God Understands Me

Hebrews 4:15 (The Message)

We don't have a priest who is out of touch with our reality.

Jesus Christ Is in touch with our reality!!  That is so good to know when we are going through difficult things.

When you stop to think about it, Jesus was rejected, dragged into court and lied about, spit upon and tortured.  People wanted to murder Him, they emotionally and physically abused Him, etc.  I would say that He does understand what we are going through because He went through it all first.

The Bible says that He became a man so He could understand what we are going through.  It also says that when we come to Him, He will pour out mercy and grace for our situations.  

So whatever you are going through today, know that Jesus is aware of it, He went through it Himself so He understands it, and …….. here’s the best part---are you ready???

He is bringing you right on through it!! The Bible says that He always causes us to triumph if we come to Him.

GPS  (God’s Directions)

• Hebrews 2: 14, 17
• Philippians 2:7 (New Living Translation)
• Hebrews 2:17

Prayer Focus:

Spend some time thanking Him for going through all of that for you so you could be victorious.  Thank Him for understanding first hand, all that you are going through.

 God Word is Alive!

Hebrews 4:12 (New International Version)

 ¹² For the word of God is alive and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart. 

The Bible is truly God’s Word and it alive. After receiving Christ and His Holy Spirit, the words in the Bible come alive as a personal message to us. 

The truth comes off the page and wraps itself around our hearts.  It’s here that we  recognize the lies that we may have allowed ourselves to believe.  The knife that goes between the joints and the marrow is the same knife that goes between the truth and the lies.

What we believe to be true influences how we think, how we feel, how we act, the choices we make, etc.  The result is disillusionment, depression, despair, in that order.

If you have invited Jesus Christ to be your Lord and your Savior, you have the Spirit of Truth available to you day and night.  He’s the One who encourages you with the truth of God’s promises.  You are not alone and you have the wonderful words of life available to you!

GPS (God’s Directions)

• John 1: 12-13 NIV
• John 6:63  NIV
• John 16:13  NIV

Prayer Focus:

When you sit down to read and pray, thank God for His Holy Spirit who is right there with you.  He is the One who divides the truth from the lies.

 Today I Believe

Hebrews 4: 7 The Message

God keeps renewing the promise and setting the date as today……..Today, please listen, don't turn a deaf ear . . . 

God’s Word is filled with many wonderful promises that are designed to bring us peace and joy. As we focus on God and what He has said and not on the adverse situation, our faith is strengthened.   Every morning we say, “Today is the day!”

We are the ones that bring life into what He has said in His Word.  When we say “Today my situation turns a corner for good.”  “Today I receive my healing, according to Matthew 8: 16-17 which says that you took my infirmities and bore my diseases.”  “Today is the day of salvation.”

Each day is a new day to renew in your heart and mind to all that God has said—all that He has promised.  Thats why I encourage you to keep a journal of the things God is telling you.  Then you can encourage yourself by going back over it.

God is saying, “Don’t turn a deaf ear.”  This is a new day and the promises that He made yesterday are active and new for today.  Remember God is not keeping it from you; He is keeping it for you.  When we praise Him for that powerful truth, it brings us into personal fellowship with Him—and that’s where He gives us the next personal promise.

GPS  (God’s Directions)

• 2 Corinthians 6:2
• Romans 4:20
• Psalms 22: 3 New Living Translation

Prayer Focus:

Speak to God in faith and start each sentence with, “Today I believe ……….”

              Encourage Yourself In God

1 Samuel 30:6 (New International Version)

⁶ David was greatly distressed because the men were talking of stoning him; each one was bitter in spirit because of his sons and daughters. But David found strength in the LORD his God. 

Have you ever felt “greatly distressed?”  I am sure we all have at times.  It’s at these times we can either go under our circumstances or over them.  We have the choice of taking the low road or the high road.  The low road is when our emotions take control.  Remember the last time you did that?  What was the outcome?  Even more distress, right?

The other choice is the high road.  That’s when we look up and see God holding out His hand to us.  We can grasp His hand and let Him help us get on top of our circumstances.

Which one is easier?  Which one is better?  

It’s always easier to naturally let our emotions run wild.  But if we would stop and remember what happened the last time we took that road, we might stop and say, “Not going there!!”

