Got problems? Get rid of them!

Have you ever had a problem? Something that seemed impossible to get out of, get rid of or see the solution to?
I have, and it's not fun. Problems tend to overtake us at every corner if we don't know what to do with them.
Today I want to tell you how you can get rid of your problems. It's not an easy fix, but it's the best fix, and something that works every time.
Yesterday I watched Sid Roth's program It's supernatural on God TV. And his guest said something that made me rejoice and shout. He said:

In order to minimize the problem,

you need to magnify the solution!

I was literally jumping in my seat, because that's exactly what I have learnt during my more than fifty years with the Lord. However, I have never heard anyone say it with such simplicity.

What did he mean, and is it biblically correct?

He meant that focusing on the problem makes it bigger. The more you focus on it (i.e. thinking on it), the bigger it becomes. Satan always comes into our lives through our thought life. Like he did with Eve in the Garden: "Did God really say ...?" He planted a thought of doubt, and Eve received that thought and let it grow in her mind. And we know the tragic result, that started with that one, tiny, little thought in Eve's mind.

However, if Eve immediately had told Satan: "No, God didn't say that, He said that ..." and refused to accept Satan's words, we might still have been in the Garden today.

Is it biblically correct that maximizing the solution makes the problem go away?

Yes, absolutely. Let's look at 2 Chorintians 10:3-5: "For though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does. The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ. (My emphasis).

There's a war going on, and the war is first and foremost going on i our minds. And this verse says that we do not war as "the world" does. "The world" is people who are not saved, who live according to their carnal minds. Our weapons (the weapons of people who are saved) are from God, and they are mighty to demolish strongholds. What is a stronghold? It's a thought that won't go away, it's an imagination that is so strong you believe it.

Example. Your thought is: "My family has always been poor, therefore I will always be poor". That's a stronghold, that's an evil imagination. But in Christ Jesus you are free from hereditary strongholds. In Christ you can take that thought captive and replace it with His thoughts, which in this situation could be: And my God will meet all your needs according to his glorious riches in Christ Jesus. (Philippians 4:19).

If you focus your attention on that Scripture in stead of your old negative thoughts, you're on your way to a new life, a life in freedom from bondage and you can overcome every problem that comes in your way.

Start today and declare your freedom in Christ!

How do I honor God?

Have you ever wanted to honor God? I mean really honor Him in a way that makes Him glad?
I have, but I feel that my gifts and offerings always come short, because His gift to me, which is Jesus, is so very much bigger than what I can give back to Him.
However, today I came across this Scripture from Psalm 50:23:
"He who sacrifices thank offerings honors me, and he prepares the way so that I may show him the salvation of God."
There is a way I can honor God, a way to give Him something that really delights the Lord, and that is to offer thank offerings to Him.
What is a thank offering? We know what it is to say "thanks" or "thank you". We do it in response to something we have received. You give me a gift, and I say "thank you".
However, a thank offering is something different. The thanking is the same, but if it involves an offer, it is something that costs me something.
May be you don't seem to have anything to be thankful for? Your life's a mess and it appears that you have no more options left to live a happy life.
I have good news for you! There's always something to be thankful for. I didn't say "happy for", I said thankful for. As long as there's breath in you, you have at least one reason to be thankful. As long as there's breath in you, you live. And as long as you live, you have an opportunity to reconcile with God, get your life on track and start all over again.
Thank Him today for your life, even if you don't feel like it. If you thank Him in spite of your feelings, it's a thank offer, and God is honored.
Don't quit, but thank Him, thank Him, thank Him, till you feel thankful. Then He'll show you more things to be thankful for, and you have started on the right path to a life in thankfulness and every good thing the Father has to offer you.
Start today!

Like palm tree and cedar

Have you ever wondered what it's really like to be righteous? To be righteous is to have right standing before God through Jesus Christ and what He did for us on the cross. But what does it really mean in your and my everyday life?
Psalm 92:13 gives us an answer, and I want to explore that answer today.
"The righteous shall flourish like the palm tree: he shall grow like a cedar in Lebanon" (Psalm 92:13).
First it says that the righteous shall flourish. What does it mean to flourish? My dictionary says it means to be successful, widespread, prosper, grow healthily, be well and active, be very active and influential.
Wow! That sounds good. But it says more. It not only says the righteous shall flourish, but that the righteous shall flourish like the palm tre and grow like a cedar in Lebanon.
If someone says to me that I shall have success like "John Brown", I would try to figure out what "John Brown" does or did that made him a success. And when the Bible says that I shall flourish like the palm tree and like a cedar, I want to find out what that really means. What is it about the palm tree and the cedar that make them flourish?
My source of information about this is Dake's Annotated Reference Bible. And it says on page 1046 about Psalm 92:13:

The fruit of the palm provides a great part of the diet of the East. The stones are ground down for the camels; the leaves are made into baskets; the hard boughs or the strong leaves, 6 to 7 ft. in length, are used to make fences; the juice makes arrack, a very strong Oriental liquor; the threads of the leaves make ropes; and the wood makes building material or firewood.

Another WOW!

And the cedar?

The cedars of Lebanon are extremely long-lived. Some are supposed to be as old as 1,000 years. They grow 80 to 100 ft. tall and 40 ft. around the trunk. They express the ideas of majesty, durability, incorruptibility, and stability.

Are you righteous? If you've accepted Jesus Christ into your life and been born again, you are. And all the good characteristics listed above are yours. Don't settle for less! Jesus died for you and paid the price for you so you could have everything of the above.

Don't settle for less!

