Showing posts with label Discouraged. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Discouraged. Show all posts

Tomorrow Could Be The Day

God sometimes seems late but in the end, he's right on time.

It's darkest before the dawn.

Just when we think we can't take anymore, God delivers us.

If the deliverance is not total, it's enough to give us saving relief.

It's enough to encourage and strengthen us.

It's enough for us to feel that we can go on.

It's enough for us to understand that he is aware of what's going on with us.

Our Father is always aware of how much we can take.


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Why Did You Let Me Do It Father?

When I find that I've made what appears to be a poor decision and traveled in a direction that did not work out, I know that my Father knew it would happen and how it would end. I know that He was not surprised by my journey. He knows the beginning to the end of everything. He knows everything about me. I come from him and he has numbered all of the hairs on my head. He is concerned about every little thing that has to do with me. 

Most importantly, I look to him when I make plans. I am becoming more consistent about running every idea, goal and pursuit by him before I embark upon it. I want His supreme guidance and if it is not in His plan for me, I don't want it.  Because of my determination, when a path seems to goes awry, I lament to Our Father, Why, oh why did you allow me to go this way when it wasn't going to work OUT! 

I have learned that even when he allows us to go on a track that seems to not produce a favorable return, it's still in his plan for us and will work out for our good. We learn things and collect experiences that he will use to benefit our upcoming purposes. 

If you love God The Father, appreciate God The Son and obey God The Holy Spirit every day, don't ever think that an experience is useless. God does not produce useless things in our lives. God is light and in Him is no darkness at all. Rejoice! Just rejoice in the experiences that God allows into our lives, fully believing that all things work together for good to those who love God and are the called according to his purpose. Romans 8:28



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.









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

God's Blessings Through Transitions, Transfers And Changes

I've learned that nothing that God does in our lives is necessarily permanent. Though I thrive on changes, transfers and transitions, some that are unexpected and unwanted are very difficult to cope with.  As Christians, we are often ashamed to accept a change when we shared that God did the thing and blessed us.

We think because God did it that it is engraved in stone and can never change. God gave it and we have it, for good! When the blessing circumstances begin to change, we are apt to and often encouraged by less-enlightened Christians, to believe that we made a mistake. Maybe God did not do it after all, because things are now changing. If God did it, it would not change, right? As we grow in Christ, we learn that this is not true.
God gives and takes away, shifts and turns things in our lives, opens a door for a season and then closes it and opens another door. He even brings people into our lives temporarily to bless us in various ways.  He then moves them out because they were not meant to stay. We are confused and wonder why these relationships are not retained. We lament and look back, when we need to learn to let go and move forward.
We should anticipate the new things that God will do. It helps to remind ourselves that everything in this fallen world is temporary. It all seems so solid to us because we endure time while we are here. Time seems to make permanent things but that permanence is all temporary. God shifts all according to his will and we are not to hold on to what he allows to change.
Transfers and transitions are more often experienced in the lives of some rather than others. Despite this, we all can grow through God's big and small changes as we listen to and obey His Spirit each day. If you have proof within yourself that you made a mistake and God did not do it after all, admit it and move on. Growth is good and God knows where you're at.
When things begin to change, however, regarding a blessing that you know came from God, don't degrade your relationship with Your Heavenly Father by choosing to believe that he never blessed you. Don't allow others to convince you to demean your spiritual growth and your commitment to God. Know that God does not change, but he changes things.
Our Father does not intend for the changes to hurt us. Because of the condition of this damaged and swiftly-deteriorating world, hurts and pains must come. God allows his planned and ordained changes to bring about his purposes. His end result is not for us to suffer for no reason. He plans and allows changes in his blessings to benefit us now and in the New Heaven and the New Earth, in ways that we cannot imagine. We just need to stand firm in what we know and accept what Our Heavenly Father changes, as we grow in our understanding of how He does things.


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.



Is It All REALLY Working Together For My Good?

Sometimes, the trials that God turns into good for us we may never discern.

Often, this converting of these tribulations on our behalf moves into the realm of the unseen.

They can be the good that God does for us of which we are unaware.

We have faith that he does these things because the Word tells us so.

We may not always see the outcome of God working all things together for our good but we have testimonies of the times when we experienced proof that he did.

We also know that we live among bountiful blessings from our Heavenly Father every day.

 Any one of those unrecognizable daily blessings could be a conversion of bad to good, just for us.

Romans 8:28


 

My Past Is Haunting Me

Are you having problems with unwelcome memories from your past? Is any point or stage from your past life troubling you? Are past experiences, mistakes, journeys, sorrows, sufferings, failed hopes, unrealized dreams, etc., consistently bothering you? Do you feel plagued by past occurrences over which you had no control? 


God is aware. His Spirit is always near and within to help us. Struggling with our pasts, something that is unchangeable, is too much of a heavy burden for us. We cannot and were not meant to bear it alone.

We must always look to God, first as a formal committing over to him each morning the health of our mental and emotional state. Next, we must learn to immediately look to God whenever troubling thoughts and memories surface.

