Debbie Taylor Williams
If You’re Wondering What to Do About Something
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Are you at your wit’s end? Do you need someone to talk to who can help you sort out your problems and worries? God understands. Our Heavenly Father is the original COUNSELOR. And, Isaiah 9:6 says this about Jesus. “For a child will be born to u … and His name will be called Wonderful Counselor,….” In other words, our Heavenly Father and Jesus are Wonderful Counselors who are available to counsel and guide us. They’re excellent listeners, and we can hear their answers when we quiet ourselves in their presence. Talk to God, then follow His counsel. I record what God prompts me to do in my journal, Prayers of My Heart. It helps me follow through because I can review what I’ve recorded. What might God’s prompts sound like? “Call a person who is going through health problems.” Or, “Spend your time working on _____ today.” Make 2020 your best year by recording and following through with how the Wonderful Counsel prompts you. ORDER TODAY so it will arrive before Christmas! HERE.
LORD, You are the WONDERFUL COUNSELOR. Increase our sensitivity to Your Voice. Help us take seriously Your counsel and follow through on what You lead us to do.
Is Lip Service a Big Deal to God
A person who is not a Christian once asked why believers talk about God’s love but never His wrath. I thought about his question and realized I’m guilty of that very thing. Think about all the wonderful ways we look at God’s love, gentleness, and grace. Today, however, the context in which God’s actions are described as WONDROUSLY MARVELOUS is in reference to His judgment on people who claim His name, but simply give lip service to Him. God uses the prophet Isaiah to call them out in Isaiah 29:13-14. “Then the Lord said, ‘Because this people draw near with their words and honor Me with their lip service, but they remove their hearts from Me, and their reverence for Me consists of tradition learned by rote, therefore, I will once again deal marvelously with this people, WONDROUSLY MARVELOUS.'” He goes on to warn them about the consequences of lip service and rote worship. We might want to relegate God’s wrath to the Old Testament, but Revelation 16 speaks of God’s judgement being poured out on the earth in a future day. No doubt, God isn’t impressed with our lip service. Rather, our loving Him with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength.
Lord, You alone are worthy of our praise. You extend mercy to those who call on Your name, but also discipline in WONDROUSLY MARVELOUS ways those who give You lip service and rote worship. Forgive us and prompt us daily to live by Your Spirit.
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Jesus is Coming!
I love to gaze on the glory of the moon. The moon – IS – something that exists. The moon – WAS – created by God in eternity past. The moon WILL BE in our tomorrows. It appears in different phases, but is still the same moon. So why would we doubt that Jesus is the LORD WHO WAS the creator, WHO IS self-existent in heaven and our hearts, and WHO IS TO COME? On December 25, we celebrate the LORD who came in the past in the appearance of a baby. But as Revelation 1:4 says, CHRIST is not only “HE is WHO IS and WHO WAS,” He is the LORD “WHO IS TO COME…” Think on it. Jesus is coming again!
Lord Jesus, WHO IS, WHO WAS, AND WHO IS TO COME, help us mindfully serve Your purposes until You return again!
Do You Hear Him
Have you ever done a study on the voice of God? Isaiah 30:30 says, “And the Lord will cause His VOICE OF AUTHORITY to be heard.” The literal translation is “VOICE OF MAJESTY.” How does God speak to us? He speaks through His majestic creation that He is glorious and that He is a God of order and unlimited imagination. God’s voice speaks to us through the Bible, the most wise and beautifully written work of all time. God speaks to us through Christ that He is sacrificial, loving, and forgiving. God’s voice speaks to us through our innermost thoughts warning us of the danger of sin and calling us to walk in His ways. God’s voice calls to us but the noise of the world often drowns Him out. However, if we willingly, purposefully choose to slip out of our beds in the mornings and quietly meet with Him – just the two of us – we hear Him. He speaks. His voice encourages our weary souls. His voice comforts us that although we’ve sinned, He forgives us. His voice encourages us that we can start again. His voice whispers, “Take this course of action…” If we take Him seriously, write down His counsel, and follow through on what He tells us, we discover He whispers even more to us. Are we listening?
Do you know someone who is deaf? If so, please share the good news of Christ with them. Free Resources for the Deaf. ASL Interpreted “Listen UP” Conference on DVD. ASL Interpreted “P.R.A.Y. with Passion” Conference on DVD.
Voice of Authority, Voice of Majesty, thank You for speaking to us. Tune our hearts and minds to recognize Your voice and rejoice in You.
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Who Can You Believe?
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Do you ever wonder who you can believe? One person says one thing and another claims the opposite. Yes, it can sometimes be difficult to know who to believe, but not in the case of Jesus’s words. Revelation 1:5 describes Jesus Christ as “the faithful witness, the firstborn of the dead, and the ruler of the kings of the earth. To Him who loves us and released us from our sins by His blood-” Jesus is a faithful witness. A witness of what? He witnessed to us about heaven, His Father, about angels, crowns of righteousness awaiting believers, resurrection bodies, thrones, powers, kingdoms, the judgment seat, forgiveness, redemption, His Father’s house, and about Satan. Jesus testified about the fact that Abraham, Noah, Moses, and Jonah were real people and the Old Testament is true. Our confidence in the Bible and its teachings solidly rests on Christ because He is a faithful witness to us that they are true.
