In All Things

The child of God does not let a day go by, surely, in which he or she does not lift up their heart in thanking Him for His manifold blessings, bestowed in measureless grace, not only day after day, but hour after hour. As we delight ourselves in the Lord, we cannot help but praise Him many times daily for His mercies. How good He is to us always!

We thank Him for His goodness-- the goodness that we can see, the blessings that we know as blessings. But do we thank Him for the trials, the heartaches, the disappointments! Are we as ready to

praise Him when things go wrong as when they go exactly right? We tend to praise God in generalities, but do we thank Him sincerely for the very trials and sorrows that beset us? 

George Matheson, Scottish preacher whose eyesight became dim, put it this way: "My God, I have never thanked Thee for my thorn. I have thanked Thee a thousand times for my roses, but not once for my thorn. I have been looking forward to a world where I shall get compensated for my cross, but I have never thought of my cross as itself a present glory. Teach me the value of my thorn."

May the Lord teach us the value of the unpleasant things that comes upon us, the unwanted circumstances of life. It is so easy to thank Him for the roses. But it is not easy, is it, to give Him praise and thanksgiving for the thorns? Yet the way to know the peace of God is to see His hand and His love in the thorny places, and to thank Him for them.

Philippians 4:6-7

Be careful for nothing; but in every thing by prayer

and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known

unto God. And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding,

shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.

Always remember: Where there’s life, there’s hope; And, where there is hope, there is life.

Be Thankful!

Awareness Is Key

God is always with us, but this doesn’t mean we can always perceive Him. He knew you, and who would be before we were born.

“Before I formed you in the womb I knew you; Before you were born I sanctified you. . .”

‭‭Jeremiah‬ ‭1:5‬ 

There may be times when we feel really close to Him, yet on other occasions, He might seem distant and uninvolved in our lives. However, if we’re believers, we can be certain that He is our constant companion whether we’re aware of Him or not. This is a fact we can count on, and one which will empower and transform our lives. 

What happens when we KNOW the Lord is near whether we "feel" Him or not?

• We persistently seek His guidance. When our minds are set on the Lord, we want His direction for our choices in every area of life. 
• We view the Lord as our constant companion. No matter what we go through—even the loss of a loved one—we know we’re not alone. 
• Being aware of God helps us see everything in the light of His presence. This gives us a sense of safety because He keeps us through trials, reminds us of the dangers of sin, and provides for all our needs. 
• We experience Christ’s peace in the midst of storms. Knowing that nothing in this world is more powerful than our almighty God gives amazing peace and confidence in the midst of hardship and suffering. 
• His presence creates a hunger within us for the Word of God. Reading the Scriptures is like listening to the Lord speak directly to us. When we begin each morning in His Word, we are reminded all day long of His constant care. 
• Living with an awareness of the Lord brings joy to our hearts. Knowing that our omnipotent God is constantly with us puts troubling circumstances in their proper place—under His authority— and gives us the unspeakable joy of His companionship. 
• We are more conscious of the good things God sends us. Instead of giving others credit or attributing luck as the source of our blessings, we’ll realize that every perfect gift comes from the Father above (James 1:17). 
• The Lord’s presence causes us to continually live in dependence upon Him. Our first reaction to trouble is to call upon Him for help and protection. 
• Prayer is a priority in our lives. We don’t just come to the Lord with our problems and requests but we carry on a conversation with Him all day long, either verbally or in our thoughts. 
• When everything looks bleak, we continue to have hope. Our confidence is in God, not in good circumstances. He is our helper and sustainer. 
• Every decision is sifted through God’s will. In each choice, our first thought is to do what the Lord desires. 
• We consider needs in the light of His presence. Since He is our provider and knows exactly what we need, we have no cause for worry. We simply ask the Lord for help and trust Him to provide. 
• Our worship is authentic and rewarding. Church can't be a religious routine, but a chance to gather with believers and enter into God’s presence with deep appreciation and adoration. 
• An obedient lifestyle is the result of living in tune with the Lord. The more aware we are of Jesus in our lives, the less we tolerate sin because we know it doesn’t control us anymore. 
• We have a strong, intimate relationship with Christ. As we live with the mindset that He is always with us, our love for Him and sensitivity to Him increase. 

I would be less than a friend to you if I did not include a somber caution, even a warning. As deeply, and sacrificially that the Heavenly Father loves us, for some there will come a day of separation that will last through eternity. Notice the words of Jesus:

“Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven. Many will say to Me in that day, ‘Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name? And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!’”

