Poems and Words of Faith

Its a time of struggling and learning what your body can and can’t do when you have not long been diagnosed with CFS. I never understood fully how hard it was, from listening to friends who have it, but now I know, Tiredness and fatigue should be written as exhaustion, Low mood should be written as a dark place with anxiety and depression. Not being able to cook and do the things you did, should be written as the hardest thing and so I could go on. However, as I’ve got very low with this, I suddenly felt God put this on my heart.” Its a time to turn this around for good. A time to sit, to rest, to grow, to listen, to reach out to others, to cry, to pray, to meditate on Gods Word and just simply be” In fact, it remined me of a couple of other people that had mentioned to me as well to just simply be with Him.

So I thought…… I cant do much at times like this as I’m sure others cant either but we can sit with our Heavenly Father and just be. He knows how you are feeling He knows and understands that you may not be able to stay long at the moment but come and be, just simply be with Him. He is with us always but taking that time to just rest in your special place with God will help so much. He cares for you, He understands and He will meet with you, maybe just in a small way at the moment but as time goes on this will get better I am sure. We will realise how much we have grown in this time of darkness. I felt, as this only started a short while ago for me, that He seems so silent, a million miles away but I think this may have been because I’ve been struggling with a lot this last year and CFS was the ‘icing on the cake’. CFS drains you and isolates you and you have no energy etc and I don’t know about you but my time with God has not been that good recently because of all this. Not because I have stopped believing but because its been a physically and mentally hard time. However, I believe, the light will come again. He is a good God, a faithful God and He is with us always. Even though we may not see it now He is working. We will know His love, peace and wonderful presence shining through the darkness. Heaven may seem silent for now but just simply be and when the time is right He will speak to us again but for now just rest with Him. Simply be, as He understands. He will bring beauty out of the ashes and give us a garment of Praise Keep looking, keep trusting He is a heartbeat away.

Man Shall not live on bread alone but on every Word that comes out of the mouth of God

I have been suffering lately with CFS and its quite bad at the moment, exhaustion, low mood, depression and anxiety and my time with the Lord hasn’t been that great as I am just resting and watching TV as I can’t do much else. I haven’t been able to read my bible that much or spend much time with God either which I have found very upsetting and hard. However, two people have said just go into your quiet room and just be. If I cant pray or read Gods word just be. He knows and understands, So that’s what I have been doing. And today I believe God gave me this

I had just finished praying this morning and I heard in my heart the words. “Man shall not live on bread alone but on every word that comes out of the mouth of God”. I sat there quietly wondering if it was me or really God but realised it must be God. Only He would put a random verse into my mind, especially when it was just what I needed. So I thought about this word and mulled it over in my mind. Food sustains us physically but only the word of God can sustain us spiritually in times of fear, sickness, troubles worries etc in every area of our lives. The enemy will often come and say, “did God really say…..?” But our enemy comes to kill, steal and destroy and one of his tactics is to feed us lies Lies about yourself, lies about God and much more including distorting Gods word, but if you have been feeding on the word of God and have it in your heart you will have the ammunition you need, Gods word, and can declare Gods truth instead. Declare it all day if you have to but don’t give the enemy a foothold. Don’t listen to him. Whatever your facing declare Gods truth. Feed on it as a cow would as it eats the grass. We need to be like that as we read Gods word. Read it, regurgitate it, chew it over again and again. Get it into our hearts, minds and spirit. Let Gods word feed you, go deep. In times of trouble or need it will come to mind and we can declare Gods truth but it will also change our mindsets if these are wrong too. Take Gods word like medicine and declare it, repeating it will change your neurological pathways and where you once had wrong beliefs these will change over time.

