“Cast all your anxiety on Him because He cares for you” (1 Peter 5:7)
Casting is intentional relocating of something; in this case it is relocating where we put our anxiety. I’d just like to point out the word intentional, that is my word this year for learning how to better walk in the direction & instruction of the Lord. Our first response to what has us feeling anxious should be in removing it off our mind and casting it on Jesus. As soon as we sense that anxiety welling up inside of us, cast it in Jesus’ direction, immediately. Be intentional about not holding on to that feeling. Look up scriptures regarding anxiety so you know how to say, “You said” Examples: “You said you would walk me through the waters” (Is. 43:2) “You said you would lead me through the valley” (Ps. 23:4) “You said that you would never leave or forsake me” (Heb. 13:5). Find a promise that fits your problem and build your prayer around that. Faith touches the heart of God, and it activates the angels of heaven. Your answer may not come over night, but it will come. And you will overcome. Remember God did not give you a spirit of fear, but of love, power and a sound mind (2 Ti.1:7) He is Love. There is power in being anchored in His Word. Do not let the enemy come in and manipulate you by fear, confusion, or panic. Fear is a liar. Anxiety is a liar. “Peace, I leave you; my peace I give to you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.” (Jn. 14:27) Yep, He said it! Believe it.
And when the soles of the feet of the priests bearing the ark of the LORD, the Lord of all the earth, shall rest in the waters of the Jordan, the waters of the Jordan shall cut off from flowing, and the waters coming down from above shall stand in one heap. (Joshua 3:13)
While God is the ultimate initiator, He works through our obedience and movement. So, like in this verse in Joshua chapter 3 we see the priests had been given instruction as to how, when and where to go in moving the ark of the covenant of the Lord. The priests had to STEP into the Joran River before God parted the water, showing that God moves when we act on faith. Faith and obedience go hand in hand here. Even when the path is unclear or fearful, obedience in moving is viewed as an act of faith that aligns with God’s will and allows miracles to happen. Back in the late ’90s we had an evangelist visit our home church in Texas. His title for his message this particular night was, “I’ve never seen a buzzard eating a moving cow.” You know what? me either. His message had to do with the part we play in our miracles, blessings, etc. and that part is called “moving.” It requires putting our focus on our creator, His will, and when He calls for a move it’s not an option, because God is already at the destination, it’s called obedience. Next time you find yourself waiting on God to move, you might ask God if He is waiting on you to move?
No weapon formed against you shall prosper (Isaiah 54:17)
If you are allowing your tongue to speak words against yourself, you are becoming your own opposition. You are allowing possible attacks to arise that could destroy you or at the bare minimum keep you from prospering in what you are desiring. God is telling us in the written Word in Isaiah that He condemns the accusers, even as He has equipped His servant/us/all saints, Jews and gentiles, to do so. If God has given us the power in our tongue to come against opposition, challenges, or attacks, ultimately, we are destroying ourselves if we are speaking anything different from His Word. Further in that verse it’s telling us “…and every tongue which rises against you in judgement You shall condemn,” that’s indicating false accusations. You are speaking false things over yourself, STOP IT! Take those words out of your mouth right now and start speaking truth over your situation. Don’t let the father of lies deceive you into believing a lie over what the Lord is trying to do in your life or whatever it is your believing for. Just like writing this Blog. The minute my husband brought this up to me, that I should write again and do it in a Blog, I immediately said, “Oh, I can’t do that, I don’t have the background and training for that.” That’s when I had to stop myself and remember who was actually calling me to this and if He was calling me to it, He would also equip me for it (Is. 58:11) Where He guides, He provides! It is so easy to catch yourself believing for something or petitioning the Lord for something and at the same time speaking words of defeat. Wisdom flows from a thoughtful heart. Think about what you are saying before you say it. Use constructive words. Your words can be a tree of life or destructive. They can heal you or they can harm you. Choose what you speak! Remember, not every thought needs to be expressed; once said, words cannot be taken back.
