A SIMPLE THING FOR THE LORD!

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 over the army of Moab!

I wonder how often we’ve looked at our different situations and thought it was too much to ask God for, or impossible for it to change? Well take heart from our verses today because they are part of a story which tells us otherwise.😊

The Kings of Israel, Judah and Edom had come together to fight the King of Moab but after travelling seven days in the wilderness they’d found no water and were getting desperate.(v.9) They had the sense to ask Elisha, God’s prophet, what God wanted them to do about it and were told to dig channels all around. 

He then told them God would give them water for both their three armies and their animals and then he said, ‘But this is a simple thing for the Lord!’ God was about to provide water miraculously with no rain involved, enough for thousands of men and animals and God sees it as simple!

I hope we can be greatly encouraged by that account, because whatever it is we need God to do for us, He sees it as simple, not complicated, not difficult at all! Maybe we need to adjust our thinking to realise His power is so great, it just isn’t a problem to Him! And He has already given us the victory through Jesus! They had to do their part first by digging the channels in preparation for the water coming, but God worked the miracle, God gave the victory.

Instead of us thinking our problem is too much for God, let’s turn it around in faith and let God know we believe He can sort it.

Thank You Lord, our problem is not huge in Your eyes but simple for You to put right because of Your great power, so we ask You to intervene on our behalf and show us what You want of us in it all, and we believe and praise You for the victory. In Jesus Mighty Name. Amen.

WE ALL COUNT TO GOD

John 6:9 There is a lad here who has five barley loaves and two small fish, but what are they among so many?

Apostle John is the only one to record the little boy’s part in the story of the feeding of the five thousand, because they only counted the men but not the women or the children. They didn’t think they were worth counting!

But God thinks so differently because the very one that wasn’t counted by men that day was the very one who Jesus did count. It was the child who had the pack lunch of 5 loaves and 2 fish! His mum would have packed it up for him and sent him off not realising what an important thing it was - the beginning of a great miracle. Or maybe his mum was actually there with him, but neither of them was counted - but Jesus did. He counted them as absolutely necessary that day because they made the difference in the lives of thousands of other people!

Listen, no matter how insignificant we think we are or how mundane our jobs are each day, or how boring our tasks may seem in our routines, when we commit them to Him, God can use them and turn them into something significant.  Never discount yourself because God uses and counts those who others have discounted, and He can turn the ordinariness of our lives into the extraordinary!😊

We know the little boy’s lunch was not enough in itself. It couldn’t feed 5,000 men, plus women and children but Jesus was showing us a principle. If we give God our ‘not enough’ and thank Him for our ‘not enough’, He can turn it into ‘more than enough’.

He shows us the way to combat the ‘not enoughs’ in any area of our lives. “My health is not enough right now, but thank You Lord for the health I do have. My money may not be enough this month, but thank You for the money I do have. My marriage is not what it should be but thank You Lord for my spouse and my marriage. My kids are causing me worry Lord but thank You for them and I know You will turn them around.”

I’m sure we get the idea, and we can be greatly encouraged today, whatever we have to do, knowing God counts each one of us as important to Him and if we bring Him our ‘not enough’, thank Him for it, and ask Him to  bless it He can use it to bring mighty blessings of ‘more than enough’ to ourselves and others too.😊

WHEN WE’RE UNDER ATTACK

Ephesians 6:11 Put on all of God’s armour so that you will be able to stand firm against all strategies of the devil.

I’d raised a lovely Acer tree from really small, and now it’s over five feet tall in a pot. All  has been well until recently when we discovered it has nasty black bugs attacking it! So I’ve bought bug killer to deal with the nasties and need to go into action! They’re not going to kill our lovely tree!😊

In the same way we all have things that begin to ‘bug’ us, they start off small but can end up being a major disruption or distress, whether it’s in our health, relationships or finances if we don’t deal with them. So what do we do about it? Some would sit back and say the Lord will sort it all out and do nothing, but that’s not what scripture says, as we know!

Our enemy, the devil, comes to steal, kill and destroy (John 10:10) and he’ll carry on doing that if we don’t stop him by resisting him and using our supernatural ‘bug killers’. One of those is the Word of God coming out our mouths in faith. Praise is another one of our major weapons to stop him in his tracks. We can also use the mighty name of Jesus to command things to bow down and be removed, and we can use the precious blood of Jesus for deliverance and our protection against the enemy, over all we own, and our families.

I know only too well, when we’re tired, or feeling ill, we don’t feel like standing our ground but thankfully we do have the Holy Spirit to call on for help and our brothers and sisters in the Lord to pray with us when we’re low. Then, having done all we stand, and rest in the Lord’s promised victory as He fights the battle for us.

So as we begin a new week can I encourage us to put on the whole armour of God before we do anything else then get the ‘bug killers’ out and fight the good fight of faith, knowing God has made us more than Conquerors through Christ Jesus.😊

Ephesians 6:17 Therefore, put on every piece of God’s armour so you will be able to resist the enemy in the time of evil. Then after the battle you will still be standing firm. 

When you get a minute read Ephesians 6:10-18 to encourage you to stand your ground.😊

GOD’S NEW MERCIES ARE FOR US ALL

Psalm 28: 6-7 

Praise the Lord! For he has heard my cry for mercy. 

The Lord is my strength and shield. 

I trust him with all my heart. 

He helps me, and my heart is filled with joy. 

I burst out in songs of thanksgiving.

The Psalmist tells us how the Lord heard his cry for mercy when he cried out to Him. We know the Lord’s mercies are new every morning and He hears us too when we cry out to Him. His ear is tuned into our cry just like a mother’s ear is tuned in to hear her own baby when it cries. And just like a baby needs fresh milk every few hours the Lord knows we’ll need fresh mercies throughout our day too.

So when we woke up this morning God made available to us all the new mercies we’re going to need for the rest of the day, for us to draw on. Isn’t that a wonderful provision? We need to remember His love for us never ceases and His mercies never come to an end. That’s Never! It’s a bit like saying God’s grace is more than enough for all we’ll need to do today as well. (2 Corinthians 12:9) My grace is all you need. My power works best in weakness.

Our God is compassionate, slow to anger and great in mercy and knowing that should fill us with great joy and peace. There is no one more trustworthy than our God because what His word says, He will do, and He can’t lie to us so when we read His promises they are Yes and Amen in Jesus. No wonder the Psalmist said he could trust Him with all his heart.

