Gracious and Merciful God, how I praise You for being a redeeming, transforming, and renewing God. Thank you for always being with me in my times of sorrow, need and hardship. Thank You for using my suffering, pain and even my failures for Your divine purposes. Thank You for taking that which was planted in tears and allowing it to be harvested with shouts of joy. Hallelujah, thank You for by Your grace You reversed all of my losses and turned them into delightful gains.

Father God, thank You for all the ways and many times you have done this in my life. I pray today for my family and friends who are presently planting with tears in their respective lives. Give them hope! Give them courage! Give them peace! Give them strength! Give them inspiration! Give them the reassurance of Your presence and lastly, give them confidence that You will work all things together for good!

O Lord, help them to be strong in their season of tearful sowing because it’s getting ready to end; and as it is written, declared and promised in Psalms 126:5-6, their time of joyful harvesting is right in front of them!! In Jesus’ turning bitter tears into joy name, amen and amen!

In this season, I know for many of us it may seem like our problems and disappointments are stacking up like bricks, but I want to encourage you to remember Elisha’s prayer for his servant penned in 2 Kings 6:17, “Then Elisha prayed, “O LORD, open his eyes and let him see!” The LORD opened the young man’s eyes, and when he looked up, he saw that the hillside around Elisha was filled with horses and chariots of fire.”

I believe it would be safe to say that neither of us has ever walked out of our front doors in the morning to confront an armed barbarian horde in the front yard waiting to do us bodily harm. However, we all know what it’s like to be suddenly confronted with a life-threatening virus that has barbarically and globally taken the lives of many helpless people. Therefore, we should be able
to relate to the servant’s initial reaction to his seemingly deathly opposition.

This deathly crisis for both Elisha and his servant served for them back then and for us today a stark reminder that an all-sufficient God is able to meet any crisis we faced; and, that prayer is the passport that grants us access to the all-sufficient God!

Some of you might be thinking, “That’s nice, but prayer doesn’t work for me the way it apparently worked for Elisha. If only I could utter a short prayer and all my problems were instantly solved just like these soldiers were struck blind!”

If that’s you, let me encourage you to keep on praying. Jesus said in Matthew 7:7 NLT, “Keep on asking, and you will receive what you ask for. Keep on seeking, and you will find. Keep on knocking, and the door will be opened to you.”

Prayer replaces panic with peace, opens our eyes to spiritual realities, makes impossible things possible, and it is our weapon to win all of life obstacles, hurdles, difficulties, and challenges.

In Christ we have access to God as our all-sufficient treasure, waymaker, healer, peace maker, and comforter. If we will learn to consistently and relentlessly seek God as Elisha did and to faithfully pray as he prayed, we too will experience unexplainable victories, miracles and breakthroughs in our lives!!

In John 10:10 Jesus said, , “The thief’s purpose is to steal and kill and destroy. My purpose is to give them a rich and satisfying life.”

Many people including myself believe Jesus is only metaphorically referring to the devil and yes, this passage of text can be used in this context. However, Jesus is using thief and bandit as metaphors for the leaders of Israel in the Old Testament (Isa 1:23, Jer 2:26, 7:11, 23:30). In fact, Jesus was intentionally reusing an existing shepherd parable from Ezekiel 34. In Ezekiel 34, God condemns the failed leaders of Israel, who have stolen from the sheep, killed them and caused them to become scattered. God says that He will remove these hired shepherds and replace them with himself and David as shepherds. Jesus is doing the same thing in John 10. He condemns the leaders of Israel as thieves and points to himself as the only true shepherd.

How do we know that God has never left us or that in the future He will never leave us? That’s a great question and I am glad you asked!

God is faithful to his promise and whatever God promises, God does, and He is nothing like us. We make and break promises like we change clothes!

So, if you’re still questioning and/or deliberating here are a few characteristics about God I would like for you to consider:

*GOD IS FAITHFUL☑️
I Corinthians 1:9 says,”Know therefore that the LORD your God is God, the faithful God who keeps covenant and steadfast love with those who love him and keep his commandments, to a thousand generations”

*GOD IS OMNIPRESENT☑️
Genesis 28:15 says, ““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 promised you”

*GOD GOES BEFORE YOU☑️
Hebrews 13:5 says, “It is the LORD who goes before you. He will be with you; he will not leave you or forsake you. Do not fear or be dismayed”

God is faithful to do what He has promised; God is available, being forever present in time and history and space; and God goes with you but He also goes before you.

“For the word of God is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword, and piercing as far as the division of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow, and able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart.” Hebrews 4:12

Salvation is a gift, and you don’t work for a gift. It’s free! You can’t earn it nor can you buy it!

