No one is exempt from struggles and heartaches in this life.  Here we have David talking about crying out to God when He was at the end of his rope!  Think about Joseph and his prison stay for things he had never done, for him it was one thing after the next and he had done nothing wrong.  God brought Joseph out of prison one day and made him the leader of the country second only to Pharaoh.  One day Ruth was gleaning in the fields and the next she owned the fields.  The list goes on and on so why not you? Maybe you are frustrated because your entire life has felt like a struggle, if so I would beg you to stop for a second and think about the stories behind these three people. David spent much of his life being overlooked, underestimated, belittled and running for his life. Joseph was sold by his own brothers into slavery, falsely accused and put in prison. Ruth grew up not even knowing God until she married an Israelite and then he died and she lived in poverty with her mother-in-law gathering food left behind by reapers in any field that would allow her to. They had rough lives, BUT GOD… If you have felt as though God has tossed you aside He hasn’t, that is a lie straight from hell to keep you from fulfilling the purpose God created you for. Or, maybe you have walked away from His path for your life and have been doing your own thing so you don’t feel there is no way God will come through for you now, God doesn’t think and operate the same way we do. His mercies are new every day and just like the Prodigal son’s Dad waited for his son to return God has been waiting for you and He wants to wrap His loving arms around you and welcome you back! He wants to help you get back on track in every area of your life ~ don’t let the enemy speak his lies to you or pride to keep you from the close walk your heavenly Dad wants to have with you! Open your heart and just reach out to Him ~ He’s waiting!

God has a habit of doing things “suddenly”!  If you are waiting it may not seem like it is happening “suddenly” right now, but He seems to like to do things in such a dramatic way He can be glorified through it, and other people are drawn to Him!  Honor Him today by trusting Him that you suddenly may be today!  Don’t give up!  What if Joseph decided to get angry and turn his back on God when year after year his life just seemed to get worse?  He had no idea if he would ever get out of prison, all he could do was hang on to the promises of God.  God likes to do things in our lives so that when others look on they cannot deny that it is Him.  Trust Him!  

“God takes a long time to do something suddenly!”  He is patient and He knows the best timing for it all!  Trust Him with His timing.  While you wait don’t allow satan to beat you up with his lies!  Don’t allow doubt in the character of God to seep in!  Trust God’s nature, knowing that He is Sovereign and Holy and always good!  He loves you and He cares and He wants you to trust Him!  Trust in His love for you!  He didn’t withhold His son to save your soul so why would He stop caring now?  Grab hold of who you are in Christ today!  Write down verses to encourage you and to help keep you strong and carry them with you!  Spend time with Him in His word and in prayer!  Allow Him to work in and through your situation to draw others to Him, knowing that His best is yet to come!  Get excited!  What if today is your “and suddenly”?  Are you believing for it?  If you are wavering, let me encourage you to ask God to help your unbelief!  Maybe you have waited so long that it is difficult for you to imagine any change ever happening, but don’t give up!  He loves you and He wants to get glory through your situation!  He wants others to look on and say, “Wow!  That was truly God!”  Trust Him!  Don’t set an agenda for how it has to turn out, trust Him to do what is best!

Every day can be a fresh start, a chance to right wrongs, to make the choice to make a new beginning.  We have choices to make every day that can affect generations to come.  What will you do with today?

Guard your heart is not just referring to relationships, although that is very important, it’s also referring to what you are allowing in.  As it says in Matthew 15:19, “For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false witness, slander.”  What you choose to feed your mind will affect what is in your heart and what comes out of your mouth, and what you do.  Choose wisely.

What will you do with today when it comes to how you treat the people around you?  You have a choice and we will each answer for how we treat others.  God notices it all.  Don’t be that man or woman who has to treat others in such a way that you feel they are beneath you or that you control them.  Someone once told me, “You train people how to treat you”, that concept is a bit warped.  While it may be true on some levels, I believe as Christians we need to train ourselves how to treat others!  There are some people that no matter what you say or do, they are not going to “treat you with the respect you deserve” so I don’t think God would have us wasting our time trying to train them to treat us right, it may be time to just let them go if they can’t treat you with respect.  If you have someone who is treating you poorly that you can’t get away from then fill your heart and mind with who God says you are so you can be encouraged by Him.  What other people say and do does not define who you are.  When someone comes to confide in you, you also have a choice; will you listen and pray or will you judge and try to fix them or correct them?  Allow God to reveal what needs to be done, listen don’t judge, and then pray for them.  You don’t know the whole story, ever, so you are not in a position to judge the situation.  If you struggle in any of these areas ask God to help you and to teach you what may need to change so you can be a light to others in this dark, crazy world.  