So let’s have a heart of thanksgiving today to our merciful God knowing we can trust Him with whatever is causing us anxiety and know He’s holding us, and all that concerns us, safe in the palm of His hand and rest in that wonderful truth. Amen.😊

Lamentations 3:22-23 The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases, his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.

GOD’S COMFORT ZONE

2 Corinthians 1:3-4 All praise to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. God is our merciful Father and the source of all comfort. He comforts us in all our troubles so that we can comfort others…..

God knows there will be times in life when we all need comforting and one of the meanings of comfort is strengthening. When we need comfort we actually need strengthening don’t we? We probably all have a comfort zone where everything is familiar and most of us don’t like it when we’re taken out of it for whatever reason. We can feel very uncomfortable because we have no familiar reference points.

Thankfully God has His own comfort zone which never changes and where He has placed us safely in Him, in the Holy Spirit who is our Comforter regardless of our external circumstances. He is always present with us and He brings His comfort zone with Him so we can know His peace even in the middle of the storm. His presence is our familiar point of reference.

I find it helps to remember God says His everlasting arms are under us all the time holding us up because it is so comforting to know and He’ll never leave us or abandon us, so we’re secure in that knowledge too. No matter where we are, or where we go, God is right there with us and we can sleep knowing He’s watching over us and going before us into our day. 

So if there is a storm raging, be encouraged, we’re not alone but we’re walking through each day and night, hand in hand with our Saviour, who loves us unconditionally. He’ll guide us through every struggle and every storm and see us safely to the other side.

Allow His peace and His comfort, His strength, to pour over you and into you today in Jesus’ mighty name. Amen.

Have a blessed weekend.x

Deuteronomy 33:27 The eternal God is our refuge, and his everlasting arms are under you….

DON’T THROW THINGS OUT THE WINDOW!

John 5:19 So Jesus explained, “I tell you the truth, the Son can do nothing by himself. He does only what he sees the Father doing. Whatever the Father does the Son also does.

Do you ever do daft things? I do! The other day I was dusting my cabinet, removed all the bits and bobs off a cloth I have on there, then shook it out the window to get rid of the dust only to hear this rattling noise as something fell down onto the conservatory roof and disappeared from sight! My first thought was that I’d thrown my ring out the window, but thankfully realised it was just two unwrapped paracetamols and they’d clattered down the roof and into the gulley! Not many people toss paracetamols out the window but it seems I do daft things sometimes!😊

It happened because I wasn’t paying enough attention to what I was doing and was in a bit of a hurry. That can happen in our daily walk with the Lord too. We may not be paying enough attention to what the Holy Spirit is trying to say to us. He’s trying to get our attention to help or warn us in some way but we’re busy, rattling through everything we have to do and sometimes end up doing things we wished we hadn’t, or doing them in our own strength. Have you ever been doing something and felt the Holy Spirit tell you it was time to stop but kept on going, only to really regret it later? You wish you’d listened!

John 14:26 But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things,…

The Holy Spirit is our Helper but He’ll only step in and help if we ask Him to. He doesn’t arbitrarily take over our lives. Like I say we have to be listening and sensitive to His promptings and as Jesus Himself reminded us, He said He could do nothing on His own! Do we forget sometimes and try to do stuff without asking the Holy Spirit to help us? It’s easily done. 

So this is just a gentle reminder to help us pay more attention if we need to, so we don’t end up doing daft things like me and remember it’s best to ask the Holy Spirit, at the beginning of the day, to help us with everything, just like Jesus, whether we think we need to or not!😊 And always check before you throw anything out the window!😊

John 5:30 I can do nothing on my own.

GOD WANTS TO WORK MIRACLES AMONG US

Galatians 3:5 I ask you again, does God give you the Holy Spirit and work miracles among you because you obey the law? Of course not! It is because you believe the message you heard about Christ.

Wow! God wants to work miracles among us! What a wonderful thought! Perhaps we don’t often read or think about that but He explains we can’t receive the Holy Spirit or see miracles by obeying the law. 

I wonder if we’ve ever fallen into the trap of thinking ‘if I just prayed more, performed better, or did more good works, God would be pleased and give me the miracle I need? Here the Apostle Paul tells us that’s wrong thinking because we’re no longer under the law and having to perform. Thank You Lord.

So what is right thinking? He tells us we only receive anything at all from God because of His grace, by believing the message about Jesus Christ and all He did for us on the cross. Many people think that is solely about having our sins forgiven and a home in heaven, but it is so much more and if we can grasp hold of that truth we will enter into everything else God has for us including miracles. 

Sometimes we forget salvation in the original language includes God not only giving us His forgiveness, righteousness, peace and joy, but also His healing, His prosperity, His protection and more. Jesus went to the cross for us for it all praise God. It’s one of those ‘forsaking our own thoughts’ things and embracing what God says so we can enter His perfect will.😊 

And if ever you’ve said “It’ll take a miracle” either for yourself or for someone else, know God wants to work miracles among us but it’s never because we do or don’t deserve it because of our performance. Have you ever heard it said “Oh they deserve healing they’re such a good person,”? They’re still thinking under ‘law’ and forgotten we only receive because of what Jesus has done! 

It’s so wonderful it doesn’t depend on us anymore, but we can just believe the message we’ve heard about Jesus and receive all of His wonderful saving grace in every area of life and rest in Him with great expectancy of seeing the Holy Spirit work His miracles among us.

Why not take the time to read  the whole of Galatians 3 in a modern translation? It’s well worth another read and let the Holy Spirit continue renewing our minds, if we might need it.😊

LET’S MAKE MUCH OF IT!

2 Chronicles 20:22 Now when they began to sing and to praise, the Lord set ambushes against the people of Amon, Moab, and Mount Seir, who had come against Judah; and they were defeated.

I don’t know about you but if I see even the smallest improvement in something I’ve been believing God for then I like to make much of it, celebrate it and tell the Lord how grateful I am for it. For instance, I’ve been believing the Lord for my inflammation levels to come down which had been way too high for months and when I had a result saying they’d reduced 13 points (even though they still need to reduce by 58 more) I was so excited and treated myself to a chocolate roll while praising and thanking the Lord. I don’t always do the chocolate roll bit!😊

You see we know God says to be thankful but we sometimes think we’ll do it when everything is all right again but there’s a better way.😊 Celebrate and be thankful for everything and anything along the way no matter how small! In fact an even better way than that is to praise and thank Him in faith before we ever see the improvement or the answer.

