Do We Totally Submit to God?

“I will exalt you, my God and King, and praise your name forever and ever. I will praise you every day; yes, I will praise you forever. Great is the Lord ! He is most worthy of praise! No one can measure his greatness. Let each generation tell its children of your mighty acts; let them proclaim your power. I will meditate on your majestic, glorious splendor and your wonderful miracles. Your awe-inspiring deeds will be on every tongue; I will proclaim your greatness.” (Psalms 145:1-6 NLT)

This week my husband and I had the privilege of attending a “Tehillah Extended” that was hosted by our church. What is does Tehillah mean? “A song of praise” as in Psalm 145 above. The whole 21 verses of this Psalm are praise to God and how awesome He is! David sure loved God and knew how to praise Him!
What is Tehillah? It has been going on for years for the young people from 16 to 25 that come from all the different churches across our city to get together on a Monday night to praise and worship God. We love to go and see what God is doing with the younger generation and it is awesome! The music is amazing and these kids know how to worship God. The “Tehillah Extended” just meant that it went on for three nights instead of just one. We heard the announcement in church on Sunday morning so we decided to check it out. Anybody can go, you just need to love young people and be young at heart.
Sunday night was wonderful with the praise and worship that took place. Of course there are different speakers brought in for a fresh teaching. These kids got a different teaching on the submissive heart. Okay, I am the older generation (our kids are 32 and 29) and there was teaching here that I had never heard, yet knew it to be true. I was so excited to hear it being taught to the younger generation as they will learn and move on it.
The pastor taught on a submitted heart. How we need to totally submit everything to God and not hold back any little piece of ourselves which we are inclined to do as human beings. A submissive heart gives us full authority to walk in what God has given us. When we don’t have a submissive heart, there is deception. This helped explain so much to me as we see Christians all the time that seem to sit on the fence – a little world, a little God and we could not figure out where they are coming from. Now, I understand, they have not totally submitted their hearts to God. How can you submit to something if you have never been able to trust? This pastor said we need to wrestle with God for our submissive heart. Give it all to Him and let Him work with it.
He was also teaching these kids to “learn how heaven thinks as that is the truth to live by”. I was so thrilled to hear this, as that is how we are supposed to be living and what took me 40 years to figure out, these young people are being taught now! It was the most interesting three nights that I have seen in quite awhile, as although there were different speakers, the theme was the same! My question is: How submitted are we? Sure made me think.

“Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Come near to God and he will come near to you. Wash your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded.” (James 4:7, 8 NIV)

How Great is God’s Mercy?

“His compassion never ends. It is only the Lord’s mercies that have kept us from complete destruction. Great is his faithfulness; his loving-kindness begins afresh each day. My soul claims the Lord as my inheritance; therefore I will hope in him.” Lamentations 3:22-24 (TLB)

A different version says, “His mercies are new every morning.” How awesome is our God?Every morning when I get up, I declare, “This is the day that The Lord has made, I will rejoice and be glad in it.” I am so appreciative of all that God has done for me that I want Him to know how thankful I am.
Not only that, but that He has granted mercy to me for a whole new day. No matter what happened the day before, as long as I have repented on whatever stupid thing I did or said, I have new mercy for a new day! If only we as humans had that kind of mercy for others when they step out of line. I keep thinking about someone that I know that has gotten so far away from anything we thought would be possible. I keep asking for God’s mercy upon this person as that is what is going to bring them back to God. It is not only God’s mercy but we as humans need to sow mercy into this person as well. Whatever we sow, we will reap in return so I would like to sow mercy as I need mercy every day. We have to remember that God loves us all no matter where we are or what we have done. He just does not like our sin. He loves us too much to leave us the way we are so He keeps changing us and bringing us closer to Him.
When I look back over my life, I required alot of mercy which I received so I would like to be able to extend that mercy to someone else when it is required of me. People will always let us down as in our humanity we are very frail. However, God never will. He is always there willing to help anytime we get into trouble. All we have to do is ask. He is my best friend as I know that He will never leave me or forsake me. He promises me that and He has proved Himself very faithful over the course of my life. It makes me very sad when I see people who believed/loved God, fall into a trap that has been set for them by the enemy. Sometimes it is hard to understand with our small minds but one thing I do know is that God is merciful and faithful so we know that what the devil meant for evil He will turn into good! He is an amazing father. We as His people have to pray and believe that He will do as He has promised.
“Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life and I will dwell in the house of The Lord forever.” Psalm 23:6 (NKJV)

These verses that follow explain exactly what God has done for me. Therefore, I want to be able to do it for others when they need mercy and comfort!

