WHAT IS YOUR JUG FULL OF?

1 Peter 5:7 (NLT) Give all your worries and cares to God, for he cares about you.

I wonder if you have a tendency to be a worrywart?  If so I’m here to remind us all God is bigger than whatever we’re facing in our lives, no matter how big it is, that He is ordering our steps and we’re safe in His hands.🙂

God never intended for us to worry ourselves silly, but He wants us to cast all those cares over on to Him, to release them into His hands so He can fill us up afresh and make our cup overflow with the good things we’ll need today.(Psalm 23:5 …My cup runs over.) 

Imagine your soul is an empty water jug at the start of your day but negative things happen that fill it up. When we spill juice down our clothes, that exasperation goes in our jug. Then the bad traffic pours irritation in, on the way to work or school. Fear begins to trickle in as we think we’ll be late for our appointment, and by now we’re more than half full with negative emotions. Before you know it someone jumps into our space in the car park and we get more frustrated. Then someone rings us up and pours their complaints all over us, or offends or hurts us. It’s the final straw and our jug is now overflowing with angst, worry, frustration, discouragement and probably some resentment as well.

All the while the Holy Spirit has been trying to release His peace into our situation but there was no room for it. He was wanting to give us His joy, but all the frustrations of the day have plugged up the pipes so it can’t flow. Do you get the picture? 

It’s then we need to know we can come to the Lord and pour out our jug of stinky water and give it all to Him. We can release all those cares and fears, the depression or discouragement, and allow Him to pour the refreshing water of His love back into our jug along with His peace and joy, let His perspective flow in, and fill our thoughts with His thoughts. Or better yet, release them to Him as they happen so they don’t clog up the pipes of His blessing throughout the day in the first place.🙂

We don’t have to keep on carrying it all, but it is our choice! God won’t force us to let it all go but He does want us to. Do you think it’s maybe time to press the release button and let it all flow out where it can’t harm us anymore and let the goodness of God pour back in once again?🙂

Lord help us cast all our cares on to You and not take them back again. In Jesus Name. Amen.

HAVING A WILLING HEART

Ephesians 2:19 For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.

God gives us all opportunities to become involved with His kingdom, or to fulfil His plans and purposes for all of us as individuals, plans He has had organised since before we were even born. He doesn’t force us to do them because He gives us a free choice, but He does ask something of us all. He asks for a willing heart.

Perhaps you feel like God is asking you to do something you don’t feel qualified to do, or is it that it seems too daunting? It may be taking on a new position or moving house, or something out of our comfort zone.🙂 

As I thought about that the Lord reminded me that whatever He asks of us He will not only anoint us to do it, but He will equip us with everything we need to be successful in it. In other words it’s not all up to us, which should make us feel a lot better! How about you? Are you holding back because of fear that you might fail or not have what it takes, that you’re too old, or too young, or not enough money? 

If so, God reminds us in Deuteronomy 28:8 that everything you set your hand to do will be successful. In other words whatever God commissions us with, we know if we’ll stick with it, it will prosper. Things don’t always come together straight away. In fact, I’ve found they can take quite a while, but God gives us the endurance to hang in there till the success and prospering bit appears! So don’t give up!🙂

So may I encourage us all to step out in faith and just take the next step, and leave the rest with the Lord to direct how it goes from there. We don’t need the whole plan, He has that all sorted. All we need is a willing and obedient heart. God may have something very exciting up ahead but till we take that first step we shall never know.🙂

Isaiah 1:19 If you are willing and obedient you will eat the good of the land.

FIRST THINGS FIRST

Matthew 5:33-34 Seek the Kingdom of God above all else. And live righteously, and he will give you everything you need. So don’t worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will bring its own worries. Today’s trouble is enough for today.

I expect we all have plans for this week. For some it’s going to work and chilling out at night, or looking after family or grandchildren, maybe clearing up after the weekend. We all have regular activities we have to do from day to day.

I was reminded in church yesterday that Jesus said He will give us everything we need when we give His kingdom first place and remember we’re actually on assignment for Him each day. We’re His ambassadors, aren’t we, wherever we go? I wonder if we forget that sometimes and seem to have it back to front? 

Do we tend to organise everything we have to do first, then fit God in around it, or maybe we squeeze God in at the end of the day and then find we’re too tired to think? Even if we’re not a morning person scripture encourages us to seek God at the start of the day before we do anything else. 🙂

He might have a word of warning, or advice about the best way to do things today, but if we’ve rushed out the door without checking with Him first we may miss something that could transform our day for the better. In the rush of life let’s remember we have a resident Counsellor, Helper and Comforter in the Holy Spirit.

God wants to be involved in every part of our lives no matter how unimportant we think those things are and He may well have something planned for us to do for Him which we won’t want to miss. It may be something simple like ringing up somebody to cheer them up.🙂

So just before you dash out to do all you have to do, why not draw a breath, take a few minutes to acknowledge to the Lord you want to put Him first and how you need His help. If nothing else, it will remind you how much He loves you and that He will be a very present help if you get into difficulties later on. 

Have a blessed week.🙂

MIND GAMES

2 Corinthians 10:4-5 

since the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh, 

but are powerful through God for the demolition of strongholds. 

We demolish arguments and every proud thing that is raised up against the knowledge of God,

 and we take every thought captive to obey Christ.

Do you ever have days when the enemy really tries to mess you up, putting thoughts in your head about how you’ve failed in some area, or offended someone unintentionally? He just tries to make you feel so bad! If anyone identifies with that, you have probably felt miserable too.

So what do we do? In my case I said sorry, and as it happened, they said it wasn’t a problem at all! In other words the enemy had just been playing mind games with me, making me imagine there was a problem where there was none, giving me thoughts that weren’t true! 

The important thing was, I brought it out into the open and when I did, I discovered there was no truth in what I’d been thinking they were thinking!🙂 And even if there had been, we can ask the Lord to forgive us. When we keep things locked up inside, the enemy can keep his hold on our minds, but when we bring things out in the open, the enemy loses his grip and his tricks and lies are exposed for what they are. Why worry and stew over something that’s not actually true anyway!?

When Jesus went to the Cross He took all our failings, all our insecurities, all our griefs and sorrows, all our fears, our broken hearts, all the times when we’ve missed it, and all our guilt and shame. 

