Godsfruitful
Encouraging others in Christ
Archive for the category “Discouragement”
When the Enemy STRIKES Chapter one review
Know his tactics, he comes ONLY to steal, kill and destroy!!!
The seventh piece truly means completion and perfection:)
Did you know that Prayer is part of the FULL Armour of God? It is!!
While participating in doing my homework for the War Room Bible study, I’ve come to understand this important aspect. I count six pieces of the armor, but prayer makes seven. Most of us know that in the Bible the number seven represents completion or perfection. I’d say that prayer truly is both! 🙂
In Ephesians 6:10-17, we are told that in the Christian life we battle against “principalities and powers.” (the powerful evil forces or fallen angels headed by satan who is a vicious fighter, see 1 Peter 5:8). To withstand the attacks, we must depend on God’s strength and use every piece of His armour. Paul is not only giving this counsel to the church, the body of Christ, but to all individuals within the church. The whole body needs to be armed.
As we do battle against “the rulers of the darkness of this world,” fight in the strength of the church, whose power comes from the Holy Spirit.
One does not commonly equate prayer with battle attire, but it is no accident that Paul commands believers to pray when engaging in spiritual warfare.
EPHESIANS 6:18
18 Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, and watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication for all saints.
One way to pray constantly is to make quick, brief prayers our habitual response to every situation we meet throughout the day. Another way is to order our life around God’s desires and teachings so that our very life becomes a prayer
FRUITFUL OBSERVATION: We don’t have to isolate ourselves from other people and from daily work in order to pray regularly. We can make our prayer our life and our life a prayer while living in a world that needs God’s powerful influence.
Let’s remember that we have a POWERFUL WEAPON and that we can use it today and every day! 🙂
Fixed eyes produce less veering :)
Do you know that NOT getting distracted and veering off the track is crucial whether referring to Christians or Locomotive Trains?
In both instances, once off course massive cha
os is inevitable.
PSALMS 119:1-8 (ESV)
1 Blessed are those whose way is blameless,
who walk in the law of the Lord!
2 Blessed are those who keep his testimonies,
who seek him with their whole heart,
3 who also do no wrong,
but walk in his ways!
4 You have commanded your precepts
to be kept diligently.
5 Oh that my ways may be steadfast
in keeping your statutes!
6 Then I shall not be put to shame
having my eyes fixed on all your commandments.
7 I will praise you with an upright heart,
when I learn your righteous rules.
8 I will keep your statutes;
do not utterly forsake me.
FRUITFUL OBSERVATION: God’s Word tells us exactly what we must do as His children to live the best life possible
Let’s stay on track with God today and every day!! 🙂
IT’S SIMPLY a MATTER of SURRENDER:))
Have you ever thought about the word surrender? As Christians, we read and hear a lot about how we are to ‘surrender‘ our lives to Christ. I believe sometimes we think that we have until another obstacle arises and we find ourselves in the middle of yet another growth spurt.
Surrender means giving up possession of or power over; yield to another on demand or compulsion.
JOB 11:13-15 Contemporary English Version (CEV)
13 Surrender your heart to God, turn to Him in prayer,
14 and give up your sins- even those you do in secret,
15 Then you won’t be ashamed; you will be confident and fearless.
In a sense, surrender and faith go hand and hand. Christ meant for the Gospel to be straightforward and easily understood. The word surrender can be misunderstood as being to difficult for us actually to live as we should for Christ, but as believers in God’s Holy Word, we are to trust what Scripture tells us to do and obey how He wants us to live in obedience to Him. 
To surrender ourselves is just as simple as taking God’s Word at face value as to what it implies. We aren’t going to be perfect; we can expect to make mistakes daily, but knowing that God knows all things that we do and say can lead us to pray and ask for forgiveness to be forgiven.
By staying in a right condition with Christ causes us to be usable for Him, and keeps us in a ‘surrendered’ state.
It’s a matter of obeying His Word and nothing more. Now isn’t that simpler than you thought?
FRUITFUL OBSERVATION: We can sometimes make the Christian life harder than it’s meant to be, it’s a matter of applying our faith and fully obeying.
Let’s do our best today and every day to apply God’s Word to our daily lives and be fully surrendered for His use! 🙂
No matter how BIG the glasses,IT won’t be any clearer:)
How often is it difficult for us not to look back on our past?