The Israelites praised the Lord before they had the victory. God tell us praise defeats the enemy which we’d all like to experience more and He gives us such a simple instruction to follow to bring it about. I know it’s not always easy, especially when everything looks pear shaped but it must be possible or God would be unjust in telling us to do it. It’s for our own benefit and there’s a spiritual principle involved.

So how do we do it? When everything in us wants to complain, groan or moan or feel sorry for ourselves we can take a deep breath and ask the Holy Spirit to help us have His perspective and give us the grace to thank and praise the Lord especially when it is a sacrifice.

I think it helps to remember how much the Lord Jesus Himself went through for us and how deeply He loved us so that our sacrifice of praise will come into perspective.

So may I encourage us all today to praise and thank the Lord all the time, as we go along, and I believe we’ll see our enemies defeated and our victories increase more and more.😊

Hebrews 13:15 Therefore, let us offer through Jesus a continual sacrifice of praise to God,….

Here a song of praise to help us  - https://youtu.be/QcO7kWA5x4Q

GOD IS CHANGING US

Deuteronomy 33:26-27 There is no one like the God of Israel. He rides across the heavens to help you, across the skies in majestic splendour. The eternal God is your refuge, and his everlasting arms are under you. He drives out the enemy before you, he cries out, “Destroy them!”

Can I tell you today that God never gives up on us, He is always there no matter how dark the night has been. It makes no difference how low we feel God rides across the skies, He reaches down and lifts us up to ride on the wings of His glory with Him. Psalm 24:8 Who is this King of glory? The Lord, strong and mighty, the Lord, mighty in battle!

How do I know it’s for us? Because He says He’s changing us from glory to glory (2 Cor. 3:18) by the Spirit of the Lord because He is glorious and He indwells us. Our God is a transforming power, a way maker and He is still in the business of transforming us by the renewing of our minds if we’re willing to be transformed.

Romans 12:1-2 says if we really want to know the good, pleasing and perfect will of God for our lives He tells us how. He says be transformed by the renewing of our minds. How do we do that? - by reading His word and forsaking our thoughts when they don’t agree with His thoughts. Sometimes we have a lot of forsaking to do but it’s worth it!😊  It means being willing to forsake worry and believing and accepting His promises instead.

So if we’ve been struggling with various issues in our lives, God wants us to know He is reaching out to us and scooping us up, transforming us from glory to glory as we allow Him to transform your thinking to be like His. 

How wonderfully encouraging that is. The God of glory changing you and me and taking us from glory to glory. Receive it by faith in our glorious God today.

JUST SIT DOWN

John 6:10-11 “Tell everyone to sit down,” Jesus said. So they all sat down on the grassy slopes. (The men alone numbered about 5,000.) Then Jesus took the loaves, gave thanks to God, and distributed them to the people. Afterward he did the same with the fish. And they all ate as much as they wanted.

There was a great need - everybody was hungry. Now I don’t know about you, but when I get hungry I can be a bit edgy which is a sad confession to have to make, but maybe you’re the same? 

So there were well over 5,000 people who were probably on the verge of being grumpy that day and Jesus wanted to do something for them before they went home. He recognised their need! He tells His disciples to do something interesting. He tells them to sit down!

When we have a great need in our lives we probably don’t feel like sitting down but feel like pacing the floor, or worrying and if we’re not in faith we’ll be thinking or saying ‘What am I going to do?’ Can you imagine some of those mums with kids pulling on their skirts complaining and whining, ‘Mummy we’re hungry!’ and they’re miles from anywhere thinking ‘what can we do, there’s no food left?’

When Jesus told them to sit down, they would have immediately known something was about to happen and would have had a great air of expectancy. They just knew Jesus would do something amazing, but what? Can you imagine the buzz going round the hillside?

Jesus tells us the same thing today, ‘Just sit down’ or in other words, ‘stop fretting, and believe I’m doing something about your situation. Have an air of expectancy, be thankful instead of wringing your hands with worry and let Me provide what you need,  and it will be way over and above the bare necessity.’ 

When we sit down we’re in an attitude of relaxing and that’s what God wants us to do too as we start off the week, it’s to just relax and believe God will not just show up, but He’ll do all we need Him to do and so much more!😊

Have a great week.

GOD - THE POWER THAT SAVES US

 2 Samuel 22:2-4 (Nlt)

He sang: The Lord is my rock, my fortress, and my savior; 

my God is my rock, in whom I find protection. 

He is my shield, the power that saves me, and my place of safety. 

He is my refuge, my savior, the one who saves me from violence. 

I called on the Lord, who is worthy of praise, and he saved me from my enemies.

Today is a good day to read that passage and really let it sink in until it becomes real to us because it is who God is to us in every situation of our lives if we call Him our God.

It’s the song of David’s heart after he’d experience many tragedies and traumas. He’d gone through the loss of having two of his sons murdered, one of his babies died shortly after birth, He’d been betrayed and hunted down for years. He’d fought so many battles but was still standing, believing and trusting in His mighty God who’d never abandoned him even when he sinned big time. God was always there for him in the middle of it all. God was the power that saved him.

David says God is his place of safety. We can say the same, Jesus is our place of safety not just for our now, but for our eternity, which is so much more important. The years we have here are very few compared to where we will spend our ‘forever’ with Him, if we’ve asked Jesus into our hearts.  

If you’re not sure if you’d go to heaven ask Jesus to come into your life today and make Him your Lord and Saviour  and know for sure He’ll bring you safely there. 

Whoever we are, it would bless us to read those verses again and make them personal. The Lord is my rock, my fortress and my Saviour in whom I find protection. Go right through to the end of the passage and let the Lord minister to you and let His peace enfold you once again.

Let’s praise our wonderful Saviour today because as King David said ‘God is worthy of our praise’ and He loves us.😊

THE LORD IS GOOD TO ALL

Psalm 145:9 The Lord is good to all, and His tender mercies are over all His works.

If you had to write a Blog about the Lord today I wonder what you would write? Would it be a testimony of how good God has been to you this week, how He’s provided food and a home, good friends and family, how He’s helped you in all the little things and maybe you knew you’d had one of those God-incidence moments? We had one of those yesterday when we just ‘happened’ to be at the right place, at the right time and found what we’d been looking for, for quite some time, and we both said ‘That was a God moment.’😊

Whatever your testimony, I’m sure it would focus not on yourself but on the goodness of God. We know the Bible is a collection of 66 books all about different peoples’ daily walk with God through the pages of history. The common theme is about God’s plan, how He cared for His people and how He chose us and wanted us to be part of His family from before the world was even made and Jesus made it possible. (Ephesians 1:4)

Even if you’ve had a difficult week, if people have put you down or let you down, or things have gone wrong for you, you can know that beyond all that God chose you to be part of His wonderful plan and He still has things for us all to do and places to be.

