Mar 22, 2022
There, right in your face, is a door that seems to be continually locked. This closed door I am speaking about is some issue, situation or need you’ve been praying about for a long time. It may be a crisis that requires nothing less than a miracle. I don’t know what your closed door may be, but you’ve prayed for the door of opportunity to open, yet everything you try seems to fail. The doors simply don’t open.
For many Christians, it seems both the windows and doors of heaven are closed. The heavens seem like brass, and you haven’t yet received an answer to your fervent prayers and petitions to the Lord.
In Revelation, scripture says, “These things says he who is holy, he who is true, ‘He who has the key of David, he who opens and no one shuts, and shuts and no one opens’” (Revelation 3:7, NKJV). This was in a letter sent to the believers in ancient Philadelphia, a church the Lord complimented for having kept the Word and never denying his name. In their most trying times, these people stood faithfully on God’s promises. They did not accuse the Lord of neglecting them or turning a deaf ear to their cries.
Evidently, Satan had come against them with lies. His principalities and powers of darkness, lying spirits pouring out of the very bowels of hell, said that God had shut every door and that he wasn’t worthy of worship and faith. These believers, whom Jesus said were of little strength, kept on trusting and waiting patiently for God to put the key in the door and open it.
Here is what the Lord promised them, and it is our promise as well: “Because you have kept my command to persevere, I also will keep you from the hour of trial which shall come upon the whole world, to test those who dwell on the earth” (Revelation 3:10).
Because you still trust his promises and are willing to die in faith even if you do not see the promises fulfilled, you will be kept from this worldwide temptation to fall into unbelief. God has heard your cry, and he knows the very hour to open all doors. So never give up. Stand on his promises. He will not fail you. He holds the key to every shut door, and he alone sets before us open doors.
Mar 22, 2022
Jeremiah was young, only about 20 years old, when God gave him a prophetic calling. He entered into that calling like many of us do in our youth, not really knowing what the years ahead would hold. All he knew is that he had a relationship with God. He had surrendered his life to the Lord. He was saying, “Not my will, but your will be done.” He was going to serve in the role of a prophet.
Today is very different, at least from what I can tell. I know there are true prophets still, but a lot of the prophets I see today are all about “Lights, camera, action!” They have jokes; they can prophecy, and things don’t come to pass. Not even a notable percentage of their prophecies come to pass, and they just make light of it and move on.
By contrast, Jeremiah had a soberness in his message. He had a reality to him because God’s truth weighed so heavily upon him. Jeremiah had to bear under the knowledge that God was setting the nation on a course of either choosing God or rejecting God.
The Lord tells Jeremiah, “For my people have committed two evils: They have forsaken me, the fountain of living waters, and hewn themselves cisterns—broken cisterns that can hold no water” (Jeremiah 2:13, NKJV). God looked at the whole of society, and he boiled down all of society’s issues to two evils. First, they had forsaken God, the fountain of living waters; and second, they had made broken cisterns that could hold no water, basically trying to replace God’s presence with their own resources.
How much we need to hear this today. There are so many voices with social media and the internet. We’ve got global news 24/7. It’s always at our fingertips. You can be overwhelmed by looking at all the facts and all the features of our society and trying to figure out what’s going wrong. God narrows it down for Jeremiah, and he is narrowing it down for us today.
God is saying to us today that there are two evils in this world: We have forsaken God, and we have put ourselves in place of God, trying to sustain ourselves. We must reject these two lies if we want to set our nation on a course of choosing God.
Mar 22, 2022
After reading Psalm 13, I wanted to send you a few words of encouragement that I gleaned from this blessed chapter.
King David penned, “How long, O Lord? Will you forget me forever? How long will you hide your face from me? How long shall I take counsel in my soul, Having sorrow in my heart daily?” (Psalm 13:1-2, NKJV). It sounds as if David felt that God had altogether left him to suffer, to wake up each day with a black cloud hanging over him. For a season, David spoke out of despair, “God, will this feeling of isolation go on forever? When will my prayers be answered?”
When troubles assail us, we sink under the pressure. Right now, someone reading these words is sinking under the awful pressure of a situation that seems to be unsolvable. They are on the verge of total despair, hoping for even the briefest break from their trial. They have formed one plan after another, trying to devise ways out of their trouble, but all those arrangements have failed. Now they have nothing else to think of, no workable solution. They are at the end of it all.
