bible

Power Of Intention~Part One

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David often used two words in his psalms that stated his intention. “I will” primes the pump. It signals our brain that we intend to do something, then our brain instructs our body for action. 

I was thinking about this as I started to memorize David’s Psalm 111. Verse 1 says, “Praise the Lord! I will praise the Lord with my whole heart…” Our flesh can be the enemy of our intentions. “I will” states intention, but David’s use of ‘whole heart’ involved his reliance on the Lord.

Case in point is Psalm 86:11. David was looking to the Lord. It says, “Teach me Your way, O Lord; I will walk in Your truth; unite my heart to fear Your name.” David’s intention remained focused on the Lord. Verse 12 says, “I will praise You, O Lord my God, with all my heart, and I will glorify Your name forevermore.”

Created To Praise ~ Part One

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I memorized Psalm 96. Next I started memorizing Psalm 98. It starts out like Psalm 96 did. Verse 1 says, “Oh, sing to the Lord a new song! For He has done marvelous things…” He is the subject of our new songs. I love to wake up singing little songs that bubble up when I focus on Him.

Here is something that I noted in both psalms. Creation gets involved. Psalm 96:11-12 incorporates the heavens, earth, sea, field, and all the trees of the woods. In Psalm 98 it is the sea, the world and all who dwell in it. I love verse 8. Just picture it as you read the words. “Let the rivers clap their hands; let the hills be joyful together.”

What is creation’s focus? Psalm 96:13 says, “For He is coming, for He is coming to judge the earth. He shall judge the world with righteousness, and  the peoples with His truth.”

Trials Purify Our Faith~Part Two

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Let’s look at Peter’s purifying trial. In Luke 22:31, Jesus told Peter that satan desired to sift him as wheat. Chilling words. Then Jesus assured him in verse 32. Jesus said, “But I have prayed for you, that your faith should not fail; and when you have returned to Me, strengthen your brethren.”

Jesus’ words indicated to Peter that he would leave Jesus. Yet in verse 33 Peter boldly proclaimed, “…Lord, I am ready to go with You, both to prison and to death.”

Three times in the following verses Peter denied that he knew Jesus. How does our faith deny the Lord? One way is when we turn to our flesh. Galatians 5:16 is a command. “…Walk in the Spirit…”

Crucible. Refiner’s fire. Trial. Test. The words are synonymous with loss. 1 Corinthians 3:13 says, “…the fire will test each one’s work, of what sort it is.” Trials often expose and reveal what was formerly hidden from our conscious mind.

Sing A New Song! Part Two

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For the Lord is great and greatly to be praised; He is to be feared above all gods. For all the gods of the peoples are idols, But the Lord made the heavens. Honor and majesty are before Him; Strength and beauty are in His sanctuary.

Give to the Lord, O families of the peoples, Give to the Lord glory and strength. Give to the Lord the glory due His name; Bring an offering, and come into His courts. Oh, worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness! Tremble before Him, all the earth.

Say among the nations, “The Lord reigns; The world also is firmly established, It shall not be moved; He shall judge the peoples righteously.”

Let the heavens rejoice, and let the earth be glad; Let the sea roar, and all its fullness; Let the field be joyful, and all that is in it. Then all the trees of the woods will rejoice before the Lord. For He is coming, for He is coming to judge the earth. He shall judge the world with righteousness, And the peoples with His truth.”

Sing A New Song! Part One

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I started to memorize Psalm 96. Verse 1 says, “Oh, sing to the Lord a new song! Sing to the Lord all the earth.” Then I looked at a note in my Bible. This psalm comes from David’s psalm in 1 Chronicles 16:8-36.

Let me set the stage for you. 1 Chronicles 15:28 says that King David and all Israel, “…brought up the ark of the covenant of the Lord with shouting and with the sound of the horn, with trumpets and with cymbals, making music with stringed instruments and harps.” 

Verse 29 says that King David was whirling and playing music. As I am repeating verse 1 over and over, I am picturing this great assembly of praise. Psalm 96 is so jubilant with heartfelt worship. 

It says, “Oh, sing to the Lord a new song! Sing to the Lord, all the earth. Sing to the Lord, bless His name; Proclaim the good news of His salvation from day to day. Declare His glory among the nations, His wonders among all peoples.

The Power Of Crying Out~Part Two

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We cry out because we have One who always hears. Psalm 16:6 says, “I have called upon You, for You will hear me, O God…” Psalm 34:17 says, “The righteous cry out, and the Lord hears, and delivers them out of all their troubles.”

In Psalm 55:17, David wrote, “Evening and morning and at noon I will pray, and cry aloud, and He shall hear my voice.” Psalm 18:6 says, “In my distress I called upon the Lord, and cried out to my God; He heard my voice from His temple, and my cry came before Him, even to His ears.”

