Only You

“If it had not been the LORD who was on our side,
When men rose up against us,
Then they would have swallowed us alive,
When their wrath was kindled against us;
Then the waters would have overwhelmed us,
The stream would have gone over our soul;
Then the swollen waters
Would have gone over our soul.”
~Psalm 124:2-3

"Unless the LORD builds the house,
They labor in vain who build it;
Unless the LORD guards the city,
The watchman stays awake in vain.
It is vain for you to rise up early,
To sit up late,
To eat the bread of sorrows;
For so He gives His beloved sleep."
~Psalm 127:1-2

I have been reading through Psalms in my devotions, and these two passages caught my eye. I know that we hear all the time, "Only the Lord can truly satisfy." But these two passages really convicted me that not only is He the only One who satisfies, He is the only One who makes anything worthwhile. Unless our goal is to glorify God, and unless He is the one we look to for help, we will lose the battle we are fighting, even if it seems like we are winning for a little while.

That is the beautiful thing about being a Christian! We already know that we're on the winning team! God has already promised that He will have the final victory! So from now on, I am going to try to remember to only trust in God as my leader. No matter how many earthly leaders I have, I ultimately answer only to God!

The Power of God

Have you ever thought about the power of God? I have but I can't really say I've been awestruck... until now. I had thought about how powerful God was and I knew He could do anything but it never really sunk in... until now. Now that I have reread and heard it again and again I understand. God is all powerful. He is so powerful that when He says something people recognize that He is the Lord. Do you understand how amazing that is? Give me the name of one person that you know of you that can do that. You can't. You can try all you want but you will never find one. There is no other god like my God. He is the most powerful, loving, knowledgeable, caring, etc. God there is. He's beyond amazing and yet so many times we take that for granted. I just want you (and me) to be constantly reminded of how powerful our God is. Have a great day!

Thought for the Day

Whenever life is going easy we often seem to forget about God. I don't mean completely forget everything about Him... I mean we act like we only need Him when we are having a hard time. I know when I'm studying for a test I ask God to help me but when I'm out running I'm not even thinking about Him. Just because we do it does not make it right. I want to encourage to start thinking about God constantly. Think about what He has done for you. Thank Him for all He has done and pray for His guidance and wisdom everyday. He deserves our praise; we need to give it to Him. Remember to keep God on your mind today! :)

God

I said in my last post that I had been learning a lot, even from reading through the Old Testament. These are just a few examples of things that I have learned.

• In Numbers 10:9, the LORD tells the Israelites, "When you go into battle in your own land against an enemy who is oppressing you, sound a blast on the trumpets. Then you will be remembered by the LORD your God and rescued from your enemies." I think God told them to do this because by doing it, the were obeying Him and acknowledging that they needed His help. The trumpets themselves had no special significance. It was the Israelites' mindset when they blew them that affected the outcome of the battle.
• Numbers 11:1 explains how God felt when the Israelites wouldn't stop complaining. I am very bad about complaining and this verse reminded me how much God hates complaining.
• In Numbers 13 and 14, the God sent several Israelites to explore the land of Canaan. They people came back scared and worried about how they would overtake the people living there. God was upset with the people for trusting in their own strength instead of His. This reminded me that I can do nothing through my own strength, but everything through God's.
• Numbers 20:8 says, “Take the staff, and you and your brother Aaron gather the assembly together. Speak to that rock before their eyes and it will pour out its water. You will bring water out of the rock for the community so they and their livestock can drink.” This reminded me of God's provision.
• In Numbers 20:12, God says to Moses and Aaron, “Because you did not trust in me enough to honor me as holy in the sight of the Israelites, you will not bring this community into the land I give them." Although this is a sad passage, it reminds us that God knows what He's doing and He demands obedience. Those who don't obey Him and honor Him will not go unpunished.
• In Numbers 21, the Israelites grew impatient. God grew angry and sent deadly snakes to the people. Many Israelites died from their bites. But the people repented and said to Moses, "We sinned when we spoke against the LORD and against you. Pray that the LORD will take the snakes away from us." Moses prayed to God and God said, "Make a snake and put it up on a pole; anyone who is bitten can look at it and live." This chapter reminded me that God honors true repentance. God is a patient God, even when we are impatient.
• Numbers 32:11 taught me that God requires wholehearted service. God doesn't want us to follow Him only when we want to. We must follow Him through good times and bad times.
• Numbers 32:23 reminded me that our sin will find us out. It may seem like we are getting away with something, but God always knows what we are doing and we will all have to give an account to Him one day of everything that we have ever done.

