Encouragement

Well there is no doubt that we are going through a recession. Many are feeling it. Many are suffering. This morning our gracious Father led me to Nehemiah. There we can find encouragement.
It all starts with Nehemiah getting word that Jerusalem's wall had been broken down and the gates burned down. Nehemiah prayed to God:
Nehemiah 1:4-11

4When I heard these words, I sat down and wept. I mourned
for a number of days, fasting and praying before the God of heaven.
5 I said, Lord God of heaven, the great and awe inspiring God who
keeps His gracious covenant with those who love Him and keep His commands,
6 let Your eyes be open and Your ears be attentive to hear Your
servant's prayer that I now pray to You day and night for Your servants, the
Israelites. I confess the sins we have committed against You. Bot I and my
father's house have sinned.
7 We have acted corruptly
toward You and have not kept the commands, statutes, and ordinances You gave
Your servant Moses.
8 Please remember what You commanded
Your servant Moses: "[if] you are unfaithful, I will scatter you among the
peoples.
9 But if you return to Me and carefully observe My commands, even
though your exiles were banished to the ends of the earth, I will gather them
from there and bring them to the place where I chose to have My name dwell."
10 They are Your servants and Your people. You redeemed [them]
by Your great power and strong hand.
11 Please, Lord, let Your ear be attentive to the prayer of
Your servant and to that of Your servants who delight to revere Your name. Give
Your servants success today, and have compassion on him in the presence of this
man.
[At the time,] I was the kings cupbearer.

Nehemiah was then sent to Jerusalem and started the rebuilding of the walls and gates. When Sanballat got word of the walls being built, he mocked their attempts saying that there was no way the walls would stand, that the people were incapable of doing such a thing.
But the people of Jerusalem continued to build and finally built it up to half of what it had been.
Sanballat was furious and decided to attack the people and break the walls back down.
Nehemiah received word of this and set up guards at the gates to make sure that Sanballat could bring no harm to the people and the walls.
The prayed.
Nehemiah 4:10
In Judah it was said:
The strength of the laborer fails,
since there is so much rubble,
We will never be able
to rebuild the wall.

The building of the wall and gates continue on becoming stronger and connected. The men all worked with swords attached to their wastes. Some worked with one hand and held a spear in the other. These people never gave up and continued on despite the threat of Sanballat and his people.

Chapter 5 talks of social injustice to the people. Nehemiah talked to those that were charging the people interest and owned the people's lands. He asked them to stop charging interest and restore the homes and fields to the people that they belonged to. The group agreed, took an oath with the priests and shook on it with Nehemiah.

And it goes on with problems arising, but through faith, and never giving up; they still pulled through it all. We all need to be praying to the Lord our God for repair of our countries finances, that our government officials are righteous people and are led by the Lord not by the enemy. For we are under attack by the enemy. Should our government continue to take the path it is on, we will only dig ourselves a deeper whole.
Let's stand together and tell the enemy that it can not and will not be taken from us. Our God is much stronger than the enemy, and we shall prevail with the Lord in us. Remember when praying for someone outside of your family, friends, and church, you need to have at least one other person praying with you. Start prayer vigils where and when possible. Pray with your spouse, a friend, a family member, any one that is in agreement with you.

Just in Nehemiah, so shall we overcome. We must hold onto faith. Continue to pray. Continue to get in the Word daily. To believe in our Lord, and repent of all our sins. For when we do not repent, our prayers go unanswered.

You all are amazing brothers and sisters. I love you all so. May the Blessings of the Father be showered upon you. Love, Blessings, and Hugs to all! Have a beautiful, God filled week!

Faith and Trust: Part III

Now that things have settled down, I will work on finishing this subject.
Note: For those that may be new to this or have not noticed, I italicize the words Faith and Trust. They are not that way in the Bible; I've just chosen to do that to highlight where those words are found.



Matthew 8:5-13 (NIV)

5 When Jesus had entered Capernaum, a centurion came to him, asking for help.
6 "Lord," he said, "my servant lies at home paralyzed and in terrible suffering."
7 Jesus said to him, "I will go and heal him."
8 The centurion replied, "Lord, I do not deserve to have you come under my roof. But just say the word, and my servant will be healed.
9 For I myself am a man under authority, with soldiers under me. I tell this one, 'Go,' and he goes; and that one, 'Come,' and he comes. I say to my servant, 'Do this,' and he does it."
10 When Jesus heard this, he was astonished and said to those following him, "I tell you the truth, I have not found anyone in Israel with such great faith.
11 I say to you that many will come from the east and the west, and will take their places at the feast with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven.
12 But the subjects of the kingdom will be thrown outside, into the darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth."
13 Then Jesus said to the centurion, "Go! It will be done just as you believed it would." And his servant was healed at that very hour.

