I heard someone compare the prophet Samuel’s mother, Hannah, to those women who press in prayer. She described those women as the "Hannah's who don't give up!" Hannah wouldn’t take “no” for an answer. She pressed in. Her intensity was so great in prayer that nothing else mattered. It didn’t matter what people said, or thought about her. She pressed into God until she received the answer. The interesting thing is that from the very beginning, God had prepared Samuel, one of the greatest prophets, to be conceived and born of Hannah. What if she hadn’t asked? What if she hadn’t pressed in? What if she had given up just a little bit short of conception, or maybe just a little bit short of the birth of her promise?
The definition of faith is confident assurance in who God says He is, and that He will reward us as we seek Him. If I am really honest with myself, there have been times when I have had more confident assurance in failure, or lack, or the disease, or the belief that God won’t show up for ME. You always have faith in something. I will either have faith in fear or failure, or I will have faith in God. You can be just as confidently assured that you will fail, as you can be that God will answer your prayers. You get to choose.
Isn’t that what Jesus was saying when He is talking about moving mountains and telling the disciples to just cast those huge immovable objects into the sea? He never mentions the size of the mountain or the fact that it was totally impossible for it to move. He didn’t say have confident assurance in the mountain to move. He said: “Have confident assurance in God.” That is the bottom line isn’t it? Like Hannah, I’m going to take my case to the only One who can help. And I refuse to give up pressing in and stopping one inch short of His answer.
Sunday, May 30, 2010
Friday, May 28, 2010
Never, never, never give up!
Never, never, never give up!
The Daily Thought for today was:
Power to Never, Never, Never Give UP!
Key Scripture: Galatians 6:9
So let’s not allow ourselves to get fatigued doing good. At the right time we will harvest a good crop if we don’t give
up or quit. (The Message)
Power Thought:
Years ago Sir Winston Churchill spoke these powerful words to a nation besieged by war; “Never, never, never give up!” As a Christian you are constantly at war and your mind is the battlefield. It is Satan’s chief objective. If he can steal your faith, hope and expectation of good from God, then he has stolen your power to win your battle. God says if we don’t give up, we WILL reap at the right time. It’s a promise; if you don’t give up you will reap the blessing and the answer. So- never, never, never give up! And remember, God NEVER gives up on you.
Declare:
I declare today that I will never, never, never give up! I will think more about what God says, than what Satan says.
I will not give up, give out, or give in to Satan’s attempts to discourage me but I will trust in WHO my heavenly Father is and WHAT He has planned for me to bring me a future and a hope.
As I was journaling following the writing of this, I was thanking the Lord for removing some or the extra “weight” I had been carrying. It’s a lot easier to run without the extra pounds of regret, doubt, sadness, discouragement or-whatever.
I was just talking to Him and the words came out of my mouth, “thank You Lord, that You NEVER give up on me.” I realized I had said a mouthful.
I love Philippians 1:6 which says. “He who has begun a good work in you will complete it!”
In The Message it reads this way:
“There has never been the slightest doubt in my mind that the God who started this great work in you would keep at it and bring it to a flourishing finish on the very day Jesus Christ appears.”
Don’t you LOVE that? He is all about a flourishing finish. Amazing! The word “flourish” means to achieve success with fanfare. TA DA! Drum roll please. It also means to “show off”. Just think about it-the God who began a good work in you will not only finish, He will put on the final finishing touches. You, my friend are a trophy of His victory in Christ, and He wants to show you off. He will finish with a flourish and He’s not about to give up. He’s not shaking His head at your failures. He’s in it to win it! He’s not confused because you blew it. In fact, He’s not even surprised. Guess what! Jesus KNEW what He was doing when He took all the consequences of your sin on the cross and to the grave. His sacrifice included past, present, and future sin. He KNEW what lay ahead and it gave Him such joy to set you free from the deadly consequences of sin. He stole the power from sin and gave us the ability to change, overcome and finish with a flourish.
So the truth is we must never, never, never give up on HIM, because He never, never, never gives up on us.
He’s got plans and they are oh SO GOOD!
The Daily Thought for today was:
Power to Never, Never, Never Give UP!
Key Scripture: Galatians 6:9
So let’s not allow ourselves to get fatigued doing good. At the right time we will harvest a good crop if we don’t give
up or quit. (The Message)
Power Thought:
Years ago Sir Winston Churchill spoke these powerful words to a nation besieged by war; “Never, never, never give up!” As a Christian you are constantly at war and your mind is the battlefield. It is Satan’s chief objective. If he can steal your faith, hope and expectation of good from God, then he has stolen your power to win your battle. God says if we don’t give up, we WILL reap at the right time. It’s a promise; if you don’t give up you will reap the blessing and the answer. So- never, never, never give up! And remember, God NEVER gives up on you.
