Bless The Lord Oh My Soul!

Bless the Lord, O my soul;

And all that is within me, bless His holy name!

Bless the Lord, O my soul,

And forget not all His benefits: 

Who forgives all your iniquities,

Who heals all your diseases, 

Who redeems your life from destruction, 

Who crowns you with loving kindness and tender mercies,

Who satisfies your mouth with good things,

So that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s.

The Lord executes righteousness

And justice for all who are oppressed.

He made known His ways to Moses,

His acts to the children of Israel.

The Lord is merciful and gracious,

Slow to anger, and abounding in mercy.

He will not always strive with us,

Nor will He keep His anger forever.

He has not dealt with us according to our sins,

Nor punished us according to our iniquities.

For as the heavens are high above the earth,

So great is His mercy toward those who fear Him;

As far as the east is from the west,

So far has He removed our transgressions from us.

As a father pities his children,

So the Lord pities those who fear Him.

For He knows our frame;

He remembers that we are dust.

As for man, his days are like grass;

As a flower of the field, so he flourishes.

For the wind passes over it, and it is gone,

And its place remembers it no more.

But the mercy of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting

On those who fear Him,

And His righteousness to children’s children,

To such as keep His covenant,

And to those who remember His commandments to do them.

The Lord has established His throne in heaven,

And His kingdom rules over all.

Psalm 103

***

Ask God Only Once

Yes, it's good to ask Our Father for something only once. After that, we should thank him for it when the desire to ask for it again arises. Don't ask again. We should thank him for what we have already asked for. 

When I ask, I also follow Jesus' example and I say, "Nevertheless, not my will but thy will be done, Father." I am acknowledging that if the answer is not as I expected, I trust that he has planned something better.

***

We Need The Entire Bible For Transformation

It is important to read several scriptures, a whole chapter, a complete passage and over time, the entire Bible. We must also try to read it everyday. We learn the context of points, lessons and stories and get a more accurate understanding about what is being said.

Christians who only read and quote favorite scriptures do not grow. 

We need all of the Word over a period of time for our minds to be renewed and to begin to be transformed. 

As we daily read the Bible the conversion begins. This is through the Holy Spirit. He took up residence in our reborn spirits when we acknowledged and accepted Jesus Christ as God's ordained Savior. The Holy Spirit is a person, like Our Father and Our Savior. He's not a dove, a tongue of flame or a breeze, though he can use these things to operate. 

Working with the Holy Spirit through acceptance and obedience, and eating and drinking a variety of Bible scriptures daily starts the miracle transformation within us. We can then learn to apply the Word to our daily lives in a practical and beneficial way.

Obedient By Choice

The Holy Spirit is the voice of authority and the voice of knowledge within. When he speaks, the growing Christian automatically hears and does, with contentment.

We are obedient because we want to be, not because we have to be. We are contented to obey because we know that not only will God be glorified but we will be blessed richly.

It is a pleasure to obey the promptings of the Holy Spirit because of the wealth of knowledge and wisdom that we can partake of. Those resources make a difference. 

Knowing God is supposed to make a difference in our lives. Those who love God covet that difference. We embrace the authority of God's Holy Spirit because we want to live in the blessings of God. We want to daily experience the difference that knowing God can bring. We are obedient to the authority of God's Holy Spirit because we choose to be.

Walking In The Reborn Spirit

Galatians 5:17 tells us that the flesh fights against the spirit and the spirit against the flesh. This is because our flesh is not reborn when we accept Jesus Christ as our Savior. Our spirits are reborn. The fleshly attitudes in us are against God and will never be subjected to him. The fleshly way is against God and the flesh can never be subjected to God's way, love or law. (Romans 8:7) I know that when I am disappointed in God, unhappy with him and not appreciating and respecting him, I am walking in my flesh. 

My reborn spirit loves God with a perfect love. The more that I walk in the spiritual life, or in the spirit, the more that I am happy and satisfied with God. This knowledge and revelation helps me to quickly get back into my reborn spirit side of my being, with the help of the Holy Spirit, when my thoughts and feelings are not helpful or fair. It is difficult to resist the fleshly way of thinking because we are born into it. We always need the help of God's Spirit in us to get back into our reborn spirit's way of functioning.