‭‭Matthew‬ ‭7:21-23

You may, or may not feel an immediate need for a conscious awareness of the Lord, but you will. Don't put it off. Let the Holy Spirit break through your busy-ness. Draw near to the Lord, He already close to you!

My Hero

"O Israel, hope in the LORD!
For with the LORD there is steadfast love,
and with him is plentiful redemption." (Psalm 130:7 ESV)

There is a lot of hopelessness in the world today. Homes have been under attack. Economies are not doing as well as we would like. The politicians running for office are not anyone we would ever invite into our homes. During these times of turmoil and fear, where is your hope?

Be careful, because the things we place our hope in can keep us in an endless cycle of disappointment. What we end up doing is to create little heros to rescue us from whatever we think is wrong in our lives when our hope isn’t first and foremost in the Lord.

If we believe that if we can just get the right politician into office then everything in our country will turn around, then they are crafted into our mini-hero. It becomes the mechanism through which we hope to be rescued from our current state. 

Consider your finances and the dollar. How many of us place our hope in little green pieces of paper and coins thinking that if we just made a little more then we would be happy?

When we place our hope in these little saviors, we doom ourselves to a life of disappointment and idolatry. We submit ourselves to an endless cycle of regret, an existence that constantly cries, “If only!” When our hope is placed in anything less than the perfect God of the universe, we will live in the darkness of dissatisfaction. Follow Jesus into the light of hope. 

Remember, hope is it a thing, it's a Person. He never disappoints. 

What mini-heroes have you crafted in your life? 

I Need Thee

One of my dear friend Greg Stevens' favorite songs captured this thought: "I Need Thee Every Hour."

We need God. It is not until we feel the depths of our souls utter poverty without Christ, our bankruptcy of any righteousness, the puny nature of our own strength, and self-sufficient planning, our indescribable loneliness when we are out of fellowship with God, the pathetic nature of our pride, that we know just how much we need God.

Every Hour I Need Thee!

Yes, we need to feel our need. Where real need is not felt, there is rarely any real praying. When Paul tells us to keep “praying at all times in the Spirit, with all prayer and supplication . . . for all the saints," it’s in the context of grasping the nature of the war we’re in, and our helplessness without God in the face of the overwhelming power of our enemy.

Desperation drove our forefathers to prayer, and it’s what drives us to prayer too. Our places of desperation are the places of God’s revelation of His power.

I Come to Thee!

When we feel deeply our need, we go to Christ. Friends, go to Christ asking, and seeking, and knocking. Keep going! Keep going! Never stop going to Him. When you lose that feeling of need, you've lost too much. In fact, you are lost.

Soul Lonliness

At the soul of who God made us -- where Psalmist David calls "the innermost being" -- God first touched dirt and fashioned in us the capacity to create and dream, to need Him and each other. He created a soul in each of us.

The soul does not survive on successes and the soul cannot be fed with productivity or achievement. The soul becomes lonely.

In a sea of voices, stories, experiences, do you find yourself alone?

The soul hungers to be fed --
-- by quiet things.  Like a walk in the morning, with the sound of wind blowing through the trees.
-- by stillness.  Like sitting quietly, somewhere out of the noise of life
-- by prayer.  As you pour out every thought and feeling, confiding as friend to friend with Jesus.
-- by choosing the small.  Like stopping to listen to a friend who is feels troubled or in need.

When Jesus finally arrived on earth to share the greatest Message anyone had ever known, Jesus choose to invest and spend His time with just 12 everyday, ordinary people. Jesus didn't spread His message in the synagogues and temples.
Jesus focused on experiencing life with everyday people who didn't have any access to large venues or power structures. Jesus chose to be present in His everyday life. Jesus was real.

When Jesus resurrected from the dead, He could have done a gazillion high profile things. Instead, Jesus went to a beach, made a fire and cooked some fish and warmed bread on hot stones to love on His weary-worn friends, discouraged with empty nets.

He loved them by experiencing life with them. "Come with me by yourselves to a quiet place and get some rest." (Mark 6:31) -- while He himself "often withdrew to the lonely places and prayed." (Luke 5:16).

Jesus longs for this intimacy with us.

What are you letting come between you and experiencing life with God -- and others?

Let God love you. Today.

Make room to be present. As is. Take your rightful place with Him. Invited rather than driven.
In those quiet moments, something real and honest will flow out of you and me, transforming our world into a more beautiful place. Work will no longer be about striving.  We will no longer be lonely people. We will journey together by faith.

