They had been in that ark for over a year!  They went in when God told them to go, and all of the animals with them, and then we don’t see where God said a word to them until it was time to leave the ark.  The first time rain was ever experienced on the earth, and this was no ordinary boat ride, and all of those animals… and God was silent.  

Have you ever noticed the difference between when you are with someone you barely know vs being with one of your closest friends, how silence is so different?  When you hardly know someone, maybe on a first date or a new job, silence can feel very awkward and uncomfortable, but when you are with a trusted friend, silence is ok and you don’t even think about it.  Yesterday I was driving, doing some deliveries to people in the area, and one of the things that has been on my heart is how to handle things when God is silent.  I was going to turn the radio on, but decided to just drive and enjoy the silence.  As I was thinking about how frustrated we get when God is silent, it occurred to me that we see it all wrong.  We know that if we have accepted Jesus as our Savior, He gives us His Spirit, so we know that He is always with us, so if we are living for Him and seeking Him, then we have no reason to worry or be upset because He isn’t constantly speaking.  As your relationship grows, look at those quiet moments as God trusting you with His silence.  He is there, He sees, He is always working on something and someone, so there’s no need to panic or get upset, just enjoy the fact that you are close enough that words don’t always need to be exchanged.  When the time is right, He will speak, and you are welcome to still talk with Him, but relax and just enjoy His presence because He is always there.  You don’t need some special feeling, satan will try to get you to believe that God doesn’t care, or He would be speaking, but that is a lie too.  Go ahead and pour your heart out and just rest in His presence, knowing that He will always do what is best. Trust Him in the silence just as you would your best friend.  He loves you, and He will speak when the time is right.  

As you grow in your walk with God, trusting Him is a huge hurdle for most of us because of all of the hurt we have experienced, but He is faithful!  His desire is for you to grow to the point where you just trust Him regardless of what is going on.  This world is getting crazier and crazier by the moment, and more than ever, learning to trust Him is key to your peace of mind.  Listen to Him when He does speak, and do what He shows you to do, and seek Him with your whole heart.  As it says in Isaiah 26:3, ”You will keep him in perfect peace, Whose mind is stayed on you, Because he trusts in you.”  Fix your eyes on Him and trust Him, knowing that truly His best is yet to come!

Jesus was in the synagogue on the Sabbath, and He was handed the scroll of Isaiah.  He found these verses that Isaiah had prophesied about Him and read them, and then told the people that “Today, as you heard it read, this passage has been fulfilled.”  Jesus was letting them know that He is the Good News ~ He came to earth to bring salvation to all who would receive it!  

Take a look around, the whole world is looking for “good news”.  So many desperate people just want to hear anything good because their lives are in such turmoil.  Jesus is the Good News!  All of our hope comes from Him.  He is the way, the truth, and the Life, and He gives us access to eternal life and God the Father!  We know that, but the world doesn’t.  No matter how crazy things are, our hope is found in living for Him!  He has a plan that is bigger than what you are facing today.  He is calling us to rise up, be strong in His might, and to focus on Him so the world will see Him and turn to Him.  Jesus made it very clear that life on earth wasn’t going to be easy, and yet too often that is the only thing some people want to hear.  There are so many people out there with “a word from God for you,” and you need to be careful who you listen to.  I have seen people get angry with God because they “heard a ‘word’” and they claimed it as being from God and then when it didn’t come to pass it made them angry and they wanted to choose to believe that it was God’s fault instead of seeing it as a tool satan was using to discourage them and make them doubt.  If what you hear does not line up with the Word of God, then you need to discard it and pray for truth.  God has promised to show us the way if we will seek Him with our whole heart, mind, and soul.  That is not as daunting a task as you may think.  Just pray for a hunger for God and His Word, and He will give it to you.  All of His answers for your life are found in Him.  You can hear from God by digging in and getting to know Him, and as I have said before, don’t ignore Him when He is convicting you.  Listen to His promptings ~ all of them.  He wants to guide you into all He created you to be, so let Him choose what needs to be added or removed from your life.

