Nothing happens in the realms of life without either faith or fear. Fear saps our will-power and leaves us feeling depleted and hopeless. Look around and we shall be disheartened. Look within and we shall be discouraged. Look to Him and our fears vanish. When we look at the things around us, we must learn to look for the unseen things that are behind the visible things. This is spiritual discernment.
Our faith must be tested, since God builds no ships except those He sends to the sea. How thankful we should be that God’s blessings are dispensed according to the riches of His grace and not according to the poverty of our faith. Faith is an action word – you cannot passively respond to God. Faith is the grit in the soul that puts the dare into dreams. Faith’s way of walking is to cast all care upon the Lord in trials, and then to anticipate good results from the worst calamities. Faith in the future begets power in the present. Jesus responds to people who have enough faith to draw from His power.
Faith is expectation.
According to your faith let it be done unto you (Matthew 9:29).
Let us soar on our wings of faith as God intended for us to do.
There are unpleasant things which we must endure bravely, and pleasant things for which we must not stop. Those which are bitter serve to crucify what mars us, if we receive them simply with an unlimited acceptance. Those which are pleasant and which are given to support our weaknesses we must readily receive to conform to the plans of God our Father. We must use them at the moment, like a remedy, without self-satisfaction, without attachment, without possessiveness. Because the source of presumption is in growing an attachment to these passing and sensory gifts.
To allow ourselves to be a plaything in the hands of providence, to put no limits to this submission, this is to serve Him by renouncing ourselves. This is to really treat Him as God. God of our lives and of all our situations.God, who could have saved us without crosses, has preferred to let each of us grow little by little. In this He is the Master. We have only to be silent, to fully submit, and to adore His profound wisdom without understanding it.
I know that there is nothing better for men than to be happy and do good while they live. That everyone may eat and drink, and find satisfaction in all his toil – this is the gift of God (Ecclesiastes 3:12-13).
A treasure may also be a trial. It is all the same. All things are meant to remind us to trust in God.
Circumstances do not change us, they expose us. Look to heaven and realize this current arrangement of circumstances are sovereignly put together for your good and His glory.
When times are good, be happy. But when times are bad consider: God has made the one as well as the other (Ecclesiastes 7:14).
God’s lights in our dark nights are as numerous as the stars in the heavens, if only we would look for them.When you persevere through a trial, God gives you a special measure of insight.Believe in Him steadfastly, and everything that challenges you will strengthen you.For us who believe, our job is to believe God can do His job. Like the special smell that comes with a draught breaking rain, God loves the aroma of His children’s joy, especially when He is the source of its delight.
Delight yourself in the Lord and He will give you the desires of your heart (Psalm 35:4).
Accept your current circumstances, and God will give you wisdom to get through.
The happiest people don’t necessarily have the best of everything, they just make the best of everything they have. The present (now) is a gift from God. Why not unwrap it in the morning with great expectation and curiosity, and give thanks to God for it? For when you have thanked God for every blessing sent, what time will then remain for murmurs and lament?
When you are one of the few people who can do something to fix a problem, just how responsible does that make you for it? (It is how you choose to answer this question that defines you.) It is a commandment at every moment and in every condition of life to do the duty of that moment, and to abstain from doing the wrong. So do the duty that is nearest you — that first, and that well. The world has yet to see what God can do with and for and through and in a man who is fully and wholly consecrated to Him.
O Lord, I pray please bless all I do this day. Accept it as an act of worship and give me grace to find You in every task and duty, however small or dull it may seem to be.
Enjoy where He has placed you today. Tomorrow will be different.
A blink of an eye is in itself nothing; but the eye that blinks, that is something. A span of life is nothing; but the man who lives that span, he is something.
We can never get too weak for the Lord to use us — but we can get too strong, if it is our own strength. We can never be too ignorant for the Lord to use us — but we can be too wise in our own conceit. We can never get too small for the Lord to use us — but we can surely get too big and get in His way!