Declare:
I declare today that I will never, never, never give up! I will think more about what God says, than what Satan says.
I will not give up, give out, or give in to Satan’s attempts to discourage me but I will trust in WHO my heavenly Father is and WHAT He has planned for me to bring me a future and a hope.
As I was journaling following the writing of this, I was thanking the Lord for removing some or the extra “weight” I had been carrying. It’s a lot easier to run without the extra pounds of regret, doubt, sadness, discouragement or-whatever.
I was just talking to Him and the words came out of my mouth, “thank You Lord, that You NEVER give up on me.” I realized I had said a mouthful.
I love Philippians 1:6 which says. “He who has begun a good work in you will complete it!”
In The Message it reads this way:
“There has never been the slightest doubt in my mind that the God who started this great work in you would keep at it and bring it to a flourishing finish on the very day Jesus Christ appears.”
Don’t you LOVE that? He is all about a flourishing finish. Amazing! The word “flourish” means to achieve success with fanfare. TA DA! Drum roll please. It also means to “show off”. Just think about it-the God who began a good work in you will not only finish, He will put on the final finishing touches. You, my friend are a trophy of His victory in Christ, and He wants to show you off. He will finish with a flourish and He’s not about to give up. He’s not shaking His head at your failures. He’s in it to win it! He’s not confused because you blew it. In fact, He’s not even surprised. Guess what! Jesus KNEW what He was doing when He took all the consequences of your sin on the cross and to the grave. His sacrifice included past, present, and future sin. He KNEW what lay ahead and it gave Him such joy to set you free from the deadly consequences of sin. He stole the power from sin and gave us the ability to change, overcome and finish with a flourish.
So the truth is we must never, never, never give up on HIM, because He never, never, never gives up on us.
He’s got plans and they are oh SO GOOD!
Saturday, May 22, 2010
Thinking for a Change
For the last month or so I have been emailing a "Daily Thought' based on a devotional by Gregory Dickow,"30 Day Power Pack Devotional, 30 Things You Have Power Of, Power Over, and Power to Do. We have passed our 30 days and now I have decided to continue by compiling things from different authors and sometimes including my own thoughts. They are brief and that is good but I have found that sometimes they trigger more thoughts in me that I'd like to share. I think the blog would be a good arena for that. So, if you want the "Express Version" of the Daily Thought you can stay on the email. If you want to think a little deeper, join us on the blog. It should be encouraging and you talk back!
Hope Floats Again
Welcome! It has been on my heart for a long while now to create a venue to encourage others in the knowledge of the goodness and kindness of our God. Well, here we go.
I’m assuming you may want to know a little about me and my reasons for thinking I know anything about God’s goodness.
I am silver-haired. My best friend, Julie, corrects me when I say, “gray”. I am a widow and I have two children, Stefanie, and David. David is married to Kim and they have given me the best gifts ever, my three ½ grandchildren. JD, Ben, Reagan Grace, and “Baby Becoming”, Hannah Joy, who will be arriving in August. Oh, and of course, my granddog, Baron, a huge Doberman who is sure he is a lap dog.
My daughter Stefanie lives with me in our home in Georgia, which if you’ve never tried it is the best place to live! The best part of OUR household are our 5 poodles. Yep. 5. Actually, most days we have six. My daughter keeps “Dreamer Belle”, another poodle five days a week, or more if we can get her.
We have Grace, Mercy, Joy, Gabriel Joshua and Zoe Faith, the full range of sizes and ages from 16 to 1. Cute, cute, cute!
What I really want to talk about today is HOPE. I was reminded the other day of a time in childhood when my brother would take me to the lake to fish. He got a bamboo pole for me and taught me how to put the bait on the hook and cast it.
The thing that fascinated me most about the pole was the red and white bobber attached to the hook. It would just float along on the water, bobbing with the waves and just looking like the happiest little thing in the world. I knew that the whole point of casting that bobber in the water was to catch a fish but with my gentle nature, (I don’t even kill flies) that was the last thing I wanted to do. I knew I had to keep my eye on that bobber at all times because when it went under, I had caught myself a fish and he was going to run with my bobber if I didn’t land him. Everyone would get so excited when that bobber went under the water. Except me.
