Unexpected faith.[ Luke 4 v 14 - 30 ]

It is Philip Yancey who writes of ,/ Faith appearing where least expected, and faltering where it should be thriving/, we see this throughout the bible, the religious esablishment often failed miserably to manifest faith, while the poor exercised tremendous faith, in fact the Bible tells us that God has chosen the poor who are rich in faith [James 2 v5 ]. Are the poor at greater advantage than those who are not poor?, I do not think so,and yet mybe they are ,in that they usually have no option other than God, they have no resources other than God, so in their need they look to God in faith,their minds are focused on Him, they know no one else can help them, so in the name of Jesus they pray, and God answers.While this is so , God is no respector of persons,it is not their poverty that qualifies them ,but their faith, so today let faith arise, let faith ask, let faith act. [Father in heaven You have saved us by grace through faith, and You have called us to live by faith, grant us the ungoing grace to fufill this, in Jesus name , Amen ]

Take up your cross. [ John 21 v 15 -23 ]

To be true to Jesus is not easy, and of course He never said it would be, I love the honesty of Jesus, it was Winston Churchill that told the people of Britian, in their darkest hour, that he had nothing to offer but,/blood, toil, tears and sweat/. Jesus says follow me, and that will mean taking up a cross, it will mean denying oneself , it will mean walking the narrow way.It will mean going on when it appears easier to give up, it will being faithful in situations in which you want to run away from,it will mean choosing Gods way instead of your own,it may mean, blood, sweat and tears, and having no one to wipe your tears. Am I exaggerating?. Whatever path we are having to travel in following our Master, remember He is with us, He will not forsake us,come what may,He will help us, and even fill us, with peace and joy, but most of all a sense of His presence, in the words of Ira Stanphill,/be faithful , weary pilgrim, The morning I can see, Just lift your cross and follow close to me.[ Dear Lord Jesus sometime we struggle as we follow You, sometimes we feel frustrated, and discouraged, today we ask that You will help us to be faithful to You, pour in Your grace into our lives, Amen ]

Trustworthy. [ Matthew 25 v14 -30 ]

Trust is one of the most important things in life, when trust is gone, then the relationship is in trouble. In marriage trust is vital,if you break that trust ,the marriage may not survive, it is possible it can ,and some marriages do.The question is ,am I a trustworthy person?,we like to think so, am I trustworthy with money?, if God has entrusted us with whatever, then He has done this for a purpose.Consider the person of Christ , He was intrusted with the salvation of mankind, and He proved totally trustworthy, if we are not saved , we can call on Him to save us, and He will prove true to His word, that whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved. One can trust Jesus not only with ones life but with ones eternal destiny.Today let us be like Jesus , let us be trustworthy, in all aspects of our lives, in the unexpected, or in the ordinary course of life. [Father we thank You , that You are trustworthy in all things, help us to be like You, in Jesus name we ask this Amen ]

Dont forget [ Philippians 4 v6-7 ]

In our busyness we are inclined to forget to pray, an old hymn had these words,/ ere you left your room this morning, did you think to pray?/prayer should not be a legalistic thing, it is a vital aspect in our relationship with our loving heavenly Father. God wants us to know a close personal relationship with Him, it is for our benifite, and prayer is important in the development of this. So today pray ,it will make a difference in your life, if you have a need then pray about it, ask and you shall recieve,if you are facing difficulties, pray about it, there is nothing to difficult for the Lord, He says call upon me in the day of trouble,I will deliver thee, and thou shalt glorify Me.[ Psalm 50 v15 ] So today , dont forget to pray. [ Dear Lord help us to pray, help us to see how important it is to spend time in prayer, grant us the grace we need to pray we ask this in Jesus name ,Amen ]

Look up. [ Psalm 121 ]

Many people when they are walking look down, there may be advantages in looking down, one may find the odd coin, the most I have found was twenty pounds, and of course when you look down, you wont trip up. Looking down may often reflect how we feel, it indeed may reflect that we are feeling down, that we are oppressed, it is called body language. In Psalm 121 we read, / I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills [Mountains],/ it does not stop there, if we stop at the hills or mountains, we will be overwhelmed, the mountains in our lives can cause us to despair, look beyond your mountain of despair, to your God in heaven,remember our help comes from the Lord . So today, right now ,look up to the one who is able, and willing to come to your aid, stop letting the enemy oppress you, and start believing in the one who said,/ Look unto me , and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth, for I am God, and there is none else. [Isaiah 45v 22 ][ Almighty God help us today to look up, beyond all our difficultes,beyond all our problems, and trust you to undertake for us, in Jesus name we ask this, Amen ]

Healing. [ Psalm 147 ]

It is surprising where one can find inspiration from, I was watching a dvd of Poirot the Belgium detective, and it ended by him saying, / There is nothing so damaged that it cannot be repaired by the hand of God/. There are so many damaged people in this world, so many suffering from hurts, from childhood,broken relationships,we all carry a few bruises from being hurt. I love those words from Psalm 147 v3, which read ,/He [God] heals the brokenhearted/,it is the hurts of the heart that are so hard to deal with, for often we keep them hidden, and we dwell on them, and we carry them with us wherever we go. The Lord who looks on the heart knows everything, not only knows, but He can with His healing power touch us ,and heal us, in Exodus 15v26 , we read,/ For I am the Lord who heals you/. [Dear God we bring ourselves to You with all our hurts , and we ask that You would heal us, of those hurts that we carry with us, we ask this in Jesus name . Amen ]

The Sovereign Spirit [ John 3 v 8 ]

There is an old hymn which reads,/ I know not how the Spirit moves/, which means we cannot control Him, or manipulate Him, no He is sovereign. In John 16 v8, our Saviour said the Spirit would , convict the world of sin. and of Gods righteousness, and a fear of coming judgement. As we look at this world there is such a lack of conviction, people are so oblivious to God,is there hope?, the answer is, I do not know. What I do know is that the Holy Spirit is sovereign , unless He moves nothing is going to work, , and at this time it appears that He has choosen not to work. Being Sovereign he will choose as to how and were He will work,in all this we are reminded,that we cannot dictate, to Him, but we can plead with Him, in Jude v 20, we are told to pray in the Holy Spirit, this is something we all can do, and need to do, if we are going to see the Sovereign Spirit , moving, in peoples lives, and bringing them to a saving faith in Christ. [ Sovereign Spirit we ask that You would begin to work in the lives of our loved ones, our work colleagues, our neighbours, come Holy Spirit, save precious souls, we ask this in Jesus name Amen ]