Fantastic Friday #234-Distress

Distress

¹ May the LORD answer you when you are in distress;
may the name of the God of Jacob protect you.

² May he send you help from the sanctuary
and grant you support from Zion.

³ May he remember all your sacrifices
and accept your burnt offerings.
Selah

⁴ May he give you the desire of your heart
and make all your plans succeed.

⁵ We will shout for joy when you are victorious
and will lift up our banners in the name of our God.
May the LORD grant all your requests.

⁶ Now I know that the LORD saves his anointed;
he answers him from his holy heaven
with the saving power of his right hand.

⁷ Some trust in chariots and some in horses,
but we trust in the name of the LORD our God.

⁸ They are brought to their knees and fall,
but we rise up and stand firm.

⁹ O LORD, save the king!
Answer us when we call! Psalm 20

What feelings and emotions have you had this week? Did your feelings run the flagpole from being firmly grounded, to flapping in the wind with no way to understand your direction? When reviewing an old email from my friend Kevin today, he reminded me that Lord is the true One to provide inspiration and relief. I often wonder why we forget that God knows the desires of our heart. Whatever distress that is in your heart, you must know that God will send help for you. So all of those emotions and feelings we tend to suppress, we should probably release those to the Lord who always answers when we call. We just have to be careful not to wait for an answer we are expecting but wait in expectation for the answer which He will provide.

Have great weekend.

Fantastic Friday #233-Sound

Sound

1 But as for you, communicate the behavior that goes with sound teaching. 2 Older men are to be temperate, dignified, self-controlled, sound in faith, in love, and in endurance. 3 Older women likewise are to exhibit behavior fitting for those who are holy, not slandering, not slaves to excessive drinking, but teaching what is good. Titus 2:1-3

Do you ever find yourself listening to the sounds around you? I heard this week something that I had before mentioning that smell is the most powerful of the senses that we have. They also said hearing would not be so high on the list, which for me makes perfect sense. This explains why I am so easily distracted by something that smells good or is visually appealing. Maybe that is why the evil one uses things visually that can easily distract you from one of our lesser senses. That makes me think that I need, and maybe we all need to work on improving our sense of hearing. The best way to do that is probably to sit down and listen to Him and His Word and see what He is saying. Another way to do it is to sit in silence and listen to the sounds around us, and I bet you will probably hear something you haven't heard before. Listen to Him in order to become more dignified and sound in your faith.

Have a great weekend.

Fantastic Friday #232-Gives

Gives

³⁴ Proclaim the power of God,
whose majesty is over Israel,
whose power is in the skies.

³⁵ You are awesome, O God, in your sanctuary;
the God of Israel gives power and strength to his people.
Praise be to God! Psalm 68:34-35

Have you heard the statement the Lord gives us only what we can handle . How many times do some of us sit there and think that is so true; but then something happens and we say to ourselves, "I can't deal with this." If you notice, I had that statement in quotes, and maybe that is because that was an exact quote from me this week. Why is it we forget so quickly what God has for us and that we aren't supposed to handle it or deal with it by ourselves. Maybe we need to focus less on the "I" statements and focus more on the "He" statements. He has given this to teach me. He has been there to support me. He has given me power and strength to deal with this. He is the reason I am who I am. Just remember that when you are telling yourself you can't deal with something it is probably very true, because we truly aren't handling it, He is through His Power and Strength He has given us.

Fantastic Friday #231- Backup

Backup

¹⁴Alexander the metalworker did me a great deal of harm. The Lord will repay him for what he has done. ¹⁵You too should be on your guard against him, because he strongly opposed our message.

¹⁶At my first defense, no one came to my support, but everyone deserted me. May it not be held against them. ¹⁷But the Lord stood at my side and gave me strength, so that through me the message might be fully proclaimed and all the Gentiles might hear it. And I was delivered from the lion's mouth. ¹⁸The Lord will rescue me from every evil attack and will bring me safely to his heavenly kingdom. To him be glory for ever and ever. Amen. 2 Timothy 4:14-18

When you are working on something, do you have a backup if things don't go according to the way you had planned. Do you remember in school working on a presentation with a group, and having a backup in case the preparation wasn't going quite the way you thought it was going because someone wasn't doing their part? I saw a perfect example of a backup play at my one of my son's baseball games this week, when he backed up the third baseman and actually got a runner out at third. Who do you turn to for your backup when things just aren't going right? Do you turn to a co-worker you might not be able to trust, or someone that says they are your friend but actually is just an acquaintance? Or, do you just try to rely on your own way to get out of the trouble you are in? Why not let the Lord be your backup/support and let Him guide you in the direction you need to go. He is always there, and is backing you up every single moment of every day. Have faith in how He can lead you.

Fantastic Friday #230-Shameless

Shameful

¹ Gather together, gather together,
O shameful nation,

² before the appointed time arrives
and that day sweeps on like chaff,
before the fierce anger of the LORD comes upon you,
before the day of the LORD's wrath comes upon you.

³ Seek the LORD, all you humble of the land,
you who do what he commands.
Seek righteousness, seek humility;
perhaps you will be sheltered
on the day of the LORD's anger. Zephaniah 2:1-3

A friend of mine asked me about the book of Zephaniah this week and that was timely. Looking around this week I saw some things that were pretty shameful in how people were acting. It was like they didn't care about the people they were around and how those people were impacted by what they said or did. While I wasn't finding myself falling into trap of shamefulness, I was skirting that border of some anger towards those people, which in its form could be shameful. Shameful has a true meaning of being atrocious. Now that's a word we can all relate a picture to or have experienced. How I don't want to be atrocious in the sight of the Lord and be one of those people that the His anger comes upon. I would rather be that humble individual seeking righteousness and be sheltered by the Lord on the day of His anger. Avoid being shameful and focus on being humble, maybe you can have an impact on those around you.