DON'T WOBBLE

Romans 11:20...and you stand by faith.

To Wobble: to stand or go unsteadily, to rock from side to side.

When we first receive a word from God about something we feel strong and full of faith and we 'stand' on His promise with great confidence.  Then we get the enemy insidiously whispering in our ears "what if it goes wrong, what if it doesn't happen this time, what if, what if..." We have a fit of the 'whatifs'!

You know what happens then?  We begin to wobble!  We realise the promise is taking longer than we thought and we let doubts and fears creep in. We start to believe Satan lies instead of believing our loving Heavenly Father who is incapable of lying.

Ephesians 6:13-14 Therefore take up the whole armour of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand. Stand therefore....

So how do we 'not wobble'? How do we stand firm and steady despite the enemy's attacks? Put on the whole armour of God, declare God's Word, do all you're told to do then stand by faith in the Word of God, ...and then stand and, oh yes, don't forget to stand!!

The Holy Spirit is here to help us to remain firm.

Have you had a promise of healing or some other promise, and it's taking longer than you thought? Don't wobble. Keep standing. Keep believing! All things are possible to him/her who believes.  Tell the enemy to buzz off.

All the promises of God are 'Yes and Amen in Jesus'.

Lord please help me not to wobble today but to stand firm on Your wonderful promises in Jesus' name. Amen.

STUFFING KNOCKED OUT?

Jeremiah 31:3-4 I have loved you with an everlasting love; I have drawn you with unfailing kindness.  I will build you up again, and you ...will be rebuilt.

Do you feel like the stuffing has been knocked out of you sometimes?  Things happen and seem to knock you sideways; you hadn't seen them coming?  Or maybe a situation has been going on so long that you're just plain weary of it and you feel like you've got nothing left to give; your stuffing's been knocked out!

I was asked by a lady once to rebuild her ancient teddy bear, but pieces were missing and there was a big hole in his tummy. He was in a mess but she loved him, and she wanted him put back together so she could cuddle him again without him falling apart.  I restored him as best I could and he's now back with his loving owner.

There are times in life when we're a bit like that teddy bear and we need some tender loving care by our Maker.  We don't just need restoring, we need a rebuild and the good news is God is offering us just that - a rebuild. I will build you up again, and you will be rebuilt. 

God really wants to lovingly rebuild us and help us.

So in simple faith we can go to our loving Father and say 'Lord I need Your help, I'm all frayed at the edges and messed up. Please put me back together and rebuild me the way You want me to be and make me into something wonderful for your glory.' Amen.

HE ONLY

Psalm 62:2 He only is my rock and my salvation; He is my defense; I shall not be moved.

It's easy to forget that we only have One Saviour, One Provider, One Protector when we start to look to our employers, our jobs, or the pension, or the government, or the doctors, or whoever, to be our help.

The Psalmist reminds us HE ONLY is my rock.  HE ONLY is my salvation. In other words HE ONLY  IS MY SOURCE of all I will ever need.

God does use lots of channels to provide for us but they are not the Source.  We only have One Source and that is God Himself. Why is that so important to us?  Because when the job is taken away, when the doctors give a bad report, whenever the enemy throws something at us we know....

WE STILL HAVE A ROCK, WE STILL HAVE OUR SOURCE AND THAT CAN NEVER BE TAKEN AWAY FROM US.  We shall not be moved!

If the job is gone, God can give us a better one, if the doctors can do no more, we still have Jesus Our Healer and His promises. Whatever is taken away we still have our Rock, our Source and He loves us with an everlasting love and unfailing kindness. 

Thank You Lord, You only are our Source, our eyes are on You Lord, not on man.

FOLLOW THE ARROW!

Isaiah 30:21 Your ears shall hear a word behind you, saying, "This is the way, walk in it." Whenever you turn to the right hand or whenever you turn to the left.

Recently we went on a familiar walk but then took  a path we'd never done before after asking a cyclist how far it was to the pond. His estimate of 600 yards was way off and we ended walking for what seemed like miles and by the time we got there in the hot sun I was really bushed!

After having a rest and a drink I stood up and said out loud, "Oh Lord please can you show us a shortcut to get back to the original path. I really don't think I can walk back the long way."

We walked to the path where we should turn to take the long walk home but lo and behold, right in front of us, was a tree with this big black arrow painted on it pointing straight up into the woods opposite!   No words, just the sign.   It was like, "well that's the way then, the arrow points that way, so that's the Lord showing us the shortcut."  It was quite a steep path up, but in no time at all we were at the top on the original path and then easy on home.  It was like a miracle, I kid you not!

I think that was the quickest answer to prayer I've ever had and the verse above came to our minds when we saw the arrow.  It was just so easy.  Now we could have thought it was a red herring or ignored it altogether but we just simply took it by childlike faith and hey, there it was!  I was soooo grateful for it!

