Prayer and Praise

Posted on June 17, 2024 by daaorg1214

Psalm 144:7-10(NLT), the psalmist, King David wrote, “7 Reach down from heaven and rescue me; rescue me from deep waters, from the power of my enemies. 8 Their mouths are full of lies; they swear to tell the truth, but they lie instead. 9 I will sing a new song to you, O God! I will sing your praises with a ten-stringed harp. 10 For you grant victory to kings! You rescued your servant David from the fatal sword.” This passage was written after David had risen to assume the throne as king over the nation of Israel. He had lots of enemies and recognized that God was his rescue and made this plea in Psalm 144:7-10 for help. In our times of trouble, this is what we must do as well.

We have nothing like the responsibilities and trouble that King David had, but God is willing and able to help us with any obstacles and tribulations we face. Many of us are suffering mentally and emotionally from the pressures of life, and sometimes we feel that God is far from us, but this is not true. Psalm 145:18(ESV) tells us, “The Lord is near to all who call on him, to all who call on him in truth.” Our Heavenly Father loves us so much that He gave His only begotten Son, Jesus Christ to sacrifice his life for our sins. He wants to help us, and He instructs us in Philippians 4:6-7(NLT), “6 Don’t worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank him for all he has done. 7 Then you will experience God’s peace, which exceeds anything we can understand.”

God tells us in Philippians 4:6 not to worry about anything, and this is what many of us do. We worry about the situations that diminish our peace and well-being, but God offers us the very best way of handling troubles and problems. He tells us to pray to Him about everything, and everything means we are to take before God all things, without exception, that are pertaining to our lives. We must also have faith that God hears us and that He is willing and able to help us.

Prayer

Hebrews 11:6(NLT) says, “And it is impossible to please God without faith. Anyone who wants to come to him must believe that God exists and that he rewards those who sincerely seek him.” Anyone that comes to our Heavenly Father for help must believe that He rewards us, but we must be diligent to pursue Him in the way that He requires. Diligence is a careful, steady, and devoted undertaking or pursuit. It means that when we pray, we really mean it. So, our prayers should not be one and done. We should view prayer to God as meaningful and consistent communication with Heavenly Father. It’s one of the important ways that causes our relationship with Him to grow in intimacy, and this is what He wants.

Our diligence in the practice of prayer must also acknowledge God’s sovereignty, love, and power. Jesus Christ tells us in John 4:24(NLT), “For God is Spirit, so those who worship him must worship in spirit and in truth.” God must be worshiped in spirit and in truth. Worshiping in spirit means that we are not concerned with outside realities of places and looking a certain way, but we are recognizing the spiritual realities of Jesus Christ. We recognize that his sacrifice and resurrection has made it possible for us to be children who totally lean on our Heavenly Father for everything.

Worshiping in truth means honoring the truth of who God is. He tells us in Revelation 1:8(NLT), “I am the Alpha and the Omega—the beginning and the end,” says the Lord God. “I am the one who is, who always was, and who is still to come—the Almighty One.” There is no one in all eternity that will compare to our Heavenly Father. He is all-powerful and all-knowing. Everything about Him is overflowing with love, truth, and perfection, and in like manner, His Word is overflowing with love, truth, and perfection. Understanding this about God and His Word will help us embrace the appropriate attitude of prayer.

Praise

God also tells us in Philippians 4:6 that the attitude of gratitude and thankfulness are also important to foster the honor and reverence we must have in prayer. Faith is the title deed to what we’re asking Heavenly Father to receive. This is vital to the right mind-and-heart-set of prayer. We should know when we pray to Heavenly Father in the name of Jesus Christ that the answer is on its way. With joyful expectancy of praise and thanksgiving, we demonstrate to God, heaven, and everything beneath it, that we have full confidence in our Heavenly Father, and this pleases Him.

When tribulation paints the opposite picture of the more than abundant life that Jesus Christ came to earth to make available to us, we must not run in the opposite direction of God’s love and protection. Philippians 4:13 tells us that we can do all things through Christ who gives us strength. God wants us to get it in our cores that He has empowered us through Jesus Christ. When we pray to God, we can and should praise Him for the receipt of what we’ve asked for even though it hasn’t shown up yet. This kind of response and effort toward His goodness is what maintains the closeness in our relationship with God, and it demonstrates the kind of the honor and reverence that He so richly deserves.■

Scripture quotations marked (NLT) are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Wheaton, Illinois 60189. All rights reserved.

Pay Attention When Something Feels Wrong

Posted on May 27, 2024 by daaorg1214

When we give our lives to Christ and become born-again, the Holy Spirit, God’s seed, comes to live inside us. Jesus Christ said in John 16:13(NLT), “When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all truth. He will not speak on his own but will tell you what he has heard. He will tell you about the future.” The Holy Spirit helps us to pray and to grow closer to God. He is the One who establishes the intimacy between us and our Heavenly Father that we desire so much. The Holy Spirit also communes with us spiritually, and when the enemy has plotted against us and we’re about to step into a trap, the Spirit is the One who warns us. This is why, more than any other time in history, it is crucial that we pay attention when something doesn’t feel quite right.

