One of the things that God was strong about in the Old Testament, was that the people remembered Him and all His acts on their behalf. In Deuteronomy 6:12 the Israelites were encouraged to keep talking about the commandments to their children. God was also concerned that, when everything was going well for them, they […]
In James letter to the church, he encourages the Christians he is writing to, to ‘consider it pure joy whenever they face trials of many kinds’’ I think that there are two main reasons for giving thanks when we are facing trials. The first we looked at yesterday, the reason James himself gives. We thank […]
James’ letter to the church starts by encouraging the readers to ‘count it pure joy whenever you face trials of many kinds’ James 1 : 2 NIV. In other translations the encouragement is to ‘consider it all joy, when encountering various trials’ RSV . It’s a challenging exhortation to get our heads round in the […]
In Isaiah 12 we have a beautiful passage, a prophesy of the song that was going to be sung by Gods’ people, after He had redeemed them. A song which we, who have been redeemed by Jesus’ death and resurrection, can fully embrace and enjoy. In verse 3 we are told ‘With joy you will […]
Every morning when we get up and look at our day, we face things that need to be done, people to see or speak to, and choices to be made. Some of those things we will enjoy, some we will do easily and some will present us with fresh challenges. As we start each day, […]
Yesterday we were looking at how waiting on the Lord helps us to renew our strength. Today I want to look at another source of supernatural strengthening, the angels. In Hebrews 1 : 14 we are told that angels are ‘ministering spirits sent to serve those who will inherit salvation’. They serve us and they […]
In Isaiah 40 : 28-31, we read that the Lord, the creator of the universe, doesn’t ‘grow tired or weary’ and also that ‘He gives strength to the weary and increases the power of the weak’. The new strength and power is promised to those who ‘wait for the Lord’ or ‘wait upon the Lord’. […]
Yesterday, we talked about how thanksgiving can enhance our appreciation of the people in our lives, and enrich our friendships. I believe thanksgiving is important, for the difficult and challenging people in our lives also. They too can be a blessing to us, if we allow the Holy Spirit to be our helper on our […]
We attended the funeral yesterday of an old friend, and in the course of preparing a short appreciation of him for the service, Mark, my husband, got out some old photos of holidays and times shared together, and we fell to reminiscing about our friendship of some 40 years. We had always enjoyed and valued […]
I was impressed this morning by the simplicity of the statement GIVE THANKS, It’s different to ‘being thankful, or even having a heart of gratitude. It’s an activity, a choice, and wonderfully it is something everyone can do. We don’t need money, education, status, or any particular skill. It is in fact one of the […]