How upsetting it is to see a ray of hope, a bit of sunshine but then have despair once again set in. Keep in mind, David experienced the same struggles, and he was a man after God’s heart. David testified of having great trust in the Lord, yet he went through hard times too, as he describes in this psalm.
How did David arise from this pit of despair? “But I have trusted in your mercy; my heart shall rejoice in your salvation. I will sing to the Lord, because he has dealt bountifully with me” (Psalm 13:5-6).
Let me share with you reasons to keep trusting God through your present trials. What kind of Father would feed all the creatures of the earth and yet neglect his children? Jesus exhorted us to “give no thought” to everyday needs and problems, “for he cares for you” (see Matthew 6:25-34). Truly, the Lord loves you, and he will not turn a deaf ear to your cries. Hold on to his promises. Wait on him patiently. He will never fail you.
Mar 22, 2022
Somebody reading this needs a touch from Jesus. When the Lord ministered here on earth, he went about healing and restoring the afflicted by simply touching them. When Jesus touched Peter’s mother-in-law, her fever left her body (see Luke 4:38-40). He touched the casket of a dead child, and the boy came to life. He touched the eyes of blind people, and they could see. He touched the ear of a deaf man who could then hear. Multitudes brought their sick and infirm, and Jesus took the time to reach out and touch them all, healing them “Then little children were brought to him that he might put his hands on them and pray” (Matthew 19:13, NKJV). Christ’s gentle touch changed everything.
If you truly know the Lord intimately, you have felt the touch of Jesus’ hand. In times of loneliness, discouragement, confusion and pain, you cried out from the depth of your soul, “Lord Jesus, I need your touch. I need to feel your presence. Come, Jesus, and touch my thirsting soul.”
Some need a touch of Jesus upon their mind. Satan has come with his wicked principalities to harass and overburden the mind with thoughts that are hellish, unbelieving, un-Christlike, fearful, thoughts of unworthiness, thoughts of God’s displeasure. Honest believers will tell you they have experienced these attacks on their mind. Satan is determined to destroy our faith and dependence on the Lord.
In scripture, the touch of Jesus came in answer to a cry. There is no evidence that he ever ignored or rejected such a cry. He will not turn away from you but will mercifully respond to your need. In the gospels, we read “Behold, a leper came and worshiped him, saying, ‘Lord, if you are willing, you can make me clean.’ Then Jesus put out his hand and touched him, saying, ‘I am willing; be cleansed.’ Immediately his leprosy was cleansed” (Matthew 8:2-3).
Find a place alone with Jesus today and say to him what the leper said, “Lord, you are able. Make me clean.” Expect that he who is no respecter of persons will touch and heal you in mind, body, soul and spirit. The arm of the Lord is outstretched to you, but he waits for that cry for help that is also a cry of expectancy.
Mar 4, 2022
God doesn’t want your home, car, furniture, savings or any of your possessions. All he wants is your strong belief in his Word, and that may be the one thing that other, more spiritual-appearing people lack. You may look at another person as being more spiritual than you, but that person may actually be struggling hard to keep up an appearance of righteousness. As God looks at you, he declares, “There is a righteous man or woman.” Why? You’ve admitted your helplessness to become righteous, and you’ve trusted in the Lord to give you his righteousness.
The writer of Hebrews tells us we are accounted as righteous in God’s eyes only with one important qualification. “Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen” (Hebrews 11:1, NKJV). “Without faith it is impossible to please him, for he who comes to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of those who diligently seek him” (Hebrews 11:6).
You may claim, “I believe this. I have faith in the God who resurrected Jesus.” The real question for you is do you believe the Lord can resurrect your troubled marriage? Do you believe he can bring to life a spiritually dead relative? Do you believe he can raise you up out of the pit of a debilitating habit? Do you believe the Lord can erase your cursed past? Do you trust his promise “So I will restore to you the years that the swarming locust has eaten” (Joel 2:25)?
When everything looks hopeless — when you are in an impossible situation, with no resources, and no hope before you — do you believe God will be your Jehovah Jirah, seeing to your need?
Do you believe he’s committed to keeping his promises to you, and that if even one of his words fails, the heavens would melt and the universe collapse? If we are struggling to have this faith, we must go to Christ like the man with the demon-tormented son. “Jesus said to him, ‘If you can believe, all things are possible to him who believes.’ Immediately the father of the child cried out and said with tears, ‘Lord, I believe; help my unbelief!’” (Mark 9:23-24).
