I had a thought I wanted to share with you. We often say, “God Wins!” We can depend on him to always fight for us. It doesn’t matter the battle; he is there as our protector and father. If we face a giant like David, he will guide the stone. If we are being pursued like the children of Israel, he will open the sea.
He loved us enough to suffer a brutal death, beyond description. He was unrecognizable. If he loved us that much he will not leave us to fight our battles alone.
“Because he hath set his love upon me, therefore will I deliver him: I will set him on high, because he hath known my name. He shall call upon me, and I will answer him.” – Psalm 91:14-15
He has promised to answer when we call on him. But we have to set our love upon him and he will deliver us.
He didn’t say we wouldn’t walk through hard things. He didn’t say we wouldn’t face a giant. But he has promised to deliver us out of our afflictions.
“Many are the afflictions of the righteous: but the Lord delivereth him out of them all.” – Psalms 34:19
ROMANS 15:4 For whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our learning, that we through patience and comfort of the scriptures might have hope.
This is the reason the bible was written, that we might have hope. The world is full of negativity and hopelessness. People are constantly speaking negative things. For example, some go around saying, “I am so depressed.” If we speak something long enough, we will start to believe it. We will become depressed.
If we speak the word, study the word we will find hope. We need to speak life. Because we will get the outcome we speak.
The above is a bookmark I made on Canva feel free to copy and print it.
This week has gone by fast for me, but for others I am sure the days seemed like they were a week long. It all depends on what you are dealing with today. It is my mission in life to encourage you to keep going, do not slow down, do not let the enemy cause you to look right or left. God is with us if we are facing a bad diagnosis from the doctor, the loss of a loved one or a job, he is with us when the worst imaginable things happen to us. But he will shine enough light on our path for us to know the next step.
He doesn’t show us the whole road because we would become afraid. But he shows us enough to keep us going the right direction. If you are trying to make a decision, he will guide you. All you have to do is ask him to shine his light on your path. Then open up his word and he will give you just what you need.
Today I want to remind you that prayer is our key that unlocks the door to God’s presence and provision for our lives. This quote is a very old saying, I am not sure who said it first. But that is so true, we need to give God our first fruits. In other words, start with a “Good Morning Lord” give him thanks and praise for another day.
As we bring each day to a close, we need to Thank him for another day. Then in the middle of the day as we walk through everything we are dealing with we will have strength to walk it out. We can also worship and pray during the day. Staying in his presence will keep our feet on the right path.
Jeremiah 33:3 – “Call unto me, and I will answer thee, and shew thee great and mighty things, which thou knowest not.”
God promises to give us wisdom and answer our prayers.
As fall approaches our thoughts turn to drives in the crisp air and pumpkin spice everything. I try to hold on to the last days of summer tightly.
I never want to miss an opportunity to encourage someone. We are all part of the same body, that gives us a responsibility to encourage each other.
Everyone walks through hard things. Everyone fights battles. There are times we are strong and can help someone else. There are times we need to reach out for encouragment and prayer.
So as you hold on to the last days of summer. Let God’s warmth shine on you and through you. Be strong in the Lord and remember you are never alone.
Just a reminder today that God is our light and our protector. He is there to shine down on us. He will fill us with his grace and glory. As long as we walk in his ways, he will not withhold any good thing from us. He is our strength and will see us through whatever we are facing.
I hope to have the videos up and running by next week.
Often life throws us a curve ball. Many things can upset our routine. I am in the middle of one of those moments. My video editing program has stopped working. I have uninstalled and reinstalled, begged my computer to open the program, yes, I really did. It was not moved by my plea for help.
I will not have a video for the next few days until I can get this worked out. I would welcome any suggestions for user friendly editing software. I will be doing research to find the right thing. I ask that you be patient and don’t give up on me. I would not be spending my time doing this if I didn’t feel that it is God’s will for me to try to uplift and encourage my fellow believers and hopefully shine a light to the lost.
Today, I encourage you to keep going and keep doing what you are called to do, no matter how hard it gets. We have to be strong in order to bring in the end time harvest.
I Cor 15:58 Therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye stedfast, unmoveable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as ye know that your labour is not in vain in the Lord.
In order to keep moving we must walk out our faith. But how do we take the next steps on the road of life? There are so many paths and choices. If we try to walk on our own, we will trip and fall into a trap of the enemy. As children of God, we need to look to him. He will direct our path.
Psalm 37:23 The steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord: and he delighteth in his way.
God has our path planned before we were ever born. If we choose to live for Christ and allow him to direct our path, we will end up having amazing lives. God will take us places we could not have ever dreamed of going.
Prov 12:2-3 A good man obtaineth favour of the Lord: but a man of wicked devices will he condemn. 3 A man shall not be established by wickedness: but the root of the righteous shall not be moved.
One place the words says, we will be like trees planted by the water. In order to be near water a tree must have deep roots. As the water rises and pushes against the tree, it must have deep roots to stay standing. It is good to be a tree beside of the water when drought happens the tree will still be able to draw water through its roots that are so deep. This tree is established and can stand up to all sorts of outside influences from storms to drought.
The word established means – having been in existence for a long time. Widely accepted, confirmed. If we look to God his ways are established or confirmed to be the standard that we measure our path of life against.
Proverbs 16:3 – Commit thy works unto the Lord, and thy thoughts shall be established.
Being established in Christ takes commitment by us to walk in the ways of the Lord. We cannot allow the enemy to distract us from our faith walk. He will try to trip us up if possible. Being established in Christ takes prayer and determination to follow all his ways.
It is time the body of Christ set aside the pettiness of man. If we all seek him with our whole hearts he will lead us in the correct path. He has promised to establish our way. We can trust that he will do the same for others, even if they are new and need to grow. None of us are perfect and we all can fail and fall.
