Blessed and Highly Favored

Today, I was Blessed & Highly Favored from my time with God! I had to get some MUCH needed extended time in with the Lord this morning. See, I usually read a chapter of Proverbs everyday and then let the Lord lead me as I meditate on what POPS off the page at me. Well Proverbs 3 is one of my FAVORITE chapters...because of Proverbs 3:5-6, "Trust in the Lord with all your heart..." you know the one. But today verses 3 & 4 SHOUTED at me..

"Let not MERCY and KINDNESS [shutting out all hatred and selfishness] and TRUTH [shutting out all deliberate hypocrisy or falsehood] forsake you; bind them about your neck, WRITE them upon the tablet of YOUR HEART. 4 SO SHALL YOU FIND FAVOR, good understanding, and high esteem in the sight [or judgment] of God and man." (Proverbs 3-4 AMP)

You see, I've been praying for FAVOR...FAVOR with people, FAVOR in my business, FAVOR in everything I put my hand to do. With 2012 being such a persevering and testing year as I ventured out into NEW territory, I needed to SEE some fruit from all the labor I had been putting out.

Well, sometimes in our LABORING we can be so driven to make it happen in our own power, we work, work, work ourselves right into a merciless and unkind mode just to try to MAKE the TRUTH of what we believe WORK out like we want them. So of course when I saw this verse this NEW 3rd morning in this NEW Year, I saw this chapter and verse in a NEW LIGHT.

We must remember to ask God to ENLIGHTEN us with His Word as we read it otherwise reading His Word can become another LABOR on our list of things to do without any NEW ENLIGHTENMENT or REVELATION from it. God's Word is INSPIRATION (see 2 Timothy 3:16) to our lives when we SLOW DOWN long enough to ask Him for His insight, digest/receive it and  then apply it to our lives.

So today as you are trying to get to the next thing you are trying to complete, remember that God wants to be a NEW ENLIGHTENMENT in your daily task as you "bind mercy, kindness and truth around your neck and write them on your heart to find FAVOR from God and man." Be Blessed!

The STORMS of LIFE

"Draw near to God, and He will draw near to you!" James 4:8

The effects of Hurricane Sandy came through Philadelphia, PA and left us in a windy, rainy, and power outage state. The warnings never really prepare you for the actuality. I'm one who is an overall SAVER...Literally and Spiritually...always putting away for a rainy day...so most of what I needed for the storm I already had on hand...just needed to have it READILY AVAILABLE.

After two power outages and a scramble for all the candles and battery operated flood/flashlights, I realized how much we DEPEND on things...things that really do not amount to a hill of beans in the Kingdom of God. While my household & I sat in the candlelit room trying to FIND the unusual things to do with our now forced QUIET time together, I realized even with the simple things in life, we have all that we need when we STOP and take a moment to reflect on it. 

The time that we usually would be watching TV, surfing the internet, playing with some type of an electronic gadget or on the phone, could be better spent reflecting and talking to God through these storms. We really don't need much for Time with God just the WILLINGNESS to draw closer to Him by READING His Word, the WILLINGNESS to PRAY about what strikes our HEART, the WILLINGNESS to WAIT and LISTEN to what He has to say about it, and the WILLINGNESS to OBEY what He has to say about it.

The Storms of Life have their purpose...they are meant to keep us CLOSE to the One who can get us PREPARED for, AWAY from, or THROUGH the Storms of Life! So I ask you...How much are you DEPENDING on Him Who is Able, Ruler of All Things, and The One Who Never Leaves Nor Forsakes Us? Why not SIT STILL and try it for yourself? I know He will make Himself KNOWN to you when you commit to do it!