WHICH DIRECTION?

Proverbs 3:5-6 ESV Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths.

I’m one of those people with a poor sense of direction and when we stopped at motorway services recently I couldn’t find my way out of the ‘facilities’ they were so big, but I escaped eventually! Feel free to laugh!😊

We all have times in life when we need guidance to know what to do, and which direction to take, especially when they’re big decisions. The good news is God has given us His Word to turn to and if we’re wise we’ll go to Him first before we call on anyone else for advice, and as Christians any advice we do listen to should agree with God’s word. 

The best thing we can do is take God’s promises to Him in prayer and ask Him to fulfil them in our own lives because He says He is active and alert watching over His word to perform it.

For instance we can ask the Holy Spirit for wisdom because He is our Counsellor. John 16:13 NLT When the Spirit of truth comes he will guide you into all truth. He will not speak on his own but will tell you what he has heard. He will tell you about the future.  Notice it says all truth, but we have to take the time to listen.😊

Sometimes we have to take the first step of faith and then the Lord gives us the next one because He wants us to trust Him as we walk along. Proverbs 16:9 NLT We can make our plans but the Lord determines our steps.

Then there will be times when we hear God speak to us down inside our spirit. Isaiah 30:21 NLT Your own ears will hear him. Right behind you a voice will say, “This is the way you should go,” whether to the right or to the left. That’s the still small inner voice we need to obey because it will always agree with scripture and will always lead us in peace. We’ll know if it doesn’t, then it’s not God’s voice.

So I hope these verses will help us tune in to God the next time we need to know what to do because God wants us to know the way forward even more than we do, and He will tell us if we get into His Word and listen.😊 Amen.

James 1:5 NKJV If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all liberally and without reproach, and it will be given to him.

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IN A HIDEOUT

Judges 6:2 NLT The Midianites were so cruel that the Israelites made hiding places for themselves in the mountains, caves, and strongholds. 

When we were kids we used to make a hideout and pin a sign up saying no one could enter unless they knew the password. I think we must have read a lot of Enid Blyton Famous Five books, and it was good fun, but at some point we knew we had to leave the hideout and go and do whatever we had to do.😊

The Israelites were in hideouts and Gideon was down in a winepress hiding some grain when the angel of the Lord called him out and called him a mighty man of valour. We may be in a hideout ourselves, maybe hiding behind excuses or from facing situations, or hiding from what God is calling us to do because we don’t feel ready or qualified to do it.

Gideon had placed limitations on himself and he was hiding away, afraid of the enemy. He thought he couldn’t do anything about it, he saw himself as useless, so he was feeling hopeless. 

God wants us to come out of hiding, out of whatever limitations we’ve placed on ourselves, because He is telling us how He sees us - as sons and daughters of the King, as men and women of valour, of courage, because we’re anointed and equipped with His Holy Spirit. When God is on our side we are never useless or hopeless. He needs our light to shine for Him and He has a plan for each one of us to fulfil.

Gideon argued with God but in the end he did what he was instructed even when the odds were totally against him and he saw the Lord give him a miraculous deliverance for his people, but he had to do his part. How encouraging that is. 

It’s just possible someone’s deliverance is waiting on us coming out of our hideout today and doing what God asks of us, even if the odds are stacked against us, because our God is still a delivering God. Amen.😊

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REASON TO SMILE

John 15:11 NLT I have told you these things so that you will be filled with my joy. Yes, your joy will overflow.

Isn’t it lovely to know we can be the reason someone smiles today? Just seeing someone smile or hearing them laugh can lift our spirits unless we’re being very grumpy!😊

I read this quip recently which made me chuckle - “Yesterday I wore something from 5 years ago and it actually fit. So proud of myself. It was a scarf. But still. Let’s be positive here!’🤣 

We all need things to lighten our moment, to take the tension out of our circumstances and humour is one of God’s great gifts to us. Wherever we go we can help to lift the atmosphere by our attitude and by seeing things from a bigger perspective. 

