For His Glory

Raise your hand if you’ve ever heard someone make a promise that you doubted.

(Don’t raise your hand if if was you). Yes, with words we often commit to something with absolutely firm intentions to follow through. “FOREVER!” “There’s no stopping me from doing this!”

But what is “this”? A lot of people say we need to go do the Great Commission. And we do. We must. But preaching the gospel with words is not enough. There’s no record that Jesus preached that way and the early church (of which we are still a part) had the Word confirmed with signs. Wonders.

Why will someone believe that Jesus is Healer, even if we say it a hundred gazillion times if we are not producing the Father’s will that people “be” in health? If we only use words, how will people know that our Lord is the One true God, the Father is longing for us to be healthy, and their wholeness was bought with His stripes and their deliverance by His crucifixion?

We must have the life of God flowing through us if we’re to present the Father as Jesus did. How do we do that? We believe and act.

We believe that Jesus meant “Believers will lay hands on the sick and the sick will recover”. We act –we touch the sick. We tell them Jesus loves them and knows and cares about their struggles. Then we pay their rent, or buy their gas, or diapers or pay a light bill.

Now here’s the question…If we lack in ourselves the faith and the means to do what Jesus did …why should anyone believe us any more than they believe any other preachers of any other doctrine?

They won’t. If we don’t expect them to be made whole when we touch them, they won’t either. Did Jesus really get beaten beyond human recognition so we can walk by sick people and fail to give them health?

Did Jesus, in the crucifixion, become the curse of all things sin brought, (including lack), so we can ask God to help us barely get by?

Words, unless we are acting out HIS Word, the benefit of HIS stripes, the salvation through HIS crucifixion, are not enough.

If we are to bring people to Jesus, it will be us doing what He did, that shows them why they should come. John 14:12 says we will.

For His glory … to honor Jesus … let’s preach the gospel. By all means, let’s preach with words. After all, Jesus is the Word made flesh. The gospel has to be heard to bring confession that leads to salvation.

But words alone are not enough. If they were, the last thing Jesus said before He left would not have been words instructing us what to do in His name, (and in His authority, and strength by the Holy Spirit), but He told us also…what to do.

Let’s do that.

What an amazing opportunity prayer is. To boldly go into the presence of God because of Jesus’ sacrifice making the way … to know that I am now considered “righteous” and welcomed into that holiest of places, to stand before the Creator and Deliverer, the never-created God Himself.

By grace, I am honored to present my requests for myself (and others!) to the One Who has power greater than any obstacle. His heart is to hear, to help.

I come with a heart full of gratitude, and He knows how I feel. Often, as soon as I am in His presence, I am overcome with tears and my breath becomes shallow, like seeing a loved one for the first time after a long absence.

And sometimes, I laugh. I am like the young spinning child, safely ensconced in a loving father’s arms as he twirls me over his head. I know I am cherished. I am protected. He encourages me to call Him Father.

There are times when I go to spend time with my Husband, for God has committed to me that He will be that. I never have to experience the “reproach of widowhood” that still exists in many ways for women without a mate. And I experience His tenderness as He assures me that He will never leave, and any need I have has His full attention and commitment.

What precious moments. In His presence. By His Spirit. A series of holy moments…and then

WHAT JUST HAPPENED? Distractions, thoughts entering my mind from a chaotic maelstrom of outside pressures. How did that happen while in the presence of God?

I have an enemy, hellbent on stealing my time with the Father. He comes in unexpected, uninvited, and determined to offset the power that my prayers bring into the earth to stop his continued oppression.

So what do I do when those distractions come? I used to sigh and leave the presence of God. Now I say, “Excuse me, Father” (because He is worthy of me using good manners!)

Then I take those distracting thoughts captive. My thoughts are under my control. He comes in without knocking, but I have the power to control his continued presence in my head. I say to the enemy, “Be gone in Jesus’ name. I control my thoughts and those aren’t staying”

Then I go back to my Father and thank Him that He has given me, and you too, through Jesus, the authority to force the enemy to back down.

Prayer. Intimacy with God. The presence of God in our life. Worthy of our protection from distractions. We are victorious in Him. Our purpose in prayer is to see God’s will come. Let’s stay focused in battle.

I think “grace” is one of those words in the Bible that Christians use that may not be understood…by either the speaker or those who aren’t yet Christians (but maybe would be if they had any idea what we’re talking about! )

Remember the story about the young bride who was preparing a ham for the oven? She cut the end off the ham (like her mother had always done) before she garnished it and put it in the oven.