"I will heal your wandering. I will love you freely. You will be like dew to Israel, you will blossom like the lily..." Hosea 14:4

God's GPS

"Which way do I go?" Most of us have felt similar frustrations about not knowing God’s will regarding decisions we face or crises we encounter. We may have felt envious of those who always appear to know what God wants them to do. And maybe we’ve felt disappointed after we’ve asked God’s guidance in a specific area and then not felt that we received it: “Where should I work?” “Whom should I marry?” “When should I make the move?” 

One of the great benefits of really knowing God is getting to know His mind, too. That means understanding what His will is regarding issues we face, and it is a blessing God offers to those who really know Him. 

Consider these promises from Scripture:

“I will instruct you and teach in the way you should go; I will guide you with My loving eye”
(Ps. 32:8).

“Your ears shall hear a word behind you, saying, ‘This is the way, walk in it’” (Is. 30:21).

“I am the Lord your God, who teaches you to profit, who leads you by the way you should go”
(Is. 48:17). 

(1) Lord will speak to us about His will through circumstances. 

We need to understand that open doors do not always equate with God's will. I personally have experienced the closed door answer. 

(2) God Speaks through the Holy Spirit

Jesus told His disciples that He would leave us the Holy Spirit to guide and direct us (Jn. 14:16-17). So it is for believers today. The Holy Spirit still guides and directs us, but it is important that we know how He works: 

God speaks from inside us. Jesus said, “The kingdom of God is within you” (Lk. 17:21). Since He lives inside us, He also speaks from inside us. This means we don’t have to hear an audible voice to receive guidance. But when He speaks, our spirits will hear if we stay in tune with Him and learn to recognize His leading.

It's important to understand that we have to stop running, and talking long enough to give the Lord a chance to say something to us. We all would like to have the absolute certainty that Saul had... you know "the knock me off of my donkey thing!" We forget the part about where Saul was physically blinded until there was full confirmation of the Spirits leading. 

God’s peace always accompanies His guidance. We can distinguish the voice of God from counterfeits by the peace we feel and the confirmation we get. When I feel that God is telling me something, but I’m not sure about it, wisdom says put it “on the shelf” for a while. I’ve often asked God to confirm His will to me in one or two other ways.

“The wisdom that comes from heaven is first of all pure and full of quiet gentleness.” (Jas. 3:17).  Peace is a reliable test of divine guidance. 

(3) God Speaks through His Word.

God’s Word is the final judge in all guidance. God never, ever tells His people something that runs contrary to His Word. Whatever method you use in seeking God’s will, begin and end by looking to His Word for instruction. God wants us to know His will more than we want to know it. We can find that will with confidence, or we can find it with fear. The choice is ours.

God’s Word is the foundation of all guidance. Here are some of the assurances we have from Scripture regarding knowing God’s will:

“Do not fear, for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you; I will uphold you with my righteous right hand” (Is. 41:10). 

Rest in God, Don’t be fearful.

Wait on God. Don’t be in a hurry.

Seek God’s guidance. Don’t jump ahead. 

God’s leading means that we follow His lead. When we jump ahead by failing to wait on His direction or go-ahead, we cease following His lead.  Going ahead with your will means going ahead of God’s leading. It will never, ever be the best thing to do, so while you seek His guidance, be careful to wait on Him. 

Trust God. Don’t doubt His faithfulness. 

During my younger days in the Lord, He made His will more obvious because I needed that kind of reinforcement to keep me going. Maturity in the Lord means that we shouldn’t need constant affirmation from Him. We should keep trusting and cease doubting because we have experienced His faithfulness in the past. 

Confirm it, Confirm it, Confirm it!

God guides us in all three ways: 

Through circumstances, through the Holy Spirit, and through His Word. But our greatest assurance comes when we can triangulate the same answer from all three sources. It’s sort of like the GPS satellites that pinpoint your location by the intersection of 3 different signals. If you are seeking God’s will for a decision you are facing, and the Holy Spirit seems to be speaking to your heart, be sure to confirm what you are sensing by looking at the circumstances, and at God’s Word as the ultimate source, and sense the comfort of the Holy Spirit. All three aspects must function in harmony to assure true guidance. Only then should you move forward in a particular direction. 

Missionary and writer Amy Carmichael wrote, “Holy Spirit, think through me till Your ideas are my ideas.” That should be our prayer as we seek God’s will. Let it be our prayer that God will think through us until His ideas are my ideas.” 

That should be our prayer as we seek God’s will. Let it be our prayer that God will think through us until His ideas are ours!

The Foundation Of Hope

Our hope, as believers, is the sap that feeds our tree of faith. Our growing faith is the evidence that we are rooted in the Lord by trusting Him fully (Colossians 2:6-7).

