Strength, Song and Salvation.

"The Lord is my strength and song, and He has become my salvation"
Psalm 118:14.

This also is found in Exodus 15:2 and Isaiah 12:2.

The Israelites sang these words when they were delivered from Egypt, as they saw their enemy drowned in the sea.
And Isaiah 12 promises that Israel will sing this song in the future when God restores her and establishes His kingdom.
We, too, can rejoice for what these words mean for us today.

God is our Strength. That takes care of the demands of life. Where do you look to find strength? Your experience? Your health? Your money? Your job? All these things could vanish.Only the strength of the Lord can meet the demands of life.
"Those who wait on the Lord shall renew their strength" (Is. 40:31).

God is our Song. That takes care of the dullness of life. Many people have to go through boring, tedious experiences. Perhaps your job is not as exciting as you'd like it to be. Perhaps you are a shut-in, and you can't get out and do and see what others have the privilege of doing and seeing. The Lord will give you joy.

God is our Salvation. That takes care of the dangers of life. He delivers us and is always at our side. "The right hand of the Lord is exalted; the right hand of the Lord does valiantly" (v. 16). That right hand is available to us today.
Believers may sing this song of praise, for God takes care of the demands, the dullness and the dangers of life.
He is your Strength, your Song and your Salvation.

Remember that God is ever available to deliver you from the difficult experiences of life.

My Manna

He calms the storms

"For He commands and raises the stormy wind, which lifts up the waves of the sea. They mount up to the heavens,they go down again to the depths; their soul melts because of trouble. They reel to and fro,and stagger like a drunken man, and are at their wits' end" Psalm 107:22-31
Storms do come to our lives.

What causes them?
Sometimes other people cause them.
In Acts 27 Paul got into a storm because the people in charge of the ship would not listen to the Word of God.

Sometimes God causes the storm to test us and build us.
In Matthew 14 Jesus sent His disciples directly into a storm to teach them an important lesson of faith.

Sometimes we cause the storm by our disobedience--we are like Jonah running away from God, and the only way He can bring us back is to send a storm.Jonah 1.But the greatest storm that ever occurred was at Calvary. When the sun was blackened for three hours and God the Son was made sin for us, all of the waves and the billows of God's judgment came upon Jesus on the cross.
Because He weathered that storm, you and I can cry out to God. He can deliver us from the storms of life or take us through them, giving us the strength and courage we need.
Do you find yourself in a storm today? Ask God for the strength and courage to weather it andfor the wisdom to understand it, not waste it.

But-

Certainly there will be calm after the storm!


"He calms the storm, so that its waves are still.... So He guides them to their desired haven" Psalm.107: 29,30).

That is God's Word!

Overcoming Obstacles

Have you ever seen the sea flee?

Have you ever seen the mountains skip like rams or the hills run like lambs?

That's the vivid description the psalmist gives of the Exodus of Israel from Egypt.

"The sea saw it and fled; Jordan turned back. The mountains skipped like rams, the little hills like lambs.... Tremble, O earth, at the presence of the Lord, at the presence of the God of Jacob, who turned the rock into a pool of water, the flint into a fountain of waters" Psalm 114:1-8.

The psalmist mentions the time God opened the Red Sea and the Israelites walked across on dry land. He talks about when the nation entered the Promised Land over the dry bed of the Jordan River.
Then he refers to their experience in the wilderness, when they were thirsty and God turned the rock into a pool of water.What are we to learn from all of these experiences?
God helps us in the obstacles of life. When you turn your obstacles over to the Lord, He acts.

What will He do?

Sometimes He overcomes the obstacles. God is with us in the hopeless places. How hopeless the Israelites were at the Red Sea! The enemy soldiers were behind them; the wilderness was around them; the sea was in front of them. But God opened a way to escape.

Sometimes God removes the obstacles--the "hills" and the "mountains." He just makes them skip and run away like animals.

Sometimes He makes the mountains a way for us to escape.
Isaiah 49:11."I will make each of My mountains a road, And My highways shall be elevated".

Sometimes He also can turn the obstacles into blessings. He "turned the rock into a pool of water, the flintinto a fountain of waters" (v. 8). If God doesn't overcome or remove your obstacle, let Him turn itinto a blessing. Trust God with your obstacles. He can help you in-

-the hopeless places,
-the high places
-and the hard places.