One day she asked her mother “Why do we cut the end of the ham off before we bake it?” Her mother replied, “Your grandmother always did. I never asked her why. When I got married, every time I baked ham I did the same thing. Now you do it. If you want to know, you should ask her.”

The young bride did ask her grandmother about the tradition, now in its third generation, of cutting the end of the ham off before she baked it. Grandmother smiled and said, “I never have understood why you and your mother do it, but I did because my only baking pan was too small to bake the whole ham.”

People “in the church” a long time talk a lot about grace. What does grace do? Is grace an idea or something touchable, understandable, and usable in life? What does grace do or mean for someone walking in shame, knowing they’ve blown it, people without hope that things will ever be different? Do the mature Christians understand grace enough to explain it? Do we ask when we don’t know?

Here’s another one. What is “favor” in the Bible? (When I need a favor, that usually involves me asking someone to do something I can’t do on my own, like a skill I’ve never learned or an ability I don’t have.) What does it mean to say grace is God’s unearned “favor”?

Grace is an amazing substance. Grace came with Truth through Jesus. Grace is always linked to righteousness through faith. Grace is… Grace equips … Grace enables…

If you want to fill in those blanks, contact me @forhisglory1000@gmail.com. Let’s study the meaning, the power, the amazing, amazing substance of grace.

As I was thinking this morning of the process Jesus went through to heal us and separate us from sickness and destruction, a time in my life as a child began to come back to me. It was more than five decades ago.

Because of Jesus making me whole, that time has been shared “as needed”, but not often. If telling it will help others, I’ll tell it without shame. After all, it wasn’t my shame.

I was in the fifth grade. I remember the grades by where we lived. My parents weren’t prone to hold steady jobs until much later in their lives, so we were always moving. I didn’t go to the same school two years in a row. My brother attended five high schools in four years.

It was autumn in Illinois. That day was still warm enough to ride my bike, an unusual day for sure. It was close to Thanksgiving.

As my stepmother pulled in the drive, I laid my bike in the yard to help her with groceries, and I saw her drop a bag on her foot.

She began to jump around, yelling, holding her foot. And then I did it. I was nine or ten years old. As I watched her squealing and twisting on one foot, I laughed.

She told my father I laughed. He told me when he came into my bedroom that my laughter had hurt her feelings, and because of that, I would be staying in my bedroom for the next week except for meals and bathroom trips.

Then he told me, “And because you hurt her, for the next week, I will hurt you. ” His leather belt was doubled in his hand. He had me remove my clothes and lay face down on the bed.

From my shoulders to the backs of my knees that belt continued to slap against my skin. I’m not sure where my mind went, except I was determined not to cry. If laughter was getting me hurt like that, what would crying get me?

Finally, my father yelled, “If you will cry, I will stop for today.” I did, and the belt was stilled. I turned to look at him, my skin burning, my muscles aching. He was perspiring profusely. He gave me one final look, ran his fingers through his hair and told me to get dressed.

The next five days were repeats of the first. When he came in, I “got ready” and it got easier to cry and more difficult to move.

The last night of that week, it was my stepmother who came in the room. She rubbed my shoulders and the pain was getting easier to bear as she told me, “If you’ll be good, that won’t need to happen again.”

Then she took my hand and walked me to their bedroom where I began to learn what it meant to “be good”. Another ongoing cycle of a different abuse began that would last until I began to have “female cycles”.

The week I turned 18, I moved. For years, I lived in fear they would find me. As an adult, the fear was no less.

*****

A little more than a decade later, a friend told me, ” I got saved by Jesus tonight.” In my ignorance, even at age 21, I asked her, “From what?” and she told me her testimony. She added, “I got baptized and I feel so clean.”

That was my deepest longing, to no longer feel ashamed. I didn’t remember not feeling dirty whenever I remembered my childhood. God personally reached out to my heart by offering me what I longed for, what He knew I craved and needed.

Her words led me to hope. I would have followed any advice to “feel clean”. I thank God that He was the One I encountered. He was protecting me from the enemy of my soul even then, just as He had as a child.

When I got baptized, I felt clean too. For a while. Without learning the goodness of God, hearing only the judgment of God in the denomination I was in, the “cleanness” didn’t last long.

