 Friends         |  prairwarur: A Bruised Reed A bruised reed he will not break, and a smoldering wick he will not quench. Matthew 12:20 What is weaker than the bruised reed or the smoldering wick? A reed that grows in the marshland—let a wild duck land on it, and it snaps; let but the foot of man brush against it, and it is bruised and broken; every wind that flits across the river moves it to and fro. You can conceive of nothing more frail or brittle or whose existence is more in jeopardy than a bruised reed. Then look at the smoldering wick—what is it? It has a spark within it, it is true, but it is almost smothered; an infant’s breath might blow it out; nothing has a more precarious existence than its flame. Weak things are here described; yet Jesus says of them, “The smoldering wick I will not quench; the bruised reed I will not break.” Some of God’s children are made strong to do mighty works for Him; God has His Samsons here and there who can pull up Gaza’s gates and carry them to the top of the hill. He has a few mighties who are lionlike men, but the majority of His people are a timid, trembling race. They are like starlings, frightened at every passerby, a little fearful flock. If temptation comes, they are taken like birds in a snare; if trial threatens, they are ready to faint. Their frail craft is tossed up and down by every wave; they drift along like a seabird on the crest of the billows—weak things, without strength, without wisdom, without foresight. Yet, weak as they are, and because they are so weak, they have this promise made especially to them. Herein is grace and graciousness! Herein is love and loving-kindness! How it opens to us the compassion of Jesus—so gentle, tender, considerate! We need never shrink back from His touch. We need never fear a harsh word from Him; though He might well chide us for our weakness, He rebukes not. Bruised reeds shall have no blows from Him, and the smoldering wick no damping frowns. SHARE WITH FRIENDS Devotional material is taken from Morning and Evening, written by C. H. Spurgeon, revised and updated by Alistair Begg.  prairwarur: The battle is not to the mighty. The battle belongs to the Lord! He loves us and He fights for us, so stand firm in His Grace, Mercy and Glory! Amen Zechariah 4:6 Then he said to me, “This is the word of the Lord to Zerubbabel saying, ‘Not by might nor by power, but by My Spirit,’ says the Lord of hosts.  tstarr8481: Ephesians 6:10-18 King James Version 10 Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might. 11 Put on the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. 12 For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places. 13 Wherefore take unto you the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand. 14 Stand therefore, having your loins girt about with truth, and having on the breastplate of righteousness; 15 And your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace; 16 Above all, taking the shield of faith, wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked. 17 And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God: 18 Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, and watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication for all saints. 6:12 says it direct and right to the point and very clearly. ... Great Post, prair! ... View all 5 posts prairwarur: That helpless child is me! Glory to God! I learned the protection of my Lion when I was but a wee little girl. Praise God! He is faithful. He alone is faithful! Mankind will always disappoint you, make no mistake about that, but Jesus will never leave you, never disappoint you, and He'll always have your back. Ask me! I know. Even in our darkest moments He is there. Turn to Him! He is waiting. Revelation 3:20 Behold, I stand at the door and knock; if anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and will dine with him, and he with Me. prairwarur: The race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, nor bread to the wise, nor riches to men of understanding, nor favor to men of skill; but time and chance happen to them all. Ecclesiastes 9:11 - JUNE 12 - TIME AND CHANCE I want you to know how you can have “time and chance” happen to you—where you find yourself blessed because you’re at the right place at the right time. Let me show you what the original Hebrew language reveals about how this can be your reality. The Hebrew word for “time” is the word eth, meaning time or season. The Hebrew words for “chance happen” are pega qarah. Together with eth, they present a picture not of random occurrences, but “right happenings” that are dependent on the Lord’s orchestration. It’s unfortunate that the word “chance” is used in the English translation. When you read “time and chance happen to them all,” it gives the impression of random happenings, occurrences that happen as if by “luck.” But if you study the root of the word pega in the Scriptures, you’ll see it is from the word paga, which actually means to make intercession or pray. Let me introduce to you at this point a principle of Bible interpretation called the law of first mention. When you are studying a word, look at the first time it appears in the Bible. There is a lot of spiritual truth and significance in the first occurrence of the word in the Bible. Applying this principle to the word paga, we see in the Bible that the first time it is used is in Genesis 23:8 (NIV), where it means “intercede.” The same word is also used in Isaiah 53:12 where it says the Lord “made intercession for the transgressors”. The other Hebrew word, qarah, is often used in other parts of the Bible to explain God-ordained happenings. So “chance happen” should more accurately be translated as “prayed opportunities” or “prayed happenings.” When you have eth and pega qarah combined here, it speaks of right-time, right-place happenings, or of being at the right place at the right time, doing the right thing as a result of prayer. What an amazing blessing to possess, which is simply triggered by coming to our loving Father in heaven and expressing our dependence on His protection over us and our families. I want this blessing activated every day, don’t you? This devotional is taken from the book The Prayer of Protection Devotional—Daily Strategies for Living Fearlessly in Dangerous Times. prairwarur: For as he thinks within himself, so he is. Proverbs 23:7 NASB - WIN THE BATTLE FOR YOUR MIND Pastor Joseph Prince I want you to be aware that as you look to the person of Jesus