Matthew 6:11 says “Give us today our daily bread.”

We need to ask for our portion, portion of what you might be wondering. Well, I think it encompasses a few things, the most obvious being our daily supply of food, water, clothing etc. We all have just enough that is needed for each day for our bodies to be healthy, our minds to be sharp and focused, our energy to be sufficient for each task. Is there anything else we have need of on a daily basis? I can think of a few.

I need enough faith to walk through whatever this day holds. When I awaken I have no idea what lays ahead of me, before the end of a day I could receive some bad news about health, family, friends. I could myself be in an accident or someone I love could. Illness could suddenly come upon me or someone dear to me, and the list could go on. All these things require me to have enough faith to trust that God has all of it, He will not leave or forsake me during any of these situations or hurts. Hebrews 13:5 “Never will I leave you; Never will I forsake you.” What comforting words.

I have had moments where I have wondered, where are you God in this situation? Why is this happening to me? I don’t like it and I do “NOT” want to go down this path. I am afraid. And in those moments God steps in and reminds me that the faith I have is the faith He has given me, and if it were not enough, I would receive more from his hand. We serve a gracious and giving God. He knows our every need, even down to the size of our faith.

I also need enough joy for the day. Let’s face it, some days are just hard. Not in the something horrible has happened or I got bad news like I was talking about before, but just a bad day where multiple issues have come against me, some large some small and I just feel tired and unhappy. That is when I need the ‘joy of the Lord” to be in me, running over into my everyday issues. Joy is not the same as happiness. Circumstances dictate our happiness, but joy is something rooted deep inside of us, it has come from the goodness of God who has forgiven us of our worst sin to our least sin. It comes from the deep reservoir of our faith walk with Christ. On my worst days, I still feel an overwhelming joy in my heart, knowing I am not alone and that God can and will see me through, no matter what the circumstances.

I also need enough wisdom for the day. We live in a media-frenzied, social world where we see and hear so much stuff 24/7. Nothing seems hidden anymore and much of it can be overwhelming, especially if you are not grounded in God’s word and have the wisdom and knowledge his word gives us to decipher what you hear. There are all kinds of religions, teachings going on and we need the wisdom to know when we hear something that goes against God’s true word.
The Holy Spirit enables us to hear and understand. He grows us in wisdom and knowledge, when we spend time reading God’s word and letting it sink deep into our hearts and minds. I know I have heard many “a flake” on TV and the radio. What they said simply had no meat to it and just enough truth to confuse a weak baby Christian.

Well, I can think of several more “daily bread” things, but I will leave you to gather your own and thank God that we always have “enough” of all the things we need. [Not Want] God is in the business of growing us, leading us, showing us himself, if we look closely we will see him in everything, even the mundane. This makes my heart glad, my joy rise and my faith stronger.
In other words [enough]. Blessings!

Do you ever feel like you are stuck in winter? Not the ‘it’s cold outside I need a wrap’ kind of stuck, but my soul feels frozen kind of stuck. Life is just hard, circumstances feel overwhelming and you just do not feel The Lord near.’ You almost wonder ” Where is God”; does he even hear me. I think everyone has seasons of winter in their walk with The Lord, those times when even prayer seems hard. I know I have. God does not tell us life will always be sunny and warm, easy going and full of fun. His word does promise trials of many kinds, mini winters if you will where we will have to hunker down and rely on what we know to be true, rather than our feelings.

I have had several seasons of winter in my walk with Jesus, times when I was convinced He just wasn’t aware of my circumstances or simply did not care that I was in a desperate place. I felt as though my prayers were hitting the ceiling and falling back down to the ground. I became timid to even go to my Father and pray, unsure of whether I was praying wrong or he simply was not listening to me. It has been in those times that these truths from scripture have sustained my soul until summer came again.

Psalm 121:1-2, “I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills, from whence cometh my help. My help cometh from the Lord, which made heaven and earth.” You can rest assured, help is on the way.

