• Home
  • Living My Blessed Life Devotional Blog
    • Merchandise
    • Subscribe
  • Speaking Clients
NINA PACKER
Picture
by Nina Packer
Subscribe

Dead the Doubt

7/31/2020

Comments

 
Picture

Mark 11:22-23
Have faith in God,” Jesus answered. “Truly I tell you, if anyone says to this mountain, ‘Go, throw yourself into the sea,’ and does not doubt in their heart but believes that what they say will happen, it will be done for them.

Thank you Lord for your unfailing love and your mercy that endures forever. I thank you Lord for the gift of today and I receive every good thing that you have for me. I magnify your name God. You are worthy to be praised.

Doubt is a blessing blocker. We can pray without ceasing. We can believe and proclaim the word of God over our lives with fervor. But if we hold any trace of doubt when we do so that doubt will act as a neutralizer of our prayers and our proclamations. I am a firm believer in God’s word as written in Proverbs 18:21a (NKJV):
Death and life are in the power of the tongue, and those who love it will eat its fruit.

I wholeheartedly believe that what we speak we reap. What we sow, we will eventually see. But we can make ourselves say anything we choose. We can speak words that have been scripted for us. We can speak God’s word from memory. We can recite prayers and proclamations daily out of habit. God not only hears our words, but He hears and knows our hearts (Hebrews 4:12, 1 Samuel 16:7, Romans 10:9). When our words do not reflect the belief of the promise of God’s word in our hearts, that doubt cancels it out. No matter how fiery we are about what we declare, a slight doubt can be the water that puts the power of our declarations completely out.

My encouragement for you today is to dead the doubts in your heart so that your declarations can produce what you are praying and proclaiming. The Bible says in Proverbs 4:23 NKJV:
Keep your heart with all diligence, for out of it spring the issues of life.

Your mouth may hold the script for what you desire to bring to life, but your heart is the producer. I encourage you to go to God in prayer asking Him to reveal to you any doubt in your heart. It is important for you to take a truthful account of what you believe in your heart if you are to bring to life what you are praying for and proclaiming the promises of God about. Remember the words of Jesus to his disciples in Matthew 17:19-20 NKJV when they wondered why they tried but could not heal an afflicted boy:
Then the disciples came to Jesus privately and said, “Why could we not cast it out?” So Jesus said to them, “Because of your unbelief; for assuredly, I say to you, if you have faith as a mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move; and nothing will be impossible for you.

In the account of the same incident in the Mark 9:14-29 NKJV, we can read the words of Jesus to the boy’s father and we learn that despite all of his fervent attempts to get help for his son by way of seeking out the disciples of Jesus, he too had an issue of doubt. The man said to Jesus in verse 22b, “But if You can do anything, have compassion on us and help us.” We know that the man only partially believed that Jesus could heal his son because he used the word “if”. Jesus confronted the father of the boy’s doubt by saying in verse 23, “If you can believe, all things are possible to him who believes.” The father then confessed his doubt by asking God to help him with his unbelief, and then declaring that he does believe in verse 24:
Immediately the father of the child cried out and said with tears, “Lord, I believe; help my unbelief!”

When this happened, Jesus commanded the spirit afflicting the boy to come out of him and he was immediately healed.

What unbelief in your heart is causing your words and your belief in Jesus Christ’s power to fail? You must confront that doubt and dead it with a truthful confession of unbelief, and a declaration of faith.

What you are praying for and declaring are not impossible if they are aligned with God’s word. But they can only come to pass by faith and without doubt. I am believing and declaring today that we will each surrender our hearts to God and confess our unbelief so that we may see the fruit of our words to do even greater things in our lives.
John 14:12-14
“Most assuredly, I say to you, he who believes in Me, the works that I do he will do also; and greater works than these he will do, because I go to My Father. And whatever you ask in My name, that I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If you ask anything in My name, I will do it.
​
With God all things are possible (Matthew 19:26).

Be Blessed!
~Nina

Declaration: Lord I believe and do not doubt.

Comments

A New Song

7/22/2020

Comments

 
Picture

Psalm 40:1-3 NLT
I waited patiently for the Lord to help me,
    and he turned to me and heard my cry.
He lifted me out of the pit of despair, out of the mud and the mire. He set my feet on solid ground and steadied me as I walked along. He has given me a new song to sing, a hymn of praise to our God. Many will see what he has done and be amazed. They will put their trust in the Lord.

Lord, thank you, for another day to live and to love you with my whole heart. I lift your name with the highest praise of Hallelujah! Thank you for your grace, your mercy, and your peace.
 
