From Disappointment And Confusion To Triumph

In Psalm 44:1-26, we see that God's people endured disappointment and confusion just like we do, but they triumphed in God.

It's so important to read The Word everyday and not only start each day with prayer, but to talk to God throughout the day. Through these practices, we build strength to hold on and continue to believe through similar circumstances like what they endured. We should always stay close to God because nothing here in this earth is sure.

What we consider to be God's special blessings to us can turn at any time. What's here today can be changed or gone tomorrow. Does that mean it did not come from God? No.

I don't know about you, but I'm always thanking God for all good things. However, things change. God changes things at his will and he allows things to change. God is god of all and most of the time we are not able to understand why he allows or does certain things.

As David shared in the Psalms, one day we're on top and the next it seems like the whole world is against us. God allows things that are incomprehensible and mostly he doesn't tell us why. As we grow in him, we can sometimes discern a track that he has us on and that helps us to perceive that all is well.

Our job and best mental and emotional attitude is to cling to him, whether we are up or down, prosperous or lacking, successful or struggling. Whatever the circumstance, our faith is not to be placed in those day-to-day shiftings.

It is difficult sometimes, when we're struggling in various ways, but our hope and faith is to be in God himself. We can also ask him for relief at any point. David did that many times while professing his faith and devotion to Our Father.

No matter what he was suffering, mental or emotional anguish or physical attack, he took his disappointment and confusion to his God. In the end, he triumphed because he never gave up on Our Heavenly Father. He stayed with God.

How To Accept Jesus Christ As Your Savior

Stop Anxiety In Its Tracks!

An anxiety-ridden man asked this at a FBook group that I recently visited:

What should you do if you’ve divorced and currently remarried? How do you truly repent from this? Should you divorce a second time -the person that you’re currently with? And what about the children involved?

My advice to him was:

Simply ask God to forgive you for any wrong decisions that you have made. Believe that he has forgiven you through the Blood of Jesus and it is done. Ask him to lead you on how to proceed but stay where you are for now. Don't hurt any more people, including yourself, by making decisions and taking actions that you don't yet understand. Love your children. Stay where you are until you get direction otherwise from God. Accept where you are and continue to build yourself up in your most Holy faith. Blessings to you, your family, friends and to everyone in your circle.

I try to remember to take the advice that I am always giving to others, and it is this:

If you don't know what to do, pray and turn it over to God. Then, if you don't know what to do, do nothing. If you're not sure what to do, but you must make a decision, do what makes the best sense to you while waiting on God.

We are always to wait on God, but often a decision must be made immediately. We can't help that. God will give us an immediate answer, or he won't. One thing that he has already instilled in us is common sense. If we must make a decision and we don't yet have clear direction from God, we must use our common sense.

If we are afraid and must make a decision, we have to do it afraid if we don't have clear direction from God. An ideal situation would be for us to not have to make a decision yet. Whether we make a decision or not, whether we make a move or not, whether we choose one way or another, we are always dependent upon God. 

So, stop anxiety in its tracks! Pray and give it to God. Right now. Do nothing if you don't know what to do. Do what makes sense to you if you have to make a decision now.

Keep stopping anxiety in its tracks by reminding yourself often that it all is in the hands of Our Father. Remember that because we love and trust him and have a prayer session of giving the issue to him, we can't hurt his plan for us through any decision that we make.

  

Receiving God's Magnificent Blessings

Many of us were raised in the church, got baptized and/or saved but did not understand entirely what we were doing. In addition to that, adults pressed their personal ideas and hangups on us in an attempt to guide us in the name of Christianity. It caused most of us to reject the Christian life, especially during our teen-aged years when we wanted to be appreciated and accepted by our peers. 

In later years, when we began to seek God again, we learned about him for ourselves through personal Bible reading and consistent prayer. In the Bible, we found out things that we never knew were in there. We learned about the never-ending, unqualified love of God and how it can make a difference in our lives.

What Christ did for us began to personally touch us and we learned, and continue to learn today, how to relate to God. The great value  in growing in Christ is to not only read the Bible but to grow in learning how to practically apply what's in it to our everyday lives.

I'm grateful that through daily transformation and the ongoing renewing of our minds we learn how to receive the healing, deliverance and prosperity that God provides for us through his precious Son's sacrifice. The magnificent blessings for accepting Jesus Christ as our Savior are not only for the coming New Heaven and New Earth, but for our lives today. I thank God that we can learn to receive all that he offers.

How To Be Saved

Say with your mouth that you receive that Jesus Christ is the Son of God and the only Savior. Believe in your heart that He is alive because God Our Father raised Him from the dead. Now you are saved. 

Romans 10:9–10 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Overcome Evil With Good And Grow

Have you been feeling fearful or maligned lately? Been the target of malevolent or hateful treatment? What about persecution, harassment or oppression in it's various psychological and emotional ways? Do you wonder where your Father God is as you struggle to righteously endure the unceasing unfairness that he seems to be allowing?

Do not doubt that he is aware. Furthermore, he knows why you feel the way that you do. He knows the causes of your confusion and anger and he is not mad at you. When will he ever do something about what you are suffering? I don't know. Will he ever stop it? I don't know. Despite our uncertainties and intense anxieties, there is always a place where we can take refuge in a way that pleases God. We should always want to please and glorify him, no matter what. 