So we can be encouraged today knowing God hasn’t given up on any of us, even if we may not have got things quite right, that He knows and cares about all of our individual circumstances, and His love surrounds us wherever we go. 

Think about that today - wherever you go and whatever you do God chose you and you’re surrounded by His love and His favour (Psalm 5:12). That’s our testimony, isn’t it? Believe it and receive it for yourself. 😊

He is a good, good God, a good, good Father and we can rest in that, no matter what else is going on.😊 Thank You Lord.

Have a blessed weekend. x

GOD HAS GONE AHEAD INTO TOMORROW

Hebrews 4:16-18 So then, since we have a great High Priest who has entered heaven, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold firmly to what we believe. This High Priest of ours understands our weaknesses, for he faced all of the same testings we do, yet he did not sin. So let us come boldly to the throne of our gracious God. There we will receive his mercy, and we will find grace to help us when we need it most.

One of the signs in the doctor’s surgery yesterday said ‘One Problem - One Appointment’!  I thought how wonderful it is that God doesn’t ever say that to us! He says to come to Him and make our requests known any time - His throne room is open to His children day or night no matter how many problems we have!

We are so blessed to have access to a loving Father and know He’s ready to listen and to come alongside and help us.

I was also reminded yesterday in Philippians 4:6 to come with thanksgiving and to be grateful for all the help God has given and how He’s rescued us in the past because it helps to remember how good and powerful God is.

So, whether you’ve had disappointments recently, or your situation hasn’t changed yet when you wanted it to, can I encourage us all to keep coming to the throne of grace for help with any and every problem we’re dealing with.

I think it helps to remember God has already gone ahead into tomorrow and prepared the way for us, whatever form our tomorrow takes, so we’re never dealing with anything on our own, or in our own strength. That’s why Jesus said we don’t need to worry about tomorrow.😊 It helps remind us that God is never taken by surprise, and He has the answer already. Thank You Lord.

I hope that helps somebody today. I know how deflated I was yesterday when I had a bad report but then I remembered God’s report, which is a good report which supersedes it, which says “For I will restore health to you and heal your wounds,” says the Lord. (Jeremiah 30:17) It’s amazing how the Lord has supernaturally given me His peace that passes understanding. That good report of God is for you to grab a hold of in faith too, it’s not just for me!

I want you to know, even if you’ve been feeling downhearted or discouraged, we can keep looking up with hope and faith in the God who loves us beyond measure and He will work all things out for our good as He brings us through the storm.😊

“Peace I leave with you, My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.” John 14:27

GOD’S ‘RIGHT NOW’ MOMENTS

Isaiah 46:13 For I am ready to set things right, not in the distant future, but right now!…

In an age that loves instant gratification, that wants everything ‘right now’ it’s interesting that God has put it in His word that there are in fact some ‘right now’ moments with Him too.

We all want things sorting out and here is the Lord saying He’s prepared to do something right now, not way off in the sweet bye and bye.

Is He waiting for something to start it off? Do you think He’s looking and waiting for people who will agree with what He says, and believe what He promises, so He can respond to their faith and make it happen? 

Isaiah 30:18 So the Lord must wait for you to come to him so he can show you his love and compassion… That verse shows us God wants to do it, but He has to wait for us to come to Him in faith. I’ve sometimes gone to Him in desperation, and I expect we’ve all been there, but if I’m honest with myself there’s usually very little faith in desperation, it’s usually filled with fear and complaining rather than faith! 😊

God is a faith God and He responds to our faith to believe Him for what He’s promised us but are we complaining because God’s not doing anything!?

Is it that we’ve got the wrong end of the stick and He’s ready to set things right but we’re so caught up with what we see and feel that our doubts are shouting louder than God’s promises in our hearts?

Perhaps it’s time to go to Him afresh, to lay down our complaints, fears and doubts and say ‘Yes Lord, I believe You can do it and ask You to do as You say and help me to stand in faith to believe that You are, even when I can’t see any evidence of it yet. Amen.’

FIGHTING IN THE BATTLE WITH US

2 Samuel 21:15 ...And when David and his men were in the thick of the battle, David became weak and exhausted.

King David was a mighty warrior but he was still able to become weak and exhausted in the heat of the battle. Life can make any one of us feel like that too. It goes on to say, at his weakest point one of the sons of the giants had David cornered, and was just about to kill him with a new sword when one of David’s men came and killed the giant for him. (Vs 16-17) (Even if  we feel we’re cornered and the enemy pulls out a new sword he still can’t defeat us!)

Sometimes when we’re at a low ebb, when we’re weak and exhausted we need the help of our brothers and sisters in the Lord to stand and enter the battle with us to help defeat our foes. To do that we need to have relationship, not just with the Lord, but with each other, to care about each other enough to stand in the gap for them.

Saying “Hello, how are you?” on a Sunday morning then going out the door, is not relationship but it requires more of us, a giving of ourselves to others to be there for them, doesn’t it?

As we read on we find several of David’s men went on and killed four more of the remaining giants. One was huge with six fingers on each hand and six toes on each foot and he had taunted and defied Israel. Big mistake! David’s nephew took him down and killed him. It’s not a good idea to defy God’s people!

When we do feel weak and exhausted it’s good to know God has men and women who will be there for us too, who will take up the sword of the spirit (the Word of God) and the shield of faith and fight for us and with us. Or maybe we need to be that person for someone else?

Whichever it is, we can know this, God is for us, so no-one and no thing can successfully be against us. Even if it looks like they are, God already has His ‘turn around plan’ set up, with His favour and our name on it.😊 

He has given us His victory, and when we stick with Him we will see it because we are on the winning side and Jesus will always be our Champion forevermore. Glory to His name. 

JESUS HAS THINGS TO SAY

John 21:4 At dawn Jesus was standing on the beach, but the disciples couldn’t see who he was.

The sun was just rising as the disciples’ boat lay a hundred yards off shore after fishing all night. They hadn’t caught a thing and probably felt rather deflated but although they saw Jesus standing on the shore they didn’t know it was Him. I wonder if that happens to us too?

