WHOSE APPROVAL DO WE WANT?

Galations 1:10 NLT Obviously, I’m not trying to win the approval of people, but of God. If pleasing people were my goal, I would not be Christ’s servant.

I watched a film recently about a lady who felt she had to please everybody and always agreed with what everyone else wanted rather than confront a situation and say she didn’t actually agree with them or didn’t want what they thought she wanted!

It made me stop and think, why do we not like to be honest and say what we really think or feel? Some of the time it’s because we don’t want to offend or hurt others, but is it also because we don’t want them to disapprove of us or be rejected? The Apostle Paul had decided to say and do what Jesus wanted, no matter what anyone else thought!🙂

If we are followers of Jesus we will find ourselves having to decide whether we’re going to obey God and do what His Word says, or be a doormat and let others tell us how to live and think.

God has called us to be a people who can swim upstream against the culture of our day where people want everyone to just ‘fit in’, to be like everyone else. But God never called us to be like everybody else, He called us to be the unique masterpiece, one of a kind person, that He designed and called us to be. John the Baptist certainly didn’t fit the mould and neither did Jesus!

 Are we willing to be who God made and called us to be, or are we going to be moulded by what others say? God calls us to live differently to the world. 

Some people may be shocked to find we don’t think like they do and that we believe the Word of God is our final authority, which is contrary to how most people think today. So God is asking us all today “Whose approval do you really want?”

Lord help us to be who You made us and want us to be, holy and set apart for You, and not what someone else or the world tells us to be; to think Your thoughts and not the world’s thoughts. In Jesus name. Amen.

Have a blessed weekend.x😊

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WE CAN BE CONFIDENT

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

As long as we’re still in the land of the living we can put a smile on our faces because we have the same Lord and His goodness available to us today.😊

There are times we may not feel confident for various reasons. Maybe we’ve had some disappointments, or been discouraged by what we see, but we have to lift our eyes upwards when that happens. We need to know that our God is bigger than all of our regrets or let downs, they are in our past and we don’t need to worry about coping with our tomorrows because God has already gone ahead and prepared a path especially for us.

Proverbs 3:26 NKJV For the Lord will be your confidence, And will keep your foot from being caught.

We just need to know we can have confidence in our God, because He is the same today as He has always been and He will never let us down for one second. His hand is tightly holding ours to lift us up when we feel like we’re falling, and He gives us His strength which will never weaken. His mercies were brand new this morning and His great favour is surrounding us. Those truths build confidence into us as we go about our day.😊

We’re not in this life on our own! We have the One who spoke worlds into existence, whose Word is the power force upholding the universe, as well as upholding you and me. 

So can I encourage us all to lift our eyes up and put our confidence in the One who was lifted up on the Cross for us, and see His goodness pouring out on each one of us each day. Thank You Lord. Amen.

Ephesians 3:12 NLT Because of Christ and our faith in him, we can now come boldly and confidently into God’s presence. 

Hebrews 10:35 NKJV Therefore do not cast away your confidence, which has great reward.

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THE LIGHT OF OUR LIFE

1 Thessalonians 5:5 NLT You are all children of the light and of the day; we don’t belong to darkness and night.

If someone asks you who you are, would you say “I am a son or daughter of so and so, or a sister or brother of so and so, I am a computer expert, or I am a home maker?” When Jesus was asked, He had lots of answers to that question! Jesus said, I am the Light of the World, the Bread of Life, the Good Shepherd, the Door, the True Vine, the Way, the Truth and I am the Resurrection and the Life. 

I’m sure all of us have had days when we feel like we’re in a dark place but God has made sure we don’t have to stay there.😊 That’s why it’s important to know Jesus is the Light of the World, but He also wants to be the Light in our own personal world. 

He reminds us today that when Jesus is in the centre of our lives He will shine His light so He can be our good shepherd, the door into our future, our resurrection life for each and every day. He will shine His light so we can see He attaches us to the vine and helps us produce the fruit He wants us to. His light will show us His Way, His Truth, that He is the very Bread of Life who sustains us every day we wake up. I wonder, do we see Him in that light, as all those things to us, or do we muddle through on our own?

When we need focus and vision His word says it will be a light to our path so let’s get His word out and see what it’s saying and shed His light on our darkest problems.

And if we speak to people who are feeling down or discouraged, He wants us to shine His light, His inspiration, His perspective, His uplifting thoughts into their lives. It’s not just for us alone so let’s be Light shiners, not doom spreaders!😊

All in all I’m so thankful we’re no longer of the darkness and night, aren’t you? But because of Jesus we are who God says we are. 

We can now say “I am a child of the light and of the day.”😊 Thank You Lord. Amen.

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MAKE A TURN

1 Peter 3:10-11 NIV For, “Whoever would love life and see good days must keep their tongue from evil and their lips from deceitful speech. They must turn from evil and do good; they must seek peace and pursue it.”

Do you ever have times when you feel all out of sorts with yourself and everybody else? You can’t really put your finger on what’s wrong but you know your thinking is not right and it affects your attitude. You feel like you’re not getting anywhere? 