Psalm 27:14 ”Wait on the Lord: be of good courage, and he shall strengthen thine heart: wait, I say, on the Lord.” It is in these time that we feel the inner strengthening of the Lord, our hope begins to rise. Courage is just around the corner.

Proverbs 3:5-6,”Trust in the Lord with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths.” God will always direct our path, and we can look back at all the times he has helped us, kept us, heard us, showed us which way to go. His faithfulness on display.

Psalm 91:1-6, ”He that dwelleth in the secret place of the most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty. I will say of the Lord, He is my refuge and my fortress: my God; in him will I
trust. Surely, he shall deliver thee from the snare of the fowler, and from the noisome pestilence. …4 He shall cover thee with his feathers, and under his wings shalt thou trust: his truth shall be thy shield and buckler.
5 Thou shalt not be afraid for the terror by night; nor for the arrow that flieth by day; 6 Nor for the pestilence that walketh in darkness; nor for the destruction that wasteth at noonday.” He covers us, even when it does not feel like we are being sheltered, we are. Without Christ, it would be so much worse. He will deliver us, maybe not when we think he should, but when he thinks it is time.

Winter comes to each of us, we just need to remember that we are not alone He is always with us holding us, hiding us, helping us. Our spring will return and with it a more real understanding of the keeping power of Jesus and all the ways he is near to us, ever faithful ever true. It is never his desire to crush us, but to remold and remake us into a greater likeness to himself. He uses our winters like sandpaper to smooth the edges of our souls and make the Springtime and Summer all the brighter and more fruitful.

If we were always on the mountain top we would not appreciate the view so much. We would get so used to it that it became ordinary to us. Sometimes a valley is just what our souls need, to crowd us ever closer to our Lord and make us all the more appreciative of those mountaintop moments.
Praise God for His mercies are new each and every day and His grace is sufficient for every season of our lives.

If God were to ask you to do something without telling you any details ahead of time, but he promised he would help you to do it, would you? Without knowing what it would cost you, how long it would take, how hard it might be? We see in scripture where God asked much of many without telling them ahead of time all that would be required and yet they said yes and blindly followed.

We have wonderful examples of others who have gone before. Let’s look at a few examples. How about Mary? Here she is just a child being asked to do a really hard thing, to give up her wants for God’s wants. To risk it all … how did she respond? Luke 1:38 tells us: 38 “And Mary said, Behold the handmaid of the Lord; be it unto me according to thy word. And the angel departed from her.” Mary responded with a resounding yes!

Mathew 4:18-20 tells us about Peter and his brother, it says: 18 ”And Jesus, walking by the Sea of Galilee, saw two brothers, Simon called Peter, and Andrew his brother, casting a net into the sea; for they were fishermen. 19Then He said to them, “Follow Me, and I will make you fishers of men.” 20They immediately left their nets and followed Him.”

Stephen was willing to lay down his life for Christ. He believed that God was with him and would not forsake him. Even when his yes required his life scripture tells us that he was obedient to his “yes” and as a result, he was rewarded. Acts 7:55 says this: “But he, being full of the Holy Ghost, looked up stedfastly into heaven, and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing on the right hand of God.” Stephen knew where he was going and had faith that he was not alone even in
death.

We as believers are filled with The Holy Spirit which gives us power outside of what we ourselves can muster up in times of need. When we say yes to Jesus when we jump out of the safety of the boat into the unknown we can rest assured that we are not alone. Our God will empower us by his spirit.

Acts 1:8 says: “But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judaea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth.” We as believers have the Holy Spirit in us, helping us say yes to all God has for us, knowing that He is able to do in us and through us all he wants. We are to be obedient to do and he is faithful to fill us and take what we bring to fulfill his will. I want to be a yes person, how about you?

I realize there are times when my “yes” does and will cost me more than I had imagined. Sometimes my “yes” is inconvenient and hard to do. Yet, I have always found that saying “yes” to the Lord, being inconvenienced for him, having my heart broken or some other thing is always worth whatever it has cost me. Even in this life, He gives us those moments of unimaginable blessings that say to our Spirit “well done.”

