What are you looking at?

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"Let your eyes look straight ahead, and your eyelids look right before you."  
                                                                                                                     Proverbs 4:25.  NKJV

I once heard a famous British athlete give an interview and during it, he was asked why he always opened his eyes, extremely wide as he looked ahead. He replied that when he did this, he had tunnel vision and he was focusing on the finishing line and not the other athletes who were either side of him at the starting line. To look at them would rob him of his focus and also give the other runners the opportunity to hassle him about how he was going to be beaten. Looking at the finishing line, prepared him for the race and he didn't take his eyes from it.

A horse that pulls a cart or carriage is fitted with blinkers mainly for the same reason. Without the blinkers they are easily distracted if they look around and this can be dangerous for what they are pulling along. If it is people and they turned over, they could be seriously injured; if it was goods, they could be scattered all over the road, and again this could be a danger to life. The horse could also be panicked by such a distraction, therefore, blinkers are used to eradicate this. Possibly, it may be an idea for us to wear blinkers too to help us to remain focused on what's ahead instead of looking at things that possibly we shouldn't be looking at in the first place.

Philippians 3:14 tells us: 'I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.' Paul is encouraging us to focus on the goal ahead - the prize. If we're distracted, we may miss it altogether. Jesus also told His disciples, 'No one, having put his hand to the plough, and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God.'  (Luke 9:62)

It is so very important that we do not lose our focus. There are many distractions in our day. These can be at work or in the leisure of our evening. Temptation is around every corner. This may be adultery, but it can also be drugs, gambling, spending money that we don't have by using a credit card or anything that demands our attention and takes us away from Jesus. He wants us to enjoy our lives, yes. But not at the risk of adding extra pressures to what we may already have. 

May our eyes look ahead at Jesus, as He guides us through today and every day. Amen.

Copyright 2019 Grahame Howard

dailylifewithjesus@protonmail.com

What comes out of your mouth?

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"Put away from you a deceitful mouth, and put perverse lips far from you."  
                                                                                                                    Proverbs 4:24  NKJV 

Give attention to what you speak. May it only be to edify the hearer, and that includes you. Ephesians 4:29 says, 'Let no corrupt word proceed out of your mouth, but what is good for necessary edification, that it may impart grace to the hearers.'

At times when we're in the wrong company, we can be tempted to act like they do and perhaps, gossip and also criticise about what somebody should or should not have done. There is nothing wrong with having some alcohol, but in a measured way. Having too much to drink can result in conversations that you may regret the next day. Alcohol can relax us but too much can have a bad affect and can result in us saying or doing the wrong thing. Have you ever woken up the next day after drinking too much and thought, 'Oh no, what did I say. What did I do?' 

It's a similar thing when we're with a crowd of people at, for instance, a prayer meeting. Some people may be sharing about what a particular leader's done and this may lead to a full scale debate about, 'Who does he think he is? type of thing. We only have to read about the early Israelites when Moses led them out of Egypt, to get the idea of what we're looking at. They complained about God, about Moses and Aaron and anyone else who was about at the time. This type of behaviour is so displeasing to God. He is offended by it. 

Most things on the TV these days are hardly the type of thing we should be subjecting ourselves to, but many of us still sit there taking it all in. At best, we should have a rule within the household that if what we're about to watch is not wholesome to view then we won't watch it. It may be funny and popular but if it won't build us up spiritually, then it is not what we want to fill our mind with.

We only have to watch certain comedians on the TV these days to get the idea of changing patterns. To many people, a joke is not funny unless there is a swear word as the punchline. Why is that? We watch a comedian and if he doesn't say an expletive it's not funny. However, if he does, people scream and shout, laughing their heads off. 

Christian, we need to take stock of our lives and make a stand for Jesus. He didn't swear, gossip or criticise people and neither should we. We cannot live two lives. We're either a Christian or we're not. There's no in-between. It's time to stop living two lives. One must go. The choice is yours!

