Let's Give 'em a Hand

Ecclesiastes 4:9, 10,12 (God's Word Trans) Two people are better than one because together they have a good reward for their hard work. If one falls the other can help his friend get up. But how tragic it is for the one who is all alone when he falls. There is no one to help him get up. Though one person may be overpowered by another, two people can resist one opponent. A triple-braided rope is not easily broken.


Psalm 46:1(GWT)  God is our refuge and strength, and ever-present help in times of trouble.

When I read these verses I remember when He told Joshua that He would be with him just as He was with Moses. He promised Joshua that He would NEVER neglect him or abandon him. But one thing we must remember is OUR part. What is that you ask? Good question. The answer is to be faithful to God above all else, seek Him diligently, know His word and do as He commanded us "Be strong and courageous! Don't tremble or be terrified, because the Lord, your God is with you wherever you go."

I pray that we believe in Him that is with us not against us so that we will not shrink back to the destruction of our souls. I pray that we forgive those that have opposed us and that we accept His desire to be our cord that is not easily broken.
With love,
Candace

A Good God

Daily Bread an RBC devotional (http://www.rbc.org/)

READ: Psalm 46

The Lord also will be a refuge for the oppressed, a refuge in times of trouble. —Psalm 9:9

 

When my brother-in-law was a missionary in Mali, West Africa, he was involved in a traffic accident. A man had wandered into the road in front of Chuck’s motorcycle. The cycle struck the man and sent Chuck and the bike sliding along the ground for more than 200 feet. Shortly after Chuck regained consciousness in the hospital, his doctor told him he had been “really lucky.” Chuck smiled and replied, “God is good.”
Later he thought about the day’s events. The man who was struck hadn't received any permanent injuries, and Chuck would also recover from his injuries. But what if one of them had been killed? He thought, God would be no less good.

When we experience tragedy, we may wonder about God’s goodness. Is God always good? Yes, He is. He doesn't promise that bad things will never happen to us, but He does promise to be “our refuge and  strength” (Ps. 46:1). He doesn’t promise that we will never walk through heart-wrenching circumstances, but He promises that we won’t be alone (23:4).
God is good—no matter what suffering we are experiencing. Even when we don’t understand, we can say with Habakkuk, “Yet will I rejoice in the Lord, I will joy in the God of my salvation” (3:18). — Cindy Hess Kasper

O taste and see that God is good

To all who seek His face;

Yea, blest the one who trusts in Him,

Confiding in His grace. —Psalter

God tests our faith so that we may trust His faithfulness.

Yield to Right of Way

This perfectly reiterates our discussions last Friday on Boundaries and the signs that we post.  This verse from Romans also depicts "Love Angles". If you cannot find the information in the archives to the left, e-mail me and I will send you the notes.

Romans 6:16 (Amplified Translation)
Do you not know that if you continually surrender yourselves to anyone to do his will, you are the slaves of him whom you obey, whether that be to sin, which leads to death, or to obedience which leads to righteousness (right doing and right standing with God)?

Yielding

The first thing I must be willing to admit when I begin to examine what controls and dominates me is that I am the one responsible for having yielded myself to whatever it may be. If I am a slave to myself, I am to blame because somewhere in the past I yielded to myself. Likewise, if I obey God I do so because at some point in my life I yielded myself to Him.

If a child gives in to selfishness, he will find it to be the most enslaving tyranny on earth. There is no power within the human soul itself that is capable of breaking the bondage of the nature created by yielding. For example, yield for one second to anything in the nature of lust, and although you may hate yourself for having yielded, you become enslaved to that thing. (Remember what lust is— "I must have it now," whether it is the lust of the flesh or the lust of the mind.) No release or escape from it will ever come from any human power, but only through the power of redemption. You must yield yourself in utter humiliation to the only One who can break the dominating power in your life, namely, the Lord Jesus Christ. ". . . He has anointed Me . . . to proclaim liberty to the captives . . ." ( Luke 4:18 and Isaiah 61:1 ).

When you yield to something, you will soon realize the tremendous control it has over you. Even though you say, "Oh, I can give up that habit whenever I like," you will know you can’t. You will find that the habit absolutely dominates you because you willingly yielded to it. It is easy to sing, "He will break every fetter," while at the same time living a life of obvious slavery to yourself. But yielding to Jesus will break every kind of slavery in any person’s life. by Oswald Chambers

It is hard when we have to grow through experiences which are intended to show us that we are now safe and do not need to protect ourselves from the people that misused power or neglected to love and protect us while we were vulnerable to their dominance. I know that God loves us and wants what is best for us. Knowing that caused me to try really hard to understand why, when I was doing nothing wrong but protecting and respecting myself were all these bad situations happening. What he loving showed me was that although I had survived bad situations I had tried to handle them in my own strength and understanding. I was in danger and treated unloving at times, however He had rescued and delivered me from that so that I could live a better life. If I had continued to lives as though I were not free from that, I would never have received my freedom. I would have been free and living as a prisoner to those that I had been liberated from.

I pray that we all live in the liberty that Christ has given us.
With love,
Candace