Today, that bobber is the perfect representation of my hope. It floats merrily along until something comes up from under the water and pulls it down. In fishing that’s a good thing, but if that bobber represents your life and something is continually pulling you under so that you can no longer keep your head above water, then let me offer you this piece of advice. Hope floats. It really is resilient if it’s anchored in the goodness of God. If you remove what has pulled it down, it will float again. Jesus is called “the Living Hope”. If you have asked him to come into your heart, then somewhere inside you, hope is alive and wants to come to the top again. In Romans 15:13, the apostle Paul says:
“May the God of hope so fill you with all joy and peace in believing-through the experience of your faith-that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound and be overflowing (bubbling over) with hope.”
So maybe today would be a good time to ask yourself, “What is giving me that sinking feeling?” It usually has something to do with forgetting the truth about Your heavenly Father. Hope comes from knowing that God is good all the time and that He has good, hopeful plans for your life.
It does not matter how far down your bobber is in the water, Jesus can cause you to hope again. This last year for me has been a difficult time when all my hopes and dreams seemed submerged. But guess what! Hope floats again! God is SO faithful! Imagine that. He is who He says He is, He will do what He says He will do.
Would this be a good time to begin to pull in what has pulled your hope under the water and set it free to “bob’ again? May the God of HOPE fill you with all joy and peace, in believing that by the power of His Holy Spirit you may abound and be overflowing with Hope.
His Hope, His power, His Holy Spirit. His Hope bubbling to the top. Yeah God!
I’m assuming you may want to know a little about me and my reasons for thinking I know anything about God’s goodness.
I am silver-haired. My best friend, Julie, corrects me when I say, “gray”. I am a widow and I have two children, Stefanie, and David. David is married to Kim and they have given me the best gifts ever, my three ½ grandchildren. JD, Ben, Reagan Grace, and “Baby Becoming”, Hannah Joy, who will be arriving in August. Oh, and of course, my granddog, Baron, a huge Doberman who is sure he is a lap dog.
My daughter Stefanie lives with me in our home in Georgia, which if you’ve never tried it is the best place to live! The best part of OUR household are our 5 poodles. Yep. 5. Actually, most days we have six. My daughter keeps “Dreamer Belle”, another poodle five days a week, or more if we can get her.
We have Grace, Mercy, Joy, Gabriel Joshua and Zoe Faith, the full range of sizes and ages from 16 to 1. Cute, cute, cute!
What I really want to talk about today is HOPE. I was reminded the other day of a time in childhood when my brother would take me to the lake to fish. He got a bamboo pole for me and taught me how to put the bait on the hook and cast it.
The thing that fascinated me most about the pole was the red and white bobber attached to the hook. It would just float along on the water, bobbing with the waves and just looking like the happiest little thing in the world. I knew that the whole point of casting that bobber in the water was to catch a fish but with my gentle nature, (I don’t even kill flies) that was the last thing I wanted to do. I knew I had to keep my eye on that bobber at all times because when it went under, I had caught myself a fish and he was going to run with my bobber if I didn’t land him. Everyone would get so excited when that bobber went under the water. Except me.
Today, that bobber is the perfect representation of my hope. It floats merrily along until something comes up from under the water and pulls it down. In fishing that’s a good thing, but if that bobber represents your life and something is continually pulling you under so that you can no longer keep your head above water, then let me offer you this piece of advice. Hope floats. It really is resilient if it’s anchored in the goodness of God. If you remove what has pulled it down, it will float again. Jesus is called “the Living Hope”. If you have asked him to come into your heart, then somewhere inside you, hope is alive and wants to come to the top again. In Romans 15:13, the apostle Paul says:
“May the God of hope so fill you with all joy and peace in believing-through the experience of your faith-that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound and be overflowing (bubbling over) with hope.”
So maybe today would be a good time to ask yourself, “What is giving me that sinking feeling?” It usually has something to do with forgetting the truth about Your heavenly Father. Hope comes from knowing that God is good all the time and that He has good, hopeful plans for your life.
It does not matter how far down your bobber is in the water, Jesus can cause you to hope again. This last year for me has been a difficult time when all my hopes and dreams seemed submerged. But guess what! Hope floats again! God is SO faithful! Imagine that. He is who He says He is, He will do what He says He will do.
Would this be a good time to begin to pull in what has pulled your hope under the water and set it free to “bob’ again? May the God of HOPE fill you with all joy and peace, in believing that by the power of His Holy Spirit you may abound and be overflowing with Hope.
His Hope, His power, His Holy Spirit. His Hope bubbling to the top. Yeah God!
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