While on this earth, we as Christians have our reborn spirits and we still live in bodies that function by fleshly control. The best that we can do with our flesh is to crucify and bring it under.  (Galatians 5:24, I Corinthians 9:27)  Doing that with that same flesh, however, does not have lasting effects. The flesh, any way that you cut and dry it, profits us nothing. That's why we fall back into our detrimental habits and destructive ways when we try to make ourselves do better.

Romans 8:13 shares that through the spirit man we do mortify the deeds of the fleshly man. This profound knowledge helps me to know that I am not bad or wrong when I suffer through my fleshly attitudes and habits, because my fleshly influence does not go away or die in this life. My reborn spirit man is real and I need to use it like God means for me to. I must always remember that I have a reborn spirit and that I must spend quality time building it up. I must use the spiritual strength that comes from God to quickly get back into my reborn spirit when the flesh directs my thoughts.

Spiritual Weapons For A Spiritual Devil

Satan wants to destroy your happiness and your hope. Don't allow him to do it! He will use every little thing that he can find. The big attacks are obvious. The little attacks are not. Recognize how much he hates you because you love God and have acknowledged and accepted Jesus Christ as your Savior. His commitment to devastate you never ends. He never rests in his malevolent goals.

It's not the people who are attacking you and making your life difficult. It's evil influence from the fallen Lucifer, who was once an angel in Our Father's kingdom. He is the father of lies who was cast out of Heaven with his fallen angels followers who kept not their first estate. You believe and want help from God's angels but you find it difficult to believe in a devil and demons? 

Our daily battles are not against flesh and blood, the people that we encounter. The battle is in the spiritual world. We are spiritual now, no longer choosing to live in the flesh, though we are still here in this world and in the flesh. Our Heavenly Father helps us in his spiritual ways. We are not alone. We are not without battle weapons but the weapons that we must use are not carnal through fleshly fighting. 

Our weapons are mighty to defeat the devil's plans, though it may seem like he wins at times. Our weapons of power are not of this physical world. They are Godly weapons that establish God's plans and purposes in our lives. It's not about stopping people and getting back at them. It's all about triumphing through God's good, expectable and perfect will.

Learn about the weapons of warfare that we can successfully use (Ephesians 6:10-18) against the very real principalities, powers, rulers of the darkness of this world and spiritual wickedness in high places. Every little evil thing matters to the very real devil. Every little holy and righteous thing should matter to us! Ask our Father to sharpen your spiritual eyes so that you can detect the wicked works of the devil against you. Ask him also to make the weapons of his warfare real and practical to you!

6 Powerful Spiritual Weapons Of Warfare

Our loins girded about with truth. 

Having on the breastplate of righteousness.

Having our feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace. 

The shield of faith with which we can quench the enemy's fiery darts.

The helmet of salvation.

The sword of the Spirit which is the Word of God.

Living In Harmony With God

Where love is there truly is harmony. 

The love of God shed abroad in our hearts will not allow confusion, dishonesty, deviousness, deceit or ulterior motive. 

Is God's love ruling and reigning in your life? Have you allowed his divine love to break down all of those waste places in your life so that his love can flourish and produce in like kind? Some characteristics of God's love are:

• Organization
• Honesty
• Straightforwardness
• Trustworthiness
• Openness

God's love is supreme and corrects everything! When we are allowing God to work his love in our own lives, we inspire it in the lives of others. It multiplies outward all around us. Where God's love is there is harmony in all of its various forms.

Allow God's love to take over YOUR life and experience the evolution and expansion of harmony! 

***

How Can You Forgive The Unforgivable?

There is no trespass, debt or transgression that we cannot choose to forgive through the power of the Sacrifice of Jesus Christ. The operative word is choose. When forgiveness is difficult or next to impossible, we have to choose it. 

When we come to understand just a little of what Jesus did for us, we then get the power to forgive anything and everything. It takes a revelation of Christ's sacrifice. We will never understand, in this earthly life, just what He did for us. We can grow into a better understanding of this Perfect Gift. 

Our Holy Spirit-given knowledge of the obedience of The Lamb of God will begin to give us the Heart of God. Why is this important? Because God's love covers a multitude of sins. (I Peter 4:8) His love can't cover our sins and not the sins of those who have hurt and damaged us. His love given to us through the shed Blood and the broken Body of his precious Son covers all sins. 

