A quick encouragement for today!

I was just having some prayer time about some difficult circumstances that may be coming my way and I wanted to share something that God showed me. Maybe it will encourage you today as well.

God showed me that He often allows obstacles in our lives to give us the opportunity to work on, improve, and learn from weaknesses that we all have within ourselves. He loves us so much that He doesn't want us to remain captive to our weaknesses and insecurities. It is because He loves us and wants more and better things for us, and from us, that these obstacles appear.

In the 'Streams in the Desert' devotional for today it states, "We encounter giants only when we are serving God and following Him. It was when Israel was going forward that the giants appeared, for when they turned back into the wilderness, they found none" (June 29th, page 253).

The bible says we can ask for His help when we lack the knowledge of how to deal with a situation. (James 1:5) So, when we put it all together it means that, when we encounter obstacles we can thank Him that they are there, because that means He is helping us resolve something in ourselves. We can thank Him that we are on the right track, because it is only when we move forward with Him that we encounter these issues. And, we can thank Him that He will give us the knowledge and wisdom about how to handle these issues if we bring them to Him in prayer! Wow, God is good!

Great Value!

"So don’t be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows." Matthew 10:31

Throughout the Bible God isn’t just saying I Love You, He is also saying I Value You. According to Vine's Concise Dictionary of the Bible value means, ‘to excel, to differ from, & honor’(p. 399). God is saying as His children we are set apart from people who don’t believe in Him. He also says that because we do believe in Him, and His only Son Jesus, we are honored in His sight (Isaiah 43:4). Sometimes it is a battle to believe that God values us because we have a hard time valuing ourselves. However, it is important to know that we are important to Him and He does value us because we are His children (Romans 8:15-16), and we are precious to Him. He will never abandon us. He cannot. That would be against His nature (2 Timothy 2:13).

The Lord will be your everlasting light, and your God will be your glory. Is. 60:19

Read More:
Luke 12:6-7

Prayer:
Father, I know that a battle involves perseverance. Help me choose to believe your Word again and again, even when I don’t feel it.

Plan of Action (James 1:22-25):
Choose to believe God loves and values you. Memorize Matthew 10:31 or Luke 12:7.

Fickle

Verse: Acts 10:34-35
Then Peter began to speak: “I now realize how true it is that God does not show favoritism but accepts men from every nation who fear him and do what is right.”

It is funny how we can be in a person’s favor one minute then seemingly in the very next minute we can find ourselves very much our of their favor, even becoming and outcast. Jesus himself is well acquainted with this phenomenon. The people of His time were praising Him and waving palm branches one minute, then a short while later were yelling for His crucifixion.
Losing someone’s favor hurts, yet to be completely truthful it would be dishonest and even unhealthy to try to remain in someone’s favor at all times. Remaining in someone’s favor would mean extraordinary efforts on our part, never knowing if those effort were going to be good enough; or on the other person’s part undeserved and untruthful praise and adoration. The eventual outcome of both sides of this fence are a big let down and all the emotions that go with that; depression, self-doubt, and feelings of worthlessness. The only way to recover from the turmoil that the fickleness of others inflicts is to recognize the character of God. He is loving, patient, kind, merciful, and truthful, but He is never fickle. Therefore, we never risk losing His love.

It is helpful to know what God says and thinks about us. He says, we are made in His image (Genesis 1:27), we are a royal priesthood (1 Peter 2:9), and we are precious and honored in His sight(Isaiah 43:4). We never risk losing His love!

Your love stands firm forever!

Prayer: Lord, help me forsake the praise of others in favor of praise from you.

Action Plan (James 1:22-25):
Review Genesis 1:27, 1 Peter 2:9, or Isaiah 43:4. Pick one of these verses and memorize it.

Read More:
Galatians 1:10 & Romans 2:11