This week one of my prayers has been that God would give me direction and a renewed vigour. When we encounter difficult situations, we can be tempted to wonder if we are on the right path for our lives. And yes, sometimes we make poor choices that get us off course.
If your heart is following after God, if you’re determined to stay in faith and put Him first in your life, you can be confident that you are right where you are supposed to be in God’s will! You might say, “that couldn’t be right. I’m uncomfortable. Somebody isn’t treating me right.” God will not allow a challenge to come into your life unless He has a divine purpose for it.
Today, remember when God is in control, things don’t happen to us they happen for us. Hallelujah! In other words, God uses those difficult things to grow us and stretch us and take us to another level. He orders our steps. So stay in faith, keep a good attitude, and let God lead you into the righteous plan He has for you!
“The steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord…” (Psalm 37:23, KJV)
Let’s Pray Yahweh, thank You for ordering my steps and directing me. Father, I trust that You are at work in my life, even during the times when I don’t understand what’s happen in my life. God, please give me the strength and courage to do what is right in Your sight. I bless You today and always, in Christ’s Name! Amen.
How many of us can truly say that this is how we feel? Do our souls yearn for GOD in the night? Do our spirits long for Him in the morning? Or have our busy lives taken away the pleasure of being with the Almighty?
Life has a sneaky way of drawing our attention away from GOD and instead focusing it on everything else- our finances, the well-being of our children, getting good grades in school, trying to keep a dying relationship alive… We put so much attention on living a life that we push GOD out of our daily lives and put Him into a closed box(in our minds) that we only open up on specific occasions such as church on a Sunday, prayers for a sick person or even a financial difficulty. Once we’re done, we neatly put Him back in that box, ready for the next outing. That is not how it is supposed to be for us as Believers!
Proverbs 3:5-6 tells us to trust in Him with our whole hearts and to not try and understand things in our own way. If we would just acknowledge Him in all that we do, He will lead us down the right paths of our lives. In order for Him to lead us, we need to give up control over our own lives. That means humbling ourselves before Him and seeking Him in every situation. When we accepted Jesus as the LORD and Saviour of our lives, we ceased to belong to our selves; we were purchased by the Blood of Jesus and have become the Temple of GOD (Romans 8:9 & 1 Corinthians 6:20). This means that the Holy Spirit dwells within us- the minute we were born-again, the Holy Spirit entered us in accordance with the promise that Jesus made in John 14: 15-17.
What does this mean for us? It means that we can no longer go on living as we did before. It means that in order to know what GOD has planned for our lives (Jeremiah 29:11), we need to seek Him- Let us draw near to GOD with a sincere heart and the full assurance that faith brings (Hebrews 10:32).
We all have a part to play within the Body of Christ, but to be an active member, we need to seek GOD daily and keep Him in our lives. You must remember that we have an adversary- the devil- who will do all that he can to keep you from fulfilling your GOD-given purpose. There are people waiting for you to show them the love of Christ, to give them the Truth. When we one day meet GOD, what do you want Him to say? ‘My child, you have done well’ or ‘Why did you not obey Me?’
Make a choice right now to keep GOD in your daily life, to seek Him in the morning, to end your day with Him. Doing so will bring you closer to Him and closer to your purpose.
Ending Thoughts: Romans 12:2 commands us to not be like the rest of the world, that we must let the Word of God direct our thoughts and actions. In Hosea 4:6 GOD says that His people are destroyed for their lack of knowledge. This knowledge comes from His Word, not just reading His Word but studying it and meditating on it. Only then can we know the will of GOD for our lives, and only then can we get to know Him personally.
Fighting for the right to pray. Has the media converted to Islam?
Tens of thousands of Catholics in Poland prayed together on Saturday 8th October along the country’s 2,000 mile border and prayed for salvation an act viewed by some as anti-Muslim.
People have said that if the roles were reversed and Muslims were praying at the border, some claim that these same media outlets would be weeping and moved to tears.”
A devotee takes part in a rosary prayer on the Baltic beach in Gdansk, Poland, Saturday, Oct. 7, 2017. Polish Catholics are holding rosaries and praying together at hundreds of locations along Poland’s 3,500-kilometer (2,000-mile) border, appealing to the Virgin Mary and God for peace in Poland and in the world. (AP Photo/Alik Keplicz)
Godinterest has learned that more than 300 churches supported the event. The organisers stated that the prayer event marked the centenary of the apparitions of Fatima, when three shepherd children in Portugal said the Virgin Mary appeared to them. People take part in a mass rosary prayer, asked God ‘to save Poland and the world’ from the the dangers facing them.
“Islam wants to destroy Europe,” Halina Kotarska, 65, told the associated press as she prayed and clutched a rosary. They want to turn us away from Christianity.”
Critics of the event said praying along the border could be seen as celebrating the country’s refusal to accept Muslim migrants, according to the BBC.
Devotees pray as they walk through a forest in Szklarska Poreba, Czech Republic-Poland border, Saturday, Oct. 7, 2017. Polish Catholics are holding rosaries and are praying together at hundreds of locations along Poland’s 3,500-kilometer (2,000-mile) border, appealing to the Virgin Mary and God for peace in Poland and in the world. (AP Photo/Petr David Josek)
Devotees pray as they walk through a forest in Szklarska Poreba, Czech Republic-Poland border, Saturday, Oct. 7, 2017. Polish Catholics are holding rosaries and are praying together at hundreds of locations along Poland’s 3,500-kilometer (2,000-mile) border, appealing to the Virgin Mary and God for peace in Poland and in the world. (AP Photo/Petr David Josek)
People take part in mass rosary prayer in Koden, Poland, eastern Poland, Saturday, Oct. 7, 2017, on the border between Poland and Belarus. Polish Catholics are holding rosaries and are praying together at hundreds of locations along Poland’s 3,500-kilometer (2,000-mile) border, appealing to the Virgin Mary and God for peace in Poland and in the world. (AP Photo/Czarek Sokolowski)
Reflected in a puddle, devotees pray as they walk through a forest in Szklarska Poreba, Czech Republic-Poland border, Saturday, Oct. 7, 2017. Polish Catholics are holding rosaries and are praying together at hundreds of locations along Poland’s 3,500-kilometer (2,000-mile) border, appealing to the Virgin Mary and God for peace in Poland and in the world. (AP Photo/Petr David Josek)
Devotees pray as they walk through a forrest in Szklarska Poreba, Czech Republic-Poland border, Saturday, Oct. 7, 2017. Polish Catholics are holding rosaries and praying together at hundreds of locations along the Poland’s 3,500-kilometer (2,000-mile) border, appealing to the Virgin Mary and God for peace in Poland and in the world. (AP Photo/Petr David Josek)
Rafal Pankowski, an expert on xenophobia and extremism told the BBC the prayers seemed like a way to express Islamophobia.
“The whole concept of doing it on the borders reinforces the ethno-religious, xenophobic model of national identity,” Pankowski told the news organization.
But organizers say they chose the border because it symbolized wanting to “encompass the world with prayer,” the BBC reported. Nearly 90 percent of the country is Catholic.
“It’s a really serious thing for us,” said Basia Sibinska, who traveled with her daughter Kasia from Kalisz in central Poland. “Rosaries to the border means that we want to pray for our country. That was a main motive for us to come here. We want to pray for peace, we want to pray for our safety. Of course, everyone comes here with a different motivation. But the most important thing is to create something like a circle of a prayer alongside the entire border, intense and passionate.”