The Holy Spirit showed me all of these things just while I was reading through Numbers. It is amazing how much we can learn from God's Word. There really is no substitute for spending uninterrupted time in God's Word every day.

The Fear of Man Part 2

As promised, here is m my second post on the fear of man. I hope it will encourage you, even though it is kind of hard for me to write since I struggle with this a lot. For more information, read, When People Are Big And God Is Small. It has helped me tremendously and much of the information from this post is taken from it.
I think much of my problem is just simply caring what people think of me and not caring what God thinks. If I am picking out an outfit, I think, "Will the people of school like this outfit?" rather than, "Would God approve of this outfit?". Or, if I'm taking a test, I think "I need to get a good grade so people will like me and look up to me," rather than, "God wants me to think more about serving Him and less about my grades." To solve this problem, we must fear God rather than man. We need to be more focused on what God thinks of our actions than what people do. When we are making a choice, the first thing we should think about is whether our decision is glorifying God. I really struggle with this because I am an extremely prideful person. I want others to like me. It isn't wrong to be liked and accepted by people, but it is more important to glorify God.
Take Job, for example. He was hit by too many trials and tragedies to even count. Rather than listening to his friends, though, he lived uprightly. He feared God and knew that if he listened to his wife's advice to "curse God and die [Job 2:9]," he would be condemned. That really struck me, because I am so fortunate, and yet Job's attitude was so much better than mine, even in the midst of all those troubles. That was another example to me about how far I still have to go, but I am confident that God will help me if I ask Him. I hope that this post is encouraging and helpful!

The Fear of Man

The fear of man is a Bible term for what most people today call peer pressure or sometimes codependency. It's basically fearing man more than you fear God. It can (as I learned the hard way) lead to many issues and problems. I am reading a book by Edward T. Welch called When People Are Big and God Is Small. It has been a very convicting and insightful book, and I would highly recommend reading it. I will do several posts on it over the next couple months, and I hope that they will help you as much as they have helped me. I will do a list of points that I have taken from the book. I know that it will take me a really long time to fully put what I have learned into practice (and even then, I will still fail at it sometimes), but I feel that if this concept were fully embraced by everyone, our world would be so much better.
I am about halfway done with the book, and I have already learned so much. In one place, the author was talking about what would happen if everyone feared God and not man. He said, "Just imagine what it would be like to truly hate sin, first our own, then the sins of others (Matt. 7:3-5). What would happen to marital fights? They would be almost impossible. Spouses would be too busy listening and asking forgiveness for their own selfishness. What about the little cliques in the school yard? They would be telling good stories about somebody else. What about when someone sins against us? We would no longer have to murder the person in our own heart. Instead, we could cover the sin in humility and love, or we could confront the other person in the same spirit." [Page 114, When People Are Big And God Is Small]
That passage really affected me, because it showed me what the positive effects of this mindset are. It showed me how I can accurately show God to others, and how I can build others up rather than tearing them down. I have done this whole post with only one quote from the book. I think that shows how big this concept is. That quote came from the middle of the book, but I thought it might be a good place to start. The first several chapters of the book talked about how and why we fear people more than God; then, the book transitioned into how we find freedom from this and fear God instead. I will do a couple more posts on this later on, but I hope this helps you!

Is Your Cup Full Today?

Is your cup full today? Are you completely satisfied? If the answer to those questions is, "Yes," that's great. But if it's not, it can be! In Psalm 23, David talks about a bunch of things God does for him, and he also talks about his cup "running over." Our cups can run over with God's love. God has convicted me lately that I don't need other things to be satisfied. I've done a couple posts on trusting God completely. I think that we also need to trust in Him to satisfy us. God can give us the desires of our hearts (Psalm 37:4), but we must trust in Him and delight in Him. So, while I'm tempted many times to trust in earthly things to satisfy me, God has been reminding me that He is the only One that can completely satisfy me. I hope this post encourages you to delight in and trust in God to satisfy you!!!

Who Do You Trust In?

The other day, I got an email from my dad. It had a link to a website with a bunch of pictures from a recently-erupted volcano in Indonesia. Some of the pictures of the volcano were really cool, but the pictures of all the injured people and destroyed homes were so sad. Today in science, we watched a video and heard about tsunamis that had killed tens of thousands of people. One of the pictures on the website had a picture of a woman praying. And I thought, "I wonder who she is praying to? Is it to one of her country's false gods? Does she have any hope at all that the person or god she is praying to will answer her?" This made me even sadder, but it also made me glad that I have a God that I can trust in. I have confidence that He will answer my prayers. I thought of the verses Proverbs 3:5-6. This says: "Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not unto your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge Him, and He shall directs your paths." This verse is always very encouraging to me, even though I've heard it many times. It never gets old to be reminded that I have a God that I can trust in! I hope this post encourages you, and please pray for all of those people that were affected by the volcano!!!

