PREPARED IN ADVANCE

Mark 14:15 NKJV ‘Then he will show you a large upper room, furnished and prepared; there make ready for us”

I wonder, are you a person who makes a list for everything and you’re well prepared, or are you the spontaneous type who wings it? The disciples were wanting to get ready for Passover and asked Jesus where they would hold the meal so He told them He’d already arranged for it to be prepared for them.

God wants us to know He always has good plans prepared for us to enjoy, and also prepared good works in advance for us to do with His help.(Ephesians 2:10) Our God is always prepared!😊

Our God loves us so much He only wants the best for us and if we’ll stay tuned in to Him, and give Him first place, He will bring us into His prepared blessings. We see it at the very beginning in Genesis 2:8 where God had prepared the most amazing garden for Adam to live where he had everything he could wish for. In John 14:2 Jesus reminded His disciples He was going to prepare a place for us all and when it’s ready He’ll come and fetch us home to be with Him, but that’s in the future. What about here and now?

Psalms tells us the head of the righteous is blessed and in Ephesians 1:3 God wants us to know He’s already blessed us, and prepared His plans and purposes for this life if we’ll follow His lead (Jeremiah 29:11). He says the path of the righteous gets brighter and brighter which is the opposite of doom and gloom!😊 

You might be thinking, “Well, how do I position myself so I can receive what He’s prepared?” We do it by expecting them, by believing His promises, by taking Him at His word and as we believe so we will receive. It’s all by His grace, not because we’ve worked for them or deserved them. It’s all the goodness of God.

So this week, can I encourage us all to have a spirit of expectancy of the good things God has prepared in advance for us and know His hand of blessing is on your head wherever we go. In Jesus name. Amen.

APPRECIATING GOD’S GOODNESS

 1 Chronicles 16:23-25 NLT

Let the whole earth sing to the Lord!

Each day proclaim the good news that he saves…

Tell everyone about the amazing things he does.

Great is the Lord! He is most worthy of praise!…

V.34 Give thanks to the Lord for he is good!

His faithful love endures forever.

Let the whole earth - not just you and me, but one day the whole earth will sing to the Lord and give Him all the praise He is due. How grateful we are that someone proclaimed and gave us the good news that Jesus died to save us, forgive us and reconcile us to our loving Heavenly Father. What a hope of glory that truth has placed inside us; this life is not all there is but there’s an eternity to spend in God’s joyful presence. 😊

King David wasn’t in the least bit hesitant to tell everyone he met about how good God had been to him and I’m sure if we were more up front, God would lead us to the people who are ready to hear about His goodness and the amazing things He does.

Today, as with every day, we can bring our God our praise, and declare His greatness together, when we can give Him all our thanks for all the goodness He has poured into our lives knowing He’ll never stop. Why? Because His faithful love for us endures forever and ever through the Lord Jesus.

If you woke up feeling a bit weary or down this morning, as the clocks all went forward here in the UK, just think about the goodness of God for a few minutes and let the Lord give you a fresh perspective. If we have the health to get up and walk about, ability to talk to a loved one whether in person or on the phone, to know God loves us beyond measure, to know He is caring for us and protecting us, then we are blessed indeed, and have much to praise Him for. In Jesus name. Amen.

Photo: Fallon Michael on Unsplash 

 

STARVING THE MONSTER

Mark 11: 23-24 NKJV For assuredly, I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, ‘Be removed and be cast into the sea,’ and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that those things he says will be done, he will have whatever he says. 24 Therefore I say to you, whatever things you ask when you pray, believe that you receive them, and you will have them. (Underlinings are mine)

Jesus said that we can have what we say when we believe it in our hearts. Now that works both ways because it is a spiritual law He’s giving us. If we believe the problem is getting worse, and speak the problem all the time, then that’s where our faith is and we will have what we say! 

But if we turn it round and speak God’s Word, which is His will and believe it, then we can have what we say, which is putting the problem right. Very often we speak the way it is, instead of speaking the way we want it to be.😊

Then Jesus says if we believe and receive what we prayed for, when we prayed for it, before we ‘see’ it, and don’t doubt it, then we will have the answer. But we have to believe we receive them, and know that however long it takes for them to come, they are definitely on the way. We have to hold on to the confession of our faith and not waver. 

Too often we bow to circumstances, to what we see with our physical eyes, or what we feel, and say, “Oh it’s not working” and we cancel our prayer of faith! We let go of our confession of faith because we were led by our senses and not by what the Word promised.😊

God says in His word that if two of you agree on anything it will be done. Now that can work both ways as well. These are spiritual laws that Jesus was giving us and what we don’t always realise is that when we speak out our problem, how nothing is changing, how it’s getting worse, other people hear us and agree with us about how bad it is and we have whatever two agree on! We’re putting that spiritual law into operation and we’re feeding the monster of the problem and causing it to grow bigger. But rather, we can starve the monster and say the Lord is turning it around for good, that He’s giving beauty for the ashes, that we’re victors not victims, and agree on that instead.😊

Lord, help us to renew our minds and retrain our mouths to agree with Your words, to speak what we want to see and not the problem. In Jesus name. Amen.

Photo: kraken images at Unsplash

AS JESUS IS….

1 John 4:17 NKJV 7 Love has been perfected among us in this: that we may have boldness in the day of judgment; because as He is, so are we in this world.

When God created Adam His plan was for mankind to rule and have dominion in the earth but we know Adam disobeyed God and handed his authority over to Satan.

But hallelujah, God provided a second Adam and Jesus is the One who brought us back to that place of fellowship with His Father, to where we can hear His voice and once again have authority in the earth through Jesus.

