Those Things That Give Us Pause

Life has many wonders. The butterfly emerging from the cocoon. A baby’s smile. A kitten sleeping in the lap of a young child. A woman with her new born child. Loving from afar. An all powerful Creator that calls me friend and has my back. These things give me pause. The writer of the Proverbs also reflected in a similar manner.

Proverbs 30:18 There be three things which are too wonderful for me, yea, four which I know not:
19 The way of an eagle in the air; the way of a serpent upon a rock; the way of a ship in the midst of the sea; and the way of a man with a maid.

Our lists are different. But we share the same point. We serve a marvelous and awesome God!

Psalms 93:1 The Lord reigneth, he is clothed with majesty; the Lord is clothed with strength, wherewith he hath girded himself: the world also is stablished, that it cannot be moved.

And we should also let our hearts pour out to God with thanks for all He does for us.

Prayer
Father, we praise and exalt You as the Most High God. You walk in such Majesty. You ride on the clouds. We praise You and give You honor, in You is our strength. Come quickly! In Jesus’ (Yeshua’s) name. Amen.

Morning And Evening

Our God is always on the job.

Psalms 91:1 He that dwelleth in the secret place of the most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty.
2 I will say of the Lord, He is my refuge and my fortress: my God; in him will I trust.
3 Surely he shall deliver thee from the snare of the fowler, and from the noisome pestilence.
4 He shall cover thee with his feathers, and under his wings shalt thou trust: his truth shall be thy shield and buckler.
5 Thou shalt not be afraid for the terror by night; nor for the arrow that flieth by day;
6 Nor for the pestilence that walketh in darkness; nor for the destruction that wasteth at noonday.
7 A thousand shall fall at thy side, and ten thousand at thy right hand; but it shall not come nigh thee.
8 Only with thine eyes shalt thou behold and see the reward of the wicked.
9 Because thou hast made the Lord, which is my refuge, even the most High, thy habitation;

We rely on many things around us to be available when we need it – the police, power, water, and more. When we as believers understand that our God is the one that watches over us, we feel a sense of not being alone in life. When we know that He does this continuously, it can be humbling. After all, He is the God of the universe, but He is looking out for each one of us, for you and for me. There is something we can do in response to such an amazing show of love toward us from God. We can thank Him, morning and evening, for all He has and will do.

Psalms 92:1 It is a good thing to give thanks unto the Lord, and to sing praises unto thy name, O most High:
2 To shew forth thy lovingkindness in the morning, and thy faithfulness every night,

Prayer
Father, we praise and exalt You. When we think of how You care for us, we are overwhelmed. From deep within us we want to thank You for all You have done for us and all You will do for us.We praise Your name. You are our provider, our healer, our deliverer, and our salvation. Thank You for all these things that You do and are. We love You. Please be these things to us today as well. In Jesus’ (Yeshua’s) name. Amen.

Warnings And Warfare

We live in a time that has great opportunity for distraction. It is very easy for us today to drift from our intended path. A friend of mine told me of a dream he had recently. As he was waking up, he had a quick dream, more of a flash of an event, come into his mind. Suddenly he was driving straight into a telephone pole. He was close enough to see the many tattered flyers that had been posted by people on it immediately in front of him. At the last moment he swerved back on to the road, unharmed. He realized that in the dream he had take his eyes of the road and was looking at his cell phone to make a call. He said he literally jumped awake from the experience. When he did he felt that God was trying to warn him about something coming in his life. Our God has given us the warnings and the tools for warfare that we might at all times be delivered from evil.

Proverbs 12:13 The wicked is snared by the transgression of his lips: but the just shall come out of trouble.
14 A man shall be satisfied with good by the fruit of his mouth: and the recompence of a man’s hands shall be rendered unto him.

In Proverbs 12 there are many things said about how life operates for the just and the unjust. We are not justified by our actions, but by the blood of Jesus who dies and rose again for us. However, if we spend our time giving voice to negatives in life, those negatives gain some power. On the other hand, we can also gain power from speaking positives. I am not saying that you can just say whatever you want and you get it. I am saying that if we say what God says, then we are speaking His words, which ALWAYS come to pass.

Isaiah 55:10 For as the rain cometh down, and the snow from heaven, and returneth not thither, but watereth the earth, and maketh it bring forth and bud, that it may give seed to the sower, and bread to the eater:
11 So shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth: it shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it.