God has given us His written word so we can read it, learn from it and keep it in our hearts so that we have the Sword of the Spirit whenever the enemy tries to weaken our walk with God or our time with Him. Maybe you are in a place like I am at the moment where ill health is causing you to be so tired and and unwell that its hard to do much at all but if the Word of God is hidden in your hearts then when the enemy comes saying lies in your mind you can declare Gods truth over your life and bring life to the situation. If the enemy is attacking then keep your armour on and declare Gods word. He is a good God a faithful God and he is with you in every situation. A song I heard a while back was by Casting Crowns “voice of Truth” its well worth a listen 🙂

Many of us I am sure become quite low over continuing issues in our lives, health, finances etc. and of course when you are feeling like that the devil comes along and likes to stir things up. Putting thoughts in your mind that you think are yours but are actually from Him but you just don’t have what it takes to fight him off.  Do you allow these thoughts to take over and you find yourself going lower and lower. Wondering how you are going to get through this. 

Well I want to share with you what God has shown me over the last few days that have changed my mindset.  I still have the problems and concerns but I am not thinking these thoughts, I am using the Sword of the Spirit (Word of God) to fight the enemy. I know and trust that the Lord is with me and whatever the outcome I’m not worried because nothing happens to us without going through God first. He is in control.  He loves us, He has a plan and whatever that plan is it will bring Him glory and you to a better place. He is sanctifying us.

I love how God reveals things to us in everyday things.  Sometimes we just know something is for us so we need to listen. It could be something in His Word or in a Sermon, anything.  I was listening to a sermon from a church pastor from America who I listen to a lot and trust his teaching and he was talking about yielding to God. I made notes and thought about what was said. Then an email came through and  yes, it was on yielding to God and then something else I ‘fell upon’ later in the day. I realised that if God had put this in my way  3 times I needed to make note of what He was saying to me.

I am going to let you know what I did and what happened because I feel in my heart that this may help someone else , maybe God is wanting to reveal this to you too.

I had my quiet time with Him as usual one evening a few days ago and although I have surrendered all to Him before I felt after He had shown me this 3 times that day maybe there were things i hadnt fully surrendered to Him. I needed to yield/surrender everything to Him and I mean everything. I gave him my fears, anxieties, doubts, my health, my job, kids, moving house, everything. I don’t know if something left me (maybe the devil let go of me) or God touched me but i ‘felt’ something  and I have not been the same since. I don’t feel weighed down, evil thoughts have gone, I am full of joy and praising God in my heart and out loud a lot too. Circumstances haven’t changed , I still need to face moving and my health issues etc but God has changed me. I know His love more, feel His presence more, I am just over joyed. There is a new found trust that i haven’t known before, i have trusted Him in certain things but doubted in others, now i completely trust Him, whatever the future holds He is with me and I have nothing to fear. 

Its funny because a few days after this I was looking at something from the same pastor as above about Praising God in the storms of life as well as in the good times.   This spoke to me a lot too as He is worthy of our praise whatever is going on in our lives. Praise changes things, it brings you into the very throne room of God. It changes our mindset and hearts to focus on God not our problems.  Later that day I saw something else about praising Him through it all, and I believe God showed me something in the middle of the night too, I just happened to look on my emails at 2 am in the morning (as you do) and there was one about Praising God. Praise Him. I thought there it is again, three times. The same as Yielding, 3 times.

The way my mind works I wanted to look this up. Was there any significance in the number 3. Yes there is. 3 in the bible is the number for harmony, new life and completeness.

God has said things 3 times in the bible 467 times.  One or two ive written here. God spoke to Samuel 3 times, Peter 3 times, (feed my lambs). Jesus rose on the 3rd day, 3 patriarchs, 3 gifts to Jesus when he was born, the ark of the covenant contained 3 sacred objects, Daniel prayed 3 times a day and of course the Trinity, Father Son and Holy Spirit to name but a few.

I wanted to share this with you as if you are going through times of stress, uncertainty, anxiety, health issues, whatever it may be and life, the devil, your own thoughts are trying to drag you down and keep your eyes on yourself rather than the Lord , then if you haven’t already yielded/surrendered to our Lord, please think seriously about this. This is the right thing to do. He has given us His life to save us and we need to place our lives into His hands and trust Him, give Him everything. Praise Him too, whatever is going on in your life still praise Him. He is to be praised and worshipped whatever is going on. He is still Lord of our lives, He died for you, He has called you to be His child , He has saved you to live forever with Him, here now and forever,  so He deserves it all, whatever we are going through or however we feel.