Love Covers

There are people in every fellowship who take joy in finding something bad about somebody else. When they hear something ugly,they take great delight in exposing it. Love does not rejoice in iniquity.
Love wishes that it never happened. Love tries to cover it up. That doesn’t mean we condone sin, we just cover it.

“Hatred stirreth up strifes: but love covereth all sins.” Proverbs 10:12.
Let me illustrate.

Noah had three sons, Ham, Shem, and Japheth. Ham came and saw his father’s nakedness and was quick to tell others. Shem and Japheth covered their father to help him cover his shame – not to condone what he had done, but to cover it. Wouldn’t the world be a lot better place if we had that spirit?

Genesis.9:20-27.:"And Noah began to be a farmer, and he planted a vineyard. Then he drank of the wine and was drunk, and became uncovered in his tent.
And Ham, the father of Canaan, saw the nakedness of his father, and told his two brothers outside.

But

Shem and Japheth took a garment, laid it on both their shoulders, and went backward and covered the nakedness of their father. Their faces were turned away, and they did not see their father’s nakedness.
So Noah awoke from his wine, and knew what his younger son had done to him.
Then he said: “ Cursed be Canaan; A servant of servants He shall be to his brethren.”
And he said:“ Blessed be the LORD, The God of Shem,And may Canaan be his servant.
May God enlarge Japheth, And may he dwell in the tents of Shem; And may Canaan be his servant.”

Write down the names of-
1) someone who has hurt you recently,
2) someone who takes advantage of you, torment you,or even blackmail you.
3) someone who has done something wrong, but no one else knows about it except you.
Now, lift that person up in prayer for God to forgive him or her.

"And the LORD restored Job’s losses when he prayed for his friends. Indeed the LORD gave Job twice as much as he had before."Job.42:10.

Ask God to give you an opportunity to glorify His name by showing this person His love.

Tired of your Prayers?

There are several reasons why we might grow weary or even sick of our own prayers.

One great reason, for some, is the struggle to labour on in unanswered prayer.

It is hard to pray with intensity and consistency when the hand of God seems, to us, unmovable.
My hope is that you, who are tired of praying, this or that prayer will continue to implore the hearer of prayer with fervency, reverence and confidence.

Fervency because all followers of Christ need to cry to God. We are in continual need of the care, protection and provision of the Lord. The more grace is felt in our hearts, the more the sense of want for more heavenly supplies will be felt.

James 5:16, "The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much."

Fear: Because of the reverence and respect who owe such a glorious Saviour. Psalm 2:11, "Serve the Lord with fear, and rejoice with trembling." While we are fond of speaking of the mercy of God, we must never forget that He is also a majestic God.

"God is greatly to be feared in the assembly of the saints, and to be held in reverence of all that are about him.", Psalm 89:7

Faith: Because He certainly hears us. We rely upon His goodness and power to meet all our needs. He is so gracious to us in Christ that He will do what is best for His glory and our good. And if something is not glorifying to God or for our good, we should not seek it.
Eph. 3:12, "In whom we have boldness and access with confidence by the faith of him."

It may often be true that the prayers that please us least, please God most.

But one thing every wise follower of God knows: pray they must. When we pray we enter heaven's gates and we fellowship with the Lord of the world. This is no small thing, and it is a great privilege.

May the Lord make you a prayer warrior!

"If you can't pray a door open, don't pry it open." Lyell Rader

Build your Faith!

Have you ever wondered why some people seem to have so much faith, others have weak faith, and some have no faith at all?

Is God unfair? No, God is no respecter of persons. 2 Chronicles 19:7. He has given to every man a measure of faith Romans 12:3.

And so, what is faith? Let me first say what it is not. Faith is not positive thinking or optimism. It is not a feeling that you can do something. It is not a hunch or looking on the sunny side of the street.

Faith is getting a word from God and acting upon it.

“So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God.” Romans 10:17.

You see, you can get a word from God and believe that word, that is belief. But, when you act upon it, that is faith. Faith is belief with legs on it. Today is the day that you put your foot offaith upon the promises of God and say, “That promise is mine!”.Love Worth Finding.

Hebrews.11:1,6:
"Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen...
But without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him"

OK.What Word or promise God has given to you?

"For all the promises of God in Him are Yes, and in Him Amen, to the glory of God through us". 2 Corinthians.1:20: