Encouragement Prevails

Isaiah 26:3 You keep him in perfect peace whose mind stays on you, because he trusts in you. Throughout the whole day, my daughter kept looking at the scrape on her knee. “There are holes in it!” (scabs) As well as going back to the cut on her finger. “My finger is broken!” I tried to reason with her every time she brought it up. “It’s getting better! It’s healing! God made your body to heal itself.” Time and time again she kept bringing them up, worried, and not convinced. Later on in the day, she asked if she could help me with dishes. “You can, but you have to wait. I just washed knives and they could hurt you. Don’t touch anything on the counter, because you could accidentally touch a knife and get cut. I don't want you to get hurt.” Her response? “If I get hurt God will heal me.” For the rest of the day, she did not refer to any of her owies again. The moment she spoke God’s truth over herself and received it, she didn’t have a worry. She knew God would heal her. That H...

During this time of uncertainty there is only one thing that can truly bring me peace. That can give me patience and peace. That one thing is God, the Holy Spirit. How though? How do I receive the fruit of the spirit? I believe. I've been baptized. I pray. I read the Bible. I check off and have checked off all of the things on the "list" and I don't have it! Revelation 3:20 Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with that person, and they with me. I'm standing at the other side of the door. Ready to let God in. I go to open it and it's stuck. I pull harder and harder! "God please take this fear away! Please take away my anxiety and stress, my anger. Why aren't you coming in!? I'm inviting you in! Please!" It's so easy to come to God in a panic. When I do I'm still having the fear, anxiety, anger, etc. be my main focus. Yes, I'm calling out to God, but...

Acts 10:15 The voice spoke to him a second time, “Do not call anything impure that God has made clean. I heard this as my husband sat in our hallway at our little girls door reading the bible out loud as she fell asleep. SO many things come to mind with this verse as well as this scene. During our time at home with our families, roommates, etc., we will be challenged and tempted in many ways. We are likely to be tempted to get impatient, lose our temper, shut down, be full of fear, and a lot more. When we give in to these things and slip up, we have to remember these words: “Do not call anything impure that God has made clean.” We have been made clean by God. We are not made impure by our slip-ups. He died for them before we were even in our mother’s wombs. When you slip-up don’t let Satan get a foothold with his whispers of “You’re not good enough” “You’re an awful ____ (parent, friend, spouse, person, etc.)”, but proclaim back “DO NOT call God’s child who He has made clean impu...