God goes even further, He intends us all to become all that He created us to be when He chose us before the creation of the world. He blessed us with every spiritual blessing, which means whatever is in the spirit realm we can call it forth into the physical realm. We are blessed beyond measure because we are one spirit with Jesus Himself now, because as He is, so are we in this world.

One lady read that and realised Jesus is not sick or poor so she looked at her bad health report and told it to bow the knee to Jesus and His authority, because He’s not sick she wasn’t going to accept sickness either because she is in Him. She had a revelation of who she is and what she has in Christ!

So we don’t need to listen to any of the enemy’s lies but we can know God says we are as Jesus is, and declare it by faith over ourselves constantly. He wants us to see ourselves the way He sees us.😊

 

Get ready to give a victory shout because God says we’re in Christ, that we’re redeemed, forgiven, healed, secure, and qualified. He says we’re His masterpiece, valuable, free, equipped and empowered to prosper. He says we’re anointed, accepted and approved by Him. He tells us we’re not average, because we belong to Him and He has placed His own Spirit within us.

He calls us His child, and He has so many plans to bless us and not to harm us that it will be beyond our imagination, if we’ll just walk with Him, and in Him, and follow His path.

Thank You Lord for an ongoing revelation of who we really are in Jesus, that as Jesus is, so are we in this world, for Your glory. Amen.

Photo by Nghia Le on Unsplash

GOD USES UNEXPECTED SOURCES

Matthew 17:27 NLT … so go down to the lake and throw in a line. Open the mouth of the first fish you catch, and you will find a large silver coin. Take it and pay the tax for both of us.”

We all know God thinks and does things on a higher plane than we do. How amazing it is that He has now placed us in the higher realm as well, seated in Christ beside Him at His throne, where all things are possible, and made His wisdom and abilities available to us too, through His Holy Spirit. Just think about that for a minute. It’s mind stretching but true!😊

Even though we know God says that, we sometimes sit down in a puddle of doubts or fears because we forget we’re seated with Him. Instead our eyes are on the things around us and not on who we are, and where we are with Jesus, with the enemy beneath our feet. The revelation of that truth will give us an ‘all things are possible’ mindset, a hope mindset.😊

Jesus and Peter had a tax bill due which neither of them had the money to pay for, but He didn’t say, “What can we do?” No, He listened to His Father’s instructions, and He told Peter to do something totally ‘out there”! -  to go fishing, because the first fish he caught would have enough money in it’s mouth to pay the tax bill for both of them! Can you hear what some of us would have said, “Yeah, right!” and rolled our eyes?

So can we all go fishing? Yes, in the sense that whatever it is Jesus tells us to do, no matter how ‘out there’, just go and do it! Jesus told Peter He was supplying their need from an unexpected source - a fish! Some of us would not have gone because we didn’t believe it was possible, but Peter knew to just obey the last instruction and all would be well. 

God can use an unexpected, unlikely source to help us too! He has ways far above ours, but He wants us to work with Him even if it is unexpected.😊

Has the Lord told you to do something that seems a bit strange, or to go somewhere, or asked you to believe that if you’ll do a certain thing, you’ll get a certain result? Whatever it is, can I encourage us all to just do it and obey His instruction. Believe that if Jesus can use one fish to supply Peter’s needs, don’t discount anything as impossible to supply your needs too. In Jesus name. Amen.

Photo by Sticker Mule on Unsplash

FREE INDEED

John 8:36 NKJV Therefore if the Son makes you free, you shall be free indeed.

The other day Chris had a deep seated thorn in his thumb, which he couldn’t get out on his own, and over a few days the skin hardened around it and made it more painful and difficult to remove. In the end he soaked his hand in hot water which softened it and I was able to squeeze it out and all was well.😊

The reason I’m telling you that story is to give you a picture of what it’s like in our lives when a thorn of the enemy gets embedded in us. Sometimes it’s a thorn of offence, or deep hurt, or a thorn of feeling useless or inadequate. It might be a thorn of an addiction, or sickness, or a thorn of guilt or shame, or resentment or bitterness.

The enemy will use anything he can to hurt us, to harden our hearts to make us build up a protective wall around the hurt so we can’t function the way we should, and we hold people at arm’s length. So what’s the cure?

Just like soaking in hot water, we need to soak ourselves in the truth of God’s word which will tell us we’re forgiven, that Jesus bore all our brokenness, our shame and guilt, all our pain and hurts, as well as all our sin and sicknesses, at the Cross. Jesus took all the offences, the disappointments, the slights we’ve received that put us down, and He bore it all in Himself so we don’t need to. His great grace lifts it all away.

Jesus told His disciples one day that they were too hard hearted, and we know, when we find it hard to believe His promises, when we’re cynical, that our hearts have become a bit hard too.

He’s asking us to open ourselves up to Him, and it may take time, but the more we soak in His Word, and hear His Word taught, the softer we’ll become, the freer we’ll become, because we’ll discover who we really are in Him, not what circumstances, or others have tried to tell us or make us. We’ll discover we’re His prized possession, that He loves us more than we can ever imagine.

Whom the Son sets free, is free indeed.😊 In Jesus name. Amen.

Photo by Sneha Cecil on Unsplash

INCREASED POWER

Psalm 75:10 NLT For God says, “I will break the strength of the wicked, but I will increase the power of the godly.

I have good news today because whatever wicked thing is coming against you whether it’s sickness that steals your health, or lack of funds that causes you to lose sleep, or worries and cares that try to depress you, or it may be an addiction of some kind, God says He is breaking the strength of those things. Those bad doctor’s reports, the discord in the family, the difficulties at work, God is breaking the strength of those things. 

