Lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.
Lord Jesus, if two agree on earth concerning anything that we ask, it will be done for us by our Father in heaven. For where two or three are gathered together in Your name, Lord Jesus, You are there in our midst. I have Your commandments, Jesus, and keep them, for I love You. And I, loving You, will be loved by the Father, and You will love me and manifest Yourself to me. One asked, “Lord, how is it that You will manifest Yourself to us, and not to the world?” And, Jesus, You said that if I love You, I will keep Your word; and Your Father will love me, and You and Your Father will come to me and make Your home with me. Now to You, Lord Jesus, who are able to keep me from stumbling, and to present me faultless before the presence of Your glory with exceeding joy, to You my Savior, who alone are wise, be glory and majesty, dominion and power, both now and forever. Amen.
Jesus, by the power of Your Spirit, enable me to keep Your commands so that You may know my love for You.
MATTHEW 28:20; MATTHEW 18:19–20; JOHN 14:21; JOHN 14:22–23; JUDE 24–25
- Dr..David Jeremiah Life-Changing Moments with God
Lord, I believe; help my unbelief! MARK 9:24
Why do you doubt? Have you been influenced by a book? A professor? Another believer? A non-believer? Identifying your doubts and their source will help you understand what you need answers for and why. Think of the people in the Old Testament whom God greatly used who had doubts when they heard His plans for them—Sarah, Moses, Gideon, and Jeremiah, just to name a few. These people were approached by God Himself and they still doubted! God knew their doubts just as He knows yours and mine. We don’t turn our doubts into prayers to God in order to inform God of our doubts. We tell God what we are thinking and feeling about our faith. That makes it more understandable to us as we try to figure out what is going on in our lives. Go to God with your doubts. He is waiting to hear from you. - Dr. David Jeremiah Morning and Evening
As for God, His way is perfect. PSALM 18:30
Nothing is harder than praying and waiting. But God answers prayer and fulfills promises in His time, not in ours. Our times are in His hands. One man earnestly prayed for his child about a certain matter involving a phone call, but the Lord allowed the exact opposite of what he had requested. He was bewildered and angry, but that morning’s Bible reading took him to Psalm 18, and God gave him verse 30: “As for God, His way is perfect.” The Lord was working in His own way, on His own timetable. Ruth Graham once said, “How often has God said no to my earnest prayers that He might answer my deepest longings, give me something more, something better.” The great church father Augustine came to the Lord after years of waywardness. His mother, Monica, prayed for him unceasingly, once begging God not to let Augustine go to Italy. Augustine went anyway—and there he was saved. Augustine later wrote, “Thou, taking Thy own secret counsel and noting the real point of her desire, didst not grant what she was then asking in order to grant to her the thing that she had always been asking.” Don’t grow discouraged. Keep praying. Your times are in God’s hands, and His ways are perfect. - Dr. David Jeremiah Morning and Evening
This is a morning not too unlike others before it, yet in it, like the others before it, there is room for doubts and a craving desire for assurance from God.
I sit at a table in my temporary home. I hear the winds in the trees. I had my coffee, got dressed, awaiting a new day that didn't exist before. I have read my Bible and was reading my devotionals when I stopped because it seemed like God was telling me to. That these 3 devotionals went together. Often as much as doubts and assurances do.
In 2013 on this day, I not only left my again now former employer, I fled from there a broken man in many ways. It took years for God to rebuild me enough through many jobs, to reestablish my self-esteem and confidence. Today I began a new chapter in my life. Is it filled with doubts and in need of assurances? You better believe it.
Cars and trucks go by, the world kept on turning towards the end of the age as the Bible says will happen. As Reba McIntyre sang about years ago, the world didn't stop for her broken heart. Mine isn't broken, but it's been through a lot in the last 8 years.
In many ways the rebuilding Jesus had to do was done in stages. Honestly painful Spiritual surgeries. I recall several that brought such anguish that I cried at the alter more than once.
I go into this new chapter with hope, with anguish at the same time. I have met the owner as a visitor, and today I meet him as my boss. God's so engineered my life as to create a relationship with him years ago.
We see in Dr. Jeremiah's writings of going to God in prayer when doubts are there. I have them, and I pray. We read of the first devotional which is a prayer. We are promised never to be left alone. Lastly we read of being patient. There's an oft used Christian cliche that says for people to be patient, God's not done with me yet.
I look at this leap of faith that has me sitting at this table today. Had it not happened I would have already been on the job working out the details of the week and day. Honestly longing to hear about something up here for to be my new job. In the past, and I am very confident would have been again, if we hadn't taken the leap of faith to uproot and move here, Satan would have done what he's done in times past. He would have relented in his campaign for a while to give the false peace that would come.
Satan's attacks were ramped up instead.
Doubts assailed and assurances were questioned. So many why's were asked.
It's simple in hindsight. If it's indeed God's will for our sanctification, then it certainly isn't in Satan's best interests to allow it to happen.
I read a statement on Facebook in 2018. It said something to the effect that God was going to build me up in front of those who had broken me down. Well the supervision who triggered it were no longer there when I had returned, but a great many people who had seen the effects on me saw God doing what only God can do
I am looking at this next chapter with a mix of need of assurance due to the as yet unknowns, but also look at what God's done in 7 days. 7 days ago I left my job to take this step towards sanctification learning. It was 10 days ago that we decided to take this step.
In one respect the getting of the job happened lightening fast.
In another the selling of our house appears to be going so slow.
See where a smidgen of doubt can creep in? Can you see where assurances would be needed?
Then today of days these 3 devotionals come together. My Mom mentioned something yesterday about how many chapters can a life have. My first response was well the Bible has 66 books...
The lives of Moses, of Joseph, of David and Daniel, we read of many chapters in their lives.
Even this morning wasn't perfect but it will be enough. God's promises never fail. His will WILL be done on Earth as it is in Heaven. Though trials may come and go, my anchor holds.
God's having me write a book. It's taking time to write because He's not done giving me living examples.
It's quiet now. Cars go by, and I know the truth of God will always win out for those truly seeking to follow Jesus.
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