Our standing never changes. The moment we accept Jesus as our Savior, we step into an eternal relationship. Ephesians 1:13 says, “In Him you also trusted, after you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation; in whom also, having believed, you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise.”

We were placed in a foundation that will never be shaken. 2 Timothy 2:19 says, “Nevertheless the solid foundation of God stands, having this seal: The Lord knows those who are His, and, Let everyone who names the name of Christ depart from iniquity.”

This is where our state meets our standing. Does our state of mind change? Yes. It changes myriad times. We can go from happy to sad in one moment of time. Yet when we are facing an impossibility, it is our standing that gives us stability.

Hebrews 6:18 says, “That by two immutable things, in which it is impossible for God to lie, we might have strong consolation, who have fled for refuge to lay hold of the hope set before us.” This verse speaks of our standing.

Many of the words in the Psalms go from despair (state) to hope (standing). Our hope is an anchor in the midst of the storms of life. It is through these storm-trials that the Lord develops our character. His purpose is that we will exemplify Him.

The enemy does everything in his power to lead us astray. Psalm 119:28 says, “My soul melts from heaviness; strengthen me according to Your word.” Our soul melts (state) but it is strengthened through the word which will never be altered or changed (standing).

Psalm 119:89 says, “Forever, O Lord, Your word is settled in heaven.” Isaiah 55:11 says that God’s word will never return to Him void. Titus 1:2 says, “In hope of eternal life which God, who cannot lie, promised before time began.”

When we face temptations or impossible circumstances (state) we can immediately stand in truth. Mark 11:22 says, “…Have faith in God.” We error when we put our faith in what we HOPE God will do.

David wrote Psalm 62:5. It says, “My soul, wait silently for God alone, for my expectation is from Him.” I want to recap a time in David’s life where he went from a tumultuous state of mind to peace and clear direction.

He and his men were emotionally exhausted. They even spoke of stoning him. What did he do? 1 Samuel 30:6 says, “…But David strengthened himself in the Lord his God.” In verse 8 he inquired of the Lord and received specific direction.

In Psalm 61:2, David’s heart was overwhelmed. He cried out to the Lord. In verse 3 he stood in the midst of his state of being overwhelmed. It says, “For You have been a shelter for me, a strong tower from the enemy.” Let us copy his example the next time we face an impossibility. When our state of mind says, ‘I can’t,’ we stand in what we know to be true. That is the journey of progressive sanctification.

No matter what hard trial we are in, the Lord uses it all. He never puts us on a shelf! Even in our deepest pain, He redeems it all. Nothing you have gone through or are going through is in vain.

I remember reading Joni Eareckson’s first book: Joni. It has a picture of her with a brush between her teeth. She wrote, ‘I want my thoughts to praise the Lord.’ That came to mind one night when I went into lock down paralysis from my fall into the ravine.

I was quoting Psalm 145:1-3 in my mind to keep from panicking. As my mind began to slow down, I asked the Lord, ‘Please help my last thoughts to be of praise to You.’ Joni’s life was and is a tremendous encouragement to me and countless others.

She speaks and writes from her crucible trial. Even though she could not move on her own, she praised the Lord through her thoughts. He never put her on a shelf. Remember from Psalm 22:3 that God inhabits our praises.

Think of Nick Vujicic. He was born without arms or legs. The Lord has used him in a unique ministry that touches folks in ways no other way can. I’ve watched his videos, and I’ve read several of his books.

Amy Carmichael (1867-1951) had a vibrant ministry. She was a missionary in India that rescued little babies and young girls from temple prostitution. One night she stepped into an old abandoned well and shattered her ankle. That stopped her in her tracks. Did that finish her ministry? No, it expanded and enhanced it in many ways to reach more people in their present pain.

She never left her bed after that fall. Yet, wrote countless books, and still was the overseer for the orphanage in Donhavur. Her book “Rose From Brier” helped me through a difficult time of physical pain. She lived in pain and wrote from her crucible of pain.

It does not matter what has happened to us. What matters is how we process it to acceptance. In Jeremiah 18, the Lord told His prophet to go to the house of the potter. Verse 4 says, “And the vessel that he made of clay was marred in the hand of the potter; so he made it again into another vessel, as it seemed good to the potter to make.”

Our hard trials cause marring, and we are never the same. Yet our Merciful, Compassionate Potter uses everything in our lives to conform us to His image. That is His purpose. Romans 8:29 says, “For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son…”

We can take heart in Philippians 1:6. It says, “Being confident of this very thing, that He who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ.” No matter what situation we are in, we can gaze upon the Lord. It is through our intimate communion with Him that He sustains us and empowers us to be all that He has called us to be ~ in each and every circumstance of our lives.