Lord Jesus, we praise You, the faithful WITNESS! Thank You for the confidence we have in the Bible and You because of Your Word.
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Remember This On Dreary Days
Dreary days. Gray skies. They can make us feel gloomy. The death of loved ones or estrangement from family or friends weigh heavily on our hearts. On what can we focus in those times? Malachi 4:2 tells us. “…for you who fear My name, the Sun of Righteousness will rise with healing in its wings.” What does that mean? Theologian Charles Spurgeon explains: “Jesus, like the sun, is the center and soul of all things, the fullness of all good, the lamp that lights us, the fire that warms us, the magnet that guides and controls us; he is the source and fountain of all life, beauty, fruitfulness, and strength.” Jesus is called the Sun of Righteousness because on the most dreary of days, when we are gloomy and despairing, we can ask Him to fill us with His Spirit and shine in our hearts and minds.
We praise You, SUN of RIGHTEOUSNESS, and look to You to enlighten and quicken us to holy surrender and fruitfulness.
*http://www.spurgeon.org/sermons/1020.htm
When What You Want is Different from What God Wants
Friends, I’m so honored to be a contributor to The Christian Post. Please take a glance and pray readers take it to heart.
There are times we’re called to do something we’d prefer not to do it. Perhaps for you, it’s a medical procedure. For a tired mom, it may be changing another diaper. A worker may wish they could stay in bed rather than go to work. Then, there are those excruciatingly painful occasions when we may be called to help with an intervention, or change the lock on a door to keep an abusive person out of the home. But, only one person has known the great sacrifice of dying on the cross so mankind could be saved. Jesus asked His Father for a way other than the cross, but when it was the only way, submitted His will to His Father. Is there something you don’t want to do or perhaps want to do that is contrary to God’s will? What will you do…what your Heavenly Father asks of you or what you prefer to do?
Lord Jesus, thank You for modeling being submissive to the Father’s will for the ultimate good of all. We love and praise You.
“He went a little beyond them and fell on His face and prayed, saying, ‘My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from Me; yet not as I will, but as You will.’” Matthew 26:39
Are You Poor or Wealthy
Many times our search for wealth comes up short. Have you found that to be true? The all powerful dollar is held before us as the “end all” we should seek, but Jesus tells us the opposite; that we’re to lay up treasure in heaven. The wealth that should be our goal is best summed up in Isaiah 33:6. Listen to how Isaiah describes the Lord in terms of wealth. “And He will be the stability of your times, A wealth of salvation, wisdom and knowledge; the fear of the Lord is his treasure.” So the question is, are you poor or wealthy? God’s estimation is that if you have Him, you have a wealth of salvation and a wealth of wisdom and knowledge. Wouldn’t it be a shame if we lived like paupers when we have great treasure in the Lord?
Lord, You are a WEALTH of salvation, wisdom and knowledge. Thank You for all we have in You!
FIND MORE encouragement HERE. Record God’s daily descriptions in Prayers of My Heart.
Lost and Found
Have you ever been lost? Perhaps you took a wrong turn in the road and didn’t know how to get to your desired destination. As bad as that is, what’s worse is to be spiritually lost, which is how Jesus describes us prior to our salvation. We were so lost that there was no one who could help us except Jesus. In Luke 19:10, Jesus describes Himself as the Son of Man who came to seek and to save the lost – us. In other words, Jesus left heaven’s glory to come for us. Jesus did what no one else could do. Through the virgin birth of Mary by the Holy Spirit, Jesus was born, the Son of Man, to seek and to save our lost souls so we could be reunited to our Heavenly Father. What good news. Is there someone we need to go looking for, someone with whom we could share the good news and invite them to church with us?
All praise to You, Lord Jesus, Son of God, SON of MAN, for seeking and saving us when we were lost. We love and adore You.
“For the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost.” Luke 19:10
Just You Wait and See
Things aren’t always as they appear. Just you wait and see. For instance, Jesus had no earthly possessions, wasn’t married, and when arrested, His friends abandoned Him. He was lied about, mocked, and beaten almost to death. Mark 14:61 records the high priest questioning Him prior to crucifying Him, “‘Are You the Christ, the Son of the Blessed One?’” How incongruous. Blessed? Yet, Jesus was and is the Son of the Blessed One. So, when we think about our lives or circumstances, they may not seem to add up to our being the “blessed child of God.” But that is who we are. Things aren’t always as they seem. Just you wait and see.
Heavenly Father, we praise You for Christ, SON of the BLESSED ONE, and for the blessings You’ve promised us.