This is a blog that centres on Jesus Christ - my Lord and Saviour. My aim is to describe how He has helped over the years, together with offering daily teaching and encouragement
Saturday 22 August 2020
The Pessimist
Friday 21 August 2020
The Entertainer and the People Pleaser
Thursday 20 August 2020
Outrageous and Awesome
Wednesday 19 August 2020
Cast it over to Jesus
Tuesday 18 August 2020
God will Supply
Monday 17 August 2020
Worry
Which of you by worrying can add one cubit to his stature?" Matthew 6:27 NKJV
People all over the world become ill because of worry. It attacks the heart, the glands and the whole nervous system. It profoundly affects your health. Bob Gass said, 'I have never known a person who died from overwork, but many who died from worry.'
Jesus, in our text today said, 'Which of you by worrying can add one cubit to his stature?' Now a cubit is about 18 inches long, so you can see this would make a big difference to a person's height. But even then, what good would it do if you died of worry? None! George Muller said, 'The beginning of anxiety is the end of faith and the beginning of faith is the end of anxiety.' Did you get that? As soon as worry and anxiety are allowed to enter the situation, faith is deflated. We doubt and go without.
Therefore, common sense tells us that worry is the conclusion of believing the lies of the devil. It brings fear. Fear unhooks us from faith and the supernatural. It puts us in bondage to the natural realm. An acronym of the word FEAR is (F) False (E) Evidence, (A) Appearing, (R) Real (Copyright Bob Gass). Things go wrong or problems pop into our minds and if we're not careful, fear enters in and we start on a downward spiral.
As a Christian, every time we begin to worry we're forgetting who is in charge - Jesus. He said we should seek His Kingdom first. (Matthew 6:33). Now, we either believe and trust Jesus or we don't. Trusting Him requires putting everything into His hands and allowing Him to provide, protect and show us the way through each and every situation. I like The Living Bible's version of 1 Peter 5:7, 'Let Him have all your worries and cares, for He is always thinking about you and watching everything that concerns you.'
We need to grasp hold of this. Faith needs to rule in our hearts, not fear. So, as soon as any negative problem comes along, we need to cast it over to Jesus. An attitude of joy helps here, because joy is a strength. (Nehemiah 8:10).
Are you a worrier? If so, make it a priority today, to rectify this. Remember, only a small percentage of what we worry about happens, the rest disappears and is forgotten about. So, cast your worrying nature over to Jesus and ask Him to replace it with faith:
'Lord Jesus, from this moment, I refuse to worry about anything. I place my whole life into Your hands and trust You to take care of me. Please Lord, re-energise my measure of faith and give me the ability to cast out fear from this day forth. In Jesus' Name. Amen
Copyriight 2020 Grahame Howard
Sunday 16 August 2020
What happened?
"Above all, taking the shield of faith with which you will be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked one" V16 of Ephesians 6:14-18. NKJV
One moment you may be going along fine and joyful, the next, BAM, you're flat on your face and in the depths of despair. What happened? You were hit by one of Satan's arrows, one designed to take you out. This may be in the form of sickness that hits you in a moment. Or it may be you're involved in an accident of some sort or something else that takes the wind out of your sails.
Derek Prince says, 'The devil chooses the weakest moments and the weakest place,' and there is a lot of truth in this. However, it's not always this way. Many times we have begun or completed a new piece of work for God and we are so excited at the potential of the project, and suddenly it goes wrong or someone comes along and totally destroys it all by negative and hurtful words. We are devastated but we need to know that we're under an attack.
You see, the devil is quite skilled at distracting us from our work for God. He'll use people to pour scorn on what we have done, distracting us and others from what He has planned. On a small scale we may decide to have a closer relationship with the Lord by increasing our quiet time with Him. As soon as we begin, the telephone may ring, the kids may urgently need us or someone may call at the house. We're distracted.
On a larger scale, our whole ministry may be going so well with excitement bubbling and then suddenly, something goes wrong, preventing the work going on. Satan fires scud missiles at us and they're sent to achieve distraction and mayhem. The acronym of SCUD is (S) Satan, (C) Continually, (U) Uses, (D) Distractions. This helps us to see that Satan has to fire something major at us to prevent us doing God's work. If you're under attack, you're on the right path.
But we must wear the Armour of God, we're lost without it. Soldiers don't go into battle without some sort of protection. Now you can use a small shield of faith or a large one. For myself, I choose the large size because it covers us all over. What I'm talking about here is, our faith. You've either got it or you haven't. If it's the latter, then you won't please God (Hebrews 11:6), and you'll be walked all over.
This is why our faith needs developing, we need to stand and keep standing so that whatever comes our way, we can withstand it. This means we can resist or oppose the attacks with a determined effort.
You're a soldier, so put your armour on and stand. If you get kicked over, get back up again. We never surrender because we're warriors of God and this means that we are winners. You may not feel that way but it's true. Start doing your exercises right now - read, pray and study the Word. You never know when an attack is coming!
Copyriight 2020 Grahame Howard
Grace (2)
"Seeing then that we have a great High Priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession...
-
"But each person is tempted when he is drawn away and enticed by his own evil desire. 15 Then after desire has conceived, it gives birt...
-
"Behold, I AM coming quickly. Hold fast what you have that no one may take your your crown." Revelation 3:11 NKJ...
-
4 January 2019 Difficult days can be good days 1 Peter 4:12 says "Beloved, do not think it strange concerning the fiery trial which...