When people would tell me, “God is a good Father”, without knowing my story, (the story I still kept locked away so the shame didn’t resurface), I didn’t know what being a good Father meant. Did that mean God, who was all powerful, would punish me even more violently than my earthly father had when I messed up?

So I shied away from getting close to God. I lived the best I could, trying my best to earn the clean back. That’s impossible, you know. You can’t earn the clean back…because you never earned the clean.

Jesus did that. As I was talking to Him this morning, I said, “Jesus, yes, I was beaten. I was beaten bad. But never did I experience anything like You did.” He didn’t cry. His ability to remain silent during his torment still amazes me.

As I thanked Him again for going to the whipping post, and the cross, both of which have healed us and delivered us from destruction and curse, I looked into that memory, and it is still graphic, but it is impossible for it to hurt me.

Maybe the memory needed to be shared because there is a woman I know, or even one I do not yet know, that is recalling similar hurts, or perhaps “she” is you. Maybe someone has lost the “clean” that salvation brings. If that is so, please. let’s talk. If you know someone, please share this with her.

Jesus is indeed, absolutely, without fail, the kindest Person you will ever meet. Jesus is the One who knows, better than anyone else, the pain of being unjustly beaten and tormented.

He chose it, though. For me, He became the pain of a child under the authority of a bitter, angry pedophile. Whatever your pain is, and there are many who know the same experience personally that I do, Jesus is Healer. Compassionate, merciful Healer. The Father will never hurt us, because the Son was given for us.

If you can’t make yourself call on Jesus right now, will you call on me? If you’re local, please come by. There’s no virus or fear of virus here. Corona can’t live here.

My heart is a safe place, a sanctuary for women,where shame revealed is shame defeated. There is no condemnation here. If you are saved or not yet saved, let’s kill the shame. Jesus took our shame…and it went into Him so we never need have it. No one else need ever know.

The blood of Jesus heals our wounds. Whether on our bodies or in our minds. The blood of Jesus heals all wounds. I promise. It’s been more than 50 years since it happened, more than 40 since I last felt shame or pain of it. Our Healer, our Father, welcome us. They look with love, and save with power.

Come on. Message me. I’ll give you my number. Don’t carry shame that isn’t yours, or hurts that only have shallow scabs until the enemy rips them off. Be. Healed. Jesus will, and only he can. Your efforts won’t work. It took His blood sacrifice. His blood still heals, and His blood still speaks the Word of love.

“Jesus became poor”. That’s an amazing truth that is often overlooked. As part of the curse of the law, our enemy determined to leave us broken, and make us broke.

BUT, our God is purposeful. He has never done anything without purpose. The crucifixion separated us from our brokenness. It is written in Psalm 107:20, a verse that sums up the results of Jesus’ whipping post and the crucifixion, that “He sent forth His Word and healed them and delivered them from all their destruction.”

There’s not many of us who can say we’ve not experienced “poor” at some point. I’m not talking about our finances vs the finances of those in third world countries whose wealth is their one goat. I’m talking about me. Talking about my life’s experience and how it relates, or doesn’t, to the promises found in the Bible.

I’m talking as an American by birth and a person who lived outside of financial wealth by ignorance…and bad choices…and a mindset that “everyone I know struggles in some area”…and sometimes just circumstances that I didn’t see coming and hadn’t prepared for.

Then one day while reading 1 Corinthians Chapter 11 regarding what we call the Lord’s supper, the message of the Holy Spirit spoken by Paul brought a question to my mind. ‘If people are sick and weak because they don’t “esteem” (value, regard) the broken body of Jesus for their healing, is it possible people are financially weak because we have not “esteemed” poverty as part of the curse. and He has redeemed me from sin, the curse, AND poverty?’

I cannot dispute the Word of God that says “the Lord delights in the prosperity of His people” or any of the myriad of other promises of God, and if I never experience so much wealth that I have to hire people to give it away, that cannot change the Word of God, that He has stored up money to give to me.

If the Word of God can change in one area, where is my assurance that it won’t change in the area of my eternal salvation? Either God’s Word is all true, or I can’t fearlessly believe any of it is Truth. I choose the undeniable, unchanging Word of God over what has been my personal experience when it comes to determining Truth.

So I asked Him, I asked God Himself, to talk to me about financial prosperity. “Is it undeniable truth that I’m supposed to have wealth, that You are pleased when I’m wealthy (and conversely, not pleased with Your child living less than?)” And then these thoughts came. Reasons God’s Word says there is a purpose for my financial prosperity, and why God is pleased when His children have wealth.