Is there something, a dream, or a task that God has put in your heart that you have been putting off?  Why not start today?  Ask God, of course for His timing, but don’t put it off if God is impressing you to get going!  Get excited and ask Him to lead you into all that He is calling you to do, whether it is something big or small is there something you can do to get started today?  Is there something that you are putting off that you just need to get behind you so you can move forward?  Ask God for the strength to get it done!

Today, and every day is a new day, fresh with no mistakes in it so take advantage of that.  You don’t have to wait for a new year, you can start today to create a new tomorrow.  Start with a simple change and ask God to lead you into all He created you to be, knowing that truly His best is yet to come!

Quote:  “What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us.”  ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

It is really as simple as that.  So many people try to add to it, but that is what God Himself has to say about what it takes.  We can’t work our way into heaven.  We will never be perfect enough to deserve heaven because everyone sins.  In Romans it says, “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.”  That’s pretty clear too and since sin can’t be in heaven God provided the way and it is the only way.  If you have already accepted Him as your Savior please stay with me to the end of this devotional.

Jesus is the Son of God, He wasn’t just a man and He came for the sole purpose of providing the way for all people to get into heaven.  He was the perfect sacrifice.  He gave His life so we could get to heaven.  If you want an example of how simple salvation is just remember the thief on the cross.  While Jesus was dying on the cross, one of the thieves next to Him asked Him to remember Him and Jesus told Him, “Today you will be with me in paradise.”  It’s that simple.  The thief recognized that Jesus was the Son of God and acknowledged that he needed Jesus.  

Romans 10:9 tells us, “If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and. Believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.”  There you have it!  That is as simple as it can get.  Now, after you have accepted Him as your Savior take the time to get to know Him! 

God is not a distant God.  I know it may seem like it, but He wants an up close and personal relationship with you.  Now, don’t be mistaken, that does not mean that absolutely everything you pray for just happens.  God is not some genie in the sky and we live in an imperfect world so yes there are horrible things that happen because God gives everyone the choice to do right and wrong.  He does not force us like robots to follow Him.  Which would you prefer:  Someone who truly loves you or someone who acts as though they do because for some reason they have to?  God wants your love and He wants to walk with you through the good, the bad, and the ugly!  He wants to guide you through this life and He wants to spend all of eternity with you!  

Whatever you are facing today, He wants you to know that He loves you, He wants to heal your broken heart and He wants to walk closely with you.  It is your choice.  Life on earth is pretty short in light of eternity, don’t you think?  Life is hard, but you don’t have to face anything alone.  Don’t allow satan’s lies to keep you out of heaven or keep you from a close walk with God.  Satan is good at pushing his lies on you trying to keep you defeated and away from God.  Lies like, “God doesn’t really care” or “God’s trying to keep you from having any fun.” Or “With your past there’s no way you will ever get into heaven.”  (It’s not your past that matters, it’s Jesus, if you will just accept Him). Ask God to help you today.  Ask Him to guide you in all that you do and choose today to walk with Him every day from here on out knowing that then truly His best is yet to come!

A young woman was waiting to board her airplane.  Since she was facing a rather lengthy layover due to weather delays she decided to buy a book and head to the VIP Lounge.  While she was purchasing her book she saw a package of Double Chocolate Chip Cookies that just looked too good to resist so she picked those up too, after all she deserved a little dessert after the way her day had gone.

With her cookies and a cup of Starbucks in tow she sat down in a leather arm chair to relax and read.  She was so absorbed in her new Lynette Eason murder mystery/romance that she barely noticed the man when he sat down in the leather chair next to her.  She was fully aware of him though when she reached over and pulled her first cookie out of the bag and he reached over and took one too.  She watched in shock as he sat smugly reading his magazine and eating HER cookie!  She felt irritated but said nothing.

With every cookie she took he would take one too!  Unbelievable!  The audacity of the situation overwhelmed her with every bite!  She was so angry she could just feel the blood rising to her face.  As if his boldness wasn’t enough his ignorance of coming between a woman and her chocolate almost got the better of her! She determined to maintain her poise and dignity even though she was furious.  Then he did it, it was the last straw when he picked up the very last cookie and broke it in half giving her half and eating the rest!  Was he insane?  In a huff she stood up grabbed her things and stormed off to the gate to board her plane!

Moments later, after she boarded the plane, she was still shaking in anger as she buckled herself into her seat.  The nerve of some people!  She decided though that she needed to let it go and try to relax on this flight so she would be ready to greet her husband and children when she got off the plane.  She would just bake herself a nice batch of double chocolate chip cookies when she got home.  She pulled her book out and retrieved her purse from under the seat in front of her to grab a mint and …… there was her unopened package of cookies!  There they sat, unopened and untouched!  She was wrong, she had forgotten she had put her cookies in her purse when she bought them to save the clerk a bag.

