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! 🙂

A DECISION, A BAPTISM AND AN ACCOMPLISHMENT:))

Some days are harder than others at staying the course as we go along in this daily life.
Have you ever thought about John the Baptist as he went about his daily life in the wilderness? I wonder if he ever questioned his decision to carry out the mission for Christ?

JOHN 1:31-34
31 And I knew him not: but that he should be made manifest to Israel, therefore am I come baptizing with water.
32 And John bare record, saying, I saw the Spirit descending from heaven like a dove, and it abode upon him.
33 And I knew him not: but he that sent me to baptize with water, the same said unto me, Upon whom thou shalt see the Spirit descending, and remaining on him, the same is he which baptizeth with the Holy Ghost.
34 And I saw, and bare record that this is the Son of God.

At Jesus’ baptism John the Baptist declared Him the Messiah. At this time, God gave John a sign to show Him that Jesus was indeed sent from God (1:33). John and Jesus were related, so John probably knew who He was. But it wasn’t until His baptism that he understood Jesus to be the Messiah. Jesus’ baptism is described in Matthew 3:13-17; Mark 1:9-11; and Luke 3:21, 22.

I can’t help but think that John must’ve had a GREAT SIGH of relief that ALL of his hard work was finally paying off and that it had truly been worthwhile:)

FRUITFUL OBSERVATION: John the Baptist’s Job was to point people to Jesus, the Messiah for whom they were looking. Today people are looking for someone to give them security in an insure world.

Let’s do our job today and every day to point people to Christ and to show them that He is the ONE they seek!

Something new at Godsfruitful… 2 minute “FRUIT BITE”

TWO MINUTES OF ENCOURAGEMENT IN ONE FRUIT BITE:)

My First online video lesson 🤔Abraham’s testing

UH OH…CAN’T LET THE WORRY GO???

I already know the answer to this question, but I will go on and ask it…
Do you find yourself worrying just a tiny bit over situations in your life?
I’m sure that most of us are aware that worry is a sin...

Matthew 6:19-34 is our Lord’s definitive teaching about the sin of worry.
Once you memorize it’s core verse, Matthew 6:33, you’ll be leaning on it again and again.
MATTHEW 6:33
33 But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.

Here is an outline of the passage as it unfolds. Study it as you work on this excellent verse.

1. Worry indicates a defective value system (Matt. 6:19-25).
There are more important issues than food, clothing, houses, and entertainment.
2. Worry indicates a defective self-image (Matt. 6:26).                                                          We’re more valuable than anything God has made, including the birds of the air.

3. Worry indicates a defective way of thinking (Matt. 6:27).
Anxiety doesn’t add one hour to our lives or one cubit to our height. It’s a useless exercise and an inefficient way of thinking.
4. Worry indicates a defective trust in God (Matt. 6:28-30).
Faith is the ability to maintain inner strength by trusting in the promises of God amid the problems of life. We shouldn’t fall into the “you of little faith” camp.
5. Worry indicates a defective purpose in life (Matt. 6:31-35).
If we take care of things that are important to God. He’ll take care of things that are important to us.
6. Anxiety indicates a defective view of tomorrow (Matt. 6:34).                                              In this verse, Jesus specifically tells us to deal with today’s issues and don’t worry about tomorrow’s.

FRUITFUL OBSERVATION: Seek ye first the Lord, and then He will provide for you everything that is profitable for you in this life and He will crown it with everything that is glorious in the life to come.

Let’s lean upon the PROMISES OF GOD today and every day!

 

You may feel old and rusty, but don’t distinguish God’s FIRE!

 

Although we may feel old and unusable like the rusted fire hydrant with it’s chain attached, remember that we ARE CAPABLE OF DISTINGUISHING a fire too- GOD’S FIRE

Have you ever been waiting alone for God to speak? Sometimes we can be right where God wants us, but we fail to realize it. My picture shows an old, rusty fire hydrant, appears that it hasn’t been used in years. A fire hydrant is a connection point by which firefighters can tap into a water supply.

Notice the bush to the right of the hydrant. I thought about Moses, and how he had ran away to Midian to escape punishment for killing the Egyptian. He became a stranger in a strange land. It took many years after this incident for Moses to be ready to serve God.

EXODUS 3:2-3
2 And the angel of the Lord appeared unto him in a flame of fire out of the midst of a bush: and he looked, and, behold, the bush burned with fire, and the bush was not consumed.
3 And Moses said, I will now turn aside, and see this great sight, why the bush is not burnt.

God spoke to Moses from an unexpected source: a burning bush. When Moses saw it, he went to investigate. God often uses unexpected sources when working in our lives too, whether people, thoughts or experiences. Be willing to examine, and be open to God’s surprise.

It took many years after this incident for Moses to be ready to serve God. Do you see God’s amazing timing here? What if Moses had decided to run away from the burning bush? After all, the bush was not consumed… God knew already how He was going to use Moses.

FRUITFUL OBSERVATION: God knows His timing with us all. Let’s remember that He appears to us in many different ways. No matter what situation that we are facing today, whether it be a physical or Spiritual need. We must seek Him, and He will appear to us.

Let’s be willing to look for God’s fire in everything that we do, And be willing to tap into His fresh supply of Love and Mercy today and every day!

