Tag Archives: Faith in God

Help Is on the Way

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There was a time in my life when I struggled with doubt and anxiety. I questioned if God really heard my prayers and wondered if He was happy with the kind of life I was living. I had doubts because the situations that plagued me were emotionally draining, and they didn’t seem to be getting any better. I struggled spiritually because I couldn’t make sense of anything that was happening in my life and was convinced that the scriptures in the Bible would not relate to my circumstances. Then, one day I received a phone call from a woman of God. She challenged me to be completely honest and open with God and with myself, and then trust Him with the problems I faced. She encouraged me to be committed to let go and let God for the next month, and to, “Be still, take a pause, and watch what God does.” I accepted her challenge.  

Boy, this was more challenging that I thought it would be. I became more observant of my thoughts and habits, and I began to see that some of them had been holding me back for a very long time. It was a fight to stop worrying, and I had to continuously tell myself, “Give it God. He’s got it.” I started to read in the Bible about those that had endured great difficulty and leaned on God to get them through it. Hebrews 12:1 tells us that we’re surrounded by a huge crowd of witnesses who walked this earth with their hand in the hand of our Heavenly Father. They grew in their faith and learn to trust Him utterly and completely. God tells us to look up to those folks, Abraham and Sarah, Abel, Enoch, and Noah, because their records of believing prove that God cannot fail. Their examples show us that God keeps His promises and His Word is true.

Hebrews 12:1(NLT) encourages us to “strip off every weight that slows us down, especially the sin that so easily trips us up.” In most cases, a person won’t strip off a weight if we don’t know what it is or realize that it’s weighing them down. God tells us in His Word that sin and the oppression from not knowing Him or what He requires of us weighs us down. Bad attitudes and feelings of jealousy, envy, bitterness, resentment, arrogance, and selfishness weigh us down. When we entertain thoughts of sexual immorality and practice it, this is a heavy weight. Many of us have never confronted the reality that we’re participants in these things, and they are weighing our souls down. They cause us to draw into our lives the very situations, people, and circumstances that we don’t want.

Even though we may not have ever confronted the weight, we feel something blocking our journey forward and upward. We sense very deeply that something is wrong, and its draining us emotionally. Many of us think it’s someone or something in our external environment that is causing this, but no person or situation on the outside has the power to rule what is going on inside you. God didn’t give human beings the ability to look inside another’s heart and mind. We live from the inside out. God has given us the gift of free-will, and He holds us responsible for what is in our hearts and minds. The internal workings of your soul are your responsibility and only you can change how you act and what you think, speak, and do.

It’s internal, that’s what spearheads the issues of life. God instructs us in Proverbs 4:23(NLT) to “Guard your heart above all else, for it determines the course of your life.” We must come clean to God and lay bare before Him. He already knows what’s in our hearts, but we need to acknowledge it as well. We must humble ourselves before Him and recognize that He has the power to transform us into the people He desires us to be.

Hebrews 12:1 tells us that God has set a race before each of us, and His Will is that we run it with endurance. This means that we must have spiritual strength and stamina. If we refuse to strip off the weight, we will continue to move at a snail’s pace toward our destinies. But if we are obedient to God’s Word, and if we seek God’s help, He will open our eyes to see the things we need to release so that we can have the kind of life He wants to give us.

In Colossians 3:10(NLT), Heavenly Father commands us to “Put on your new nature, and be renewed as you learn to know your Creator and become like him.” If we don’t recognize the things we have to put off, we might not recognize the things we need to put on. We must read God’s Word and learn about Jesus Christ because his is the example that God commands us to follow. If you’re anything like me, I was so accustomed to handling problems on my own terms and under my own conditions that I blocked out God’s help. Because of this, my limited resources were constantly exhausted, but God’s resources are unlimited, and He offers them to us freely.

In the Old Testament, God’s people refused to change their thoughts and attitudes and would not be humble in the sight of God. They refused to seek only our Heavenly Father for provision and help. Instead, they went off the rails, worshiping idols, and bad things happened because they turned their backs on our Heavenly Father. God reminded them in Isaiah 41:27(NLT) that He was the One who told them, “Look! Help is on the way!” and He delivered on His promise. It doesn’t matter what situation we face in life; God is willing to come to our aid. Things can get very uncomfortable for us when we take our eyes off Jesus Christ, but when we anchor our confidence in God, we can be assured that His help is on the way.

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.

“Help Is on the Way”, written for DomesticAbuseAwareness.Org ©2024. All rights reserved. All done to the glory of God through Jesus Christ, our Lord!

Through A Dark Valley

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Psalm 23:4-5(NLT)
“Even when I walk through the darkest valley, I will not be afraid, for you are close beside me. Your rod and your staff protect and comfort me. 5 You prepare a feast for me in the presence of my enemies.” 

As Children of God, we don’t have to be afraid of what’s to come, nor do we have to fear the unknown. Our only requirement is to trust God as He instructs us in Psalm 23. Many of us have been through some dark valleys. We’ve dealt with someone abusing us, taking our love for granted, and speaking down to us instead of lifting us up. Still, we loved them. We told ourselves to just keep hanging in there, thinking that sooner or later, he would turn around; he would recognize the treasure he has in us. We’ve dealt with crisis after crisis, and the emotional exhaustion is more than we ever thought we could bear. It’s a dark valley, and God wants us to know that we’re not in it alone.

