When life seems dark……

THOUGHT OF THE DAY

 

[What, would have become of me] had I

not believed that I would see the Lord’s

goodness in the land of the living!

 

Wait and hope for and expect the Lord;

be brave and of good courage and let

your heart be stout and enduring.

Yes, wait for and hope for and expect

the Lord.

Psalm 27:13, 14

 

My heart jumped when I read this scripture in

the morning. As we live this life there needs

to be an expectation!

An expectation that God, the Maker of heaven

and earth and the whole universe will be good to

us.

The world we live in wants us to believe that there

is nothing good in it.

It wants us to live in fear.

It wants us to believe the situation is hopeless,

that life is hopeless!

But it’s not true people!!!!

As believers we have God our Father!

As believers we have a chance, a very good chance!

God has good things in store for us.

God wants us to believe that!

He wants us to expect Him to show up!

 

If that expectation dies we die!

 

I don’t know what situation you are facing

today but please hope again. Expect the Lord’s

goodness.

 

This is what I have been declaring for the past

couple of days:

 

For You send blessings of good things to meet him;

You set a crown of pure gold on his head.

Psalms 21:3

 

For You send blessings of good things to meet

me.

You set a crown of pure gold on my head!

 

What are you saying? What are you expecting?

Today, believe you will see the Lord’s goodness

in the land of the living!

I believe you will see it if you expect it, if you dare

to believe that God is good and He is busy doing good

things for you!

The last part of that scripture says,

 

Wait and hope for and expect the Lord;

 

It’s not easy to hope especially when the picture

on the ground looks bleak.

It’s not easy to hope when the bank account is empty.

It’s not easy to hope when things are not working out.

 

But the key is to believe that you will see the goodness

of God in the land of the living!

In the pain, in poverty, when things seem bleak

and hopeless,

believe you will see the goodness of the Lord!

Amen and AMEN!!!

Rolain

 

 

How to pray for your future wife!

This post is a response to a post I read a few days ago, a post that  challenged me to the core. If you are a single woman I urge you to read it. The title of the post is called, “Dear Future Husband” and it is written by Samantha Hardcastle. You can read it here.

Men, I urge you to read it as well. It is an excellently written post and I think as men we need to know the kind of women we want and Samantha does a great job of holding up a Proverbs 31 woman. Anyway, let’s start. After reading the post I realized how important it is for us as men to do our part. We too need to pray for our wives. Samantha says,

‘These women don’t know if he has brown hair or orange hair – if he enjoys his coffee black or sweet – or if he’s been through hell and back. But they all share a common thread that all too easily, could be a lost art in one’s love life – and that is the act of praying.”

Men, prayer is important. Prayer is powerful and not to be taken lightly. I say that to you and to myself as a reminder. But I would like to go further with this because as men our responsibility is so much greater not because God made men better than women, but because God has a plan. We are to be the head. We are called to lead our families. We are called to protect and take care of them. The responsibility we have been given is very serious. So the question stands, how are we as men to pray for our wives?

I mentioned the first point. The actually act of praying is very important and key.

For the second point I would like to share something else from Samantha’s post,

“As I go through my past letters, a common theme I have prayed over him is that He would be a bold man for the things of God, bold in loving others, bold in living selflessly, bold in risking his personal comfort for more of Jesus. A man who is bold is the kind of man I want to hold”.

Another way of praying for your future wife is by preparing yourself in your singleness.

What habits need to be changed now? We don’t start when we get married, no! We start now. Ask God to show you habits that are not honoring to Him and ask your closest friends about the things you do that annoy them. Maybe you talk with food in your mouth or people can hear you from the other side of the world when you eat. Maybe you like getting up late every day or maybe you can’t resist flirting with other women, I don’t know. Just change habits that need to be changed.

Have a vision. As a man you are going to lead your family but how will you lead if you don’t have a vision? Let me rephrase that. How can you lead your family if you don’t know what your purpose is? Everyone has a purpose from God. Ask God to show you His purpose for your life.

Seek God with all of your heart. I put this third but it’s actually the most important thing a man can do. Without God we are nothing. He must be first in your life. He must be your consuming passion. He must be the one who occupies your thoughts constantly. He must be the one that completes you. Please listen to me on this point. A woman will not complete you. God is the only one, I repeat , the only one who will complete you…..The media has lied to us through movies and music that a man or woman will complete us but that is so not true. GOD IS THE ONLY ONE WHO WILL COMPLETE YOU. Ladies, if you find yourself relying on a man for meaning and purpose then you have been deceived! God is the only one who can give you that.

I will stop there for today. I have lots to share but I will stop there. I hope you got the gist of what I am saying. As men we need to pray for our wives too. They need our prayers as we need their prayers……It’s a two way thing.  Be vigilant; don’t take the assignment you have been given by God lightly. Your future wife is depending on you, she is praying for you!

Rolain