He took it all upon Himself, all of it, and in exchange He gave us His righteousness, His right standing with His Father, so we can come with confidence into God’s presence and receive His mercy, His peace, and His wonderful grace; and most of all we receive His great love for us, day or night.

We demolish the enemy’s thoughts with the truth that God accepts us because He has already made us righteous through Jesus.

I tell you what, when you really dwell on that for a little while, it makes you want to say ‘Thank You Lord’ once again. So whether you can get to church today or not, why not spend a few moments remembering how good to us the Lord has been, and is, and let’s join our praises together across the world to exalt our wonderful Saviour, the Lord Jesus. Amen.

Psalm 106:1 Praise the Lord! Oh give thanks to the Lord, for he is good, for his steadfast love endures forever!

A HOLE IN GOD’S JIGSAW

1 Corinthians 12:22 All of you together are Christ’s body, and each of you is a part of it.

The other day I was needed to sew up the hems of curtains at my daughter’s house and had a lovely time. She had done all the hard work of measuring and pinning, my job was to sew them into place. They all came together well so everyone is pleased.🙂

It made me think of how we all have our part to play in life as Christians. Paul explains how the body of Christ is made up of individual people but we all have different roles to fill. Some of us are encouragers, some are helpers, some have an up front role while others are behind the scenes.

What he does emphasise in this chapter, is that we are all needed, no matter where we fit in the big picture, and when we’re not there then there is a big hole that no one else can fill. It’s a bit like each one of us is a piece of God’s jigsaw and when we’re not in our place there’s a hole, there’s a piece missing! We’re all a very necessary part of something bigger than ourselves and we’re all meant to fit in somewhere, where we can engage with God together.🙂

The good news is, each one of us is so needed! God has given all of us the ability to do certain things that will help one another and build up His church so we need never think it doesn’t matter if we’re not there. We all matter to God, and we all have a part to play even if it’s to smile at someone and make them feel you’re glad they’re there. 

So God is reminding us that we’re all part of Christ’s body. He wants us to meet together and even if you’ve been out of it for years, now would be a good time to start again, let Him show you where you fit in, and let Him bless you and be a blessing at the same time.🙂 

IT’S RIGHT NOW!

2 Corinthians 6:1 For God says, “At just the right time, I heard you. On the day of salvation, I helped you. Indeed, the “right time” is now. Today is the day of salvation.

I wonder if you are a ‘right now’ person, a let’s do it now person? Or are you more cautious, the sort to put it off till ‘one day’? So often we put things off for so long we forget God is willing to do for us whatever we are willing to believe Him for, right now. Not just ask, but believe we’ve received it.

God is ‘I AM’, He is always in our now, in our present moment, and whatever He has promised us in His Word, whatever was available to us last year or years ago is still available to us today, right now. That is good news.🙂

God says today is the day of salvation, the right time is now. Everything with God is now, because faith is in the now. If you missed your ‘now’ last week, last year or twenty years ago, don’t worry because God is saying your ‘now’ can still be right now. We are still in the day of Grace, still in the now of His salvation. That is good news too.🙂

Whatever we are believing God for, we need to see it in our heart and receive it right now. It may not manifest right now, but we need to receive it now, by faith, for it to manifest later.

When the media reports so much bad news we have to ask ourselves are we focused on the News or on the Good News? If we focus on the bad news and filling our hearts with what’s happening in the world, we’ll find it hard to focus on God’s Good News. We can miss our ‘now’ blessings because we’re focused on the ‘now’ News, which can disturb us and block our faith.

Someone once asked ‘If you’re always putting things off to the future, what is today for?’ Good question and it’s one I need to answer for myself! What are we seeing with our hearts today, what are we believing and receiving today? 

God is more powerful in blessing us than the enemy is in stealing from us and He says ‘Surely blessing I will bless you and multiplying I will multiply you.’ (Hebrews 6:14) That blessing is for us too, because we inherit the blessing of Abraham through Jesus.(Galations 3:14) More Good News!🙂

Whatever we need, whatever is pressuring us, let’s believe and receive God’s blessings, God’s provision, God’s protection, right now, so He can manifest them to us at the right time. Amen. 

WATER OFF A DUCK’S BACK

Acts 28:3&5 But when Paul had gathered a bundle of sticks and laid them on the fire, a viper came out because of the heat, and fastened on his hand. v.5 But he shook off the creature into the fire and suffered no harm.

No doubt, over the course of our lives, we will have had people say things about us, or to us, that have discouraged or maybe badly hurt us. The enemy will use people to do that, even within a church context which can be especially hurtful! We need to remember not everyone who goes to church is in tune with the Holy Spirit all the time and they, and we, can get it wrong sometimes, including me.

But I keep getting this expression “like water off a duck’s back” running through my head and I felt the Lord was saying we can be like the Apostle Paul when he was bitten by a viper. He ‘shook it off’ into the fire. He didn’t let it stick or hang on to him. He physically shook it off into a place where it couldn’t continue to hurt him, into the fire. He burnt it up! It was just like water off a duck’s back!🙂

Can I encourage you if you’ve had some hurtful words spoken over you, maybe only yesterday or even from years ago, to realise that they are burnt up by God’s words that tell us He loves us with an everlasting love, that He accepts us in His beloved Son the Lord Jesus and He considers you to be one of His greatest treasures. All the hurtful, damaging words are burnt up by His words ‘you are blameless and without fault in His sight’. (Col.1:22-23/Eph 1:4) 

Let’s do as the Lord’s Prayer says, and go one step further and forgive whoever sinned against us. God has forgiven us our many failings, and we can forgive others too.🙂

So God’s word to us today is to shake off what that snake has said or done that bit us, and let it be like water off a duck’s back. See it fall off you, burnt up, in the light of God’s approval and acceptance and His great love for you. In Jesus’ Name. Amen.

NO MAN IS AN ISLAND

Ephesians 4: 29 Don’t use foul or abusive language. Let everything you say be good and helpful, so that your words will be an encouragement to those who hear them.

You’ll have heard the quote “No man is an island” because we all affect one another. We all have people in our lives, whether it’s relatives, work colleagues, neighbours or just acquaintances. They are the people our lives touch regularly or fleetingly throughout our day, and our words, actions and attitudes will affect them.

