IT’S GROWING SEASON

Ephesians 4:15 (NLT) Instead we will speak the truth in love, growing in every way more and more like Christ, who is the head of his body, the church.

Our daughter has just given me a beautiful bunch of sweet peas which she grows in her garden and the smell is wonderful. Unfortunately, I don’t grow them in my garden and so I began to think about what we are each growing in the garden of our lives. 

If we’re not growing certain things then we can’t experience them for ourselves or share them with others. So what would we like to be growing? I’d like to be cultivating sweet peas of compassion and love for people. I’d like flower borders of kindness daisies, of forget-me-nots of patience and longsuffering. I’d like to be growing roses to give off a beautiful encouraging fragrance wherever I go and I’d really love some big bold faith sunflowers. I hope you get the picture!😊 

How about you? What would you like to grow in the garden of your life? Maybe you’re more a person for herbs that bring flavour, to taste and help others see that the Lord is good? Or maybe you would be a vegetable grower to feed and nourish and build up others in your life?

Wherever we go and whatever it is we grow, it’s always the growing season, and I pray we may all grow in the grace and peace of our Lord Jesus Christ, grow in the knowledge of God and of His immense love for us, and all of us to grow in faith. And when we’ve grown some of the lovely fruit of the spirit may it be a blessing to everybody around us.

Just before I go, don’t forget all gardens have weeds and we don’t want them to grow! So Paul reminds us to not grow weary in well doing, that if we don’t give up we will reap a harvest. So keep an eye out and don’t allow any of the nettles of the weary variety to grow, or thistles of strife or envy.

2 Peter 3:18 But grow in the knowledge and grace of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ…

Enjoy your growing season everybody.😊x

ONLY BELIEVE!

Mark 5:36 As soon as Jesus heard the word that was spoken, He said,… “Do not be afraid, only believe.”

The little girl’s daddy had promised to take her to Disneyland and she was so excited she could hardly contain herself. Every morning she’d ask, “When are we going to Disneyland Daddy?” And he would tell her, “Soon, it’s all arranged.” She had no doubts about it, because she trusted her daddy’s word. God wants us to believe His promises like that, to know His heart is to bless us and He has good plans arranged for us.

Luke 6:45 Jesus says that what we believe in our hearts will eventually come out of our mouths and sometimes I’ll hear myself say something which is definitely not believing what God has said and I need to ask Him for help to get my believing right especially when I can’t see it.😊 Maybe it happens to you too?

But when we do get our believing right and we say “I believe” and we really mean it, then something happens in the spiritual realms and we’re enabling God’s favour and blessings to be released and poured out on us.

It means we’re expecting God to do what He says, like the little girl did, to go before us to give us the breakthroughs we need, believing His healing to flow into our bodies and minds, for an abundance of provision in every area of life. Remember He is the God who overflows our cup, the God of bubbling over. (See 27.7.24 God’s Overflow)

I know it can help when we speak out what God wants us to believe based on His word. So here are some suggestions if you’d like to join with me and you can say them as often as you need to and add lots of your own.😊

‘I believe I am the righteousness of God in Christ and God loves me. I believe God wants to bless me going out and coming in and He is providing over and above all I need. I believe God’s favour surrounds me like a shield and He is arranging things in my favour for me to be in the right place at the right time to receive God given opportunities. I believe God’s healing power is flowing into my body and mind and that God is working all things out for my good. I believe because God has said them in His word and I trust Him.’😊 Thank You Lord. Amen.

2 Corinthians 4:13 It is written: “I believed; therefore I have spoken.” Since we have that same spirit of faith, we also believe and therefore speak.

Photo: Belinda Fewings at Unsplash

TALKING TO OURSELVES!

Romans 12:2 Don’t copy the behaviour and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will learn to know God’s will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect.

I read the following quote the other day and it made me laugh! It said, ‘Sometimes I talk to myself and then we both laugh and laugh.’ I expect we all talk to ourselves sometimes and I know I’d rather laugh than cry!😊 

So often we have an inner conversation going on without even realising it. It’s all those thoughts in our heads trying to process our worries, what we’ve seen on the media, maybe in our families, or what others have said to us, and we can feel bogged down with it if we’re not careful. What we allow in and dwell on will affect our thought life and our emotions.

It’s why God says to be transformed by the renewing of our minds. It’s because they are so easily influenced by what’s happening round us or what we’ve been taught in the past, but not all of it was good or true. For instance some people were taught that God is mad at them but that’s so untrue! God’s not mad at us, He loves us deeply. 

So today is another nudge to encourage us to stop and listen to what we’re thinking, what we’re saying to ourselves, and if it’s a bit wonky ask the Lord to help us bring it in line with His word, to really be transformed in our thinking, like a caterpillar is to a butterfly. 

When we feel a bit down on ourselves we can say, “I’m fearfully and wonderfully made, I’m anointed by God to do what He calls me to do today. I am a ‘can do’ person because His grace says I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. God loves me and He has a purpose for my life and I matter to Him.”

I hope we get the idea and the next time we find we’re talking to ourselves we find we have a smile on our faces because we’re full of God’s uplifting, encouraging, joy filled thoughts. 

So Lord as we go into another week with You, help us to keep smiling, as we think and talk Your thoughts, not our own, and begin to learn more of Your good, pleasing and perfect will for us all.😊 In Jesus name. Amen.

Photo: Erik Karits at Unsplash

THE LORD LIGHTS UP OUR DARKNESS

 2 Samuel 22:29-32 NLT

O Lord, you are my lamp. The Lord lights up my darkness.

