OUR PLACE OF SAFETY

 Psalm 59:16-17 NLT

But as for me I will sing about your power.

Each morning I will sing for joy

About your unfailing love.

For you have been my refuge, 

a place of safety when I am in distress.

O my Strength, to you I sing praises,

For you, O God, are my refuge,

The God who shows me unfailing love.

This psalm was written and sung by David when King Saul had sent soldiers to watch his house in order to kill him. Not your average day by any means and yet he says he’ll keep on singing about God’s power and unfailing love! I wonder if we would have done the same, or would we have paced up and down the room, looking worriedly out the window, maybe phoning a friend, and wondering what was going to happen to us at any minute?😊

David knew his God though, he reminded himself how God had always been his refuge, his safe place, and we too have the same God who is still our ‘safe place’, even more so as God is our Father. We know any good father will go to any lengths to protect his children, how much more will our God, our Father protect us!

Our verses reveal the importance of praise and how it can focus us on God instead of impending problems, or any distress we might be experiencing. I hope they make us glad we can choose to remember how powerful God is and turn our full attention on His unfailing love for us, and sing for joy today.😊

Let’s lift our praises up together to our great God who is worthy of all our praise. In Jesus name. Amen.

Photo by Doretha Rost on Unsplash

FAITH FOR THE MIDDLE

Joshua 4:10 NLT The priests who were carrying the Ark stood in the middle of the river until all of the Lord’s commands that Moses had given to Joshua were carried out. Meanwhile, the people hurried across the riverbed.

The priests had been told to step into the River Jordan which was overflowing its banks and God would dry up the riverbed and the water would stand up like a wall (v.13)! Can you imagine the peoples’ thoughts when they had to step out and cross the riverbed as well, bearing in mind they’d just seen it in full flood?

“What if the water suddenly comes rushing back on top of us? What if we can’t cross over quick enough? What if we only get half way there and something happens in the middle? We’ll all drown like we saw happened to the Egyptians at the Red Sea!”                      

You see, past experiences can cause fear to rise up in our hearts. The future ‘what ifs’ of what ‘might’ happen can also cause fear to raise its ugly head. We may start off believing for our healing, for the finances to come through and we’re full of faith, confident the living God is among us and with us, but then we reach the middle and start to look around. 

Joshua 3:10 NLT Today you will know that the living God is among you.

When we’re in the middle - that’s when we need to keep standing strong in our faith because the living God is still among us. He hasn’t abandoned us or gone to some far off galaxy. What He told us to do, He will equip us to do if we keep our eyes on Him and not on our circumstances.

We read how they hurried across, they just got on with it! Their eyes were focused on the other bank, knowing God would see them through to the other side - He’d promised!

Are you in the ‘middle’ of believing for a promise of God to manifest? If so, let me encourage you to keep standing in your faith, keep going, keep your eyes focused on where you’re headed, not on what’s happening or not happening around you. God won’t let you drown or let you down! He’s our deliverer, our saviour, our provider, our healer - not our destroyer. You are going to reach the other side, so don’t give up! 

Keep believing, keep standing - the living God is with you! Amen.😊

AS SOON AS…

Joshua 3:13 NLT The priests will carry the Ark of the Lord, the Lord of all the earth. As soon as their feet touch the water, the flow of water will be cut off upstream, and the river will stand up like a wall.”

“As soon as..” We often read those words on a memo or letter. It usually means as soon as possible, as soon as you possibly can. In this case though ‘as soon as’ they stood in faith and stepped into the water God did what He said He would do immediately. As soon as! God didn’t delay one second - but they had to obey first. How often we want God to take the first step, then we’ll do what He commands, but that’s not God’s way. As soon as He sees our step of faith and our obedience He goes into action.😊

We read another ‘As soon as’ in Daniel’s story.

Daniel 9:23 As soon as you began to pray, a word went out, which I have come to tell you, for you are highly esteemed…. Did we get that? As soon as we begin to pray something happens in the heavenly realms. I don’t know about you but that encourages me no end. If we’ve prayed in faith, knowing our God keeps His word, God steps in immediately and starts the answering process. It may take a little while but it’s on its way.😊

Now if we prayed in doubt there won’t be any corresponding action on God’s part because He is a faith God who responds to faith. So I’m here today to build our faith up, to remember He’s for us and not against us, to know God is faithful to His word and if we’ll stand on it, we will see Him do what He’s promised to do. God does not, and cannot lie! I want to remind us that it’s the devil who is a liar, a thief and a destroyer so why would we want to listen to his lies, doubts, fears and what ifs anyway?!

Be encouraged next time you step out in faith, or you pray in faith in God’s word, just keep in your mind that He answered ‘as soon as’ you prayed and thank Him for it. Praise God that’s good news today. I love it, don’t you.😊

Photo by Humble Lamb on Unsplash

WHAT DO YOU WANT?

Mark 10:52 NKJV So Jesus answered and said to him, “What do you want Me to do for you?” The blind man said to Him, “Rabboni, that I may receive my sight.”

