Words Of Encouragement To Start The Day (Friday 07/29/2011)

Today's Devotional Written By The Extraordinary Person Of Tracy Dixon

What Is Your Ark?

   Genesis 6:17-19 New Living Translation (NLT)

 ¹⁷ “Look! I am about to cover the earth with a flood that will destroy every living thing that breathes. Everything on earth will die. ¹⁸ But I will confirm my covenant with you. So enter the boat—you and your wife and your sons and their wives. ¹⁹ Bring a pair of every kind of animal—a male and a female—into the boat with you to keep them alive during the flood.

This past month has been like one I've never experienced before. July is normally my favorite month of the year. Its my yearly trip back home to St.Louis the Fourth of July, and my birthday is a few days later. Well, this year there was no family trip back home, no firework contest, no pool, no family diving competition or birthday party. Instead, this year on the Fourth of July, I found out that I was in the process of my second miscarriage and later that day I was watching two huge fire trucks pull up to my house with hose in hand.

I thought my God, “Thank You” for trusting us to handle so much, but did you have to put us in the midst of a flood. A rain drop or two would have been enough to test us, but it felt like the flood gates had opened wouldn't close anytime soon. But an amazing thing happened, it didn't stop us. It was if the test of the prior months had been there to prepare us for everything to come. I told Shane it was like Noah and being in the ark. No matter how much rain came, the flood didn't overtake them. God provided them with everything they needed inside of the ark, and that didn't include Facebook, cell phones, or cable television. All they had were the occupants of the ark and God, and that was all they needed.

This season has separated us from family and friends in such a way that it could only be God. He kept us safe in the ark of His protection and only allowed a few others to dwell with us, but it was exactly what we needed. At times I almost feel guilty to be so at peace in my life right now. We got knocked down, but not knocked out. We were in church the very next Sunday, and we gave God even more praise. His ark shielded not only my body but also our home from ANY internal damage. Today may feel as if the floods of life are trying to overtake you, but don't get overwhelmed, get over into your ark. Get so focused on God that His spirit takes you to a place of refugee you Him. When you can't take no more, what is your ark of protection? Your degree, your finances, your car, your family, your friends, or your faith. God won't move, until you stand still. So today, just stand and know that God has it. Let Him guide you through the waters and all will be well.

Words Of Encouragement To Start The Day (Wednesday 07/27/2011

What Is It You Are Really Tired Of?

Isaiah 40:28-31 Amplified Bible (AMP)

²⁸Have you not known? Have you not heard? The everlasting God, the Lord, the Creator of the ends of the earth, does not faint or grow weary; there is no searching of His understanding. ²⁹He gives power to the faint and weary, and to him who has no might He increases strength [causing it to multiply and making it to abound]. ³⁰Even youths shall faint and be weary, and [selected] young men shall feebly stumble and fall exhausted; ³¹But those who wait for the Lord [who expect, look for, and hope in Him] shall change and renew their strength and power; they shall lift their wings and mount up [close to God] as eagles [mount up to the sun]; they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint or become tired.

            My daughter and I had a discussion this past weekend about being faithful in you attendance of church (not that this alone will save us or constitutes a good Christian, there is sooo much more).  She was arguing a point that sometimes you are just tired, I said true, but when you have a cake order and you are tired do you just stay in bed or go to bed without completing it?  The answer of course was no.  I have heard other people say to me, I am so tired of things being a certain way in their lives, or I am tired of being treated like this.  But I have to say the one that I hear the most is I am tired of waiting, I think God doesn’t want me to have a certain thing, or He is not hearing me.  What is it that we are really saying we are tired of in moments where we make choices that yield to a feeling over yielding to the Word of God or His promises?  Many of us give up and throw in the towel not because we are tired but because we are throwing a tantrum, we want what we want and we want it now, and so we say we are tired and fold our arms, and get into a place of being in refusal to move another inch, talk to God, go to church or even pray. We shut down.