What struck me was the fact that as their day began  Jesus Himself was there standing waiting for them and He does the same for us today. No matter how early or how late our morning begins Jesus is ready waiting for us to wake up. He’s prepared things for us for that day, favour to walk into, goodness and mercy to follow us throughout our day, instructions to give. Maybe we haven’t realised.

Jesus was already waiting with their cooked breakfast but first He blessed them beyond measure with a huge catch of large fish despite their own failed attempts. It doesn’t matter how much we think we’ve failed He has a success story already prepared and waiting for us. Isn’t that wonderful?

So when you next wake up in the morning, remember Jesus is waiting at the end of your bed for you to wake up, ready with His wisdom and counsel, ready with His provision for whatever you’re going to be needing. Are we going to recognise He’s there and sit down to breakfast with Him or are we just going to stay in bed thinking mundane or even defeated thoughts?

As they sat having their fish grills, Peter was talking with Jesus and the Lord outlined to him what He wanted him to be doing with the rest of his life. That was one inspiring breakfast time!

So just two thoughts - Jesus is waiting for each one of us, every morning as we wake up, and He has inspiration, instructions and blessings to give us. What a way to wake up!😊

GOD OF RESTORATION

Jeremiah 30:17 (Nkjv) For I will restore health to you, and your wounds I will heal, declares the Lord,….

Our God is a God of restoration and I was reminded of that when I listened to a line from the song ‘My Hope Is In The Blood’. It says this ‘Your name is Restoration, This is Your Reputation, Reviving what I’ve written off’ and it really struck a cord with me.

Maybe you have some things in your life that you’ve written off that need to be restored, whether it’s your health, or your financial situation, maybe estranged relationships. Whatever it is, God is well able to restore what has been lost, damaged or stolen if we’ll allow Him to do it His way. 

He goes on to say in Joel 2:25 So I will restore to you the years that the swarming locust has eaten, The crawling locust, The consuming locust, And the chewing locust,….

This verse talks about even the years we’ve lost, that feel like they’ve been eaten up for different reasons, being restored by God in His great mercy. Maybe we’ve wandered away from Him for years, maybe life ganged up on us and we had to put our dreams on hold while we fulfilled responsibilities, or had to be there for our families, and we’ve felt like we’ve lost those years or it’s too late. But God says, not so! He hasn’t written them off! He has the power to restore the years. I don’t know how He does it, but He says it, so that is enough for me.😊 

As we begin a new week, let’s start it with thankful, hopeful hearts, Hearts that are tuned to believe His words, His promises, even when it seems impossible. God loves to do the impossible, all He wants is someone to believe Him in simple childlike faith, who is willing to agree with Him and trust Him while He does it, just because He said it.

Have a truly blessed week as we believe Him to begin His restoration plan.😊

If you’d like to listen to the song ‘My Hope is In The Blood’ here is the link ….

https://youtu.be/dmlZzeMLD8E

GOD SINGS JOYFUL SONGS OVER YOU

Zephaniah 3:17 

For the Lord your God is living among you. 

He is a mighty saviour. He will take delight in you with gladness. 

With his love, he will calm all your fears. 

He will rejoice over you with joyful songs.

I love this verse because it makes me feel like God is wrapping His arms all around us and singing to us.  I’m so glad they’re joyful songs and hope they make you feel that way too. 

It tells us He delights in us so I looked it up and it means He has extreme pleasure or satisfaction in us, that we give Him great pleasure, that He’s glad we belong to Him. How lovely that is!😊

It goes on to say that if we’ll allow Him to, He’ll calm all our fears, and how does He do it? It says He does it with His love. The love of God isn’t like any other love on earth, it goes above and beyond all we can understand and think. It keeps no record of our wrongs because of what Jesus did at the Cross for each one of us. His love is faithful, unconditional, thinks the best of us and will never fail us. There is nothing to fear when we have a God like that.

I wonder if you’ve ever asked the Lord Jesus to come into your life so He can sing over you too? If you’re not sure then why not do it today? Let me invite you to join with us and pray this prayer out loud…

Lord Jesus, thank You for loving me and dying for me on the cross. I repent of my sins and believe Your precious blood washes me clean of every one of them. I make You my Lord and my Saviour, now and forever. I believe in my heart that You rose from the dead and that You are alive today. Because of Your finished work, I am now a beloved child of God and heaven is my home. Thank You for giving me Your Holy Spirit, Your eternal life, and filling my heart with Your peace and joy. Amen. 

He loves you and sings over you with great joy and His love casts out all fear.  Why not tell someone and spread your joy? Or let me know in the comments. I’d love to hear from you.😊

GOD’S DESIRE TO HAVE RELATIONSHIP WITH US

Revelation 3:20 Behold I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and eat with him, and he with me.

My daughter sent me photos of her son’s stick insects which have just hatched 71 eggs successfully! They laid them months ago then suddenly they all decided to hatch yesterday which is quite remarkable. Now I’m not really keen on any insect but I am interested in those, just because our grandson is interested in them and he can talk to us about them next time we see him which helps us build relationship in a little way.

In the same way God wants relationship with each one of us because we’re His family and He loves us and He shows us how much He’s interested in us by wanting to be involved in all we do too. He’s written in His word how He wants to care for us till we’re old and grey (Isaiah 46:4), how He knows every detail of our lives (Psalm 139).

God wants to build a two-way relationship with us and if we say we love Him then we’ll want the same thing as well.  I just think it’s wonderful that the Creator of all things, the One who breathed life into every creature, wants a personal relationship with you and me. What an honour and a privilege. 

It’s like when King David called for Jonothan’s son Mephibosheth to be found just so he could bless him and give him back all the land that had belonged to his grandfather King Saul. He had him eat at the king’s table from then on and blessed him mightily. (2 Samuel 9:7)

God is doing that with us, we get to sit at His table when we take communion and fellowship with Him but we can also talk with Him day and night, wherever we are, about anything on our minds, whether it’s something funny or something serious.

We’re part of God’s family and it just makes me feel so very grateful and no doubt you’re the same too.😊

Have a blessed weekend.😊

NO MATTER HOW LONG IT TAKES!

Psalm 103:3 He forgives all my sins and heals all my diseases.

It’s strange how we don’t doubt our sins are forgiven, but do we doubt our diseases are healed? The good news is Jesus dealt with it all at the same time at the Cross. When we’ve not been well it’s easy to be misled by our past experiences and we’re tempted to doubt our own circumstances could possibly change for the good because they have gone on so long! Well don’t despair because the Gospels give us a lot of encouragement to hang in there.😊There are several accounts of people who had dealt with situations years on end with no change, then suddenly in a moment of time, they were all healed or delivered.

