IT CAN BE DONE - IT CAN HAPPEN!

2 Kings 3:17-18 You will see neither wind nor rain, says the Lord, but this valley will be filled with water. You will have plenty for yourselves and your cattle and other animals. But this is only a simple thing for the Lord, for he will make you victorious....

Three armies had joined together to fight the King of Moab but they were all in the wilderness and had no water to give the men or horses. They were dying of thirst! It looked impossible and hopeless until Elisha gave them the Lord's message - the Lord will fill the valley with water, you will have plenty and it's a simple thing for Him.

God is saying the same thing to us today! Sometimes we look ahead and think 'How on earth can that happen? It's just not possible!" It looks hopeless. In the natural we're probably right, but of course, we're not in the natural when we're joined to God. We're in the supernatural realm of His kingdom, where He rules and reigns. Hallelujah!

So with God, even if we can't see it coming, there is always a way and it can be done - whatever it is. If God is commissioning it, and has called for it to be done, or for you to do it - then it can be done! It can happen! Notice He says He will do it and there will be plenty!

What has He put in your heart? Does it seem impossible? Well that's great because that's what God does! He will provide and make a way for it to happen. He wants us to know, if we'll keep believing He will provide what's needed, He will make crooked paths straight, give the promotion at the right time, provide the finances, the connections, the ability, the healing, whatever it takes, if we'll do what He says and trust Him.

Thank You Lord for making all things possible for us, for You it's a simple thing. We let go of our impossibles and lay hold of Your possibles. In Jesus' Name Amen.😊

Matthew 19:26 Jesus looked at them and said, "With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible."

GOD HAS CROWNED US

Psalm 65:11 You crown the year with your goodness.....

This is the beginning of a week of Jubilee celebrations of our Queen's 70th year on the throne of the United Kingdom.  Although she doesn't wear a physical crown on her head every day, she has certainly worn one for all the State occasions over the past seven decades. 

I realised though that she's not the only one who gets to wear a crown as I started thinking about the crowns that we have been given and will be given by God. 

Psalm 103:4 He redeems your life from destruction, who crowns you with loving kindness and tender mercies. How wonderful those crowns are on our heads every day! Just take a minute and adjust your crowns.😊

James 1:12 God blesses those who patiently endure testing and temptation. Afterward they will receive the crown of life that God has promised to those who love him.

2 Timothy 4:8 And now the prize awaits me - the crown of righteousness...and the prize is not just for me but for all who eagerly look forward to his appearing.

A long time ago Jesus wore a crown of thorns so that we will be able to wear a crown of life, a crown of righteousness and other crowns too, for which we'll be forever thankful. 

So as we start our new week, or whenever we see a picture of the Queen wearing her crown, let's remember we're children of the most High God. We are also crowned at this very moment with His loving kindness and tender mercies, and He's even crowned our year with His goodness which is certainly something to celebrate this Jubilee week and every week! 😊

Thank You Lord. We give you all the glory.

LET'S SING WITH JOY

Psalm 59:10 

In his unfailing love, my God will stand with me. 

He will let me look down in triumph on all my enemies.

v.16 But as for me, I will sing about your power. 

Each morning I will sing with joy about your unfailing love.

 

For you have been my refuge, 

a place of safety when I am in distress.

God has promised we will look down on all our enemies - those enemies of fear, or lack, enemies of  sickness or inferiority or inadequacy. Whatever our particular enemies are God will stand with us to enable us to triumph over them all, to see them beneath our feet.

So whatever our distress has been or will be, we can still sing with joy - God truly loves us, He is our place of safety and He's standing with us fighting our battles for us. We can sing of His great power being used on our behalf, and because of Jesus, He's already given His victory to us. Thank You Lord. Praise Your name.

COME TO GOD'S TABLE

Acts 20:32 And now I entrust you to God and the message of his grace that is able to build you up and give you an inheritance with all those he has set apart for himself.

Maybe you read yesterday's blog about having a wonderful inheritance from God and being joint heirs with Jesus but then thought how do I experience it in the here and now?

When we get in agreement with God and what He says in His word and speak it out our mouths, we are drawing on our inheritance. 

For example, when we agree with God that He has blessed us (Eph. 1:3) whether we can see it or not, we say "God, thank You I am blessed." When we read in Psalm 103 that He has forgiven all our iniquities and healed all our diseases we agree with God whether we feel like it or not and say "Thank You Father I am forgiven, so I can forgive myself and move forward. I am healed and You are restoring health to me."

When we do that we are drawing on our inheritance and giving God an open door into our lives to bring His Word to pass. We are learning to walk by faith not by sight.

Nothing pleases God more than when His children come to the table He's spread before them and they receive what He has provided because it is theirs already, bought and paid for by Jesus own blood. We don't even have to pray for it, because He says it's ours already in the inheritance. 