It’s a bit like when we’re driving somewhere but we find we’re going the wrong way. So what do we have to do? We have to turn around and head in the right direction.😊

Psalm 123 1-2 NLT I lift my eyes to you, O God, enthroned in heaven. We keep looking to the Lord our God for his mercy;… 

Very often we need to simply turn to God once again, and put our attention on Him asking for His mercy and forgiveness for our grumpy or critical or complaining attitude. We need to reach out to the Holy Spirit and ask Him for His help, His wisdom and His insight as to why we feel the way we do and ask Him to help us get back on track.

So I hope this is an encouragement today to anybody who has been feeling at odds with themselves, or with others or even with God, to turn our eyes back on Him, knowing His love for us has never wavered. We can give it all over to Him and receive His great grace as we trust Him to sort out the things that are causing us upset, and by faith receive His peace that passes understanding as we rest in Him. 

He is a good God, He understands us better than we do ourselves, He has us safe in the palm of His hands and He won’t let us down. He wants us to see good days, so let’s turn away from any wrong thinking, or wrong speaking back to our God, cast all our cares on Him today and let His light shine through once again.😊 In Jesus name. Amen.

Lamentations 3:40 NLT Instead, let us test and examine our ways. Let us turn back to the Lord.

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LIGHT UP OUR WORLD

Genesis 1:3 NKJV Then God said, “Let there be light”; and there was light. And God saw the light, that it was good; and God divided the light from the darkness.

If we had been there at creation looking out over the darkness we would probably have told it how it was and said , “Wow, it’s dark out there!” and we would all still be in darkness!😊 But God looked at the darkness and He called it how He wanted it to be - He called for light to shine. I’m so glad that at the very beginning of everything God said, “Let there be light.”

Every day He could have made it all as beautiful as could be, but without the light shining on Day One, it would never have been appreciated, because no one would ever have been able to see it! God has given us so many blessings to enjoy but without the Light of Jesus in our lives we won’t see them to appreciate and enjoy them.

John 8:12 NKJV Then Jesus spoke to them again, saying, “I am the light of the world. He who follows Me shall not walk in darkness, but have the light of life.” 

How much of the Light of Jesus do we have in our lives? Is it a little low battery torch, is it a fluorescent 6 foot long bulb, or is it a light that shines so bright it’s like bringing the sun into every corner of our existence so we light up our world. 

Let’s imitate God and ‘speak’ the light of Jesus into any area of darkness in our lives. “Let there be the light of Jesus in….” We can fill in the blanks wherever we need His light to shine, whether it’s into sickness, or grief, or finances, or church, or work, or depression - any area.

Ephesians 5:8 NKJV For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light. God wants to light up our world today so we can see and enjoy everything He has for us and others. My question is, will we let Him, and speak and release His light wherever we go?😊 I pray we do. In Jesus name. Amen.

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LIVING ON HOPE STREET

Romans 15:13 NLT I pray that God, the source of hope, will fill you completely with joy and peace because you trust in him. Then you will overflow with confident hope through the power of the Holy Spirit.

I expect we all know people who are very doom and gloom and negative about everything? They’ll say things like “Don’t get your hopes up, because it won’t happen!” But God says the opposite! 

He tells us in Hebrews 11:1 that faith is the substance of things we’ve hoped for. If we don’t have bible hope, which is a certain expectation of good, we can’t put faith into operation and without faith we can’t please God. We don’t want to fall into the doom and gloom trap!😊

Genesis 18:14 (AMPC) Is anything too hard or too wonderful for the Lord?…  It’s possible we’ve lived with our difficult circumstances so long we’ve stopped believing they could be any different, we’ve lost hope. But God doesn’t want us to put off living in the place where ‘wonderful’ can happen, by relegating it to the sweet By and By. He wants us to choose to believe what He is saying to us and live on Hope Street where faith works.

Scripture reminds us nothing is too hard or too wonderful for God to accomplish and He still does the seemingly impossible wonderful things on our behalf that He always has done. Let’s allow God to fill us with His hope and dare to believe for the things that He says we can have today. 

God goes even further when He says we are ‘in Christ’, and we are called to be imitators of God, so we can be wonderful hope builders, as well!

Let’s begin our new week with the thought of being ‘in Him’, the source of our hope, and go out and be the ‘wonderful’ that someone else is waiting for, wonderfully kind and loving, wonderful hope builders in Jesus name.😊 Amen.

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OH HOW WONDERFUL!

Isaiah 9:6 NLT 

For a child is born to us,

 a Son is given to us. 

The government will rest on his shoulders. And he will be called 

Wonderful Counsellor, Mighty God.

If you’ve seen the film ‘It’s A Wonderful Life’ you will know it’s about a man who thinks his life is a failure, a waste of time but he discovers his life is actually full of purpose, that he matters and his life is making a difference to many others. He discovers his life is wonderful after all! 

We may meet people who tell us about something wonderful that has happened and we think ‘Oh, that would be wonderful!” We want it to happen to us! Well I believe God is wanting conversations with each one of us that cause us to say in our lives “How wonderful!”, because He is Wonderful and is still doing wonderful things in all our lives today!😊 

When we were younger we may have thought ‘If a handsome Prince would come and sweep me off my feet, or if someone would leave me an amazing inheritance in their will, that would be wonderful!’ The truth is, we have been swept off our feet by a Prince, His name is Jesus the Prince of Peace. His name is Wonderful. We have been left an inheritance, left to us by Jesus, and it’s available to tap into every day and it is wonderful.