I do not do anything as a means of getting something from God, however, I already know that when I do it, it is his good pleasure to give back to me in some way, big or small. I am his child and he loves me, but the greatest thing he has given me and I will have forever is eternity with him. Yes, is worth that, Yes is a good place to start. Yes, will give us more than we imagined. Say yes and see what God will do! Give him your “best yes!”

1 Peter 3:3-5, 3 “Wives, in the same way, submit yourselves to your own husbands so that, if any of them do not believe the word, they may be won over without words by the behavior of their wives, 2 when they see the purity and reverence of your lives. 3 Your beauty should not come from
outward adornment, such as elaborate hairstyles and the wearing of gold jewelry or fine clothes. 4 Rather, it should be that of your inner self, the unfading beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is of great worth in God’s sight. 5 For this is the way the holy women of the past who put their hope in God used to adorn themselves. They submitted themselves to their own husbands.”

I hear so many ladies today saying that they will respect their husbands when he earns it! Now, this sounds like a good idea if we are living by the world’s view of marriage, but if we desire to live by God’s word and God’s way we are commanded in scripture to respect him. It does not say he must earn our respect or that we have other options.

I am sure you are thinking, this is hard to do especially if he does not conduct himself in a way that makes you want to respect him or even try. Let’s face it we all have moments where we are not shining, being our best, saying kind things.

I made up my mind to not say negative things about my husband ever, to anyone, but the Lord. My goal is not about pleasing him, my goal is to please my Lord. Our relationship with our spouse is a mirror of our relationship with God. I made the choice to be submissive, not a doormat as so many believe, but, submissive and respectful of my husband’s place as head of our home. If I cannot submit to him, then I will struggle with submitting to God. I need to be aware that the things I do and say matter to my husband’s spiritual well- being.

I am blessed to be married to a strong man of God, who is very conscious of his actions and words, however, I was married once before to someone and that was not how he was. I had times where I did not feel respect, but I gave it anyway. So much so that when we did divorce people were shocked. I never shared anything that would make him look bad to others. I respected him because God said to.

Now for several of you out there, finding out I am on a second marriage might send you into a tailspin, that is okay. We all have ghosts in our closet, I just keep mine dressed and looking good in case they need to come out and parade around. It is in the past, forgiven and redeemed by my Lord. End of story! Side note: He and I are friends and have a very good amicable relationship. Why, because it pleases the Lord when we forgive as he tells us to!

If your spouse is not a believer obviously you want him to be, how very unattractive Christianity must be for a man married to a believer and his wife is disrespectful and argumentative; Do it for God. Our goal in life is to please our Lord.

You can trust God with his heart. Pray for him, prayer is our most powerful weapon and one we do not employ as often as we should. Show him Jesus by what you do and say! If you know you have not been showing respect, repent and start now, it is never too late it may be the very thing that makes him seek the Lord and be saved.

Proverbs 21:21

“Whoever pursues righteousness and unfailing love will find life, righteousness, and honor.”

What does it mean to pursue “righteousness?”When we pursue righteousness we are going after, living daily a life that is pleasing to God. Our actions speak loudly to the world around us about what we believe about Christ. It speaks loudly to our relationship with Christ. If we are daily behaving in ways or saying things that are contrary to scripture, what are those around us thinking, not only are we embarrassing ourselves, but we are not being a good representation of the one who saved us.

When we “find life” we are discovering fundamental truths about ourselves, about our character. As we grow in the wisdom and knowledge of Christ and our relationship to him as his children, the Holy Spirit begins to grow us and change us to look more like Jesus. We discover that the things we used to do are not as attractive to us now. Maybe some sin that used to reign in our lives now seems unbearable, we cannot contemplate doing it again. We are made new, changed from within, we have “found life.”