Are you going through some tough stuff right now, feeling all the pressures of life? Let me let you in on a little secret. If you become a worshiping warrior, you will find yourself thriving under those pressures, it’s called a “holy boldness” praising God even during the trials. Honestly, I never saw myself waring in worship. I thought that worship was just a time of singing praises to the Lord not realizing that I was actually doing warfare right then. Recently I have found myself in a number of situations that I felt the fight or flight coming on. I also have found a better way to fight those battles. Worship is the way; it takes the load off me and right on Him. That whole flight thing is NEVER a win, unless it is removing yourself from the situation temporarily to allow the Holy Spirit to speak to you regarding your circumstance. Also, I should let you know, EVERYTHING happens in God’s time, so be a patient worshipper. First, you are going to need to have a surrendered heart. A true warrior for God is first a worshiper acting out of obedience, humility and submission, something God has been working on in me for the past couple years in a really BIG way. Worship, praise and obedience are our main weapons to achieve victory. Which means we are going to need to stand firm in faith, endure some hardships and trust God to fight the battles on our behalf. After all, God is the ultimate warrior. He’s the One fighting our battles, we simply are worshipping Him in the process. (Exodus 15:3) says, The LORD is a man of war; The LORD is His name. (The battle has been won, and the praise belongs to the Victor.) In verse 6 of chapter 15 of Exodus, we can see God’s active and powerful presence among His people. God is active and He is all powerful and He will fight each of our battles, nothing is too big for our God. That is a God to be WORSHIPPED! If you will practice worshipping God, you can actually get so engrossed in worship you will not even remember what it was that had you upset to begin with. The Holy Spirit is just good like that. (Speaking from experience). Of course, no one gets up and leaves the house before getting fully dressed, well you might, so let me say it this way. When a warrior gets up for battle, he/she puts on their full armor. In the spiritual realm that is called “the whole armor of God.”
I keep this wardrobe list on my refrigerator, so when I get up in the morning and grab that first cup of coffee, I am reminded what I will be wearing for the day. Another side note: remember we are fighting spiritual battles not physical, totally different attire. We are not worshipping ourselves because we are strong and mighty fighters, we are worshipping God the Creator of the universe who fights spiritual beings we cannot see. I want to talk a little more about praise. In the Old Testament the tribe of Judah, meaning “praise,” was instructed to go first into battle, demonstrating that worship precedes victory. And in (Acts 16:25) Paul & Silas exemplified praise being used to break chains and overcome obstacles. If God is fighting our battles and He is victorious in all things, why wouldn’t we worship Him? Why would we want to wear ourselves out physically, mentally, emotionally even spiritually trying to do it any other way? When & where to worship? For me, it’s in the morning before my day even starts. I praise Him for waking me up, breath in my lungs, opportunities that He is placing in my path for the day, etc. etc. Later in the day it may be a phone call from a friend facing something and I simply stop for a moment and thank God in remembrance of one of His many promises to meet that need. At the end of the day, it may be a moment of silence just reflecting on His goodness, even when I didn’t see anything, I know He is on it. Before bed if there is anything else still lingering in my mind, it’s letting go and thanking Him for the rest I am about to receive once my eyes close because every battle is His, He fights for me.
“In My Father’s house are many mansions; if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself; that where I am, there you may be also. And where I go you know, and the way you know.” (John 14:2-4)
Today is my dad’s birthday as you can see on his stone. It’s been a long time since we have celebrated birthdays or anything else for that matter, but I know one day we will be celebrating all things together. First, I have to tell you he is my stepdad. I was 4 years old when he married my mom, so he is actually the man who raised me. I was engrafted into his family, much like we are with our Father God, through Jesus Christ. The year before he left his earthly home he was diagnosed with cancer and somewhere around a year before that him and our mother divorced after nearly 30 years of marriage. We lived in Texas at the time; I was married to someone else, and I had two children from a previous marriage. My dad was doing his treatments at MD Anderson in Houston about an hour from where I lived. He stayed with me part of that year as well as my sister just under me, his biological daughter. She was divorced and living alone, until my stepbrother came down from out of state to spend some time with our dad as he was ill. Dad had two sons from his first marriage, me, and then him and my mom had two daughters. The one I just spoke of is a little more than 5 years younger than me and the other sister is 17 years younger than me. The two stepbrothers both lived out of state and there wasn’t a lot of communication between them and us. Unfortunately for all the siblings, I being the oldest of all the kids was the only one who had children, therefore their children never had the chance to know him. Dad and I would stay up all hours of the night talking, due to the medicines he was taking, he couldn’t sleep. We didn’t have the best relationship to say the least as I was growing up, but when I was considered adult age and out of the house, my mom became pregnant with my youngest sister, and we began to form a bond then. We became pretty close over the next few years; he even coached me through my pregnancies. Back to our long nights. It first started out him seeking forgiveness from me for the horrible things I went through as a child, his part in that, that is. Which by doing so, enabled me to forgive him. Then he began talking to me about God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit. You see, his father was my grandfather that was a minister, a minister my dad’s entire life, well my grandfather’s entire life as well, after the war. My dad knew the Word of God; he just didn’t live like it most of the time. So, to say he reared us up in the likeness of Jesus is a far cry from that. But he was making up for lost time now. I believe he knew after about 6 months into his treatments, he wasn’t going to be here