Ephesians 1:7-8 in the Amplified says, “In Him we have redemption (deliverance and salvation) through His blood, the remission (forgiveness) of our offenses (shortcomings and trespasses), in accordance with the riches and generosity of His gracious favor, 

which He lavished upon us in every kind of wisdom and understanding (practical insight and prudence).” Lavish means extravagant. Romans 5:5 is in reference to the progressional benefits of our trials that end in hope. 

It says, “Now hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us.” Poured out and overflowing love, filling every nook, cranny, and crevice in our hearts.

Have you ever looked back and wished that you had not acted like you did, said the words that spewed out of your mouth, or lived in regret? That is the devil’s trick. His lies are meant to control and bring us into destruction.

Redemption is always a forward motion. Elisha is a great example for us. Elijah threw his mantle on Elisha. What did Elisha do? 1 Kings 19:21 says that he, “…took a yoke of oxen and slaughtered them and boiled their flesh, using the oxen’s equipment, and gave it to the people…Then he arose and followed Elijah, and became his servant.”

Elisha burned his bridges. His means of livelihood were destroyed and he never turned back. Luke 9:62 were Jesus’ words to those who offered excuses. It says, “…No one, having put his hand to the plow, and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God.”

The word ‘fit’ in the Greek means useful, well-placed, appropriate. We lose out on ministry opportunities when we keep looking back to our past. 2 Corinthians 5:17 says that at salvation we became new creations. The verse says, “…old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.”

Your past is passed. It is gone and forgiven. Don’t look back to something that the Lord has redeemed for His purposes. Proverbs 25:11 says, “A word fitly spoken is like apples of gold in settings of silver.” Your hard trials have equipped you to speak fit, well-placed, and appropriate words that will encourage and strengthen another in their trial.

Isaiah 50:4 was written about the Lord, but we can apply it to ourselves. It says, “The Lord God has given Me the tongue of the learned, that I should know how to speak a word in season to him who is weary. He awakens Me morning by morning, He awakens My ear to hear as the learned.”

The words that the Lord spoke to us in our trial, those crucible words are timeless. In our season of trouble they were our strength. As we speak to one who is weary in their trial, they will be strengthened in their inner man. They are words of redemption that will lift their heart, and hold up their hands that hang down.

Jeremiah 2:17 says, “Have you not brought this on yourself, in that you have forsaken  the Lord your God when He led you in the way?” As I read this verse, I wrote a question in my journal. ‘Lord, what have I brought upon myself because I forsook Your way?’ I no sooner wrote it when the Holy Spirit reminded me that nothing is in vain.

It is not wise to look back and wish that something had not happened in your life. Nothing is in vain because God redeems it all. We serve a merciful Lord. Psalm 136 has 26 verses. Each one ends with, “…for His mercy endures forever.”

Jeremiah said that God’s mercies are new every morning. New mercies means that every morning when we wake up, we step into a new day full of mercy. Last night was yesterday. It is now in your past. When you went to sleep, the past hours of that day were done.

Everything that ever happened in our lives is recorded in our brain. Every emotion, feeling, nuance of every event is on file. That is why unresolved issues surface when we least expect them. I like to think of my life in the hands of my Loving Potter.

He uses my adversities and hard trials to center me on Himself. After I fell into the ravine in 1977 my health went into a rapid decline. I didn’t remember the fall for 3 1/2 years so I had no reference to why things were cascading down.

It was through those bedridden years that the Lord wooed me to Himself. I had never read about anyone’s experience like I was going through. I had no previous understanding. He captured my heart. I did not know it at the time, but He was using our intimate communion as His preparation for a ministry that would take years in the making. His heart-words opened wounds that I thought I had hidden. He knows yours also. 

The multiple brain injuries are my assets. They taught me how to lean hard on His grace, and to seek Him for wisdom to navigate through their uncharted territory. They are an essential part of my life because through them He enables me to continually fulfill 2 Corinthians 1:4. Without them? I would have nothing to say.

You have the same opportunities. The verse says, “Who comforts us in all our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort those who are in any trouble, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God.”

Your trials are unique to you. No one else has ever been through exactly what you have. Yet, there are countless who are hurting now just as you hurt. Hurt is universal and comes in myriad ways. 

He takes our emotional pain and redeems it for His purposes. He takes our ashes, and through His redemptive work, turns them into words spun with tender love that is a healing balm to another’s wounded heart. 

We have a responsibility before the Lord to implement the insights that He gives us. We need to be good stewards or we will be like those in Mark 4:19. Other things will creep in and choke the word so it does not bear fruit.