Watch what you say
Your confessions are a powerful instrument towards your wholeness and happiness in life. Some people hear this and think it is too radical to believe. They think that way because for a while now, believers have been taught certain things about faith, and it causes people to try to treat the goodness of God like a kid in a candy store. That’s not faith, that’s fantasy, and it leads to disappointment.

The reality is that we can’t please God without faith. Hebrews 11:6 tells us this. Faith is a fully persuaded, sold out belief in what God has promised in His Word. All blessings come from God and abide in the realm where He lives. Faith requires the full faculty of our minds and the words of our confession. Both must work together to transfer blessings in the spiritual realm into our natural realm. This is the way God set things up.

Without our confession and believing, we could not be saved. Romans 10:9(NLT) affirms, “If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.” 1John 4:15(NLT) declares, “All who confess that Jesus is the Son of God have God living in them, and they live in God.” Our salvation is received by the confession of our believing, and God’s forgiveness is received by the confession of our sins. Proverbs 18:21 declares that death and life are in the power of the tongue. We must open our mouths and speak words of life.

God created us in His image. He designed us in such a way that our minds and hearts must be aligned with His thoughts in order to bring His bounty from the spiritual realm into our physical realm. We do this through prayer, by the confession of truth, and by continuing to renew our minds to what God has said in His Word. Many of us don’t do this. We have made a habit pattern of speaking words that are against what God says. Just in the span of a casual conversation with a friend, we can nullify the blessings that were slated to come our way because we failed to confess the truth. Instead, we gave into negative and unfruitful talk because this is what our friends are used to hearing and it’s how they are used to speaking. We have got to change this if we want to step into greater levels of blessing.

Out of bounds
The standard of faith set by our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, is extraordinary, and God expects us to utilize the faith we’ve been given. Jesus Christ said in Mark 11:23(NLT), “I tell you the truth, you can say to this mountain, ‘May you be lifted up and thrown into the sea,’ and it will happen. But you must really believe it will happen and have no doubt in your heart.” We’re so used to listening to what society says and doing what society does that for many of us, this phenomenal truth that Jesus spoke seems radical. Some of us simply don’t believe what he’s telling us about having faith and speaking to our circumstances through the confession of our faith.

Jesus said in Mark 11:24(NLT), “I tell you, you can pray for anything, and if you believe that you’ve received it, it will be yours.” Believing and trusting God when we pray is the appropriate mindset for the believer. Nothing less will do, but most people simply do not believe they can have what God says they can have by the power of their confession. We need to get it into our minds and hearts that faith is the norm. Doubt and fear are abnormal, because 2Timothy 1:7 tells us that God didn’t give us doubt and fear; He gave us a spirit of love, power, and sound mind.

It’s our responsibility to exercise faith, and if we don’t, our lives will not be as blessed as they could be. Our lack of faith positions us further away from God. It moves us out of bounds, and this is where we experience feelings that tell us something is wrong. Often, we don’t realize it, but these are warnings that we are too far outside the boundaries of where God says we should be. We’re confessing and thinking the wrong things, and they are taking up too much space in our hearts. Our lives are heading in the wrong direction. We feel it, but because of all the noise in the background, we can’t hear the message that was spoken to our spirits.

That feeling is telling us that something is going to happen as a result of what we’ve been saying and believing, and it isn’t going to be well with us. Know that the Holy Spirit is speaking to your spirit and warning you to begin to renew your mind and change the way you think and speak. Do not allow this warning to fall on deaf ears. Often when something feels wrong, it is wrong, and we need to pay attention. Through our faith, prayers, and confession, the Holy Spirit will help us turn things around. Then, the only thing we will feel is incredible gratitude to God because He warns us when we’re out of bounds, and He is always willing to help us find our way back to Him.

Scripture quotations marked (NLT) are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Wheaton, Illinois 60189. All rights reserved.

Stretch to Take Hold of the Promise

Posted on November 6, 2023 by daaorg1214

Genesis 18 tells us that three men came to visit Abraham. This record suggests that he recognized they were not ordinary men, because he ran to meet them and bowed himself to the ground before the leader of the three. He then offered them hospitality, as was customary during the time in which he lived. Abraham was honored by their presence and wanted to present the best, so he sent word to his wife, Sarah, to quickly make a meal of the finest quality. He then took it to them, and he stood by under a tree as they ate this meal. These men asked, “Where is Sarah, your wife?” In a usual context, men outside the family would not dare to inquire after a man’s wife. During that time, women were not seen as equal to men, and the culture was such that they remained quiet and behind the scenes. So, the mention of Sarah’s name tells us, as the readers of these scriptures, that this visit was heavenly, and the question represented the visit’s spiritual significance.