So what am I trying to say?  Only that I was reminded that prayer can be very simple but I have a tendency to overthink things and make them more complicated than they need be. Maybe we miss God's leading sometimes because we aren't expecting it to be easy and so overlook the answer.

I hope I've learnt from that episode to expect and believe for simple straight forward answers and even start expecting answers much quicker than I thought possible.  

On this occasion it was a simple prayer and a very simple answer and I just wanted to give the Lord praise for it.  Thank You Holy Spirit!

I hope it encourages somebody.

DON'T GET STUCK!

Mark 16:6b ".....He is risen! He is not here..."

It was a new day!

Jesus is not in the place of defeat and never will be.  For the disciples the tomb was the place of grief, lost dreams, defeat, hopelessness and utter despair.  But the angel said "He's risen! He's not here."

He's not there!  He left there!  He overcame there!

He rose up with us alongside and brought us up into the place of victory with Him. 

Ephesians 2:6 and raised us up together and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus. 

Have you got a place called There?  I've had some places called 'There' in my lifetime.

When we sink into despair and hopelessness we're seeing the tomb on the wrong day at the wrong moment.  We've forgotten that 'Hallelujah Sunday' followed 'Sad Saturday'.  We've got stuck in the place called 'There'.  It's not a good place to get stuck!

So no matter what our circumstances, how sad, hard, difficult, painful or just plain boring they may appear to be, let's not forget that when we are in Christ, what you see in the natural is not the end of the story. Let's remember to not get stuck at the closed tomb but see the open tomb.  

It is now a place of hope, of victory and a glorious future both for now in this life and in eternity.  If God could raise His Son out of hell with every demon trying to hold on to Him and they couldn't succeed how much more can He resurrect your situation and turn it around?  He has made us Victors not Victims! 

Remember He's not 'there' anymore, He's moved on. 

Today is a new day! Let's move on with Him and keep moving on to new and exciting days ahead.

Help us Lord to never get stuck but to move on with You.  Amen. 

WANT HEALTH, PEACE AND JOY?

 Psalm 23:6  Surely or only goodness, mercy and unfailing love shall follow me all the days of my life, and through the length of my days the house of the Lord (and His presence) shall be my dwelling place.  (AMP).

We may not be able to physically enter our churches at the minute whenever we like,  but we can live in the presence of the Lord.

I think we all want that, but sometimes forget to do it. To be aware of His Holy Spirit with us all the time, hearing His impressions, hearing when He puts His thoughts in our heads; thoughts of His great love for us, how precious we are to Him and how He is caring for us each moment.

One verse says 'In His presence is fullness of joy'.  Very often the media, the 'experts', the finances, the doctor's reports will all tend to fill us with anything but joy, but God calls us constantly to draw aside, turn off the world's voice in its many forms and be aware of His presence.  He calls us to just stop for 2 minutes even and acknowledge Him, think about how He loves you and tell Him you love Him.  He calls us to read His life giving Word, words that will restore peace to our hearts where turmoil is trying to reign.  

Prov. 14:30 "A peaceful heart leads to a healthy body..."  We all want a healthy body, so let's practice dwelling in His presence, being aware of Him (The Prince of Peace) and let Him once again fill us with His joy. It's good to remember Peace is a Person and as we keep company with Him, we shall be like Him.

Let Jesus the Messiah reign today not turmoil. 😊

ON THE WINNING SIDE

1 Cor. 15:57  But thanks be to God, Who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. 

1 John 5:4     For whatever is born of God overcomes the world.  And this is the victory that has                           overcome the world - our faith.

God gives us the victory - present tense.   We have been given victory over sin and death through the Lord Jesus and we have been given the measure of faith to overcome whatever the enemy throws at us. 

'He who is in you is greater than he who is in the world' reminds us that the Victorious One Jesus is actually living on the inside of us by His Holy Spirit.  Thanksgiving to God releases more and more, the victory which has already been given to us. 

Our part is to get our faith out, believe the victory we have been given and give thanks for it in advance.  Faith doesn't wait to see if something has happened before it give thanks.  It gives thanks in advance for the 'things not yet seen'.

2 Cor. 2:14 Now thanks be to God who always leads us in triumph in Christ, and through us                           diffuses the fragrance of His knowledge in every place.

Sometimes we forget (or I know I do), that wherever we go we are taking Jesus' victory with us and we are giving off that fragrance into the spirit realm.  

We've just had VJ day to celebrate victory over Japan.  But our VJ day is Victory in Jesus every day. 

So don't forget today your fragrance of Victory in Jesus.  

WE ARE ON THE WINNING SIDE, NOT THE LOSING SIDE.

EVEN IN THE SHOWER!

Judges 6:15  "O my Lord, how can I ....I am the least.."  v.16 And the Lord said to him, "Surely I will be with you ..."