I know we shouldn’t be flippant when things are horrible but do we ever take ourselves too seriously in the every day things? I know I tend to and it’s not a bad thing when someone teases us to let us see we need to lighten up if we’re maybe being a bit ‘intense’ sometimes!😊

We all know life can be challenging to say the least and Jesus had more challenges than us all but yet, just before He was about to go to the Cross, He told His disciples to cheer up! He could see the bigger picture and He knew He wasn’t a victim but a Victor and He passed His victory on to us.

Even when we find we’re tempted to worry about a lot of things, the One who said “Cheer up” in the first place, told us to give all those worries to Him and allow His peace and joy to replace the things that are stealing our smiles and making us so intense. 

So remember to put a smile on your face today and make someone else’s day, help to lighten their load by seeing the bigger picture, and always look on the bright side, because we’re on Jesus’ side, the victory side. Amen.😊

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THE IMPORTANCE OF THANKYOU

Luke 17:15 One of them, when he saw that he was healed, came back to Jesus, shouting, “Praise God!”. He fell to the ground at Jesus’ feet, thanking him for what he had done….Jesus asked, “Didn’t I heal ten men? Where are the other nine? Has no one returned to give thanks to God except this foreigner? And Jesus said to the man, “Stand up and go. Your faith has healed you.”

We all know how important it is to say ‘Thank you’ when we receive a kindness or a gift of any kind and how sad it is when people don’t bother. Jesus felt the same way! He was so disappointed in their attitude and it reminds me to be more thankful to God for all He has done for me.

When I’ve been believing for healing the Lord has shown me to thank Him for the least little improvement and to hang on to it, but often people wait till they have their total healing before they thank God and even question and complain along the way because they think He’s not listening. Maybe He’s waiting for a Thank you!😊

As the leper came back to thank the Lord, Jesus said in another translation that his faith had made him ‘whole’ which would have meant all his body parts would have been restored. The Lord is showing us that being thankful plays an important part in receiving our wholeness in every area of our lives, not just our healing.

Here is a thought - Is saying thankYou to the Lord one of the keys to receiving our healing, or the new job, or the restored family and everything else Jesus has already paid for and made available to us? Are we remembering to keep turning back to Jesus to say thank you for all we already have?😊

Have I, have you, ever come running and shouting “Praise God!” like this man did to say thank you? Maybe we need to do that more.😊

Thank You Lord for the strength we do have today, for the grace and favour You are pouring out on us even when we can’t see it yet. Thank You Lord for the health we do enjoy and for more restoration coming. Thank You for forgiving us today and for Your great mercy and that You will provide all we need at the right time. In Jesus’ wonderful name. Amen.

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OVERWHELMED

Psalm 31:19 NLT How great is the goodness you have stored up for those who fear you. You lavish it on those who come to you for protection, blessing them before the watching world.

We sometimes hear people say they are overwhelmed by peoples’ kindness to them or that they’re overwhelmed with sadness or family troubles, or maybe the business is struggling. Feeling overwhelmed is not unusual but God has His own kind of overwhelming and what it should look like.

God’s idea is to overwhelm us is with His goodness and mercy. Psalmist David said ‘Surely Your goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life’. That word ‘follow’ there means it will be in hot pursuit, overtake, overwhelm. We may not realise it but we are being overwhelmed, overtaken by God’s goodness and mercy every day.😊

One of the keys to experiencing God’s ‘overwhelming’ is to be on the lookout for it. Proverbs 11:27 Niv Whoever seeks good finds favor, but evil comes to one who searches for it. We all know people who are always looking for the negative, for the worst to happen, and they find it, but God wants us to look for the good because then we’ll find favour. I know which one I’d rather have!😊

Let’s put our faith and trust in the Lord for the coming days, despite what we may hear or see on the media. In John 17:14 Jesus says we are in the world but we don’t belong to it. The Israelites  were given light in Goshen when the whole of Egypt only had darkness. Isaac sowed seed in famine and he had a 100 fold harvest when the others around him were starving. 

