The Pessimist

"I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me."              Philippians 4:13.  NKJV 

A pessimist has a tendency to stress the negative or unfavourable or to take the gloomiest, possible view of things. This person habitually sees or anticipates the worst or is disposed to be gloomy. Their motto can be, 'Whats the point, it'll only go wrong.' Let's look at further examples:

'How will I ever be able to do that, it's too much of. task?'

'I could never go to university, I would fail.'

'I'm not going to apply for that job, I'm not qualified enough and even if I was, I'd never get it.'

'If I buy a house then lose my job, how will I pay the mortgage?'

I can't, I can't, I can't. If this is you, turn this around so that you know and believe Jesus Christ will enable you to do anything He asks you. Nothing is impossible for Him who believes. Let's face it, Jesus wouldn't lead you to do something if He didn't think you were capable.

Many Christians are pessimists and doubt their own worth. Thomas fell into this category a little. One thing you shouldn't do however, is beat yourself up feeling that you have no faith. You have a measure of faith that is appropriate for the task Jesus has for you. Therefore, if He leads you to do a certain thing, He will give you the faith to accomplish this. (Romans 12:3).

However, at times, we look at something and are tempted to think, 'I can't do this,' and you're probably right. On your own you can't (John 15:5). But with Jesus on your side, you can perform great things. Bob Gass says: 'How many times does something look impossible simply because you think it is?' Did you get that? You think it's impossible and so it becomes impossible. We have to change this mentality, but how?

2 Corinthians 5:7 says, 'We walk by faith, not by sight.' We have to learn to look at situations through the eyes of faith. It is too overwhelming otherwise. How do you think King David killed Goliath? He was around ten feet tall, a mountain of a man, but with faith, it was no problem for David. Even though he was only a little guy, he claimed the victory.

The pessimistic mentality has to be put to death and replaced with one of optimism and faith. You can do what you feel God is calling you to do. You can, because your friend, Jesus, says you can. So stop listening to the negative lies of the devil and get built up in the Holy Spirit.

You have a faith-filled job to do!

Copyriight 2020 Grahame Howard

dailylifewithjesus@protonmail.com

dailylifewithjesusbygrahamehoward.blogspot.com  

The Entertainer and the People Pleaser

"Then Moses said to the LORD, "O Lord, I am not eloquent, neither before nor since You have spoken to Your servant; but I am slow of speech and slow of tongue."

                                                                                                                    Exodus 4:10  NKJV 

Insecurity rules in a lot of us. We often feel the need to hide behind other people because, we either feel that we're unworthy, or too inadequate for the job in hand. We may also have been put down by people so many times, that we have lost our confidence. 

In this passage, we see Moses trying to wriggle out of what God has planned for him. The reference to, 'Slow of speech and slow of tongue,' may have referred to the fact that Moses had some sort of speech impediment, possibly a stutter, and this made him feel embarrassed.

Some of us play the 'Entertainer,' role. We feel that we must put on a show for people in order to be accepted. Deep down, it may be the last thing we want to do, but our damaged ego forces us on. This may be the result of being an only child; one in which we had to entertain ourselves because there was no one else to associate with.

Then there are the, 'People Pleasers.' Lovely people who feel they must do this and that, in order to feel accepted. This type of person can end up wearing themselves out and still not reach the realms of acceptability with certain people.

Note God's response to Moses in Exodus 4:11-12, 'So the LORD said to him, "Who has made man's mouth? Or, Who makes the mute, the deaf, the seeing or the blind? Have not I, the LORD? (12) Now therefore, go and I will be with your mouth and teach you what you shall say."

STOP RIGHT THERE! God made you the way He wanted you to be. Not like anyone else, but just like you. You were born an original, don't die a copy. Discover who you are in Jesus; put yourself into His hands and watch what He can do.

'Yes, but you don't understand,' you may say. And that is true, I don't understand because God made you the way you are and if that's good enough for Him, it's certainly good enough for me, and so it should be so for you as well.

There's no need to entertain people any longer and there's no need to be a people pleaser either. Put all of your energies into serving God and don't let the enemy discourage, devalue or destroy you any longer. 

