2022-10-23
Psalm 30:5 NKJV
The earth is continually revolving, which means when it’s light in one hemisphere, it’s dark in another. While one person is experiencing midnight, another is rejoicing because daybreak has finally come for them. Both people live on the same planet, but they’re in very different places.
So when you’re having a nighttime experience, if you can just hold on a little longer, things will change. God guarantees it. The same way you rotated into the darkness, you will rotate out of it again. God works the night shift, and He will turn your darkness into light if you just keep trusting Him.
Notice: Certain significant events in the Bible happened at night. For example, while Adam was sleeping, God reached in, performed surgery, and made Eve. At midnight, while the other prisoners slept, Paul and Silas sang praises to God and He delivered them. When Peter was locked in the inner prison, at midnight God sent an angel to liberate him. When Jesus was crucified, the earth was plunged into darkness, but on Easter morning the light came on – forever.
You have to expect some nighttime experiences; it comes with the territory. God’s “darkroom” is where He develops you into the image of Christ. Enduring is what gives you the credentials to walk out into the daylight, having earned the right to be there.
This kind of faith is tenacious, radical, and relentless. When it’s backed into a corner, it stands its ground and declares, “I’ve lost my job, my mortgage is overdue, my symptoms don’t look too good, but I still believe God.” That kind of faith gets results every time!
Soul food: 2 Kings 6:8-23; Matt 5:43-48; Luke 6:27-36
2022-10-22
2 Timoteus 1:6 NLV
Ander mense mag dalk nie dink dat jy belangrik is nie, maar God doen. Sy opinie is die een wat die meeste tel. Onthou jy vir Dawid? Voor hy koning geword het, moes hy twee struikelblokke oorkom. Die eerste struikelblok was sy familie se onvermoë om sy potensiaal raak te sien. Toe Samuel, die profeet, vir ‘n koning onder Isai se seuns gesoek het, is Dawid nie eers oorweeg nie. Miskien omdat hy die jongste was, of omdat dit gelyk het of sy broers meer gekwalifiseerd was, of omdat sy pa die profeet wou probeer beïndruk. Die tweede struikelblok was Samuel se onvermoë om God se roeping op Dawid se lewe te herken. Toe Samuel die oudste broer, Eliab, wat ‘n generaal in die koning se leër was sien, het hy gesê: ‘…Dis sekerlik die Here se gesalfde!..’ (1 Samuel 16:6 NLV). God het egter vir Samuel – en die res van ons – met hierdie woorde tereggewys: ‘…Mense oordeel volgens uiterlike voorkoms, maar die Here kyk na gedagtes en bedoelings’ (1 Samuel 16:7 NLV).
Dawid se probleem is ‘n algemene een. Baie van ons glo nie in onsself nie, omdat ons nie deur ons ouers erken en aangemoedig is nie. Miskien het jy die potensiaal om ‘n goeie musikant te wees, maar omdat niemand genoeg omgegee het om vir jou musieklesse te gee toe jy jonger was nie, het jy opgegee. Of jy mag dalk ‘n ontluikende entrepreneur wees wat vir jou ‘dwase idees’ oor hoe om besigheid te doen gekritiseer is, dus het jy die drome van jou jeug laat vaar.
Indien dit die geval is, is dit tyd om te begin bid dat God jou oë sal oopmaak en iemand in jou lewe sal plaas wat die vuur binne in jou sal bekragtig en aanblaas.
Sielskos: 2 Sam 17:14-19:43; Joh 5:16-30; Ps 15; Spr 24:7
2 Timothy 1:6 NIV
Other people may not think you’re important, but God does. And His opinion is the one that counts most. Remember David? Before he became king, he had to overcome two obstacles. The first obstacle was his family’s inability to see his potential. When Samuel the prophet came looking for a king among Jesse’s sons, David wasn’t even considered. Maybe that’s because he was the youngest, or his brothers seemed more qualified, or his father wanted to impress the prophet. The second obstacle was Samuel’s inability to recognize God’s call on his life. When Samuel the prophet saw the oldest brother, Eliab, a general in the king’s army, he said, “Surely the Lord’s anointed stands here” (1 Samuel 16:6 NIV). But God set Samuel – and the rest of us – straight with these words: “People look at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart” (1 Samuel 16:7 NIV).
