Psalm 46:10 – “Cease striving and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth. “

As I was reading, praying, and meditating on the Word, that verse captured my attention. Let it soak in: “Cease striving and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations; I will be exalted in the earth. “

He began his declaration in verse 1 – “God IS our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.”  Then, in verse 2, “Therefore, we Will Not Fear, though…”     Though?  Yes, although Everything crumbles around us, there will be No Fear!

Psalm 46:4 – “There is a river whose streams make glad the City of God.”

Sadly, too much of the time, we strive to do rather than rest to receive.  We attempt to earn God’s favor.   We seem to think it is not God unless we struggle to be or produce.

• God said, “You Cease Striving.” 
• Moses said, “You stand still and watch God do it.” 
• Jesus said, “You come to Me, take My yoke, learn My heart, and watch what I do.  It is not Struggle; it is Trust.”

Psalm 49:5-9 powerfully speaks to this.  Why should we fear and fret in times of difficulty or adversity?  God is our hope, so we should cease trying to produce what He has done.

The key is in Psalm 51:1-4; 7-13; 17.

• God washes us completely.
• God cleanses us thoroughly.
• God makes us painfully aware of our errors.
• God makes us know the root of sin.

The plea of these passages is for purification.  That involves purging, which will be emotionally painful.  It strips of pride and produces humility.

• Clean hearts, see and hear God.
• Renewed spirits cling to God.
• The presence of God produces peace.
• The Holy Spirit radically transforms and empowers.

All that opens the floodgates of Joy Unspeakable and causes us to die to ourselves and willingly surrender Everything to Him.  In that condition, we lose our ambition in the flesh (not our motivation, but our carnal ambition), and His Kingdom becomes our purpose.   We lose our carnal life and save our spiritual life.

As long as we try to do it on our own, He will stand out of the way and let us.  When we give up and let Him take over, He Does!

My prayer is, “Lord, break us so that You can make us.  Strip us so that You can fill us.  Open the eyes of our hearts so we can see and be free!”

Today is designed as God’s Day of victory; receive it.   Cease striving and let God be God.

Have a wonderful day Resting in Jesus and Receiving His Fullness!

Psalm 111:7 – “The works of His hands are truth and justice.” 

I find that text to be fascinating.  As I read, prayed, and mused on the Word, a theme began to unravel in the Psalms.

Psalm 111:2 states, “Great are the works of the LORD; they are Studied by all who delight in them.”   That is captivating.  We are to Study the Works of God.   Do we do that?  Do we even know what the works of God are?

Our text, Psalm 111:7, says, “The works of His hands are truth and justice.”  Tap the Brakes for a second.  Aren’t the works the miracles, signs, and wonders?   Yes, they are included, but it says they are “Truth and Justice.”  That moves it from acts of power to the whole of life.

Psalm 115:16 – “The heavens are the heavens of the LORD; But the earth He Has Given to the sons of men.”   God’s ways are truth and justice, and we are to study them.   Additionally, He tells us that the earth is ours; we reign over the earth.   The question is, “How are we to do that?”  The simplistic answer is “In truth and justice.”   That means that we have a commission (assignment) and authority.

Psalm 118:6 – “The LORD is for me; I will not fear; What can man do to me?”

The implication is that no man can do more to the Covenant person than God allows.  It also indicates that even if he does evil to us, there is no reason to fret because We Are Kept!   Why?  Because God is for us.

Psalm 118:17 – “I Shall not die, but live, AND tell of the works of God (Truth & Justice).

Psalm 119:71 – “It is good for me that I was afflicted, That I may LEARN Thy Statutes.”

• We learn God’s Heart as we study God’s ways (Truth & Justice).
• As we learn God’s heart, we are no longer fearful of man because we Know God.  
• As we endure trials, we rejoice because we Know God’s Heart and Know that He Never forsakes but Always keeps His own.

Psalm 119:89 – “Forever, O LORD, Thy Word is settled in heaven.”

No matter what we face, we face it knowing God’s Truth & Justice are watching over us.  We live without fear and with the expectation that God’s Ways Will Guard, Guide, and Empower us.

We have authority on earth, which means whatever we face, in Jesus, we have authority.   Therefore, exercise it!    Speak to your problem in Jesus’ name and expect it to align with His ways.  God revealed His Ways to Moses and His Acts to the children of Israel.  In the sense of Trust and Obedience, be a Moses.

Have a Great Day in Jesus!