Copyright 2019 Grahame Howard

dailylifewithjesus@protonmail.com

Watch your Heart

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"Keep your heart with all diligence, for out of it spring the issues of life."  
                                                                                                Proverbs 4:23.  NKJV

What state is your heart in - spiritually? There is so much temptation around; so much that can distract us and lead us to make bad choices. The heart is a good monitor of good and bad and we should be guided by it more and more.

Some things are just not right; they hit us between the eyes. Therefore, this is when we need to stop and check things out. We need to place a guard around our heart because, if we are not careful, we can become drawn away - led astray, by certain things or people. We need to choose our friendships very carefully.

If we spend time looking at something when we know it is wrong, pretty soon we'll be hooked. This can include pornography on the internet or in magazines. If we continue to feast our eyes on such things, it will begin to affect our desires which can then develop into lust and before we know it, we can't stop looking (James 1:14-15). Check out Eve in Genesis 3. She had been tempted by the serpent to fasten her eyes on the forbidden fruit. Very soon after, she partook of this and disaster struck.

Take a look at the word, 'Forbidden.' Among other things, it means 'Not allowed, Prohibited, Not permitted by order or law, Forbidden fruit.' Forbidden means we are not allowed to do certain things. When we are in a marriage, we have taken certain vows so we should not be having extra marital affairs with someone. We have a covenant with each other and we should be keeping those promises.

When it is a Christian marriage, God is right in the middle of our relationship, or should be. He holds marriage very sacredly and requires each partner to abide by the vows they made. Adultery is a forbidden fruit and it should not even be considered by either partner. sadly, many people fall into the trap and lives, family and marriages suffer.

Adultery is only one forbidden fruit. There are many and when our heart sounds the alarm, we should be on alert. It can be anything that is unwholesome for us, such as:
stealing, excessive drinking, drug taking, breaking the law, gossip, lying and involvement with the wrong type of people. 

There are many and if we train and nurture our heart, it will guide us in the way we should go. 

YOU KNOW WHEN YOU'VE DONE WRONG!

COPYRIGHT 2019 Grahame Howard 

dailyifewithjesus@protonmail.com

Listen properly to God's Word

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"My son, give attention to my words; incline your ear to my sayings. Do not let them depart from your eyes; Keep them in the midst of your heart; for they are life to those who find them, and health to all their flesh."     Proverbs 4:20-22.  NKJV

How much do we listen to people, I mean properly with both ears? It is so easy to listen with one ear and be listening to something else with the other. It's great to listen to music on your iPhone as you walk along the road. But if you meet someone, do you really listen to what they say, or is a song of praise buzzing through your head at the same time?

Here Solomon tells his son, to give attention to his words. We should also be giving attention to what God is saying to us. Remember Eve? God told Adam and Eve not to eat the fruit from the tree of knowledge of good and evil. The serpent tricked Eve saying that it would be ok to eat from it, she replied that they were not even allowed to touch the tree, which was not true. They had not listened properly and disaster followed.

It is incredibly important to listen properly to what God is telling us. It is also very important to listen properly when someone is speaking to you. You need to cultivate good attending skills. This means to not only listen properly but feed back a little of the conversation to let the other person know that you're hooked up to what they're saying. Counsellors, call this the Internal Frame of Reference. This means sitting in the shoes of the person who is speaking with you, giving them total eye contact and your attention. This way, dignity is given. This is especially important when God is speaking to you. What He has to say is of the utmost priority and we need to concentrate so that we don't get things wrong and go off at a tangent, doing the wrong thing.

God has so much to offer us. He has so much He wants to tell us but we need to spend sufficient time with Him in order to hear what He is saying. How much time do you spend each day reading your bible? Be honest with yourself. Is it enough time? Are other things distracting you from doing this? If you don't read His Word, how will you know the way forward.

