What do you talk about more than anything else? Have you ever listened, I mean really listened to what comes out of your mouth? I challenge you to take a day and measure your words.

Psalm 20:7 Amp says, “Some trust in and boast of chariots and some of horses, but we will trust in and boast of the name of the Lord our God.”

What does that mean? I believe it’s means to remember and talk about the goodness of the Lord. Do you know that when you’re talking about Gods goodness in your past and present, you spend less time talking and thinking about the problems you’re facing in the now?

I still remember Philippians 4:8-9 because it tells us what to think about. How easy is that, right? It’s like God is giving us a choice of what’s behind door number 1, 2 or 3 and saying, choose door number 1-it has the good stuff!

Who wouldn’t do choose door 1? I’ll tell you who…..it’s those who have a bible sitting on their table but don’t open it, even when their facing life size problems. They seek out others who have a quick answer, a feel good word, they’ve already spent time with God, it’s just easier.

My precious friend, that just ain’t right! You can’t know God through someone else and reap all the benefits of that friendship. II Timothy 2:15 “Be diligent to present yourself approved to God, a worker who does not need to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.”

What does that mean? Don’t take someone else’s word for the Word. Read it for yourself and ask God to lead you into deeper understanding and relationship with Him. It’s personal. Between you and God, applied to your personality, gifting and future.

Father, I want to know You for myself. Be my friend. Not through my pastor, my worship leader or someone who has a deep relationship with You. I want to know You for me, because each friend I have brings something unique into the relationship, I want to be unique to You.

Help me to remember to measure my words today and speak of Your goodness to everyone I meet. There is no one like You, Lord. Your goodness is from everlasting to everlasting.

Sandy G

For I’m releasing these words to you this day, yes, even to you, so that your living hope will be found in God alone, for he is the only one who is always true. Proverbs 22:19 TPT

What a beautiful word for today. As if God looked down and saw where you’re standing and released a word for you alone. He didn’t address your dead dreams, but your living hope, found in Him alone, for He is the only one who is always true.

Can you see that? Regardless of distractions. Regardless of discouragement. Stir up the hope in your heart, the hope that only God can give. Living, moving, breathing hope set to burn by the fire of the Holy Spirit. Bask in that. Allow His fire to burn away all the dross, the cobwebs that have filled the space where hope lies inside of you.

Stop looking at all the turmoil going on around you. Leave that to God because He alone knows the outcome. You ask what He would have you do and then leave the rest to Him. Move along to the next thing, the next person to show love to, to give hope to. He didn’t bring you this far just to have you give up hope now.

The world around you doesn’t know the hope we have. It’s up to us to show them what that looks like.

I just had a man say to me, “Sandy, I’m losing hope. So much senseless death and tragedy. I have faith, but I’m losing hope.” To which I replied, “Trust in the Lord with all your heart, don’t lean on your own understanding of what’s going on, but rather acknowledge that He is still God, still the same yesterday, today and forever and stop watching all the storm going on around you. Your anchor of hope is in Him and He is enough.”

I release that same word to you today. Take it with you. Don’t let what you see become bigger than the God you serve.

Sandy G

The father approached the second son and said the same thing to him. The son replied, ‘Father, I will go and do as you said.’ But he never did—he didn’t go to the vineyard. Matthew 21:30 TPT

Have you ever asked someone to do something only to find that they never did it? Can I get a hardy AMEN from all the parents out there? You know they heard you, they acknowledged you, even repeated it back to you, still not done. Perhaps you gave them consequences (ie punishment) if it wasn’t done and still, not done. Nothing used to get my pot boiling like that scenario! Wonder where they learned it from? Because you know children usually model what they see in us.

There’s a verse in James 1:22 that got my attention; “But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves.” We can plug our ears and do the ‘la la la’ thing all we want, but God knows we heard Him. Guess what? Since it’s a choice, we only deceive ourselves!