I have been accused of being a “realist” because I prefer reality and truth to just being told “fluff” or what someone may think I want to hear.  Just tell me the truth!  There’s more positivity in the truth than there is in someone just telling you what they think sounds good.  God IS Good ~ and it is His plan that will lead you into all He has promised!  Following God, getting to know Him, and allowing Him to fill you with His love, mercy, and grace will give you the power to make a difference.  Seeking more of Him and less of you is what allows Him to fill your heart and mind so you can be more like Him, and that is where you have peace and hope, regardless of what else is going on, because you know that He is still on His throne and He sees… He’s got this, just follow Him and do what He asks you to do when He asks you to do it.  You don’t have to have control; give it all to Him and let Him have the control.

The only way to be an overcomer is to trust God.  Regardless of what is going on, we are called to persevere and to trust Him and His word!  As it says, “There is so little time!”  He wants us to trust Him and to live lives that will draw others to Him.  He is not calling us to compromise or to learn to be politically correct, He is calling us to live by faith and to stand out as we stand on His word.  It is heartbreaking to see entire denominations cave to worldly pressures, twisting what the Word of God says in order to fit in with the world’s agenda.  

Chapter 11 of Hebrews gives us an in-depth look into what faith/trusting God is.  “Trusting is being confident of what we hope for, convinced about things we do not see.  It was for this that Scripture attested the merit of the people of old.”  Life is rarely easy these days.  Everywhere you look, people are struggling in some way or another.  While there are always messages of “fluff” out there, the reality is that sometimes life can be overwhelming, and when it is, God is calling us to trust Him and to cling to the faith that He sees, He has a plan, and we are called to trust Him to the end.  We need to trust that He is a God of justice and that just as He says in Hebrews 10:30, “Vengeance is my responsibility; I will repay.”  He’s got you, and He is asking you to trust Him.  Don’t try to go your own way and do your own thing; instead, be faithful and trust Him to do all that He sees needs to be done.  When we try to do things for Him that He never said for us to do, then we just create more of a mess ~ Give it all to Him and allow Him to vindicate you and to guide you into all He has planned for you to do.  Don’t waste your time on senseless activities trying to help Him out, focus on what He has called you to do, and leave the rest to Him.  

So, let’s make our goal each day to set our minds to trust Him!  He is faithful!  When He comes, we want to still be standing as overcomers, still trusting and believing.  We need to stand on the truth of what His Word says, and we need to strive to live lives that honor Him and that draw others to Him so they don’t get left behind.  We have the answers that God wants them to have, and that satan is desperately fighting to keep from them.  God will give you the strength you need when you feel overwhelmed, so the world around you can see the hope that is found only in Him! 

That night, the king could not sleep; so he ordered the book of the chronicles, the record of his reign, to be brought in and read to him.  It was found recorded there that Mordecai had exposed Bigthana and Teresh, two of the king’s officers who guarded the doorway, who had conspired to assassinate King Xerxes.  “What honor and recognition has Mordecai received for this?”  The king asked…….

So, all in one night, and without Mordecai even being aware of it, on one side his enemy was plotting his death, and on the other side of things, the King was trying to figure out how to honor Him.  It was no coincidence that King Xerxes was unable to sleep that night.  God was working on Mordecai’s behalf.  

We serve the God who sees, the God who has a plan, the God who cares, the God who is the one and only true God who works on behalf of those who seek Him.  What are you facing today that you need God to move in, and you just don’t seem to see anything happening?  God is always working.  He does not sleep and He cannot lie, so He will do what He has said He will do, so hold on to your faith in Him!  Don’t mess things up by trying to handle this on your own. Trust Him, you can’t see what’s going on behind the scenes!

Mordecai had no clue that his fate was about to change that day.  He woke up just like every other day, not knowing that Haaman was plotting to kill him and God was rescuing Him and honoring him.  Your answer will come on a day that seems just like every other day, who knows, it could be today.  Believe me, I wish we always knew when His answer was going to come so we could hold on to a date of when this would be over, but He wants us to hold on to Him and trust Him, not a future date.  He wants our total trust to walk with Him when we can’t see.  He loves you beyond comparison, so cling to Him through the good times and the bad, knowing that He cares and He is working on your behalf.  Truly, His best is yet to come!

