I don’t depend on my own strength to accomplish this; however, I do have one compelling focus: I forget all of the past as I fasten my heart to the future instead. Philippians 3:13 TPT
There are so many consuming factors that creep in to get us sidetracked in life. Millions in any given day. Depending on what you listen to, it can be literally overwhelming.
Keep in mind that there will always be things that arise to try and distract you from Gods plans and purposes for your life. The trick is how to stay focused.
You can swat at them like a pesky mosquito that constantly alludes your grasp. You know it’s there, but eventually, your focus returns, and soon you forget it’s in the room.
Remember that God never loses sight of you. He is always aware of you. In fact, He has written your name on his hand. Keep your eyes on Him today.
Enter through the narrow gate because the wide gate and broad path is the way that leads to destruction—nearly everyone chooses that crowded road! Matthew 7:13 TPT
If everyone took the easy way, where would the adventure be? Nothing would be unique. Experiences would be unrelatable. But the narrow way leads to places unseen. The unknown becomes a welcome zone. The reward is access to Jesus and all He has.
Choosing the road less traveled can be a bit scary, especially if nobody else is in sight. There’s no one to ask directions from. You must rely upon your ability to hear what no one else can hear and see what no one else can see.
Without risk, there’s no possibility of reward. So when it’s offered, take it. Stop playing it safe and going along with the crowd. Make a difference where you are by being different.
“Your lives light up the world. For how can you hide a city that stands on a hilltop? And who would light a lamp and then hide it in an obscure place? Instead, it’s placed where everyone in the house can benefit from its light. So don’t hide your light! Let it shine brightly before others, so that your commendable works will shine as light upon them, and then they will give their praise to your Father in heaven.” Matthew 5:14-16 TPT
Now the Lord said to Abram, “Go forth from your country, and from your relatives and from your father’s house, to the land which I will show you; And I will make you a great nation, and I will bless you, and make your name great; And so you shall be a blessing; And I will bless those who bless you, and the one who curses you I will curse. And in you all the families of the earth will be blessed.” Genesis 12:1-3
Here’s something to think on this weekend; Abram set out for a vague destination on a word from God. It says that he got to Canaan safe and sound and that God didn’t speak to him again until he arrived. Check it out for yourself in verse 7. God appeared to Abram and said, “I will give this land to your children.” Abram built an altar at the place God had appeared to him.
Everything wasn’t perfect when he got there. It says the land was occupied. Most of us would have stayed there, but he kept going further south.
Then there was a famine and he ended up in Egypt and the king took his wife. HELLO! That’s crazy! But it was simply a setup to make Abram’s name great and give him more wealth. Gods plans for him were greater than he could imagine.
Some of us have heard the Lord ask us to do something but refuse to move without confirmation. What if God is waiting for you at the destination He’s called you to so He can give you further instruction?
Psalm 37:23 tells us that God establishes the steps of man and He delights in his way.
God has planned an adventure for us with clues along the way that show us we’re on the right path. Don’t build your home where you don’t belong and miss the best part of the journey. We should never be comfortable before we reach our final destination. Every place in-between is just a part of the adventure.
Father, I see you looking on, smiling at the twists and turns in the path I’m on, knowing that what’s up ahead is a prize that my mind can’t fathom. I trust You! As a child trusts their parents to provide and keep them safe, I trust You. I may not know where I’m going, but I know who goes with me, and I’m content in that. It’s in Jesus’ name, I thank You. Amen
Listen to how they whisper their slander against me, saying: “Look! He’s hopeless! Even God can’t save him from this!” Pause in his presence Psalms 3:2 TPT
I just love how comfortable David is with God that he can empty out all of his feelings and tell it like it is. And just as quickly, he says this:
But in the depths of my heart I truly know that you, Yahweh, have become my Shield; You take me and surround me with yourself. Your glory covers me continually. You lift high my head. I have cried out to you, Yahweh, from your holy presence. You send me a Father’s help. Pause in his presence Psalms 3:3-4 TPT
It’s what he has learned deep down in his heart that when he cries out, he’s sent a Father’s help. What does that look like? It’s what he learned from time spent with God because in reality, David had a horrible earthly father.
