BOUGHT AND PAID FOR

Romans 8:1-2 NKJV There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit.

I had one of those days the other day when I felt like I didn’t do too well, and maybe you have those too, or perhaps you felt like you blew it, or let someone down. So what do we do when that happens, because it can make us feel miserable and seems to throw us open to the enemy’s attacks?

Revelation 12:10 tells us that the devil is the accuser of the brethren - that’s you and me if we love Jesus. We feel condemned for something we’ve said or done, or failed to do, but that’s when we need to remember we can thank God our forgiveness has already been bought and paid for by Jesus.

We have to make sure our breastplate of righteousness is firmly in place because God says He has made us the righteousness of God in Christ and He’s no longer condemning us. Praise God our righteousness doesn’t come and go but God has given it to us as a gift.

If we really love God we won’t keep on sinning deliberately because our heart is to honour Jesus and please our Heavenly Father, but when we do sin we can say sorry and know we have Jesus pleading His shed blood on our behalf which has dealt with it all - past, present and future.

Hebrews 10:19 And so, dear brothers and sisters, we can boldly enter heaven’s Most Holy Place because of the blood of Jesus. v.21And since we have a great High Priest who rules over God’s house, v.23 let us go right into the presence of God with sincere hearts fully trusting him. For our guilty consciences have been sprinkled with Christ’s blood to make us clean, and our bodies have been washed with pure water.

So if you’ve been feeling like you’ve let the Lord down in some way, just come to the throne of grace today. Thank our merciful God for the blood of Jesus which has cleansed us of all our unrighteousness and declares us not guilty, and hear Him say you are precious in His sight, you are forgiven, and loved with an everlasting love. The amazing grace of God. Thank You Lord. Amen. 😊

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THE PRIZE AWAITS

2 Timothy 4:7-8 I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, and I have remained faithful. And now the prize awaits me - the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will give me on the day of his return. And the prize is not just for me but for all who eagerly look forward to his appearing.

Have you ever entered a competition for a prize thinking you’d probably never win it? I went to a presentation about Dairy Foods once and the seat I sat on had a number on it. Suddenly my seat number was called out and I won a huge cream gateau which was amazing, but I won the prize by just sitting on the seat!😊

Our prize comes, not when our number is called out, but because we put our faith in Jesus, because we fought the good fight of faith, and when we finish our race. How wonderful to know that prize is certain and sure, and it will be given to us the day Jesus comes back for us, to those who are expecting and looking forward to His return.

Psalm 103 tells us that we have been crowned already with lovingkindness and God’s favour, but on the day Jesus comes back we will be given the crown of righteousness. We’ve already been given His righteousness as a gift to wear every day of our earthly lives like a breastplate, but on that day there will be the crown that goes with it. We’ll have the complete outfit and what a glorious day it will be.😊

We won’t have deserved any of it, all the glory will go to our Saviour and Redeemer the Lord Jesus who did it all, and gave it all for us. What a day that will be!

Can I encourage us all today, to eagerly look forward to Jesus’ appearing, to the moment of His return, to fight the good fight of faith and never give up, to finish our race with faithfulness in our hearts, rooted and grounded in our Saviour’s great love for us. 

I believe He’s looking forward to that day even more eagerly than we are. Hallelujah! Praise His name. Amen.

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EVER READY AND ENERGISED

Philemon v.21-22 I am confident as I write this letter that you will do what I ask and even more! One more thing - please prepare a guest room for me,…

As I read about Paul’s request for Philemon to put him up at his house I thought how Philemon would have to be ready for whenever Paul arrived as he was in prison at that moment in time.

Philemon had to be ever ready! And I thought about the batteries called ‘Ever Ready!’ which are now owned by the Energiser battery company. Ever ready and Energised - what a good combination! I think we could all do with some of that! 😊

Now we may or may not have a spare room to put someone up, but there are other ways that I think the Lord wants us to be ever ready and energised to help someone, especially a brother or sister in the faith.

Galations 6:10 When we have the opportunity to help anyone, we should do it. But we should give special attention to those who are in the family of believers.

The key word seems to be ‘opportunity’ as we’re sometimes so engrossed in what’s happening in our own lives or affairs that we don’t always recognise the need in someone else’s life.  We need to have our antennae up to be sensitive to the Holy Spirit who might be nudging us to help somebody. 

Will it always be convenient? Probably not, but we’re instructed to take whatever opportunity arises because the door of opportunity sometimes swings shut, and then we’re too late to help.