God gives us the opportunity to build someone up as we brush shoulders with them. Everybody needs a word of encouragement, and we can all testify to when an encouraging word has been spoken over our own lives, how it has helped us to keep going or just made our day.🙂

We recognise it with babies when they fall over when we smilingly help them up and tell them to try again, that they can do it. But actually we’re never too old to be told we can try again, that we can do it.😊 

People go through many difficult experiences which can knock their confidence and they feel put down, or of no account, but our job is to encourage them and build them back up, let them know they are of great value, that they will overcome and get through whatever has hit them. Let them know that they are of great worth, and their worth is not lessened just because of what someone has said or done. 

We can bless people by letting them know we believe in them, and appreciate them, that they have great potential inside them just waiting to come out, and give them our approval. 

Maybe you need to hear all of that today too.🙂 Know this, God loves you deeply and His greatest desire is to bless you and help you to become all that He wants you to be. So put your shoulders back, lift your head up and know God says you are of great worth, of enormous value to Him and us, that He believes in you. He approves you and says with Him you are more than enough. You are blessed and you will overcome whatever is coming against you with God’s help. God bless you.

DEALING WITH DISAPPOINTMENTS

Romans 5:5 Now hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us.

We probably all experience disappointments at some stage of life, when we feel let down, but I read this in a book recently “Don’t remain in your disappointments.” That really struck my thinking.

The tendency is for us to do just that! We can become stuck and fixated on the betrayal, the disappointment in people or circumstances, even disappointment with ourselves when we don’t perform as we thought we should. The trouble is, disappointment can lead to bitterness and resentment, even anger at God which leads us to want to ask the age old question “Why? Why did this happen to me or my loved ones. Why God?”

We shall never know the answers to some of our “Whys” this side of eternity, but we do know our God is a good God and He is for us and not against us and He loves us to the Cross and back. We do know He has given us His own Holy Spirit to lead and guide and comfort us through all the “Whys” of life.

Our disappointments can be a testing ground of our faith, when we learn where we need God’s help and His strengthening. My older brother was saying how he’s finding he’s talking to the Lord more and more throughout his day, going to Him about everything all the time. I thought that sounds like dwelling in the secret place of the Most High.🙂

When we go through disappointments, when the valley seems especially dark and the mountain top seems a long way off, we can know the security of the ‘secret place’ where we can go and tell the Lord all about our disappointments and resentments, and leave them there. It’s where He gives us new hope, new assignments, maybe a new perspective, and new joys He has prepared for us since before the world was made.

So let me encourage you today to not remain in your disappointments, don’t get stuck in your resentment or anger, but give them all to the Lord and know with a certainty that He has something far greater in store for you to replace them. His hope does not disappoint, He has ‘Godappointments’ for you.😊 Thank You Lord. 

Jeremiah 29:11 For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.

JESUS OUR CHAMPION, OUR HERO

Isaiah 6:1 In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, high and lifted up, and the train of His robe filled the temple. 

We all look at things differently don’t we? Some people see Jesus one way and others see Him another way. Yesterday we saw the Lord as He went to the Cross shedding His blood for us and as I was thinking about all that, this verse came to my mind. Isaiah saw the Lord sitting on a throne, high and lifted up. He was given a vision of the Risen Lord, all powerful, seated on a throne.

God also wants us to see Jesus now high and lifted up as well, our great Champion, our great Hero reigning victorious over all the works of the devil. 🙂 He is now The Victor, the One who upholds all things by the word of His power. God has exalted Him to the place of highest honour and given Him the name above all names so that all of creation, seen or unseen, all powers and principalities, have to bow their knee to His mighty Name. 

Jesus defeated and disarmed Satan at the Cross, and his only weapon now is to try to deceive us into doubting God’s word and His promises. But if we’ll keep our eyes on Jesus, seeing Him at the Cross but also seeing Him now seated on the throne at the right hand of the Father, our confidence and faith in Him will grow and grow.

We will find ourselves dwelling in the secret place of the Most High. We’ll be able to declare “He is my God, my refuge and my fortress, in Him I will trust.”(Psalm 91)

As we enter the new working week we’ll know that we’re protected each day, provided for by His riches in glory by Christ Jesus. We’ll be able to receive His love, His healing, His peace and joy even when life comes against us. 

We will find ourselves overcoming, not because of who we are, but because of Jesus our Champion and who we are in Him and because He is now the ultimate Victor, the High and Lifted Up One, the King of all Kings and Lord of all Lords to the glory of God. Amen.

Have a blessed week.😊

WHEN WE NEED A NEW HEART

Ezekiel 36:26 (Nlt)

And I will give you a new heart, and I will put a new spirit in you. 

I will take out your stony, stubborn heart and give you a tender, responsive heart.

The other day it was minus 5 degrees here and there was a hard, harsh frost when I looked out the window, everything was white as could be with ice! Then the sun came up and it began to gradually melt.

Life can be a bit like that, can’t it? Everything seems hard and harsh when things are going wrong and situations don’t seem to be turning round quite as soon as we’d like them to. Sometimes even our hearts can become hard with unbelief and we find it difficult to receive what God is saying or wanting to do for us, because of discouragement or disappointments and we can feel cold or distant towards Him. Maybe we’ve all known that experience at some time?

But I’m here to remind anyone who feels that way, all is not lost!🙂 God is still the same, He is still with you even if you have grown cold. He hasn’t gone anywhere and He’s waiting for you to turn your face to Him once again and let Him shine the warmth of His love into your heart and let it melt your hard places and bring healing peace into all areas of your life.

If ever I doubt His love for me I think about the day He went to the Cross. I see Him stagger and fall on the road under the weight of the wooden cross He was carrying. His back was so badly lacerated, He was covered in blood, He was so beaten up, He should have been in intensive care but He still had to endure the crucifixion for us. I look at His hands and feet and see them pierced with huge nails for us. I look at His brow and see the scars where the crown of thorns was pressed onto His head. I see the gash where a soldier pierced His side with his spear as yet more and more blood flowed. I look into His eyes and see His great love and compassion for us, as after hours of torment He finally said “It’s finished”. 

What was finished? Our separation from His loving Father. Our sin, our hardness of heart had all been put on Him. We have constant open access now to go to our Heavenly Father at any time. We’re forgiven, accepted and approved by Him in Jesus. Jesus paid the price.

So why not turn to Him afresh today? Ask Him to take away any coldness in your heart and to give you a new tender, responsive heart. Know the warmth of His care enfolding you and just bask in His great love for you as He let’s you know you’re safe in His arms, no matter what’s happened or is going on in your life. Thank You Lord.