You see God has given us examples to encourage our faith, to know He is still in the business of overwhelming us with His goodness and we have His word on it, so we can start our week with that uplifting thought. Thank You Lord.😊

Psalm 34:8 NLT Taste and see that the Lord is good. Oh, the joys of those who take refuge in him!

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NO ONE LIKE OUR GOD

 Jeremiah 10:6-7 NLT

Lord there is no one like you! 

For you are great, and your name is full of power.

Who would not fear you, O King of nations?

That title belongs to you alone!

Among all the wise people of the earth,

And in all the kingdoms of the world,

There is no one like you.

All through history men have wanted to be the greatest, the most famous, the most powerful  and they still go to great lengths to try to prove that they are. Even Satan tried to be all powerful but he failed abysmally because he didn’t stand a chance. Jesus disarmed and defeated him forever when He died on the Cross and rose again.

As Jeremiah told us, there is no one like our God, no one as great, no one as powerful and when we think about that, our problems don’t seem so big. I’m so grateful that our God decided to be for us and not against us, that He decided to choose us before the world was even made. What an amazing God we have!

So, as always, we can bring our heart felt praises to the King of Kings and give Him all the glory, and all our thanks this morning, for loving us to the point of dying for us so we can be reconciled to Him for always and forever. Jesus name will always stand above them all.

Thank You Lord and help us to grasp something of Your greatness and Your immense love and mercy and grace towards us today. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

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OVERFLOWING!

John 10:10 AMPC …I came that they may have and enjoy life, and have it in abundance (to the full, till it overflows). 

There are some kinds of overflowing we all enjoy and a treat like an ice cold chocolate drink overflowing with ice cream and real cream topping can be very yummy on a hot day!😊

Some people we meet overflow with joy and love which we feel and experience by their genuine hugs and affection. 

God’s love is so overflowing towards us that He couldn’t contain it and He had to show us how much He loves us by giving us Jesus who opened up all God’s blessings to us.

Psalm 23:5 NLT My cup overflows with blessings. God’s desire is that our lives are so full of His goodness and blessings that they overflow on to everybody else as well. We can choose to keep the blessings to ourselves but Jesus told us a better way. He reminded us it’s more blessed to give than to receive. Why is that? It’s because it allows God to have something to work with that He can multiply back to us again.😊

2 Corinthians 9:8 NLT And God will generously provide all you need. Then you will always have everything you need and plenty left over to share with others.

We already know we are blessed in order to go and be a blessing to others, and Proverbs 11:25 reminds us ‘The generous will prosper; those who refresh others will themselves be refreshed.’  As we bless those we meet, we in turn will be refreshed and provided for again which is another reminder of the circle of blessing that God has designed. 

Luke 6:38 NLT Give, and you will receive. Your gift will return to you in full—pressed down, shaken together to make room for more, running over, and poured into your lap. The amount you give will determine the amount you get back. God’s way of doing things is always brilliant! 

Thank You Father we can enjoy Your circle of blessings today and walk in Your overflow. Amen.

Have a blessed weekend everyone.😊x

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RECEIVE THE GIFTS

1 Peter 4:10 NLT God has given each of you a gift from his great variety of spiritual gifts. Use them well to serve one another. 

When we send a gift to someone, if we don’t hear from them we contact them to check and see if the parcel arrived in the post in case they didn’t receive it.

In a similar way God has given us all gifts for us to receive and He is just as concerned that we have taken possession of them, that we have actually received, and are using them.

I had a relative who had various gifts on her wedding day but she put some on a shelf to only be used for special occasions. The sad thing was, she never ever used them. They remained brand new, never enjoyed, just looked at or forgotten! Someone had gone to great expense to buy them but they were wasted because they weren’t intended as ornaments, they were things to be used.

