“…I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing; therefore choose life, that both you and your descendants may live.”
(Deuteronomy 30:19, NKJV)
Did you know that your words have creative power? We are able to use our words to create peace, joy, love, hope and blessings galore? Or, we can use our words to create a chaotic storm in life situations. When we agree with God’s Word we are in agreement with our Father. WOW? No family fight there but a good movie night! Peace!
The Psalmist declares with his voice, “I will say of the Lord, He is my Refuge and my Fortress, my God; on Him I lean and rely, and in Him I [confidently] trust!” (Psalm 91:2, amp) What are you saying of the Lord today? Listen in on the dialogue that continues. “And He will cover me, deliver me and protect me.” Look at this word creative power! “I will say” and “He will do.” On the flip side of the coin, “I will not say of the Lord, and He will not do.” Could this be true?
As we grow together in 2014 let’s try creating some new patterns in our lives where the lines have blurred and blessings are in reverse. As we bring our mind focus into hues of royal blue and our lips a tincture of faith for ourselves and all God’s descendants a greater blessing will prevail. Let us say we will keep our hearts and minds focused on God, proclaim and empower one another!
thedailylily.com 
Beautiful words for the New Year. Thank you. May we focus on them and our HOPE / Jesus Christ who had such compassion for man’s physical and spiritual needs that He was willing to go to the cross for US (what love). May we as Christians step up to the plate and offer this HOPE to others. A world which is broken and in so much pain by the storms all around. Jesus says COME. May we rejoice in His LOVE which we can be assured of. In the world we can’t be assured of love and safety when we come, but through Jesus we can. Come Jesus says. As we give legs to our faith in our daily normal lives of ups and down and not BLUR the lines we represent to all that we are for Jesus. Stand FIRM and step out like he said to Peter when he wanted to walk on water to Jesus. May others find JESUS this year and overflow with JOY in the HOUSE OF THE LORD!
Man says…Show me and I’ll trust you. God says…Trust me and I’ll show you. Psalm 126:6
I couldn’t help but reprint this article from a website; a prayer that so fits in with what we are talking about This sis such a precious prayer.
Quote of the Week
Oliver Wolcott on God’s Provision
“Through various scenes of life, God has sustained me. May He ever be my unfailing friend; may His love cherish my soul; may my heart with gratitude acknowledge His goodness; and may my desires be to Him and to the remembrance of His name….May we then turn our eyes to the bright objects above, and may God give us strength to travel the upward road. May the Divine Redeemer conduct us to that seat of bliss which He himself has prepared for His friends; at the approach of which every sorrow shall vanish from the human heart and endless scenes of glory open upon the enraptured eye. There our love to God and each other will grow stronger, and our pleasures never be dampened by the fear of future separation. How indifferent will it then be to us whether we obtained felicity by travailing the thorny or the agreeable paths of life – whether we arrived at our rest by passing through the envied and unfragrant road of greatness or sustained hardship and unmerited reproach in our journey. God’s Providence and support through the perilous perplexing labyrinths of human life will then forever excite our astonishment and love. May a happiness be granted to those I most tenderly love, which shall continue and increase through an endless existence. Your cares and burdens must be many and great, but put your trust in that God Who has hitherto supported you and me; He will not fail to take care of those who put their trust in Him….It is most evident that this land is under the protection of the Almighty, and that we shall be saved not by our wisdom nor by our might, but by the Lord of Host Who is wonderful in counsel and Almighty in all His operations.”
-Oliver Wolcott, signer of The Declaration of Independence, Military General, Governor of Connecticut …..trusting in God.
This blog sure gives good instruction on our word choice and the results they bring. Thinking on it, to me it says if we look at the results and then walk backwards we will find the reason for the results is our words. It is very sobering to consider their power.
Words are Power…When I engage (thought has my attention) and embrace, (believe-faith) I enjoy the power from my words. When I engage with this word power; I think of it somewhat as my car sitting in my garage and I want something. I think I want to go to a coffee shoppe, I can sit all day and dream about it or I can embrace the fact that I have a car, runs well, full of gas, I can drive and I have the $’s. I say, yes, yippee! I want to go to a coffee shoppe. I put my thoughts, words and commitments in action and start my car and I forget or never even knew how that car runs really but it takes me just where I tell it to go.
We as believers in the Word of God (Bible) are highly blessed and favored because we have written in a manual like format just what we can expect from our words with actions. Starbucks, (for those of us who love don’t disappoint) and the Words from the Bible are even more sure.