            What do most parents do when their child is throwing a tantrum, or acting out? For most of we will issue a form of punishment whether a stern talking to and swat on the bottom, restricting them from what it is that they really want, or a combination of these.  Most psychologist would tell you to ignore the behavior and do not reinforce it.  Ignore and do not reward what is thought to be an undesirable behavior and reward what is deemed acceptable.  So why is it we think throwing a tantrum with God will yield a different reaction? We think because we talk about God being merciful and kind that He will succumb to our childishness or our acting out because we are mad or hurt because He is not moving the way we want Him to when we want Him to.  God is sovereign, but more importantly He is God and He knows our story, He knows what is around the corner and He knows what happened the day you were conceived, He knew today an hour ago, He knows about today ten hours from now and even what will happen ten years from now…He created us and knows the exact timing in which we need things to be released in or happen in our lives, but we can mess up, by attempting to get in His way with our “Tiredness,” and our reaction to having to stay in faith a minute more than we feel is comfortable doing so or having to believe God and worship through the pain of our disappointment.  If we are following Christ and we are really in love with God we will follow closely understanding that trust and faith in Him is paramount and that in spite of how we feel and what it “may” look like God has us and He loves us and ALWAYS has our best interest at hand. He knows what we need to get in a place to be able to receive from Him, He knows every element of us, our good and our bad, He knows our strengths and our weaknesses, He knows our thoughts and our very heart’s condition, after all He did create us.

            So let’s get real with us, what is it that we are really tired of?  What are we really saying in the midst of us being tired and shutting down on God?  Are we telling Him that trusting Him is too much for us?  Are trying to let Him know that we don’t think He is able?  Are we saying to Him we think that He has favorites and He is not a just God?  If we could only lean NOT to our understanding but acknowledge God by trusting Him with all of our hearts we would not grow tired or as frustrated as we have a tendency to do.  If we look at the magnitude of God’s faithfulness and kindness towards us, we would see that giving up on Him and what He has for us is like saying you don’t want to breathe. God has an order and a time for each of our lives.  Stop looking around and identifying what everyone else has and what we don’t have God has not forgotten you or your needs, desires or even your wants, He is working it out for you, but He is doing it the way He knows that is best for you and your circumstance.  Think for a minute if your car was broken and you could get a cheap quick fix that would end up breaking again and giving you trouble, or would you want to pay the money and have them spend the time getting it fixed the right way so that the fix would last?  I am sure  most of us if not all of us would want our vehicle fixed the right way even if it cost us the time and a bit more money.  The Bible reminds us “don’t become weary in well doing we will reap if we faint not!”

Words Of Encouragement To Start The Day (Tuesday 07/26/2011)

Living In A Place Of The Unknown

Hebrews 11:1-13 Amplified Bible (AMP)

¹NOW FAITH is the assurance (the confirmation, the title deed) of the things [we] hope for, being the proof of things [we] do not see and the conviction of their reality [faith perceiving as real fact what is not revealed to the senses].²For by [faith--trust and holy fervor born of faith] the men of old had divine testimony borne to them and obtained a good report. ³By faith we understand that the worlds [during the successive ages] were framed (fashioned, put in order, and equipped for their intended purpose) by the word of God, so that what we see was not made out of things which are visible. ⁴[Prompted, actuated] by faith Abel brought God a better and more acceptable sacrifice than Cain, because of which it was testified of him that he was righteous [that he was upright and in right standing with God], and God bore witness by accepting and acknowledging his gifts. And though he died, yet [through the incident] he is still speaking. ⁵Because of faith Enoch was caught up and transferred to heaven, so that he did not have a glimpse of death; and he was not found, because God had translated him. For even before he was taken to heaven, he received testimony [still on record] that he had pleased and been satisfactory to God. ⁶But without faith it is impossible to please and be satisfactory to Him. For whoever would come near to God must [necessarily] believe that God exists and that He is the rewarder of those who earnestly and diligently seek Him [out]. ⁷[Prompted] by faith Noah, being forewarned by God concerning events of which as yet there was no visible sign, took heed and diligently and reverently constructed and prepared an ark for the deliverance of his own family. By this [his faith which relied on God] he passed judgment and sentence on the world's unbelief and became an heir and possessor of righteousness (that relation of being right into which God puts the person who has faith). ⁸[Urged on] by faith Abraham, when he was called, obeyed and went forth to a place which he was destined to receive as an inheritance; and he went, although he did not know or trouble his mind about where he was to go. ⁹[Prompted] by faith he dwelt as a temporary resident in the land which was designated in the promise [of God, though he was like a stranger] in a strange country, living in tents with Isaac and Jacob, fellow heirs with him of the same promise. ¹⁰For he was [waiting expectantly and confidently] looking forward to the city which has fixed and firm foundations, whose Architect and Builder is God. ¹¹Because of faith also Sarah herself received physical power to conceive a child, even when she was long past the age for it, because she considered [God] Who had given her the promise to be reliable and trustworthy and true to His word. ¹²So from one man, though he was physically as good as dead, there have sprung descendants whose number is as the stars of heaven and as countless as the innumerable sands on the seashore.¹³These people all died controlled and sustained by their faith, but not having received the tangible fulfillment of [God's] promises, only having seen it and greeted it from a great distance by faith, and all the while acknowledging and confessing that they were strangers and temporary residents and exiles upon the earth.

