Prayer is a vital key to every single Christian, for it is our communication that we use to commune with our Father, God.  It is talking with Him and telling Him about what is going on in our lives.  One way of praying is to pray the Word back to God, {Isa 55:11 KJV} "So shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth: it shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper [in the thing] whereto I sent it." When we pray the Word back something will be accomplished in us for this is a promise of God to His Children.  The Word is power(ful) and it is something that we (should) have absolute faith in.

There is nothing on earth more powerful than the Word of God, and Psalms 91 is a most memorable Psalms that many know and many of us quote it almost daily to ourselves and even to friends.  It is a Psalm that brings comfort, assurance, blessing and hope to the children of God; it is a Psalm that teaches the protection of God for His chosen, it is a Psalm of love of a Father.

Praying God’s Word has a way of assuring us that God will listen to what He has said to us and that we can be assured of an answer from Him. Consider praying this Psalm or seek the Word to find one that fits your need at the moment, God will listen.

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Heavenly Father, we thank you that these things are written in Psalms 91, that we can dwell in the secret place of the most High, and we thank you that we can abide under the shadow of our Almighty God.  We thank you that we can say Your are our Lord, our refuge, our fortress and our God, whom we can trust.  We thank you for delivering us from the snare of the fowler, and from the deadly pestilence, We thank you for covering each of us with your feathers.  We thank you that we can walk under Your wings and take refuge.  We thank you that Your faithfulness and truth is our shield and armor.  We thank you that we are not afraid for the terror by night, nor for the arrow that flieth by day, nor for the pestilence that walked in darkness, nor for the destruction that wasteth at noonday. We thank you that a thousand shall fall at our side, and ten thousand at our right hand; and none will come near us.  We thank you for giving Your angels charge over us to keep us in all ways and that Your angel’s hands will lift us up as we do not dash our foot against a stone.  We thank you that we can tread upon the lion and serpent and trample the young lion and dragon under our feet.  We thank you that when we call You, You will answer us, be with us in trouble, deliver us, honor us, satisfy us with a long life and show us Your salvation.

Heavenly Father, we are thankful that our Lord Christ Jesus spoiled all principalities and powers and made a show of them openly and triumphed over them in Himself.  We claim all that victory for our lives.  We reject all the insinuations, accusations, and temptations of Satan.  We affirm that the Word of God is true and we choose to live in obedience to You Lord Jesus and in fellowship with You.  Open our eyes and show us the areas of our lives that do not please You.  Work in us to cleanse us from all ground that would give Satan a foothold against us.  We do in every way stand in all that it means to be your adopted child and we welcome all the ministry of Your Holy Spirit into our lives.

Heavenly Father, we pray that now and through our lives, You would strengthen and enlighten us, show us all the ways in which Satan and his demonic spirits are trying to hinder, temp, lie, and distort the truth in our lives, enable us to be the kind of person that will please you.  Enable us to be aggressive in prayer and faith.  Enable us to be aggressive mentally, to think about and practice Your Word, and to give You, Your rightful place in our lives.

Heavenly Father, we place all of our cares, all of our anxieties, all of our worries, all of our concerns once and for all on You, because we know that You love us and watch over us according to Your Word in 1 Peter 5:7.  Father we pray for the peace of Jerusalem and May all those prosper who love You. To God be all the glory forever and ever. Amen.

Be bless…

Chosen4God

A Time to Shine

There are times in life when we wish that we can let go of our past and start a fresh life someplace else with the hope of never seeing familiar faces that remind us of the past. We tend to base our self-worth on past failures, dissatisfaction with how we look, or bad habits we engage in, and we develop the “I am what I am, or the I cannot change and the I am hopeless” attitudes.   Even if you are able to move past your past, somehow deep within it still lingers in your person, in other words it affects your attitude, your words, and it even affects your perception of life. 

Some people may say “well this is just who I am and either you accept me or you don’t!” not realizing that their view of themselves demonstrates low self-esteem.  Robert McGee (Search for Significance) says it this way:

“If we excuse our failures with an attitude of hopelessness, too often our personality can become glued to the failures.  Our self-image becomes no more than a reflection of our past…many times the opinion of oneself is based on past failures, and those failures keep us from enjoying new experiences.”

 Ask yourself:

·         Am I capable of going forward?

·         Do I have what it takes to go forward?

·         Do I truly believe what God is saying about me?

·         But what if I fail, what then?

