A Love Note from Your Father, Taken from the Psalms

October 17, 2008 at 1:27 pm (Grace Insights)

I thought some of you out there keeping up with New Life Design might be interested in this.  I came upon this last week while working through Steve McVey’s Bible Study entitled “The Grace Walk Experience”.  I highly recommend this Bible Study if you are looking for something new and fresh to do on Grace.  Thank you Steve for allowing Christ to lead you to put this together!

A Love Note from Your Father, Taken from the Psalms….

My dear Child,

I am with you.  (46:7)  Stop striving and know that I am God.  (46:10) I have chosen your inheritance for you.  (47:4) I rule over everything.  (47:8) Remember Israel-they didn’t possess the land by their own swords.  It wasn’t their hand that saved them.  It was my right hand and my arm and the light of my presence, I favored them.  (44:3) So it is with you-I have poured out grace on your lips and will bless you forever.  (45:2)

I will always guide you, until the day you die.  (48:14) You thought I was just like you.  (50:21) But my lovingkindness endures all day long, every day.  (52:1) Know this-I am for you.  (56:9) My lovingkindness toward you is higher than the heavens.  (57:10) Stay with me and take refuge under the shelter of my wings.  (61:4)

Trust in me at all times and pour out your heart before me.  (62:8) I am the one who bears your burdens.  I am your salvation and am the God of deliverance for you.  (68:19-20) I will show Myself strong in the way I act on your behalf.  (68:28)  Just trust me and praise me more and more.  (71:14) 

Listen to what I am saying-I speak peace to you, my godly one.  (85:8) Your springs of joy are to be found in me.  (87:7) I will satisfy you every morning with my lovingkindness.  (90:14) When you find anxious thoughts multiplying in your mind, my consolation will delight your soul.  So be gald.  (94:19)

I never change.  (102:27) My sovereignty rules over all.  (103:19) Meditate on that and I’ll be pleased.  (104:34) I have sent my word and healed you and delivered you from your destructions.  (107:20) I am God.  I do whatever I please (115:3) and it pleases me to be gracious and compassionate and to preserve you.  (116:5-6) What I have said is settled in heaven.  (119:89)

I don’t count sins, or else nobody could stand.  (130:3-4) You are forgiven and my lovingkindness is everlasting.  My lovingkindness is everlasting.  My lovingkindness is everlasting!  (Psalm 136 says this 26 times.)  I iwll accomplish the things that concern you.  (138:8) I know you-when you sit down and get up, what you think.  i carefully watch over you as you move through your day and then sleep at night.  I am intimately acquainted with everything about you.  (139:1-4) I wrote the script for every day of your life before you lived a single one of them.  (139:16) I know your path and the way where you will walk.  (142:3)

And my child…I do take such pleasure in you!  (149:4)

With eternal love,

Your proud Father

Is that not just incredible!  I hope it ministers to you as it did me.  Have a great weekend and Roll Tide!

Dana

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Perilous Times

October 14, 2008 at 1:20 pm (Trials & Adversity)

Today is exactly 3 weeks until election day in our country.  We will vote on many positions, amendments etc…but most of all we will elect a new president for our country.  With many out of jobs, our housing market plummeting, and our economic crises many have expressed a lot of emotion about what is going on namely fear and anger.  I know the more and more that I understand about what is going on the more angry I find myself becoming.  I can understand why many Americans are expressing a lot of anger at some of these politcal rally’s. 

This morning my running partner was sharing about this conference that she was at over the weekend. When she and others from the conference were out running several were expressing who they were going to vote for and were being very negative and ugly about the other party.  I thought her response was the best that it could have been in the situation…..what she said went a little something like this, “ya’ll, we need to quit talking about this because God is totally in control anyway.”  Think about that for just a moment…..God is incontrol of the election – God is incontrol of our economy – God is incontrol of all our foriegn affairs – God is incontrol of all of it!  When I remember this, I find myself asking, “why am I afraid?”  Do I really believe what I say I believe?  obviously if I say God is incontrol but I am feeling afaid there is a disconect somewhere.  Our feelings/emotions always display what we really believe.  In James 1:8 he calls the man who doubts a “double-minded man, unstable in all his ways.”  The more we pour truth in and then experience that truth, the more firm our foundation becomes and we grow in our confidence and security in Christ.

If you are finding yourself a bit afraid today as you think about our world and what is going on, you are in good company.  I challenge you to do what I am doing.  Go to God and ask Him a very simple quetion that goes like this, “God, what is it that I do not know about You, that if I did know I would not be afraid right now?”  Pay close attention and listen to him over the next several days and weeks.  He will reveal to you the answer to that question and fill your heart with faith.  You too, then, will grow in your confidence level and in your assurance of our mighty, soverign God.

Some great verses on fear:

Isaiah 41:10 “Fear not; for I am with you: be not dismayed; for I am your God:  I will strengthen you; yes, I will help you; yes, I will uphold you with the right hand of my righteiousness.”

Isaiah 43:1b-3 “Do not fear, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by name; you are Mine!  When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and through the rivers, they will not overflow you.  When you walk through the fire, you will not be scorched, nor will the flame burn you.”

Psalm 56:3 “What time I am afraid, I will trust in God.”

Matthew 7:31- “Do not be anxious then saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘With what shall we clothe ourselves?’…for your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things.  But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness; and all these things shall be added to you.  Therefore do not be anxious for tomorrow; for tomorrow will care for itself.  Each day has enough trouble of its own.”

Philippians 4:6-7 “Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.  And the peace of God, which surpasses all comprehension, shall guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.”

I hope that these verses minister to you as they have ministered to me. 

Dana

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