Something happens when I choose to obey. I believe it opens a door that can’t be closed. When I change from just reading and hearing to actually doing, watch out. I’ll be marked for life. I’ll be called ‘radical’, ‘weird’, ‘one of those kinds of Christians’, ‘unbalanced’, ‘over zealous’, ‘too heavenly minded to be earthly good’. Let me tell you something; I can still hold an intelligent conversation with the best of them, can still function (definitely better) in my job, enjoy dinner with friends and still do the will of my Father who sent me.

Yeah, that’s right! I still have my warped sense of humor, still roll my eyes at Walts weird jokes, still watch normal shows on TV. So what’s different about me? I’ve made an investment in the Word, not just to hear it, but to do it. I’ve made the same investment in prayer, not just to talk about it, but to do it. That’s right, I even intercede in tongues that I never learned.

I am a believer in every sense of the word and I’m unashamed of the power that Word had in changing me and my family. I don’t want to be like the world, I want to be different because the Word told me to be separate and I’m doing it. I’m getting myself ready for King Jesus who has promised to return for me. That’s right, I even believe Jesus is coming soon. I work the Word because the Word works!

Sandy G

“…Things are going to happen so fast your head will swim, one thing fast on the heels of the other. You won’t be able to keep up. Everything will be happening at once—and everywhere you look, blessings!” Amos 9:13 MSG

Wouldn’t you like to see that happen? I sure would! I feel like things are definitely happening so fast that it makes my head swim, and not necessarily good things either. But here’s your encouragement for the day; He’s promised blessings and blessings He will give.

It’s easy to get hung up looking at all the trouble. In fact on my ride home from my sisters last night, I was thinking of the verse that says, “Many are the afflictions of the righteous: But the LORD delivereth him out of them all.” Psalm 34:19 That there is one big promise.

He may not deliver me the way I want, but He’s still my deliverer and always will be. He may not bless me the way I want, but He still blesses me and always will.

So good or bad, fast or slow, I will lift my hands and thank Him for being good, faithful and true. Be encouraged today to do the same. Everywhere you look will be blessings, pressed down, shaken together and running over.

Sandy G

“It shall come to pass that before they call, I will answer; And while they are still speaking, I will hear.” Isaiah 65:24

Don’t ever think for a moment that God doesn’t see you in your trouble and hear you when you call out to Him. He knows the exact amount of hairs on your head (even those who have a small count!). Over and over in His Word, we see how much God loves and cares for us, yet our thinking is always so far from Him, it’s on the problems we face.

After Jesus had fed the multitudes with some kids snack, and they had taken up 12 baskets of leftovers, Jesus told the disciples to get in the boat and go to the other side, He’d catch up with them later. So they get out in the middle of the lake and a storm came up and they look and see Jesus walking on the water.

OK, why were they freaked out by the storm? Jesus said to get in and go to the other side. If He had intended for the waves to take them, He wouldn’t have told them the end result, go to the other side! I submit to you, my friends, even the disciples who took up the 12 baskets of leftovers had their mind on the wrong things. Let’s get our mind off the waves and on to the 12 baskets of leftovers. Let’s tell of His great provision for every need we have.

Do you remember when we had nothing left in our cupboard and someone brought us 5 bags of groceries? If He did it then, He’ll do it now. He wants us talking of His goodness, not staring at our brokenness. Let’s not be like the Israelites who God did miracle after miracle to prove His mighty power to deliver, only to put up with a bunch of whiny, ungrateful people. They did not realize who they were; a holy and chosen people.

Let’s not forget who WE are and that our God hears our cry for help. Our God has heard and help is on the way!

Sandy G

The boy Samuel was serving God under Eli’s direction. This was at a time when the revelation of God was rarely heard or seen. One night Eli was sound asleep (his eyesight was very bad—he could hardly see). It was well before dawn; the sanctuary lamp was still burning. Samuel was still in bed in the Temple of God, where the Chest of God rested. Then God called out, “Samuel, Samuel!”

Samuel answered, “Yes? I’m here.” Then he ran to Eli saying, “I heard you call. Here I am.”

