Confidence in God

Have you ever felt unsure of wether God was for real? Or if He would be there for you when and if you really needed Him? I guess we all have felt more or less uncertain about God at some time in our lives; after all, we don't see Him and we don't hear Him, at least not with our natural eyes or ears. However, when you have walked with God for some time, you just KNOW that you can trust Him, no matter what. David was a man who really needed God's help in his life. His life was litterally in danger of being taken by Saul, and he had to flee from his enemies and hide in caves and pretend he was mad to save his life. But in spite of the dangers and difficulties he encountered, he never lost his confidence in God. See what he says in Psalm 27 verse 1: "The LORDS is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? The LORD is the strength of my life; of whom shall I be afraid?" David didn't look at the outward dangers, but at the inward strength and confidence that came from God. This is what David said: 1. The Lord is my light (v.1) 2. My salvation (v.1) 3. My trust (v.1) 4. My strength (v.1) 5. My life (v.1) 6. My confidence (v.1) 7. My protector from the wicked (v.2) 8. My protector from enemies (v.2) 9. My refuge from the multitudes (v.3) 10.My help in war (v.3) Was this for David only? No, God is no respecter of persons; what He says to one and does for one, He says to all and does for all. So you and I can confidently say with David: The LORD is MY light and MY salvation; whom shall I fear? The LORD is the strength of MY life; of whom shall I be afraid? God bless you today to rest in God's protection and love for you.

Angels watching over me ...

I remember a song by Amy Grant: Angels watching over me everywhere I go.
It might be twenty years since she recorded that song, may be longer, but I never really forgot it. Why? Because it is true. Angels are actually watching over me and you every day.
Question: If God's angels are watching over me everywhere I go, why do accidents and bad things happen to people?
The answer is just as simple as the answer to the question: If God wants everybody to be saved, why aren't all human beings saved?
Because not everybody accepts Jesus as their Savior!
And why do accidents and bad things happen to people when God's angels are watching over us?
Because not everybody asks them to take care of them!
To activate your angels' protection, you have to be active.
See these verses from Psalm 91:
" He that dwelleth in the secret place of the Most High
Shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty. I will say of Jehovah, He is my refuge and my fortress;
My God, in whom I trust. (Verses 1-2)
For he will give his angels charge over thee,
To keep thee in all thy ways. They shall bear thee up in their hands,
Lest thou dash thy foot against a stone. (Verses 11-12).
What is the basis for this protection? It is that we dwell in the secret place of the Most High and abide under the shadow of the Almighty and that we SAY ...
We activate everything in the Kingdom of God by SAYING it. If you want your angels to protect you, you SAY it, you thank Him for it, and you go about your life knowing that you're in safe hands.
According to Romans 10:9, you believe in your heart and confess with your mouth to be saved. It's the same way with everything in the Kingdom of God. You read or hear something from the Bible, you believe it in your heart and you say it with your mouth. And it's yours!
So today, if you don't believe in angels, find Scriptures that show you how angels operate, fill yourself with "angel words" until faith comes. Then say it with your mouth to seal your faith. And you can be safe from all kinds of danger.
To see what God's protection is all about, read all of Psalm 91. It covers every situation you will encounter.
God bless you today!

Bigger than myself

Have you ever faced a situation that was so big, so difficult or so beyond all you can think that you just wanted to give up? I have, and it's not a pleasant place to be. You have prayed, fasted, cried, may be yelled, and nothing seems to work. Nothing seems to happen. Everything seems to be deadlocked, unmovable and stale.
But don't dispair; don't lose hope. What it seems like it not what it is.

Remember Daniel in the Old Testament? He prayed for twenty-one days, and nothing seemed to happen. However, in the spiritual realm, lots of things were happening, he just didn't see it with his natural eyes. And after twenty-one days he received answer to his prayer. You can read about it in the book of Daniel, chapter 10.

Often when we pray, we try to figure out how God shall answer our prayers; we use our human minds with our human capacities and we think about how things have been solved before. STOP! Don't make plans for God. He is SO much bigger than your and my human minds, experiences and ideas. He is the Creater, the Upholder and the Inventor of the whole universe. My and your problems are not difficult for Him, but there's an enemy that's trying to hinder God's answers.

However, like Daniel, we must not give up; we must see with our spiritual minds and eyes beyond our human reasonings and experiences, and let God be God, and He will give the answer and the solution in His time and in His way. And it will all be good.

"I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus (Phil. 3:14). I PRESS ON. I don't quit. I don't give up, but I press on till I receive my answer.

God bless you today to press on toward your answer.

Holy and without blame

How would you like to be holy and without blame? "Is that possible?" you might ask. Yes, it is possible. It is not only possible, but we're bought with a price to be holy and without blame. Look at Ephesians 1:3-4: "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love." Can you see yourself in this Scripture? I am sure you can see God and you can see Jesus. God has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, He has chosen us, and He did it in His Son, Jesus Christ. But can you see yourself there in this picture? I mean - really SEE yourself as chosen, blessed, holy and without blame? Or are your shortcommings, sins and failures blocking your sight of yourself so you cannot see you as God sees you? Today I want to encourage you to get rid of your self-magnifying glasses and encourage you to put on God's Jesus-magnifying glasses. You see, you're not holy and without blame in yourself, you are holy and without blame IN HIM, in Jesus Christ. HE is the holy-and-without-blame one, and when you take your refuge in Him and make Him your Lord and Savior, you take on His holyness and blamelessness. All it takes is a "yes" from you when God calles you, and then keep your eyes on Jesus, the author and finisher of your faith (see Hebrews 12:2). Holy and without blame? Yes, IN HIM!

Carnal or spiritual?

Carnal or spiritual? That's the question. Or we can put it another way: Do you walk in the flesh or in the spirit? To show what I mean, let's look at a few Scriptures. "For to be carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace. Because the carnal mind is enmity against God; for it is not subject to the law of God, nor indeed can be. So then, those who are in the flesh cannot please God. But you are not in the flesh but in the spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you." (Romans 8:6-9). Here we see contrasts: carnal vs. spiritual; death vs. life and peace. I guess you are like most born-again believers, you know that it's God's will for you to live in His will and have life and peace, however, you find it difficult, if not impossible to do so. If that's you, I have good news for you. It is impossible! Don't even try to live the spiritually righteous life one more minute - in your own power. You cannot do it. If we could live the spiritual life God wants us to live on our own, and in our own might, Jesus died in vain. But the good news is that we cannot do it. "Did you say 'good news', Anne?" Yes, I did. The good news is that there was one person who lived the spiritually righteous life that we all want to live, and His name is Jesus. And the secret of living the spiritual life the Bible tells us to live, is to keep our minds on the things of the Spirit and to keep our minds off the things of the flesh. It's simply put a question of your mindset. What are you filling your mind with? Are you constantly letting the news fill you with fear and trembling about the future? Are you worried about your family all the time? When your children are out with their friends, are you picturing in your mind all the terrible things that can happen to them? Stop doing that! Jesus paid the price so you don't have to be afraid - never again. "But isn't that irresponsible," you might say. "It's dangerous out there." Yes, it's dangerous, but no danger in this world is greater than God's protective care and His power. It's just a question of what you set your mind on. Read Psalm 91 and see for yourself how God takes care of His children in every situation that might occur. Just one verse is enough to give me peace: "A thousand may fall at your side, and ten thousand at your right hand; But it shall not come near you..." If that's what you meditate on and put in your mind, no evil thought from the devil can shake you. So what is your choice? Carnal or spiritual? Death or life and peace? It's up to you! Choose life today!

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!