Sept21

............	A Word In Due Season SEPT 2021 9/1/21 THE PROMISE OF JOY Scripture: Psalms 30:5 " ... weeping may endure for a night, but joy comes in the morning." The worse dilemmas that we face in many cases are not the hard ones but the long ones. It is not the dark moments that suddenly occur in our lives that challenge our souls but rather the long dark night seasons that seem to never end. For example, giving birth is a very painful experience but not nearly as painful as a permanent disability or as challenging as a chronic illness that leaves you incapacitated for some length of time. A significant financial crisis is hard to bear but it is not as rough as enduring years and years of financial lack, with seemly no hope for the future. Likewise, experiencing a short period of extreme loneliness, depression, or emotional conflict does not compare to living in these dark places day after day, week after week, month after month, and sometimes year after year. When we are going through these kinds of situations, we need a reminder or a word of hope that better times are promised and that joy will follow the difficult season at hand. Through out the scriptures men faced dark and difficult seasons, but time always brought victory and joy. Noah and his family escaped death, but their confinement in the ark had to be a trying time for all of them. After God closed the door of the ark, there was no way for them to escape until He opened it again. They were prisoners of the flood and the darkness that surrounded them. Yet, at the end, joy came as God made a promise to Noah and established His new covenant with him and sealed it with a rainbow. Another example of victory and joy after a dark and difficult season is Jacob. He was greatly afraid and distressed when he heard that his brother, Esau, was coming to meet him because years before Jacob had stolen Esau's birthright years before. Jacob wrestled with the angel of the Lord all night long, but his joy came in the morning when the angel declared a blessing over him and his brother, Esau, received him in peace. Daniel suffered in the lion's den for a night, but joy came in the morning as he gave great witness of God's protection. Mary endured the pangs of childbirth, but when Jesus was born, the angels made an announcement to the shepherds in the fields, proclaiming good tidings of great joy. God traded their tears, grief, and sorrows for His unspeakable joy and glory. The Lord does the same for us. God's Word says that He will never put more upon us than we can bear. At some point, He will turn our captivity into a place of freedom and for all of the tears that we have sown, we will reap joy (Psalms 126:5-6). Jesus has been anointed to "give us beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, and the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness" (Isaiah 61:3). He will turn our sorrow into dancing again (Psalms 30:11). The Apostle Paul declare that our "light affliction, which was for a moment will work in us a far more exceeding weight of glory" (II Corinthians 4:17). These words are our promises from God, for He has good plans for us. He holds our lives in His hands and in His time, the sun will rise, the morning light will appear, and darkness will flee. The Lord will faithfully fulfill His promise of joy to us. Our weeping may endure for a night, but our joy will come in the morning. +++ 9/2/21 GOD WILL KEEP YOU Scripture: Joshua 1:7 (NIV) "Be strong and courageous because you will lead these people to inherit the land." It must have been very overwhelming for Joshua when God began to enlarge his territory and bring him to a new level of responsibility. Can you imagine how he must have felt when God called him to take the place of Moses? Joshua had seen God use Moses to part the Red Sea and had witnessed many other mighty miracles in the life of Moses. Now, God was calling him to that same place of leadership. How frightening this new place must have seemed to Joshua, for he would not have Moses to lean upon as his friend or counselor because Moses was now dead. Joshua's grand promotion from God came only with these encouraging words, "Be strong and very courageous." God then gave him instructions and a promise. He told Joshua to mediate on God's Words day and night and to obey all that He said. God promised Joshua that if he maintained his courage and obeyed God's laws, his way would be prosperous and successful. Even though God called him, encouraged him, and gave him promises to stand upon, it still must have been very difficult for Joshua to step into this awesome place of leadership. Moving out of the familiar and into a place of uncertainty always brings fear. However, Joshua realized that his destiny depended upon his own decision, and so he chose to follow God. He meditated on God's Words and allowed those Words to cultivate his faith. He remained strong in the Lord and very courageous and ultimately