Romans 12:6 NLT In his grace, God has given us different gifts for doing certain things well…

How about you and me? Are there gifts God has given to us and we just put them on the shelf and never actually dust them off and use them in our everyday lives? How sad that would be when Jesus went to great expense in shedding His blood so we could receive all God has given us. He says He gives us all good things to enjoy.😊

Is it worth a second look, to check and see if we’ve left anything on the shelf, not used? Perhaps God gave you a spiritual gift but you don’t use it any more? I know of some older people who had the gift of prophecy and speaking in tongues but they have put them away as though they don’t work anymore, but God doesn’t take our gifts away. They are still all inside us and God expects us to use them for the benefit of us all.🙂

But more than anything, if you have never received Jesus Himself, why not do it today and then go on and receive all His other gifts and give Him all the glory. In Jesus name. Amen.

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UNDER A CLOUD?

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

Don’t let it weigh you down! Do we sometimes wake up in the morning and feel a heaviness in our spirit, like we’re under a cloud? We may not even be able to put our finger on it but we know we’re not exactly on cloud nine! Or even if we do know what the problem is, it’s at that point we have a choice to make and what we say next will play a big part in what kind of day we will have.

We are so blessed because, praise God, we have someone to take our cares to. We have a Deliverer, a Saviour, a Problem Solver, a Burden Lifter, a Provider and His name is Jesus.😊

The Holy Spirit doesn’t say to cast one or two of our burdens on the Lord! NO! He says to cast ALL our cares on to Him because nothing is too hard or too heavy for Him to deal with. He bore the weight of Calvary for us and took our sins away, anything after that could never be too hard because He has all the answers before the cares and the problems came along.

So when we wake up in the morning, and as we pray, I hope we can remind ourselves of  what God says and speak words of life to start our day off on the right foot, and smile.😊

Father, thank You that You love me, and that You are taking care of everything in my life today. I hand over all my worries and cares, the whole lot to You, and thank You that You are not just sorting them all out, but you are making lemonade out of my lemons and turning them round for good. My eyes are on You and I praise You for lifting this heavy weight off my shoulders and yoking me to Jesus today and His burden is light. Thank You for strengthening me for every battle, for providing all my needs and by faith I receive Your grace to overcome my worries and fears. Thank You Lord, in Jesus’ name. Amen.

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WE ARE GOING SOMEWHERE

Romans 5:17 NIV For if, by the trespass of the one man, death reigned through that one man, how much more will those who receive God’s abundant provision of grace and of the gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man, Jesus Christ!

We may feel like we’re not getting anywhere but God wants us to know that whatever we are going through we are going somewhere. Even our trouble is taking us somewhere, it has a destination. I heard someone say Jesus used the Cross as a vehicle to take Him to total victory, to sit at the right hand of God. I’d never thought of it like that before.😊

If we have trouble we can use it as a vehicle as well, to carry us forward to wherever God’s plan is leading us. His abundance of grace will take us there. Grace brought us into His salvation and it will take us into everything else we need that God has already prepared for us to walk into.

We can’t change God’s grace. Grace doesn’t change with our age, no matter how young or old we are. Grace doesn’t change with our circumstances or family or church or world situations.

God says we will reign in life, we will get somewhere, if we receive the abundance of His grace and use it to reign over every trouble the enemy sends and He adds that His grace will be more than enough.😊

Grace isn’t in short supply, it’s in abundance and Grace is for us all. Do you have a need? Then don’t forget to go to His throne, whatever time of day, whatever age we are, whatever our circumstances, to come and receive the overflowing abundance of His grace to meet that need in Jesus name.

Everything we have comes to us because of God’s amazing grace towards us and we tap into it by faith in the promises of God.  So let’s throw out the negative voices and know that God wants us to reign in life through knowing and receiving His wonderful gift of righteousness and His abundant grace today. Thank You for them both Lord. Amen.

