God Knows You

 It seems mothers can sense trouble from a mile away. Once after a rough day at school, I tried to hide my frustration hoping no one would notice. My mother asked, "What's the matter?" Then she added "Before you tell me it's nothing, remember I'm your mother. I gave you birth and I know you better than you know yourself."  

As believers in Jesus we need to remind ourselves, God knows us intimately. Psalm 139:1-4 says, "You have searched me Lord and you know me. You know when I sit down and when I rise; you perceive my  thoughts from afar," As a young believer, the concept that God is all-knowing brought a sense of dread in my life.  I could not hide my thoughts, my actions or my words from Him and He was just waiting for me to step out of line. Of course, that's not true. 

Jesus was sent from heaven to become human, so that He could experience everything we experience. No one can say to God, "You don't know what I'm going through. You don't know what I feel." Hebrews 4:15 tells us that Jesus faced every temptation, every emotion, and every struggle you face.

So, be encouraged. God is with you right where you are Psalms 139  and He is ready to help and guide you. 

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ONE Resolution

If we are living now by the Holy Spirit’s power, let us follow the Holy Spirit’s leading in every part of our lives. Galatians 5:25  TLB

At this time of the year, most people make a list of New Year's resolutions. If their goal is to lose weight, they enjoy a final dessert. If their goal is to stop buying on credit, they make one final purchase using their plastic. And if their goal is to begin having a morning devotional time, they sleep in one last day.

But research shows that most New Year's resolutions are not kept in spite of our best intentions. I speak from personal experience. May I suggest a better way approach the New Year would be to have ONE goal: to be filled with the Holy Spirit. Ephesians 5:18 The construction of the original text means to continue being filled not just a one-time act. A Spirit-filled life is one that is to be lived out daily. That means you daily listen for His guidance and approach life in His strength every day,   Luke 4:1 Galatians 5:25.

After a year of walking in the Spirit; much more will change than made a human resolution. Begin the New Year with the objective to live a Spirit-filled life and see what you will accomplish in and through your life in the coming year.

What Do We Do?

I’m sure we’ve all had a power outage at one time or another. It goes like this… you’re watching the game on TV and boom, everything goes dark. You look around the room and see darkness all around you. You grab your flashlight and walk over to the window to see if it’s you or the whole neighborhood. You may even step outside and look for other people having the same issue. 

You go back inside and look around for candles, and once you settle into the loss of power, it’s like… "so what do we do now”? Therein lies the real question. What do we do when the power goes out? 

Let’s look at the apostles and what they were doing when the power came ON.

Acts 2:1 tells us, “they were all together in one place.” They were gathered together discussing the events of the day; the events being that Jesus had just ascended to the Father. Their source of "power" had been removed. They were probably thinking, “so what do we do now?" 

Verse two says, “And suddenly there came from heaven a sound like a mighty rushing wide, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting.” Sounds like the power just came on.

The difference of this power source compared to the ones we rely on is this power source is controlled by God and does not go out. 

So if we have a power source that does not go out, I think the real question is how do we tap into that power source? Do we only think about it when things get dark? Do we take it for granted or do we tap into it on a daily basis? The indwelling of the Holy Spirit was given to us to provide us with access to the one source of power that can meet all of our needs. We merely need to ask ourselves, “so what do we do now”?