He goes on to say He’s increasing our power because we are the godly ones, the ones He calls righteous in His sight. When we can’t see things changing with our physical eyes, He’s telling us to receive His promise by faith, to grab a hold of it and let it sink deep down into our inner man and let it take root. He’s increasing our power, our authority, our strength to overcome because the Lion of the Tribe of Judah is on the inside of us, and He has defeated and disarmed our enemy.

All through the day, we can declare the strength of that thing that’s coming against us is being broken, it’s getting weaker and weaker and we are getting stronger and stronger in Christ to deal with it.

Remember God has declared we are overcomers just because we are in Christ today, because He is on our side, because we’re in the palm of His hand and He is a shield of protection around us, and His favour is for a lifetime.😊

God wants us to see ourselves increasing in power in the Holy Spirit, because the Greater One is dwelling on the inside of us, increasing in wisdom and authority because of who we are in Him. 

We’re on the victory side, whether it looks like it or not - we can declare it by faith and put the word of God to work and believe Him to do what He says He will do, and give Him all the glory. In Jesus name. Amen.

GOD WON’T LEAVE US

Isaiah 41:10 NLT Don’t be afraid, for I am with you. Don’t be discouraged, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you. I will hold you up with my victorious right hand.

I want to encourage us all this morning with the thought that God hasn’t brought us this far to suddenly go off and leave us to sort things out on our own. No, He is our faithful God and He will be faithful till the end. We know He’s brought us out of difficulties before and if we’re facing something challenging, we know He will do it again.

He’s the God who promises to uphold us and strengthen us, and He tells us the Holy Spirit is our standby. In other words we’re not to even think we’re doing life on our own because it’s not true. We have the Greater One living on the inside of us and He still has plans for each one of us, no matter how messed up things might look at the minute.

The secret is to keep focusing on what God has promised, not what is ‘happening’. He has promised to never forsake us, abandon us or leave us without support. He’s promised to be our very present help in trouble, to give us fresh mercies every morning and great grace to deal with whatever our day brings.😊

When the enemy whispers, “You’re going under”, we resist him with “I’m an overcomer, I’m more than a conqueror through Christ who strengthens me. I’m a victor not a victim because Jesus has won the victory and given it to me.”

When we think we won’t have enough money, we declare “My God says I shall not want, that He is supplying all my needs according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus.”

So be encouraged as we launch into another week and remember you are empowered by the Holy Spirit to rise above every situation, you are accepted by God Himself and He loves you far more than you know.

Thank You Father for Your faithfulness and goodness to us, as each day unfolds. In Jesus name. Amen.

And here’s a victory song to lift our spirits.😊.    https://youtu.be/l8GoD6qOApo

Photo by Tony Eight Media on Unsplash

GOD IS GOOD TO US ALL

 Psalm 145 NLT

1 I will exalt you, my God and King, 

 and praise your name forever and ever.

2 I will praise you every day; …

3 Great is the Lord! He is most worthy of praise!

No one can measure his greatness.

8 The Lord is merciful and compassionate,

slow to get angry and filled with unfailing love.

9 The Lord is good to everyone.

He showers compassion on all his creation.

13 For your kingdom is an everlasting kingdom.

You rule throughout all generations.

The Lord always keeps his promises;

he is gracious in all he does.

14 The Lord helps the fallen

and lifts those bent beneath their loads.

The Holy Spirit gave David a great ability to write about his God in a way we can all relate to and this whole psalm is brilliant but too long to put here, so I hope you find time to read it all.🙂 

It’s good to be reminded of the Lord’s mercy and compassion, and it’s so reassuring to know our Father is not quick tempered but filled with love for us. We forget sometimes that God is good to everyone, when we take so much for granted - like the sun coming up every morning, like the joy of being able to see, hear, taste and smell.

A couple of days ago I had the aroma of freshly baked Biscoff Cookies floating round the house and they smelt and tasted so yummy.😊 Life is full of the little things that bring us joy, as well as the big things, and it’s always good to bless our God for all His kindness, and to teach the next generation to do the same.

David reminds us even when we fall, He’s already there to lift us back up when things have brought us down, to help us get our perspective back, and we know His grace is always available to tap into day and night. 

In fact, yesterday, the Lord spoke these three words to me, “Great Grace Flowing”. Those words are for all of us if we’ll receive them, because He has great grace flowing into every area of our lives. Not grace, but great grace. He is the God of overflow, of more than enough. Maybe you need great grace in your life? Receive it by faith today. Thank You Lord, we receive Your Great Grace flowing in our lives.😊

I hope you enjoy reading the whole of this Psalm but in the meantime let’s join with David of old, and exalt our God and King, the One who deserves all our praise and all the glory everyday of our lives because He is filled with kindness. 😊 Thank You Lord. Amen.

GOD NOTICES YOU

1 Corinthians 12:25-26 MSG The way God designed our bodies is a model for understanding our lives together as a church: every part dependent on every other part, the parts we mention and the parts we don’t, the parts we see and the parts we don’t. If one part hurts, every other part is involved in the hurt, and in the healing. If one part flourishes, every other part enters into the exuberance.
27 You are Christ’s body—that’s who you are! You must never forget this. Only as you accept your part of that body does “part” mean anything.

I think we all appreciate the warmer Spring weather and we’ve been able to get out into the garden again to clear up after winter. Our violets and polyanthus plants are looking lovely and I couldn’t resist picking a posy.😊

The violets are so unobtrusive you almost miss them under the hedge and life is a bit like that as well. There are some blessings, and some people who are very unobtrusive and if we’re not careful we don’t always appreciate them as much as we should do, or realise how necessary they are to us.