This was not the first time that Abraham had been visited by heavenly hosts. God had big plans for this ordinary man and his wife, and their faith needed the intervention of the supernatural in order to manifest the promise God had made to them. Sarah was in her senior years, way past the age of childbearing, but God ordained that she should deliver a child in her old age. The event would be miraculous, and this child would be produced from their faith in Him. This birth would exceed the boundaries of human expectation and understanding, and it would also demonstrate that Abraham and Sarah were fully persuaded that what God promises, He is willing and able to perform.

We need some Abraham and Sarah faith, and we also need to understand that they didn’t just automatically arrive at the place of unwavering faith. They went through some things. They were at times challenged by their fears, and in some cases, struggled with doubt and unbelief. This happens to us as well. We need to prepare our minds and hearts for the reality that life is dynamic, and it will stretch our faith in ways that are not always comfortable. Our desires prove this out for us, because how badly and sincerely we want our lives to change will be tested.

Philippians 4:19(ESV) tells us, “And my God will supply every need of yours according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus.” When we give our lives to Jesus Christ and begin to live for him, we become God’s children. We can then have a confident expectation that God will take care of our needs, because this is what He has promised to do. He will supply all our needs and do so from His rich and infinite supply, but we must be mindful of the reality that God is not into greed. He has promised to supply our needs, but He will not support greediness, so we must keep that in check.

2Corinthians 9:8(NLT) says, “And God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that having all sufficiency in all things at all times, you may abound in every good work.” Sometimes, we want things that we do not need. We are thankful to God for our current level of blessing, but we find that we need to expand. Our lives must increase as we move from one level of blessing to the next. This happens because we desire a fuller expression of all that we are, and we need greater resources—greater people, relationships, and tools—to fulfill our greatest potential. This desire for expansion and greater expression is in all rational human beings.

We don’t need new cars, clothes, shoes, and gadgets; we want them. We feel they will aid us in our quest to go higher, and our Heavenly Father’s grace will increase towards us in this manner, but there’s something we must understand. An increase in the good work that we do for God’s Kingdom must accompany our desire to go higher. This is the part that many of us miss.

God doesn’t want our lives to be stagnant. He wants them to be ever growing in Christ! As we grow in Christ, our needs and desires change, but our desire to do more for the Kingdom should change as well. When some of us hear this, we might laugh as Sarah did when she heard the prophecy of the three men. Genesis 18:12-15(NLT) tells us, “12 So she laughed silently to herself and said, “How could a worn-out woman like me enjoy such pleasure, especially when my master—my husband—is also so old?” 13 Then the LORD said to Abraham, “Why did Sarah laugh? Why did she say, ‘Can an old woman like me have a baby?’ 14 Is anything too hard for the LORD? I will return about this time next year, and Sarah will have a son.”

Sarah couldn’t see it, and this is where many of us are today. We’re asking for the blessing, but our minds can’t fathom doing a greater work for God than we’re currently doing. We must ask ourselves if we are really exercising faith when we expect God to give us the thing that we’ve prayed to receive but we don’t have faith that He will increase us spiritually and cause our ministries and good works to expand. One of the two should take higher precedence in our lives, and that is increasing in our gifts, talents, and abilities so that we can do greater works and please God in a greater way.

From the time the Word of the Lord was given to them, to the time that our dear sister in faith, Sarah, conceived a child, her faith and believing increased dramatically. She became sold out and fully persuaded in the Words God had spoken. She was convinced that even in her old age, the grace of God would do the miraculous and allow her to mother the child she and Abraham had so desperately wanted. Sarah stretched to take hold of the promise, and that is exactly what we must do. We cannot become weary in well doing, instead, we must tune in to the Lord and listen to what He says. He will give us revelation and instruction, and they will increase our faith to do greater works so that we are poised to welcome the newness He brings into our lives.■

Prayers of Tears

Posted on June 4, 2023 by daaorg1214

“Those who plant in tears will harvest with shouts of joy.”
Psalms 126:5 NLT

Sometimes we come to a breaking point where we don’t have words to pray but only our tears. Life has trampled and bombarded us in such a way that it looks like there’s no light at the end of the tunnel. Walls seem to be caving in, and you might feel as though the devil has won. You find yourself crying to sleep at nights. During the day, your head aches from crying so much, and you can’t imagine you have any tears left, but they keep streaming somehow. You can’t speak, but you’re crying out to the Lord in prayer through your tears.

God understands. He knows that life can beat up on us so bad that we lose hope sometimes. 1Peter 4:12-13(NLT) encourages, “Dear friends, don’t be surprised at the fiery trials you are going through, as if something strange were happening to you. Instead, be very glad—for these trials make you partners with Christ in his suffering, so that you will have the wonderful joy of seeing his glory when it is revealed to all the world.” Jesus Christ suffered for the sake of God’s Will and plan to save His children. Jesus endured the persecution and suffering, and now he is seated at the right hand of God. He is the Savior of the world and he is our hope.

