Believe God Is Our Rewarder

Good, good stuff below and is a much needed little devotional for the times we are living in.

As it appears the darkness is getting darker, and we sink into it as we get our eyes off of God and put them on what is occurring in our daily lives instead, we need to get a new believe.

And that belief should be God is not only our rewarder but also will go above and beyond to show it we just need the eyes to see what God is indeed doing.

He won't fail us but promises to bring us through.

God Bless.

Believe That God Is Your Rewarder

Hebrews 11:6 6

But without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.  

Most people quote only the first part of Hebrews 11:6 — “without faith it is impossible to please Him”. Yet, it goes on to say, “for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him”. In other words, the faith that pleases God is the kind of faith that believes that God exists and that He is a rewarder. The Bible also says that “faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen”. (Hebrews 11:1) So even in times of difficulty, when we don’t see good things happening in our circumstances, we are to believe that God will turn things around and reward us. God turned things around for Ruth, the Moabite widow, when she believed the Lord and made Him her God. (Ruth 1:16) The Bible tells us that she was given a “full reward” by the Lord when she came under His wings for refuge. (Ruth 2:12) Not only did He give her protection, He also gave her abundant provision, exceeding favor and a glorious redemption. (Ruth 2:9–17, 3:11, 4:10– 13) When Rahab, the harlot of Jericho, heard reports of how the Lord had opened up the Red Sea for the children of Israel, she believed that “He is God in heaven above and on earth beneath”. (Joshua 2:9–11) 

Though Rahab had not personally witnessed the miracles, she believed God and hid the Jewish spies from their pursuers. (Joshua 2:4–6) Because of her faith, she not only did not perish with those who did not believe (Joshua 6:25, Hebrews 11:31), but she was also given a place in the “hall of faith” in Hebrews 11. God was so pleased with the faith of these two Gentile women that He not only blessed them in their lifetimes, but He also put them into the genealogy of His Son Jesus Christ, the great Redeemer and rewarder. Beloved, when you come to the Lord with your needs, believe that He is God, and that He is a rewarder. God has pleasure in this kind of faith. He wants to be the rewarder of your faith in Him! 

Thought For The Day The faith that pleases God is the kind of faith that believes God exists and that He is a rewarder.

-Author Unknown 

Stuck

We can not afford to stay stuck where we are. The world is in choas and is need for true, authentic Christian's to rise up and take back what God has given us. 

And He has given us the earth to have dominion over it and my question is, are we? I don't think so.

We are allowing satan to do whatever he wants because we are stuck living our daily lives and not allowing God to.work through us. We need to get over it and live our lives God intended...to dominate and be an overcomer as well as a witness to a lost and dying world.

God Bless.

Stuck 

Scripture Reading: Luke 18:1-8 Jesus told his disciples a parable to show them that they should always pray and not give up. - Luke 18:1 

Have you ever been stuck? Imagine you have an adversary who is making your life extremely difficult. Certified letters come in the mail, and you are summoned to a court hearing. You have prayed, and it seems that God is not acting on your behalf. You ask God, “If you are my Father, why don’t you help me?” In the court room, the judge adds insults to your injury and has no empathy for you. Where do you turn? Jesus told a parable about a woman in a situation like that, to show his followers that they should “always pray and not give up.” The woman wanted what was rightfully hers. And yet she appeared to be powerless, without money or connections to bail her out, and she lost case after case. But she continued to bother the judge. This harsh judge, who didn’t care what God or people thought, finally acted on her behalf, and she received what was rightfully hers. In the midst of hopelessness in this world, Jesus promises hope in a far greater courtroom, where he defends his own. He says, “Will not God bring about justice for his chosen ones, who cry out to him day and night? Will he keep putting them off? I tell you, he will see that they get justice, and quickly.” 

Followers of Christ are called to be persistent in the midst of adversity, for we have a mighty Advocate who comes to our defense! Prayer: Lord Jesus, thank you for giving us hope in our dark times as we wrestle against adversaries. Hear our prayer and act quickly on our behalf. Amen. 

