Don't Give Up...

Psalms 31:24
Be of good courage, and he shall STRENGTHEN your heart, all ye that hope in the LORD.


Psalms 119:28
My soul melteth for heaviness: STRENGTHEN thou me according unto thy word.


1 Peter 5:10
But the God of all grace, who hath called us unto his eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after that ye have suffered a while, make you perfect, stablish, STRENGTHEN, settle [you].


Psalms 27:14
Wait on the LORD: be of good courage, and he shall STRENGTHEN thine heart: wait, I say, on the LORD.

Is your heart heavy? Do you wonder if you can go on? Do you wonder if God is still there? Don't give up. God is there. And He knows your pain and your suffering. His word says that after ye have suffered a while He will make you perfect, stablish you and Strengthen you. Sometimes we go through hard places because God is doing a work in us or working things OUT of us. Let Him have His way. He knows what is best.

Remember, we can trust a saviour who died just so that we might live. Trust Him.

Have a great Day in the Lord!

Don't give up~ God will fullfil His promises~

Delayed

"Know of a surety that thy seed shall be sojourners a land that is not theirs; . . . they shall afflict them four hundred years; . . . and afterward they shall come out with great substance" (Gen. 15:12-14).

An assured part of God's pledged blessing to us is delay and suffering. A delay in Abram's own lifetime that seemed to put God's pledge beyond fulfillment was followed by seemingly unendurable delay of Abram's descendants. But it was only a delay: they "came out with great substance." The pledge was redeemed.

God is going to test me with delays; and with the delays will come suffering, but through it all stands God's pledge: His new covenant with me in Christ, and His inviolable promise of every lesser blessing that I need. The delay and the suffering are part of the promised blessing; let me praise Him for them today; and let me wait on the Lord and be of good courage and He will strengthen my heart. --C. G. Trumbull

Unanswered yet the prayer your lips have pleaded
In agony of heart these many years?
Does faith begin to fail? Is hope departing?
And think you all in vain those falling tears?
Say not the Father hath not heard your prayer;
You shall have your desire sometime, somewhere.

Unanswered yet? Nay do not say ungranted;
Perhaps your work is not yet wholly done.
The work began when first your prayer was uttered,
And God will finish what He has begun.
If you will keep the incense burning there,
His glory you shall see sometime, somewhere.

Unanswered yet? Faith cannot be unanswered,
Her feet are firmly planted on the Rock;
Amid the wildest storms she stands undaunted,
Nor quails before the loudest thunder shock.
She knows Omnipotence has heard her prayer,
And cries, "It shall be done" -- sometime, somewhere.
--Miss Ophelia G. Browning

-Streams in the Desert-

It is so easy to get frustrated in the "delays", but I have found during all the delays, I can hear that still small voice saying "you have need of patience". We never know WHY God allows delays, but He tells us in His word to "trust him" and to "wait on Him" and then He will strengthen us. His timing is ALWAYS PERFECT! Don't give up in the making of a miracle, don't give up on prayer, don't give up on God!

Don't give up on prayer
or give into despair
Could be the answers going to come today!

Have a great day in the Lord! :D

Make A Joyful Noise Unto The Lord!

Make a joyful noise unto the LORD, all the earth: make a loud noise, and rejoice, and sing praise. Sing unto the LORD with the harp; with the harp, and the voice of a psalm. With trumpets and sound of cornet make a joyful noise before the LORD, the King. Let the sea roar, and the fulness thereof; the world, and they that dwell therein. Let the floods clap their hands: let the hills be joyful together

Psalms 98:4-8

With all the Holidays just around the corner, and all the different events being planned, and all the "works" being done in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ it is easy to get stressed out and have your "Joy" fizzle away! And isn't that just what the devil would like? For us, God's saints, to be so worn out that we can't even make a joyful noise? That we are unable to be thankful. That we are unable to "shine" for Jesus?

There are SO many things that can threaten to steal away that Joy and cause us to just throw up our hands and say, "what's the use anyways?! Forget it!". But that would not be a joyful noise for us, for the souls we are trying to reach, or (most importantly) to the Lord! One thing I am learning is when life tries to take away my joy by all the different happenings that I have no control over, I have to just get on my knees and ask God to help me get my focus off of the turmoil and hustle and craziness and back on to Him. Help me to keep my eyes on the Lord. Help me to do my best to have my focus on keeping the right attitude, the right spirit, and the right vision by keeping Him and His purpose (not my own)as my focal point. When I do that I find that the load all the sudden becomes much lighter and my "Joy" becomes UNSPEAKABLE and then I am able to "MAKE A JOYFUL NOISE UNTO THE LORD!"

Make a joyful noise unto the Lord all ye Lands!
Make a joyful noise to the LORD!
Serve the Lord with GLADNESS
Serve the LORD with GLADNESS!
Come before his presence with singing

Know ye that the Lord
He is GOD
It is He that hath made us
and not we ourselves

We are His people
We are His people
And the sheep of His Pasture!

Make a joyful noise unto the Lord all ye Lands!
Make a joyful noise to the LORD!
Serve the Lord with GLADNESS
Serve the LORD with GLADNESS!
Come before his presence with singing

Know ye that the Lord
He is GOD!
It is He that hath made us
and not we ourselves.

We are His people
We are His people
And the sheep of His Pasture!

Enter into his gates with thanksgiving and praise
Be thankful unto the Lord and bless his name.
For the Lord is good, his mercy is ever lasting
And his truth endureth to all generations.
Make a joyful noise...Unto the Lord

Prisoner of the Lord

Joy in Prison

"And Joseph's master took him, and put him into the prison, a place where the king's prisoners were bound: and he was there in the prison. But the LORD was with Joseph, and shewed him mercy, and gave him favour in the sight of the keeper of the prison. And the keeper of the prison committed to Joseph's hand all the prisoners that were in the prison; and whatsoever they did there, he was the doer of it.
The keeper of the prison looked not to any thing that was under his hand; because the LORD was with him, and that which he did, the LORD made it to prosper."
(Gen. 39:20-23).

When God lets us go to prison because we have been serving Him, and goes there with us, prison is about the most blessed place in the world that we could be in. Joseph seems to have known that. He did not sulk and grow discouraged and rebellious because. "everything was against him." If he had, the prison-keeper would never have trusted him so. Joseph does not even seem to have pitied himself.

Let us remember that if self pitty is allowed to set in, that is the end of us -- until it is cast utterly from us. Joseph just turned over everything in joyous trust to God, and so the keeper of the prison turned over everything to Joseph. Lord Jesus, when the prison doors close in on me, keep me trusting, and keep my joy full and abounding. Prosper Thy work through me in prison: even there, make me free indeed. --Selected

A little bird I am,
Shut from the fields of air,
And in my cage I sit and sing
To Him who placed me there;
Well pleased a prisoner to be,
Because, my God, it pleaseth Thee.

My cage confines me round,
Abroad I cannot fly,
But though my wing is closely bound,
My soul is at liberty;
For prison walls cannot control
The flight, the freedom of the soul.

I have learnt to love the darkness of sorrow; there you see the brightness of His face. --Madame Guyon

-Streams in the Desert-

This devotion also reminded me that even our Lord and Saviour went to prison, and then was beaten and hung on a tree so that we might have the hope of Heaven and a better life. Let us do our best to "sing" praises even in our heavy or darkest times and trials. We have everything we need if we have Jesus!

Have a great day in the Lord! :)