Tag: God's Mercy

For truly I tell you, if you have faith the size of a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move.  Nothing will be impossible for you.

Matthew 17:20

When you hear the term “ye of little faith” do you take it as an insult?

As I was meditating on faith and what God says about us having a little faith, the scripture that came to mind was Matthew 17:20 where Jesus tells us that if we have faith even as tiny as a little mustard seed, we can tell the mountain to move, and it will move. 

He says NOTHING will be impossible for us if we have this tiny amount of faith. 
Something else you should note about this scripture is that He is comparing our faith to a seed. 

How do you get a seed to grow?  You water it.  You give it light.  Your nurture and protect it. 

If you feel that you only have a small amount of faith, treat it like a seed. 
Feed it the word by reading the Bible. 

Give it light by spending time in God’s presence through prayer, worship, and quiet time meditating.

Take care and protect it by not listening to or participating in unwholesome talk. 

Hang around people who will lift you up and help you grow your faith instead of tearing you down or increasing your doubt. 

If you do your best, I just know you’ll see your seed of faith sprout and grow into a mighty tree.

• Prayer:  God thank you that I do have a little faith.  I pray that you will help me to nurture and grow my faith from a small seed into a mighty tree.  Father I pray that you would speak to me in a way that I will recognize your voice and be able to act accordingly.  I always want to act within your will and I pray that you will continue to bless me and guide me all the days of my life.  I’m thankful to be on this journey with you by my side.  In Jesus’ name, Amen.

If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

1 John 1:9

As I was driving in my car this week and listening to some worship on the radio, the song Mercy came on by the group Bethel. 

As she sang the lyric was “My past embraced.  My sins forgiven.”  This suddenly struck a chord with me. 

I have a lot of really nasty things in my past, just like I’m sure most of you do. 

I try to ignore it, bury it, and even pretend it doesn’t exist.  But if you ignore your past instead of embracing it, you could be robbing God of his glory. 

We need to embrace our past, no matter how ugly, and lean on God our father who took all of those ugly experiences and totally forgave us and showed us mercy. 

He wiped all of the bad things away, so even if it hurts we HAVE to embrace what we’ve come through and what we’ve been rescued from to truly give God the glory and the credit he deserves for showing such grace and mercy to us. 

I know I did nothing to deserve a second chance, but his pure love caused him to extend it to me anyway.  

• Prayer:  Father THANK YOU for making me a new creation.  Thank you for showing me grace and rescuing me from the sins of my past.  I’m so grateful to have been forgiven and adopted into your family as your child.  Please help me to spread the word of the glorious miracle of your forgiveness and love and never to be ashamed of my beginnings.  May my testimony bring you all the glory!  In Jesus’ name, Amen.

https://youtu.be/2r4xYgcF7cE

As water reflects the face, so one’s life reflects the heart.

Proverbs 27:19

What does your life reflect?

Are you a person that people can turn to if they need help?

Are you the one people hide from because you spread the gossip of so-and-so’s failed marriage around town?

Your heart will overflow into your actions and your life.

Matthew 12:34 says the mouth speaks what the heart is full of.

If your heart is full of hate and malice, that’s what your words and your actions in life will take the shape of. On the flip side of the coin, if you speak life and perform acts of kindness, your life will be a reflection of God’s love and great mercy.

If you find that your life isn’t quite reflecting the image that you want to portray, spend some time in a quiet place seeking God’s face.

Ask him to touch and change your heart into a heart for helping others. He is faithful to answer, but sometimes we have to quiet our busy lives enough to be able to hear that still small voice.

I encourage you to seek out ways to help others and be a blessing to them.

God will surely reward you for it and your life will be a reflection of beauty and grace.

• Prayer: God touch my heart today. Give me a heart for all things good and pleasant. Help me to bear the fruits of the spirit (love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control) in all that I do. I want to be a beautiful reflection of your love every day. In Jesus’ name, Amen.

And he has given us this command: Anyone who loves God must also love their brother and sister.

1 John 4:21

OUCH.

This scripture can be so simple and so difficult all at once!

God says if we love him, we must also love our brother and sister.

He’s not talking about the family tree here, but he’s talking about our brothers and sisters in Christ.

Sometimes people hurt us, and we don’t want to love those people who caused us pain. God says love them anyway.

I have found that when someone causes me great pain, the best way I can show them love is to pray for them.

To truly pray for their health, wellbeing, success, etc.

After you put this into practice, I think you’ll find that God’s love will help fill your heart, so you can continue to pour it out in prayer and maybe eventually in person.

Some people are easy to love, like our friends and family, and we should go out of our way to love and cherish them also.

Some people just need a hand sometimes, and we can help by donating food to a food bank, cleaning an elderly persons yard, etc.

Do these acts of love and God will surely bless you for it!

• PRAYER: God help me to find joy in loving everyone around me. I pray that you would fill my heart to overflowing and help me to be a beacon of your love for my friends, family, neighbors, and even my enemies. God give me the strength and bless me in showing love to everyone, in Jesus’ name, Amen.

