MONDAY
PSALM 68:28 Thy God hath commanded thy strength: strengthen, O God, that which thou hast wrought for us.
We all have trials in our life. Some we just live through it with our own wisdom, just getting through it. The Lord knows what we need and will supply the perfect way. We should come to Him before we are at then end of our rope. We need His strength and wisdom and He will supply it. But He wants us to learn what is in our heart so we can pray the right prayer. Some trials are just for us to see how we react. He is mercifully showing us what we do not see about ourselves. Then He answers us with a change for our good.
We all need His strength to get through the hard times to come. It is a great comfort to know that He has all ready commanded our strength. Let us open up and receive His strength. It is definitely what I need. Thank You Jesus!
TUESDAY
SONG OF SOLOMON 2:13 The fig tree putteth forth her green figs, and the vines with the tender grape give a good smell. Arise, my love my fair one, and come away.
Fig – c) fruit
Fruit – c) full reward
The Song of Solomon is the love story of Christ and His bride. He is telling her the hard winter is past and now the fruit appears on the tree and the vine, arise and come away with Me. The winter is representing the cold hard trials that are not comfortable in our life. Spring time is always so refreshing to see the new leaves on the trees and the new sprouts in the ground. This is how He sees us. After we got through the refining process, we are changed. He loves to reward us for our times of suffering. What a better reward than to be with Him.
I have found the best time to be with Him is after my prayer time. Prayer prepares our hearts in ways we cannot know or understand. What we do know is we are to become a house of prayer. Jesus spent many hours in prayer. He is our example in every way. I believe so many people are empty and dry because this life pulls them this way and that way. The devil will steal your prayer time and then convince you that you can live without it.
I know I am so very happy with the life He has given me. To be with Jesus is the greatest reward there is. But it does come with a price. But when all is said and done you will see it was no price. The reward so far outweighs any price we can ever pay.
The fig tree putteth forth her green figs.
Wednesday
Psalm 145:20 The Lord preserves all those who love Him, but all the wicked He will destroy.
Preserveth - c) to hedge about, to guard, to protect, to attend to.
d) to keep from harm, damage, etc. to keep from spoiling or rotting
Spoil - d) to damage or injure so as to make useless, valueless, etc.
When you love someone, you make a way to spend time with them. You can say you love God, but do you love serving Him? Is you prayer time a chore? Do other desires come first? This life is a time of testing. The trials and tests will show Him who truly love Him and they will survive the last days because he will protect and preserve them. They will be blessed with a life of great value.
c) - Strong's Concordance
d) - Webster's Dictionary
THURSDAY
Rev.3:10 Because you have guarded and kept My word of patient endurance — have held fast the lesson of my patient endurance that I give you — I also will keep you safe from the hour of trial (testing) which is coming on the whole world, to try those who dwell upon the earth.
The scripture is telling us that there is a great reward for those who endure the painful refiners fire that we must go through to be purified. There are many trials that we can walk around or force our own way out of without receiving the blessing God intended to send. He showed me along time ago “not to force my own way in any situation.” So many times I could have easily fixed problems in my life though always knowing I would be out of His will.
Then there are some of the big trials that only He can fix. Then we can only wait for the end. Still the trials are teaching us patient endurance which we all need to get us through the hard times. The quickest way out of any trouble is to be thankful and not complain. I know that is one my hardest trials. I have yet to endure one without complaining. Yet He always forgives me and never condemns me. It is I who condemns myself. Each time, I know He makes me a little stronger than before and one day…Thank You Jesus!
FRIDAY
Mark 11:25 And whenever you stand praying, if you have anything against anyone, forgive him and let it drop—leave it, let it go—in order that your Father Who is in heaven may also forgive you your (own) failings and shortcomings and let them drop. Amp.
I have always prayed for God’s help with unforgiveness. I knew I could not do it on my own. How did I know that I had not forgiven? I know it is wrong and if I had to choose which door to walk in — forgiveness or unforgiveness — I would choose forgiveness. So I thought I was OK. But the pain was still there. Something causes us to hang on to the hurt.
I know I cannot do it on my own, so I was not consciously saying “I won’t forgive.” We are to trust in, lean on, and adhere to the Lord in all things. So I was right but not yet victorious. Then another trial and my hurt feelings surfaced again. But this time He spoke to me the answer.
He said “There will always be rejection if you follow My ways. Don’t expect the rejection to stop. Don’t look to people to fill up the void in your heart. Look only to Me and My love will fill the void. You will never need earthly love again.”
1Cor. 13:5 …Love (God’s love in us) does not insist on its own rights or its own way, for it is not self-seeking; it is not touchy or fretful or resentful; it takes no account of the evil done to it — pays no attention to a suffered wrong.
1Cor. 13:13 And so faith, hope, love abide; … love, true affection for God and man, growing out of God’s love for and in us, these three, but the greatest of these is love.
Now I believe and now I receive. Matt.21:22
SATURDAY
Malachi 3:2 But who may abide the day of His coming? And who shall stand when He appeareth? For He is like a refiner’s fire, and like fuller’s soap.
Abide — c) to keep in, to measure, to maintain, guide, nourish, sustain, bear.
Stand — c) abide, appoint, arise, cease, confirm, continue, dwell, endure, establish.
Establish — c) to make stable; settle, to order, ordain, or appoint permanently.
In other words: who is able to not fall apart? This is a warning, telling us that times are going to be so hard that most will not make it. All the definitions reflect the working of the Holy Spirit. He alone has the power to establish us, and promises to do so if we serve Him.
Deuteronomy 28:9 says the Lord will establish you if you keep His commandments and walk in His ways. His ways are not our ways. That is why we must spend time reading His word and getting to know Him. If we spend time with Him, in His glorious presence, getting to know how wonderful He is, He will give us the ability to walk in His ways and keep His commandments. There is no other way. If we try to come to Him in our own goodness and righteousness, we will not stand. We all must humbly admit that we have been born with this sin nature and are in need of a savior.
That is when the miraculous gift of repentance works in our souls and changes our temperament and imputes His righteous into our hearts. Then we have all the attributes of Jesus available to us by faith. Then and only will be able to stand.
SUNDAY
Psalm 5:11 But let all those who take refuge and put their trust in You rejoice; because You make a covering over them and defend them; let those also who love Your name be joyful in You and be in high spirits.
One of the enemies biggest weapons is discouragement. He tries his best to speak lies to us to steal our joy if we allow it. If we could only see how much the Lord truly loves us, we would always be rejoicing. But as it is, we have to battle thoughts of past hurts and sins, self pity and sometimes even self hatred. We have to be reminded that we have been born again.
Romans 6:14 says sin will no longer have dominion over you. It is up to us to lay down negative thoughts and choose to rejoice in what the Lord says and thinks about us. I believe one thing that saddens the Lord about His people is how they are constantly doubting His love for them. His love is so much greater than anything we have experienced in this life. But He expects us to believe what the word of God says about Him and His great love.
Just what does steadfast and everlasting mean?
Steadfast — d) firm, fixed, established, constant, not changing or fickle.
Everlasting — d) lasting forever, eternal.
His steadfast love is all we need. When we put all our faith and trust in Who He really is, there is nothing that can stop us from rejoicing and living victoriously. That is what he wants.
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