Regardless of whether your own father was a failure, an addict, a deadbeat, an abuser or just absent, as David learned from the best, so can you. Call on Him and allow Him to be your Father.
Then he dreamed, and behold, a ladder was set up on the earth, and its top reached to heaven; and there the angels of God were ascending and descending on it. And behold, the Lord stood above it and said: “I am the Lord God of Abraham your father and the God of Isaac; the land on which you lie I will give to you and your descendants. Also your descendants shall be as the dust of the earth; you shall spread abroad to the west and the east, to the north and the south; and in you and in your seed all the families of the earth shall be blessed. Behold, I am with you and will keep you wherever you go, and will bring you back to this land; for I will not leave you until I have done what I have spoken to you.” Genesis 28:12-15 NKJV
I just wanted to point out that God gave Jacob a dream that was personal to him. It’s was specifically designed for his future and his children’s future.
Don’t ever underestimate the dreams God gave you. It doesn’t matter how old you are or how exhaustive your journey has been, God made a promise, a covenant promise to bring you into a place that only He can bring you.
His direction may not make sense. But your ability to listen and follow that direction will bring about the future He’s promised you. All of the greats before you had go through stuff. You’re no exception!
There’s only one thing you need to remember; He will do what He said He would do in His time, not yours.
So stop looking at your current location and your impossible situation and look at the God whose Word never fails. It always does what He said to do, and that’s final. Your outcome was determined by God, not you. Trusting Him is the only thing He requires of you.
Don’t be pulled in different directions or worried about a thing. Be saturated in prayer throughout each day, offering your faith-filled requests before God with overflowing gratitude. Tell him every detail of your life, then God’s wonderful peace that transcends human understanding, will guard your heart and mind through Jesus Christ. Philippians 4:6-7 TPT
God is unimpressed with puny faithless prayers, but He will move heaven and earth to answer desperate faith filled prayers.
God’s excited when we pour our hearts out to Him. He loves the relationship we choose to have with Him. Just as we treasure relationship with our children, He treasures ours with His.
It’s what guarantees His all-encompassing peace. The peace that guards our hearts and stills our minds so that even the most evil schemes of the enemy will not disturb or take us from the stillness He provides.
Give Him all the details He longs to hear, then know that He will keep you in perfect peace when your mind is stayed on Him.
For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind. II Timothy 1:7 NKJV
For God did not give us a spirit of timidity (of cowardice, of craven and cringing and fawning fear), but [He has given us a spirit] of power and of love and of calm and well-balanced mind and discipline and self-control. 2 Timothy 1:7 AMPC
We live in a real and natural world where what we see, smell, taste, and feel has become our reality. But for just one moment, I’d like to challenge you to flip your normal mindset and shift your reality a bit.
Did you know that God sees things differently than you? First of all, He knows the end from the beginning, so He operates with an advantage we don’t have. I’m pretty sure that God’s never surprised by anything. You may be, but He is not.
So if Satan’s job is to deceive us by getting us to put more stock in the natural, he’s doing a pretty good job of it. Look around you. There’s not one of us who hasn’t been convinced that our reality is more real than God’s word.
If you want to kick fear in the face, start putting more stock in the God who never lies, never leaves, has the power to hold universes together, heals, saves, and delivers. Do I need to go on?
I challenge you today to change your mind about what’s real. If you’re facing an impossible situation, remember that nothing is impossible with God. If Satan has determined that your future is hopeless, remember that God has given you a future and a hope.
Trust in the Lord with all your heart and do not lean on your own understanding. Proverbs 3:5 NASB2020
That’s a mouthful right there. Perhaps it would be easier to understand if we take a moment to break it down a bit. Maybe taking small nibbles to make it easier to digest.
Let’s begin with what it means to trust. It’s a firm belief in the reliability, truth, ability, or strength of someone. And it clearly says to trust with all your heart. Not a little. Not when it suits you. But when life gets twisted and you can’t see what’s in front of you.
It continues with not leaning on our own understanding. I believe this is a crucial part of surviving the storms of life that creep up on us, threatening to wipe out the very foundation of trust we’ve built.
