Tag: Enimies

11.m.”The Lord is good”

Nahum 1:7  The Lord is good, a stronghold in the day of trouble; he knows those who take refuge in him. But with an overflowing flood he will make a complete end of the adversaries, and will pursue his enemies into darkness.

1 Chronicles 16:34     Oh give thanks to the LORD, for he is good; for his steadfast love endures forever!

Psalms 25:8    Good and upright is the LORD; therefore he instructs sinners in the way.

Psalms 100:5     For the LORD is good; his steadfast love endures forever, and his faithfulness to all generations.

Lamentations 3:25    The LORD is good to those who wait for him, to the soul who seeks him.

Romans 11:22   Note then the kindness and the severity of God: severity toward those who have fallen, but God’s kindness to you, provided you continue in his kindness. Otherwise you too will be cut off.

Do you think about the “Good of our Lord and Savior”?  I am sure thoughts about His saving grace, mercy, forgiveness, and promise of forever with Him in eternity are present most days.  But the “Good or our Savior” is more than that.  He has given us each talent to use.  These talents allow us to fix, repair, build, grow, lead, and apply knowledge.  These are not burdens but often we fall into the trap of calling them a burden.  We say things like “I have to” do something rather than thanking God for the talents that allow us to say “I get to” do something.  These talents are not a burden, they are God’s gift to us.  He has given us abilities that help us and certainly can be used to help others.  These abilities are not “I have to’s” but “I get to’s”.  When we have thoughts of our abilities as having to use them we won’t have a mindset to be thanking God for them.  We will have thoughts of them being a burden and our heart for whatever the task is will not be giving God praise and thanks.  Granted some of our gifts will get us dirty, tired, and mentally exhausted as we use them.  It sure makes the task or job much more meaningful to do when we “get to” use our gifts rather than “have to”.  Each of us has been given both physical and spiritual gifts.  In these gifts of abilities and talents, we have a great opportunity to thank and honor God by how we use them and how we think about “Getting to” use them.  When have you taken a mental inventory of all the gifts, talents, and abilities God has given you?  When we are mindful of them it is a good foundation for putting honor and glory and thankfulness in to “Getting to us them”.

Pay Attention

“And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and books were opened. Then another book was opened, which is the book of life. And the dead were judged by what was written in the books, according to what they had done.”

” let us not pay attention to any of his words.”

Psalms 56:5  All day long they injure my cause; all their thoughts are against me for evil. They stir up strife, they lurk; they watch my steps, as they have waited for my life. For their crime will they escape? In wrath cast down the peoples, O God! You have kept count of my tossings; put my tears in your bottle. Are they not in your book? Then my enemies will turn back in the day when I call. This I know, that God is for me.

Job 16:20   My friends scorn me; my eye pours out tears to God,

Matthew 22:15   Then the Pharisees went and plotted how to entangle him in his words

Luke 11:54   lying in wait for him, to catch him in something he might say.

Jeremiah 18:18   Then they said, “Come, let us make plots against Jeremiah, for the law shall not perish from the priest, nor counsel from the wise, nor the word from the prophet. Come, let us strike him with the tongue, and let us not pay attention to any of his words.”

Luke 22:3  Then Satan entered into Judas called Iscariot, who was of the number of the twelve.  He went away and conferred with the chief priests and officers how he might betray him to them.  And they were glad, and agreed to give him money.  So he consented and sought an opportunity to betray him to them in the absence of a crowd.

Isaiah 63:9   In all their affliction he was afflicted, and the angel of his presence saved them; in his love and in his pity he redeemed them; he lifted them up and carried them all the days of old.

Hebrews 11:13   These all died in faith, not having received the things promised, but having seen them and greeted them from afar, and having acknowledged that they were strangers and exiles on the earth.

Malachi 3:16   Then those who feared the LORD spoke with one another. The LORD paid attention and heard them, and a book of remembrance was written before him of those who feared the LORD and esteemed his name.

Psalms 126:5  Those who sow in tears shall reap with shouts of joy  He who goes out weeping, bearing the seed for sowing, shall come home with shouts of joy, bringing his sheaves with him.

Revelation 7:17    For the Lamb in the midst of the throne will be their shepherd, and he will guide them to springs of living water, and God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.”

