It was about 5 A.M. when I heard this roaring sound …
it was my stomach growling insisting to be fed.Gently rubbing my tummy to persuade it to calm down, I gave assurance it would eat soon. Not willing to wait, my intolerant stomach dragged me out of bed and forced me to open the refrigerator. (Go with it OK.)
Palming through all the bottles, cartons and containers I
made a yogurt selection, regardless to what my brain and abdomen had in
mind. Sitting down in a dimly lit room I
heard another sound.
Welcome new friends this week from:
See if your city/state/country made the list.
New on DFB – Nambia;
Cambodia; Uganda; Yemen; Vietnam; Gambia; Guatemala; Dominican Republic;
Bulgaria; Botswana; Tunisia; Fiji; Laos;
Lagos, Lagos State, Nigeria; Karachi, Sindh, Pakistan; Taipei, Taiwan; South
Africa; Alexandria & Cairo, Egypt;
Japan.
USA – Atlanta, GA; Chicago, IL; Orlando, FL;
Swedesboro, Newfield & Marlton, NJ; Bellevue, WA; Selmer, TN; Birmingham,
AL; Riverside, Cal Cleveland, OH; Washington, DC.
Thank you for your continued support and sharing Believing
Our Belief on Daily Favor. (DFB -
Daily Favor Blog)
You are welcome to leave comments or prayer requests below. All are private. I would love to hear from
you and how Daily Favor has worked in your life. Contact me by leaving a message in the box at
the bottom of this week’s post.
Don't miss
out on this week's challenge (below).
Here Comes the Rain
“Here comes the rain, and I say, “It’s alright.” OK, so that’s not the line in a popular song
but it is close, and reminded me that rain is a sign something is about to
happen.
I listened as drops of rain hit the roof in the wee hours
of the morning like little pattering feet.
The rain didn’t come all at once, but gently fell until there was a full
downpour. Crashing thunder rolled and
rolled like the sound of bowling pins falling one by one off in the distance.
After a while, it tapered off and once more became a
trickle until it finally stopped. It was
dawn by now and the sun began making her appearance over the horizon. Slumped over my sink window with my elbows
supporting my weary head, I watched the birds begin to congregate around the
feeding area and dance on the edge of the bird bath.
There was a clean smell in the air, you know, only the
kind that comes after an early spring storm.
It was over now and a new day had begun.
The earth has been bathed in splendor and now we wait to see what was affected
by the night’s activities.
If there is one thing that I’ve learned from spring
thunderstorms, it's that they don’t last and always bring change. It’s the change that seems to bother us the
most, because we’re not always prepared for what has been left in the wake of
the storm.
Getting Better Eye Sight
Some storms we see building; we know to brace ourselves
and are prepared, while others come unexpectedly. Thunderstorms (literal and
emotional) came at all times of the day over the past few weeks. When one was over another one popped up, day
after day. It gave the impression that
the sun had disappeared.
Sometimes
it seems like there’s too much to handle. We feel guilty if we complain, “Lord
this is too overwhelming. You have to do something!”
In reality we want the storms to stop, but truth
be told, without them we couldn’t experience the calm that brings the
rainbow. We’d never see how God is
washing away the debris and cleansing what was dirty in our unbelieving hearts.
I
could see a weakening spirit in my husband a while back. When I asked him what was wrong he said it
was a feeling of brokenness. Sure with
all the medications his emotions were as flighty as a woman going through
menopause (oh my, he’s going to read this!), but this had gone much deeper.
We
needed a new approach on how we were dealing with all the changes in our lives,
and that meant looking beyond what we saw with our natural eye. Spiritual eyes were now gazing upon the
situation.
Looking Back on A.N.A.
April has been a stormy month for us, but God always
sends good in the middle of bad. We need
to look for those rays of hope and keep believing anyway.
The car broke down, the mower quit, a friend’s husband
left for Heaven, then the report of my husband needing another operation. There were other things, but why dwell on
things that are subject to change?
Remembering back to our challenges in 2013-2014 God has shown us that our approach to any matter determines its outcome. So this is how I assessed
matters.
Yes,
the car broke down causing added stress, but the Lord provided a vehicle. That person has now “aligned” themselves (car
pun intended) in the pathway of God for a blessing to come their way, because
they loaned us their vehicle until ours was repaired. They sowed the car for God’s use so favor
must go to them according to scripture. Plus we paid the bill without going into
debt.
Use
your spiritual eyes and look at it like this. Mowers (things) can be repaired
or replaced, God’s children change location by forwarding to Heaven, and the doctor’s
see healing they cannot explain. All
these things must come for a reason; to help people believe in God and draw them
to Him. The best thing is that He chooses
to let us be part of His plan.
Unseen
Storms
Storms
in life allow God’s people to converge (come together over the same point/situation,
but from various places or directions) on the devil in prayer and action
according to the Word. Scripture declares
that after Jesus was crucified, He was active in ways we couldn’t see.
When
Jesus died on the cross, the unseen world experienced its own storm. Jesus
entered the gates of Hell, and stripped satan of any power or victory. That power is still active through the work
of the Holy Spirit no matter how tumultuous things may seem.
Look
Beyond the Storm
Jesus
believed He would be raised from the dead.
