Be of Good Courage

Hello!!

God is Good!!!  I ended my last post with the hymn that was going through my head -- I Need Thee Every Hour -- and the line: temptations lose their power when thou art nigh.  Last night as I was driving home (I seem to get my temptations when I am driving home. Odd.) A frosty from Wendy's popped into my head. I immediately prayed and asked the Lord to remove that temptation. Praise the Lord -- it disappeared! No struggle. No fighting. It just left. Thank God! Temptations do lose their power when the Lord is close at hand. So that is the answer to two prayers. First I have been shown the way of escape: actually turning it over to the Lord, for real. And Second, the temptation had no power over me, because He was near at hand.

At Sweet Fellowship we are studying "The Attributes of God" by A.W. Tozer and last Friday night we read about God's omnipresence (His being everywhere present) and something changed for me. I have just been having a feeling of knowing that no matter where I am, God is all around me, and even in me. He is closer than my breath, and everywhere present. It is more than these words can express but a wonderful thing for which I am grateful. That temptation lost its power because God was so near. Praise the Lord.

It is funny. He was always there. I just did not know it. Like it says in the Bible:

Ge 28:16  And Jacob awaked out of his sleep, and he said, Surely the LORD is in this place; and I knew it not.

And David said in the Psalms:

Ps 139:6  Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; it is high, I cannot attain unto it.
7 ¶  Whither shall I go from thy spirit? or whither shall I flee from thy presence?
8  If I ascend up into heaven, thou art there: if I make my bed in hell, behold, thou art there.

There is no place I can conceive of in which God is not already present. So He is right here with me.

Acts 17:27  That they should seek the Lord, if haply they might feel after him, and find him, though he be not far from every one of us:
28  For in him we live, and move, and have our being; as certain also of your own poets have said, For we are also his offspring.

There is a prayer that I learned a few years ago by James Dillet Freeman, that is used in the Unity Church of Christianity. Although I later left that particular church behind because I found other things there that did not seem to match what I was reading in the Bible, I never forgot the prayer because it touched my heart so deeply. I was often in a state of fear at the time and I would pray that prayer before I went to sleep. I had been having bad dreams and was under attack and that prayer led me closer and closer to Jesus and freedom. Here it is:

"The light of God surrounds me, the love of God enfolds me, the power of God protects me, and the presence of God watches over me. Wherever I am, God is." Thank you Lord.

At the time, I deeply focused on what the words were really saying and imagined each part of it in my mind as I said the prayer, night after night. Soon I was no longer afraid. Soon the bad dreams went away. Soon I was finding Jesus Christ and trusting in Him in ways I had never imagined.

So odd that we compartmentalize things and find freedom in one area but do not find that freedom in another area... until we do -- Lord willing.

My trust is increasing. That is, my trust in Jesus, is increasing. Praise the Lord.  As I looked for a particular verse, I did not find the verse I was looking for, but I found this one that just really touched my heart:

2Co 4:6  For it is the God who commanded light to shine out of darkness, who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.

I don't want to get too far afield, but I do love to be reminded in the scripture of God and to find one standing out among the others as completely amazing.

Anyway. All that from one victory. I trust there are many more to come in Christ.

Thank you for your prayers, and please continue to pray, as I will for you, also, that we have the faith to do what is best for the bodies that God has given us.

Ezr 10:4  "Arise, for this matter is your responsibility. We also are with you. Be of good courage, and do it."

Ps 27:14  Wait on the LORD; Be of good courage, And He shall strengthen your heart; Wait, I say, on the LORD!

Ps 31:24  Be of good courage, And He shall strengthen your heart, All you who hope in the LORD.

Isa 41:6  Everyone helped his neighbor, And said to his brother, "Be of good courage!"