long, and he had some work to do, that work I call, “Preparation for Paradise.” He knew what the Word said about having unforgiveness against your brother & others, and the importance of it. That if he wanted his Father in heaven to forgive him, he must forgive his brother and seek forgiveness where it was needed as well. He was on a mission, and he was leading by example now. He went the distance sick and all to find those he needed to make right with. Back to our long nights again. He told me about a book he had received from his parents about the Holy Spirit, and he wanted me to read it, like as many times as it took before I really understood it. This was very important to him, that I get understanding. I still have that book today and two years after he left us, I spent an entire day reading it aloud to my baby sister and I remember my current husband like it was yesterday, coming home from work finding the two of us bawling. When he asked what was wrong, I told him, “I have sinned, the unpardonable sin. I had blasphemed the Holy Spirit.” He reassured me I hadn’t, if I had I certainly would not be that upset. Gotta love baby Christians! Later I finally got it, and I did read that book a couple more times just like my dad suggested. You see my dad didn’t have anything of earthly value to leave us kids, but what he did have was knowledge and understanding of our Father God and His plan and purpose for our lives. The legacy he was about to leave me was one I would have to grow into, but he prepared me with a good foundation to grow on. I learned a lot in that last year of his life and I know now, what to leave my children as a legacy before I enter into Paradise. Two years after he entered into Paradise, I rededicated my life to the Lord and I have been diligently seeking him ever since. Thank you, Dad and Happy Birthday, see you soon.
“For God so loved the world, that He gave His only Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life. (John 3:16)
We humans really cannot comprehend the extent of God’s sacrifice, this type of love that He has for ALL humanity. God’s love is not restricted to any one type of person either, He wants EVERYONE to have eternal life with Him, that’s LOVE!
Valentine’s Day for many goes unnoticed, uncelebrated, undeserved or forgotten altogether. For some it may be missed because their love is no longer with them or maybe their marriage/relationship is on rocky grounds these days. Whatever the case, know that you are loved and being celebrated by the One who died for you. He has not forgotten you. If your love is no longer here on this side of paradise, He is here to comfort you. If you have been made to feel unworthy of being celebrated or undeserving, He says you are valuable, deeply loved, and redeemed, regardless of your past, mistakes, or feelings. God’s love is unconditional, everlasting, and not based on performance or deservingness. He cherishes you. You are fearfully and wonderfully made (Psalms 139:14). I have loved you with an everlasting love (Jer. 31:3) He loved us while we were still sinners (Romans 5:8) Except His grace today and see yourself as He sees you. Know that you truly are His Valentine.
I will praise the name of God with a song, And I will magnify Him with thanksgiving (Psalms 69:30)
Sunday morning the last song we sang was, “God I’m Just Grateful” by, Elevation Worship. Doing a little reflecting right now about some of the things that were going through my mind as I sang those words.
There was no way until You made one Grace upon grace, hallelujah Even though I don’t deserve it, You did it Even though I couldn’t earn it, You give it Who am I that You keep me on Your mind? God, I’m just grateful for You God, I’m just grateful for You All my life, You’ve been right here by my side God, I’m just grateful for You God, I’m just grateful for You Holy, holy, there’s only one I give You glory for all that You’ve done Even though I don’t deserve it, You did it Even though I couldn’t earn it, You give it Who am I that You keep me on Your mind? God, I’m just grateful for You God, I’m just grateful for You (who am I?) All my life, You’ve been right here by my side God, I’m just grateful for You God, I’m just grateful for You Whoa, You kept me all my life Been here with me all this time And I, I’m lifting both my hands You gave me chance after chance, after chance And I, I’m giving all that I am ‘Cause You gave me chance after chance, after chance Who am I that You keep me on Your mind? God, I’m just grateful for You God, I’m just grateful for You All my life, You’ve been right there by my side God, I’m just grateful for You God, I’m just grateful for You (who am I) Who am I that You keep me on Your mind? God, I’m just grateful for You God, I’m just grateful for You All my life, You’ve been right there by my side God, I’m just grateful for You God, I’m just grateful for You (I survived) I survived and I am here to testify God, I’m just grateful for You God, I’m just grateful for You I’m alright if they say I’m outta my mind God, I’m just grateful for You God, I’m just grateful for you
Of course, there was a couple lines repeated that I’d purposely did not add for time’s sake, but I think you got it. When I was in that moment of worship, my life began flashing before me. I remembered times when I was a very young child and certain people had violated me and hurt me very badly, times when I was a teenager doing worldly things and feeling like my life really had no meaning and no one loved me, battling feelings of why I should even be alive. I remembered broken relationships; car accidents do to drug & alcohol addictions. Unforgiveness and bitterness that I had held onto many times for way too long. The longer we sang that song to the Lord, I began to dance and at one point I believe I was actually shouting out the words of how “grateful” I was. The thought that I am ALWAYS on His mind made me feel important, loved and valued. I was in awe of the many, many chances He had given me to change my ways, turn my life in the other direction, get on the right path, the one that leads me to Him. How God had taken this mess and is allowing me to turn it into a message. A message of His goodness, His grace, His unconditional love for us. How He is always right there by my/our side. And even though I/we never deserved it, He gives it. I never in a million years could have earned what He has given me. Grace, upon grace. After church was over, I was mingling in the lobby, there was an extremely excited feeling inside of me, one that made me just want to love on everyone I came into contact with. Actually, I think I was one of the last to leave before the next service was about to begin. I was thinking to myself, maybe I should just stay, so I could enter back into that song of gratitude one more time.
“Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for human masters, since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward. Its the Lord Christ you are serving.” (Colossians 3:23-24)
Today is one of those days. I am having all kinds of computer issues, I feel like screaming. I told y’all I am NOT a techy kind of girl. What I am though is, INTENTIONAL! I may have mentioned a time or two regarding my word for this year …. “INTENTIONAL” Challenge ON! I am NOT going to let the enemy come in and steal my joy, or what the Lord has called me too. Just as in the Bible verse above, I am going to do this thing with all my heart as “working for the Lord” and not for humans. Because in all honesty, He is the reason I am Blogging in the first place. Learning this techy stuff is hard, for me that is. I am 63 years old, not a lot of computer experience, it’s not something I grew up with or even wanted to know for that matter. I mean I’m a little old fashion. Yeah, I can type (keyboarding) per my collaborator, but I still like to write with pen and paper, actually pencil so I can erase as often as needed. I even buy the little erasers to put on top of my pencils for when the original one wears out, per my collaborator (Husband) that is, he thought I should include the extra eraser part, I was going to let that little secret slide by. I still enjoy reading books the old fashion way, though I have three kindles, smart phone and a computer. It’s easy to get discouraged, but you know, God said in one of the first Bible verses about work in (Genesis 2:15), “The Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it.” This tells us that we are intended and built to work, and I’m going to be encouraged by that, because that just means God has given me a brain that can figure this out. Hard work and dedication yield results and I am putting everything I’ve got into being intentional in developing a better knowledge of this techy stuff so I can write these blogs as for the Lord. To end this “Mountain Moving Morning”, first let me encourage you with a Word. “Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up” (Galatians 6:9).
Peace, I leave with you; My [perfect] peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Do not let your heart be troubled, nor let it be afraid. [Let My perfect peace calm you in every circumstance and give you courage and strength for every challenge.] (John 14:27) (AMP)
Jesus! That is who my source is. “Trust” I put my trust in Him and Him alone. (Philippians 4:7) means more to me today than days past. “And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus” I have struggled with the need to “KNOW.” Know what, where, when, why, how. Thanks be to Jesus; I have finally reached that place in my life where those questions aren’t as important to me as much as knowing who holds the answer to ALL of them. I used to become angry, frustrated, l would be discouraged to the point of making myself sick literally with the need to “KNOW.” That is actually one of the causes of why I suffered from depression so many times in my life. You cannot have peace, if you are trying to figure everything out in your own mind. It takes trusting the One that is and will cause everything to come into agreement with what the Lord our God wills for us, our life. “You will keep in perfect peace those whose minds are steadfast, because they trust in you” (Isaiah 26:3). Have you ever struggled with sleep? Your mind just won’t shut off? You continue to allow things to play over and over and over. I have, way too many nights. Now, if something is bothering me before I go to sleep, I simply let it go, let God have it, there is absolutely nothing I am going to be able to do about it, so by letting Him have it, I can rest. If it is something I actually need to deal with, He will bring it back up to me in the morning, with new insight about it, because I put my trust in Him and I am relying on Him for the answer, not me. “In peace I will lie down and sleep, for you alone, Lord, make me dwell in safety”(Psalms 4:8). When God gives you peace, it’s a divine gift of inner calm and confidence even when our life seems to be in turmoil. We are having faith that He is in control. He will guard our heart and mind from fear, allowing us to rest. If you want to receive this kind of peace, you need to develop confidence in God’s promises and character. Pray, talk to God about EVERYTHING, express your gratitude as you’re asking for what you’re needing from Him. Keep your mind on what is true, lovely, and pure, and keep your thoughts on God. I lately have been convicted of where my mind has been going. I once read a book of Joyce Meyer, Where the mind goes, the man follows” True! We have to be careful what we allow our mind to think on. Spend time in God’s Word, learning the scriptures that speak on peace, so whenever you are confronted with thoughts and feelings that bring you worry and discontentment, you can replace them with thoughts that bring peace to your mind instead. I pray for peace right now over everyone reading this, in Jesus’ name, Amen
Try me now says the Lord, “If I will not open for you the windows of heaven and pour out for you such blessing, that there will not be room enough to receive it” (Malachi 3:10)