How much time do you spend in prayer each day? Is it enough time, if not, ask yourself, why? If you don't speak to Him, how will He know what's on your heart. He probably knows already, yes. But He wants you to tell Him. 
How much time do you listen to God each day? Again, be honest with yourself. Is it enough time? If you don't listen, you won't know what He wants of you.

Therefore to recap, are you spending time in God's Word? Are you praying and are you listening to Him? Are there changes you need to make?

Only you know the answer to these questions.

Copyright 2019 Grahame Howard 

dailylifewithjesus@protonmail.com

Knock Backs

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"8 Draw near to God, and He will draw near to you."     James 4:7-10.  NKJV

Life is good and you are sailing along as happy as one could be. God has blessed you and you feel on top of the world. All of a sudden, WHAM! You go to pieces because something has happened that you were not prepared for, an attack from the evil one, and life appears to be out of control. Notice that I say 'appears to be out of control.' It is only out of control if you continue to let it be.

There is nothing unique about this. It happens to us all, at times. The difference may be how we handle a calamity. The source is nearly always the devil. He doesn't like you, not at all and he'll do all he can to prove that. We can't though, blame him for everything. Some calamities are of a natural happening, but usually the devil is behind most things bad, that happen to us.

You see he's the master of surprise. Take a look at how a snake acts when it is ready to attack. It has four characteristics.

1  It has a deadly tongue and can use all types of gossip and lies to cause us painful strife.
2  It crawls into situations. It's prey usually has no idea that it is near and ready to attack.
3  It lies in wait. It will wait a long time to get what it wants. Its success is in the waiting.
4. It strikes and bites. When its prey is in position, it will strike and kill or injure.

There are similarities to how the devil operates in our lives. He will get people to lie and gossip about us. Gossip after a while can be seen as the truth in some quarters. He will crawl into a situation, wait for an opportune moment and then fire an arrow at us. This is why we need to be kitted out on a daily basis with the armour of God. (Ephesians 6:14-18)
We need to be ready and prepared. If an attack comes and we get knocked back, don't just lie down feeling sorry for yourself, get back up again. Can you remember those blow up toys that children used to thump and kick over? No matter how much they were knocked down, they shot back up again. Do you get the idea?

Attacks will come our way. We belong to Jesus and are a threat to satan. Why? Because we can tell people about Jesus and bring them to salvation and eternal life. The devil does not want that at all. He wants everyone to go to his place - hell. This is why, Christian people are a threat to him. This is why he will slap you around whenever he can. He knows that if you stay down, you have no power over him. Stand up, submit to God and slap him out of the way, in Jesus' Name.

He's defeated already and he wants you to be defeated too. When things go wrong and you take a kicking, get back up and keep on, keeping on with God's work. The devil will really worry about you then.

Copyright 2019 Grahame Howard

dailylifewithjesus@protonmail.com








  

Good Health and Prosperity

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"Beloved, I pray that you may prosper in all things and be in health, just as your soul prospers."                                                                        3 John 2.       NKJV 

The verse above is not be be taken as a blueprint and prayer so that we can all prosper and be in good health.  David Guzik tells us:

'Some have wrongly taken this as a guarantee of perpetual wealth and perfect health for the Christian. Of course, we should always remember that God wants our best and plans only good for us. Often present material prosperity and physical health are part of that good He has for us – and this prosperity and health are absolutely promised as the ultimate destiny of all believers. Yet, for the present time, God may – according to His all-wise plan – use a lack of material prosperity and physical health to promote greater prosperity and health in the scale of eternity.
Nevertheless, some live in poverty and disease simply because they do not seek God’s best, follow God’s principles, and walk in faith. As well, there are some others who say we should use God’s general promises of blessing as a way to indulge a carnal desire for ease, comfort, and luxury.'           Copyright David Guzik

The actual meaning of, 'Beloved, I pray that you may prosper in all things,' metaphorically means, 'I hope you have a good journey, and I hope that you succeed and prosper.' In literal terms, it is saying, 'I hope things go well for you.' However, we can still pray and stand on this verse and should do really. However, knowing the exact meaning for this phrase in its original form can be helpful. It helps avoid just plucking verses out of the bible at will and naming and claiming them. This absolutely is not recommended. Let The Holy Spirit lead you instead of just opening the bible and selecting a verse at random. I'm not saying this is wrong, but that, we need to ask God to lead us in His Word for the situation.

