Psalm 46:2 Therefore we will not fear, though the earth give way and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea

The inhabitants of Jerusalem were constantly threatened by outside enemies, so there wasn’t always peace for those who lived in the city.

Since their world situation consisted of wars that brought death and destruction, songs were written to encourage the Israelites and to celebrate their trust in God. And these were sung at the temple during worship.

The Israelites lived in circumstances similar to those many people face today. We hear of tragedies that overwhelm us. We contend, not only with our personal trials, but with the trials of others as we hear about poverty, oppression, and persecution of innocent people in our country as well as in nations around the world.

We feel helpless to make a difference, but we too can take comfort in the words of the songs that were written many years ago.

We can rest in the fact we have a God who is there to meet all our needs no matter what the circumstances. When we remember this and put our trust in God, we can find peace in the midst of chaos.

Thought for Today: When you feel overwhelmed, remember God is in control.

Let’s pray, Father in the name of Jesus, we come to you thanking you for always being in control. Help us to remember that when the chaos of life get’s real. Remind us that you are still on the throne! In Jesus name, Amen

Psalm 27:14 Wait for the Lord; be strong and take heart and wait for the Lord

David knew what it was like to wait for the Lord’s promise. He experienced a long wait from the time Samuel anointed him unitl he was crowned king of Israel. In the meantime, his life was threatened several times.

Waiting is not always filled with rest and pleasure. As David knew, waiting for an answer to prayer can involve pain, doubt, and difficulty.

Yet David’s waiting expressed in this passage is not a feeble attempt at hope. It encourages strength of heart to keep trusting in God’s power to protect and deliver.

For David, waiting was not an ambiguous time warp. He believed God would help him, and he would take heart until his deliverance came.

Waiting for God is part of His answer. As we pray and hope in Him during the waiting period, He strengthens our trust and prepares us for His fulfilled promise.

Waiting is not just a time when we linger between stages; it is steady confidence, developing a mature faith in us so that we are strong, not just when needs are satisfied, but in the hopeful pause before He answers.

Thought for Today: Waiting on God is living in the hope that He will fulfill our expectations.

Psalm 27:14 Wait for the Lord; be strong and take heart and wait for the Lord

David knew what it was like to wait for the Lord’s promise. He experienced a long wait from the time Samuel anointed him unitl he was crowned king of Israel. In the meantime, his life was threatened several times.

Waiting is not always filled with rest and pleasure. As David knew, waiting for an answer to prayer can involve pain, doubt, and difficulty.

Yet David’s waiting expressed in this passage is not a feeble attempt at hope. It encourages strength of heart to keep trusting in God’s power to protect and deliver.

For David, waiting was not an ambiguous time warp. He believed God would help him, and he would take heart until his deliverance came.

Waiting for God is part of His answer. As we pray and hope in Him during the waiting period, He strengthens our trust and prepares us for His fulfilled promise.

Waiting is not just a time when we linger between stages; it is steady confidence, developing a mature faith in us so that we are strong, not just when needs are satisfied, but in the hopeful pause before He answers.

Thought for Today: Waiting on God is living in the hope that He will fulfill our expectations.

Psalms 19:14 Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in your sight, O Lord, My strength and my redeemer.

Did you know that God sees our words

Growing up we’ve all heard our mothers and fathers say this phrase, “if you can’t find anything nice to say, then don’t say anything at all.”

What parent hasn’t said that, but that bit of advice isn’t really correct. David said, let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable to you, O Lord... David recognized that there was a connection between his words and his thoughts.

In the Book of 1 Sam. it tells us that man looks at the outward appearance, but God looks at the heart, therefore, even if we don’t say those hurtful things to someone but it still rests in our hearts it’s still displeasing to God.

God is not a God of categories, he doesn’t see a little white lie or a big fat lie, he sees sin. That’s what we have got to remember is that sin is sin in the eyes of God.

So understand this my friend, It’s not about not saying it, it’s about not letting it rest on our hearts. Because the word of God is very clear that out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks.

Prayer focus: To not let the negative and sinful thoughts rest on your hearts, because God sees our words!

