I am absolutely convinced that we have no idea how good God is to us. We have no way of knowing how much His great love and power really shields us from. How many car accidents did He keep us from having? How many times did He keep our loved ones alive when the enemy wanted to kill them? How many times did He protect us from losing our jobs? Or how many times did He keep us from making a horrible decision that would have caused us great grief? And when trouble or sorrow did come our way, how great was His love and power that helped us through and taught us life’s lessons that we could not have received any other way?

Isaiah 30:20-21(Amplified Bible) say this: Though the Lord gives you the bread of adversity and the water of affliction, yet your Teacher will not hide Himself any more, but your eyes will constantly behold your Teacher. And your ears will hear a word behind you, saying, This is the way; walk in it, when you turn to the right hand and when you turn to the left.

Our Lord is so good to us. We can trust Him in any situation. He will take what the enemy meant for evil and turn it to good. Each day we can trust Him with our very lives. He was wise enough and powerful enough to make the heavens and the earth. He loves us with an everlasting, unconditional love. “Nothing is able to drive a wedge between us and Christ’s love for us. There is no way! Not trouble, not hard times, not hatred, not hunger, not homelessness, not bullying threats, not backstabbing, not even the worst sins listed in Scripture.” ( Romans 8: 35(Message Bilbe)

We are safe in our Father’s arms. He guards our way.

This was part of a prayer that Jesus prayed shortly before He went to the cross. He was praying this for His disciples and all those who would come after them. Jesus said that He has given us His glory. And so He did. He gave us His Holy Spirit. He placed His love, grace, power, and dignity within us for the purpose of making us one with Him and each other. Now we can be made complete in character and the world will see Christ and know the love of God. This was God’s plan – His idea – God breathed from start to finish.

Since it was God’s plan, it is a perfect plan and it will not fail. He decided to share His glory with us and Christ died to pay the price of sin and to bring God’s plan forth. We can be sure that the plan is sure. This is not a pipe dream. We can place our hope in God’s plan and it will not break down when we step out on it.

Romans 5:2 tells us to rejoice and exult in our hope of experiencing and enjoying the glory of God. This is a sure plan because it was birthed by God. We need to start looking and expecting to see God’s glory every day. This is something we do thoughtfully and on purpose. It is a daily decision to expect to see God’s goodness in the land of the living and to expect to see His power and wisdom in our own lives and the lives of our brothers and sisters in Christ. That means we start to look for God’s glory everyday. This kind of hopeful expectation will change our whole outlook on life and will anchor our souls.

We sing a song that states our God is an awesome God and he reigns in power, wisdom and love. And indeed He is an awesome God. And whether we believe it or not, everything in heaven and earth belongs to Him. The above scripture makes that quite clear. We can be sure that His reign is in power because He is all powerful. We can be sure that His reign is in wisdom because He is all wise and we can be sure that His reign is in love because He is love.

Our Heavenly Father will cause His reign, His rule of power, wisdom and love to come into our lives if we will trust Him to do it. Trusting God should be a very easy thing to do but that is not always the case. For some crazy reason we want to lean on our own understanding and true trust in God does not center itself in mere human understanding. The person who is truly trusting in God is walking by faith and is leaning their entire personality in absolute trust and confidence in God’s power, wisdom and goodness. That means we are laying self aside and that is what is what we have trouble doing. Self seems to get in the way on many occasions

But I believe everything is already in His hands and He truly does reign even over my stubborn self. If we come close to God, He will come close to us. If we will humble ourselves under His mighty hand, He will cause all things to work for our good. If we will learn of Him, and allow Him to teach us without fear, we will know His wisdom and see His glory. God reigns and He hasn’t given up on any of us.

We also have a hope that goes into the future. 1 and 2 Thessalonians tells us that it is a sure thing that Christ will return and when He does return He will bring everything unto Himself. All things will be made right. We have an eternally bright future because of Jesus Christ.

1 Thessalonians 5:8-10 speaks about the hope of salvation. This great salvation reaches beyond the grave. Whether we’re awake with the living or asleep with the dead, we’re alive with Him. We who are in Christ Jesus are no longer slaves to death and darkness. We are children of light. We belong to the family of God. We have faith, love and hope of eternal wholeness. We have been bought with a great price, the blood of our Lord Jesus Christ. We are alive in Him. We need to encourage ourselves in our great hope of salvation. A wonderful day is in our future when Christ returns.

For some unknown reason, we seem to have no trouble talking about our problems. We complain about the weather, work, lack of money, what someone did or didn’t do and anything else that we disapprove of or anything that offends us. But how often do we talk about our great hope of eternal salvation?

I have been greatly encouraged by studying 1 and 2 Thessalonians. I have not thought much about Christ’s return until now. But that will be a great day for the children of God. All will see our Lord in all His glory. What a day that will be when every knee will bow and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord!

Here are some positive reprogramming thoughts:

Habakkuk 3:19 (Amplified Bible)
The Lord God is my strength, my personal bravery and my invincible army. He makes my feet like hinds’ feet and will make me to walk (not to stand still in terror, but to walk) and make (spiritual) progress upon my high places (of trouble, suffering or responsibility)!

