Month: September 2017

Prayer is Very Powerful

Bethany Christian Living ,

Not everybody is in a position to help many different types of people in all situations. Prayer is powerful and you can pray for everybody in all different situations. For example you might grieve very strongly about people who are caught in the sex traffic, but are no way in a position to help. Most of us can’t help others physically, but we sure can pray for them.

When you hear of bad news you can always pray for the people or animal, or country’s concern. Sometimes God is happy with a quick short prayer and at other times He wants you to pray long and hard for months and sometimes for years over it. He places such a heavy burden on your heart that you need to pray for them. If you don’t have a burden pray for one and He will give you one or two or more.

One thing I love about prayer it is versatile. You are limited in your help physically but never spiritually. You can’t help the whole world, but you can pray for the whole world. Many people think their prayers are not powerful. They would be so surprise to find out, they are extremely powerful and God is waiting for them to help out, through their prayers. God’s way of answering prayers I find are usually different from what I expect. He always has a better plan. For example I got a burden for animals that are dumped and on T.V. that night the media reported about a female dog that was  pregnant and dumped and was then looked after. I find that happens over and over again. At first I thought it wasn’t related to my prayers, but it kept happening and then I finally said it was an answer to my prayers. And you will too be surprise how often that happens, once you start saying prayers for other people. And of course others know better than me how true this is.  

We must pray all the time, every chance we can get. And offer up our days for people and different things that God has placed on our heart.

James 5:16. The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective.

Don’t mistake a righteous person to be somebody who doesn’t fail God from time to time, but rather somebody who seeks to please God with all their heart.

Mark 11:24. “Whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours.

 

 

Having Positive Thoughts

Bethany Christian Living

Philippians 4:8.  Fix your thoughts on what is true, and honourable, and right, and pure, and lovely, and admirable. Think about things that are excellent and worthy of praise.

There is so much negative thinking these days. During terrible hard times it is hard to keep your mind off the problem. We can think about it so much so that the thoughts just go round and round until we think we are going insane. Doing what is right and healthy always seems more difficult than to do what is not right and healthy.

Since more and more negative things keep happening in this world, the verse above is even more needed to be obeyed. It is the way Jesus would have done things. And there is plenty of good things going on around us, if we are willing to stay focus on them. If we obey we would be sure to get the peace only Jesus can give, that the world cannot give. He would give us this peace gladly. The peace helps you to be victorious in your situation. You would be able to think more clearly and be able to hear God’s voice more clearly in each and every situation, you find yourself in. It takes a lot of practice for most of us, but it is worth it. 

Putting our Faith and Trust in the Lord

Bethany Christian Living

For many of us being pessimistic about our trials is the norm. We have to watch out for that. If we are not careful we can forget all the promises of God when we let fear take over our lives. We are told that Jesus has already won the victory and all we have to do is believe and obey. Then God will turn things around for us for His Glory sake. His Glory is always based on love. And we all want to be truly loved especially for ever. We have to see God as our loving Father. Head knowledge won’t save us in a crisis. We have to really believe God is love and that He is all Wisdom. If we step out in faith and trust we will see God’s promises fulfilled. Most of us rather put our trust in what we see. What we see is only temporary. What is eternal is what we can’t see. God is more real than what we are. Trusting God is proof of our love for Him is real. We get tested a lot so that we will grow in all virtues, such as faith and trust. If we always live sheltered lives we will never grow and become strong in the Lord.

Deuteronomy 20:3-4. Do not fear or panic or be in dread of them, for the Lord your God is He who goes with you to fight for you against your enemies, to give you the victory.

Psalm 118:14. The Lord is my strength and my song; He has given me victory.

Praying for Our Enemies

Bethany Christian Living

Forgiving can be very difficult. It is a lot easier when the person has repented from their transgression against us. It can be another matter when they are not sorry for mocking, slander or being unkind etc. to us. But Jesus insist on it.

Matthew 18:23-35. Is the parable of the unforgiving servant. Where the king forgives a servants and lets him off paying a very, very large debit, only to find the servant demands a much smaller debt to be paid by his fellow servants. The king finds out about it and becomes furious with the servant and sends him to prison to be tortured, until the debit he owed to the king has been paid.

That parable frightens me. Jesus doesn’t make empty warnings. So how do we go about it? I believe praying for our enemies helps. To pray for their welfare and for their salvation might start out more like a duty at first, but with grace doing this after a while softens our hearts towards them. Keep it up and try to pray with eagerness. When you do the best you can, God will do what you can’t do. If we are too proud to admit we are also a very bad sinner needing forgiveness from God every day ourselves, then we might be tempted not to forgive, which is a serious mistake.

I heard of a story that somebody went to hell escorted by Jesus to show him around. The person saw a women there who was in the ministry for thirty years, but because she refused to forgive her husband she had to read a verse in the Bible about forgiveness as a punishment forever in hell.

Luke 6: 35-36.But you must love your enemies and you must do good things to them and you must lend expecting nothing; then your reward will be great, and you will be children of the Most High, because He is kind to the ungrateful and evil. You must become compassionate, even just as your Father is compassionate.

Loving our enemies is what makes us different from other religions. God is a God of unconditional love. To please Him we need to grow in love and be like Our Heavenly Father. It’s what makes our religion so special apart from being the true religion. God forgives those who are sorry for their sins, doesn’t matter how grievous they are. He loves us all whether we deserve it or not. Matter of fact nobody actually deserves His love at all. He is so Holy and Majestic we all fall short of His glory.

What You Believe is Very Important!

Bethany Christian Living

Many people just follow the crowd without much thought into it. That is dangerous. Jesus said He is the Way. He is the only way. He teaches truth. It is not always popular, but truth is beautiful. There is no other choice. If you don’t believe all that Jesus teaches you are in danger of soul. There are beliefs flooding most churches today that are lies. We all have blind spots that we need to pray that God will open our eyes to. Satan is working overtime, deceiving people that you can serve mammon and God. That you can serve two masters. Jesus warns us against this. We have to remember God is a very jealous God.

Too many people think you can have it both ways. Being part of the world and still be a Christian. That is being lukewarm. And God says He will spew us out of His mouth if we are lukewarm. A follower of Jesus is to be pure of heart, humble and faithful to His word. Not only some if it and then toss out the rest that you don’t want to hear.

We are in dangerous time. Satan wants your soul, so guard it with your life by the power of God. He will look after you, but you have to serve Him faithfully. There is so much deception, if it is an easy way out that should make you alert that there could be something wrong with the message. To follow Jesus is the hard and narrow road, not the easy wide road that MOST people follow.

Beliefs for too many people are just like fashion, whatever is the flavour of the month they follow. God doesn’t change. The truth doesn’t change from year to the next. The truth is always the truth for ever it will be the same. What you believe in, backed by action will either sentence you to heaven or hell. So beliefs are very important. Call on God for wisdom, understanding and knowledge, to face your daily decisions. None of us know it all and we all can be deceived if we set our guards down. And judge everything at face value can be deceiving.

Pray for the Holy Spirit to fill you and guide you in everything you do. Jesus shows us the way. Be wary of popular beliefs, it might sound good, but look much deeper with the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit will open your eyes and you will see things that the majority won’t see. You have to put God first! in your life, or you will fall and be deceived.