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DO WE ‘GET IT’?

Ephesians 1:16-20 NKJV …that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give to you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him, the eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that you may know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints, and what is the exceeding greatness of His power toward us who believe,…

Have you ever tried to explain something to someone and you can see the light has not dawned? It happens when someone tries to explain to me a new thing on my computer and they can tell I didn’t get it yet! The light bulb moment didn’t happen!😊 

I’m so very glad our God is patient and long suffering with us because He tells us things in scripture over and over again and we still don’t always get it either, but He never gives up on us!

No wonder Paul prayed this wonderful prayer in Ephesians asking God to give us the spirit of revelation and understanding. He really wanted us to grasp what he’s saying because it is so important to our walk with the Lord! No matter how little or how much we know, there is always so much still to learn. 

So what is it he wants us to ‘get’? He’s teaching us who we really are and what we have been given. He wants us to get a revelation of  the greatness of God’s power that’s in us, for us all to use for His glory.😊

We are sons and daughters of the Most High God, anointed with the Holy Spirit, filled with His power. God says the same power that raised Christ from the dead lives in us, but unless we get the revelation of it and understand and release it, it won’t achieve what God has planned for it.😊

Lord open our eyes today to know and learn more of who we are, and what we have in Jesus, that we have His anointing, His power dwelling in us, so we can go and be Jesus to whoever we meet. In Jesus name. Amen.

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SHAKE IT OFF!

Acts 28:5 NLT But Paul shook off the snake into the fire and was unharmed.

Sometimes we see a dog that’s been in the water, having a huge shake and all the water scatters over everybody as it shakes its body!😊 It requires quite a vigorous shaking, not a little effort. Apostle Paul had to shake off something too, but his was a deadly snake which had bitten him and was holding on to his hand. 

In the same way we have to vigorously shake off some things that the enemy has bitten us with, that are trying to cling to us as well.

For some of us we may have to shake off bad memories, or disappointments. For others it might be resentment at the way life has turned out, or how someone betrayed them. Perhaps there is an old mindset of lack in other areas that all need to be shaken off.

Whatever it is, God has said He is providing all we will ever need in our lives. He brings healing  in our memories and minds as well as our bodies. He can turn our circumstances around if we’re willing to shake off whatever has discouraged us. He can give us beauty for the ashes we’ve been left with. He gives us His own faith and confidence and assurance that we’re not doing this life alone. He is with us.

Is it time to dig into God’s word to hear Him say we are one of a kind, wonderfully made, a treasure and a masterpiece of His making? He says we can do all things through Christ who strengthens us, that He has anointed and qualified us. 

Now are we willing to shake off the words or the labels others have put on us, to get out of the limitations of the box we or others may have placed us in?

We’ve entered a new season for us all and God is doing a new thing. Why not let God’s word paint the picture He has of you and shake off any other picture the enemy has given you in the past.

Lord help us shake all the negative stuff off today and enter this new season with hope and faith in You, our wonderful God. In Jesus name. Amen.

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WORTHY OF ALL OUR PRAISES

Isaiah 12:3-5 NLT 

With joy you will drink deeply from the fountain of salvation! 

In that wonderful day you will sing: 

Thank the Lord! Praise his name! Tell the nations what he has done. 

Let them know how mighty he is! 

Sing to the Lord, for he has done wonderful things.

Make known his praise around the world.

Drink deeply, sing, thank, praise, tell, make known. There’s lots of action in these few verses and we’re being told to do them all! When we remember all our God has done for us I don’t think we should have any bother obeying the instructions do you?😊

Our hearts can overflow in gratitude and thankfulness to the Lord for He really has done wonderful things for each one of us. Psalm 103 says He has forgiven all our sins, healed all our diseases, crowned us with His loving kindness and tender mercies, is renewing our youth like the eagles and so much more.