Imagine if we all had this kind of Faith! That is something I learned during group this last week. That until we have the Faith for God to work in our lives and answer our prayers, those we are praying for; we must let go of any ill feelings, judgments we hold on them, frustrations, or even anger. For until we place our full Trust in God, our prayers can not be answered. This makes perfect sense.

1 Chronicles 5:20 (NIV)

20 They were helped in fighting them, and God handed the Hagrites and all their allies over to them, because they cried out to him during the battle. He answered their prayers, because they trusted in him.

Because they Trusted Him, He helped them, He answered their cries.

Matthew 9:20-22 (NIV)

20 Just then a woman who had been subject to bleeding for twelve years came up behind him and touched the edge of his cloak.
21 She said to herself, "If I only touch his cloak, I will be healed."
22 Jesus turned and saw her. "Take heart, daughter," he said, "your faith has healed you." And the woman was healed from that moment.

"Your Faith has healed you." I truly believe that those who have that kind of Faith will be healed, He will answer, He will answer!

Psalms 4:5 (NIV)

5 Offer right sacrifices
and trust in the LORD.

This basically goes back to my comments on the first one. Trust in Him!

Psalms 5:11 (NIV)

11 But let all who take refuge in you be glad;
let them ever sing for joy.
Spread your protection over them,
that those who love your name may rejoice in you.

One may say, "Well where's the word Faith or Trust in this one?" Neither is there, but if you think about it, "all who take refuge in you" is talking about this very thing. For those who Trust in you; this is what that very verse is saying.


click on the pic to view the whole picture which shows Jesus walking on the water.

Matthew 14:25-33 (NIV)

25 During the fourth watch of the night Jesus went out to them, walking on the lake.
26 When the disciples saw him walking on the lake, they were terrified. "It's a ghost," they said, and cried out in fear.
27 But Jesus immediately said to them: "Take courage! It is I. Don't be afraid."
28 "Lord, if it's you," Peter replied, "tell me to come to you on the water."
29 "Come," he said. Then Peter got down out of the boat, walked on the water and came toward Jesus.
30 But when he saw the wind, he was afraid and, beginning to sink, cried out, "Lord, save me!"
31 Immediately Jesus reached out his hand and caught him. "You of little faith," he said, "why did you doubt?"
32 And when they climbed into the boat, the wind died down.
33 Then those who were in the boat worshiped him, saying, "Truly you are the Son of God."

Why did they not trust Him in the first place. Why did they not have complete Faith in the Lord. Too many of us forget to place our full trust in Him at times. I'm guilty of that. I want nothing more than to completely have Faith and Trust at all times. But during those trials and frustrations, I tend to let my guard down. Although I am improving and working hard on that.

Matthew 15:22-28 (NIV)

22 A Canaanite woman from that vicinity came to him, crying out, "Lord, Son of David, have mercy on me! My daughter is suffering terribly from demon-possession."
23 Jesus did not answer a word. So his disciples came to him and urged him, "Send her away, for she keeps crying out after us."
24 He answered, "I was sent only to the lost sheep of Israel."
25 The woman came and knelt before him. "Lord, help me!" she said.
26 He replied, "It is not right to take the children's bread and toss it to their dogs."
27 "Yes, Lord," she said, "but even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their masters' table."
28 Then Jesus answered, "Woman, you have great faith! Your request is granted." And her daughter was healed from that very hour.

The disciples were ready to throw the woman out rather than listen to her requests and try to help. Do we ever do that? I know I do. I try hard not to now. But notice what Jesus tells His disciples; "Woman, you have great faith! Your request is granted." Her request was granted because of her great Faith!!!
Just think about what God will do in our lives if our Faith and Trust in Him is strong!

Remember though, no matter how strong our Faith in Trust in Him does not mean we will not go through our trials and tribulations. We are always a work in progress. He uses those times, (seasons), in our lives to shape us and mold us into what He wants us to be.