 

1 Corinthians 12:22 NLT In fact, some parts of the body that seem weakest and least important are actually the most necessary. Scripture reminds us that every single person in the body of Christ is so important, even the shrinking violets! We all have a part to play whether we’re in the background or the foreground. The lovely thing is God notices each one of us and we all matter to Him. He reminds us He doesn’t forget whatever we have done for Him, however seemingly insignificant.

Hebrews 6:10 :NLT For God is not unjust. He will not forget how hard you have worked for him and how you have shown your love to him by caring for other believers, as you still do.

We’re all in it together and we are all important to God so we never need to feel unwanted or unneeded. God chose each one of us from before the world was made, and He chose us because He wanted us to be part of His family, to have a place in His plan. 

So whether we feel like a shrinking violet that nobody notices, or we’re a sunflower that everybody sees, we can be very certain that God notices us and appreciates us, and He is the only One that matters.😊 Amen.

Have a very blessed weekend.x

YOU’RE IMPOSSIBLE!

Jeremiah 32:17 NKJV Ah, Lord God! Behold, You have made the heavens and the earth by Your great power and outstretched arm. There is nothing too hard for You.

I had a funny thought this morning when I woke up. You know when someone says “You’re impossible!”, they mean you’re being difficult, that they can’t get you to change your mind when they want you to? I suddenly realised we should all be “Impossible People” but not in the sense of being difficult to get along with, but because we are believing for the ‘Impossible” and we won’t change our minds.😊

We should want to be known to be those kind of people and see the impossible happen, because we know we have the God who does the impossible. He brings water out of a rock, He makes a metal axe head float on top of water, He heals incurable diseases, He feeds 3 million people in a desert for 40 years, and provides tax money out of a fish’s mouth! Impossible and yet all true!

He raised Jesus from the dead and brought Him out of Hell to be Lord of All. He loved us when we were still sinners, He takes our sin away and makes us righteous. Impossible but true! Only God can do those things - He does the impossible every day.😊 We all have testimonies of how God has done the impossible for us and in us.

Now it must be important because He’s bringing it up again, reminding us we can be Impossible Minded People. We know our Father is more powerful than we can ever begin to imagine and He’s asking each one of us to tap into His ‘impossible’ every day, to tap into the supernatural nature of God who lives inside us by the Holy Spirit, to believe all things are possible with our God.

Once again He’s asking us to release His power and ability because He ‘wants’ to do the impossible for us. We don’t have to twist His arm, He’s on our side, but His Kingdom works by faith, and faith works by love, which He has given to us already. 

There is somebody reading this who God is speaking to, asking You to change your thinking, to know your God hasn’t changed, that nothing is too hard for Him, and He still wants to do the impossible for you. In Jesus name. Amen.

Photo by eskay lim on Unsplash

FIRST RESPONDERS

John 7:38 NLT Anyone who believes in me may come and drink! For the Scriptures declare, ‘Rivers of living water will flow from his heart.’”

We all know the terrific job First Responders do when a crisis hits and how they ‘respond’ without hesitation, they’re on the job within the shortest possible time, to rescue and assist wherever they can. We thank God for them.😊

God is looking for first responders too because He’s wanting to do things in our lives, and those we come into contact with. He’s looking for those who will respond to His promptings! We all know that nudge to go and do or say something, or to show compassion. The thing is, are we listening, are we responding, or are we ignoring?

Can you imagine how sad it would be if the emergency service First Responders just sat at home doing their own thing, because they couldn’t be bothered, or didn’t feel qualified, or didn’t want to answer the call. If they said, “Let somebody else see to it, I don’t feel like I can, I’ve had a busy day.”  How many lives might be lost, how many people would remain unattended, crying out for help?

I think God is giving a wake up call today to each one of us to answer His call to respond to Him, to put down whatever is distracting us, to obey His promptings, because someone somewhere might need what He has for us to give them.

Jesus said that rivers of the life of God Himself would flow from inside our bellies, from inside our spirits, where we are one with Him and all that He has. 

Let’s be First Responders to answer His call to be ‘Jesus’ to them, to let His river of life, His healing, all that He is in us, to flow out to whoever God leads us to. In Jesus name. Amen.😊

THE POSSIBILITY OF THE IMPOSSIBLE

Matthew 19:26 NLT Jesus looked at them intently and said, “Humanly speaking, it is impossible. But with God everything is possible.”

I wonder how many times we look at situations in our own lives, or across the world and think how impossible it would be for things to change, and yet Jesus says it is possible!😊 Scripture goes on to say, 

2 Cor 4:18 NKJV while we do not look at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen. For the things which are seen are temporary, but the things which are not seen are eternal. 

In other words, all the things we can see, like a bad report, or wayward family members, or a persistent sickness, or tricky situations, we can take heart because God says those things are  temporary, they can change! He wants us to look at the unseen realm and see that with God what looks impossible is possible!🙂

Jesus looked intently at His disciples, He looked them right in the eye, to say nothing is impossible with God. He wanted them to ‘get’ it! Do you have God? If you can say yes, then Jesus is saying to you nothing is impossible!

The lady with the issue of blood for 12 years, who had felt hopeless, now had a picture in her mind’s eye of herself touching Jesus’s garment and being healed. She imagined it, she kept saying it to herself as she pushed through the crowd. She ‘saw’ what wasn’t visible to her natural eyes. She saw it in her imagination and believed it.

God wants us to ‘see’ what He sees and He gave us our imaginations to do it, but we tend to use them for the wrong thing and we begin to ‘see’ the things we fear, instead of ‘seeing’ the good things we’re believing for!

