Video Bible Lesson - A Prayer to Put on the Armor of God By Debbie McDaniel

A Prayer to Put on the Armor of God
By Debbie McDaniel

1/2 Hour of God’s Power with Scott Ralls

2/5/2020

02/05/2020

A Prayer to Put on the Armor of God
By Debbie McDaniel
“Do not be afraid of them; the LORD your God himself will fight for you.” (Deut. 3:22)
We may forget at times but one thing is true - this world is a battlefield. Day by day, hour by hour, we face a spiritual war and an enemy who’s real. He wants nothing more than to bring defeat, for his main aim is to steal, kill, and destroy.
God has a plan for our lives. The enemy has a plan for us too. We just have to decide which voice we’re going to listen to, and who we're going to choose to follow each day. And chances are, if we don't make a determined choice to follow God, we may eventually fall into the evil one’s trap.
God has given us his Word and Spirit, powerful and true, so we'll have the wisdom and protection to stand against the enemy. We focus today on putting on His armor, staying alert, and praying that God will equip believers everywhere to "stand strong."
"Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. Put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms."
"Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand. Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. Take the helmet of salvation and sword of the Spirit which is the word of God. And pray in the Spirit on all occasions, with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the saints.” (Eph. 6:10-18)
Pray with me:
Dear God, today we put on the full armor to guard our lives against attack. We put on the belt of truth to protect against lies and deception. We put on the breastplate of righteousness to protect our hearts from the temptations we battle. We put the gospel of peace on our feet, so we’re ready to take your light wherever you send us this day. We choose to walk in the peace and freedom of your Spirit and not be overcome with fear and anxious thoughts. We take up your shield of faith that will extinguish all the darts and threats hurled our way by the enemy. We believe in your power to protect us and choose to trust in you. We put on the helmet of salvation, which covers our minds and thoughts, reminding us we are children of the day, forgiven, set free, saved by the grace of Christ Jesus. We take up the sword of the Spirit, your very Word, the one offensive weapon given to us for battle, which has the power to demolish strongholds, alive, active, and sharper than any double-edged sword.
We ask for your help in remembering to put on your full armor every day, for you give us all that we need to stand firm in this world. Forgive us God for the times we’ve been unprepared, too busy to care, or trying to fight and wrestle in our own strength.
Thank you that we never fight alone, for you are constantly at work on our behalf, shielding, protecting, strengthening, exposing deeds of darkness, bringing to light what needs to be known, covering us from the cruel attacks we face even when we’re unaware. In the powerful name of Jesus, Amen.

#Jesus, #Christian, #Bible, #Salvation, #Heaven, #God, #HolySpirit

Finding Clear Guidance

Finding Clear Guidance

Dr. Charles Stanley

Psalms 25:12

How can you be sure you’re making the right decision? Sometimes it may seem as if God plays hide and seek when we’re trying to know His will, but that’s not the way He operates. He wants to give us clear direction. The real question is, What do you need to do to hear His voice?

Clear the pathway. We have two main obstacles that hinder our discernment: sin in our life, and our own strong desires about the situation. To receive the Lord’s guidance, we must repent of all known sin and make our desires secondary to His.

Exercise patience. Sometimes it takes a great deal of strength to stand still when everything within you is shouting, “Hurry! Time is running out!” But if you rush ahead of God, you may miss His will.

Persist in prayer. The Bible clearly instructs us to keep coming to the Lord with our concerns. As we continue to pray, He will gradually weed out anything confusing until we come to His conclusion about the matter.

Search the Scriptures. The Word of God has an answer for every need, and the Holy Spirit knows just how to point us in the right direction. I remember times while I was reading the Bible that a verse jumped off the page and supplied the exact answer I needed to make an important decision.

So often when we’re faced with a critical choice, all we want from the Lord is a quick answer. But He delights to meet with us in order to deepen our relationship with Him. Don’t let the urgency of your need keep you from enjoying the intimacy of His presence as you seek His will.

Pray and Never Give Up...🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻

Pray and Never Give Up
SHEILA WALSH

“One day Jesus told his disciples a story to show that they should always pray and never give up.” Luke 18:1 (NLT)

I was 38 years old when Barry and I were married. Because of my age, we took the business of getting pregnant very seriously, but as happens to many women, each passing month was another disappointment.

For the first time in my life, I found myself longing for a child. I prayed and prayed and prayed.