(He said there is wealth stored up for us, but when we don’t realize that wealth is already part of our new birth, when we say it cannot be, because we aren’t experiencing it, we are not valuing His truth above our experiences.)

God wants us with plenty because:

Every loving parent wants the best for their children. God loves us.

Poverty steals God’s plans from our lives. If we can’t pay for “it”, we can’t walk in it. This could be education, travel, missions, anything God has planned for us.

Being broke prevents us from helping others who are unable to meet their own needs. We can’t give away what we don’t have.

The Word says that our giving will cause others to give thanks to God. (Because when you pay someone’s rent while telling them Jesus loves them, He will get their gratitude, and even if He does not, it’s not God’s heart to see children do without food or housing or warm clothes.)

God’s desire is for all people to be with Him throughout eternity. It is God’s goodness that brings people to a place of changing the way they think about Him. Preaching the goodness of God costs money. If I don’t have money, I cannot help ministries that teach God’s word. Part of His purpose for my prosperity is to give to the presentation (and preservation) of the Gospel for this generation.

There are so many other reasons God needs His children to be wealthy. With hearts turned to our Father’s goals, what might be the number one reason God needs His children wealthy?

God doesn’t have a wallet. That’s why He wants to fill mine. Because God said He gave us Jesus and with Him, God will give us richly all things to enjoy.

what I say. I don’t have to be smart. I don’t have to have special words of knowledge or other vital tools used by the Holy Spirit. I only have to hear my own words to know what I believe.

What do I believe about the topic of prayer? Do I truly believe the Word when it says, “Ask and you will receive”? What about “Whatever you ask the Father in my name, He will do it that your joy might be full”? Do I believe that?

The answer is found in the way I pray and in my reaction when I’m finished praying. If I’m still filled with fear or trepidation after I make my request to the Lord, I don’t believe in my heart that God will do whatever I ask Him in Jesus’ name.

If I’m not expectant to receive my need met, I don’t believe I will receive. That isn’t a fun fact to realize, but it is where change begins. Knowing my own heart is the change agent in my life. It is the same for all of us.

I once had a friend who was adored by her husband. She knew it. He had proven himself trustworthy and faithful over the years. Her heart was secure that she didn’t have to continually “measure up” in order for her husband to love her. BUT, every time he was late coming home, where most of us would fear an accident, her mind instantly went to “He’s cheating on me”.

Why did that happen? When she was younger, she had been in a relationship where the man she loved had cheated on her. That pain made its way into her mind and hid out there … for decades. Her heart knew the truth. Her husband was faithful. Her mind was operating in the past. It could have caused a rift in her marriage had she allowed her mind to speak what her heart knew to be false.

That’s why I’m very thankful that Mark 11:22-24 says I will have what I say, not what I think. Proverbs says “As a man thinks in his heart, so is he.” That’s a huge comfort. Our hearts are not continually flitting from place to place like our thoughts!

Where I live we’ve had lots of heavy rains, so the ditches in front of my property run full and bring environmental trash down with the water. Our minds can do that, sending old messages and experiences like trash in a ditch, to our understanding.

Like a net grabs that garbage out of the ditch, we must grab those thoughts and pull them from our mind.We have to clean up the trash. But trash removed causes no pollution, so our heart beliefs don’t have to be affected by our minds.

Since there are at least two of us who have struggled in our belief system (that father in the Bible account and me), let’s expand this to more of us. When our words tell us what we believe, when we see that change needs to come, how does it happen?

We do like the father of the sick son that Jesus encountered. We ask God, Who already knows everything about us, to help us believe. Help us to grow in our faith and make us mature in Him. Like Jesus did not refuse His help to the father when he acknowledged “I’m trying to believe, help me”, neither will our Father refuse us.

God answers our prayers, whether they are for our health, our children, wisdom, or help with forgiveness. Whatever we have need of, the promise is there. Philippians 4:19 says that our God will supply all our need, according to His riches because of what Jesus has done.

The Bible word there is ‘need’. Singular. Not a list of “yes” “no” or “maybe” situations. God said He will supply it all.

Listen to what you say. Do you need a change? Grab a net!

I talk about this every year in February so people forgive me by “Easter”.

