8.2.13

 

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2 Chronicles 32:6b-8 Then Hezekiah encouraged them by saying, "Be strong and courageous! Don't be afraid or discouraged because of the king of Assyria or his mighty army, for there is a power far greater on our side! He may have a great army, but they are merely men. We have the Lord Our God to help us and to fight our battles for us!" Hezekiah's words greatly encouraged the people.



My Thoughts

When I read this I thought of how often I have been afraid of people. People in charge of me... or just people I know. I have always been such a people pleaser. But the more I know God, really know Him by reading my Bible and going to Bible Study and surrounding myself with people that know Him... the more I become a God pleaser instead of a people pleaser. The more I seek to please God over people the less afraid of people I have become. The freedom of that alone in my life is amazing!! I still love for people to like me... but instead of depending on my actions of pleasing them, I depend on God to provide me with good favor with people. Now I go about loving on people not to get them to love me back, but to be a loving, sweet kind person, a person that spreads God's love to others. When we please God, God gives us the desires of our hearts. I desire to be loved, God has given me that in abundance these days!!


Before when I was depending on my actions to be loved I lived in fear, in a constant state of anxiety, did I please this person? Did I please that person? Now I have instructions on how to please God, He tells me in His word. When I don't please God He tells me, I confess and He forgives me.... I don't have to be anxious, I just have to have the desire to learn and grow. People are fickle, God is always the same. Then God sends me out to love others and He gives me favor with them... now I get to go about loving others, not pleasing them, just loving them.


My war was inside of myself, I lost the battle each morning as I got out of bed because I was always afraid of displeasing somebody, anybody. God has made me able to be courageous, God encourages me. God says I am with you in all that you do. God goes before me, for He is on my side!! Now that is freedom!!

7.22.13

2 Chronicles 7:14 Then if my people who are called by my name will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sins and restore their land.

 

My Thoughts

So often we miss the start of this verse, the important part really, the part that sets the promise into motion.  Those words are, "If MY people who are called by my name will...."  We can have our nation restored, we can have our land restored, we can have our lives restored.  It is not up to the people that do not know God yet... it is up to the people that do know God.  We can't go about living our lives saying we know God, or making God our Sunday mission.  We have to go about our lives taking to to know God, taking time each day to be with God... then we need to "be Christians" every day, in all that we do.  If we are seeking God... and if we are doing what God ask, we Christians, then God will hear  us from heaven and forgive our sins.... and God will restore our land, our country. 

 

We can't go about playing the blame game.  We, no I must check my life, my actions and make sure that I am humbling myself. I must pray and see God, I must quit doing evil.  Each of is us an "I." We all have the power to make a difference!!  We simply have to seek God. 

7.20.13

2 Chronicles 1:11-12 God said to Solomon, "Because your greatest desire is to help your people, and you did not ask for wealth, riches, fame, or even the death of your enemies or a long life, but rather you asked for wisdom and knowledge to properly govern my people-- I will certainly give you the wisdom and knowledge you requested.  But I will also give you wealth, riches, and fame such as no other king has had before you or will ever have in the future.

My Thoughts

When I read this I thought of Matthew 6:33 which says,  Seek the Kingdom of God above all else, and live righteously, and he will give you everything you need. When we seek God, when we seek God's wisdom, when we love others... God takes care of the rest!! 

 

We so often go about our lives seeking the things we think we need... the things we think our kids need... only to find out we have run out of time, energy and or money and not accomplished most of what we set out to accomplish when if we had just taken time to seek God everything else would have fallen into place. 

 

Recently I had a situation in my life where I was working so hard, the harder I worked the more life backfired. Then I realized that I was trying to find the answers myself, by myself.  The minute I turned to God for the whole answer, not just for Him to fix each mess as I made it, He gave me the answer. You know what?  It was simple...all that I had been doing was working against the problem... and God's answer was easy.. and it worked.  We must make time, take time, seek after God!!  Then all else falls right into place because God sends down his angels to put things in order for us!!  