2 Peter 1:4 says He has given us His divine nature and 1 John 4:13 says He has given us His Holy Spirit with His power to live in us. We can praise His name for His mercy that came to us fresh this morning (Lamentations 3:23), and thank Him for His grace and favour He poured out on us for this new day and the rest of our lives. (Ephesians 1:6) 

We have a wonderful God and He wants each one of us to receive His joy as we drink deeply from His fountain, His well of blessings, of all that is included in our salvation because of Jesus. 

Maybe you haven’t felt able to drink from all of these wonderful blessings lately, but God is encouraging us all to do it today and I pray we can offer Him our thanks and praises all around the world, wherever we are reading this, and lift the name of Jesus high today. He is so worthy of it all. 

v.6 For great is the Holy One of Israel who lives among you.

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WE ARE A NEW CREATION

Colossians 1:12-13 always thanking the Father. He has enabled you to share in the inheritance that belongs to his people, who live in the light. For he has rescued us from the kingdom of darkness and transferred us into the Kingdom of his dear Son, who purchased our freedom and forgave our sins. 

We were looking after our grandchildrens’ hamster last week and as hamsters only come out at night when it’s dark we hardly saw him. He just doesn't like coming out in the daylight, and we can’t change him!😊 

When we became a child of God we were transferred from the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of His Son, but God did change us, we became children of the Light. 

He says 2 Corinthians 5:17 NKJV Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation, old things have passed away; behold all things have become new. We became a new creation! It follows then that because God is supernatural that as one of His children He would expect us to also walk in the supernatural because He is in us.😊

Some people have a problem with that but I can’t imagine why. It’s a wonderful blessing because it means we’re not tied to the restrictions of this world, but have been given access to His supernatural abilities and giftings by God’s Holy Spirit who lives in us.

Jesus Himself said we would do the same things He did and more besides and He wants us to believe what He said. God never made us to live an ordinary, mediocre life. He designed us as a child of God to walk in the miraculous, in the God realm, in the seemingly impossible because we belong to Him and we’re one spirit with Him!

Lord wake me up, wake us all up! Speak to our hearts, lift the veil off our thinking and give us revelation of who You have made us, so we can be all You have called us to be and do what You want us to do, with the help of Your Holy Spirit. In Jesus name. Amen.

Have a blessed weekend everybody.x😊

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PUT YOUR SHOES ON!

Ephesians 6: 6 NLT For shoes, put on the peace that comes from the Good News so that you will be fully prepared.

Yesterday we looked at walking in the peace Jesus has gifted us with, but sometimes we find we’re walking in offence or irritation instead. You know the scenario - the shop checkout person is very offhand with you or ignores or even scowls at you for no reason at all, and it ruffles our feathers! Or someone does something which hurts our feelings and we want to say something!

We can let go of our peace and give away our joy at that moment, but we don’t have to. We have the control button! Other people don’t control our reactions. We do.😊

Hebrews 12:13 NIV Make every effort to live in peace with everyone and to be holy; without holiness no one will see the Lord. v.14 See to it that no one falls short of the grace of God and that no bitter root grows up to cause trouble and defile many.

Maybe someone has been rude to you and you so want to be rude back but if we have our shoes of peace on we can choose to let it go. You see, if we don’t have our peace shoes on we are barefoot and liable to be hurt and offended at the least little stone in our path. Paul warns it leads to a bitter root which will cause trouble not just for us, but for many! Why? Because it can escalate really quickly!

We’re told to wear the whole armour of God, and if we forget a bit we make ourselves vulnerable to attack, vulnerable to offences and being hurt. But the good news is, if we wear it all we will be well equipped to stop the fiery darts of the enemy, to be the Overcomers God has made us to be.

So today, my encouragement to us all is to rise up to a higher level, put our peace shoes on and be the bigger person. Let the offences, the irritations, the hurts, slide off our backs like water off a duck’s back. We have the Greater One living on the inside of us and He will help us see the bigger picture and keep us in peace if we ask Him to.