She felt so embarrassed and ashamed.  All the while she was stewing and angry with the bitterness of thinking he had helped himself to her cookies he was sharing his cookies with her! Why wasn’t she more kind and willing to share with him? Instead of showing the love of Jesus, the man was probably thinking she needed Jesus due to her unexplainable anger. There was no opportunity to explain herself or apologize only time to feel humiliated enough to know that she never wanted to feel that way again.   Oh, the regret she felt so she stopped and prayed for God to forgive her and to help her to check her attitudes and behaviors next time when given the opportunity to show His love to a stranger.

Some words and actions cannot be recovered.  It is always important to be sure your actions and words are seasoned with God’s grace.  We all have had those moments when just the thought of what happened leaves us feeling all of those regrets all over again. We cannot undo the past but we can determine in our hearts to allow God to show His love through us every chance we get in the future!

So often this verse is used as an answer when someone is facing struggles or heartaches in life, but it is so much more than that.  

God has a plan for your life and a big part of that plan is for you to spend time with Him so you can know Him.  He wants to have a close relationship with you.  He doesn’t want to just be put on the shelf and then pulled out to fix everything when things go wrong.  Yes, He does want to help us when we have storms and heartaches.  He wants to heal your broken heart and He wants to show Himself mighty in your life, but He wants so much more for you than that and it requires seeking Him with your whole heart.  He wants to guide you in all that you do.  He wants to be your strength, your rock, your deliverer, and He wants to lead you into all that He has planned.  Too often we want the plan but aren’t willing to seek Him when things are going good and then we wonder why everything falls apart.  

When you have to make a decision how do you do it?  Do you spend time in prayer, seeking God and His answer or do you just do what other people think you should do or what feels right at the time?  I would like to encourage you, if you aren’t already, to pray about it.  Ask God to show you what to do and to help you to not make a mistake.  Ask Him to put Godly people in your life who can help you when you need to make big decisions, but be careful to make sure that you are still seeking God’s answer.  Make sure that the advice you are given by others lines up with the Word of God and that you aren’t just blindly following another person.  Seek God’s answers in prayer and by spending time in your Bible.  

Reading your Bible is a key part of knowing and following His plan.  Too often people seem to think of reading their Bible as drudgery or a duty, not as something exciting.  If you want to get excited about reading your Bible then you must start.  You aren’t going to get excited about something you aren’t doing.  If you haven’t been reading your Bible I would suggest starting small with maybe just a few verses in Psalms or finding a book in the Bible that you will enjoy.  Pick one that has a storyline that you can follow, for example:  If you are a woman, maybe the book of Esther or Ruth.  If you are a guy you would probably really enjoy the stories of all of the battles in 1st and 2nd Samuel.  The key is to start somewhere and allow God to speak to your heart through His Word.  There are no hard and fast rules and you don’t have to read the whole thing in a year, just read it!  You can’t be passionate about something you never experience so don’t waste another day. God has the plan it all comes down to surrendering to that plan and letting go of your agenda. That is where you will find His best for your life through the good times and the struggles. Are you ready?

Just take a minute and think about that, I mean let it fully sink into your heart and mind. That’s our God!  He spoke….!  What is going on in your life or someone you care about that you need to remind yourself of that very thing….. He spoke!!

Are you seeking Him with your whole heart?  You may be on a mountaintop and life is going great and that is fantastic, let’s face it those are the seasons of life that we all enjoy the most ~ seek Him with your whole heart! Those are the best times to pour into knowing Him more and to share His love and blessings with others.  We all know that it is our human tendency to grow the most when we are in the valleys of life so why do we wait for that to happen?  Why not pursue Him as much when life is good and not wait for some tragedy to come?  If you are in, not just a valley, but it feels more like the “pit of despair” then I would guess you are already pouring your heart out to Him and doing your best to find His answers for your situation.  Keep going and seek His face.  Valleys are a time of growing and learning, so ask Him what you need to learn and for the strength to get to the other side.  Sometimes it can even just be that we have to learn to persevere and to not look to what others may think, but to what His word says.  Our lives need to reflect who our God is because there’s a lost and dying world all around us that desperately needs Him.  