My daughter was in the shower a few weeks ago when the Lord gave her an idea with all the details of how it was to be done, but it wasn't for her it was for me!  So she promptly phoned me while it was fresh in her mind.

All that she told me resonated with my spirit and although I had tried to do it before I had not succeeded because the timing was not right.

Have you ever had a word from the Lord, an impression, but it never happened and so you became discouraged, gave up and thought you hadn't heard correctly?  Probably most of us at some time or other!

Hang on to whatever the Lord told you, even if it was forty years ago, because He will still bring it to pass when the time is right.  

It will be tempting to say like Gideon 'I can't do that, I'm the least in the tribe,  please find someone else more qualified.'

There are lots of reasons we can come up with 'why not'!

But what God asks us to do, He will enable us to do it and provide the resources.  All we're told to do is obey and He will do the rest. "Surely I will be with you."

My daughter's task was to phone me, straight away, which she did.   God can speak to you in the most unlikely of places, even in the shower!  Gideon was scared stiff, hiding down inside a wine press pit when God spoke to him!  It doesn't matter 'where' you hear God, all that matters is that you 'do' what He asks, when He asks it.  

GOD'S HANDS

 Job 12:10 "For the life of every living thing is in His hand and the breath of every human being."

God holds our lives in His hands and they are such beautiful, strong hands.  The hands of God were pierced by nails because He loved us so. 

Isaiah 49:16b "...See I have inscribed you on the palms of My hands."

God says we are written  on the palms of His hands. Every time He looks at the nail prints He reads your name and mine, and He remembers the sound of the hammer as it struck Him.   That kind of love is overwhelming and touches the very deepest part of our being and our only response can only be 'Thank You Jesus' with all my heart and soul.
We can never say "God doesn't love me", or "He doesn't care", in the light of His nail pierced hands.
Our lives, our futures are safe in His loving hands. He wants to remove our sins, heal our past and all our diseases and give us hope for the future.  What is our response today? Will we let Him do that?

Isaiah 45:12 "....My hands stretched out the heavens, ..."

Isaiah 41:10 "Don't be afraid, for I am with you. Don't be discouraged, for I am your God.I will strengthen you. I will hold you up with My victorious right hand."

We can have such confidence when we read those scriptures knowing that the hands that stretched out the universe, that were pierced through with cruel nails, will also hold us up, and direct our lives.

We worship you Lord and thank You with all our hearts for your nail pierced hands.

GLORY TO GLORY!

2 Corinthians 3:18  ...And the Lord - who is the Spirit - makes us more and more like him as we are changed into his glorious image. NLT  

(from glory to glory, another translations says)

On the days when we get up and don't 'feel' right, when we 'feel' all wrong what do we do?  

Maybe you've recognised in yourself that God is putting His finger on something He wants you to deal with, possibly in your own character.  The temptation is to feel discouraged or condemned but that's not God's way.  Have you ever asked God to give you a new heart, a new spirit and then when He starts to do that you 'feel' terrible when He shows you something He wants to help you with? You almost wish you hadn't asked Him!

I experienced that this morning and the temptation is to fall in a hole because you feel so bad about your attitude or whatever it is.  But actually I'm realising with God's help, it's a very positive thing because it means He is helping me to change.  I can't do it myself because then I'll only fall back into it, but if I let Him do the changing then it will be Jesus 'in' me doing it.

Sometimes we think we have to live this Christian life in our own strength. We 'try' to do the best we can. But I've come to realise more and more that 'I' can't do it!  None of us can! The only person who can do that is Jesus, but the good news is, HE IS LIVING INSIDE US, so we have to let Him do it through us. 

I know I need to change in so many ways but I take heart from Joyce Meyer who says 'look at how far you've come already and don't dwell on how far you still have to go'.  By God's grace we shall all be changed into His likeness but not through our efforts.

So will you join me today and take heart because God is at work in us, changing us to be more and more like Jesus as we let Him, and obey His instructions.

Prayer: Thank You Lord You knew what you were getting when You took us on and You're not dismayed because You see us blameless in Your sight and You really are changing us into the glorious image of Jesus, one day at a time.  Thank You for being so faithful and patient with us and for never giving up on us when it takes us a while to 'get it'. Amen

NOTHING IS TOO HARD FOR GOD!

 Jeremiah 32:17

O Sovereign Lord! You made the heavens and earth by your strong hand and powerful arm. Nothing is too hard for you!

So is there something happening in your life at the moment and you've been tempted to think it's hopeless, it could never change?  Well the truth is - NOTHING IS TOO HARD FOR GOD!  Health, finances, relationships, everything?  Nothing is too hard for God.

Sometimes we're looking at other people, or other sources to help us, rescue us, provide our need, or whatever it happens to be.  But God wants us to know HE is our source.  Not the government, not a family member, not the church, not another man or woman.  God Himself is the only source of our total supply, even the breath we breathe.  He may well use people to be a channel of His supply to us but He is it's source.