So may I encourage us, especially if our batteries are running on low, to ask the Lord to recharge our spiritual and physical batteries today so we’re all Ever Ready, even if we’re not fully energised yet, to be available to help somebody wherever and whenever we have the opportunity? Amen.😊

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TIME FOR OUR FAITH BOOSTER INJECTION

Psalm 92:12 NLT But the godly will flourish like palm trees and grow strong like the cedars of Lebanon.

I was reading how God wants us to thrive in life not just survive! If we’re not careful we can settle into the ‘Oh well, I can’t expect any more than this’ mentality without even realising it. 

So today it’s time for our faith booster injection to help us see ourselves like He does, flourishing and strong! And this injection has no nasty side effects only good ones.😊

God has called us to be Overcomers, to be people who know that because we’re in Jesus, we shall succeed by the power of the Holy Spirit, we’ll be a blessing to people, as well as walk in the blessings God has prepared for us, since before the world was made.😊

We have good news - God has taken us from the kingdom of darkness and put us in His kingdom of light in His Son the Lord Jesus, so we’re not part of the world’s darkness.

Throughout scripture God tells us to ‘Get up, rise up and walk by faith, lift up our heads, hope in the Lord, fix our eyes on Jesus not the problems, to come with confident boldness to ask for what we need at His throne.

God is in the business of us winning our race with joy, in overcoming the world with the faith He has given us. He never says, “Oh well, you’ve had some hard knocks, you’ll never recover, you might as well give up now.” NO, no, no!

He says He’s blessed us going out and coming in, He’s decreed His goodness and mercy are to chase us down all the days of our lives. He says we may get knocked down, beaten up by circumstances, but He never leaves us there. He says He’ll turn it round for our good so we’re never victims, we’re victors.

“Come on” He says, “get a thriving mentality, not a surviving one!”😊

Let His injection soak in. Let’s keep believing, throw our doubts out the window, confess Jesus is Lord of our lives, and Lord over our situations, the One who won total victory over the devil and all his cohorts, and He gave us His authority over them as well.

Stand tall, lift your head up and keep reminding yourself today, this coming week, you are not just going to survive, you are going to thrive because of Jesus. Praise His name. Amen.

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GOD’S LOVE AND KINDNESS REVEALED

Titus 3:4-7 NLT

But - “When God our Savior revealed his kindness and love, he saved us, 

not because of the righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy. 

He washed away our sins, giving us a new birth and new life through the Holy Spirit.

He generously poured out the Spirit upon us through Jesus Christ our Savior. 

Because of his grace he declared us righteous and 

gave us confidence that we will inherit eternal life.”

After reading those verses we don’t need any more encouragement to worship our Saviour today, do we?  Jesus has done it all and it’s the Good News of the gospel. 

God has revealed it all to us through Jesus and it’s for anyone to believe and receive.

It’s all about Jesus, not about us. All about His sacrifice, His shed blood, His forgiveness, His righteousness, His love, His kindness to each one of us, His mercy, His new birth, His Holy Spirit and He even gave us His confidence that we will receive His amazing gift of eternal life to top it all off! 

It doesn’t come any better than that.😊

No matter how you may ‘feel’ today, or what is happening in your life, whether you’re up or down, our God deserves all the praise and Jesus deserves all the glory and honour we can give Him. 

So let’s get up and join with believers all over the world and say ‘ThankYou’ to our wonderful God and praise His wonderful name. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

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SO MANY CHOICES!

Psalm 90:12 NIV Teach us to number our days, that we may gain a heart of wisdom.

In life we’re faced with multiple choices, and some of them are wise and some of them are not! Statistics tell us we make as many as 33,000 choices in any given day, which is remarkable but no wonder we sometimes get tired!

I even have a friend who doesn’t like going to supermarkets because there is too much choice! Do we choose the healthy cereals or the sugar coated ones?  Do I choose fruit or a chocolate biscuit, or both? Hmmm.🤔

Seriously though we can apply it to everything including how we spend our spare time. We’ve probably all spent hours on the internet or TV but Scripture tells us to use our time wisely, to number our days. In other words to not waste this precious commodity of time.

God says He gives us all things to enjoy but He does say to ask for His wisdom in all things, and to put His kingdom first. What does He wants us to do, or not do? James 1:5 If you need wisdom, ask our generous God, and he will give it to you. He will not rebuke you for asking.