Why, you ask? Because if we rely on our own understanding, it will lead us towards doubt, unbelief, and an attempt to overthink and even overthrow what Gods plans are for us.
That’s what caused me to ask for greater understanding. It led me into a rapid replay of my lifes journey. Everything I’ve gone through set me up for a purpose God had that I couldn’t understand or see at the time.
When I stopped assuming and started truly trusting, I began to see that what I went through had changed me. It made me more relatable. God took the very things that tried to destroy me and turned them into treasure.
We will never know the mind of God. His thoughts far exceed ours. His ways and purposes take everything into consideration. We see a small part, yet we think we have it all figured out. Silly us.
God, give us the ability to totally trust your hidden agendas. To place our tiny hands in your big ones and continue walking when we don’t see what’s ahead for us. May each step create deeper trust in your ability to take us where we’ll be best used for your purposes.
For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope. Then you will call upon Me and go and pray to Me, and I will listen to you. And you will seek Me and find Me, when you search for Me with all your heart. Jeremiah 29:11-13 NKJV
God knows me. He knows my thoughts, my fears, and my needs. But He steps that up when He says, “I know the thoughts I think toward you.”
What kind of thoughts does God have about me? For me? Well, He starts with peace and not evil. So He sends peace into our lives. Anything that messes up my peace is not from God. It’s evil in its nature and disturbing in its hold on my mind.
His thoughts are good towards me. He wants to prosper me and give me great success. He wants me to experience wholeness in my spirit, soul, and body. To give me a future and hope.
The enemy may have conspired against me. He may be relentless in his pursuit of me. But God has other plans for me, and I trust those words over the lies of my enemies. He’s prepared a table for me in the presence of my enemies. I will feast in His promises regardless of what I’m looking at today.
Then I will call on Him, and He will answer me. I will pray, and He will listen because He can not turn a deaf ear to my voice. I’m His child, and He hears me. My Father has big plans for me, and absolutely nothing will stand in the way of those plans to come to pass.
Then it happened in the spring, at the time when kings go out to battle, that David sent Joab and his servants with him and all Israel, and they brought destruction on the sons of Ammon and besieged Rabbah. But David stayed in Jerusalem. Now at evening time David got up from his bed and walked around on the roof of the king’s house, and from the roof he saw a woman bathing; and the woman was very beautiful in appearance. So David sent servants and inquired about the woman. And someone said, “Is this not Bathsheba, the daughter of Eliam, the wife of Uriah the Hittite?” Then David sent messengers and had her brought, and when she came to him, he slept with her; and when she had purified herself from her uncleanness, she returned to her house. But the woman conceived; so she sent word and informed David, and said, “I am pregnant.” 2 Samuel 11:1-5 NASB2020
If you’re unfamiliar with the story of Davids sin and how God exposed it, forgave him, and punished him, I encourage you to read it. Perhaps it will refresh your memory of the ability God has to love, forgive, and wipe slates clean.
You may ask me where these thoughts came from. Let me explain a conversation I had with friends on Friday a week ago.
The subject was sexual sin committed by a leader of a large prayer ministry, and the comment was made that they could no longer listen to their music or receive inspiration from their teachings.
As I sat and listened to the conversation, Holy Spirit spoke to me, “Remember David’s sin and how God dealt with it?”
I didn’t comment at the time, but I couldn’t shake the feeling that God was trying to show me something. Not until I asked did I hear these words: “What right does man have to hold onto what I’ve forgiven?”
Here’s what I believe we’ve forgotten; And be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God in Christ forgave you. Ephesians 4:32 NKJV
It’s a tool Satan has used from the beginning of time, and we continue to fall into its deception. We’d rather throw the baby out with the bathwater than believe that God forgives and forgets. We’ve drawn a redaction through those words as if they don’t apply.
So how do we do this? How can we right a wrong that we’ve helped create? How? We first repent for our unforgiveness. We ask for restoration and mercy for what Satan has tried to destroy. Then we stop spreading rumors and remind others of where they would be if people kept their secrets alive.
Father, let it begin with me. May others experience your love and mercy through me. May forgiveness come from my lips, and may my heart be pure so that your unconditional love is always evident. In Jesus name, Amen
remnantposts by sandy gregory 