No matter how hurtful your circumstances may be, you are not without the love of God. It’s having faith in His love that stumps some of us. We fail to recognize His amazing grace, and to learn more about it from His Word. Because of this, our worries and fears get the best of us. The wisdom of Proverbs 12:25(ESV) says, “Anxiety in a man’s heart weighs him down, but a good word makes him glad.” Anxiety is difficult enough when it’s on our minds, but when it’s in our hearts, it weighs us down. It makes us think and feel like we’re not going to rise above our circumstances and conditions, but instead we think and feel we’re going to be crushed by the weight of them. We may think and feel this way, but a ‘good word’ from God can turn our whole lives around if we’ll trust it.

A Good Word from God is exactly the spiritual counseling we need in order to change the way we think. We desperately need to do this, to change the way we think. We need to renew our minds to what God says. Psalm 34:17-19(ESV) is a Good Word about God’s protection, provision, and care. This passage tells us, “17 When the righteous cry for help, the LORD hears and delivers them out of all their troubles. 18 The LORD is near to the brokenhearted and saves the crushed in spirit. 19 Many are the afflictions of the righteous, but the LORD delivers him out of them all.” There are many promises from God in His Word, and they will comfort and encourage us to trust Him.1Peter 5:7 tells us to cast all our anxieties on God, because He cares for us. We can fully surrender all to Him and trust that He will work all things out for our good.

As believers, we should never give the enemy a seat at the table. We shouldn’t allow him to steal the Word of God from our hearts and minds and make us think that God won’t help us because He’s forgotten about us or because we’re not good enough. This simply isn’t the truth. Romans 5:8 tells us that our Heavenly Father showed His great love for us all when He sent Christ to die as a sacrifice for our sins, and He did this while we were at our worst. God knows we’re going to make mistakes, and He doesn’t hold them against us. What He requires is for us to have faith that He can turn our pain into gain, and that through Him, we can become stronger, better, and wiser.

When darts are flying at you from every direction and you’re in the midst of a storm, take cover in Christ. In Ephesians 6:11, God tells us to put on all the armor He has provided through Jesus Christ, so we’ll be able to stand firm against the strategies of the devil. This is something we must do every day. Every morning, even before our feet hit the ground, we should pray and ask God to take over our day through His precious Holy Spirit. We should surrender it all to Him, and trust that He will lead, guide, and direct us as He promised in His Word.

When abusive relationships take us through a dark valley, sometimes we let our armor down. God is not punishing us. He wants us to know we can put on His armor at any time, as long as we do so with total trust in His power. Isaiah 40:29(NLT)declares, “He gives power to the weak and strength to the powerless.” The internal struggles we have are about whether we will believe in the love and power of a God that we cannot see, and whether we will see Him bigger than our problems. Don’t let doubt and insecurity win. Don’t allow them to take hold of your spirit. Make the simple but life changing choice to walk with God every moment of every day. God is close beside you and He will never leave you. Let Him control your life and trust Him to show you His marvelous light and love. Don’t listen to the enemy’s lies, listen to God! Read His Word, pray often, and have faith as He protects, comforts, and strengthens you.■

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.

English Standard Version (ESV)
The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. ESV® Text Edition: 2016. Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.

“Through A Dark Valley”, written for DomesticAbuseAwareness.Org ©2024. All rights reserved. All done to the glory of God through Jesus Christ, our Lord!

God Heals the Brokenhearted

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1Peter 1:5-7(NLT)
“5 And through your faith, God is protecting you by his power until you receive this salvation, which is ready to be revealed on the last day for all to see. 6 So be truly glad. There is wonderful joy ahead, even though you have to endure many trials for a little while. 7 These trials will show that your faith is genuine. It is being tested as fire tests and purifies gold–though your faith is far more precious than mere gold. So when your faith remains strong through many trials, it will bring you much praise and glory and honor on the day when Jesus Christ is revealed to the whole world.”

Managing emotional and mental anguish seemed like something that was only discussed within the confines of family interventions and therapy. Now it’s open topic of conversation on just about every platform out there. People are tired of hurting in silence, and they’re looking for help and making use of the many resources and tools that are available in our modern times. Not all these resources and tools are helpful to our relationships with God.  As believers in the Lord Jesus Christ, we must be so very careful. Jesus Christ said in John 10:9(NKJV), “I am the door. If anyone enters by Me, he will be saved, and will go in and out and find pasture.” The world offers many doors, but our minds and hearts were created by God for fellowship with Him through Christ. So, we must be extremely discerning because we might open the wrong door, and there’s no telling what we’ll let in.

1Peter 1:5 tells us that through our FAITH, God is protecting us by His power. In faith, joy is an inside job. It’s given to us by Christ when we accept him as Lord over our lives. Our joy and rejoicing are not interrupted by the cares of this world, even during the times when life seems crazy. 1Peter 1:7 says that our faith in God is more precious than pure gold. You and I didn’t assign the value of our faith, God did. Faith in God is a powerful reality. It’s precious to Him, therefore it must be extremely precious to us, and we must treat it that way. In life, there will be troubles and tribulations, some of them are doozies, but we must have faith that God did not cause them but will deliver us from them.

God understands all the things we go through on earth. He knows that we will experience loss, heartache, and sometimes devastation. We have an enemy, and 1Peter 5:8 tells us that the devil walks around the earth like a roaring lion, looking for those he can devour. God commands us in verse 9 to stand firm against the enemy by being strong in our faith. We must be convinced of God’s love and goodness. He knew about the problem before we did, and He already has the solution. You might ask, “well why didn’t He give it to me?” He will ask, “Why didn’t you ask me for it?” God requires us to seek Him and to understand who He is.