In your strength I can crush an army,

with my God I can scale any wall.

God’s way is perfect. All the Lord’s promises prove true.

He is a shield for all who look to him for protection.

For who is God except the Lord?

Who but our God is a solid rock?

V.47 The Lord lives! Praise to my Rock!

May God, the Rock of my salvation, be exalted!

I don’t know about you, but those words just make you feel better. When King David wrote his inspiring words it was like God was giving him a Blog to write, for us all to read hundreds of years later!😊

The encouraging thing is, everything he wrote, we can say as well. The Lord still lights up our darkness. On those days and nights when darkness presses in on us, and our feelings are at a low ebb, God reassures us that His light is still shining, showing us the way forward if we keep trusting Him. When our strength is not enough, he reminds us we can tap into God’s strength to fight our battles.

Even when we hit a brick wall David had discovered we can climb over it with God’s help. So many people have gone before us to prove God’s promises are as true for us today as they were for them, as long as we keep our eyes on Jesus who is the Rock of our salvation, and trust His words. Jesus is the same today as He was back then. The Lord lives!😊

John 12:46 I have come as a light to shine in this dark world, so that all who put their trust in me will no longer remain in the dark. 

Lord we ask you to light up any area of darkness in our lives today and we join with the cloud of witnesses who have gone before us who proved Your faithfulness. We praise You because You are the Rock of our salvation and we exalt Your name together. In Jesus name. Amen.

Photo: David Gabric on Unsplash

GOD’S OVERFLOW!

Romans 15:13 (AMPC) May the God of your hope so fill you with all joy and peace in believing (through the experience of your faith) that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound and be overflowing (bubbling over) with hope.

Overflow! When the bath or the sink overflows it causes panic! Or when we pour a hot drink and it overflows we all jump back, as I did this week when mine overflowed everywhere!

But when God gives us overflow it should have the opposite effect. God’s overflow is a blessing, something to enjoy and jump into! It’s something to look forward to and expect from God. In this verse Paul talks about overflowing with confident hope because the Holy Spirit has filled us with His joy and peace. If we forget He wants to do that for each one of us, we may not even be looking to Him to do it in our lives.😊

In Ephesians 1:8 Paul talks about us overflowing with God’s grace, kindness, wisdom and understanding. Luke 9:17 The disciples experienced overflow when Jesus fed the 5,000 and had 13 baskets left over. Psalm 23:5 David speaks of our cup overflowing with God’s provision. Proverbs 3:10 then He will fill your barns to overflowing and your vats will overflow with good wine. John 10:10 (AMPC) Jesus said,  “I came that they may have and enjoy life and have it in abundance (to the full, till it overflows).

Overflow - surplus - more than enough! Overflowing grace and hope, overflowing joy and peace, overflowing finances, overflowing love in our hearts to give to others because we’ve received God’s overflowing love for us.

1 Thessalonians 3:12 And may the Lord make your love for one another and for all people grow and overflow.

I’m into overflow! How about you?😊 Can I encourage you today to have another look, a fresh insight into God’s heart which is one of overflow towards us?  But more importantly to be open, to actually expect and receive His overflow in every area of our lives.

Thank You Lord so much for Your overflow, especially as we can’t earn it or deserve it, it’s all because of Your amazing grace to us through Jesus. Amen.

May your weekend overflow with His goodness!😊x

Photo by Nathan Anderson on Unsplash

NEW BEGINNINGS

Isaiah 43:18-19 But forget all that - it is nothing compared to what I am going to do. For I am about to do something new. See, I have already begun! Do you not see it?…

My picture shows a dark place, but the lovely thing is, looking outwards from it the view is bright and beautiful and that’s what God wants us to see today because it’s where we’re heading if we’re in a dark place today. 

We all experience change or when something comes to an end, but because God is in our new beginning we can look forward to it with anticipation and eagerness. We know God’s plans for us are good, which is so reassuring. 

We find seasons come and go in life and if it was a good season we may be reluctant to let it go, but we can know God has something better in store. God never leads into ‘less than’ because He is a ‘more than’ God. 😊

Maybe the season you’re leaving felt like a wilderness, or it seemed a bit bleak like winter time. The encouraging thing is God is taking you into a new season where there is new life up ahead, a fresh anointing and He has already gone ahead of you and prepared the ground before you even get there.

We can rest in the knowledge that His plans are well thought out, and all we have to do is stay in faith, trusting and believing He’s leading us in the right paths, beside restful waters where there will be time to lie down and rest when we need to. (Psalm 23)

God doesn’t lead us into the frenetic, to the panic stricken, or doom laden. Jesus says His yoke is easy and His burden is light. He leads us where our paths will have more than enough, where He gives us overflow, goodness and mercy. (Psalm 23)

I believe God wants us to get our expectations up, and look into the face of Jesus who is smiling because He knows the good plans He’s already laid out for us. He said there will be some trials along the way, but He’s promised to give us strength for every battle, grace overflowing for each new day, and His favour is surrounding us like a shield. 

God wants us to see ourselves like He sees us, as victors never victims, because He calls us overcomers. He Himself is with us and His blessing is on our heads so we too can be a blessing wherever we go.😊 

Thank You Lord, we put our hand in Yours and we receive it by faith, in Jesus Name. Amen.

Photo: Roman Freeman at Unsplash

WHAT ARE YOU WEARING TODAY?

Romans 13:14 Instead, clothe yourself with the presence of the Lord Jesus Christ. And don’t let yourself think about ways to indulge your evil desires.