Now, the Bible speaks of a sin against the Holy Spirit that cannot be forgiven but that is another issue. For our understanding of forgiveness towards others, Jesus paid it all. There is nothing that we cannot forgive because of His total sacrifice.

We can be proud and grateful of our ability to forgive through God's provision of his only Son, Jesus, Our Lord and Savior. Ask God today for a revelation of what Jesus did for you so that you can soon start your new, holy journey of forgiveness.

We Forget To Ask God About The Small Things

Though we pray faithfully, we forget to ask God for many things, big and small, before we step out and try it ourselves. It's easy to go to God with the big things. Sometimes, we go to him for distressing and devastating things when we haven't been giving him the daily time that we should. Our Father, however, does not condemn us and we can always devote more time to building our relationship with him.

What about the small things that we could ask him about? He has time and time again given me favor about something that I was thinking about but never asked him for. I know it was him because after he blessed me he lovingly touched me through His Spirit and let me know. I always feel bad when he shows me this because I know that what I received was what I was thinking. I know that it only came from him and I feel bad because I didn't ask him, that I didn't acknowledge that he was there. 

Instead, I did the old habit of thinking fleetingly about a want or need and quickly shoving it on the back burner to bring it about later by myself. My Father let me know, however, that he was there and heard my thoughts. I did not talk to him about those small things but he chose to respond. He let me know that he wants me to ask him about the small things, because he is there for me, always listening.

Some Christians say it's being obsessive and that we don't have to ask God about every little thing. Well, I say ask God about what they are saying. I know from him communicating with me after he blesses me with simple little things that he is telling me to rely on him more, communicate with him more, love walking with him more. Committing to asking him about small things and for help with small dilemmas will help us to walk better with him. Determining to consult him about small decisions and to ask him for small blessings will help us to draw closer to him.

To Be Right Or To Be A Light?

The problem is that we want to be right instead of letting our lights shine. Being right means to be drawn into debates and arguments with people who wrongly criticize us. It can lead us to discouragement and neglect on the path that God has us on. When we argue and retaliate with those who subtly and covertly attack us we are basically agreeing with them. 

Letting our lights shine means to overlook the negative criticism and oppression of others and to respond kindly. It means to keep doing what we're doing and to stay in the center of the path that God has us on. We are to keep pressing on and to not look to the right hand or the left. This means to not get involved with defending ourselves and repaying evil for evil by cutting others down in like kind. 

You know what that statement says, The greatest revenge is massive success!"  We shouldn't be focused on revenge at all because that belongs to God. That quote is simply a soothing balm and positive motivation to not waste time and energy debating and retaliating. We need to keep to the mission or business that God has given each of us. Being the light means to respond to attempts to stop us with Godly grace, prompted by the Holy Spirit and to keep moving forward and looking ahead. Who cares about being right when there are so many benefits to being a light?

Our Desires And God

Delight yourself in the Lord and he will give you the desires of your heart. Psalm 37:4

Some Christians say this means that God will give you the desires that you should have. Other Christians say it means that he will fulfill the desires that you have always prayed for, your fondest wishes, your purest and most beneficial desires and long-standing hopes. I believe it is both. They both are important to Our Heavenly Father.

Our relationship with God should be a two-way street. If we don't believe that he cares about our desires, then we are not relating to him. It is of great value that we decide to hear his thoughts and plans each day but he also wants us to turn over to him our thoughts and plans. 

What about our long-standing desires that have not happened? Well, that doesn't mean that they will not, or that God has said no to them. We should continue to believe him that we will realize them, no matter how impossible or unlikely it seems. As we allow his will to come about in our lives, we will see how he imparts his desires for us into our desires. All will be well with us, always, as we grow in trusting him.

So, don't toss aside your most important goals and dreams. God cares for you. He cares about what is important to you. The most important thing is that you tell him what your desires are. Be specific and understand that he wants us to spell it out to him. In that way, we show that we believe he hears, cares and wants to communicate back and forth with us. He wants to hear from you as you purpose to hear from him each day. 