Nothing compares to God’s healing power, and He has already made us complete in Jesus Christ, but you and I must partner with God’s Will. We can’t stand outside of His love and power, waiting for Him to move. God has already moved. He accomplished everything for His children by giving Jesus Christ as a sacrifice for our sins. Now, it’s our move, because His door is always before us. All we have to do is open it and allow Him to lead, guide, and direct us through life.

Christ commanded us in Matthew 6:33(ESV), “But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.” Many of us haven’t taken the Lord at His Word here. We’ve made of a habit of seeking other people first. We have conditioned our minds to trust and believe people and things that work against God’s power and love for us. He doesn’t want us to live that way because it’s beneath our rights and privileges as His sons and daughters. Jesus Christ said in Revelations 3:20(NLT), “Look! I stand at the door and knock. If you hear my voice and open the door, I will come in, and we will share a meal together as friends.” This is the only door God has given us to open for salvation, healing, strength, love, and power. Everything we need is in Jesus Christ.

Psalm 147:3 (ESV) tells us, “He heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds.” Be careful not to seek the wrong place for your healing and wholeness. Let God guide you so that you do not open a door that looks promising but is actually an entrance to chaos and confusion. God is the One who heals our broken hearts. Through Christ, He causes a radical transformation in our lives, but we must stop looking for love in all the wrong places. God never intended us to do that. We’re to look to Him for our needs.

Our Heavenly Father doesn’t want us to remain hidden behind the walls of pain and hurt, suffering in silence. He wants us to have faith in Him. It’s ok to ask God questions, but recognize that you’re standing before the Almighty, All-loving-and-knowing, All-powerful God who has created you. He knows everything about you and knows what you need before you even ask him. Again, He knows you, but He wants you to know Him as your Healer, Protector, Provider, and Loving Father. Open the door to God through the Lord Jesus Christ. Let Him heal your broken heart, and trust with all your heart that He will.■

English Standard Version (ESV)
The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. ESV® Text Edition: 2016. Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.

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.

Scripture taken from the New King James Version. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

“God Heals the Brokenhearted”, written for DomesticAbuseAwareness.Org ©2024. All rights reserved. All done to the glory of God through Jesus Christ, our Lord!

No Enemy Can Reach Me

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Matthew 11:28(NLT)
“Then Jesus said, “Come to me, all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest.”

As parents, we go to great lengths to protect and keep our children safe.  I remember hearing my mother tell the story of me falling out of our moving car while she was backing out of the driveway. Back then there were no laws about child restraints like the car seats we have today, but it just goes to show you that as a society, the desire for us to protect our children has evolved and the technology to do so has advanced as well. Acknowledging what is truly valuable in life fundamentally connects us, and the glue for it all is love.

We protect what we value, and for Christians, the Word of God is the most valuable asset we have. 2Peter 1:3(NIV) tells us, “His divine power has given us everything we need for a godly life through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness.” The Bible contains knowledge about God, and it’s all that we need to live a Godly life. It contains the necessary information to live a bountiful existence on earth.

1John 4:7(ESV) says, “Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God.” When it comes to our children, we find it so easy to love and to do what it takes to support them, but when it comes to loving and supporting ourselves, many of us fall short. One of the biggest reasons for this is that we lack faith in God and the love He has for us. God’s love is the most powerful reality that exists, and it beautifully and wonderfully takes up all of life’s space, but it requires us to trust this deeply in our hearts.

Throughout our lives, we’ve received a ton of messages and a lot them were not good for our souls. Some of them have shaped and molded the way we see our Heavenly Father. Many of us were told that we weren’t good enough and that we would never amount to anything in life. Messages like this are very damaging because for many of us they stick. We approach life as if it is a disappointment waiting to happen. God tells us in Proverbs 4:23(NLT) to “Guard your heart above all else, for it determines the course of your life.” He tells us to not allow our hearts to be governed by doubt, insecurity, and negativity, because these will give us a stony heart, and no seed can grow there when that happens.

Romans 5:8(ESV) says, “But God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” God loved us even when we were at our worse, and He loves us just the same now. He gave His only begotten Son, Jesus Christ, as a sacrifice for our sins, and this shows us how much we can count on His love. When He resurrected Christ from the dead, God demonstrated His incomparable power.

In Psalm 62:6-7(NLT), the psalmist declared, “6 He alone is my rock and my salvation, my fortress where I will not be shaken. 7 My victory and honor come from God alone.  He is my refuge, a rock where no enemy can reach me.” This is a powerful passage! We have a spiritual enemy, satan, who is out to do us harm, but with God on our side, we can live through the victory that Jesus Christ won for us on the cross! Romans 8:31-34 The Message (MSG) says, “So, what do you think? With God on our side like this, how can we lose? If God didn’t hesitate to put everything on the line for us, embracing our condition and exposing himself to the worst by sending his own Son, is there anything else he wouldn’t gladly and freely do for us? And who would dare tangle with God by messing with one of God’s chosen? Who would dare even to point a finger? The One who died for us—who was raised to life for us!—is in the presence of God at this very moment sticking up for us.”

2Chronicles 17 in the Old Testament gives us a record of God’s faithfulness and willingness to help us. Jehoshaphat was a very successful king of Judah because of his diligence to seek God in all things. 2Chronicles 17:6(NLT) says, “He was deeply committed to the ways of the LORD.” Naturally, being a king, Jehoshaphat had tremendous responsibility and great wealth, but he understood that all his blessings, wealth, and the strength of his nation was because of God. When asked to join another king in battle, Jehoshaphat was cordial, but knew such a decision could not be made without consulting God. He told the other king in 2Chronicles 18:4(NLT),
“But first let’s find out what the LORD says.”

