Heart in Bloom

“Put God in control of your life and then begin enjoying today:

Let us enjoy God’s presence like we do with a close friend or relative. Just thinking about those we love can put a smile on our face and make us feel good.

Similarly, simply being in the presence of God brings us great joy. It happens when we listen to our Lord speak in His word, and as we pray, we enjoy His presence and know that He’s with us every moment of every day.

Jesus made us this promise: ‘I will be with you always to the very end of the age.’ (Matthew 28:20)

‘In your presence is fullness of joy,’ writes David in Psalm 16:11. We rejoice in knowing the blessing is from God. ‘Be still and know that I am God,’ (Psalm 46:10).

Someday we’ll all be in the presence of God our Father and Jesus, His beloved Son. The Bible promises us, ‘And I heard a great voice out of heaven saying, behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them and be their God.’ (Rev. 21:3)

In the meantime, we should worship and serve our God, delighting in His presence right now. God is with us every hour of the day, not only when we’re at church, but we should feel His presence everywhere we are.

In John 10:28, ‘I give them eternal life, they shall never perish, no one can snatch them out of my hand.’

Worry is something that can affect both our physical and mental states – If we don’t let it go. It’s one thing to be concerned about a particular situation in our life, but when that concern turns into worry, it can cause a range of problems.

Knowing God is in charge of our lives, we can avoid being paralyzed by worry and live contentedly. ‘Therefore, humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you in due time, casting all your care upon Him for He cares for you.’ (1 Peter 5:6-7)

So be content with who you are. God’s strong hand is on you; He’ll promote you at the right time. Live carefree before God, He is most careful with you.

Wouldn’t life be so much simpler if we all decided to be happy with who we are? When worry creeps into our lives, it’s usually because we feel like we’re not in control, and that’s when God comes in.

Put God in control and you can turn your worries over to Him, where they should have been from the start. If you can in the moment, remind yourself that God’s strong hand is upon you. Then, the worries start to fade away, and we can start living a carefree life. This doesn’t mean we should become lazy and not try to solve problems that confront us in life.

After we’ve done our best, and the problem is still there, we can be assured that it is for a reason. God will remove it at the appropriate time, or hold your hand through it.

This is another comforting passage of scripture to keep in mind when worries arise; ‘Therefore, do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own. (Matthew 6:34)

Our body is only capable of dealing with the stresses of everyday life on a daily basis. When we worry about tomorrow, we pull tomorrow’s cloud over today’s sunshine.

Some people never seem to be happy with the weather, even on a nice day, because they’re already thinking about the next cold front or the next rainstorm in the forecast. There’s many of God’s blessings to be enjoyed every day if we will only look around for them.

Worries block our view of these blessings that are right in front of us every day and within our own grasp. When your health starts to break down, worry can become so overwhelming that it takes a toll on your body, and that stress could actually be the root of the problem.

The Bible says to cast all your cares, all your anxieties, on God. If we are to follow the advice of God’s word, then we should be anxious about nothing, no matter how big the problem seems.

It means not worrying about your children, your money, your future, or even your health. God is in charge, you’ve now put Him in control, and He’s not going to let you down.

Our rock of ages shelters us from life’s storms and provides salvation. A beautiful and inspiring hymn is ‘Rock of Ages’. The prophet Isaiah spoke of the rock in the 26th chapter of Isaiah. In Deuteronomy 32:4, ‘The Rock! His work is perfect, for all His ways are just; A God of faithfulness and without injustice, Righteous and just is He.’

Are you searching for truth? We all are in one way or another, and continue to find it every time we hear God’s word and when we are inspired to live by those truths.

The Psalmist David wrote, ‘O’Lord, my strength and my redeemer.’ He realized how important this ‘Rock of Ages’ is even before his birth in the flesh. Jesus was there with God the Father as recorded in the pages of the Old Testament scriptures.

Paul the Apostle writes in 1 Corinthians 10, ‘For I do not want you to be unaware, brothers and sisters, that our fathers were all under the cloud and they all passed through the sea; and they all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea; and they all ate the same spiritual food, and all drank the same spiritual drink, for they were drinking from a spiritual rock which followed them; and the rock was Christ.’

Yes, that rock was with the children of Israel in the wilderness and is our rock when we wander in the wilderness of life. Do you trust in that rock for your physical well being and your spiritual salvation?

We can hide and be protected in the loving arms of Jesus. He died for our sins and rose again to conquer eternal death for us all. He is our Rock of Ages.

The Apostle Paul preached the gospel in a very powerful way after his conversion to Jesus Christ. If someone were to ask Paul to give the gospel of Jesus Christ in two or three words, it would surely be this: ‘Jesus crucified.’ (1 Corinthians 1:2)

‘Unto the church of God which is at Corinth to them that are sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints, with all that in every place call upon the name of Jesus Christ our Lord, both theirs and ours.’

Not only do these words affect our very salvation, but Christ’s crucifixion affects us every day of our lives. This is how God was able to get down among us, to get down on our level. By becoming God in the flesh, He was able to suffer as much or more than any of us have suffered.

He not only suffered humiliation, but He suffered persecution and death. The truth of the gospel is very important, but it can’t be separated from the way of the gospel. And what is that way? Jesus said, ‘I am the way, the truth, and the life; no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.’ (John 14:6)

It is always comforting to know that we can never get so low in life that we are beneath where God has been. And our Lord is there with us when we are low, down, weak in the spirit, He is longing to fellowship with us in all these situations.

But Jesus tells us that we’ve got to be as ‘little children’, if we’re going to enter the kingdom of heaven, we can’t be self-righteous, and we can’t be filled with egotism.

Paul writes, ‘So where can you find someone truly wise, truly educated. Since the world in all it’s wisdom never had a clue when it came to knowing God, God in His wisdom, took delight in using what the world considered dumb – preaching, to bring those who trust Him into the way of Salvation.’ (1 Corin 1:20-22 – MSG)

If we are to be followers of Christ, we can’t brag about what we’ve accomplished in life. We have to give all the credit to God for inspiring us and giving us the strength and ability to do His will.

Paul continues, ‘Take a good look, friends at who you were when you got called info this life.’ I don’t see many of the brightest and the best among you, not many from high-society families. Isn’t it obvious that God deliberately chose those nobodies to expose the hollow pretensions of the somebodies?’ (1 Corin 1:26-31 – MSG)

Everything that we have – right thinking and right living, a clean slate, and a fresh start – comes from God by way of Jesus Christ. ‘That according as it is written, He that glories, let him glory in the Lord. (1 Corinthians 1:31)

When we learn to give all praise to God, we begin living humbly before the Lord, and give all the glory and praise to God.”

“Humble yourselves before the Lord, and He will lift you up.” James 1:10

Messages from the Bible by Guadalupe Revilla