Encouragement

Have you ever pondered the vastness of God's sovereignty over your life, my life, your child's life, our state, our country, our world, the universe? It is absolutely mind boggling!

It is a daily discipline to keep my mind stayed on that reality as life changes and times shift in ways I cannot predict. How often lately I have had to keep reminding myself of Who God is and how able He is to handle anything that comes my way. Not only is He able to handle it, He is never surprised by anything... He is not controlled by time or space constraints, He is completely aware of everything, all the time, everywhere AND He controls it all.

God's word tells us:

"The earth is the Lord's, and all its fullness, the world and those therein. For He has founded it upon the seas and established it upon the waters." Ps. 24:1-2

"The Lord sat enthroned at the Flood, and the Lord sits as King forever." Ps. 29:10

"The Lord brings the counsel of the nations to nothing; He makes the plans of the peoples of no effect. The counsel of the Lord stands forever, the plans of His heart to all generations... The Lord looks from heaven; He sees the sons of men. From the place of His dwelling He looks on all the inhabitants of the earth. He fashions their hearts individually; He considers all their works."
Ps. 33:10-11,13-15

My dear sisters, lets walk in the light of truth, God is sovereign and our God reigns. He is more than able - Hallelujah!

Faith founded on God's Sovereignty

Faith needs to be founded on God's sovereignty.

1) Recall past victories - often the battlefield is in the mind, don't cave in to fear, doubt or misbelief. Shift your focus from the lies of the enemy to God and His infinite ability. Set your heart, mind, will, and emotions on the truth of God's words- use scripture memorization.

2) Reexamine and reaffirm your motives - Is it for personal gain or God's glory?
Victory comes from surrendering my life and desires to Christ. Ask these questions:
~What is my motivation?
~What is God's purpose for me?
~What's really going on here?

3) Reject discouraging words - turn your heart toward God, He is your ultimate encourager.

4) Recognize the true nature of the battle - It is God versus Satan... God wins! (I Sam. 17:45-47)

5) Respond to the challenge with positive confession - speak the truth of God's word to yourself and others. Remember your testimony of faith.

6) Rely on the power of God for the victory - you can do all things through Christ who strengthens you (Phil. 4:13)

7) Reckon the victory - face circumstances with confidence and hope. It is God's ability that is the source of victory. Trust in Him and tap into the eternal force that cannot be constrained!

(This is an excerpt from my journal dated 10/5/00 - I'm not sure who the source is... but I pray it will be an encouragement to you anyway.)

Recognizing Truth

Recently I was in a group session at a Christian conference that was focused on "God". "God" took on many names - some Biblical and some from other religions. After writing out all the names on the chalkboard, we began to call out character traits that we attached to "God". The group had varied responses. I was genuinely curious to see how this session would turn out because the speaker was called a Christian. As it progressed the ideas about "God" presented by the speaker were not Biblically accurate although there was a bit of truth in there. My daughters and I sat in that room amazed at what we were hearing.

As I shared in an earlier post, we are studying through I John. John was writing to the church in response to the gnosticism that was infiltrating the church from within. What a timely study for us and how soon we were exposed to false teaching! With our I John study is a DVD to watch after each lesson - we watched that DVD 3 days after we had this experience. Several times we stopped the DVD and had quite animated conversations. How grateful I am that we have been in the Word together and that we recognized the errant things that we heard.

I share this because truth is from the Word of God and if we do not dig in to the Word of God, we will not know truth. We will be easily deceived. Our minds and spirits are quickened by the Holy Spirit as we meditate on the Word daily. It's a lot like training for a marathon: runners must run every day, eat the right diet, and stay on their training circuit in order to be able to successfully complete the marathon. As true believers we must run the race every day, feed on the Word of God, and stay on course (the narrow path) in order to successfully complete the race set before us. Let's put on our running shoes and diligently run after truth!

Names of Jesus, the Messiah

As I looked through an old journal I found a list I had made of the names for the Messiah, Jesus. I found them to be encouraging so I thought I would share them with you. What an awesome Savior I have!

Wonderful Counselor Isaiah 9:6
Mighty God Is. 9:6
Everlasting Father Is. 9:6
Prince of Peace Is. 9:6
Son of Man John 6:27
Bread of Life John 6:35
Light of the World John 8:12
Door of the Sheep John 10:7
Good Shepherd Ps 23:1; John 10:11
The Resurrection John 11:25
The Way John 14:6
The Truth John 14:6
The Life John 11:25, 14:6
The True Vine John 15:1
The Lamb of God Rev. 5:8
The Root Rev. 5:5, 22:16
The Offspring of David Rev. 22:16
The Bright and Morning Star Rev. 22:16
The Son of God John 20:31