A Gift from God.

What would you consider to be the best gift God could give you?  I am sure everyone's answer would probably be different.  I couldn't even begin to enumerate the things they would want God to give them it would be so varied.  I was thinking that I would like to write about something that would help me and give me something to look forward to, and the thought came to me, 'how about something encouraging?"  That rang a bell with a winning sound, so what would be encouraging to me?  At my age, and with my experience I could think of nothing better than Eternal Life with Jesus forever more.  I so want to be ready when He comes and I am sure I will go to my grave before that happens but if not that's OK too.

In John 10:27-30, it says, "My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me.  And I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; neither shall anyone snatch them out of My hand.  My Father, who has given them to Me, is greater than all; and no one is able to snatch them out of My Father's hand.  I and My Father are one."  Isn't that the greatest promise on this subject?  He gives us eternal life and no one, not anyone is able to take us away from Him.  We are the only ones that can cause us to leave Him, it is our personal choice whether we stay in His presence or not.  No one else can do anything about that.  I think that is wonderful to think about and talk about encouraging, that is encouraging.

Did you know that Jesus prayed for you, yes you?  He did in John 17:20,21  "I do not pray for these alone, (meaning His disciples) but also for those who will believe in Me through their words; That they all may be one, as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You; that they also may be one in Us, that the world may believe that You sent Me."

Does the world see Jesus in You?  Do you glorify His name with your life?  He has a place for you, all prepared  in His kingdom and eternal life with Him forever.  What better gift could He give us then life eternally with Him, He says He is preparing mansions for us in John 14:2,3  "In My Father's house are many mansions.  If it were not so I would have told you, I go to prepare a place for you.  And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself; that where I am there you may be also.

Do you want to occupy one of those mansions?  Me too.  I am looking forward to that day and hope you are too.  I would love to be your neighbor there, how about it?  Grandma Joan

Trust Me More.

I know, my worship the other morning was on trusting God, but this morning I asked for help in my great need and the title of this blog came to mind.  "Trust Me More".   I thought I was but evidently not as much as He wants me to.  I tend to lean on my own understanding of what He would want me to do instead of asking Him for guidance. Do any of you try to do that and then you get all frustrated because things are not going the way you think they ought to go.  I am so sorry that He had to remind me to trust Him more, I know that I had it coming but didn't realize the depth of my not trusting Him.  I should have entitled this, 'He always comes through' because He does if we ask.  He certainly enlightens my mind to my own needs and thus the reason for my sharing with you, I am sure that out of all those that read this, someone is in the same boat as I am in.

I am going back to Proverbs 3:5  "Trust in the Lord with ALL your heart and lean not on YOUR OWN UNDERSTANDING."  I emphasized the words that hit me the most, with ALL my heart and MY OWN UNDERSTANDING.  How easy it is for me to trust my own understanding and not even realize that I am doing it.  How wonderful it would be if I could just let go of my own ideas and let God have His way, I know I would be so much happier.  I can't even imagine life without concerns, but I know that if God is leading it would all be His concerns.

Then I read Psalms 32:10  "Many sorrows shall be to the wicked, But he who trusts in the Lord, mercy shall surround him."  I would love to have God's mercy surround me all the time, it only seems right that that's the
way it ought to be.  What do you think?  I think God wants us to trust Him with all our hearts all of the time and then His mercy would surround us all the time.  I don't think this means we won't have trials, but He is in charge of the trials and I know that He won't let anything come to us that we can't handle through His power and strength.  What a relief this would be, I am going to make sure that I surrender ALL my life to Him and lean not on my own understanding. That is where I fail, I guess I think that I know everything and really I don't know anything when it comes to His will for me.

I can see when He said, 'trust Me more' just what He meant now and my goal is to do just that.  How about you?  Grandma Joan

God never fails.

I was seeking something that I needed this morning and God never fails to bring something important to my attention.  Today is no exception.  What was brought to my attention was humility,  I guess for a long time I have been struggling with being humble.  You know you can have a fault and never realize it is a fault until you ask God to help you see yourself as He sees you.  Sometimes it is quite shocking what He places before you.

The text that came to my mind first was Micah 6:8  "He has shown you, O man, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you, but to do justly, To love mercy and to walk humbly with your God."  The next text was James 4:10 says:  "Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and He will lift you up."

I asked the question, 'how do you humble yourself?'  The answer I received from the Lord was, 'always put others before yourself.'  I can't think of a better way to humble yourself, can you?  Putting others first would be walking humbly with our God, don't you think?   Here is the verse, Titus 3:2  "to speak evil of no one, to be peaceable, gentle, showing all humility to all men."  Putting all people first.

Here is the promise to the humble.  Isaiah 57:15  "For thus says the High and Lofty One who inhabits eternity, whose name is Holy; 'I dwell in the high and holy place, with him who has a contrite and humble spirit,, To revive the spirit of the humble, and to revive the heart of the contrite ones."  Contrite means repentant ones.  That is a great promise and I pray earnestly that He will dwell with me and that I will always put others first and be repentant of my false humility.

Another great study and now I am ready to face another day and see how He works in my life, how about you?  Let His love overwhelm you!!!!!!!  Grandma Joan

In All Your Ways.

Have you ever wondered just how to be blessed by God with all the blessings He has to bestow.  I have and I believe I have found at least part of the answer.

