Apr 15, 2022
I believe that prayer mixed with faith is the answer to everything. Paul said, “Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God” (Philippians 4:6, NKJV).
“In everything” means “Pray about everything, and give thanks that your requests will be heard and answered.” We are told to pray as our first option, not after we have tried everything else in vain. “But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you” (Matthew 6:33).
So many Christians today are being plundered by Satan. Their homes are in turmoil; they are plagued with fear and guilt; they face trouble on all sides. The problems our ministry reads about in letters from Christians are overwhelming.
To be truthful, though, few believers who are facing difficulties turn to the Lord in fervent prayer. Few today have consistent, quality time alone with God in prayer. Despair sets in because they do not go to the secret place, to unburden their souls and cry out their sorrows to the Lord. Instead, they tell all of their problems to friends, pastors, counselors; and they neglect the Lord who waits to have them all alone. We pray as a last resort.
Could God be grieved with this generation the same way he was with Israel? He said of them, “My people have forgotten me days without number” (Jeremiah 2:32).
God is pleased when we run to him first, when we make special time to be alone with him, pouring out our innermost feelings and laying our petitions before him. We have no right to say we love the Lord if we don’t spend time with him on a regular basis. He will hear your prayers and answer, but he needs you alone so he can speak to you in a quiet moment.
As I go into the Lord’s holy presence each day, my most consistent petition is that the Holy Spirit will open God’s Word to me so I can be a true oracle of him. May you make quality time for him, trusting him with your petitions.
Apr 14, 2022
There are four expectations believers should have because they are based on absolute promises the Lord has made to us. Our God is a promise-maker and a promise-keeper!
Expect to be rewarded as you diligently seek the Lord. “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, NKJV). You can ask in faith for a token from the Lord to encourage and rekindle your confidence. Expect him to keep his promise to reward you now when you are in greatest need. God has said he rewards those who diligently seek him, so seek him daily.
Expect to see evidence of a progressive miracle in your life. “With God all things are possible” (Mark 10:27). I have written about instantaneous miracles and progressive miracles. Progressive miracles start in unseen, quiet ways and unfold little by little, one small mercy at a time. Expect to see God working in mysterious ways, unseen to the human eye. You can say, “I don’t know how it will come to pass, but I believe God set into motion an answer to my prayers the very first hour I asked.”
Expect to enter into God’s promised place of rest. “There remains therefore a rest for the people of God…. Let us therefore be diligent to enter that rest, lest anyone fall according to the same example of disobedience” (Hebrews 4:9, 11). The recent year has been one of the most stressful for many believers. God never intended for his children to live in fear and despair. We need a reckless faith, a trust in him in the face of fear and trouble. Now is the time to lay it all on Jesus.
Expect the Holy Spirit to be always in his temple. “Do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own?” (1 Corinthians 6:19). The Holy Spirit abides in the heart of every believer. He is omnipresent throughout the world and universe. He desires that you expect him to make his presence manifest to you, and more so each passing day.
Believe these promises. Lay hold of these four expectations, and you will see marvelous things in your life.
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!
