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Psalm 3:5 I lay down and slept; I awoke, for the Lord sustained me.
How do you sleep when you are really worried about something? Do you struggle or maybe you just cannot sleep at all?
David shows us here just how comforting it is to know God; even though he was so tied up in distress and worry about his son catching and trying to kill him, he still gave it to God and was able to rest.
Give your worries to God. Don’t say so and hold them back. Don’t give them to Him in name but not for real. Give your worries to God, totally and properly!
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Psalm 4:8 I will both lie down in peace, and sleep; for You alone, O Lord, make me dwell in safety.
Each time we see David complain about the things that go wrong in his life we also see him lift up God and give Him praise for looking out for him!
That always bring joy to my heart, knowing that every bad thing that comes through my life has a reason, but I have a Saviour who walks every step of those times with me.
Christ is always by our side when we get into trouble. He is always holding out His arms to protect us when we feel surrounded by death, disruption, sorrow or any other evil.
We may not feel safe, we may not be safe in this world, but we are safe in Christ’s hands!
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Psalm 139:2 You know my sitting down and my rising up; You understand my thought afar off.
How many times have you played with a dog or a cat and got them to do the same thing over and over again through simple commands or actions. It’s like you know what they are thinking…
Well God actually does know our thought and He could quite easily treat us like pets and get us to do the same things over and over again for His amusement… But he does not; He gives us choice.
That choice is very important because it is a showing of His love for us. A love that goes far deeper than we realise… after all, He does know what we get up to, and still He loves us!
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Psalm 19:12 Who can understand his errors? Cleanse me from secret faults.
None of us is perfect. We all make mistakes and many of those mistakes are sinful in their nature.
Making mistakes is quite normal! But that does not excuse us from the sin we may have committed. So we still have to bring the sin to God.
God is not forgetful, but He is willing to forgive us. We should not try to sweep our sins under the carpet but bring them openly to Him in all honesty for the forgiveness He promises us!
Allow God to forgive you. Don’t hold fast to your sins.
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Leviticus 4:2 “Speak to the children of Israel, saying: ‘If a person sins unintentionally against any of the commandments of the Lord in anything which ought not to be done, and does any of them,
When we read through this passage in our Old Testaments we find rules and regulations and sin offerings which had to be carried out when people found out they were sinning.
In other words these people did not go out and break the law knowing what they were doing, but rather found out or realised afterward they had broken the law.
They still had to ask for forgiveness through a sacrifice. God cannot ignore the sin; just because we didn’t realise it at the time…
Be patient with God because He is patient with you!
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Hebrews 10:26 For if we sin wilfully after we have received the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins
How many times did you try to pretend to say sorry when you were very young? How many of those times did your parents or guardians catch you out and demand a real apology?
I know I could not get things past my parents when I was young and nowadays I have learned never to want to get things past them!
God wants us to be at the stage where we never want to try and hide anything from Him either. Not just because He sees everything we do but because it makes our apology of no effect when we do!
God wants us to be honest and open with Him. Simple!
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Matthew 24:21 For then there will be great tribulation, such as has not been since the beginning of the world until this time, no, nor ever shall be.
God is not here to rain down all manner of punishment on us just because we are doing things wrong; but God is not going to continually pick us up from the ground when we ignore Him and His ways either!
When we live an evil life we have to put up with all sorts of evil things happening in our lives; some of it may be the consequence of what we do whilst others may be nothing to do with us.
God knows we will have to put up with severe punishment through living through our evils ways, so why blame God for things we bring upon ourselves.
Look to God for help in bringing us out of the pit, not for throwing us into it…
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Exodus 10:17 Now therefore, please forgive my sin only this once, and entreat the Lord your God, that He may take away from me this death only.”
Do you like asking for forgiveness for something you have done wrong? How do you ask?
I know I have asked people to forgive me in the past without meaning it, and Pharaoh certainly did not mean what he was saying here!
If we want to ask God to forgive us then we had better mean what we say – God sees inside our hearts so He knows whether we mean it!
When we ask with a true heart, God will answer with a true spirit and give us what we seek.
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Colossians 3:24 knowing that from the Lord you will receive the reward of the inheritance; for you serve the Lord Christ.
What happened to 23? It’s here today and was there yesterday. We need to aim to please God, not man.
When we do aim to please God we then get to know how pleased He is with us by what He gives us. No I’m not saying He will give you money if you work for Him – that is the earthly view and task.
When we walk with God we begin to see just how much He gives us deep within our souls. We begin to know the strength, wisdom, peace and life He bestows on us because we believe in Him.
God wants to give us our inheritance, but we need to believe it first!
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Colossians 3:22 Bondservants, obey in all things your masters according to the flesh, not with eyeservice, as men-pleasers, but in sincerity of heart, fearing God.
When we make a contract with someone we should keep it and we should obey the person in charge with everything they ask of us in a normal manner.