Jehoshaphat went to battle, and the Lord protected him from his enemies, and He will do the same for us, but we have a part to play as well. So many of us are sad and feeling defeated because we believe life is against us. The person we love is hurting us and nothing seems to go the way we thought. God wants to help us. He’s our protection and refuge. He will put a hedge around us, and no enemy can reach us, but we must trust the Lord with all our hearts. He’s the One that takes care of us and our children. To show God that we’re serious about honoring Him as our all-powerful and all-knowing Creator, like Jehoshaphat, we must seek Him. Inviting God into our lives through the Lord Jesus Christ is the first step. The second is to love ourselves by trusting God’s love and committing ourselves to learn more about 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.

English Standard Version (ESV)
The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. ESV® Text Edition: 2016. Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.

Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV® Copyright ©1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

“No Enemy Can Reach Me”, written for DomesticAbuseAwareness.Org ©2024. All rights reserved. All done to the glory of God through Jesus Christ, our Lord!

Our Responsibility to God

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I recently heard about an incident where a man argued with a Christian believer that was endeavoring to tell him about Jesus Christ. This man firmly believes that hell is nonsense and that all good people go to heaven. Salvation and the high price our Lord and Savior paid to make it available to us meant nothing to him, and he was adamant that the believer he was arguing with was wrong about God and wrong about heaven. It is inevitable that we are going to meet people that do not believe what the Bible says, and they are vehemently opposed to the truth. They think their opinions, thoughts, and beliefs outweigh what God has said in His Word. They have their own interpretation of the truth, and as much as we want them to know God through Jesus Christ, they will not let God’s truth into their hearts.

We are saved through God’s grace. The gift of salvation that Jesus Christ offers us is an extraordinary gift from God, and Ephesians 2:8-9 tells us that He gives us this gift by His grace; we can’t or didn’t do anything to earn it. Romans 10:9-10(NLT) says, “9 If you openly declare that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. 10 For it is by believing in your heart that you are made right with God, and it is by openly declaring your faith that you are saved.” Our Heavenly Father is a God of order. He sets the conditions, requirements, and methods by which we must accept, worship, serve, love, and honor Him. He is so ordained that in order to be saved, we must open our mouths and declare out loud to others that Jesus Christ is Lord. And not only this, we must believe in our hearts, in the deepest part of our beings, that God raised Jesus Christ, His only begotten Son, from the dead.

This is the only way to be saved. There is no other way to become a child of God. We must accept Jesus Christ as our personal Lord and Savior, and we must have faith in God’s resurrection power to be born again. Jesus Christ tells us in John 3:3(NLT), “I tell you the truth, unless you are born again, you cannot see the Kingdom of God.” This is God’s truth, and what He says goes.

Salvation is an extraordinarily great gift from God and with it comes responsibility. This is the part that many people neglect. As God’s children, we can’t live any way we choose and call it holy, we must live the way God’s Word tells us to live. We must follow the example of Jesus Christ, and we are obligated to do the things he did.

In Matthew 28:18-20(NLT), Jesus Christ told the disciples, “18 I have been given all authority in heaven and on earth. 19 Therefore, go and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. 20 Teach these new disciples to obey all the commands I have given you. And be sure of this: I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” As believers, we have a responsibility to Jesus Christ to share his Gospel. Sharing the Good News about him and the salvation he offers is sharing his love with others, and there is no greater task or reward in life.

2Corinthians 5:20(NLT) tells us, “So we are Christ’s ambassadors; God is making his appeal through us. We speak for Christ when we plead, “Come back to God!” This is our commission. We are to be ambassadors for Christ, and to share his love and light in this dark world, but there are many Christians living today that have never introduced anyone to Jesus. They have not recited a Bible verse to anyone, nor have they labored in prayer for their families and friends to be saved. They do not associate their neglect to act upon their call with the loss of momentum and stamina on this Christian journey, but they should. Hebrews 10:24 tells us that we should be thinking of creative ways to influence and inspire one another in doing good things that help and minister to others. When we are not doing our part ourselves, we are not truly able to influence others in this way.

James 2:26(NLT) says, “Just as the body is dead without breath, so also faith is dead without good works.” God designed things in such a way that our faith works together with the Christ-like works that we perform. In other words, a fully developed faith is more than just words, it’s action! It requires that we back it up, and this is where many of us get derailed. We must have it clear in our minds that Jesus Christ is where the action is. Anything that we do to follow his example and spread the Gospel is going to take us higher in the things of God.

There are many religions and many ways of believing that people have developed, but if those systems are not rooted in the Gospel of Jesus Christ in God’s Word, if they do not teach people about their responsibility to God, they are not pleasing to Him. Hebrews 10:22(ESV) echoes God’s requirement. It says, “Let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith.” Well, how do we acquire a true heart in the full assurance of faith?  Romans 10:17 tells us. It affirms that faith comes by hearing the Word of God.

Many people are in error by thinking they do not have to follow God’s Word. They don’t think they have to back their faith or fulfill their call, but they are sadly mistaken. Ephesians 1:3 declares that we have been blessed with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places because of our union with Christ. We are packed to overflowing and oozing over with God’s bounty, and He expects us to do something with all that He’s given us. He expects us to impact His Kingdom by bringing glory to it.

Faith in God requires diligence in our commitment to please and honor Him. We can’t get away from that no matter what. We are obligated to share the Good News about Christ and not everyone will receive our witness. Some may be argumentative, but we must not be offended. Instead, we should be encouraged by every opportunity to speak the truth. Hebrews 11:26(NLT) says of Moses, “He thought it was better to suffer for the sake of Christ than to own the treasures of Egypt, for he was looking ahead to his great reward.” This is exactly the heart and mind that God wants each of us to have. Hebrews 11:6 declares that our God is a Rewarder! He will reward us for sharing His Gospel and for any persecution or ill-treatment that comes with following our call. We must fulfill our obligation to God through the example of Jesus Christ and know that God will bless and reward us for doing so. ■

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.