In all of his despair, he realized that his hope was still found in the Lord.  No matter what we face, there is hope found in Him.  Hold on to Him, cling to Him, and seek His face and His salvation in your situation.  He is our refuge and strength, but we must seek Him.  We may rarely understand what God is doing or why He is allowing something in our lives, but our goal must always be to trust Him, especially when we don’t understand. If you wait to trust Him when you understand, then your trust will be very small, because we have limited minds while His is limitless! As we learn to trust more, our hope grows!

Trust me, satan will do his best to feed you lies, telling you that God doesn’t really care.  “If He cared, why would you be facing all of this?”  Don’t buy his lies!  God loves you and we live in an imperfect world and your enemy is satan, not God!  Lies are his greatest tool, he is the father of lies and he is out to make your life as miserable as he can so if he can rob you of your hope in God, then what do you have left?  Shut your mind to his lies.  Pray and ask God to give you the strength to put all of your hope and trust in Him!  Turn on some praise and worship music and take control of your thoughts.  Speak God’s truth where satan’s lies are trying to defeat you and your family!  Ask God to open your eyes to His truth!

God doesn’t want you to feel hopeless!  What good can we do if our example is one of no hope?  The world lives with no hope, and we have the hope they need so if satan can rob you of your hope and make you think that God doesn’t care and isn’t going to rescue you from that pit, then he renders you useless.  The same power that brought Jesus up out of that grave lives in you, if you have accepted Him as your savior!  Nothing can compare with that and that will fill you with all the hope you need if you allow Him to fill your life!

Remember Ephesians 6: 10-12, “Finally, be strong in the Lord and in His mighty power.  Put on the full armor of God, so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes.  For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.”

You can have hope today, and you can have victory. Just give it all to Him and trust Him with it, even though you don’t understand!  Pour your heart out to Him, knowing that He loves you more than words can say!

God has not changed!  He is the same, yesterday, today, and forever!  People have changed, that is why He said in Luke 18:8, When the Son of Man comes, will He find faith on the earth?”  

Faith and trust are things we constantly have to choose.  You must choose to believe all that God has promised you when everything around you looks the opposite.  You must choose to block out all of the negative thoughts telling you it will never happen.  I am not saying you can “name it and claim it” either, I am talking about those things you know in your heart that God has promised you, or those things you have been praying about that weigh heavily on your heart that He hasn’t said “no” to.  God loves you, and He would love to show up mighty in your life!  Trust Him to do what is best and right.  

He wants a relationship with you, and it is in developing a true relationship with Him that will grow your faith and trust in Him.  It is highly unlikely that you are going to trust someone you barely know.  You can’t just rely on hearing about Him once a week on Sunday to develop a relationship.  How did you develop a close relationship with your spouse or friends?  It wasn’t through chatting once a week.   Spend time, quality time with Him in His Word.  Ask Him to give you a deep desire to know Him more and to see His power in your life so others will be drawn to Him. 

This isn’t about praying to get “stuff”, it is about seeing God do amazing things in and through you so others will see Him at work in you and will want to know Him.  It is about believing that He can and will do more than we can ask or think in our lives when we wholeheartedly choose to know Him and follow Him.  God is still the God of miracles, He still answers prayers.

If you have accepted Jesus as your Savior, you have within you the answer that the world needs.  People are looking for answers, and the world is becoming a darker and darker place.  If we don’t choose to believe, if we don’t live lives that are different, if we don’t exercise our faith by choosing to believe, then why would they want what we have?  We are called to be the light, and it is up to you whether you are a flicker or a bonfire to those around you.  Choose Him and choose to trust Him, knowing that truly then His best is yet to come.

Do you ever think of God that way?  Have you ever thought, the Lord is going to rejoice and sing over me ~ He is so excited to see me this morning?  I have to admit that hasn’t typically been my first thought in the morning, and yet, why not?  When you see your grandchildren, I would bet that you are excited to see them, and you want a hug.  When there are times when I haven’t seen them or my children for a while, I can hardly wait to see them and talk with them again.  God feels the same way about you!  