Those verses ought to leave us in just total awe of Him!  They should drive us to trust Him more.  Nothing is too difficult for Him.  He is not a long way off, He is by your side for the good, the bad, and the ugly days.  He wants you to walk with Him.  Think for a moment what it is like to walk down the sidewalk in the city, there are a lot of people walking by your side, but you aren’t walking “with” them!  Jesus is right by your side, walking along and He is inviting you to walk “with” Him!  He loves you so much and His desire is to show you His dreams and plans for your life!  What are they?  The only way to know is to spend more time with Him in His Word and in prayer.  During those times make sure you are allowing Him to speak to your heart, to show you verses as you read, and to guide you into what may need to change in your life so you can become all He created you to be.  He loves you so much and He wants to show you amazing things.  He wants you to truly get to know Him and His love and plan for your life.

Remember today who He is!  Seek Him with your whole heart ~ don’t hold anything back.  Make sure He is first place in your heart and life.

How about you?  Is that how you feel?  Do you see God that way or are you afraid to trust Him for fear things will get worse?  Don’t buy satan’s lies?  God’s desire is for your good, not for evil.  We experience evil in this world because of satan.  He is the deceiver and he is working hard to devour truth and light in this world.  He won Eve over with a lie, don’t allow him to do that to you!

No matter how much you may ever love the Lord, you will never love Him as much as He loves you!  He loves those you love more than you can possibly love them as well, so you are ok to let Him work in your life or their lives as He sees fit, knowing that He has a plan and it is to bring them closer to Him!  It isn’t easy going through struggles in life and it is really difficult watching your children or other people you love go through pain and heartache, but you can trust Him.  I know, I have had days when I just felt as though 1 more heartache may push me over the edge (whatever that means) but, you know what?  God is still there and He promises to see us through it all and His desire is for our good, not to harm us!  David experienced a lot of heartaches, betrayal, and hardships.  He even had to run for his life!  But in everything he faced in life, He saw God as his rock, his fortress and deliverer, his God, his shield, and the horn of salvation and stronghold.  He depended on God to see Him through.  

Now, I must throw this in ~ be careful also what you speak over your life and the lives of those you love!  Your words are more powerful than you think!  God loves you and He cares about everything you face!  Don’t speak fear over your situation, speak faith.  If you are lacking in faith, ask God to fill you with the faith you need!  Turn on some praise and worship music and praise Him until you are consumed with who He is and your faith will grow!  Trust Him and the fact that He loves you!  We all face hard and sometimes terrible times here on earth, but God has a plan and it is to use those things for His glory so ask Him to show Himself mighty in your situation today!

On another note; Trust Him for bigger things!  God created you with a purpose!  Is there something you know He has called you to but you are afraid to step out?  Ask Him!  Ask Him if it is time!  Ask Him to show you His plan and then trust Him to see it through!  Follow Him without reservation, knowing that His best is yet to come!

Job was speaking with God and as righteous of a man as Job was, even according to God, he knew he wasn’t in a position to question God.  Job had been through the fire, losing everything and then having to listen to the ridicule of his “friends” who knew nothing about the situation either.  Instead of just sitting silently or being an encouragement they pounced on judging him instead.  None of his friend’s accusations were true, he was not being punished by God.  God was actually proving Job’s faithfulness in His walk with God.  When God stepped in and spoke, Job knew that in all of his earthly righteousness, it still didn’t put him in a position to question the Almighty God, in fact, he decided it was best to just put his hand over his mouth so nothing would slip out.  

Have you ever found yourself at that point?  You have just had it with everything going on in your life and you just can’t take it anymore and words just start spilling out on everyone around you or people you wish were around you so you could give them a piece of your mind while you are feeling it.  In fact, you have a word or two you would like to contend with God over….STOP!  That’s when you know it’s time to put your hand over your mouth if you haven’t already.  Those thoughts and words will only hinder your situation. Satan is the father of lies and he wants you to accept and dwell on thoughts of hopelessness, fear, heartaches, and anything else he can feed your mind with to draw you away from what God has to say about it all.  God is for you and satan is still using the same tactics he always has and that is to get you to believe that God doesn’t care or is oblivious to what you are facing.  You won’t find a verse in the Bible to support that thought process because it is straight from Hell!  This is why you must be in His Word, listening or reading to renew your mind daily.

One of my favorite verses is Psalm 51:10, “Create in me a clean heart, O God, And renew a steadfast spirit within me.”  I pray that verse often!  Anytime I start feeling an ugly attitude, frustration, defeat, pity party, or anything else negative coming on I pray those words.  What I have found though is that it would also be a good idea for me to just put my hand over my mouth so I don’t start speaking those frustrations or negative thoughts.  Don’t give the devil an opportunity to defeat you today!  Replace those lies and negative, hopeless thoughts with the truth of what God’s Word has to say!