1 John 1:6 says, “If we say that we have fellowship with Him, and walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth.” Here is my paraphrase: if I ‘say’ that I have intimate communion with the Lord, and continue to walk in my flesh, then I am lying and not being a doer of His word. That brings it right up close and personal.

In 1967 the Lord spoke words into my heart that broke through a lot of emotional barriers. ‘You have not esteemed My word more than your necessary food.’ It was the reverse of Job 23:12 which says, “I have not departed from the commandments of His lips; I have treasured the words of His mouth more than my necessary food.”

1 John 1:8, 10 say, “If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar, and His word is not in us.”

The Holy Spirit brings conviction as we daily read God’s word. However, if we don’t confess what He has convicted us of, we are like the verse in James 1:23-24. We are hearing but not doing and therefore deceiving ourselves ~ forgetting our fleshly reactions are sin.

1 John 2:4, 6, and 9 all use the words, “He who says…” We have to ask ourselves: what am I saying that I am doing but I am not? That makes us double-minded and therefore unstable according to James 1:7-8. Here is our stability. 

Psalm 15:2-5 says: walk uprightly, speak truth in our heart, not backbiting, not doing evil to our neighbor, nor expressing disapproval against a friend, despising vileness, honoring those who fear the Lord, doing what we say we will do no matter what the consequences are, not charging interest, or taking bribes against those who are innocent. Verse 5 ends with, “…He who does these things shall never be moved.”

It all boils down to this: are we daily living out the gospel through our interactions? We came to Christ acknowledging that we are sinners and in need of His saving grace. Progressive sanctification is walking out our salvation in each situation.

Philippians 2:12-13 says, “…work out your own salvation with fear and trembling: for it is God who works in you both to will and to do for His good pleasure.” The fear of the Lord means to revere and worship Him. 

What is praise? It is exultation, high honor, esteem, and reverence. It comes from a heart that dwells in His love moment by moment. We are created to glorify the only One who embodies love. 1 John 4:8 says that God is love. 

Jeremiah 2 is the Lord’s indictment against Israel. In verse 2 He says, “..I remember you, the kindness of your youth, the love of your betrothal, when you went after Me in the wilderness, in a land not sown.”

‘Kindness’ in the Hebrews conveyed the concept of covenant loyalty, love, and faithfulness. Betrothal was like a marriage vow. In verse 3 He called them, “…holiness to the Lord.” Israel was set apart by the Lord for Himself.

When they entered the land, they did not drive out all of the inhabitants. They learned their ways, and worshiped their gods. They decided to go their own way. They ceased to go after the Lord.

Hebrews 3:12-13 is a warning to us. It says, “Beware, brethren, lest there be in any of an evil heart of unbelief in departing from the living God…lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin.”

Jeremiah 2:13 described that departure. It says, “For My people have committed two evils: they have forsaken Me, the fountain of living waters, and hewn themselves cisterns—broken cisterns that can hold no water.”

Anything that we do in our flesh is like a broken cistern that can hold no water. Verse 11 says, “Has a nation changed its gods, which are not gods? But My people have changed their Glory for what does not profit.”

John 6:63 says that our flesh profits nothing. When we hear God’s word through our fleshly heart, we will do nothing about it. If our motives are flesh driven, we will error and fall short of God’s glory.

I have been really challenged as I am memorizing verses in Psalm 119. Verse 30 says, “I have chosen the way of truth; Your judgments I have laid before me.” Ask yourself: have I laid God’s word before me so that I will continually walk in His truth? Have I laid anything before me that will cause me to stumble?

Psalm 16:8 says, “I have set the Lord always before me; because He is at my right hand I shall not be moved.” Psalm 86:11 says, “Teach me Your way, O Lord; I will walk in Your truth; unite my heart to fear Your name.”

Have you ever wanted to complain or rail against some injustice in your life? Have you ever said, ‘I can’t take this anymore’ as you faced hardship? Maybe you rebelliously said, ‘I won’t’ when asked to do something? Before the words come out of your mouth, discipline your thoughts. Bring them captive to the obedience of Christ as instructed in 2 Corinthians 10:5. 

Hebrews 13:15 is our mandate. It says, “Therefore by Him let us continually offer the sacrifice of praise to God, that is the fruit of our lips, giving thanks to His name.” The discipline of praise aligns us with God’s will as stated in 1 Thessalonians 5:18. “In everything give thanks; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.”

Psalm 34:1 says, “I will bless the Lord at all times; His praise shall continually be in my mouth.” Verbally saying, ‘I will’ is decisive action to align our will with God’s. Verse 2-3 says, “My soul shall makes its boast in the Lord; the humble shall hear of it and be glad. Oh, magnify the Lord with me, and let us exalt His name together.”