Okay, so let’s face it, I have had some mornings where God has probably said out loud, “Oh dear…… she’s awake” and has sent multitudes of angels out to help set me on the right path.  My goal, though, is for Satan to be the one saying, “Ohhhh noooo…… she’s awake!”   Either way, God loves you and can’t wait to get you started on the right path today, and you need to know that He is excited to see you and would love to spend time with you!

If you are struggling and hurting today, know that God loves you dearly and He wants to hold you and quiet you with His amazing love.  I have a little bear that Noah benShea sent me years ago, and one of the quotes Noah says is, “God is never so near as He is when you feel all alone”.  That is so true and so comforting to know that during those times when you feel as though you are all alone and the burdens you are carrying are so heavy that you feel you can’t even take one more step.  God loves you, He cares, and He wants to not only rejoice over you, but He wants to rejoice with you.  He will get you to the other side of all you face if you will just put it all in His hands and trust Him with it.  

There are so many frightful things going on in the world today that it can be a scary place.  Hold on to the fact that God is in your midst as you worship Him with your life.  He will save you, rejoice over you with gladness, and He will quiet you with His love!  Hold on to the fact that He is in your midst when you serve Him with your whole heart.  So, hold your head high today, knowing He loves you and He is excited about you. 

Quote: “Remember, happiness doesn’t depend on who you are or what you have; it depends solely upon what you think.”  Dale Carnegie 

When you read the books of the Kings, you can see where some of them restored what was taken out of the Temple of God and then others did their own thing and removed or replaced whatever they felt they wanted to do.  Israel has such a rich history of all the miracles God did and yet there were drastic times of rebellion as well, even to the point where some of these kings were sacrificing their own children on alters they made to their ‘made up gods’.  We can ask ourselves how this could happen and yet we can see it in our own world today.  It doesn’t happen overnight, satan is very sly.  He doesn’t just bolt in saying, “Hey, you need to rebel and get rid of everything that has to do with God in your life.  Don’t spend time teaching your children about God, it’s just not relevant anymore.”  He doesn’t bolt in because the average Christian would recognize that.  He moves in slowly, like a snake slithering in, he’s not in a hurry, he likes to wait until he knows he has you.  He likes to get you to just remove one thing at a time, just let your guard down a little, convincing you that you are too busy to spend time reading your Bible or praying with your children before bed.

How many things have we let slide in our lives and in our countries until all of a sudden there’s very little God to be seen?  Let’s strive to have more of God in our lives, not less!

This is why God says, “This book of the Law shall not depart out of your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it.  For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success.” (Joshua 1:8). Not only do we need to take spending time in God’s word seriously we need to be teaching it to our children and grandchildren!  They also need to be taught the History of your country and the World so they understand the mistakes that were made so they don’t make them in the future.  But it all begins with instilling the Word of God in our hearts so it can make the difference in our lives that we need.  If you want success in your life and the lives of those you love, it begins with God and His Word.  

We must be on the lookout for any way that satan is trying to get us to drop our standards or let our guards down.  He wants to destroy you and your family, but God wants to build you up and give you the strength you need to face anything that comes your way!  God wants you to know Him and His power in your life!  God wants to be with you in the good, the bad, and the ugly.  He wants to help you grow into all that He created you to be!  Don’t allow satan to rob you of anything God has for you.  Ask God to show you anything that you have removed or have let slide in your life so you can live the life He designed for you to live knowing that then truly His best is yet to come!

There are just 3 little parts to this verse but wow, they speak volumes!  

Rejoice in Hope!  Sometimes when we are in the middle of storms or struggles in life we find it difficult to believe there is hope if we are just looking around at our circumstances!   If you aren’t facing any major struggles right now, it can even get discouraging when you watch the news and see all of the craziness going on in the world! satan is on a rampage to create as much chaos as possible!  The world is out of control!  How can you hold on to hope when you look around and there doesn’t seem to be any?  Keep your focus on God!  Write down verses that deal with what you are facing and that remind you of Who God is, and carry them with you!  Read those verses over multiple times a day so you can block out the lies that satan is trying to throw at you!  There’s always hope and that hope is found in Him and Him alone!