“Our Responsibility to God”, written for DomesticAbuseAwareness.Org ©2023. All rights reserved. All done to the glory of God through Jesus Christ, our Lord!

The Manifestation of Your Blessings

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Genesis 1:1(NLT) says, “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.” You and I do not know when the beginning began, but we know that whenever it was, God was there, because He tells us in Revelation 22:13(NLT), “I am the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last, the Beginning and the End.” God is the only Giver of blessings, and this must be acknowledged by us in every way. Jesus Christ declared in John 4:24 that God is a Spirit, and the only way to worship Him is in spirit and in truth. In other words, we cannot worship God without knowing who He is. We must know the truth regarding the perfection of His magnificence, omnipotence, and omniscience, and we must be concerned with spiritual realities in order to worship God in the spirit. A lack of understanding and acceptance of this is the reason that many have not seen the manifestation of His blessings.

God has given us His Word because we must know it for ourselves. His Word is life to us! It is the bread of life, and without it we are malnourished and depleted in every way. We cannot do anything for the Kingdom of God without walking by the Spirit and living by God’s Word. Sadly, even many believers do not believe this to be true. God is not in heaven withholding the desires that we so desperately want for ourselves. Many people think that way, and because of it they are doubting His goodness and His Word. That is never a good place to be.

Psalm 84:11 tells us that God doesn’t withhold any good thing from those who love and honor Him. It is we who withhold His blessings from ourselves because we refuse to line up our thinking, living, and speaking with the culture of the realm where all blessings abide.

The big problem
To be concerned with spiritual realities, you must comprehend the Words of Jesus in John 6:63(NKJV), and you must do so deep down, even on a molecular level. He said “It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing. The words that I speak to you are spirit, and they are life.” The flesh profits nothing. You can’t be saved through the flesh. You can’t live eternally in the flesh, and you can’t please God in the flesh, because Romans 8:7 tells us that a mind that is set on the flesh is hostile towards God. That kind of mind is self-righteous, not faith-righteous. Therefore, a mind that is set on the flesh cannot submit to the ways of faith in God’s love.

This is a big problem with many individuals. They haven’t fully believed that life is spiritual, we are spiritual, and all blessings are spiritual. Everything comes from God and God is a Spirit, therefore, everything is spirit-u-al. 2Corinthians 4:18(NLT) tells us, “So we don’t look at the troubles we can see now; rather, we fix our gaze on things that cannot be seen. For the things we see now will soon be gone, but the things we cannot see will last forever.” This world that so many of us are clinging so tightly to, it’s temporary. It’s here today, but it will not last, yet we see it as being more real than the Kingdom of God. That’s a serious issue. It will keep us from seeing the manifestation of our blessings.

Ephesians 1:3(NLT) tells us, “All praise to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly realms because we are united with Christ.” This is extraordinary beyond belief! Pray that God gives you a revelation of the astounding truth of what He is revealing here. God has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly realms! This is what God accomplished through the sacrifice and resurrection of Jesus Christ. The flood gates that had been locked since the sin of Adam and Eve were opened by Christ, and the outpouring of every spiritual blessing was lavished upon us through our Redeemer!

We tell ourselves that we’re walking in faith, when the reality of what God has already done escapes us. We’re assuming a posture of waiting on blessings that God has already released. We’re losing out because our minds are stuck in neutral. We’re not understanding spiritual realities, and therefore, we lack the spiritual strength to reach up and grab what is rightfully ours. This way of thinking interferes with our faith because it means we are not believing rightly. We must get to a place where we line our thoughts, confessions, and actions with our faith in God. We must recognize that He has already provided, and it is our responsibility to manifest in the natural what He has supernaturally released.

Definition of manifestation
As it pertains to the spiritual realm, manifestation is defined as the process of transferring blessings from the spiritual realm into the natural realm by focus, faith, and agreement with God’s Word. All blessings are spiritual, and they have already been given by God according to Ephesians 1:3. This puts the manifestation of those blessings to our natural realm under our privilege and responsibility. It is up to us to walk in Holy Spirit power. It’s our choice to move according to his guidance so that we loose the things that have held us back and excel in the things that propel us forward.

Your completeness in Christ was received when you gave your life to him. The work of that completeness was accomplished over two thousand years ago, through his sacrifice and resurrection. Right now, at this very moment, you have everything you need to walk in the victory of Christ and to live a more than abundant life. It is God’s delight to see you prosper in this way. Philippians 2:13(NKJV) says, “for it is God who works in you both to will and to do for His good pleasure.” When the Holy Spirit came to dwell inside you, he brought to you God’s empowerment, and the Spirit is continually giving you the desire and the ability to do what pleases God. Manifestation of our desires takes place through our obedience to the Spirit. There is no other way.

Trust, see, and speak
We must come into the knowledge that God set the parameters for the manifestation of our desires. It is a spiritual process because God is a Spirit, and so are we! The only way to transfer from the wealth of His spiritual Kingdom is to trust Him, to see what He sees, and to speak what He speaks.

We must have faith in God’s goodness and love, and our faith is fueled by the vision that He gives us. Without a vision we perish. In other words, we’re just spinning our wheels, becoming exhausted but going nowhere. Many of us try to force faith, and we do this because we haven’t seen what God sees. We haven’t received a revelation from Him about the manifestation of the desires we seek. So, that should be the first item on our agenda. We should never try to get ahead of God regarding the timing and other details. He takes care of that. Our responsibility is to pray that He prepares us with the vision and directives for what we’ve asked to receive.