‘He took my hand and lifted me up out of the miry pit and set my feet upon a rock’. Jesus is the rock

Stand on the rock, Keep looking up, Keep focused on God, Keep praising Him, Obey His Word, Trust Him, Cast all your anxieties on Him because He cares for you and surrender all and watch what He does,

If you dont know Jesus as your Lord and Saviour then i trust that you would call out to Him today. He loves you so much and wants to save you from eternity without Him. Beleive in the Lord Jesus , His death and resurrection, that He is the son of God and you will be saved. Call out to Him, you will never regret it.

There is so much in our world today that causes us to be anxious/fearful and worry not only for the here and now but for the future. They take over your whole thought pattern. Once in , thats it they are there rolling around in your head. What if? …. What if?… WHAT IF?…….Shall i do this,  shall i do that, How do i know if this is the right thing to do? So many questions run through your head. How will i pay my bills? How will my appointment go at the doctors? Will my children be ok as they travel? I cant go anywhere, I cant do this or that. In the middle of all these questions its just a mountain of What if’s and I cant’s…………

Do you know that most of the What ifs and i cants are lies. Most of what we fear doesn’t happen. Most of what we worry about doesn’t come true. I know this because i have been there,  I still visit the mountain of ‘What if’ and ‘I can’t’ quite regularly. Its taken over huge chunks of my life at times. BUT one thing the Lord has shown me more and more is that i need to lay these things down and Trust in Him. I know its easier said that done but if we truly believe that our Heavenly Father loves us , cares for us and that His Word is true then as you study His Word and ask Him to reveal to you just what you need for today He will.  You will find He has given us all we need to know His Word to help us and we have the precious Holy Spirit to guide and lead us too. The Holy Spirit will speak to you as you spend time in His presence.Take that time to spend with Him it is so important. Wake up in the morning and thank Him for another wonderful day to spend with Him. Spend time in His Word and prayer.

There are many amazing verses in the bible to say and repeat daily till they become part of you. Remember 1 Peter 5v8 ‘the devil roams around like a roaring lion seeking someone to devour’  Don’t let him do this to you. Speak out the Sword of the Spirit using the Shield of faith.  God has not given me a spirit of fear but of love power and a sound mind, say this every day till it becomes part of you.  Remember how Jesus overcame satan when he was tempted. IT IS WRITTEN ….. We have to speak Gods Word , there is power in Gods Word. Trust Him

As James says Submit to God. Resist the devil and he WILL flee from you.

Prov 3 v 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 will keep your paths straight. Phil 4 v 4-8 REJOICE IN THE LORD …..Be Anxious for NOTHING, but in EVERYTHING by prayer, supplication and thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God and the peace of God that surpasses all understanding WILL guard your hearts and minds safe in Christ Jesus

So rejoice in the Lord, give Him Praise and thanksgiving that He has saved us, loved us, never leaves us , He is with you in the storm, He is just a whisper away. Sing worship songs in Praise and Glory of our Saviour.  Gods Word cannot lie. God has given us in His Word all we need to live a victorious life in Him. So lets live by it. Give it to God make your requests known to Him . He loves you , you are His child. Tell him how you are feeling and give him your worries and fears and He says that His peace WILL guard our hearts and minds safe in Christ Jesus.  If our first response is to fear/worry/doubt then maybe our first response should be to take it to the Lord.  Remember God is in control He has it. He wont let you down.

I was really worried about something a while ago and spent nearly two weeks worrying about it making my self feel awful but when i stepped out in Faith and did what i believe God had called me to do i was completely calm and relaxed it was amazing and in those times you realize how Gods Grace is sufficient for us for Gods strength  is made perfect in weakness.

Go to Him now , spend time in His Presence and watch what He will do in and through you

I was reading my Daily Bible reading this morning on 1 Kings 17 v 1-24 I sat there for a while and realised what a powerful passage this really was.  That’s what is wonderful about Gods word the more you think about it and ponder it and study it , new things come out of it.