Let's find a promise of God that pertains to our circumstances and declare it by faith giving thanks to God for it today. 

Have a blessed weekend.😊

SO ENCOURAGING

Acts 7:9-10 ....But God was with him and rescued him from all his troubles. And God gave him favor before Pharaoh, king of Egypt. God also gave Joseph unusual wisdom, so that Pharaoh appointed him governor over all of Egypt and put him in charge of the palace.

I expect we all know the story of Joseph really well, how he went from the prison to the palace, and that Joseph is a 'type' in the Old Testament of our Lord Jesus who was to come many years later.

As we read the sequence of events in this verse bear in mind that we are now 'in Jesus, in Christ', that we are heirs of God with Him and through Him. Galations 4:7 Now you are no longer a slave but God's own child. And since you are his child, God has made you his heir.

In the story of Joseph we see a part of what it means for us to be God's heirs through Jesus -  

 

God was with him. God rescued him from all his troubles. God gave him favour. God gave him unusual wisdom. God promoted him. God gave Him influence.

I think that is so encouraging for us as individuals because as He was with Joseph, that is how God is now dealing with us because of Jesus. God gives all those things to each of us if we'll believe God's word and receive it. 

If we were told we'd been given a huge inheritance we would go and find out about it wouldn't we? Well God is wanting us to lay hold of the huge inheritance He's given us in the here and now as well as in the hereafter. 

We are heirs of God with Jesus today so let's believe it and enjoy it.😊

DRAW ON GOD'S STRENGTH

Philippians 4:13 For I can do everything through Christ, who gives me strength.

I don't know if you're like me but there are some days when you wake up and don't seem to have much energy. It's not that we're unwell - just we've not got much get up and go! 

It's at times like that we need to lean into God all the more, to rest in the truth that He's all we need, He's watching over us and has got us covered. He is our strength.

God's grace really is amazing and covers all occasions, whether it's for favour for a new job, or grace to deal with difficult people or on 'tired' days - grace for strength for a new day. 

God wants us to know we can come to Him any moment of our day or night and draw on His never ending strength, to take a moment to receive from Him wherever we are.

Here are just a few reminders to encourage us to draw on His strength -

Psalm 23:3 He renews my strength. 

Psalm 84:5 What joy for those whose strength comes from the Lord. 

Psalm 139:10...your strength will support me.

Thank You Lord for giving us your strength and support today. Amen.

REMEMBER GOD'S GOODNESS TO US

1 Kings 12:28 ...... the king made two gold calves. He said to the people, ..... Look, Israel, these are the gods who brought you out of Egypt!"

After King Solomon died, we find Israel is split and divided up into 2 kingdoms, 10 tribes ruled by a man named King Jeroboam  and the other two tribes (Judah and Benjamin) ruled by King Rehoboam (Solomon's son). King Jeroboam set up two gold calves for the Israelites to worship and told them they were the gods who brought them out of Egypt and to worship them, so they did!! 

As I read that I thought how could they forget what God had done for them in bringing them out of slavery in Egypt with all the signs and wonders and opening the Red Sea for them? How could they forget all that and believe two gold calves did it?! What a terrible thing and insult to God who'd been so amazingly good to them. 

So I asked myself, do I sometimes forget the goodness of God to me, do I ever take it for granted? 

As Christians, saved only by the grace of God through the blood of Jesus, can I encourage us to  always remember that every good thing we have in our lives has only ever come from our God. And if there is anything at all that we need in this life we can go to Him and ask Him to provide for us because He is our good, good Father who loves us so much He let His Son die for us. 

Let's bless our Father's heart today, and give Him thanks from the bottom of our hearts, for all He has done for us through the Lord Jesus and for His great goodness, care and love for us every single day. 

James 1:17 Whatever is good and perfect is a gift coming down to us from God our Father,....

OUR HOPE IS BUILT ON JESUS

Romans 15:13 Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that you may abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.

Have you ever lost anything, searched and searched for it, and then been so delighted when it reappeared?

There is something important we can lose if we're not careful and it's our hope. We may become discouraged because prayers don't seem to be answered on our timetable and we're tempted to let our hope slide. But the Holy Spirit is with us to help us get our hope back and our joy. 

Faith is the substance of things 'hoped' for. When we hope for something then our faith has something to grab a hold of, to believe for. 

Bible hope, as we know, is not some airy fairy, may or may not happen, thing. Bible hope is a great expectation of good from God, a confidence inspired by our trust in His faithfulness that what He has promised will happen. 

That's why when bad things happen in our lives we don't have to give in to despair because we know we have a promise from God that says He'll turn it round for our good, (Romans 8:28) that He's promised us a hope and a future which will bless us. (Jeremiah 29:11)

If we'll just hold on to God's promises we will see them come to pass. All our hope is fixed on Jesus, in His blood and righteousness, because all of the promises of God are 'Yes and Amen in Him'. 

