by Candee
Psalm 13:5-6 5 But I trust in Your unfailing love. I will rejoice because You have rescued me. 6 I will sing to the Lord because He is good to me. I love that I can always count on God's faithfulness. He loves me. Period. Others may treat me harshly or unfairly. Sometimes people can be downright mean. They can say they love you but their actions demonstrate self-centeredness. People can love you today, when you're serving their needs, and despise you tomorrow when things don't go their way. Human love can often be so undependable. But this is never the case with God. He has loved me with ever-lasting love, with ever-lasting kindness. He never trips up. He never tires. He is more steady and dependable than the rising of the sun. Lord, I praise you that you are ever patient with me and kind to me, even when others aren't.
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by Candee
Psalm 16:7-8 7 I will bless the Lord who guides me; even at night my heart instructs me. 8 I know the Lord is always with me. I will not be shaken, for he is right beside me. The author of this Psalm is living life as an adventure. This is hard to do. This is pure faith. Knowing that whatever you may suffer, whatever challenges you face, He is always guiding you through it. God is our Comforter. (2 Corinthians 1:3-5) We don't need to be disturbed when life gets challenging. We know that nothing escapes our God's attention and nothing is wasted in God's economy. If we trust Him and lean on His Spirit, He will show us what to do. "The Lord is my Shepherd. I will not be afraid." (Psalm 23:1) It takes a lot of faith to resolve that your mission is bigger than your suffering or discomfort. Jesus said "In this life you WILL have tribulation..." (John 16:33) So we might as well take heart. No one gets through life unscathed. But Jesus has overcome the world! Amen! by Candee
“Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God, so that He may exalt you at the proper time,” ~1 Peter 5:6 HCSB And the next verse reads "Cast all your cares upon Him...." because the minute we decide to humble ourselves and put God first, we're going to find we have a lot of cares. ..."What if I don't get what I need?"; "But I really want..."; "What if no one appreciates what I do?"; "What if I get over-looked and people forget about me?"; "I will probably get too tired to keep doing that." And on and on the worries will come. But God knows what we need before we ask, and He always provides. We must remember that God works all things out for the greater good, and trust that our humbling circumstances will produce a great harvest if we yield to it cheerfully, and our comfort is less important than His will. In the end our reward will pale any amount of suffering we endure. Now read Galatians 6:9-10. by Candee
Why “So Long Self?” I got the inspiration from Mercy Me’s song of the same name. It’s the simple reality of a life walking with Jesus. In Matthew 16:24, “Jesus said to His disciples, ‘Whoever wants to be My disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow Me’.” And, well, pretty much every lesson we glean from the Bible directs us to put aside ourselves for Christ. Even the promises of God, which are there to encourage us and lift us up and fill us with joy, require us to put aside all of our doubt, shame, contempt, and the temptation to focus on all that’s wrong. Even when Jesus tells us in Jeremiah 31:3, “The LORD appeared to us in the past, saying: "I have loved you with an everlasting love; I have drawn you with unfailing kindness,” we have to put aside our self-loathing (there’s that ugly “self” again), and resist the temptation to focus on all our failures, weaknesses, and our undeserving nature, and put our focus on Him and His Word, which promises that He loves us with unfailing kindness and everlasting love. The temptation to focus on ourself is everywhere in life, and the command to put ourself aside is everywhere in the Bible. It’s not until we shift our focus from ourself to Heaven that self-centeredness begins to wane. It’s an ongoing struggle and presents an ever-present conflict. So as we go through this journey of life, you might just notice that your self often rears its ugly head too. (I’m pretty sure it’s not just me! haha!) |
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March 2017
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