Not A Good Day, Good Day!

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“This is the day which the LORD hath made; we will rejoice and be glad in it,” Psalm 118:24, KJV

In all honesty, I woke to a migraine in my head and my body 😀 (trying to recuperate from days of constantly moving furniture and such)!  Our days around here lately have been kind of crazzzyyyyy!!!!  And, those crazy days of dealing with people and situations can really begin to take a toll on you.  Today, I’m feeling it.

But, I have purposed that what started out as “Not a good day,” will have a better outcome. It will be a good day. It’s still very early in the day, but I have determined within myself that this journey that I am on is going to be fruitful. It’s going to emit the essence of God from my being.

No holds bar! I’m not holding anything back. I am still going to search for the good in this day. I am still going to look for a reason to smile. I am still going to work on myself as necessary. I am still going to love others. I am still going to claim the peace of God. I am still going to pray, knowing that He always hears me. I am still going to do good works. I am still going to believe the best in everything this day has to offer!

Every day is not always going to be peaches and cream. The sooner we realize that the better off we’ll be. Real life is a kicker sometimes, but I believe in the best. I believe that good can still come out of it all. That healing and restoration can still reign. That hope can still continue.

As I write this, I already can’t help but smile. “This is a day which the LORD hath made; we will rejoice and be glad in it!” God brought me through to this day. A day that has never been seen in history before and a day that will never be repeated once the clock strikes twelve tonight. I am going to make the most out of this day. I am going to handle my business and let God handle His. I am putting my cares into His hands so as not to pollute any good intentions with my mess-ups. I am going to have a “Good Day!”

What is trying to rob you of a good day today? Don’t play with it. Don’t turn it over and over again in your mind. Release it. Give it to God. Let Him take the steering wheel as He drives you to your destination today. He knows how to bypass the contentions and He knows the shortcuts past the animosity. Let Him drive and you take your hands off the wheel.

I have determined that that is how I will finally see the good in my day. Me reaching my destination is important, but the drive there will tell me if the journey was pleasant or not. I intend on enjoying the journey of today. Declare today that bitterness, strife, and contentions have no place in the passenger seat with me. I am buckled up in Jesus and ready to go!

Drive on Jesus, let’s do this day together. Make what started out as not a good day into something special!

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Your Faith Speaks more than Your Words!

 

What people witness in your life resounds more than the words that are coming out of your mouth.  Evidence of belief; proof of faith is the visual representation that most want.  Many mistake others as not wanting what we have or not wanting the faith, yet they haven’t seen enough of it in action to provoke them to seek after what we say we have.

So, the old phrase still rings true today: “Seeing is believing.”  To a world lost, who have no hope, they look for a ring of hope they can grab onto to prevent them from drowning in the deep abyss of the darkness of this world.  They want a way out.  Many don’t want to sink deeper into despair, deeper into the unknown where there is no light to guide the way.  They want to see what you say you see.  They want to feel what you say you feel.  They want what you say you have but do they see it currently active in you to propel them from wanting it to seeking it?

Your faith speaks louder than your words.  Paul told the church at Thessalonica, “Your faith to God-ward is spread abroad; so that we need not to speak any thing,” (1 Thessalonians 1:8b).  If necessary I believe Paul would have testified on their behalf, he would have spoken up for them to assure others of their faith.  But, their faith was so active, their faith was so alive and in operation that he didn’t feel a need to speak at all.  Their faith did the talking for them.  Their faith is what people noticed, not the words they spoke from their mouths.

A lot of people do a lot of talking these days and sometimes it’s hard to decipher truth from fiction.  Jesus gave us a key that lines right up with what Paul wrote in his letter.  Jesus said, “Ye shall know them by their fruits,” Matthew 7:16.  If one comes upon a tree that has apples growing upon it then they are to assume it is an apple tree.  The same is true with a life of faith.  What they see coming out of you, or as Paul referred to as “gone out” is what matters the most.  You can say that you are an orange tree but if I see apples then I will classify you like an apple tree.  If you say that you have great faith but all I see is the opposite than I will not view you as having great faith.  I will mark you by what I see.

Your faith matters in this world.  More importantly, your faith on display matters to those around you so much that one should not have to speak up or testify for you, all they should be able to do is look at your faith in action and mark you as a person of faith.

Your faith speaks more than your words!  Be blessed.

“Relationship With The Word!”

 

“Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path,” Psalm 119:105, NKJV

“And so Betsie and I arrived in Barracks 8 in the small hours of that morning,  brining not only the Bible, but a new knowledge of the power of Him whose story it was,” Corrie Ten Boom1

The Hiding Place has been one of my favorite non-fiction books for years.  I am always amazed by the lives of Corrie and her family and the circumstances that God used in and through them.

The above quote was written after Betsie and Corrie were able to smuggle a Bible into one of the concentration camps.  The Bible could obviously be seen through her clothing, yet she was inspected and patted down like the rest before and after her.  She risked everything to carry that precious treasure of the Word into one of the darkest places known to humanity.

Why?

Because there is an indescribable value in the Word of God to them that believe and hold dear its truths.

This really struck me this morning as I was reading Psalm 119, NKJV.  As a whole, this chapter speaks so much of the Word of God. It reminds us of the importance and power of His Word and how we should not take it lightly.  We should treasure it and hold on to it and let it lead and guide us every day.