All the promises are already ours to claim, and those which are still in the pipeline are all yes and amen in Jesus as well. If we would believe all that His Word says we would move into the God realm of ‘How Wonderful’ and discover our lives are more wonderful than we realise.😊 

Can we have a new perspective today as we worship our Wonderful Saviour, to give Him all the glory and praise, to thank Him and let Him know we think He is truly Wonderful?

And if you don’t know Jesus as your personal Saviour yet, why not invite Him into your life today? That would be the most wonderful thing of all.😊 I pray you do in Jesus name. Amen.

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BLESSINGS OF ALL KINDS

Proverbs 10:6 NKJV Blessings are on the head of the righteous…

I was texting with a friend yesterday about our floodgates being open for the Lord to pour His blessings in and it gave me a great sense of expectancy.😊 I wonder are your floodgates open for the Lord to bless you?

Our verse above says His blessings are on the head of the righteous so if we have asked Jesus into our lives then He has qualified us for the blessings. That’s good news!😊 God is so good to each one of us and His heart truly is to bless us more than we know.

Proverbs 10:22 NKJV The blessing of the Lord makes one rich, And He adds no sorrow with it. I know of one man who was very poor but he found that verse and he ran into his wife and said, “God says He makes us rich, we’re blessed!” He just started believing and agreeing with God and declared it so by faith, even though he couldn’t  physically ‘see’ it yet. Today he is a rich man.

2 Corinthians 9:8 tells us God will generously provide all we need so we have enough to bless others as well, but it’s not confined to financial prosperity. It includes all areas of our lives - spiritual, physical health and healing, relationships, everything. As we read scripture we see time and again God’s blessing is on our entire lives. 

Psalm 29:11 NLT …the Lord gives his people strength. The Lord blesses them with peace. 

Deuteronomy 28:6 NIV You will be blessed when you come in and blessed when you go out.

Psalm 23:5-6 NLT You honour me by anointing my head with oil. My cup overflows with blessings.

In fact we could write hundreds of ways God has blessed us and it’s good to stop and not just receive them by faith, but to activate them by thanking Him for them, especially before we even see them!

So I’ll finish with God’s blessing and I pray you receive it in every area of your life as you open your blessing floodgates.😊

Numbers 6:24-26 AMPC The Lord bless you and watch, guard, and keep you; The Lord make His face to shine upon and enlighten you and be gracious (kind, merciful, and giving favor) to you; The Lord lift up His (approving) countenance upon you and give you peace (tranquility of heart and life continually).

Enjoy your blessed weekend everybody.x😊

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BREAKTHROUGH NOT BREAKDOWN!

1 Chronicles 14:11 (NKJV) So they went up to Baal Perazim, and David defeated them there. Then David said, “God has broken through my enemies by my hand like a breakthrough of water.” Therefore they called the name of that place Baal Perazim.

When I was a teenager we were living near the sea when the spring tides rose, which coincided with flooding rain. Our house was badly flooded as the water just broke through our storm barriers and sand bags. It literally poured in. Nothing could stop it!  That’s ‘breakthrough’!

Do you need a breakthrough of some kind today? We probably all do but what are we doing about it? David didn’t just sit there doing nothing, trying not to have a breakdown! No, he expected breakthrough! 

He knew Baal Perazim means our God is the Master of  Breakthroughs. So he asked God what to do, received God’s promise of deliverance and went out to fight the battle. Then he saw God being Master of his Breakthrough, but he says it came via his own hand. He had to do something!

We can be like David too, we have the same God. We are not expecting to breakdown, we’re expecting to breakthrough!😊 Breakthrough begins in our own mouths by what we believe and declare by faith in God, by our attitude, by listening to and obeying any instructions God has given us. 

We need to zip up the ‘I can't’, the ‘it’ll never happen’, the ‘nothing good ever happens to me’ comments. No, we need to release our faith with our words. ‘I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me, all will be well for the godly, my God is providing all my needs out of His riches in glory not according to my bank balance. Everything I set my hand to prospers, my God is working all things out for my good and His good plans are about to burst forth like a flood. Nothing can stop it!”

Let’s open our mouths and let the Lord fill them with the good promises He has already given to us to believe, and speak and declare and prophecy them over our own lives. Let’s keep a grateful attitude, an expectant heart and know our breakthrough is on route to us.😊

It won’t be a trickle, it will be a bursting forth of waters that nothing can stop in Jesus name. Amen.

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MOUTHS OPEN WIDE

Psalm 81:10 (NLT) For it was I, the Lord your God, who rescued you from the land of Egypt. Open your mouth wide, and I will fill it with good things.      

Have you ever seen a picture of baby birds in the nest? Their little mouths are open wide, cheeping to attract the attention of the mummy bird. They want their mouths filling and they’re not afraid to show it!😊

I wonder how wide our mouths are open today? God was speaking to the Israelites and remonstrating with them for not allowing Him to be their provider, not allowing Him to bless them beyond their imaginations. They had gone to false gods, other people, to other providers, and they needed reminding who their real source of blessing was - God Himself.

Psalms 81:13(NLT) Oh, that My people would listen to me! Oh, that Israel would follow me, walking in my paths!  v.14 How quickly I would then subdue their enemies!… v.16 But I would feed you with the finest of wheat. I would satisfy you with wild honey from the rock. 