John Kuperus https://today.reframemedia.com/devotionals/stuck#noredirect

What It Means To Bless God

Everyone wants God to bless them but have you taken a minute to think about what it means to God if we started to bless Him instead?

I think He would be delighted in hearing us bleas Him and not ask for anything ourselves even though this world has gone mad right now and we could use all the help we can get right now.

Maybe it should become a nation wide dare to stop focusing on our troubles and what is happening right now and just focus on blessings Him. I wonder where we would be in just seven days.

Won't you join me?

God Bless.

What It Means to Bless the Lord 

What It Means to Bless the Lord

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• Devotional by John Piper

Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me, bless his holy name! (Psalm 103:1)

The psalm begins and ends with the psalmist preaching to his soul to bless the Lord — “Bless the Lord, O my soul” — and preaching to the angels and the hosts of heaven and the works of God’s hands that they should do the same.

Bless the Lord, O you his angels,
you mighty ones who do his word,
obeying the voice of his word!
Bless the Lord, all his hosts,
his ministers, who do his will!
Bless the Lord, all his works,
in all places of his dominion.
Bless the Lord, O my soul!
(Psalm 103:20–22)

The psalm is overwhelmingly focused on blessing the Lord. What does it mean to bless the Lord?

It means to speak well of his greatness and goodness — and really mean it from the depths of your soul.

What David is doing in the first and last verses of this psalm, when he says, “Bless the Lord, O my soul,” is saying that authentic speaking about God’s goodness and greatness must come from the soul.

Blessing God with the mouth without the soul would be hypocrisy. Jesus said, “This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me” (Matthew 15:8). David knows that danger, and he is preaching to himself. He is telling his soul not to let this happen.

“Come, soul, look at the greatness and goodness of God. Join my mouth, and let us bless the Lord with our whole being. Soul, we are not going to be a hypocrite!”

#SolidJoys http://dsr.gd/18Sb0mU

Could You Not Terry For An Hour

My new prayer walk right below. If you have never prayed or struggle with it like I have, then this is for you.

God Bless.

Could You Not Terry For an Hour?

The One Hour Prayer Cycle has 12 five minute segments.
You might want to set a 5 minute timer on your phone that will remind you when to move to the next segment.
You might want to copy, paste, and print these instructions for each segment, you can always click back to this devotional section if you need a reminder on what to do with each scripture, or use 2 devices.
You might want to do this all alone or try it with a few friends.
Get your heart ready to pray by looking through these instructions for each part of the prayer cycle.   
1. Praise - Psalm 34:1 - Start your prayer hour by praising the Lord. Praise Him for things that are on your mind right now. Praise Him for one special thing He has done in your life in the past week. Praise Him for His goodness to your family.
2. Wait - Psalm 27:14 - Spend time waiting on the Lord. Be silent and let Him pull together reflections for you.
3. Confession - Proverbs 28:13 - Ask the Holy Spirit to show you anything in your life that might be displeasing to Him. Ask Him to point out attitudes that are wrong, as well as specific acts for which you have not yet made a prayer of confession. Now confess that to the Lord so that you might be cleansed.
4. Read the word - Revelation 1:1-20 - Spend time reading the word. The Psalms, in the prophets, and passages on prayer located in the New Testament are great.
5. Petition - Hebrews 4:16 - Ask or make requests on behalf of yourself.
6. Intersession - Romans 15:30-33 - Ask or make requests on behalf of others.
7. Pray the word - Psalm 119:38-46 - Pray specific passages. Memory verses, scriptural prayers, as well as a number of Psalms lend themselves well to this purpose.
8. Thanksgiving - Philippians 4:6 - Give thanks to the Lord for the things in your life, on behalf of your family, and on behalf of your church.
9. Singing - Psalm 59:17 - Sing songs of praise or worship or another hymn or spiritual song.
10. Meditate - Psalm 63:1-11 - Ask the Lord to speak to you. Have a pen and paper ready to record impressions He gives you.
11. Listen - I Samuel 3:9-10 -  Spend time merging the things you have read, things you have prayed and things you have sung and see how the Lord brings them all together to speak to you.
12. Praise - Psalm 145:1-13 - Praise the Lord for the time you have had to spend with Him and the impressions He has given you. Praise Him for His glorious attributes.
Invest about 5 minutes practicing what each of these verses instruct us to do and you will be surprised how quickly a whole hour in prayer will go.

