Pastor Stephen Dedman

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Trust Jesus’ Commands

Faith

‘And when they ran out of wine, the mother of Jesus said to Him, “They have no wine.”’
John 2:3

What do you do when you have problems? Our problems are actually good opportunities for God to show us what He can do. They give God the opportunity to work on our behalf and display His glory.

Jesus’ mother knew exactly what to do with the problem. She went straight to Jesus and said, “They have no wine.” It is interesting to note that Mary did not tell Jesus what to do or how to resolve it. In verse 5, Mary simply said to the servants, “Whatever He says to you, do it.”

When we give our problems to the Lord, we trust Him to work on our behalf and we do whatever He commands us to do. We must remain faithful and obedient to the Lord regardless if it makes sense or not. Jesus turned the water into wine because the servants were obedient to Jesus.

Most of the time we want to tell Jesus how to fix our problems. However the most important thing to do when we give our problems to the Lord is be obedient and patient. Do whatever He tells you to do.

The servants obeyed the words of Jesus and had faith that He had a plan. They could have easily came up with excuses and reasons of why not to go fill up the water pots, but they didn’t. In the end, the servants were not only witnesses of the miracle, they were participants in it.

What is the Lord telling you to do? Allow the Lord to turn problems into opportunities. Only the Lord can do such marvelous works.

Pray

Lord, when You speak I will listen and obey. Help me today to do Your will and let me witness a marvelous work.

His Goodness And Mercy Follow

Encouragement, Trust

“Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me All the days of my life; And I will dwell in the house of the LORD Forever.”
‭‭Psalms‬ ‭23:6‬

Psalm 23 is a very popular chapter as a whole but today we will focus on just one verse. There are two things that follow every child of God: goodness and mercy. The word used here for follow means to pursue or chase after.

God pursued you with the call to salvation and He continues to pursue you. His goodness and mercy follows you wherever you go. God can only give good gifts. Please let that sink down deep into your heart. God loves you and only desires to see good things happen in your life. God’s goodness and mercy are gifts of protection to allow you to live with full confidence.

Not that we should boast, but we should walk around with a sense of confidence. A confidence that assures us that we have God on our side. If God be with us, who can be against us, right? God wants us to know without a doubt that He offers goodness and mercy that will never leave us and is always surrounding us.

Is there anything that has you upset or frustrated today? Let this verse be an attitude changer. If you let the things of this world get you down you are not enjoying the gifts of God. Too many Christians are moping around like they just left the dentist. We should be making a difference in our families, our workplace, our communities, and even in our church. God’s goodness and mercy is closely following us. Let your confidence of God’s goodness and mercy make someone else wonder what you’re up to. Let your smile be so compelling that people can only smile back in return.

Pray

Lord, thank you for giving me good gifts. Help me to know that you only want good things to happen today. Let my attitude reflect the blessings You have given to me.

Living Extraordinary

Faith

‘For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind.’
II Timothy 1:7

Satan uses tools of fear and doubt to keep us from doing and witnessing extraordinary things.  Satan does not want us experiencing God’s power and love. Instead, he will try to paralyze our faith.

God gives us power, love and a sound mind to do things that glorify Him.  We are capable of doing powerful things through Jesus when we put our faith to the test. Without Him we are nothing.

In Matthew 17:14-21 a man came to Jesus and begged for his son to be healed from demonic convulsions associated with epilepsy. Previously the man brought his son before the disciples but they couldn’t heal him. Immediately Jesus cast the demon out and the boy was healed.

The disciples asked Jesus why they couldn’t cast it out and He replied, “Because of your unbelief.”  He said if they had mustard seed-sized faith they could move mountains and nothing would be impossible for them. The problem wasn’t with their faith.  They had faith.  The problem was with their unbelief or doubt.  He gave them a solution: “this kind (of unbelief) does not go out except by prayer and fasting.” 

The devil plants seeds of doubt into our minds subconsciously and sometimes we’re not even aware of it.  We must protect our minds and be sure that what we are hearing and seeing is full of truth and not the lies of the devil. Jesus said to fast and pray.  Fasting and praying starves the flesh of self desires and feeds our souls with the Spirit of God.

Is there any unbelief that is keeping you from living an extraordinary life? Is your unbelief keeping you from witnessing God’s great things? Remove your unbelief.

Prayer

Lord, I pray in the Name of Jesus to have all fear, unbelief and doubt removed from my mind and replaced with God’s power, love and truth. Give me the knowledge of what I can do through Jesus.