Take the woman who kept bleeding. She’d dealt with that medical condition for 12 years, gone to every doctor, spent all her money and still wasn’t any better. But the day she heard Jesus could heal her she believed it, went looking for Him and was healed. Matthew 9:20-22 

Then there was the lady who had been bent over for 18 years and all she could see was other peoples’ feet and the dust of the ground. She couldn’t even look up but Jesus broke into her hopelessness and restored her to normality after 18 long years. Luke 13:10-17 

The insane, homeless man who roamed the cemetery had been bound by evil spirits and fear for so long everyone had given up on him but Jesus hadn’t given up on him and went through a storm to find him and set him free. He hasn’t given up on you either, so don’t give up on yourself!! Mark 5:1-20

Then there was the man who had been lame for 38 years at Bethesda Pool and Jesus healed him even though he kept giving reasons why he couldn’t be healed! John 5:1-9 Ever done that?

Praise God we don’t have to wait for Jesus to come to town because He’s here with us right now wherever we are. We have His written Word in front of us and that is like a personal message from God with our name written on it!

So this is to encourage us all, that no matter how many years we’ve been battling something, or how many discouraging reports we’ve had, keep believing that your healing was bought and paid for by Jesus at the cross and you’ll see it in your body. Thank You Lord our healing is as real as our sins forgiven and by faith in what Jesus did and Your Word, we believe we’ll see it revealed in us.Amen.

1 Peter 2:24 He personally carried our sins in his own body on the cross so that we can be dead to sin and live for what is right. By his wounds you are healed.

WHEN WE NEED COMFORT

2 Corinthians 1:3-4 Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves receive from God.

Do you ever wish you had the right thing to say at the right time, to know when to shut up and when to speak up? None of us want to sound trite when people are distressed and hurting and all they can cope with right now is a hug, or maybe that’s you at this moment?

Jesus told us He came to heal the broken hearted, to set captives free, to heal the sick and so much more, and it’s good to remember He hasn’t changed no matter how much our circumstances change from day to day.

So can I encourage you to keep holding on to your faith when your heart is broken, when the illness is on going, when it feels like you’re in a dark tunnel.

It’s at times like that, when we’re tempted to despair, the best thing we can do is to keep running to God and not from Him, to allow Him to comfort and reassure us with His word, because He is the God of all comfort.

Maybe what looks like a setback in your circumstances is really a set up by God to take us into something which will really bless us, far more than we can imagine or even think at the moment. In the natural we can only see what is ‘now’ but God comforts and encourages us to ‘see’ by faith. 

Shut your eyes for a few minutes, and ask Him to help you ‘see’ yourself totally healthy, ‘see’ yourself  being able to do what you can’t do just now, see yourself in a job tailored made for you and prospering. God calls it walking by faith but we need to spend time with Him ‘seeing’ things first so He can bring them about.

If you need comfort today then we pray with you for His Holy Spirit’s comfort to be so real to you, for the Lord’s faith to inspire you afresh and new hope to rise up in you, for His angels to minister to you and His peace to settle in your heart and mind, as we believe with you for God to bring His best plan and purpose out of it all. Lord we praise and thank You for all the goodness You have already prepared for us and we receive it by faith in Jesus name. Amen.

WHEN A LITTLE SPARROW CAME DOWN

Matthew 10:29-31 But not a single sparrow can fall to the ground without your Father knowing it. And the very hairs on your head are all numbered. So don’t be afraid; you are more valuable to God than a whole flock of sparrows.

I went out into the front garden yesterday and there under the lounge window, lying on the grass was a lovely little sparrow but he was dead, which was so sad to see. There was no evidence of attack but we think he may have flown into the window in the early morning sun and broken his neck, poor thing.

It made me think of our verse about God knowing when even a sparrow falls to the ground. He knew about our little sparrow and I thought how amazing that is. The Almighty God, the Creator of all things, who holds everything together and controls the universe by His Word, He knew what was happening in my front garden when that little sparrow came down!

If He knows about that (and He does) He knows everything else about us too. Psalm 139 reminds us how He knows when we get up and sit down, how He goes ahead of us and His hand of blessing is on our heads. Scripture is so relevant to our every day lives isn’t it? Even down to a little sparrow who met his end.

So as we go out into our day we can be so reassured and blessed to know that God is going ahead of us and He’s watching over us. He is so aware of us and all that our lives involve. He even knows how many hairs we have on our heads and Jesus Himself told us because of that there is absolutely no need for us to be afraid. We are so valuable to Him and we matter so much to God because He loves us.

Psalm 121:7-8 The Lord keeps you from all harm and watches over your life. The Lord keeps watch over you as you come and go, both now and forever.

YOUR KINDNESS WILL REWARD YOU

Luke 6:31 (Nlt) Do to others as you would like them to do to you.

It’s strange how things happen sometimes because two days ago we went for a walk and sat down beside a pond only to discover that someone had left their iPhone on the same seat some time before! We were faced with the dilemma of wondering if she would return to pick it up, or should we take it to keep it safe for her as it had her banker’s card in it with an identity card?

We decided to be safe than sorry so took it home and I rang her bank to let them know I had it and to let her know asap. To cut a long story short we finally discovered where she lived and returned it to her yesterday. She was so grateful it was kept by someone honest, and wanted to give us something to say thank you. We couldn’t dissuade her and she ended up giving us lots of seedlings, homemade chutney and marmalade, and some local magazines! I ended up feeling like I’d known her for ages she was such a lovely, interesting lady to talk to.😊

When I first found it I wondered if we should leave well alone but thought of our verse ‘do unto others as you want them to do to you’ and realised I’d really want someone to keep it safe for me if I left my phone lying around, even though I was a bit worried about being responsible for it. You’ve probably done a similar thing too.

It really confirmed scriptures about being rewarded for being kind to people,(Proverbs 11:17 Your kindness will reward you…) how we reap what we sow, etc. (Galatians 6:7 For whatever a man sows that he will also reap)

So I just wanted to share with you the goodness and kindness of God and how He turned it all round to be such a blessing for all concerned and to do for others whatever it is we’d like them to do for us because God Himself is our example to follow when it says in Psalm 145:17 The Lord is righteous in all he does; he is filled with kindness.😊

JESUS ISN’T STOPPED BY CLOSED DOORS

John 29:19 That Sunday evening the disciples were meeting behind locked doors because they were afraid of the Jewish leaders. Suddenly, Jesus was standing there among them! “Peace be with you,” he said.

