Confidence

Should we have confidence in God, ourselves, or both? The stuggle to find to proper attitude towards confidence, especially to find more confidence in God.
Read More...Teach me your way, O LORD; I will walk in Your truth; Unite my heart to fear Your name. ~Psalms 86:11
Should we have confidence in God, ourselves, or both? The stuggle to find to proper attitude towards confidence, especially to find more confidence in God.
Read More...I will MAGNIFY HIM with thanksgiving.
I know we are traveling through a difficult passage of life right now, there is a lot of scary, and negative news out there. It may feel like God is far away. I ask you to answer this question for yourself, is God big or small to you?
I will magnify Him with thanksgiving.
In our lives it’s very easy to get focused on all of the things that are not going our way and if we are not careful they can consume us to believe that nothing is going our way. And we begin to question, doubt, and distance ourselves from God.
“Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling; for it is God who works in you both to will and to do for His good pleasure. Do all things without complaining and disputing, that you may become blameless and harmless, children of God without fault in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, among whom you shine as lights in the world, holding fast the word of life, so that I may rejoice in the day of Christ that I have not run in vain or labored in vain.”
Philippians 2:12-16 NKJV
It can start out very simply, and very quickly escalate us into feeling as though our whole life is a mess, and we lose our lights. I will keep this thought short and sweet to remind you to look at the life around you and notice what you do have rather than what you don’t, be thankful to God, take time to consider what He has done for you up to this point and do your best to be thankful for Him…
Even in our trials we can be thankful…actually we are told we can have joy and glory in them, because God is making us stronger!
“My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience. But let patience have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing. If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all liberally and without reproach, and it will be given to him. But let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for he who doubts is like a wave of the sea driven and tossed by the wind. For let not that man suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord; he is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways.”
James 1:2-8 NKJV
“Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom also we have access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God. And not only that, but we also glory in tribulations, knowing that tribulation produces perseverance; and perseverance, character; and character, hope. Now hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us.”
Romans 5:1-5 NKJV
MAGNIFY HIM
“For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the LORD, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope. Then you will call upon Me and go and pray to Me, and I will listen to you. And you will seek Me and find Me, when you search for Me with all your heart.”
Jeremiah 29:11-13 NKJV
Make a list of what you are thankful for, if you have heard the song count your blessings, think of it! Each one of us have been blessed in different ways, it will do us no good to compare our blessings with the blessings of others because then that can make you envious, and ungrateful for the life that God has given you!
“A sound heart is life to the body, But envy is rottenness to the bones.”
Proverbs 14:30 NKJV
Count YOUR blessings and you will find that God is nearer to you than you realized! He loves YOU so much, let His love motivate you each day, to be a worker for Him, to learn to be self less, and Magnify Him and praise Him for what he has done for YOU each and every day.
“I will bless the LORD at all times; His praise shall continually be in my mouth. My soul shall make its boast in the LORD; The humble shall hear of it and be glad. Oh, magnify the LORD with me, And let us exalt His name together. I sought the LORD, and He heard me, And delivered me from all my fears. They looked to Him and were radiant, And their faces were not ashamed. This poor man cried out, and the LORD heard him, And saved him out of all his troubles. The angel of the LORD encamps all around those who fear Him, And delivers them. Oh, taste and see that the LORD is good; Blessed is the man who trusts in Him! Oh, fear the LORD, you His saints! There is no want to those who fear Him. The young lions lack and suffer hunger; But those who seek the LORD shall not lack any good thing. Come, you children, listen to me; I will teach you the fear of the LORD. Who is the man who desires life, And loves many days, that he may see good? Keep your tongue from evil, And your lips from speaking deceit. Depart from evil and do good; Seek peace and pursue it. The eyes of the LORD are on the righteous, And His ears are open to their cry. The face of the LORD is against those who do evil, To cut off the remembrance of them from the earth. The righteous cry out, and the LORD hears, And delivers them out of all their troubles. The LORD is near to those who have a broken heart, And saves such as have a contrite spirit. Many are the afflictions of the righteous, But the LORD delivers him out of them all. He guards all his bones; Not one of them is broken. Evil shall slay the wicked, And those who hate the righteous shall be condemned. The LORD redeems the soul of His servants, And none of those who trust in Him shall be condemned.”
