Do you

Do you Qualify?   Anybody out there got troubles? 

Just an annual check up with my cardiologist found me in the hospital to get a stent.  Well, once in 3 doctors not only placed 2 new stents one on the left and one on the right of my heart but they found something else that called for radiation to stop disease that was beginning in another area. My doc didn’t know, I sure didn’t know but GOD knew and set us up. (as is HIS way lol).  A few complications but I’m trusting they are for a reason.  

We can trust GOD even when all goes wrong since it is GOD who has preset our times and locations (Acts 17:26-27) and always has a good reason (Ezekiel 14:23).

I’m not being super spiritual, it’s just life is so much easier when I choose (and at times it is a definite, deliberate choice) to believe GOD’s Words and see GOD’s hand in otherwise hard things (Ephesians 1:11). Just as we see GOD the FATHER’s hand in JESUS being on the cross (Acts 2:23, Isaiah 53:6) so that whosoever chooses may believe in JESUS and have everlasting life. 

GOD proclaims, and shows us in HIS word, that HE works all things together for an end (and eternal) result of good for those who love HIM (Romans 8:28).  We are told not to keep our eyes focused on our situation but on what GOD is achieving for us through our troubles, for our troubles are temporary but what GOD is achieving (things we can’t yet see) are eternal (see 2 Corinthians 4:15-18).

Do you Qualify?

LORD, we are grabbing on to YOUR word that YOU are never late (2 Peter 3:9).  Thank You for reminding me of Joseph. He didn’t know what YOU were doing from the time his brothers sold him as a slave, was lied about when he did the right thing, and put in prison. YOUR promising word to him that YOU gave him through those dreams tried and tested him as he sat in prison until YOU brought him out and made him 2nd over the land of Egypt (Psalm 105:19).

LORD so many, me included, are being sorely tested but like Joseph we trust in You. Please encourage them as YOU do me I ask in JESUS name.

Trusting and applying GOD’s word is what keeps me sane is this topsy turvy world.

hugs

Sharon

Stop and smell the roses

An old saying goes, stop and smell the roses.  It alludes to the truth that we need to stop and enjoy the little things GOD gives us along the way.  They lift our spirits and give us joy even in hard times.

Praise the LORD for HE is good! HIS mercy endures forever. 2 Chronicles 7:6

As you know there has been struggle upon struggle for us and many others, today at just the right time GOD (GOD is never late) sent an answer to a couple of the problems and set our hearts singing in hope for the other situations.

GOD tests our hearts ( 1 Thessalonians 2:4).  The bible tells us that these tests/ struggles are for our good and ultimately will bless us.  HE has reasons to test our hearts either proactively or by allowing the enemy to test us.  Here are 3 of the reasons and each of them are for our good.

1)GOD tests me to show me what is in my heart and to humble me (Deuteronomy 8:2).  Cause I don’t know what lurks within.

2)The LORD tests me to refine me and get the worthless things hidden within me to come out in the open/ to surface so that HE might skim them off and purify me (Psalm 66:10).

3)GOD tests me to develop and mature me so that I am ready to handle what HE has for me (James 1:2-4).

What a time of rejoicing when a test is over!  So, I am stopping to smell the fragrance of HIS love.

Hugs Sharon

Tests

In school when I knew a test was coming  I would study hard.  But if I got side-tracked and forgot about the test and failed to study, I didn’t do so well.

GOD tests believers through our experiences (1 Peter 4:12).  These tests prove if we are GOD focused or not. If not, it is another round of the same until we learn.

It is great to know that GOD never gives up on HIS people.  HE will let us retest as much as possible until we get it right.  GOD uses our failures as a teaching tool and learning experience to develop us and so transform our minds and us into the image of JESUS  (Romans 12:2, Romans 8:28-29).

Isaiah 55:6  Seek the LORD while HE may be found, call upon HIM while HE is near:

When things go wrong, we must make a choice.  We can grumble and complain, try to blame someone else, or we can respond by prayer asking GOD to show us what we need to see and help us. 

Trust in the LORD with all your heart; and lean not unto you own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge HIM, and HE will direct your paths. Be not wise in your own eyes: fear the LORD and depart from evil (Proverbs 3:5-7).

Hugs

Sharon

Accusations

Not being in the Word of GOD is like not eating, it will make us weak  

Matthew 4:4 Man shall not live by bread alone but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of GOD.

In the Bible we learn history, and teaches us what GOD wants and how GOD deals with people (Romans 15:4). But it doesn’t stop there the Word shows us things we are not aware of concerning ourselves, revealing our motives and where we don’t measure up (Hebrews 4:12).

It also explains things we need to know, giving us directions in the way we should go (Jeremiah 33:3).

As I was in the Word and talking to the LORD one morning I came to a sentence and I knew it was for me personally. It said, “don’t fight against it, this thing is from ME”.  Now historically it concerned a king and what he was not to do but I knew it was meant for me that very day though I had no clue what I would be tempted to fight against. 

A little later, I got a phone call and knew what GOD was talking about.  But praise the LORD, HE had prepared me not to fight.

Another time I cried out to GOD concerning a problem and GOD told me through scripture something had to happen before the answer would come but that it would come.  Well, at first, I thought that the something would happen right away, I shared what I believed GOD said to me with a couple dear friends.  They didn’t believe it, one even indicated wrong on my part.  So, I questioned myself before GOD concerning it.  In another place the LORD confirmed in another place what HE had spoken into my heart while I read HIS word.

Well, it didn’t happen and didn’t happen I questioned HIM and through scripture HE spoke that it had its appointed time and I was to wait for it for it was sure to come.  And through the years I struggled with this for it was a hard thing that had to happen before the good could come.  Another time I questioned GOD if I had misunderstood HIM and HE spoke a verse to me.

(Sharon), you have need of patience that after you have done the will of GOD you will receive the promise (Hebrews 10:36).

So I can glimpse what is meant in Psalm 105:19 where it says that GOD’s word to Joseph (the prophetic dreams GOD gave Joseph as a boy) tried and tested him over and over through the struggles of being sold as a slave, lied about and tossed in jail and then forgot about.

The enemy used the message this week to have me examine myself again before the LORD on this promise nearly 30 years old. When I spoke to the LORD concerning the accusations immediately verses came to mind that countered the accusationsà those fiery darts of the evil one.  But I also felt the need to share all this with you. 

Perhaps one reading this is being bombarded with the devil’s sneers, like Joseph and I have been.  Tried and tested as we wait.  May I remind you that GOD is faithful (1 Thessalonians 5:25), what HE says HE will do but HIS ways and time schedules are often quite different than ours.  But I have come to see great wisdom in the delays both in Joseph’s life and in mine

Hugs,

Sharon