So no matter what it’s about, it would be wise to just stop and think for a minute. Take time to listen to His quiet voice when we hear Him saying to think again as we reach for another cake, or another hour of screen watching, or not to say the thing that was on the tip of our tongue and keep our mouth shut, or maybe choose to say it in a kinder way, or even who to choose as our friends. It covers everything!

We’ll probably not be surprised when we find He may want us to choose something different to what we were thinking, but it’s because He wants to protect us, He wants the best for us. 

Most of all He’d like us to choose to spend some of our time with Him each day and to read His word. We know it’s always time well spent and He rewards us when we do.

Oh and bye the way, I’d just like to thank anyone who ever reads my Blog, for choosing to read it as one of your 33,000 choices on any given day, and I hope it blesses you.😊

May your weekend be blessed with wise choices. Amen.😊x

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STRAIGHT PATHS

Proverbs 3:5-6 NIV Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight.

We were out for a country walk the other day and the autumn sun was streaming through the golden leaves as we explored the path ahead. Some pathways just seem to draw you in they’re so inviting, and this was one of those as it was easy to see the way ahead.

Life isn’t quite like that though is it? Very often we can’t see the way forward at all and it’s very much a case of taking one step, one day at a time, and trusting the Lord to show us what to do next which is not always easy!

So often we want the answers right now and when they don’t happen we can think the Lord is not listening or He doesn’t care that we’re all tensed up sitting on the edge of our seat! We know God has His own timetable which may not coincide with ours, but He has promised to straighten out the path ahead and to provide all we need when we need it. Just stop and think about that for a minute because it’s wonderfully reassuring and it’s for all areas of our lives.😊

So until that happens He wants us to relax and keep leaning on His promises while He moves things around, and remember He has said that the path of the righteous gets brighter and brighter. We don’t sit down in a dark tunnel and stay there, we don’t take ownership of the tunnel, we keep walking towards the light.😊

We may not even recognise when things are beginning to shift, but God is always working in the background whether we see it or not. He assures us it’s ok to trust Him and that if we wait patiently for Him then we will get to where He wants us to be, although it may not always be where we thought it would be, and that’s where the submitting to Him kicks in. 

Wherever it is He’s taking us to, or through, it’s because He always knows the end from the beginning and He’ll do what’s best. I pray we’ll be able to rest in that so we’ll have peace in our hearts and be able to get off the edge of our seats so we can lean back on His Word, and let Him surround us with His favour, and pour out His blessings as He continues to make our crooked paths straight. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

A GOOD STORY

Psalm 139:16 AMPC Your eyes saw my unformed substance, and in Your book all the days [of my life] were written before ever they took shape, when as yet there was none of them.

Right from when we’re little we love a good story don’t we, especially if it has a happy ending?😊 God has a wonderful story to tell each one of us about His love for us and how much we mean to Him.

It’s a story of restoration, of a son or daughter who leaves home to wander off to do their own thing and finds themselves in a bad way. After a while they realise their mistakes so they go back home to say sorry to their Dad. His arms are open wide with great love to welcome them home again so they have a home with him forever. It’s where they know they’ll always be looked after and cared for, where they’ll know they belong. Their story is one of security and provision, of hope for a future with their loving father forever.

But as with all good stories the middle bit has its upsets and the baddy tries to come in and spoil things, but in the end the father turns it all around for good and it all ends well. 😊

It may sound almost too good to be true but it’s actually our story, the story of all God has done for us and how wonderfully kind and forgiving He is to each one of us. Our story can have a happy ending because of Jesus and all He did for us at the Cross, because He shed His blood for us all. 

Our story might still be in the upset middle bit, coming under attack from our enemy Satan, but we have our Father’s assurance that if we’re trusting in Jesus, then our names are written in His Lamb’s Book of Life and our eternity with Him is secure. 

Luke 15:20 NIV So he got up and went to his father. “But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion for him; he ran to his son, threw his arms around him and kissed him.

What a lovely picture of our loving Father and we know He will keep us anchored to Jesus all the days of our lives as we keep our eyes on Him, till we reach the end of our story here on earth, and He welcomes us into His heaven to be with Him for all eternity. Thank You Lord. Amen.