 

8.14.12

2 Chronicles 7:14 Then if my people who are called by my name will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sins and restore their land.

Psalms 33:12 What joy for the nations whose God is the Lord.

My Thoughts

Each day I read from three books... my One Year Bible, The Secret Power of Speaking God's Word, which puts scripture in catagories. And I read from Love Out Loud.  Two of my scriptures today made me think of the up comming election.  I see all this stuff written on Facebook...the media twist things for their liking...Union people like on party... no union people like the other. Each party twist and trun the truth about the other party. People act like who becomes president is the life or death of our country...and while it is important it is not the be all end all... in 4 years we can vote again (Thank goodness!). What is important is that we love God.

God is in control...our problem is that God gives us free will and we too often use that free will to make bad choices. And our bad choices are not who we put in Washington... after all Washington can't control this wild weather we are having. Even with laws about schools having snack machines or not Washington can't control our health.  But God can!!.. God can heal our land, God can soften the heart of any president, God can bring joy to our nation.  It is up to us to put God in control and we do that by humbling ourselves, praying, seeking God's face and turning from our wicked ways.  No matter how the voting comes out in November we still have a choice...we still have a chance for our nation to do better...we put that choice into action by seeking after God and choosing to do right over choosing to enjoy sin.

Our media likes to make it confusing and complicated, our media likes to paint a bleak picture of high prices and not enough gas or food.  Our media thrives on, makes money on the negative, no wonder they don't include God.  God's work is positive... God's work is powerful... God's work benefits his children.  But to benefit from all of God's glorious power we have to act like we are God's children. We have a choice every day to live in a great nation... we do this by loving God...then God will take care of even the worse possible president, the driest land, the out of control weather, the national dept, our health. 

We are not helpless...we are not hopeless... our can make a difference as just one person...we can choose to cry out to God...we can choose to turn from our wicked ways...when we do God will heal our land.  Because God keeps all his promises.

8.2.12

2 Chronicles 32:7-8 The Hezekiah encouraged them by saying, "Be strong and courageous! Don't be afraid or discouraged because of the king of Assyria or his mighty army, for there is a power far greater on our side! He may have a great army, but they are merely men.  We have the Lord our God to help us to fight our battles for us!" Hezekiah's words greatly encouraged the people.

My Thoughts

I love this!! The  more I read the Bible and know God the more I love scripture.  The Assyria army was huge..was strong... had trampled so many kingdoms... it was something to be feared!  But Hezekiah knew that God was greater than even the biggest, strongest army of that time!!  Hezekiah trusted in God.  God sent an angel to destroy the army of Assyria and the kind of Assyria went home and was killed by his own sons.  The king of Assyria had made fun of Hezekiah for believing in God and he had mocked God. God took care of Hezekiah because Hezekiah loved and honored God.  God protected Hezekiah from something bigger than him or his city! 

When we love God and honor God, He will also protect us!! There is nothing bigger than God, nothing!!  Our part is to love and honor God and put our problems in God's hands.

Not only was the Assyrian arm defeated, King Hezekiah became highly respected among all the surrounding nations and many gifts were brought for the Lord and valuable presents were brought to King Hezekiah too (v. 32)  God not only saved Hezekiah and his people, God made sure that Hezekiah was honored for trusting in God.

God will bring us honor... He will make sure that people admire us when we love Him and choose to do the things that honor God!! When we love and honor God we not only receive love back from God, we also receive wonderful gifts that God wants to shower on us because He love us so very much.  In my mind I see it like a grandparent that loves a grandchild...the grandparent is in a place in his or her life where they are able to shower those grand-babies, that they love so much, with wonderful gifts. They love those babies so much that they just can't help themselves...they have to buy presents and give hugs and love.  They just can't stop themselves that love just pours over. That is how God is when we love and honor God he just can't help himself. He loves us so much that His blessings just pour over into our lives in great abundance!! 

