We're taking a trip chronologically through the Bible this year.
My heart is yours, O God, and my soul sings praises to you. Every morning as I see the sun rise, I praise you, LORD.
Great is your love! It fills the heavens reaching to the skies. You are exalted, God, above the heavens and your glory shines over all the earth.
Deliver us, Father. We know you reign over all the earth. Nothing and no one can stand against you, God.
With God on our side, evil doesn’t stand a chance. Victory is our’s.
Thank you, Abba Father.
Hear my prayers, Father, and show me your compassion. I will hide myself in your shadow until my fears and worries go away.
I ask that you fulfill your purposes for my life. I know the angels of heaven are fighting my battles and they will give me victory.
Your love and faithfulness never leave me, Father.
I am surrounded by the evil one who is trying to take pieces of me and devour me.
But I still praise you, God. May your glorious light shine over all the earth.
My enemy sets traps for me – especially when I am weary and distressed. The evil one digs deep pits in my path but then he falls into them himself.
I am confident in you, oh God. My heart sings your praises. I awake every morning with a song of praise to you. Thank you for your love and faithfulness which has no end.
I praise you, Father. May your glorious light shine over all the earth.
O God, you are my God. I am searching for you with all my heart.
My soul needs you. My whole being longs to be close to you in this empty, weary and very confused world. I treasure the precious time I get to spend with you.
I have personally witnessed your power and glory. I praise you for your love which makes this life worth living.
I will lift my hands and heart up to you in praise for as long as I live. Only you can fill the emptiness inside of me and make me sing for joy.
In the darkest part of the night, I remember how much you have loved me in the past and how much you have promised to love me in the future. My heart sings for joy as I cling to your promises and feel your arms around me, holding me safe and securely to your side.
The Evil One and his team are all around me, Father, trying to ruin me. But I know you are fighting my battles, God, and you have already won the war.
I rejoice in you, God. All who know the Truth know you. Liars will be silenced.
I will lift my hands in praise to you for the rest of my life, Abba Father.
Little Samuel’s story in the Bible is one my favorites.
He heard a voice calling to him in the night and he thought is was the Prophet Eli since he was living with Eli. So Samuel got out of bed and ran to Eli saying, “Here I am”.
But Eli said, “I did not call, go back and lie down.”
This happened again and then the third time, Eli realized that it was God who was calling the boy. This time Eli told Samuel, when he heard the voice, to say, “Speak, LORD, for your servant is listening.” 1 Samuel 3:9.
When God spoke again, Samuel told him he was listening and God went on to tell Samuel what was soon going to happen.
I’ve got a challenge for you. The next time you think you might be hearing something from God, say those same words, “Speak, LORD, for your servant is listening.” And then listen. Listen to what is going through your brain. Think about what you have been reading in God’s Word and how it applies to your life. Think about coincidences that have been happening in your life and how they relate to what you’ve been reading. Remember things that Godly people in your life have said to you recently.
I believe God is regularly trying to break through the cacophony of our culture – especially the electronic bubble where we spend a lot of our time. He is trying to talk to you and me – guiding us, encouraging us, and teaching us.
Have you had the experience where you are reading God’s Word and suddenly a sentence seems to stick out of the page? It almost looks like it’s in bold print? You reread a phrase a couple of times? You start to wonder what this means in your life? Has that phrase always been there? I don’t remember ever reading that or even hearing anyone talk about that before? That is God stopping us. That is God drawing our attention to something specific in his Word so he can speak to us.
That’s what God did today with me. He stopped me as I was reading to remind me how much I like young Samuel’s story. Because I know God, I know he is encouraging me to continue to learn how to hear him more and more clearly as I read his Truth. My knowledge of God is growing and the more I know him, the better I hear him.
How can I be confident that it’s God that’s talking to me and not just my own thinking? What God says to me will always be consistent with what he says in the Bible. He will not contradict himself.
I am also 100% sure it’s God talking when he says something I’ve never thought of before and it’s consistent with what I have read in the Bible. God confirms his guidance to me through my circumstances as well. When it’s God talking to me, things happening around me will line up with what God is saying. Sometimes it will be something my husband, my pastor or a friend says. As I pray about what God is telling me, God will often open up my eyes to how he is moving around me and I’m be able to connect the dots.
When I take time to consider all of these things, God’s directions to me become really clear.
When I work at staying aware of the fact that God is trying to talk to me, it’s not hard to hear him.
