April 27, 2024

He Had Brought Me So Far

February 6, 2015 by

encouragementbloggraphicromans15

 { David’s Prayer of Gratitude }

Then King David went in and sat before the Lord and said, “Who am I, O Lord God, and what is my house, that you have brought me thus far?  And yet this was a small thing in Your eyes, O Lord God. You have spoken also of Your servant’s house for a great while to come, and this is instruction for mankind, O Lord God!  And what more can David say to You? For You know Your servant, O Lord God!  Because of Your promise, and according to Your own heart, You have brought about all this greatness, to make Your servant know it.  Therefore You are great, O Lord God. For there is none like You, and there is no God besides You, according to all that we have heard with our ears.

 2 Samuel 7:18-22

I feel stuck.  Sometimes I feel that I have not really grown spiritually as much as I want to.  I play my past over and over feeling inadequate.  But then I step back at and really look at where I have been…and where I am now…and how in love I am with my God more and more each day.  And I see how far He has brought me.  I am like David and I am celebrating the progress I have made with the One Who brought me here.

David responded to God’s goodness and we see the reasons why he was ‘a man after God’s own heart’.

But now your kingdom shall not continue.
The Lord has sought out a man after His own heart
and the Lord has commanded him to be prince over His people
because you have not kept what the Lord commanded you.

1 Samuel 13:14

David surrendered his heart to God.  When we do the same, we will see how far we have come and we, too, will respond like David.  For instance, we will have intimacy with our Creator: David sought no other audience.  He left Nathan’s presence and went and sat with God.  And before we can really embrace and celebrate God’s amazing and unexpected gifts with other believers, we have to seek Him first…always.  We must stay humble in that we need not take credit for our progress.  David always gave credit to His Maker and made known to all that he was humbled by God’s goodness.  He celebrated every time he came into the presence of God.  We must be careful not to flaunt our gains to those who don’t have them yet, for this is prideful.  We will delight in our Lord.  He loves our gratitude and it blesses His heart when we are grateful and awestruck at His goodness.  I imagine it makes Him want to bless us more, knowing how much joy it brings us, each blessing being named and thanking Him for all of them.  And last, we acknowledge God, as David did. I imagine that God loves when we sing loudly the hymn “How Great Thou Art”…don’t you?  He also loves when we list His good qualities and when we shout to all who will listen,”How great is our God!!”  There really is no one like Him!

Look back for a minute to where you have been. Only when you have been in a valley, can you really appreciate coming out. Only when you have been in bondage, do you really understand the amazing feeling of freedom. And when you see that God has been there all along and He keeps loving you and He keeps cheering you on and He never fails you, you will see that you have come a really long way and that God has brought you here. Why don’t you celebrate, my friend!  You are His heart…

Do you know this amazing God?  He knows you and He has been waiting your whole life for the moment that you surrender to Him and accept Him into your life.  Are you ready?  If so, then pray this prayer with me:

*   ~   ♥   ~   ✞   ~  ♥   ~   *

Dear God, I know that I am a sinner.  I need forgiveness.  I believe that You alone are God.  And that You have a Son, Jesus.  He came and walked this earth as a man, suffered the same things that I do, and ultimately He laid down His life for me on the Cross.  You sent Him to be my Savior, and I am asking Jesus to come into my heart today.  Please walk with me and help me to know more about You.  I love You.  Thank You for loving me.  In Jesus name, amen.

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Where Is God?

August 29, 2014 by

encouragementbloggraphicromans15

You keep track of all my sorrows.
You have collected all my tears in your bottle.
You have recorded each one in your book.
Psalm 56:8

There has been so much heartache this past week. I have heard many question where God has been lately and has He taken a vacation? And He reminds us in His Word that He is sovereign and He is to be trusted in all things. “He gives and takes away. Blessed be the name of the Lord” (Job 1:21).

In my little hometown of Jackson, Mississippi, a precious young athletic football player lost his battle and passed away.  One minute he is running down the field, the next in a hospital, and his parents and friends are devastated.  No one expected it, but His Creator knew.  In the town of Birmingham, Alabama another precious young woman is visiting home, doing laundry, and eating one last meal with her family before she heads back to school.  Her parents say it was a joyful occasion and full of laughter.  In a blink of an eye, she is with Jesus.

In Jackson young people from rival schools are coming together to pray. Across town, a young person plans a prayer vigil at a public school. The kids come voluntarily at 6 a.m. to pray for this family that they do not know.  In Birmingham, the girl’s father says that we will not call her accident a tragedy but a triumph because she is with Jesus now.

And when the question is asked, “Where is God?” the answer will be—He is exactly where He was when His own Son died on the Cross.  He is watching His children hurt; and the Holy Spirit is moving and comforting all those who lost someone and all those who don’t understand.  God is in the young people who are gathering for prayer vigils.  He is with the parents who are devastated and He will carry them when they can’t put one foot in front of the other.  He is with the family of that young woman who was taken too soon…yet…right on time. He was there when the young man’s parents donated his organs and a 14 year old got a heart.  And He is with us now.

Yay though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil.
Thy rod and Thy staff, they comfort me.

Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life
and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever. Amen.

Psalms 23:4 and 6

As His Word proclaims, He really does bottle up our tears.  The Creator of the universe keeps track of all our sorrows.  That’s how much you matter to Him.