I often wake up in the morning with a song on my heart. Sometimes it catches me off guard and makes me laugh when I have the lyrics or the sound of a song just alive on the inside of me. When this happens, I have learned to pay attention to what seems to be the loudest or the most consistent part of the sound that rings out. It may be certain lyrics, it could be the chorus, sometimes it is the beat. There is no science to the way music just invites itself into my day. But when it does, I pay attention. Many times, in that part of the song that rings out the loudest to me I find a little message speaking directly to my heart and pointing me to a passage of scripture to study and hold on to.
In the larger sense, I believe today that God is putting a new song in the hearts of His people to dwell consistently in His presence.  I believe and declare that the time for living in despair has expired. Many of us have had life experiences that have weighed us down with worry, regret, shame, or frustration causing us to be poor in spirit. The time has come to put the weight of our past experiences behind us and to take hold of a blessed and beautiful life of purpose with Jesus Christ as our personal Lord and Savior. This new song is an anthem of true freedom. For whom the Son sets free is free indeed (John 8:36).
 
In Isaiah 61:1-3 of the New International Version of the Bible, the Prophet Isaiah wrote:
1 The Spirit of the Sovereign Lord is on me, because the Lord has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives and release from darkness for the prisoners,
2 to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor and the day of vengeance of our God, to comfort all who mourn,
3     and provide for those who grieve in Zion --
to bestow on them a crown of beauty instead of ashes,
the oil of joy instead of mourning, and a garment of praise instead of a spirit of despair. They will be called oaks of righteousness, a planting of the Lord for the display of his splendor.


The new song that is ringing loud in my ear is one that proclaims the good news of salvation. Declare this with me: The words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart no longer carry words of exhaustion and brokenness (Psalms 19:14). Instead, I am overflowing with the oil of joy. I am wearing a crown of beauty instead of ashes. I am cloaked in a garment of praise for the Most High God. With this new song in my soul, I will bless the Lord at all times and His praise will continually be in my mouth (Psalms 34:1)!
Let the new song of joy and praise resonate in your soul and ring out in praise from your lips today. Be encouraged to forget the former things, and not to dwell on the past. God is doing a new thing! Perceive it and be glad (Isaiah 41:18-19). 

Be Blessed!
~Nina
​

Declaration: God has given me a new song to sing, a hymn of praise to our God.

Picture
Comments

God Wanted Something Different

7/15/2020

Comments

 
Picture

Matthew 6:9-10
In this manner, therefore, pray:
Our Father in heaven,
Hallowed be Your name.
Your kingdom come.
Your will be done

I give glory, honor, and praise to Our Father in heaven. I give thanks for His many blessings, and for the privilege of prayer. I call on the power of the Holy Spirit today to bring wisdom and edification through the infallible word of God.

Have you ever prayed, and prayed, and prayed, and prayed to God for something that you really wanted to come to fruition in your life? I mean have you ever consistently and emphatically petitioned God for a desire that you held in your heart and declared with your mouth for a period of time that caused you to stretch in your faith? And have you ever done so, only to have your petition to fall flat and not be fulfilled? I certainly have. It is a painful thing to experience. No matter how painful an unanswered prayer may be, take comfort in the fact that God wanted something different for you. Be at peace knowing that perhaps God knew that you were not ready for what you were asking in prayer. Be glad that because He knew the hearts and intentions of the other people who would have been a party to your blessing he shielded you from the destruction that would have surely come had you received what you asked in prayer.

On the other hand, I have also experienced God moving immediately on my behalf after praying effectual and fervent prayers (James 5:16). I have been amazed at how quickly and specifically and sufficiently His grace has met me at my need. There are times when I have barely finished uttering the prayer, my face still wet with tears, when the answer to my prayers will have appeared.

What is the difference? Well, I can’t speak for God. But what I will stand on today to encourage you is that if God is for what you are praying, it has to come to pass (Romans 8:31). The Bible says that God’s word does exactly what it says.
 
Isaiah 55:11
So shall My word be that goes forth from My mouth;
It shall not return to Me void,
But it shall accomplish what I please,
And it shall prosper in the thing for which I sent it.
​

When we pray, it is important that we pray according to the will of God. The word of God is the express will of God. Therefore, anchoring our prayers in God’s word and praying His truth, makes our prayers effective. We must worship God in spirit and in truth (John 4:24). God is love (1 John 4:8). When we go to God in prayer, we must approach God on the premise of truth according to His Spirit, which is love.
 
Psalm 51:10
Create in me a clean heart, O God,
And renew a steadfast spirit within me.

 
Be encouraged today that when your prayer is aligned with God’s word and your heart is surrendered in love toward God and toward people (John 13:34-35), you are asking in prayer for God to do what He has already promised for you. When you do this, it will come to pass.

1 John 5:14-15
Now this is the confidence that we have in Him, that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us.  And if we know that He hears us, whatever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we have asked of Him.

