#259. Run To God

Then I would still have this consolation — my joy in unrelenting pain — that I had not denied the words of the Holy One.
Job 6:10

When trials come your way - as inevitably they will - do not run away. Run to your God and Father.

#258. Safe With God

If you say, “The LORD is my refuge,” and you make the Most High your dwelling,
Psalm 91:9

The Christian knows no change when it comes to God. He may be rich today and poor tomorrow. He may be sick today and well tomorrow. He may be happy today and distressed tomorrow. But there is no change in where he stands with God.

If God loved me yesterday, He loves me today. Let all my prospects fall through; let my hopes be blasted; let my joy wither - I will never lose what I have in God. He is my safe dwelling place.

I am a pilgrim in this world, but at home with God. On the earth I wander, but in God I live in peace.

#257. Remain In Jesus

But I, with shouts of grateful praise, will sacrifice to you. What I have vowed I will make good. I will say, ‘Salvation comes from the LORD.’
Jonah 2:9

Salvation is the work of God. Only He can bring life to the soul.
As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins,
Ephesians 2:1
Only He can maintain the soul in its spiritual life.

If I have faith or hope or love, they are God's gifts to me. If my life is steady and consistent, that's because God upholds me with His hand. I can do nothing to preserve myself, except what God does first inside of me.

Whatever I have, all my goodness comes from God. Without Jesus I can do nothing. As a branch cannot bear fruit unless it remains in the vine (Remain in me, as I also remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me. John 15:4), neither can I, unless I remain in Jesus.

#256. Shelter From The Storm

But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming to where he was baptizing, he said to them: “You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the coming wrath?
Matthew 3:7

Sinner, this is your present situation. No hot drops have yet fallen but a shower of fire is coming. No terrible winds howl around you but God's hurricane is gathering up its awesome artillery. The floodgates are still dammed up by God's mercy but soon they shall open. Then where will you flee?

God's hand of mercy is now outstretched, offering to lead you to Christ. He will shelter you from the storm. You know you need Him. Believe in Him, throw yourself upon His mercy and let the approaching storm of God's wrath blow over you.

#255. Abundance Of Grace

I will make them and the places surrounding my hill a blessing. I will send down showers in season; there will be showers of blessing.
Ezekiel 34:26

Only God can send showers upon the vegetation of earth. Grace is like that too. It is a gift of God; we cannot create it ourselves.

God's grace is also plentiful. He sends showers and so it is with grace. If God gives a blessing, He usually gives it in such proportions that we don't have room to receive it all. Grace to make us zealous, to get us through this life and on to heaven.

God's grace, like rain, is also seasonable. What is your season this morning? Are you in a drought? Then that is the season for God's showers. Is it a season of weariness and dark clouds? Then that is the time for God's blessing.

#254. Draw Near With Confidence

Let us then approach God’s throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.
Hebrews 4:16

As His child, you no longer need to fear approaching God. You can come boldly to His throne and find His mercy - unearned favour and help - in the time of your need.

#253. In The Lord's Hand

A person’s days are determined; you have decreed the number of his months and have set limits he cannot exceed.
Job 14:5

In his hand is the life of every creature and the breath of all mankind.
Job 12:10

As a child of God, you no longer have to fear death, for you cannot die before your time. Jesus holds the keys to hell and death. When you die, you will be immediately absent from the body and present with the Lord.

I am the Living One; I was dead, and now look, I am alive for ever and ever! And I hold the keys of death and Hades.
Revelation 1:18

We are confident, I say, and would prefer to be away from the body and at home with the Lord. So we make it our goal to please him, whether we are at home in the body or away from it.
2 Corinthians 5:8-9

#252. The Lord Is My Helper

Keep your lives free from the love of money and be content with what you have, because God has said, “Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you.” So we say with confidence, “The Lord is my helper; I will not be afraid. What can mere mortals do to me?”
Hebrews 13:5-6

As God's child, you no longer have to fear being abandoned, left alone, or left without help.

#251. Comfort from God

But God, who comforts the downcast, comforted us by the coming of Titus,
2 Corinthians 7:6

Who can comfort us like God? One word from God is like a piece of gold, and the Christian is like the goldsmith, who hammers out the promise for weeks on end. So then, Christians, you don't need to sit down in despair. Go to the Comforter. Ask Him to give you consolation.

You are a poor, dry well. So Christian, when you are dry, go to God. Ask Him to dowse your soul with joy. Then your joy will be full.

Don't go to earthly friends. But go first and foremost to the God who comforts the downcast, and you will soon find yourself saying, "When anxiety was great within me, your consolation brought joy to my soul." (Psalm 49:19)

#250. Blessings Through Prayer

“This is what the Sovereign LORD says: Once again I will yield to Israel’s plea and do this for them: I will make their people as numerous as sheep,
Ezekiel 36:37

Prayer is the forerunner of mercy. Search through sacred history, and you will find that hardly ever did a great mercy come to this world without prayer paving its way. God has given many blessings without being asked, but still, great prayer has always preceded great mercy.

As you think about the great joys of your life, you have seen them as answers to prayer. Prayer is always the preface to blessing. So we see the value of prayer. If we had the blessings without asking them, we would take them for granted. But prayer makes our mercies more precious than diamonds. The things we ask for are precious, but we do not realise how precious until we have earnestly asked God for them.

#249. Growth Through Trials

I say to God: Do not declare me guilty, but tell me what charges you have against me.
Job 10:2

Are you being tested like Job? Perhaps the Lord is trying to develop some aspects of your character - faith, love and hope. Some of these might never be discovered if it weren't for trials. Hard times are often the dark background against which God sets the jewels of His children's faith, hope, and love - they shine all the brighter.