Therefore, do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own. | Matthew 6:34

We hear this a lot in modern-day culture. “Be present”.

But what does that mean?

To be present means to live in the moment.

Yes it is okay to plan for the future, but don’t worry and be anxious about things you cannot control.

Often we worry about things and cause ourselves much stress over things that never even come to pass!

I think that’s why God reminds us here to be present.

Don’t worry about tomorrow, for we aren’t even promised a tomorrow.

Just stay present and do what good you can do for today.

Another side of the “Be present” coin is not to live in the past.

I have a very soiled and broken section of my past that has been very hard to forgive and leave behind.

Things I’ve done continue to resurface in my mind and through people who knew me when I was in the world.

The bible says in Psalm 103:12 that God has removed our sins from us as far as the East is from the West.

God doesn’t hold our past against us anymore, so we shouldn’t continue to punish ourselves either.

• Prayer: God thank you for this reminder in your word to be present and not worry about tomorrow. Thank you also for your love and forgiveness and help me to follow your example and forgive myself and not live in the past. Help me to truly soak up and be present in each moment that I’m blessed to have, in Jesus’ name, Amen.

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• Are You Under Spiritual Attack? You Are NOT Alone – Here’s How to Find Peace and Purpose
• Scriptures for Healing the Pain of Grief and Loss
• The Divine Purpose of Demons and Unclean Spirits
• Understanding Spiritual Warfare: Reclaiming What Was Stolen and Walking in Christ’s Authority
• Scriptures for when you feel DISCOURAGED

For the word of God is alive and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart.

Hebrews 4:12

Sometimes in our Christian walk we encounter troubles.

We encounter situations and feelings that we may not naturally know the answer to or how to get through them.

In times like these I encourage you to scour God’s word for answers.

There are many ways to search the Bible; on the internet, using concordances, asking your friends and family their favorite scriptures on the subjects you’re looking for, etc.

If you find yourself feeling lost, turn back to God’s written word for guidance and comfort.

Most Bibles even have a glossary in the back where you can look up scriptures related to certain topics.

Once you have your scripture guideposts, write them and hang them in places that you will be reminded often.

I like to put mine on my bathroom mirror where I get ready for the day and in my planner that I use multiple times a day.

Having a frequent reminder of what God has to say about these situations you are going through will help you to feel like you are not alone and God is working on your problems to turn them around for your good.

• Prayer: God THANK YOU for your word! When I don’t know if I can hear your voice in the moment, I always have your scriptures to turn to for comfort and guidance. Lord help me to lock your words away in my heart so that when I need them the most, they’ll come to the surface. In Jesus’ name, Amen.

“Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect”.

Romans 12:2

On my drive to work I don’t usually encounter a whole lot of traffic.

I drive through the woods watching the sunlight filter through the trees in the most beautiful patterns and I often thank God for his creation.

One day, I drove past a wooded area of tall, straight, limbless pine trees and I noticed right smack in the middle is a twisty oak tree.

This tree’s branches twist and turn into all directions, and it definitely didn’t follow the pattern of the other trees.

Seeing this tree reminded me that in a world of evil and unbelief, we cannot be afraid to stand out and be who God created us to be.

We must soak up the son and then tell the whole world of his loving kindness by being set apart.

• PRAYER: God help me to be different from the world and not to be afraid to stand out. You made me unique and set apart for a reason and I pray that fear wouldn’t hold me back from spreading your love to those around me. Help me to remember that wide is the path to destruction but narrow is the gate that we should enter into righteousness. In Jesus’ name, Amen.

And if we know that he hears us—whatever we ask—we know that we have what we asked of him.

1 John 5:15

Faith can be a hard thing to practice.

When we pray in earnest and seem to get no answer for the things we’re asking, it can be discouraging.

But remind yourself of this scripture and the fact that our Father who gives us all good things and works everything for our good is on the task.

We ask and pray for God’s best, and sometimes that means a delay or that he has something even better than we imagined planned for us.

Faith is the belief in things unseen, and if you continue to keep the faith, God is so infinitely good he will answer you in his perfect timing in order to work it out for your best.

• Prayer: God help me to be patient when I ask things of you. Help me to wait patiently on you as you work everything out perfectly for my best interest. I have faith that you hear and will answer me in your perfect timing. In Jesus’ name, Amen.

My dear brothers and sisters, take note of this: Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry.

James 1:19

I’ve heard it said before that we should listen twice as often as we speak because God gave us two ears and only one mouth.

It sounds kind of silly, but isn’t it true? Sometimes we let our words come out without truly thinking about them.

I know I’m not the best communicator, and sometimes I say things that are taken the complete opposite way that I meant them.

We should be extra careful with the words we speak because our words create change.

God created us with his breath and his words, and we are made in his likeness.

We, too, create the atmosphere with our words. Strive to speak uplifting positive things and that is what you will begin to reap.

• Prayer: God please help me to guard my tongue. I want to be a person that lifts up and speaks life into people and situations, not the opposite. Help me to bring about positive changes by my words. In Jesus’ name, Amen.