inherited the land that God had promised. Like Joshua's situation, the devil also attempts to stop God's plan in your life and his main tool against you is fear and intimidation. He does everything in his power to make you feel insignificant. As your adversary, he tells you that your hopes and dreams of doing anything significant for God are impossible. The devil also points out your faults and continually reminds you of your failures. He uses your past mistakes in a desperate attempt to keep you from having faith for the future. God, on the other hand, has a good plan and a destiny for your life and He wants to fulfill His purposes through you. God imparts His Spirit and endows you with His power so that you can inherit His promises and find your destiny. He then speaks the same words to you that He spoke to Joshua, "Don't fear. Be strong and courageous." You must remember that if God calls you to do a work, He is there with you and He will keep you. +++ 9/3/21 CREATE A BOND Scripture: John 10:30 "I and My Father are one." Jesus spoke of the relationship that He had with God the Father. He said that they were "one", meaning that they were in perfect unity with one another and undivided in their natures. You can know someone from afar or know about them through study, but to become "one" requires time and effort, and Jesus made this effort. He did not rest in the relationship that He had with the Father before He came from Heaven to accomplish His mission on Earth. While Jesus was here on Earth, the Word declares that He spent much time alone in communion with the Father. Regardless of how tired or busy He may have been, Jesus still arose a great while before the day began and went to a solitary place to pray. He also did not worry about the demands of the next day or the negative results that He may experience if He lost His rest and sleep. He just continued in prayer throughout the night. Everything that Jesus did was preceded in prayer. Prayer was a priority for His life and the most important part of His daily agenda. Through communion with the Father, a bond was created and this bond was so strong and so definite confirming that He and the Father were one. In John 17:21, Jesus desired that we would find this same place of unity that He and the Father shared. He prayed, "Father, just as You are in Me, and I am in You, let them also be one in Us." Prayer is not meant to be just words and petitions for needs. Prayer is meant to be communion where we bond with the one that we are spending time with. This personal time allows us to learn about one another. In this time of communion, God shares Himself with us and we share ourselves with Him. He listens to our hearts and we listen to His heartbeat. God opens our eyes to see His plans and purposes for our lives and then gives us faith to grasp His vision in the spirit. We share our doubts and fears and He dispels them one by one until our hearts become one. We confess our sins and He cleanses us with His forgiveness and draws us back into unity with Him. God is our Father. He wants us to be one with Him and He is waiting for us to devote ourselves to this cause. We are the ones who must pledge ourselves to find time to commune with Him, and then we must remain loyal to that commitment. There will be many distractions, and if we are not careful the first thing that will be deleted from our busy schedules will be our personal time with the Lord. Martha loved Jesus just as much as Mary did, but she was devoted to her duties. Mary, on the other hand, was devoted to sitting at the feet of Jesus and embracing His presence. Jesus said that Mary had chosen the good part as she sought to become one with Him. Like Mary, the most important thing you can do today is to take time to commune with your Heavenly Father in prayer. Your effort will create a bond, and the more you share with Him and the more He shares with you the greater your bond will be. +++ 9/6/21 LAW OF FAITH Scripture: Romans 3:27 " ... but by the law of faith." Laws are a system of rules and the established authority and control that are imposed by such rules. Faith is that indefinable something that causes us to believe that God is God and allows us to trust in His Words. The writer of Romans declared that there is a law of faith. That law is summed up in Hebrews 11:6 which says, "Without faith it is impossible to please God: for he that comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of them that diligently seek Him." Believing that "God is" and trusting His promises brings us into a spiritual rest and establishes God's authority in our spirits. This faith and trust then results in our personal obedience and action to His commands. I Timothy 3:9 speaks of the mystery of faith. Although we cannot understand nor explain how or why faith works, we know that God answers our prayers of faith and honors our trust in Him. This law of faith that God has established brings