Our scripture says, “…both you and your descendants may live.” This opens a window in my mind that says, today, yesterday and forever. Power in my words will affect God’s creation throughout the universe. We have a connection!
Sara, (et al) Thank you! This is a joyful confirmation of some of the things that I believe the Holy Spirit is dealing with me concerning the preparation of His coming, or my going to Him…whichever comes first!! It is time….as the lines HAVE blurred…and some choices made w/o much ( or any) consultation with the Spirit of God may have brought situations and circumstances that might have been circumvented.
I think it all started out on this blog and the Serenity Prayer….’the courage to change the things I can change….” Uh-oh!
It took me to Psalm 45:1-2. I interpreted it for myself, this way. If I am going to address my psalm to a KING then my mouth should overflow with a godly utterance. I interjected Phil. 4:4-8 in my confession. I will think and SPEAK whatever is pure, holy, true, just, lovely and encouraging to others and to my own soul. I end my profession of faith with Romans 12:1-2. In my everyday-walking-around-eating-drinking-school life and whatever else I do in this day, this will I offer up to God as a sacrifice and do it to the glory of God. YIKES! That is a tall order. Only through love of God and the Holy Spirit can I ever do this. But I do so want to!
Now, Sara says to ” proclaim and empower one another”. How does that fit into my program and assignment for the new year? This is what I want to do to fulfill that challenge.
May my mouth speak a *BENEDICTION to my sisters and brothers and to those with whom I have to do. I pray this in Jesus’ Name.
* D. Teems
Breach: Dictionary… “breach of promise the action of breaking a sworn assurance to do something,” In my continued study on our words and promises and results I am hoping to engage, embrace and enjoy more in the field of discipleship (1 Corinthians 3:9)
Breaking a promise is illustrated by some dire consequences in the Bible…like dying as a result. That makes me nervous when I consider what I might have said I would do that I haven’t. The opening verse in this blog, ‘I have set before you life and death,” is a promise also from God that involves more than me…descendents; consequences of broken promises on others’ lives is very sad.
My husband was reading in his “Duck Commander Devotional” this morning, that he received for Christmas from a very special friend. Look what the scripture said, for today’s date………”May these words of my mouth and this meditation of my heart be pleasing in your sight, Lord, my Rock and my Redeemer.” (Psalm 19:14) The devotional further stated: “I don’t think much about the words that come out of my mouth on a second-by-second or minute-by-minute basis, but if I read this scripture correctly, I should. Each and every word I say should be pleasing to God! Every thought or meditation in my heart should be pleasing to God! Oh, wow! Do I have a lot of work to do! I am better at this than I was in my younger days, but I need to be much better than I am now. To hold each thought and each word captive–that is my goal.”
(Sounds like an excellent goal for 2014, wouldn’t you agree??)
Oh, wow, Tammy…tell Chris I woke up very early this am for my payers and the scripture from Psalm 91 just came to me and I recorded in my journal for thinking on today. I learned these words from Rev. Jerry Smith, my Methodist childhood pastor. This was his benediction prayer after each and every service. And, to think we bless or curse ourselves and all others. What a thought!
And, yes, Tammy, an excellent goal, We will empower one another with words for 2014!
Just last night I was praying with a new friend and she and I agreed that we would empower one another with words (meaning ourselves, those in our family, and those God leads us to interact with).
Rena and Mary, sure sounds like a profound way of living. The best to the both of you….
Sara, you ask the question in your blog….“I will not say of the Lord, and He will not do.” Could this be true? I suppose that it really could be true. James says, “You have not because you ask not. And when you do ask you don’t receive because your motives are shady, lustful, selfish. So I guess we don’t receive when we ask for our own selfish pleasure taking it ALL to ourselves instead of for use in Kingdom work and advancement.
Jesus did say everyone who asks receives and whoever seeks, finds and whoever knocks the door is opened to him/her.
So I can’t “trick” myself into believing I am seeking something from the Lord that I want for the good of the Body of Christ in some form. Asking amiss…asking for a million dollars to send the team to Africa for the Lord when there have been thousands of dollars that I have spent on myself and nobody on this side of the globe that I know has yet been sent to Africa to minister. Well, you all get what I mean.
So if we do not ask, that is against God’s directives in the Gospels when Jesus says to ask.
Psalm 40:5 “You have multiplied, O LORD my God, your wondrous deeds and your thoughts toward us; none can compare with you. Were I to proclaim and tell of them, they would be more than can be counted.” Now my turn….”Then I said, “Here I am; in the scroll of the book it is written of me. I delight to do your will, O my God; your law is within my heart.” Vs. 7, 8.