DON’T BE A DINOSAUR

Hosea 4:6 (NLT) My people are being destroyed because they don’t know me.

                (NKJV) My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge.

I’ve just had our desktop PC upgraded and had more up to date software put in it as mine had crashed, it was so old.  I now have to learn the new software which is not easy as I only have a moderate amount of skill with the computer but it’s one of those things that just has to be done in order to survive with all the modern technology. 

The thought occurred to me that the Christian life is like that too. In order to not just survive, but to thrive in this life we have to be prepared to learn new things when God wants to give us new insights and fresh revelation about Himself or His kingdom. There is so much we don’t know!

Where the Word of God is concerned I know it’s no good being a dinosaur and saying “I don’t need to know.’ Our scripture says God’s people can actually be destroyed through lack of knowledge. What we don’t know may be hurting us, but what we do know may save us! 

I wish there was a USB stick I could plug in my brain where all the skill to work the computer was plugged in to my head immediately but it will need time and effort to learn. In the same way God wants us to be willing to spend time to know Him so we’re prepared for the days ahead, or maybe so we can have the right word to say to someone who really needs a word of encouragement at the right time.

Whatever we learn about the Lord it’s for our benefit, may be for our protection, and will definitely be a blessing to us, so can I encourage us all to get ‘plugged in’ to the Word of God more than ever as the year unfolds. I know we won’t regret it.🙂

Have a blessed weekend.🙂

HE LIFTS US OUT

Psalm 40:1-3 I waited patiently for the Lord to help me, and he turned to me and heard my cry. 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.

When we're tempted to despair, when we can't see the answer, when we're just plain worn out with keeping on keeping on, when all we want to do is get well and we can't see any progress, what do we do?

We turn to Jesus because he's the only one who can help us. We keep our focus on Him and His finished work on the Cross, not on our troubles. His eye is on the sparrow and he's watching over you and me. In other words His focus is always on us. Isn’t that an encouraging thought.🙂

He knows what it was like to feel let down, disappointed, betrayed. It says He bore all our sicknesses and diseases as well as our sin in His own body, and as he hung on the cross for something he didn't do He had your face and mine before him and He did it for us. He could have given up at any point but he chose not to because he loved us so. I’m so thankful for that!

The enemy loves to come to discourage us, to bring his doubts but can I tell you he won't win. We belong to God, He's working behind the scenes and the reward for not giving up will be great. God is on it, He’s lifting us out and He’s turning things around for our good. God has given us a new song to sing, a song of praise. Can I encourage you to sing it, even if you don’t feel like it?🙂  Your faith will encourage others as well.

God's plans are still being worked out and they're for His glory and yours, so don't give up. Let me join my faith with yours and know together we can do this because He is steadying us as we walk along and we will overcome with His help. Thank You Lord.🙂

GOD INTENDS US TO WIN

Psalm 23:2-6 He lets me rest in green meadows; he leads me beside peaceful streams. He renews my strength. He guides me along right paths… You are close beside me; Your rod and your staff protect and comfort me….my cup overflows with blessings.

All through this psalm David is reminding himself how the Lord leads him along the way and He strengthens Him when he’s worn out. If we’ve been feeling a bit worn out lately, God just wants to remind us that we have the same Good Shepherd who is leading and strengthening us as well today.

There are times when the pathway He leads us on is peaceful and restful which we all enjoy, but there are also times when, like David, we’re led into battle. God reassures us though, when He tells us He always leads us in triumph. 2 Cor. 2:14 But thanks be unto God, who always leads us in triumph in Christ… In other words if we have to go into battle He tells us He intends for us to win. God never leads us in defeat, only in victory and He even says He will fight the battle for us when we trust Him.(Exodus 14:14 The Lord will fight for you, and you shall hold your peace.)

We may not think it looks like we’re winning, but that’s because we’re only half way through the battle, there are still pieces of our jigsaw to be fitted in to see the completed picture. It’s at those times we have to trust Him to lead us along the right paths (v.3) and know He is so close beside us to protect and comfort us, (v.4) and He intends us to win and be blessed.(v.5)

Jesus is still our Good Shepherd, He knows the end from the beginning and His plans are for our good, so let’s decide to enjoy the journey and see where He leads us next, knowing, like David, that His goodness and mercy are following us all the days of our lives, He’s leading us into victory, and He loves us deeply. Thank You Lord. Amen.🙂

(Photo courtesy of Wendy Girling)

DANCING IN THE RAIN

Romans 8:6  So letting your sinful nature control your mind leads to death. But letting the Spirit control your mind leads to life and peace.

I read this yesterday “Life isn’t about waiting for the storm to pass. It’s about learning to dance in the rain.” Sounds good, but not always easy, is it?

Have you ever seen the film “Singing In The Rain’? I like the bit where Gene Kelly sings and dances in the pouring rain with his umbrella, it was so upbeat. You can watch it here in a minute if you like.🙂 https://youtu.be/B0asbGJbLKc?si=7gFC9DAtab3tRz65

The thing is, some days the grumpy me doesn’t feel like singing in the rain! The grumpy me wants to grumble! But then some days I can rise above my day being rained on, and I sing anyway.🙂

Perhaps you’re the same? It’s all about allowing the Spirit to control our minds which is life and peace, or being led by the flesh, our human nature, which is the opposite! Where our mind goes, will affect our attitudes and emotions as well. We all know we need to stay in tune with the Holy Spirit more so He can help us rise above the disappointments, the sickness or tiredness or whatever is causing the miserables.

So I’m here today to see if I can encourage us all to sing anyway, whether it’s raining in our lives or not! Scripture says to put on the the spirit of praise for the spirit of heaviness to drive it out, and God always knows what He’s talking about.🙂 Isaiah 61:3 To give them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness;…

Our God is always worthy of our praise, He’s always good to us, He’s always faithful and His love endures forever. So let’s praise Him for those things and ask the Holy Spirit to help us not dwell on the grumblies any more, but to rise above them - to learn to sing and maybe even dance in the rain.🙂 Amen.

Feel free to add a link to any praise song suggestions in the ‘Comments’ which we can all join in with if you like.🙂

WHO GOD CALLS US

Luke 1:36-37 Now indeed, Elizabeth your relative has also conceived a son in her old age; and this is now the sixth month for her who was called barren. For with God nothing shall be impossible.

She who was called…. I wonder if you are someone who other people have called something other than what God has called you? Maybe you’ve even called yourself some negative things that are based on your feelings, your performance, or your circumstances.

I’ve heard some people call themselves rubbish, or insecure, or unloved, or clumsy or hopeless. We may have had people call us names that weren’t helpful or that pulled us down. I know someone who was told by her headmaster that she wouldn’t amount to anything. She went on to prove him totally wrong and became a headmistress herself at one point! She’s a very gifted lady.🙂

Any negative thing we have been called in the past is cancelled when we believe what God calls us - His masterpiece, His special treasure, the apple of His eye. He calls us anointed, accepted and approved by Him.

Maybe you’ve thought it was impossible to shake off the names people have called you in the past, but God says differently for with God nothing is impossible. Maybe you’ve been called a failure, but God says you are a success going somewhere to succeed. Maybe you’ve been called sick and that you’ll always be ill, but God calls you healed and whole because of the wounds on Jesus’ back.

Whatever you have been called by people or yourself, if it doesn’t agree with what God says in scripture, then it’s out of kilter. What God calls us is true but He does require us to agree with Him.🙂

God calls you fearfully and wonderfully made, made worthy, well able, gifted and anointed. Now keep reminding yourself of what God calls you and brush off any other name that’s been sticking to you. You are a son or daughter of the Most High God and He also calls you deeply loved and righteous in His sight.🙂 Thank You Lord!

A FIT OF THE DULLS!

Hebrews 6:10-12 For God is not unjust. He will not forget how hard you have worked for him and how you have shown your love to him by caring for other believers, as you still do. Our great desire is that you will keep on loving others as long as life lasts…. Then you will not become spiritually dull and indifferent…

Have you ever had a fit of the dulls? Whether it’s the spiritual dulls or the physical and mental dulls I think we’ve probably all had them at some point! Some people call it the ‘Blahs’! They creep up on us when we’re not looking and very often manifest in our emotions. We start to feel as though we’re batting our heads against a brick wall and not getting anywhere. Anyone identify?

We all know the devil is the enemy of our souls, and he’d like nothing better than to discourage or depress us, to stop us in our tracks, but we have Almighty God on our side and if we’ll turn to Him for help He will raise us up above all those dull, indifferent feelings.

V.11 Our great desire is that you will keep on loving others as long as life lasts…. This is God’s will for us, that we keep on going, keep on loving people in whatever way He has shown us to do it. Whatever it is God has graced you to do, keep doing it with love in your heart, love for people and love for God.

The end results are not our responsibility, whether we’re helping one, or a thousand and one, that privilege belongs to God. Maybe He has asked you to do something very small or maybe it’s huge, but whatever it is, do it as unto Him and know you are making a difference to somebody.🙂 Listen, God sees our efforts, and every act of obedience, every act of love on our part pleases Him and He will remember it.

So as we launch into another working week, can I encourage you to shake off the ‘dulls’ and keep loving people in whatever you do. Keep going, knowing that as we turn to God He’ll give us fresh insights, fresh inspiration, wisdom, joy, and endurance when we need it, to be a blessing to others and be blessed ourselves. God bless you. 🙂

ENJOY THE MOMENT

Psalm 118:24 This is the day the Lord has made. We will rejoice and be glad in it.

Yesterday we enjoyed the most lovely country walk in the sunshine and saw the first snowdrops which always cheers me up as they seem to herald the Spring is just around the corner. We’ve had so much rain lately but the sky was as blue as could be and I even saw a Little Owl perched on top of a tree which was amazing.

We were daft enough to play Pooh Sticks in the stream which was hilarious as my stick was totally stuck below the bridge but suddenly freed itself it and overtook the other sticks. Yay! Such a simple thing, but it brought a lot of joy and I so enjoyed the moment.🙂

I just thought I’d try to encourage us all today to try to find the joy in the little things and not let them slip past us in the bustle of every day. It’s hard, when we have responsibilities, and life becomes a bit intense, to remember to stop and ‘smell the flowers’ as they say.

The Lord gave us the Lord’s Day to have a rest once a week and I do hope you can do that today, to make the time to worship Him and find something to do that brings a lightness to your spirit and joy to your heart, something that at the end of the day you can say thank you to Him for, and maybe make a happy memory along the way.🙂

Have a blessed day.x

GOD UNDERSTANDS

1 Peter 2:24 who Himself bore our sins in His own body on the tree, that we, having died to sins, might live for righteousness - by whose stripes you were healed.

No matter what colour our skin, or where we live in the world, we all share the same human condition. There are days when we all find it harder to get up in the morning than others, those days we just want to curl up and go back to sleep!🙂

God knows us all so well and Jesus shared our humanity so He understands what makes us tick, He understands our highs and our lows, He knew what it was like to be tired and hungry. When He went to the Cross He had all our sinful condition put on Him, so He felt and took all our failures and mistakes, our sins, our guilt and shame, even our sicknesses and diseases. It says He carried it all in His own body on the tree. Why am I saying all that? 

It’s because God wants to remind us today that He understands us, and He gave us Jesus to take away the sin, the guilt, the heaviness, any sense of failure, or whatever weighs us down in our spirits, because Jesus died so we could be free of it all. Galatians 5:1(NLT) So Christ has truly set us free. Now make sure that you stay free, …

God wants us to remember why Jesus came, why we’re believing in His redeeming power to save us from the kingdom of darkness, that He has translated us out of it and put us in His own Kingdom, the Kingdom of His dear Son.(Colossians 1:13) Do we sometimes forget?🙂

If you didn’t feel like getting up this morning, take heart, because Jesus has made it possible to get up with a lightness in our spirits, to cast all our cares onto His Father and to know His love will never fail us, no matter what. 

He came to fill your heart with His joy and peace today so just receive it all by faith. Don’t find reasons why you can’t, but just surrender to Him and let Him fill you with His grace and wellbeing today. Can you say Amen? I’ll say it with you. Amen, Thank You Lord.🙂

NEW COVENANT BLESSINGS

Mark 14:22-24 And as they were eating, Jesus took bread, blessed and broke it, and gave it to them and said, “Take, eat, this is My Body.” Then He took the cup, and when He had given thanks, He gave it to them, and they all drank from it. And He said to them, This is My blood of the new covenant, which is shed for many. 

Earlier this week we talked about how obvious God’s love is for us. But perhaps you have never had that moment of realising His love is so very personal and it’s for you wherever you are and regardless of your past, no matter what you’ve done wrong. It’s for you whether you’re agnostic, atheist or of a different faith. God’s love is for us all through Jesus. For God so loved the world…

When Jesus went to the cross for each one of us He had a goal in mind and He laid down His own life, shed His own blood, went through torture, indescribable pain, and even Hell itself just to make it possible for all our sins to be wiped away and for our sicknesses and diseases to be healed.

For many years I thought Jesus only went to the Cross so our sins could be forgiven, so we could go to Heaven when we die, but it was so much more than that. Jesus was bringing in the New Covenant God was making through Him with mankind so we could have relationship with Him. He was redeeming us from the curse of the law, making us righteous in God’s eyes, giving us our freedom from Satan and his power and all that would bind us. 

In that New Covenant is included the blessing of provision of health, wholeness and healing because 1 Peter 2:24 says that by His wounds we are healed. Matthew 8:17 says “He Himself took our infirmities and bore our sicknesses.” 

When we take communion and as we eat the bread we are remembering and believing Jesus took our diseases in His own broken body when He was flogged. When we take the wine we are believing He also took all our sin away when He shed His blood at the Cross. The New Covenant also includes our protection and our provision. When we take communion we are receiving all the New Covenant blessings Jesus paid for at the same time at Calvary.

Lord thank You for the New Covenant in the blood of Jesus. Help us to receive fresh revelation of it,  to know and understand all You have given freely to each one of us. We declare Jesus is our Lord and Saviour. Amen. 

KNOCK DOWN THOSE COCONUTS!

1 John 5:4-5 For every child of God defeats this evil world, and we achieve this victory through our faith. And who can win this battle against the world? Only those who believe that Jesus is the Son of God. 

Do you believe Jesus is the Son of God? Then I believe this word is for you.🙂

The other day the Lord gave me a picture of a Coconut Shy Stand at the fairground where you have to hurl balls at the coconuts to knock them down. The balls in our hands are the Words of God and His promises. The coconuts are our doubts and fears, our mountains, or whatever rises up against us. They could be sicknesses or diseases, or debts, or lack in any area that loom up in front of us.

Our job is to believe the promises and see ourselves hurling those balls of God’s words at those doubts and fears, knocking them off their pedestals, and seeing them topple onto the ground, powerless to harm us. See them defeated, lying beneath our feet. The thing is, we have to do the hurling and God’s Word will do the toppling! The Word of God will do its part when we do our part.

Winners at the Coconut Shy Stand have prizes and in the same way we will have a prize too which is to see the promises of God fulfilled in our lives. Our prize is to see our faith overcoming whatever the world throws at us because our faith is in the Lord Jesus, who is the Word of God.

I hope you get the picture. We know we’ll have challenges throughout our lives but Jesus said He’s overcome the world for us (John 16:33) and He’s passed His victory over to us.

So whenever you have ‘coconuts’, whatever they represent in your life, and they’re standing in front of you, challenging you, get the Word of God out, and hurl the promises of God at them until you see them fall at your feet.

1 John 5:4 …And this is the victory that overcomes the world - our faith. Faith in what? Faith in the Lord Jesus and the promises of God that they are all backed up by the Lord Jesus Himself. 

Maybe it’s time to go and knock down those coconuts!🙂

GOD’S SPECIAL OFFERS

Psalm 23:5 You prepare a feast for me in the presence of my enemies. You honor me by anointing my head with oil. My cup overflows with blessings.

At this time of year there are lots of special offers and sales in all the shops, deals they tempt us with to make us think we absolutely need them. Some of them are genuine and worth looking at, but some are not the best!

Everyday of our lives God gives us special offers and they are all something we do need, they’re totally genuine and are certainly the best.😊 He offers to give us His grace for every situation that could possibly crop up in the coming year. He offers us His great mercy for every failure or mistake we’ve made. He offers to help us and live in us by the power of His Holy Spirit.

God has prepared a feast for us and He invites us to His table, to take the bread and wine, to partake of all that Jesus bought and paid for at the Cross, to receive our healing, the forgiveness we need, the provision of all our needs to be met, more than enough because He is El Shaddai, the All Sufficient One.

The other amazing thing about God’s special offers is that He gives them to us even when our enemies are present. We don’t have to wait till all the conditions are right before we can receive. No, even when sickness is present we can take health and wholeness from His feast, even when debt is present, we can take provision for more than enough. His table is spread, all we have to do is sit to the table and partake. 

   

God has more for us than we can ever exhaust because He is greater, more powerful than anything we’ll ever encounter. His special offers are all available to us every day of the year through His wonderful Son, the Lord Jesus, but we have to believe it and receive it by faith.

Thank You Lord for your wonderful special offers. Help us to come to your table and take whatever we need, by faith in the precious name of Jesus. Amen.

HOW CAN I BE SURE?

Luke 1:6 (Nlt) Zechariah and Elizabeth were righteous in God’s eyes, careful to obey all of the Lord’s commandments and regulations…….. V.18 Zechariah said to the angel, “How can I be sure this will happen? I’m an old man now, and my wife is also well along in years.”

Zechariah had just been told by the Angel Gabriel that he and his wife Elizabeth would have a baby son in their old age, but here is Zechariah doubting what God has said. You can almost see him stroking his beard as he shakes his head and says, “How can I be sure?” His past experience and reason had kicked in, and told him it’s not possible, so he doubted God’s word!

We’re told Zechariah and Elizabeth were both righteous, they did everything they were supposed to do, and yet even then Zechariah allowed his faith to be undermined and he chose to speak his doubt. Gabriel was indignant and told him that because he didn’t believe God’s promise he wouldn’t be able to speak till the baby John was born. Why was that? 

It’s because our words are powerful! Zechariah had to be stopped from speaking his doubt and unbelief to his wife, from speaking unbelief over his unborn son. Have we ever had occasions when we’ve been given the promises of God but our past experience or our reason have kicked in and we’ve spoken words of unbelief and doubt and aborted the promise so it could never manifest?

Thankfully what God had promised Zechariah was received by Elizabeth and they did have a son even though in the natural it seemed impossible. We can learn from Zechariah’s mistake and when we read a promise of God we can say “Yes Lord, that’s for me.” and not “I’m not sure, I doubt that!” 