So, now “honor”, what does it mean to have honor given to us? We hear many times about someone having an honor bestowed upon them for something they have done, we hear things like “You are an honor to our profession.” Maybe this person who received such words does a good job, with much integrity. Maybe we hear about someone who has died with honor. I am sure they were willing to give their lives for what they believed in, they were unwilling to compromise their integrity or truth. In other words, when honor is given it is given because the person has earned the respect of others by their behavior or their efforts in a particular field etc…We honor people in places of authority, because they have earned those places by either good and right behavior or good grades.

We receive these things by being called “children of God”. Once we become him we are given his righteousness, his life in us, his honor, not because we are something, but because he is all of these and more. True repentance and faith make us want to pursue a life that is Christ-like in all we do. We suddenly find ourselves wanting to please the one who has saved us from all our unrighteousness.

Jesus was driven by his love, He was moved because of the love he was willing to pour out. He was perfect and holy in every way. On our own, we are none of those things, but with Christ in us, we can daily be transformed into the image of Christ, we can daily do those things that please him. We may never know the impact our actions have had on those we are around and come in contact with. Maybe our honesty in dealing with someone will cause them to stop and think about Christianity in a positive light rather than a negative one, which is how much of the world sees it. Again, I am reminded that sometimes we are the only Bible someone reads.

Do you pray for fellow believers? Are we loving the flock of Jesus as we should? Lifting one another up in prayer, encouraging one another, loving one another? If not, shouldn’t we?

We see Paul saying this in Colossians 1:9-12 “For this reason, since the day we heard about you, we have not stopped praying for you. We continually ask God to fill you with the knowledge of His will through all the wisdom and understanding that the Spirit gives, 10 so that you may live a life worthy of the Lord and please Him in every way: bearing fruit in every good work, growing in the knowledge of God, 11 being strengthened with all power according to His glorious might so that you may have great endurance and patience, 12 and giving joyful thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of His holy people in the kingdom of light.

When someone tells me that they have been praying for me I cannot express what joy and comfort that gives me. Whether or not there is something going on and I am in serious need of prayer or not, I need prayers. I want my fellow believers to pray for me. Our world is a hard place to live in, we need grace upon grace to be able to make right decisions and to stay strong in the Lord. We need a lot of endurance to run this race, we most certainly need to grow in our wisdom and knowledge of God.

I try really hard to pray often for my fellow believers, especially those I know have some struggle they are dealing with. Many times if someone asks me to pray, I do it right then, why wait. I do not want to forget and let’s face it sometimes if we put it off we do forget. I want to be more diligent to just pray for my fellow believers in Christ. To speak their names in the throne room of Heaven as often as I can. I know that Jesus intercedes for us and he wants us to intercede for one another. Paul is a good example to follow.

The next time someone comes to mind even if it is just a good thought about that person, whisper a prayer for them. Ask the Holy Spirit to encourage them, help them, grow them, bless them. These are just a few things to mention. It does not have to be grand or long, just sincere. Not only will they be blessed by it, you will be blessed by it and I am sure that when our Lord hears our prayers for one another it pleases him to see and hear his children getting along and loving one another.

Let’s all try to be more aware to just lift one another to Heaven. We may not always know a specific thing to pray about, but just a prayer for more wisdom etc…will do!

Lord, Right now I want to lift before your throne the person reading this. I ask you to bless them this week. I pray that your Holy Spirit will lead them to a greater knowledge of who you are. I pray that they will feel you near and will be encouraged in their walk with you. May they find themselves more forgiving of others frailties and patient in any trial they may be going through. May their love overflow toward you and toward their fellow man and may the light of Christ shine forth from them so that others are drawn to you. Hold them as only you can I pray. In Your Great and Mighty name Jesus, I pray, Amen

Let’s face it we live in a society of very impatient people and many of them have very bad attitudes! You sit at a light too long and somebody is going to blow their horn at you, you accidentally bump someone trying to get around them and you get an angry glare. Children are disrespectful and demanding, not all, but a lot. This is no longer a gentle society. Very few people want to take the time, and if they do they let you know they don’t like it!

I personally hate if I find myself being inpatient or having a bad attitude, I do not want to be that way and I make every effort to be very aware of how I am treating others, regardless of how they treat me. There are some very important Scriptures pertaining to patience & attitude, let’s look at some.

1 Corinthians 13:4-5 ”Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs.”

Ephesians 4:2” Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love.”

Romans 12:12 “Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer.”

Colossians 3:12 “Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience.”

Galatians 6:9 “Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up.”

Is your love patient? Kind? Self -Seeking or easily angered? Are you joyful? Are you companionate, humble, gentle? Do you get quickly wearied when doing for others? Do you boast about how great you are, or what you have accomplished? Do you keep a record of wrongs, or are you instantly forgiving; even when an “I am sorry” is not forthcoming?

These are questions I have asked myself and you need to ask yourself. We are to have the attitude of Christ, we are to treat others as he treated them, he commands us in his word to love others as we love ourselves. Do you, do I? Do the behaviors we have on display each and every day draw others to Christ or do they give him a “black eye” to those watching. Jesus can draw people to himself without us, but many times he uses us. Are you a tool he can trust to behave in a way that sheds a positive, holy light on Christ and your relationship with him?

We all have a bad day, maybe we were not as loving, forgiving, patient as we should have been, but this should be the exception, not the norm. I am not perfect, LOL and many of you say, “you got that right sister”, but I am very aware that I am representing my Lord, on a moment by moment basis and just maybe someone is watching. Does your walk make being a Christian look like a good thing or a not so good thing to a dying world? When we act like the world, why would they feel the need to be any different then they are? Maybe it is the time we dole out more patience with people, show a little more love and kindness and be the first to forgive a wrong and do our best to make it right.

Maybe as you looked at these words you felt shame or conviction because you know that you have failed in one or all areas, the good news is this; you can tell the Lord you are sorry, you can ask him to forgive you, to empower you by his Holy Spirit to have the attitude of Christ, his love is long-suffering, patient and good. His word tells me that we have new mercies every day, I see each new day as another chance to get it right. The greatest thing we can do for our family, for those who are watching us, for our world that is perishing, is live like Jesus did, love like Jesus did, forgive like Jesus does, and be the difference! It can start with a simple smile instead of a scowl…

Do you ever feel as though you’re stuck on the sidelines, never really getting to join in? Or maybe it’s just the sideline of life, everyone else seems to have it all together and you feel you don’t. Everyone else seems smarter, better, prettier, more handsome, more talented and the list could go on and on. You find yourself wondering what’s wrong, is there something I’m missing, or is it just a ruse of the devil to make you think all these things. Let’s face it no matter how pretty, accomplished or talented you may be there is always someone prettier, more accomplished and more talented. Trust me I get it, most days I feel like an Ogre at a beauty contest.

I have often wondered if maybe I was the only person God created that he actually said oops after he finished. Maybe my insecurities stem from comments made to me when I was growing up like, ” you are never going to look like anything”, “you are like a bull in a China shop “or” you are the clumsiest person I know “and” I do not think you could pass the classes.” Let me just say these are just some of the comments that took the wind out of my sails. All said in jest, but still leaving their mark on me.

What does one do when they feel this way? Look to God’s word and see just what he thinks of
you. That”s what! You will find in John 3:16 For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life and 2 Corinthians 5:21 says, “For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him”. So, we see that he loved us so much he took our sin, gives us his righteousness and went willingly to cross for us. In Psalm 139:1-4 we find this; “O Lord, thou hast searched me, and known me 2 Thou knowest my downsitting and mine uprising, thou understandest my thought afar off. 3 Thou compassest my path and my lying down, and art acquainted with all my ways. 4 For there is not a word in my tongue, but, lo, O Lord, thou knowest it altogether.” Psalm 139:17 “How precious also are thy thoughts unto me, O God! how great is the sum of them!”

And lastly, we find in Genesis 1:31 this: ” And God saw everything that he had made, and, behold, it was very good. God was very pleased with all that he has created you and I and everything we see, he thinks about us all the time. We are his workmanship, we are exactly who he had in mind before he formed us, so the next time you think you don’t measure up, think again! Our Heavenly Father created us in his image, you are dearly loved just the way you are and always will be! We are secure, loved and accepted in Christ!

The world may say you are not good enough, pretty enough, smart enough, but God, your Father says you are the “apple of his eye”, dearly loved and perfectly perfect in his eyes. I would rather be pleasing to my Heavenly Father in word and deed than to be exactly what the world sees as perfect and acceptable. Others may beat you up with their unkind words and life may not give to you all the “great things” that it says you need to be someone, but if you are a Child of the King, then one day you will be in Heaven with your Father, the Creator of the Universe and you will not only be perfect in mind, body and spirit, but you will never again worry whether or not you have “arrived”, for you truly will have!

Have you had those times in life when you have felt alone, people are too busy 
 to notice that you are hurting. I have had times like that when I thought my heart would burst from the hurt inside. Hurt inflicted by someone that you love dearly and you felt the wind knocked out of you. What do you do when this happens? The natural thing to want to do is to be alone, retreat away from the world and just sit in your pain, like a dirty diaper. 

I can tell you from experience that being alone is the wrong thing to do. When we are alone we are most vulnerable to Satan’s attacks. If he can get us isolated and alone we are in trouble already. Yes, we need time to pray alone, to pour our heart to God. We need time for those tears to fall like rain, pouring out from the depths of our soul, but if Satan isolates us we begin to feel ashamed and helpless. Our wound begins to grow until it becomes all-consuming. He whispers lies to us and will even take an already bad offense or hurt and blow it up even larger than it already is, just to obscure the Lord even more in your heart and mind. so, what should we do? Run to Jesus, climb into his lap and pour our hurt and pain out to him and let him love us until the hurt starts to go away.

Once we have poured our hearts out to God, we need to dry our tears and find someone to be around, this someone could be a friend that you can talk to and pray with or maybe a friend to be present with you to divert your mind away from the pain. A good friend is a good medicine. Sometimes it will help to go back to the source of your pain, especially if it is a spouse or if it is someone you care deeply about that has wounded you. It is best to communicate with the person and get the hurt out in the open so that if needed the other person has the opportunity to say I am sorry. Satan loves to separate, and if you do not talk it over it will become a wall inside your heart and not a place of forgiveness and restoration.

Any tactic Satan can use to draw us away into ourselves he will. He will try to convince you that you are the reason for the pain, you are not worthy of love. He will even try to twist the things in our hearts and minds that we know to be true, therefore causing more hurt and shame. 

We know that God is for us, he is always with us, he hears our prayers, (Jer.33:3) and he answers them. He cares so much about our tears he keeps them. (Ps 56:8) Thou tellest my wanderings: put thou my tears into thy bottle: are they not in thy book?

God tells us that even though we sow tears of sadness, joy will come.  (Ps 126:5) They that sow in tears shall reap in joy. Even though it does not feel like it God will use this to grow you and strengthen you. He will turn your tears into joy and gladness. Each time you go to your Father you will find your hurting does not hurt as much. Each year that falls is washing your soul and heart clean and free. 

You need to pray for whoever has caused the hurt. Ask God to work in their hearts showing the truth to them, but above that ask him to rein blessings upon them and you, in turn, will receive blessings. (Matt 5:44 ) But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you. 

Run to Jesus and receive healing, he’s waiting.
He can take any hurt and turn it into a triumph is we will just allow him to work in us if we will allow ourselves to be loved by him.

I have crawled into my Heavenly Father’s lap more times than I can count and I have never regretted it and I have always received the healing, peace, and help I have needed. Try it!