Keep Seeking God's Truth About Your Life

It is often easy to feel that our most desired blessings from God will not come until we are dead and gone. It will no longer matter then, but it matters today. I know that you feel discouraged and sometimes hopeless. I can testify to how hard it is for some of us to believe that God loves us, that he really cares. I've endured so much in life, from a child, that my emotions question God's love for me. I sometimes feel hopeless that I'll ever realize some desired things in this life, but I persevere in eating and drinking the Word everyday. 

Each day I persist in having a formal prayer session every morning to commit my way to God. I set my day with Jesus Christ's sacrifice in mind. I know that God has helped me, done things for me, guided me and protected me. I'm rooted and grounded through years of seeking God's face after I accepted Jesus Christ as my Savior. I love my Heavenly Father with a perfect love in my reborn spirit. 

What makes the most difference for me is choosing to read the Word everyday. One scripture, one chapter, doesn't matter how much how little, just opening it and reading something. And not always going to the 23rd Psalm but going places in the Bible where I've never been. That's where the real power is.

The Word slowly transforms us and helps us to choose to believe. And to believe is a choice that we have to make everyday. As I press on in learning about the things of God, I understand more, and he does reward me for my faithfulness. Even so, it is a constant, spiritual battle to believe and receive. 

The devil and his demons are real and they never cease to try to destroy our relationship with God. They work hard to make us think and feel that God does not love us. Our job is to resist them and call them out everyday as the liars that they really are. Evil spirits have nothing to offer us but lies and desolation and an end equal to what they face. 

Those who believe have no where else to go but to Our Father God, Our Savior Jesus, Our Comforter The Holy Spirit and The Word of Truth. If we're tired and don't feel like praying or reading sometimes, The Holy Spirit knows all about it. God does not condemn us for this fleshly weakness but we always have to go back. There is no where else where we can find comfort, relief and hope. 

If we let him, God will grow us, transform us and strengthen us and also reward us everyday. Keep trusting him and remember that Jesus gave his blood and his body so that you can become whole in everyway, despite how you feel and what you have experienced or are experiencing.

I pray for you that from this point you are healed in heart, mind and emotions and that you are strengthened and that your faith is increased beyond all measure! God loves you and he knows all about you.

Showing Compassion For Others

The World Accepts Whom The Church Rejects

His phone rang in church by accident during prayers.
The Pastor scolded him.
The worshippers admonished him after prayers for interrupting the silence.
His wife kept on lecturing him on his carelessness all the way home.
You could see the shame, embarrassment and humiliation on his face.
He never stepped foot in the church again.

That evening, he went to a bar.
He was still nervous and trembling.
He spilled his drink on the table by accident.
The waiter apologized and gave him a napkin to clean himself.
The janitor mopped the floor.

The female manager offered him a complimentary drink.
She also gave him a huge hug and a kiss while saying, "Don't worry man. Who doesn't make mistakes?"
He has never stopped going to that bar since then.

Lesson:
Sometimes our attitude as believers drives souls away from Church. Our attitude breaks our relationships, destroys our families.
You can make a difference by how you treat other people, especially when they make mistakes.

(author not known)

Our Heavenly Father is The God of Compassion.

Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior Compassionately pleads our cases before his Father.

The Holy Spirit Compassionately comforts us.

Let us likewise be always quick to show compassion towards others.

Praying For Those Who Irritate Us

Do you ever have annoyed, frustrated or angry thoughts about anyone? Do the attitudes or behaviors of some people send you into a fit? Are you tempted to have ill will towards those who have misused or mistreated you? 

Have you ever had fleeting or lingering thoughts of wishing problems or misfortune on others? Do you ever find yourself fussing and arguing with yourself about the life that someone lives? I could go on and on and if you profess to have never had any of these types of thoughts or feelings, then you are probably not human. 

I have been on a track for a couple of years now where the Holy Spirit reminds me to stop and pray for these persons. You see, it's not just a matter of us crushing the offending thoughts. While that is an intense and worthy process, it's not enough.

Crushing these thoughts essentially buries them but they are not dead. They are like seeds that can sprout again. God gets to the root of the problem so it can be killed. He wants us to do more than bury unpleasant thoughts about others and generate benign thoughts about people who incense us. 