Jesus Christ never told us that life would always be easy. Before his crucifixion and ascension, he had a conversation with his disciples about the hard times ahead. In John 16:33(NLT) he said, “I have told you all this so that you may have peace in me. Here on earth you will have many trials and sorrows. But take heart, because I have overcome the world.” This was not an easy thing for the disciples to hear because Jesus has had been so close to them, but he didn’t want them to focus on the troubles, he wanted them to focus on his love, power, and strength. This is what we must do. Jesus Christ wants us to know that he overcame the world, and because he did, you and I can live in his victory.

In Joshua 1:9 (NLT), God told His people living in Old Testament times, “This is my command—be strong and courageous! Do not be afraid or discouraged. For the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.” Tribulation and troubles are a part of life, but no matter what we’re going through, God wants us to know that He is with us and that He loves us. He wants our believing to be transformed to genuine faith in Him, so that we never doubt His willingness and ability to bless us. Sometimes we go back and forth in our minds. “Will He deliver me like He said?” or “Will He really cause all things to work together for my good?” We ask these questions because we’re learning to trust God, and through the process of our tribulations, He shows us His strength and power. He affirms that our trust in Him is well-placed over and over.

King David, the psalmist, wrote in Psalms 69:1-3 (NLT), “Save me, O God, for the floodwaters are up to my neck. Deeper and deeper I sink into the mire; I can’t find a foothold. I am in deep water, and the floods overwhelm me. I am exhausted from crying for help; my throat is parched. My eyes are swollen with weeping, waiting for my God to help me.” David’s prayer is so transparent and honest. He cries out to God and really tells it like it is. In life, sometimes we do feel like we’re sinking into an abyss of pain and problems, but our God is faithful. He rescued David repeatedly, and He will do the same for us. Either through our words or tears, God hears our prayers, and He alone can replace those sorrows with joy.

Our hearts hurt so bad sometimes that we just don’t have the words. We feel shaky, unsure, and off-balance. This is when we need to lean on God the most. We can rest in the reality that He hears our tears. The Father knows everything that we want to say. He doesn’t bypass or brush us off. He is rich in mercy and grace, and He already has a plan to deliver and rescue us, but we must trust Him.

We must not ever see our problems as being greater than God, or greater than His willingness and ability to set our feet on higher ground. Don’t sink to the point that you lose faith in Him. Remind yourself continually of 2Timothy 1:7(NLT), “For God has not given us a spirit of fear and timidity, but of power, love, and self-discipline.” God is telling us that He has placed power, love, and self-control in us through Jesus Christ, and we must never forget the power of prayer through our faith. God wants to show us what it means to partner our faith with His strength. He made us for His purpose, and He will bring us through the valley victoriously and wipe away our tears as we trust in Him.■

You Are Not Alone

Posted on October 10, 2022 by daaorg1214

1Peter 5:9(NLT)
“Stand firm against him and be strong in your faith. Remember that your family of believers all over the world is going through the same kind of suffering you are.”

Whenever I’m going through a tough season in my life, I always remember my mother’s words. She’d tell us, “Life will beat you down if you let it.” It must have been over twenty-five years ago that she first said this, but she spoke it with such conviction that I have never forgotten it. Hitting it home even more is the reality that over the years I’ve come to know a little bit about life’s challenges; I’ve had more than a few myself. Admittedly, my mother had been through a lot, including domestic violence. She’s survived things that most couldn’t imagine pulling through, but her faith remained strong in the Lord. This has been such a profound example for me, because through my own struggles, more than any other thing, faith in the goodness of God has pulled me through as well.

1Peter 5:9 makes it clear that we have a spiritual adversary, the devil, but rest assured, God has not left us defenseless. Our Heavenly Father tells us in Ephesians 6:11(NLT) to put on all of His armor “so that you will be able to stand firm against all strategies of the devil.” He goes on to tell us that we are not fighting against a flesh and blood enemy. This is the mistake in our thinking that many of us make. People can be mean, vindictive, manipulative, and very unkind. Many of us encounter folks like this every day. When they behave badly towards us, our first inclination is to want to give them exactly what they have given us, but this isn’t the right strategy.

God makes it 100% crystal clear that our issue isn’t with the individual, but the demonic influence that works through them. These individuals haven’t understood the truth about Jesus Christ, and because of this, they can be used by the devil to come against us. If we neglect the truth of what God is telling us in Ephesians 6:11, we will continue to be blinded and attacked by satan and his demonic cohorts. We must open our eyes and become aware of our real enemy, because it isn’t a person, it’s the devil.

In Ephesians 6:13, Heavenly Father instructs us that every piece of His armor is necessary to resist the enemy. First, God tells us to put on the body armor of His righteousness. You and I don’t have any righteousness to call our own. We receive God’s righteousness when we accept Jesus Christ as our personal Lord and Savior, and we are to wear it like a second skin. We must also hold up the shield of faith to stop the fiery arrows of the devil, and we must put on the shoes of God’s peace. We’re to wear the salvation that Jesus Christ offers us as a helmet, because following the example of Christ protects our minds, hearts, and souls. When we think, speak, and act like Christ, we leave no room for the enemy to steal the authority that Christ has given us. Living through the example of Jesus Christ means that we can stand firm with soundness of mind and in the strength of God’s love and power.