If we’ve had a promise and doubted it, the good news is, we can ask the Lord to forgive our unbelief and say in faith “I’ve changed my mind, I do believe it, nothing is impossible with You Lord” and let Him fulfil that promise for us now, because all the promises of God are still Yes and Amen in Jesus Christ to the glory of God the Father.😊(2 Corinthians 1:20)

Thank You Lord.

IT’S SO OBVIOUS!

John 3:16 For God loved the world so much that he gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life.

Sometimes I’ll say something to my husband and he tells me I have a gift for stating the obvious but it never appears that way to me!🤣 What is obvious to others is not necessarily obvious to me and vice versa, and maybe it’s the same for you?

Maybe we need to state the obvious to draw our attention to it again. The fact is, we can very often overlook some things and lose some of their ‘specialness’ because of them being so obvious!

I know I’ve often stated the obvious in my Blog and you may have thought “Well I already know that. Why state the obvious?” I think God wants us to look at things again and again so they never become familiar or lose their power in our thinking and in our lives. We can hear things so often and think we know them inside out, like our verse, but they’re so important we should keep remembering them and there’s always something new to learn from God.

For instance, we’ve all read a scripture many times and then one day we have a light bulb moment and we see something in it we’ve never seen before, but perhaps it’s been obvious to someone else all along!

It’s like the man who told his wife at the beginning of their marriage that he loved her. Many years later she complained he’d never told her he loved her since. He replied, “Well I told you the day we got married, and I’ve not changed my mind, I thought it was obvious.” 

We all love to hear someone say they love us don’t we? Words matter! Let’s not forget to state the obvious to those we love, whether it’s parents, siblings, friends, spouse, whoever.😊

So let’s never overlook the power of the obvious because for someone else it might not be as obvious as you think, and if you’ve never invited Jesus into your life why not do it today? At risk of stating the obvious, God loves you and gave His Son to die for you and He took all your sin away so you could belong to Him. He loves you unconditionally. Will you receive His love?

Have a blessed week and we can all thank Him afresh for how much He so obviously loves us.😊

MADE TO LAST!

Ephesians 1:4-5 Even before he made the world, God loved us and chose us in Christ to be holy and without fault in his eyes. God decided in advance to adopt us into his own family by bringing us to himself through Jesus Christ. This is what he wanted to do, and it gave him great pleasure.

Yesterday we looked at how much we matter to God and our verses today reinforce that. Long before you and I were thought of God loved us and chose us in Christ. He had made a decision before the world was made to adopt us into His family. What an honour and privilege! It’s mind boggling, isn’t it?

Along side that is the fact that we were made to last. That’s quite a thought! So much in today’s culture is not made to last but only has a limited life span. Appliances don’t seem to last as long as they used to and clothes wear out quicker because they know people want to buy the next thing all the time.

But we are different! God designed us to last forever, through this present life and on into eternity to be with Him, a part of His family. How glorious is that! This life is not all there is and if we’ve asked Jesus to be our Lord and Saviour then He said He has prepared a place for us and we all know anything God makes is going to be good!😊

Our verses tell us God really wanted to do it. How wonderful to be so wanted! On those days when we’ve been tempted to think we’re not wanted for some reason, or we’ve been rejected, we can read these verses and know God wanted us so much He sent Jesus to come and make it possible for Him to adopt us, to be His very own, for always. It says it gave God great pleasure to do it. Isn’t that so lovely. I hope you’re getting it.😊

God loved you, chose you, wanted you and He’s really pleased you belong to Him forever. Thank You Lord so much.

YOU MATTER!

Isaiah 43:4 …because you are precious to me. You are honored, and I love you. 

God has a message for each one of us today. It’s to say “You matter”. Most importantly you matter to Him, but you also matter to your family, to your friends and even to those you may never know.

God put us on earth at this moment in time for a reason and He has a purpose for each one of us. It may, or may not be dramatic, but your words, your smile, your kindness, your God given ability, your influence, will affect someone on any given day. It will be that you make a difference which has a good ripple effect on to others, and you may never even realise it, but you matter.😊

So often the devil tries to make us think it wouldn’t matter whether we’re here or not. But your presence, your prayers are far more important than you will ever know this side of eternity. Listen, you make a difference!  If you’ve ever watched the film “It’s a Wonderful Life” it gets that message across loud and clear. When we’re not around there is a ‘You’ sized hole that no one else can fill. You are the only one with your set of skills, your insights, your life experiences, and God needs you to be in a certain place at any given moment for His purposes, maybe for someone else. You matter!

For instance, if I hear that my Blog has helped someone, that matters to me so much and it encourages me to carry on writing. A person here, a person there. You matter to me! You lift me up just by reading it.😊

Wherever you are, whatever you have to do today, remember that you matter so much to God because He loves you dearly. You are of great value to Him. You matter to the rest of the world because God has placed Himself in you, His heart in yours and He needs you to be there to share it with someone else. Every day we have the opportunity to build someone up, or to listen, or just be there for them. It may be on any day, but it may also be ten years from now. 

So keep trusting, keep believing God has equipped you and anointed you to be the best you, you can be, because He says you are precious to Him and He loves you.

You matter more than you will ever know by just being there!😊 Thank You Lord.

WHEN GOD PAINTS THE SKIES

Genesis 1:31 Then God saw everything that He had made, and indeed it was very good….

I was watching the early morning sky yesterday as it changed colour and at one point it was the shade of the feathers on a dove’s breast, such soft colours of pinks, greys and lavender all mingled in. Then it turned to golden light and it made me wish I was an artist. But our God is the ultimate artist. Every single day He paints us a new sky, a new sunrise and sunset, and they’re always different. God is never boring!

Whatever God makes He says it’s good and just as God paints the skies, He also paints our lives with His goodness. Every morning He wakes us up to new mercies, fresh grace for the coming day. We have never walked this day before but that’s ok because He’s walking it with us. 

Every morning when we ask Him for His grace He promises to provide all we shall need for that day, whether it’s enough strength, greater wisdom, more love for others, or whatever we’re going to need to walk in victory and success, it will be available to us through His grace. All we have to do is ask. What a wonderful thought.😊

When a skilled artist paints in oils, sometimes all you can see are what looks like splodges of colour, until you stand back and see it when it’s complete - a masterpiece. Next time you look up at the sky, remember God is painting the story of your life, one day at a time, and sometimes it may look and feel like ‘splodges’ that don’t seem to make any sense, but as you keep your eyes on Him it will be a glorious painting by the time He’s finished, because God already sees you as His masterpiece. He says He’s bringing each one of us from one degree of glory to another.😊

Philippians 1:6 (Nkjv) being confident of this very thing, that He who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ;

Thank You Lord. Amen.