Have you ever wondered what to wear in the morning or forgotten to take a raincoat when it forecast rain? When I was small I was half way to church when I realised I had fluffy slippers on and my brother was so exasperated with me as he had to take me home again to put my proper shoes on!😊 

I expect we all feel a bit more confident when we wear something appropriate for the occasion or that makes us look nice, and Jesus talked about the lilies of the field being dressed beautifully and how God will do the same for us.

But in this verse Paul is telling us to check and see if we have our spiritual clothes on each day, to clothe ourselves with Jesus Himself. We read verses but what do they mean in our day to day so we can be doers of the word not hearers only. How do we put on Christ?

Paul is very clear and reminds us to clothe ourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, patience and forgiveness and to bind them all together with love and to always be thankful. (Col 3:12-15) 

He says we have to take some other things off first, like immoral living, arguing and being jealous, anything that would not be in the nature of Jesus. It might be gossip or being judgemental or prejudiced. He says in the previous verses to take them off like dirty clothes!

So this is a nudge to have a look at what we’re wearing today, to bin the dirty clothes and make sure we have on all our proper undergarments of compassion, kindness, love, patience and so on.😊 Then put on our robe of righteousness, our belt of truth, our head covering of salvation, our shoes of peace and don’t forget to add our all important accessories - our shield of faith, and sword of the word of God. They’re far more important than our mobile phone!!😊

Thank You Lord for giving us our wonderful wardrobe of clothes to wear. Help us to remember to put them on as though we were dressing ourselves in Jesus Himself wherever we go. In Jesus name. Amen.

Photo: Alexandra Gorn at Unsplash

WHEN THE UNEXPECTED HAPPENS!

Psalm 46:1 God is our refuge and strength, always ready to help in times of trouble.

Yesterday I was sitting enjoying lunch, had just refilled my mug of tea to the top, and picked up my apple when it slipped from my grip. Where did it go? It plopped right into the full mug of tea, and splooshed all over everything - trousers, carpet, rug, sofa - hot tea!! I didn’t know I could move so fast!🤣

We scratch our heads sometimes and wonder how things happen. In a split second it went from calm to chaos, but that’s just life, and it’s good if we can keep our cool when it happens! My event wasn’t serious really, just very annoying and inconvenient. But what about when something serious occurs? What then?

It does help when we know we have the Holy Spirit right there with us, whatever time of day or night we need Him. We can call on Him to help us not freeze up, or melt down, whichever we tend to do!😊 I’m realising more and more how important it is to start the day with the Lord, to commit everything to Him at the beginning so we know whatever happens we’ve already invited Him in to help us with it all, to hold us steady in the storms and upsets.

Even if we don’t always cope with it very well, or haven’t even acknowledged Him that day, God doesn’t say, “Well you didn’t pray today so I’m not going to help you!” God is not like that, but His heart is always compassionate towards us and always ready to lift us up and strengthen us for whatever situation, trouble or crisis that’s arisen.

So be encouraged today, whether it’s a storm in a teacup (literally) or something much more serious, our God is the God who is always there when the unexpected happens, holding on to us, helping us deal with it or delivering us from it and loving us through it. 

We won’t always know why things happen, and to be honest we don’t need to, but we can know God is with us. He’s never taken by surprise, and as we keep trusting Him He’s promised to crown us with His love and compassion, and satisfy our desires with good things. (Psalm 103). How reassuring that is.😊 Thank You Lord for always being there for us. Amen.

Photo by Joni Ludlow on Unsplash

WHEN THINGS GANG UP ON US

Hebrews 13:5…. For He (God) Himself has said, I will not in any way fail you nor give you up nor leave you without support. (I will) not, (I will) not, (I will) not in any degree leave you helpless nor forsake nor let you down (relax My hold on you)! (Assuredly not!).

We were taking our friend to stay with her family in a holiday lodge near Sherwood Forest, but as we entered deeper and deeper into the woods to find it, the trees just seemed to loom over us. They were enormously tall, and so densely packed together they almost blocked out the daylight, and I now appreciate the saying of being in the deep, dark wood! It was a bit like being ganged up on by trees!😊

Life can feel a bit like that, where the problems loom up and look like they’re ganging up on us so much it can seem like we’re in the deep dark wood! It’s when we need to draw a breath and remind ourselves God is in the middle of the situation with us and He’s promised to not let us go, He won’t fail us and won’t leave us without support. 

When we drove back out the wood we were basking in full daylight again with the sun streaming down, and if we can possibly stand back from our difficulties for a minute, by going for a walk to breathe fresh oxygen in, or just doing something different, it can sometimes help put things back into perspective.😊

But above all that, we know we have the help of the Holy Spirit Himself who understands, and knows all about it, and knows us so well. He’s not a million miles away but inside us and Jesus said He will guide, strengthen, counsel and comfort us, but how many times do we forget to call for His help and struggle on our own? 

Jesus said to speak to our mountain, and if it’s a mountain of darkness hanging over us we can speak to it and tell it to be removed, and ask for Jesus to give us His light in it all.

So next time it looks like things are ganging up on you, take a moment to remember God is for you not against you. He loves you, He’s totally committed to you, and He has promised to hold you steady, to give you the wisdom and grace you need for each day. He is our Rock. Thank You Lord.