In Psalms 3 we find some of the answers to that question.
My question to you is - What causes us to have long life and peace?  You will find the answer in Palms 3:1,2.  "My son do not forget my law, but let your heart keep my commands for length of days and long life and peace they will add to you."

Question: How do we find favor and high esteem in the sight of God and man?  Answer:  Verses 3,4.   "Let not mercy and truth forsake you; Bind them around your neck,  Write them on the tablet of your heart and so find favor and high esteem in the sight of God and man."

Question:  How can we be sure that He will direct our paths?  Answer:  Verses 5,6.  "Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding:  In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct your paths."

Question:  How can we make sure that we are healthy?  Answer:  Verses 7,8.  "Fear the Lord and depart from evil, It will be health to your flesh, and strength to your bones."

Question:  Do you want your purse to be full and not be in want?  Answer:  Verses 9,10.  "Honor the Lord with your possessions, And with the first fruits of all your increase; So your barns will be filled with plenty, and your vats will overflow with new wine."

This was such a good little study, it has helped me so much, I hope it has helped you as much.  In all my ways acknowledge Him, in ALL my ways.  In everything put God first and foremost and He will bless us abundantly, that's what I received from this study.  Will you acknowledge Him in all your ways?  Have a great day acknowledging God in all your ways.  Grandma Joan

More Glory to Him.

I would like to continue my thoughts of yesterday if it is alright with you.  I realize that we do not glorify God in the manner that we should and so have read some more texts and thoughts to help us do the job well.

Matthew 5:16    "Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven."  Jesus is saying 'do good works so others will encounter the goodness of God in you and glorify Him.
Philippians 1:11  " Being filled with the fruits of righteousness, which are by Jesus Christ, unto the glory and praise of God.

We cannot do good works that glorify God of ourselves, it is impossible, because all of our good intentions and good works are self-centered and tainted with 'see what I have done'.

Ephesians 2:8-10  "For by grace are ye saved through faith; not of works lest any man should boast; for we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them."
We are saved by grace through faith, we cannot earn salvation by our good works, because if we could then we would have something to boast about.  When He saves us from our selfish selves then He can work in us  to do the good works that bring glory to His name.  We are created in Christ Jesus unto good works, we are not saved by our good works, we are saved to do good works and glorify our Father in heaven.

This has been a hard one for me, I always thought that I had to do good works to be saved but now I find out that when I am saved by grace through faith in Christ, I will do the good works that glorify Him.  What a blessed thought and it takes all the hard work out of salvation.  We are created in Christ Jesus unto good works so we will glorify Him.  In other words when we are saved by grace through faith, He does the work in us and through us as we stay in His presence day by day and hour by hour and sometimes minute by minute.

I truly hope this has blessed you as it has me. It is the blessed assurance of salvation to us.  Do you see how it works?  I hope so.  Please stay in His presence and let Him do the work in you and through you to glorify Him in all that you are and do.   Grandma Joan

Give Him Glory.

Remember when Jesus was born how the Angels sang, 'Glory to God in the highest'?  I was thinking that  the Angels sang Glory to God, why shouldn't we glorify His name?  So how do we glorify His name?  Well, we can praise Him as we have studied before but there is another way

In John 15:7,8 it tells how the Father is glorified. "If you abide in me and my words abide in you, you will ask what you desire, and it shall be done for you.  By this My Father is glorified that you bear much fruit; so you will be my disciples."  If we abide in His presence and His words abide in our hearts, we may ask Him for the desires of our heart and it will be done for us.  If our asking is according to His will we will bear fruit to His glory.

What is fruit?  Galatians 5:22,23  "But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, gentleness, self-control.  Against such there is no law."  Can you see how much these fruits would glorify the Father, so why not ask God for these beautiful fruits of His Spirit that He is so willing to give that we may glorify His name?

I am going to ask Him right now to endow me with these fruits so that I may glorify Him and people will know that we belong to Him by the fruit we bear in our lives, day by day.  How about you, don't you want to bear fruit unto Him?  Remember the promise that  'if we ask, it shall be done for us' so what is keeping us from asking? You can answer that.  I have no idea what it could be, but I know my heart and a little self-examination will tell you what is keeping you from asking.  So until tomorrow, Ask and it shall be given.
Grandma Joan

Literally, absolutely yours.

Do you have anything that is literally, absolutely yours?  I am pretty sure that you do although if you have a spouse, then maybe not, but surely something is literally absolutely yours. No one likes to get into my purse because it is literally, absolutely mine and since my husbands passing, everything we had is literally, absolutely mine to do with as I want or see fit.

The Scriptures are literally, absolutely yours, you can count on them and the following verse tells us that "His Word is a lamp to our feet and a light to our path."  Psalms 119:105.  And in Matthew 24:35 it says, "Heaven and earth will pass away, but My words will by no means pass away."  Isaiah 40:8 says, "The grass withers and the flower fades, but the Word of our God stands forever."

His words are yours to literally, absolutely trust but we must ask according to His will and not play games with God's word ,in other words we must not be presumptuous in asking for things that we know is not according to His will or His word.  The Bible is literally, absolutely yours to hold and cherish and let it speak to your heart truths that maybe you never saw before, it is wonderful to dig in and find treasures that will last for eternity.  May God bless you as you seek to do His will and may He bless you more and more as you follow on to know Him better and better.  Grandma Joan