Stand Firm in Faith Isaiah 7:9b NLT

Unless you faith is firm, I cannot make you stand firm.  Isaiah 7:9b

Without faith He cannot make me stand firm.  He's not talking about a huge amount of faith. A mustard seed amount will do.  I just have to have that faith so he an make me stand firm in it. Because when He makes me firm, my root will grow and I'll start to grow bigger in my faith and be established in my faith and soon my plant will flourish.

Another version (NKJ) of this verse uses the word believe instead of faith. "Unless you believe I cannot make you stand firm." And that's a true statement too. You have to believe in him first, to have faith in him, to get to faith in him for anything bigger. Right now I have faith in God and an believing God for some very big things.  Yet, I am also struggling to believe and have faith in some very basic areas. Is something wrong with me? No. I've just been hurt in that area and God just wants to do a deeper healing in that area than ever before. To make me walk even closer to him. To reveal something new and it will take faith on my part for him to do it.

Father, I thank you that we can have faith as small as a mustard seed and you will make us stand frm. I thank you that we stand firm in you.  thank you for being with us every day. And Daddy, I ask for each one reading this, would you pour out a special mesure of faith on them today for hatever they are believing for. I stand with them for it.  We love you, Amen.

Anger Psalms 91:14-16

Anger

Psalms 91:14-16 For the Lord says “Because she loves me I will rescue her: I will make her great because she trusts in my name.  When she calls on me I will answer; I will be with her in trouble and rescue her and honor her.  I will satisfy her with a full life and give her my salvation.

All I feel is anger.  What I thought were blessings from God are always taken away. Why? What am I doing wrong?  I have so many struggles in my life.  All my life I have been abandoned by the men in my life. Why can’t I have love?  No one has ever really stayed.  Why do men always walk away from me.  All I want is to be loved and cherished by someone for who I am.  I don’t want to hide who I am or become someone else. I just want to be  real.   Where do I go from here?  How do I ever trust again?

Abba, I want to be satisfied.  I want to feel your blessings.  I want to understand why your blessings come so hard for me. I have nowhere to turn but you.   I can’t feel your love.  I ask that right now and that you fill my heart to overflowing with your peace and love.  Fill my life with the good things that come from you.   Redeem what the enemy has stolen from my life.  In your precious hands, I place my life, amen.

Thrown Away Hebrews 4:15

Thrown Away

Hebrews 4:15

This High Priest of ours understands our weaknesses, for he faced all of the same testings we do, yet he did not sin. 

Damaged goods.  I’m three times divorced now and that’s what I see.  Like a bruised melon no one wants.   How is anyone going to want me after three men have thrown me away? 

Is this how Jesus felt on the cross?  He was rejected and thrown away by everyone.  Even Peter, one of his most trusted disciples, denied even knowing him. But most hurtful had to be rejected by God, his father.  We think God rejected Him, how that must’ve hurt. But we must stop and think, his father rejected him, at the most painful point of his life. Yet he didn’t ask for all of it to stop.  He completed the path set before him.  His father welcomed him home  with open arms. Peter apologized, and some who had rejected him repented and accepted Him.  Others didn’t.  Some never will.

So in the deepest point of our rejection, we can be sure Jesus knows and shares our pain and cries with us.  He had victory over rejection and so will we.

Jesus, you know what I’m feeling. That gut wrenching pain I feel when I think I’m going to be rejected again. Thank you for your comfort.  Thank you that I can come to you and you know what I am feeling. Please be with me and help me with my insecurities.  And for those reading this let them know they are not alone.  Amen

Enough Matthew 11:30

“For my yoke is easy to bear, and the burden I give you is light.” Mathew 11:30

       When do we say enough is enough? Why do we wait so long to say I’ve had enough of me and all I need is you?  Why don’t we say at the start, Lord, this is your problem have your way with it?

We all have our problems we want fixed our own way. Mine was my marriage.  I wanted my husband to come back to me.  And to God.  And he chose not to. It devastated me for a long time. But within the crisis I got to say ENOUGH. My God knows me best and wants what is best for me.

       He loves me. He was rejected for me and he held my sin and shame on the cross for me. And now He asks in return that I let Him carry my burden and I carry the one He gives me. I don’t think that is a fair trade do you? His burden is so much easier than mine. And life is so much easier when we hand our problems over for him to carry and let him handle them.

       Father, I pray for all those who are saying enough. Enough of me.   Enough of my way.  Enough of my situation and my fixes.  Enough of filling the void with things of my own choosing.  Let them say all of you Jesus.   Let them say I’ve had enough of my burden, would you carry it for me Jesus. Let them fill the void in their heart with you   Bless everyone who reads these pages, Father, and let their lives be changed.  Amen

Trials of Today 1st Peter 1:7

These trials will show that your faith is genuine.  It is being tested as fire tested as fire tests and purifies gold though your faith is far more precious than mere gold. So when your faith remains strong through many trials it will bring you much praise and glory and honor when Jesus Christ is to the whole world..