Then it happened. When I saw the positive sign on the pregnancy test, I dropped it. It lay wrong-way up on the bathroom floor, and I was afraid to pick it up in case I was wrong. Finally I had the courage to pick it up — and there was that little plus sign — we were expecting!

The first few weeks of my pregnancy were a blur of absolute joy. At our sonogram, we learned the baby was a boy. We were so happy. Then one phone call interrupted our happiness. I would be 40 years old when our baby would be born, and my doctor asked for additional tests, one being an amniocentesis. When the results came back, she asked us to come to her office.

I’ll never forget that day.

We sat on one side of her desk as she sat on the other with a brown folder in front of her. I don’t remember everything she said, but I remember this: “Your baby is incompatible with life.”

I stared at her as if she were speaking a foreign language. Barry and I sat in silence, stunned. Then she said something that snapped me back into reality. She said she recommended performing a termination the following day. “No!” I said vehemently. “Absolutely not. This little one will have every day God has planned for him to live.”

We drove home in silence. There was nothing to say.

I didn’t know how to pray. I’d asked God for this little one, and now he might be gone before I could hold him. How do you pray when it feels as if everything is going wrong? How do you pray when God gave you what you asked for, but it’s not what you hoped for? Perhaps you prayed for a husband, and now you struggle with a difficult marriage. Or you prayed for a new opportunity at work, and now you wish you could go back to where you were.

Over the next few weeks, I cried countless tears, but then one day turned the tide for me. My early-morning reading was from Luke 18 where Jesus told His friends to pray and never give up. “One day Jesus told his disciples a story to show that they should always pray and never give up” (Luke 18:1), and He shared the parable of the persistent widow.

I drove to the beach where we were living at the time. The beach was deserted; my only companions were seagulls. Taking my shoes off, I walked to the edge of the water and prayed like I’d never prayed before, out loud to the wind, the waves, the birds and to my Savior.

Dear Jesus! My heart is aching. I don’t understand this at all, but I just want to declare here and now we are in this together. I’ve always needed You, but I know right now I need You more than I ever have. I don’t know how this will end, but I’m not letting go of You for one moment. You didn’t promise me happiness, but You did promise You would never leave me. 

Something shifted inside me. I had no idea how long I could carry our son, but my prayers became relentless, not for a perfect outcome but for the presence of a perfect Father. (In my 35th week of pregnancy, my doctor called to tell me she’d made a mistake. Another patient’s result went into my chart and mine into hers. So now every year on my son’s birthday, I pray and pray for the other mother who got a very different phone call.)

I don’t know what kind of battle you’re facing right now, dear sister. It may be for a child, your family, your marriage, your health or your very sanity, but I want you to know this: When we pray and refuse to give up, our circumstances might not change, but we’re changed by the love of our Father who never lets us go.

Lord, You know the burdens I’m carrying. Sometimes I’m tempted to stop praying because I don’t see the answer I want, but today I choose to believe You love me and You are listening. So I will pray and pray and never give up. Thank You for never leaving me. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.

TRUTH FOR TODAY:
Psalm 5:3, “Listen to my voice in the morning, LORD. Each morning I bring my requests to you and wait expectantly.” (NLT)

1 Thessalonians 5:17, “Never stop praying.” (NLT)

A Prayer of Rejoicing for God’s Blessings

A Prayer of Rejoicing for God’s BlessingsBy Ron Moore

But let all who take refuge in You be glad, Let them ever sing for joy; And may You shelter them, That those who love Your name may exult in You. – Psalm 5:11

The work of the Lord is unmistakable. The land, sky and sea proclaim his person and his power - and then it gets personal. God meets us right where we are and takes us to the places he wants us to be. He lifts "the needy out of their affliction." He brings spiritual blessings.

Followers of God see his work and rejoice. They exalt the omniscient God for his intimate knowledge. They praise the eternal God for his intervention in time. They sing to the all-powerful God for his deliverance. They contemplate the depths of God's love.

Those who don't follow God are confused. They are book smart, but lack wisdom. They have no mental compartment for the supernatural. They have no place in their hearts for the divine. When the wicked see the works of God, they can only stand in silence.

Father, thank you for intervening in my life and allowing me to have a personal relationship with you. Thank you for your love for me today and forever. Thank you for the blessings you’ve given me and my family. Help us use those blessings to bless others. May I live a life of true joy as I see you at work around me today! In Jesus' name. Amen. 

