Standing with you brother in the season of trial you are facing and have faced for many years, May God strengthen and keep you as your heart continues to stand firm with him. A Psalm 141 comes to mind that he will make all your bed in your languishing, the knowledge that Jesus will look after you, he knows and cares and is your healer as you rest in Him and he will take you and your family through all your distress is our promise, fear not He is the shade on your right hand and is the source of all your life. He has a plan for you and that plan is for good and not for evil and will cancel all the plans against you and nullify the weapons that seek to destroy you..No weapon formed against you shall prosper, Isaiah 54 and I know how the devil can trouble through our minds, so may I encourage you to continue put on the whole armour and stand firm in faith..even while lying on your bed.. Jesus knows and cares for you and will give your the rest your heart desires..press in to Him He is faithful to hear and answer your hearts cries. I hear you on earth and He who never slumbers or slepps and made the ear most certainly has heard your cry too. May God bless you and answer your need suddenly, I this ask in Jesus precious name. You and your family are precious in His sight.

As one who listens to the prophets I know this is so very true. The scriptures will build your faith, strengthen your testimony, and fill you with the love of God.

Hi Charlette, I agree. I learned this in a time of great sorrow. Praise passages and verses is where I often go when bogged down in the heaviness of situations or details. We read of times when Songs of praise proceeded armies into battles. Some days I praise knowing others are battling in prayer details. My spirit is revived.

I heard something that echoes this encouragement to read God’s word.. which is to help us find strength. It was to do with intimacy and drawing closer to God to hear His heart and give him time and really listen to His word.. rather than think “I know what this passage says already”.. because when we stop thinking we know it already, God may then have the opportunity to show us what he wants us to learn from it today and that can change our heart’s perspective in a moment. I think it is so that God can show us our circumstances from his point of view and then we truly have the mind of Christ and will act in accordance with His will and not our own.. which is our prayer.. Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Also recently while saying the Lord’s prayer “hallowed be thy NAME” came under the Spirit’s scrutiny “name” what does that mean.. and do I truly revere it enough? “Magnify thy name” I read in scripture.. One word started a barnstorm in my heart and revolutionized my perception of Holy God..as I said it over and over and tried to comprehend that one word, my spirit soared and God was magnified incredibly in my understanding.. it is good to read but then to also meditate on the words we read.. they digest and become part of us for our betterment and strength in the same way food does when it digests.

“Jumper Cable” is so apt…

Wonderful Carol! Thanks and blessings

I read words written by good men in their good books for years and my life stagnated because what they contained was like old musty food that had passed its used by date and all the goodness was lost along the way and was incapable of touching my heart for eternity. Its not the same as the WORD of GOD..
I am an admirer of The Creator’s handiwork especially in our backyard as that is where I spend a lot of time, we have doves which are regular visitors and whom i am pleased to feed as but only those that are willing to come close and get to know me and show a willingness for relationship. A pair of these doves last Spring had a pair of “dovelets”..chicks and I was priveleged to be able to observe their progress. We knew of them in the nest and continued to supply the parents with fresh seed and water, then as the to little ones left the nest they would sit on our back fence and I was instructed by the Holy Spirit..my Father’s voice was clear to me on this..”sit and watch” so I pulled up a seat obeying with pleasure..for I love these little ones and I love my Father. A drama unfolded and taught me a lesson I know I will never forget, for when God shows you something it is indelibly written in our hearts.
There were three doves, a parent dove, the male and two babes. The food was located in front of them on the ground. The father dove few down to the food source, a bowl of unmilled wheat and a bowl of water. He began to take some of the seed. Then one of his offspring proceeded to fly down to beg for some seed from her father as she would have done in the nest. She fluttered her wings and bowed before him and it was a sight to see. Her father refused her by flying immediately back to his original position on the fence. She then flew next to him. This scene was repeated at least three times until, the little one understood that she was to take the seed for herself. It was time for her to eat for herself. A big step for anyone.
The lesson for me was forthcoming: God gives us spiritual sustenance and He even uses the Word seed in a parable in the Gospels to describe it. Seeds are like incredible powerpacked kernels of truths that once ingested transform our hearts and minds..but we must take the seed ourselves if we want to grow into creatures which are able to fly with the lord in the heavenlies, far above all principalities and powers and spiritual wickedness in high places. There is time for everything under heaven, and there was a time when as new Christians we took our food from spiritual God given men and women, as babes we need the milk of the word, which spiritual parents would impart to us through speeches and sermons and the like, but then we are to come to an time of taking the meat..through reading the Word for ourselves and having times of daily communion with the Lord alone and thereby growing in Christ built up into His likeness. We need to take our food from God’s word and search out God’s will for ourselves just as the Bereans who were praised by the Apostle Paul in the Book of Acts. Second hand food wont do us the good that eating for ourselves and drawing near to God to hear His truth and receive first-hand His power and strength to do His will.. Jesus needed all the help He could get from the Father to become our victor in the heavens, we also must follow his example.