He believed in God’s Word and ability to change a situation so there
would be a new side to what the world called “a tragedy”.
He viewed things from the other side of the
storm with spiritual eyes and kept believing despite what he saw, felt or
thought in the flesh. He chose to see
beyond the storm.
People
think that the storm Jesus experienced on the cross lasted three days, but it
didn’t. They could only see what He was
doing in the present. The storm had
stopped and new things were being set in motion.
The
world doesn’t get to see that part, but we have to believe there is something
going on in day 2 (the middle) of our storm.
Day three is coming! It’s good,
new and something better than we could have ever hoped for, thought or
imagined. (See Ephesians 3)
Appreciate
the Mysteries of God
Is
God setting us up for tragedy or bad news to come? No, but like Jesus, we will go through storms. He prepared ahead of time through prayer by rejecting
fear or doubt to partner with what was to come. He focused on the promise beyond the cross and believed through the storm.
What
the world viewed as a mystery of God, Jesus saw as a promise being
fulfilled.
There’s
A New Dawn Coming
Good
things are coming to God’s kids, but only for those who believe. Either we are going to stay in hope or get
washed away with fear during the storms of life. What is it going to be for
you?
It
was dawn when the storm broke on Thursday, allowing the sun to appear and the
birds sang. I imagine it was much like
when Jesus said He would arise. At dawn
new mercy came for Him; what He believed the Heavenly Father would do came to
pass.
Psalm 23:6a declares the same promise for us, that with each dawn we are given, it is
presented with new mercies and goodness that follow us not only throughout the
day, but for all of our lives. That means there is hope when we focus beyond
the storms we faced the previous day.
Only
God Can Do His Job
What
are you believing God for in prayer?
Jesus stayed in prayer and let God do what He promised. In other words, He let God do His job so the
promise of resurrection could come. We have to do the same.
Jesus
is alive, active and a new dawn has come to all who believe in the promises
spelled out in the Word of God. Get
excited about what God has prepared for you. This storm you are experiencing is
almost over; you are about to see a new dawn where the sun will shine bearing
glorious blessings in full bloom.
Recently
my sister had a flat tire on her car.
Instead of looking at the circumstances, she began to laugh. Not because
the flat wasn’t real or a concern, but she believed in God’s promises to
deliver her over what she was looking at on her vehicle.
God is about to do more than you could have ever dreamed in your life. Don’t look at what’s happening right now. Circumstances are about to change if you keep believing.
"Let us know, let us pursue the knowledge of the LORD. His going forth is established as the morning; He will come to us like the rain, like the latter and former rain to the earth." (Hosea 6:3 NKJV)
Note:
The words satan or devil are not capitalized deliberately, because we give him
no place in our lives.
This Week’s Challenge:
Believe beyond your circumstance that God’s gates are
opening for you to experience greater things for His glory.
As Jesus prepared for glory to fall on Him, He
worshipped, prayed and praised. His
prayers spoke of what He believed. Jesus
didn’t pray “if” or “maybe”, but let it rain prayers, meaning God, bring on the
storm because I know You will deliver Me.
This week’s challenge is to take the same action in prayer
as Jesus. It’s a new day, a new dawn in
the life of a believer. He wants to do bigger
things for us; greater than we could even think or ask.
God promises that when we seek His wisdom in every area
of our lives, He will disperse favor on that individual. Don’t you want to be that person?
“For whoso (who means whoever, you, me or anyone) finds me
(wisdom of God) finds life and shall (a promise assured) obtain (receive) favor
of the LORD.” (Proverbs 8:35 NKJV)
Jesus increased in favor from God and man; so can we if
we believe and pray like He did.
Ask God to use you for whatever He needs this week. That
means submitting your will to His no matter what the request may be and seeking
His wisdom to carry out the task. A storm
may or may not come. We’re going to
leave all the details in God’s hands and believe there is favor already awaiting
us for being obedient.
If you’re too afraid to do this, we’ve identified the
problem … you don’t believe what you thought you believed after all. You don’t really believe in the resurrection
side of the cross, and that needs to be dealt with first.
Something is about to happen:
I can feel it coming in my
spirit. Can you hear the rain in the
distance?
In today’s lingo it would be smugly staring at the devil while
shouting to God,
“Bring it on … let it rain, I already see the rainbow!”
“Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly
above all that we ask or think, according to the power of the Holy Spirit that
works in us, to Him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus to all generations,
forever and ever. Amen (Ephesians 3:20 NKJV)
Until
next time, favor dwells in the wisdom of God.
“I will give favor when you seek Me.”
Jesus Christ
What’s New This
Week: Click on link below:
Beyond the Storm by Dr. Jerry Jones
Maybe you don’t know the Living God that I
know, but would like to have this kind of favor in your life also. Click on the above tab “Tell Me” for more
information on becoming a child of the Savior.
Content and Image Copyright from Favored1. Do not copy. A.N.A. logo by
J.C.Penney, Inc.
Scripture reference was taken from the New King James Bible Version provided by Bible Gateway.
Image credit: Google Images or Dreamstime Creative Common License if not specified.
Image: Refrigerator Window View of Rain Spiritual Eyes New Dawn New Beginning Let it Rain Floodgates of Heaven
Disclaimer Notes: Results may vary due to lack of belief.