I am smiling about now! We can have excellent communication with our Lord. What an excellent way to live.
I’ll second that!
The devotional I read for this am from “Reflecting the Beauty of the Lord” (CTA inc.) addressed the opportunity we have to empower others, and especially as some of us, like myself, get older. It is titled ‘Gray Hair’ and the scripture is from Ps 71: 18-19: “Even when I am old and gray, do not forsake me, my God, till I declare your power to the next generation, your mighty acts to all who are to come. Your righteousness, God, reaches to the heavens, you who have done great things. Who is like you, God?”
A portion from the devotional says: “As God adds years to our lives, he also adds the power of perspective. We can look back and see God’s faithfulness at work year by year. We can remember the many ways he has revealed his goodness to us throughout our lives. Then, we can more convincingly encourage the next generation in our Lord’s faithful love.”
Love this devotional, Debi…and, to think God had/ has a purpose in mind for our later in life earth years…hope my prospective is in order and the hearts of the ‘next generation” is finding and seeing God”s faithfulness in every detail of decision making, living and teaching.
This makes me think about the parable when Jesus asked this question, “when the Son of man cometh, shall he find faith on the earth?” (Lk 18:8). I think I need to reread and rethink this parable.
Sara, in reading the Luke parable and thinking about the Lord fainding faith when He comes, I did some reading up on scriptures on faith and found that it is not a stand alone. Faith seems to have to be in partnership with a few other things to be vital and alive. You can’t aquire faith unless you can hear (Rom 10:17); it’s got to be mixed with God’s word (Heb 4:2); has to go hand in hand with works or deeds (James 2:18); and has to have virtue added to it (2 Pet 1:5).
Thinking on the many ways we can encourage one another: Ephesians 5:19,20 “addressing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody to the Lord with your heart, giving thanks always and for everything to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ,”
Thinking of encouraging one another – as I read Psalms 92 the words seemed to jump off the page. vs.2 It is good to proclaim our unfailing love in the morning, your faithfulness in the evening. vs. 4 You thrill me, Lord with all you have done for me! vs. 5 O Lord, what great works you do! How deep are your thoughts. vs. 10 But you have made me as strong as a wild ox. You have anointed me with the finest oil. vs. But the godly will flourish like palm trees and grow strong like the cedars of Lebanon. vs.13 For they are transplanted to the Lord’s own house. They flourish in the courts of our God. Vs 14 Even in OLD age they will still produce fruit, they will remain vital and green. Vs. They will declare,” The Lord is just! He is my ROCK! There is NO evil in HIM!
I read in a devotional this am these encouraging words, “The Holy Spirit is God with us to comfort and convict, to remind and renew, to guide and guard, to sustain and support.” The part that stood out in my mind was just how personal the Holy Spirt is with us. I have been giving thought on empowering one another and just how do we do this? . The fruits of the Spirit are; “love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control” (Galatians 5:22). If my thinking cap is right then I would walk around with these fruit attached to my hat! Right or wrong?
The footnotes for Galatians 5:22-23, from one of my Bibles, (NLT) says: “The fruit of the Spirit is the spontaneous work of the Holy Spirit in us. The Spirit produces these character traits that are found in the nature of Christ. They are the by-products of Christ’s control–we can’t obtain them by trying to get them without his help. If we want the fruit of the Spirit to grow in us, we must join our lift to his (see John 15:4,5). We must know him, love him, remember him, and imitate him. As a result, we will fulfill the intended purpose of the law–to love God and our neighbors. Which of these qualities do you want the Spirit to produce in you?”
Sara, you have asked:
If my thinking cap is right then I would walk around with these fruit attached to my hat! Right or wrong?
I believe you are right.
Reading Sara’s comment and question about the thinking cap and Tammy’s comment that the fruits are the by-product of Christ’s control sure seems to show the importance of having the right hat on in order to produce fruit and the need of receiving the help of the Holy Spirit.
I was reading in Ruth Paxson’s book ‘Life on the Highest Plane’ about Cain. Interestingly he produced fruit, but not fruit that was an acceptable offering to God. Paxson says, “He offered his best, the work of his hands, the fruitage of his toil. He needed not the help of anyone. And he expected God to accept his gift, the offering of a sinner still in his sins, and to call the account against him squared. Cain did not come to God “by faith” (Heb 11:14) but “by works”.” Paxson goes onto ask the readers later in the chapter, “Will you go the way of Cain, who presented to God as a sacrifice the finest fruit of his garden and the best product of his toil, or will you go the way of Abel who acknowledged his need of a Saviour, and accepted by faith God’s sacrifice.”