Lastly, we’re to take the Holy Spirit’s sword, which is the truth of God’s Word. A sword is a mighty weapon. Many of us have been outsmarted by the devil because we haven’t adequately protected our minds and hearts with God’s Word. At times we made the mistake of behaving as though our enemies were flesh and blood. We tried using physical or human-made weapons on a spiritual enemy, and this will always be futile. 2Corinthians 10:4(NLT) declares, “We use God’s mighty weapons, not worldly weapons, to knock down the strongholds of human reasoning and to destroy false arguments.” In other words, we must recognize that God has equipped us with every spiritual weapon we need to stand strong. When we put on the mighty weapons that God has given us, we will not be tricked by wrong teachings, false arguments, philosophies or any other plot of the devil. Instead, our faith will remain strong in the Lord as we dedicate ourselves to living for Him.

There’s no question that life is challenging. We might get knocked down, but God wants us to know that we don’t have to stay down. That’s not His Will. He wants us to be strong, and to stand tall, because Psalm 3:3 declares that He is the Lifter of our heads. He loves us and only wants what is best for our lives. Romans 3:23-24 says that we all have sinned and fallen short of God’s standard. We are going to make mistakes, and some will cause us great pain, but God is always with us and will never leave or forsake us. He has proven through Christ that His grace, mercy, and love have no limit, and we can be assured that He will always come to our aid.■

When Your Eyes Are Open

Posted on September 12, 2022 by daaorg1214

2Corinithians 4:4(NLT)
“Satan, who is the god of this world, has blinded the minds of those who don’t believe. They are unable to see the glorious light of the Good News. They don’t understand this message about the glory of Christ, who is the exact likeness of God.”

“Please, help me Lord!”

My ex-husband seemed to enjoy making me feel unworthy. He’d have flirtatious conversations with other women with me in the room, and then try to absolve himself of responsibility by repeatedly telling me that it’s just how successful people do business. It never seemed to let up. It got to a point where I didn’t have a moment’s peace because I was always worried about how he’d hurt me next. One evening, as I pulled into the driveway of the home we shared, I couldn’t take it anymore. I felt so abandoned and attacked, and I gripped the steering wheel of my car in utter disgust as I watched him on his cell, flirting and laughing yet again. I couldn’t take the lies and manipulation another moment. I put the car in reverse and drove away. I knew in that moment that the marriage was over.

I couldn’t bring myself to get out of the car that day. The only place I wanted to be was anywhere he wasn’t. He had become my tormentor, my worst nightmare come true, and I knew I couldn’t live that way any longer. I wasn’t in a good place and all I could say was, “Lord, please help me!” It feels like an almost impossible position, because you have no idea what you’re going to do. So much of my life was dependent on the survival of my marriage, but there I was, taking this huge leap into the unknown. All I could do was trust God, and He did not disappoint me.

1Peter 5:8(NLT) warns, “Stay alert! Watch out for your great enemy, the devil. He prowls around like a roaring lion, looking for someone to devour.”Heavenly Father wants His kids to know that we have an enemy, and he is the devil. God wants our eyes to be open to the tricks of the enemy because terrible things can happen if we’re blind to the truth. This is crippling many of God’s children. They are struggling with financial hardships, deep sadness, abandonment, isolation, and other kinds of mental and emotional torment. God doesn’t want any person to struggle through life with disappointment, defeat, and despair. John 3:17(NIV) tells us, “For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.” Heavenly Father sent His only begotten Son to the world to rescue us from darkness, and we can place all our hope and trust in Jesus Christ, because he is willing and able to help us.

Our Heavenly Father wants us to see the glorious light of the Good News of Jesus Christ, and this Good News is that Jesus Christ saves us! We can’t see anything clearly when life is beating down on us, and God knows this. That’s why it’s important that as God’s children we don’t forget who we belong to and why our Lord and Savior came to the earth. He tells us in John 10:10 that he came to make our lives here on earth more than abundant, but we must want this for ourselves too.

Very often I’ve witnessed Christians succumb to the pressures that life brings. They may think that the issue can be resolved by having the right job, the right amount of money in the bank, or the right person or connection. Many of us believe that these things can bring us happiness and joy. These are temporary and can only make you feel good in the moment. These things have a light that dims very quickly, leaving people no choice but to go back to being and feeling defeated and disappointed in life. Nehemiah 8:10 affirms that the joy of the Lord is our strength. Delighting in Him makes us strong and keeps the light of Christ burning in our hearts. Only the Love of God can give us what we’re missing.

