Rebecca Brand
"God is within her, she will not fail." Psalm 46:5
Never lost in love
It is difficult to comprehend in our limited mind a limitless God, but this scripture reminds me why we can never be lost to God’s love.
To put it simply, God’s love is total.
God’s love is wide: it covers the breadth of what we experience in our lifetime and it reaches out to the whole world in doing so.
God’s love is long: No matter how long we live, He is there for us.
God’s love is high: it will rise high above any celebration, joy and elation we have, to be with us.
God’s love is deep: it reaches to the very depths of our despair, hopelessness, heartache and pain
No matter what our circumstances, between life and death – God’s love has us covered until we are resurrected to be with Him again.
Being reminded by my 9 year old…
Our Daughter, Sarai is currently 9 years old and this week, she entered into a soccer tournament, but in doing so it showed me that we’re actually doing ok at this Parenting malarkey.
There is no parenting rule book (much to my dismay) and therefore I always felt like in the future, we would be faced head-on with all of our bad parenting decisions that we ever made, yet in truth, this girl made her momma super proud!
Sarai has many qualities that God has blessed her with but playing sport isn’t one of them (yet) because her eye sight is quite bad and therefore she struggles, even with her glasses.
However, Sarai this year made a personal goal to “take more chances” and so, she signed up to do this tournament, knowing she can’t play, but it turned out that most of the other players had been teasing her about it.
Yet, being who she is, Sarai took it in her stride and said that she was going to “try” no matter what.
I love that she came home, so proud, because she had managed to kick the ball once (in six games) and although it was the wrong way and straight to the opposition, she was so happy.
Sometimes I wish that Sarai would love sport (as both Kieren and I are that way inclined) but today showed me that character trumps anything that I would ever want her to be blessed with.
This girl is fearless in her pursuit to do all that she can, but in trusting God and asking Him to help her be brave, she took a chance and although to others, it didn’t seem much, to her, it changed her world.
Let’s pray that we all will take that chance in life.
“We can rejoice, too, when we run into problems and trials, for we know that they help us develop endurance. And endurance develops strength of character, and character strengthens our confident hope of salvation. And this hope will not lead to disappointment. For we know how dearly God loves us, because he has given us the Holy Spirit to fill our hearts with his love.” Romans 5:3-5
You never forget your first time…
I will never forget it…The first time that I felt God. The goosebumps. My heart beating out of my chest. The overwhelming love that surrounding my every breath. It was what I imagined that heaven will be like.
I was thinking about that experience yesterday…just the very thought of it brings God’s presence flooding back to me and that is what I long for – daily.
Just to be with Him.
“You will show me the way of life, granting me the joy of your presence and the pleasures of living with you forever.” Psalms 16:11
Even amongst the rust and dirt
Wherever we are, in the city or in the desert, in the house or in a field, God meets us there. Even if we are hiding, or running away, like Jacob, God knows where to find us.
God’s promises are for everyone and although they are the same for each of us, we must individually accept them because we are each children of God, and therefore our faith is our own.
This part of Jacob’s story, shows us that we need to become apart of God’s story ourselves. Jacob met God in a personal experience. Yet, even though Jacob was the grandson of Abraham (and therefore his heritage was rich in blessings) it shows us that status is not enough in God’s eyes.
Do you know God personally? Or is your faith built on generations that have gone before you?
The obstacles
The opportunity to remove an obstacle in a person’s life – regarding faith – is more important than getting that promotion or planning the next family vacation.
Sometimes we can be so focused on what we need to get done that day, that when a question, or an opportunity comes our way, it sideswipes us or we miss it altogether.
Peter told us to ALWAYS be ready because the enemy tries to distract us from our God-given purpose.
We are living in times like never before and therefore, be the light in the darkness but remember to not be so distracted with life to forget why God put us here in the first place
“Instead, you must worship Christ as Lord of your life. And if someone asks about your hope as a believer, always be ready to explain it.” 1 Peter 3:15
Overflowing with praise
There was a time when I didn’t want to read the Psalms. Looking back, there was still a lot of frustration, pain, and spiritual lack in my life.
I certainly didn’t want to praise God’s name because I thought that everything that was happening, was His fault.
Yet, there was a shift when God powerfully came upon me one day, and because His presence was so thick and tangible, I entered into His court.
I realised that day that my spirit longed to be in God’s presence and when I was obedient to my heart’s cry, I could not help but overflow with praise.
Why?
Everyday we may get out of bed and feel the heartache of this world but God has called us to get to know Him. The enemy wants nothing more than to hold us captive in our thoughts of despair, but when we choose to put that aside and focus our thoughts on God, we then begin to appreciate what He has actually done for us and that in itself, deserves endless praise.
“Let everything that breathes sing praises to the Lord!” Psalms 150:6
What’s your purpose?
There is only one certainty in this world, and that is:
We will all die at some point.
Tragic thought? Not really – that is life. Yet as a Christian, we have the certainty of eternity with God.
Life is so precious compared to eternity, because it is very short. But the Bible tells us that God put us here – in this world – for a reason.
We all have a God-given purpose but do you know what He created you for?
After all, the rewards in this life follow us into eternity, so I agree with the quote above, because life without meaning is the real tragedy.
Comment below if you know your purpose…
Let’s come into agreement that your purpose and all that God created you to do, will be fulfilled.
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