God is saying the same to us, His people, today. “Open your mouth wide and I will satisfy you!” That is for you and me! Let’s believe it and be like this hippopotamus, like the birds in the nest. I love the fact He wants to give us the finest not the least, the honey, the sweetest, not the sourest! 

The Israelites didn’t deserve it, but God wanted to do it for them anyway! We may feel like we don’t deserve to ask God to fill us with the finest and the sweetest and yet He says He wants to, but He can’t fill a closed, unwilling mouth! It’s like trying to feed a baby that doesn’t want solids and they shut their mouths tight so nothing can go in!😊

What do you need at the minute? Then go to your loving Father, open your mouth wide like the hippopotamus and let Him fill it with the finest and the sweetest, the everyday things of life, big and small. In Jesus name. Amen.

Photo: Glen Michaelsen at Unsplash

OUTSIDE OF THE BOX

Ephesians 3:20 Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us,

Yesterday we looked at our Life Box but I’m here to remind us today that just in case we have put God in a box of some kind He wants us to realise He’s not in there!  - He is so big and powerful and awesome.

God won’t fit in any of our ideas or theory boxes, our religious denominational boxes, our disease or lack boxes, not any box, because He is far and beyond anything we’ll ever imagine. 

Our picture shows someone taking only a little cupful of dreams. So if your dreams are only THIS big (stretch your arms out wide) then He’s saying they can be as wide as the ocean and beyond. Our God can do exceedingly, abundantly, above and beyond ALL we can ask or imagine. I’ve heard it said that if you can manage to achieve your dream on your own then your dream is too small and we need to think outside of our limited box, and reach into the unlimited God realm.😊

Maybe you’ve lost your dream and you’ve been in the same box for so long you’ve forgotten God still has so much more for you. Even if you’re in your 90s you can still pray big prayers that will change the lives of generations to come - THINK BIG - PRAY BIG - BELIEVE BIG! 

God is not fazed by how big our ‘ask’ is! The bigger and bolder the better. He promised Abraham the nations and Galations 3:14 tells us in Christ we have inherited the promises made to Abraham. We have inherited the nations too! Psalm 2:8 Only ask, and I will give you the nations as your inheritance, the whole earth as your possession.

Do you get the feeling it’s time for us to expand our thinking and discover the plans God has for us on the other side of our box walls? He’s just waiting for us to join Him, outside of the box! Hallelujah! I could get excited, couldn’t you?! Have a blessed day.😊

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OUR LIFE BOX

Romans 8:28 NKJV And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose.

We all have what I call our ‘Life Box’. It’s where everything that makes up our lives is held together but it sometimes gets messed up so I’m really glad we also have a treasure box, which we looked at last week on 16th August. It’s always helpful to look and remind ourselves of some of the treasures we have stashed away.😊 

Life can throw us some hard knocks and we may feel a bit bashed and battered by them but underneath all of what has happened, or ever will happen, one of our greatest treasures is to be secure in the knowledge that God has promised to work it ALL out for our good, not for our bad!

Do we sometimes look at all the jigsaw puzzle pieces in our life box and try to fit them together when we don’t actually have all the pieces yet and we feel frustrated? We don’t need to be if our eyes are on the Lord and we know what He has promised. He won’t work out just some of our problems and leave the rest for us to struggle with. He’s an all or nothing God and He wants us to remember there are some jigsaw pieces still to be uncovered in our box! 

So yes, He has promised to work out ALL things, but my question is, are we giving Him ALL things to sort out or are we hanging on to some, trying to do it ourselves? Why not take hold of your Life Box with all its complexities, and just give the whole thing to Him?

God wants us to take our hands off, as well as our troubled minds, and surrender them all to Him knowing He is all powerful, all knowing, and all sufficient. That’s four more ALLs and they’re ALL true according to scripture!😊 

So take heart today, you’re in safe hands and it is safe to give Him your Life Box with your  ‘ALL’ in it, however serious it is, because He wants you to trust Him to work it all out for your ultimate good. In Jesus name. Amen.

GOD KNOWS YOU AND LOVES YOU

1 Corinthians 13:12 NLT Now we see things imperfectly, like puzzling reflections in a mirror, but then we will see everything with perfect clarity. All I know now is partial and incomplete, but then I will know everything completely, just as God now knows me completely.

We all look in the mirror and make ourselves as presentable as we can for the world to see. But isn’t it wonderful that God doesn’t just see us, He knows us completely and He still loves us. He knows your name, where you live, what you do, He knows your family and friends, your weaknesses and strengths, your ups and downs, your whole life. He knows you and He loves you! 

In today’s society people seem to hide behind a mask of some kind. They put on a big smile but inside they may be upset or hurting. They say they’re fine when they’re not, and it’s because they don’t want anyone to see who they really are, or that they’re struggling, in case they’re rejected, or thought less of. Maybe we all do it to some extent at different times, because we want people to think well of us.

We never need to feel that way with our Heavenly Father. His love for us is absolute, unconditional, unlimited and it’s forever. 1 John 3:1 NIV See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! … What an amazing gift His love is and scripture says we’ll never fully understand just how deep His love really is. But the more we do believe it, the easier it will be for us to trust Him with our loved ones, our finances, our future, our everything.

