Understanding Our Times

Let’s think about this statement! This exact statement was the opening line of my daily devotional, not too long ago.  When I read it, it gripped my heart. As I continued reading I highlighted some things that the Holy Spirit was speaking and I felt the peaceful, reassurance of the Lord.

Here’s what He highlighted and spoke:  Your future is absolutely assured. Not only your future, but your present time is secured.   Scripture says, “My times are in your hand.”  Psalm 31: 15  Learn to live in a responsive mode.

What does that mean?  It means to be on the lookout for all He is doing. This sounds easy, but it requires a deep, deep level of trust–His way is perfect, even when we don’t see the end in sight.

Psalm 37: 23-24 says this: “If the Lord delights in a man’s way, He makes his steps firm; though he stumble, he will not fall, for the Lord upholds him/her with His hand.”

Here are some questions I was asked:  Does the Lord delight in our ways? Is He pleased in the way we are living?  How is the Lord delighted?

When He is delighted/pleased with us here is what happens:
“If the Lord is pleased with us, He will lead us into that land, a land flowing with milk and honey, and will give it to us.”  Numbers 14: 8

If you are wondering about the flowing milk and honey, maybe it is just easier to say, you will walk into and enjoy ALL you have been promised, your promised land.  Your promised land is “A land where He grants peace to your borders and satisfies you with finest wheat.”  Psalm 147: 14

He not only grants peace but peace to the borders. He surrounds us with His peace. There are borders and boundaries that the enemy cannot cross because God has declared peace. Oh, how encouraging this is!  Not only that,  but He makes our steps firm in the process.

Here’s HOW:  (Job 11: 13-15)
Vs. 13  “If you devote your heart to Him and stretch out your hands to Him,
Vs. 14  If you put away the sin that is in your hand and allow no evil to dwell in your tent,
Vs. 15  THEN you will lift up your face without shame; you will stand firm and without fear!

Devotion to Him has great rewards not only in heaven but here on earth. God uses our devotion to strengthen us and then enables us to stand firm and fearless.

Here’s another HOW :  (Psalm 66: 8-12)
Vs. 8  “Praise our God, O peoples, let the sound of praise be heard;
Vs. 9  He has preserved our lives, and kept our feet from slipping.
Vs. 10  For you, O God, tested us; you refined us like silver,
Vs. 11  You brought us into prison and laid burdens on our backs.
Vs. 12  You let men ride over our heads; we went through fire and water, but you brought us to a place of abundance.

If you feel like you are in the fire lately, rest assured that you will be brought into a place of abundance!  Fire and water are metaphors for severe trials. A “place of abundance” means you will be brought out of a situation of distress into a situation of overflowing well-being. When we are overflowing in a sense of well-being, that is surely abundance. Yea God!

So friends, whatever time you are in,  good times or bad times,  good season or tough season, you are His. We are in perilous times in our nation, let’s hold on to what lies ahead. God is still in control.

The Lord is saying:You are mine in your time.  
Before I declare over your life, “It’s time, you must realize you are mine in your time.”

In…
Your time of struggle,
Your time of mourning,
Your time of waiting,
Your time of battle.
Your time of joy,
Your time of peace,
Your time of rest!
For your times, are in My hand!   Settle that within your heart today.

YOUR time is not your friend’s time.
YOUR time of promotion is not the same as another,
YOUR time, not your neighbors time, But your time is in My hand!

For some:   “You’ve come to a royal position for such a TIME as this..”  Esther 4: 14
“There is a TIME for everything.”   Ecclesiastes  3: 1
“The wise heart will know the proper TIME.” Ecclesiastes 8: 5
For it is TIME to seek the Lord.”  Hosea 10: 12
“Jesus replied, “My TIME has not come yet. John 2: 4

Even for the Lord, it took someone to put a demand on the anointing, when it wasn’t His time.  That someone was his mother. Her statement to the servants was: “Do whatever He tells you.”  This activated His destiny. She was calling and seeing things not as they were, but as they are or as they are to be, So must we. Sometimes we need someone to call forth in us, what we are to do. There is something powerful about declarations when they come into alignment with the assignment.  Servants do whatever the master tells them to do. There is a special bond between the servant and the Master. In our serving Him, as our Master and as our Lord Jesus, are we servant-led?

Here are some more thoughts about TIME.  

“At the appointed TIME…I will return.”  Romans 9: 9
“Now is the TIME of God’s favor.”  2 Corinthians 6: 2
The Lord is a stronghold in TIMES of trouble.”  Psalm 9: 9
A friend loves at all TIMES.”  Proverbs 17: 17

If you are in a time of sorrow , let this Psalm below minister to you.  Let it give you a supernatural trust in the Lord that He will help you. David wrote it when he was needing deliverance.  His friends abandoned him. He was being confronted by a powerful conspiracy against him, yet, no other Psalm expresses a more sturdy trust in the Lord when powerful human forces threaten! The heart of the prayer resounds the theme of TRUST IN THE LORD!

Psalm 31: 9-24   “Be merciful to me, O Lord, for I am in distress; my eyes grow weak with sorrow, my soul and my body with grief. My life is consumed by anguish and my years by groaning; my strength fails because of my affliction, and my bones grow weak.  Because of all my enemies, I am the utter contempt of my neighbors; I am a dread to my friends–those who see me on the street flee from me. I am forgotten by them as though I were dead; I have become like broken pottery.  For I hear the slander of many; there is terror on every side; they conspire against me and plot to take my life.  But I trust in you, O Lord; I say, You are my God.  MY TIMES ARE IN YOUR HANDS…deliver me from my enemies and from those who pursue me.  Let me not be put to shame, O Lord, for I have cried out to you; but the wicked he put to shame and lie silent in the grave.Let their lying lips be silenced, for with pride and contempt they speak arrogantly against the righteous.  How great is your goodness, which you have stored up for those who fear you, which you bestow in the sight of men on those who take refuge in you. In the shelter of your presence you hide them from the intrigues of men; in your dwelling you keep them safe from accusing tongues. Praise be to the Lord; for He showed His wonderful love to me when I was in a besieged city. In my alarm, I said, I am cut off from your sight.  Yet you heard my cry for mercy when I called to you for help. Love the Lord, all His saints.  The Lord preserves the faithful, but the proud He pays back in full. Be strong and take heart all you who hope in the Lord.

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