Beware of Christian Half-Truths

Beware of Christian Half-Truths
By: Joe McKeever

“But as for you, speak the things which are proper for sound doctrine” - Titus 2:1.

We hear them all the time. Something about these oft-repeated claims just does not seem right, we think. Here is a big one:

“Christianity is not a religion; it’s a relationship.”

It sounds right at first, but it’s wrong. Ask yourself one question: As a follower of Jesus, that is one in a relationship with Him, would it be all right if I joined a religion and became a Buddhist or Taoist or a Jew or a Muslim? After all, as a Christian I’m not in a religion as such (according to this thinking) and there would be no reason not to. Of course, those religions are incompatible with the way of Jesus Christ.

True, at the heart of the Christian faith stands our relationship with Jesus Christ. We repent of our sin and yield ourselves to Him, inviting Him into our lives and confessing Him as Lord and Savior. Thereafter, we are saved, born again, a new creation. We have a new relationship with Heaven, with the Father, with Jesus, with other believers. We even have a new relationship with ourselves. Old things have passed away; all things have become new (2 Corinthians 5:17).

Without that relationship with Christ, what we have is a religion only and nothing more. A shell without the kernel; form without content. A place to go on Sundays and meaningless rules to follow. “Having a form of godliness but denying the power thereof” is how Paul put it (2 Timothy 3:5). This may have been what the Lord had in mind when He told the Church at Ephesus that while they were doing many things well, “I have this against you: You have left your first love” (Revelation 2:4).

Better that we would say, “Christianity is first and foremost a relationship with Jesus Christ, and only secondarily a religion.” But the truth doesn’t have the zing of the half-truth, does it?

The enemy is creating new half-truths even as we speak. Whether to hold the one speaking accountable for what they have said is a question best put to the Holy Spirit. In all things, we should use discernment, act in love, and not sin. 

Speak Well of Others

Speak Well of Others
by Debbie Holloway

"The heart of the righteous weighs its answers, but the mouth of the wicked gushes evil" (Proverbs 15:28).

In this age of Internet and social media, gone are the days of the off-switch for dialogue. Time was, conversations ended. Then, with the birth of online discussion forums, they could continue indefinitely (with every word preserved for all to see). Now that we are chained to mobile devices, the debates and exchanges never even have to pause. We may start them at our computers, but we continue them in the elevator…in the car…during dinner. Even during real-life banter with friends and family, fingers fly over smartphones to contribute thoughts to the discourse of the Internet world.

It's hard to step back once you get used to it. I find it to be a very love-hate thing; bittersweet for several reasons. On the one hand, I am completely amazed and delighted by the ability to connect, share, grow, and learn that modern technology provides. On the other hand, the ability to tear apart an opponent with the stroke of a key makes certain biblical mandates that much harder to follow.

“Know this, my beloved brothers: let every person be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger” (James 1:9).

“Let your speech always be gracious, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how you ought to answer each person” (Colossians 4:6).

I believe that graciousness of speech, speaking well of others (even my enemy or opponent) is something God requires of me. As someone who rarely shies away from conversation or confrontation, every day is a battle for me in this regard. I find myself asking,

Is this a hill to die on?

Is this going to change anyone’s mind, anyway?

Is it even my job to change this person’s mind?

Is this loving? Worth the fuss? Compassionate?

More times than not, recently, I’ve begun to type up a Facebook comment only to delete it before pressing “post.” Not because I changed my stance or re-thought my opinion. Rather, because words don’t die on the World Wide Web – and I have no second chance at a first impression. Perhaps the fewer cold, impersonal words I type into Facebook in the midst of an argument, the fewer tempers will be lost, fewer hearts will hurt, and fewer friends will feel annoyed, alone, or attacked. Perhaps the more I distance myself from the social media circus, the more I can pay attention to the flesh-and-blood conversations that might arise over the dinner table or on the train. Perhaps the less I scroll through Facebook, the more chances I’ll have to look into people’s faces and eyes.

“You were taught, with regard to your former way of life, to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires; to be made new in the attitude of your minds; and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness. Therefore each of you must put off falsehood and speak truthfully to his neighbor, for we are all members of one body. "In your anger do not sin": Do not let the sun go down while you are still angry, and do not give the devil a foothold” (Ephesians 4:22-27).

Intersecting Faith and Life: Before you post anything today on Twitter, Facebook, or Google +, weigh your words carefully. Do they provoke edifying discussion, or simply anger? Do your words match up with the fruits of the spirit (Galatians 5:22-23)?