results just as any other universal law that He has set in motion. Just as we may not be able to understand or explain how the law of gravity works, we do not have to understand faith. Faith will work just the same without our understanding. If we were to try to deny or defy the law of gravity, we would find ourselves in a great deal of trouble, for what goes up will surely come down. The law of gravity has been established by the authority of God and His rules determine the results. The law of faith is as sure as the law of gravity. This mysterious law of faith declares, "Believe and you shall receive." The working of faith is a mystery, but the results are promised. To operate within the confines of this law, God has made His rules very simple. The rule is that we must believe that He is and believe that He will reward us when we diligently seek Him. God is pleased when we put our anxieties to rest and do these two things. None of our works or religious acts create this right standing with God. Our righteousness comes only through faith in the blood of Jesus (Romans 3:25). Regardless of our needs, God's law of faith is waiting for us to make demands upon it and set in motion the forces of God's almighty power. God's hand is not too short to reach us and His provisions are not too lacking to help us. God faithfully waits for us to call upon Him so that He can answer and show us great and mighty things. Speak faith filled words to God today and let Him know that you believe that He is God. Then diligently seek Him for the answers that you need and expect the rewards that He has promised. +++ 9/7/21 A MERRY HEART Scripture: Proverbs 17:22 "A merry heart does good like a medicine." King Solomon teaches that a merry heart brings health to your body. Yet if you allow it, stress, hatred, rage, malice, grief, anxiety, and a host of many other negative emotions can ruin your health. Proverbs 12:25 says, "Heaviness in the heart of man makes his heart stoop." In other words, anxiety of any kind causes depression, which allows negative forces to work and cause havoc in your physical body. However, it is a medical fact that chemicals called endorphins are released in your body when you exercise physically or laugh. Zig Ziglar says, "Laughter is like internal jogging." When you begin to laugh and be merry, you are telling your physical body that the stressful circumstances you are facing are no big deal. Your laughter will regenerate your body and joy will bring you strength. Isaiah 12:3 declares that you can "draw from the wells of salvation with joy." In order to draw water from a well in the natural, you must use a bucket. In the spiritual, you have access to the wells of salvation that contain all the benefits that God provides, but the scripture says you must use joy to draw from these wells. Joy is your spiritual bucket. Being angry never fixes an adverse and ugly situation, but rejoicing in God, seeking Him, and drawing from His wells of salvation will give insight and the solution to the problem. Grief and sorrow can never bring your loved ones back, but finding a place of joy in the presence of God's Holy Spirit will give you comfort and courage to move forward. Dealing with angry and spiteful people is never pleasant, but by drawing from God's well of salvation you can give a soft answer which will turn away their wrath (Proverbs 15:1). Reacting in positive ways and maintaining positive attitudes will dispel the negative forces in your life that can cause illness and even death. Jesus tells us plainly in the sixth chapter of Matthew not to be anxious about anything, but to seek first His kingdom, which is "righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost" (Romans 14:17). We go to great efforts to maintain our health and make changes in our habits if they are harmful to our natural body. Shouldn't we also make adjustments in our attitudes and take control of our emotions that could cause problems in our health? As we begin to cultivate a sense of righteousness with God, allowing His peace to reign in our life and the joy in the Holy Ghost to fill our souls, we will find our health being restored. Remember, laughter does good like a medicine and it has no ill side effects so endeavor to keep a merry heart. +++ 9/8/21 THE PLACE OF REST Scripture: Hebrews 4:3 "We which believed do enter into rest." God promised the Israelites a good and prosperous land that flowed with milk and honey. The milk and honey were symbolic of nourishment and sweetness. However, God never said that this place of blessing would come easy or that there would be no battles. They were to go in by faith and possess the land that was given to them by God. Yet, they never entered the Promised Land. The result of their defeat was not because the battles were too great, but because their faith was too small. They mixed God's Word with murmuring, complaining, and unbelief instead of mixing it with faith and