It is obvious there are those who seek God and those who do not.  For those who do not, they have closed their ears, eyes, heart, soul and mind.  they have closed all of these to His creation, His word, and what He has placed within our heart about Him.  Their heart and mind have hardened to the point of not only rejecting God’s call but to reject, mock, and cause issue with those who walk by faith in the one true God.  In Romans it says that they have chosen to reject God because He has made it clear to them through creation and by placing initial knowledge of Himself in their heart and mind.  Romans continues to say that because they have rejected Him, He has given them over to this debase and eternally harmful mindset.  For those who have chosen to humbly serve, honor, follow and obey there is another course/path for their lives.  God is ever present in their heart, mind, and soul.  They know there is more to life than what is experienced this side of eternity.  They hold on to that which is promised – not seen. They come to God with their heart cry and know He is their strength, rock, refuge, joy, peace, and place of rest.  They live this side of eternity with hope and expectation of eternity promised with God.  Keep strong, stand firm, seek God, and CHOOSE to keep your heart, mind and soul focused in this life on Him.  Do not allow your heart and mind to be pulled away by things of this world and culture.  Do not get so busy that you lose sight of God and eternity.  Do not neglect His word.  Keep your life in check with His word.

Same thing over again

“Many times he delivered them,
but they were rebellious in their purposes
and were brought low through their iniquity.”

Judges 3:30
So Moab was subdued that day under the hand of Israel. And the land had rest for eighty years

Judges 4:3
Then the people of Israel cried out to the Lord for help, for he had 900 chariots of iron and he oppressed the people of Israel cruelly for twenty years

Judges 5:31
And the land had rest for forty years

Judges 6:1
The people of Israel did what was evil in the sight of the Lord, and the Lord gave them into the hand of Midian seven years.

Judges 6:7
When the people of Israel cried out to the Lord on account of the Midianites, the Lord sent a prophet to the people of Israel. And he said to them, “Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel: I led you up from Egypt and brought you out of the house of slavery. And I delivered you from the hand of the Egyptians and from the hand of all who oppressed you, and drove them out before you and gave you their land. And I said to you, ‘I am the Lord your God; you shall not fear the gods of the Amorites in whose land you dwell. ’ But you have not obeyed my voice.

Psalms 106:42
Their enemies oppressed them,
and they were brought into subjection under their power.
Many times he delivered them,
but they were rebellious in their purposes
and were brought low through their iniquity.
Nevertheless, he looked upon their distress,
when he heard their cry.
For their sake he remembered his covenant,
and relented according to the abundance of his steadfast love

 

With the right godly leadership Israelites had rest from battles for 80 years, and then again they fell away and did not obey him and were treated cruelly for 20 years.  Once again they called out to God in their distress and God delivered them.   They had rest for 40 years and they fell away from God and were in bondage for 7 years.  Drifting away from God will never give us rest or peace.  What is it that this world offers us that has appearance of rest and peace?  Money, material gains, with out need of much of anything.  Do we really think this will give us rest, peace and happiness?  What does God have to do to get our attention away from this false sense of peace?  Does He need to put us in bondage.  Does He give us government officials who do not follow after Him?  Does He allow us to follow our heart away from Him?  What will it take for us to understand that all we have has come from Him.  It is not ours but rather we are stewards of it.  All abilities and gifts we have, have been given to us from Him.  We are blessed beyond measure with the eternal gift of life through Jesus Christ.  For this alone we should humbly serve Him for His honor and glory.

Trust His Power

“Sun, stand still at Gibeon,
and moon, in the Valley of AijalonAnd the sun stood still, and the moon stopped,

Joshua 10:12
At that time Joshua spoke to the Lord in the day when the Lord gave the Amorites over to the sons of Israel, and he said in the sight of Israel,
“Sun, stand still at Gibeon,
and moon, in the Valley of AijalonAnd the sun stood still, and the moon stopped,
until the nation took vengeance on their enemies.
Is this not written in the Book of Jashar? The sun stopped in the midst of heaven and did not hurry to set for about a whole day. There has been no day like it before or since, when the Lord heeded the voice of a man, for the Lord fought for Israel

Amos 2:9
“Yet it was I who destroyed the Amorite before them,
whose height was like the height of the cedars
and who was as strong as the oaks;
I destroyed his fruit above
and his roots beneath.

Habakuk 3:11
The sun and moon stood still in their place
at the light of your arrows as they sped,
at the flash of your glittering spear.
You marched through the earth in fury;
you threshed the nations in anger.
You went out for the salvation of your people,
for the salvation of your anointed.
You crushed the head of the house of the wicked,
laying him bare from

Joshua went up against not one but, five armies that had banded together to fight against them.  It was not the might of the Israelites that overcame their enemies, it was God.  God threw the enemies into a state of confusion and then while they were running away He destroyed many of them with a hail storm.  We read stories like this throughout scripture where time and time again the battle is God’s.  He is the same yesterday, today and tomorrow.  Think about this for a moment.  God has not changed.  His power has not changed.  His love for those who hear His voice and surrender to Him will not change. Do you want to have power over the battles you are facing?  Surrender them to God – Trust His Power