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ROOTED AND GROUNDED

Ephesians 3:16-19 NLT I pray that from his glorious, unlimited resources he will empower you with inner strength through his Spirit. Then Christ will make his home in your hearts as you trust in him. Your roots will grow down into God’s love and keep you strong. And may you have the power to understand, as all God’s people should, how wide, how long, how high, and how deep his love is. 

May you experience the love of Christ, though it is too great to understand fully. Then you will be made complete with all the fullness of life and power that comes from God.

I kept hearing these words in my spirit - ‘rooted and grounded’ which is from the New King James translation of this verse. ‘that you, being rooted and grounded in love…’ Thankfully it doesn’t say rooted and grounded in condemnation or judgement!

It made me think of when I try to take cuttings from my plants and I wait for the new roots to grow so the plant is literally rooted and grounded in good soil and starts to grow new leaves.

We’re all like God’s plants, some of us may be fresh new plants, and others of us may be a bit more established but whatever stage we’re at we are all totally dependent on having our roots going down into God’s love for us. It’s another part of being anchored to Jesus - anchored in His great love. What a wonderful thought to dwell on throughout our day. “I’m rooted in Jesus’ love for me.”😊

Paul reminds us that when we do that we shall be strong and we so need to understand just how immense and all encompassing God’s love for us really is. It will keep us not just rooted and grounded throughout the storms of life but it will make us grow new roots and shoots and help us bear much fruit.

The Holy Spirit goes on to say we’ll experience the life and power that comes from God. What a promise! 😊 I’m sure we’d all like some of that, so let’s allow the words of our verses above to encourage us today and imagine with me our roots growing deeper and deeper into His wonderful unconditional love for us. Amen. Thank You Lord.

Ephesians 3:20 NLT Now all glory to God, who is able through his mighty power at work within us, to accomplish infinitely more than we might ask or think. Glory to him in the church and in Christ Jesus through all generations forever and ever! Amen.

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CONFIDENT HOPE

Hebrews 6 verses 18-20 NIV …We who have fled to take hold of the hope set before us may be greatly encouraged. We have this hope as an anchor for the soul, firm and secure. 

There’s an old hymn which says “Will your anchor hold in the storms of life?” and if we belong to Jesus then we all have an anchor and it is keeping us firm and secure. I’m here today to remind us we are anchored to the Lord Jesus Himself who is also our high priest, so whatever is trying to upset us we know Jesus is interceding with God on our behalf around the clock. 

Part of our hope is the promise of spending eternity in heaven with God our Father because Jesus rose from the dead. With all the ups and downs in our lives we mustn’t forget we have a wonderful hope that will take us into eternity.😊

We know what it’s like when we may have days when things go wrong. We might have had a family upset, traffic was all jammed up, the computer wouldn’t do what we wanted it to, an appointment was cancelled and then we had some sad news. That’s when we need to remember we’re anchored to hope, that God will give us beauty for our ashes, that God is still for us and not against us, that He will turn things around for our good and we know He’s holding us steady.

When an illness hits, or someone lets us down we won’t spiral into hopelessness, because our anchor is in the Lord and we know He won’t let us go. Our hope is in His word that says He is our healer, that there is forgiveness for every mistake, healing for every hurt and heartbreak. 

When life is hard and we feel like throwing in the towel, or we’ve lost our job, our hope will kick in and faith will rise up, so we say ‘No, God has good plans for my life, better days are up ahead. God is going before me and nothing is impossible with God.” 

So no matter where we’re at today let your hope keep you anchored to Jesus and know He is holding you steady every day, every moment and let His joy and peace carry you through. 

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. Amen.

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PEACE OF MIND AND HEART

Isaiah 26:3-4 NLT You will keep in perfect peace all who trust in you, all whose thoughts are fixed on you! Trust in the Lord always, for the Lord God is the eternal Rock.

If ever we needed peace it’s in our day and time with so much turmoil throughout the world. But it’s nothing new because all down through the ages similar things have been happening and Jesus warned us there would be times of great trouble and suffering.

When we focus our attention on the upsets and tragedies, we can rapidly lose our peace but Jesus made sure His disciples knew He was leaving them with His gift of peace. He knew the enemy would tempt them into being stressed and anxious about their future, but Jesus is always one step ahead of our enemy so He called a staff meeting. He said,

John 14:27 I am leaving you with a gift - peace of mind and heart. And the peace I give is a gift the world cannot give. So don’t be troubled or afraid.

Jesus’ gift of peace is supernatural and we have to accept it by faith. Philippians 4:6 explains further that if we’ll give God our requests with thanksgiving, that we’ll have His peace that exceeds anything we can understand because it is supernatural.