Be Blessed!
~Nina

Declaration:  When I pray the will of God in spirit and in truth my prayers come to pass.

Comments

You Can Do It!

7/8/2020

Comments

 
Picture

Philippians 4:13
I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.

Glory to your name God! You are worthy to be praised. Thank you for your unfailing love and your mercy that endures forever.

Do you remember the first time you ever won or succeeded at something? Go back in your mind and find that first time you ever felt a victory. Was it in a sports competition with peers? Did you finally beat the computer playing your favorite video game? Are you one of those people who has been able to match the colors on all sides of the Rubik’s Cube? Congratulations! That feeling never goes away.

My first taste of victory was in a race at a community picnic when I was about four years old. I did not want to participate in that race. The prize for winning was $5, and that did nothing to entice me. I remember feeling at that young and tender age that I did not want to be in competition with the other kids my age who were all lined up and ready to go. I certainly did not think I could win. I stood at the starting line where my father had placed me, probably crying, not wanting to race with anyone. I do not recall hearing the words, “On your mark, get ready, get set, GO!” But suddenly, the race had begun, and I was standing there by myself. Now, I was fine with that. It would be all over soon. But then I heard my father’s booming and targeted voice sharply call me by my family nickname, with one shout of the mandate, “GO!” Without any thought, or a look in his direction I took off. I knew the other kids were halfway to the finish line, but I have no visual memory of the other kids in the race, once I took off. All I know is that I made it to the finish line, and I won $5.
​
Incline your ear today to hear the voice of God, our Father (John 10:27). His word declares in Philippians 4:13 that [you] can do all things through Christ who strengthens [you]. Getting started is the hardest part of any victory. Believing that you can do what you set out to do is the fuel that will set you on fire to achieve. Let us depend on the voice of God to give us the shout of “GO” in the spirit that will cause us to take off in the direction of our destiny. While we may not be prepared for the race, we are predestined for the win. Through Christ we have the strength to do all things. Step up to the starting line of a destiny endeavor today and hear the voice of the Father through His word.
Hebrews 12:1-2
Therefore we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.
​Be Blessed!
​~Nina

Declaration: I hear the voice of the Father and I know I can do it.

Comments

Created in Christ for Good Works

7/6/2020

Comments

 
Picture

Ephesians 2:10 NKJV
For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.

Let us enter His gates with thanksgiving and into His courts with praise! Lord we are thankful to you and we bless your name (Psalm 100:4). You are mighty and magnificent! Your wonders never cease. (Psalm 145)
Have you ever wondered what your life is supposed to be about? Perhaps you have taken a moment now and then to consider that the path that you are on is not the one for you. But what path is the right path for your life? Can we really know exactly what God’s plan is for us? While we may not get the answers we are looking for, I believe that God is always at work in our lives shaping and molding us into the image of Christ to do the good works that He predestined for us before the foundations of the earth (Ephesians 1:4, John 17:24, 1 Peter 1:18-21). God breathed life into each one of us for His perfect purpose and specific works to be conducted through our lives in this world for His glory (Genesis 2:7, Jeremiah 1:5).
I know it may seem at times that our lives are all over the place. It may be difficult to see the pattern of what is happening in our lives as the work of God. But let’s be reminded of God’s infallible word in Romans 8:28-30:
And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose. For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren. Moreover whom He predestined, these He also called; whom He called, these He also justified; and whom He justified, these He also glorified.
Based on this we “know”—we don’t think or wonder—that ALL things in our lives WORK together for the GOOD to those who are called according to His purpose. God established His plan for our lives before we were created to be carried out in Christ’s likeness. The key for us is to live our lives in Christ through salvation, adopting the mind and character of Christ (Ephesians 5:12-20).
Be encouraged today. Know that you are the workmanship of God. No matter what is going on, His good work is being carried out through your life in Christ. The best thing that you can do is to be more and more like Christ every day. Be connected to the body of Christ through your local church in relationship with other believers. Jesus said, in John 15:5:
I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing.
Walk in the good works that God has predestined for your life. Live as a new creature in Christ formed for good works. Fulfill God’s predestined purpose for your life, by living it in Jesus Christ. Be encouraged to love and live in peace.
 
Be Blessed!
~Nina
​

Declaration: I am the workmanship of God, created in Christ Jesus for good works. I walk in the predestined work of God for my life. 

Comments

    Author

    Nina Packer is a woman of God living a blessed life with a desire to share the love of Jesus Christ with the world from Atlanta, GA, inspired by Matthew 5:1-16 .

    Subscribe to my mailing list

    Archives

    March 2021
    December 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019

    Categories

    All
    Beatitudes
    Matthew 5
    Witness

    RSS Feed

Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.
  • Home
  • Living My Blessed Life Devotional Blog
    • Merchandise
    • Subscribe
  • Speaking Clients