*NEW* Marvin Winans - Draw me Close to You / Thy Will be Done

What Am I Supposed To Do Now, Lord?

What are we supposed to do when we go through adversity?  We seek God’s answer through prayers and supplications but we still do not hear from Him. It seems the more time we give, the longer we wait.  I know that it is God’s timing not my own but I can not help it since I think worldly.  I also know for a fact that God has not brought me this far to leave me now.  When we get too comfortable we do not want to change.  In fact, in our comfort zones, we take things for granted and when you take things for granted you do not miss them until they are gone.  When we face a crisis, we tend to look at the crisis instead of looking at God who is bigger than our crisis. Sometimes we do not see the good in things because we are concentrating on the bad. We lose sleep, weight, cry and get depressed when something in our lives change from what we were used to.

In 2 Chronicles 20, King Jehoshaphat realized that he was about to face three armies and the odds were three against one.  Jehoshaphat realized his helplessness in the midst of this crisis. Fear gripped him because he knew that he could not stand against this united force. This great multitude was more than he could handle. He openly declares this to the Lord, "For we have no power against this great multitude that is coming against us" 2 Chronicles 20:12. He recognized that he was helpless in this midst of this crisis. He acknowledged that he could not deal with this crisis on his own.  Jehoshaphat accepted the fact that he was helpless and nothing in his own power could change it.

This sense of helplessness compelled him to pray, "And Jehoshaphat feared, and set himself to seek the LORD and proclaimed a fast throughout all Judah." 2 Chronicles 20:3. He prayed because of his helplessness. And he did not mouth a superficial prayer. He prayed with intensity in this crisis. The text says that he "set himself to seek the Lord." He then proclaimed a fast. This fasting would only intensify his praying. He poured his heart out to God because He knew that only God could help. The root of this intense praying is his helplessness. That is why it is crucial to realize our helplessness in the midst of the crisis. The acknowledgment of our helplessness will drive us to pray. It will motivate us to seek the Lord and depend on Him for His strength, His solutions, and His direction. Helplessness is not a hindrance to prayer. It is actually a help to seeking God. Let our helplessness drive us to seek God. We cannot handle the crises of our lives and that we must pray as we face them and grow through them.

Our response to a crisis is often to find a solution. We try and work it out on our own to relieve the pain. Sometimes our pride makes us think that we can handle the crisis. Yet, our first response to a crisis should be to commit to seeking the Lord. The commitment of our heart must be, "Lord, I don’t know what to do, but my eyes are fixed on You." Our commitment must be to pray and wait on the Lord. There are times that God will answer us immediately in the midst of a crisis. Then, there are other times when God’s answer comes later. We live in an age of fast food, drive-through banking, and instant communication. We are used to instant gratification. As a child of God, we will be required to seek Him and wait on Him and His timing. Sometimes we will have to seek Him intensely and wait for Him. Jesus said, “Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you.” Matthew 7:7.

Jehoshaphat praised God in the midst of his crisis. He put his confidence in the greatness of God not in the power of man.  We need to do the same, concentrate on God’s character and love for us.  Remind him of the promises He made to us and accept His will.  The real pain is leaving our comfort zone for something better.  In the end, Jehoshaphat did not fight the battle, a loving and merciful God did.  In fact, God told Jehoshaphat to stand back and watch. God answered Jehoshaphat’s prayer for help. His command was clear, "Listen, all you of Judah, and you inhabitants of Jerusalem, and you, King Jehoshaphat! Thus says the Lord to you: Do not be afraid nor dismayed because of this great multitude, for the battle is not yours, but God’s. Tomorrow go down against them. They will surely come up by the Ascent of Ziz, and you will find them at the end of the brook before the Wilderness of Jeruel. You will not need to fight in this battle. Position yourselves, stand still and see the salvation of the Lord." 2 Chronicles 20:15-17. God promised victory if they would trust in Him and stand firm. They experienced victory because they sought God, listened to Him, and obeyed Him.  Keep in mind that our battles can be sickness, drug independence, financial, marital and other issues that can cause crises.

When we are in the midst of a crisis, we must remember whose crisis it is. We must understand that it is God’s crisis. It is God’s opportunity to work in powerful and unique ways in our lives. This is His occasion to reveal Himself in new and fresh ways to us. It is His circumstance to show us how much He loves us and cares for us. I am not saying that everything that happens to us is good. There are a lot of crappy things that can happen to us. The crises that we face in life can be agonizing and devastating. Yet, at the same time, they can be opportunities for God to work in us, speak to us, and change us. They can be times for God to show us Himself as never before in our lives. We do not have to drown in fear and discouragement in the midst of crisis. Understand that this is God’s opportunity to work in our lives. The crises may be bad, but God is good. No matter how hard life gets, God is always good and merciful. He can take the crises of life and use them for His own glory and our good.

Praise God for being the Potter who shapes and molds our lives even through adversity. Praise God for being the generous God who pours out His blessings on us in the midst of adversity. Praise God for being the giving God who supplies our needs even in the midst of crisis.

I love you and appreciate you. God bless!

“For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.” Jeremiah 29:11.

