Call to me and I will answer you and tell you great and unsearchable things you do not know.
I will heal my people and will let them enjoy abundant peace and security.
I will cleanse them from all the sin they have committed against me and will forgive all their sins of rebellion against me.
Give thanks to The Lord Almighty. For The Lord is good and his love endures forever.
Change your perception. Give thanks for all the blessings that you have instead of worrying about what’s missing from your life. When we focus on what’s wrong, we magnify the issue and we create barriers between god and us. Not only that but we let the issue steal away our joy, peace and happiness. But if we start focusing on god and trusting him, things can change. A grateful heart and attitude is like good medicine. We need to count our blessings more often. We need to realize that our problems or concerns are out numbered by all the blessings god has poured out on our lives. If I were to ask you to take a piece of paper and divide it in half so that on one side you can write all the things you are grateful for and on the opposite side you can write all the problems you have, you would notice that you have less worries then you think. Writing things down helps us to put things into perspective. Many times I have a problem or two that sometimes feel like ten problems because all I do is think about them over and over till they overwhelm me. Yet by the same token, I can cast my cares upon The Lord and give him thanks for all the good things he has given me. For example, if I’m having marital problems I can ask god to help me in that area and surrender the matter to him. But this isn’t sufficient. I also need to praise and thank The Lord for all the blessings he provided. Like a faithful husband who is considerate and thoughtful. A husband who loves me and cares about me. The small things in life mean so much. Life is full of day to day moments and a lot of ordinary days than days where big events happen whether it be a big wedding or a funeral. Major events seldom happen as much as regular ordinary days. Take notice of all the blessing around you right now. Thank god for the ability to walk, talk or even eat without help. Thank him for your home, car and the people in your life. Stay focused and keep the right attitude. ALWAYS
Dear lord,
You said to thank you in all things. You said that your word is good and ur love endures forever. Help me lord to thank you when I suffer. Show me what I should say thank you for. Help me to keep my mind on you and to believe your word when things are not going the way I want.
Lord it’s easy to love you and thank you when life is great. It’s easy to thank you when my dreams become reality or when I have favor w others. But lord when life is hard and when fear pain and hurt come my way, that’s when I struggle to find you. That’s when I have a hard time believing. Tragedy strikes, bad things happen, people hurt me, my body fails, my life hits hard times and that’s when doubt sets in.
Help me lord to wait on you in those tough days. Help me to remember your promises and faithfulness. Help me to never give up. Help me to run to you. Help me find shelter, refugee, peace, love, strength, and security in you when I’m hurt or scared. Lord come quickly in those times and rescue me from the evil one.
Dear god
My marriage needs help. Please lord intervene and let your will be done. Help me to thank you and to follow your advice. Help me hear you loud and clear. Bless me with your peace and wisdom. Help me do your will. Please protect me from the enemy. Help me hear only you. Fix what I can’t. Let my words be gentle and meaningful. Help me to love those who hurt me and to be more like Jesus. lord grant me the serenity to accept the things I can’t change. The courage to change the things I can and the wisdom to no the difference. In Jesus name. Amen
When I feel empty,
I search around for fulfillment.
There’s none to be found!
My heart looks for joy in
Material things
When it doesn’t find fulfillment
It searches harder
When it doesn’t find fulfillment, it looks else where!
My else where’s have been nothing but disappointing…
we all think that something “out there” will give us that quick fix we need. we turn to food, drugs, shopping, or other harmful things to help us fill that gap in our hearts. Except, none of those things fill the emptiness. In fact, we end up wasting time, money and energy. We end up in a bigger mess then before. So what should we do?
I think we should stop running away. We need to find a place where we can go and practice being alone. find a place where silence rules like your bedroom, office, or even your car. The best way to deal with the emptiness is to discover why it is there. You can’t keep running away from yourself. Sometimes you just have to go through the pain in order to heal from it. Don’t let fear stop you from facing your problems. God can help you deal with whatever is lacking in your life. The best place to start is with him. Have a heart to heart talk with God. He wants to help you and he knows you better than anyone else. He knows your needs even before you ask him. So why not give Jesus a chance today.
There are circumstances in my life that devastate me. Some of them shatter my heart and my world. I’m not talking about major catastrophes like death, job lose, etc. I’m talking more of things that happen to us on a regular basis that seem to cut through to deeper wounds.
If you’ve ever overreacted to a simple argument or felt like your life was over because an unexpected event happened at work, then you know what I’m talking about. It’s normal to do the above on occasion, but when you find yourself always in the same pattern and feeling run down most of the time then you have a problem. I know I struggle a lot in this area.
