There are many today who would read that and wonder “what is he talking about?”. Jesus said that He would return and take us to a place that He prepared for us. He is coming, although the world around us doesn’t seem to know it. They are more concerned with everyday things. What they are going to eat or drink when things become scarce? This is the question they are worried about. Jesus said that we shouldn’t worry. The birds don’t worry because God provides for them. The flowers of the field are more beautiful than any clothing designers sell but they only last a day or so, yet we tend to worry about our immediate problems. Why?
Can you change your hair color or make the flowers bloom? God is in control whether you acknowledge it or not. Believe in Him for your provision and live it every day because He loves you more than anyone else! God has a plan and His plans always work out no matter what the rest of the world is doing.
Jesus came to offer and give us life in Him, all we have to do to claim it is to believe in Him and repent of our old ways. Become a disciple of His and daily walk with Him because He loves you and He will provide for you. What makes me say that Life is in Him? Because God is the author of Life! He is the Creator and He gave you life. Just as He gave life to every person and animal and creature on the Earth and He offers eternal life to each of us if we will repent of our ways and follow Him believing that He can and will do as He promised in the Bible!
There is no life in hell. No water, no chance to rest, no “good” thing at all is available to you there. Regardless of all of your “friends” who say that there will be an eternal party in hell, that is not how it will be. Joy and happiness do not have a place there at all. If you want to enjoy life into eternity I suggest you seek Jesus to be your Savior now while there is time because if you die before accepting Him there are no second chances.
O praise the LORD, All ye nations: Praise him, all ye people. For his merciful kindness is great toward us: And the truth of the LORD endureth for ever. Praise ye the LORD. Psalm 117:1-2 KJV https://bible.com/bible/1/psa.117.1-2.KJV
The entire world knows about God, whether they choose to believe in Him as their Redeemer and their Savior is an entirely different matter. According to the Bible or the Torah, God created the universe in six days and rested on the seventh. Although many people deny the truth found in the Bible, one day they will be shown the error of their thinking. The reason that I find it strange that people choose not to believe in God is that they call on Him when there is a dire need in their life. Sudden death or illness in their family will cause even the most devout atheist to seek help from a Higher Power.
Why should we praise Him every day? Because He placed each of us here for a reason and it is our job to seek Him for that reason and become the person to fulfill it. God gives each of us a certain number of days and years to live and only He knows how many we have. If you woke up this morning and you are reading this then you have today to praise Him and be useful to Him for today. You don’t know if you will have tomorrow but He has given you today, so do your best to be useful to Him today!
Many days, we feel that He isn’t faithful but He is. We aren’t tuned in to His timing though. We don’t want to wait. Like everyone else in the world…we want instant faith, instant answers to our prayers, and drive-through sermons and salvation. But God’s Holy Spirit and His timing don’t work like that. Our prayers, even if they are fueled by faith, will be answered His way and in His time. Most believers don’t have the patience to live with God’s timing. Anyone outside of the church, and many inside it, have no patience to wait on God’s timing. It takes a few years before we learn this lesson in our spiritual walk with Him, so whether you want to or not you will learn patience if you are going to walk with Him daily.
In our lives, God uses many situations to bring us to the level of maturity that it takes to walk with Him and wait on Him too. Sometimes it is sickness. Sometimes it is a death in the family that will draw us closer to Him. It may take a few years, but eventually, God will bring you to that place where He needs you to be. Living and walking with God on a daily basis is not an easy or painless lesson to learn but to be successful in your walk with Him, He will bring you along just the same.
22 Because of the loving devotion of the LORD we are not consumed, for His mercies never fail.23 They are new every morning; great is Your faithfulness! 24 “The LORD is my portion,” says my soul, “therefore I will hope in Him.” Lamentations 3
This is the type of faith that every Christian should have in God and in the Lord Jesus. Most of us think that we need to ask God for more faith so we can believe like this but the faith that He gives us to believe in Jesus as our Savior is all we will ever need. Sometimes it doesn’t feel like we have much faith but recall what Jesus said, “if you have faith the size of a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain ‘Move from here to there and it will happen“.