Our hope for God to do something in our lives should lead us to action: perhaps making a point of meeting with God; desperately reaching out to Jesus; praying. That’s when hope becomes faith.

When the Lord leads you to a promise in His Word, and you know that it is His specific word to you, believe that He is able to do that which He promised. That is faith.

When the way forward is unclear and there is no definite promise to hold on to, believe that God is fulfilling His purpose for your life. That is trust.

 Whatever happens, don’t give up! God loves us too much to take shortcuts. Paul tells us that our suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. Don't give up half way!

If you lose hope, faith has no meaning. The Bible says that faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see (Hebrews11:1). Spiritual apathy is comfortable, but it strangles the soul; hope is risky, but it honors God.

Never stop hoping. Never stop trusting God to do whatever you ask for! (John 14:13-14). 

"May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit" Romans 15:13

In The Midst Of It All

Matthew 1:23 "... and they shall call his name Emmanuel, which being interpreted is God with us."

When Daniel was in the midst of the lion's den…God was with him.  When Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego were in the midst of the fiery furnace…God was with them.  It would have been perfectly easy for God to immediately transport these men out of their difficulties, but no, He chose instead to be with them in the midst of their trials.  God chose to reveal His power through the trials instead of exercising His power to remove them.

Trials and difficulties are simply a part of life and quite honestly, the longer I walk with the Lord the bigger these trials become.  But how do we react when our faith is challenged by these adversities? James 1:2 says to count it all joy! What could possibly be joyful about difficult situations? Painful, yes...but joy??

Yet, somehow, I do find joy in knowing, and even sensing that God is with me in the midst of my problems -- in the midst of my trials. He did promise never to leave or forsake me; and as I look over my life, I find it to be absolutely true...no matter what crazy situation I'm in, God is with me.

We all have this decision: either to complain because of the trials we're enduring...or to prayerfully lift our souls before him (Psalm 25:1) ...and rejoice in the midst of our troubles -- knowing, believing, HOPING, and even feeling, that God is with us, now...always...all the way!

It's Okay To Talk To Yourself.

The hope of the cross gives me the confidence to know that God will never turn away from me in my need.  Jesus died to meet my greatest need, and I need to preach this to myself every day.  His power is greater than my weariness and suffering.  The gospel reminds me that what Jesus has done is reason enough for my soul to rejoice.

Have you realized that most of your unhappiness in life is due to the fact that you are listening to yourself instead of talking to yourself? … The main art in the matter of spiritual living is to know how to handle yourself. You have to take yourself in hand, you have to address yourself, preach to yourself, question yourself. You must say to your soul: ‘Why art thou cast down’–what business have you to be disquieted? You must turn on yourself, upbraid yourself, condemn yourself, exhort yourself, and say to yourself: ‘Hope thou in God’–instead of muttering in this depressed, unhappy way. And then you must go on to remind yourself of God, Who God is, and what God is and what God has done, and what God has pledged Himself to do. Then having done that, end on this great note: defy yourself, and defy other people, and defy the devil and the whole world, and say with this man: ‘I shall yet praise Him for the help of His countenance, who is also the health of my countenance and my God’.

(From D. Martin Lloyd-Jones' book Spiritual Depression: Its Causes and Cure)

It’s because of the cross that I can truly say “in faithfulness you have afflicted me” as I learn to see my sufferings in light of who God is.

“…Hope in God; for I shall again praise him, my salvation and my God.”  (Psalm 42:5)

Hope Does Not Disappoint

 All of us have experienced disappointment. The job we desired so badly did not materialize. An unexpected health failure, or even the loss of a loved one brought us low. People we have trusted somehow didn't meet our expectations. Then, there are those personal failures that affect us the most. There are no words to describe how we feel when we are disappointed in ourselves for missing the mark. 

I have learned through personal experience that there is one constant in all of life's web and flow. Here are the central truths of this matter:

“and hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out within our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us.” Romans 5:5 NASB

Hope is not a wish... Hope is a Person... and Hope never disappoints. 

We may find ourselves disappointed with life, a lack of friends and fussy children, because — let’s face it — life is hard. But as our key verse reminds us, true hope does not disappoint because God has poured out His love within our hearts through the Person of the Holy Spirit. This is His hope-filled promise to us, and He never disappoints.

Lord, thank You for being our true source of hope. I pray You will add to our hope, joy and peace, as we believe in You and Your powerful promise today. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.

TRUTH FOR TODAY:
Romans 15:13, “Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that you will abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.” (NASB)

WHERE IS YOUR HOPE?