The Holy Spirit wants us to let Him give us a fresh picture of what ‘impossible’ would look like in our lives, to see it in our mind, in our spirit, meditate on it, speak it, to hold on to it and not let it go. Remember God wants to do exceedingly, abundantly above and beyond all we can ask, think or ‘imagine’! (Ephesians 3:20 MSG) 😊

Mark 9:23 NKJV Jesus said to him, “If you can believe, all things are possible to him who believes.”

Photo by Nopparuj Lamaikul on Unsplash

HOPE SANDWICHES

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

We looked at this verse yesterday but have you noticed it begins and ends with hope? Have another look, it’s so encouraging. It’s a bit like a ‘hope’ sandwich, with joy and peace filling! Maybe we need to feed on hope sandwiches every day!😊

I’m so glad our God is the God of Hope and not the God of Doom and Gloom, aren’t you? 

Psalms 3:3 NIV But you, Lord, are a shield around me, my glory, the One who lifts my head high.

Our God is the One who is there for us when our shoulders are all hunched up and our heads are down because we can’t see the end of the tunnel. It’s when the Holy Spirit reminds us how much our Father loves us and He lifts our heads back up to focus again on the Lord Jesus who gave His all, so we can have a glorious hope, to know He has good plans for our future. 

Notice God wants us to be so full of His joy and peace that we’re bubbling over with it, and how does it happen? By our choosing to believe what He says in His word, by believing His promises,  by lifting our eyes off our problems and looking to Jesus the author and finisher of our faith.

We’re called Believers for a good reason!😊 God has placed within us His very own faith and He’s given us the ability to believe not just for the possible, but for the impossible because we have the power of God at work within us.

So be uplifted and let me kickstart our ‘believing engines’ again today, to take off into the future with the God of our Hope, where God puts no limits on us, but encourages us to believe He can do exceedingly abundantly above all we can ask, think or imagine because of Jesus.

Take a bite of the sandwich and get ready to overflow with hope, get ready to bubble!😊 In Jesus’ name. Amen.

Photo: Alex Shute on Unsplash

UPLIFTING, HAPPY THOUGHTS

Psalm 16:11 NLT  You will show me the way of life, granting me the joy of your presence and the pleasures of living with you forever.

God wants to show us the way of life! Part of His way is thinking His thoughts, so I thought we’d have some happy and uplifting thoughts to start our week off right. Are you ready?😊

Philippians 4:13 NLT For I can do everything through Christ, who gives me strength. Now that’s a positive thought to take into our day. Whatever it is we have to do, He’s saying we can confidently call on His strength.😊

Philippians 4:5 NLT Don’t worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. If we’d just obey that ‘way of life’ we would be much lighter and happier, don’t you think?!😊

Joshua 1:9 NLT …Do not be afraid or discouraged. For the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.”  Because He is with us, we’re surrounded by His favour, and we’re never on our own having to do life by ourselves. What a happy thought, that God, who loves us so much, is actually with us.😊

John 14:27 NLT I am leaving you with a gift—peace of mind and heart… So don’t be troubled or afraid. Jesus gave us that thought to lift us up above whatever is trying to weigh us down - peace in the predicament, peace when we’re under pressure.😊

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 love that - a life filled and overflowing - not with fear and anxiety but with peace and joy. Thank You Lord!😊

I’m sure you can think of loads of other verses that put a smile on your face but maybe we just need to keep reading those uplifting ‘God thoughts’ out loud to ourselves, over and over again, until their truth takes root and changes our whole perspective and way of life. 😊

Have a blessed and uplifting week in the joy of His presence. God loves you. Amen.😊x

OUR CUP OF BLESSING

 Psalm 16:5 NLT 

Lord, you alone are my inheritance,

my cup of blessing.

You guard all that is mine.

V.7 I will bless the Lord who guides me;

Even at night my heart instructs me.

V.8 I know the Lord is always with me.

I will not be shaken, for he is right beside me.

Apparently David was writing this psalm when he was still in exile because King Saul was after him, so although David was anointed King, he had no kingly rights, no throne, no lands, nothing in the natural. But what he did have was the Lord Himself as his inheritance and He was more than enough. 🙂

There may be times in this life when things seem to be removed from us for some reason but we can know that no one can take our God away from us. When we have God, the All Sufficient One, He is, and always will be, more than enough, because Jesus has made all His blessings available to us!

He goes on to say the Lord is his cup of blessing. We too have the cup of blessing of the Lord’s supper when we drink the cup and remember all that Jesus won for us by shedding His own blood and exchanging our sins for His righteousness, our diseases for His divine health. 

In Psalm 23 He invites us to come and feast at His table where every blessing is laid out for us to enjoy. I wonder if we do enjoy them, or do we not believe they’re for us and we leave the blessings on the table? 

David’s heart was always to bless his God because he understood how merciful and good to him He was, and we can too.🙂  Even at night, when he couldn’t sleep, he knew the Lord was with him, talking to him in the small hours of the night. How comforting that is for each one of us who might struggle with our sleep.

And no matter what happens in life, he reassures us that the Lord is always with us so we need never be shaken. After all, when we remember we have the Almighty Holy Spirit living in us, who raised Christ from the dead, then we have the ultimate security ever known to man.

How wonderful it is to consider all those things, and I hope you are truly blessed as you do.😊

Photo by Geda Žyvatkauskaitė on Unsplash

DON’T OVERTHINK IT!

Matthew 6:34 NIV Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.