I don't know about you but I am so thankful for His promise that says 'God will supply ALL my needs according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus Phil 4:19.  

God has got this, whatever it is. He's got our back but our job is to keep looking to Him.  

2 Chronicles 14:11 tells of King Asa's struggles against an overwhelming enemy but he turned his eyes on the Lord and said 'O  Lord no one but you can help the powerless against the mighty! Help us O lord our God, for we trust in you alone...'  The story unfolds and the Lord totally turns the situation around amazingly for them. Great story if you get a chance to read it.

God has answers to every problem, even the ones we don't know about yet! So let's relax and fix our eyes on Him and thank Him with a grateful heart for His wonderful rescue plan and supply for our individual situations. 

I finish with this thought 'You (God) have all wisdom and do great and mighty miracles...' Jeremiah 32:19

Our eyes are on you Lord.  Thank You for supplying all our needs, however the supply may come.Amen.

BOUGHT BACK

Job 19:25 'But as for me I know that my Redeemer lives, and He will stand upon the earth at last.'

 A redeemer is someone who pays a ransom to buy someone back. The enemy was holding us to ransom and the price was so high we only had one hope, and His name is Jesus. He was the One willing to pay the price of His own blood at Calvary and buy us back for His Father. 

How much the Father loves us and how much Jesus loves us! It means so much to the Father to have us back in His family.

We matter so much to Him!

In  the book of Zephaniah we are reminded  that .... With His love, He will calm all your fears.  He will rejoice over you with joyful songs.'

Why does He sing?  Because He has bought us back and now we're His again. 

Not only that, which is huge, but whatever fears you may have today, you can know His love is calming them all down because He is taking care of them all.  We have the Most High living on the inside of us!

He is the One, who in Genesis 1, put 16 billion miles of universe in motion within the first 24 hours of the world.  God's power is immense and He is the one we're casting our cares and our fears upon. No wonder He can calm our fears. We belong to HIM!  He bought us, we are His, glory to God.

Just one other thing, before I go, that verse in Job 19 reminds us Jesus is coming back and He's coming back for you and me - His family, the ones He has 'bought back'.

Glory to God.  Thank you Jesus, we belong to you.  We thank you with all our hearts.

KEEP SMILING!

John 14:17 'My peace I give to you.......Let not your heart be troubled or afraid.'

When we listen to many voices around us and what the media impresses on us we can be very tempted to join in with their doom and gloom. The enemy tempts us to be troubled or discouraged and even to despair. 

Did you see or hear something this past week that's made your heart feel troubled or even afraid?

Well  THERE IS GOOD NEWS!  The Lord Jesus Himself has told us He's given us His peace in these situations and He's told us very firmly we've not to let it all trouble us or make us frightened, but to look to Him.

So how do we do that?  Resist it!  Take the authority He has given us and say 'I don't take the doom and gloom. I've been commanded not to take them so I don't take those cares and troubles and negative thoughts on me.'

Sometimes we think we should worry about stuff, that it's irresponsible not to worry and we take those cares on board.  We should certainly pray about all the issues we're concerned about, but God says "Casting all your cares on Him, for He cares for you."

We were never designed to carry the cares of the world, that is God's job - He said so.

So whatever has made your worried, or made your heart heavy, Jesus says to each one of us today

 'Don't let it do that to you.  Give it all to Me and I'll carry that heavy burden, I'll deal with it. Let Me be your CARE-TAKER.  Instead of 'taking care', take My Peace, take My Righteousness, take My Joy! You belong in My Kingdom, let Me deal with all the rest.  Now go out with a smile on your face so the world will know you have a 'Care-Taker' and shine for Me today!'

We have a 'Care-Taker' and His lovely name is Jesus.

WE GET UP AGAIN!

Proverbs 24:16

'Though the righteous fall seven times, they rise again.'

No matter what happened, or what you did, or didn't do yesterday, or last week - today is a new day!  Even if we fell yesterday, God says ' I've already given you My righteousness now get up again.'

So Lord we rise again this morning.....

  

    With Your healing in our bodies

    With Your wisdom in our minds

    With Your love in our hearts

    With Your righteousness inside us

    With Your Holy Spirit's power enabling us to do whatever you want us to.

    With Your blessing and provision on our lives

    With Your protection over our every step

Lord You are so wonderful, beyond our understanding! We struggle to take it in.

But oh, how we praise you Lord, how we thank you.

We rise each morning, this morning, and we know that the Lord's mercies are new every morning.

Thank You Lord for a new day.

Thank You Lord for all your fresh mercies today.

Thank You Lord for Your wonderful grace, Your favour on us today.

Most of all Thank you for Jesus who made it all possible. Amen.