Let's find our hope and joy in believing again today and be strengthened in Jesus.😊 

If you have a few minutes here is a song of hope - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a3HH__-1Zbs

HOW GOD SEES YOU

1 Thessalonians 1:4 We know, dear brothers and sisters, that God loves you and has chosen you to be his own people.

How we see ourselves is not always a true picture because it can be tainted by how we 'feel' at any given moment, or what someone has said to us or done to us. Some days we wake up and feel like we can take on the world, while other days we maybe just want to hide under the covers and let the world get on with it!

On the other hand if we can see ourselves the way our Heavenly Father see us then we'll have a true picture of who we are - 

He sees us as blessed.....He sees us as anointed.....He sees us as highly favoured of the Lord.....He sees that we are deeply loved......He also sees us as holy and righteous.

God sees us as we really are and that is how He wants us to see ourselves.

He also wants us to remember that He was the One who chose us and called us in the first place to be in a relationship with Him, to be part of His family forever. He wants to be a good, good Father to us,

So as we begin a new week I pray we go out with that picture of our true selves and regardless of what happens, remember you are one of God's chosen ones, He loves you deeply and He's right there with you. 😊

GOD CALLS OUT THE STARS

Isaiah 48:12-13 (Nlt)

 ...I alone am God, the First and the Last. 

It was my hand that laid the foundations of the earth, 

my right hand that spread out the heavens above. 

When I call out the stars, they all appear in order.

Next time we look out on a dark night and see the stars shining in all their glory, whether we're in the northern or southern hemisphere, I hope we can remember these inspiring verses.

When God calls out the stars every night He's reminding us that He is in control of the universe, and holding our world in His hands, and if we've ever wondered about creation He leaves us in no doubt that His is the hand that made it all. How reassuring that is.

Our God is so awesomely powerful and when we think how He made it and has sustained it from ages past, we can be sure His power is more than enough to sustain and guide our personal world as well.

It's an amazing thought that God calls out each and every star by name in their right order every night but even more that He also calls us by name too and He says we are of more value to Him than anything else in all creation. What an inspiring, uplifting thought!😊

PAUL'S SIMPLE GUIDE TO THINKING!

Philippians 4:8 And now, dear brothers and sisters, one final thing. Fix your thoughts on what is true, and honorable, and right, and pure, and lovely, and admirable. Think about things that are excellent and worthy of praise.

This week we've been looking at God transforming us by changing the way we think   - being Overcomers, coming from a place of victory, God supplying and not demanding from us, God perfecting what concerns us, letting go of anxious thoughts.

The Apostle Paul was speaking to the Christians in the Philippian church and he obviously knew they struggled with thinking the right things just like we do, so we're not unusual.😊

He really spells it out for them and us though, and leaves us in no doubt about what should be filling our minds. It's a bit like the simple guide to thinking.......here's what to think!

The trouble is we tend to ignore it and allow all sorts of negative thoughts, to not just visit our heads, but a bit like a bird, they nest there and have eggs!! Or is it just me? We may not be able to stop the bird landing but we sure can stop it nesting - we can tell it to go!

One easy test to see if a thought is from God or not, is to ask ourselves "does what I'm thinking lift me up or bring me down?" If it discourages or depresses us in any way then it's not from God and we can tell it to leave.

Anyway, I hope this week's blogs have been a help in some small way to enable us to at least recognise what we're thinking about, and given us some encouragement to choose God's thoughts over all the other things that try to fill our minds.

I hope you have a blessed weekend thinking lovely, admirable, excellent and praiseworthy thoughts for His glory. 😊

GOD'S THOUGHTS BRING PEACE

Psalm 139:23 Search me, O God, and know my heart, test me and know my anxious thoughts.

We like to see smiling faces but we all know negative, anxious thoughts bring us down so if we feel down at some point maybe we could stop and ask ourselves what we've been thinking about. 

Track it back to where it started and bring those thoughts to the Lord and ask Him to turn them around to think His thoughts which will lift us back up and put a smile back on our faces.

I know when we're not well it makes us feel down because we're tempted to think it might never change but God says Jesus is our Healer, the Restorer of our souls and He promised to satisfy us with long life. 

We get to choose to think on God's promises rather than the present facts which are temporary and subject to change. God's word is permanent and never changes thankfully.

Whose thoughts are we listening to? Listening to God's thoughts will sometimes mean us retraining our minds which the Holy Spirit is involved in, so we can succeed, but we get the casting vote who we listen to.

God's thoughts will always bring peace, they'll bring His presence on the scene which will lift us up. So if we don't have much peace at the minute let's spend some time with the Lord, with His word, and let Him help us change the way we've been thinking. 