(Photo by Olga Subach on Unsplash)

WHAT’S IN OUR TOMORROWS?

Psalm 31:14-15a But I am trusting you, O Lord, saying “You are my God.” My future is in your hands.

We may not know what tomorrow holds but we do know the One who holds tomorrow. We’ve probably all heard those words before and been comforted by them but actually we do know some of what our tomorrows hold.

God has promised us many things about our tomorrows, about our futures. He says He holds victory in store for the upright.(Proverbs 2:7 NIV 1984) That means no matter what things look like, even if right now they’re spiralling downwards, God has stored up our victory for us to walk into, to overcome and be the victor in our situation. When He says it’s our faith that will overcome the world,(1 John 5:4) we realise how important it is to be nurturing and growing our faith!😊

God has also promised to provide all our needs according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus.(Phil.4:19) If we belong to Jesus we will be givers, and just as the Philippians had given sacrificially to the believers in Jerusalem, so God promised them He would also provide for their needs. Sometimes it’s good to look at our giving, as Jesus said “Give and it will be given to you.”

The widow who Elijah met gave him her last flour and oil to make a cake and then she was  miraculously, abundantly provided for. We might say “You give me first, then I’ll give”, but God says the opposite because He wants to see our faith in Him. God’s ways are not ours! 

The Good News is, God’s provision and His victory are in our futures. Those are only two promises to hold on to and we all know there are hundreds more, but for now, these two are good starters, don’t you think?😊 

Thank You Lord we can trust You with our tomorrows. Amen.

I WILL NOT FAIL YOU

Hebrews 13:8 ….For God has said, “I will not fail you. I will never abandon you.”

God’s own words “I will not fail you.”  Aren’t those words so reassuring at the beginning of another year? God won't let us down, He won’t abandon us, He won’t leave us without support. He will be there for us every moment of 2024 and beyond. We could really do with letting those words sink right down into our spirits all through the day couldn’t we?

God wants us to feel secure and confident that we can trust Him to always be there for us through every triumph and every trial, through our ups and downs because He knows we do get down sometimes. But the good news is we don’t need to stay down!😊 

He is the God who lifts us up, who has given us our Saviour Jesus, the One whose shed blood has given us access to God Himself and all His goodness.

He’s the God who restores our souls, who reveals Himself in scripture as the God who heals, protects, and provides for us. Please read Psalm 103:1-6 to know how blessed we are!

Just because we might not see things happening doesn’t mean God is not working behind the scenes. God is a faith God and He’s looking to see our faith reaching out to Him to do great things on our behalf. He wants us to see our God is far bigger than our problem and He has given us the Greater One, the Holy Spirit, and His Word to help us do that.😊

There is so much God wants to do for us but it all requires our believing it and our accepting His goodness and generosity. It requires our agreement and speaking out His words over our lives and situations, in faith. It requires humility to bow to God’s way and let go of our way. Let’s make God’s heart glad by walking in faith, believing that what He says He will do, He will do.

Thank You Lord You wont fail us, or abandon us. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

NO CONDEMNATION

Romans 8:1 So now there is no condemnation for those who belong to Christ Jesus.

I expect we all know the scenario. We’re going along quite happily and then we suddenly think of something we’ve done or said that was wrong and we feel bad about it. Then we overthink it, it grows out of proportion and before we know it, we feel awful. What’s happening? It’s the accuser of the brethren. Satan has come along to condemn us and we’ve fallen for it hook line and sinker. Ever been there?

When that happens and we’ve lost our peace and our sense of perspective, we have to go to the Word of God to get it back again, because we know it’s God’s truth. We need to remind ourselves that there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, that we can come to His throne of grace any time to receive His mercy and forgiveness because Jesus bore all our sins at the Cross. He has already forgiven them all but we do need to accept His forgiveness and forgive ourselves. 

His Word reminds us we are accepted and loved beyond measure, that we have been given God’s own righteousness and that God’s love for us in unconditional, even if we have made a mistake.

So the next time we know we’ve not got everything right and we’re feeling condemned, let’s go to the Lord immediately to say sorry and stop the accuser in his tracks. We can ask the Lord to give us back His perspective, and see ourselves the way He does - precious in His sight, free from condemnation, His masterpiece, a special treasure being used for His glory.

When we know Jesus as our Saviour and Lord then God calls us His child, we belong to Him and He’s in the process of changing us from one degree of glory to another. Praise God, that’s Good News!😊 Thank You Lord for all You have done. Amen.

If you’ve never yet asked Jesus to come into your life why not do it today and ask Him to forgive you and wipe your slate clean. Ask Him to be your Lord and Saviour and receive His gift of no condemnation and a fresh start. He loves you.❤️

CALLED INTO THE EXTRAORDINARY

Psalm 77:13 (NET) O God, your deeds are extraordinary! What god can compare to our great God? 

I heard someone say the other day “We haven’t been called to fit in. God’s called us to stand out. He’s called us to step into the extraordinary.” I found that very challenging and exciting all at the same time!

None of us is too old or too young to step into God’s extraordinary. Samuel was only 12 years old when God called him into the ministry. Moses was 80 years old when he began the most extraordinary adventure of his life to lead a nation. Mary was called as a young teenager to give birth to the Son of God which no one else had ever been asked to do. Extraordinary! Age doesn’t come into it.😊

Maybe your life looks very ordinary, but it’s God who adds the extra to our ordinary. He is giving each one of us the opportunity to step into an extraordinary year with Him and fulfil what He has placed on the inside of us. 

All those people mentioned could have said “No, not me God, I can’t do it. I’m not qualified, I have no experience, no influence, no contacts, not enough money.” But they all said “Yes” despite their short comings or past mistakes or inexperience, and they all did what God called them to do. They entered into the realm of God’s extraordinary!

So let’s believe God to do extraordinary things in our lives, believe we will see His goodness, His promises unfold as we trust Him. He has an extraordinary year for us and we know, whatever challenges we face, our God is on our side and He gives us the victory.  

Lord help us to add our “Yes” to Your plan and purposes and walk into Your extraordinary, and into the extraordinary blessings You have already prepared for us. In Jesus’ Name. Amen.

God bless you mightily in this new year.😊