I’ve experienced rejection, abuse, and a lot of unfairness in my life. Even though I dealt with my past hurts, things happen in the present that trigger some of these emotions and all the hurt comes back. I find myself feeling out of control and physically, mentally, and emotionally exhausted and distraught.
Why? Where’s God? Does he care? Self pity, anger, and frustration become my companions. I feel like I’ve been down this path before. I feel like I’ll never learn to master difficulties.
But what if I’m wrong? What if God does hear every cry for help? What if he is working behind the scenes making my path straight? What if my perception of things and my negative attitude are the cause of my distress? What if this is what’s holding me back from experiencing gods blessings and joy?
Where’s the glory in what we set out to accomplish for Christ?
Sometimes it seems that we don’t get too far in our faith when life doesn’t go according to our desires. I’m full of ideas that I think god put in my head and yet when I proceed with them, life has a way of knocking me down and the enemy tries to deceive me. Sometimes I wonder if god is really there and does he care about my life or the life of the people I encounter.
It’s so easy to forget to walk by faith and not by sight. Our human eyes wait and search for miracles. We follow ideas and prompts that we feel are from god and we hope the end result is good. But what if it isn’t? What if things get worse and you don’t see god’s glory?
Heartaches, the storms of life, bad news, and every day stressors can sometimes get the best of us. What are we to do? Where are we to go when it feels like God himself has turned from us?
It’s taking me a lot of tears and patience to learn from such experiences. I want so much to believe that God is faithful. I want to feel his love and witness his promises in my life.
Even though God has helped me in the past and proved that he never forgot me on numerous occasions, all my beliefs go out the window when new trials arrive. I forget I’m his beloved. I forget that he is the faithful god who never changes. I forget that his plan for my life is always better than mine.
Why is it that we are so short sighted and full of doubt? Why can’t my previous experiences with Jesus be sufficient for any challenge that comes my way? Why do I recognize his hand of mercy years later after I no longer have that particular problem? Why can’t I see how he is helping me now?
When I face a new challenge, I look around at how bad things are going in other people’s lives and it makes me doubt that god will help me or work things out for my good. I start telling myself that my situation will have a negative result or things will never get better for me. The worst thing is to feel that your circumstances will never change and they might get worse. These thoughts are all lies but they tend to be very convincing
Life is hard so there’s no need for me to be harder on myself by thinking wrong thoughts. I have the mind of Christ in me. I can choose to believe a thought that is full of truth or I can believe thoughts that are lies.
I’m learning that if I continue to pray and seek god, things do change. That change may be a very slow and agonizing one or it could be a quick one. Sometimes god answers my prayers right away, especially with the small requests. Other times, he takes his time and shows me only glimpse of hope in a difficult situation. All in all change does happen. I think god allows us to go through the valley to grow and be made perfect in him. As we walk in doubt he is watching us and leading us to a better place. My job is to seek him with all my heart and never give up!
Why is it that every time a challenge arises I feel that god has left the premises? It is so easy to believe that god is with us and loves us when all is going well. Yet when the storms of life hit, you start to doubt his presence. Sometimes you even start resenting the fact that almighty god is allowing all this pain and suffering to take place in your life.
The focus on our circumstances makes it difficult to see the treasure in the difficulties we face. We are consumed by pain, fear, discomfort and so on. I rarely see the blessings in my adversities while I’m going through them.
Sometimes it takes a long time till we realize what god was trying to do. Many times god uses the tragedies in our lives to bring us to a new and better place. Change is good. Although we can be resistant to change, some times we need it. Life is full of change. Learning to adapt, trust god, have a positive attitude and believing you can overcome are very important factors in your daily walk with god.
When I look back on my life, I see where god was taking me when I hit bottom. God can take any circumstance and use it for our good. But you need to let him. By having a relationship with god, praying and seeking his counsel, life can go in a new and better direction for you.
Life is hard. You will have problems if you decide to take god as you partner or not. However, there’s a big difference in the outcome of your circumstances. When you rely on god to help you, he opens doors, he sees you through, he leads you to a better and victorious life.
When I was a teen I was very depressed. I wanted to drop out of school and just hide from life. I used to pray for god to help me so much. Yet nothing happened ( so I thought). When god didn’t answer my prayers or remove my depression, I resented him ( even hated him at times). I just wanted to die. I felt abandoned by god, life and family. No one was able to help me: not psychologists or psychiatrists and definitely not medication.
