WE HAVE HOPE

1 Thessalonians 4:13-14 NIV Brothers and sisters, we do not want you to be uninformed about those who sleep in death, so that you do not grieve like the rest of mankind, who have no hope. 14 For we believe that Jesus died and rose again, and so we believe that God will bring with Jesus those who have fallen asleep in him.

Psalm 34:18 NIV The Lord is close to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit.

When a loved one passes away, God knows the right thing to say and He speaks into our lives through these verses and many others. 

I’m so thankful for them because they let us know He understands and how very close He is to those who are broken hearted, which we all experience at some point when a loved one leaves us.

Scripture reminds us that our God is never distant from us, that He is right there in the thick of our experience, our emotions and our grief but He doesn’t leave us there. He reminds us He is the God of all comfort and hope because Jesus rose from the dead and He will come again one day for us all to be with Him together. Thank You Lord.😊

Psalm 116:15 NCV The death of one that belongs to the Lord is precious in his sight.

The Holy Spirit helps us know that God understands and knows us so intimately as individuals, that He meets us at our deepest need, at our lowest point, to remind us that He cares deeply too, that His love is steadfast and He will never leave us alone, not for one second. Even in our sorrow He promises joy to come so we’re never left without hope.

Lord, thank You for always being our Strong Tower, our hiding place, our refuge and our strength in all circumstances, and we can always turn to You knowing You will help us and lift us up. In Jesus name. Amen.

Have a blessed weekend.x😊

WHATEVER YOU DO!

Colossians 3:17 NLT And whatever you do or say, do it as a representative of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks through him to God the Father.

1 Corinthians 10:31 NLT So whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God.

Whatever you do! Wow! That covers everything!😊 We all have ‘things’ to do each day, busy bees, some days being busier than others. But what if we stopped for a moment and just remembered we’re Christ’s ambassadors wherever we go, or even if we’re at home alone where no one might see us, but God does! It’s quite a thought and it might just help us to not say what we were going to say, or do what we had planned because we know it’s not the best idea!😊

For instance, when we want to have our 12th cup of coffee, or yet more cake, or another hour screen watching, if we stopped and remembered that whatever we do it should bring glory to God, would we carry on, or would we recognise that we need to put the brakes on? I know I exaggerate but you see what I mean! That warning, still small voice in your head is not your mother, it’s the Holy Spirit telling you and me to stop!😊

The Holy Spirit is our Helper and our Counsellor, but if we don’t listen to the nudges He gives us to hold our tongues, to not watch this or that, to contact someone, or to spend some more time listening to Him, then we’re not going to bring glory to God, we’re going to go our own, not so sweet way! We can sometimes forget that we are not our own, that we have been bought at a great price and we belong to God now.

But when we do listen, and we do as the Holy Spirit is telling us we’ll walk in the light of God, we’ll bring honour to His name, we’ll have a lightness in our spirit that fills us with His joy and peace that nothing else can do. God says, ‘When you are willing and obedient you will eat the good of the land.’ (Isaiah 1:19) Notice the ‘willing’ part. We can all do things begrudgingly but the reward comes when we obey willingly.😊

It’s good to stop and ask ourselves sometimes if we’re doing things because God asked us to, or just because we want to!

So Lord help us to listen to Your nudges and to be willing to obey, to be so grateful to You and so thankful for all Your blessings that we just naturally want to do everything we do to bring glory to Your name, to be good ambassadors for You. In Jesus name. Amen.

Photo by Georg Eiermann on Unsplash