Today do not give voice to the negative thoughts or oppressive thoughts that come your way. It is hard not to say those things, trust me I have had struggles with this recently myself. But let’s pray for each other, and those we know, that we may use the power of our speaking to the good of promoting God’s kingdom. That is spiritual warfare. We first create our safe place, and then from there a safe place for others.

Prayer
Father, we praise You for You alone are the Most High King. Thank You for giving to us mercy and truth. Than You for giving us the Yours words in the scriptures. Help us to repeat those words out loud in our own lives for us and for Your people. Bring Your kingdom into our lives in a fuller more real way today Father, and drive away the enemies that seek to cause us harm. In Jesus’ (Yeshua’s) name. Amen.

Listening And Learning

When we choose to listen for and to the voice of God, we create opportunity for ourselves to grow. God wants to give us good gifts. Among those are wisdom and understanding, which will bring us life.

Proverbs 2:1 My son, if thou wilt receive my words, and hide my commandments with thee;
2 So that thou incline thine ear unto wisdom, and apply thine heart to understanding;
3 Yea, if thou criest after knowledge, and liftest up thy voice for understanding;
4 If thou seekest her as silver, and searchest for her as for hid treasures;
5 Then shalt thou understand the fear of the Lord, and find the knowledge of God.
6 For the Lord giveth wisdom: out of his mouth cometh knowledge and understanding.
7 He layeth up sound wisdom for the righteous: he is a buckler to them that walk uprightly.
8 He keepeth the paths of judgment, and preserveth the way of his saints.
9 Then shalt thou understand righteousness, and judgment, and equity; yea, every good path.
10 When wisdom entereth into thine heart, and knowledge is pleasant unto thy soul;
11 Discretion shall preserve thee, understanding shall keep thee:
12 To deliver thee from the way of the evil man, from the man that speaketh froward things;

We see in this Proverb that God is telling us that we get and hold on to His words, we gain understanding and knowledge, and ultimately wisdom. He goes on to explain how those things will deliver us, and keep us in the right path going the right way. This is very important to us to live the blessed life God intended. As we learn these things from God, we grow and change. By seeking God we play an active role in Him building us up. For me, having God build me up is essential to overcoming the many challenges life brings.

Today, why not take a moment to find something from God, perhaps a scripture, and hide it in your heart? Let God build you up.

Prayer
Father, we exalt You. Thank You for giving us wisdom. Thank You for speaking to us and bringing to our ears knowledge and understanding. These things are very needed by us, and we need Your help to stay on Your path. You alone are God. Please lead us and guide us today, Father, and bring to us Your deliverance and provision. In Jesus’ (Yeshua’s) name. Amen.

A Beautiful Tree

This morning as I was getting up from a night of praying every few hours when I would wake up, God gave me a vision of a beautiful green tree. It was very large, and the leafy branches extended high and wide. I could see that it was positioned on a bluff or a slight rise, maybe three to five feet above the shoreline of what appeared to be some type of body of water. I felt like it was God that gave me the vision because it was one of those things that pushes into the conscious mind and gives an instant sense of a positive spiritual presence, that I have come to know is God communicating with me. I felt like He was well pleased with the battles I had been fighting through the night in the prayers mixed in between times of sleep. As I thought about it just now, I can still see the image clearly, and it fills me with hope. I also thought of a scripture that describes the tree to me.

Psalms 1:1 Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful.
2 But his delight is in the law of the Lord; and in his law doth he meditate day and night.
3 And he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that bringeth forth his fruit in his season; his leaf also shall not wither; and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper.

We are that tree, or at least we can be. Certainly God wants us to be that tree. We need only keep fighting the good fight of faith. We need to continue to pray and remember we are God’s kids and He is watching over us. God causes us to prosper. Today in particular I find that very encouraging.

Prayer
Father, we praise and exalt You as the Most High. You alone are our King. We love You for You have created us and called us by name. You have made us to be Your people. Today Father we call upon You to help us to be the people that do not walk in the counsel of the ungodly, nor be sinners giving in to darkness, nor be the ones that are scornful of others. Please help us to delight in Your law which You have written in our hearts as the new covenant, and help us to meditate on it day and night. Grow us up like mighty trees, and cause all our efforts to prosper today, Lord, today. In Jesus’ (Yeshua’s) name. Amen.

Closer To Comfort

Our God is always very close to us. As a father myself I can say without reservation that I love my children, and miss them when they are not around. The older we get the more life seems to intervene to take away opportunity to spend time with my kids. But there is nothing that they could do that if they were in despair and called to me that i would not do all I could to help them, to reach out to them, and to push back against those that might be trying to cause them harm. And I am a human with human frailties. God is the Almighty King and perfect in every way. I can only imagine how much stronger His feelings and desires for us are than mine for my own children. Surely He wants to comfort us, as the scriptures tell us repeatedly.