God is like a wonderful mixture of  parents and grandparents all rolled up into one.  He protects us, and He disciplines us when we need it...then He can't help Himself, He pours out His blessings on our lives in amazing ways!!

7.25.12

2 Chronicles 16:12 In the 39th year of his reign, Asa developed a serious foot disease. Yet even with the severity of his disease, he did not seek the Lord's help but turned only to his physicians. So he died in the forty-first year of his reign.

My Thoughts

Wow... I think of how many times that I have been to the doctor with either minor things... or bigger things like my Lupus and and failed to pray. I have prayed to be healed over my Lupus. But am not sure that I have every prayed on my way to the doctor, or before I went to the doctor with a Lupus flair.  This verse will change ever visit I make to the doctor.

I do remember in November 2010  praying just before my Bible reading... God prompted me to call the doctor...in the middle of my prayers God said to me call Dr. Ayers now!!  I had, had a tummy ache for about a month ... not bad but constant...that weekend I had been really hot..I kept turning down the thermostat and all the kids came to visit...they complained because it was freezing...when I check the thermostat it was on 58 degrees...I was burning up wasn't I??  On Monday I had turned the thermostat back up to normal and thought nothing else of it... then I got that message from God right in my spirit... "Call Dr. Ayers now!" I did... even before I did my Bible reading.  I told them that I needed an appointment...but there was no hurry...I wasn't feeling my best...but I was not feeling bad either.  They told me to be there at 2:30.  I said Okay, who was I to argue with what God prompted?  I prayed that day, "God you know why you sent me here I put this into your hands."  When Dr. Ayers came into the room he asked me what was going  on... I told him two things 1. That I had had a tummy ache for a few weeks. 2. That I had been so hot on the weekend. He looked at me and said, without hesitation "I believe it is your gallbladder. I will schedule some test." I went on Wednesday... Thanksgiving was Thrusday... We got the results on Monday, and on Tuesday I had my gallbladder removed. I was never afraid. Not for one minute, God had told me to go to the doctor, if I was not going to be okay, why would he have sent me?

What I have learned over the past few months is that God prompts us in so many ways! He puts useful information in our paths so that we can understand it.  If we pray about what we have learned, God will tell us how to use that information. Or if that information is useful for our situation.  I believe that God has put so much healthy information in my path to show me how He is going to go about healing my body.  It is up to me to listen and to use that information.  I was praying about all the information that I have received lately about health  and God dropped in my spirit these words, "If Noah hadn't built the ark he would have drowned." I knew in that instance that if I didn't exercise and eat right I would get worse... if I did exercise and eat right that I was going to be more than just better!!

I love this verse... God does not tell us not to seek doctors here... He tells us that Asa didn't not seek Him, that he turned "only" to his physicians. I am lead to believe by this verse that if Asa had been seeking God too when he went to his doctor that God would have healed Asa through his doctor. 

We should constantly be seeking God in all that we do... but we need to be totally aware that we need to seek after God for his healing on our body as we seek our our physicians for the knowledge that God has placed in their hearts, heads and hands. 

Even when we have a small cut...and we watch that cut amazing heal .. watch it go away... look down later and not even be able to tell that it was ever there... we need to look up and thank God for that miracle of healing. We take so little notice of so much that we are use to seeing that we forget to be amazed, we forget to be in awe of God and all the everyday miracles He places in our lives every day!! We bandage little children's boboo's like the bandage is the healer and we forget to teach them at that tiny age that our wonderful God is at work under that band-aid. We forget to remember that in so many places in the world that big diseases get in through small cuts or scratches.  We are so blessed that God heals us.  We need to always remember to invite Him to be under our small bandages and with our doctor visits. We need to thank Him for each victory big and small that he has over our bodies!!  We need never to forget that our God is the great physician!

6.26.12

2 Chronicles 7:14  I am one of God's chosen people.  I am called by His name. If I humble myself, pray, seek, crave and require of necessity the face of God and turn from my wicked ways, then will God hear from heaven, forgive my sin and heal my land.

