I am a Christian, a retired teacher, a mother and a grandmother. I love to read and I love the Lord Jesus Christ! Unless otherwise specified ,all visual illustrations are from the YOU VERSION APP of the Bible.
After almost a week of sand and sea and fun with family, we are heading home today. God never ceases to amaze me with His power, love, mercy and grace. Just sitting on the beach and watching the waves gave me a feeling of how awesome God is and how much I want His glory to shine in the earth.
This is my prayer for the earth, that it will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord. Just as I look at the endless sea as it drops into the horizon, so is God’s knowledge and glory endless and timeless. Totally unfathomable to me, but such is the truth of our God.
The waves crash against the shore and God desires to come into our heart with His power and love. But He waits to be invited. Unlike the waves, God has the power and the might, but He loves us too much to just take over our lives without our invitation.
As the sun rises over the earth each day, may the Lord shine brightly in each heart of every believer until the day in which the Lord’s glory shines over all the earth. Selah.
I am sure that if you are like me, you spend a lot of time talking to God, telling Him your problems and challenges and then waiting for an answer from Him. Sometimes, in fact a lot of times, I get impatient waiting for the answer and try to help God out. He doesn’t need my help. He just needs me to believe and to wait.
This verse says WHEN they call on Him, not if we call on Him. The expectation from God is that we will call on Him and His reply is that He will answer. He will be with us and will rescue us. I think the honor part comes in when others see that we trusted in God and He answered. All glory goes to the Father!
It is important that before we go before the throne of God with our petitions, we know what His will is. So, how do we do that? We have to immerse ourselves in His Word in order to discover what His will is. We have to have a relationship with Him in which we talk to Him daily and wait for Him to speak to us. Instead of a one-sided wish list that we present rapidly just before we get on with the busyness of our day, we need to take time to just sit in His presence and hear Him clearly. God wants a relationship with each of us, not a bunch of whiners who treat Him as though He is the genie in a bottle who will grant all of our wishes. We need to be aware of how our prayers will affect others and know that God is not just hearing our petitions but also those of millions of others (hopefully) and He has to take into account everyone all at the same time. My finite mind cannot even conceive of such power but God has it whether I can understand it or not, and He answers prayers according to His will. That thought brings me back to the first part of this paragraph. We discover God’s will be spending time with Him and with His Word.
May your prayers be answered according to God’s will and may you rest in faith and contentment knowing that God is working out things that are best for you and for the rest of His Creation.
The treasure that we carry in our hearts and souls is the message of the Gospel. Only God could have planned the salvation of all via His Only Son and only God could have been willing to see His Son sacrificed on the cross for all mankind. Only God could raise Jesus from the dead, His resurrection pointing the way for us to one day also have eternal life. This is all the power of God. There is nothing I can do to save myself, so the treasure that I have is in this earthen vessel that God created for my soul to inhabit until He calls me home to be with Him forever.
It is only by God’s sacrifice and power that you and I are being made holy. This is an ongoing process, one that will not be finished until we go to be with Him in Heaven. Thus, I thank God for His power that is working on me to help me to be more like Him.
I feel weak a lot spiritually. I mess up and have to go back and confess, repent and apologize to those I have offended. But God’s grace is always sufficient. He shows Himself powerful on our behalf when we are willing to confess that we need Him because we are weak. It’s not a bad thing to admit weakness. The bad thing is not being willing to admit it and ask God for His power to help you through whatever situation it is that requires His power and strength. When we let pride get in the way and like the toddler declare to God, “I can do it myself,” He steps back and lets us try. Let me tell you from experience that my efforts alone do not usually work out for me; it is only when I acknowledge that I need help from a Higher Power that I can receive the assistance that God has been able and ready to offer all along.
May you be blessed with the knowledge of God’s power and His loving kindness that wants to help you in all situations.
Have you ever tried to do something and before you even started, you were feeling defeated, like you just couldn’t do it? Maybe it was a chore that you dreaded and had put off so long that the task itself seemed to multiply before you. Maybe it was a difficult conversation you knew that you needed to have with someone. Or maybe it was believing for a miracle from God in your situation. God is a good God, all the time and He always wants what is best for you. Be encouraged by the Scripture today and know that if God can bring Israel back from captivity in Babylon, He can also take care of whatever you are facing today.
The same God who created all of the earth and the heavens is watching over you and waiting for you to call on His name in faith, believing that nothing is too hard for Him.
Think about this verse and let it wander around the recesses of your mind. He works within us in a way that accomplishes INFINITELY MORE than we can ever ask or even think. God’s power…not ours!
Have a wonderful and blessed day and a special weekend, filled with praise for the Lord Jesus!
I recommend that you read the entire chapter in order to get the background for this verse, but I will briefly summarize it for you. The Israelites were in the wilderness moaning about the fact that all they had to eat was manna and they wanted some meat. So, God told Moses He would provide meat for everyone to have daily. Moses pointed out to God that he had over 600,000 people there in the wilderness for him and even if they killed off all the livestock and caught all the fish available, there would not be enough to satisfy the people. The verse above is God’s reply.
Moses seemed to expect less of God because humanly what God had said would take place is impossible. After all, they were in a wilderness, far from civilization. With this one verse, God shows His power once again. To me, it sounds like he is schooling a child who just refuses to learn. But Moses has walked with God for decades by this time. He met with Him in the burning bush, went before Pharoah on God’s behalf and saw all of the miraculous signs God performed and even saw God roll back the Red Sea so they could cross over safely. So, why would he doubt God’s abilities?
I think it’s a little thing called giving human attributes to God. Many men say many things and they cannot actually fulfill what they are saying. We want to believe them, and we may even do so for a while, but then reality hits us. We hear lies every day from politicians, on both sides of the aisle. They promise to represent the people and then get to D.C. and only have their own interests at heart. Our parents promise us a vacation that never happens because money troubles come along. Our friend promises to call, but forgets once she is home again. You get the idea, right? We have been jaded by the people that we are around not to believe what we are told.
However, when God says He can do it, He really can and He really will. He fulfills all of His promises. I think sometimes we put God in a little box on the shelf, take Him down when we need something, tell Him our expectations and then when they don’t occur just as we hoped, we say to ourselves, “Well, of course, He didn’t answer.” That is what’s wrong with our faith. We aren’t letting God be God because we are busy trying to make Him into a man who will disappoint us. But when I let God be God and the prayer is not answered according to my own expectations, I know that God has a better plan for me and trust Him to roll it out for me in His timing.
My prayer for each of you today is that you will let God be God, not giving the Almighty the characteristics of fallen man but realizing that He is a perfect and loving God who desires to bless and have a relationship with us.
Have a blessed and wonderful day, remembering that each day is a gift from your Father in Heaven who wants what is best for you.
bible.com/bible/116/eph.3.20.NLT
Vickie's Book Nook and Meditation Corner 