Psalms 34:1-22 NKJV
Gardening with God and planting seeds in life, how is your soil? How are you growing? Do you have what you need?
Read More...I know right now there is so much information about the corona virus, or COVID 19, this is not an informative post about that. But seeing as we as humanity, are facing this epidemic together, I think about how we can overcome something that each one of us whether infected or not is dealing with in some way or another and that is stress, anxiety, worry, and fears and at the end of this post my goal is for this to encourage, to offer hope, light, truth, something to trust in, something to grasp on to, but also a reminder of the seriousness of our souls.
With everyone of us, dealing with this differently, in our own way, each one of our lives have been impacted in some way or another,
So if you are reading this, I understand compared to some people, my life has really not been impacted much by this… our home life hasn’t faced too much change, because I’m a stay at home mom, homeschool to a certain degree, 1 kid in public school, and for the last 11 years every 2 weeks our routine gets changed up… but that is a routine in itself at this point.
Now I won’t say I have it all figured out by any means, because I would be lying if I didn’t say this hasn’t shaken me a little bit, I have read news articles, I have heard of the deaths, seen the numbers, the closures, and the stores, it all feels kind of eerie at times… watching life shut down so quickly. Feels crazy.
I couldn’t imagine being a person who has lost a loved one over this time, in my life I have never lost someone so close to me yet, I have never felt full blown grief before, so to think that we could face that in a time like this, feels kind of scary, the uncertainty of it all…
One winter a few years back I was driving home in a snow storm it was dark outside, white our conditions, pretty much all I could see was the road directly in front of me, if I stopped moving I would not make it home, but moving forward was so scary because I could not see far ahead…I traveled this road many times before, but in white our conditions it doesn’t matter, the road is still scary you don’t know where your going….all you can do is DRIVE SLOW…
Driving slowly, being cautious, understanding the conditions of this life are not always going to be certain, they feel pretty stormy right about now. But humanity is doing it together, and you know there are some sure things that we can grasp on to in times like this.
Our steering wheels still work, but we can choose whether or not to grab them, we choose to push on the gas peddle, and we choose the speed we still want to go.
We have One God who can help us get through this storm. I have noticed that who you follow has a lot of affect on how you will handle this storm,
One little comment of panic, really can escalate my fears,
But one re assurance of hope, light, and truth,
I have tried to limit my exposure to the panic at this time just as much as I limit my exposure, to germs.
You know this also got me thinking though, we can see that this virus is clearly doing something but the scariest thing about it, is that you don’t know where it is, all you can see are it’s effects, the lives it touches.
We’re making big changes in account of this virus, out of fear for our lives or the lives of the ones we love, and humanity.
We are desperately waiting for the antidote, the cure… an ease to our worries, but what if it is already out there. God is our antidote even though we can’t see Him doesn’t mean we can’t be saved through Him. I tell you, stop thinking about the fact that you can’t see Him, learn a lesson from this virus, we have learned that it has effected people, and we are willing to make changes on account of that…
God also has done the same, but so much more, we will read all the news articles about the corona virus, but will we read the Good news of the gospel, you can even do your research and find out that those events actually happened, you can find out that Jesus really came to this earth, you can find out that he died, but he rose again, so that those who rest assured in His truth, have nothing to fear not even death, not even a virus (now this is not saying we should not be cautious)! And if that is not enough there is story after story offering hope to Gods people, the people who make the choice, that is the key! To follow Him!
But we the people, struggle to believe, struggle to surrender, we are so quick to hand ourselves over to “other gods”
Other comforts in times of trouble, we have no faith…we are afraid but we will not surrender because we can be so stubborn
My family and friends aren’t doing it neither will I…
They always did things this way…So I’m going to follow in their footsteps, and trust what they trust do, or what they did…
I just don’t get how a God so loving can allow sickness in the world I just don’t believe in it…
Well okay,
But you will makes changes for your life on account of a virus that you can not see, but what happens if it infects you,
What happens if you are faced with death, I don’t want to make this a negative blog post but I want it to be real,
We have confidence in the preserved Word of God!