People naturally want to feel secure. Financial security, job security, and homeland security are part of life’s safety net. Security personnel in the military, police force, and in our department stores help protect us and serve justice.

Though these forms of security exist for our good, none can guarantee that every individual will always be physically or financially safe. David understood that ever-present security must come from a greater source than money, situation, or even humanity.

Psalm 16:8 I have set the Lord always before me. Because he is at my right hand, I will not be shaken

With God always before us, we are secure in His direction. With God at our right hand, we experience His faithful presence in life’s circumstances. Does God’s security mean we will never face trouble? Absolutely not David’s life is proof that even a man who follows God will have many times of crisis. Everyone will experience pain.

True security is not found by resorting to despair when times get hard, but in following God who goes before us and not being shaken because His strength keeps us steady through the trial.
Prayer Suggestion: I set You before me, Lord, secure in Your hope that cannot be shaken.

Proverbs 4:23 Above all else, guard your heart, for it affects everything you do. [NLT]

There are many ways a person can backslide and lose out with God. It may be over the love of money, popularity with the world, adultery but the most subtle and deadly way that Satan has to trip up a saint of God is to inject bitterness into his heart.

Bitterness is a violent inward displeasure against others. It is usually caused by a feeling that someone has taken advantage of you. One of the easiest things in the world to do is to become bitter. You can become bitter against your wife, your husband, your pastor, your country, the Church, your employers, your parents, etc.

Bitterness is like carbon monoxide, a highly poisonous, odorless and colorless gas. Bitterness is not easily detected by others until the life of the victim has been snuffed out.

Bitterness is a cancer that is sure to spread. One bad apple in a barrel will surely spoil the others. Likewise, listen to the tongue of the bitter soul. It will almost certainly continue to wag until others, both in and out of the church, are contaminated.

God’s Word is very clear to state that the Christian response to anger must be forgiveness. God feels so strongly about forgiveness by the fact it is a conditional principle of the Bible. If there is bitterness in your life you have given Satan power over your life.

Unforgiveness does a great deal more damage to the vessel in which it is stored than the object on which it is poured.

Job 38:4 Where were you when I laid the earth’s foundation? Tell me, if you understand

This question is the first of many God asked Job. His interrogation began with creation then asked in detail whether Job could command the forces of nature, provide nourishment for the earth, or understand all of its creatures. In doing so God helped Job recognize his ignorance.

In the aftermath of his calamity, Job repeatedly questioned the justice and sovereignty of God.

As he listened to God ask when mountain goats give birth or how the hawk takes flight, he realized that if he could not explain even the common workings of nature, how could he understand or question God’s justice?

In humility, he repented for not acknowledging God’s power and perfect wisdom for all of creation.

When we can’t explain difficult experiences in our lives, we tend to attack God’s reasoning. And say something like he doesn’t seem fair.

Yet experiencing the birth of a baby formed and fed in the womb or watching a bird gather materials for its nest testify to an awesome God who cares for His creation and whose wisdom is something that we can’t possibly fathom.

Prayer Suggestion: When life seems unjust, teach me God to trust in Your perfect wisdom.

What is wisdom, and how do you get it? Do assessment, application, and identification of knowledge guarantee wisdom? Today wisdom is sought through studying at universities, reading great thinkers, and being exposed to a variety of experiences that help develop one’s worldview and there is nothing wrong with that!

But without acknowledgement of God these methods are humanistic. Job denied that wisdom is human-centered. No one can gain enough knowledge or insight to explain all human experience. Interpreting life and its purpose cannot be defined by mortal minds. Only God possesses absolute knowledge, and we are wise when we seek Him for understanding.

Job 28:28 The fear of the Lord—that is wisdom, and to shun evil is understanding!

Real wisdom recognizes that we cannot cope with life by ourselves. We need a greater source—one that is sinless, omnipotent, and omnipresent—to guide us. Through recognizing God’s goodness and greatness we also understand that abstaining from evil helps us make wise choices. Job’s prescription for wisdom—fearing God and avoiding sin—still applies today.

Prayer Suggestion: God of power and majesty, give me Your understanding of life.

Romans 8:16 His Holy Spirit speaks to us deep in our hearts and tells us that we are God's children.