I was at the opticians the other day having an eye test and was responding to all the questions he was asking, but at one point he told me not to overthink it! I hadn’t realised I was! Anyway, it made me stop and think about how we can tend to ‘overthink’ all sorts of things. I know I could overthink a bus ticket, given half a chance.🤣

My point is, we can drive ourselves to distraction when we think there’s more to a situation when there isn’t, that there’s more to somebody’s comment than there was. Have you ever done that? Then you know what I mean! It’s simply called worrying about ‘things’.

Our enemy is very clever at putting thoughts in our heads to cause anxiety about every day life, or thoughts of offence, or division, or upset but we need to be wise to his tactics and cut him off at the pass.

If we genuinely think we’ve upset someone or they’ve upset us, then maybe the best thing to do is just go and have a chat with them, and find out if there really is a problem or not, and try to put it right. The enemy wants things to fester and grow into a mountain from a molehill, but we can nip it in the bud straight away if we want to!

So next time you’re in ‘overthinking’ mode, just take a deep breath, take a step back and remember God loves you unconditionally, He’s got you safe in the palm of His hands and you can cast all those cares over on to Him and know He’ll give you His wisdom to know what to do about whatever it is. 

Philippians 4:8 NLT Fix your thoughts on what is true, and honorable, and right, and pure, and lovely, and admirable. Think about things that are excellent and worthy of praise.

I know it’s not easy, but it is possible with the help of the Holy Spirit who is our Helper! So whatever happens today - don’t overthink it - just enjoy each moment. Amen.

Have a blessed weekend.x😊

Photo: Alazar Ferrazzini on Unsplash

WHAT ARE WE SEEING?

Psalm 27:13 NKJV I would have lost heart, unless I had believed that I would see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living.

Well, how are you today? Our emotions can be very up and down, can’t they? You might be feeling uplifted or downhearted, because what we’re thinking and believing and ‘seeing’ in our imaginations will produce our feelings.😊

We’re all hearing and seeing things throughout our day and we either choose to believe they can’t change, or we go to God and ask Him what He says about it in His word. When all we can see is the trouble, then God is calling us to spend time with His promises, believing them and focusing on them - to start ‘seeing’ them as though they’d already taken place.

Now the psalmist chose to believe that he would see the goodness of God right there in the world around him. If he’d looked at his circumstances and believed that what he was seeing with his physical eyes couldn’t be changed, he says he would have despaired and lost heart. 

I wonder what you and I are ‘seeing’? Are we seeing the news and our troubles, and despairing and becoming depressed? Or are we believing God’s promise that surely goodness and mercy will follow us all the days of our lives, that nothing is impossible with Him? Believing one thing produces one result, believing the other thing produces a totally different result. We get to choose.😊

The psalmist had to believe first before he saw what he wanted come to pass, and it’s the same for us. We are people of faith, who walk by faith and not by ‘sight’! 

So how are we doing today? Are we just looking at the mess, the sickness, the lack, throwing up our hands and losing heart, or are we believing for God’s goodness and mercy to chase us down and overtake us? (Psalm 23:6)

May I encourage us all to rise up in faith and say, “Enough is enough. I’m going to believe I will see the goodness of God in the land of the living, despite what I see with my physical eyes. My God loves me, He’s bigger than any problem and He’s turning it round for my good. In Jesus name. Amen.”

Photo by Bruno Martins on Unsplash

WHO IS THIS MAN?

Mark 4:41 NLT The disciples were absolutely terrified. “Who is this man?” they asked each other. “Even the wind and waves obey him!”

We know what it’s like, the disciples had had a busy day, the crowds were everywhere wanting to hear Jesus and He’d told them all to pile in the boat and go over to the other side of the lake for some rest. So Jesus settles down and promptly falls asleep in the back of the boat while the disciples see to the travelling arrangements.🙂

So they did what He said and were in the middle of the lake when a humdinger of a storm blew up while Jesus was fast asleep! Well they did their best but in the end they felt compelled to wake Him up and ask for help as it looked like they were sinking! Do we do that sometimes? A storm has blown up, we think Jesus is not paying attention, so we struggle on by ourselves until we can’t cope and only then do we think we better ask God for help?🙂

Even though they’d woken Jesus up, what were they expecting Him to do - help bale out the water? Instead He goes to the core of the trouble and takes authority over it and tells it to stop. He used His faith, and then remonstrates with them for not using their faith! The implication was they could have dealt with it with their own faith, but they hadn’t used it because it hadn’t occurred to them that they could! They’re so overwhelmed that all they can say is “Who is this man?” 

I wonder, “who is this man” to each one of us, including me? Are we ‘doing’ life in our own strength because we haven’t recognised, as born again Christians, we are actually ‘in Him’, ‘in Christ’, that we are God filled and empowered and the power He has, is available to all of us, all the time, if we’ll use our faith?

Galations 2:20 NKJV I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me. 

Many scriptures say the Greater One is ‘in us’, that the same power that raised Christ from the dead lives in us! The same power Jesus used to still the waves and wind, lives in us! God sees us as one spirit with Him, God filled and empowered men and women! Wow!😊

God give us revelation of not only who this man Jesus is, but who we are ‘in Him’, that His Holy Spirit is in us and His power is available to us, if we’ll use our faith. In Jesus name Amen.

Photo by Barth Bailey on Unsplash

YOU ARE IMPORTANT TO GOD

Ephesians 4:2-3 NLT Always be humble and gentle. Be patient with each other, making allowance for each other’s faults because of your love. Make every effort to keep yourselves united in the Spirit, binding yourselves together with peace.

We all know God mostly speaks to us through scripture but there are times when something jumps out at us, maybe in a film, or a book or even in a car advert which happened to one lady when God spoke to her! 😊

Well as I read ‘The Word For Today’ yesterday these words really spoke to me… “You are the most important person in the world to God when you are the one He has called to do something for Him.”