Count on this: God often sends us trials to help us discover new attributes of our Christianity and not only to discover them, but to grow in them.

God often takes away our comforts and privileges in order to make us better Christians. Well, Christians, does this help explain your troubles? Isn't God helping you to grow?

#248. Walk In Newness Of Life

We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life.
Romans 6:4

As God's child you are no longer a slave to sin. As a servant of righteousness, you don't have to let sin rule in your body.

#247. There Are Many Truths And They All Point To One Source - God

Do not spend energy arguing whose truth is righter, - just like all life springs forth from one source, so are all truths but a reflection of God.

#246. You've Got What It Takes

God won't give you more than you can handle. Although there may have been times you thought the world was caving in on you, you got through it. You are much stronger than you think and with God's power, you are stronger than you can imagine.

#245. Children of God

See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are! The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him.
1 John 3:1

If I could draw a valentine for anyone of you, Beloved, it would Christ in the shape of a heart with your picture inside the heart.

#244. Suffering and Comfort

For just as we share abundantly in the sufferings of Christ, so also our comfort abounds through Christ.
2 Corinthians 1:5

When the night approaches and the storm threatens, the heavenly Captain is especially close to His crew. This is a wonderful thing. Why? For one thing, trials make more room for comfort. Great hearts can only be made by great trials. Then there is more room for grace.

Another reason is this. When we have troubles, we have our closest dealings with God. When the barn is full we think we can live without God. But clean the idols out of the house, and then we must honour the true God.

There is no prayer half so hearty as that which comes up from the depths of the soul, through deep trials and afflictions. So do not fret over your heavy troubles. They are the heralds of great mercies.

#243. God is there in the midst of the chaos

When everything in life turns upside down, remember that you are in the hands of the Creator. Look to God, and you'll always know which way is up.

#242. You Are Not Alone

God is always with you, seen or unseen, saint or sinner. Giving you air, supporting your footsteps, nourishing you with sunshine, God is here with you. The separateness you sometimes feel is an illusion, in truth you are never alone.

#241. God Will Get You Through The Pain

Everyone experiences pain sometimes, emotional and physical. Next time it threatens to overwhelm you, take a deep breath. As you breathe slowly, picture God holding you, crying with you, giving you the strength to get through.

#240. Love is a Gift to the World

Let your love radiate out to all you meet. Let your love touch the hearts of people you don't even know. Let your love reach to the far corners of the earth. Love is what is saving the world.

#239. Walk By Faith

And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who[a] have been called according to his purpose.
Romans 8:28

How can we be victorious in mental warfare? First, when unlovely, untrue thoughts inside our minds, we must choose to bring every one of them captive to the obedience of Jesus Christ. Then we must walk by faith rather than by our feelings, thoughts and self evaluation. No matter what our past, God's Word holds this sure promise.

#238. Mental Warfare

In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one.
Ephesians 6:16

Where do thoughts of inadequacy and fear come from? So often we forget that we are in warfare and that Satan's target is our mind. He disguises himself, of course! He doesn't want us to think he has anything at all to do with our thought process. Yet he does. And that is why we are to take up the shield of faith.

#237. Clive Staples Lewis Quotes

When we lose one blessing, another is often most unexpectedly given in its place.

We may ignore, but we can nowhere evade the presence of God. The world is crowded with Him. He walks everywhere incognito.

God allows us to experience the low points of life in order to teach us lessons that we could learn in no other way.

The great thing to remember is that though our feelings come and go God's love for us does not.

#236. C. S. Lewis (Mere Christianity)

[To have Faith in Christ] means, of course, trying to do all that He says. There would be no sense in saying you trusted a person if you would not take his advice. Thus if you have really handed yourself over to Him, it must follow that you are trying to obey Him. But trying in a new way, a less worried way. Not doing these things in order to be saved, but because He has begun to save you already. Not hoping to get to Heaven as a reward for your actions, but inevitably wanting to act in a certain way because a first faint gleam of Heaven is already inside you.

#235. C. S. Lewis

There are two kinds of people: those who say to God, "Thy will be done," and those to whom God says, "All right, then, have it your way."

I pray because I can't help myself. I pray because I'm helpless. I pray because the need flows out of me all the time- waking and sleeping. It doesn't change God- it changes me.

He died not for men, but for each man. If each man had been the only man made, He would have done no less.

#234. C.S. Lewis - Mere Christianity

Imagine yourself as a living house. God comes in to rebuild that house. At first, perhaps, you can understand what He is doing. He is getting the drains right and stopping the leaks in the roof and so on; you knew that those jobs needed doing and so you are not surprised. But presently He starts knocking the house about in a way that hurts abominably and does not seem to make any sense. What on earth is He up to? The explanation is that He is building quite a different house from the one you thought of - throwing out a new wing here, putting on an extra floor there, running up towers, making courtyards. You thought you were being made into a decent little cottage: but He is building a palace. He intends to come and live in it Himself.

#233. C. S. Lewis Quotes

Courage is not simply one of the virtues, but the form of every virtue at the testing point.

Failures are finger posts on the road to achievement.

I gave in, and admitted that God was God.

If you look for truth, you may find comfort in the end; if you look for comfort you will not get either comfort or truth only soft soap and wishful thinking to begin, and in the end, despair.

#232. It's Time To Start Living In The Present

Letting go of the past is not easy, especially if you have wounds that have never properly healed. But, the past is past and living there may be preventing you from fully experiencing the present. Likewise fear of what may be looming around the corner can also prevent you from fully enjoying the present. Live in the moment and look forward to eternity with God, now that's a great present.