John 18:36-38 – “Jesus replied, “My Kingdom is not from this world.  If my Kingdom were from this world, my servants would be fighting to keep me from being handed over to the Jewish authorities. But as it is, my Kingdom is not from here.” ³⁷ Then Pilate said, “So you are a king!” Jesus replied, “You say that I am a king.  For this reason, I was born, and for this reason, I came into the world—to testify to the Truth.  Everyone who belongs to the Truth listens to my voice.” ³⁸ Pilate asked, “What is truth?”   When he had said this, he went back outside to the Jewish leaders and announced, “I find no basis for an accusation against him.”

Today, I was challenged by John 18-21 about Jesus, man, and religion. It began with Pilate’s question in John 18:38, “What Is Truth?”  Regardless of why Pilate asked it, it is the key question for us—not what is Truth as we perceive it, but what is Truth!

When Pilate tried repeatedly to release Jesus, the Jews said, “We have no King but Caesar.”  Religion’s God is tradition and their doctrinal tenets.    Pilate’s response to the challenge about the inscription above Jesus KING OF THE JEWS was, “What I Have Written, I Have Written.”  You and I are the authors of the Book of Our Lives on Earth, and What we write is written.   It cannot be edited but by the Blood of Jesus.

After the resurrection, Mary came to the empty tomb, and the question by the angels Jesus was, “Why Are You Weeping?”   They knew the answer; it was because of her pain in losing Him.   It was a failure to truly see that His death was not permanent.  It was rooted in temporal thinking.

Here is the Eternal Truth – He had to die so we could live.   Because of His death and resurrection, death is not death for the Believer. 

The Angels wanted to shift her focus from what she perceived to be her loss to the Truth, which reveals what she gained. 

• Life is to be lived with eternity in view.
• Life is to be lived with God’s purpose in view.
• Life is to be lived knowing that death is temporary.

We have a great cloud of witnesses who have preceded us, and they are not dead but alive in Him and with Him.  Those witnesses and Jesus provide the inspiration to Live Life to the Fullest.

• The fields are ready for harvest.  
• We have an assignment.  
• Only as we allow our focus to become Him, and the Kingdom can we answer the question “What is Truth?” and write our Book rightly.   

He is Alive!  Those who have preceded us are alive, and we need to live!    I want the Book of My Life to Glorify Him.   I want no part of my life to be withheld from Him.   Caesar is not my King; Jesus is!

I pray that we will see Him and what He has done and let Him live in us and through us.  Then, our weeping will be for the lost, not for ourselves.   Today is a day of Victory for the Believer!

Have a wonderful day as you write the Book of your life with Jesus!

Acts 7:39-40 – “Our ancestors were unwilling to obey him, but pushed him aside and turned back to Egypt in their hearts, ⁴⁰ saying to Aaron, ‘Make us gods who will go in front of us, for this Moses, who led us out of the land of Egypt—we do not know what has happened to him!”

As I prayed, I pondered, and as I read Acts 7, several things quickened to my heart.   Stephen’s detailing of Israel’s history is powerful and a virtual goldmine of revelatory and life-altering truths.

• Joseph’s total healing of hurt and abandonment resonates powerfully.  

His healing was directly connected to his understanding of Covenant and the vision God had birthed in him.  God’s promises, coupled with God’s vision birthed in us, enable us to withstand Anything!

• Moses is another example of God’s incredible love and mercy, as well as His power.

Moses was highly educated, trained, and capable, but he presumed upon God’s timing and attempted to do it his way.   He failed, but after he was humbled, God used him to deliver Israel, the original purpose fulfilled 40 years later.

The people of Israel received God’s deliverance with joy Until they faced difficulties, and then they returned to Egypt In Their Hearts.  (Acts 7:39)

They returned to a state of selfishness and idolatry.   (Acts 7:43) They took the tabernacle of Moloch and the star of Rompha with them.

In the midst of God’s presence, they clung to the idols of their hearts.    The question for us today is, What Idols of the Heart do we worship?

Are we Totally devoted to and Totally dependent upon God?   If we are looking for Anything to be our provision other than Him, it is an idol of the heart.   God “is” Our Provision.   God “is” our help.  God “is” our hope.  He Never Fails and is Incapable of telling a lie.

His Word Never Fails.  Can we, like Joseph, walk in adversity and rejection and be Whole?   Can we, like Moses, empty ourselves to the point that we live Totally dependent upon God?  Can we, like Stephen, become so focused on God and the Kingdom that even if we are murdered for our faith, see Jesus, and forgive?

What our hearts are full of determines how we view life, others, God, and live.   Matthew 6:33 – Jesus first, second, third, and totally is my desire.  In that state, we can Become Who God says we Are.

Victory is ours today if we will remove the Idols of our Hearts!