Have you ever felt alone in a situation, wondering if God cares about your struggles? Have you ever felt like just when everything was going good in life, everything went wrong? That was the case with Job, a man considered blameless, upright, and one who feared God.

Job had great possessions, servants, sons and daughters. He was considered the greatest of all men of the East, so much so that God said to the devil, “For there is no one like him on the earth.”

Listen to this account from Job 1:6-12, “Now there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the LORD, and Satan also came among them. ⁷The LORD said to Satan, “From where do you come?” Then Satan answered the LORD and said, “From roaming about on the earth and walking around on it.” ⁸The LORD said to Satan, “Have you considered My servant Job? For there is no one like him on the earth, a blameless and upright man, fearing God and turning away from evil.” ⁹Then Satan answered the LORD, “Does Job fear God for nothing? ¹⁰“Have You not made a hedge about him and his house and all that he has, on every side? You have blessed the work of his hands, and his possessions have increased in the land. ¹¹“But put forth Your hand now and touch all that he has; he will surely curse You to Your face.” ¹²Then the LORD said to Satan, “Behold, all that he has is in your power, only do not put forth your hand on him.” So Satan departed from the presence of the LORD.”

Many of us know the story of the loss and afflictions Job endured at the hand of Satan, but he continued to praise God anyway. At the end of the story in Job 42, we read these words, “Then Job answered the LORD and said, ²“I know that You can do all things, And that no purpose of Yours can be thwarted.”

If we could only be more like Job, knowing and believing that God can do all things and that His plans for us are good. We read in Jeremiah 29:11 the following promise from God, ¹¹‘For I know the plans that I have for you,’ declares the LORD, plans for welfare and not for calamity to give you a future and a hope. ¹²‘Then you will call upon Me and come and pray to Me, and I will listen to you. ¹³‘You will seek Me and find Me when you search for Me with all your heart. ¹⁴‘I will be found by you,’ declares the LORD, and I will restore your fortunes and will gather you from all the nations and from all the places where I have driven you,’ declares the LORD, and I will bring you back to the place from where I sent you into exile.’” Notice we have a responsibility in this, to search for Him with all our heart, and when we do this He promises to be found by us and to bless us.

I’d like you to consider the ways that God goes before us, with us and after us. Proverbs 16:9 says that in our hearts we plan our course but the Lord determines our steps. God’s got our back. He goes before us to pave the way, to open doors, to put things before us that will bless our lives, and then He goes with us as we step out in faith and walk through those doors. Even when doors close and things don’t pan out to all that we had hoped for, God is still with us and will still make something good of the situation. Remember His promise in Romans 8:28 which says, “we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love Him, who have been called according to His purpose.” Here again He lays out our responsibility along with His promise to us. We are responsible to love Him, and He promises to make all things in our lives work together for our good. He calls us according to these promises.

I’d like you to think about another thing I believe God does for us and that is that He goes after us. I don’t mean that he follows us and then makes good things of our mess, although He certainly can and does do this. What I want you to think about are times in your life when you strayed from God, times when you perhaps walked in direct disobedience to His word. Did you turn back to Him? Do you believe he was “going after you” to draw you back? I know from personal experience a time when I was walking just that way and I know that my Lord loved me too much to leave me there in that sin. He lured me with His love for me, He called me back into His presence and into a right relationship with Him again. Even in this, though, I had responsibility. I had to recognize and repent of my disobedience and rebellion and ask Him to forgive me, and that was all it took to get right with Him again.

Thank you Father that you do go before us, you go with us, and you go after us. Thank you for loving us even when we are most unlovable. Walk with us this day and help us to never stray from you again. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen

Trying to peel off a sticker from my apple this morning, I got to thinking how much I dislike stickers on my fruit!  Then the Lord spoke to me of how often things in my life can be just like those stickers!

Maybe it’s a habit I am trying to break, and maybe it is one that is relentless and just doesn’t want to be broken.  It can be like one of those stubborn stickers that insists on leaving a piece of itself behind on my fruit, which was the case this morning!

Then there are things in my life that seem easier to give up.  God showed me I should let these go and with His help I am able to do it easily.  They are like the stickers that peel off right away and I get to eat the whole fruit without spoiling the section where the sticker was.

While following Jesus is such an awesome experience, and I have such fun serving Him, there are certainly worldly things that He has asked me to give up, such as gossip, complaining, criticizing, grumbling, murmuring.  For sure, I don’t always do everything right.  Oftentimes I slip back into something God has told me to lay down and stop doing, but He is faithful to forgive me when I ask Him, and the Holy Spirit is gentle to remind me that I am doing something He told me not to do and help me stop doing it.

So when I think about the stickers on my fruit, I think about things in my life I’ve been able to peel away and continue on unaffected.  But then I think about things in my life that are a constant struggle to give up and realize they are more like the sticker I was trying to remove this morning, one that insisted on staying on my piece of fruit!  I had to bite off and throw away that spot on the fruit so that I didn’t eat that part of the sticker.  Sometimes God has to remove things in our life that can be painful in order to perfect what remains.  He wants to make us perfect just like Him, and I am certainly still a work in progress.

Thank you Lord that you remove all the stickers in my life, especially the ones that don’t want to let go of my fruit!!

“For the fruit (the effect, the product) of the Light or the Spirit [consists] in every form of kindly goodness, uprightness of heart, and trueness of life.”~Ephesians 5:9

After attending the Women of Faith Conference this weekend, I came away with such good information to apply to my life.

I am loved!!!  You are loved!!!!

I need to forgive!!!  You need to forgive!!!  Forgiveness sets us free.

I need to be about God’s business, growing, changing, advancing, going where He is going!

I will define myself by what I find in God’s word, not by anything the world tries to put on me.

The enemy, the devil, comes to steal, kill and destroy but just because he comes doesn’t mean I have let him to steal, kill or destroy anything in my life!!

Quote from Christine Caine, “The devil on his best day didn’t take me out on my worst day!”

Philippians 4:13: I can do ALL things through Christ who gives me strength.

Matthew West sang about Forgiveness and being A Child of the One True King!  Oh, Oh, Oh, Oh, Oh, Oh!!!

Just how do we love the Lord with our whole heart?  The bible says we are to do this, and yet the cares of the world tug and pull on our hearts all the time.  Spouses, children, parents, close friends, all draw from the love in our hearts.  How do we give enough love to all those we care about and still love the Lord with our Whole Heart?

The Amplified bible says it this way in Mark 12:30, “And you shall love the Lord your God out of and with your whole heart and out of and with all your soul (your life) and out of and with all your mind (with your faculty of thought and your moral understanding) and out of and with all your strength.  This is the first and principal commandment.”

Then the next verse commands us to love our neighbor as ourself.  So how much love can we give out of this whole heart of ours and still give it all to God?

Well, I’d like to think about this as stated in the Amplified version, “out of and with.”  So we love “out of” our heart, and we love “with” our heart.  The bible says that God is love, and when Jesus saves us and sends His Holy Spirit to live within us, His love then becomes part of us.  This then enables us to have enough love to share “out of and with” our hearts, our souls, our minds.  What a mystery and a miracle!  Thank you Jesus!

Anyone care to share any additional thoughts or insights?