Give All Your Worries And Cares To God, For He Cares About You.

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Give

All Your Worries And Cares To God,

For He Cares About You.

Scripture

1 Peter 5

7 Give all your worries and cares to God, for he cares about you.

8 Stay alert! Watch out for your great enemy, the devil. He prowls around like a roaring lion, looking for someone to devour.

9 Stand firm against him, and be strong in your faith. Remember that your family of believers all over the world is going through the same kind of suffering you are.

Observation

To be perfectly honest with you, during the middle of the night when I couldn't sleep 1 Peter 5:7 was not the verse that came to my mind. Even though that verse is one of my memory verses and the Holy Spirit could have brought it to my mind and my heart, He didn't. The verses that did come to me in the middle of the night and I prayed them back to the Lord were these two verses found in Philippians 4:6-7 (I share them often so hopefully you have these two verses memorized too!)

Philippians 4:6-7

6 Don’t worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank him for all he has done. 

7 Then you will experience God’s peace, which exceeds anything we can understand. His peace will guard your hearts and minds as you live in Christ Jesus.

As you probably already know, because I posted it last night, my wife, Kathy, tested positive for Covid 19. I posted it quickly after we got the bad news for two reasons:

1. We wanted everyone to pray for us.

2. I wanted you to know it just in case you were in close proximity to us over this past week and you start to have a temperature or develop a cough or have any other Covid related symptoms you would hopefully get tested quickly.

Psalm 55:22

22 Cast your cares on the Lord
    and he will sustain you;
he will never let
    the righteous be shaken.

Isaiah 26:3

You will keep in perfect peace
    all who trust in you,
    all whose thoughts are fixed on you!

Application

I know that the Lord is going to walk with us through this storm.

How about you? Do you have that kind of confidence?

Isaiah 43:1-3 Personalized

1b … O 'Eddy and Kathy', the one who formed you says,
“Do not be afraid, for I have ransomed you.
    I have called you by name; you are mine.

2 When you go through deep waters,
    I will be with you.
When you go through rivers of difficulty,
    you will not drown.
When you walk through the fire of oppression,
    you will not be burned up;
    the flames will not consume you.

3 For I am the Lord, your God,
    the Holy One of Israel, your Savior.

Prayer

Heavenly Father, You know better than anyone else that these have been several rough days for us and I know that more difficult days may lie ahead. No matter what we go through, no matter how rough it gets, we know that You will be right beside us. We are going to lean on You. We are going to trust You and depend on You because we know that You are our Good Good Father. Nothing touches my life and nothing touches Kathy's life without Your permission. So we know that You have allowed this for some reason. And we know that our job is to trust You through this storm.

I pray for Your protection on all of our friends. Keep them safe, Lord. Keep them healthy. We pray for our friends who are also dealing with this virus. Give them strength today, Lord. Help them to improve.

Daily Bible Reading: 1 Peter 1,2,3,4,5

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The Spirit Of God, Who Raised Jesus From The Dead, Lives In You.

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The Spirit Of God,

Who Raised Jesus From The Dead,

Lives In You.

Scripture

Romans 8

11 The Spirit of God, who raised Jesus from the dead, lives in you. And just as God raised Christ Jesus from the dead, he will give life to your mortal bodies by this same Spirit living within you.

26 And the Holy Spirit helps us in our weakness. For example, we don’t know what God wants us to pray for. But the Holy Spirit prays for us with groanings that cannot be expressed in words. 

27 And the Father who knows all hearts knows what the Spirit is saying, for the Spirit pleads for us believers in harmony with God’s own will. 

28 And we know that God causes everything to work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to his purpose for them.

Observation

Oh my goodness! I just read Romans 5,6,7,&8 and there is so much good stuff in those four chapters. I sure hope that you take a few minutes to read them today! Romans 8 is one of my favorite chapters in the Bible and Romans 8:11 is one of my favorite verses.

I don't know about you but sometimes I just need to be reminded, especially when I am feeling low, when I am feeling a little weak and vulnerable, that the Spirit of God that raised Jesus from the dead lives in me!

Romans 8:28 is also right there to remind me that no matter what happens in my life God is going to work it around for my good because I am one of His children.

I hope that you are taking the time to read your Bible every day. If you haven't been then now is the time to start or start back. Just go to biblegateway dot com / reading plans and pick a reading plan that is doable. If you already have a reading plan but have gotten distracted by other stuff lately then let me suggest that you jump back into reading God's Word every day.

You can do it! You know you need to do it!

Application

Nothing can separate me from Christ's love!

How about you? Is He the trustworthy anchor for your soul?

Romans 8:38-39

38 And I am convinced that nothing can ever separate us from God’s love. Neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons  neither our fears for today nor our worries about tomorrow—not even the powers of hell can separate us from God’s love.

39 No power in the sky above or in the earth below—indeed, nothing in all creation will ever be able to separate us from the love of God that is revealed in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Prayer

Heavenly Father, thank You so much for giving me so many promises in Romans 5-8 today to hold on and cling to. This world is a rough place. Life is tough. I am so glad that You have given me Your Word to help me to keep my eyes on You and off of my circumstances.

I pray for any person who is reading this blog today. Help them develop the habit of reading Your Word every day. Help them to be successful. Don't let them give up. Show them that they can do it. Encourage them today, Lord. Smile on them. Don't let them sleep good at night until they are spending time daily in Your Word.

Daily Bible Reading: Romans 5,6,7,8

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In Your Strength I Can Crush An Army; With My God I Can Scale Any Wall.

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In Your Strength

I Can Crush An Army;

With My God I Can Scale Any Wall.

Scripture

Psalm 18

29 In your strength I can crush an army;
    with my God I can scale any wall.

Observation

King David had crushed armies. Yes, remember it was young David who had faced the giant Goliath with only a few smooth stones and a slingshot. It was King David that the women used to sing about, “Saul has killed his thousands, and David his ten thousands!”

But David recognized that the only reason for his success was because he believed and trusted in a God that was able to handle anything that came against him.

You and I have that same opportunity to believe in a God who is big enough to handle whatever comes against us!

So … How big is your God?

Application

In God's strength I can handle anything that comes against me.

How about you?

Philippians 4:13

Christ gives me the strength to face anything.

Prayer

Heavenly Father, help me to remember these passages the next time I find myself in a crisis. King David spent most of his life in crisis situations and he was successful because he held on to Your promises. And I have a lot more promises from You to hold on to than King David had so I have no excuse for being weak. Give me Your strength to face tough days. I want to be like King David and be able to say with confidence, “In your strength I can crush an army; with my God I can scale any wall.”

Daily Bible Reading: Job 3,4; Acts 8,9; I added: Psalm 18, Psalm 38, Proverbs 18

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