Apr 13, 2022
Satan is trying to plant lies in your mind in your time of weakness and trouble. He will try to convince you God is not with you. If you believe that lie, you can never escape Satan’s trap.
If you quiet yourself before the Lord and call on him in secret prayer, the Holy Spirit will tell you clearly that God is with you. He has not forsaken you. He sees you and is waiting for you to step into his plans for your life. The Bible tells us that when the disciples were doubtful and confused, “Jesus came and spoke to them, saying, ‘All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age’”(Matthew 28:20, NKJV).
You are loved, and you are needed. Satan is a liar, hoping you will give in to despair by believing you are alone in your struggle. No, you are not ever alone. The Holy Spirit is interceding for you in your time of need. “Likewise the Spirit also helps in our weaknesses. For we do not know what we should pray for as we ought, but the Spirit Himself makes intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered. Now He who searches the hearts knows what the mind of the Spirit is, because He makes intercession for the saints according to the will of God”(Romans 8:26-27).
You are going to come out of your trial victorious, but you must believe God has heard your cry. Just lean on the Lord.
This is God’s heart to his people in the midst of their trials while they were captive in Babylon: “For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope. Then you will call upon me and go and pray to me, and I will listen to you. And you will seek me and find me, when you search for me with all your heart” (Jeremiah 29:11-13).
Apr 12, 2022
The following word is for those who need an answer to prayer, who need help in a time of trouble, and who are ready and willing to move God’s heart according to his Word.
Lay hold of the covenant promise in Psalm 46:1, “God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.” The phrase “very present” means always available, immediately accessible. Faith must rest in the assurance that God’s Spirit abides in you all hours of the day and night. Because he inhabited you, he listens to your every prayerful thought and cry.
We know that if he hears us, he will grant our petitions. Indeed, the Holy Spirit will move heaven and earth for any child of God who takes time to pour out his heart to the Father with unrushed, unhurried time in his presence.
In Psalm 62:5-7, David offered a prayer that touched God’s heart. He said, in essence, “Wait on God only. Expect help from no other source. He alone must be your provision, your only hope and defense. Only he can supply you with the strength to keep going until your answer comes.” When you become wholly dependent on the Lord alone – when you stop looking to man for help and trust God for the supernatural – nothing will be able to shake you. David declared, “He only is my rock and my salvation; he is my defense; I shall not be moved” (Psalm 62:6).
Here is the heart of it all, the secret to prevailing prayer that every saint throughout history has learned: the pouring out of the heart before the Lord. “Trust in him at all times, you people; pour out your heart before him; God is a refuge for us. Selah” (Psalm 62:8).Hannah is our example. Desperate for a child, she “poured out” her soul to the Lord, and scripture says, “Her face was no longer sad” (1 Samuel 1:18).
God will hear and answer you when he sees that you’re willing to shut out all worldly voices for a season. Cry out the contents of your heart; pour out your soul before him, and trust he will respond. The time has come for brokenness before the Lord and for a faith born out of contrite intercession.
Apr 8, 2022
Many times people say to us, “I have no one to talk to, no one to share my burden with. Nobody has time to hear my cry. I need someone I can pour my heart out to.”
King David was surrounded by people. He was married with a large family and had many companions at his side, yet we hear the same cry even from David: “To whom shall I go?” It is in our very nature to want another human being to be present, listen to us and advise us.
When Job became overwhelmed by his trials, he cried out with grief, “Oh that I had one to hear me!” (Job 31:35, NKJV).He uttered this cry while sitting before his so-called friends who had no sympathy for Job’s troubles. Instead, they were messengers of despair.
In his sorrow, Job turned to the Lord. “Surely even now my witness is in heaven, and my evidence is on high. My friends scorn me; my eyes pour out tears to God” (Job 16:19-20).
