God is omniscient, omnipotent, and omnipresent. He is all-powerful and invincible.
~ Lisa Blair
God is omnipotent. He is all-powerful and invincible. He created us and gave us life. He imparted free-will, empowering us to make our own decisions, and as humans, we regularly make decisions that are not in harmony with God’s nature. But our loving God does not retaliate. God cannot make decrees that exist outside of His nature.
We lie to protect ourselves and others, to hide truths, or to convince the world that we are something that we are not. God cannot lie, because to do so is in opposition to His nature. God is truth.
Even when we are unfaithful to ourselves, others, and most importantly to Him, God remains faithful. God is not human. He does not have a sin nature like we do and cannot be unfaithful to us. He is God.
During times such as these, we cannot become doubtful about who God is to us. God is omniscient, omnipotent, and omnipresent. Now is not the time to question His authority because the world is wrought with a global pandemic. God is present in the midst of it all – where there is wickedness, God is present and prevails; where there are famine and homelessness, God is present and prevails; where there are illnesses, disease, and death, God is present and prevails.
God can do anything He pleases as long as it is in harmony with His nature.
God cannot lie. He cannot do anything that is in opposition to His nature.
When God made his promise to Abraham, since there was no one greater for him to swear by, he swore by himself. Hebrews 6:13 NIV
God cannot approve of or overlook evil left unchecked. He cannot look at wickedness and allow it to exist in the universe in its original form.
Your eyes are too pure to approve evil, And You cannot look on wickedness with favor. Habakkuk 1:13 NASB
God cannot be unfaithful. He cannot deny Himself.
If we are faithless, He remains faithful, for He cannot deny Himself. 2 Timothy 2:13 NIV
God can do anything that is in His nature. God cannot lie. God cannot overlook evil and wickedness. He cannot be unfaithful, and He cannot deny Himself. God commands us to be strong and courageous. He does not want us to be afraid or panic. For the Lord, our God will personally go ahead of us. He will neither fail us nor abandon us. He is present and will see us through all circumstances in life. He cannot forsake us; it is outside the harmony of His nature. (Paraphrased, Deuteronomy 31:6 NLT)
Resources – The Biography of God, Skip Heitzig; Bibleref.org; Biblegateway.org
We are a blessed people. We should begin each day giving thanks for another day’s journey.
~ Lisa Blair
A Prayer for Today
Good morning Lord, thank you for waking me up this morning and giving me the privilege of placing my feet on solid ground. Thank you for the buoyancy of your love that keeps me afloat. Thank you for keeping disease and pestilence at bay. Thank you for allowing me to be a steward of the Word, which is my inheritance. Thank you for shielding me from the storms of life. Thank you for allowing no weapons to form against me. Thank you for my salvation on this day that you have made. I will rejoice and be glad in it as I go through my day.In Jesus Name, Amen!
The Bible is replete with God’s promises. The best way to hold them near to our heart is to recite them in daily prayer, personalizing them and making them our own. Ownership seals the relationship in a real way and empowers our walk with Christ. When we own something we cherish it, are proud of it, share it, and make it part of our lives in a demonstrable way. As stewards, we are responsible for sharing the Word, which is difficult if we are not living it. Expression is the visible display of who we are in Christ.
Jesus commanded the Disciples to go out and build the Church. He taught the Disciples, as well as us, by example. He urged them to live a Christ-like life, and the only way we can accomplish that is to believe and express our treasure chest of spiritual knowledge outwardly. It begins with knowing what we are ’thankful’ for, and acknowledging it through prayer and thanksgiving each morning and throughout the day.
Life is a journey, and along the way, we are blessed to have good, loving experiences, and some we would rather forget, but all of them have purpose.
~ Lisa Blair
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I finally have closure after seven years. Closure from what, you ask? Closure from the dissolve of the school, I reopened, and separation from the people I came to call family. We were a community that cared for and educated over 300+ children (living in an underserved community) annually over fourteen years. When the school closed, everyone scattered, and wounds were deep. It felt that our very lives had been stripped away from us.
[ Fourteen years, seven times two] Something just came to mind as I was typing, seven is a divine number and represents closure, completion, and something finished. This Post is about closure and what it means.
Facing closure is difficult. It requires introspection and forgiveness, not so much about forgiving others, though that is part of it, but forgiving myself because I felt I failed. The reality is I helped many people who have since shared that fact with me. Many of our students graduated from high school with honors and completed college with advanced degrees, students whose destinies were changed because of the school, staff, and caring adults.
Why am I sharing this, you may ask? Everything in life has purpose. Whether it is as grand as opening a school, or due to a perfect storm, closing it.
Life is a journey, and along the way, we are blessed to have good, loving experiences, and some we would rather forget, but all of them have purpose. God designed our paths long before we were born. He knew our experiences and what it would take to become mature Christians. He knew when and where we would stray off the straight and narrow pathway and when we would return. He knew when we would avoid closure because it hurts, and when we would address it, ready to move on. He is like a loving parent patiently awaiting our return, like the prodigal son.
Does this sound confusing? Well, it is not. The take-aways are: There is a time for everything. Ecclesiastes 3:1-8 declares, “For everything there is a season, a time for every activity under heaven. A time to be born and a time to die. A time to plant and a time to harvest. A time to kill and a time to heal. A time to tear down and a time to build up. A time to cry and a time to laugh. A time to grieve and a time to dance. A time to scatter stones and a time to gather stones. A time to embrace and a time to turn away. A time to search and a time to quit searching. A time to keep and a time to throw away. A time to tear and a time to mend. A time to be quiet and a time to speak. A time to love and a time to hate. A time for war and a time for peace.”
