How God Works Behind the Scenes to Position You for Miracles

SANDRA CLIFTON, D. MIN.

 

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(© Ctpaul / StockFreeImages.com)

“Wait, wait—look!” I exclaimed to my husband, Terry, on our morning walk. “Where did that come from?”

There, before our eyes was a flower, purple and pink with long soft petals. After a particularly long, cold winter, the flower was a miraculous reminder of spring!

But there was something else even more amazing than the first spring flower emerging after winter. This extraordinary, colorful flower had pushed through the least likely place—a dirty, ragged crack to the side of the cement sidewalk.

Snug and secure out of the flow of foot traffic, it looked as though this tiny flower had been placed there by a loving hand, for a reason—to simply grow and blossom, despite all odds.

Alone In The Desert

"And he took them, and went aside privately into a desert place" (Luke 9:10).

In order to grow in grace, we must be much alone. It is not in society that the soul grows most vigorously. In one single quiet hour of prayer it will often make more progress than in days of company with others. It is in the desert that the dew falls freshest and the air is purest.
--Andrew Bonar

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"Come ye yourselves apart and rest awhile,

Weary, I know it, of the press and throng,

Wipe from your brow the sweat and dust of toil,

And in My quiet strength again be strong.

"Come ye aside from all the world holds dear,

For converse which the world has never known,

Alone with Me, and with My Father here,

With Me and with My Father not alone.

Bound to Happen

Written by Julie Cosgrove

When the unexpected comes, it can help to talk about it. But when you don’t have someone to talk with, contact an online mentor, and receive a personal & confidential reply by email.

“When he summoned a famine on the land and broke all supply of bread, he had sent a man ahead of them, Joseph, who was sold as a slave. His feet were hurt with fetters; his neck was put in a collar of iron; until what he had said came to pass, the word of the Lord tested him. The king sent and released him; the ruler of the peoples set him free; he made him lord of his house and ruler of all his possessions, to bind his princes at his pleasure and to teach his elders wisdom.” (Psalm 105:17-22)

This is the way the Psalmist describes what happened to Joseph in the Book of Genesis. His jealous brothers left him to die. He was sold into slavery, but lived. God eventually raised Joseph up to be second only to the King, just when his brothers needed him the most. It was in a time of famine and Egypt, because of Joseph’s wise reliance and trust in God, had obediently stored grain away in advance.

I Want to Run Away

By Lysa TerKeurst

"If you carefully observe all these commands I am giving you to follow—to love the Lord your God, to walk in obedience to him and to hold fast to him—then the Lord will drive out all these nations before you, and you will dispossess nations larger and stronger than you." Deuteronomy 11:22-23 (NIV)

One of the worst feelings in the world to me is feeling stuck.

Stuck in a situation where I can't see things getting better. I look at the next 5 minutes, 5 hours, 5 days, and all I see are the same hard patterns being repeated over and over.

I try to give myself a pep talk and tap into that part of me that chooses to see the bright side. But it isn't there.

Life suddenly feels like it will forever be this way.

God Wants To Do A New Thing In Your Life

Wayne Searls

Isaiah 43:18,19

TEXT: Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past. See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the desert and streams in the wasteland.

PROPOSITION: To motivate the hearer to seek a new vision and a new in-terest in the things of God.

INTRODUCTION: Isaiah’s writings to the children of Israel came at a bleak period of their history. They are in captivity, they have lost everything they thought they would keep forever, and they were home sick for the land and the blessing God had promised them.

The 1st step to embracing the new thing what God wants to do in your life is to
I. CHANGE YOUR FOCUS -- QUIT LOOKING BEHIND START LOOKING HEAD v.18
Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past.

How to Win ANY Battle in Life

Steve Arterburn 

You've tried it your way and failed. Don't give up! Choose to stay in the game and see how God even takes our mistakes and builds them into our greatest victories. 

How many times have we heard this one: “It doesn't matter if you win or lose, it's how you play the game that counts.” Some of us realized winning meant a lot when we noticed that the guys who got the girls were the ones who won the starting positions on the team. Even if how they played the game was anything but nice, they still won and got the girls.