 *   ~   ♥   ~   ✞   ~  ♥   ~   * 

Do you know this Lord, the Creator of the universe?  Do you have His hope to cling to?  If the answer is no, then I ask you to pray a prayer with me and ask Him to be Lord of your life.

Let us pray: Dear Lord, I know that I am a sinner and I need a Savior.  I believe that Jesus is Your Son.  I believe that He died on the Cross to save me from my sin.  I ask You today to come into my heart and walk with me daily.  In Jesus name I pray, amen.

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The Living Praise the Lord

October 11, 2013 by

SeekingHimLogo

The dead praise not the LORD, neither any that go down into silence.
But we will bless the LORD from this time forth and for evermore.
Praise the LORD.
Psalms 115:17-18

God is sovereign, meaning that He is completely independent.  He did not need to create us.  He does not need us for anything.  Based on this we might come to the conclusion that we are not important to God, or that we are not needed, or that we have no purpose. But, that is not the end of the story.

God tells us throughout the Scripture that we were created to glorify Him. That’s our purpose and means we are important to Him personally.

So our purpose of living is to

Glorify God   Talking about mankind in the Book of Isaiah, God says about us, “…whom I created for my glory…” (Isaiah 43:7).  God created us for His own glory.  When we are praising God it means we are glorifying Him. “I will praise you, O Lord my God, with all my heart; I will glorify your name forever” (Psalm 86:12).

How do we glorify God?

  • to glorify God means to bring Him honor through what we say, how we act, and how we think.
  • to glorify God means to acknowledge His glory and to value it above all things.
  • to glorify God means we make it known to others.
  • to glorify God means we have a heartfelt gratitude.

We glorify God through our faith and trust. We glorify God through our love. We glorify God through our desire to obey Him. We glorify God through our desire to know Him.  Therefore, my sisters, this has to be our habit when driving, doing household chores, talking among ourselves.  How sweet He is…how wonderful to us, how cared for we feel. He is such a loving Father, I tell you!

Enjoy God  Psalm 16:11 tells us, “In your [God’s] presence there is fulness of joy, in Your [God’s] right hand are pleasures for evermore.”  Hence verse 18 of Psalm 115 says “We will bless the Lord from this time forth and forevermore.”  Praising God should be a joyful thing for us to do. How do you feel when your loved one praises you after you have cooked a delicious meal?  I see many posts here on cookery and some are helped by their husbands; others tell us how their spouses have enjoyed the meal (definitely they must have uttered pleasing words). How do we feel? It feels good, huh!!  We are alive…not dead!  Let God delight in us through our praise to Him!

* * * * *

Dear God, we delight in You for who You are in our lives.  You are a Great God.  We lift our hearts in worship and with praise on our lips to You alone.  Let our praises be with sweet aroma to the glory of Your name!  In Jesus name, we have prayed.  Amen!

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God’s Guidance

September 24, 2013 by

SeekingHimLogo

May God be gracious to us and bless us; look on us with favor.  Selah
So that Your way may be known on earth, Your salvation among all nations.
Psalms 67:1-2

This psalm speaks of God’s plan for His people when he first called Abraham.  God choose this man so that through his descendants, God might become known to the nations of the world.  He intended that Israel’s reception and enjoyment of His grace and blessing would cause the pagan nations to take notice, so that they might praise Him and accept His ways of truth and righteousness.

Now the Lord had said unto Abram, Get thee out of thy country,
and from thy kindred, and from thy father’s house, unto a land that I will shew thee:
And I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great;
and thou shalt be a blessing: And I will bless them that bless thee,
and curse him that curseth thee: and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed.
Genesis  12:1-3

The declaration all throughout the Scriptures is that God cares about each of us and wants to direct our lives.  How infinitely superior His plan must be in every detail with all the wisdom and knowledge He possesses—past, present, and future—and with all the power at His disposal as the sovereign God of the universe.  The greatest evidence of God’s desire to guide our lives is found in the truth of the Scriptures.  He has given us the Bible that we might know His will and purpose in all areas of life.  This means knowing God and the life He has for us to live.  Our responsibility, by God’s own direction, is to entrust our way to Him for His direction and leading.

Proverbs 14:12 tells us there is a way which seems right to a person, but its end is the way of death.  Jeremiah also clearly states the problem of man’s inability to direct his life.  In Jeremiah 10:23 the prophet said, “Lord, we know that people do not control their own destiny. It is not in their power to determine what will happen to them.”  Because of man’s finite wisdom and ability, his limited understanding of the facts coupled with his sinfulness, man simply cannot direct his own steps. What seems right to him results in the way of destruction and death.  As man’s thoughts are not God’s thoughts, so his ways must likewise fall short of God’s perfect and all-wise plan.

We as believers should pray that God will bless us and our families with His presence, love, grace, guidance, salvation, healing power, and fullness of the Spirit in order that the lost might seek Christ’s truth and salvation through us.  The blessing is described in the New Testament as “the promised Holy Spirit” (Galatians 3:14).  Through this spirit living in us, the proclamation to the nations will achieve its desired results.

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Father, we thank You for the love, grace guidance, and wisdom You show us.  May we continually walk in Your truth for You to guide us in Your infinite wisdom. In Jesus’ name we have prayed. AMEN!

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