:19 tells us even the demons believe.  We can believe Christ is the Son of God, be convinced He died and rose again for the sins of mankind, and still be lost.  That's head knowledge.

 

When I personalize Christ's gift of grace on the cross, I am saved.  That's heart knowledge. 

 

One difference between the head and the heart lies in the word "turn".  Head knowledge doesn't always change a thing.  Heart knowledge does.  Life turns at that moment.  We can't just go back to living as if nothing ever happened.  The externals may evolve more slowly as we break habits and alter lifestyles, but the internals change instantaneously.  Life takes an inevitable turn."

 

Christian....a label that the unbelievers in Antioch adopted for followers of Christ.  They used the term as a mockery...it was a word associated with "ridicule".  How beautiful that God stole the victory from satan.  The very word used as a mockery became the greatest privilege a man could boast!

 

We can, and should, praise God that we carry the name "Christian". 

 

Taken from Beth Moore's study, To Live Is Christ....The Life and Ministry of Paul

 

 

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Heaven's On Your Side

Taken from Max Lucado's devotional...

 

"The One who died for us...is in the presence of God at this very moment sticking up for us."

                                                                                                            Romans 8:34  MSG

 

Jesus is praying for us....Jesus has spoken and satan has listened.  The devil may land a punch or two.  He may even win a few rounds, but he never wins the fight.  Why?  Because Jesus takes up for you..."He is able always to save those who come to God through Him because He always lives, asking God to help them." (Hebrews 7:25)

 

Jesus, at this very moment, is protecting you.  Evil must pass through Christ before it can touch you.  And God will "never let you be pushed past your limit; he'll always be there to help you come through it".  (1 Cor. 10:13 MSG)

 

Praise God we can ALWAYS trust Him to work ALL things together for good to those of us who love Him and are called according to His purpose!!   That's a promise from the maker of the universe Himself...our Creator...and it's impossible for Him to lie, so we KNOW that it's a FACT!!

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FAITH

Faith came singing into my room, and other guests took flight.  Grief, anxiety, fear and gloom, sped out into the night.  I wondered that such peace could be, but faith said gently, "don't you see, that they can never live with me?"

 

 

Lord, thank you that you do not ask a great faith, but faith in a GREAT GOD.

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WHEN THINKING

A thought to ponder...

 

God tells us to "pray without ceasing", which we understand to mean talking to Him about everything, anywhere, and anytime....practicing His presence with us no matter where we are and no matter what we're doing. 

 

But, how do we do that when we are thinking about an important matter that's on our mind?  Consider applying what Frank C. Laubach suggests in a wonderful booklet he wrote, entitled, "Game with Minutes"...

 

"If you lean back and think about some problem deeply, how can you remember God?  You can do it by forming a new habit. All thought employs silent words and is really conversation with your inner self.  Instead of talking to yourself, you can now form the habit of talking to Christ.

 

Many who have tried this have found that we think so much better that we never want to try to think without Him again. We are helped if we imagine Him sitting in a chair beside us, talking with us. We say with our tongue what we think Christ  might say in reply to our questions.  Thus, we consult Christ about everything.

 

No practice we have ever found has held our thinking so uniformly high and wholesome as this making all thought a conversation with God."

 

Remember that 98% percent of our battles are fought right in our own mind!  Just think what a difference it would make to transform our thinking patterns into a conversation with God.  I believe that those battles would be defeated before they even began!!  I'm going to begin implying that new way of thinking and I'll let you know how it goes in a future blog.  Why don't you consider doing the same?  You'd have nothing to lose but peace of mind to gain!!

 

 

 

" May today there be peace within. May you trust God that you are exactly
where you are meant to be. May you not forget the infinite possibilities
that are born of faith. May you use those gifts that you have received, and
pass on the love that has been given to you. May you be content knowing you
are a child of God. Let His presence settle into your bones, and allow your
soul the freedom to sing, dance, praise and love. It is there for each and
every one of us."  Antonymous

 

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