The better way is always to go with God!  His way always leads to peace—and it ends in joy—no matter what you are facing.

David was in deep trouble, but he encouraged himself in God and found his strength there.  You can too!

GPS  (God’s Direction)

I Samuel 30: 1-20

Proverbs 16:3  Amplified Bible

Romans 15:13

Prayer Focus:

Commit your distressing situation to God and see how He makes you successful right in the middle of it.

        Confident in God

Isaiah 50:7  (New International Version)

Because the Sovereign Lord helps me, I will not be disgraced.  Therefore have I set my face like flint, and I know I will not be put to shame.

This promise has the word “CONFIDENCE” written all over it. The first few words indicates that we can have a relationship with the Lord.  We can get to know God’s character by having experiences with Him.  As we partner with God and spend time with Him, we’ll get to know Him personally.

Then comes the promise:  “I will NOT be disgraced.”  Two meanings for the word disgraced are “humiliated” and “shamed.”  Without God in our lives these words can easily become part of our vocabulary and our experience.  But with God we can have the confidence that as we trust Him, He will keep us from being humiliated and disgraced.

It is then that we can set our faces like flint.  In other wards we can depend on God and not be moved off of our trust in Him.  When we lean totally over on Him and His ways, He will keep us from shame.

GPS  (God’s Directions)

• Exodus 14:13
• II Samuel 22:34
• Psalms 9:10

Prayer Focus: 

Spend some time making a list of those areas of your life that you need to turn over to God.  In your own words, release each one to God.  You may have to release them daily—until you have full confidence that they are in God’s hands.

A Soft Heart

Ezekiel 11:19 (Amplified Bible)

¹⁹And I will give them one heart [a new heart] and I will put a new spirit within them; and I will take the stony [unnaturally hardened] heart out of their flesh, and will give them a heart of flesh [sensitive and responsive to the touch of their God],

When bad things happen to us, we tend to put a guard up around our hearts so that we don’t get hurt again.  We protect ourselves and in doing so, we lock God out of our lives. If our hearts hurt, we don’t want anyone touching it. However, if we allow God to heal us of those hurts, our hearts become soft and subtle again.  It’s then that we can feel God’s loving and gentle touch.

God is so gentle and He knows exactly what happened to us and He wants to heal it for us.  He wants us to allow Him to remove each layer of protection that we have used in the past so that He can get to the source of the pain and heal it.  He will take it one layer at a time and He won’t go past what we will allow Him to do.  Let’s let Him get to the heart of the matter and let's allow Him to take out our hard hearts and replace them with a soft heart that recognizes His gentle touch.

GPS  (God’s Directions)

Hebrews 13:5 Amplified Bible

Ezekiel 36: 26-27                 

Jeremiah 24: 7

Prayer Focus:

Father, keep my heart soft and pliable in Your hands and help me to respond to Your gentle touch.

     Help Me, God

Zechariah 4:6 (New International Version © 2010)

 ⁶ So he said to me, “This is the word of the LORD to Zerubbabel: ‘Not by might nor by power, but by my Spirit,’ says the LORD Almighty. 

Have you realized how heavy “life” can get when you are trying to figure everything out?   I certainly have!  And in addition to coming up with our own solutions and our own plans, we then try to do it all ourselves.  And then after we do that and have no peace,—“life” gets heavier yet!!  

Actually His Word says that He will never leave us.  I suppose that never actually means never!!  So if I am busy in my day and come up against some obstacle or something where a decision is required, I could just say, “What do I do here?” —- and actually expect an answer??

Here’s a thought——maybe we should begin to  train ourselves to wait on the answer.  To give God time to show us what He wants and how He wants things done.  I know from my experience that if I purpose to wait, I don’t have to wait very long.  Waiting, however is something that doesn’t exactly come naturally in this day and age, but when I choose to do it, the outcome is well worth it!!

GPS  (God’s Directions)

• Hebrews 13: 5-6
• Isaiah 40: 31
• Isaiah 41:10

Prayer Focus:

Thank God for His willingness to partner with you today—to show you the way, to show you how to do things and to carry the load of your cares, as you give them to Him.