It’s the truth that sheds light and illuminates the path of victory that God has laid before us. Time is up. We can’t walk around blind anymore, and we should be determined not to be blinded to the victory that Christ has won for us all. Whether it’s a spouse or significant person who doesn’t treat us well, or a person who is trying to prevent us from being our best for God, these individuals are trying to keep the wool pulled over our eyes. We must wake up and see this for what it is.

Know that every decision you make to walk in your truest, highest self in Christ is a move towards the light. We were created by God to be free and to walk in the liberty He’s given us through Christ. Galatians 5:1(MSG) tells us, “Christ has set us free to live a free life. So take your stand! Never again let anyone put a harness of slavery on you.” Many of us have been mistreated and abused a long time. We must love God and ourselves enough to come out of the darkness and walk in the light. We won’t have to do it alone. God will do the heavy lifting. We must trust His love for us with our whole hearts and have the courage and faith to remove the blindfold and keep it off. ■

God is Our Protector, Our Refuge, Our Everything

Posted on November 29, 2021 by daaorg1214

“Fight the good fight of the faith. Take hold of the eternal life to which you were called when you made your good confession in the presence of many witnesses.”
1Timothy 6:12(NIV)

When life don’t come easy and its’ challenges seem to get heavier and heavier – do you sit on your hands or do you fight for faith like never before?

I was raised in a Christian household and family with strong women of God. They demonstrated daily a relentless faith in God through our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, and life didn’t always come easy. They dealt with some heavy-duty challenges. At a time when child-support wasn’t enforced and in some places wasn’t even thought about, some of them raised their children alone. Their example of strength left an indelible mark on my life, because these women didn’t ever appear to me to be deterred or discouraged. They kept it moving and created for all of us a safe and loving haven. They couldn’t have done this had they not known that God’s love is real, and we can depend on it come what may.

In 2Corinthians 5:7(NIV), God tells us, “For we live by faith, not by sight.” This verse doesn’t mean that we walk around with our physical eyes covered, but God is telling us that we can’t limit His power and blessing based on what our eyes see. The conditions and circumstances may look bleak to our eyes, but God sees what the situation will become through our faith and prayers. Hebrews 11:1 tells us that our faith is evidence of what we can’t yet see. Even though our prayer request has not yet manifested in our physical world, it is a done deal in the spiritual world. In this way, faith is the title deed to what we’ve prayed to receive. In the realm of God, He’s already released the blessing, and it’s our responsibility to continue believing, trusting, and doing what we’ve been called to do until it manifests.

When it comes to dealing with adversity, sometimes we interpret having strength as maintaining a certain amount of control over things. We think we have to know all the facts or know what’s going to happen before we can trust. Well, God tells us to trust first! He wants us to depend on Him to lead, guide, and direct our steps.

Ephesians 3:20(NLT) tells us, “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.” How many times have people told us that we couldn’t do this, or couldn’t accomplish that? How often have people tried to put us down, or to influence us to quit pushing when the odds were stacked against us? We serve a God who has no barriers! His power is limitless! Our Heavenly Father is in the business of blessing His people beyond anything we could ever ask or think. He far exceeds our expectations, but you and I are not left out of the equation when it comes to this verse. God tells us that His mighty power is working on the inside of us. He wants us to know that some important spiritual work is happening deep in our souls through His Holy Spirit who dwells within. Even though we may not sense it, we are commanded to trust God’s perfect work. Our responsibility is to bring what He’s placed on the inside of us out in the open, by trusting His love and walking in it.

We serve such a loving Father. He grants us grace and mercy, and He forgives us for our sins, stubbornness, and unwillingness to abandon our worries and trust faithfully in Him. Many single parents face tremendous challenges, and it can seem at times that they come from every direction. You can feel like all hope is lost when you have mouths to feed and not enough finances to take care of your obligations. The enemy wants to use these trials to zap your strength by convincing you that God’s not going to handle the situation, but this is not the truth. God is working in you! To see His power flourish in us, we need to turn our thoughts and feelings to what Christ is doing, not on what the devil is doing.

Hebrews 11:27(NLT) tells us,“It was by faith that Moses left the land of Egypt, not fearing the king’s anger. He kept right on going because he kept his eyes on the one who is invisible.” This is precisely what you and I must do! We can never make the mistake of drifting away from God’s truth, not when the struggle is heavy, not when the blessing is on the way, and not when we receive the victory we’ve been waiting on. Our eyes must continually be on God and our faith must be rooted in His promises.

Psalm 95:7(NLT) assures us, “for he is our God. We are the people he watches over, the flock under his care. If only you would listen to his voice today!” Don’t just seek God when your life starts to unravel, or when tragedy knocks at your door, and don’t just seek Him for His blessings. Seek Him because you understand who God is. He is our Protector, our Refuge…our Everything! This is the way we must see Him all the time. He tells us to listen to His voice and never take our eyes off of Him, and we can be assured that He never takes His eyes off of us. He watches over us, and He will reward us as we place our trust in Him. ■

Scripture quotations marked (NLT) are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Wheaton, Illinois 60189. All rights reserved.