We can have confidence in His power! Especially His saving power!!
And because of that confidence we can make changes in our life, which especially in times like this allow God into our lives to give us strength to overcome the panic and the fears….
So I’m going to give you some scriptures to read to offer hope, encouragement, and most importantly TRUTH during these troubling times, my friends God is in control, as always I pray that you would desire the truth, yes these times can be troubling, but Gods promises are so much greater than the troubles of this life. If you don’t seek them in times of trouble I pray that you would. And I’m here if you need anything please let me know!
First things first let’s remember the words of this verse, in order to keep your mind strong, this is how you grasp on during a storm….
“Finally, brethren, whatever things are true, whatever things are noble, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report, if there is any virtue and if there is anything praiseworthy—meditate on these things.” Philippians 4:8 NKJV
But if you were to imagine death in the absolute worse possible way, (Jesus’s death on the cross)
We today are sitting in our homes because of a virus that is killing people, I know we are calling our nurses and doctors hero’s because they are risking their own lives for the sake of saving the sick….
Think on a larger scale here, not to downplay their heroism by any means but let’s not forget who the real hero is here, the one who actually took on the most gruesome death for saving our souls, for giving us freedom and don’t for a second doubt that he felt every last bit of that pain, suffering, and burden for you,
We are told that he was so stressed he was actually sweating blood…
saying, “Father, if it is Your will, take this cup away from Me; nevertheless not My will, but Yours, be done.” Then an angel appeared to Him from heaven, strengthening Him. And being in agony, He prayed more earnestly. Then His sweat became like great drops of blood falling down to the ground.” Luke 22:42-44 NKJV
His heroism is to be glorified most of all
Because he took this on willingly, but not without pain, suffering, agony, sorrow, hunger, he felt every one of our deepest fears to the core, he understands what we’re going through right now as we face some of these fears ourselves in life,
He may have died, but he died to prove something to us, eternal life, death, is just a crossing over to a far better place, a place without fears, pain, sorrow….
if you are not confident in this please make every effort you can to gain that, it is attainable, but it takes Your effort! It’s not something you wish upon yourself it’s something learned through, study, prayer, faith trust,
And obedience to the Word of God,
Please ask yourself honestly this question:
“But take heed to yourselves, lest your hearts be weighed down with carousing, drunkenness, and cares of this life, and that Day come on you unexpectedly.” Luke 21:34 NKJV
These things are DISTRACTIONS from,
Knowing Him,
And letting Him know you,
Let Him into your fears,
Surrender your struggles turn away from any vice that replaces God,
Because we are in some troubling times now, but they could be a lot worse,
There is still time to find hope to cling on to,
There are still means to be saved eternally,
It’s not a forced decision, it’s a choice.
But if you never choose it, you never receive it… if you don’t care to know about Him,
He will never know you.
“Many will say to Me in that day, ‘Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?’ And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!’ “Therefore whoever hears these sayings of Mine, and does them, I will liken him to a wise man who built his house on the rock: and the rain descended, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house; and it did not fall, for it was founded on the rock. “But everyone who hears these sayings of Mine, and does not do them, will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand: and the rain descended, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house; and it fell. And great was its fall.” Matthew 7:22-27 NKJV
Don’t fall because you decided to never hear the Word of God. And you never let God hear you….
And for one last read I won’t post it on here because it is lengthy, but the power lies in GODS WORD and in your willingness to learn and know this for yourself and act upon it>>> not just read across a verse here or there but you open it up yourself and read it for yourself, Romans chapter 8, all of my verses have come from the New King James BIBLE (NKJV)
Please reach out if you need encouragement or help durning these challenging times I would absolutely love to help if I can, but more than me reach out to God because He is so Good!
🙏❤️
Beverly