I was struck by the way God provided for Elijah. We often think that maybe God wont come through this time or we think God needs to come through in our way , the way we see it should happen. But that’s not right. Yes of course we need to come to God and ask for His provision/help/healing etc but leave it up to God how that is to be accomplished. To leave it all in His hands. We need to trust Him, He knows best and knows exactly what we need and when.

How would you or i feel about ravens coming to meet our needs? Would we have trusted God with this? Believed God? I mean fully believed. Elijah did ‘He went and did according to the word of the Lord’.When i was off work last year with stress/anxiety I wanted the Lord to come and bring His healing. I wanted to be healed straight away. I used to cry to God, help me Lord please just take this away. But God in His wisdom didn’t quite do that. He provided people  ( my ravens ) People who prayed with me , took time to be with me and God showed me many things through scripture He gave me or gave others for me. I learnt a lot through that time and i praise God with all my heart that He did provide, He did heal in His way and in His timing. I also learnt we don’t need to plead with God He knows all about what we are going through and we need to pray in faith that He will bring that healing/need. We also need to do our part by speaking to our mountains. The Lord shows us that in His Word , He commanded the sickness to go, the demons to go , or the man to pick up His mat and walk etc

It is hard when you are going through dark times, don’t get me wrong. You may be suffering now and not know which way to turn, cant see the light at the end of the tunnel , dont give up praying and seeking. He will provide. Trust Him Hold on to Him. Ask others to pray for you which i believe is so important, our brothers and sisters joining together in faith.

The other thing i wanted to mention that struck me this morning , you know the story at the end of this were the dear widows child died. Her immediate reaction to this was ‘You have come to bring my sin to remembrance and to put my son to death.’ This resonated with me as i have often when things have happened in my past thought , I’ve done this , i’ve brought this on myself ,what have i done wrong now?  Have you done this? Yes there are times when we deliberately go against God  and we have to pay the consequences of that sin , God in His great mercy forgives us when we come to Him and repent but we still have to go through the consequences of that sin. But there are times where some things just happen. That’s life. We are not in heaven yet. You have not done anything wrong. Just cling to the Rock , stand firm and He will be with you. He loves you and He will provide

I was looking at Facebook this morning and saw this notice that said Read 1 Samuel 17 and note anything the Lord sys to you. So I thought sounds a good idea. This was the result and I hope it helps someone.

1 Samuel 17 is about the famous story of David and Goliath.

Goliath came to the Israelites every morning and every night asking them to choose someone to come and fight Him but the Israelites were full of fear.

Why? Goliath was like a giant. He was dressed in heavy armour with a spear and javelin. He was terrifying. No wonder the Israelites were terrified.

We often have to face giants in our lives, don’t we? They stand tall, seem overpowering, too strong for us to fight. Do we run away hoping the situation will improve? Do we get anxious, fearful, panicky not knowing how to carry on sometimes? How do we face that illness, that fear, that person, times of doubt, loneliness, debt etc
The devil may throw accusations at you, how will you do that? How will you cope? Its too big for you? You’ll never get better, you’ll never be good enough. The giants we face can be frightening, just like Goliath was to the Israelites. What do we do in these times?

For 40 days Goliath came morning and evening to torment them, hoping to break them down. Does this sound familiar? It reminded me of Jesus when He was first baptised was in the desert for 40 days too being tempted by the devil to give in to it.

David went to his brothers to check they were ok and heard about Goliath. There was great fear. David said about how he had fought the bear , the lion and how he struck them , seized them and killed them. God had been with David strengthening him and preparing him for this time and His future as King. David knew that God would rescue him from the bear and the lion. He knew that God was with Him, he trusted God.

Do we have such faith? Can we say , God has delivered me before, He has been with me before and will do it again? He has rescued us in the past do we trust Him enough to do it again? Are we spending enough time with God? Preparing ourselves? Reading His word? Being quiet and still and listening for His still small voice. If we are then we like David can be prepared for when troubles come. Its so important to spend that quiet time with God. In the quiet He speaks to us. He longs us to come and be with Him. If we take that time He will come, you will hear.

