What Do You Need?

When Jesus saw him lying there, and knew that he already had been in that condition a long time, He said to him, “Do you want to be made well?”
John 5:6

We know why people stand in line at the post office. We know why the people in the dentist’s waiting room are there. In the first century, if you saw scores of people gathered around the Pool of Bethesda in Jerusalem, you would know why they were there. They were there to be healed.

The pool called Bethesda was really twin pools in Jerusalem surrounded on four sides by porches and another porch dividing the two pools. The sick would gather on the porches and wait for a stirring of the waters—supposedly by an angel of heaven—entry into which might result in healing.

So those on the porches were there for healing. Yet Jesus approached a man and asked what must have seemed like an obvious question: “Do you want to be made well?”

Much could be said of Jesus’ question, but it begs another question: Do we want to be made whole? Forgiven and delivered from sin? Saved for eternity? The God of miracles is waiting for our answer. He wants us to say what we need.

 Devotional From David Jeremiah:

Don’t Worry!

⁵ In the same way, you who are younger, submit yourselves to your elders. All of you, clothe yourselves with humility toward one another, because, “God opposes the proud but shows favor to the humble.”
⁶ Humble yourselves, therefore, under God’s mighty hand, that he may lift you up in due time. ⁷ Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you.

God did not create men and women to live under anxiety, tension, and stress. If we humble ourselves before God, which means if we give our tension, fears, concerns, anxiety,, and stress too Him, He can do something about it. As long as we are holding on to our burdens, God will not move in to change things.

Stress, Anyone?

When my anxious thoughts multiply within me, Your consolations delight my soul.Psalm 94:18-20 

If patience is the most difficult thing I struggle with, I think anxiety can run a close second.  I love what this verse says - not if ... but *when* my anxious thoughts multiply, my consolation will come from God.  And not only will I be consoled - my soul will delight in those consolations.

Sometimes my world seems to call out, "Look to God.  Look to God.  Look to God." 

Someone asked me the other day why I thought God allowed difficult times in our lives.  I think that is a question we all ask at one  time or another.  I though about it for a while and though the thought wasn't well-formed, said this:

"What a bunch of self-centered, egotistical people we would be.  If we never knew adversity, we'd never learn gratitude.  If we never had bad times, we'd never come to cherish the good ones.  We'd have no need for God."

I know I need God when my anxieties get out of control.  I have to look to Him, acknowledge that He is still in control.  I have to grow my faith, bit by bit.  I have to trust.  I have to pull myself out of the land of "what if," and simply let go of the outcome.  I'm not saying I don't do the things I need to do for whatever the situation is - but I do what I believe God is saying is my part - and let go.  

Letting go means putting no expectations on that outcome.  I have come to know things won't always turn out the way I want them to, or the way I expect - but I do know nothing takes God by surprise.  I know He can take any and every situation and bring good from it.  His plan is larger than mine.

When I can relax in that, I can let go of the anxieties that plague me.  I can find God.  And I can delight in the fact that He is the one who will console me - no matter what comes across my path.

Father God, Thank you that you have everything covered.  There is nothing about our situation that takes You by surprise.  Thank you that you have created our world so that we realize our need for You, and You will be by our side in each and every situation.  Amen and amen.

http://www.pathways4change.org/todaysencouragingwordonline.com/

Praying the Promises of God

Praying the Promises of God

Where do you turn in trials?
God gives us His promises so we can rest in Him and act with confidence.

Developing Patience

Developing Patience
Read | James 1:1-4
When people confide to me that they are praying for patience, I often ask what else they're doing to acquire a calm and gentle heart. Patience isn't so much something believers receive as it is an attribute that they develop over time and through experience.
Think of patience as a muscle that you have to use in order to see it build. To that end, believers should recognize difficulty as an opportunity to flex their patience. The human instinct is to cry out to God in bewilderment when tribu-lation comes knocking. We blame. We resist. We complain. What we don't do is say, "Thank You, Father--it's time to grow in patience!" People aren't trained to think that way, but according to the Bible, that is exactly how Christians are to respond.
James tells us to consider trials a joy (1:2). But we often fail at this, don't we? Humanly speaking, praising the Lord for tribulation is unnatural. However, doing so begins to make sense to believers when they cling to God's promise that good comes from hardship (Rom. 8:28). We are not waiting on the Lord in vain. We can praise Him for the solution He will bring, the lives He will change, or the spiritual fruit He will develop in us.
Accepting hardship as a means of growth is a radical concept in this world. Even more extreme is the believer who praises the Lord for the storm. But God's followers have cause to rejoice. Tribulation increases our patience so that we can stand firm on His promises and await His good timing.

Life is full of unexpected suffering

Life is full of unexpected suffering. Even so, as Eleanor Roosevelt said: "If you can live through that [a difficult situation] you can live through anything. You gain strength, courage and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face. You are able to say to yourself, "I lived through this horror. I can take the next thing that comes along." That's exactly right. Struggling against great difficulty enables us to develop ourselves tremendously. We can call forth and manifest those abilities lying dormant within us. Difficulty can be a source of dynamic growth and positive progress. Happiness is your destiny.

 Have a great day!