obedience. Faith is not something that you must struggle with or work up in the natural. It comes by supernatural impartation by the Holy Spirit as God speaks to your spirit. Many times you may have to face your own limitations and be real with God. Like the man in Mark 9:24 who requested prayer and deliverance for his demon possessed son, you may have to say, "God, I believe, but please help my unbelief." When you approach God in truth, you will find that He is merciful and full of grace. He will always be faithful to meet you at your point of faith. All of God's promises to us rest in our faith and obedience. He shows us the concept of faith in a natural seed. You have to let go completely when you plant a seed in the ground, leaving it there to rest for a long and dark season. You cannot dig it up and analyze it every day to see if anything is happening. You have to cease from your own efforts, rest, and trust God to finish the work, for only a miracle can regenerate that seed and cause it to grow. Your only responsibility is to plant the seed in faith and wait expectantly for the harvest. Likewise, your true faith, if planted in God, will cease from anxiety and it will birth a supernatural trust that will cause you to enter a place of rest in God. Then, as you rest and wait upon the Lord, the harvest will come. +++ 9/9/21 CALLED AND CHOSEN Scripture: Matthew 22:14 "For many are called, but few are chosen." There is a difference in being called and in being chosen. Those who are called are simply summoned to appear, but those who are chosen are actually selected above the many who were called. We see this progression in the sport's field. There is a general call to those who would like to be on the team but only a few of those will actually be chosen to join. After the individuals are chosen to be on the team, there will be yet another choosing. The players will be placed and played according to their individual skills. Such is our life and our callings from God. It is certain that God has called many of us, but we have never made it to the next level. God wants to use us in a mighty way for His kingdom purposes, but He cannot choose us because we are limiting Him by many factors in our lives. Like the Israelites who came out of the bondage of Egypt, we may limit God with our unbelief. We may not have enough faith in God or feel that the finances will not be available to support the vision that He, Himself, has placed in our hearts. We may say as the Israelites said, "Can God furnish a table in the wilderness?" We may fall into the same trap as they did and struggle with our own self-esteem because we see ourselves as grasshoppers when we view the goal that God has chosen for us to accomplish. We may simply not be chosen because our attitude is so negative. God is working in our lives, but we are impatient and we murmur and complain about everything that we do not understand. We may also be left on the bench of life because we are unprepared. We did not take the initiative to study in order to show ourselves approved before God. We did not intercede in prayer in order to be able to meet the spiritual challenge. Also, we may have been lax in keeping our physical bodies in a healthy condition. If God did chose us, we could not respond because we would not have the stamina and strength to be able to endure the physical pressure. We know that God has called us aside for his purposes, but if we want Him to choose us, we must concentrate on preparing ourselves for Him. We must develop our faith and believe that God will supply all of our financial needs for the task that is set before us. We must know that we are sufficient in Him and believe that we can do all things through Christ who strengthens us. We must see ourselves as more than conquerors over the giants that challenge us so that we can make the same declaration that Caleb made. When he was 80 years old he said, "I am as strong now as I was forty years ago and I am well able to take this mountain." Like the Apostle Paul, we have to lay aside any and all weights that keep us from running the race that God has set before us. Many are going to be called, but if we want to be one of the few who will be chosen, we need to be prepared. We must study the Word of God, intercede in prayer, wait upon God so that our spirits can be renewed, and also take care of our physical bodies. We must understand that even though we might be in the number that is called, we will not be chosen until we are ready in our body, soul, and spirit. +++ 9/10/21 STEPPING-STONES Scripture: Joshua 4:7 " ... and these stones shall be a memorial." Throughout the scriptures stones have been mentioned with great significance. They were used to mark special times, events, and places. Jacob used a stone as a pillow for his head and then the next morning he used that same stone as an altar before God. He poured oil upon the stone and worshiped God because God had visited