{"id":21334,"date":"2014-08-20T00:20:15","date_gmt":"2014-08-20T04:20:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/?p=21334"},"modified":"2014-08-19T22:01:44","modified_gmt":"2014-08-20T02:01:44","slug":"strength-shield","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/2014\/08\/20\/strength-shield\/","title":{"rendered":"Strength and Shield"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"SeekingHimLogo\"<\/a><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

1\u00a0<\/span>Lord<\/span>, You should receive the honor, not us.<\/span><\/span>
\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/span>The honor belongs to You<\/span><\/span>
\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/span>because of Your faithful love and loyalty.<\/span><\/span>
\n2\u00a0<\/span>Why should the nations wonder<\/span>
\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/span>where our God is?<\/span><\/span>
\n3\u00a0<\/span>Our God is in heaven,<\/span>
\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/span>and He does whatever He wants.<\/span><\/span>
\n4\u00a0<\/span>The \u201cgods\u201d of those nations are only statues<\/span>
\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/span>that some human made from gold and silver.<\/span><\/span>
\n5\u00a0<\/span>Those statues have mouths, but cannot talk.<\/span>
\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/span>They have eyes, but cannot see.<\/span><\/span>
\n6\u00a0<\/span>They have ears, but cannot hear.<\/span>
\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/span>They have noses, but cannot smell.<\/span><\/span>
\n7\u00a0<\/span>They have hands, but cannot feel.<\/span>
\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/span>They have feet, but cannot walk.<\/span><\/span>
\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/span>No sounds come from their throats.<\/span><\/span>
\n8\u00a0<\/span>The people who make and trust in those statues<\/span>
\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/span>will become like them!<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\n
\n

9\u00a0<\/span>People of Israel, trust in the\u00a0Lord<\/span>!<\/span>
\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/span>He is your strength and shield.<\/span><\/span>
\n10\u00a0<\/span>Aaron\u2019s family, trust in the\u00a0Lord<\/span>!<\/span>
\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/span>He is your strength and shield.<\/span><\/span>
\n11\u00a0<\/span>Followers of the\u00a0Lord<\/span>, trust in the\u00a0Lord<\/span>!<\/span>
\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/span>He is your strength and shield.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Psalms 115:1-11<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

What does it look \u00a0like to love God with all of your strength? \u00a0Mark gives us great advice:<\/p>\n

To love Him with all your heart,
\nwith all your understanding
\nand with all your strength,
\nand to love your neighbor as yourself
\nis more important than all burnt offerings and sacrifices.
\nMark 12:33<\/p>\n

For me, this is easy to do. Obedience is where I would say I fail. Obedience is where I should choose to study His word and not give into distractions. Obedience says not to place my expectations on\u00a0others. Obedience is forgiveness of others. Obedience is forgiving myself. When our heart becomes aligned with God’s truths then all else will fall into place.<\/p>\n

Sometimes it is stepping out in faith when we feel that we are called to fulfill a calling on our lives. God will honor our choice to be obedient and reward us. We will be laying up our treasure in heaven by submitting to His will. I hope to see my ‘mansion’ in heaven. I do not think I would mind a small one, but then, I am not sure I would stay in that building because I would want to be in His presence all day.<\/p>\n

In John 14 Jesus says,<\/p>\n

\u201cDo not let your hearts be troubled.\u00a0You believe\u00a0in God;\u00a0believe also in me.<\/span><\/span>\u00a0\u00a0<\/b>My Father\u2019s house has many rooms; if that were not so, would I have told you that I am going there\u00a0to prepare a place for you?<\/span><\/span>\u00a0\u00a0<\/b>And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back\u00a0and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am.<\/span><\/span>\u00a0You know the way to the place where I am going\u201d (Verses 1-4).<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

What a comforting passage to us. We know the story and how Jesus died on the Cross and was raised in three days. \u00a0To the robber who was crucified alongside of Him, Jesus told the man he would be with Him in paradise. Jesus, always thinking of others, not of Himself.<\/p>\n

\u00a0*<\/span>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0~ \u00a0 \u2665 \u00a0 ~\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u271e\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0~ \u00a0\u2665 \u00a0 ~ \u00a0 *<\/span><\/p>\n

Father, thank You for Your Scriptures. \u00a0Thank You for teaching us and showing us Your heart. Help us become more like Jesus—obedient, loving, kind, and always thinking of others. \u00a0Not to be blind, but to have compassion, to have discernment, and wisdom. Wisdom in knowing how to help someone or when to refer them to someone else. \u00a0Thank You. In Jesus’ name, Amen.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

1\u00a0Lord, You should receive the honor, not us. \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0The honor belongs to You \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0because of Your faithful love and loyalty. 2\u00a0Why should the nations wonder \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0where our God is? 3\u00a0Our God is in heaven, \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0and He does whatever He wants. 4\u00a0The \u201cgods\u201d of those nations are only statues \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0that some human made from gold and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":23,"featured_media":13840,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[3020],"tags":[7098,3367,1287,425,3451,5001,7096,7074,3174,7097,1071],"class_list":["post-21334","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-daily-devotions","tag-being-like-jesus","tag-daily-devotions-2","tag-gch","tag-girlfriends-coffee-hour","tag-jesus-example","tag-john-141-4","tag-mark-1233","tag-psalms-1151-11","tag-seeking-him-devotional","tag-strength-and-shield","tag-tina-marin","entry"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/08\/SeekingHimLogo.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p39pHp-5y6","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21334","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/23"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21334"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21334\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":21368,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21334\/revisions\/21368"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13840"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21334"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21334"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21334"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}