Matthew 7:24-27 Therefore whosoever heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them, I will liken him unto a wise man, which built his house upon a rock: 25 And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell not: for it was founded upon a rock. 26 And every one that heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them not, shall be likened unto a foolish man, which built his house upon the sand: 27 And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell: and great was the fall of it.
When we build on a solid foundation we will be established. Jesus is that rock, the foundation of our faith. The world is the man who builds on sand. What is sand, it is very small pieces of rock.
Notice both had storms it is just that one was more prepared than the other. The one who stood on there foundation of faith in Jesus Christ is the one who was still standing. This is what it means to be established, you face the storms and you hold tight to your faith. When the storm has passed, you are still standing. Not because of how strong you are, but because you trusted in one who is strong enough to protect you from the storm.
THE TITLE FOR TODAY’S EPISODE: PROTECTING THE FRUIT
Have you ever considered a thorn, they are the sharp points on plant that are protectors. Take the blackberry vines for example. The thorns are there to protect the fruit. Why would the fruit need protection? Because it is the seed for future generations of plants. Some of the fruit has to fall to the ground and the seeds take root for there to be future plants.
God will allow us to walk through thorns to help our fruit. I was reading my journal and I came across an entry from a couple of years ago. A friend had a dream about us and we were walking through a thicket of thorns. God showed her that as the thorns scratched us things came off of us that we didn’t need to carry. In other words, God allows the season of thorns to help us leave behind the things we no longer need to carry. Things like bitterness, pain from the past, pride, jealousy, unforgiveness and many more things. Anything that would be between us and God’s new assignments for our lives.
When Adam fell and God removed him out of the garden. The first-time thorns were mentioned they were a curse for Adam’s disobedience. He would have to fight thorns to grow his food. But we are redeemed from the curse. When Jesus wore a crown of thorns he took on that curse and reversed it.
Thorns in our lives are to help us guard our fruit. How do we do this you may ask? It is the same as guarding your heart. We have to be diligent about making sure to keep our integrity.
Prov 4:23 Keep thy heart with all diligence; for out of it are the issues of life.
By guarding our heart from the things of this world we are protecting our fruit. It takes us paying attention to every detail of our lives. Being persistent to protect our faith walk and keep ourselves on course. Prayer will help us stay on course.
We cannot ever leave out how important study of the word is, because it’s our roadmap. We make time for the things that are important to us. How important is getting to know God better?
As we study the word there will be things that stick out to us, like a thorn. Those verses help us to become more like Jesus. Being like Jesus means we have all the fruit of God’s Spirit operating in our lives.
Gal 5:22-23 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, 23 Meekness, temperance: against such there is no law.
If we have the fruit of God in our lives there will be less room for the things of this world. In order to be a light to the world and to plant seeds of God’s love, we must have fruit.
When out walking by a tree if you see apples, you know it is an apple tree. When you see a blackberry vine and see blackberries you know it’s a blackberry vine. The same goes for the fruit of God’s spirit, people will see God’s love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, self-control and wonder why we are different from the world.
Some people are ready for a change in their lives. They are good ground that just needs a seed. When we share Jesus with them that seed will grow creating more fruit. If they learn how to guard their fruit. The next time you see a thorn, don’t automatically think of it as a bad thing or a curse, it could be protecting the fruit.
I grew up in a time that All You Can Eat Buffets were at the height of popularity. For one price you could go to the different areas and fill your plate with as many things as you could eat. Some would choose to have a small meal or not because there were there for the desserts. They would have a large number of desserts, which is not healthy. Others would pile their plates down with meat. Others would be more balanced with their approach.
Some Christians try to take this approach with the Bible. Some only want the verses about how God will bless us. How he loves us and wants only good for us. They only want the desserts portion of the word. Others try to take the whole word the herbs, salad, meat and dessert. The Bible is not a buffet, we must eat the whole word.
We cannot pick a few verses and create our belief system on them. This is why we have so many denominations. What made me think of this topic? I saw an article about Thomas Jefferson. He took a blank notebook and a few bibles. He cut out just the verses he liked and glued them into his book. They said he kept Jesus’ sermons and parables but didn’t include anything about the crucifixion or resurrection. I don’t know what else he put in his version of the bible. I know that because our country gives us the freedom to choose our religion that we must choose wisely. Not all roads lead to heaven. We cannot pick our own path and make it to heaven.
Some people today are mixing eastern religions with parts of Christianity and meditations from another religion. We have the freedom to do whatever we choose, God gives us freewill. But there is only one way to heaven and that is through Christ Jesus. It comes from taking the whole bible and eating it, even the bitter parts.
To eat God’s word means taking it all in and making it our belief system. Not just knowing it with head knowledge, but accepting it with heart knowledge. Just as natural food gives our bodies strength, the word gives us spiritual strength.
Jeremiah 15:16 Thy words were found, and I did eat them; and thy word was unto me the joy and rejoicing of mine heart: for I am called by thy name, O Lord God of hosts.
We gain many things when we study the word of God. When we take all the verses in and digest them, they bring joy. His word is often sweet. But like I said earlier, it’s not a good idea to just have desserts. There are parts of the word that are hard to digest. They are bitter to our stomach. The word is full of verses that cause us to have to measure up. Change is hard, it is not easy for our flesh to let go of certain things. But the bitter part of the word is like medicinal herbs. It may not taste good but if we allow it to do the work in us, it will bring healing.
Ask yourself, are you picking verses to live by like a buffet or like Thomas Jefferson? Are you trying to live by the whole Bible in context? Pray and allow God to search your heart and then you will know, being a Christian is not like a buffet.