You are so special that Jesus died in your place. He sees the potential in you and he can see something in you that has never surfaced before. There's a seam of gold waiting to shine through and if you allow Him, Jesus will bring it into being.

Copyriight 2020 Grahame Howard

dailylifewithjesus@protonmail.com

dailylifewithjesusbygrahamehoward.blogspot.com  

Outrageous and Awesome

"Now the LORD had prepared a great fish to swallow Jonah. And Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights."                                     Jonah 1:17.  NKJV

Some people refuse to believe that such a thing could have happened, and they attempt to explain it some other way. But it did. We're called to believe Jesus, therefore, we must believe in His Word. It is infallible. If we don't believe such things, how will we ever believe the mighty things that God will do?

This piece of scripture shows the awesomeness of God, together with His compassion. Jonah, through disobedience, was thrown into the raging water because he was considered a jinx. He should have been heading to Nineveh but decided to take a sailing trip to Tarshish instead.

However, rather than being angry with Jonah, God prepared a great fish to swallow him up in the water and eventually vomit him up on dry land. Amazing. Now there are some anomalies here for us to discuss. God may have created a special fish or even a modified whale to meet this task. That in itself is amazing. God changing the norm of things to meet His needs, which actually He does on a regular basis. He is never limited as we are. We are dealing here with the God who can make blind eyes see and vice versa when we need His protection, such as bible smuggling in non-Christian countries.

The next anomaly is, how did Jonah breathe being trapped inside the belly of this great fish for 72 hours? That in itself, is a miracle - an unexplainable event. God likely chose that Jonah stay inside the fish for three days and three nights because that was the time ancients thought someone needed, to come back from Sheol, which was the inner part of the earth, the grave away from God's presence, a place of darkness to which the dead go. This was later referred to as Hades when the scriptures were translated into Greek. It was an intermediate place for a person's spirit, not the eternal abode. Jesus confirms this event and uses the incident to describe the time He would be, 'in the heart of the earth', preceding His resurrection (Matthew 12:40).

All of this shows just how awesome God is. He can do what He chooses to do. So why do we limit Him? He will ensure that we do what He has called us to do and will go to great lengths to do this. Think for a moment, if God did all of this for Jonah even though He was disobedient, imagine what He would have done for Him if He had obeyed. And it's the same for us. 

What is God asking you to do? No matter how dramatic or scary it may be, do it! Grasp hold of His awesome power. He is your rescuer, your friend, your provider and your guide. He holds the key to your success. Yes, some of the things He may ask, may sound unbelievable but trust Him and get on with it. He has prepared something for you and it's exciting and wonderful. Can't you feel the hairs on the back of your neck sticking up? Outrageous times are ahead!

Copyriight 2020 Grahame Howard

dailylifewithjesus@protonmail.com

dailylifewithjesusbygrahamehoward.blogspot.com  

Cast it over to Jesus

"Cast your burden on the LORD and He shall sustain you; He shall never permit the righteous to be moved."                                                                          Psalm 55:22.  NKJV

When we give our problems to Jesus, He will respond! The definition here for the word, 'Sustain,'  means to supply, support, hold up, protect and defend. God will support, nourish and provide for any person who acknowledges that the burden of cruel treatment is one that only the Lord can handle. We need not fear because Jesus can handle any problem or difficulty we face.

Whatever you may be going through at this time, is no problem for Jesus to handle, as long as you give it to Him. He can blow it away in one breath and will not let you be 'shaken' (moved)  v22) by it. When a problem comes along, it can shake us into a panic and then, fear begins to kick in. Psalm 56:3-4 says, 'Whenever I am afraid, I will trust in You. (4) In God (I will praise His Word), In God I have put my trust. I will not fear, what can flesh do to me?' In other words, we need to face fear head on by giving it all to Jesus. We  can quickly release concerns and worries to Him, who wants to carry them for us.