Let go of the anxious thoughts and start expecting and believing for good things again and let Him put a smile back on our faces today.😊

GOD WILL PERFECT IT

Psalm 138:8 The Lord will perfect that which concerns me; Your mercy, O Lord, endures forever....

I've had that verse running through my mind for a few days and it brings a great sense of peace with it. It reminds us that God knows all about what is concerning us, whether it's neighbours, family, job, health, finances, whatever - He knows.

It's one thing to know about it but it's another altogether to know God is perfecting what concerns us. In other words He's sorting it out in the best possible way for our good. We don't always know what the best thing is for us, whether to move or to stay, whether to say something or keep quiet, whether to change job or not. But God knows and He'll show us because He knows what's round the corner and He's promised us a future and a hope, not to harm us but to bless us. 

On those days when we feel fed up or downhearted all He asks of us is that we keep having an expectation of good from Him, to keep our hope alive that all will be well, to keep believing His promises that He will lead and guide us every step of the way. 

He wants to remind us today to cast our concerns on Him having assurance that He is listening and He will work out His plans for our lives. So next time you 'think' nothing is changing or that God's not doing anything, may I encourage us all to forsake those thoughts and let God carry on transforming us by helping us think and remember "God is perfecting that which concerns me, and it's going to be even better than I think.😊"

GOD IS SUPPLYING

Hebrews 4:16 Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need.

In the Old Covenant the Law was all about God demanding from man, demanding he kept all the laws He gave them and that was because they didn't have a renewed spirit so they had to obey laws to protect them.

But in the New Covenant God's grace is all about God supplying what we need through Jesus, whether it's forgiveness of our sins, freedom from guilt or shame, for finances, for relationships, or whatever, it's all through Jesus.

When we are 'demand' minded we become stressed, we have to perform. We can feel so burdened. We have to do, do, do.

When we are 'supply' minded we choose to enter God's rest knowing Jesus has already done it all for us and made provision for everything we're going to need. Because of Jesus God is pleased with us and blesses us. It's already done, done, done. He will supply whatever we need spiritually, physically and emotionally because we can come to His throne of grace any time to obtain mercy and help us with whatever we need help with. 

Sometimes I slip into the 'demand' mode of thinking - I must, I must do, I have to... But God has to bring me back constantly to His 'supply' mode of thinking. He has done, He has provided, and all He asks of me is to receive His supply in all areas of my life.

How about you? Let's ask the Lord to help us to let go of "God is demanding" thinking and receive His grace which is all about "God is supplying" thinking, and thank Him for it. 😊 

WINNING THE BATTLE OF THE MIND

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

Yesterday we looked at being transformed by the renewing of our minds and that's the key to winning the battle of our minds by letting them be renewed by God, not struggling to do it ourselves by sheer willpower which we all know doesn't work!

God wants us to win and He's told us He's already defeated our enemy before we begin so we can come from a position of victory, not trying to win, but having already won because of Jesus. Maybe that's one of the areas we might need to let God 'rethink' our thinking! He says we are Over-comers and He wants us to 'see' and think of ourselves that way, not to think we're defeated or victims, but Victors through Jesus. 

Although the enemy can put thoughts in our minds he can't control us unless we 'take' his thoughts and accept them as truth. We have a choice - to accept the enemy's thoughts which are lies, or to accept God's thoughts which are His promises in His word. Satan deceived Eve by misquoting God and giving her a new thought which God didn't give her. She accepted the lie and we know where that led!

Today let's keep reminding ourselves that God is for us not against us. He's transforming us in those areas where we might have a defeated "I can't" mindset by giving us His victory - His "I can" mind set. 

I know it's not easy because we have to keep choosing to think God's thoughts but when we approach a battle from the standpoint of having already got the victory it's going to be easier to win! Let's believe God and be transformed.😊

Romans 8:37 Yes in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us.

TRANSFORMED INTO A NEW PERSON

Romans 12:2 Don't copy the behaviour and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will learn to know God's will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect. The New King James calls it the renewing of our minds.

Have you ever wanted to be transformed into a new person?  As children we all probably played dressing up games and pretended to be somebody else but here God is telling us He is wanting to transform us. What an offer!😊 

God has already transformed us in our spirit by making us into a new creation (2 Corinthians 5:17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation, old things have passed away; behold all things have become new), but here He's telling us He wants to transform and renew our minds which will then affect our will and our emotions which has got to be good!

So how is He going to do it? - by changing the way we think!  He knows if we let Him do that then we'll find out what His perfect plan is for our lives and that is a wonderful incentive.

God's word tells us how God operates, what His ways and thoughts are. If we want Him to change our thinking patterns, we're going to need to spend some time reading His manual to find out how He wants us to think especially when it's not the way the world thinks! 