John made an analogy between the condition of our health and the condition of our soul. Many Christians would be desperately ill if their physical health was instantly in the same state as their spiritual health. God wants us to prosper in both our physical health and our soul. At times, God appears to allow us to go through testing times. This may be to teach us something or perhaps to strengthen us. When we have learnt this, He may, but not always, restore us to more prosperity in our health and soul. Basically, if we learn to place God in the driving seat of our lives, then all will go well for us. If we deviate from this path, we are taking over the driving of our lives, on our own. We need God in control. (Read Proverbs 4:20-27 for more clarity on this.)

You may be going through a real testing time at the moment. It happens to us all and many times, it is not nice to go through. However, as children of God, we need to learn and sometimes we can be stubborn in learning or slow to pick up on what He is teaching us. He may stretch our faith, to see just how much we really trust Him. He loves us and wants the best for us but we must do things His way. That can be the hard bit but far more rewarding in the long run.

Let Him prosper you in all things and allow you to be in health.

Copyright 2019 Grahame Howard 

dailylifewithjesus@protonmail.com

The Word Stands

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"Now the Word of the LORD endures forever."    1 Peter 1:25. NKJV

Peter was quoting Isaiah 40:8 here and letting us know that we need to abide by its teaching. We can never water it down. It stands forever. What God has said, He means and He isn't about to change His mind. It is time to live holy lives; to live up to our calling. We need to love people the way Jesus commanded us to. Not in a half-hearted fashion but with a genuine, caring love - the kind that Jesus has for us.

Hypocrisy has to go, as well as envy, deceit and evil speaking. As babes in Jesus, we started on the milk - the milk of His Word. We now need to get into and abide by, the meat - the full Word of God which is our spiritual food.

People over the past centuries have tried to stop Christianity. They've burned bibles and had men and women of God burnt at the stake or murdered in some other evil manner. Today, throughout various parts of the world, men and women are in prison for their Christian faith. They suffer terribly and some are killed and a lot of families are forbidden to read the bible, go to a church or even hold prayer meetings in their homes. Even in our own country, people are facing dismissal from their job because of their faith. I read today of a Christian GP who may be struck off because He spoke to patients about Jesus. 
It's beyond belief in our day and age, but it is true.

The thing this, these people who are out to purge Christianity from our world can try, but they won't succeed because Jesus Christ is bigger and more powerful than they ever could be. His Word will endure forever.

Maybe God has told you something special. It may be a promise about your future or perhaps your family. If it hasn't happened yet, don't give up. It will happen. If God has said it, it will happen. Read and stand on the following two verses in Habakkuk 2:

'Write the vision and make it plain on tablets, that he may run who reads it. For the vision is yet for an appointed time; But at the end it will speak, and will not lie. Though it tarries, wait for it; Because it will surely come, it will not tarry.'   (Habakkuk 2:2-3)

If God has told you something that is going to happen with you, believe Him and wait. It's going to come. I don't know when but I do know that it will happen. Stand on this Word from God and pray the promise. The Word of the LORD endures forever!

People may let you down; the world may let you down, sadly, even family may let you down but God is faithful. He will never let you down. He is faithful and can be relied on. Nothing can stop Jesus from fulfilling His Word. Nothing can stop Him from taking you out of where you are and into something or somewhere else if He chooses to. He has a key and when He opens the door, no one, not even yourself, can close it. (Revelation 3:7-8.)

Stand on His Word, the Word that endures forever!

Copyright 2019 Grahame Howard

dailylifewithjesus@protonmail.com