If we want to hold on to His peace though we have to keep our thoughts fixed on Him, not on the problems. Most of all we’re reminded to trust the Lord with every detail of our lives. 

So can I encourage us all, as we go into another working week, to receive His gift of peace afresh today and let it settle down in our hearts; to ask Him to help us keep our thoughts fixed on Him and to trust Him with all our hearts and not lean on our own understanding about what’s happening in the world or our own lives. 

Most of all to thank and praise Him for all His goodness to us.😊 In Jesus name. Amen.

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GOD’S UNFAILING LOVE AND PEACE

Isaiah 54:10 NKJV 

10 

Though the mountains be shaken

    and the hills be removed,

yet my unfailing love for you will not be shaken

    nor my covenant of peace be removed,”

    says the Lord, who has compassion on you.

Some verses of scripture just give us such confidence and this is one of them.😊 No matter what is going on around us, in our own lives, or in the wider world, God constantly gives us His assurance that we can rely on Him through it all. 

So even if the world, or our lives are going through mountain shaking upheavals (that our verse talks about), or things we thought would always be there and now they’re not, it’s not a problem to our God.

He has put it in writing that His unfailing love, His kindness, will not leave us and that’s good enough in itself, but then He adds that His covenant of peace won’t be removed either. The NLT says His covenant of blessings will not be removed. 

In other words God is always the same. Jesus is the same yesterday, today and forever. He has promised to never leave us alone, and because He is for us, who, or what can succeed against us? No one! We have the Victor on our side and He has declared He has made us overcomers through Jesus, so we are designed to overcome, and we will! Hallelujah!😊

Even if our souls have been a bit bashed about this week, let’s put our eyes back on our God and know the Lord is our Shepherd and He’s in the process of restoring our souls. (Psalm 23:1&3) We believe it Lord!

Will you give Him permission to lift your spirits today, so we can rejoice in our Saviour and give Him all the praise due to His wonderful name, knowing He has us in the palm of His hand and we are anchored into His promises, His faithfulness, His love and His peace. In Jesus name. Amen. 

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GOD WORKS IT OUT

Ephesians 1:11 NLT Furthermore, because we are united with Christ, we have received an inheritance from God, for he chose us in advance, and he makes everything work out according to his plan.

What are we holding on to? I’m a bit of a hoarder and when we move house we have to have a grand clear out as we can’t take it all with us, but it’s hard to let some things go! We’ve had them forever, they hold precious memories but they’re part of our past, not our present or our future.

In life there will always be times of change on the horizon when God says it’s time to let some things go, or attitudes go, or even let people go. It was like that when we needed to let our son go to Australia and not hold him back from the plans God had for him. It was hard at the time and it felt almost like a bereavement as I realised I’d rarely get to be with him again but God holds our futures in His loving hands.

Sometimes God asks us to surrender what we want, so He can do what He wants to do in each of our lives or in our churches. It’s not all about us is it? It’s about what God wants for us and even if we don’t understand everything at the time we do know God knows what He is doing.😊

I have to ask myself am I holding on to things for the right, or for the wrong reasons? God sometimes allows things to go so we put our whole trust and focus back on Him, so we rely on Him for everything.

It’s not always easy but it is worth it when we see God unfold what He has in mind and even if we don’t always make the right choices God is so full of grace and mercy that He will still turn things around for our ultimate good.

So take heart today, whoever is going through some kind of change, and let’s allow God to minister into our hearts so we can let go of whatever He’s asking us to let go of, with a grateful heart for all the blessings He’s already given us, and know He has something even better for all concerned up ahead. God is working everything out according to His good plan because He loves us. Amen.

Enjoy a blessed weekend.x😊

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GOD AT OUR RIGHT HAND

Psalm 16:8-9 AMPC I have set the Lord continually before me; because He is at my right hand, I shall not be moved. Therefore my heart is glad and my glory [my inner self] rejoices; my body too shall rest and confidently dwell in safety,

There are lots of times in life when we maybe don’t feel too confident, and we may not even feel safe for some reason or another. We might be fearful of the future or worry about the way the world is going.

Then there are the people who appear to be super confident all the time and it can make us feel quite inadequate, but God is wanting us all to feel confident, not in ourselves but in Him, because we have Him by our side night and day.

