Daily and Weekly Christian Inspiration
Philippians 4:11 for I have learned, in whatsoever state I am, therewith to be content
Dear Child,
Entering My presence with thanksgiving will build the faith you need to present your requests before Me, and without that faith it is impossible to please Me.
Without thanksgiving you will not have that ever increasing faith to believe that I am a rewarder of those who diligently seek Me.
Because thanksgiving brings to remembrance My faithfulness in the past and feeds your faith.
But ingratitude produces a complaining heart drowned in self-pity which will quench your faith.
An unthankful heart will be excluded from My presence.
In My presence is joy unspeakable and full of glory, a place you can only enter through the gate of thanksgiving! Child, be thankful!
Thus saith Papa
My Jehovah Jireh
Psalm 16:11 Thou wilt show me the path of life: in thy presence is fulness of joy; at thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore.
1 Thessalonians 5:18-19 In every thing give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you. Quench not the Spirit.
Counting our blessings and remembering His goodness and faithfulness in the past feeds and nourishes our faith BUT being ungrateful and complaining will quench our faith and gratify the weeds that the enemy has sown.
An attitude of praise is the result of a thankful heart.
Praise and thanksgiving are like Siamese twins i.e. they are inseparable.
Without thanksgiving we haven’t even entered the gate. Yet so often we try to offer praise in His court, and yet still find ourselves coldly on the outside. The only way into the warmth His presence is through the Gate of Thanksgiving.
So often we come to church with a heavy heart because of circumstances. But if only we would spend a few moments reflecting as we declare “I will remember the works of the LORD: surely I will remember thy wonders of old.” Psalm 77:11 it would give us an appreciative and thankful heart and our attitude would change, preparing us to enter the gate and into His courts with praise. As the Word tells us “the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness”Isaiah.61:3.
Please note that I did not say our circumstances would necessarily change, I said our attitude to the circumstances would change. We will no longer be under the circumstances because our sacrifice of praise will raise us above those circumstances, and we will find ourselves spiritually seated in Heavenly places in Christ Jesus. Then in His timing we will see victory because He can work with those who praise Him. A grateful heart is a soft, pliable heart in the loving hands of the Master Potter. But hearts become cold and hardened when we murmur and complain.
Yes, it is hard when we are burdened and we just don’t feel like praising God.
But isn’t that what a sacrifice is all about? Something that is costing you! What is the cost? An act of our will to choose to offer Him a sacrifice of praise even when we don’t understand the “whys?” We are actually saying with that praise, “ God, I don’t know the future but I do believe that you hold my future and I trust you with the outcome.” We call that faith and without faith it is impossible to please Him.
CHALLENGE: May we all grow to the stature of the faith of Job who declared “Though he slay me, yet will I trust in him:” Job 13:15
Page 141 “DEVELOPING A SECRET HISTORY WITH GOD”
Available from Barnes & Noble/ Amazon or a bookstore near you
The fact that I am a woman does not make me a different kind of Christian
BUT
The fact that I am a Christian does make me a different kind of woman.
“Every Sunday many are on a ‘Mission Impossible’ in search of the perfect church. All I can say is, if you find it, don’t join it, for then it will no longer be perfect! The church is made up of imperfect people, sin- ners forgiven by the grace of God. Yet many of us continue on this ‘merry go round’ of church hopping, in search of the kind of worship we like, the teaching we need, the fellowship we want etc. and all the time it is really all about where He wants us to be”.
Page 198 DEVELOPING A SECRET HISTORY WITH GOD Available also on Ebook and Kindle from Amazon/Barnes/or a bookstore near you
Dear Father,
Teach me daily to deal with offenses, in a way that will cause growth in my life and also in a way that will be pleasing to You.
Dear Child,
Offenses will always be dealt with, one way or another. Whether you think they are left hanging and undealt with or not.
They will either be a trap and stunt growth
OR
They will be an opportunity to freedom and maturity.
Your response to the offense IS your dealing with the offense.
Even if you don’t respond outwardly, your response will have a powerful effect on the heart.
Whether stored in the heart!
OR
Set free and forgiven!
Offenses not forgiven will be stored in the heart and will hold you captive as chains that tighten with each unforgiven offense.
Thus saith Papa
Luke 17:1-4 Then said he unto the disciples, It is impossible but that offenses will come: but woe unto him, through whom they come! Take heed to yourselves: If thy brother trespass against thee, rebuke him; and if he repent, forgive him. And if he trespass against thee seven times in a day, and seven times in a day turn again to thee, saying, I repent; thou shalt forgive him.
Mat 24:10 And then shall many be offended, and shall betray one another, and shall hate one another.
Since we are warned that offenses will increase in the last days in the above chapter, we need to mature spiritually and learn to biblically respond to these offenses.
Down in the basement of our hearts, just like junk in our physical basement, is junk that is cluttering our emotional life. Experiences from the past that we’d rather shut away in our sub-conscience rather than bring them to the light and deal with them, because most of them are hoarded there because of our choice not to forgive. We are keeping ourselves prisoners to those experiences but a decluttered emotional life brings freedom. When we decide to declutter our hearts and forgive we are saying “ I no longer give you the power to control who I am, how I think or how I’ll behave”.
An absence of forgiveness is equivalent to staying behind prison bars of buried hurt.
“FORGIVENESS is a MIGHTY SWORD that will cut you free”….Broadway Show- Jane Eyre
CHALLENGE: What cords of past hurts and offenses are entangled in your emotional being, robbing your spiritual life of the breathe of freedom? Set yourself free today from those cords of the past with the SWORD of FORGIVENESS. Name them one by one as you sever them from your being that you might be able to walk to freedom from the past!