In I Thessalonians 5:17 (NLT) we are encouraged to, “Never stop praying”! The problem many of us have is that we mistakenly stop praying after God gave us what we asked for.
Prayer is as important to life as oxygen. If we depend on oxygen to live naturally, we should equally depend on prayer to live spiritually. Our spiritually dependence in prayer should permeate in everything we do! So, even when we are not speaking consciously to God, we should possess a deep, abiding dependence on Him that is woven into the very fabric of our faith.
In short, God has called us to be people of prayer, and regular communication creates intimate fellowship with our Savior. Through our time with Him, we discover His goodness, faithfulness, mercy, grace, and wonderful direction for our lives. We also find the strength and wisdom for every turn on our paths so we can experience all He has created us for.
When we develop a prayerful outlook, eventually our communication with the Lord becomes our first instinct in every situation — not only when we face a challenge or encounter a difficulty. And in time, it will never occur to us not to pray.
Today as we gather together separated by life-saving social distancing, remember that we are forever united more than ever in spirit. Although we face enormous challenges ahead, the opportunities that lies before us are so much bigger.
I know that for some of you today is very difficult. Some of you are grieving the loss of a loved one gone home to be with the Lord coupled with separation anxiety from loved ones stemming from adhering to the CDC social-distancing precautionary guidelines.
Well, I wanted to share a little good news with you by reminding you with God on our side it really doesn’t matter whether we are in isolation, with love ones, or alone we can still experience abundance. Jesus reminds us in John 10:10 that He came to give us live and life more abundant!
Despite the climate we are in and the rocky road ahead of us, God has given us a reason to be thankful. I Chronicles 16:34 says, “The Lord is good and His love endures forever!”
Thankfulness requires diligence and training our hearts to be thankful despite the pain, grief and heartaches does many good things. It gives credit where credit is due. It keeps us from bitterness, arrogance, prolonged grief, discouragement, and depression. It protects us from letting our lives be defined by what we don’t have. It keeps us humble and reminds us of our need for God. Hence, the reason we can enter His gates with THANKSGIVING and His courts with PRAISE!
“Now it shall come to pass, if you diligently obey the voice of the LORD your God, to observe carefully all His commandments which I command you today, that the LORD your God will set you high above all nations of the earth. And all these blessings shall come upon you and overtake you, because you obey the voice of the LORD your God: Blessed shall you be in the city, and blessed shall you be in the country.
Blessed shall be the fruit of your body, the produce of your ground and the increase of your herds, the increase of your cattle and the offspring of your flocks. Blessed shall be your basket and your kneading bowl. Blessed shall you be when you come in, and blessed shall you be when you go out.
The LORD will cause your enemies who rise against you to be defeated before your face; they shall come out against you one way and flee before you seven ways. The LORD will command the blessing on you in your storehouses and in all to which you set your hand, and He will bless you in the land which the LORD your God is giving you.
The LORD will establish you as a holy people to Himself, just as He has sworn to you, if you keep the commandments of the LORD your God and walk in His ways. Then all peoples of the earth shall see that you are called by the name of the LORD, and they shall be afraid of you. And the LORD will grant you plenty of goods, in the fruit of your body, in the increase of your livestock, and in the produce of your ground, in the land of which the LORD swore to your fathers to give you. The LORD will open to you His good treasure, the heavens, to give the rain to your land in its season, and to bless all the work of your hand. You shall lend to many nations, but you shall not borrow. And the LORD will make you the head and not the tail; you shall be above only, and not be beneath, if you heed the commandments of the LORD your God, which I command you today, and are careful to observe them” (Deuteronomy 28:1-13).
We all have an inner critic. At times this little voice can actually be helpful and keep us motivated toward goals—like when it reminds us that what we’re about to eat isn’t healthy or what we’re about to do may not be wise. However, this voice can often be more harmful than helpful, particularly when it gets into the realm of excessive negativity. This is known as negative self-talk (aka) ‘stankin’ thinking!
In short, negative self-talk is any inner dialogue you have with yourself that may be limiting your ability to fully believe in God and/or yourself.
I’ve heard it said, “Your faith can move mountains, but your doubt can create them.” Quiet as it’s kept, no voice influences your demise or rise as quickly than your own inner voice. Proverbs 18:21 cautiously admonitiones, “The tongue has the power of life and death, and those who love to talk will have to eat their own words.”
Overcoming negative self-talk means developing an accurate sense of identity (who you are) and living from that place. This internal resolution can be a matter of life and death. Why? Because every success or failure in life is first filtered through a sense of identity and your identity is found in only in Christ. Ephesians 2:10 confirms: “For we are God’s masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things He planned for us long ago.”
