Does the song, "Bless Me (Prayer of Jabez)" by Donald Lawrence & The Tri-City Singers speak to anyone besides me? This song has been in my spirit all day, especially the verse, "Keep your hand upon me, that no evil cannot harm me, sunshine and rain, sickness and pain. God, I humbly come to you. Enlarge my territory, enlarge my territory. Oh Lord, bless me indeed, bless me indeed...I pray for increase (enlarge my territory). I pray for increase (enlarge my territory)..." This song brings me to tears as I think of how amazing God is and how He works everything out for the good of His plan for our lives.
I don't know about you, but I want...no, wait, I need God to keep his hand upon-never leaving me to wander about on my own. (We all know what a mess that would be) Never leaving me to survive without him. Keep his hand upon me-hold me when I cannot hold myself; walk with me daily; correct me when I wrong; pick me up when I fall, carry me when I cannot carry myself; wake me to embrace another day's journey. Lord, Keep your hands upon me....
Keep His hand upon me...that no evil cannot harm me~Evil exists to destroy us, bringing us to our weakest and lowest point. It attempts to catch us off guard and eat away at us bit by bit, piece by piece. If we are not careful we can be deceived by evil and get wrapped up in it, so much so that we will think it is a way of life. There's evil on our jobs, in our church-I know you didn't think that everybody in the church was saved and holier than thou; there's evil in our homes, in our small groups, large groups, amongst our FaceBook friends and Twitter followers. Evil in our immediately and extended family and if the truth be told, some of us have a little bit of evil within us. We must pray, "That no evil cannot harm me".
Keep His hand upon me...sunshine and rain~Whether the sun is out and all is well, a praise should continue to be our mouths. We pray and seek Him out when we we're going thru (the rain), but walk on when times are good (the sunshine). No matter the weather, day or not, we should give God all of the praise and all of the glory, all of the time-in every season & for every reason. Every little breath we take-deserves praise break; every little step we take-deserves a praise break. Why? I'm glad you asked. Because if God does nothing else for us, He has done enough ALREADY! But He continues to bless us with the breath of life and the use of our limbs and the functioning of our organs, and the little things like shelter from the rain, and the big things like resources to provide for you and your family, and the....the list continues. I don't know about you, but oh how I need my Heavenly Father to keep his hand upon me in the sunshine and rain!
Keep His hand upon me....sickness and pain~This was personal to me as I thought of everything that I am dealing with today as it relates to not only physical pain, but emotional scars and wounds from people's put downs, beat downs, let downs, run overs, run downs, walk overs, walk outs, and put outs. Through it all, God never took His hand off of me. Through every battle that was filled to the brim with pain, God never left me. Every mountain (unhealthy relationships that caused pain), He brought me over, every valley (friends and family that turned their back in times of need; malice, backbiting, lies and deceit that caused pain), He saw me through...for this I give Him praise.
When we pray for God to enlarge our territory, are we thanking Him for keeping us and bringing us through? Are we praying for Him to give us wisdom to know what to do with our increase?
Monday, August 19, 2013
Sunday, August 18, 2013
Standing on the Promises
Isn't it wonderful to know that God's promises are promises we can take to the bank and cash in at any given time on any given day? Isn't it wonderful to know that His promises are just for us? His promises comes with a 100% guarantee. Now, isn't THAT wonderful to know? Shouting~Yes it is! So, you may ask, "What are God's promises?" I am so glad you asked. His promise of Love~never ending, unfailing love; Forgiveness~because He loves us, He forgives. In Hebrews 13:5 God tells us that he will never fail us nor leave us (paraphrased).
For months, I wrestled with God calling me to a higher place in my life. Dealing with sleepless nights and rough days, I had to ask God, "Why?" over and over. I couldn't quite figure out why or what I was going through emotionally, physically, or spiritually. But I knew 1) This burden was not mine to carry, 2) God was calling me to higher place in my life, 3) I was not alone.