When someone has wronged us, it is so easy to fly off the handle and take charge of it ourselves. When we do, God sits back and watches the mess we're making for ourselves. This is not the way to go. God's way is for us to cast it all over to Him and allow Him to handle the problem. A word of caution here - when we give something over for God to sort for us, we must not still hold bad feelings in our heart. If we do this, we're hanging on to it, thus, still involved. God's Word tells us, 'Bless those who persecute you, bless and do not curse.' (Romans 12:14). This is so difficult when all we want to do is go and rip the person's head off; but we need to bless them. Then in Romans 12:17, it says, 'Repay no one evil for evil'. In v19-21 it further reads, 'Vengeance in Mine, I will repay - do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.'

I like what Dr Oswald J Smith says in his book, The Passion for Souls, 'No Attack - No Defence'; and it is well worth adopting this method.

I Peter 5:7 reads, 'Casting all your care upon Him for he cares for you.' In other words, transfer the pain of betrayal, gossip, false accusations and the like, over to Jesus. Transfer them by uploading them to Him. He's very responsive to this and WILL handle it fairly and properly. He won't let you down. Don't attack anyone by words or deeds and there is no need to defend yourself either. Your Lawyer, Jesus Christ has brought justice to all cases placed in His hands. He will for you as well. However, you must do it His way, not your own!

Copyriight 2020 Grahame Howard

dailylifewithjesus@protonmail.com

dailylifewithjesusbygrahamehoward.blogspot.com  

 

God will Supply

"Therefore,  do not worry, saying, 'What shall we eat?' or 'What shall we drink?' or 'What shall we wear?' (32) For after all those things the Gentiles seek. For your Heavenly Father knows that you need all these things.'                                    Matthew 6:31-32.  NKJV

God knows what you need and He's committed - if you allow Him - to supply this need. (Philippians 4:19). So what more confirmation do you want? Keith Moore says, 'God is my source; claim it and receive it. Don't beg Him, it's already there.'

We read in Mark 10:46-52, about blind Bartimaeus. On hearing that Jesus was visiting, he started shouting, 'Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me.' As soon as Jesus heard his cry, He asked him, 'What do you want Me to do for you?' Bartimaeus used the Hebrew term for mercy, which is hesed, and means kindness, grace, love and mercy. He knew Jesus would heal him through this hesed. And He did. Bartimaeus' need was met.

Psalm 23:1 says, 'The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want.' It also says in 23:5, 'My cup runs over.' A glance at John 10:10 shows us, 'I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly.' God is your source; your supplier, no one else. If you find another source, it will be in the form of a loan and there will be a payback of much more than you borrowed. God asks for nothing in return.

God is not about to let you go under, no matter what your situation is at this moment. He says, 'What do you want Me to do for you?' When you tell Him, He will deliver it to you, however, this may not be in your time-scale. He's perfect in knowing the right time for things and He will give it to you, then, so don't worry. James Hudson-Taylor, the great missionary to China, said of Matthew 6:33, 'If we can only wait right up to the time, God cannot lie, God cannot forget. He is pledged to supply all your need.' Hudson-Taylor was a man who knew all about trusting God for his need.

A shepherd knows his sheep. He protects them, feeds them and guides them along the way. They don't fear him but place their trust in him alone. God is our shepherd; He knows us and wherever we go, He'll protect and guide us as long as we remain in the fold with Him. Daily He supplies our need and if we're honest, we lack nothing. (Psalm 34:10). We may want things that are not essential to our welfare. And because of His great hesed towards us - mercy, kindness and love, He gives us what we ask Him for. But this is where our faith needs to kick in, as described in Mark 11:22-24. There's a difference between need and want. The 'need' is guaranteed as we place our trust in Jesus. The 'want' is a faith thing. As we ask, believe and receive, we get what we ask Him for. However, there must be no doubt. Read Matthew 6:25-34 and Mark 11:22-24 to grasp the difference and then apply them to your life. You will benefit from this.

Copyriight 2020 Grahame Howard

dailylifewithjesus@protonmail.com

dailylifewithjesusbygrahamehoward.blogspot.com  

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

dailylifewithjesus@protonmail.com

dailylifewithjesusbygrahamehoward.blogspot.com  

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

dailylifewithjesus@protonmail.com

dailylifewithjesusbygrahamehoward.blogspot.com