Photo by Josh Hild on Unsplash

LEAVE A LOVELY FRAGRANCE

2 Corinthians 2:15 Our lives are a Christ-like fragrance rising up to God. But this fragrance is perceived differently by those who are being saved and by those who are perishing. To those who are perishing, we are a dreadful smell of death and doom. But to those who are being saved, we are a life-giving perfume…

One of my friends has an enormous garden with roses of all kinds. She dries the petals for confetti for weddings but also makes rose water which I found fascinating and it makes a pretty room spray.😊 As we know some roses have the most amazingly strong scent and you just want to take deep breaths of it, while others have hardly any scent at all. 

Our scripture today reminds us that we ourselves can be a life giving perfume. Wherever we go we can leave a beautiful  fragrance behind, and I don’t mean out of a posh bottle!😊 It’s like when someone does or says something kind and they leave behind a lovely atmosphere, it’s like a lovely fragrance. Or when someone is known for doing good things for others and being unselfish, that’s leaving a uplifting perfume behind as well. But more than anything it’s when we share the gospel with someone so they can come to know Jesus as their Saviour, we become the life-giving perfume our verse talks about.

Jesus said, “I am the Way, the Truth and the Life.” There will be people in all our lives who need to hear that there really is a better way, that they can have their past washed clean and have a new beginning because God loves them, that there is hope because He gives them His own Resurrection Life. Our verse says some people will be repelled by it as though it’s a bad smell but there will be those who will receive it and breath it in, who are eagerly waiting to hear God loves them personally.

I hope as we go into our new week we can be that lovely fragrance for someone which will linger after we’ve left them, leaving them blessed and uplifted because we were there for a little while. It’s a lovely thought isn’t it?😊

Lord help us to be that life giving perfume wherever we go because we’re taking You with us. In Jesus name. Amen.

Photo: Nataliya Melnychuck at Unsplash

GOD IS OUR EVERYTHING

2 Samuel 22:2 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.

We find David once again singing songs of praise to the Lord for rescuing him from Saul and all his other enemies and they were quite a few! He’s just so encouraging because He’d been through many trials of every description and yet God had brought him out the other side every time.

It’s interesting though that he was constantly declaring, or singing, about what God was to him at any given moment - He was his rock, fortress, saviour, protection, shield, power, refuge, his place of safety.

We can say the same things because Jesus is our Saviour, our rock, the power that saves us, and so on. We could follow David’s example and declare all of those things over our own lives and give God all the glory He so deserves because when we stop and think about it we realise afresh how good our God is to us. He is so worthy of all our praise and I think we would all want to thank Him for not only keeping us safe all through our lives, but also for securing our home in heaven where we can spend eternity with Him for evermore, all because of Jesus.

So if you could do with being uplifted and put a smile on your face, maybe you’d like to read our verses again and join me in personalising them like he does😊…..

“Thank You heavenly Father for being everything to me, for being my rock, my fortress, my Saviour, the One who protects me. Thank You for being my shield, my place of safety, my refuge, for saving me from violence, for being the power that saves me. Praise You Lord, in Jesus mighty, wonderful name. Amen.”

Photo: Michael at Unsplash

ENJOY THE LITTLE MOMENTS

Psalm 118:24 NLV  This is the day that the Lord has made. Let us be full of joy and be glad in it.

Do you ever find yourself looking forward to something so much, you almost wish your life away? It might be a wonderful holiday of a lifetime or going to see a loved one you haven’t seen for ages, but if we’re not careful we forget to enjoy the day we’re in and appreciate it’s own good things. We may forget everyday is a day the Lord has made and gifted us with.😊

It can be fun to find the joy in the moment, to laugh at something small that someone else might not have noticed, even laugh at ourselves when we do something silly! It’s better to laugh and see the ridiculous side of things than to allow it to upset us and make us cry.

We were on our country walk the other day and there was a whole swathe of wild flower poppies, cornflowers, and big yellow and white daisies. They were absolutely stunning and it was one of those moments when we felt we had to stop to take it all in. It would have been so easy to just pass it by and think nothing of it.

The Lord blesses us with lots of what I call ‘little moments’, like when a robin landed on my friend’s foot as she sat in her deckchair, or when you find the last parking space in the car park, or someone lets you go before them in the queue if you have one item and they have a trolley full. Those little things bless us don't they?😊

We all know life can be very challenging but it’s also full of the goodness of God as He gives us these little blessings along the way and He helps us have a grateful attitude. One of my friends sees the bright side of everything even though she’s been through far more than most. I love her positive attitude because she inspires me to be the same and she’s one of those uplifting people who has learned the secret of enjoying the little things. 

So to start us off today, here are some ‘little things’ I’ve made which might make you smile and remind you to be on the look out for more of those God moments.😊

I’m believing your days will be filled with lots of little moments for you to enjoy and when they happen why not share them with someone else to lift their spirits as well, and give God the glory. 😊

Have a blessed weekend.x

LEARNING FROM THE BIRDS

Matthew 6:26 Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your Heavenly Father feeds them.

It was a beautiful sunny morning yesterday when I received a text from a lovely friend and it was such an encouraging message I asked her if I could share it with you all.😊

She said, “I’m sitting in the garden watching the birds have their breakfast. My friendly blackbird came for his morning bath! He waits for me every morning and comes to me as I go out with the seeds. He never runs away from me. What a lovely picture of God giving us His word every morning to feed on, and to bathe in His love.🩷 Are we as eager as Blackie (my name for him) to run to Him for our daily sustenance? Watching and waiting and expecting it, like he does? As confident as Blackie is, that we have nothing to fear from Him. I love watching the birds, I learn so much from them.

There’s a pigeon who comes, and if I don’t stop him, he’ll clear the food table in seconds. I’ve put things to stop him getting on the table. It’s fascinating to watch him, determined to get on. Are we as determined as he is to not let any obstacles get in the way of us feeding our souls?”

