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

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

Have You Checked Your Idols Lately? Ezekiel 14:3

“Son of man, these leaders have set up idols^[a] in their hearts. They have embraced things that will make them fall into sin. Why should I listen to their requests?     Ezekiel 14:3

The Israelites had idols galore.  And they took them into their hearts, the place reserved for God.  Then they fell into deep sin because of these idols. Temple prostitution, child sacrifice, false prophets.  They were allowing demons to dictate how they worshiped so why should God listen to them?  Why should God answer any of their requests?  By this time majority of them were already living were already living in exile, but they still hadn’t turned their hearts back to God.   Why would He do anything for an adulterous people?  To a people who couldn’t be loyal to Him and Him alone?  Simple.   At that point He couldn’t.

What are your idols?  Do you know? Have you asked God recently?  Recently,  God smashed all mine to pieces when my computer broke.  And I had pneumonia at the same time.  I didn’t even realize how much time I was spending on the internet.  Facebook, Pinterest, many different doll sites, my own website, they all took my time.  God smashed them all when I lost my computer.  After I lost them, I spent hours with God.   I ended up reading my bible cover to cover in 3 weeks.  I had no computer and no TV while I was sick, and the only book I had a desire to read was my bible.  I have never been as close to the Lord as I am today.  Or as content, because I know He loves me and he is going to take care of everything for me.  I feel  His love in everything I do, I see His hand in everything that comes my way.  I pray over every decision I make.  My sense of worth is growing because I know my confidence found in God and not in me.

Father,

Please help me to keep idols out of my life.  Help me to do a check often and to remove anything that sets itself up in place of you. I want to continue to draw closer to you, to be more intimate with you.  Help me to watch myself and to do only those things  that bring you pleasure. Strengthen me for my journey.

In your precious name I pray

Amen

Your Plans, Desires, and God Psalms 20:4

May he grant your heart’s desires
    and make all your plans succeed.  Psalms 20:4

What is your hearts desire?  God wants to give it to you. And He wants to make all your plans succeed. Again, all means A-L-L. Every.  Each one.  Our plans and our hearts desires.  But this verse tells me God wants both of them for me.  I'm all for that.  Are you?

God want ALL my plans to succeed?  Ok so that means my daily to do list should get done. And my book should be published by the first person I send it into when it is complete.  And i be a huge success. So my to do list needs to have writing time somewhere. And the best way to make my to do list succeed is to pray over it, and let God help me set the priorities for the day.  AND He wants to grant me my hearts desires? (which are not the same thing as plans) 
My plans far outweigh my hearts deires right now.  That has not always been the case in my life.  My only lhearts desire is for full reconcilliation with my oldest daughter with me and with God.  And success with my business and my book.

Lord,
Grant me my hearts desire: full reconciliation with meg.  Grant success to my business, and to my book.  Continue helping to find time to write my blogs, and the topics continue to flow.  This book is a book you have asked me to write, so I am leaving it all in your hands.

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

Remember Deut 8:18

¹⁸ Remember the Lord your God. He is the one who gives you power to be successful, in order to fulfill the covenant he confirmed to your ancestors with an oath..

God blesses to the third and fourth generation.  We have to look back and remember this and remember God.  As we remember the Lord, He will give us the power we need to follow in His will and way.

In my family line I can trace Christianity back to my great-grandparents. So, all five of us children are receiving a blessing from God because my great-grandparents served him. I have my own blessing from God because I follow him,  But rarely in my life have I felt blessed. Now, lately, I know what Paul was talking about when he said blessed abundantly above and beyond all we can think or imagine. I am so thankful for all the blessing God has poured out on me and my family lately.
The Holy Spirit enables me with power to fulfill the covenant I made with Jesus.

Daddy,
Thank you for the many blessings you have poured out on my life recently.  Thank you for Jason. Thank you for my kids. Thank you for restoration with Maeghan. Thank you for your love. Thank you for parents, grandparents, and great-grandparents that loved you and served you.  Thank you for your  Holy Spirit who draws me to you, who fills me with power to stand firm in my commitment to you. 
I love you, Daddy
Amen

God doesn't lie Numbers 23:19

 
God is not a man, so he does not lie.
    He is not human, so he does not change his mind.
Has he ever spoken and failed to act?
    Has he ever promised and not carried it through?    Numbers 23:19

God doesn't lie so I can believe what he says in His word is truth. He doesn't change His mind so I can believe when He makes a promise He will follow through with it.  It may take years of waiting but it will happen. In the meantime I will wait for the Lord, I will be strong and take heart and wait for the Lord. (Psalms 27:14)  So when the bible say to delight yourself in the Lord and He will give you the desires of your heart (Psalms 37:4) He will do it.  God is the ultimate authority on truth and He never changes His mind on the truth. Abraham waited 25 years for Gods promise to come.  But it did come.  He never lost faith. He never lost sight of the prommise God made to him.


Broken promises abound in my life.  Starting with my dad and going all the way through to each of my husbands.  So I have a hard time believing when anyone makes a promise.  And lies have been a constant part of each of my marriages too. So to hear that God is all and only truth is a foreign concept to me.  Because I don't know what to do when someone is consistantly truthful.  And to know God wont break His promises? What is that? Even my earthy father broke his promises to me. In fact, he still does. So I don't have a lot of examples of what kept promises look like. But I am willing to watch and learn.

Abba Father
I am willing to learn. I am willing to take you at your word that you don't lie and that you keep your promises.  Your word says to delight myself in you and you will give me the desires of my heart.  I don't know what my heart desires right now because you have so blessed my life these last few months. But you do. I do know, Lord, that I want complete reconcilliation with my daughter and my son.   And Lord, please protect my nieces and nephew while they are in their mom's custody.
Those are my hearts cries right now Lord. And I'll hang on to the promises you have given me.

In your precious holy name I pray,
Amen