            I can appreciate that most of you took a look at the scripture alone and said that alone was enough reading to last you the day and some of you said a month.  But for me it was funny as I began to read the scriptures this morning, I read verse one and then it went to five then from five to ten then from ten to thirteen.  It was like God was allowing me to see that living in a place (like many of us are), of the unknown is like you come into things not having a clue of the possibilities that lay ahead nor exactly where you are going. It is here, you just have to trust God as you go and keep progressing as He leads you.  But just as I felt I should have done things a certain way, God will show us the path and the course that really gets us to the place that He wants us to go, to receive the fullness of what He intends.  As I sat down on Sunday, and I began to think about this season in my life I noticed it was one of the most awkward, unbalanced seasons where logic and what we would identify as common sense is not prevailing.  Our senses do us little good in this season.  I have found that the only way that I am surviving is by faith, and is by an unhindered trust in God.

            Sometimes we feel like we are floundering or even out of the will of God when we are in a season when we cannot predict anything, and things are happening to us and around us and we have no clue why.  But it is not that we are out of the will, it is normally when we are in God’s will that we can’t figure it out.  God wants our faith, not just in words but in action.  He wants us to trust Him in a way that means walking by blind faith.  I am not saying we should not try to plan, but in this type of season, God usually will laugh at our plans, because His intention is so far above ours and His thoughts for us are so far beyond our comprehension He protects us from fear and doubt and even running in the opposite direction by bringing us along step by step, phase by phase, faith level by faith level.  We live in a place of the unknown by God’s design; it is by God’s authorization and His desire to get us where we would sometimes not go on our own. Living in the unknown means we have to live by faith and believe for the impossible and even have to submit to things that we have no clue that we even needed to accomplish the mandate and will of God in our lives.

            I like to say don’t despise the process, because it brings about production and performance. Living in the unknown or seasons of the unknown are a part of many of our processes, it is getting us to go when we would stay, and it is pushing us to believe when we would have never had a need. It forces us to walk in blind faith when we would otherwise stay seated.  Don’t distress because we can’t see the whole picture or even know where you are going or how we are going to get there. Let God lead you and guide you, let Him take you there in His timing and His way.  Trust Him and have faith, faith that allows us to know that God will bring you into a place of knowing and in a place of His will for us. Come out a little further with God, go a little longer with God for that is where the promise is, that is where the place of blessing is!

Words Of Encouragement To Start The Day (Monday 07/25/2011)

I Thought You Knew

Deuteronomy 7:8-9 Amplified Bible (AMP)

⁸But because the Lord loves you and because He would keep the oath which He had sworn to your fathers, the Lord has brought you out with a mighty hand and redeemed you out of the house of bondage, from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt. ⁹Know, recognize, and understand therefore that the Lord your God, He is God, the faithful God, Who keeps covenant and steadfast love and mercy with those who love Him and keep His commandments, to a thousand generations,

            The last few weeks I had some questions about some things going on in my life and as I began to pour out of my spirit to God, how I was feeling and the doubt and questions that had begun to consume my mind and heart, the words “don’t you trust me, don’t you know me” came up. It made me think of Harold Melvin and the Blue Notes song “If You Don’t Know Me By Now.” The first verse says, “If you don't know me by now…You will never never never know me…All the things that we've been through…You should understand me like I understand you…Now girl I know the difference between right and wrong…I ain't gonna do nothing to break up our happy home…Oh don't get so excited when I come home a little late at night…Cause we only act like children when we argue fuss and fight.”  Thus morning my sister/girlfriend called me and she was having a tough moment, as we talked it through, and she was relaying her story, she said yesterday the Lord said “what is it you don’t trust me, you don’t know me and what I have done?”  All I could do was laugh, why because that was confirmation, and it again took me back to the fact that even when it looks crazy and we don’t have a clue what is going on or how we are going to make it through, God is asking for our trust, based upon who we understand and know Him to be.

