Category: Food for Thought

Stand Still And Praise

Sometimes there’s a whole lot of fight, a whole lot of words, a whole lot of talk, a whole lot of rumors, a whole lot of right and whole lot of wrong. Half truth, whole truth and nothing but the truth. It’s difficult isn’t it to decipher truth from fiction and order from chaos? Beautiful soul, are you there today? In the middle of the thicket, the fog and the fight? Take courage from the book of 2 Chronicles, penned to give purpose and hope to a people whose future appeared uncertain. Does your future teeter on the abyss of fear and turmoil? Hear the words of King Jehoshaphat as he relayed God’s words to the people of Judah and Jerusalem. They were threatened and faced a terrible battle, that on their own was a pretty bleak situation. A no win, if you please! Yeah, it was just plain, downright, bad news any which way you looked at it? It was pretty much cut and dried! There was not a hope in the trenches for any kind of victory. Ahh, but God was there and His words were given to the King to speak over the people. Hear them if you will!

“You will not have to fight this battle. Take up your positions; stand firm and see the deliverance the LORD will give you, Judah and Jerusalem. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged. Go out to face them tomorrow, and the LORD will be with you.” Do we get that today? Can we hide those powerful words in our hearts and tuck them away into our minds and stand firm in our positions? The KJV says, “Stand still”, and I like both. Don’t you? Stand Still, Stand firm! Take your positions and watch the Lord deliver! It doesn’t say to talk, or speak out of frantic negotiations, but just to simply stand still. As a matter of fact if we read on we can see how they fought with Praise to their God, by singing. It confused the enemies and they lost their focus. How amazing is that and how awesome is God’s promise for us, when there’s a whole lot of fight and not a whole lot of sense going down about anything in your corner?

‘This is what the Sovereign LORD, the Holy One of Israel, says: “In repentance and rest is your salvation, in quietness and trust is your strength, but you would have none of it.” Isaiah 30:15 Earlier in the book of Isaiah, The people of Judah were in desperate need of repentance and returning to the Lord, and in quietness and trust in their Lord, they would find strength. But they refused His offer. Do we? His offer still stands for us and is there today, this moment for us to accept. Repentance and Rest is the only thing that will win. Quietness and trust is our strength. We can take that promise from God to the bank and count on it. Either He is God or He isn’t? So how’s it going for you today?

Stand still, take your positions and in quiet confidence and trust in an awesome God, find all the strength you need for that weary soul and that tired mind!
#Soulfire

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Refiner’s Fire

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If we pray for a spirit of revival, we will expect God to arrive to begin His refining work into the very core of our beings and into the very depths of our souls. We will expect trials and refining fires and purifying fires that leave a few wounds, scars and little pockets of ashen heaps. We can expect hardship and struggles that can leave us reeling in humiliation, because God can’t work when our spirits are in self mode and in the way. Oh but it’s from these heaps of ashen nothingness, we can know that God reveals His most beautiful glory and His most beautiful work as He works His miraculous deeds among His followers! So beautiful soul, if you find yourself humbled with a few scars, dodging hot coals, heaps of rubble and smouldering ashes, as a believer of the One True sovereign God, you can know God has that brokenness and those ashes just as He has you and yeah, praise the Lord, He breathes healing and life into those wounds and heaps of ruin for His glory if we ‘stand down’ and let Him. The key is standing down which takes an overdose of humility because when we give it over, those ashes aren’t our problem to manage, but they’re His and that dear one, is reason to get up in the morning and face the day isn’t it?
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If we pray for a spirit of revival we can expect a spirit of humility to embrace us and with no humbleness of spirit there will be no revival.
So, maybe when it’s all gone wrong it’s really all gone right after all.
~k

Isaiah 40:31
“Yet those who wait for the LORD Will gain new strength; They will mount up with wings like eagles, They will run and not get tired, They will walk and not become weary.”

Jeremiah 15:19
“Therefore, thus says the LORD, “If you return, then I will restore you– Before Me you will stand; And if you extract the precious from the worthless, You will become My spokesman.”
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2 Chronicles 33:15-16
“He also removed the foreign gods and the idol from the house of the LORD, as well as all the altars which he had built on the mountain of the house of the LORD and in Jerusalem, and he threw them outside the city. He set up the altar of the LORD and sacrificed peace offerings and thank offerings on it; and he ordered Judah to serve the LORD God of Israel.”

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Rollin’ The Stone

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So ~ Sometimes when tensions mount and it all seems wrong it’s not really all wrong at all, but simply God rolling the stone away from the grave that we would bury ourselves in, if everyone had their way!

“Early on the first day of the week, while it was still dark, Mary of Magdala went to the tomb and saw that the stone had been removed from the entrance. So she came running to Simon Peter, and the other disciple, the one Jesus loved, and said, “They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we don’t know where they have put Him.” John 20: 1,2

It’s ironic isn’t it, that it was still dark, when Mary arrived at the grave site and perhaps she didn’t see clearly enough to know what really went down. She was anxious and tension mounted in her heart of hearts, so she perceived the worst and spread a false rumour about the stolen body of her Lord. Anxiety, pride, and bitterness does that! It makes us act and over react in negative ways. In reality, her Lord had not been taken at all! He was still in control! He had just risen! Go figure! He was alive!
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So beautiful soul, when it’s a dark night for you,and you can’t see the forest for the trees, don’t assume that it’s all bad and all wrong. Perhaps God is just rolling the stone away to free you and let you live more abundantly, under His protection.

His will will prevail though the powers of darkness try to take you out.

#SoulFire

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Invisible You


Invisible you and that’s the way you feel? Never seen and never heard ~ you just seem to blend in with the wallpaper unless you’ve said or done something wrong according to other’s opinions and then suddenly the invisible stands out in the crowd like headlines on the daily news! Well ~ Beautiful soul, God knows you inside out and who you are matters to Him! He stands in the gap with us through it all, no matter how the world sees us or how friends, acquaintances and onlookers approve or disapprove. Ah yes, He does and He’s got you covered with His sweet grace and awesome, unconditional love! Think of it! Even when you’re dragged through the knot hole of ridicule and rejection His blueprint and stamp of approval is all over you and there you sit with “His” approval ~ and that’s just okay because you’re okay even on a down day! You’re okay even on a bad day, even when you’re broken or when others disappoint and walk away. You’re okay because when it’s all gone wrong God’s love is all over you! His love is all you need! When it’s all gone haywire and you’re either invisible or plastered all over the front page of mistakes, His grace and favor rest on you! When David was in the wilderness of Judah, he reflected and meditated on God’s presence through the night. You see, in the absence of light, God is the light and in the quietness of it, he took time to focus on the true significance of life with the Lord. In Psalm 63: 4 – 8, he pens beautiful words from his heart, “I will praise you as long as I live, lifting up my hands to you in prayer. You satisfy me more than the richest feast, (could we say ‘approval of others’?) (Yeah, we can!!) He goes on to say, “I will praise You with songs of joy. I lie awake thinking of you, meditating on You through the night. Because You are my helper, I sing for joy in the shadow of Your wings. I cling to You; Your strong right hand holds me securely.”
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Beautiful you, when cumbersome circumstances, loneliness, rejection, ridicule, fear, anxiety or disappointment have their way with you and drag you into their vice of their night or eye of their storm or grip of darkness, meditate on your divine helper, your God and the God of David! Sing for joy anyway and find protection in the shadow of His wings, secure in His strong right hand, just as David did when the wicked plotted and schemed against him. Yeah, beautiful you, go on then and read Psalm 64 and know that you are indeed in good hands, when the whole world has gone out and plots against you.

#soulFire

❤ ❤ ❤

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