I pray every morning before I speak to or encounter anyone in person or online. I also do talking prayer to God throughout the day. When these distressed feelings are particularly severe, however, I need something else to help me. Rather than attack others (in my mind or outwardly) who may seem to be the cause of my troubles, I like to quote Psalm 91. I have it written on three little sheets of paper that I've taped together.

I keep the little packet in the place where I am most of the day. I can find it either on my art work table or at my computer. When I feel particularly distressed, I pick it up and walk around my home reading it aloud.

I bring the words out of my spirit and put them into my atmosphere, where they will grow and bear good fruit, within and all around me. I listen to myself speaking the Living Word of God, that which will transform and convert. I always feel better and equipped for the next stage of battle when I do this. 

Don't fight with others. Don't attack others in mind, spirit or physically. Don't repay evil for evil. Do good by speaking the Holy Scripture passage that will carry you to the next level of walking in God's light and growing in Christ.

Closer Than Ever To God

Sometimes, I have heavy burdens and feel alone just like you do. I'm learning and growing through these times. The Word is a lamp and a light and we just have to keep at it, keep praying and keep choosing to believe. Though not always easy, it's as simple as that. Putting His Holy Word daily into our minds gives us the stored-up strength that we need to beneficially endure these intense journeys.

God often gives us relief, at the last minute, from our severe struggles. When we feel we can't take anymore, we cry out and push forward against all odds, determined to believe that he cares. We refuse to be defeated by the world, the flesh and the devil. At those times, we remember that we have the power of God living within and we hang on by a thread of heartfelt determination. It is then that relief comes and our spiritual branches painfully grow a little more. (John 15:5-11)

After that, God mercifully gives us mental and emotional rest for a time. We can then catch our breaths, square our shoulders and see clearly that we are doing better, that we are closer than ever to God.

 

Evaluating Our Relationships

It is critical to our growth in the Lord that we associate ourselves with people who uplift us. At the end of a conversation with someone, if we exit feeling down, disturbed and not quite right, we should be wary and watch closely. If this happens consistently, something is wrong.

It doesn't matter if we are praying for that person, always lifting them up and trying to be a Godly example and inspiration to him or her. If we don't feel elevated and at peace at the end of any encounter with them, our growth in God will be hindered. We hear the following statement often and we should take it more to heart. Some people we will need to love and pray for from afar.

How often do we ignore this truth in the name of being good Christians? We are good Christians when we attend to our own advancement in the Lord first, at all costs. We are good Christians when we guard our hearts with all diligence. Our Father does want us to come to him with broken spirits and broken and contrite hearts but not through being ignorant about our detrimental relationships with others.

There is no doubt about it; we need to discuss with God if we should be closely associated with these types of persons. The ones whom we need to love and pray for from afar are the very persons who drain our spirits, depress us and prey upon us, whether purposely or unintentionally. It is difficult to deny these people access to our lives when they continually burden us with the same conversations, the same complaints and the same attitudes.

When we realize, however, that they never take our Godly advice and that they never do what we suggest to resolve their own issues, it becomes clear that our relationships with God are being eroded through our relationships with them. They are toxic relationships, a form of being unequally yoked. If we persist in the belief that we are slowly influencing them and that we are long-suffering for good, then we need to think long and hard and often about the wisdom of that train of thought. 

Do not be deceived: "Evil company corrupts good habits. (I Corinthians 15:33)

Whoever walks with the wise becomes wise, but the companion of fools will suffer harm. (Proverbs 13:20)

Your boasting is not good. Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump? (I Corinthians 5:6)

We have to also be sure that WE are uplifting to others. If we are critical of them, unfairly judgemental, always oppressive, non-receptive to learning from them, bearers of bad reports, complainers, holier-than-thou, etc., then maybe we should be removed from their lives through their own recognition of the truth. It works both ways. 

If we ask, God will give us seeing eyes and hearing ears to honestly evaluate our relationships so that we can walk in the light. The purity of our close associations is paramount to maintaining and strengthening our connection to God. Healthy relationships inspire and motivate us to higher heights in Christ Jesus.

See then that you walk circumspectly, not as fools but as wise, redeeming the time, because the days are evil. Therefore do not be unwise, but understand what the will of the Lord is. (Ephesians 5:15-17)

Problems With Forgiveness?

Keep trying forgiveness until you succeed in speaking it.

Forgiveness is a choice, just like happiness, love, faith, etc. No matter how we feel, if we confess to God that we forgive someone(s), God will do the rest.

God focuses on our hearts, not our feelings. He knows why we feel the way that we do, why it is hard to forgive that person or those people. Never give up on trying to utter words of forgiveness. Say what little bit you can to God about forgiving someone. Keep trying forgiveness until you succeed in speaking it.


Keep launching your kite of forgiveness until it catches the wind and flies high!

Obedience is to say to ourselves and to God "I forgive _________," even when we may feel that we shouldn't have to, that it's unfair, that it hurts too much, that God doesn't care. It is the honest effort that God honors. He will help you as you try.

Keep trying to launch your kite of forgiveness. It may take several tries. Your kite may take a nose dive several times and may even crash to the ground a couple of times. Pick it back up and launch it again.

Keep launching it until it catches and flies high into the sky with success. In a similar way, you will become adept at forgiving, with sincerity.

God honors us greatly when we obey in the name of righteousness! Over time, we will see great changes in ourselves and our lives when we choose to just obey and forgive.