            But for many of us this is where the problem enters we don’t know God so we don’t rely on Him.  Many of us know of Him and know about Him, but we don’t know Him.  We think for some strange reason that the things that have happened that we needed to happen when our back was up against the wall was somehow was our doing, so we have taken God’s credit and we have lacked the ability to see all of the doors He has opened and all of the ways He has made.  Knowing God gives us a reference point for God and gives us relationship with Him, and builds an arena for trust in Him, and an understanding that as He has done once for us He will do again.  We understand when we know God and trust Him that even if He is delayed we know that He is on His way to accomplish whatever it is that we have need of.  When we have history with God through relationship and identification of His movement in our lives, we don’t have to fall out with God and get all upset with Him because He comes another way instead of the way we thought He should come, or that He makes us wait a moment instead of giving us instantaneous gratification. When we have an understanding of who God is to us and how He has worked things out in our lives we know that He wants to stay in relationship with us and He will do everything that “He” can to maintain the relationship, but we have to do our part, by having faith and trust in Him and being obedient even when it doesn’t feel good.

            God has been there all along.  Take a moment to look over the years of your life, and see how many times you should have been gone from this earth, how many times bills needed to get paid, or ways needed to be made that something happened to open a door or make a way that was not within our means or power to do.  No these things were not and are not coincidence; they are God moving in our lives.  They were God doing things that we could not get done. Is He not worthy first of the credit that is due Him for all He has made manifest in our lives?  Secondly He has been faithful and trustworthy does He not deserve our confidence and our trust that He will provide, He will do what is need to be done to save us, help us, and bless us, out of  the places we cannot even help ourselves to comprehend or get out of on our own?  God has promised to be there with us, is His word not good enough, it should be because not only does His track record speak for itself, but He has never lied or been in a place to have to repent.  He, His Word and Truth are one in the same.  You can trust Him if you would only get to know Him and recognize the truth of the history that already exist between you two.

Words Of Encouragement To StartThe Day (Friday 07/22/2011)

Rest Good…

Exodus 14:13-15 Amplified Bible (AMP)

¹³Moses told the people, Fear not; stand still (firm, confident, undismayed) and see the salvation of the Lord which He will work for you today. For the Egyptians you have seen today you shall never see again. ¹⁴The Lord will fight for you, and you shall hold your peace and remain at rest. ¹⁵The Lord said to Moses, Why do you cry to Me? Tell the people of Israel to go forward!

            This morning I woke up early, after not being able to get to sleep until very late.  As I was heading for the computer to write, I heard in my spirit go back to bed and rest.  I know most of you are saying it was my flesh, and not my spirit, but if you knew me you would know it was definitely my spirit.  As I climbed back in bed under the covers I closed my eyes thinking that I would wrestle to fall back to sleep instead I felt a draw to pray instead of sleep.  I began to open up to God and cast ALL of my cares and concerns upon Him.  I began to express all the things that had been keeping me up and weighing on my mind.  I began to share with Him, what my concerns were for not just for myself but for many that are around me, even those who had hurt me and put me through, or misused my love and trust.  As this prayer came to an end, I felt a peace wash over me that had been missing the last week, and I am not sure when but I feel back to sleep, when I woke up, I felt renewed, refreshed and as if God had spoken even though He did not say an audible word.

            Often there are many things that will keep us from resting.  Whether we are worrying, fearful, hurt, angry, even love and how to make things right for those we love can cause us to lose rest. No, I am not just talking about sleep, because rest is not just about sleep, it is about peace and it is about confidence, it is about trust and it is about allowing God to be just that God over ALL of our circumstance.  Rest is about being aware of what may be going on in our lives and in the lives of those that we love, but not letting it worry us to the point it changes who we are, our disposition or our attitude towards God or others.  My children say they can always tell when I am stressed, they say I run short, I get a little snappish.  This has placed a check in me to try to be aware when I am allowing things to take over instead of remaining in God’s rest and counsel for me.  Anyone who is an A type personality can relate to this, that when we feel things beyond our grasp and control, we get unbalanced and a bit off kilter, but when we are in control, God isn’t in control and we are at work that means God is at rest.  One particular time when I was stressed about school and all the things I was juggling in my life, my mom in a very funny voice turned to me and said stress bad, rest good.  I had to laugh, but she was right. Stress is bad, God reminds us in His word, “be anxious for NOTHING but everything with prayer and supplication letting your request be made known unto God.”

