Posts Tagged With: trust

Don’t be Afraid. Keep Calm and Carry On

Posted on April 12, 2015 by Mrs Knochel

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Revelation 1:1-4:11

 “I know all the things you do. I have seen your love, your faith, your service, and your patient endurance. And I can see your constant improvement in all these things. Revelation 2:19

On the way to church this morning Sean and I were discussing some travel plans we have slated for this summer and the more we talked the more I could feel fear tightening it’s grip on my heart. I have been really stressed about money the past few weeks. I signed up for some classes this past week that I thought were going to cost us $$$$. Stress. Where was this money going to come from? I didn’t know. Where is the money for this trip going to come from? We HAVE to go, it’s a close family member’s wedding and Anna is in it, we don’t have a whole lot of choice in the matter. Worry and fear were playing tug of war and I was the one losing the battle.
Then we got to church and I’m handed a buletin that looked like this:

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Keep calm and carry on. It’s been a catch phrase that has caught fire lately and I honestly didn’t pay that much attention to it, until today. As I held the bulletin in my hand we sang, and sang, and (praise God) we sang. We kept singing until my heart broke in and joined the song. Have you ever had that happen before? Where your mouth was singing but your heart just wasn’t in it. In fact, perhaps, your mind was a million miles away while your body was there singing. Or maybe like me, it was two months in the future worrying about things I could do nothing about in that moment… other than surrender them to my Jesus.
And that’s what I ended up doing. I surrendered them, I set those thoughts aside in order to concentrate fully on the gift I was being given in the present. The gift of the present!
I can’t live in tomorrow because I haven’t been given tomorrow yet. I’ve only been given today. And while I can TRY to live in two moments at the same time, it’s just not possible. And honestly, it’s pointless anyway.
And in that moment of surrender, do you know what God said to me? “Keep calm and Carry on. Calm is something that you can keep or you can let it go. KEEP calm! And then carry on.”

There was a moment in the Exodus where the Israelites had gotten their first real taste of freedom from slavery. They had witnessed all the plagues of Egypt and seen the power of the Lord. They had been released from their slavery and had journeyed to the Red Sea. When in the distance they could see that Pharoah had changed his mind about letting them go. In that moment they panicked. They were free men and women, and they had decided they liked it. But off on the horizon there was this huge dust cloud threatening to take that freedom back from them. Now, the dust cloud was not the army itself, that they couldn’t see yet, it was just the threat of the army. And yet that was enough to terrify them. They cried out to Moses, asking him why he would bring them out into the wilderness to kill them. And weren’t there enough graves in Egypt? And in that moment of preemptive fear Moses told them, “Don’t be afraid. Just stand still and watch the Lord rescue you today. The Egyptians you see today will never be seen again. The Lord himself will fight for you. Just stay calm. Then the Lord said to Moses, “Why are you crying out to me? Tell the people to get moving!” (Exodus 14:13-15)
God literally told them to keep calm and to carry on, to stay calm and keep moving in the direction I told you to move. But they couldn’t keep moving forward, there was an OCEAN in their way. Did that stop God? Of course not! Was that a problem for Him? NO WAY! He performed the most miraculous miracle those people had ever seen, and at this point they had seen quite a few!
2 Corinthians 4:6-18 says,
For God, who said, “Let there be light in the darkness,” has made this light shine in our hearts so we could know the glory of God that is seen in the face of Jesus Christ.
7 We now have this light shining in our hearts, but we ourselves are like fragile clay jars containing this great treasure. This makes it clear that our great power is from God, not from ourselves.
8 We are pressed on every side by troubles, but we are not crushed. We are perplexed, but not driven to despair. 9 We are hunted down, but never abandoned by God. We get knocked down, but we are not destroyed. 10 Through suffering, our bodies continue to share in the death of Jesus so that the life of Jesus may also be seen in our bodies.
11 Yes, we live under constant danger of death because we serve Jesus, so that the life of Jesus will be evident in our dying bodies. 12 So we live in the face of death, but this has resulted in eternal life for you.
13 But we continue to preach because we have the same kind of faith the psalmist had when he said, “I believed in God, so I spoke.” 14 We know that God, who raised the Lord Jesus, will also raise us with Jesus and present us to himself together with you. 15 All of this is for your benefit. And as God’s grace reaches more and more people, there will be great thanksgiving, and God will receive more and more glory.
16 That is why we never give up. Though our bodies are dying, our spirits are being renewed every day. 17 For our present troubles are small and won’t last very long. Yet they produce for us a glory that vastly outweighs them and will last forever! 18 So we don’t look at the troubles we can see now; rather, we fix our gaze on things that cannot be seen. For the things we see now will soon be gone, but the things we cannot see will last forever.