Why not do egg hunts the Saturday before Resurrection morning? Fill all the eggs you want with whatever seems appropriate…make yourselves available to all the moms and dads that are walking with their children. Offer them coffee, a handshake or a hug as indicated, give them a chance to talk to adults as they’re walking with their children. Show friendliness and love, and thousands of eggs if you will…so the drawing power of love is a stronger motivation to get up on every Sunday morning than half melted chocolate is for one Sunday morning. Tell them to come early for coffee and that you’ll save them a seat. Tell them their children are welcome and will hear great things about Jesus.

On that day that the Bible tells us saw Mary rejoicing to know Jesus was alive!, the day that Jesus put His own blood on the mercy seat in Heaven, is it really God honoring to tell His story with an underlying anxiety to get things finished early so all the visitors aren’t inconvenienced and the hunting of eggs can commence?

I think I might be the only person who sees hunting eggs filled with candy on the single most important day of Christian life, mine or others, as an unwitting distraction of the telling of Jesus’ sacrifice, the event that is the Gospel.

I’ve heard it said, in many ways over many years, that Resurrection morning egg hunts are a method of evangelism because parents that normally sleep in on Sunday mornings will come out because there’s an egg hunt. I have never seen anyone ask for a show of hands two months later for people who were born again after an egg hunt, however.

There are 364 other days in the year to have festivals. Though I may have since repented of it, I may have been known to say, “May the Easter clothes become forever stained with melted chocolate.”

The love that put the sacrifice on the Lord is worthy of undivided attention. There are other days to celebrate Skittles and Hershey. If we hurry, we can get half price Valentine candy that will still be edible in April.

And it is written that you have to forgive me if you want your prayers answered, even if you disagree, because Jesus was resurrected. Otherwise we couldn’t be redeemed. The blood shows the love.

Because the simple truth is that God is not in control of humans. We are spirit beings who have a soul and live in a body. We live on a planet that is still cursed by and with sin…and chocolate. And excess. And free will. The free will to choose, the free will to speak, the free will that brings its consequences in the natural world.

Deuteronomy 30:15 (after Deuteronomy 28, that famous blessing/cursing chapter) is where God said “I set before you life and death, blessing and cursing. Choose life.” God gave people free will to choose. Choose anything and everything. God has not made a single choice for us.

God has prepared life for us. He has preserved His written Word over thousands of years so we can make informed choices. He sent His word in the flesh, in the form of our Lord and Savior Jesus, who is the Christ, so we can choose to know Him, and by doing so, choose life, like God said in Deuteronomy. Still, in a better covenant with better promises, we don’t always choose life.

Choosing death has become the norm in many cultures, including ours. Whether it’s our pre-born babies or our choice to reject Jesus as Savior, God has never removed our right to make our choices independent of Him.

It has become the religious mindset that when tragedy strikes or death steals, to blame God, even if we don’t realize that’s what we do when we say God is sovereign or He allows bad things to happen for our good. How confusing that is, to think sometimes God is the good Father and sometimes He kills people or allows them to die. God Himself said that we choose, not Him.

There is an enemy at work in this planet at this time. Jesus shed His blood to redeem the people of the earth. He has not redeemed the planet. God’s Word tells us there is a god of this world (2 Cor 4) who deceives and blinds people to keep them from knowing the truth, and by it, make decisions that choose spiritual death for them and their children.

Our choices affect our children. They see what we do. They hear what we say. Even in our natural lives, our up again/down again lifestyles cause confusion and an inability to trust, a lack of security in their young hearts. Do we teach them about God’s goodness when we say things like, “God took grandma to heaven”? If people are in Christ, Jesus receives them to the place He has said He prepared for them and they are in His presence instantly! John 10:10 clearly states in Jesus’ own words that the thief (satan) comes only to steal, to kill and to destroy BUT that Jesus has come to give us life, and that more abundantly. God is not a killer. He is Life. The words that He speaks are Spirit and they are life. God is not the controller of death. Sometimes our choices cause that. Sometimes our enemy is set to devour and to destroy us. We all have examples of where the enemy has been successful.

Where is hope then? It’s in Romans 10, verses 9, 10, and 13 and other scriptures. When we believe in our heart that Jesus is the Son of God, that He died for our sins, that He was chastised that we can have peace, that He was crucified so we can be free from the curse of the law, (according to Isaiah 53 and Galatians 3:13) and when we confess that God raised Jesus from the dead, we can then have hope, because the Bible says that we are born again at that point we believe with our heart and confess with our mouth. We are then accepted in Christ, separated from the curse that came from disobedience, and we are no longer in bondage or blindness to sin or any other “thing”. What we learn is what we live. Choose to learn deliverance.