Scripture talks quite a lot about confidence in the Lord and King David refers to the Lord being at his right hand. He was telling us all how he was trusting the Lord to protect and defend him.

In ancient writings ‘the right hand’ was a picture of someone’s ultimate strength and power. So for David, when he said God was at his right hand, He was saying that it was God’s ultimate strength and power being beside him that gave him such a confidence that it made him feel unshakeable, and completely safe.

God wants us all to feel that way knowing He is at our right hand all the time. He is our ultimate strength and power. We have the One who holds the universe together, walking by our side, but also on the inside of us. 

Wherever we’re at today, God is reminding us to put our total trust in Him, to continually hold a picture of the Lord being with us every moment, no matter where we are or what we’re doing and to be so ‘God inside minded’ that our confidence in Him will grow and grow. 

We’ll know it’s not our confidence but His, and then when He asks us to do something we’ll be able to say like the Apostle Paul “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me”  and step out in faith and do the things He’s asking us to do, and go wherever He asks us to go because He is at our right hand. In Jesus name. Amen.

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WHEN GOD ROARS!

Isaiah 42:13 KJ21 The Lord shall go forth as a mighty man; He shall stir up jealousy like a man of war. He shall cry, yea, roar; He shall prevail against His enemies.

I don’t know if you’ve ever been close to a lion when it roared but I was right in front of the cage of one when it suddenly lifted its head up and roared and roared. It was so overwhelming it vibrated right down inside my whole being and shook me!

At a prayer meeting this week the Lord spoke to one of our leaders and He said “Can you hear My roar?”  Wow. I thought what happens when God roars? So I investigated.😊

Apparently it reminds us of God’s awesome might and power just like my lion did to me! God’s roar can be a war cry that shakes the enemy’s camp before He goes in and destroys them. I loved that thought!

God roaring can strengthen or make the weak bold. When we know we have the Lion of Judah standing beside us and we know He is roaring on our behalf then we know we have the greatest power there is backing us up, that nothing and no one can hurt us. It’s like when a bully taunts you as a kid until he sees your dad suddenly appear behind you, and that bully takes off because someone more powerful than him has shown up.😊 When God roars our enemy the devil flees in terror. Praise the Lord!

Sometimes the Lord roars at us to protect us from danger like when a child is about to step into traffic and his dad roars at him to stop. God’s roar is a protective roar where His kids are concerned.

Joel 3:16 NLT The Lord’s voice will roar from Zion and thunder from Jerusalem, and the heavens and the earth will shake. But the Lord will be a refuge for his people, a strong fortress for the people of Israel.

Aren’t you glad the Lion of the tribe of Judah is for us and not against us? It makes us so grateful He has saved and redeemed us and made us His own, that we are the sheep of His flock.

And when the enemy prowls round pretending to be a roaring lion we can know he has no power because Jesus disarmed him at the Cross and he’s had his teeth pulled out. We can actually roar back at him because we have the Greater One in us, and God says when we resist him he will flee from us!

Thank You Lord with all our hearts You are roaring on our behalf, protecting us and terrifying our enemies. We believe it and receive it in Jesus name. Amen.

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CURE FOR WORRY

Philippians 4:-7 NLT Don’t worry about anything, instead pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank him for all he has done. Then you will experience God’s peace which exceeds anything we can understand. His peace will guard your hearts and minds as you live in Christ Jesus.

If you’ve ever watched a hamster running round and round in his little wheel going nowhere, you’ll identify with how it is when we worry about something over and over again and we get absolutely nowhere as well!

For the amount of worrying we do, it wouldn’t be so bad if it actually achieved anything, but we know it doesn’t! Apart from producing more wrinkles and probably raising our blood pressure, worry makes us miserable and drains our emotions, it’s a waste of time, and yet many of us still do it!

The Lord knows us so well and it’s one of the things Jesus spoke about. “Don’t worry about tomorrow…” It actually comes down to not trusting God enough and it’s one of the ways the enemy trips us up because worry has become a habit. So what can we do to break the habit?

God did give us the manual to help us and in 1 Peter 5:7 His instruction is to cast all our cares on to Him because He cares about us. I wonder if we’ve done that yet today or have we forgotten? He’s asking us to be willing to surrender even our worries to Him and say we’re going to choose to trust God to sort them all out for our good. He’s asking us to put our faith to work to believe for the turnaround, for His good plans to unfold.