Oh that men would praise the LORD for his goodness, And for his wonderful works to the children of men! For he satisfieth the longing soul, And filleth the hungry soul with goodness. Psalm 107:8-9 KJV https://bible.com/bible/1/psa.107.8-9.KJV
God is with me even on my bad days. I don’t feel like doing anything or writing much but He has inspired me to do it anyway. Why? Because He is my Savior and my Friend. He is Life and the Author of it, so whether you are feeling down or depressed or just “not feelin’ it”, He is still there with you every step of the way. God loves us whether we are good or not and He can bring our lives to the point of being even better than they could be without Him.
So…truly with Him in your life, there are no bad days just days where you don’t feel as “up” as you did yesterday or the day before. That’s the best way that I can describe it. One of the performers on AGT in the past few years really touched my heart when she came on. Her “stage name” was Nightbirde. I say was because her cancer came back before she could make it to the finals and she passed away. But her spirit was infectious and happy even with cancer hanging in the background. Her advice after her audition was this: “You can’t wait until life isn’t hard anymore before deciding to be happy”… Nightbirde
The only thing that I would add to her advice is that “You can’t wait until life is great to feel joy”. Joy is the giddy cousin of happiness and you can feel it even when you don’t really feel happy.
The LORD is merciful and gracious, Slow to anger, and plenteous in mercy. He will not always chide: Neither will he keep his anger forever. He hath not dealt with us after our sins; Nor rewarded us according to our iniquities. For as the heaven is high above the earth, So great is his mercy toward them that fear him. As far as the east is from the west, So far hath he removed our transgressions from us. Psalm 103:8-12 KJV https://bible.com/bible/1/psa.103.8-12.KJV
The world around us doesn’t think that God is merciful, especially during times of war or famine, or economic chaos. Most of the time, the world wants to blame Him for their troubles, whatever they may be. God doesn’t need to explain His actions or His inaction in any situation. Sometimes in the past, He did tell His prophets why He was doing this or that but He usually did this because He wanted the Israelites to know His reasons.
Did God feel the need to tell them why He was allowing a famine or why He was withholding the rain? God told them the reasons for some of His punishments because they needed to know why they were being punished. Usually, it was because they had disobeyed His commands or His commandments such as when they were worshiping other gods rather than Him. Moses had told them many years before that they would do these things and that they would be punished but most of them had forgotten all of those warnings.
God’s Word tells us what happened in the past so we will not make those mistakes today. Yet, many people in the church still look at the Old Testament as an outdated document that we don’t need to read today. The same is said about the Constitution of the United States. Our history and the history in the Bible are there to show us what could happen if we make the same mistakes.
Jesus came to be the sacrifice that would take care of ALL of humanity’s sins. He paid our debts so that we could become the adopted children of God. To be able to have a relationship with God for all eternity.
Life, as a Christian, can be described in many ways. For some, it is a journey toward a joyous reunion with your Savior. For others, especially those who don’t want to believe in Jesus as their Savior, it represents a drab and dull existence that they have no intention of getting involved in. Have you ever thought of what a joy it is to live with Jesus as your Savior on a daily walk with Him? Why do I use the word “joy” rather than “happiness”? Because joy is a state of mind that doesn’t require outside stimulation to attain. Happiness is an emotion that is fleeting and never permanent.
“The joy of the Lord is my strength” is an expression of joy from the Lord toward His people when they were brought back from captivity and were able to live in their land and worship Him in their Temple again. Why wouldn’t He be joyful? God is joyful every time someone repents and turns to Jesus for their salvation. That is why Jesus said that the angels of God rejoice over one sinner brought to salvation!
God loves every one of us, but He doesn’t love the sinful lives that we lead here on Earth. Until we repent and turn away from our sins and give our hearts to Jesus, we are still lost in our sin. When you feel the Holy Spirit touch your soul and your heart letting you know that you need Him as your Savior, don’t turn away from Him. You may not get another chance and it is during this life that you must choose. There are no second chances after you die. You will stand before Him and give an account of your life and why you didn’t choose to follow Jesus.
After you have given your life to Him and you know that you have salvation in your heart, the joy that you feel will never go away. Every time you think about eternity and your life with Jesus…a smile will come to your face.
The Living Message of Christ 