The Bible says, “many are the afflictions of the righteous, but the Lord delivers him from them all.” (Psalm 34:19) On this human journey, for those who have chosen the path of righteousness, there will be many afflictions. As we travel down this road of life striving to be righteous in God’s sight many things will happen that are not right. We will encounter roadblocks that tempt us to veer off the path of destiny or cause us to stumble (Romans 14:13). We will meet people who will attempt to persuade, seduce, or discourage us with the goal of seeing us abandon the destiny for our lives (Luke 4:1-13). As we travel this road to the predestined purpose for the life that God has so graciously blessed us to live we will experience bad weather—the rain will descend, the floods will come, the winds will blow and beat us up—but those who seek the righteousness of God will recover (Matthew 7:25).

For a righteous man falls seven times, and rises again, but the wicked stumble in time of disaster and collapse. – Proverbs 24:16

When I consider the idea of people on the path of righteousness who have faced much affliction, I can’t help but to think of Job. God referred to Job as His servant and said of him to Satan, “There is none like him on earth, a blameless and upright man, one who fears God and shuns evil.” (Job 1:8) Job’s afflictions were broad, deep, various, and long lasting. God knew the heart of Job to be righteous and God fearing. He knew that no matter what Job was faced with, He would not forsake Him and that Job would remain on the path of righteousness. When God suggested that Satan consider tempting Job, He trusted Job to remain steadfast during the afflictions He was permitting. But God put limits on the affliction.

“Behold, all that he has is in your power; only do not lay a hand on his person.” -Job 1:12a

So, the enemy had initially been permitted by God to touch anything that Job possessed but not to touch him in Job 1:12. When Satan returned to God seeking another to devour, God offered up Job again. Satan reasoned that Job was willing to give all his possessions to spare his life but suggested that he would give in and curse God if his flesh were to be afflicted. God moved the limit and allowed Satan to afflict Job’s flesh but restricted him from taking Job’s life.

“Behold, he is in your hand, but spare his life.” -Job 2:6

Job endured and remained faithful to God declaring his goodness (Job 42). My encouragement today is for us to remember that on the path of righteous living we will surely be afflicted, but God sets limits on our affliction and restores us with multiplication when we endure and remain faithful to Him in our trials.

I know that You can do everything, and that no purpose of Yours can be withheld from You. -Job 42:2
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Now the Lord blessed the latter days of Job more than his beginning… -Job 42:12a

So, let us be steadfast in our faith and have an immovable trust in God, always abounding in the work of the Lord knowing that God has set a limit on the afflictions that we face (1 Corinthians 15:58). God will reward the righteous who overcome their afflictions by faith with restoration and multiplication.

Be Blessed!
Nina
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Our God is Almighty. He sits high and looks low. He loves us and makes His face to shine upon us. His ways are higher and greater than our ways. Hallelujah to your name God! You are worthy to be praised.
To everything there is a season. We experience periods of time in our lives when we seem to be down. Circumstances like illness, injury, financial and professional stagnation, loss of opportunities, and bereavement among others happening all at the same time can make us feel weary and worn down. Waking up every day to more bad news of the unprecedented and disturbing things taking place in our society while we are down bad in our personal lives gives us an invitation to feel like there is no hope for us to get up from that low place of darkness and despair. The temptation is to resign to fate and get used to a new normal in that low place. While we may feel weak and powerless to make the dismal circumstances change in our favor by our own strength, we must remember that the God we serve is All Powerful. He is sovereign. He is our Provider, our Healer. The grace of God is sufficient for us, for His power is made perfect in weakness (2 Corinthians 12:9). His power…is made PERFECT in weakness.
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In our times of weakness, we must remember to keep God first in our hearts and minds. We have to trust in Him with all our hearts and lean not unto our own understanding (Proverbs 3:5-6). It may seem during our times of waiting that we are going to be stuck in the low place. We can be tempted to become hopeless. Everything that makes us feel strong and capable may simply not be working anymore. But in such times it is important to trust and rely on God’s steadfast love, which never fails (1 Corinthians 13:8). The God we serve will never leave nor forsake us (Deuteronomy 31:6). His mercy endures forever. (1 Chronicles 16:34).

Through the Lord’s mercies we are not consumed,
Because His compassions fail not.
They are new every morning;
Great is Your faithfulness.
--Lamentations 3:22-23
 
We cannot know the mysterious thoughts and ways of God (Isaiah 55:8-9). Our times of low position and lack of capacity may be for our protection and preparation for where He plans to take us. Trusting God during such times is critical. The Author and the Finisher of our faith knows all about where we are going in life. At the right time the Lord will make it happen (Isaiah 60:22). At the appointed time, God will give us renewed strength. He will cause us to MOUNT UP with wings like eagles taking flight high above the position we felt stuck in. When God gets us up from that place, we will have the vitality and vigor to run and not be weary, to walk and not faint.
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Be encouraged today and know that God is with you while you wait. At the appointed time He will give you renewed, indefatigable strength and cause you to take off into the destiny for your life. God gives you a strength that no one can extinguish. He gives you a take off that makes people want to take you down but that no one can touch. When God causes you to mount up, you best believe that the winds of this world won’t be able to work against your ascent, no matter how hard they blow. Receive the power of God and soar.
 
Be Blessed!
~Nina

Updated 8/31/2020
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Praise God from whom all blessings flow! He is worthy to be praised (Psalm 18:3). Let us thank God today for His grace, mercy, and peace that is with us in truth and love (2 John 1:3).

I am thankful this morning for the presence of God. I thank Him for thinking it not robbery to continue to allow breath to flow through my nostrils. I know that God has a good plan for my life to prosper me and bring me no harm (Jeremiah 29:11). By faith, I trust that because I wait upon the Lord, He is renewing my strength and causing me to mount up with wings like eagles to soar in the purpose that He has established for my life before I was ever planted in my mother’s womb. I am sober, vigilant, and serious about fulfilling God’s purpose and plan for my life (1 Peter 5:8).

Sometimes we forget how serious life is. We as humans have the tendency to take for granted or overlook the reality that every single day of our lives is a tremendous gift from God. Not only is each day a gift, but the high-quality workmanship of human creation itself is a deeply intentional and detailed manifestation of God, Our Creator. God created us in His own image. Every detail of our being has been fearfully and wonderfully made by Him, and He is fully aware of every single aspect of each one of us. The very hairs of our heads are all numbered (Matthew 10:30).
 
Ephesians 2:10
For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.

Experiencing the death of someone that you love, and even more so someone that loved you, is a powerful reminder of how serious life is. Only God knows the day or hour that will be our last (Mark 13:32). Let us not take God’s grace for granted by squandering the time we have on meaningless pursuits. Let us let us lay aside every weight and the sin which so easily ensnares us, because the wages of sin is death (Hebrews 12:1, Romans 6:23).

My encouragement today is that we all get serious about the specific purpose for our lives. Let us not waste another moment looking to the left or the right being distracted or delayed from the path of destiny for our lives (Deuteronomy 28:14).

Luke 9:23 AMP
And He was saying to them all, “If anyone wishes to follow Me [as My disciple], he must deny himself [set aside selfish interests], and take up his cross daily [expressing a willingness to endure whatever may come] and follow Me [believing in Me, conforming to My example in living and, if need be, suffering or perhaps dying because of faith in Me]. Let us lay aside the superficial and ungodly matters in our lives and be serious about what God has called us to do. 

Be Blessed!
~Nina
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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.
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With God all things are possible (Matthew 19:26).

Be Blessed!
~Nina

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
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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.
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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