He promises, as we let Him change our thinking, we'll find out His plan for us, so as we start a new week maybe we can ask ourselves if we're willing to rethink some things. 😊

Lord we want to be transformed so please help us to co-operate with You and let You change our thinking where we need to. In Jesus Name, Amen.

GREAT IS THY FAITHFULNESS

 Psalm 108

 v.1 My heart is confident in you, O God; 

no wonder I can sing your praises with all my heart! 

v.4 For your unfailing love is higher than the heavens. 

Your faithfulness reaches to the clouds.

The next time we're out and about, on a walk perhaps, or even just looking out the window and we see some lovely high clouds I hope these verses pop into our heads. 

In the UK we do have a lot of clouds! but wherever we are, they'll remind us of God's wonderful unfailing love for us and how great His faithfulness is to us.  As we lift our eyes up to the heavens let's sing His praises.

Great is Thy faithfulness

Great is Thy faithfulness

Morning by morning new mercies I see

All I have needed Thy hand hath provided

Great is Thy faithfulness, Lord, unto me.

(Written by Thomas Chisholm)

I found the following version of the old hymn with some new words added which you might enjoy listening to.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2eQ1oal44wU

WE HAVE THE LIGHT IN US

2 Corinthians 4: 7 We now have this light shining in our hearts, but we ourselves are like fragile clay jars containing this great treasure. This makes it clear that our great power is from God, not from ourselves.

Isn't it lovely to know we have the light of God shining in our hearts and amazing to think we're God's light in the darkness. Jesus is The Light and part of the light that is shining in us is His truth, showing God's goodness and mercy to others around us. 

God says what we have is a great treasure and on the days when we feel like we're struggling maybe we've forgotten we have that treasure or haven't even acknowledged it perhaps? The Apostle Paul calls it 'our great power' which is from God.  Our great treasure is His Light our great power God gives us. Maybe we need to ask God to open that up to us and help us understand it more and more so we can really believe it and use it.

Yesterday we looked at not discounting ourselves so may I remind us again today that down inside our spirit is Jesus Himself, so His light, His great power and authority are living in us too and God wants us to use it for His glory because it comes from Him. 

Even though we know we're just clay jars we can shine for Him today.😊

Have a lovely weekend.

DON'T WRITE YOURSELF OFF!

Judges 6:14-16  "But Lord", Gideon replied, "how can I rescue Israel? My clan is the weakest in the whole tribe of Manasseh, and I am the least in my entire family!" The Lord said to him "I will be with you....."

During Co-vid lock-down I felt the Lord tell me to compile a book with some of my blogs in it so after hours of work I completed it only to find the software I'd used was so out of date it wasn't much use! So I've had to start again and this past week I've been struggling to learn some new computer software. It's been so hard I've wanted to give up many times and throw it out the window...and it's made me very grumpy!!😊

I thought why go to all this bother, nobody knows me, why would anyone be interested in reading it anyway!? I just felt God had chosen the wrong person! I discounted myself. I wonder if you've ever done that too? You've felt like God has asked you to do something and you've come up with the "But Lord..."  just like Gideon. We can find so many reasons why we're the least of the least, why there must be someone better qualified, better educated, better looking, younger!😊

If God wants it done and He's asked you to do it then we don't need to know why but just to do it with His help and leave the details to Him because He says the same thing to you and me as to Gideon "I will be with you."  

So don't write yourself off and don't write anyone else off either! God can reach out and reach down to anybody and everybody and He might be wanting to use you. 

So be encouraged today and know that God doesn't see you as the least, He sees you as a Holy Spirit filled Believer, a child of God with the wisdom of God inside you to do whatever He's asked you to do and be a blessing. You can do it!

WE GO THROUGH, GOD BRINGS US OUT

Psalm 66:12 ....We went through fire and through water; But you brought us out to rich fulfillment. (Nkj) .... (a place of great abundance. Nlt)

There will always be things in life that we don't understand, things that seem unfair or too difficult to handle, or we see others suffering and it's so easy to ask, 'Why God? Why?'

The trouble is, the 'Why's?' don't get us very far, in fact they can send us backwards because they keep us stuck where we're at, instead of moving forward into what God wants to lead us into next. I heard someone say "Don't put a question mark where God has put a full stop."

The bottom line is that we have to believe that God is faithful, that He cannot lie, and that His plans for us are ultimately for our good. Some days we just can't see it, in fact we see the opposite of what we think would be good! It's at those times that we need to stand on the word of God and decide that we're going to stick with it and Him, no matter what. 

It's that point of decision when we decide that we're going to trust God despite what we hear, see or feel. It's at those times we seem to grow spiritually, not when everything in the garden is rosy so even if you're going through some stuff right now, be encouraged because God has promised to bring you through and out the other side to rich fulfillment. So let's thank Him for it in faith. He never will leave us stuck in the middle if we do what He says. 