I just thought she painted such a lovely picture of eagerly coming to the Lord each day to receive His goodness and the loving care He gives each one of us. How He allows us to come to Him any time of day or night to receive a fresh word of encouragement or whatever we need from Him, to feed our souls, as she says. There are no shortages in God’s kingdom, no queues, no bare shelves, only overflowing supply. Thank You Lord.

I hope it’s an encouragement to each one of us to see our time with Him as precious, not a duty, but to have a sense of anticipation, to receive a fresh supply of His grace, just like with the birds. 

From now on, every time I watch the birds feeding and bathing, I’ll be thinking of feeding on, and bathing in God’s love too. What a lovely thought.😊

Be blessed as you spend time with Him today.x

Photo by Jordi Rubies on Unsplash

LIFTING US BACK UP AGAIN

Psalm 139:17-18 NLT How precious are your thoughts about me, O God, They cannot be numbered! I can’t even count them; they outnumber the grains of sand! And when I wake up you are still with me!

Isn’t it strange how we can suddenly feel like we’re hitting a brick wall and for no reason at all we’re down in the dumps? Now when that happens we’re tempted to give in to it, but we can do something about it. The enemy has no legal right to bring down any child of God and God tells us to resist the enemy because we have the Greater One in us and God’s desire is for us to be full of His joy, not the enemy’s despair.😊

So what can we do when the dismals creep up on us out of nowhere? Well one solution is to put on praise music and that will often lift our spirits but another way to tackle it is to read scripture and Psalm 139 is a great help.

It reminds us that we’re fearfully and wonderfully made, so that knocks the enemy on the head right away! He can’t con us into thinking we’re ‘less than’ because God says otherwise. God even reminds us elsewhere that we’re His masterpiece, the apple of His eye and precious in His sight. We matter to God, because we belong to Him. He’s thinking about us all the time because He cares about you and me which is wonderful and should start to help us remember we are deeply loved!😊

Psalm 139:2 reminds us that God is so intimately aware of us that He knows when we sit down or stand up. Can you imagine that for a minute? How many times did you sit down or get up today? God knew every one of them! I think that’s amazing!

V.5 tells us He goes before us and follows us, that He places His hand of blessing on our heads. Just to know we have His blessing on our lives should lift our spirits! I wonder if we’re not believing what He says or sometimes forget? 

If you’ve been feeling down or discouraged can I encourage you to ask the Lord to help you to believe what He says and allow Him to lift you back up again. 

We can join our shields of faith together today and give Him all the praise and thanks for loving us so much, for being so wonderfully patient and kind to us, and for making us victors not victims. In Jesus name. Amen.

Photo by Samuel Regan-Asante on Unsplash

NOTHING HAPPENED!

1 Timothy 6:6 NIV But godliness with contentment is great gain. For we brought nothing into the world, and we can take nothing out of it. But if we have food and clothing, we will be content with that.

We were on a lovely country walk yesterday, passing by some beautiful homes when we came across this sign on one of their walls: ‘On this site Sept 5, 1782 nothing happened’! Somebody had a sense of humour and it did make us chuckle.😊

I wonder if we sometimes feel as though where we are today is where nothing of any note happens as well, and we’re wishing it would! 

We’ve just had a very good friend to stay for a couple of days who was sharing with us about her caving experiences, rock climbing, kayaking and more. She seems to have done lots of things and it all sounded so interesting!😊

When we go from one day to another and the routine seems rather mundane we can feel like we’d like to jump on a plane and explore the world or do something exciting, but for most of us it’s not like that. The secret is to find contentment in what we have, until the Lord leads us to something else. Apostle Paul was encouraging Timothy and reminding him if he had food and clothing he had a lot to be thankful for, but if we’re not careful, it can be easy to forget.

We have another friend who was feeling very down the other day and as he was walking through the local cemetery he came across some homeless people who were drinking to drown their sorrows. As he stopped to chat with them and listened to their stories he realised how blessed he was to have a home to go back to and became so thankful for the blessings he had. His whole perspective had changed.

So just in case you’ve been having a fit of the dismals, the Lord is encouraging us today to count the blessings that we do have, and to be thankful that on the site where our lives happened today, even if nothing very noteworthy happened, we were fed and clothed and went home to our own comfortable beds. Godliness with contentment really is great gain. 😊

Thank You Lord for all our blessings. Amen.

A LITTLE BIT OF KINDNESS GOES A LONG WAY

Proverbs 16:24 NLT Kind words are like honey - sweet to the soul and healthy for the body. 

I’ve been finding out about honey and honeybees and I was amazed to discover that honey is the only known food which has all the ingredients needed to keep us alive! It can act as an antidepressant, an antioxidant to prevent diseases, it’s good for burns and cuts and helps our brains as well as anti ageing. It reminds me of the song, “A spoonful of honey helps the medicine go down!”😊

The writer of Proverbs likens honey to pleasant, or kind words. It’s wonderful to think kind words spoken over us can help our bodies to be healthy and even strengthen our bones, one translation says.  Everybody loves to receive a kind word especially when we’ve had a hard day or things have ganged up against us, and a kind word at the right time can sooth our ruffled spirits and calm us down when we’re disturbed, or build us back up when we’ve been knocked down.

On those days when we feel like the stuffing has been knocked out of us, kind words are a bit like building blocks that are being put back in, encouraging us to keep going or help us to forgive a hurt. I used to have a friend who told me he married his wife because she was the kindest person he knew. Isn’t that a lovely thing to say and wouldn’t it be lovely to have that said of each one of us too?