My life is so stressed right now. I cry at the top of a hat. My mom had hip replacement surgery 6 weeks ago an I have been staying with her the last 2 weeks while my dad travels 4 days a week doing taxes.  I am taking care of my grandson full time who is 15 months, and I still have to take care of my own home and animals (2 cats, 2 dogs). My daughter, who has asbergers, is in the process of getting her license at 17. (not my grandsons mom) And then there is my own health, which is a fiery trial in itself. I have fibromyalgia, mostly centered in my hips and legs., CFS, migraines, and other minor things. But Peter says these things will show my faith is genuine, and I'll be purified as gold is tested and my faith is more precious than that gold.

Okay, I'll go with that. When I start to cry I'll take a deep breath and remind myself that this is just a test. And I will pass it.  My faith will be much stronger and Jesus will get the praise, honor, glory.

Jesus, give me the strength I need to get through today for today.  Help me to focus on today, not tomorrow , next week or next month. Just today. Also help me to count my blessings in all of this.
I love you,
Amen

Down and out? Psalms 143:7-8

Come quickly, Lord, and answer me,
    for my depression deepens.
Don’t turn away from me,
    or I will die. 
 Let me hear of your unfailing love each morning,
    for I am trusting you.
Show me where to walk,
    for I give myself to you.

Everywhere around me was dark, a kind of darkness that permeates everything. The kind you walk in.  Wade thru.  But no light is strong enough to penetrate it.  I can feel the hand of the Lord on me but I am so deep in the pit the light wont reach me.  My marriage is over, love is gone, I'm numb to just about everything.  I want help out of this darkness.I try to climb out, but something azlways knocks me back in. I lose my grip and fall.  Why couldn't the doctors fix me? The sorrow and the depression was so deep, soul deep, that only God could reach me.I'd poke up my head and have a few good days but I'd go back to my hole and my hurt and pain.  In my hole I fed my hurt and pain.
Until one daymany years being in the darkness, years of wanting out and nnot knowing what to do.  I trusted God to show me what to do, and I gave myself over to him.  I asked him what he wanted me to do.  He wanted me to give him my hurt and pain.  I didn't want to give Him my pain.  I had nursed it and fed it and taken care of it for the last seven years.  It was mine.  He sat there, patiently waiting.  Did I want to keep hurting?  Or did I want to see?I offered it up to His hands, and I saw something I couldn't see when I was curled around it.  It was chained to me.  But as I offered it up the locks broke,the chain fell away and I was free.  Light filtered into my pit.  The hurt was gone.  I saw the ladder.  I could get out now. I took a step towards them and suddenly I was on a mountaintop, sitting beside Jesus, my head on His shoulder. In a place of freedom and joy I hadn't known in many years.

Father, 
We wander and you seek us out.  We fall into a pit, and sit and let it get deeper and deeper and all along you sit beside it waiting to hear us the tiniest cry for help. Thank you for rescuing me, and for anyone reading this, answer their cry for help. lift them up out of the pit they find themselves in..
We love you Jesus,
Amen

The Lord is with me Psalms 16:8

I know the Lord is always with me. I will not be shaken, for he is right beside me.  Psalms 16:8

Doesn't matter where you go, good or bad.  Jesus is with you.  Nothing can make him go away. Nothing you do can make him leave.  Therefore, nothing can shake you up enough to make him leave.  He is always there beside you.  Good times and bad, right living and wrong, good places and bad.

I can watch a G movie or an R movie and Jesus is going to watch it with me.  I can be sober me or I can be drunk and Jesus is going to be right beside me.  I can walk into a restaurant or a bar and Jesus is going to walk in with me. No matter what life I live Jesus is always with me whether I acknowledge him or not.  Yet, as I do acknowledge him I will not be shaken.  I can have an ideal life and He is right beside me.  I can have a challenging life, but I will not be shaken,  because he is right beside me. My child could die, but I will not be shaken. My spouse could die, but I will not be shaken.  I want an ideal life, of course, but Jesus doesn't promise that.  In fact, He says the opposite.  He promises that we will have trouble, but to take heart, for he has overcome the world. (John 16:33)  And no matter what trouble we face I WILL NOT BE SHAKEN.

Lord,
Please help me to remember when trials come you are right beside me. I wont be shaken no matter what as long as I keep fixed on you. And no matter where I am and what I am doing you are with me.  Be with me always, my Jesus.  I love you, Abba.
Amen