Strength in the Lord- 7/31/21

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To “seek His face always” is good advice. I must do that!

Where does strength greater than us come from? Isn’t it too easy to only seek the Lord after certain things?

I know that I have done that time and time again. Too often I don’t think of talking to Him at nearly all times, it seems only after I fail do I seek Him in many cases.

It is good to look to Him afterwards but shouldn’t we seek Him always with all our hearts?

After all He has done so much for us and impacted our lives in amazing ways we should have a commune with Him and talk to Him in prayer and listen to what He wants for us by reading His word.

He wants us to draw strength from Him so that He can impact our lives.

He wants us to look to Him so that He is glorified should we need to stand up for Him or share the gospel so that more come to be family in Christ. But we mustn’t forget that to live for Him is no once a week thing, we must be like Christ 24/7, always and in Him at all times. Like I’ve said before that doesn’t mean we should give up every day hobbies like drawing or writing (just examples) but we must be tapped in to His glory to reflect the servant of Jesus.

We must remember what the Lord is for us and also to know who He is.

The LORD is my strength and my shield: my heart trusts in him and he helps me. My heart leaps for joy, and with my song I praise him. Psalm 28:7

What praiseworthy statements! To be defended by Him to trust Him and be helped by Him. May we remember the joy He gives and praise Him.

The Lord Jesus is worthy to be praised always, no matter how the circumstances turn out in life.

I had something disappointing happen in my life recently but I pray that I not walk away from Him concerning it or be tempted to fall back on things.

Sometimes we think we are sure of a “future.” And then those things don’t seem to pan out.

But I trust in Jesus to guide me in the way of everlasting though things seem unsure or like I don’t know what could happen either way.

I remember the things I used to do about this kind of thing. I’d feel lost and then fall into depression.

Yet I don’t see to do that now. I can only pray for the person and not do things that are immature and seek Him more instead. I don’t know what that is right now in a way but I will look to His will.

But I must seek His face, how often?:

Look to the Lord and His strength; seek His face always. 1 Chronicles 16:11

We should seek His face always! “Always?”

You mean we shouldn’t look to Jesus only after we sin?

We must do our most for God with what time we have left because He is worth it.

Not because He gives us strength but because He is Lord of Lords. Ones we should worship and live for because we are meant to do so.

Strength is nothing when it is not dependent on God. Let’s live our lives in the only way God wants so that we can be blessed and see our lives the way He really sees us. Amen.

Note: I re-edited this to keep from being too personal in a certain way to avoid being unfair talking about another person who might not be able to defend themselves. I write this in love and hoping no one could feel hurt by this.

Devotions Psalm 3-5/30/21

I lay down and slept; I awoke, for the LORD sustained me. I will not be afraid of ten thousands of people Who have set themselves against me all around. Psalm 3:5-6 NKJV

Ever had people get, for complicated reasons, mad at you? Ever realize that those people were because of the result of spiritual warfare?

Over the years it partially gave me a lot of emotions. And one time those emotions were getting way too much and were overwhelming.

When you have people coming after you and you just want to live for God, in a way it is a good thing to have spiritual warfare. It means you’re not sitting at home and doing nothing!

God loves when we have something like Satan rivaling what we are trying to do. He’d rather we be that way than to in our hearts and actions be seen as “lukewarm.” (Revel. 3:15-16)

Just because of that, it is secretly a good thing that God blesses.

I’ve had scary stuff happen as a result of spiritual warfare. About fifteen years ago after stopping taking my meds I took the full dose. I should have weaned myself onto them because after I took them again, hallucinations came back tenfold!

Though I may not have looked frightened I was because there were horrible things happening and I felt I couldn’t even speak to my own mother during them!

I just suffered. Yet though my mother was with me during one, I felt alone in my problem. I somehow, emotionally and as if she weren’t there, felt I was completely alone. And that was so disheartening….!

From then on things just quietly got exponentially worse, it seemed. But through it all I knew God was still there. He still loved me!

He knew what was on my heart. He also knew that I was still kind and caring even while my own church had doubts about my intentions about things.

Satan even wanted a wedge between me and people I loved and cared about too!

So what I am saying believer reader is that in any circumstance we may be facing, there might seem to be thousands that are fighting against us, but if we have the confidence in God through Christ, amazing and wonderful things could happen.

We must trust (Wow, that word hit me again last night talking to a believer!). Not trust in our own circumstances but trust in Christ.

Amen.

Thief in the Night- 5/26/21

If the Lord doesn’t tarry what would you do? What I mean by that is this: What if we might see the end times soon? What if the Lord has had enough of all of our sin? What would you do about it? Would you be ready to one day have Jesus coming again?

My church is going over the book of 1 Thessalonians. In that, of the fifth chapter it says “The day of the Lord… comes” as a “thief in the night.” What could that mean?

Can it be used as a warning to people not ready yet to know Christ or to people who want to be used by Christ that keep living deep in stuff that does not honor God?

A thief comes unexpectedly. It is like a person who steals stuff away from people before they even realize it. One like that could take valuables, clothing, money, and then be gone before the people left behind in all of it will even notice it.

Some are so good they can sneak into a house and steal things from people’s houses in the middle of the day! Wow. Now that is a good thief!

There is a lot of surprising evidence also in the bible that talks of people being taken up to be with the Lord before the hardest days on earth can occur. I will reference them later in case you wonder about them (it is good to “wonder” about things, hehe. Sorry self-commercial over).

Yes the bible does support a way that Christians with conviction I believe is mixed with the world that are claiming horrible things about this from the bible. The “rapture” is NOT demonic, let me tell you guys straight and simply:

Do not claim something like that is demonic because if you claim conviction on that… maybe you are in reality influenced by something that IS demonic.

I have to warn some people as critical as a fire alarm. Just putting that out there, believers online that have made such a (self) righteous claim.

Sorry sometimes I want to push some conviction like a pastor…. I digress!

We cannot stop Christ coming if it is meant to be. But we also must live in the here and now and fear the Lord. Does that mean we have to think he will strike us down in death if we don’t follow every step all the time? No.

“Fear the Lord.” Hmm.

Did you know in the bible it says about not fearing Satan but fearing God who chooses to take you to heaven or hell, yes Paul says, fear Him?

That is talking about eventualities in eternity but fearing God today just means something else.

If you believe you know Him then it is to be mindful of His commands and to walk in the Spirit and not stay in old lusts and old ways from your pasts.

It also means to live for Christ as in making decisions that might hurt (like individual choices that God would honor though would emotionally be tough) but then the Lord would then bless in response. It means making big decisions that might be uncomfortable to do (witness? Start little. Then you will see blessings. Keep at it and before you know it you’ll love living for the Lord!).

Just following God and walking fully and wholeheartedly will do amazing things in your life. People who want to follow Christ must deny their old selves and then walk and live in Him. Maybe after we all give our all the Lord tarries. There is a chance.

Also doing so like this every day will cause amazing things in our lives to happen. Who knows what can happen because of the Love and deep mercies of Christ from His father? Amen!