Eli said, “I didn’t call you. Go back to bed.” And so he did.

God called again, “Samuel, Samuel!”

Samuel got up and went to Eli, “I heard you call. Here I am.”

Again Eli said, “Son, I didn’t call you. Go back to bed.” (This all happened before Samuel knew God for himself. It was before the revelation of God had been given to him personally.)

God called again, “Samuel!”—the third time! Yet again Samuel got up and went to Eli, “Yes? I heard you call me. Here I am.”

That’s when it dawned on Eli that God was calling the boy. So Eli directed Samuel, “Go back and lie down. If the voice calls again, say, ‘Speak, God. I’m your servant, ready to listen.’” Samuel returned to his bed.

Then God came and stood before him exactly as before, calling out, “Samuel! Samuel!”

Samuel answered, “Speak. I’m your servant, ready to listen.”

God said to Samuel, “Listen carefully. I’m getting ready to do something…..” Read the rest of the story in I Samuel 3

I hear the Lord saying, “I want to reveal myself to my sons and daughters, but they spend more time talking then listening. They want to know my plans, but they won’t be still before me to hear it. They’re full of their own thoughts and agendas, and if I don’t work quickly according to their plans, they just move on.”

To hear from God, we must first have revelation of God. Please understand that there is no one bigger than God. From the beginning of time, He created man to converse with him. One thing noted in Genesis is that God walked with Adam in the cool of the day. Friends talk! He loves to reveal Himself and all of His astounding attributes to us.

The second most important thing, is to recognize His voice and make ourselves available to listen. You can’t recognize Gods voice if you don’t read His Word because He IS His Word. John 1:1-5;

“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made. In Him was life, and the life was the light of men. And the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it.”

Little Samuel heard an audible voice calling to him in the night and thought it was Eli, the priest. It took a few times for Eli to realize that God was the one doing the calling because it had been so long since he himself had heard Gods voice. I wonder how it made him feel?

The bible says that the voice of God was rare in that time. Kind of like today, don’t you think? Is it because man didn’t want to hear? Perhaps they’d made their own plans and didn’t want interference. It’s like they had life all figured out; plans, goals, seeking after money, fame. They had grown accustomed to no God voice and that was ok with them. No voice, no guilt! Let’s keep moving! Sound familiar?

Father, to not hear Your voice would be horrible! I can’t imagine my life without You! Each day when I rise and say, “Good morning, Lord!” Your response is music to my ears and I feel my heart stir within me. I’m so thankful that You sent Your Spirit to live in me. I don’t have to wait for a certain time, I can access you every minute of everyday. I want to know You in ALL of Your glory!

Speak Lord! Your servant is listening.

Sandy G

Death and life are in the power of the tongue, and those who love it will eat its fruit. Proverbs 18:21

In other words, what you say is what you get!

We used to do a little exercise where we’d have someone extend their arm out at their side and have them repeat the words, ‘I am strong, I am strong, I am very, very strong’, 5 times and then try to push their arm down and you couldn’t do it. Then we’d have them say, ‘I am weak, I am weak, I am very very weak!’ the same amount of times and push on their arm and it would go down. No tricks! Even the skeptics were amazed at the results.

So often we think that it really doesn’t matter what we say. ‘I’m just kidding!’ doesn’t negate the fact that the words you speak are out there doing what you sent them to do. You see, we were made in the image and likeness of God and He’s the Master Creator.

Jesus was very clear in Matthew 12:36 when He stated, “And I tell you this, you must give an account on judgment day for every idle word you speak.” Again in Matthew 15:11, “It’s not what goes into your mouth that defiles you; you are defiled by the words that come out of your mouth.”

Toxic words come out of our mouth everyday and we get all bent out of shape because of the things that happen in our life and the lives of our families as a result of them. We play the blame game, wagging a finger at God, asking why this happened. Really?