Our Father God does not want us to suffer any more thoughts that sprout from roots of malevolence. He wants us to be free of malignant thoughts, no matter how mild or fleeting they are. It's a matter of immediately confessing and accepting forgiveness through the blood sacrifice of Jesus Christ, Our Savior, and then stopping to pray for the person. It doesn't have to be a long, intense prayer. It can be brief but it should be heartfelt.

When we turn our growth over to God we begin to recognize opportunities to grow. The Holy Spirit prompts, prods and pricks us when a chance is available to do it God's way. It begins from within, where the roots that need to be purged are. God is precise. He wants it all dug out, every offensive thought that hinders. That still, soft voice of his Spirit will remind us. All we need to do is obey, like I did this morning.

The way that God does it for me is to say in my spirit, Did you pray for her?, during or after a hostile thought. He'll say in my spirit, Have you prayed for him?. He won't say I'm wrong for the thought or that I know I should not have been thinking that.

My Father understands why I had the thought and I sense his loving kindness and his mercy. Now, when thoughts like that come, I end up stopping what I'm doing and praying for the person. If I can get on my knees I do. I offer a quick prayer of forgiveness for myself and blessing for the person.

We should forgive the persons for whatever it was that made us offended, vindictive, judgmental. They may not even know us but we know of them and God is not pleased with our thoughts. He wants better for us. Sometimes, the source of our rancor is in our minds or we are just in a bad mood. At other times, our spiteful thoughts can be justified because of real, hurtful events and experiences. 

Whatever the source of these types of troubling thoughts, we don't have to suffer brushing them under the rugs of our minds where they can trip us up later. We can go further and be cleansed of them. Rather than pretend that you never have thoughts like these, submit to God and allow His Holy Spirit to help you. It will make all of the difference in your spirit, attitude and growth. Be pruned! Be purged! Be strengthened!

 

Being A Positive-Minded Christian

Living a successful Christian life and doing things God's way requires a positive mindset. Walking in the Spirit requires a positive mindset. Being transformed by the renewing of our minds through reading the Word daily requires positive mindsets going in. Allowing our faith to be increased by God requires positive mindsets. Make no mistake, for wonderful changes to come about, we have to start with positive mindsets. We have to believe! That is positive-mindedness. 

Have you been negative-minded when coming to God in prayer? Were you raised in a negative-minded family? Have your trials and troubles in life fostered a negative mind in you? Are you so tired of life, so tired of praying, so tired of hoping that your mind is now negative to God's possibilities? Well, the Holy Spirit is our Comforter and Guide and will restore positivity and faith in us if we let Him.

Allowing the Word to sink in as we read it daily will prune us. We are the branches of Jesus Christ and we have to be regularly trimmed in spirit and attitude. This cutting process will convert and transform our negativeness to the positive-minded position that we need to be in to receive from Our Heavenly Father. 

Are you eating and drinking The Word daily? Are you reading around in The Bible rather than reading the same old scriptures that are tired to your mind and heart? Are you ensuring that you are getting a balance of The Word rather than reading The Lord is my shepherd or Our Father, which art in Heaven everyday? Are you becoming familiar with more obscure scriptures? It takes the entire Word, Old and New Testaments, to transform us and round us out to positive thinking, feeling and behaving. 

Choosing One Day Of Rest

We are often reminded that God rested the seventh day after he created our world and Adam and Eve. How often do we follow his example and the admonition of the scriptures? We should be more pro-active in enjoying a day of rest each week because the spiritual blessings are many.

It is good to have one day per week when we totally wind down. A day when we don't do all of the stuff that we usually do becomes a day of renewal. Christians feel that Sunday is that day. We use that day for special worship-of-God activities, special Sunday meals and peacefulness.

Some people have to work on Sunday, so they choose another day of rest. Some Christians choose to set apart Saturday for special worship and renewal. It's not so much the day but the obedience to God and the scriptures that blesses us. 

Like with fasting, our minds are brought back to the knowledge, every hour of that chosen day, that we are honoring God through sacrifice. Throughout that day when we think of things that we want to do but shouldn't, we are reminded that we are sacrificing and that Jesus Christ sacrificed for us. We draw closer to God on this day of rest.

Whatever day you choose, be sure to do something different than what you usually do, something restful, peaceful and calm. Cultivate serenity, tranquility and elevated worship. Use it as a prayer-building day. Be refreshed, restored and renewed one day per week, not just spiritually but physically as well. The blessings will be abundant!