“What a wonderful God we have—he is the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the source of every mercy, and the one who so wonderfully comforts and strengthens us in our hardships and trials. And why does he do this? So that when others are troubled, needing our sympathy and encouragement, we can pass on to them this same help and comfort God has given us. You can be sure that the more we undergo sufferings for Christ, the more he will shower us with his comfort and encouragement. We are in deep trouble for bringing you God’s comfort and salvation. But in our trouble God has comforted us—and this, too, to help you: to show you from our personal experience how God will tenderly comfort you when you undergo these same sufferings. He will give you the strength to endure.” 2 Corinthians 1:3-7 (TLB)

Do We Forget God?

“But watch out! Be very careful never to forget what you have seen God doing for you. May his miracles have a deep and permanent effect upon your lives! Tell your children and your grandchildren about the glorious miracles he did.” (Deuteronomy 4:9) TLB

Earlier this week I read an article in our local newspaper that really made my heart sad for two different reasons. It was about a young man that grew up in our city here in Canada who had a dual citizenship so decided he was going to enlist in the Marines in the US after 9/11 happened.
He never got in the Marines so ended up in the Army and of course in Iraq. He has been so traumatized by his tour in Iraq that he now has been diagnosed with PTSD. This is the first thing that makes me sad.
The second thing that really bothers me is that he grew up as a Christian even went to a Christian school and since experiencing all the horrifying things that he did, he has basically turned his back on organized religion. He says he is agnostic which I am sure his parents find very upsetting as they tried their best to teach him the ways of God. I totally understand that he is confused greatly and has been traumatized by what he endured in war, yet he doesn’t seem to understand that it was God who kept him alive for His purpose. I am praying for this young man that he will be able to receive the help that he needs spiritually and emotionally. It grieves my heart to see these young men and women suffering from all the trauma they dealt with in a war. My precious nephew who is in the Canadian military did two tours in Afghanistan and he is dealing with the after effects of all the trauma he went through as well as being blown up by IEDs. This man was taught as a little boy all about God as well. My dear mother made sure of that as she felt his parents weren’t doing the job, so he knows, yet he claims to be agnostic! What is it that goes on in these wars to make these men doubt God? I know with him, as well as the other young guy, they saw so much horror. Their buddies being blown up and of course things they don’t even talk about. He really questioned about God after his first tour as he could not understand why God would let this happen. Why does God get the blame for all the bad things that happen? God is good and only good comes from him. It is the evil of man that causes these wars and the devastation that comes with it.

“Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change.” (James 1:17 ESV)

God kept him alive when he was in the thick of gunfire and patrolling out in the wide open desert. All because I prayed and had other people praying for him as I am sure the parents of this other young man did as well. The interesting part about my nephew, is when he was doing his last tour to Afghanistan, he was the Sergeant in charge of his company of soldiers leading them into combat. Before he left, I was asking him the names of each and every troop he was leading and he sat down with me and gave me every name. He knew why I was asking, he knew I would be praying for them. I had prayed for him on his first tour and told him so. They all came back without any significant injuries so God was watching over him every step of the way. These dear young men do not seem to realize that it was God and only God that brought them through.
My prayer is that someone will come into their lives that can show them how much God loves them, that He has laid His hand upon them and hedged them behind and before. God’s word and truth is in there so I am asking the Holy Spirit to bring it to their remembrance. This should not be with these young people who were willing to lay down their lives for our freedom. To see them aimlessly wandering around their country with no job and no place to call home breaks my heart. God has not forgotten them, they are His creation but they have to ask or invite Him into our circumstances before He will be able to do anything for them. Unfortunately, they turn to drugs or alcohol to numb the pain. He is standing by just waiting as He loves these young people so much and hates to see them suffering like they are. Let us pray for our troops who have served and are still serving. They are a special group of people, very special and they deserve far better treatment than they receive.

“He will not allow your foot to slip or to be moved; He Who keeps you will not slumber. [I Sam. 2:9; Ps. 127:1; Prov. 3:23, 26; Isa. 27:3.] The Lord is your keeper; the Lord is your shade on your right hand [the side not carrying a shield]. [Isa. 25:4.] The sun shall not smite you by day, nor the moon by night. [Ps. 91:5; Isa. 49:10; Rev. 7:16.] The Lord will keep you from all evil; He will keep your life. The Lord will keep your going out and your coming in from this time forth and forevermore.” [Deut. 28:6; Prov. 2:8; 3:6.] (Psalm 121:3, 5-8 AMP)

These verses became very important to me for my nephew. I prayed them over him every day as to me they were quite appropriate for men patrolling on foot in the desert where IEDs were everywhere!