So it was agreed that David would fight Goliath. Saul tried to dress him in His tunic and armour but it was too big and heavy for David

Do we try other things first before coming to God for help? Do we try in our own strength to sort things out and go to God last if all else fails? Do we go to others instead of God – there is nothing wrong in going to our brothers and sisters in Christ and asking for prayer and help in difficult situations , I have done many times thats what we are there for to support each other but do we rely on them more than our Heavenly Father?

David went to Goliath with nothing but the stones and sling but the Lord was with him. David had such a strong faith that he knew the Lord would deliver him from his enemies. He had seen it happen in the past and he knew His God He trusted God.
‘I come to you in the name of the Lord Almighty. This day the Lord will deliver you into our hands’

The rest of the story we know , David killed Goliath , the philistines were defeated.

If we fight our battles alone we may not get far, we start to sink. I was reminded of a verse
‘For the battle is not yours, but God’s’. It is Gods, we need to trust Him knowing that He will be with us in the battle, in the storm and you will come out the other side stronger in God and in your faith.
Also we must put on the armour of God everyday. Know that God is with you He will fight for you Have faith and trust in Him.
Read Psalm 46 its wonderful and BE STILL AND KNOW THAT HE IS GOD

I wrote this over a year ago but came across it today again so thought i would share on WordPress.

Today Saturday 28.1.17

I awoke to think about a verse that I had heard about the night before and just found this coming into my head so thought i would share

Psalm 37 v 4

Delight yourself in the lord and he will give you the desires of your heart.

Do you delight yourself in the Lord? What does this mean? Are you so grateful to God for saving you? Do you love him with all your heart, mind, body and soul? Do you wake in the morning with a smile on your face for it’s another day to be with the Lord?

Think about what Jesus did for you and me, what He did to save us? He knew we couldn’t rescue ourselves, we were all going to spend eternity without him as we were all born into sin. But God in His great love and mercy came to the world He had created. He decided to enter space, time and matter to save us. He hung on that cross for you taking your sin upon himself that you and I can be transferred from the kingdom of darkness to His glorious kingdom of light.

You meant everything to Him that’s why He became a living sacrifice for us.

How can we have a relationship with Him now though as this happened over 2000 years ago

As we know Jesus rose from the dead that first Easter morning. He conquered death once and for all. When you and I eventually die we will pass from here to Gods Kingdom forever, if we are His

But that’s not where it begins. We have eternal life with Christ not just in the future but here and now. It is no longer I but Christ who lives in me. When we accept and believe that Jesus died and rose again, that our sins are forgiven through His death and resurrection His spirit comes and lives in us.  As it says in Romans 8 v9-11 You, however, are not in the realm of the flesh but are in the realm of the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God lives in you. And if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, they do not belong to Christ. ¹⁰ But if Christ is in you, then even though your body is subject to death because of sin, the Spirit gives life^[a] because of righteousness. ¹¹ And if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies because of^[b] his Spirit who lives in you.

1 Corinthans 3 v16 says Do you not know that you are a temple of God and the spirit of God dwells in you.

Christ is in us by His Holy Spirit, leading us, guiding us being a constant presence in our lives. He longs to have a relationship with you . He desires for us to spend time with Him and get to know Him , to hear from him, learn from Him and be guided by Him

Isnt this amazing , if you really sit quietly down and think about this. Who are we that God would do this, that He would lay down His life and be raised again for us to be brought back into a right relationship with Him.

Do you feel like I did for years. Not worthy, not good enough, these are lies  , this is satan feeding us lies. Its not about if we are worthy or good enough its about God so loved the world that He gave his only son that whoever believeth in Him shall not perish but have eternal Life. We are Gods children, we are redeemed, restored, forgiven, justified, a saint and so on

So with all that in mind lets go back to our verse

Do you spend time with your heavenly Father? Do you take time out of your day just to sit with Him, be with Him? To grow your relationship. Do you find yourself longing to have that quiet time and just be with Him. No requests just be in His presence.  Is He your first and last thought of the day?

Do you delight yourself in the Lord?

So if we continue to the second part of this verse it says, and he will give you the desires of your heart.