and cultivate the power of right believing, you’ll experience some battles in your mind that will challenge your beliefs. Be encouraged to know that you don’t have to be afraid of these battles. Jesus said, “And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free” (John 8:32). Based on God’s Word, right believing is the key that unlocks the treasures of God in your life, giving you access to the fullness of His love, grace, favor, blessings, and forgiveness. Jesus has already paid the price on Calvary’s hill. The hindrance then between you and your victory is your wrong beliefs. The battle has to do with your beliefs. The enemy knows that if he can control your thought life, he can manipulate your emotions and feelings. For instance, if he can make you entertain thoughts of guilt, failure, and defeat, you will begin to feel lousy about yourself, physically weak, and even depressed. Our emotions are flags that indicate to us what our thoughts are. Thank God for emotions. They tell us if something is terribly wrong with our thoughts. Many of us are not cognizant when our thinking slides down a slippery slope to fear, doubt, pessimism, and anxiety. However, God has designed us in such a way that we can quickly recognize our thinking through our emotions. Try this: whenever you begin to sense negative emotions, such as fear, worry, guilt, and anger, stop and ask yourself, “What am I thinking?” Your emotions follow quickly at the heels of your thoughts. If your thoughts are negative, you will naturally produce negative emotions. Conversely, if your thoughts are positive in Christ, you will produce positive emotions. That is why there is a battle for your mind. The devil wants to keep your thoughts negative so that he can keep you defeated. He is a master of mind games, and he doesn’t play fair. When he first tempted Adam and Eve in the garden, he made them doubt God’s motives by insinuating that God was deliberately withholding something good from them, when in reality God was protecting them. The devil’s strategy hasn’t changed—he is still using fears, lies, accusations, guilt, and condemnation to ensnare believers today and to make them doubt God’s perfect love, forgiveness, and superabounding grace. My friend, are there areas you are fearful and anxious about today? Realize that those fears and anxieties indicate the presence of wrong beliefs in your life that God wants you to be freed from. Replace those wrong beliefs with right beliefs based on God’s Word, and you will eradicate those fears and anxieties. Through the power of right believing, you will win the battle for your mind. This devotional is taken from the book 100 Days of Right Believing—Daily Readings from The Power of Right Believing. View all 4 posts  WizardBeWitch: If you are truly interested in the truth that will set you freejust try growing beyond your ego to your unique self, awareness, awakened, enlightenment of essence - namely a true visit to your dignity and your soul there is no other proof necessary, heaven will be as your higher self learns the message of love, the love that God sends to all of us  MCReignjah007 in reply to WizardBeWitch: who said anything about ego? bit negative and accusative . But God bless you prairwarur: Then the children of Israel groaned because of the bondage, and they cried out; and their cry came up to God because of the bondage. So God heard their groaning, and God remembered His covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob. Exodus 2:23–24 JUST A GROAN WILL REACH THE THRONE Pastor Joseph Prince There is an enemy who wants to keep you enslaved to that medical condition in your life. The enemy wants to keep you in a place of despair and to keep you so focused on your disappointments you cannot lay hold of God’s promises for you. That is what he did to the children of Israel. When Moses told the Israelites that God would rescue them from their bondage, the Bible tells us “they refused to listen” as they had “become too discouraged by the brutality of their slavery” (Ex. 6:6–9 NLT). But God did not abandon them even though they refused to listen. He knew they were in a state of despair because they had suffered under the yoke of slavery for so long. Do you want to know what the children of Israel did that caused God to rescue them so mightily? Read this for yourself in the verse above. The children of Israel were so oppressed all they could do was groan. There was nothing left in them to compose any prayers. And the Bible tells us God heard their groaning and He remembered His covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. I am sharing this with you because I want you to know that you do not need to craft impressive declarations of faith or do anything for God before He hears you. Just a groan will reach the throne. A simple sigh from you will reach the throne room of your Abba in heaven. If just a groan from the children of Israel could activate the covenant God had cut with their forefathers, how much more would your cry accomplish, oh child of the Most High! If you are in a place of discouragement about your medical condition, cry out to Him and take this additional insight from the Passover as an encouragement. I love it that God told the children of Israel to partake of the Passover lamb in this manner: “And thus you shall eat it: with a belt on your waist, your sandals on your feet, and your staff in your hand” (Ex. 12:11). Why did they have to eat with belts on their waists, sandals on their feet, and staffs in their hands? God was telling them to be ready for their physical deliverance even as they ate the roasted lamb. In the same way, when we partake of the Lord’s Supper, let’s partake with faith and expectancy. Our compassionate Lord Jesus has heard our groans and He is both willing and able to deliver us from any oppression. Let’s partake expecting our miracle to take place, expecting our deliverance. That’s what the Israelites did despite their suffering, and they came out with not one sick, not one feeble. I want to see that happening for my church and for you. We may not yet have come to the place where we can say there are “none feeble,” but I believe we are on our way. This devotional is taken from the book The Healing Power of the Holy Communion—A 90-Day Devotional. |
2 Chronicles 7:14
and My people who are called by My name humble themselves and pray and seek My face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, will forgive their sin and will heal their land.