I hear you, Abba Father
Time is the great leveler – we all have 24 hours in a day. You and I choose how we’re going to spend these 24 hours. What are we going to do? How are we spending the majority of our time? Using a Biblical term, I would say that you and I are ‘serving’ whatever or whomever takes up the most of each of our 24 hours.
A lot of us serve ourselves. Looking out for #1. Do I like it? Does it benefit me? Do I wanna do it? Do I feel like doing it? What’s in for me? Oh, yeah. These questions come pretty easy because we use them a lot. We may not say them out loud but we use them in our decision-making.
Many of serve our debts. We have to work extra hours or extra jobs to pay for all of the stuff we already have. We’re upside down on cars and houses. When we’re not working, we’re worrying about paying the bills. The best line about our money I’ve ever heard is – “The secret in managing your money correctly is not in how much you make. The secret is in how much you spend.” Truth.
Some of us serve our hobbies – like sports or exercising or shopping. While we’re shopping today we’re planning about the next time we can go shopping. Or we’re not happy unless we’re biking or walking or running or working out. Or before the game we’re watching on TV is over, we’re flipping to the next channel for the next game and then the next game and then the next.
We all choose who or what we will serve.
Joshua makes this very clear to the Israelites as he throws down a challenge. “Choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve… But as for me and my household, we will serve the Lord.” Joshua 24:15.
You and I need to make a conscious choice, not just roll through our lives spending our precious time on things or people who will never give us joy, peace and a guaranteed future. We don’t want to get to the end of our lives with hearts full of regrets and emptiness, realizing we never made a choice – we just let the world push us to a place we never wanted to be.
I have made my choice. I have laid down any ‘idols’ I was serving at the feet of the One, True, Living God and now it’s all about him.
What’s your choice? There’s no better time than right now to start a new chapter in your life labelled, “My love relationship with my Father God”. You won’t regret it.
I choose you, Abba Father.
He died.
She passed away.
He was killed.
Before Moses died, God told him, “Go up into the Abarim Range to Mount Nebo in Moab, across from Jericho, and view Canaan, the land I am giving the Israelites as their own possession. There on the mountain you have climbed you will die and be gathered to your people, just as your brother Aaron died on Mount Hor and was gathered to his people.” Deut. 32: 48-49.
I like that. It makes great sense when someone is a believer. Moses was not going to die. After taking his last breath on earth, the next moment he would be in heaven – with his people. His Father was in heaven. And his Savior was in heaven.
This makes me ask the question – where are my people?
God has blessed me by giving me a family with a very long lineage of Christ-followers. Many generations of my people are in heaven. My son who was a Phoenix Police Officer killed in the line of duty is already in heaven. I have published a book on Amazon, “Then I Looked Up: Losing a Child, Finding His Legacy of Love.” which tells the story of his death and my painful yet hopeful journey since then.
The people I identify with here on earth are also Christ-followers. These are my people. They will be with me when I am gathered to my Father – when I am gathered to my people.
I’m thinking about starting to use this phrase with believers instead of ‘died’ or ‘passed away’. Some people wouldn’t get it but that’s ok – some people don’t get a lot of things.
How about you? Are your people in heaven? Is your Savior in Heaven? If so, then he has prepared a place for you.
Will you be with me when all believers are gathered to our Father in Heaven?
I hope and pray that you will.
On the day you have already determined, I will be there, Abba Father.
Have you ever done something that you thought was impossible? I have.
I have a terrible memory and I’ve been like this for quite a while. Go ahead and shake your head ‘yes’ if you are with me on this. I don’t know my husband’s telephone number that he’s had for 25 years. I get confused about the address of my house where I have lived for almost 5 years. I was making cookies for Christmas the other day and stopped in the middle, looked down, and had no idea if I had already put in the baking soda or not. For you non-bakers, baking soda is VERY important. And don’t get me started on names. I forget names of people I have known for 40 years. If you know me and see me, I probably won’t use your name because…I can’t remember it. Sorry! Nothing personal, I’m like that with everyone.
So when God challenged me to memorize the entire first chapter of James many years ago, I laughed. Ha, ha! That was impossible. I had some success memorizing scripture earlier in my life but the older I get, the harder it has become. Not just hard, impossible from my point of view.
God told me he was serious and that he would help me. I’ve told you before that I have learned the hard way to obey God. Just obey. Don’t question. Don’t ‘pray about it’. Just obey.