In His Word, we find healing, promises, anointing, salvation, understanding, and more.  We should not take lightly the gift of the Word:

  • “Blessed are those who keep His testimonies, who seek Him with the whole heart!” (vs. 2).
  • “You have commanded us to keep Your precepts diligently,” (vs. 4).
  • “Oh, that my ways were directed to keep Your statutes,” (vs. 5).
  • “Let me not wander from Your commandments!” (vs. 10)
  • “Your word I have hidden in my heart, that I might not sin against You,” (vs. 11).
  • “I have rejoiced in the way of Your testimonies, as much as in all riches,” (vs. 14).
  • “My soul breaks with longing for Your judgments at all times,” (vs. 20).
  • “Teach me, O LORD, the way of Your statutes, and I shall keep it to the end,” (vs. 33).
  • “Make me walk in the path of Your commandments, for I delight in it,” (vs. 35).
  • “Establish Your word to your servant, who is devoted to fearing You,” (vs. 38).
  • “Behold, I long for Your precepts; revive me in Your righteousness,” (vs. 40).
  • “Remember the word to Your servant, upon which You have caused me to hope,” (vs. 49).
  • “Teach me good judgment and knowledge, for I believe Your commandments,” (vs. 66).
  • “I know, O LORD, that Your judgments are right,” (vs. 75).
  • “Forever, O LORD, Your word is settled in heaven,” (89).
  • “Unless Your law had been my delight, I would have perished in my affliction,” (vs. 92).
  • “You are my hiding place and shield; I hope in Your word,” (vs. 114).
  • “Direct my steps by Your word,” (vs. 133).
  • “Great peace have those who love Your law, and nothing causes them to stumble,” (vs. 165).

These are just a very few of the many written within that psalm and just a few of the many that I have personally highlighted.  What we read goes beyond just reading the word.  In these verses, we see a relationship with the Word.

Why was Corrie Ten Boom ready to sacrifice it all just to have a Bible in the prison camp with her.  From a young age, her father taught her how to have a relationship and a dependency upon the Word.  It is as vital, if not more so than anything else she could have smuggled in there.

In many dark times, the Word is what shines a light brighter than any sun.  In the Word, we find comfort, solace, and peace no matter the prisons that try to hold us.

I urge you to reevaluate your relationship with the Word today.  Don’t look at it as something I have to get through because that’s what I am supposed to do.  Read it, absorb it for the treasure that it is.    “Open my eyes, that I may see wondrous things from Your law,” (vs. 18).  “Revive me according to Your word,” (vs. 25).

Let your relationship with the Word be renewed and revived today.

There was another point before this when Corrie Ten Boom fell sick and was unable to read the Word.  Then:

“As my health returned, I was able to use my eyes longer.  I had been sustaining myself from my Scriptures a verse at a time; now, like a starving man, I gulped entire Gospels at a reading, seeing whole the magnificent drama of salvation,” Corrie Ten Boom 2

When was the last time we starved to have a relationship With The Word?

Look at it as not a task that must be completed, but as a source to be revered and treasured.  As it did for Corrie, it will “sustain” you also.  His Word does not fail!

If you have never read The Hiding Place, I urge you to do so.  I believe the lives and experiences written therein will inspire you in your Christian journey also.

Be blessed today!

Quote References:

1 The Hiding Place, p. 214, Hendrickson Publishers, Copyright 1971, 1984, 2006

2 The Hiding Place, p. 167, Hendrickson Publishers, Copyright 1971, 1984, 2006.

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Copyright © Word For Life Says.com articles/lessons/worksheets may not be copied or redistributed without the express written permission of WordforLifeSays.com.  Please see the COPYRIGHT PAGE for more details.  Blessings to you. 

“God’s Heartward Perspective!”

My Project 20-001

God has been teaching me a lot lately about how I view people.  For instance, recently I ordered food at the drive through of a local fast food joint.  The voice that came through the microphone was very well-spoken, eloquent and respectful.  Pulling up to the window to pay for the meal, before me stood a gentleman with green hair, big fat wooden earrings in his ears, tattoos and so forth.  I mentioned to my husband that I would have never identified that voice with that look or persona.

Often we can come across people in our pathway who don’t look the way we feel they should look or don’t carry themselves in a manner approving of our standards, yet in them is a real person with a real soul.

David was judged wrongly by those of his own house.  When the prophet Samuel came to Jesse’s house to anoint a new king no one suspected that the little ruddy boy out in the fields was the one God had in mind.  Even Samuel himself looked at the appearance of the other young men and thought that surely one of these was the one God was seeking after.  God plainly told Samuel, “Do not look at his appearance or at his physical stature, because I have refused him.  For the Lord does not see as man sees; for man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart,” (1 Samuel 16:7).

God has a perspective that we can’t have; He can see the heart of man.  Perhaps instead of making up our minds too quickly about individuals we can just decide to love them and accept them as God made them and let God be the one to deal with their heart.  God is awesome like that!  He keeps teaching me and I am still learning, and in the process I am pleasantly surprised 🙂

SMH (Shaking My Head)

 

 

SMH, a phrase on Facebook,

With roving eyes and a condemning look.

It’s being measured and weighed and found for wanting,

Their righteous indignation is the mind’s taunting.

It’s looking at a picture, a status, a quote,

And thinking to oneself, “That life’s a joke.”

Off the internet to the daily surrounds,

How often do our heads shake with that judgmental pound?

Lives picked apart, layers uncovered;

Never really knowing the inner undiscovered.

Never judge a book by its cover is what they say,

But most of the masses don’t see it this way.

Not satisfied until a life is going down,

With burdens so heavy, one begins to drown.

Dealing with turmoil and constant tossing;

Needing to be rescued desperately from the exhausting.

There’s only One who can judge the end of the story;

Who’s read all the pages, and accepts to glory.

Knowing the beginning from the end, and the story throughout,

He works on deliverance; erasing all fear and doubt.

The crowds of shaking heads is not His priority.

The heart bowed before Him takes all seniority.

Shaking heads tears lives apart,

But His grace offers a brand new, fresh start.

James 2:13 “For judgment is without mercy to the one who has shown no mercy.  Mercy triumphs over judgment,” (NKJV).