Pastor Stephen Dedman

Category: Encouragement

Teach Me To Do Your Will

Encouragement, Faith, Trust

Teach Me To Do Your Will

Teach me to do Your will, for You are my God! Let Your good Spirit lead me on level ground!
Psalm 143:10

God’s Will and God’s Way

Learning something new can be challenging at times.  But once you discover how to do something new it can be rewarding and great.  Learning to do God’s will can be challenging but the reward is worth it all.

In Psalm 143 David is crying out to God for assistance.  It’s a desperate cry for help indeed.  But right in the middle of this song, David seeks to know the will of God because he knows it is the best thing.  He knows that God is in control of all things but he wants God to reveal His will to him.  Obviously he knows he is going through this storm for a reason but he wants God to show him what he needs to learn from it.  This is the best attitude to have when we face difficult and trying times.  Instead of praying for God to remove our trials we should face them with a perspective that God is trying to teach us something.

Just think about all of the challenges that David faced during his life.  He was the youngest and smallest of his brothers but still knew he had a purpose.  He took on the biggest and strongest giant and experienced victory.  He committed many sins but found forgiveness through God’s love and grace.  He lost a child who was only a few days old but knew the child was with God in Heaven.  The list can go on and on but David was always aware that God was deepening his faith and increasing his spiritual strength.  That is how we need to look at our own life.

Prayer

As you seek to learn God’s will and way for your life, count it all joy when you suffer for the cause of Christ.

They Glorified God

Encouragement, Trust

They Glorified God

Then fear came upon all, and they glorified God, saying, “A great prophet has risen up among us”; and, “God has visited His people.”
‭‭Luke‬ ‭7:16‬

Touching People

In Luke 7:11-17 Jesus stops a funeral procession when He saw a widowed woman who was just moments away from laying her only son to rest. This woman had lost her husband and now has lost all hope of any future because her only son has died. But Jesus saw her and had compassion for her. He touched the casket and told the dead man to get up. Immediately the man sat up and began speaking. The large crowd was amazed at what they saw but most importantly verse 16 says they glorified God because they knew Jesus was God.

This passage of Scripture gives us a perfect a portrait of how a church is to minister to people.

We must realize that the church is who represents Jesus in today’s society. We must do as Jesus did and see the needs of others and reach out and touch them with compassion and love. When the lost are touched with the love of Jesus, they come alive, spiritually. A church will glorify God when they are on mission and ministering to His people. We can’t miss any opportunities of serving people because we lose focus of the mission.

An encouraged church congregation is required to fulfill its mission. A discouraged church is not effective. Every church needs faithful members using their God-given gifts. Members who are not using their gifts are wasting them. Compassion brings people together and to the cross of Jesus. If a church is not loving people it’s not a real church.

Prayer

Pray and ask God how you can be the hands and feet of Jesus.

As Far As The East Is From The West

Encouragement, Trust

As Far As The East Is From The West

As far as the east is from the west, so far does he remove our transgressions from us.
‭‭Psalms‬ ‭103:12‬

Forever Forgiven

What an amazing truth and promise we have from God. We need to be reminded of His forgiving love often. When God forgives our sins they will never be remembered again.

As humans this is hard for us to comprehend. We have the ability to forgive but we have difficulty with letting go.  How many times do we ask the Lord to forgive us from certain sins but we never let them leave our mind? It’s not God who keeps bringing them back to our attention it is us. When we ask God for forgiveness and we repent of our sins, He removes them from existence. They are not stored in a memory bank nor will they be counted against us in the future. They are gone.

That is a great blessing and benefit to remember. What a blessing it is to have all your sins removed and remembered no more. If you have confessed and repented of a sin then you need to accept God’s grace of forgiveness. If you are haunted with the guilt of that same sin then you need to trust this promise from God. Let the past stay in the past. It’s time to live today for today. When Satan wants to remind you of your past then remind him of his future. The Bible says there is a day coming when Satan will be chained up and put away. Then there will be a time when Jesus reigns as King of Kings and Lord of Lords. The grace of God is more powerful than anything else.

Prayer

Confess your sins to the Lord and accept His wonderful and loving forgiveness.