I love these verses. Crying out comes from a heart that knows unless the Lord intervenes, there is no hope. Psalm 61:1 says, “Hear my cry, O God; attend to my prayer. From the end of the earth I will cry to You…” Are you in desperate straits? Cry out! We demonstrate where our trust is when we cry out.

The Power Of Crying Out~Part One

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There is only One who is always attentive. Not one iota of our lives is outside of the Lord’s attention. I wrote this to a mentee: Here is a good definition for a mental rut ~ falling into the same negative thought patterns that keep us stuck. 

Case in point. You wrote, “But the fear part of me is still around…” That is rut thinking. We fall into that pattern of spiraling down the moment we are triggered.

Psalm 66:18 says, “If I regard  iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear.” Proverbs 4:23 is great admonishment. We need to diligently guard our hearts from falling into the ruts of self-reliance, self-effort, or doing things in our own strength. It is sin.

Psalm 119:147 says, “I rise before the dawning of the morning, and cry for help; I hope in Your word.” Read this cry. Daniel 9:19 says, “O Lord, hear! O Lord, forgive! O Lord, listen and act!…”

God’sWay

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This is my online devotional that I write for once a month. We have many writers, so if you would like to receive these, the subscription link is at the bottom ~ Marilyn

GOD’S WAY TO PROTECT OUR HEARTS

APRIL 19 2024, WRITTEN BY MARILYN ADAMS

Keep your heart with all vigilance, for from it flow the springs of life.PROVERBS 4:23What happens when we fail to vigilantly guard our hearts? Here is a comparison from my own life. I had a medical condition called a leaky gut. It occurred when I was unknowingly exposed to live mold spores in my home. God created a thin barrier in our guts to prevent foreign things from getting into our bloodstream. When pathogens, viruses, or in my case environmental toxins, tear holes in that lining, harmful substances leak out. That creates a plethora of diseases.Now correlate that with our hearts. God created our hearts to hold truths from his word through meditating and memorizing. The enemy seeks to tear holes in our hearts so that they are no longer sealed with a barrier of truth.

Ephesians 6:16-17 tells us how to prevent the devil from gaining entrance to our hearts. It says, “In all circumstances take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming darts of the evil one; and take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.” The destructive hidden pathogens of unforgiveness, bitterness, resentment, hatred, etc. tear holes in our hearts’ lining that affect our spiritual health.

All fiery darts are lies. If we allow them to penetrate our minds, they will set up an inner stronghold. Then the battle no longer comes from the outside, but from within our hearts.Hiding God’s word in our hearts puts holes in those inner strongholds of Satan, to weaken them. The truth we inculcate through memorizing and meditating on Scripture, causes the foundation of those strongholds to crumble.

Dear Lord, I am so grateful that you have given me your hidden word to defeat the evil designs against my faith. Thank you for giving me a powerful tool through memorizing and meditating. I love your way of effectively building strong protective barriers in my heart!

Today’s challenge: If you are not already memorizing and meditating on scripture regularly, why not start? Many people find music helps – simply search “Scripture Memory Songs” and you’ll find many online. Or download a Bible memory app. Again, you will find a number to choose from.

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Faith: Key To Endurance

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The Greek word for endurance is hupomone. Strong’s definition: constancy, perseverance, continuance, bearing up, steadfastness, holding out. Note in my Bible. It describes the capacity to continue to bear up under difficult circumstances, not with a passive complacency, but with a hopeful fortitude that actively resists weariness and defeat.

Faith in God is the key to endurance. Endurance clings to the Lord in barnacle faith ~ allowing nothing to shake or uproot it. I love Psalm 63:8 in the Amplified. It says, “My whole being follows hard after You and clings closely to You; Your right hand upholds me.”

Thanksgiving is the fertilizer to our faith rooted in love. Ephesians 3:17 says, “That Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; that you, being rooted and grounded in love.” 

Meditating in God’s word sends our roots deep into the river of God. Psalm 1:3 says it, “…brings forth its fruit in its season, whose leaf also shall not wither; and whatever he does shall prosper.”

Faith: Rooted In The Soil Of Truth

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Faith is aligning our heart’s belief with God’s will and ways. That is the work of righteousness. Isaiah 32:17 says, “The work of righteousness will be peace, and the effect of righteousness, quietness and assurance forever.”

The work of righteousness in our trials looks like Romans 5:3 Amplified. It says, “Moreover (let us also be full of joy now!) let us exult and triumph in our troubles and rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that pressure and affliction and hardship produce patient and unswerving endurance.” Experiential knowledge comes from tried faith ~ purified in previous fiery trials.

Every trial is strategically designed for our faith’s purification. The intensity of the heat drives the hidden dross to the surface. Dross: hidden fiery dart lies, unforgiveness, resentments, offenses, negative ruts that our mind gets trapped in, etc. Dross is fallow ground in the soil of our lives. It cannot bear fruit for His glory.