Category: Soul Fire

Acceptance And Contentment


Philippians 4: 6-7.

“Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.”

Wow! what a great word of encouragement from Paul, written from behind bars, for the persecuted Christians in the church of Philippi. Do you need to hear them today for your whirlwind world that seems to spin out of control? He was all too aware of the discouragements, and difficulties that plagued them. He, himself, had been in similar conditions and was in prison because of the trials that bombarded him, in sharing the message of the Gospel. Paul didn’t speak much of his own discouragement or fear, but instead, he wrote with joy, from a heart of compassion, demonstrating that Christians can be passionate for Christ regardless of their circumstances.

These words were written by Paul to encourage the fearfully anxious to talk over everything with God. To bring each and every issue, situation and circumstance before Him in prayer, being ‘thankful’ for whatever it was that caused chaos in their life and uprooted their peace of mind. It’s tough to be thankful for bad days isn’t it? It’s very difficult to wrap our mind around thankfulness, when everything goes wrong. Those in Philippi experienced more than just bad days. They were immersed in terrible days of torture, torment, and possible death! Yet, Paul exhorts them to be ‘thankful.” Paul knew the secret! He knew that it was only in thankfulness of heart that we can accept what comes. It’s in accepting the situation, that we find contentment and it’s in contentment that we find a healing peace from God that can not be explained. It’s a deep inner, spiritual knowledge that all is well with our soul and with our life, because God is the Master engineer and come what may, through it all, all things are Father filtered and customized to our needs to aid us in spiritual growth and maturity in Christ.

What’s on your heart today. What chaotic circumstances are battering you like a ship tossed at sea? Mark 4: 39, tells us “Jesus got up, rebuked the wind and said to the waves, “Quiet! Be still!” Then the wind died down and it was completely calm.” Christ can speak peace into the eye of your storm and into the heat of your struggle, if we ask HIm. Quiet your heart and your mind before Him and Be still! Psalm 46: 10 says “Be still, and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth.”

When thankfulness to God in all things is our default, We can experience peace in all things! It’s God’s promise! Let Him rebuke the wind and waves in your life and speak His gentle, healing peace into the storm.

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♫❤♫❤♫❤B L E S S I N G S♫❤♫❤♫
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Boldly Confident


1 John 5:14-15.

“This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. And if we know that he hears us—whatever we ask—we know that we have what we asked of him.”

The key here is asking in accordance to ‘His Will.” If our will is lined up with His, then we can have all the confidence we need to be bold in our prayer life. God truly instills within His beloved, His plan, His desire, His goal, His direction and His purpose for our lives. If we take the time to be still and listen as He whispers to the innermost part of our being, we will desire to pray for the things that He wishes to bless us with. Isn’t that so exciting? God knows what He wants to do for our benefit and His glory. Prayer releases His power to bring about His will. He is relational to the core and He wants to be asked and He wants to be sought.

In Psalm 31:19 the psalmist speaks of God’s goodness when he says “How great is the goodness You have stored up for those who fear You! You lavish it on those who come to You for refuge.”

God is brilliantly creative, gloriously mysterious and always up to something big. Selfish prayers won’t get past the ceiling, but, as His children, we have the right to boldly seek Him for His direction then simply accept His will and watch as His will, in the form of our petitions, take shape and fall into place precisely on time. Requests are granted and answered prayer becomes reason for praise and thanksgiving!

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Pitiful Pride


Romans 14:11

“It is written: “‘As surely as I live,’ says the Lord, ‘every knee will bow before me; every tongue will acknowledge God.’””.