God wants us to listen.😊 He chose us before the foundation of the world and as we seek Him and His ways, He will guide us and lead us into the good plans He has already prepared beforehand. 

Isaiah 43:1-2 ...Fear not for I have redeemed you. I have called you by your name. You are Mine. 

OUR FRUIT COMES FROM GOD

Hosea 14:8 O Israel, stay away from idols. I am the one who answers your prayers and cares for you. I am like a tree that is always green; all your fruit comes from me.

It's always good to remember where our fruit comes from. We can't manufacture it ourselves by our own efforts or good works but God tells us where our fruit does come from - 

Galations 5:22-23 But it's the Holy Spirit produces this kind of fruit in our lives: and what is His fruit? - love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self control. I would love to produce more of that kind of fruit and I expect you would too.😊

Jesus said in John 15:4 Remain in me, and I will remain in you. For a branch cannot produce fruit if it is severed from the vine, and you cannot be fruitful unless you remain in me.

There we are! Jesus gave us the way to produce lovely fruit and more of it right there. As long as we're staying close to Him His fruit will grow out of us automatically. The more we're aware of Him in our lives and that our lives are in Him, the more we'll find His fruit, His own character and loveliness being reproduced in us.  

2 Corinthians 3:18 So all of us who have had that veil removed can see and reflect the glory of the Lord. And the Lord - who is the Spirit - makes us more and more like him as we are changed into his glorious image.

Thank You Father as we remain in Jesus, Your Holy Spirit is producing the fruit of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self control in us and changing us all the time to be more and more like Jesus. Amen.

GOD HAS NOT FORGOTTEN

Psalm 37:4 Delight yourself also in the Lord, and He shall give you the desires of your heart.

What a promise! Have you ever been believing for something for so long and not seen it yet that you've  just let it slide? You put it on the back burner and thought 'maybe one day'or just forgotten about it? 

Well I'd like to tell you that God has not forgotten. Whatever dream or promise of God that has been in your heart, God knows about it, and He wants to bring it to pass in your life because He knows you delight in Him.

God knows our preferences, when we have a particular affinity with certain things, those things we like and enjoy and He's interested in all of that because what matters to us, matters to Him, because He loves us so much.

The Lord really opened that up to me at the weekend to start believing Him again for the the dreams and aspirations He has seen in my heart for many years. It's never too late! All He asks of us is to come to Him in faith, ask for our hearts desire and be specific, believe that we receive them there and then by faith and thank Him for it.

Mark 11:24 Therefore, I say to you, whatever things you ask when you pray, believe that you receive them, and you will have them.

May I encourage you to take those dreams and promises out again, dust them off and bring them to the Lord and ask Him to fulfil them, knowing His promises are all 'Yes and amen in Jesus'. 

ANGELS ARE ASSIGNED TO US

Psalm 34:7 The angel of the Lord encamps all around those who fear Him, and delivers them.

When we feel our heart racing and fear comes banging on our door for any reason God wants us to remember that He has commissioned so many angels to stand guard over us to keep us safe. (Psalm 91:11) 

Hebrews 1:14 says they are ministering spirits sent forth to minister for those who will inherit salvation - that's you and me if we belong to Jesus. As born again believers we all have angels assigned to us. Whenever we are in need of some kind of help His angels are right there with us doing just that, even though we may not be aware of them. 

I love Psalm 103:20 which says Angels who excel in strength and do His word, heeding the voice of His word.  In other words, when they hear God's word coming out of our mouths,  and we're believing it, the angels are commissioned to make His word come to pass in our lives! When we declare any of God's promises we're giving our angels something to go to work on for us. Now that is a big incentive to learn what God's word has said and start speaking it in faith don't you think?!

Our trust is always in the Lord, He is the One who commissions angels to help us because they are also sent to deliver us from whatever we need delivering from. When we're in trouble we can declare "Lord, You are my refuge, my shelter, no evil shall befall me, You will order Your angels to protect me wherever I go." 

God has us wonderfully covered so as we begin this new week let's think on these things so that our sense of peace and resting in Him can increase all the time.

Have a blessed week. 😊

HE'S LIFTING US OUT!

Psalm 40: 1-3 (Nlt)

He lifted me out of the pit of despair, out of the mud and the mire. 

He set my feet on solid ground and steadied me as I walked along. 

He has given me a new song to sing, a hymn of praise to our God. 

Many will see what he has done and be amazed. 

They will put their trust in the Lord.

On the days when we may feel like we're treading through treacle it's good to remember this psalm because we know God is bringing us up and out. God is the One who steadies us as we walk each day with Him.

It even encourages us to know we will feel like singing again, praising Him for all the wonderful good He has done for us. Let's go one step further and praise Him and sing a new song to Him in faith, even before we see the solid ground. 