Psalms 109:29 Let mine adversaries be clothed with shame, and let them cover themselves with their own confusion, as with a mantle.
30 I will greatly praise the Lord with my mouth; yea, I will praise him among the multitude.
31 For he shall stand at the right hand of the poor, to save him from those that condemn his soul.

In Psalms 109 the writer calls out for some extreme help from God against his adversaries. The last verse gives me hope and is a great comfort because it says that God stand at our right hand to deliver us. If God is at our right hand, and will deliver us from those that are trying to overwhelm us, we are in a very good place. To God be the glory!

Prayer
Father, You alone are worthy to be praised as the Most High God. You alone are our King. We love and adore You, and lift our voices to You. Please hear our cries today God. Please crush those that seek to harm our very souls. Just as the psalmist wrote, there are those that tell lies against us. They lie in wait to destroy us, and they try to take away all that You have given to Your people. Father, please knock them down today, and drive them away confused. Make is such that they cannot even think clearly to cause Your people harm. Show Yourself strong on our behalf that all men may know that You alone are God. In Jesus’ (Yeshua’s) name. Amen.

Choosing A Path

In the night I woke up several times thinking about the future. Some of the thoughts were happy and some were not. As I tried to sleep I kept focusing on the better thoughts. When I got up this morning I was able to continue to think about the future in a good light because of the better thoughts. God has a future for us all. If we choose to cooperate with that plan, it is better than if we attempt to strike out on our own. As I sit here enjoying my first cup of coffee I realize that the rest today is a part of that plan. It is meant to help us focus on God and His creation. And we can choose that, or not.

Deuteronomy 28:1 And it shall come to pass, if thou shalt hearken diligently unto the voice of the Lord thy God, to observe and to do all his commandments which I command thee this day, that the Lord thy God will set thee on high above all nations of the earth:
2 And all these blessings shall come on thee, and overtake thee, if thou shalt hearken unto the voice of the Lord thy God.

We see clearly that God wants to give us His blessing. Moses was saying to the children of Israel that if they continued to follow God, great blessings would come upon them and their enemies would be scattered. He continues this thought later.

Deuteronomy 30:15 See, I have set before thee this day life and good, and death and evil;
16 In that I command thee this day to love the Lord thy God, to walk in his ways, and to keep his commandments and his statutes and his judgments, that thou mayest live and multiply: and the Lord thy God shall bless thee in the land whither thou goest to possess it.
17 But if thine heart turn away, so that thou wilt not hear, but shalt be drawn away, and worship other gods, and serve them;
18 I denounce unto you this day, that ye shall surely perish, and that ye shall not prolong your days upon the land, whither thou passest over Jordan to go to possess it.
19 I call heaven and earth to record this day against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing: therefore choose life, that both thou and thy seed may live:
20 That thou mayest love the Lord thy God, and that thou mayest obey his voice, and that thou mayest cleave unto him: for he is thy life, and the length of thy days: that thou mayest dwell in the land which the Lord sware unto thy fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give them.

So we get to choose to serve God and have blessings or not choose God and have tougher times. We see here here that Moses told them to choose, and then told them to choose life. We can walk in the world we choose.

Choose life!

Prayer
Father, we exalt You as the Most High God. We thank You for all You do for us. Please send us the blessings Moses spoke about. Please help us to make our lives a token for good, a positive sign, for those that do not know You. Help us to spread Your kingdom on this earth. In Jesus’ (Yeshua’s) name. Amen.

So Many…

Today as I set about my prayer time I thought about all of those in need. There is an orphanage in Africa that our church supports in South Sudan. Recent struggles there are causing them to have to send many of the children away, and the rest are in peril. I thought about all of the people here in the U.S. that have experienced extended unemployment and how they struggle to feed their families and provide a place for their families to live. There are so many in need, so many.

In times like these I find myself crying out to God for mercy for His people, for the widows and for the orphans. Our God hears us when we cry out to Him. He has a plan to show our lives as a sign for good to the rest of the world.

Psalms 86:15 But thou, O Lord, art a God full of compassion, and gracious, longsuffering, and plenteous in mercy and truth.
16 O turn unto me, and have mercy upon me; give thy strength unto thy servant, and save the son of thine handmaid.
17 Shew me a token for good; that they which hate me may see it, and be ashamed: because thou, Lord, hast holpen me, and comforted me.