Sometimes personal opinions get in the way and cause problems within the body of believers, within our churches don’t they? We tend to have this ‘I’m right, your wrong’ attitude when it comes to how we should live our lives and put our faith into action. In our verse today, Paul addresses some of these issues because Jewish custom and culture was very different than Gentile culture and it showed in their manner of eating, and in other areas as well. Some were looking down their noses with contempt at others of the faith, who saw things very differently. Paul’s point here, is that these things do not matter in the big picture, because faith isn’t grounded on these issues. True Faith is grounded on the pure and simple gospel message of the cross , the Lord and the Christ who died to make atonement for our sins possible and bring salvation to the lost. It is God, who is the true and righteous Judge, who will deal with the flaws and shortcoming of His people, when every knee bows before Him and every tongue confesses Him as Lord. God will deal with it as He sees fit. Paul reminds the believers that each brother and sister in the Lord, is responsible for themselves personally, before God and judgment from others is unnecessary and uncalled for. In other words, we are not to judge! Plain and simple!

However, because of pride, we get caught up in this haughty mindset and take judgmental authority upon ourselves in order to straighten every one out. We begin to rebuke, criticize, condemn and slander, even cry ‘hypocrite’ to new or even seasoned believers, for not adhering to our self – made ‘laws’ that we govern our own lives by. Such non – graced action quickly leads to dissension, quarreling and divisive behavior, when it’s really no concern of ours, how others, who profess their faith in Christ, live their lives. Paul makes it clear that we are not too look with scorn on those weaker in faith or on those who live out their faith in the Lord differently than we do.


Have you been judged, criticized and ridiculed for something? Has it hurt you or made you leave the unity of the body of believers? It’s the enemy’s tactic for causing strife and bitterness. It’s sad and it shouldn’t happen! Or maybe you’ve been the judge and held the gavel over someone’s head while pronouncing them guilty as charged. That’s pride and is also the enemy’s tactic for causing division. It’s wrong and Paul says we have no business doing that! Instead, we need to take account of ourselves before God and make sure that our own hearts are right!

Now it can get really personal and this is where our true colors of the faith show. It’s where our mature, strong faith in Christ will show up or not! If our behavior causes others to question and doubt, then, we, who are strong in the faith, need to put the questionable behavior behind us and act in such a way that it will glorify Christ and speak lovingly to others. Why? Because as mature Christians, we need to take responsibility for our actions. Forgive and receive forgiveness if need be and put our self-righteousness behind us. Our main goal as a Christ One is to win the lost and be excellent representatives for the Lord and His work. If something we do, hurts someone, then we have a responsibility to own up to it and stop it! It’s our responsibility to maintain peace and share joy, compassion and love within our circles of influence. No, we don’t look at someone else but let’s look into the mirror and yeah, everyone let’s heed Paul’s words of wisdom and quit passing judgment on our brothers and sisters because according to us, they don’t measure up, and let’s make sure we don’t give others any reason to question our own testimony for the Lord. Friends, if we could all live in such a way, our world would be wonderful and our churches? Well…they would not be divided, for each one would settle their accounts before God, give grace where needed and maintain peace and unity within the body of believers.
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Under Wings of Love

So thankful today for God’s brilliant plan of protection for His own on a daily basis and for His appointed, yet unseen, divine angels that walk among us! So thankful for the guardian angels He provides to care for us in this earthly journey! So thankful that He has given His angels charge over us to keep us in all our ways and to give us divine protection as we face the unknown, trudge through the trenches of battle, scour the valleys of despair and temptation, and yeah, even when we climb the mountain of success these guardian angels appointed by a sovereign God keep us from spiralling to ruin. Thankful for the angels round about that keep our kids in safe keeping and cover their backs from newborn to parenthood and then repeat the cycle for the next generation. How many mishaps has He spared them from? Spared us from? We can never know for sure but with a thankful heart we know, without doubt that He has! What grace! What mercy and what compassion our God has for us! He does have such a brilliant way of keeping us from trouble doesn’t He? That’s what He does! I love how He does it. ~k
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Psalm 91: 10 , 11, 12
“No evil will befall you, Nor will any plague come near your tent. For He will give His angels charge concerning you, To guard you in all your ways. They will bear you up in their hands, That you do not strike your foot against a stone.…”

Luke 4: 10
“For it is written, He shall give his angels charge over thee, to keep thee.”
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