Can you imagine the scene? Crowds of people thronging around Jesus, and off at the side of the road is this blind beggar shouting at the top of his voice, calling out to Jesus, trying to get His attention. The more the crowd tell him to shut up the louder he gets. He doesn’t care what people think of him, he wants to talk to Jesus! 

It’s obvious he’s blind and he wants healing, and yet Jesus asks him what he wants! We may think our need is obvious to God and that He’ll just do something about it when He wants to, but Jesus is showing us a principle here. We have to say what it is we want God to do for us.

The man was very specific. He said, “I want to receive my sight.” He was taking ownership of his sight before he had it. “My sight”. Instead, most of us take ownership of whatever our ailment is. How often have we heard ourselves say, “My cough is getting worse, my condition is no better!” 

But that sickness is not ours, it’s something the devil is trying to put on us to try to make us take it, to own it, but it doesn’t belong to us! God never gave it to us. We know there is no sickness in God’s kingdom of light because if there was, it would be no different to the kingdom of darkness! We pray ‘Your will be done here on earth as it is in heaven.’ Is there any sickness in heaven? Thankfully, we know there isn’t, because it’s not God’s will for there to be sickness!😊

Rather we can be laying hold of our healing and saying, “Lord, by faith I receive my healing, my wholeness, my peace in this situation”. We can do that because Jesus paid for it all at the Cross and legally it all belongs to us already, because we are ‘In Christ’, who has no sickness, and it’s part of the blessings which we’ve already been given, part of our inheritance. That’s good news.😊

Glory to God! Thank You Jesus. Amen.

NEW OPPORTUNITIES

Galatian’s 6:10 NLT Therefore, whenever we have the opportunity, we should do good to everyone—especially to those in the family of faith.

I woke up this morning and those two words kept coming into my mind, “New Opportunities”. It’s a day when God is putting new opportunities in our hands and we’ll decide whether to take them or whether to pass them by.😊

You may have seen the programme where the budding entrepreneurs appear before a panel of judges to present their product, hoping to be given the opportunity to be backed by one of the millionaires. They then have to decide whether to take the opportunity they’re offered or not. They’re not compelled to take it, just given the opportunity.

I believe the Lord is saying the same thing to us. It might be an opportunity for a new job, or to start a new business, or to begin a new relationship, or to volunteer to help in some way. It might be a good deal in a shop the Lord has provided, to be at the right time and right place, or to partner with a ministry taking the gospel to people, and the choice will be ours.

You might have a few minutes to spare and it’s an opportunity to draw closer to Him, or to speak to someone about how good our God is to us, to share our faith, but we have to decide whether to take the opportunity or not. 

There will be opportunities to be thankful and be glad we’re alive, thankful we belong to God, to smile at people because we know we’re cared for and loved by Him, opportunities to show His love.

This is a Rhema word from God and our verse reminds us to take every opportunity to do good, so as we go out today we can have that mindset and be on the look out for God’s divine opportunities and grab them before they pass us by. 

Father, help us not to miss the opportunities You offer us. In Jesus name. Amen.😊 

I’d be interested to hear what happens if you’d like to share in the comments in due course.😊

IMITATE OUR HEAVENLY FATHER

Ephesians 5:1 NLT Imitate God, therefore, in everything you do, because you are his dear children.

Wow! The original language says to be continually imitating God in everything we do, not just in some things, so it must be possible or He wouldn’t tell us to do it, but it’s quite a thought!😊

I was thinking about Isaiah 54:9 where it says God’s thoughts and ways are so much higher than our thoughts and ways, and we tend to think, “Oh well, I can’t possibly think and do things like God so there’s no point in trying!” But that’s Old Covenant, and we’re now in the New Covenant. Notice what God calls us now - His dear children, and He wants us to copy Him, to be just like Him.

God sees us as dear to His heart and He’s given us the ability to live our lives in the power of His Holy Spirit, who teaches us to be imitators of our Heavenly Father. So what does that mean in the everyday?

Well, God loves us unconditionally, so He wants us to do the same to others because He’s put His love in our hearts to be able to do it. He says let the weak say I am strong; to forgive, when we feel like going off in a huff; to let the poor say I am rich; to say we’re Overcomers when we feel like we’re going under; to bless our enemies when we don’t want to.

Our job is to speak words of faith, agreeing with God, not our circumstances. It’s God’s way - not ours, because He knows our faith filled words can change our world! It certainly requires the transforming of our minds and the help of His Holy Spirit!😊

So we have a choice to make each day, are we going to be imitators of our Heavenly Father and do what He says, or are we going to do life our own way? 

Thankfully God never told us to work it all out before we do it, or to see if it’s working, or if we ‘feel’ like it. He just says to do what He does and we can have what He says we can have, and it’s all done with a childlike faith, because He calls us His dear ‘children’.😊 

Lord help us choose Your way each day. Amen.

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