One day in high school I couldn’t take the pain and I went to see my guidance counselor so I could be sent home. I don’t remember our conversation but he sent me home with a book about god. Every time I’d try to read the book I’d get so angry because the last thing I needed was help from god. At that point I had given up on god because he hadn’t answered my prayers according to my timing,
Yet thank god that he is bigger and better than that. God didn’t withhold his mercy when I hated him for allowing depression to control me for so many years. He heard every prayer. It was just that there’s an appointed time for everything.
I was so desperate for change that I slowly started reading the book. Then I’d get angry at god and put it down. This went on for months. Finally I realized I was sleeping better, feeling better and I started liking life. How? I applied the principles outlined in the book to everything and the results were amazing. I truly felt that god wrote that book just for me. It was like the author knew me and every question I had while reading the book was immediately answered.
Looking back on that difficult time in my life, I can see how important gods timing is. I can see how forgiving and understanding god is. Trusting god has led me to a richer and more meaningful life. I owe all the credit to him. Without his help I’d still be depressed.
I don’t know what challenge you are facing but rest assured god did not leave the premises and he never will. It may seem that he is distant but he isn’t. His timing is different. Keep praying and keep asking for help. He will send the right people to help you. He himself will help you.
I finally have peace in my marriage. It didn’t come easy and it took months, maybe years to get to where I am today.
Although I haven’t arrived at that state where there’s more joy and peace in my marriage, I can safely say that when you trust and obey god things go much smoother. I guess I learned this the hard way.
I really feel that my brain is wired for fights and arguments, especially with the husband. I allow everything to bother me. Small or big, it doesn’t matter.
Our weekends and time together has been nothing but disappointing and frustrating. We’ve been growing distant. There’s nothing to talk about or do together. We don’t bond or talk about our future and so on.
Not only does this eat me up inside but I’ve allowed emotional companions like bitterness, resentment and hatred to dwell deep within my heart. Do you know what those emotions do to your life?! They’ve caused me to be angry, physically sick and I’ve developed insomnia. This kind of stuff negatively effects your life and the people around you.
We were not made for anything but love according to Gods word. So any other emotion challenges our original purpose. The hardest thing for me to do is to love when I feel violated.
I’ve heard it said when someone squeezes oranges they get orange juice which is sweet. Yet when someone squeezes us, what happens? Does something sweet come out of us? When I get squeezed, anger, hatred and other strong emotions come out.
My biggest problem in life is to allow god to take over. The Lord has been dealing with my heart about my marriage yet I refused his help, sometimes intentionally. Call it pride or stupidity… But when we don’t follow god life gets harder for us.
My life sure did get harder. Sometimes I deal with difficulties by avoidance or removal of the upsetting event or person from my life. The easiest way for me to get rid of all my marriage problems is to file for a divorce. I’d rationalize by thinking divorce would give me peace, revenge, and freedom from suffering.
What keeps me from divorcing my husband? One simple sentence…I love Christ. And since he is opposed to divorce that makes me opposed to it too. Yet that old mindset has a strong hold on me.
My solution to problems, it seems, is to run away. So if god doesn’t want me to run away, how can I stay? It’s a big price to stay and suffer. Surely it can’t be gods will for me, can it?
When I think about these questions, I’m reminded that god knows the plans he has for me. They are plans for good. Plans that won’t harm me. Plans to give me hope and a future. So why isn’t this working in my marriage?
My reaction to my husband is the cause of my suffering. God, my husband and I were married at the alter. Yet I leave him out, especially when I face difficulties. My focus tends to be on my circumstances not my lord.
Many times I judged my husband and built a case against him. Even when god would remind me that love is patient, kind, and keeps no scores of wrongs, I was too stubborn to listen.
So what happened? Things kept getting worse. My emotions depleted all my energy. Anger that tore through my heart and every organ subsided in me. Anxiety, panic and all sorts of phobia entered my life! Why? Because I didn’t listen. When god said forgive, I said no. Who did I hurt? I hurt my husband, my body, and my son.
God also said he that began a good thing in you will be faithful to complete it. He is not finished with me yet. Here’s how I know.
On top of all the emotions previously mentioned, last week I hit rock bottom. I was so depressed, I hated my life. Yet there was god. And even though he never left and I heard him at times offer me help that I refused. Something on the inside wanted change. I didn’t want to be depressed.
So I started obeying gods prompts. If he said go hug your husband, I did it. If he said forgive him and pray for him, I did it. It’s that simple. Relationships are not about looking at our partners faults, it’s about allowing god to love them through us!
This isn’t always easy but neither is running away or fighting with your spouse. As I started doing little nice things for my husband, I would always pray. I prayed for gods will to be done in my life. I prayed for god to help me see my husband the way Jesus sees him. I prayed for patience and for god to guard my tongue from harsh words. I prayed when every part of me screamed out this isn’t fair.