Don't frame God

Do you have grandkids? I do, five of them! And all five are a joy to me. I love and cherish each one of them. And I have pictures of them in my livingroom, pictures taken when they were around two years old. I look at the pictures every day and thank God for each one of my grandkids.
However, they're not two years old any more, not the four oldest, anyway. So what is the fact about the pictures? Are they lying? No, they tell me the truth about each child at the time the picture was taken. But now, 8, 9 or 10 years later, they don't look that way any more. They resemble the person they were at two-years-old, but they have grown and changed.
What does this have to do with God? Everything!
Many people "frame and glaze" a picture of God in their mind. And every day, they look at the picture and think about what happened when the picture was taken. And thirty years after the picture was taken, they still look at the same picture and believe that God is still the same way.
Don't misunderstand me. God never changes. He IS the same yesterday, today and tomorrow. But what I'm talking about is our perception of God. If "your" God hasn't changed in your perception since you were a child, there's something wrong with you "picture" of God, not with God Himself. If something bad happened 25 years ago, and you blamed God for it (in an unlawful manner, of course, because God never causes bad things to happen), and you still keep the picture of a God who causes bad things to happen in you mind, you have framed God as the author of evil, and that's the picture you look at every day. Then you need to get a new picture of God.
How do you do it?
Exactly the same way I would go about getting new pictures of my grandkids. I would look at them as they are now, take a picture, frame and glaze it, and hang it on the wall. But to take that new picture, I need to be with them. I need to see them as a teenager in stead of as a two-year-old. And to get a new picture of God, I need to know Him, (which I do by reading His Word), spend time with Him, (which I do in prayer and time spent before His face), and thus let Him form His picture in me.
How's your picture of God? The best way to see and know how God is, is to look at Jesus. You can see Him in the Bible, from beginning to end. The more time you spend with Him, the clearer and more correct your picture will be of Him. Don't hang an old picture of God on the wall of your heart, get a new picture each day, because God's love is new every morning.
"Yet this I call to mind and therefore I have hope: Because of the LORD's great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness" (Lamentations 3:21-23).

Cast your care!

"Casting all your care upon him; for he careth for you" (1 Peter 5:7).
Casting ALL your care ... Let the phrase sink in. Let it really talk to you. What do you do with your care - your worry, anxiety, fear and confusion? Do you let those thoughts take your joy? Is your worry greater than you peace? Then today's text is for you!
I have had reasons to worry in my life. Things have happened, people have been unfair and rude, and there have been situations where I have had reasons to worry, humanly speaking.
But I am so thankful to God that through it all, He has taught me to cast my care upon Him! How do I do it? The same way you can do it:

1. You see the situation that worries you, thoughts go through your mind and torment you
2. You decide (and that's important, you have to decide) that you don't want to worry. Stamp your foot, if necessary, and say out loud that you don't want to worry any more
3. Fill yourself with God's Word about your situation. God's Word has something to say about every situation we face. Use a concordance, if necessary, and look up at least one or two Scriptures that say something about your situation, and meditate on them. Let them fill your thoughts and your mind, and refuse to open the door for worry and anxiety.

It may take some time, but sooner or later you'll experience that the worry goes away and you become strong in the Lord because of His Word that you have accepted and meditated on. Why? Because "so is my word that goes out from my mouth: It will not return to me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it" (Isaiah 55:11).

God's glory - my glory

"I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one" (John17:22).
Have you ever thought about God's glory? When I think of God's glory, I think of smoke, fire, light, awe, reverence, thunder, stillness, miracles, wonders ... the list goes on and on.
And in light of all these wonderful descriptions (and words cannot describe God's glory, so words are just like shadows of the real thing!) Jesus said that God has passed His glory to Jesus (which I can fully understand and accept), and then Jesus has passed the same glory on to us! That's amazing! That's more than my carnal mind can comprehend. It takes heavenly enlightenment to fathom that God's glory resides in me. But it does, according to the Scripture above.
Why did Jesus give us God's glory? So we could boast? So we could "bask in the glory"? So we would have something to be proud about? No, no, no!
Jesus gave us God's glory so we should be one! One with God, one with Jesus, and - and this is very important - one with one another!
And that paints a whole other picture of the situation, because what is God? He has glory, but He is LOVE! And for you and me to be one with Him and with each other, we need to be filled with and walk in His Love!
That leaves boasting, bragging and basking out of the picture, doesn't it? Because
"Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.  Love never fails" (1 Kor 13,4-8).
These are some of the characteristics of LOVE, God's Love! And if you and I want to be filled with God's glory, which He so lovingly and generously has given us through Jesus, we need to walk in this kind of love.
Difficult? Yes, in our selves. Impossible? No, not through Jesus. It requires, however, that we give up our own, carnal lives, and live HIS life, in love, filled with His Glory!

Help! My tongue ruins me!

"Whoever would love life and see good days must keep his tongue from evil and his lips from deceitful speech" (1 Peter 3:10).
Good days! Who wouldn't enjoy good days? I am sure everybody would like to enjoy good days. But not all people live good lives and enjoy good days. That means there's a discrepancy between the life I can have and the life I actually have. How come?
Today's headline gives us a good answer: My tongue is the culprit. With my tongue I set the course for my life, either good or bad. "The tongue has the power of life and death, and those who love it will eat its fruit" (Proverbs 18:21). Or as other translations put it: Death and life are in the power of the tongue.
That's plain and straightforward talk. With my tongue I set the course for my life. I am the administrator of my life, or the chauffeur if you like, and the steering wheel is my tongue.
Where are you heading today? Towards life or towards death? Ask God to show you how to use your tongue to His glory and towards life. He's always there to help, guide and suppport you in your good decisions. Ask Him, and He will help you!