A Heart For Jesus

  “…When the enemy comes in like a flood, The Spirit of the Lord will lift up a standard against him.” Isaiah 59:19 NKJV When the enemy surrounds me, whispering lies, taunting me. When I am filled with fear; can’t breathe; can’t move. The enemy whispers the same lies over and over; “unwanted”, “not needed”, “unnecessary”, “not good enough”, “failure”. His attacks are relentless. When the     battle within me rages on, and I just want to make it stop. When I am tired, and weary of fighting. For me, this is what it looks like when the “enemy comes in like a flood”. I feel overwhelmed, stressed, and under attack. Perhaps you have felt the same. But what an encouragement to know that when this happens “The Spirit of the Lord will lift up a standard against him!”  I wasn’t sure what was meant by “lift up a standard”, so I found that in ancient times of warfare, an army’s “standard” would have been a visible flag or banner.  Song of Solomon 2:4(NKJV) says, “…his ...

  Isaiah 30:18, “Therefore the Lord waits to be gracious to you, and therefore he exalts himself to show mercy to you. For the Lord is a God of justice; blessed are all those who wait for him.” Have you ever paused to ponder how incredible it is that the Creator of the Universe desires to know us! He yearns most for a relationship with us! I find that simply amazing! In Isaiah 30:18, the Lord patiently waits for us to approach Him. He seeks a relationship with us, a chance to express His love and compassion. It’s overwhelming to think of Him considering us! He wants us to trust Him, to allow Him to work in our lives, and to seek His best for us. This reminds me of Psalm 8:4, which asks, “What is man that you are mindful of him, and the son of man that you care for him?” Why, Lord, are you mindful of me? When I fail you countless times a day, when I choose my own path over Yours, when I forget to pray or acknowledge Your presence, or the countless ways You’ve protected me from harm,...

  Put all “supposing” on one side and dwell in the shadow of the Almighty. Deliberately tell God that you will not fret about that thing. All our fret and worry is caused by calculating without God. Oswald Chambers   “All our fret and worry is caused by calculating without God” How true is this statement!  Anxiety and worry keep us up at night, it causes us to toss and turn. Possible scenarios keep playing out in our minds. All the what if’s.  So what is it that you fear? What or who is it that you dread? Have you ever worried to the point where what you fear actually happens? Like a self fulfilling prophecy?  Oswald’s challenge to us is to put “all our supposing” to the side, “dwell in the shadow of the Almighty”, tell God we “will not fret about that thing”, whatever it may be. Easier said than done! So how do we put “all our supposing to the side”? We can take comfort in God’s word; in His truths. Psalm‬ ‭94‬:‭19‬(ESV) says, “When the cares of my heart are ma...

We continue our story with how the Israelites tested God, beginning with Exodus 32:4. To provide some context, Moses was on the mountain with God, receiving the Commandments. He had been there for quite some time, and the people were growing restless. They were uncertain about Moses’s whereabouts. Consequently, they persuaded Aaron to create a “god” for them, which ultimately led to the events described in Exodus 32:4. “And he received the gold from their hand and fashioned it with a graving tool and made a golden calf. And they said, ‘These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt!’” It appears that the Israelites needed something tangible to hold onto as their “god.” They sought an image they could point to that had saved them and brought them out of bondage. Something visible to worship and praise. Have we created “gods” for ourselves instead of trusting in the One true God who has led us out of darkness into light? I believe this subsequent testing of Go...

The Journey continues… The next two instances where the Israelites tested God’s provision are found in the following verses from Exodus: 16:18-20 and 16:27. Exodus 16:18-20 states, “But when they measured it with an omer, whoever gathered more had nothing left over, and whoever gathered less had no lack. Each gathered as much as they could eat. Moses said, ‘Let no one leave any of it over until the morning.’ But they did not listen. Some left part of it till the morning, and it bred worms and stank. Moses was angry with them.” Exodus 16:27, “On the seventh day, some of the people went out to gather, but they found none”. Once again, they grumbled against Moses and Aaron for bringing them into the desert. However, in truth, they were grumbling against the Lord. In response to their grumbling, the Lord sent Mana. The Israelites certainly seem to be prone to grumbling. But I suppose we sometimes do the same. But I don’t want to… I don’t like… It’s too hard… And so on. But I digress:) Mose...