Can you imagine being one of those disciples that night and how one of them would have checked all the doors were locked for fear of who might come to get them? There would have been tension in the room, all wondering what to do in a seemingly impossible, distressing situation.

We’ve probably all felt like that, where the doors we want to be open are locked for some reason, maybe because of fear, or ill health, or maybe because others have stopped us from stepping out into what we want to do.  All we can see is the locked doors.

We can all take heart from what happened next because Jesus wasn’t stopped by locked doors, no matter who locked them or why. He just was there, standing there among them all! Jesus still does that today, whatever our impossible situation, whatever our fearful circumstance might be Jesus is right here with us, in the middle of it with us and His first words are so reassuring “Peace be with you.”

As soon as Jesus appeared and said that, they knew everything was going to be all right because they knew who Jesus was and how powerful He was. Once they overcame their shock the passage goes on to say they were overjoyed.  All the fear left, the anxiety of what to do next left, in fact, all that mattered was  Jesus was right there with them.

So as we begin another new week, let’s hold that thought in the forefront of our minds that we know who Jesus is, and that He is actually here with each one of us wherever we are, and He’s still saying to us “Peace be with you”. Let Him lead us out through whatever locked doors we’re dealing with as He makes a way where we thought there was none.

Have a blessed week.😊

JESUS CROWNED WITH MANY CROWNS

Hebrews 2:9 

What we do see is Jesus, who was given a position “a little lower than the angels”,

 and because he suffered death for us, he is now “crowned with glory and honour.”…

Here in the Uk yesterday was a historic Coronation Day when we witnessed the crowning of our new King Charles which was an amazing ceremony we haven’t witnessed for seventy years.  

Not surprisingly it made me think of Jesus, the King of Kings and Lord of Lords and how He is now crowned with glory and honour, seated at the right hand of God the Father, far above all principality and power and might and dominion and every name that is named, not only in this age but also in that which is to come.(Ephesians 1:20-21) How wonderful that is!

Philippians 2:9 God elevated him to the place of highest honour and gave him the name above all other names, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

No matter how important anyone is in this life, there is coming a day when the great and small will all one day bow to the Lord Jesus and acknowledge Him as King of Kings and Lord of Lords. There is no one who can compare to the majesty of our King Jesus and yet He tells us constantly how much He loves us and we can come into His presence at any time. 

We are so very blessed and can all join the choirs of angels and praise His wonderful name today.

CHECK WITH GOD FIRST

2 Samuel 5:23 And again David asked the Lord what to do.

My daughter was chatting to some five year olds when one brought her half a small white egg shell to see, so she asked what sort he thought it was. Another five year old happened to be going by, looked at the egg, and said “It’s a squirrel’s egg!”,  then dashed off.😊 A child’s perspective on life is great, don’t you think?!

Sometimes we think we know the answer as well, but if we’ve been taught wrongly, or only have half the information it’s easy to get it wrong! We look at situations and make assumptions and we do get it right sometimes but the better way is to ask God for His answer each time before we jump in with ours.

There’s a good example of this in 2 Samuel 5:17-25 where David asked the Lord if he should go and fight the Philistines. God said yes, David won the battle and said the Lord gave him the breakthrough. Then after a while the Philistines returned and David had the wisdom to ask God again if he should attack them. God said yes again but gave him totally different instructions this time on how to do it. David did what God commanded and He gave him the victory yet again.

Just because we’ve done something one way before shouldn’t stop us from checking with the Lord each time a similar thing comes up and find out His strategy for dealing with it, just in case He has a different answer then the one we think is right!

So next time we have half an egg, so to speak, let’s remember to go to the right person, to God Himself,  so we get the right answer or we might end up with egg on our faces!😊

Have a blessed holiday weekend.😊

JESUS IS THE CONSTANT IN OUR LIVES

Isaiah 54:10 For the mountains shall depart. And the hills be removed, But my kindness shall not depart from you, Nor shall My covenant of peace be removed, Says the Lord, who has mercy on you.

I was listening to a man recounting how something very traumatic had occurred in his life, and friends came rallying round to help, offering to take over at work for him till he could get his head round it. They expected him to be wringing his hands and very distressed. But he’d told them that they really didn’t need to do that because no matter what was happening, He realised Jesus was still the same through it all, God hadn’t changed, and he was going to carry steadily on looking to the Lord to strengthen and help him through it, which He did.

This man had such an understanding of the fact that no matter what changed around him, what lies were told, who was against him, who betrayed him, or how badly it affected him,  absolutely nothing changed Jesus. He is the constant in all our lives. Nothing can make Him less effective in our lives before or after an extremely difficult situation. His power is never diminished in any way and He is still well able to deliver us and turn things around for our good. It may not be the way we think but God has a way. He’s promised to never abandon us, but to protect and provide for us and that will never change all the days of our lives. Praise God.

I just found his testimony so encouraging, to remember Jesus really is the same yesterday, today and forever and while we keep remembering that, we have a very sure foundation for all our lives. Things around us may be shaken but God will hold us steady.

Psalm 46:5 (Nkjv) God is in the midst of her, she shall not be shaken; God shall help her,...  v.7 The Lord of hosts is with us…

God is never taken by surprise and He already had the answer before we found we had the problem so whatever type of situation we’re dealing with He’s reminding us it’s only temporary and He will show us what to do and how to deal with it, as we keep our eyes on Him.

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THE ONE THING WE NEED

Matthew 10:42 “But one thing is needed, and Mary has chosen that good part, which will not be taken away from her.”

If I asked you what the one thing is that you need most, I wonder what you would say?

Isn’t it odd how we can have all sorts of things going well in our lives, that we are thankful for, but it only takes ‘one thing’ to go out of kilter and all we can think about is that one thing! It might be silly like one bit of hair sticking out, or a really big issue like pain, or one comment someone made that upset us, and all we can do is focus on that one negative thing! Whatever it is, it can seem all consuming.

Jesus was holding a meeting at Martha’s house and the one thing on her mind was the fact that Mary wasn’t helping out as she should, to help her make the meal.  Jesus told Martha that there was only one thing needed, but Martha really didn’t get it. He did recognise her other need but He said there was actually something much more important she needed to do instead.