You may be unplugged and sitting on a sloped hill…

Some days we can feel LEFT OUTSIDE TO DRY 

Hello and HAPPY Tuesday!
Do you ever feel like you’ve been left out to dry? Some days life can be so busy, and we try to go about the day the best that we can. Sometimes it seems like our prayers aren’t answered, much less heard by God.
While we’re waiting, let’s try to find peace in knowing that scripture tells us to continue in prayer, and not give up.

LUKE 18:1
1 And he spake a parable unto them to this end, that men ought always to pray, and not to faint.

To persist in prayer until the answer comes doesn’t mean endless repetition or painfully long prayer sessions. Always praying means keeping our requests constantly before God as we live for Him day by day, always believing He will answer. When we do live by faith, we are not to give up. God may delay answering, but His delays always have good reasons. As we persist in prayer, we grow in character, faith, and hope.
Let’s do our absolute best in finding God in every situation that we face. Try our best to adjust our attitudes, although we aren’t hearing or seeing any evidence that God is listening. He assures us that He is always with us and has the best plan for our life.

FRUITFUL OBSERVATION: Whether or not we feel like we are sitting on a sloped hillside unplugged and out of place, REST assured that God knows exactly where we are at this very moment!! Let’s keep the faith and lift up our prayers, and trust that when He is ready, He will move in our situations.
Stay plugged into the RIGHT POWER supply today and every day:))

Waiting on God can cause our tongues to hang out!

Hello and HAPPY Thursday 🙂

This path can sure get tiring some days

Have you ever found it difficult to have to wait on God?

Sometimes when situations seemed to be unbearable, we can feel as if we are stalled on the path as we are trying to keep our focus and follow Him.
Waiting on God does indeed test our faith.

PSALMS 27:13-14
13 I had fainted, unless I had believed to see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living.
14 Wait on the Lord: be of good courage, and he shall strengthen thine heart: wait, I say on the Lord.

The “land of the living” simply means this life. David was obviously going through a trial, but he was confident that in this present life God would see him through it.
David knew from experience what it meant to wait on the Lord. He had been anointed king at age 16 but didn’t become king until he was 30. During the interim, he was chased through the wilderness by jealous King Saul. David had to wait on God for the fulfillment of his promise to reign.
Waiting on God is not easy. Often it seems that He isn’t answering our prayers or doesn’t understand the urgency of our situation.
That kind of thinking implies that God is not in control or is not fair. But God is worth waiting for. Isaiah 40:27-31 calls us to wait because often God uses waiting to refresh, renew, and teach us.

FRUITFUL OBSERVATION:
Let’s make good use of our waiting times by discovering what God may be trying to show us in them

 

How detailed is God’s timing?

Happy Wednesday:) and what a busy day so far!
You know how we hear a lot of talk about God’s timing? It seems that everyone we know, including ourselves, is waiting for something. No matter how big or small an issue, it is important to us. It’s often hard to remember that God is involved in our daily lives when we are waiting and aren’t seeing any changes or solutions, right?
Well, today I was studying in the book of Joshua for my Bible study lesson, and it got my attention.
If you read in the first chapter of Joshua, you will find that it’s after the death of Moses, the Lord’s disciple, God, spoke to Moses’ assistant, whose name was Joshua, and said to him,
2 “Now that my disciple is dead, {your are the new leader of Israel} Lead my people across the Jordan River into the Promised Land.
5 No one will be able to oppose you as long as you live, for I will be with you just as I was with Moses; I will not abandon you or fail to help you. 6 “Be strong and brave, for you will be a successful leader of my people; and they shall conquer all the land I promised to their ancestors. 7 You need only to be strong and courageous and to obey to the letter every law Moses gave you, for if you are careful to obey every one of them, you will be successful in everything you do.
Skip to v 9 Yes, be bold and strong! Banish fear and doubt! For remember, the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.”
10, 11 Then Joshua issued instructions to the leader of Israel to tell the people to get ready to cross the Jordan River. “In three days we will go across and conquer and live in the land which God has given us!” he told them.
First of all, we do not have to follow the law to the letter because we aren’t under the law now but under Grace. God was giving him direct instructions on how to be successful in everything that he did, (umm sort of like we have His instructions today).
God told him that he must be bold and strong! Banish fear and doubt, hello? Any bell ringers here?? God also told him that the Lord your God is with you wherever you go. Everywhere you go is pretty much everywhere you go right?
The part that got my attention is vs. 10, 11. As most know, the long awaited Promised Land was a BIG DEAL! Not only was it a BIG DEAL BUT it had taken 40 YEARS to get to this point. I mean we had a whole generation to die out due to disobedience and lack of trust. SO here it was the BIG DAY when God finally spoke out the “real deal” instructions and
Joshua got it underway.
I thought about how we are all in a holding pattern, but most of us haven’t been in a 40 year waiting period to finally accomplish the thing that is so BIG to us at this moment.
Take comfort in knowing that God knows His timing, and He will give the orders out according to His plan and purpose. In the meantime seek His Word daily for encouragement and joy. I assure you that you will find it there:) Look at it this way, Why was “that day” the day that God chose to speak the instructions to bring about such a long awaited event? What would another day of waiting matter in the big picture anyway?
Just God’s timing I suppose:))

Hope this encourages you to remember that we are all waiting and God knows His timing and will speak the instructions at just the right time:)