Therefore, preparing your minds for action, and being sober-minded, set your hope fully on the grace that will be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ (1 Peter 1:13, ).

It doesn’t take much to see that the whole world has gone crazy.

In the midst of so much chaos, where can we stake our hope? Exhorting us to endurance, the Apostle Peter urged us to prepare “your minds for action, and being sober-minded, set your hope fully on the grace that will be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ.”

The energy to live the Christian life is found in one place—in our focused, conscious choice to put our hope in Jesus. Hope is the confident expectation that something better is coming tomorrow.

As you look to the future:

Don’t set your hope on your physical health—set your hope on Jesus. “So we do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day” (2 Corinthians 4:16).

Don’t set your hope on your stuff—set your hope on Jesus. “And [Jesus] said to them, ‘Take care, and be on your guard against all covetousness, for one’s life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions’” (Luke 12:15).

Don’t set your hope on people—set your hope on Jesus. “Put not your trust in princes, in a son of man, in whom there is no salvation. Blessed is he whose help is the God of Jacob, whose hope is in the L his God” (Psalm 146:3, 5).

No leader, pastor, family member, friend, or spouse can be everything that we hope and dream he will be. People, places, and positions always let us down. Only Jesus is worthy of all our hopes and all our confidence. Maybe you find yourself a little down today. Like Peter standing on the water, the moment you take your eyes off the Lord you start to sink (Matthew 14:22–33). Lift up your eyes; set your hope fully on Jesus.

Our confident expectation is in God, who sees, knows, and will ultimately turn an upside-down world right-side up at the appearing of our Lord. Every righteous decision will be rewarded. Every wrong choice will be judged. Every motive will be revealed.

Is your faith faltering as you look at the world coming unhinged around you? Are you struggling to carry on? Do you need hope that will endure?

Set your hope fully on Jesus.

Journal

• On what might you be tempted to set your hope—your physical health, your talents, your stuff, other people?
• How can you tell if your hope is in anything other than Jesus?

Pray
Father, thank You for sending Your Son to be my hope. You knew that this world would never satisfy my longings, so You sent Your precious Son to do that. Forgive me when I look to anything else for my hope. Thank You that You are fully deserving and capable of holding my every hope. In Jesus’ enduring name, amen.

WHERE IS YOUR HOPE?

Therefore, preparing your minds for action, and being sober-minded, set your hope fully on the grace that will be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ (1 Peter 1:13, ).

It doesn’t take much to see that the whole world has gone crazy.

In the midst of so much chaos, where can we stake our hope? Exhorting us to endurance, the Apostle Peter urged us to prepare “your minds for action, and being sober-minded, set your hope fully on the grace that will be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ.”

The energy to live the Christian life is found in one place—in our focused, conscious choice to put our hope in Jesus. Hope is the confident expectation that something better is coming tomorrow.

As you look to the future:

Don’t set your hope on your physical health—set your hope on Jesus. “So we do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day” (2 Corinthians 4:16).

Don’t set your hope on your stuff—set your hope on Jesus. “And [Jesus] said to them, ‘Take care, and be on your guard against all covetousness, for one’s life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions’” (Luke 12:15).

Don’t set your hope on people—set your hope on Jesus. “Put not your trust in princes, in a son of man, in whom there is no salvation. Blessed is he whose help is the God of Jacob, whose hope is in the L his God” (Psalm 146:3, 5).

No leader, pastor, family member, friend, or spouse can be everything that we hope and dream he will be. People, places, and positions always let us down. Only Jesus is worthy of all our hopes and all our confidence. Maybe you find yourself a little down today. Like Peter standing on the water, the moment you take your eyes off the Lord you start to sink (Matthew 14:22–33). Lift up your eyes; set your hope fully on Jesus.

Our confident expectation is in God, who sees, knows, and will ultimately turn an upside-down world right-side up at the appearing of our Lord. Every righteous decision will be rewarded. Every wrong choice will be judged. Every motive will be revealed.

Is your faith faltering as you look at the world coming unhinged around you? Are you struggling to carry on? Do you need hope that will endure?

Set your hope fully on Jesus.

Journal

• On what might you be tempted to set your hope—your physical health, your talents, your stuff, other people?
• How can you tell if your hope is in anything other than Jesus?

Pray
Father, thank You for sending Your Son to be my hope. You knew that this world would never satisfy my longings, so You sent Your precious Son to do that. Forgive me when I look to anything else for my hope. Thank You that You are fully deserving and capable of holding my every hope. In Jesus’ enduring name, amen.

(FROM JAMES MCDONALD - WALK IN THE WORD)