Lastly, we must understand Proverbs 18:21, that death and life are in the power of the tongue. If we don’t begin to speak what God speaks, to repeat His promises and to line up our thoughts and confessions with them, we are not in the flow of faith, and therefore, we are working against the manifestation process. You must open your mouth and begin to decree God’s favor and bounty over your existence. You must confess and affirm it so often that every cell in your makeup is drenched with the power and authority of Christ. So, work with God and partner with His Holy Spirit as he leads you on destiny’s path. Be willing to release anything that impedes your faith and believing so that your whole heart trusts God and is in agreement with every blessing that has your name on it. ■

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.

Scripture taken from the New King James Version. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

“The Manifestation of Your Blessings”, written for DomesticAbuseAwareness.Org ©2023. All rights reserved. All done to the glory of God through Jesus Christ, our Lord!

The Winning Position

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A dear friend called me up recently and was very excited to tell me about her news. A co-worker encouraged her to sign-up on a dating app, and after contemplating it for several weeks, she finally did it. Single for the last ten years, she figured she’d give it another shot. It wasn’t long before she caught the eye of someone, and they began to have conversations. She kept me posted on their progress, and I thought that he sounded like a really nice guy. They finally decided to meet in person, but to my surprise, she was very nervous and hesitant. Although his conversations were nice, she said to me, “I’m really not attracted to his profile picture.” She didn’t think he’d be her type but went to meet him on the off chance that she’d be pleasantly surprised.

These are the kinds of hit-or-miss situations that single people indulge when they do not understand the degree to which God will lead and guide them when they seek Him. Some dating apps have worked out for some singles, there’s no question about that, but as born-again believers, we need to be sure to obtain a greenlight from Heavenly Father that a dating app is the way to go.

He commands us in 2Corinthians 6:14(NLT), “14 Don’t team up with those who are unbelievers. How can righteousness be a partner with wickedness? How can light live with darkness?” Our Heavenly Father does not lie. His Word is true, righteous, and holy, and His Word never fails. This scripture in 2Corinthians 6:14 has nothing to do with a person’s physical appearance; it’s not talking about looks. It’s talking about spiritual realities. It is speaking to the spiritual identity of a human being, whether they are born of God’s Spirit or if they are a child of satan and do not belong to God at all. If they do not believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and reject him, they are unbelievers, and God tells us not to partner with them.

1John 1:5(NLT) says, “This is the message we heard from Jesus and now declare to you: God is light, and there is no darkness in him at all.” God is ALL light, and He desires His light and love to cover everything that we do, and this is especially true of our unions. He would not tell us not to partner with darkness and then turn around and help us to do so. He wants us to seek Him and follow His direction. If He tells us to move, then we move. If He doesn’t tell us to move, then we don’t. We stay put and remain diligent to pray, and to read and study His Word, so that we continually go higher in Christ.

God is not hard of hearing, neither is He negligent in any way. He alone is the One who establishes the path to all blessings. He tells us in Proverbs 3:5-6(NLT), “Trust in the LORD with all your heart; do not depend on your own understanding. 6 Seek his will in all you do, and he will show you which path to take.” God is not slow or slack to fulfill His promises. Our responsibility as His sons and daughters is to seek Him. Jesus Christ commands us in Matthew 6:33(NLT), “Seek the Kingdom of God above all else, and live righteously, and he will give you everything you need.”

Be assured that hit-or-miss is not the Father’s way. When we meet men that do not meet our expectations, the inevitability of hurting someone’s feelings is always present. Even if their egos are slightly bruised, this is an offense we have caused that will ultimately come back to us. It isn’t worth it to leave a poor witness like this.

Your life is extremely valuable to our Heavenly Father. He wants to keep you protected and safe, and He doesn’t want you taking a chance on anyone that might harm you in any way. God gave His only begotten Son as a sacrifice for our sins so that you could always be in a winning position in life. We have the victory of Jesus Christ, but we must do our part. We must be wise about the decisions and choices we make, and most importantly, we must seek God in every aspect of our existences. He tells us in James 1:5(NLT), “If you need wisdom, ask our generous God, and he will give it to you. He will not rebuke you for asking.”  When it comes to dating and finding the person who He has ordained to walk with us through life, this is exactly what we must do. We must ask the Father and have faith that He will lead, guide, and direct us on the right path.■

Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV® Copyright ©1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

“The Winning Position” written for DomesticAbuseAwareness.Org ©2023. All rights reserved. All done to the glory of God through Jesus Christ, our Lord!

Rest in God’s Shadow

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Psalm 91:1(NLT)
“Those who live in the shelter of the Most High will find rest in the shadow of the Almighty.”

When you’re in an abusive relationship or household, rest is not something you get very often. Your mind is occupied with all the things it takes for you to survive. Your heart is wrestling to love someone that hurts you, and your soul is troubled with fear about the next time you might have to go through it. You might look like a million bucks on the outside, but on the inside, you’re poised for danger coming at you from all sides. It’s trauma, and believe it or not, many of us have made ourselves used to it.

Our minds tell us that rest comes when the enraged attacker leaves in a fury of anger and for a while, ceases to injure us with verbal and physical abuse, but is that really rest? Is this the peace and quiet we believe we deserve? We thought our marriage or significant relationship would be a place of refuge from the cruel place the world can sometimes be. We thought this person we love or loved so much would embrace us, honor us even, but because of them, an eerie feeling permeates all the crevices of what we thought would be a sacred space. Some of us are blind to the reality that we’ve been tricked by satan. We can’t see that he is using someone close to separate us from peace and rest, that his goal is to steal our joy, imprison us with fear, and attack our faith in God.