Rest In Peace, Joan Rivers!

Joan Rivers dead at 81! The native New Yorker, who became almost as famous for her unapologetic love of plastic surgery as her barbed humor, never recovered after going into cardiac and respiratory arrest Aug. 28. Melissa Rivers decided to take her mother off life support at The Mount Sinai Hospital eight days after she arrived at the facility.

Opportunities!

I don’t know where this precept came from but think about how many opportunities we already missed. That's the joy of learning from experience, you are never too old to learn something new.

"Think about the people in

YOUR WORLD.

There will be opportunities

every day

for you to open your arms…

To the ones you love…

To the strangers you don’t know.

They just might see a light in you that

will give them a

reason to believe in something bigger

than themselves…

Someone bigger than us all.

That’s something…

Something

worth leaving behind."

Anon.

Look Unto Jesus!

We are challenged to look beyond things and people.  Things and people can distract us from our God-given purpose in life.  The enemy wants us to concentrate on what we are going through not beyond our situation.  We have come through some things that even caused us nightmares but we did. God sometimes put us in a position to confront our fears. God wants us to turn our fears into faith.  We need to look to Him not to things or people because they can not do what He can.  We innocently rely on the wrong sources.  Sometimes we have to disconnect from these sources and connect with Jesus! We may consider our “arrival” in society as being successful with all the accouterments that we acquired along the way.  We forget the people who prayed on their knees every night and stuck by us everyday for asking God to help us.  We do not have a clue what situations they were going through because of their selfless love and faith.  The first sign of struggle that we had to face we cried out our woes and lose hope.  The enemy wants to destroy us and wants us to think we are alone. What happened to our faith?  Many people have gone through worse stuff than we have and they still do not give up.  They are not alone! They know that God is with them. They know the author of their faith is Jesus.  What Jesus starts, He finishes!  If the Lord will not fix the problem, it can not be fixed.  Our problem is when we want God to resolve our problem when we want it done. We forget that we are not in control and want our situation taken care of right now.  If we stay in faith, we will realize that it is not our timing but the Lord’s. The miracle is coming and for all we know it may already be there!  We get too caught in up in stuff that we do not even notice until afterwards.  Keep our eyes on Jesus and look beyond our situation!  And when your breakthrough comes, get on your knees and thank the Lord for His love and mercy. Do not forget this time and all of the times He has brought you through your struggles.  We all are living testimonies! Let us call on the name of Jesus! He did not die in vain for us! His love and mercy endures forever!

Focus!

Look beyond your situation. We focus sometimes on the wrong things.  Philippians 4:8; Think on positive and good things. Focus. Will we waste time focusing on the negative? We are more than conquerors. Deut 28:6; We are blessed coming in and going out. Find the good in the negative. We are children of the living God, and we can do all things through Christ who strengthens us.  God has blessed us with life. Change your focus. Job 22:28; Believe and decree! What are you focusing on? Look beyond your situation! 2 Kings 6:20; Elisha prayed, “O Lord, open his eyes and let him see!” We look at situations in the natural but not in the spiritual. Elisha's servant saw a disaster but Elisha saw a miracle. What do you see? The difference between Elisha and the servant was the anointing. Anointing allows you to look at the situation but not focus on it because you can see the hand of God working on your side. If the Lord is keeping you, why are you worried?  Praise God in the midst of your situation! The anointing destroys the yoke in your life! God has an army all around you! Do not be discouraged! Can you look beyond your situation? Can you see the miracles? Can you say that you trust the Lord?  Do you believe what you say? Focus on what God will do, not what the devil is doing. Lord, thank you for working in my behalf!

Do Not Let Fear Control Our Lives!

The enemy operates even more at your spiritual high. Be prepared for the enemies at what you think are your greatest moments. Jesus fed the thousands and the apostles were elated. Yet, after the miracle Jesus told the apostles to get on the boat and set out for the other side, he will be with them later. That night, a great storm took over their euphoria and they became frightful. They forgot who they were with and the miracle they left. Fear overwhelmed them and seeing Christ walking on the water that night scared them, too. They were afraid that he was a ghost. We all will experience fear sometime during our lives but we can't let it overcome us. When Peter was on the water with Jesus, fear almost caused him to drown. Christ asked why he doubted him.  Like Peter we become fearful because we don't think God will help us. We focus on the fear than focus on what God can do. Do we doubt the goodness of the Lord? Job 3:25. Job was afraid about his circumstances. Here are a few tips.

1) Look out for the unexpected storms that pop up in our lives. Don't give up in the middle of the storm, go through it! Don't let the storm stop you from your destination. Sometimes we go through things to see what God can do. The unexpected things bless us in unusual ways. 2) God sees our struggles and He knows when to show up. Sometimes the blessing is in the struggle. Do not despise your position. We are where God wants us to be. 3) We must look beyond our fears and keep the faith. Remember that His Hands are on us. Keep your eyes on Jesus because the enemy wants us to look elsewhere. In the midst of what terrifies us the most our eyes should be on the Lord, our God. We can not let fear control our lives! We must trust and keep our faith in God!