Then He tells us to pray about everything - everything means the little niggly things as well as the giant ones.😊 He goes on to say to be thankful for all His goodness He’s already blessed us with when we’re asking Him for what we need now. He knows if we’ll dwell on the wonderful things He’s done in the past it will encourage us to know He’ll come through for us again. Rehearse the victories, not the defeats!

So can I encourage us all today to put into practice what God says to do and cast all our cares on to Him like a fisherman casts his net in faith. But then don’t pull it back in again - leave it out there cast on the ocean of God’s love and care so He can deal with it in His good time, in the way He knows will be best for us. 

Let’s believe God to bring our net back to us with a boat sinking load of blessing in due time.😊 Thank You Lord. Amen.

Photo by Matt Bero on Unsplash

GOD’S PERSPECTIVE

Isaiah 43:19 NLT For I am about to do something new. See, I have already begun! Do you not see it? I will make a pathway through the wilderness…

They say that when a detective asks people to give an eye witness account of an incident he’ll never get the same story twice from different people because we all see things from different perspectives.

The classic is when we’re presented with a tumbler which only has so much water in it, we can either say it’s half empty or half full, depending on whether we’re a pessimist or an optimist. Someone might say to just be glad you’ve got a glass at all, or to remember the glass is refillable! 

Life is like that too and if we’re a Christian we’re called to be imitators of God and as God is always positive, He expects us all to say our glass is half full and please Lord fill it up again.😊

So whether we’re optimistic or pessimistic by nature, when we’re presented with an unexpected or difficult situation, it would be wise to ask God to let us see what He sees, so we can respond in the right way, and not from our emotions. It’s good to remember God calls us to walk by faith not by how we feel or by what we see in the natural.

In Philippians 3:13 Paul encourages us all to not look back at what we’ve had or what we feel like we may have lost, but to be thankful for it, and then reach forward to what God has promised in His Word is still to come in His good plan and purpose.

The reason we have a small rear view mirror in our cars and a large front windscreen is because our future is bigger than our past and while we can reflect on what’s behind, God wants us to focus on, and pay attention to what is in front of us.

So can I encourage us all today to have a sense of expectancy from the Lord, knowing He says He’s already begun a new thing, and not fear or worry about what our future holds, because God is already there and He will not only hold us steady, but He’ll direct us every step of the way because He is our good and faithful God, and He loves us.😊 In Jesus name. Amen.

Photo by Raychan on Unsplash

A CROWN OF BEAUTY

Isaiah 61:3 To all who mourn in Israel, he will give a crown of beauty for ashes, a joyous blessing instead of mourning, festive praise instead of despair. In their righteousness, they will be like great oaks that the Lord has planted for his own glory.

Life happens sometimes and we can feel a bit side swiped when we didn’t see something coming and it can leave us mourning the loss of someone or something that is important to us.

It might be a career position, an investment that went wrong, a marriage that didn’t work out, a child who goes off the rails, or someone we hold dear leaving. In fact it can be any number of things that are important to us for one reason or another, and as someone said to me, when they’ve gone we can feel like we’ve had a bereavement.

The good news is our God is compassionate, and He never leaves us where we’re at. He has promised us a crown of beauty and I love the added bonus of a joyous blessing in place of mourning. 

We all struggle with a loss of some kind at some point. If you’re in that place today let God encourage you to know He is going to turn your sadness around into wonderful praise. He’s going to make you so strong that He compares you to a great oak tree.

Isaiah says in verse 7 that if you’ve been shamed or dishonoured that He’ll make sure you’ll come into a place of double honour. He goes on and says ‘You will possess a double portion of prosperity in your land and everlasting joy will be yours.’

You see there is another chapter in our book still to be read and it’s up to us to turn the page and see what God has written and planned before we ever arrived. God sees our whole future, we may only see today.

If we keep trusting Him and keep our eyes on Him, and if we’ll let God work, and choose to have a grateful attitude, He will bring us to that place of peace and joyous blessing He’s promised us.

Let’s walk into our new week knowing our God goes with us and whatever we feel we may have lost, believe for the crown of beauty and ask the Lord to help us let go of the ashes.😊In Jesus name. Amen.

Photo by Jametlene Reskp on Unsplash

Photo by Julia Taubitz on Unsplash 

GOD IS PRESENT WITH US

Psalm 46:1-3 NIV God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble. 

Therefore we will not fear, though the earth give way 

and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea, 

though its waters roar and foam and the mountains quake with their surging.