Remember the time you damned your children because of something they did? Why should you be surprised at how they act now? Or the times you yelled, “I HATE THIS JOB!” then became upset when the business went under and you lost your job? REALLY? It’s because we pay no attention to our words. We place no value on the things we speak.

Do you want to change things in your life? Make consistent changes to the words you speak! How? By training yourself to think right thoughts and speak right words. How? If I have a glass of tea and keep refilling the glass with tea, what will I get? Tea, right? But what if I start putting water in the glass, then what happens? It changes to water. It may take a little while for all the tea to be gone, but eventually, it will be a nice glass of water.

So when I fill my mind with the Word of God and learn to speak like He does, love like He does, bless like He does, I become…….yeah, God like.

My prayer today is found in Psalm 19:14, “May the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be pleasing to you, O Lord, my rock and my redeemer.”

Sandy G

God’s your Guardian, right at your side to protect you—Shielding you from sunstroke, sheltering you from moonstroke. God guards you from every evil, he guards your very life. He guards you when you leave and when you return, he guards you now, he guards you always. Ps 121:5-8 MSG

Get the picture? He’s all around you, above you, beneath you, in you, there is absolutely no way to get away from the fact that God is all about taking care of you. No reason for you to think you’re ever alone, He’s there.

You simply can’t go by how you feel. The more you focus on feelings the less time you focus on God. The devil will always try to distract you from your purpose. Shake it off! Gods got this! Place it in his VERY capable hands and renew your mind in the Word. Begin to speak it outloud. Declare it to the mountain, “God has this! He’s my Guardian! My steps are ordered so back off devil! I will watch as my deliverer wipes the floor with you!”

Remember who you are, you’re a child of a mighty Guardian God. If that doesn’t empower you, I don’t know what will.

Open your mouth and taste, open your eyes and see—how good God is. Blessed are you who run to him. Psalm 34:8 MSG

I don’t believe that means to physically run to Him, I believe we need to passionately run after Him. When we’re surrounded by evil, when everything that could go wrong goes wrong, when we’re facing a mountain of debt, when the report from the doctor is a death sentence, we open our mouth and speak of His faithfulness. We open our eyes to see His faithfulness.

The best solution to any problem we face is to begin to worship the Lord for all He’s done in the past and all He will do in our future. To remind Him of His promise to never leave us or forsake us. To thank Him for wisdom to deal with our present so we can add it to our arsenal against our enemy.

It may seem like you’re alone, but you’re not. It may seem like the problem is too big until you see how big your God is. Nothing compares to Him. NOTHING!

David faced Goliath because he knew God was bigger! Jesus faced death because He knew God would raise Him up. If you don’t trust like that, it’s time you opened your mouth to taste, open your eyes to see just how good your God is. Let’s keep our focus where it should be, on the great grace and goodness of our God. As you run after God, He will deal with your enemy.

I’ve always loved the story in Luke 18:1-8 about the widow woman and the unjust judge. At the very beginning it explains the reason for the story. It was to teach us our need for constant prayer and to never give up.

It seems to be a continuation of the teaching to keep on knocking and the door will be opened. We just don’t pray long enough. We pray a few times and when it doesn’t show up we use the lame excuse, “Well, perhaps it just wasn’t Gods will.”

What ever happened to keep on seeking, keep on asking, keep on knocking? We’ve turned into a bunch of spoiled, microwave Christians. If we can’t get it in 3 minutes or less, we move on to something else. I’ve been asking for something for years now and I have the assurance that if I don’t become weary and stop, I WILL GET WHAT I PRAY FOR!

Not yet doesn’t mean never. Keep serving, keep giving, keep living, keep praying. Jesus never quit! Death wasn’t even the final blow because He had already said He’d rise in 3 days. Stop speaking defeat, start speaking end result. It’s time to ask God to breathe life back into dreams. Unanswered prayers is not denial, it’s just delayed, keep asking!

Father, You are faithful. You hear us. You love us and because You do, what we ask according to Your Word, You will give us. Teach us to trust You even more than we do today. We love You!