Don’t go barefoot - Put your peace shoes on!😊 Amen.

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WALKING IN HIS PEACE

Philippians 4:6-7 NKJV Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God; and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.

Just recently a lovely friend of mine made me a rag rug with the word PEACE woven into it and it’s more special because she made it especially for us. Every time I get up in the morning my feet sink down into ‘Peace’ and it’s deep and warm.😊

As I was thinking about that, the Lord reminded me that He invites us to walk in His peace every day. Jesus who is the Prince of Peace, said He was leaving His gift of peace with us and we can sink down into it because it is deep and warm as well.  

Woven into His peace is His kindness, His provision for our wholeness, His healing, with nothing missing and nothing broken. Woven into His peace is His love and the awareness of being cared for by the One who died for us so we could live with Him every day. Woven into His peace are His joy and wisdom and His pathway for our lives.

Are you getting the picture? He invites us to choose to walk in His peace today. Will we do that and choose to walk in His ways, thinking His thoughts and allow His peace to envelop us and give us rest in our souls so we, in turn, can take His peace with us to give to others? I pray we do.😊

Lord we thank you for the gift of Your peace. Help each one of us to choose to let our feet sink down into it and walk in it today. In Jesus name. Amen.

GET OUR HOPES UP!

Isaiah 40:31 NIV but those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint.

How’s your hope doing today? Done any soaring lately? The reason I ask is because without hope our faith won’t have anything to grab a hold of. When a man is drowning he will grab a rope if you throw him one because it’s his only hope of survival.

God says now these three will remain, faith, hope and love. We often pass over the word hope to get to the love bit. Yes we know love is the greatest but don’t let’s discount faith and hope. We need them too!😊

Do we sometimes grow weary and heavy and faint because we’ve forgotten to hope in the Lord? You see our hope isn’t an airy fairy thing with no foundation. Our hope is in the LORD Himself. He has given us hope so we can believe for something, so we can walk in joy and peace. Romans 15:13 May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.

We all want joy and peace. We all want strength. We all want to soar like an eagle! Well God says we can have it all if we start to hope again! It’s our call! Are we choosing to hope? 

Bible hope is a certain expectation of good. Worldly hope is a wishful, uncertain, vague thing. Our hope is not in doctors, or lawyers, or bankers or friends or family. Our hope is in the living God who rescued 3 million slaves, who parts Red Seas. Our hope is in Jesus who makes blind eyes see, who delivers people from demons and all the oppression of the enemy, who feeds 5,000 plus people with a little boy’s packed lunch!

Let’s get our hopes back up, let’s feed our faith so we can receive all the peace and joy we want, so we can soar above the difficulties and trials of life. God wants you to get your hopes up. He can provide that job, that home, that restored relationship, that healing. Put your trust in the Lord and get your hopes up again by basing it on His word and His promises today.😊

God says “GET YOUR HOPES UP!”

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OUR PERSONAL GOD

1 Corinthians 6:17 But the person who is joined to the Lord is one spirit with Him.

Have you ever noticed when small children are playing together you invariably hear the cry “That’s my toy. It’s mine!” They soon let their little friend know that they’re hanging on to whatever it is that’s theirs! Sometimes our enemy comes along and tries us out to see where we are in our thinking concerning our Heavenly Father because we know God is our Heavenly Father but at some point we  also need to say “He’s not just our Father, but He is also my Father, He is my God, my Saviour.😊

God wants to be intimate and personal to us, and with us. He says we belong to Him, that we are His child, His son or daughter, but He wants us to also say He belongs to us. Isn’t that an amazing thought!

