God uses Sticks and Stones...and Us!

      This morning as I got ready for church, I listened to Charles Stanley on the TV. Something he said really resonated with my spirit. It was that God wants us to know the truth about what's going on in our lives. Seems simple enough, yet it is so profound that the enemy is constantly at work to keep us from realizing it in our daily lives. If we knew the truth of God's plans for us today, we would take hold of them in confidence and not let go. Our very steps would be only a confirmation of the "Amen" we have already spoken in our hearts.

      Dr. Stanley used David's courage against Goliath as an example. David saw the situation, he heard the enemy taunting, he heard the Israelites; but more important to David was the truth God had spoken into his life during the many times David had called on Him in solitude. The times God's strength was made perfect in weakness, as a young shepherd boy fought a lion and a bear with nothing more than the weapons of a boy.

      David's tools were a sling and a stick, but his weapon was God! The truth built into David's life over the years was what David stood on the day he faced Goliath. It was the knowledge that God had anointed him "and from that day on the Spirit of the Lord came upon David in power," I Sam. 16:13. It didn't matter how strong the foe, what the odds looked like, or even what size David was; what mattered to David was the plan God had for his life and he believed that God could and would do what he said. He knew he was on the winning team and he saw himself winning, before he ever picked up a stone!

1 Samuel 17:45 David said to the Philistine, "You come against me with sword and spear and javelin, but I come against you in the name of the Lord Almighty, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied. This day the Lord will hand you over to me, and I'll strike you down and cut off your head.....v. 47 All those gathered here will know that it is not by sword or spear that the Lord saves; for the battle is the Lord's, and he will give all of you into our hands."
 v. 50 So David triumphed over the Philistine with a sling and a stone; without a sword in his hand he struck down the Philistine and killed him.

      If we took hold of the truth God is building in each of our lives, and those "good works" he planned for us to do long before He created the world, what kinds of things would we accomplish? If the only limit was the limit of His promises breathed into our lives through His written word, what kinds of things would we be capable of doing? Would the world remain the same...would we?
 
2 Corinthians 1:20 For no matter how many promises God has made, they are "Yes" in Christ. And so through him the "Amen" is spoken by us to the glory of God.
 
      Let us take hold of His promises, and by doing so we will say, "Amen" with our lives and bring glory to God!

What does hope look like?

I am ready for the cold and dark days to go away! How about you? Winter can be beautiful but seems so long...there is a danger of wilting!

 My flowers seem so happy when the sun peeks out and warms the ground. Isn't that similar to us, when God shines his light into our hearts and warms us with His presence.

"For God who created the light to shine out of darkness,
hath shined in our hearts..."  2 Corinthians 4:6

If I could pick something that reminded me of what hope looks like, I think I would choose a flower. The way it begins from a seed or bulb planted down in the dark ground, and at just the right time breaks through the dirt. It reaches upward and unwraps into a lovely flower!

What does hope look like to you?