My Thoughts

So often we feel powerless... we think, "There is nothing I can do.. our country is going down, down, down." But here, we are told in God's word that there is something we can do!!  We can humble ourselves, pray, seek, crave and require the necessity of the face of God and turn from our wicked ways...then God will hear from heaven and forgive our sin and heal our land.  We have a part...we can make a difference...we can seek after and love God...we can love our neighbor...we can walk in love...then God will take care of the rest.  God has the power to change our circumstance ... God has the power to change the hearts of kings and of presidents. We can go around and complain... we can go around grumbling...we can put our leaders down.. which we are not supposed to do!! Or we can seek after God... do good... turn from sin.... live within our means... watch our words... love each other... be kind to each other... help each other... then God will take over and forgive us and heal our land. He will change the hearts of the people in charge.. God can and will make a difference in our land...but we as children of the Most High God have to do our part!! 

If there had been 10 in Sodom ...just 10 God would have spared Sodom.. Genesis 18:32.  What if all America needs is 10 people that love God?  What if there is only 9? Our actions, our love for God and for others make a difference...not only for us...but for the people around us.... our actions, our love for God, our love for others, can save a nation.  Have you ever wanted to be a hero?  Love God!! 

5.31.12

2 Chronicles 7:14 I am called by Your name. I humble myself, pray, seek, crave, and require of necessity Your face and turn from my wicked ways (. In doing this, You have promised to hear from heaven, forgive my sin, and heal my land. (Amplified Bible)

My Thoughts

It is not the right president who can save our country... or the right people in Congress or the House of Representatives who can save our country.  It is God!  God will only reach down his mighty, righteous right hand and do this if we turn to Him....  turn from the wrong things we do! Wicked is an adjective that means evil.  We so often want to believe "evil" is a Jeffery Dahmer kind of sin.  But evil is also defined as harm; mischief; misfortune: to wish one evil or anything causing injury or harm, anger, irritability, bad conduct or character. Sin is evil...any sin. 

Our country is in danger as long as we are not praying, as long as we are not seeking after God, as long as we keep doing those sins that society deem as "OK."

God will heal our land... our country... our economy when we turn back to Him...fall on our knees...and do our very best to choose to do the right things in the eyes of God.  God has the power to turn everything around in America ... no matter who appears to be "in charge." But our part is to seek after God... to pray... to humble ourselves... to turn from our wicked/evil ways. We have to live right if we want our country to be in right standing with God.  When we get in right standing with God, God will take care of all our needs no matter how incapable we are....we don't even have to know how to do it right... all we have to know how to do is love God with all our heart and do what God ask us to do...then the rest will fall right into place, because God will command it to!

So next time  you are prompted to do the right thing....the next time I am prompted to do the right thing...we need to stop and know that the choice we make will not just effect us... the choice we make will effect the whole country... it will effect our children, it will effect our parents, our brothers or our sisters, our friends... it will effect people on the other side of this continent that we will never meet... our actions...even when no one is looking effect the balance of the world!  Our actions never, ever effect just us!!  What choice will you make?

8.1.11

2 Chronicles 31:10 And Azariah the high priest for the family of Zodok, replied, "Since the people began bringing their gifts to the Lords Temple, we have had enough to eat and plenty to spare.  The Lord has blessed his people, and all this is left over."

My Thoughts

This got me thinking ... have we forgotten God?  Have we forgotten that all we have comes from God? Our nations is thinking about defaulting on its loans because we are out of money!!  Homes are being foreclosed on ...one number I heard was that one million homes were foreclosed on last year.  Record numbers of bankruptcies are on the books. State and local governments are running out of money.  If all the Christians of our great nations would tithe I believe we would see a complete turn around!  God even tells us to test Him on this.  Malachi 3:10 says Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. Test me in this," says the LORD Almighty, "and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that you will not have room enough for it.