There is so much to be taken from this testimony, but what I really want to hit on, why I believe God brought it to my mind this morning, “Radical Obedience.” In 1998 my husband I made a move from Texas his home state, to Arkansas. We came here on a job transfer which at the time the pay was only $8 an hour and I was going to be taking a job at the minimum wage of $5.25 an hour once we got here. We came here with a lot of baggage as well and not just the kind you take on vacation, if you know what I mean. Times were tough, for what seemed like a very long time, but we loved God, we trusted Him and we were being obedient to His Word in Malachi. There were days we literally had to believe God for our next meal, via the cousin who was retired and now a vegetable peddler, who would be coming by our home that we were renting at the time with his left-over veggies that he didn’t sell that day at the market. Neither of us had ever lived so scarcely before, yet so intently about our finances and our faith that God would provide just what we needed at just the right time. Standing on the verse (Phil. 4:19) “And my God shall supply all your need according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus.” We truly were relying on divine provision through our faith and trust in His Word. Because we were new Christians and we still didn’t really KNOW God, you know, really know Him! Was His Word something we could actually take to the bank? It wasn’t long now until we were about to find out and we found out, through “Radical Obedience.” One of the troubles we had been facing during those tough times was vehicle issues. We had two and they both went out of service at the same time and left us stranded for transportation, how were we going to get to work now? With what money do we have to purchase another vehicle while we fix these? Just like how God is using me right now to share about Him and His goodness, little ‘ole housewife me, he provided a person who we would not have seen coming, to loan us the money for another used vehicle. We are now back on the road because of His provision and our faithfulness and trust in His Word. Now my husband would spend countless hours and hard labor to fix these broken vehicles on his off hours from his job. I thank God for the gifts that He has given each of us, because one of the many He gave my husband was the ability to know the mechanics to fix the vehicles. Money saved is money earned! Now we begin to move forward. We have three vehicles all running and we only need two, but we want to purchase a home of our own and we are going to need some money for a down payment. So, naturally we had the idea we would sell the car we purchased to hold us over while fixing our other two and that would give us “some” of the money we needed. Meanwhile, a lady from our church and her two daughters were going through the same situation we just came out of with three of them, no way to get to work, church, store, etc. I remember it was a Wednesday night and during fellowship hearing their story, I could definitely relate being we had just gone through this same thing. The next day I heard this voice saying, “give them your car.” What? Surely, NOT. We need that money to buy a house. But all day it just kept nudging at my heart, so finally I said, “God, if this is REALLY You, then tell my husband the same thing you are telling me and then I will believe you.” A little time passes and I am getting antsy, I ask my husband, “hey, have you been hearing anything from God?” His reply was, Yeah, I have. I have been thinking about the lady at church, and I know it sounds crazy, but we have this car…. yep, he said it! So, I asked him, “so what do we do?” he replies with, “give her the car.” We really didn’t know what we were doing at the time, all we knew was, if God said, do it! So that next Sunday we went to church with title to the car in hand and gave it to her. First, watching her and her daughter’s reaction was grander than anything I could have imagined. I thought my heart was going to explode. Then, suddenly, the windows of heaven were about to open up and pour out a blessing! We received a check in the mail for three times the amount we were going to sell that car for, and it was EXACTLY the amount we needed to put down on the home we wanted to purchase. Might I add, the money also came from a source only God could have orchestrated. This testimony, like I said in the beginning has many different facets of God that I could touch on, but today I believe it was all about “Radical Obedience.” I would like to add as well, “You cannot outgive God.” You know the Israelite’s once said in (Exodus 24:7)”We will do everything the Lord has said, we will obey.” “Whatever God commands we are in!” that was repeated twice because they finally knew God. Even if we don’t completely understand what the Lord is doing, if He speaks it, just do it. Small acts of obedience are just as important; they will bring your soul satisfaction by knowing you are pleasing the Lord and don’t ever think little things don’t matter to God because nothing goes un-noticed by Him. He delights in His children’s obedience.
The fear of God will result in Obedience to God (Haggai 1:12)
Bread and Water 