Those that are against us can be people. They can also be the forces of darkness. Regardless of who our enemies are at any time, God has compassion on us. He will respond to our cries for help. He will show us to be a token for good.

Today, if you are one of the people in need, call out to our God, for He will surely show You His mercy and truth. And if that is not you, please pray for those in these places of need, for God will surely hear Your prayers for them.

Prayer
Father, we exalt You as the Most High God. We cry out to You today, Father, for ourselves and for others that are in need. Please hear our cries, Lord, and deliver Your people mightily today. Please deliver Your people in a way that shows them a token for good that both those people that oppose us and those dark spiritual forces that oppress us will know that You alone are God. In Jesus’ (Yeshua’s) name. Amen.

Blessed By An Advocate

We are all the same, even though we are unique. We are unique as individuals that God created special and for a purpose. No one can exactly replace another. And yet, we are all the same because we are all human. It is in these times of humanity that we can still find peace and happiness, if we remember who we are to God. This morning as I pondered what our lives really are, I could see that if we allow ourselves to we can become convinced that the series of events we call daily life are what the purpose of our world is. But there is a bigger purpose; God’s purpose for the world and the people in it. The challenge we face is that we are all human, and humans tend to mess things up. But as John tells us in his second letter, there is hope for us humans, if we will accept it.

2 John 2:1 My little children, these things write I unto you, that ye sin not. And if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous:
2 And he is the propitiation for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world.
3 And hereby we do know that we know him, if we keep his commandments.
4 He that saith, I know him, and keepeth not his commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him.
5 But whoso keepeth his word, in him verily is the love of God perfected: hereby know we that we are in him.
6 He that saith he abideth in him ought himself also so to walk, even as he walked.

Here John shows us some very important points. He gives us the ideal: don’t sin. Then the real: but when you do sin, you have an advocate in Jesus. The same is true for the following verses. We are to keep God’s commandments. If we do not, then when we say we know God we lie and have no truth in us. If we keep His word, then God’s love is perfected in us. But wait. How can perfect love be perfected? Love has to have a vehicle of expression, and that vehicle is each person that keeps God’s word. But we know from what was said earlier that we will all mess that up, being human, right? Well, we also know from the what was said earlier that we have a way back, and that way back is Jesus!

I am very thankful that we are all unique human beings. And I am also very thankful that when we mess up, which all humans do (one part of us that is the same), we have a way back to God by confessing our sin to Jesus and asking for His forgiveness.

Prayer
Father, we praise You today for being our God. We thank You for finding the mercy to reach out to us to help us get on track with You and Your plan for the world. Please reach out to us today, Father, and forgive us for our mistakes. Please send Your mercy and truth today, and give us Your healing and provision. In Jesus’ (Yeshua’s) name. Amen.

Let There Be Light

Most people have heard the creation story from Genesis where God created the heaven and earth and light.

Genesis 1:1 In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.
2 And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.
3 And God said, Let there be light: and there was light.
4 And God saw the light, that it was good: and God divided the light from the darkness.

When this all started, God created a mass that was heaven and earth. It was dark. He then created light, and separated it from the darkness. So first there was a created mass, and then He added light to it. This is very similar, in fact it foreshadows how God deals with those that follow Him.

1 John 1:5 This then is the message which we have heard of him, and declare unto you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all.
6 If we say that we have fellowship with him, and walk in darkness, we lie, and do not the truth:
7 But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin.
8 If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.
9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

John says God is light, with no darkness. We are to be just like that, and will be if we DO the truth. And when we struggle, there is a path back to the light. If we confess our sins, the blood of Jesus cleanses us from that sin, and we are back in the light. John also points out that all have and will sin. Therefore, we all need to live in a state of repentance.

Spiritual warfare is not always outside of us. Darkness can be with us if we are doing darkness rather than doing the truth. We can escape that type of darkness. To escape this form of darkness is a part of spiritual warfare where we are fighting for our own salvation. And our weapon is our confession of our sin and asking God to forgive us. He then covers us with the blood of Jesus, which cleanses us. Sometimes the spiritual warfare we need to be pursuing begins with us.

Prayer
Father, we praise You as our King. Please help us today to overcome the darkness in our lives. Show us where we are not doing the truth and help us to repent. If there is external darkness attacking us, we ask that You grind our attackers to powder and blow them away in the wind. Please deliver Your people today Lord. In Jesus’ (Yeshua’s) name. Amen.