The Hebrew word for continually means: constantly, always, evermore, and perpetually.  Therein lies our challenge. Our flesh would much rather complain, rail, or rebel at commands. Psalm 119:7 says, “I will praise You with uprightness of heart, when I learn Your righteous judgments.” 

Righteousness, according to Hebrews 12:11 Amplified is, “…in conformity to God’s will in purpose, thought, and action…” How is wet clay conformed in wheel pottery? The blob of wet clay has to have steady pressure applied in order to center it. What an illustration of our will! The Lord uses hard circumstances to center us on Him.

When we praise Him through His centering process, our will easily conforms. All we think of is Him and how He is worthy of our praise. Psalm 119:16 says, “I will delight myself in Your statutes, I will not forget Your word.” In the Psalm that Asaph wrote, he was languishing. Psalm 77:10 says, “…This is my anguish; but I will remember the years of the right hand of the Most High.”

In his time of trouble he began to complain and question God. Everything turned around for him when he was determined to praise the Lord. Verse 11-12 says, “I will remember the works of the Lord; surely I will remember Your wonders of old. I will also meditate on all Your work, and talk of Your deeds.” Jeremiah did the same thing.

In Lamentations 3:1-20 he was complaining and languishing in his bitter dialogue. Yet he turned it all around through praise. Verse 21 says, “This I recall to my mind, therefore I have hope.” Where was his hope? In God alone. Verses 22-24 are his declaration. We have often eaten from the fruit of his lips praising the Lord.

They say, “Through the Lord’s mercies we are not consumed, because His compassions fail not. They are new every morning; great is Your faithfulness. The Lord is my portion, says my soul, therefore I hope in Him!” We can turn our thoughts from despair to triumph, from negativity to affirmation in a moment. Let us echo Psalm 146:2 which says, “While I live I will praise the Lord; I will sing praises to my God while I have my being.”

I want to look at a few verses in two of David’s Psalms. Psalm 22:3 says, “But You are holy, enthroned in the praises of Israel.” The Hebrew word for ‘enthroned’ means: to sit down, to remain, to settle, or marry.

Psalm 68:1-2 says, “Let God arise, let His enemies be scattered; let those also who hate Him flee before Him. As smoke is driven away, so drive them away; as wax melts before the fire, so let the wicked perish at the presence of God.”

Verse 7-8 says, “O God, when You went out before Your people, when You marched through the wilderness, the earth shook; the heavens also dropped rain at the presence of God; Sinai itself was moved at the presence of God, the God of Israel.”

Think back to that scene. Exodus 19:18 says, “Now Mount Sinai was completely in smoke, because the Lord descended upon it in fire. Its smoke ascended like the smoke of a furnace, and the whole mountain quaked greatly.” 

Verse 16 says that the children of Israel were terrified. Yet look at verse 20. It says, “…And the Lord called Moses to the top of the mountain, and Moses went up.” In 1997 we were in Costa Rica on a short term mission trip. Our team stood at the base of a mountain that was considered an active volcano. Though it had not erupted for years, it was rumbling. It was a defining moment for me.

The Lord demonstrated His holiness to the children of Israel. He told Moses to go down and warn the people in verse 21. Verse 24 says, “…do not let the priests and the people break through to come up to the Lord, lest He break out against them.” 

He is Sovereign over all. Yet, when we praise Him, He enthrones our praises. The enemy cannot enter that realm. Psalm 47:1-2 says, “Oh, clap your hands, all you peoples! Shout to God with the voice of triumph! For the Lord Most High is awesome; He is a great King over all the earth.”

What happened when the children of Israel shouted after they had marched around the walls of Jericho seven times? Joshua 6:20 says, “…And it happened when the people heard the sound of the trumpet, and the people shouted with a great shout, that the wall fell down flat…”

No impossibility can stand in opposition to the Lord’s purposed pathway for His people. We see this played out in 2 Chronicles 20. King Jehoshaphat said in verse 12, “…For we have no power against this great multitude that is coming against us; nor do we know what to do, but our eyes are upon You.”

The Lord reminded them in verse 15 that the battle was His. Verse 17 says, “You will not need to fight in this battle. Position yourselves, stand still and see the salvation  of the Lord…Do not fear or be dismayed…for the Lord is with you.”

God’s strategy through praise defeated their enemy. Verse 21-22 says, “…he appointed those who should sing to the Lord, and who should praise the beauty of holiness, as they went out before the army and were saying, Praise the Lord, for His mercy endures forever. Now when they began to sing and to praise, the Lord set ambushes…and they were defeated.”