Do You Know Who God is?

Just like the post before I was looking through and old church notebook and found a page I would like to share. This post was taken from a service at my grandparents church.

Mark 8; John 6:65

Make sure you know who God really is and what He is. Don't get tricked into forgetting or running from God.

Do not deny God. Honor God, respect His authority over you. Submit yourself to God and live the way God wants you to.

God is the main point, don't run from God because he will find you and you should confess. God is the one who took our place on Calvary. He covered Himself with our sins so we could be covered in His righteousness.

God is 3 in 1 no matter what way you look at it! You must believe it or you aren't a real Christian. Respect all your authorities. Don't be afraid to speak up!!! Tell everyone you can about Jesus Christ everywhere!!!

God Is...

Lately I have been going through Psalms in my devotions. I noticed that Psalms has a lot to say about God and who He is. So, as I read each night, I wrote down one of God's attributes. Here are just a few of God's many attributes:
*God is a shield around us (Psalm 3:3)
*God hears us when we call to Him (Psalm 4:3)
*God demonstrates unfailing love (Psalm 13:5)
*God councils us (Psalm 16:7)
*God is our Rock, Fortress, and Deliverer (Psalm 18:2)
*God is our Shepherd (Psalm 23:1)
*God shows us love, faithfulness, righteousness, and justice (Psalm 36:5-6)
*God is our Stronghold (Psalm 43:2)

God's Unfailing Love

As I was reading my Bible last night, I came across Psalm 13. I'll type out the Psalm here so you can see what it says.

"How long, O LORD will you forget me forever? How long must you hide your face from me? How long must I wrestle with my thoughts and every day have sorrow in my heart? How long will my enemy triumph over me? Look on me and answer, O LORD my God. Give light to my eyes, or I will sleep in death; my enemy will say, 'I have overcome him,' and my foes will rejoice when I fall. But I trust in your unfailing love; my heart rejoices in your salvation. I will sing to the LORD, for he has been good to me."
While David was writing this Psalm, he was obviously going through a hard time. He asks God why He is forgetting him. Sometimes it can seem like our enemies are getting the best of us. But, at the end of his Psalm, David tells God that he trusts in His unfailing love. This Psalm taught me that no matter what happens to me, God loves me. There are so many verses in the Bible about God's unfailing love. He loves us, and no matter what we've done, He'll forgive us. This Psalm really encouraged me and I hope it encourages you too!!

What Does God Control?

I know that sometimes it can be tempting to think that God isn't in control. We think that we can control our lives or that God doesn't care about what happens to us. But take a look at these verses:
Psalm 147:18~ "He sends his word and melts them; he stirs up his breezes and the waters flow." In this passage, God controls wind and water.
Matthew 5:45~ "that you may be sons of your Father in heaven. He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous." God controls the sun and rain.
Jonah 1:7~"Then the sailors said to each other 'Come, let us cast lots to find out who is responsible for this calamity.' They cast lots and the lot fell on Jonah." In this passage, God was in control, because the lot fell on the person who really was to blame: Jonah.
Job 12:23~"He makes nations great, and destroys them; he enlarges nations and disperses them." God is in control of all nations and decides whether they are powerful or weak, big or small.
Daniel 4:25~ "You will be driven away from people and will live with the wild animals; you will eat grass like cattle and be drenched with the dew of heaven. Seven times will pass by for you until you acknowledge that the Most High is sovereign over the kingdoms of men and gives them to anyone he wishes." God controls kingdoms of men and who rules them.
Luke 12:20~"But God said to him,'You fool! This very night your life will be demanded from you. Then who will get what you have prepared for yourself?'" God controls when people die.
Psalm 115:3~"Our God is in heaven; he does whatever pleases him." God does whatever he pleases and therefore controls everything.
Romans 8:28~"And we know that all things God works for the good of those who love Him, who have been called according to his purpose." God controls all things and makes them work together for good.
So, remember that God is in control of everything that happens to you. He will make the events in your life work together for good.

P.S. Sorry I haven't posted in a while. I've been on vacation for the 4th and didn't have Internet connection!

Psalm 73:25

Psalm 73:25- Whom have I in heaven but You? And there is nothing on earth I desire besides You.
I came across this verse today and it was just a reminder that even when we feel like we need earthly pleasures to be happy, our only true happiness comes from God. He can supply all our needs and give us the desires of our heart!!