If negative self-talk is not your issue than perhaps other people’s opinions about you are swaying the pendulum in the wrong direction. Well, Cornelius Lindsey said, “If you don’t make people’s opinion the source of your joy – their opinions can never be a source of your pain.” I haven’t found a scripture in the Bible that says, ‘The joy of the people is our strength, but I’ve read in Nehemiah 8:10, “The joy of the Lord is our strength.”
Bottom line, God made you and He is the only one that gives your life true meaning. He’s the most stable and unchanging force in existence. When you fully embrace your personal relationship with Him, you literally carry His presence inside of you.
The good news is that God’s word can deliver you from negative self-talk and the tired ole repetitive antics the enemy uses to immerse you into self-doubt, disappointment and confusion. In 2 Corinthians 10:5, you are given the battle plan for victory in this area: “casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ.” Did you know that you can’t hold two thoughts at the same time? This is one of God’s built in fail-safe that you can exploit to your advantage.
I’ll submit to you that if you change the way you think of yourself, the world around you will change and fall in line with how you see yourself! Paul confirms there is power in positive thinking. He said in Philippians 4:8, “Finally, brethren, whatever things are true, whatever things are noble, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whateverthings are of good report, if there is any virtue and if there is anything praiseworthy-meditate on these things.”
The only way you will be successful in defeating negative self-talk and/or the erroneous opinions of others is to make Bible study, prayer, and meditation a lifestyle so that you can distinguish truths from lies. In your prayer ask God to silence every voice in your head so that you can clearly hear His voice. Ideas that argue against the truth or don’t line up with our Shepherd’s voice must be captured and made to submit to Him.
You are not defined by the negative self-talk conversation your have with yourself nor the senseless chattering opinions of other people. You’re a son or daughter of the living God and are hereby defined by Him and Him alone!
(If this message isn’t applicable to your situation please share it with someone who you believe can benefit from this word of encouragement.)
Have you ever felt like you were caught in a cycle of emotional or psychological pain that you just couldn’t break?
Let’s be honest, we’ve all experienced this kind of pain at some point or another in our lives.
In most cases, the conception of this mindset is birth by creating your own suffering.
People either consciously or unconsciously create their own suffering by choosing to stay in the same painful cycle and by giving energy to another person, situation or past trauma that caused a whole lot of pain and suffering in their lives. Literally, people don’t stop rehashing it with friends or family, reliving it in their minds, engaging with the person(s) who caused their pain, revisiting the spot where the traumatic event occurred or they simply refuse to just let it go.
If that’s you, I got two words for you today: ‘stop’ and ‘surrender’.
Stop reliving the offense and surrender it all to God.
I’ve heard it said, “While pain might be inevitable, the suffering that comes from the pain is not. Suffering is not a state of life; it is a state of mind. Suffering is your response to an event. Whether you suffer or not depends entirely on your reaction to that situation.”
Let’s be clear, only God can take the pain of past trauma and transform it into a platform for future ministry. God promises that all things, even painful events of the past, will work together for the good when we love Him and seek His will for our lives (Romans 8:28). He invites all victims to lose the “victimhood” status and learn to see themselves as “clothed with strength and dignity” (Proverbs 31:25).
When you surrender it to God you release yourself from the bondage of pain. Surrender empowers you to learn to love and trust again. Many people just like you have found renewed hope and restoration simply by laying the weight of their pain at the foot of the cross.
Healing starts when you lift it all up to God and let go.
Beloved of God, I would like to encourage each of you reading this devotional today to take one step at a time, pray for God’s Word to guide you, read or listen to God’s Word, and meditate on God’s Word when the problems, worries, and anxieties of life comes your way!
I also would like to encourage you to stop carrying the weight of worry, anxiety, stress, and depression. Yes, the world is not in a good place right now, but that doesn’t mean that God isn’t good or capable of bearing your burdens. In Matthew 11:28-29, Jesus said, “Come to me, all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you. Let me teach you, because I am humble and gentle at heart, and you will find rest for your souls.”
I get it, I am acutely and intimately aware that at times the pain is too much to bear and oftentimes, the burden(s) are too heavy to cast. So let me tell you a little secret—giving things over to Christ is really no secret at all—it’s simply recognizing that God is able to make the impossible-possible. Jesus gives us confirmation in Matthew 19:26 and He said, “With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.”
Bearing that I mind, we must also consider that sometimes God uses us as part of the answer to our own prayers. ‘Turning it over to God’ does not always mean we stop taking action. That might mean following your doctor’s treatment plan if you’re sick, or creating a new business if you’re out of a job, or forgiving someone that hurt you, or forgiving yourself, or going to marriage counseling if your relationship is in trouble. In other words, when you turn it over to God keep doing what is in your power to do.
Undoubtedly and unequivocally, God is bigger than all our worries and problems put together, and we must realize that if we are to truly experience any milestone victories in our lives.
Do something different today and turn it all over to God and…….
4GIVEN 