What if we were to get together as Christians and make a commitment... each and every Christian of this great nation for one month to bring in their 10% to God... to give back to God only a portion of what he has given us.  I think we would see a huge difference.... God says we can test him on this!!  God will prove himself if we give back to Him.  We don't need to run around grumbling and complaining about our government... we need to call out to God... we need to give back to God.  If we show ourselves faithful to God, God will show Himself faithful to us, to our country!! 

I would love to see every person who is on roll at a church show up on Sunday morning and give back to God.... I believe if we did this that we would make the news... and God would show Himself through a turn around in our economy!

7.25.11

2 Chronicles 16:11-13 In the thirty-ninth  year of his reign, Asa developed a serious foot disease.  Yet even with the severity of his disease, he did not seek the Lord's help but turned only to his physicians. So he died in the forty-first year of his reign.

My Thoughts

This made me think of how many times we depend on man and leave God out of the equation. We do it with little things and big things... King Asa did it with a disease that would end up killing him!... This verse says because Asa didn't seek God along with his physicians he died. I have often gone to the doctor without prayer ... I should always pray first.  In November of this past year I was praying and the Holy Spirit inside of me told me to call the doctor...I did.... then I even got an appointment that same day even though I said I didn't have to come in any time soon....and after telling the doctor just two of my symptoms, a constant tummy ache, and being really hot all the time, the doctor said I believe it is your gal bladder...that quickly!... He sent me to have test and the very next week I had surgery.  God's hand was in that!  I have no doubt. How sick would I have gotten had I not been seeking after God?  This happened to me...and I know without a doubt it was God... yet I often forget to pray when I know I am sick.  This verse reminds me to seek God in everything! When I head to the doctor I need to make sure that I have invited God to be there with me! When I head anywhere I need to invite God to be there with me!

7.20.11

2 Chronicles 1:11-12  God said to Solomon, “Because your greatest desire is to help your people, and you did not ask for wealth, riches, fame, or even the death of your enemies or a long life, but rather you asked for wisdom and knowledge to properly govern my people—I will certainly give you the wisdom and knowledge you requested. But I will also give you wealth, riches, and fame such as no other king has had before you or will ever have in the future!”

My Thoughts

Did you ever wonder what God wants from you?... We know that God wants us to love Him!! We know that God wants us to love others and treat people the way we want to be treated.  But God also wants us to seek wisdom... to learn all that we can about what God can do... what God has planned.... God wants us to keep gaining knowledge... the rest will follow!!  God blessed Solomon with so much because the only thing Solomon asked for was wisdom...wisdom is that important.  God blessed Solomon just because he asked to be wise.  God will change your life is you seek wisdom... Gods kind of wisdom.... There is such proof that God set the world up to prosper when we seek wisdom... in countries where people have no education poverty prevails.  In countries where people want to dictate and control they only educate a select few...the people in control surround their selves with wise people but the keep the people under their complete control by keeping the uneducated.  The devil has more power to control us when we are not educated in what God can do... in what we can do to draw God close to us.  The devil would love nothing more than to keep us uneducated about God and his ability within us. Grace is Gods ability in us to help us accomplish things we could never do alone.  We have such power when we let God work though us...but the devil wants us to stay uneducated about that power. Jesus said if we have faith the size of a mustard seed we can do anything (Matthew 17:20) The devil is full of "you can't".... God teaches us that "you can." It should always be in our prayers as we start our day to ask God for wisdom... everything else will follow.  We will never be as wise as Solomon....but God has Solomon write down so much that we can learn from and we can show God how much we want wisdom by learning from Solomon.