Now that doesn’t mean we can go and ask for a Lamborghini and expect it to be on our doorstep in the morning, however nice that would be, well for some LOL or maybe you would prefer a lovely house by the sea with the sand and ocean outside your window. MMM nice thought but that’s not quite what God is saying here. I am sure you would agree too. Now there is nothing wrong with asking for things and we can ask God to help us especially if it’s a need, we can ask Him to heal, provide etc but what are your real desires? The world desires money, status, temporal things but as Christians our desires change to eternal things.

Do you want to serve Him in a certain area, do you want to grow closer to Him, or do you want to help those in need? Are you looking to further Gods kingdom? Lead worship? Try your hand at some teaching. I think what God is saying here is that when we delight ourselves in Him, we will have different desires from what we used to have. Our desires will change. We used to think worldly but we now think heavenly. Our desires  become more in line with His. We will want to serve Him and be with him more, be His hand and feet and mouth piece in this world. To shine Christs light in this dark world.  It’s like when you are in love, you long to be with that person, please that person, etc.

Just using myself as an illustration here. I was a Christian for a while and not really a very good one, I looked ok on the outside but inside not a lot was going on. I wasn’t growing, I wasn’t spending that time with him. Then I started to think about this seriously, I didn’t want to be like this anymore, I knew there was more to life as a Christian and I wanted that.  It’s like God started to put on my heart one thing after another. Not all at once of course over a period of time, I found myself not wanting to do certain things that I used to do, I started to think more differently as I spent time with God, I found this so amazing that the God of the universe, who is outside time would want to spend time with me and change me.  I have learnt that if God isn’t in something or with you or you are not following His ways then it isn’t going to work and it isn’t worth it. Believe me. Don’t go the long way round and spend 40 years going round the same mountain.

I began to desire to find Him more, know Him more and He miraculously healed me late last year and He brought forgiveness to me for something I had long forgotten, He brought healing, restoration that he had promised he would do. He said to me a few times last year, I will restore the years the locusts have taken and He is doing that bit by bit. I desire to serve Him, not out of duty but out of love, I love the Lord, I want to spend time with him, learn from him, be with him and I don’t want that job or anything if it isn’t from God.  I want to be all that He wants me to be, is that your hope too? My greatest desire is to serve God. I have recently been through another very dark time due to stress and anxiety but God has been amazing and He gave me faithful friends who prayed and walked with me through this time. Just before this happened I prayed one night that God would take all the bad stuff i had and all my worries and i layed them at the foot of the cross. Immediatley i had a picture of Jesus picking them all up, doing something with them and then handing me what looked like a heart, shiny and new. So maybe this time has been precisely that to help me see things differently , trust Him to make all things new? Who knows we are all a work in progress.

So final thoughts on this. We have a God who loves us more than we can ever imagine, who Himself desires that we seek Him, worship Him and serve Him but this has to be done out of our relationship with Him. He has saved us from eternity without Him, he has forgiven us and we do these things out of our love for Him. I don’t know about you but let’s delight ourselves in our Lord and he will give us the desires of our hearts.

I was struck this morning by Isaiah 41 v 13 For I the Lord your God, hold your right hand. And i say to you ‘Don’t be afraid , I am here to help you.’  It just struck me  that God holds my hand !!!

Whatever we are going through He will take care of us, He will take hold of our right hand and will help us, He will guide us, lead us, heal us, walk with us through trials and temptations , whatever we are going through. I know I often let God down in this area, I read His promises in His Word but do I truly believe them sometimes? I wonder will He…… this time?

He wont let us down, When He says He will do something He will and as we trust Him we see the answers come, maybe not in our timing but they come. We can totally trust God. As we step out in faith and trust Him that’s when we see His hand at work.

As i said its not always easy , i have been through many trials and i am coming out of one now  but God has always taken me by my hand and seen me through each one. For a while i wondered where He was but  I have been  learning and realizing again i need to trust God. He is taking me on a journey and  I need to let go and let God. I need to stop trying to control things which are out of my control.  God is in control so give Him all your worries, fears and concerns. Let Him take hold of your right hand. As it says in 1 Peter 5v7 Cast all your anxiety on Him because He cares for you.