Hebrews 4:1-11

Deuteronomy 5:14 

Exodus 20:10, 23:12

Genesis 2:2-3

Loving & Letting God Repay

Don't hate and don't retaliate. We don't know the reasons why God allows us to suffer unfairness, mistreatment, harassment, persecution and other types of attacks, but he always has a plan for us.

The Word encouragingly tells us that all things, not some things, all things work together for good to those of us who love him, who are the called and always according to his purpose. Romans 8:28 We also understand that the good will of God towards us, while primarily for the World to come, is also for our present place of habitation. Luke 18:30

It is Our Father's will that some of the good that is built through trials and tribulations come to us during our present, earthly life. All things work together for good but some we will receive after we leave this dying world. In Hebrews 11:13-17,39-40, we read a summary of faithful Believers who journeyed through a life of commitment to God but left this world not having received the promise despite all that they endured.

One thing is sure. God does not and cannot lie. Every jot and tittle of his Word will come to pass. Matthew 5:18 We can have faith that none of our endurance, suffering, sorrow and tears will be wasted. If we are faithful to God and determine to not hate those who show hate towards us, and not retaliate against those who are malicious towards us, we will eventually receive good through their ill will and hurtful actions.

So we, as faithful followers of Jesus Christ, choose not to hate and not to retaliate in thought, word or deed. We choose to love (with God's love because our flesh cannot love with purity) and let God handle the repayment and vindication against those who offend. I will repay, says Our Father regarding those who are on a mission to malign others. Romans 12:19-21 Our rewards, both here and in the New Heaven and the New Earth, are worth waiting for through Godly endurance of all that he allows. We choose to love and let God.

Blessed Wednesday! Focus On The Positive!

God's will includes living our lives to the fullest no matter what circumstances we are in. There are many ways that we can more appreciate what God has done and live more uplifting, fulfilling lives. Giving thanks and reaching out to help others helps us to focus on the positive that serving God through Jesus Christ brings into our lives. Even though it is very difficult sometimes to feel positive, God's knows our hearts and will help us if we ask. 

We are so used to working things out for ourselves that we have been trained to not ask for help. We forget that despite how things have been or are for us, God cares about every little thing that concerns us. Just because he doesn't always change our difficult circumstances doesn't mean that he does not care. His plans are just so perfect and his blessings so great that we can't perceive them in advance.

The cares and troubles of this life easily get us down. Some of us have many more struggles than others, so we often feel hopeless and alone. Despite this, our compassionate and kind Father in Heaven is always near to help us to focus on the positive that is available to all who love him and believe in salvation through The Lamb, his precious Son, Jesus Christ.

Help is always near, through The Father, who knows everything about us, through The Son who is ever interceding for us, and through The Holy Spirit, who is given to all Believers as a comforter and a guide.

Dear Father: Increase our faith, restore unto us the joy of our salvation, uphold us with your free Spirit. Help us. We love you with a perfect love in our reborn spirits and nothing can separate us from your love. Thank you, Father! 

 

We Never Have To Stop Praying

We never have to stop praying. We are encouraged to pray without ceasing. (I Thessalonians 5:17) 

There are formal and informal ways to pray. When we accept this, the many ways to pray 24/7 open up to us. We don't always have to get on our knees with a scripted intonation of phrases and quotes.

Prayer, in it's essence, is talking to God. Talking to Jesus. How much more candid, honest and heart-felt are conversational words versus rehearsed prayer speeches.

Being tired or discouraged and not feeling like praying is not even an excuse. We can ask the Holy Spirit to pray for us. He will then utter on-target words that we cannot.

Pray without ceasing and grow closer to God.

Secret Faithfulness To God = Outward Reward

Public or outward acknowledgement is the reward that Christians who are secretly faithful receive from God.

One way or another, our private devotion to God will show outwardly. We don't have to try, we don't have to uplift ourselves to others, we don't have to beg people to believe that we know God through Jesus Christ.

When we are faithful in seeking God's face and drawing nigh to him, his power will emanate from us. When we pray, fast and give from our secret closet, God will reward us outwardly. 

We will receive some type of open acknowledgement, from God, for our secret faithfulness.

Matthew 6:6

Matthew 6:17-18

Matthew 6:3-4