So I told him I would try but that I thought it was impossible. He reminded me of Mark 10:27. It’s one of the few I could still remember from my early years. Look it up 🙂
I started with James 1. One verse at a time. I wrote them on index cards and added a card as soon as I could say the last one from memory. I took out my index cards every day – sometimes multiple times a day. I had told God I would do my part – get out my cards and say the verse a hundred times but he was going to have to do the rest. The actual etching of the words on my memory was his job. We were a team.
Imagine my amazement when the verses started to stick and I started moving through the chapter. I also researched and studied each verse as I memorized it which added a depth of understanding for this scripture that I had never had before. As I worked through it, I started to ‘feel’ the truth in James 1, not just say it. It buried itself deep in soul. When I actually could say the whole chapter from memory, I was totally amazed at how awesome it was to see God work like that in my life. He did the impossible!
I realize now that God was writing the whole chapter of James 1 on my heart and mind for a couple of reasons –
I still have a bad memory when it comes to telephone numbers, addresses and names. But I can memorize scripture because I’ve got a supernatural, powerful God working with me.
I challenge you to get rid of your impossible list and start a very tangible working relationship with all-mighty God. You obey and do your part and then watch him do his.
Nothing is Impossible with God.
They were unschooled, ordinary men.
But the religious leaders were astonished as Peter and John stood in front of them, telling them what they knew about Jesus. These fishermen were eloquent and compelling. They were passionate and knowledgeable.
It was clear to those listening to Peter and John that these men had been with Jesus –
and Jesus had transformed them. Something was significantly different about Peter and John.
* Jesus had redeemed their lives from sin and death and given them the power of the Holy Spirit who was now living inside of them.
* They spoke with authority about their personal experiences with Jesus.
* They had courage beyond that of a normal person.
The religious leaders didn’t know what to say or do so they let Peter and John go with a warning not to speak of Jesus again.
“But Peter and John replied, “Which is right in God’s eyes: to listen to you or to him? You be the judges! As for us, we cannot help speaking about what we have seen and heard.” Acts 4: 19-20.
Brave.
Committed.
Not intimidated by the those in positions of power.
Nothing was going to stop Peter and John from sharing their personal experience with Jesus. We know the truth about Jesus today because they did not stop talking about what they had seen and heard.
Dear Father, Please help us be as brave and committed as Peter and John with sharing what we know about Jesus.
It burns. Do you feel it?
As I read God’s Word, the truth burns through the mountains of lies and confusion that our culture is busy building up all around me.
I’m a thinker, not a feeler so reading and studying God’s Word rocks my world. God’s word feels true. It feels powerful. It feels right and good.
The ‘feeler’ in me wakes up as God speaks to me through his Word. My ‘feeler’ confirms for me that this is my Father God teaching me what he wants me to know. As I listen, God’s words burn into my brain. I feel the truth etching itself on my soul, creating a desire inside of me to know God better and love him more.
I know what the two men were talking about when they walked with Jesus after his resurrection on the road to Emmaus . They didn’t know who he was at first, but when their eyes were opened, Jesus disappeared. And they asked each other, “Were not our hearts burning within us when he talked with us on the road and opened the Scripture to us?” (Luke 24:32)
I can relate. God’s truth has burned down to the center of my being and I feel like I’ve hit the jackpot! This Truth gives purpose to all the craziness in this world. This is Truth that I can hold onto as the storms of life rage around me. This Truth is filled with light and love and grace and peace.
Yes, it burns. And it is good.
Do you feel it?
It should have been me.
The thief up on the cross next to Jesus was sentenced to die for the bad things he had done.
That was me….before I put my faith in Jesus.
My rebellion, self-centeredness, and lack of compassion are a few of the reasons I should have been on that cross.
The Great News is Jesus was up there on the cross for me…..and for you. He who knew no sin became sin for us. He bore the weight of all of the world’s sin – once and for all. You and I can be redeemed from spiritual death by accepting the free gift of salvation that only Jesus can give.
As I read this account in Luke 23, I visualize Jesus turning to me, looking me in the eye and saying, “Truly I tell you, today you will be with me in paradise.” vs 43.
For the thief, it was that day. Oh, glorious day!
For me, it probably won’t be today – although it could be.
And I’m ready.
There will be come a day for me when it is ‘today’ because I have committed my heart and life to Jesus. This passage in the Bible reassures me. The thief did nothing to earn his way into heaven. He put his faith in Jesus and it was done. He didn’t say a prayer or say specific words and he was never baptized. Jesus knew the thief’s heart just like Jesus knows my heart.
This passage also tells me there is no waiting – no purgatory, no additional steps.
Today.
In paradise.
Thank you, Jesus
Come with me on a Journey through the Bible 