This does not mean we have to go against our beliefs when they tell us to do so – that is spiritual and we need to make sure we stick with God in those matters, not man!
But also to do things because we want to and not just because it’s our job; knowing that this is the will of God!
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Colossians 3:21 Fathers, do not provoke your children, lest they become discouraged.
Once again we see this has to be taken in context with the previous verses and again it is showing how we need to be able to live in peace together.
From a youth worker perspective there is nothing worse than having to try to piece together a young person after they have had an argument with their parents.
The stability in their relationship is in tatters and has to be moulded back together slowly to show them how things fit together one piece at a time.
God needs workers who are willing to piece together lives one step at a time so they can see The Fathers love.
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Colossians 3:20 Children, obey your parents in all things, for this is well pleasing to the Lord.
I honestly cannot remember my parents ever using this one against me! I’m not sure what I would have thought about it then…
I have seen so many parents blame children for their splitting up or for their failures when they should be looking squarely at themselves instead.
Children should be what holds a family together because we should love our children unconditionally just as God loves us; which should make it easy for them to obey this verse.
If we cannot be trusted then how can we ask our children to trust us? If we cannot love, then how can we ask them to love us?
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Colossians 3:19 Husbands, love your wives and do not be bitter toward them.
Our God is not a God to stir up anger in people against each other or against the world. Our God is a just God who continues to promote His love toward mankind.
Part of that love is showing us how we should be living one toward another – loving each other without judgement.
Part of a good relationship is learning to love one another no matter what is going on and not judging each other all the time!
Learning to put up with things other people do and not being bitter against them is just a part of us learning more about this love Christ wants us to have.
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Colossians 3:18 Wives, submit to your own husbands, as is fitting in the Lord.
I do like stirring sometimes! Don’t ever take this out of context because it belongs in the whole passage and we will look at a verse a day.
Living in harmony with the one we love should be easy; but it takes both side to make sure the relationship works.
God continues to pour out His love toward us and continues to love and support us.
Is it not fair that we love Him back in return? That we submit to Him in return for all He does. It works in marriage so it will work with God!
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Colossians 3:25 But he who does wrong will be repaid for what he has done, and there is no partiality.
God is a just God. He is not going to ignore the bad things we have done if we try to sweep them under the carpet.
Just because we hide them from our own eyes does not mean they will be hidden from God’s eyes.
But just because others do not see the good things we do does not mean God will ignore those things as well.
God is just – on both sides of the coin!
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Deuteronomy 1:17 You shall not show partiality in judgment; you shall hear the small as well as the great; you shall not be afraid in any man’s presence, for the judgment is God’s. The case that is too hard for you, bring to me, and I will hear it.’
Agreeing with someone just because they sound good or because you don’t want to sound stupid is just not right!
If we do not open our eyes to the truth then we are failing ourselves and burying everything that is good in the sand.
It’s easy for me to stand here and say “don’t be afraid of other people” when I am not in your situation; but when you find out how much more God can do, you will agree.
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Exodus 23:2 You shall not follow a crowd to do evil; nor shall you testify in a dispute so as to turn aside after many to pervert justice.
Following the crowd always seems to be the easy option, but when you find out that you all get into trouble anyway, you wonder why!
The options are quite simple really – to do good or to do evil. We like to describe all manner of levels of good and evil but the fact remains, it is good or evil!
Whether it starts with a bit of gossip or joining in to get someone else into trouble just because, the other road is not all it is advertised to be.
God wants us to recognise our failings and to turn away from them. Yes we do need His help. But we can do it!
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3 John 1:11 Beloved, do not imitate what is evil, but what is good. He who does good is of God, but he who does evil has not seen God.
It is quite easy to set people who love God apart from the others – they seem to be the ones doing good things, but not just doing good but doing it better.
When I see how God changes people when they get to know Him better, I see this ‘good’ spring up instead of the same old reactions I saw before.
God changes people from the inside and those changes get reflected on the outside; this is how we know people know God!
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James 1:22 But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves.
If you know something has to be done and you sit back and wait for someone else to do it, who is at fault? Yes that is a loaded question!
God calls us to go out and share the Gospel. He calls us to get up and do things. He also calls us to stop and wait for Him.
We do have to listen carefully to our awesome God… but we must be prepared to get up and do it when He calls us to do it!
He has called us. Let us go forward this year in hope.
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Zephaniah 2:3 Seek the Lord, all you meek of the earth, Who have upheld His justice. Seek righteousness, seek humility. It may be that you will be hidden in the day of the Lord’s anger.
How do you go about saying sorry to God? Do you act like a naughty child and mumble sorry, run off and do it all again, or do you actually mean it?
It is hard to mean it when we have been doing things wrong and we know it. It is hard to humble ourselves. It is hard to stop!
But when we do come to Him with true repentance we can be sure He will see it and make a difference. Just as adults know the difference between a child saying sorry because they have to and one saying sorry because they mean it – so does God!