-Author Unknown

Read Scripture

Interesting take on the importance of the word of God. Makes you look see it in a different light, this is my hope and prayer.

God Bless.

Men and women who read and study the Scriptures for their literary beauty alone have missed the whole purpose for which they were given. God’s Word is not to be enjoyed as one might “enjoy” a Beethoven symphony or a poem by Wordsworth. The reason: the Bible demands immediate action, faith, surrender, and committal.

Until it has secured these, it has done nothing positive for the reader, but it has increased his responsibility and deepened the judgment that must follow. The Bible was called forth by the fall of man. It is the voice of God calling men home from the wilds of sin; it is a road map for returning prodigals. It is instruction in righteousness, light in darkness, information about God and man and life and death and heaven and hell. Further, the destiny of each individual depends upon the response to that Voice in the Word! Verse The word of God . . . is sharper than any two-edged sword. Hebrews 4:12 Thought The Bible demands immediate action, faith, surrender, and committal. 

Prayer Lord, may my response to Your Word be one that will make its words like sweet music to my ears. May the yield of the seed of Your Word be righteousness in me.

-Author Unknown 

Here's The Deal

Amen, amen, and amen!

God Bless.

Here’s the deal: when we act like someone we’re not, it’s because we’re not happy with who we are. We usually think we need other people’s permission or love or approval before we can live our lives and pursue our beautiful ambitions. It’s both good and bad. It’s good if it causes us to want to pursue Jesus’ love and approval more. But it’s bad if we miss out on who God uniquely made us to be so we can be who someone else thinks we should be.  God has never looked in your mirror or mine and wished He saw someone else.

Every time we fake it and aren’t authentic, we make God’s love for us look fake too. He doesn’t have a wax figure of us somewhere that looks smarter or taller or shorter or skinnier or more ripped than us. He doesn’t want us to just look different. He wants us to become love. It won’t be because we talked about who we wished we were over and over again or because we gave ourselves enough positive affirmations in the mirror. Only love has the power to get us there. God is not shaking His head in disapproval as we make our way toward Him. He’s got His arms outstretched, welcoming us home to Him with love. I bet if we could hear what He’s thinking, we’d hear Him whispering, “You’ve got this. Just keep moving toward Me.” Do you want to do something amazing for God? Trade the appearance of being close to God for the power of actually being close to God. Quit talking a big game and go live a big faith. One of Jesus’ friends said if we want to get it right, we need to live a life worthy of the calling we’ve received. The call is to love God and the people around us while we live into the most authentic version of ourselves. We weren’t just an idea God hoped would work out someday. We were one of His most creative expressions of love, ever. Lose the wax. Don’t fake it; sync it up. Go be you.

-Author Unknown

Remember Him Always

We must never forget the Lord or what He has brought us through especially now. We need to hang on to Him for dear life as these day's of uncertainty continues.

He will not fail us. He will not forget us. However, may we never do this to Him in return. Remember, He is worthy!

God Bless.

Deuteronomy 6:10-12 When the Lord your God brings you into the land he swore to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, to give you—a land with large, flourishing cities you did not build,  houses filled with all kinds of good things you did not provide, wells you did not dig, and vineyards and olive groves you did not plant—then when you eat and are satisfied,  be careful that you do not forget the Lord, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery. Israel is being promised a future. They will enter the promised land, and will reap the accomplishments and treasures of other peoples, according to the sovereignty of God. The blessing and abundance that is promised comes also with a warning: "beware, lest you forget the Lord who brought you out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage."

Whatever your circumstances, wealthy or not, remember the Lord your God and teach your families about Him. Israel would fail at this task time and time again throughout history. Lord, may we learn from these stories and remember You always!

Verse/Commentary courtesy of 'Verse-A-Day' android app. http://www.verse-a-day.com/Apps