When we grumble, it shows our pride. Faith breaks the peace between what is and what ought to be. Faith doesn’t comfort you where you are but challenges you to be where you should be. Faith defies obstacles and laughs at impossibilities. Faith infuses courage, molds character, and directs conduct.
It is when we move past discouragement to praise that we begin living above our problems. Thanksgiving is vitally important to God. It is the key to releasing His supernatural power around you.
We are called to be peaceful, unassuming, humble — different from those around us.
Wouldn’t it be cool to be a super-hero? To be able to help anyone we wanted to help, and do anything we wanted to do?
A priest asked me one day, “If you could have any super power in your imagination, what would it be?” I thought about it for a while and decided that the best super power to ever have would be the ability to give people exactly what they need when they need it. To be able to talk to someone and know in my spirit what they need at that moment. Not riches or gold or silver, everyone needs that. But kindness, understanding, comforting… or encouragement, motivation, loving correction… So I prayed.
Jesus, I come and ask, Please fill my heart with forgiveness and love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control – that I may overflow to others (Galatians 5:22-23).Gracious and Loving Father, I pray for the superpower You placed in my heart: that Your Spirit will help me discern the spiritual need of the person I happen to be talking to, that I may be Your instrument in helping them.
Today as I reflected on this I realize that’s exactly what God intended our lifestyle to be. Everyone needs kindness, understanding and comforting. Everyone could use encouragement, motivation, and loving correction. My abiding in Jesus will show me what and who and where to direct my efforts at each moment. I just need Him.
Jesus, shining through me, makes everything beautiful and everyone feeling better.
Woe to them! They have taken the way of Cain; they have rushed for profit into Balaam’s error; they have been destroyed in Korah’s rebellion (Jude 11).
God destroyed those who would not believe in spite of seeing His mighty wonders (Jude 5). God imprisoned even angels that rebelled against His set order (Jude 6). Cain was the first man to turn away from God on purpose, to choose his own way in the universe. Balaam was the first to use his footing in the spiritual realm to get rich and seduce the godly onto ungodliness. Korah was the first to rebel against authority set up by God and start up tolerance levels of what should and should not be acceptable.
But you, dear friends build yourselves up in your most holy faith and pray in the Holy Spirit. Keep yourselves in God’s love as you wait for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ to bring you to eternal life (Jude 20-21).
Jude offers scathing rebukes and warnings to false teachers, but in addition he offers insight into how we can protect ourselves from them. Jude uses four instructional phrases: (1) Build yourselves up = studying and doing things to encourage spiritual growth. (2) Pray in the Spirit = cultivating a healthy prayer life. (3) Keep yourselves in God’s love = monitoring your lifestyle and guarding against sin. (4) Look for the mercy of Jesus = cultivating an eternal perspective.
In short, God is trying to warn us to refuse to be drawn into cultural complacency.
Conforming to the world will NEVER be accomplished. We are fish-out-of-water here. We were made for better.
Father, thank You for showing me that without Christ Jesus I can do nothing (John 15:5), yet through Christ Jesus I can do all things because He strengthens me (Philippians 4:13). Because of Him, I will watch and pray so that I will not fall into temptation. The spirit is willing, but the body is weak (Mark 14:38).
Only God can sustain us in this dry and wearying land.
Kindly Lord, continue to gird me with strength when I am weak, and make my way perfect (Psalm 18:32). Thank You for enabling me to stand on higher and higher grounds (Psalm 18:33). Father, You are my stronghold – my place to hide and fight from (Psalm 43:2). You are my refuge and my strength, and You are a very present help to me in times of trouble (Psalm 46:1). Please, loving Lord, do not forsake me when I feel like my strength is gone (Psalm 71:9). Your joy, kind Father, is the source of my strength (Nehemiah 8:10). You are my refuge in the storm and my shadow from the heat (Isaiah 25:4).