Isaiah 43:1b-2 (Amplfied Bible)
Fear not, for I have redeemed you – ransomed you by paying a price instead of leaving you captive. I have called you by your name, you are mine. When you pass through the waters, I will be with you, and through the rivers they shall not overwhelm you; when you walk through the fire you shall not be burned or scorched, nor shall the flame kindle upon you.

Isaiah 41:10-13 (Amplified Bible)
Fear not; (there is nothing to fear) for I am with you. Do not look around you in terror and be dismayed for I am your God. I will strengthen and harden you (to difficulties). Yes, I will help you. Yes, I will hold you up and retain you with My victorious right hand of rightness and justice. Behold, all they who are enraged and inflamed against you shall be put to shame and confounded; they who strive against you shall be as nothing and shall perish. You shall seek those who contend with you but shall not find them; they who war against you shall be as nothing, as nothing at all. For I the Lord your God hold your right hand; I am the Lord, Who says to you, Fear not; I will help you!

Micah 7:7-8 (Amplified Bible)
But as for me, I will look to the Lord and (confident) in Him I will keep watch. I will wait with hope and expectancy for the God of my salvation. My God will hear me. Rejoice not against me, O my enemy; when I fall, I shall arise; when I sit in darkness, the Lord shall be a light to me.,

God loves us with an everlasting love. His love doesn’t quit. He loves us personally and passionately, not because of who we are but because of who He is. He does not love and accept us because of what we have done. He accepts us because of what Christ has done on Calvary out of great and everlasting love.

We can love because He first loved us. As many as received Him, have received His love. We have been delivered out of the dominion of darkness and transferred into the kingdom of the Son of His love. Our response should be, “Lord, I believe that you love me and have placed your love within me. I will return your love back to you by honoring You and my brethren.”

The quality of this love is everlasting. It denotes a storehouse that never ends and a passion that is full and deep and can’t be put out. Circumstances can not touch it. This love says, “Lord I’ll trust you no matter what I see or feel.”

We are born anew into a living hope, Born into an inheritance which is beyond change. We have been given the opportunity to know God and to be part of everything He is. He suffered great humiliation and agony to give us this matchless opportunity. And in return for His sacrifice, He got us, and it gave Him great joy.

With all our faults and failures, it is hard to believe that all this could possibly be true. And yet, His Word tells us that we are a treasure to our Heavenly Father, written on the palm of His hands. He calls us a Royal Diadem, exceedingly beautifully in His hands and He will keep and guard us.

He asks that we believe this and not fling away our confidence when our faith is being tested. The testing is intended for our good and is infinitely more precious to Him than gold. We need to exercise patience and endurance to receive in fullness of what has been promised. The just shall live by faith. God is answering our prayers.

The Biblical truths in this blog have been taken from Hebrews 10:35-39; 1 Peter 1:2-7 and Isaiah 62:1-10 (Amplified Bible).

There are certain scriptures that I call my “How to Scriptures”. Philippians 4:4-7 is one of them. When I read in the word that I must rejoice always, in everything give thanks, consider it all joy my heart says, “Right! Now there is a key to the Kingdom. “But
my mind says, “How do I do that?”

I did a word study on this Philippians 4 scripture and it gave me some insight on the “how to” part. When you write it out with the word meanings, it comes out like this:

Be cheerful and calm because the One who is in supreme authority over everything is in control. Yes, be cheerful and approach everything in an attitude of a quiet, hopeful expectation because the Lord is ever ready to help you. Do not get distracted by anxious thoughts. Instead, earnestly pray and take your concerns to the One who has answers. Do it in an attitude of gratefulness and know that you are well favored by your Heavenly Father Who loves you. Because of His great love and abounding grace you have hope.   That quiet rest of hope in your salvation will anchor your soul.

There is no one more committed to our well being than our Heavenly Father. If anyone wants us to succeed, He does. He knows the plans He has for each of us. His plan is for good and not evil. He is satisfied with the deliverance He has already accomplished for us by His Son.

Now He wants us to trust each day to Him and expect to see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living. His mercy is new every morning. We can receive His mercy and find grace to help us, step by step, one day at a time. If we will do this we will find that cheerful, quiet rest of a soul assured of its salvation. We will experience the Holy Ghost flowing through us out to others. Peace and joy are found in believing and in seizing every opportunity, in hopeful expectation, one day at a time.

If God be for us who can be against us? No one that matters, not even our worst enemy – ourselves.

In this crazy mixed up world we live in today, I find that I must have an anchor for my soul so I do not draw back in fear. God’s love and the surety that I can’t be separated from God’s love is that anchor for me. His love gives me hope. I know that I can always come to Him and He will not reject me. The stupid things that I do can not separate me from His love. His love keeps me from giving up on myself and others.

We can put faith in and rely on the love God cherishes for us. His love keeps us stable. His love and mercy gets us through every day and gives us hope for tomorrow. The One who loved us so much that He was willing to give up His only Son for us, won’t He surely keep us? I say He will!

This is how much God loved the world: He gave his Son, his one and only Son. And this is why: so that no one need be destroyed; by believing in him, anyone can have a whole and lasting life. God didn’t go to all the trouble of sending his Son merely to point an accusing finger, telling the world how bad it was. He came to help, to put the world right again. John 3:16-17 (Message Bible)