9.30.10

2 Chronicles 7:14 “If my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land.”

My Thoughts

These have been some bad times for our country…. So many of us see that… I hear all the complaining ad all the blaming …. All the name calling… all the fear and worry… but there is a solution!… instead of blaming and name calling… instead of grumbling and complaining wee need to humble ourselves and pray and seek the face of God… we need to turn from our wicked ways…(that includes grumbling and complaining, blaming and name calling), we need to confess of our own sins…and stand at the crossroads and confess of the sins of our nations…and ask God to heal our land…God said in Ezekiel 22:30 “I looked for a man among them who would build up the wall and stand before me in the gap on behalf of the land so I would not have to destroy it, but I found none.”…one man is all God wanted …. We need to each decide to be that one man… not be the complainer… the blamer… the grumbler… we need to each decide to humble ourselves… confess or our sin… seek God’s face… we need to each turn from our wicked ways… and we won’t need the right people in office… we won’t need a bailout… it won’t matter if we have Democrats or Republicans in office… God will take control and fix our problems…be we need to each decide to be the “one man” that God is seeking to save this nation.

7.27.10

2 Chronicles 20:15 He said "Listen, all you people of Judah and Jerusalem! Listen, King Jehoshaphat! This is what the Lord says: Do not be afraid! Don't be discouraged by this mighty army, for the battle is not yours, but God's.

My Thoughts

When we ask Jesus into our hearts we become God's children... our battles become his and no longer belong to us... they are God's battles... God told King Jehoshaphat and the people of Judah and Jerusalem to prepare for this battle...but God did the fighting... God won the battle... God tells us to prepare for battle...with his word... his word makes us stronger in all that we do... if we do the preparing just as Jehoshaphat and his people did... God will fight the battle for us ...and win!... just as he did for Jehoshaphat and his people... Prepare for you daily battles, with the armor of God's word...then turn the battle over to God... for if God is with us who can be against us! (Romans 8:31)

7.25.10

2 Chronicles 15:2b The Lord will stay with you as long as you stay with him! Whenever you seek him you will find him. But if you abandon him, he will abandon you.

My Thoughts

This was proven over and over again with the Israelites... when they trusted in God, when they worshiped God, when they got rid of all other idols, when they followed God's law God was with them in everything they did ... but when they abandoned God and did not ask God for his help things were always going wrong.  I have noticed this in my life... when I am doing what God ask he is with me... I can handle what ever comes up.. even if it is something hard... I have the strength to handle it and it all works out for the good in the end... but when I do not depend on God, when I try to do it all on my own, boy can I make a mess.  The wonderful thing about God is that is is always right there!!... just a prayer away... we may have to suffer the consequences for our actions ... but God will help us get through the consequences... and if we depend on him even after we have really messed things up... God will make things all right again.... if you feel like you have really messed things up... tell God... he loves it when we are totally, completely honest.. say God I have really messed this one up... I forgot to come to you when things were good... I have not been doing the things you tell me to do to keep my life in good working order.. God I know that I will still have to suffer the consequences for my actions.. but please God help me to move forward and do better... please bless my efforts... please forgive me for trying to do it myself... That is how David prayed when he messed up and God was always right there, always with David... just as he is always with us when we call on him and do what he ask us to do!... God wants us to never give up, to never lose faith, he wants us to succeed in all that we do!... all we have to do is seek after Him.

7.7.10

Psalms 5:3 Listen to my voice in the morning, Lord. Each morning I bring my request to you and wait expectantly.

My Thoughts

King David wrote this..and as we know David found much favor with God!... he did what was pleasing to the Lord.. it tell us over and over again in the Bible that David pleased God.. an example of this is 2 Chronicles 29:2 He did what was pleasing in the LORD's sight, just as his ancestor David had done... So we ourselves would be wise, very wise to learn from what David did.. David talked to God each morning!!.. every morning.. David started his day with God.. .he didn't wait until the day was over and ask God to fix what he has messed up... he started his day with God and ask God to lead him through his day... David also let God know what he wanted...and because David loved God, God love giving David the things he wanted things that were good things in the sight of God... then the last thing David did..wait expecting his prayers, his request to be answered... David knew that when he was good in God's sight, when he did things that pleased God that God loved rewarding him... and David wasn't afraid to tell God the things he wanted.. if you find  yourself waiting for your life to change...take charge and change it... start your day with God!!.. its good to end your day with God... but always remember its more important to start you day with God.. David did and God was so pleased with David!! Let's make God pleased with us!