When God says He has good plans to bless and not to harm us He really means it because they are all coming out of His heart of love. When He says to cast our cares on Him it’s because He cares for us, and He knows He can deal with it all far better than we can.😊

So we can put a genuine smile on our faces as we go out into our week, secure in the wonderful knowledge that God really does love us, He’s for us and not against us and He is working His plans out in our lives, to give us a hope and a future, as we put our trust in Him.

Have a blessed week.😊

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NO ONE LIKE OUR GOD

2 Chronicles 6:14 

He prayed, O Lord God of Israel, there is no God like you

 in all of heaven and earth. 

You keep covenant and show unfailing love 

to all who walk before you in wholehearted devotion.  

V.40 O my God, may your eyes be open and 

your ears attentive to all the prayers

 made to you in this place.

Solomon had just finished building the Temple that God had given him the blueprints for, and he dedicated it to the Lord knowing there was no other God like His God. He knew His God would keep the Covenant He made and that if he did what God told him to do, then God would reward him.

We read in Hebrews 11:6 And it is impossible to please God without faith. Anyone who wants to come to him must believe that God exists and that he rewards those who sincerely seek Him. God is still the same Covenant keeping God today as He was then, and He still rewards us for diligently seeking Him, for giving Him our wholehearted devotion.

Part of His reward is that He not only sees and hears us but He answers our prayers. We know God has all wisdom and He loves us beyond measure so we can trust Him to give us the right answers, even if the answers we receive aren’t quite what we expect or in the way we expected them!

God encourages us throughout scripture to have hope, which is a bible expectation of good things to come. He tells us our faith is the substance of the things we’re hoping for, so hope and expectation are very important in our praying. Then Jesus reminds us in Mark 11:23-24 to believe we receive what we’ve prayed for, right at that moment, and we shall have it, even though we don’t see it yet.😊

So we can rejoice today that there is no God like our God - not anywhere! He keeps His covenant with us and He answers our prayers as we diligently seek Him and His ways. Let’s sing His praises and give Him all the glory today.😊 Amen.

RESERVOIR OR RESIDUE?

1 John 2:20 NKJV But you have an anointing from the Holy One, and you know all things.

This is a local reservoir we walked around yesterday where we watched the birds enjoying the water. Apparently the biggest reservoir in the world is Lake Kariba in Africa and it stores 44 cubic miles of water!

It reminded me of when I heard someone say God wants us in the reservoir of His anointing, not in the residue of yesterday’s anointing. Reservoir means source and supply, residue speaks of yesterday’s leftovers. I think we probably all prefer ongoing supply to meagre left overs and God’s reservoir is unlimited!😊

Reservoirs are designed to supply fresh water to thousands of people and God wants us to be so full of His Holy Spirit and have a deep reservoir of His anointing inside us so we’re available to be a blessing to each other, and whoever we meet during the course of our day.

Our verse says we already have an anointing and when we spend time with the Lord we keep our reservoir topped up but what if we’re running dry and just have a trickle seeping through? 

John 7:38 Anyone who believes in me may come and drink! For the Scriptures declare, ‘Rivers of living water will flow from his heart.’ Jesus said He was giving us life giving water on the inside of us which will bubble up and flow out to those around us. So let’s keep our reservoir of anointing freshly filled with His Word and His Truths, so we have something to overflow with.

How’s your reservoir today? Is it full, or are you running on residue? If you find you’re running a bit low, why not go to Jesus Himself and ask Him to anoint you afresh with His Holy Spirit and make sure you’re in the reservoir of His anointing and not just left with a residue. He’s ready and waiting for each one of us to come and ask, so let’s just ask.😊Amen.

Have a blessed weekend.x

BURIED TREASURE

Proverbs 3:5-6 AMPC Lean on, trust in and be confident in the Lord with all your heart and mind and do not reply on your own insight or understanding. In all your ways know, recognise, acknowledge Him, and He will direct and make straight and plain your paths.

If you have ever read adventure stores as a kid you would have wanted to find buried treasure! Maybe you would still like to find some? Well I’ve discovered there is buried treasure in the ‘ALLs’ of scripture.😊

We have two today. The first one is ALL your heart - He’s talking to you and me! We might trust the Lord up to a certain point and then we wobble, but God wants us to grow in our faith where we just look to Him in every circumstance and believe with ALL our heart that His way is best and His promises are true.

How often our own understanding kicks in and tends to squash our faith and undermine our trust in God and His word. The trouble is our own understanding is so very limited no matter how clever we may or may not think we are! Verse 7 says, Don’t be impressed with your own wisdom, which is what happens when we listen to our own understanding or past experience!

It’s better and wiser to just grab a hold of God’s word and stand on it no matter what things look like. That’s wisdom!😊

Then he says acknowledge Him in ALL our ways. That means seeing God in everything, recognising He is in the detail of our lives as well as in the big issues. God knows when we sit down and when we get up, He hears our every sigh. He’s thinking and caring for us all the time so we can trust Him, we can learn to recognise His input, His goodness, His mercies, His grace throughout our entire day, not just in our quiet time. We have a 24 hour day, but we have a 24 hour a day God!

Have you been wanting to know the way forward? Then He says if we’ll do those things He will show us the way to go, the choices to make. He will direct our whole day, our whole life.

I pray we use the treasure we have today and practice the two ALLs we have found. ALL our heart - ALL our ways.😊 In Jesus name. Amen.

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A CHANGE OF DIET!

Matthew 4:4 But He answered and said, “It is written, ‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God’”.