“God is Our Protector, Our Refuge, Our Everything”, written by KYada, edited by PMB for DomesticAbuseAwareness.Org ©2021. All rights reserved. All done to the glory of God through Jesus Christ, our Lord!

God Is Validating the REAL You!

Posted on August 18, 2020 by daaorg1214

Do you feel honored, valued, appreciated, and loved by others? Do you feel as though people know the real you—the ‘you’ that you believe yourself to be at the deepest level? We all want validation from those we care about, but the truth is that it doesn’t come that often. I will venture to say that there are more people that feel undervalued and unappreciated than those that feel valued and appreciated. This doesn’t paint a very pretty picture I know, but so many of us feel as though we’re doing all the right things, yet it doesn’t appear we’re being rewarded. Well, God has something to say about this, and if we’ll open our hearts to receive it, I believe that it will make all the difference in the world.

I’m reminded of a conversation I had with a young woman that is very disillusioned with life. She was raised with parents that love the Lord, and she doesn’t remember a time when their lives didn’t revolve around their faith. She told me she does all the things that she believes a Christian should do—reading God’s Word and praying often, but something doesn’t feel the same she said. She’s reached a point in her spiritual walk where she feels depleted—like no person or thing can fill up her empty spaces. She has feelings of hopelessness and is emotionally exhausted.

Back in the day, and in many churches today as well, the diagnosis would be one of judgment and perhaps not one of compassion and spiritual maturity. We can’t get it twisted, we live in complicated times and the enemy is busier than ever. There are a multitude of darts aimed at our direction, and they are aimed at various and important areas of our existences. Sometimes we are attacked on all fronts. Someone or something at the job is weighing heavy on our minds; boyfriend or girlfriend ain’t acting right, and maybe a family member or friend is not providing the support and care you expect. When you add financial instability, environmental craziness, and the state of the world today in this mix, becoming weighted down emotionally is a very real possibility.

Jesus Christ has told us to cast our every care upon him, and most Christians know this passage in the bible. It’s Matthew 11:28-30 (NLT): 28 Then Jesus said, “Come to me, all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. 29 Take my yoke upon you. Let me teach you, because I am humble and gentle at heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30 For my yoke is easy to bear, and the burden I give you is light.” Many of us do this. We give our burdens to Jesus Christ because we know the awesomeness of his power, and initially we trust him, but many of us take our burdens back. There are a couple of reasons why we do a take-back and why our commitment to surrender, release, and let it go doesn’t stick. I’d like to put a few out there for your consideration.

Lack of Prep for the Next Phase
Like the young lady I mentioned, many of us have been on this journey a while, and we know that God requires a commitment to His Word. In our minds we might be doing all the right things, but this doesn’t always mean that we’re growing spiritually. A routine can turn into inflexibility in a hot minute. It can lock us into habit patterns that work for a season, but what about God’s plans to take us higher now and in the future? Heavenly Father created life to be dynamic when it comes to spiritual growth. In this arena, stagnation is a minus and not a plus. When our spirit has received the message it’s time to go higher, but our soul is not in a listening mood, the disharmony gets translated to our hearts and minds as feeling bad. Surrendering to the reality that God wants us to cling more tightly to Him and that it’s time to move up, this will prepare us for the next phase of our spiritual journey. Praying for guidance through His preparation process will aid us tremendously.

A Misleading Need for Emotional Validation
Heighten emotions of praise and thankfulness are such a big part of the way we worship and experience God. But some us have developed a kind of dependency on emotions, and we start to trust our emotions more than we trust what God says. We have to switch that around. Our emotions should follow what God says. In other words, when we turn our dials all the way up to believing and trusting God, we might not feel like skipping through fields of daisies, but we have to trust Him anyway. The skipping will follow.

Looking to the Wrong Source
Validation is part of the soul’s appetite. All of us will seek it because it’s part of being human, but the source of our validation is monumentally important. Many of us sense this big hole inside, and it just feels awful sometimes. So, what do we do? We try to fill it. We seek to feed our souls validation from those we love, admire, and support. The trouble with this is that their food is not eternal, and it can’t affirm the truth of who we are and who we’re meant to be. So, if we’re looking to feast on any other source than Heavenly Father, we will be in a constant state of soul-starvation. This is where many of us are right now.

The soul can only be as fulfilled and whole as its most hearty and healthiest meal. When we understand this, the words of Jesus Christ in Matthew 4:4(NKJV) magnify exponentially. After fasting forty days and nights, he was tempted by the devil to turn stones into bread. He responded to the devil’s temptation with “Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God. ” The eternal wisdom, counsel, and promises of God’s Word is the food our souls were meant to eat. The psalmist lays out God’s spiritual menu in Psalm 34:8(NLT). He tells us, “Taste and see that the LORD is good. Oh, the joys of those who take refuge in him!”