Do not place a false hope in the thought that God is in control of everything. That isn’t truth. That’s a “no fault religion” . We can hope in His Lordship. Confess Him as Lord. Hope comes when we surrender to His Lordship and put Him as head of our lives. Then will God be in control? The answer is still “no” because God will never force us to do His will, but “in Christ”, when Jesus is Lord, we choose life and all He gives with it. His protection, His provision, His Healing, His direction, His promises. Choose. You choose. It’s a personal choice. He already gave us the answer when He said, “Choose life”.

And occasionally, choose chocolate.

I hear many critical comments about “those” preachers who talk about prosperity, and health, and the good life. Fortunately, I don’t just hear about the preachers of prosperity and health and the good life. I sit under one of them in my spiritual walk. Twice a week I hear about the good life from my pastor.

I have sat under other good ministers and still listen to other ministers. However, God Himself said that He put the “five fold ministry” in the church to equip the congregations to do the work of the ministry, so my pastor is the one who is consistently opening the Word of God and teaching me, instructing me, equipping me. I am where I am supposed to be, to hear what I need to hear, to be who He made me to be, so I can do what He planned for me to do.

If we were at a cozy booth in a restaurant where conversation flows freely, I would welcome you to question me about the “prosperity gospel”. Ask me why I believe that God wants the best for me and how I can refuse to blame God for a circumstance in my life. (Because God is not a control freak, and we live in a fallen world) Ask me if I really believe all that I hear about God and I would ask you some questions, if I may.

When you read the Bible, do you picture the words as truth? When you read where Jesus said, “…But I have come that they may have life, and that more abundantly”, can you envision that as truth in your life? What would that change if it is Truth? Let yourself be in awe as you consider what would happen if that promise of abundance is true. If you are looking at an unpaid bill or a sick child, do you still believe that Jesus was telling the truth?

When you hear a preacher reading out of the Bible that you will ‘have what you say’, do you take that scripture and roll it around in your mind and say, “Wow, I need to believe that and change what I say” and begin to expect what will happen when you change what you say, or do you roll your eyes and say, “That makes me mad when preachers tell people stuff like that”?

Really consider this: The preachers aren’t just saying that. They are reading from the Word of God. The prosperity gospel isn’t a “religious movement”. The prosperity gospel is the Word of God, including His promises. The life of Jesus on the earth demonstrated the heart and intentions of the Father. Jesus healed, He loved, He fed, He taught. Because God wants us to have relationship with Him, He sent His Son to show us who the Father is. Then He gave His Son, through a violent beating and crucifixion, as a ransom, a redemption for us. Our creator became our Deliverer.

The real question that determines the answer to all the rest of the questions is…Do we believe the Bible is what God said, and still says, (since He cannot lie and does not change His mind), or will we believe our experiences or those things we’ve seen that aren’t lining up with what God has promised and planned for us?

Can you see the Word is still Truth even when you don’t “see” it in front of you? Ask God to open your understanding to the absoluteness of His word, even when you don’t see how it can happen. The One who said, “Light, be” in a chaotic dark hemisphere is the One who worked in that light until He created the sun a few days later. God accomplishes His word even when logic says, “How could He do that?”

He is God. Never created, always existent, answerable to Himself, and committed to you and me. Power wrapped in love. Jesus is our creator and our Redeemer. He is Deliverer from whatever has us bound. He is the One who defeated the curse of disobedience to the Law. He is the One who shatters barriers and breathes life into dreams. Dream bigger. Dream again. Dream even when the rest of dreams have died. There is no obstacle too big for God.

God’s Word can change a circumstance if you can see it…and say it. Remind Him. “God, Your word said …” and begin to believe what He said. He will do it. He hasn’t forgotten what He said, but only you and I can activate it when we ask. God doesn’t force Himself or His Word on us. It’s our choice to move forward in His promises. Ask. Seek. Speak.

He preserved the Bible (His words, His intentions, His accomplishments) for generations. For your generation and mine., so we can read it and speak it. So we can live it. When it comes to seeing that possibility go from the pages of His Word into your situation, may understanding be our light.

“Light, be”.