We really don’t want to be known for harsh or judgemental words but may our words be filled with the grace of God, full of His loving kindness, just like God is to us. Ephesians 4:32 Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other just as in Christ God forgave you. This verse shows us kindness is connected to forgiveness. In 1 Cor.13 we’re reminded kindness and love go together, while Colossians 3:12 tells us to ‘put on’ kindness and to bear with one another.

All in all kindness is linked with so many other lovely attributes and does us all such a lot of good, just like honey.😊 So let’s remember a word or two of kindness will go a long way and really bless people. 

And don’t forget, speaking kind words over ourselves will also do us good, so how about taking a spoonful of honey and a spoonful of kindness at the same time and really sweeten ourselves up. A little bit of kindness goes a long way.😊Amen.

Photo by Art Rachen on Unsplash

LOOKING FOR THE GOOD

Colossians 3:13 (AMPC) Be gentle and forbearing with one another and, if one has a difference (a grievance or complaint) against another, readily pardoning each other; even as the Lord has (freely) forgiven you, so must you also forgive.

I once worked for a company which sold expensive hand painted porcelain and it was one of my jobs to check each piece to make sure it was perfect before it went on display. If it had even a small flaw it went back! 

How often do we look at ourselves or one another and we see something that’s not perfect and we become fixated with it instead of concentrating on all the good things we can see. It’s like when we have a spot on our nose all we can see is the spot, but we just need to give it time to be put right!😊 Do we forget we are all a work in progress?

God wants us to give each other the kindness of not just overlooking the flaws or personality traits that might irritate us, but to see beyond them. Instead we can learn to concentrate on every good thing we can see in one another, if we take the time to look.

A lady was in a cafe with her toddler, and a dirty, smelly tramp was at the table behind. The toddler was giggling and being entertained by him and when they reached the checkout at the same time, the toddler leaned over and reached out his arms to the man for a cuddle. The lady was upset as the tramp took the little one in his arms and the toddler wrapped his arms round his neck and just loved him. 

The toddler didn’t see the smelly clothes, or dishevelled appearance, rather he saw the man himself. God sees you and me in the same way. He sees beyond our sins, our failings and things that can irritate others, and He reaches out to us with His arms of love and tells us we’re precious in His sight. He reminds us our spirit man has been made perfect by Him when we were born again, but our soul is still a work in progress which needs time and His grace to work on it.

As we go out into our week God is wanting us to look with fresh eyes and see all the good in other people and also the good He has put in us too, and let Him sort out all the other not perfect stuff, in His own good time.😊 Thank You Lord. Amen.

Photo by Maria Lupan on Unsplash

GOD’S LOVING KINDNESS

Hosea 11:4 NIV 

I led them with cords of human kindness, with ties of love. 

To them I was like one who lifts a little child to the cheek, 

and I bent down to feed them.

All through scripture we read about God’s loving kindness towards us which is wonderful, but this verse seems to show another dimension to His love. It opens up a new picture in our minds of how tenderly caring and affectionate He is, and wants to be close to each one of us, His children.

Whenever you feel like you need some tender loving care, imagine your Heavenly Father bending down to scoop you up into His arms, and allow Him to draw you close as He rests your cheek against His, and know He has you safe and secure. What an amazing thought.😊

He reminds us of how He fed them, and provided all their needs and how much more He will do the same for us who belong to Him. He talks about ties of love and they’re not ties of fear or demand or manipulation, but we’re tied with His unconditional love. Thank You Lord.

Psalm 36:5 (NIV) Your love, Lord, reaches to the heavens, your faithfulness to the skies. When I read that verse I think of the expression ‘I love you to the moon and back’. How great God’s love is for us when we remember Jesus loved us to the Cross and back, and we know we can rest in God’s acceptance and love for evermore because He did. Thank You Jesus.

Psalm 69:16 Answer my prayers, O Lord, for your unfailing love is wonderful. Take care of me, for your mercy is so plentiful. There are so many verses about God’s loving kindness and care towards us we need never be in any doubt about it.

Psalm 63:3 Because your lovingkindness is better than life my lips shall praise you. I pray we can all join with the saints who have gone before us and lift up our arms to our loving Heavenly Father in praise, and allow Him to minister His great love to our hearts today as we minister to His. In Jesus name. Amen.

Photo: Juliane Liebermann at Unsplash

GOD IS OUR COMFORTER

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. When they are troubled, we will be able to give them the same comfort God has given us.

When a child is small they like to have a comforter like a favourite teddy or a blanket that they can’t be without. One day we inadvertently left our little daughter’s teddy behind when we’d been out for the day and we knew we had to go back and search for him before she would be comforted and settled down for the night. Thankfully Brown Ted was found and restored before nightfall.😊

As grown ups though we may not have a teddy bear, but some people will turn to the fridge to comfort eat, or they might go shopping to comfort themselves, or to a bottle to drown their sorrows. But God is reminding us in our verses that He Himself is the source of all comfort in all our troubles.

Godly comfort is more than a feeling, it is when we’re aware of God’s presence holding us steady through the trouble or the storm. It’s when we know He is giving us His strength to be able to keep going, to be able to rest in Him knowing He will never abandon us or leave us alone.

Very often God will send us someone who can empathise with what we’re going through and encourage us to know we too will come through with God’s help. There are times when all we want is for someone to wrap their arms around us to hold us, with no need for words.