* Everything has purpose. Ephesians 2:10, “For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.” Philippians 2:1 TNTV, “God Himself is at work in you inspiring you to want those things which please Him and to work for them.” God leads us you placing His desires in our hearts.
* Some things in life are for a season, others for a reason, and yet others for a lifetime. Proverbs 16:4, “The Lord works out everything to its proper end.” “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart.” Jeremiah 1:5
* We are here to be God’s servants, spread the Word, and impact others’ lives. Romans 8:28, “And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.” The road is not always straight and narrow, and like Paul, God may redirect us in the middle of our travels to assist others before we reach our destination. “Facing a ’closed-door’ can be extremely frustrating. The apostle Paul knew exactly how that felt. On his second missionary journey to share the gospel in Asia, he repeatedly found the way blocked by the Holy Spirit. Eventually, the apostle was stuck in Troas with the sea before him and closed doors behind.How strange it must have seemed to Paul that God would prevent him from spreading the gospel. But he knew this wisdom from the book of Proverbs: The Lord will make a straight path for anyone who chooses to trust God rather than himself (Proverbs 3:5-6). Instead of getting angry or trying to force his way into new territory, Paul got on his knees.” (Charles Stanely, Christianity.com)
So, in the end, closure is another phase of our lives. We begin and end episodes only to start anew, refreshed, and wiser from the experiences we acquired as we live and grow older. We become wiser through studying the Word. The wiser we become, the more mature we become, and when we look back at what we once referred to as a failure, in truth was a gift from God that came to an end. In hindsight, all life events serve a purpose. Our events have a beginning and an ending (closure) and lead us down our path to our destiny.
“Psalm 37:27 declares that: the steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord, and He delights in his way. Be encouraged that you can fulfill your destiny by trusting in Him and charting Your course based on how He leads, not your own understanding. As You let Him be the One who orders your steps, you will fulfill your destiny.” (Fulfilling your Destiny. WalkingbyFaith.com)
Some speak about faith, but God commands us to move in faith. Faith is an action verb.
~ Lisa Blair
Faith is part of the Lord’s equation. It demands action. Without acting in faith through deeds, there is no faith. Your deeds activate your faith, otherwise you are only speaking of faith, but not doing God’s Will to serve others in need, at home, work, or walking down the street.
Your faith is powered through love. So, yes, faith requires action, powered by love and activated through the action of your deeds. Faith is an action verb. We do because the Almighty commands us to spread the Word and help wherever we can.
“Suppose a brother or a sister is without clothes and daily food. If one of you says to them, “Go in peace; keep warm and well fed,” but does nothing about their physical needs, what good is it? In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead.
You see that his faith and his actions were working together, and his faith was made complete by what he did.
You see that a person is considered righteous by what they do and not by faith alone.
As the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without deeds is dead.” James 2:15-17, 22, 24, 26 NIV
God’s promises never fail, but all too often we fail to see them. Always survey the fullness of your life and you will begin to recognize the minute, small, and large things in your life.
~Lisa Blair
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God is the same yesterday, today, and tomorrow.
The Lord will never leave us or forsake us. This verse is one of God’s promises to us. The promise means you will never be left in the slimy pit of the muck and mire of life. There is escape lodged within His promise to never leave us.
In my post, Living Through the Muck and Mire, February 21, 2018, I shared “we have been talking about our dependence upon the Lord and how He works wonders in our lives, not because of anything we do, but because of His unconditional love or us.”
God lifted us out of the slimy pit, out of the mud and mire; He set our feet on a rock and gave us a firm place to stand. I believe that accepting this truth relaxes the anxiety, fear, and stress that is aligned with struggling in the slimy pit. Being saved does not mean we will not suffer during our lives, it means that we will be supported through God’s promises, Jesus’s death, the Holy Spirit’s direction, and ultimately eternal life and entrance into heaven.
Like so many, I have experienced the trials that felt like mud and mire, or a slimy pit. During those times I did not step back from the situation and pray, the mud and mire felt more like quicksand. In those instances when I rebuked the evil one’s hold and prayed for deliverance and help, God was able to give me peace within the storm. That peace is more than calming, it places you on solid ground.
Once you realize you are on solid ground, resolve becomes more than a possibility, the Holy Spirit provides direction for escape, providing actions to take while in many instances removing stumbling blocks and walls that surrounded us.
Some may say, ‘I live in the slimy pit’, I prayed to no avail. I say, do not give up, do not relax your guard. God is always working on our behalf. His thoughts are not our thoughts. Therefore, since He knows what we must experience to mature as Christians, and His time is not our time, the lesson may extend over a greater length of time than we think it should.
Pray, pray and pray until you see the manifestation of your prayers. Look at all of the things happening around you and to you. Seek to identify the small things God has done. For example, if it was a debt, was the total due reduced, was the payment time renegotiated, did you receive unexpected incoming funds? All of these things are God’s blessings associated with your prayers.
God’s promises never fail, but all too often we fail to see them. Always survey the fullness of your life and you will begin to recognize the minute, small, and large things in your life. Once you do that, you will recognize He always pulls you out of the slimy pit, out of the mud/muck and mire of life’s obstacles and places you on solid ground.
God gave us the tools to survive through life’s challenges. Strong faith will allow you to experience peace in the midst of the struggle.
~ Lisa Blair
Trials produce patience and patience is reinforced through faith. If you are faithful, you will experience the joy of the Lord and not become bitter and discouraged through the trial. You will rest in God’s peace and weather the storm.
Lisa’s Daily Inspirations 