And even more difficult to look forward to our future?
This question comes after several encounters this week with other believers.
We can feel as if we are in a place that seems so unfamiliar to us. At times,
we may even long to go back to the familiarity of when life was comfortable for us!
PHILIPPIANS 3:12-14
12 Not as though I had already attained, either were already perfect: but I follow after, if that I may apprehend that for which also I am apprehended of Christ Jesus.
13 Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended:but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before,
14 I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.
Paul said his goal was to know Christ, to be like Christ, and to be all Christ has in mind for him. This goal absorbed all his energy. This is an example for us. We should not let anything take our eyes off our goal-Christ.
Paul had reason to feel sorrow about the past-he held the coats of those who stoned Stephen, the first Christian martyr (Acts 7:57, 58), he is called Saul here). Most of us do not have the type of guilt that Paul had due to his past when he was a persecutor of Christians. We all have done things for which we are ashamed. Because our hope is in Christ, however, we can let go of the past guilt, as well as the comforts of familiarity and look forward to what He will help us become. We should not dwell on what we had (that which we thought was so good), instead, grow in the knowledge of God by concentrating on our relationship with Him now.
FRUITFUL OBSERVATION: We know that we are forgiven, and then we move on to a life of faith and obedience. We need to look forward to a fuller and more meaningful life because of our hope in Christ. He has the BEST PLAN FOR US!
Let’s start living the life that Christ wants us to have today and every day! 🙂 No looking back…only FORWARD FOR HIM:) Take the first step!
A HEART CONDITION CAN BE FATAL!!!
How many times have you been having a great day and then allow yourself to lose focus? Scripture tells us that it is important for us to keep our focus on the right things in life.
PROVERBS 4:23-27
23 Keep thy heart with all diligence;
for out of it are the issues of life.
24 Put away from thee a froward mouth,
and perverse lips put far from thee.
25 Let thine eyes look right on,
and let thine eyelids look straight before thee.
26 Ponder the path of thy feet,
and let all thy ways be established.
27 Turn not to the right hand nor to the left:
remove thy foot from evil.
Our heart-our feeling of love and desire dictates to a great extent how we live, because we always find time to do what we enjoy. Solomon tells us to keep our heart with all diligence, making sure we concentrate on those desires that will keep us on the right path.
Make sure your affections push you in the right direction. Put boundaries on your desires: don’t go after everything you see.
Look straight ahead, keep your eyes fixed on your goal and don’t get sidetracked on detours that lead to temptation.
FRUITFUL OBSERVATION: We all know how quickly that we can let our thoughts get to thinking on negative i
ssues, which produces worry. We must be aware and change our view to the positive things of God. What we harbor in our heart comes out of our mouth
Let’s stay focused on what God’s Word says today and every day!
HIS WORD IS THE POWER THAT WE NEED TO DEFEAT THE DOUBT THAT THE devil BRINGS
Mesmerized memorizers we MUST BE!!
Some days are better than others aren’t they? It seems that situations can happen and redirect our entire day.
We can depend on on
e sure area that will never redirect us, and that is God’s Word.
God’s Word is real and beautiful. Stay true to God and His Word no matter how bad the world becomes.
Obedience to God’s law is the only way to achieve real happiness.
PSALMS 119
This is the longest psalm and the longest chapter in the Bible. It may have been written by Ezra after the Temple was rebuilt (Ezra 6:14, 15) as a repetitive meditation on the beauty of God’s Word and how it helps us stay pure and grow in faith.
This psalm has 22 carefully constructed sections, each corresponding to a different letter in the Hebrew alphabet and each verse beginning with the letter of its section. Almost every verse mentions God’s Word. Such repetition was common in the Hebrew culture.
People did not have personal copies of the Scriptures to read as we do, so God’s people memorized His Word and passed it along orally. The structure of this psalm allowed for easy memorization. Remember, God’s Word, the Bible, is the only sure guide for living a pure life.
FRUITFUL OBSERVATION: Storing God’s Word in our hearts is a deterrent to sin. This alone should inspire us to memorize Scripture. But memorization alone will not keep us from sin; we must also put God’s Word to work in our lives, making it a vital guide to everything we do.
Godsfruitful 