8-5-2019

 Good Morning All,

Proverbs 16:3; “Entrust your efforts to the Lord, and your plans will succeed."

    The best laid plans of mice and men; they often go awry.  How often has this been true in your life?  How often have you planned a day out only to have the weather be perfect the day before or after but junky on your day?  Do days like this frustrate you and drive you nuts?  To many people, they do.  But do frustrations cause you much distress and pain?  These are some of the devil’s favorite ploys to cause Christians pain.

    For example, do you feel embarrassed often?  The devil loves to attack us with this because it strikes at our self-worth.  He loves to needle away at your view of yourself.  Most people have some level of personal insecurity.  Most of the time, your friends and relatives don’t even see it yet we often struggle with it.  The devil loves to pick and poke at this sore point.  The thing we need to remember is that we don’t need to look at our self through the world’s eye but should look at our self through God’s eye.  Our worth is based on being God’s blessed children that is the source of our worth.

    We can also see what our worries say about our sense of security.  While God wants you to have a solid sense of security, worry damages your ability to accept the security that God is offering you.  Pay attention to worry’s warning that you’re jeopardizing the peace God wants you to enjoy – peace that comes from trusting Him. Realize that God actually is aware of the situation you’ve been worrying about, He does care, and He is more than able to do something about it when you place your trust in Him. Entrust every part of your life (from your health and your relationships to your job and your finances) to God, and trust Him to intervene in every situation you face. See God’s grace and mercy every day and rely on Him day by day to provide what you need.  

     The devil loves to take these and any of a thousand other little struggles in our life and tries to blow them up.  The devil means nothing but evil to us.  His only designs are for our torture and despair.  Yet God takes all these tortures and turns them around.  God takes our struggles and makes them our gain.  When we look at our struggles, we see our own weaknesses and we see the only source for our hope is in Jesus and his saving grace and atoning sacrifice. 

    Trust in the Lord with all your heart.  God has rescued us from all the devil will throw at us.  Jesus came to free us from the devil and death.  The victory is ours because of Jesus and him alone.  No one can take it away from us.  The plans of the devil and the world, plans to make us suffer are foiled.  God’s plans are to give us grace, hope, peace and eternal life with him.  This is our truth and we can hold onto that forever!

   Gracious Father, the world and the devil battle us all day long to pull us from you.  Give us the strength to hold onto your incredible love and mercy.  Keep us in your loving arms.  Send your Spirit to our brothers and sisters who feel the sting of the devil’s attacks and give to them your comfort and hope.  Use us to bring it to them.  May we be your arms and shoulders.  In Jesus’ precious name we pray.  Amen

God’s Peace,

Pastor Bret