The truth is, God has ‘called’ each and every one of us to do something for Him every day of our lives. It may be in our witness when He wants us to speak to someone, or in the attitude we have when we want to be grumpy, but we choose the high road, to be gracious and forgiving, to be kind and generous, to be thoughtful or patient as our verse says. It’s what He calls us to do.

The Holy Spirit is nudging us throughout our day to become like Jesus (Romans 8:29), and we’re the most important person in the world to Him when we respond and do what He asks of us. 

He may call us to do something very specific, but often it’s in our moment by moment walk we have with Jesus, when we choose to speak for Him and be God’s important person at that moment; when we choose to lend a hand when we’d rather not bother; when we choose to not say something that would be ungrateful or critical, and instead we say something positive or share our faith.

So as you walk with Jesus and follow His leading today, you can put a smile on your face and be uplifted knowing you are the most important person in the world to your loving Heavenly Father as you follow His lead. Amen.😊

4 Isaiah 43:4 NLT Others were given in exchange for you. I traded their lives for yours because you are precious to me. You are honored, and I love you.

Photo by George Pagan III on Unsplash

LOOKING FOR OUR SIGN

Philippians 2:13 NLT For God is working in you, giving you the desire and the power to do what pleases him.

We often hear people say they’re looking for a sign from God before they do something. We’d probably like an airplane to fly across the sky dragging a sign saying “God wants you to go to …., or to do ……whatever it is we want His guidance on”!😊

But, is it a possibility that God is actually looking for a sign from us? Is He looking to see if we’ve put up a sign saying we’re willing to follow His plan and purpose for our lives rather than the one we have decided is what we want to do? 

Our verse says God is giving us the desire and power to do what He’s asking of us, so if we’re following Him, what is our heart saying, what do we have peace about? Even if it’s scary, if we have peace, we can follow it.

Maybe we’ve been doing something in a certain way forever, and God has been nudging us to either stop doing it altogether, or to do it in a different way, but for our own reasons we’re hanging on to it. Have we decided we want to stick with the familiar when He says it’s time to move on, to let go?😊

Is it possible that God has a new wineskin, a new avenue for us to follow? If  our plans aren’t working out, maybe the Lord is protecting us from danger down the road, or stopping us from making a mistake.

I’ve had to ask myself, and I ask you, how badly do we want to know the will of God, how much do we want to move forward? If we want it enough, then we’ll have to put up our sign saying “I surrender my will, to yours Lord. I’m willing to change. Please show me what You want me to do, where You want me to be, and how You want me to do it.”

I believe if we’ll do that, we will see a move of God both privately and in our churches like never before. God is looking for our sign saying ‘Your will Lord, not mine” because He only wants the best for us, and His plans for us are good. Amen.😊

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ON THE BEACH

Jonah 2:10 NLT Then the Lord ordered the fish to spit Jonah out onto the beach.

Most peoples’ experience of the beach is when we go sunbathing or rock pooling, but not so for Jonah! His experience on the beach was much more traumatic and totally unforgettable!

After being told by God to go to Nineveh but completely disobeying His instructions he does his own thing by running away from his calling. He soon found himself in a storm and ends up being thrown in the sea sinking down and down.

Maybe you’ve had days like that, when you felt like you were sinking down and feeling all tangled up in all the affairs and cares of life, just like Jonah was tangled up in the seaweed. He was wiser than we think though because, as he realises he’s about to perish, he starts to offer God a sacrifice of praise and repents of his stubbornness and disobedience. Wise man!

It’s at that point the Lord ordered the fish to spit Jonah out and we find him on the beach, smelling of goodness knows what, but I bet he was on his knees thanking God for his rescue!😊

So where are we in this story? Are we running away from anything, maybe not wanting to do what God has told us to do, or doing it with a grumpy attitude like Jonah? Are we in a storm and feel like we’re sinking under all the pressures of life, being stubborn not willing to accept help? Or are we offering God a sacrifice, a song of praise in the middle of it all and acknowledging our salvation comes from the Lord, with a grateful heart?

When Jonah changed his mind he ended up saving a city of 120,000 souls, which is more than most of us can say, and he shows us how obedience has an enormous reward and blesses so many others.😊

So let’s be encouraged as we begin another week to lift up a sacrifice of praise, no matter what’s going on, repent if we’ve been grumpy, (which I’ve had to do recently), and do whatever it is God is leading us to do, so we can please our God and fulfil our destiny. In Jesus name. Amen.

Photo by Rowan Heuvel on Unsplash

BOTH NOW AND FOREVER

 Psalm 115:1 NLT

Not to us, O Lord, not to us, 

but to your name goes all the glory 

for your unfailing love and faithfulness.

V.11 All you who fear the Lord, trust the Lord!

He is your helper and your shield.

V.12 The Lord remembers us and will bless us…

V.13 He will bless those who fear the Lord,

Both great and lowly.

V.18 But we can praise the Lord 

Both now and forever.

When we looked yesterday at some of what we know about our God we know we wouldn’t even want to take any glory to ourselves! He deserves all the glory because every good thing in every area of our lives has all come from our wonderful God, even the breath we breathe each day.😊 (James 1:17)

The Psalmist had a real handle on just how unfailing God’s love is towards us, and that was even before Jesus came! He had proved God’s faithfulness to him through thick and thin and he knew his God well enough to know He would help and shield him no matter what. God wants us all to have that same confidence in Him today, to know He’s watching over us to bless and protect us.