You cannot allow your past to dictate your future.  If the past dictates how we treat yourself and others, or how we react to new situations, or how we behave, then growth has been stifled. We are not moving forward but standing in the current and holding tightly to the past. How can you ever begin to understand who God says that you are and what has been given to you if you don’t let go of the past?  How can you appreciate the blessings when you feel so little about yourself?  

“Too often our self-image rests solely on an evaluation of our past behavior, being measured only through a memory.  Day after day, year after year, we tend to build our personalities on the rubble of yesterday’s personal disappointments.” (R. McGee; 1990).  We must have a new perspective which must be based on the Word of God, and the unconditional love and acceptance of God.  The reality of what we face is that God’s love is unconditional and our past is just that – past.  But if you continue to value all your failures, then you will be swallowed up in the self-pity pit.

How does one start to get out of this stronghold and lies of the devil?

·         Be honest with yourself and with God, He already knows everything

·         Talk with someone whom you can be totally honest with and who can keep what you tell them, and one you can be accountable to

·         Study the Word of God, search it for what you are experiencing, whatever your need is at that moment God’s Word has an answer

·         Apply what you have found, don’t think that it was for “back then” God’s Word is relevant today, now.  You can trust His Word that it will not fail

·         Pray daily or as often as you need to.  We must communicate with the one who knows all about our weaknesses and failures and still He loves us

·         Praise Him as often as you can, for praise will destroy the schemes and plots that the enemy will try to throw back at you to make you doubt

Do not allow to the past to come into your future, God loves you and He chose you to be His child.  Don’t ever think that you can hide anything from Him because He is Omniscient, Omnipotent and Omnipresent.  Jesus gave His life for you, His blood was shed for your sins and with His Resurrection, it is to give you eternal life. When we abide in the present and still holding on to the past we are not walking in faith, or hope, we are not embracing newness of life and we are not trusting in God. 

It’s time to put the past that you are holding on to at the foot of the cross and raise your eyes to behold our Savior and Lord who loves you and go forward into a new and wondrous future.

God bless

Nina Jenkins

Chosn4God

When God is Silent...

Have you ever been in a car where the radio was off and the windows were up and the only sound that you heard was the muffled noise from outside? Being alone with God is not what many are use to, but it's a time to draw closer to Him, a time to seek Him with your whole heart.  But when God is silent and your prayers seem to be going no higher than the ceiling what is going on? If you have ever felt that God has abandoned you  or that He is just not listening then Psalm 22 is for you.  When troubles are surrounding us, when everything we attempt to do fails, or goes south; what is one to do? 

It opens with the words that Christ uttered when He was on the cross “my God, my God, why has thou forsaken me?...” (Mt. 27:46).  Psalms 22:1 continues with “…why art thou so far from helping me and from the words of my roaring (cries)?”  There are seasons in which God seems so very far away for us; it seems that He has taken a vacation from hearing our cries.  You ask, but when He is silent then how should we respond?  Looking at King David, a man after God own heart we can see and learn what to do and not to do.

Starting in verses 1-3 David is curious as to why God has stopped help him as He did in the past.

When troubles seem to be lingering longer, when worries are plaguing your mind more than usual and when fear grips at your heart like a vice, there comes a wakening moment where we come to the realization that we are in a season and God has chosen to be silent. Silence can be deafening to some and a prison for others, our reaction and attitude at this point should be one of humility.  God graciously allows us to ask “why” when trouble arises

I have found that when God is silent then it’s not the time to figure things out in your own way, nor is it the right moment to make a decision and turn to someone else for a solution.  Silence is God’s way of increasing our faith and forcing us to seek Him with the whole heart.  Ask yourself "How serious am I in seeking God? Many of you will likely say “very serious” for soon frustration and discouragement will set in and then depression and anger will not be far behind, but just as David expressed “but thou are holy…” he remembered that God was a Holy God this is the right kind of attitude that we must have towards God.  Even when our prayers are not heard we must take the attitude of humility. 

“But thou art holy. Does it seem strange that the heart in its darkness and sorrow should find comfort in this attribute of God? No, for God's holiness is but another aspect of his faithfulness and mercy. And in that remarkable name, "the Holy One of Israel", we are taught that he who is the "holy" God is also the God who has made a covenant with his chosen. It would be impossible for an Israelite to think of God's holiness without thinking also of that covenant relationship. "Be ye holy; for I, the Lord your God am holy, "were the words in which Israel was reminded of their relation to God.” [See especially Leviticus 19:1. We see something of this feeling in such passages as Psalms 89:16-19 99:5-9 Hosea 11:8-9; Isaiah 41:14 47:4] J. J. Stewart Perowne.