Now, there’s a time to speak to others about what has happened between you so you can work through it, and there’s a time to be silent.  It’s always best to take some time, even if the situation is an urgent one and pray about it all.  Ask God to give you the words you need to speak so it will help mend the breach, not widen it, and the words that will bring God into it all so there can be healing.  God would love to help in those situations, He just isn’t always invited.  Whether it is your spouse, a coworker, a friend, or a family member, it will always turn out better if you invite God in.

God has a plan for you and your life and satan is bent on getting in the way.  It is a choice each time which one you will align yourself with.  It’s scary to think we can so easily allow satan that opportunity but he is a crafty character.  The more time you spend getting to know who God is the more you will recognize satan’s schemes.  Make sure that you have given God first place in your life and set your sights on continuing to grow in the understanding and knowledge of who He is!

Psalm 42 is an awesome reminder that when you feel absolutely swept away with everything in life that you must continue in the confidence that God will come through.  I think we have a tendency to give up too soon or too easily.  We must always remind ourselves to cling to our hope in God.  Cling to His promises knowing that you will praise Him again for coming through for you and for being your Savior and your God, if you are walking with Him.

In 1 Kings 19:3—7, it says:  Elijah was afraid and ran for his life.  When he came to Beersheba in Judah, he left his servant there, while he himself went a day’s journey into the wilderness. He came to a broom bush, sat down under it, and prayed that he might die.  “I have had enough, Lord,” he said.  “Take my life; I am no better than my ancestors.”  Then he lay down under the bush and fell asleep.  

All at once an angel touched him and said, “Get up and eat.”  He looked around, and there by his head was some bread baked over hot coals and a jar of water.  He ate and drank and then lay down again.  The angel of the Lord came back a second time and touched him and said, “Get up and eat, for the journey is too much for you.”   Sometimes when we get to a point where we are down and discouraged and feel as though we just can’t take one more thing or one more day it is time to stop ~take some time for you.  Get that much-needed sleep because everything looks worse when you are exhausted, eat some healthful foods, don’t eat junk or ‘comfort foods’, and take the time to refresh yourself!  You cannot expect to be your best on lack of sleep, eating or drinking junk, and never taking time for yourself!  You will be amazed if you just take the time you need you will have an entirely different outlook!  I know that can be easier said than done, but you may have to allow someone to help you so you can get some rest.  Pray about it and ask God for His direction in what you can do to bring some balance in your life so you don’t neglect your own needs.  You have to take care of the body and mind God gave you if you want to be and do your best for Him!

So don’t give up.  Don’t stop praying!  Cling to Him and wait for all He has planned.  Don’t allow satan to defeat you and your promises from God by giving up too soon!  Trust Him and cling to Him and His word knowing that in Him His best is yet to come!

Remember that when you begin to doubt that things will ever change!  Nothing is too difficult for the Lord!  Don’t let naysayers create doubt in you about something you are believing to be the will of God for your life!  God loves to do the “seemingly impossible” because that reveals His glory!  He doesn’t call the “qualified”, He qualifies the “called”, no matter how qualified the person may seem to be!  He is still the God of miracles that He was back in the days we read about in the Bible!  His arm is not short, nothing surprises Him and nothing is too difficult for Him.

If you are walking with the Lord and you are seeking Him with your whole heart then put all of your faith in His doing what He has said He will do.  One of the greatest things we miss is the “walking with the Lord” part and so often people pray and when they don’t get the answer they are expecting they get angry or frustrated, but trusting God for His timing and answers is the key.  The closer you are to Him the more you will have the same “desires” that He has for your life, and the more you will become like Him!  Why wouldn’t we want a close walk with God?  He’s the one with the plan! (Jeremiah 29:11). He loves you!  He cares about every detail of your life!  He wants to walk with you and show you things you don’t know! (Jeremiah 33:3)

Whatever you may be facing and whatever He may be calling you to you can know that just as He made the heavens and earth by His great power, nothing is too difficult for Him!  He can handle it but first, you must give it to Him and then you have to trust Him.  He loves you, you can trust Him with it all!  Trust that if His answer is different than yours it is because His result is also better.  We can’t see what He can see and we don’t know the long-term story so put it in His hands knowing that His plan is always in keeping with His Word.  Spend more time in your Bible!  Get to know Him more!  Highlight or underline His promises or any verses He shows you that will guide you.  You don’t have to go it alone and you don’t have to come up with a plan or figure it all out, but if you want His plan then you must learn to trust Him and follow Him with your whole heart!  His best is yet to come!

Quote:  “Faith is taking the first step even when you don’t see the whole staircase.”  ~ Martin Luther King