The Lord is always present, yet He specifically ‘presents’ Himself when we praise Him. Psalm 146, 147, 148, 149, 150 all end the same. “…Praise the Lord!” Psalm 150:6 says, “Let everything that has breath praise the Lord. Praise the Lord!”

I love to think about the word pictures in Psalm 149:6-9. It says, “Let the high praises of God be in their mouth, and a two-edged sword in their hand, to execute vengeance on the nations, and punishments on the peoples; to bind their kings with chains, and their nobles with fetters of iron; to execute on them the written judgment—this honor have all His saints. Praise the Lord!”

Our praise: executes vengeance, punishments, binds with chains those who stand against our God and His ways. Think of what is taking place in the nations right now in our time of history. Yet, Psalm 2:4 says, “He who sits in the heavens shall laugh; the Lord shall hold them in derision.” 

I use this verse in spiritual warfare. I say something like: Lord, let those who oppose You and Your ways hear Your laughter of derision in heaven and cause them to shake in their boots in terror!

Psalm 119:7 says, “I will praise You with uprightness of heart, when I learn Your righteous judgments.” We learn about the Lord as we daily read through His word. He declares Himself to those who love Him.

John 14:21 says, “He who has My commandments and keeps them, it is he who loves Me. And he who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I will love him and manifest Myself to him.”

Manifest in the Greek means to cause to shine, to appear, come to view, reveal, exhibit, make visible, present oneself in the sight of another, be conspicuous. How does the Lord do this? Through His word.

Psalm 25:14 Amplified says, “The secret ( of the sweet, satisfying companionship) of the Lord have they who fear (revere and worship) Him, and He will show them His covenant and reveal to them its (deep, inner) meaning.”

1 Corinthians 2:10 Amplified says, “Yet to us God has unveiled and revealed them by and through his Spirit, for the (Holy) Spirit searches diligently, exploring and examining everything, even sounding the profound and bottomless things of God (the divine counsels and things hidden and beyond man’s scrutiny).”

I don’t know about you, but I want to know the way the Lord works. Psalm 119:27 is the verse I’m memorizing right now. It says, “Make me understand the way of Your precepts; so shall I meditate on Your wonderful works.” Let us stand, and keep on standing, through wielding our mighty weapons of meditating and praise!

In 2016 the Lord would wake me up and give me what He wanted me to meditate on. It was often just a phrase from a verse. He gave me rich insights. When I got up in the morning I started typing the things that He had given me. As I typed He added verses and definitions.

In seven and one half months He gave me 35 short ebooks. From those ebooks, He had me compile seven ebooks into one paperback. That work all stopped abruptly with a severe brain injury 1/2/17. The work did not start up again until 2019.

Recently I have begun to memorize again. Before now it has been such a struggle. However, I am doing something that I have not done before. I am meditating as I am repeating each phrase of the verse. The repetition is seeding His word into my heart.

I’m not going for a long term word perfect. He is perfecting my thoughts as I am working at memorizing. The operative word for me is ‘working’ because it is a process. When I was young, memorizing was part of my life. I am actively taking back that ground.

All temptation to sin is spiritual warfare. Where does the warfare take place? In our thoughts. The battlefield is our mind. Our enemy lost at the cross. He was defeated. Colossians 2:15 says, “Having disarmed principalities and powers, He made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them in it.”

Yet, our enemy uses myriad forms (wiles) in an effort to regain control through his fiery dart lies. Ephesians 6:11 is our instruction. It says, “Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil.” The Greek for these schemings is travesty. We might better understand it as deceptive measures.

James 1:14 says, “But each one is tempted when he is drawn away by his own desires and enticed.” That means that there was some hidden desire that was percolating through our thoughts.

How do we meditate? Through our thoughts. We can easily see why satan would war against our mind through lies. 2 Corinthians 10:3 reminds us that, “For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh.”

Verse 4 says, “For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds.” Here is a verse that I just memorized that set these thoughts into motion.

Psalm 119:23 says, “Princes also sit and speak against me, but Your servant meditates on Your statutes.” Who are these princes? Ephesians 1:21 was in reference to the Lord Jesus who is seated, “…at His right hand in the heavenly places, far above all principality and power and might and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this age but also in that which is to come.”

Here is another verse about them. Colossians 1:16 says, “For by Him all things were created that are in heaven and that are on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers. All things were created through Him and for Him.”

Meditating on God’s word seeds it into our heart. It begins to spread out and take over real estate. It expands our capacity to hold truth, and squeezes out any negative thought patterns that have set themselves up against the knowledge of God. It is His hidden word that allows us to meditate anytime of the day or night, and in any and all circumstances.