That same daughter I was telling you about, is now a lovely woman of God and she comforted me a few years ago when we had just been burgled. She just wrapped her arms around me and held me close while I recovered from the shock I’d had a few nights before when two hooded robbers invaded our home, into our bedroom, and that was the comfort God knew I needed at that moment.

Maybe God needs you to be a comforter to someone today to draw alongside to help them.🙂

But whatever happens in our lives, be confident that God knows what we need because we’re all different, and He will truly be there for each one of us and be our Comforter. Thank You Lord. Amen.

Have a lovely weekend.😊x

Photo: Marina Shatskih at Unsplash

DISAPPOINTMENTS OR GOD APPOINTMENTS

Proverbs 16:9 We can make our plans, but the Lord determines our steps.

Someone was talking to me the other day about being a half full or a half empty glass sort of person, but God reminded me He wants us instead to be a cup overflowing person if we’ll trust Him to do it for us.(Psalm 23:5) He wants to keep pouring His goodness into us till we’re literally flowing over. How good is that!😊

It’s all about our perception and our attitude to things. For instance when we arrange something and for whatever reason it can’t happen, we can either be full of disappointment or we can see it as God rearranging our plans because He has another appointment for us for that time and place.

When we give God control of our lives then we can trust Him to lead and guide us in the best path for that day. It could be that the arrangement we made might have run us into some trouble and God has saved us from a possible situation which would have hurt us or someone else, or even caused someone to miss the blessing of you being there for them.😊

Things happen where people testify to missing their aeroplane flight which was disappointing but it saved their lives. Or there was the God appointment where I know of one man who felt a nudge from the Lord to go in a particular shop and he met his future beautiful spouse! 

God may have a specific person for you to meet for some reason but you have to be in the right place at the right time maybe to hear about a job opportunity or to bless them with an encouraging word when they’re at rock bottom. God has preordained good things for us to do each day but we have to tune in and not mind when He rearranges our day!😊

We might just need to readjust our attitudes to see it God’s way and trust His timing is always going to be right, and stay in faith believing His overflow is going to be in it at some point.

Psalm 27:13 (NLT) Yet I am confident I will see the Lord’s goodness while I am here in the land of the living.

So next time you have a disappointment, keep believing for God to turn it round in due course for one of His God blessed appointments. Amen.😊

Photo by Zac Harris on Unsplash

GIVING OUR CARES TO GOD

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

Have you ever noticed how we can be so troubled about something that it causes it to blow up into a ‘big issue’ which we can’t stop thinking about? Then a few days later we come to talk about it and we find the whole thing has lost it’s sting because it’s blown over anyway, and we’re on to the next thing that’s raised it’s head for us to worry about! 

Not always, but quite often, it’s just ourselves making a mountain out of something that was only a molehill and we can lose our sense of perspective for a little while if we’re not careful. The enemy tries to deceive us into thinking it’s worse than it really is and we can inadvertently put our worries on the throne instead of God.

At least we can learn from that scenario and realise we shouldn’t always take ourselves quite so seriously. If we wait a while a lot of our troubles do seem to blow over in time without any help from us!😊 Some of the things that really upset us six months ago might not even exist any more and the ones that remain can still be safely left in God’s hands for Him to take care of, even the really big ones.

How about giving ourselves a little break from worrying about it all and just allow God to look after us and everyone else, because He’s more than able and He loves us.

So today, why not sit down for a minute and deliberately hand over each thing that’s troubling you, one by one, to our loving Heavenly Father, the most powerful Being in the universe, and trust Him to take care of it all in the way He knows best. It’s a bit like taking out all the heavy things in the bag you’re carrying and transferring them over into God’s big bag and leaving them with Him.

Psalm 55:22 Give your burdens to the Lord, and he will take care of you….

Notice we have to do the giving, the handing over, and release them into His hands otherwise He can’t take care of them. I wonder, who would you rather sort them out? You, or God?  I think we will all have the same answer.😊😊

Photo by Nik on Unsplash

LOOKING IN THE RIGHT DIRECTION

Isaiah 55:8-9 (NKJV) “For My thoughts are not your thoughts, Nor are your ways My ways,” says the Lord. “For as the heavens are higher than the earth, So are My ways higher than your ways, And my thoughts than your thoughts.”

I expect we’ve all ended up in the wrong place at some point because we were going in the wrong direction. Or we looked for something but couldn’t find it because we were looking in the wrong place. It’s like when you can’t find your purse and then discover it in the fridge! I’ve done that!🤣

Life is like that spiritually as well. We maybe can’t find God’s healing when we’re looking in the wrong place because we’re looking only at the sickness and disease which fills our minds and our senses. God, however, says to look to Jesus wounds, to look in His word, find the promise of healing and believe it, declare it and stand on it and I can testify to God’s healing words working in my own life. Thank You Lord.

It’s similar with finances, we don’t find all our needs met by looking at our income or bank balance if it doesn’t have enough, and fretting about it. Instead we find our needs met by thanking God for all we have, and finding the promises of provision in scripture and taking them in faith, believing God to fulfil them. 

God’s ways are not our ways and maybe we need to grab a hold of that truth more and go to Him and say, ‘Show me Your way and I’ll do it, whether it makes sense to my brain or not.” The Christian life is a life of faith, not of reasoning things out. If it was, we wouldn’t need faith anyway!😊

God says ‘Give and then it will be given to you, good measure, pressed down and flowing over’. We may say, ‘Give me something first God and then I’ll give.’  

God says, ‘Let the poor say I am rich.’ We may say ‘The cost of living is increasing, I’m not rich!’ 

We go around confessing we are sick and God’s word says ‘By Jesus wounds I was and am healed.’ 