Are you excited about your relationship with God?  Then tell your heart, because out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks!

As Christians, we belong to God and his family. Who could enjoy a bigger sense of belonging than God's kids? The apostle John wrote in 1 John 3:1 , "See how very much our heavenly Father loves us, for he allows us to be called his children!”

Something to notice: As soon as John wrote the words "children of God," he must have been excited, because he tops off the thought with an exclamation point. If John were here today, he might say it this way: "WOW We really are God's children!"

You may be thinking, "But we're only adopted. It's not like we're real children in God's family." Do you think just because we are adopted that makes us sec­ond-class kids?  Oh no my friend, because we are adopted in the Family of God, we are now heirs of God and joint heirs with Jesus Christ.

Our adoption into God’s Family is a truth worth getting excited about.  Share that excitement with someone today!

While much teaching on prayer correctly communicates biblical truth, a great deal of misinformation on prayer persists. Some treat prayer almost like magic, a mystical means of satisfying personal desires no matter how selfish or frivolous.

They reduce God to a cosmic genie waiting to grant wishes disguised as prayers.

The Word of God declares in Nehemiah 1:5 Then I said: “O Lord, God of heaven, the great and awesome God, who keeps his covenant of love with those who love him and obey his commands”

Nehemiah built his prayer on a theological framework that should characterize all of our prayers:

God is uniquely and utterly supreme, God keeps His Word, God deeply loves us, and God’s blessings come about in response to our love and obedience.

In other words, prayer is all about God, His wonderful character, and His divine purposes. As we build our prayers on that truth, our lives open up to the miraculous.

Prayer Suggestion: Refocus your prayers on God and His desires for your life, he ultimately knows what’s best for us anyway.

In Ezra 7:6 The word of God tells us that Ezra came up from Babylon. He was a teacher well versed in the Law of Moses, which the LORD, the God of Israel, had given. The king had granted him everything he asked, for the hand of the LORD his God was on him

Do an Internet search on the subject of “leadership,” and you will find volumes of information on the characteristics of a leader, different philosophies of leadership, and resources for developing leadership skills.

You might further research time management, money management, and personnel management. But before you take that journey wouldn’t it be valuable to identify one key resource, one central discipline that will maximize whatever further knowledge you gain?

The Word of God tells us in Ezra 7:10 that Ezra had devoted himself to the study and observance of the Law of the Lord, and to teaching its decrees and laws in Israel

There’s no denying Ezra’s leadership role. King Artaxerxes appointed him to head up a contingent of exiled Jews returning to Jerusalem.

The king entrusted Ezra with gold and silver destined for the temple. When Ezra arrived in Jerusalem, he became a powerful influence in reviving the nation’s commitment to God’s Laws.

Ezra was able to do this because of his “study and observance of the Law of the Lord.” He didn’t just know God’s Word, he put it into practice.

Challenge for Today: Lets become doers of the word and not just hearers only.  Let’s find the those opportunities to put legs to the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

Ezra 4:1 When the enemies of Judah and Benjamin heard that the exiles were building a temple for the LORD, the God of Israel 2 they came to Zerubbabel and to the heads of the families and said, "Let us help you build because, like you, we seek your God and have been sacrificing to him since the time of the king of Assyria, who brought us here."

Has God pointed you toward a task to complete or given you a dream to fulfill? Have you found yourself taking steps in the right direction only to encounter what appears to be an insurmountable obstacle? Are you beginning to wonder if God’s assurance you experienced in the past was an empty promise?

This was the experience of the Jews as they began to rebuild the temple in Jerusalem. Following a mandate by a former king, they had gathered the needed materials and laid a foundation.

But then their enemies sabotaged the project and turned the current king against them. Construction on the temple halted and the people lived in fear.

Now Haggai the prophet and Zechariah the prophet, a descendant of Iddo, prophesied to the Jews in Judah and Jerusalem in the name of the God of Israel, who was over them (Ezra 5:1).

As the people responded in faith to the Word of God, their situation turned around. They refocused on God’s promises, and they saw His purposes accomplished.

Challenge for Today: Just as the Israelites trusted God, determine to trust Him to bring your season of apparent defeat to an end.