I WILL BE STRONG!

Psalm 95:6 Come, let us worship and bow down. Let us kneel before the LORD our maker,

7 for he is our God. We are the people he watches over,  the sheep under his care.

  Oh, that you would listen to his voice today! 8 The LORD says, "Don't harden your hearts as Israel did at Meribah, as they did at Massah in the wilderness. 9 For there your ancestors tried my patience; they courted my wrath though they had seen my many miracles. 10 For forty years I was angry with them, and I said, `They are a people whose hearts turn away from me. They refuse to do what I tell them.' (NLT)

Read Psalm 95

When we read the Old Testament and the history of the Israelite's we see a people who made plenty of mistakes.  What we should also see is ourselves, and the many times we have refused to do what God is telling us.  In this Psalm, there is a call to be different from the early people of God.  We have a new opportunity, by the power of the Holy Spirit to be obedient.  We have to make a choice, a choice to make God proud and not angry.  Everyday we are challenged to choose.  We must choose to please the Lord Jesus, and not our flesh.  We must choose to please God, and not satan by our nasty attitude and behavior.  We have a choice of whether we are or are not going to sin against God, and if we are going to rely on the Word of God and the power of the Holy Spirit to enable us to make the right choice for Christ.

I don’t know about you, but I don’t want the Lord looking down and shaking His head at me saying, “How many times must I give her this test?”.  I want to pass the test, and I WILL NOT be weak and subject to my flesh.  The Word says that greater is He that is in me, than he that is in the world.  Do you believe it?  I know sometimes we don’t act like we do; BUT today make the right choice that shows that you do!  Declare that you will NOT be in the “they” that refuse to do what the Lord tells you (v10).  Declare that you WILL BE strong in your discipleship, and walk in all that the Lord has for you!  

Jesus thank you for helping us, strengthening us, encouraging us, and teaching us.  In Your MIGHTY name we pray, AMEN.  

The God Influence

@2015  A Poem from "I" Can Relate: How Not to Lose Yourself in Relationships

Who has influenced you?

God wants to…

What has defined you?

Until you read God’s word,

You won’t know the truth.

What do you think of yourself?

You were created by God himself.

His love will define you.

His love should influence you.

His love is always thinking of you.

His love is waiting on you.

WLS

The Danger of Deep Sleep!

Jonah 1⁵ All the sailors were afraid and each cried out to his own god. And they threw the cargo into the sea to lighten the ship.

But Jonah had gone below deck, where he lay down and fell into a deep sleep. (NIV)

When I read this I was immediately intrigued…I have been where Jonah is, as part of my process with God.  See we might look at Jonah and judge him.  We might look at the other sailors and say “why are they crying out to gods who can’t help?” All of these are valid perceptions, but we have to look with our spiritual eyes.  We don’t know Jonah’s story up to this point, we just know that God has told him to go and do something he REALLY does not want to do!  I have been there too.  We don’t know what Jonah’s has been through or where he is in his God process. He might be waiting on God to do something in His life.  He might be in a long season of wait, dealing with trials and tribulations.  I know that when I get spiritually weary, all I want to do is go to sleep and make it all go away.  I can imagine that is where Jonah was.  Make it go away.

I. Don’t. Want. To. Do. It. God.

At least the sailors were doing something.  They were at the crying out stage.  Jonah was just done.  When we are in that place we have to understand the danger of giving in to the deep sleep.  We can get stuck there.  It might look like depression.  We might wonder why we are so tired and can’t catch up on sleep.  Whatever the symptoms, the root cause is weariness in our spirit.  The only thing that will cure it is perseverance and obedience.

The Holy Spirit will empower us to move forward.  Get up.  Even if it is not pretty.  So I encourage you today if you are feeling that your trail has been too long, persevere and do whatever is next to do.  Even if you don’t think you have the strength, God will give you the strength if you wake up, get up and cry out to Him.