Even though I felt alone, God was right here holding my hand and calling me to STOP instead of yield to His calling as it had gotten to a point that my ignoring His call was blatant disobedience out of fear. The "what ifs" of life-"what if" this is not what God is telling me to do, "what if" God meant to go left and I went right, "what if" this, "what if" that...It was almost as if I was out of order. Wait, I was out of order because I knew God didn't bring me this far to leave me; because I knew God knows what's best for me and mine; and how dare I question God. It was only so many "Whys" & "What ifs" God was going to hear from me before He shut me down. Guess what, THAT is exactly what He did. Disobeying God will eventually leave you in the same place for what can seem like a lifetime. God said, "Move". Because I did not caused an unbelievable amount of suffering. Not only did I not move when I was told, but I was horrible at pretending to move. I stayed in that place praising God for the good and the bad as if He couldn't see me sitting there in the midst of disobedience. That was truly a laugh out loud moment. The same thing I'd been praying for, God was giving me instructions~plain as day and I acted as if He said nothing to me about it. I don't have to remind you that it was my dream, my goal, my passion, & my want that He was calling me to. And I sat right there, stewing in that place because I didn't want to step out lose, fail, face defeat, depend on someone else, move from my seat of complacency. Even though I knew better.
The sleepless nights were simply God waking me to hear what He had to say~Giving me my orders for the day; the answers to the "Why"; God telling me that this battle was not meant to fight alone; confirmation in every sense of the word; my personal "Footprints" poem as God reminded me, "It was then that I carried you".
It is now that God is carrying me as I lean and depend on Him. Stepping out on Faith out of obedience to His calling on my life has been tough. The decision has caused some internal battle and some external fear with some crazy journal moments. Getting to this point, I will be the first to say, has not been an easy journey.
We jump up and down and praise God, post FaceBook posts, tweet and retweet Bible verses, Instragram the last scriptural twicpic~but I have to ask, "Are we really standing on the promises of God?" or are we stuck in a rut of disobedience fasting and praying that it will all go away. Are we distracted by the external noise and can't hear God telling us to move from this place or are we just plainly ignoring Him? Don't be afraid to answer, "Yes". You are not alone. Everyone has, at some point, been there and done that. Be bold enough to stand on God's promise. In whatever He's called you to, He will never leave nor forsake you.
Trust & obey!
For months, I wrestled with God calling me to a higher place in my life. Dealing with sleepless nights and rough days, I had to ask God, "Why?" over and over. I couldn't quite figure out why or what I was going through emotionally, physically, or spiritually. But I knew 1) This burden was not mine to carry, 2) God was calling me to higher place in my life, 3) I was not alone.
Even though I felt alone, God was right here holding my hand and calling me to STOP instead of yield to His calling as it had gotten to a point that my ignoring His call was blatant disobedience out of fear. The "what ifs" of life-"what if" this is not what God is telling me to do, "what if" God meant to go left and I went right, "what if" this, "what if" that...It was almost as if I was out of order. Wait, I was out of order because I knew God didn't bring me this far to leave me; because I knew God knows what's best for me and mine; and how dare I question God. It was only so many "Whys" & "What ifs" God was going to hear from me before He shut me down. Guess what, THAT is exactly what He did. Disobeying God will eventually leave you in the same place for what can seem like a lifetime. God said, "Move". Because I did not caused an unbelievable amount of suffering. Not only did I not move when I was told, but I was horrible at pretending to move. I stayed in that place praising God for the good and the bad as if He couldn't see me sitting there in the midst of disobedience. That was truly a laugh out loud moment. The same thing I'd been praying for, God was giving me instructions~plain as day and I acted as if He said nothing to me about it. I don't have to remind you that it was my dream, my goal, my passion, & my want that He was calling me to. And I sat right there, stewing in that place because I didn't want to step out lose, fail, face defeat, depend on someone else, move from my seat of complacency. Even though I knew better.
The sleepless nights were simply God waking me to hear what He had to say~Giving me my orders for the day; the answers to the "Why"; God telling me that this battle was not meant to fight alone; confirmation in every sense of the word; my personal "Footprints" poem as God reminded me, "It was then that I carried you".
It is now that God is carrying me as I lean and depend on Him. Stepping out on Faith out of obedience to His calling on my life has been tough. The decision has caused some internal battle and some external fear with some crazy journal moments. Getting to this point, I will be the first to say, has not been an easy journey.
We jump up and down and praise God, post FaceBook posts, tweet and retweet Bible verses, Instragram the last scriptural twicpic~but I have to ask, "Are we really standing on the promises of God?" or are we stuck in a rut of disobedience fasting and praying that it will all go away. Are we distracted by the external noise and can't hear God telling us to move from this place or are we just plainly ignoring Him? Don't be afraid to answer, "Yes". You are not alone. Everyone has, at some point, been there and done that. Be bold enough to stand on God's promise. In whatever He's called you to, He will never leave nor forsake you.
Trust & obey!
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