Take it Back!

Don’t ever let the enemy steal your joy. This is one of my favorite songs from the Jimmy Swaggart ministry. I pray it ministers to you and uplifts you.

Many blessings!

Joy Comes in the Morning

We’ve all had nights we thought would never end. Worry, anxiety, grief, and other negative emotions can drag the night out for what would seem forever. If you do fall asleep, sometimes your worries and troubles follow you. How many of us have waked up in the middle of the night with visions of some horrific dream clouding our minds? Even if you have a degree in psychology it can be hard to clear your mind and find peace.

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One of my favorite promises of God is that if we can hold onto Him, morning will come and things will look better in the light of day. Darkness has a way of magnifying our worries, but when the sun comes up the darkness is chased away and some of our worry and anxieties lift. This promise is expressed in Psalms 30:5 For his anger lasts only a moment, but his favor lasts a lifetime! Weeping may last through the night, but joy comes with the morning.

Joy in the morning, what a great promise. Psalms 30:5 reminds us that troubles will come, but His favor on us lasts for a lifetime. While it can be taken literally that you may spend the night weeping but find joy in the morning, if you dig deeper into the meaning of this verse you will see that it is also talking about God’s grace. You may stray from His will for a time and suffer the consequences of your bad choices, but His favor never leaves you. You may have things happen to you that are beyond your control; the death of a loved one, sickness, or other tragedies in your life, but God’s favor is more than just good things happening in your life. It is His deep and abiding love for you.

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God cares about you. He loves you. He sent His only son to save you from the consequences of sin. The next time you feel like you’re in the night in your life, reach out to Our Father and let Him fill your heart with His joy. No matter what is happening in your life, God cares. He won’t always keep you from experiencing pain, but He will always be there with you.

I found this out for myself after my husband died suddenly. I was hurting, I still am, but God’s grace and love kept me from falling into the pit of despair. Through God’s grace I have found joy in the morning. Find God’s joy for yourself and look forward to the morning where joy will find you, and you can be healed.

The Importance of Faith

Faith is an intangible commodity. It is not something you can see or touch. It is rather something you feel deep in your being. To have faith is to know and hope for what you can’t see. Faith in humans is usually disappointing, but faith in God reaps peace and strength. In the Bible Jesus told many people that their faith healed them. It would seem that faith was very important in Jesus’ ministry. It still is important even today, over 2,000 years after He walked the earth as a man. In your life today you may have a lack of faith; that is the norm for most of us. Raising a family, dealing with bills, worry about our health or money, working, and taking online classes can all sap our energy and our strength. We need faith to keep going and keep up with everything we must do.

One example (Luke 8:48) of faith is the story of the woman who had been suffering from a bleeding condition most of her adult life. She heard that Jesus was passing through town and made her way through the crowd just to touch His robe. As soon as she got a hold of His robe he knew it and turned around. He asked who had touched Him and the woman came forward and said it was her. He told her that her faith had healed her. It had and the bleeding stopped.

Another example of faith is the soldier who had a dying son at home. He asked Jesus to heal his son and Jesus told him to go home, his son was healed because of the father’s faith in Him. The disciples asked Jesus to increase their faith. (Luke 17:5) Even the men who walked with Jesus knew faith was important. Jesus told them if they had the faith of a mustard seed they could command a mountain to move and it would. How awesome would that be?

Today faith can keep us from feeling hopeless and falling into despair. It always amazes me to talk to people who have no faith. They are in this world, completely on their own and have no one to believe in. If something goes wrong in their lives they have to deal with it themselves. To me this would be an empty and depressing way to live. I know from personal experience that faith has brought me through my darkest hours and will keep me going throughout my life. Faith in God and the power of Jesus helps us to have hope when it seems nothing will go right. I could write several blog posts about how God has pulled me and my family through seemingly impossible situations where we could not humanly see a way out of them.

If you need faith in your life, I would encourage you to pray for an increase of your faith and read your Bible. In it you will find encouragement, peace and hope. There are several tools online to help you study the Bible. One of my favorite is Heartlight Ministries. They also have a Bible search tool I use all of the time to search for scriptures. Have faith my friend, it’s free and it works.

Peace in Today’s World

Life is hectic and peace can be fleeting. No matter if you’re a high school student, college student on campus, an adult learner taking courses online, or anyone who is living life peace is something everyone wants. There is a way to obtain peace in today’s world. God offers His grace and peace to all who will accept it. If you do a search of the New Testament Jesus speaks of peace in several verses.

• Luke 7:50 And He said to the woman, “Your faith has saved you; go in peace.”
• Luke 8:48 And He said to her, “Daughter, your faith has made you well; go in peace.”
• John 14:27 “Peace I leave with you; My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Do not let your heart be troubled, nor let it be fearful.”
• John 16:43 “These things I have spoken to you, so that in Me you may have peace. In the world you have tribulation, but take courage; I have overcome the world.”

As you can see, peace is very important to God and Jesus. Only through Him are we to obtain true peace. The world can give us peace for a time, but troubles return and we begin to feel desperate and hopeless again. This is one of the reasons people turn to alcohol, drugs and other destructive habits to deal with the unrest in their lives.

You can have peace that passes all understanding through faith in Jesus. I would encourage you to search out the Bible and look for verses which specifically speak of peace. Along with them you will find verses that talk about God’s grace. Grace is free to all and God wants you to come to Him and ask for help. Open your heart, accept Jesus as your Savior and discover the peace only His love and grace can bring you. You don’t have to be perfect, just come as you are. It’s an all inclusive invitation. What are you waiting for?