If we think deeply about this, we can’t help but come away realizing that this is an incredibly dastardly plot; that someone would dare diminish our God-given right to peace and rest. It’s incredulous that an individual would have the audacity to do this, but this kind of thing is pervasive in our society. Thank God there’s a remedy. There’s a safe place in Christ. Through him there’s a way to restore all that we have lost and to renew ourselves to such a degree that we never again allow anyone to weaponize our capacity to love against us.

God never intended a life to be lived in a continual atmosphere of threat. Living this way is living beneath our privilege as His sons and daughters. It’s harmful to us, and it interferes with the peace, rest, and restoration that our relationship with God offers through Jesus Christ. The remedy is not in getting back at the one who has abused our love and support, and it’s certainly not waiting on them to change. The answer to every question, and the solution to every problem is found in Christ. It’s found in surrendering to him and allowing him entrance into our lives. How do we do this? We do it by faith, by believing that God is greater than our problems and greater than the abuser, and He wants to help us.

In Psalm 91:1, God tells us that those who live in His shelter will find rest in His shadow. This verse is teaching us about God’s covering, security, and provision. When we live in Him, we can expect that He will take care of us. Acts 17:28(ESV) states that “In him we live and move and have our being.” In other words, we go wherever God goes, because we are in Him through Jesus Christ. God is all love and light and does not cast a shadow. The word “shadow” in this verse represents God’s secret places. So, if we follow Him, He’ll provide rest for us in His secret places and put a hedge of protection around us. This is what God will do for those who love and honor Him, and this is where our faith must be, because He never fails, and He always follows through on His promises.  

Again, abuse is not God’s Will for us, and the continuance of it will cause our brain to shift to a gear of constantly responding to abuse, even when the abuser isn’t around. It’s exhausting as one might imagine. Jesus Christ tells us in Matthew 11:28(ESV), “Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.” As we ponder and soak in the grace and power of this invitation, we must remember that God is our Creator. He knows how we’re supposed to work. 2Corinthians 3:5(ESV) tells us, “Not that we are sufficient in ourselves to claim anything as coming from us, but our sufficiency is from God.” Our wonderful Heavenly Father created us to rely upon Him completely, because He’s our Heavenly Father and He loves us. We were perfectly designed by Him to walk in the peace and rest that our union with Christ brings. This rest, this peace, cannot be found in any other than Christ, our Lord.

The psalmist wrote in Psalm 4:8(ESV), “In peace I will both lie down and sleep; for you alone, O Lord, make me dwell in safety.” Our Heavenly Father has made it available to rest in Him, where we can be in perfect peace. Pray and ask the Lord to come into your mind and heart. Express your commitment to grow in Christ and surrender totally to him. God loves you, and He values you. He gave His only begotten Son as a sacrifice to save you. Philippians 2:13(ESV) declares, “for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure.” Surrender your day to Him every morning you’re blessed enough to wake up. Let the Father work in you and place your focus on pleasing Him. Have confidence that when you accept the Father’s invitation and let Him have His way in your life, the outcome is always going to be rest to your soul. ■

English Standard Version (ESV)
The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. ESV® Text Edition: 2016. Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.

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.

“Rest in God’s Shadow”,  written for DomesticAbuseAwareness.Org ©2023. All rights reserved. All done to the glory of God through Jesus Christ, our Lord!

Turn to the Lord

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Isaiah 55:6-7(NLT)
“6 Seek the LORD while you can find him. Call on him now while he is near. 7 Let the wicked change their ways and banish the very thought of doing wrong. Let them turn to the LORD that he may have mercy on them. Yes, turn to our God, for he will forgive generously.”

One of my good friends called me on New Year’s Eve crying because her significant other bailed on her. They had plans to go out and bring in the New Year with each other, but he said he had to work late and never showed up or called. They’ve been seeing each other for two-years, but for the last couple of months, he’d been distant.

No one would argue that a broken heart is very difficult to overcome, and the only thing you can think about is grabbing on to something to soothe the pain so that you don’t ever feel it again. In my case, after my first bout with a broken heart, I didn’t want to hear anything about meeting another man. I avoided relationships like the plague. Even though I knew I couldn’t remain in solitude forever, I was nervous about meeting someone new. At that time in my life, the thought of having to possibly take a chance with my heart being broken again was too much for my mind to conceive.

As I’ve done so often with the heartaches of my life, I remember something my grandmother told me when I was in my teens. Her words bring me comfort even today. Years ago, I was crying my eyes out when she discovered me. Entering high school, it was my first crush, and boy was his rejection devastating. For weeks, I cried myself to sleep, and the day my grandmother saw me, my eyes were almost swollen shut from crying so much. She told me, “Leave it in God’s hands, baby, He’ll fix it.”  I barely understood the depth of this truth then, but the comfort and reassurance of her words eased my young soul.

Now that I’m much older and have learned to lean on God for strength, I hang on to my grandmother’s encouragement and delve into God’s Word for comfort and solace. Hebrews 4:12(ESV) tells us, “For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart.” Like many of you, I’ve endured heartbreaks that have taken my breath away, but through it all, nothing can soothe our hearts and restore our souls like God’s Word.