In the Psalms, David urged God’s people to do likewise. “Trust in him at all times, you people; pour out your heart before him; God is a refuge for us. Selah” (Psalm 62:8) and “I cry out to the Lord with my voice; with my voice to the Lord I make my supplication. I pour out my complaint before him; I declare before him my trouble. When my spirit was overwhelmed within me, then you knew my path. In the way in which I walk…. I cried out to you, O Lord: I said, ‘You are my refuge, my portion in the land of the living” (Psalm 142:1-5).
I believe in my heart that this message is an invitation to you from the Holy Spirit to find a private place where you can frequently pour out your soul to the Lord. You can speak to Jesus about everything — your problems, your present trial, finances, health — and tell him how overwhelmed you are, even how discouraged you are. He will hear you with love and sympathy, and he will not despise your cry. For centuries he has answered the heart-cry of everyone who has trusted his promises. Likewise, he has promised to hear you and guide you. Indeed, he has pledged by oath to be your strength. Go to him, and you will come out renewed.
Apr 6, 2022
These words of Jesus touch my soul: “Therefore do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For after all these things the Gentiles seek. For your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things” (Matthew 6:31-32, NKJV).
Jesus is warning about the heathen tendency to worry. He tells us that worry over our job, family, future or survival is a heathen’s way of living. It is the attitude of those who have no heavenly Father. They do not know God as he desires to be known, as a caring, providing, loving Father in heaven. To all who believe, it is not enough to know God only as the Almighty, the Creator, the Lord of all. He also wants us to know him as our heavenly Father.
“Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about its own things. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble” (Matthew 6:34). With these plain words, Jesus commands us, “Do not give a thought, a single worry, to what may or may not happen tomorrow. You can’t help anything by worrying. When you fret, you’re only doing as the heathen do.”
We are to go on loving Jesus. We are to move on, casting all our cares on him, rest in his faithfulness. Our heavenly Father will see to it that we are supplied with all the essential things of life.
I wonder if the angels are baffled by all the worry and anxiousness of those who claim to trust in the Lord. To those celestial beings, it must seem insulting to God that we worry as if we had no caring Father in heaven. What perplexing questions the angels must ask among themselves like “Do they not know the Father sends us to take charge of them in times of danger? How can they fret and worry when they know God possesses all power, all wealth, and can supply the needs of all creation? How can they accuse their heavenly Father of neglect as if he isn’t true to his Word?”
The birds sing, while we complain and speak of fear and anxiety. The lilies of the field stand tall in their glory, while we wilt and bend before the smallest wind of adversity. You most definitely have a heavenly Father. Trust in him!
Apr 2, 2022
In 2 Timothy 4:10, Paul writes, “For Demas, in love with this present world, has deserted me and gone to Thessalonica.” Demas used to travel with Paul. How would you travel with Paul and see the miracles and hear that man preach and then forsake him?
The Bible clearly says, “Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him” (1 John 2:15).
There is no holding pattern with God. You may start the race, but you still have to finish too. That’s not legalism; that’s just scripture. If we’re not growing, then we’re going backwards. We’re either growing, getting closer to God and learning more; or we’re sliding backwards, and our instincts will totally change.
You can see that in the history of different denominations. They started out on fire, and they didn’t have 10 dollars to rub together. Now they’ve got millions and property, and they’re a shell. They’re slick, but they’re empty. You know it, and I know it, and everybody knows it. They talk about the ‘good old days,’ but why? Because they know it isn’t that way anymore.
So we learn that we all have to keep growing. We have to keep being challenged. We need to be around other believers who will push us.
The Bible says, “Rising very early in the morning, while it was still dark, he [Jesus] departed and went out to a desolate place, and there he prayed” (Mark 1:35). What’s Jesus praying for? He’s the Son of the living God! He’s the Word, the promises incarnate, and he’s still praying. But we ‘don’t have time’ to lay ahold of God’s promises?
Jesus told his followers, “Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened” (Matthew 7:7-8).
If there’s no asking, there’s no receiving. If there’s no prayer, you’re going to go sideways quickly. We move forward toward God or away.