Psalms 18:2 (NIV)

2 The LORD is my rock, my fortress and my deliverer;
my God is my rock, in whom I take refuge.
He is my shield and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold.

Again the words Faith or Trust are not in this, but once again, here are the words, "in whom I take refuge." Meaning, "in whom I Trust." I so love the book of Psalms.

And so I will end here today. Tomorrow I will leave you with more Scriptures on this subject, just the book and the v(s). With trivia about the subjects. God Bless and may you all have a wonderfully relaxed and beautiful Sunday.

Testimonial of Faith and Trust

As you all know, this week we've been talking about faith and trust. Well, the Lord let me know exactly what it is all about today. I was put to the test to see if I'm listening to His words as I write them or not. I failed miserably. But this is a testament to God's love and faithfulness.

Today I looked up flight and car rental plans. Hubby had found one that sounded a bit high, so I went through the program I always do, Expedia.com. They've come through for us every trip we've had to make. If any one needs to book a flight, get a car rental, and/or a hotel, they are the ones to go through. It's so handy.

So I found a good deal for us, book the flight and reserved the car. We are headed to San Diego later on! But only for a couple of days. :( Wish it was a week or two, but hey, it's better than nothing. Anyhow, I got the flight booked and car reserved and found out a few minutes later that we would not be there in time for our nephews graduation.

All the graduations we've been to have been in the late afternoon, early evening. Oh no, not this one. It is in the morning. Scheduled 17 minutes before our scheduled arrival time. I told hubby not to worry that I would go back in and change the date. We decided to leave a day earlier. I get on there and it reads that the airlines would charge us 150.00 per ticket for any changes or cancellations plus Expedia would charge up to 30.00 per ticket for the same thing.

Okay, panic sets in, hubby is upset big time, pacing the floor wondering what to do. So he says, go ahead, we'll have to pay it, but that is a rip off. So I see a button where I can go change it, and it would show me what our extra charges would be. So I click on it and start over. Hubby comes in the room and says, "somethings not right. You are re-booking, not changing." I tell him not to worry.

Hee hee, the joke was on me. I get it all done and nothing came up with the charges, so I start to sweat it out...anyone catching the mistakes here? So I go into look up my itineraries and low and behold, we have not two, but 4 tickets reserved. The original booking and the changed date booking. Auuuggghhhhh. Okay, I'm in a major panic now, and tell hubby to call and ind out what happened, as we sure aren't going to pay for the tickets and all the other stuff.

Okay, now here's where I went wrong. First off, I didn't read everything carefully like one should, mainly because I had read it all before many times. Second and most importantly, I didn't pray about it and seek help. Instead I instantly thought we were screwed and was going to have a high bill that we don't need. Will I ever learn? Or should I say will hubs and I ever learn? hehehe

Hubby calls Expedia, explains what happened, gave them the itinerary numbers for both bookings and walla, it's all taken care of, no extra charges, they were great about it. We both looked up and said, "Thank you Lord." Is He good or what. Then He says, "What have you been writing about?" I'm like faith and trust. I start chuckling. Hubs asks what? I told him here I've been doing a series on faith and trust and did I use it today. No! Yet look what He does, He took care of us! He just let me know that I need to practice what I preach. (Blushing deeply now).

So I thought I would share my story with you all as it is a great way to show what faith and trust is all about. Whew! I love how He takes care of us. I just remembered; when hubby got off the phone he said, "Someone sure is looking out for us! No extra fees, they cleared the first booking and said, 'No problem since you just booked it tonight just a little bit a go." Oh yeah, He was looking out for us alright. Praise God.

Another testimony here that I just realized, Thank You Lord. I just love how He works with us. Hubs business has really slowed down to the point where he may have to lay off his partner. He doesn't want to have to do that, I may need to go back to work, and still take care of the kids. He may have to work a second job. Wow! How did we get to this point. It happened so fast. Well hubby has been worrying over that. Remember the verse from Luke about worrying?

Well today he sat down and figured up all the costs of the business and their pay, and Praise the Lord, the pretty much have what they need to pay it all! We just need to keep the faith and trust. One way or another, no matter how glum things may get and look, He comes through, He provides, He takes care of us!

With the days of economic tough times, it is more important than ever to have faith and trust in the Lord. Pray or should I say P.U.S.H. Believe! For those not in the Lord, learn about Him and give your soul to Him. He will take care of you. Be the tiny mustard seed that was planted properly and grow!