There are many short prayers that you can use. I find that this prayer has been helping me to cast down imagination and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God:

Father, help me to see my past as you see it. Help me to see myself as you see me. Help me to see people as you see them. Help me to look beyond the flesh and into the spirit of myself, every person and every situation, past, present and future.

Pray this prayer, or one similar that you create, and you'll find yourself walking more in the Spirit each day.



How Can I Smile When I'm Not Happy?

Our knowledge of God has the potential to help us to smile in the most distressing of circumstances. Why? There is nothing that can separate us from God's love. He has given us that major promise and he will fulfill it, for he cannot lie. I am able to smile often when I am distressed, sorrowful, depressed or discouraged. If not smile, I can at least feel hopeful, which is a type of joy.

I say "Thank you Lord for joy unspeakable and the peace that surpasses all understanding. I know that the joy of the Lord is my strength and you will keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed upon you." I feel better immediately. What about the times when I don't feel like quoting those truths? That's another story but one that is also filled with success. Nothing is too hard for God, no matter what it feels like or looks like.

On the physiological side, which God also owns, he has built into our systems the ability to feel better when we smile. It is good to try smiling when we don't feel like it. I didn't believe it and it really annoyed me when I heard people say this or read it. One day, I decided to try it and I did feel a lift in my spirits begin to happen soon after I tried it.

I think how much of a lift we feel will depend on at what depressed level we're starting. If we've just endured a great tragedy, it would be very difficult to want to try to smile but we can always try. I try to remember that I can do all things through Christ, nothing is too hard for God and when I'm weakest is when God is strongest in me.

Neurologists have proven that smiling can trick your brain into happiness — and boost your health. A smile spurs a powerful chemical reaction in the brain that can make you feel happier. Science has shown that the mere act of smiling can lift your mood, lower stress, boost your immune system and possibly even prolong your life. 

So just try it and tell God what's going on. Tell him several times, if you have to, what it is that is making it so difficult to impossible for you to smile. Just remember to ask once for help, healing, blessings, etc., whatever it is that you need. After that, thank him for it until a change occurs. You can have confidence that he heard you the first time if you asked according to his will.

If you believe that he heard you then you know you have what you've asked, one way or another (1 John 5:14-15). You don't have to ask anymore or beg and plead. Since you know you already have it just thank him until his answer manifests. So remember, try to SMILE and always tell God.



You Are Here: Tired Of Praying & Weary VI

Answer for sluggish weariness and hopelessness.
I know you feel so sluggish emotionally, so down, so weary, so hopeless. Make yourself get on your knees. Do you go down on your knees to talk to God? If you are in the habit of praying like that first thing every morning, then you know that feeling of reverence that it instills towards Our Heavenly Father.

If you don't do that, then please start. Pick a throw pillow for your prayer pillow so your knees won't hurt. I dedicated one for this and keep it slid under my bed, handy for me to reach under and slide out in an instant.

Thank God now for all that he has done for you when you were not aware of it. Thank him for what he is doing now of which you are not aware. You're speaking to God in faith that he is right now working on your behalf. You're choosing to believe it though you don't feel it and don't have any hope of ever feeling it. You are choosing to believe that God is moving and shifting things on your behalf. You are choosing once again to believe that he is closing some doors and opening others.

Our prayers at this time do not have to be long.

At times like this we must force ourselves to repeat things that we believe about God and his kingdom, no matter how we feel. Our prayers at these times do not have to be long. We may feel bad when we pray these short prayers, almost like our prayers are fake. We may feel like we are not giving God a fair amount of prayer time to ask or believe him for anything.

After all, we've been led to believe that in order for prayers to be authentic they must be long, drawn out and we must be exhausted when we finish. We are reminded of the scriptures where Jesus asked his disciples why they could not tarry with him for one hour. (Matthew 26:40-45) There is a time for long prayers but this is not one of those times.

You are holding on for dear life. Your faith is in jeopardy. A sentence or two or prayer here and there will carry you through to understanding answered prayer. Pressing your body and spirit to do this little bit is a sign that your prayer is not fake but sincere. Take the baby steps that show that you are a devoted person who refuses to give up on God.

Thank God now for all that he has done for you when you were not aware of it.
Don't allow the devil to convince you that it has to be a long prayer or no prayer at all. His intention is to stop you for good. We battle the world, the flesh and the devil. Thank God now for all that he has done for you when you were not aware of it. Thank him for what he is doing now of which you are not aware.

Resist the devil and he has to flee for a season! God's word declares it! (James 4:7) If those two sentences that I've said for you to pray are all that you can say for days, weeks, do it! Fight for your prayer life! Build up your most holy faith and God will faithfully increase it!

When you get stronger, don't forget to ask God for something one time only. If you forget and do it again, that is ok. Our Father understands. Get back on track. From then on, thank him for it whenever you feel the desire to pray about it again. Also remember to always ask for his will to be done too, like one of my readers who said,

I DID need to stop begging for certain things. I actually started praying more for God's will to be done and not for my own desires. I know that's best and once I came to terms with that, I had (have) a whole new outlook on life.

 

Gather Strength Through My 

Tired Of Praying & Weary

Series:

 

You Are Here: Tired Of Praying & Weary