Our God is always worthy of our praise and we know praise defeats our enemy so today let's sing our hearts out in praise to our God. 😊

FOR THE LORD IS GOOD TO US

Psalm 34:1 I will bless the Lord at all times; His praise shall continually be in my mouth. v.3 Oh, magnify the Lord with me, and let us exalt His name together.

If I asked you if you've recently moved house you would probably say no, but I heard someone ask this past week "Are you living on Praise Avenue or have you moved to Grumble Alley or Complaining Street now?"

Ouch! That was quite a challenge because I know I move address and find myself on Complaining Street and I've not realised I've moved! How about you? The good news is though that it's very easy to move back to Praise Avenue again and put on some praise music or start thanking God for all the many blessings in our lives. 

I was walking along the pavement yesterday just thanking the Lord I could see the beautiful green trees and hear the sparrows, and could walk to where I wanted to go with the weather dry. It's so easy to take things for granted but hey, we have lots of good things going on in our lives that we can say thank you for, don't we?

Just in case we've found ourselves living in Grumble Alley and forgotten God's goodness, let's allow the Holy Spirit to help us pack our bags and load the removal van up with some hallelujahs and drive ourselves back round the corner and on to Praise Avenue today. Praise Avenue is a much nicer area to live!😊

Let's magnify the Lord together, let's remind ourselves of all His blessings - I'm sure we can think of lots. Count our blessings, name them one by one and it will surprise us what the Lord has done. Have a lovely weekend everyone.😊

Psalm 118:29 Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good! 😊

ENCOURAGEMENT HELPS US KEEP GOING

Deuteronomy 28:8 The Lord will guarantee a blessing on everything you do....

It's amazing how an encouraging word from someone can really help us keep going.

Have you ever started doing something for the Lord or just anything at all and then discouragement tries to creep in the side door? I was feeling a bit like that with the Blog and was beginning to think it was probably only helping three people and not achieving an awful lot!

Once you start down that road then the enemy makes you think you should just give it up. You start to second guess yourself don't you? Ever been there with something you're doing, at home, on the job, in school, in church?

The enemy comes with his lies to try to discredit our efforts or to discourage us from carrying on, to think there's not much point but can I tell you it only takes a word of encouragement from one person to lift you back up, to get our perspective back in place. I realised that if the blog is only for a few people, if it helps them, then that is all that really matters.😊

So can I encourage you today to keep going with whatever you've started, in whatever area of your life. Don't let the enemy try to undermine you, you are doing better than you think! You have God's approval and that's all that matters.

God has given us a promise that He will prosper whatever we set our hands to do - our verse says He guarantees a blessing on it and that includes everything from the mundane things in daily life to our special projects.

So let me pass on a blessing from a friend of mine - keep going because God's hand of blessing is on you and all that concerns you, and don't forget to pass that encouragement on to someone else as you go about your day, to encourage them too.😊  

Thank You Lord. Amen.

LET JESUS BRING RESURRECTION INTO YOUR LIFE

Jesus told her, "I am the resurrection and the life. Anyone who believes in me will live, even after dying. Everyone who lives in me and believes in me will never ever die. Do you believe this, Martha?

Lazarus had died and his sisters Martha and Mary were heart broken especially as Jesus hadn't turned up when they expected Him to. Jesus finally does turn up, four days too late, they think, and Martha goes to remonstrate with Him for not being there when they needed him. Meanwhile, scripture says "Mary stayed in the house". There's something significant in that statement.

Martha knew Jesus could do something to change what had happened so she had gone to talk to Him even if she had a bit of a dig at Him first! But Mary, she stayed at home crying, unable to see past her loss, and couldn't seem to do anything and we've probably all felt like that sometimes.

So Jesus told Martha to go and tell Mary that He was there and wanted to see her. I think that's a key phrase in this passage too. Jesus wants us to know, no matter what we've lost, what sorrow we're going through, that He is in our now and He is right here and He wants to see us, He wants to talk to us because He has hope to give us, His resurrection life to impart to us.

As soon as Mary arrived Jesus started to put His resurrection plan into operation that changed their lives. Could it be that Jesus is waiting for you and me to go and spend time with Him so He can tell us what He wants to do to change our circumstances, to bring us back to that place of hope?

Jesus knows we all experience loss of some kind and He's just waiting for us to believe Him when He says to us I am the resurrection and the life for you today in your circumstances. Let's go and see Him and let Him talk to us too and believe what He tells us so that He can bring resurrection to our lives here and now.

YOUR LIFE IS SAFE IN HIM

1 Samuel 25:29 (Nlt) Even when you are chased by those who seek to kill you, your life is safe in the care of the Lord your God, secure in his treasure pouch! But the lives of your enemies will disappear like stones shot from a sling!