            When we come to understand that our worry cannot change one event that is transpiring in our lives.  Losing our rest and our ability to have relationship, who is that helping or benefitting, absolutely no one?  God is our resting place; He is our hiding place when we need to get away from all that is unrestful.  God is and always will be our present help in the times of trouble, relying on what we can do, will limit what God can do; relying on God will limit what we can do, but it gives us results when we cannot, and gives us peace that would otherwise be absent. When God becomes the focus of our lives or gains back our attention and we understand that He promised to supply ALL of our needs according to His riches in Glory by Christ Jesus, we can breathe again, we can rest again and regain the posture of peace that we may have let people, their actions, situations and circumstances take from us. Get back to rest so that you can move forward, not of your own might and power, but by the Spirit of God and His might, power and provision going before us! Remember stress, worry, and upset bad, rest GOOD!

Words Of Encouragement To Start The Day (Thursday 07/21/2011)

Why Did He Let Me Know That Now?

2 Samuel 7:24-26 Amplified Bible (AMP)

²⁴And You have established for Yourself Your people Israel to be Your people forever, and You, Lord, became their God. ²⁵Now, O Lord God, confirm forever the word You have given as to Your servant and his house; and do as You have said, ²⁶And Your name [and presence] shall be magnified forever, saying, The Lord of hosts is God over Israel; and the house of Your servant David will be made firm before You.

            Have you ever come through a period of hurt or turmoil and just when you thought it was safe to go back in the water, you find out something about the person involved, people involved or the truth about a situation, and you wonder why now, why did I have to find this out now, when I thought it was over this?  But was this really the first time this truth came to light? When this happens we question God and all that we rely upon to keep ourselves sane and holy.  In those moments if you are anything like me, we may find ourselves, just shaking our head knowing that God has a sense of humor, and there is definitely a method to His madness, because we have learned that God never brings anything to light for no reason, there is always something He is trying to accomplish.   Sometimes, it is about God wanting us to know that we heard Him correctly all along, that our ears were clear and the voices we heard were not in our head they were in our spirit.
            The Bible tells us that “God will use the foolish things to confound the wise.”  It is our wisdom, our logic and our rationale that often leads us to believe how things like this should play themselves out.  When we make up in our mind that we are okay, we move forward as though we are, but are we really? Had we block out God speaking to us? Had we sensed something that we ignored?  Sometimes God wants us to know He needs for us to be over some things and the only way He is going to get us there is by re- revealing the whole truth and nothing but the truth, so we will not go back into that situation again under any circumstances. Sometimes He has to confirm in us all over again what He showed or said.  When God gives us a word, a revelation and showed us the truth of who people are, the truth of the motives of someone, but we chose to doubt what we were hearing, or ignore it because we just want to be over things and people in our own way; but when things are exposed, reconfirmed or resurface we know that God is confirming the word He gave us to begin with.  He is letting us know that no matter how hard we try to ignore what He is saying He is speaking non the less.  The Bible reminds us “He that has an ear let him hear, what the spirit is saying to the church,” that would be us are we listening?
            God wants us to know His voice, he wants us to heed what He is saying when it is said the first time, but He know us so well that He often will say it again, not to Himself talk, but for our benefit, so that we understand the importance of hearing and listening. The confirming of His word is not for Him, but for us. It often comes to make us a believer, to make us to know that His word is true, and that truly there is NO GOD LIKE JEHOVAH! God establishes words, relationships, disposition of relationships and all else by His word.  But He wants us to have a means to know that it is not coincidence or just happenstance. God wants us to know that His word is truth and it stands.  He wants to build a relationship with us that we are sure when we hear Him and no one can rock that by their actions, words, pretenses, proclamations or declarations. God will continue to confirm what He says because He wants there to be no room for doubt and no room for anyone else to get the glory and honor besides Him!