He wanted her to focus on Him and on what He had to say to her, just like Mary was doing, because she knew if she put Jesus first then everything else would eventually come together anyway. 

I wonder if we’re a bit like Martha? We have so much to do that we feel if we don’t do it, then no one else will! We’re thinking we have to do it all, and then we put these high standards on ourselves that it has to be perfect! Very often it’s followed by resentment trying to creep in and it’s all because our focus has been on ourselves like Martha. I know I’ve fallen in that trap before but if you haven’t then you’ve been wise and been like Mary.😊

So today be kind to yourself, and when that ‘one thing’ keeps nagging on and on at you, turn it round for a few minutes, make a conscious effort to give Jesus first place in that moment and thank Him He’s helping you. Then at some point in our day we can make a determined decision to sit with Him and give Him our undivided attention - make His Word the one thing we’re focusing on, so we can hear what He has to say. It’s the ‘one thing’ Jesus says we all need most! 😊

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ENJOY ENTERING HIS REST

Matthew 11:28-30 (Nlt) Then Jesus said, “Come to me, all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens , and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you. Let me teach you, because I am humble and gentle at heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy to bear, and the burden I give you is light.

At the end of the day it is so good to take a few minutes with the Lord, to sit quietly and let the affairs of the day begin to drop off, one by one, to take a deep breathe and imagine ourselves leaning into the Lord and just enjoy that time of resting in Him, knowing He loves us so much. He says His rest is His gift to us.

He was there with us through every moment, whether it was stressful, difficult or enjoyable. He saw every struggle, every time we remembered to acknowledge Him and He’s so aware of everything we’ve dealt with. He’s not judging us for our failures but He is celebrating with us over our victories.

Jesus constantly encourages us to come to Him, through the day as well, to cast our cares on Him, to let Him take our burdens. He wants us to let Him give us His way of doing things with His ease and gentleness. Jesus experienced life in the raw as he rubbed shoulders with His twelve disciples, the crowds who demanded from Him day after day, and those who were so opposed to Him, so He understands what we’re up against but always reminding us we’re not doing it alone.

He gave us the gift of His Holy Spirit because He didn’t want us to try to go through life under our own steam. He provided us with a Supernatural Helper, a Supernatural Counsellor when we need to know what to do. His Holy Spirit is the One who is there to walk through life with us, to celebrate every joy and help us with every difficulty.

Then at the end of every day He says “Now come to me and rest, unwind, hand it all over, lay it down and let Me deal with it, then tomorrow we’ll start again together.” Isn’t that a lovely thought?

We’re never alone, never without help, always deeply loved, highly favoured and greatly blessed.

So when we go to sleep at night let’s run those thoughts over and over in our minds and drop off in His loving arms, knowing we’re at peace with Him and He’s watching over us. Amen.😊

REMEMBER WHAT GOD HAS SAID ABOUT IT

2 Corinthians 10:4-5 For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds, casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ.

I was trying to sell a rabbit hutch on a free to sell website, but woke up one morning to a long, aggressive message from an animal activist type person saying I was terrible to sell a hutch and that I was so wrong to do it and to remove the advert! I’ve never had anything like that happen before and it was upsetting at the time as it felt threatening.

Later I had another person wanting to view it which meant I had to give them my address, but immediately I wondered if it was safe to do so! All sorts of bad scenarios ran through my mind that they might target us as I’d recently heard how some activists had let peoples’ car tyres down and my imagination went into overdrive! Were they connected to the first lady? 

Have you ever done that? You assume the worst! I prayed for wisdom to know what to do and by next morning felt the Lord saying to go ahead and stop worrying!

We sold the hutch yesterday to a lovely young couple with no problem, and I learned an important lesson -  not to listen to all the negative junk the enemy feeds us or assume the worst! I had to remind myself that God is on our side, He’s protecting us 24/7 and no weapon formed against us shall prosper. I learned I shouldn’t let situations blow up out of all proportion in my mind but to keep focused on what God has said in His word then act on that. I should know better, shouldn’t I?!😊

God says to tear down every imagination that exalts itself against the knowledge of God and that includes what He has said in His Word. There are times you have to make that very practical and this was one of those.

So this is just a word of encouragement, the next time things suddenly blow up and your mind goes into worst case scenarios - if you can, take a deep breath, stand back a minute and remember what God has said about things. We can ask for His wisdom, sleep on it if we have time and don’t have a knee jerk reaction. Let’s tear down those negative thoughts and speak out His word and allow His peace to flow once again.😊

BELIEVE GOD IS DOING IT

Mark 9:23 “What do yo mean, ‘If I can’?” Jesus asked. “Anything is possible if a person believes.”

I’m so glad we can start the month on a high note of anything is possible. We can have confidence that even when things are tough God hears every sigh and knows what they’re all about without us even having to explain why every time, because sometimes we don’t even know why, do we? Do you ever feel like that? 

The lovely thing is, God is interested in every up and down we go through. I know some of the downs are our own fault due to us not thinking right, but there are the times when things conspire against us and it’s hard to keep a victory mindset and keep believing.😊

I’ve been believing the Lord for something all through last month and it just didn’t look like it was going to happen and I was feeling disappointed in myself for not having enough faith. Isn’t it interesting how the enemy turns it back on us to condemn and discourage us! Then lo and behold the Lord did it, the thing I was believing for happened and I just wanted to cry in gratefulness for the Lord’s goodness. It wasn’t anything huge but it was something I had stepped out in faith to believe for, something that mattered to me. 

Can I encourage us all today, to go beyond the sighs, to keep walking by faith, to have a faith project, however small it may seem to us, and keep believing God can and will do it for us. Now you may be light years ahead of me on this, but for those who struggle in believing God for things, this is for you. 

Start believing God for something based on His word, and pin your faith to it and don’t listen to the enemy’s discouraging lies. Keep reminding yourself how God keeps His promises, He does the impossible and the difficult with ease, that nothing is too hard for Him.

As we commit this new month to the Lord, let’s be specific and commit our faith project to Him too. If we only have the faith for something small then let’s start there, and not try to run before we can walk. It may be to see an improvement in a particular part of our health, or to see our finances take an upward turn, or a relationship to be sweeter. All through the day keep thanking Him for the victory, for the improvement regardless of what you see. 

Whatever it is, Jesus says all things are possible to him who believes so let’s believe for something specific so our faith can grow and give Jesus something to work with.

Have a blessed ‘all things are possible’ week and month.😊