It doesn’t matter whether we’re clever or not, whether we’re rich or poor, male or female, young or old, and whatever colour our skin happens to be - God loves us and He doesn’t forget us! How reassuring that is and it makes it easy for us to praise our God, as the Psalmist says, both now and forever.

So however long we’re here on earth, and throughout the ages into eternity, we will still be praising Jesus, our wonderful Saviour, for coming and rescuing us and reconciling us to His Father, this amazing God who wanted us to be with Him for always, to be part of His family. What a great God thought that is, as we read those verses again.😊

Thank You Lord for Your unfailing love for each one of us, and we give You all the glory and praise both now and indeed forever. In Jesus name. Amen.

Photo by Alexander Schimmeck on Unsplash

WELL, WHAT DO YOU KNOW?

Psalm 46:10 NLT Be still, and know that I am God!…

This is such a familiar verse, but what difference does knowing God is God make? You see what we ‘know’ will make a huge difference in how we handle life on a day to day basis. What we ‘know’ will change our perspective on our problems. What we ‘know’ will change our moods and how we feel about what’s happening around us! 

It’s good to ‘know’ that God is the Creator and sustainer of our whole universe. When He spoke “Light be” into the darkness, He, who is Light, was releasing Himself into the emptiness, and His light is still expanding at a speed of 186,000 miles per second, and still creating universes. What a thought! We have an awesome, mighty God! His power is vast, limitless!

When we ‘know’ that this amazing God is for us and not against us, it means we can run to Him any time. 

When we ‘know’ He loves us unconditionally with a love that’s deeper than we can ever imagine, we will ‘know’ He’s holding us safely in His arms when our world might feel like it’s falling apart.

When we ‘know’ that our God is backing us up and giving us angelic assistance, we will have security and confidence when we have to confront tricky situations. 

When we ‘know’ God is still God, the All Sufficient One, the one who is More Than Enough to guide and lead us through life, then our stress levels can drop - we can learn to relax more!😊

And because of Jesus we can ‘know’ He has made us ‘right’ with God. How reassuring, and how big that thought is! 

When we ‘know’ God is Sovereign, and is in control of our lives then we ‘know’ we can trust Him to turn things round for our good in His perfect timing. 

So I hope all of the above encourages us to ‘Be still and know He is God’ every moment of our day. What a privilege to be able to personally ‘know’ our God as our very own Father because of Jesus. 

Have a blessed weekend.😊x

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WHEN OUR ENOUGH RUNS OUT

Genesis 17:1-2 NLT When Abram was ninety-nine years old, the Lord appeared to him and said, “I am El-Shaddai—‘God Almighty.’ Serve me faithfully and live a blameless life.  I will make a covenant with you, by which I will guarantee to give you countless descendants.”

I expect we’ve all had moments when we didn’t have enough of something. It may have been a physical lack, like when our strength was not enough. Or maybe our patience ran out - we didn’t have enough! Or it may be a lack of friends or finances, or not enough love for God Himself. It could be anything!😊

All through the Old Testament God revealed himself to His people by His different names, but God spoke to Abram in Genesis 17:1 when he lacked an heir, and God came to tell him he’d have countless heirs, more than enough, even when it seemed impossible! God said He was El Shaddai - the God who is More Than Enough, The All Sufficient One.

I love that name especially because whatever is happening, whatever lack we may have, we can go to our God, to El Shaddai, the One who is More Than Enough, the All Sufficient One, to His throne of grace and ask for His provision. That’s good news!😊

Do you need more than enough in some area in your life today? Not enough wisdom? Then El Shaddai says to ask for it and He’ll give it to you. (James 1:5). Not enough love in your life? Then come to El Shaddai who is Love and believe the Holy Spirit is pouring God’s love into your heart (Romans 5:5). If you want someone to love, and be loved by, then ask the All Sufficient One to bring them into your life. Not enough faith, courage, finances or health? Whatever it is, come to El Shaddai.

The Holy Spirit is reminding us, if our enough has run out in any area, then we know we can come in faith to the waterfall of God’s provision, to the throne of grace, and ask Him to be our More Than Enough and believe Him to provide all we need in our lives.😊 In Jesus name. Amen.

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HE LEADS - WE FOLLOW

 Psalm 23:2 NKJV He leads me beside still waters. 

When we first moved to Nottinghamshire we were out wandering in the countryside and came across this lovely spot which made me think of Psalm 23 again. This photo was taken 13 years ago but since then the stream has changed for the worse as the embankments have been eroded by the storms and it’s overgrown. It’s looked after by volunteers but sadly they don’t always have the time to keep it the way it was.

I wonder if our times of drawing aside with the Lord have been eroded as well? We think we don’t have the time to spend to rest in His presence, or we don't ‘feel’ like it and so our peace and patience become worn away and it’s harder to hear God’s Spirit.

The Psalmist says 'The Lord leads us beside still waters’, but are we following where He leads, or going our own busy way? When He says to come and sit with Him, do we follow His leading?

Psalm 32:8 The Lord says, “I will guide you along the best pathway for your life. I will advise you and watch over you.

When we’re feeling stressed and worried, then we know we’re maybe not trusting Him and following as close to the Lord as we could be because we’re leaning on our own understanding.

Psalm 46 says 'Be still and know I am God.' If we do that, we can let Him 'lead us ' in our thoughts, and hear Him tell us what we need to know throughout our day. It’s that nudge to ring someone, or go somewhere where He has a blessing waiting for us or to maybe encourage somebody.😊

His grace is available for every need we come across today and He’ll only lead us in right paths that will encourage and strengthen us, so why not turn aside with Him for a while and allow Him to lead you in His paths today. Amen.

Enjoy your walk.....😊