Monthly Archives: January 2021

“So, then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God” Romans 10:17 (NKJV)

Faith does come by hearing God’ Word.  But many people hear God’s Word and don’t believe it, so they don’t get its benefits.

Do you remember Rahab (Joshua 6)?  She, along with all of Jericho’s inhabitants, had heard about the God of Hebrews.  The people of Jericho all heard the same report; but Rahab alone heard AND BELIEVED.  Not only did she believe in her heart, but she confessed it with her mouth and acted out her faith by hiding the Israelites spies.

Because of Rahab’s willingness to believe what she had heard, she was rewarded beyond her wildest imagination.  When the rest of Jericho was destroyed, the walls of Rahab’s dwelling remained standing—as a testimony to her belief in God’s Word.

We can hear God’s Word continually, but until we believe what we hear and then act on it, it is not profitable to us.

When you hear the Word, don’t just casually receive it in your mind.  Meditate on it.  Accept it and receive it as a special message from God to you.  Then use it to benefit your life.

Dear Heavenly Father,

Help us to mix our faith with Your Word, to take Your Word and use it in our lives, and to know that it is Your personal message to us.

In Jesus’s Name,

Amen.

And I said, “This is my anguish; but I will remember the years of the right hand of the Most High.” I will remember the works of the Lord; surely, I will remember Your wonders of old.  I will also meditate on all Your work, and talk of Your deeds.  (Psalm 77:10-12 NKJV)

Like the psalmist, you may be in the middle of a “night” of grief and sorrows, and you may be thinking, “Has His mercy ceased forever (Psalm 77:8)?”  When that happens to you or someone you know, turn to Psalm 77 and contemplate the four “I wills” of verses 10-12:

• I will remember the years of the right hand of the Most High.
• I will remember the works of the LORD.
• I will remember Your wonders of old.
• I will also meditate on all Your work, and talk of Your deeds.

These four steps will lead you to God.  Great comfort and hope can come from meditating on God’s great provision for our lives.

“Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended; but one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead” – (Philippians 3:13 NKJV)

Once we forget the past, we can then reach forth to the things that are ahead.  If we continue to remember the past, it will press against our “present” and keep us from the future that God has for us.  We can’t look backward and forward at the same time.

The Lord tells us that He puts our sins as far from us as the east is from the west.  I’m glad He didn’t say north from south because then we would meet our sins again!  If you start walking south, eventually you’ll reach the south pole, and then you’ll be going north.  North and south can meet each other, but east and west can never meet!  There is no east or west pole.

When God forgives us of our sins, He forgets them.  He never meets them again, and He doesn’t intend for us to meet them either.  Therefore, we leave the past sins behind and look for the future glory.

Don’t let yourself be burdened down with the memory and guilt of past sins.  Christ shed His blood on the cross so that we might no longer be bowed under the weight of all our sins.  Hand them to Him!

Dear Heavenly Father,

We thank You today that we can forget the past.  It cannot exercise power over our present or future.  We reach forth for the things that You have for us today.