We all know our bodies don’t do too well when we’ve been overeating the wrong foods, like too many cakes, or burgers and chips! We may like them, but we can grow a bit too ‘cuddly’ round the middle!😊

On the spiritual side of things, it might be that the enemy has been feeding you on a diet of doom and gloom dandelions, of condemnation nettles, of discouragement dock leaves, of depressing bind weed, or other unhealthy things and your spirit may be feeling a bit weak, like your spiritual muscles are needing some help?

If so, it would be good to have a change of diet!😊 How about ‘I am the righteousness of God in Christ’ healthy bread, or ‘I can do all things through Christ’ steak. Maybe we need to eat some, ‘I am blessed going out and coming in’ vitamins, and ‘I am strong in the Lord and in the power of His might’ protein, or ‘I am above only and not beneath because I am a victor in Jesus’ fruit. 

The experts tells us we are what we eat and the same thing works in the spiritual realm. If we want to be strong in faith we need to hear and digest the Word of God. Jesus calls himself the Bread of Life so if we live on the word of God, we’re feeding on the truths of God, and His word will make us strong in our faith to deal with whatever comes our way.

So, how is your spiritual diet today? May I encourage us all to come to His table and feast on His promises, on His Word, and have a fresh infusion of faith and get ourselves built back up again?

Just before I go, one of my favourite words to feed on is Psalm 5:12 For You, O Lord, will bless the righteous; With favor You will surround him as with a shield. NKJV

I hope this lifts your spirits today and hopefully makes you smile.😊 But I pray we can all enjoy our God given, spirit building diet each day. Psalm 34:8 Oh taste and see that the Lord is good! Blessed is the man who trusts in Him.  Amen.

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SAFE AND SOUND

John 3:17 AMPC God did not send the Son into the world in order to judge (to reject, to condemn, to pass sentence on) the world, but that the world might find salvation and be made safe and sound through Him.

We probably all love the sound of those three words - safe and sound.😊 When family members go on a journey we always love to hear they’ve arrived ‘safe and sound’ because we love them.

God’s heart is like that. He wants us to arrive safely, to be at home with Him, safe and sound, and He had to pay a very high price for us to do it. It cost Him His one and only Son.

John 3:16 talks about God giving us everlasting life, about keeping us safe for eternity and Psalm 91 says He’s promised to keep us safe in this here and now as well. He talks about giving us angel protection, protection from violence, plagues and evil, about hiding us under His wings, giving us safe refuge, and a fortress we can fight our battles from, safe under His shadow.

He tells us He is our fortress, our strong place, our castle of defence. It’s where we can go when tough times or danger are threatening us, and we all need to know we have a safe haven where God will keep us secure.

Wherever you go today, if you are born again, remember you are in Christ, hidden in Him. We belong to Him, and we are ‘in Him’. We are safe and sound in the palm of His nail pierced hands.

Maybe you don’t know Jesus yet as your personal Saviour,  and you’d like to be safe and sound for eternity. Our verse says God didn’t send Jesus to judge and condemn us but He loves us more than we shall ever know.😊 Why not ask Him to forgive you for your sins, to wash them all away, and to fill you with His Holy Spirit? Invite Him in and make Him Lord of your life today so you too can be safe with Him.

Thank You Lord for all You have done for us and we give you all the glory in Jesus’ name. Amen.

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IS IT A WEED?

Timothy  3:16 NIV All scripture is God breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness.

I have a friend who is a professional gardener but his friend, who knows nothing about gardening, has been carefully nurturing a weed thinking it was a plant so he had to explain it was a weed and he needed to dig it out before it took over!😊

In the same way  when we’re not sure what scripture says about some things we can inadvertently allow weeds to grow in our thinking and the longer we leave them the stronger and bigger they become. They can even become like sacred cows and it may be time for us to find out if we have any weeds or sacred cows that need pulling up or getting rid of!

A lady said to me once, “I can’t pray about this trouble in my life because God is far too busy, He has far more important issues to deal with across the world than my small trouble.” That’s a weed! God says to cast all our cares on Him for He cares for us, that He counts every hair on our heads, that He knows when we get up and when we sit down. God cares about the details in our lives! It’s time to dig that weedy thought out!😊

Another friend said to me, “God wants me to have this disease because He’s teaching me something. He wants me to suffer for Jesus sake.” Whereas scripture says the suffering God expects of us is when we are persecuted for our faith and suffer for teaching and preaching Jesus which is quite different. (Acts 5:41, Phil. 1:27-30)

Instead God says, 3 John 2 KJV “Beloved, I wish above all things that you may prosper and be in health even as your soul prospers”. It’s God’s will for us to be healthy and well! 

Then God says in the New Covenant He uses Scripture to teach and instruct us not sickness or disease.

2 Timothy 3:16 NLT All scripture is inspired by God and is useful to teach us what is true and to make us realise what is wrong in our lives. It corrects us when we are wrong and teaches us to do what is right. So we can learn from God just by what He teaches us in His word. Something I have learned is that God gets glory when we’re healed, not when we’re sick.😊 

It’s possible we all have different ‘weeds’ which need to be pulled out. As long as our plumb line is God’s word He will show us if we’re mistaken in any area. I know I’ve had some wrong information and wrong believing  weeds that His Word has corrected in me. The good news is we can all ask God to dig those weeds out and plant His thoughts from scripture in our hearts and minds instead.