I don't know what God's treasure pouch looks like but I love the thought of God having one and us being in it, don't you? It makes me smile.😊 

When we have accepted Jesus as our Saviour and given our lives to God then we can know our lives are safe in the care of the Lord our God. Jesus said His Father is the One who is holding us secure in His hand and nothing can snatch us out of it.

So whatever tries to threaten us or cause us to fear we have this rock solid promise of God that we are safe in His care. That means we're protected by Almighty God, that the victory Jesus has won for us is more than enough for us against every device of the enemy.

Yesterday the Lord had a reason for reminding us that we are in Christ, and the reason is that we sometimes forget it when we come under attack and we're tempted to take our eyes off Him.

18

So don't be discouraged but encouraged today, and let hope rise up in your heart, because Jesus is our merciful and loving Saviour, we're safe in God's hands and as we trust Him we will see His  plans being worked out in our lives for His glory and our good. Thank You Lord.

JESUS HAS GIVEN US HIS VICTORY

1 Samuel 5:4 But the next morning the same thing happened - Dagon had fallen face down before the Ark of the Lord again. This time his head and hands had broken off and were lying in the doorway. Only the trunk of his body was left intact.

It does our hearts good to know and be reminded that Jesus is victorious and our enemy satan is defeated, and this account is a good picture of that fact.

The Philistines had defeated the Israelites' army in a significant battle and captured the Ark of God. They then put it in their temple and placed it beside their own god Dagon which was a big mistake, as on the first morning their god had fallen over face down in front of the Ark of God! So they propped their idol back upright again but next day the same thing happened only worse, as this time his head and hands had broken off as well, lying in the doorway! That meant anyone going into their temple had to trample on their god!

The Old Testament is full of pictures of what was to unfold in the New Testament and the Ark of God is a picture or type of our Lord Jesus Christ. Here we see a prophetic picture of Jesus going right into the enemy's camp, into hell itself, and satan falling flat on his face with his head and hands knocked off. Jesus is the Victor and He's the same yesterday, today and forever.

I hope that makes you shout for joy because we need to see our enemy defeated in our own minds. He is defeated and fallen flat on his face before our Lord Jesus Christ and His shed blood on the cross. He's been rendered powerless and because God has placed us in Christ and we're part of Him, so satan is defeated and fallen flat on his face before us as well when we call on Jesus' Name and the power of His blood. 

Instead of seeing the enemy walking all over us, let's see us walking over him! Instead of seeing ourselves defeated, see him defeated with his head and hands knocked off, lying in the dust, the way Jesus sees him.

Jesus is our Victorious Risen Saviour and He has given His victory to us.  All glory to God and thank You Jesus.

THE LORD IS HOLDING US

Psalm 37:23-24 The Lord directs the steps of the godly. He delights in every detail of their lives. Though they stumble, they will never fall, for the Lord holds them by the hand.

I love the fact that the Lord delights in every detail of our lives.  Maybe there have been days when you've felt like God didn't care one way or the other about what you were going through or having to put up with at work or at home, especially if they're big issues. Or you've thought He can't be bothered with such trivial details like when you've run out of milk or your neighbour's dog keeps barking and driving you mad. We think that's just the things that happen, but God knows about those things.

We're tempted to think we just have to muddle through life on our own and just get on with it when we're struggling.  But that's not so at all. 

God wants us to know that He is actually holding our hand through every moment of every day. Absolutely nothing happens that escapes His caring notice and He's supporting us through it all, He's holding us up.

So don't let's listen to the negative thoughts when the enemy says we're all alone, or God doesn't care about us any more or He's not interested. 

As we start a new week let's read these verses again and remind ourselves that He is holding on to us, even when we stumble. That He's grabbing hold of us tightly and He's really interested in every detail of our lives, both the big stuff and the small stuff, and He's giving us His direction. 

Thank You Lord. 

RUN INTO HIS LOVING ARMS

Psalm 37 (Nlt)

v.17 ...but the Lord takes care of the godly....

v.28 he will never abandon the godly....

He will keep them safe forever....

v.39 The Lord rescues the godly,

he is their fortress in times of trouble.

I've only picked out a few verses from this psalm but the whole of it is worth reading because it reflects what so often happens in many of our lives and how we feel when things are going against us. So on this day of rest, may I encourage us to take the time to read the whole psalm today? I know it will bless you.

Yesterday we looked at how we can feel stuck in our circumstances. Here we find David had been through such a lot and maybe you're like that too. But David takes the time to encourage us and tells us what to do. So if you're feeling like he did, take heart from these verses and know that your God is on your side and He's working in the background on your behalf all the time, even when you can't see it or feel it.

He's reminding us, just in case we've forgotten, that He is our fortress in our times of trouble. 

Let's run into His loving arms again today and rest in the sure knowledge that He is taking care of all that concerns us. Thank You Lord.