God knows we will have to face situations that seem to roar at us, when things may look overwhelming, but our God is the God of hope, the God who comforts us when we’re bruised in spirit. He is the God whose grace is abounding towards us every single day, overflowing towards us even in the heat of whatever battle we’re dealing with.

Even when we don’t get it right, or things happen that we have no control over, our God wants us to know today that those things don’t disqualify us because His mercies are new every morning. The blood of Jesus is greater than them all.

He is the God who draws alongside us, who upholds and strengthens us when we’ve reached the end of our tether. He is the God who is more than enough to help us through every situation and tells us He is our reigning Champion who will make a way when we may not even see beyond the next five minutes.

He is the God who asks us to believe He can do the impossible, even when it doesn’t look like it or feel like it. He asks us to put our hand in His and let Him give us rest for our souls and encourages us to be still and know that He is God, no matter what things look like right now.

So just be still for a little while and let God be God to you. 

Dust your hope off and anchor it in Him again. Let Him lift your head up to hope again, to know we can trust Him to do what’s right for us, to know He will never let us down. He is our ever present help in trouble, whether we’re in a crowd or we’re all alone. 

God wants us to know today that He is present with us and He will make the difference. In Jesus name. Amen.

Hebrews 6:19 NIV We have this hope as an anchor for the soul, firm and secure.

DEAD SLOW

Galations 5:22-23 NKJV But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law.

I took this photo of Paignton Harbour in South Devon recently and it warns all boats they must go Dead Slow going in and out, otherwise there might be a collision!

Now there are times when we wake up in the morning and we may feel like we’re going Dead Slow as well because our metabolism hasn’t quite caught up with us yet, and that’s ok because we know we will get going in a minute.😊

But what about when other people or situations are going Dead Slow? Are we able to be as patient and long suffering with them? Everyone seems to want everything yesterday and we hear people pipping their horns because someone was slow to leave the traffic lights, or agitated because a mother and child held them up at the checkout.

Life is going to be filled with delays and we can either go with the flow or let our blood pressure explode! God tells us that patience and long suffering are part of the fruit of the Spirit and it helps to remember it.😊

We’re not living each day on our own, we have the Holy Spirit of God living on the inside of us to help us stay calm, or to see things from someone else’s perspective, to trust God He will get us to where we need to be at the right time.

I think God allows delays from time to time to let us see where we’re at, whether we’re trusting Him or not with the details of life, or just wanting what we want all the time.

So today, if you’re feeling like things are taking too long, or someone is driving you to distraction with their slowness, take a deep breath, say a quick prayer, and allow the Holy Spirit to bring your fruit of patience and self control to the top. It helps to remember how patient God is with us, and let’s believe Him to bring things to pass when He knows the time is right. In Jesus name. Amen.

Have a blessed weekend everybody.x😊

BE YOURSELF - THE YOU GOD MADE YOU TO BE

Galations 6:4 NLT Pay careful attention to your own work for then you will get the satisfaction of a job well done, and you won’t need to compare yourself to anyone else.

I saw the following phrase written on a hanging ornament which is quite thought provoking! 

‘In a world where you can be anything, be yourself.’

Have you ever been tempted to look at others and think I’d love to be like them? They’re good looking, clever, articulate, or whatever attribute we admire, and compare ourselves with them, or maybe even want to copy them, or wish we had their life?

But 2 Corinthians 10:12 tells us not to compare ourselves to others as it’s not wise. God made each one of us unique, to the specification He wanted. He gifted us with all we shall need and if we don’t have what someone else has, it’s because we don’t need it, and if we are going to need it, then God will give it to us when it’s time.😊

As far as God is concerned He made you a masterpiece, you’re His special treasure made in His likeness and He says you’re the apple of His eye. He has anointed and equipped you, and He’s qualified you to be who He called you to be, so you can go out each day filled with His confidence not your own.

Never forget, in God’s eyes He thought you were worth so much to Him, and He loved you so deeply, that He was willing to send His Son to die for you, so you could be with Him for eternity because this life is not all there is. It’s only temporary, greater is coming.

So be encouraged today, Jesus came to set us free, free from sin and shame, free from our past. 

He also came so you could be free to be yourself, free to enjoy being the you who God has made you to be in Jesus, knowing He is changing you and me from one degree of glory to another, in His time. How wonderful is that? We’re becoming more glorious all the time!😊 ThankYou Lord. Amen.