Is it time to do some weeding? I’m working on some of mine, how about you?😊

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BUT GOD!

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

We all have had times when things looked impossible or beyond our ability to do anything about them. It’s at those moments we need a ‘BUT GOD’ moment, because we know that with God all things are possible.

Jesus tells us to ask seek and knock, and James tells us one of the reasons we don’t receive is because we don’t ask God in the first place, or because we’re asking with a wrong motive. God is always our ‘go to’ person at all times, day or night and He wants us to put every situation, whatever it is, into the God realm. Just ask. God is able to do far exceedingly abundantly above all we ask or think according to the power at work in us. 

I love that thought - the God Realm. That’s the realm where nothing is impossible, where the closed doors are opened, where God organises people and things to work out for our good and His glory, but they come about in response to our faith filled prayers.

I heard a recent true story of a man who worked 3 jobs to buy an accordion when he was 20 years old. Shortly after he bought it, it was stolen. Fast forward 60 years, he is now 80, and he was recently in hospital, very sick and he said ‘God I want my accordion back!’ Two weeks later it was found and returned to him! He asked God why it took so long to come back to him and down inside he heard God say “Because you never asked!”

Do you need a BUT GOD moment in your life? If so, can I encourage you to just ask God for it and know that God has a way even where there is no way. The daughter of that same man said to her dad, “If God can return your accordion, after 60 years, why can’t we ask for him to restore your health as well?” So they did ask, and he is now well and at home playing his accordion.😊

I hope that puts a smile on your face and gives you hope as we go into another week, because God is still in the business of answering our prayers and giving us our ‘but God’ moments, no matter how long we’ve waited. With God all things are possible.😊Thank You Lord.

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GOD ASKS QUESTIONS

Job 38::1 Then the Lord answered Job from the whirlwind: 

Who is this that questions my wisdom with ignorant words?….

v.4 Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth?....

v.5 Who determined its dimensions and stretched out the surveying line? 

v.6 What supports its foundations, and who laid its cornerstone 

as the morning stars sang together and all the angels shouted for joy? 

v.12 Have you ever commanded the morning to appear 

and caused the dawn to rise in the east?

v.36 Who gives intuition to the heart and instinct to the mind? 

v.37 Who is wise enough to count all the clouds? 

Who can tilt the water jars of heaven..?

Job chapters 38-42 are worth a read because they really give us insight into the power and majesty of our God and how mighty He is. 

Hebrews 1:3 reminds us that Jesus upholds all things by the word of His power.

Job comes to recognise how small he really is and how awe inspiring His God is and all that He can do. In the end he says “I will cover my mouth with my hand. I have said too much already. I have nothing more to say.”  

Maybe we’ve felt like that sometimes too? Perhaps we’ve all wanted to challenge God at some point, to ask our ‘Why’ questions, but at the end of the day we come to realise, like Job, that God is our Creator and His power is immense. What boggles the mind is that this same God loves each one of us to the point of giving us His Son Jesus, the One He held most dear to His heart, to die for us, for mankind to belong to Him and spend eternity with Him if they choose to.

I don’t know about you, but my heart is just overflowing with gratitude that He wants anything to do with me at all, let alone forgiving all my sins and giving me a home in heaven! How about you?😊

Can we join together in praise today to our awesome God and draw close to Him as He draws close to us, as He wraps His loving arms around us and hear Him tell us He loves us to the Cross and back. Can we just let go our questions in the light of His love and trust Him with the things we can’t understand because we can’t see across time and eternity and He can? 

He is worthy of all our praise and He wants us to trust Him and know His heart is always to bless us. Amen. 

RIGHT TIME - RIGHT PLACE

Psalm 5:12 NKJV For You, O Lord, will bless the righteous; With favor You will surround him as with a shield.

I just love being at the right place at the right time, don’t you? I believe God wants us to believe for those moments more and more and I’m finding the more I do believe for them, the more they are happening. So I thought I’d share my experience this week.😊

We were strolling round the rose bush area of the local garden centre where a member of staff was cutting roses off the bushes to tidy them up, throwing them on the ground as he went along. The whole pathway was strewn with beautiful blooms which still had some life in them, so I started to pick them up because I couldn’t bear to see them being trampled and trodden on.

He was going to throw them away but said I could take them if I wanted them! How kind, so here they are, two vases full of fabulous roses in my house in all their glory! What a blessing and the perfume is beautiful. They may only last a few days but I shall so enjoy them and now you get to enjoy them too.😊

Then the other day we were driving home and at the side of the road was a lovely duck egg blue little table being given away for free, so we brought it home as it perfectly matched our lounge. Such a blessing! It was another right time, right place. Thank You Lord.

Can I encourage all of us to believe God wants to give us the unexpected blessings we receive when we’re in the right place at the right time? It may not be ‘things’ like mine, but it may be a person you need to meet, or He may delay you five minutes so you avoid an accident.😊

All I know is, God is involved in all the little things in our lives and He enjoys blessing us, especially when we give Him all the glory and we appreciate them.

God says we are the righteousness of God in Christ, which means we qualify for His favour. So keep believing and thanking the Lord He is taking you to the right place at the right time to meet the right people in the coming days, and He will. Thank You Lord.

Have a lovely, blessed weekend.x😊

ARE YOU READY, GET SET, GO!