Result… depression no longer has a hold on me; my heart of stone is melting; I’m living with more peace and joy. Why didn’t I let god take charge sooner? Why am I still taking charge of other things that I should be willing to give him? Even though on the outside things look the same, god changed me from the inside.
Now when I have a problem, I pray for god to change me before he changes my circumstances. The Lord is faithful and he is good. He wants to help us. His ways are better than ours. The more I learn about him the more I trust him with my life.
God doesn’t want to see his children suffer. However, we have free will. If we chose to solve things by our strength, we will have difficulty. I’m learning that I’m not smart enough to run my own life. I’ve learned that if I had let god handle my marriage sooner, I would’ve avoided a lot of pain and suffering. God wants to help us so let’s let him.
The New Testament talks a lot about helping the needy and the poor. I’m usually very good at helping out financially. Yet lately The Lord has been pouring something deeper in my heart.
I’ve been thinking it’s not enough, although it’s a terrific deed, to just write a check and donate it to a need. I want to see it in action. I want to donate myself, my time and my life to a Christ filled purpose.
For a while I’ve been listening to my pastor as he shared his experience dealing and living with the homeless in a nearby city. He lived with them for a week and helped change their lives.
His words really touched my heart. Now when I see a homeless person, I want to pray for them and help them by giving them money, coffee, or food. God is really changing my heart about people.
You see, I was one of those germ a phobics who was afraid to touch things. So I didn’t want to talk to a homeless person or touch them out of fear that I’d catch something. Yet, our god is so awesome and loves to use our fear to move us into victory. So let me share with you one of my victories…..
I’ve been working in an urban area for over a decade. I encounter different homeless people begging for money on my way to work. Once I saw this women who just looked awful. She had a thin frame, gray dirty hair and a face that was exhausted. She broke my heart. She looked like someone on drugs and in bad shape. So I started praying for her. I remember pleading with god to fix her life. Anyway, she’s not the real victory I want to share. I only include her because she was the first I started praying for. I no longer see her so hopefully father god blessed her with a better life.
I met a young man who is homeless and sleeps on the street. I have to say that I need to give Jesus a special thanks for putting up with such a selfish and resistant person like me. The Lord would give me prompts to give this man a dollar or to pray for him. Praying I can do and love to do. But I was hesitant to give him money because I saw him everyday and I felt uncomfortable since in my head I thought he would come to expect this of me every time I saw him and I didn’t want to deal with that pressure, you know. Also, what if I didn’t have cash on me? Would that mean I’d have to go to the bank more often and keep enough singles in my pocket? Too much thinking, too much pressure, too much worrying. My worst thought was what if this man ends up hurting me?
Luckily I found the answers to all the nonsense and distracting thoughts. It was praying and allowing god to guide me. I finally surrendered and told god to help me and to make sure that it was his voice and the Holy Spirit that led me. Of course, god is faithful.
Not only is god faithful, but my dollar and prayers brought back such unexpected joy and I’m discovering a more meaningful relationship with Christ! Glory to god!!!!
You see this man, we’ll call him John, has radiant blue eyes and a face that reminds me of Christ. I was shocked at the resemblance when I first rolled down my window to give him a dollar. ( I secretly hope that I’m one of the few who see Christs’ face in him, call it a special bond that I want to have with Jesus).
So after seeing Jesus face in John, real or imagined doesn’t matter, I was happy… I just felt joy all day ( joy feels way better than happiness by the way).
John continues to be a constant blessing in my life. He asks me to pray for him and shares with me how god is opening doors for him.
Once he was struggling and asked me to pray for him and I said I would. The next day he came to my car so happy and shared with me that my prayer for him worked. I of course told him that Jesus was responsible for answering his prayer and I was just the one doing the praying. I also told him to think highly of himself and that god has bigger and better things for him.
I try to build John up since I got this idea from listening to a radio station. The DJ had a special guest who suggested praying hope and life into a homeless persons life. I knew from listening to the radio station that Jesus was telling me to do that for John.
Lately, god is helping me pick out a book that will forever change John. My prayer is that I gain the ability to hear that still small voice that leads to a blessed life.
So in closing I just want to say that when we open our hearts to Christ, he not only blesses others through us but they can amazingly surprise and change us. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve drove off feeling joy because John gave me a smile, or used phrases like, ” your an angle, hello sunshine, thank you sister,” and so on. I would say to god, ” Lord here I am trying to make a difference in this mans life yet he is the one making a difference in me.” Wow. I can almost here god saying: exactly! Bingo! Ditto! You are getting it.
From the Heart 