God knows us intimately. He knows the REAL you better that you can ever know yourself. When we’re depleted in our inner beings because our souls are starving spiritually, God can give us what we need. He has the very best medicine, and He knows exactly where to administer it. We are spiritual beings, created to thrive from spiritual nourishment. When we’re feeling depleted, devalued, and low, we need not cling to what worked in the past. God’s resources are infinite, and He loves to help us tap into His treasures. Let’s be good to ourselves and surrender totally to Him. Let’s be willing to release the things that hold us back so we can make room for the things that propel us forward. Then, we will be prepared for the next level of spiritual growth. As we feast on His Word, we’ll learn to trust the Lord in a greater way, and He will validate our souls and keep us continually satisfied.■

Scripture quotations marked (NLT) are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Wheaton, Illinois 60189. All rights reserved.

The Impossible Mr. Flynn

Posted on November 14, 2017 by daaorg1214

As a kid growing up, there’s always a person that stands out in your memory as particularly odd; for me, that person was Mr. Flynn. He walked with a limp and could barely move his left side, but even at a time when accessibility for those with physical challenges was limited, he never seemed to let it slow him down. Mr. Flynn owned a small grocery store, and if you caught him during one of his generous moods, you were sure to get a free candy bar or two. Like most kids, I loved candy, but I made it a point to try and stay as far from Mr. Flynn as possible. He amused himself with the sport of giving all the neighborhood kids nicknames, and sure enough, he had given me one too, but I didn’t like it. I didn’t like it not one bit.

The first time I heard it, I was in his store with my friends, and they never let me live it down. No matter what I did, or how far I thought I’d distanced myself from Mr. Flynn and his store, this nickname haunted me for years. I couldn’t hide my disdain for Mr. Flynn, and my classmates thought I should be ashamed for disliking someone with his condition, but my face turned sour even hearing his name. It was harmless teasing by any adult’s account, but for a chubby pre-teen with chubby cheeks, it was a nightmare.

When I think back, I don’t know why the nickname bothered me as much as it did, but I can still remember the angst I felt at the thought of having to go into Mr. Flynn’s store at my parent’s request. He was an impossible nemesis I thought. Even after asking politely that he please call me by my given name, he chuckled and refused. As I think of it now, it wasn’t so much about the name itself, but I think it was the idea that someone would say something that conjured up the most hurtful feelings within me, and I couldn’t make him stop.

His words caused my friends to look at me or think of me in a way that wasn’t how I wanted to be viewed. He didn’t cause my shame, but exposed it, and the exposure nurtured this sense in me that I would always need to hide—to cover up my vulnerabilities, and shield myself from anyone I thought would potentially hurt my feelings.

In John Chapter 8, Jesus Christ tells us about the light, love, liberty, and life that he has made available to us. In verse 12, he said, “I am the light of the world. If you follow me, you won’t have to walk in darkness, because you will have the light that leads to life.” Many of us don’t realize that we’re walking in the darkness of pain and shame until one day something wakes us up. All of a sudden, we realize that there’s been a gloomy cloud over our heads and we don’t know why.

Mr. Flynn didn’t intend to cause me harm, but still I felt powerless when it came to his ability to shame me. Even till this day, the thought that someone might render me powerless rouses very intense emotions within, but now I handle the situation a bit differently. I recognized that by hiding in a consciousness of shame or internalizing the anger, I was punishing myself. We don’t always understand the pain we’re inflicting on ourselves subconsciously, and its why Jesus Christ is so precious, because he knows our pain, and he tells us to turn to him.

In Matthew 11:28-30(NLT), he said, “Come to me, all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. 29 Take my yoke upon you. Let me teach you, because I am humble and gentle at heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30 For my yoke is easy to bear, and the burden I give you is light.” The Spirit of Christ abides within us, and he sees every aspect of our wounded hearts, even those wounds that occurred when we were young. He knows how they can affect us when we’re adults, and this is why God’s healing is so wonderful. He will heal us from the inside out. He has a loving way of revealing the thorns that continue to prick us, so that we can confront and surrender them.

One of my scripture favs is Galatians 5:1 The Message (MSG). It says, “Christ has set us free to live a free life. So take your stand! Never again let anyone put a harness of slavery on you.” Our job is to have faith and extend Jesus Christ an invitation. He will teach us to live free if we’re willing to learn, so that we can walk in the liberty he’s made available. We can ask him to heal our hearts in our most vulnerable places, and he will, because he loves us. In my youth, I saw Mr. Flynn as pretty impossible. He never knew how intolerable I found him to be back then, but today I see him as man who dealt with his own pain day by day, and managed to give a few kids a little sweetness along the way. For me, that’s proof positive that God has healed my heart in many ways. If you’ll ask, He’ll do the same for you. ■

First blog post

Posted on June 30, 2017 by daaorg1214

This is your very first post. Click the Edit link to modify or delete it, or start a new post. If you like, use this post to tell readers why you started this blog and what you plan to do with it.

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