him in the night and promised him a covenant blessing. Aaron and Hur used a great stone to support Moses when he grew tired in battle. The stone helped Moses endure until the enemy was conquered. David used a simple stone to win a victory against the giant, Goliath. Joshua sets stones as a memorial on the banks of the Jordan River when the congregation of Israel passed over it on dry ground. The stones were to be a sign to their future generations of God's miraculous deliverance. Samuel set a stone at a place called Ebenezer to signify that God had helped Israel defeat their enemy. God called Moses to the mountain where He recorded the Ten Commandments on the two tablets of stone. And of course, the greatest stone that has been set in the portals of time is Jesus Christ, the Messiah, the Son of the Living God. Isaiah 28:16 declared that Jesus was "the foundation stone, a tried stone, a precious corner stone, and a sure foundation", and the Apostle Peter said that Jesus was "a Living Stone." Our lives are also filled with precious stones. We may not have recognized them as stepping-stones at the time. Yet as we look back on our journey through life, we can recall special places and significant seasons where God intervened in our lives and changed our thinking and direction. We may have experienced some slippery stones and lost our footing, but found that the lessons we learned were of great benefit to our future success. Some of the stones that we have walked across have been sharp and jagged and hard to bear. They may have left cuts and bruises, but we learned to use the experience to help us be more careful the next time around. We can all agree that some of our stepping-stones in life have not been smooth. We may have even had some spiritual judgmental stones that were thrown at us a time or two. Yet regardless of our experience, the stepping-stones have always moved us forward in the journey of life. Jesus did not allow the stone that covered His tomb to keep Him in bondage. Instead, He allowed the power of the Holy Spirit to resurrect Him and to roll the stone away. We must allow the Holy Spirit to work in our lives in the same manner if we want to be free. God is sovereign and He knows the path that is ahead for us. There will be hindrances for sure, but the Lord will always guide us and give us counsel if we turn to Him for direction. How we deal with the stones that stand in our pathway will determine our destiny. They can become stumbling stones or stepping-stones. Our challenges can grind us to pieces or they can polish us, like rock against rock. It will all depend upon what we are made of. So, let our hearts be solid in our faith and solid in our trust towards God and our stepping-stones a memorial of His faithfulness in our lives. +++ 9/13/21 GOD VALUES YOU Scripture: Luke 12:7 "But even the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Fear not therefore: You are of more value than many sparrows. Throughout the scriptures God has endeavored to let you know just how much He loves you. God loves you so much that He gave His only begotten Son so that He might gain you as one of His own dear children. He longs for you to rest in the security of that love and to understand that if you had been the only person on Earth, God and His Son, Jesus, would have still made this awesome sacrifice. As your Heavenly Father, His presence surrounds you and there is nothing that can get to you unless it first passes through His loving heart. You are such a precious treasure to the Lord that He keeps an inventory of the very hairs of your head. Each one is numbered and each time you lose one, He takes notice and records the incident. Therefore, you are not to fear, for God is in control of your every situation and is on top of every circumstance. You must leave distrust behind and proceed in faith, believing the words that Jesus spoke. He said that God takes notice of each sparrow that falls to the ground (Matthew 10:29). So He will certainly take care of you because you are His valued creation. Flight takes faith and to leave the comfort of the nest takes great courage. Like the sparrows, God is watching your every move and His love is there to sustain you and carry you to the place that you need to be. Remember that you are of more value to Him than many sparrows. This knowledge of God will give you a new meaning to the desperate seasons that you may face. There may be mountains of joy for sure, but there may also be valleys of loneliness, days without the sun, and nights without the moon. The storms may come and the winds may blow, but your trust in God must remain absolute in all situations. God is sovereign, He is concerned, and He is in control. Nothing will happen to you that the Lord does not notice, for you are of extreme value to Him and the very hairs of your head are numbered. +++ Copyright © 2021 Mary Padgett Ministries. 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