We want to say we’re feeling tired and weak. God tells us to say ‘I’m strong’. 

It may feel the opposite and not make sense but that’s when we have to decide to just do what God says, because in the spiritual realm all God says is true and He wants us to call it by faith into our physical realm.😊

I know God never said to argue with Him, He just said to obey Him and He will bless us. Maybe we need to start looking in the right direction, the direction of His word, and believe God to get us to where He wants us to be by just doing what He says, until we receive the promise. Amen.😊

Photo by Brendan Church on Unsplash

FAVOURED AND PROTECTED

Psalm 97:10-12 You who love the Lord, hate evil! He protects the lives of his godly people and rescues them from the power of the wicked. Light shines on the godly and joy on those whose hearts are right. May all who are godly rejoice in the Lord, and praise his holy name!

In the foot note of my bible it says for v.11 that JOY is the irrepressible joy which comes from consciousness of His favour and protection. Isn’t that a lovely thought to dwell on today? We are favoured and protected.😊

If you’ve ever fainted you’ll know that you lose consciousness for a few moments and you’re no longer conscious of all the problems and panic that might be going on around you, or what caused you to faint in the first place!😊 

I wonder, are we sometimes unconscious of God’s favour and protection? I expect we all have many things pressing in on us and we’re very conscious of them. The trouble is we can be so conscious of them we forget that they are temporary and that there are eternal things going on all the time in the background, in the spiritual realm, but we’re not being so ‘conscious’ of them.

Are we conscious of the God who is here with us, right now and He wants us to tune in to Him each day so we’re more aware of Him and His blessings, than we are of all the other stuff that’s trying to grab our attention?

The only way I’ve found to do that is to spend some time with Him, reading His promises that are blood bought  by Jesus. Otherwise we can be so caught up in our daily circumstances that we can forget the truth found in them.

The Holy Spirit is calling us to bring our eyes back on our great and mighty God today, and declare His promises out loud over our lives so the enemy hears them as well!

Let’s thank the Lord and really rejoice because we’re becoming more and more conscious of God’s wonderful favour and protection as we think about them.

Anyone with me on this? May I encourage us to read today’s verses again and let God’s life giving words really sink in so His joy will begin to bubble up again.😊

Photo by Preslie Hirsch on Unsplash

SEEN OR UNSEEN BLESSINGS

Proverbs 28:20 A faithful man shall abound with blessings.

We were living in an old flat in a not very good area when we were first married and were very thankful for it, but we wanted to move! We saw a very overgrown empty little bungalow for sale and thought it would be impossible for us to buy it but we made them an offer anyway and our dream came true when we moved in some time later! We were so blessed and so thankful. You may be like I was in our old flat , looking ahead and thinking your dream could never happen, but be encouraged, God loves to do the totally impossible for us!😊

When something very obvious like that happens we can see how God pours out His blessings and we’re overjoyed with thankfulness. But what about the other blessings the Lord is pouring out on us every single day, those things which are probably not quite so visible, that we may not even notice? 

It’s good to stop for a minute and take the time to recognise the blessings that God is pouring out all the time into our everyday lives. He may have rescued us from a serious accident that we didn’t even know about, or helped us through circumstances that would have brought other people down. Or maybe we found an article in a shop which we’ve been wanting for ages and we found the last one! Or you may have had one of those lovely God moments we all love.😊

Whether God’s blessings are of the small or overwhelmingly wonderful variety, let’s stop and be like the one leper out of the ten who returned to Jesus and say a heartfelt ‘Thank You Lord’. 

And as we enter another week, don’t forget He is daily loading you with more blessings to come and I believe some of them will be in the overwhelmingly wonderful category. The best is still to come. Amen.😊

Photo by Jack Niles on Unsplash

GOD’S LOVE IS BETTER THAN LIFE

Psalm 63:3-8 (NLT) Your unfailing love is better than life itself; how I praise you! 

I will praise you as long as I live, lifting up my hands to you in prayer. 

You satisfy me more than the richest feast. 

I will praise you with songs of joy. 

I lie awake thinking of you, meditating on you through the night. 

Because you are my helper, I sing for joy in the shadow of your wings. 

I cling to you; your strong right hand holds me securely.

David was living in the wilderness of Judah when he wrote this psalm which is where John the Baptist preached and also probably where Jesus was tempted. It’s about 60 miles (95 km.) long and about 13 miles (21 km.) wide.

There are times when we can feel like we’re in a bit of a wilderness too. Those days when we can’t see any obvious progress, or it seems we’ve been passed over for some reason. It’s easy to listen to the enemy’s lies when we can’t see the light at the end of the tunnel but David had learned another secret. 

He knew that His God was worthy of all his praise no matter how things looked or what they felt like. He made a decision to draw on God Himself by keeping his thoughts on Him all through the long dark nights when he maybe couldn’t sleep.

He meditated on God’s loving kindness to him and how he knew God’s love would never fail him, no matter what happened in his life. He even went further and started to sing for sheer joy as he just knew God would uphold him and keep him safe in His strong right hand. When he says he clung on to God it implies that circumstances were trying to drag him away but he knew God had him safe and secure, and we can know that security too.😊

So take heart, next time you feel like you’re in a wilderness situation, why not take a leaf out of David’s book and follow his way of dealing with it, because he found that the Lord satisfied him in ways he probably hadn’t even thought of and best of all he just rested under the shadow of God’s wings of unfailing love.

No wonder we can praise our God today.😊

Photo by Kristian Egelund on Unsplash