The Word reveals the power of God. It reveals His willingness and ability to use His power and strength for our good. When we turn to Him, He will inspire us with hope and help us see that He has so much more in store for our lives. He knows that when a relationship falls apart, some of us fall apart with it. He wants us to realize that He is our strength and hope. He doesn’t want us falling apart. He doesn’t want us thinking that our lives are diminished or over because someone doesn’t recognize how special we are. God wants us to have hope that we can be better, wiser, and stronger through the Lord Jesus Christ. We must have faith that He can and will turn things around if we turn to Him.

In Deuteronomy 4:29(NLT), God told His people, “But from there you will search again for the LORD your God. And if you search for him with all your heart and soul, you will find him.” God is the same yesterday, today, and forever. He tells us in Malachi 3:6 that He does not change. We must seek the Lord with all our hearts. His love is the only remedy for our pain, and He freely gives it to us. So often in life we miss out because we’re not seeking God for His comfort and care. We believed that a person or possession could fill up our empty places. Our Heavenly Father is the only one that can fill our cups to overflowing.

You might think, “Well, I’ve heard things like this about God, but I don’t know how to find Him.” You might think that He won’t hear you because maybe you haven’t done all the right things. The reality is that God knows you better than you know yourself. He’s your Creator, and He wants you to know that you were fearfully and wonderfully made, as the psalmist wrote in Psalm 139:14. We don’t have to be perfect to go to God, we just need to be humble before Him. We need to recognize that we don’t have all the answers, and we need help. He is not far but as near to you as your own heart. Let Him in. Turn to Him and allow Him to turn your life around.■

English Standard Version (ESV)
The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. ESV® Text Edition: 2016. Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.

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.

“Turn to the Lord”, written for DomesticAbuseAwareness.Org ©2023. All rights reserved. All done to the glory of God through Jesus Christ, our Lord!

God’s Grace is Our Paradise

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2Corinthians 12:9(NLT)
“Each time he said, “My grace is all you need. My power works best in weakness.”  So now I am glad to boast about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ can work through me.”

If you listen closely, you can hear the voice of God in this scripture. If you’ve digested it like a good meal and believed it with your whole heart, His Words will reverberate throughout any difficulty you face. We know that there are times in life where difficulties and heartache show up unexpectedly. We cry out to God and ask Him to take away the emotional pain because it can cut like a knife. We expect Him to do so immediately, but we must recognize that when we ask God to take away our emotional pain, we’re asking Him to take away the love as well. That is something that He will not do. However, what He will do is comfort our hearts and take on our burdens. Understand that He also expects us to do our part as well. We must focus our attention on loving Him, so that we can be the overcomers He’s made us in Christ and learn to live and love through His grace.

We need to be strengthened in our conviction that God always keeps His promises. We should hold to the truth of 2Corinthians 12:9 with all that we are, because the truth of God’s promise will encourage you to keep the faith. And make no mistake, at times, it can be a battle in our own hearts and minds to keep the faith, especially where our significant relationships are concerned.

In Proverbs 3:5, God tells us to trust in Him with all our hearts, and He also warns us not to lean on our own understanding. Our Heavenly Father isn’t making a suggestion here. He’s directing us to trust Him with our whole hearts and to steer clear of making decisions and choices without first consulting Him. Huge mistakes happen when we fail to do this. In Proverbs 4:23(NLT), He tells us to “Guard your heart above all else, for it determines the course of your life.” God is giving us very simple instruction here. The heart is the source, and He’s telling us that if the heart is polluted, then issues become polluted. So, not guarding our hearts in a way that pleases God will always come back to bite us.

We are the ones in charge of our hearts and minds. God’s warning and instruction in Proverbs 4:23 is to keep our hearts pure, to watch what goes into them and watch what comes out of them. He wants us to learn to guard our hearts, to be careful about who we love and how we love, so that we will not make relationship decisions that work against us rather than for us.

God wants our hearts to be at peace, so that we are kept by Him through any situation. Our problem is that too often we leave God out of the equation. We’re jumping into relationships without His guidance, so when trouble hits, we don’t have the level of faith in Him that we should. Because of His incomparable grace, God wants to help us make the right relationship decisions. He also wants to help us heal and become better when we make the wrong ones, but we must be willing to learn the lesson of His love and grace. This means that we learn to invite Heavenly Father into every aspect of our existence.

God’s grace is His unmerited favor. We can’t do anything to earn it, He gives it freely. God demonstrated His grace toward us through forgiving our sins and giving us salvation through His only begotten Son, Jesus Christ. When our precious Lord was fastened to the cross as a sacrifice for our sins, he prayed for the people that crucified him. Jesus was crucified between two thieves. One of them that hung beside him had a hard heart and scoffed at Jesus, but the other criminal protested and came to Jesus’s defense. Luke 23:42-43(NLT) tells us, “42 Then he said, “Jesus, remember me when you come into your Kingdom.” 43 And Jesus replied, “I assure you, today you will be with me in paradise.” The response of Jesus to this thief is another clear and wonderful example of God’s grace.

We are delivered, saved, and made whole through the grace of God. His grace is our paradise. Instead of taking away our pain, our Heavenly Father desires us to be strengthened through His grace. In other words, God’s grace is our strategy for overcoming any fear, heartache, or troubling condition. Nothing is too big or too hard for our God. Let Him into your pain and give yourself totally to Him. Don’t focus on the pain or hold on to it. Be committed to love greater through Jesus Christ! Focus on God’s grace to strengthen and help you become the person He has predestined you to be. His grace is all you need, and this is always the lesson of victory over any heartache that we endure.■

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’s Grace is Our Paradise”, written for DomesticAbuseAwareness.Org ©2023. All rights reserved. All done to the glory of God through Jesus Christ, our Lord!