When I feel weak, I will say that I am strong because I know You are with me (Joel 3:10). I wait upon You, O Father, and I will be of good courage because all my hope is in You (Psalm 31:24). Thank You for strengthening me according to the promise of Your Word (Psalm 119:28). Your Word tells me: Do not fear for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you; I will uphold you with My righteous right hand (Isaiah 41:10). I love you, O Lord, my strength (Psalm 18:1).
Blessed is the one who has regard for others that are weak, for You, O Lord, will deliver him in times of trouble (Psalm 41:1). You will deliver the needy who cry out, the afflicted who have no one to help. You will take pity on the weak and the needy and save the needy from death (Psalm 72:12-13). You promised to search for the lost and bring back the strays, to bind up the injured and strengthen the weak (Ezekiel 34:16). You, O gracious Father, give strength to the weary and You increase the power of the weak (Isaiah 40:29).
For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are – yet was without sin (Hebrews 4:15). Christ Jesus was crucified in weakness, yet He lives by Your power. Likewise, we are weak in Him, yet by Your power we will live with Him to serve (2 Corinthians 13:3-4). The body that was sown in weakness is raised in power (1 Corinthians 15:43).
What the law was powerless to do in that it was weakened by the sinful nature, You corrected by sending Your own Son in the likeness of sinful man to be a sin offering and so condemned sin (Romans 8:3). In the same way, Your Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit Himself intercedes for us with groans that words cannot express (Romans 8:26).
Therefore, if I must boast, I will boast of the things that show my weakness (2 Corinthians 11:30). God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong (1 Corinthians 1:27), for the weakness of God is stronger than man’s strength (1 Corinthians 1:25).
That is why for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong (2 Corinthians 12:10). As I wait upon You, O Lord, my strength is being renewed and I am mounting up with wings like an eagle. I will run and not grow weary; I will walk and not be faint (Isaiah 40:31). Therefore I can count it all joy, all strength, when I encounter tests and trials of any sort (James 1:2) because I am strong in You, Lord, in Your might power (Ephesians 6:10).
The World calls them Hedonism, Materialism, and Narcissism. Christians know them as giving into indulgence, striving for increase, and caring about impressions. The lust of the flesh is craving for sensual gratification, indulging the sinful nature. While lust of the eyes is greedy longings of the mind, wanting what is pleasing to the eye. And pride of life is boasting of what you have and do, assurance in your own resources or the ability of earthly things. You can see where these pull people away from dependence on our Father.
There are four strategies to counteract temptations. (1) Evaluate everything spiritually; use the mind God gave you know what to do to please Him. (2) Develop strong convictions; live by those convictions and do not take the easy way. (3) Influence others to do good; don’t judge people or their circumstances, but encouraging them to do better is like a silent lesson to self to do better. (4) Love God with your whole being; this is the only safe way to live spiritually in the world.
Delight yourself in the Lord and He will give you the desires of your heart (Psalm 35:4).
We should enjoy life as God supplies it – but temptation is trying to find happiness apart from God.
The key to steadfast faith is in the question: Do you base your faith on what God does or who He is? Every believer falls into one of the two categories. Putting faith in only what He does means you are fueled by sight, which gives a roller coaster – not steadfast – faith. The other choice is a faith that walks steadfastly with God for the pleasure of His company, not His results.
Have faith in the Lord your God and you will be upheld (2 Chronicles 20:20). Cast all your anxiety on Him because He cares for you (1 Peter 5:7).
To reduce anxiety over a problem:
Restate the problem, for a problem well-stated is half solved.
Separate fact from assumption; if you accept assumption as truth, your mind will be pulled to the breaking point.
Determine what is in your control and what is not.
Take control of what is your responsibility.
Once you have handled your responsibility, turn your attention to helping others and away from self-absorption. This brings inner peace as well as love, and God will handle the details.
Circumstances do not matter. Have faith in God and He will not disappoint you.
God's Word on That 