Fact is, you will not make it to heaven based on what you do nor what you’ve done. Your ticket into heaven is based solely on what has already been done for you by the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ,

If you are saved and dipped in the blood of Jesus Christ; great! This message is intended to reach those who are curious, confused, and/or have refuse to received this free gift.

With all joking and kidding aside, the Bible is unfolding right in front of your eyes and if this message is speaking to you please use this time to make it right before God!

Romans 3:24 says, “All need to be made right with God by his grace, which is a free gift. They need to be made free from sin through Jesus Christ” (NCV).

Jesus Christ already did it. He paid for your salvation on the cross, and it’s now a free gift that’s offered to you. That’s why when Jesus was hanging on the cross, He said, “It is finished.” He didn’t say, “I am finished,” because He wasn’t. He’s still alive today. The “it” is your salvation. The plan to provide grace for every person is finished.

The best Christmas gift you could ever receive isn’t sitting under a tree, rather “it’s” sitting at the right hand of God! When you truly understand grace, you’ll accept it, because it is the greatest gift you will ever be offered.

Some people think it’s strange or odd that we are commanded to be strong? Some will say we can only be what we are, and it is worse than futile to say to a weak man, “Be strong.”

When being strong seems impossible I often remember the words God said to Paul each time he plead for God to remove the thorn lodge in his flesh. God said in 2 Corinthians 12:9 (NLT), “My grace is all you need. My power works best in weakness.”

Obviously, Paul finally got the ‘point’ and his response to God back then should be our response to God today. He said in verses 10 and 11, “So now I am glad to boast about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ can work through me. That’s why I take pleasure in my weaknesses, and in the insults, hardships, persecutions, and troubles that I suffer for Christ. For when I am weak, then I am strong.”

It’s of no coincidence, whenever it’s necessary for us to faithfully stand and be strong, then we often feel most of our weakness; but in those times we are summoned to seek God for His strength because like he said, “His strength is made perfect in our weaknesses.”

Thankfully, the Lion of the tribe of Judah can give to us lionlike strength to victoriously face any situation, trial or circumstance which in turn will enable us to continue moving forward towards God’s goodness, God’s blessings and God’s glory!

What is God’s rest? Well, I’ll be the first to testify that it is not found by sleeping. Additionally, God’s rest is not rest from daily work or physically exhaustion. God’s rest is that profound peace that He dispenses to those who trust, love and obey Him regardless of circumstances.

Moses and several others biblical characters were caught between a rock and a hard place a time or two in their earthy story. In fact, when Moses didn’t know who God was going to send with him to lead the people out of Egypt, he cried out to God in Exodus 33:12 and God responded to his concern in verse 14 and said to him, “My Presence will go with you, and I will give you rest.”

You may think you’re alone in this battle, but I assure you ma’am or sir that you’re not! God is with us and because of Jesus Christ we are beneficiaries of every single last promise written and spoken by God himself!

Choose to:

#RestInHim

&

#BeStrong

& Don’t forget

#WeWillGetThroughThisTogether

In I Chronicles 14 (NLT) we learned that when God elevates you, the enemy will often plot and scheme in a malicious attempt to eliminate you!

In verses 8-10 of I Chronicles 14, the Bible says, “When the Philistines heard that David had been anointed king over all Israel, they mobilized all their forces to capture him. But David was told they were coming, so he marched out to meet them. The Philistines arrived and made a raid in the valley of Rephaim. So David asked God, “Should I go out to fight the Philistines? Will you hand them over to me?”

The LORD replied, “Yes, go ahead. I will hand them over to you.”

Then in verse 11 we learn the fate of the Philistine army; “So David and his troops went up to Baal-perazim and defeated the Philistines there. “God did it!” David exclaimed. “He used me to burst through my enemies like a raging flood!” So they named that place Baal-perazim (which means “the Lord who bursts through”).

The enemy is persistent and he wants nothing more than to take from you what God has given to you! One would think after the first butt whipping the Philistines received they would’ve backdown once and for all, but no! They charged at David and his troop again and in verses 13-16 we find the second deployment experienced the same fate as the previous one!

The point of my message today is that it doesn’t matter what type of enemy we are battling, God fights all of our battle for us! I encouraged to re-read verse 11! Notice, the first thing David declared after he and his troops defeated the Philistines infantry the first time: “God did it!”

So, if you are waiting for God to burst through your situation remember that if God guaranteed David’s victory before the battle begun, He is most certainly capable of doing it again! It doesn’t matter how many times the enemy comes at you!! Always seek God first before heading into battle and then declare this Baal-perazim promise over your life and over the lives of those you hold dear to your heart and God guarantees that you too will be in position to declare; ‘God did it!’