Be patient in tribulation!  I am not sure that any of us are really great at waiting!  How are you when you are in a hurry and traffic is backed up and someone cuts you off?  How does it set with you when you are at the grocery store and you are waiting for that parking space and just as that person pulls out someone rushes in from the other direction and takes it so you have to park way down the line and it is raining?  Some days that might just shove you right over the edge if there have been enough other little things going on.  We live in a world where we have gotten used to not having to wait for much!  We have fast food, cell phones, microwaves, and cars that move at great speeds to get us where we want to go as long as no one gets in our way!  We even have Amazon that will ship something to us in just a matter of hours!  We don’t like to wait and that is why there are times that is the lesson God chooses to teach us!  Learning to be patient and trust Him and His timing is crucial in our walk with Him.  

Be constant in prayer!  How serious are you about your prayer life?  Is that a sort of “fast food” order too?  Do you just sort of spew out your requests as you run from one thing to the next or do you also have a time during your day to just sit with Him?  Do you ever ask Him what dreams He has for your life or what is on His heart that you can be apart of?  Do you write down those requests for others so you remember to pray for them? 

How can we “rejoice in hope, be patient in tribulation and constant in prayer, regardless of whether or not we are on the mountaintop or in the valley?  Spend time getting to know Him better!  Remind yourself of who He really is!  Sometimes we see something going on in the world or in our lives and we allow satan to distort our vision of who God is!  God is still the same God of the Bible!  He is a God of miracles, and full of love and grace!  Spend time in His word and get to know Him more!  As it says in Joshua 1:8, “This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it.  For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success.”  Trust Him!  Follow Him and wait for Him, knowing that His best is yet to come!

The chaos and craziness just doesn’t seem to end does it?  No matter where you live, it’s just one continual crazy thing after the next.  There are vicious wars being fought around the world and anger and hatred that is just out of control.  Remember this; no matter how many people try to tell you something is ok or right, if it does not line up with the Word of God, then no it isn’t!  There are entire denominations that are changing their stand on sin and that is a very dangerous place to be.  God is the same, yesterday, today and forever and He has not nor will He ever change His mind about sin!  We must confess our sins and turn from them so He will hear our prayers.  We must live lives that are not full of the same anger and hatefulness the world has.  We must seek Him with our whole heart, mind, and soul!  We must grow in our love for Him so we will naturally strive to please Him and so we will have the overwhelming desire for others to know Him too!

So, with all that is going on in the world around you, where do you do battle?  Do you have a place where you go to spend time alone with God to pray?  It is great to have a mindset of prayer and to pray continuously throughout the day but it is also important to be intentional and strategic in prayer and there has never been a time when the world has needed it more!  There has never been a time when we need it more!  We must also constantly remind ourselves when other people are mean or pushing every button we have that “we don’t wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places.”  We cannot ignore the spiritual battle going on and we must recognize that satan uses people and sometimes they are aware and mistakenly choose that route but most of the time they are probably completely unaware of what is driving them to behave the way they do if they are not walking with God and especially if they don’t know Him.  This is why we say that the battle is the Lord’s ~ we can’t even see it, but we are called to pray. 

If you have never watched the movie “War Room” I would encourage you to do so.  The message of the movie goes so far beyond just praying for your marriage!  If you are married then of course you need to pray for your spouse, but the message of the movie is that we all need to get serious about our prayer life!  Don’t be complacent!  Don’t get comfortable!  I want to pray like that fiery little woman on there and I want my prayer life to make a difference in the lives of others!  Our world is falling apart and there are millions dying and going to hell.  We need to rise up and pray for our families, loved ones, coworkers, acquaintances, neighbors, our pastors and their families, other church leaders, the leaders of countries around the world…… yes, the list could go on and on ~ start somewhere.  Grow your list and allow God to impress on your heart who and what to pray for.  I know you cannot spend your entire day every day in a closet on your knees, no one can, but get strategic and pray for God to guide you in your prayer life.  We must get more serious about praying to the only One who can do anything about all that is going on and we must allow Him to work in and through us so we can make a difference because of Him.  

Let’s all determine to make prayer a priority if it isn’t already and seek Him with all our hearts so He can change what needs to be changed in our lives.  God sees and He cares and He wants to hear from you!