The Treasury of David.

When prayers go unanswered and doubt rises to new heights there are at least two possible reasons:

1.  Sin – “If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear me:” (Psalms 66:18)

“For thou art not a God that hath pleasure in wickedness: neither shall evil dwell with thee.” (Psalms 5:4)

2.  Unbelief – “And Jesus said unto them, Because of your unbelief: for verily I say unto you, If ye have faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye shall say unto this mountain, Remove hence to yonder place; and it shall remove; and nothing shall be impossible unto you.”  (Matthew 17:20)

“And the LORD spake unto Moses and Aaron, Because ye believed me not, to sanctify me in the eyes of the children of Israel, therefore ye shall not bring this congregation into the land which I have given them.”  (Numbers 20:12)

All sin separates us because it births unbelief.  We fear that God is not able to do what He says in His Word for us, this can damage our relationship we have with Him.  Unbelief comes only when desperation sets in, you see we get angry with God we start to blame Him for what is happening in our lives and pointing our finger (so say) at Him saying “why did you let this happen, why do I have to go through this and so on. We must remember like David “but thou are holy…”

Instead of pointing the finger at God, and questing why this or that, maybe we should be asking:

·         Are You trying to get my attention to tell me something

Tell Him that He has your complete attention and listen to what He will tell you, either from His Word, preaching, praise music, a friend or even a T.V. evangelist can preach a message that touches right where you and God have had some conversations – believe me I can testify to this.  God uses what He wants and who He wants to get our attention

·         Do I have any unconfessed sin?

(Psalms 139:23-24) “Search me, O God, and know my heart: try me, and know my thoughts: And see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.”

This should be our prayer each night because we do not want to be separated from God.  When God reveals something to you don’t try to justify it or don’t try to put the blame on others, accept that this action (s) has caused a rift between you and God and pray for forgiveness

·         What do You want me to learn? 

In the silence we seek God with our whole heart and that means reading His Word, and studying His Word like never before.  If it means reading every scripture that pertains to fear, faith, health, finances, deliverance then do it.  God wants to teach us something, are you willing to learn? 

·         How are You God, preparing me for Your purposes?

(Deuteronomy 7:6) “For thou art an holy people unto the LORD thy God: the LORD thy God hath chosen thee to be a special people unto himself, above all people that are upon the face of the earth.”

(2 Timothy 2:19-21) “Nevertheless the foundation of God standeth sure, having this seal, The Lord knoweth them that are his. And, Let every one that nameth the name of Christ depart from iniquity.  But in a great house there are not only vessels of gold and of silver, but also of wood and of earth; and some to honour, and some to dishonour. If a man therefore purge himself from these, he shall be a vessel unto honour, sanctified, and meet for the master's use, and prepared unto every good work.” Look at what God tells us here;

1. God is a sure foundation

2. He knows them that are his

3.  Those who claim Christ must depart from iniquity

4.  We are a holy people

5. We are chosen to be a special people

6. We are vessels of honor

The Word is a sure foundation and it’s something that we can hold onto when He is silent and when the demons of depression, anger, frustration come on us; we have the Word of truth right in our hands. Now we are truly blessed and highly favored when you consider that you are made in the image and likeness of God, and therefore “God knows the plans he has for us”.   Even in His silence we need to remember that He is still in control and working things out for or our good. 

There is a purpose in the silence as there is a purpose being birthed within us.  When we come to the point of acceptance of the purpose of God it is not something that one should take lightly; it is here where obedience, trust and faith are join hand in hand to help lead, guide and teach you to do the will of God. But trusting in God completely is where it begins, for all His plans will succeed when we trust and understand our purpose is key to the journey and call we will take. 

Study these scriptures and meditated on the goodness of God even in His silence.  For our hope is in Him alone, remember God's faithfulness thus far in your life, remember how He delivered you from the enemies hand and remember the many blessings He has bless you with.  we must "Therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye stedfast, unmoveable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as ye know that your labour is not in vain in the Lord." {1Co 15:58 KJV}

In the stillness of the room we must be encourage to keep living close to Him until our season change. 

Nina Jenkins

Chosen4God