He is my everything - my provider, my healer, my protector, the lover of my soul. Do we sometimes hold our Father at arm’s length and see Him distant, especially if we’ve sinned in some way? It’s at those times we need to run to Him, not from Him remembering we have not lost our righteousness because we blew it. His mercy to forgive us is from everlasting to everlasting, His grace is sufficient for every mistake, every failure, every need in our lives or our loved ones.

When we make a cup of tea, once we’ve added the water to the teabag it becomes infused and there is no way we can separate the two out again. They have become one entity.  In a similar way our Father gave us His own Holy Spirit to be inside us, to be one spirit with Him, infused with Him, no longer two separate entities.  Jesus talked about being one with Him and with His Father in John 17:20-23.

When God says He is for us, He is reminding us we are joined to Him, that He is personally involved with our affairs. That’s how close the Holy Spirit is - joined to  us, personal, intimate, so we don’t need to fear or feel alone. We can say “I belong to God” but don’t forget to add “And He belongs to me!” We are one with Him, we are His and He is ours.  Isn’t that a wonderful blessing?😊 Thank You Lord.

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FAITH IT

James 2:26 NKJV For as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also.

I’ve been thinking about FAITH and how it’s something we ‘do’ so it produces the end result. When I’m faithing something I have to counteract the doubts, the thoughts, or the negative report that’s trying to stop me from believing what I’m faithing for. It may be medical facts that are staring me in the face but I can attack the cause and the symptoms with faith in the word of God, by giving God’s Word, His promises, first place in my life above everything else. 

It may be financial struggles, or relationship upheavals but everything is subject to change when we apply our faith to them, because nothing is impossible to God.

In 1 John 5:4 God says our faith overcomes the world because it’s not how big our faith is, it’s how big our God is who we’re putting our faith in. We don’t have faith in faith but we do have faith in our God and He says even if our faith is a tiny seed in size we can still remove mountains!😊

Are you needing to do some ‘Faithing’ in your life? Are you needing to counter attack some information, some doubts, that have been holding you back, by putting your faith in the promises of God? 

If so, God is rooting for you. He’s cheering you on because He’s saying “Go for it! All things are possible to him or her who believes.”

Get a picture or photo of what you’re believing for - see it by faith and do what God says. 

Habakkuk 2:2 Then the Lord answered me and said: “Write the vision and make it plain on tablets, that he may run who reads it. Write it down, draw a picture of it, keep it before your eyes. Lay a hold of it with the promises of God and thank God for it even before you have it. Faith it, Speak it and Do it! Faith without works is dead faith or you could say, it won’t produce what you’re believing for.😊

As we begin another week don’t fake it till you make it, Faith it till you make it!😊 In Jesus name. Amen.

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A PICTURE OF GOD’S LOVE

Psalm 103:8 

The Lord is compassionate and merciful, 

slow to get angry and filled with unfailing love. 

V.10 He does not punish us for all our sins; 

he does not deal harshly with us, as we deserve. 

v.11 For his unfailing love toward those who fear him 

is as great as the height of the heavens above the earth.

When we read these verses we realise how wonderful our God is! There is nobody like Him! Who else would be as merciful to us as He has been and still is? Who else would love us when we really don’t deserve it?

Who else would punish their own Son so we would be forgiven? He says we deserve to be dealt with harshly but He doesn’t do it. His words give us a picture of just how great His love for each one of us really is. 

Have we looked at that picture of His love recently? We know from the scientists only a fraction of how high the heavens are above the earth, we’ve seen the pictures of space reaching out, seemingly into eternity. That is one picture of how wonderful and how great God’s love is for us. But if we look at the Cross and we see the love of Jesus demonstrated for each one of us, we know there is no greater love and it is all for us.

Why not spend a few minutes today and let Him unfold a picture of His wonderful love on the inside of you and know He is for you and not against you. Wherever you go God’s love surrounds you. His love is in you.

How can we not worship our God today and return His love? Jesus said the very stones will cry out if we don’t.😊 Praise His wonderful name. 🙏

Photo: Amir Arefi at Unsplash