David’s problem is a common one. Many of us don’t believe in ourselves because we weren’t recognized or encouraged by our parents. Perhaps you have the potential to be a great musician, but because nobody cared enough to give you music lessons when you were young, you have given up on yourself. Or you may be a budding entrepreneur who was criticized for your “foolish ideas” about how to do business, and you have given up the dreams of your youth.
If that’s the case, it’s time to rise up and reclaim who you are; to start praying that God will open your eyes and put someone in your life who will validate and “fan into flame the gift of God, which is in you.”
Soul food: 2 Sam 17:14-19:43; John 5:16-30; Ps 15; Prov 24:7
2022-10-21
Psalm 119:47 NLV
George Müller was ‘n man met groot geloof. Hy het duisende hawelose kinders in Engeland gered. Soms wanneer hulle rondom die tafel vir aandete bymekaar gekom het was daar niks om te eet nie, dus sou hy bid en God vir bonatuurlike voorsiening dank. Wanneer hy skaars klaar ‘Amen’ gesê het, het daar ‘n bakker met brood, ‘n groenteboer met groente of ‘n boer met melk aan sy deur geklop.
Hier volg ‘n inskrywing in sy dagboek, gedateer 9 Mei 1841: ‘Ek het met meer duidelikheid as ooit besef dat die primêre taak waaraan ek daagliks eerste my aandag moet wy, nie moet wees hoe baie ek die Here dien nie, maar hoe om my innerlike menswees te voed. Want ek kan probeer om die waarheid met die onbekeerdes te deel, ek kan probeer om gelowiges te bevoordeel, maar indien ek nie gelukkig in die Here is nie, en nie my innerlike menswees dag na dag voed en versterk nie, kan ek nie met die regte gesindheid dit alles doen nie. Voorheen het ek gebid nadat ek in die oggend aangetrek het. Nou sien ek dat die belangrikste ding wat ek moet doen, is om my oor te gee aan die lees van God se Woord en om daaroor te mediteer, sodat my hart vertroos, bemoedig, gewaarsku, bestraf en onderrig word; en dat my hart deur middel van die Woord van God, terwyl ek daaroor mediteer, in eksperimentele gemeenskap met die Here gebring kan word.’
Vir meer as veertig jaar het Müller in die krag van God geleef en wonderwerke gesien. Wat was sy geheim? Om elke dag tyd te neem om oor God se Woord te mediteer.
Sielskos: 2 Sam 14:21-17:13; Joh 5:1-15; Ps 41; Spr 24:5-6
Psalm 119:47 KJV
George Müller was a man of great faith. He rescued thousands of homeless children in England. Sometimes when they gathered at the table for supper there was nothing to eat, so he would pray and thank God for supernatural provision. No sooner had he said, “Amen” than a baker would show up at his door with bread, or a greengrocer with vegetables, or a farmer with milk.
Here is an entry from his journal, dated May 9, 1841: “I saw more clearly than ever that the first great primary business to which I ought to attend every day was… not how much I might serve the Lord… but… how my inner man might be nourished. For I might seek to set the truth before the unconverted, I might seek to benefit believers… and yet, not being happy in the Lord, and not being nourished and strengthened in my inner man day by day, all this might not be attended to in a right spirit. Before this time my practice had been… to give myself to prayer after having dressed myself in the morning. Now, I saw that the most important thing I had to do was to give myself to the reading of the Word of God, and to meditation on it, that thus my heart might be comforted, encouraged, warned, reproved, instructed; and that this, by means of the Word of God, whilst meditating on it, my heart might be brought into experimental communion with the Lord.”
For over forty years, Müller walked in the power of God and saw miracles. What was his secret? Taking time each day to meditate in God’s Word.
Soul food: 2 Sam 14:21-17:13; John 5:1-15; Ps 41; Prov 24:5-6