Luke 12:35 Be dressed for service and keep your lamps burning, as though you were waiting for your master to return from the wedding feast. Then you will be ready to open the door and let him in the moment he arrives and knocks. V.38 …But whenever he comes, he will reward the servants who are ready.

“Are You Ready? Get Set! Go!” Do you remember those words when we were in a school race? I would do my best even though I was not fast but I ran anyway! I was ready.😊

Jesus says to us all “Get ready”! He wants us ready and available at any moment in time, ready to answer His prompting to say or do something for Him. This is not a race of speed, it’s a daily walk with Him by our side, in conversation with Him. We can be so preoccupied with our own pursuits that we forget we are on call 24/7 to the Master, to the One who gave everything up for us so we could be called His friend, His brother, and God’s son or daughter.

This past few weeks I keep hearing the same thing, whatever I turn on, whatever I read “Get ready, be ready”. God has assignments for all of us if we belong to Him. I know of one 82 year old lady who has started a bible study for prisoners! She was ready!😊 Do you belong to Him? Then He has things He wants you to be ready to do too. And He has rewards for those who are!😊

When we join a new firm they train us in their way of doing things, in their company ethos. In the same way God wants us trained in His way of doing things, in His kingdom principles for life but He wants us to go out and use them wherever we go. 

Do you keep promising yourself you’ll spend time with God but never quite get round to it? If so this is a strong nudge from God today because He is specifically asking you and me, “Are you ready? Ready for My return? Ready for Me to use you? If not, then get ready!”

Matthew 24:44 You also must be ready all the time, for the Son of Man will come when least expected.

Lord, help us and show us how to get ready for whatever You have planned for us to do, and to be ready for Your return. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

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EXPERIENCE TODAY

James 1:17 NLT Whatever is good and perfect comes down to us from God our Father, who created all the lights in the heavens. He never changes or casts a shifting shadow.

 

Some experiences in life we can choose and some we can’t, and some we can make happen. Later on I might go and have a blackberry picking experience because I’m going to ‘experience’ making some jam, so I can ‘experience’ some jam tasting on scones! Yay!🤣

It’s more than likely our day will be filled with lots of seemingly insignificant experiences, but we have the privilege of living them with the Holy Spirit with us every moment of our day. We can choose to enjoy and be so grateful for all the good things we have in our ‘now’.

But on a deeper level, what would you like to experience today? Is it freedom from anxieties? Then Jesus said our Heavenly Father is taking care of it all so we don’t need to carry the burden of our worries anymore. He says we can experience that care-freeness He wants us to have when we cast our cares on Him. (1Peter 5:7)😊 

Is it that you’d like to be free from pain and sickness? Then come afresh to Jehovah Rapha, our Healer, and receive the healing Jesus already bought and paid for at the Cross with His life blood. 

Scripture says we can declare His victory over our health. ‘Lord, You say in Your word that by Jesus wounds I am healed, (1 Peter 2:24), I was healed (Isaiah 53:5), so I receive it by faith even though I can’t see it yet. I release the power of God, the resurrection life of Jesus that’s in my spirit, for Your healing and life to flow to every part of my body. I want to experience good health Lord and thank You for it by faith.’ Amen.

God has given us all good things to enjoy, and they are available to us in His precious promises. So my encouragement to us today is to put our faith to work and ‘experience’ all the good things God has prepared for us to enjoy today. 

And if you’re able to have a walk, why not take a little pot with you and pick some juicy blackberries and enjoy them for tea, or give them to a friend who can’t go out so they can ‘experience’ them too? 😊

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WHEN GOD NUDGES

1 Samuel 12:16 Now stand here and see the great thing the Lord is about to do.

Sometimes we hear a phrase that resonates in our spirit and I heard this the other - ‘Somebody in need, is waiting on the other side of your obedience.’ You see God gives all of us assignments to fulfil and we know the feeling when we’re aware God is giving us a nudge to do something, to go somewhere, to contact somebody. At that moment we have a choice, we can obey God or we can do nothing, or find twenty excuses why we can’t do it right now!😊

I’ve discovered that when God nudges us there is a time element involved that comes with the nudge. When God wants us to contact someone it’s because they are in need at that moment. If we wait till it’s more convenient, it might be too late. God wants immediate obedience.

Perhaps you have been on the receiving end of someone else’s obedience and you’ve been so blessed, so encouraged just when you needed it. What if that person hadn’t obeyed God’s nudge? We all want God’s plan to be unfolded in our lives but what if you are part of someone else’s plan, and their plan won’t unfold until you have been obedient to God?

Can I encourage us all today to obey the smallest nudge, and do what He is asking us to do, straight away? 

For instance, we heard someone needed a single bed urgently. God knew we had one we weren’t using just then, so He nudged us to pack it in the car and off we went to take it to them. Someone was in need, on the other side of our obedience, and we were glad to help. 

Four years ago God nudged me to start writing this Blog in the middle of Co-vid and it’s still going thanks to you lovely readers who God nudges to read it.😊 

Is God nudging you to do something? To start a business, a house group, a work with kids, to write a book or a song, to visit or phone someone, to pray for your locality, to provide what someone needs? 

Don’t delay any longer, just do it, answer the nudge, and like our verse says ‘see the great thing the Lord is about to do’ - through you!😊

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