Press on towards the mark my friend, keep running for the goal, persevere through this trial. It will not last forever, but the strength you gain from it will!
So keep calm and carry on.

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Categories: 365 Life, Revelation, Season 3, Writing Through the Bible in a Year | Tags: , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Only YOU

Posted on July 2, 2013 by Mrs Knochel


Daniel 4:19-6:28

For the past few weeks I’ve been emphasizing the importance of doing what God has called you to do and being who God has made you to be. Last night I found out why I’ve been doing that. I received an email that confirmed everything. It was a Women of Faith Devotional, forwarded from a friend of mine, and written by Thelma Wells. In it she recounted the story of a dream that God had given to Rick Howard a dream that you need to hear about.

“Rick had a dream that he went to the judgment seat of Christ and was surrounded by people he knew. When it was his time to stand before the Lord, he thought he would be rewarded as the pastor of a megachurch and having fame in the media that surpasses many. He stepped up to Jesus sitting in the Judge’s seat and presented his works.

In this dream, Jesus tried Rick’s works in the fire—and they burned and burned and burned until nothing was left but a deep, black hole. The pastor stood there with a broken heart and asked Jesus why all of his works were burned because he had worked for the Lord all his career. Jesus told him that, no, he had not worked for the glory of God because God had told him to go into ministry on foreign fields. But because his wife refused to marry him if he went, the pastor had selected the woman over God. He had been responsible for millions accepting Jesus and for many great and wonderful works, but because the pastor did not accept the real calling of God and instead pleased his wife, his works were burned up like wood, hay, and stubble. Sure, the pastor entered into the kingdom of God in heaven, but he lost his rewards for the work he did on earth.

Rich also saw an old lady of no acclaim. Someone who was never written up in the paper, never appeared on television, did no radio interviews, and never spoke for a conference of any size. As she walked up to the judgment seat of Christ and presented her works to Jesus, they begin to burn. When they finished burning, what was left were stacks of gold, silver, and precious stones. This nobody on earth was rewarded at the judgment for edifying people while glorifying God. She received the rewards that Jesus will bestow at his judgment seat.

As Rich stood before the judgment seat waiting for Jesus to talk to him, there was a period of total silence and no activity. Disappointed and wondering, he woke up from the dream with no precise results.”*

What kind of pressure are you under today? Are you being pressured to eat the king’s food (worldly wisdom and media)? Are you being pressured to worship false idols (money, medicine, possessions)? Are you feeling pressured to be someone you’re not, do something you don’t feel is quite right? DON’T CAVE UNDER THE PRESSURE!!! Stand firm, be strong and courageous. Look at that fiery furnace before you and say, “O (fill in a name here), I have no need to answer you in this matter. If this be so, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace and he will deliver us out of your hand, O king. But if not, be it known to you, O king, that we will not serve your gods or worship the golden image that you have set up.” (Daniel 3:16-18)

I think it’s always important with the story of the furnace to point out the “But if not”, for those circumstances where God doesn’t do what we hope and expect of Him. This doesn’t mean He’s not faithful and true and just and real. It simply means that He has a better plan that we can’t understand with our finite minds and perspective. If He doesn’t save in the way WE want Him to, does that make Him less God? No.

When we stand firm in our faith we have to stand firm with a “But if not” attitude, where come what may, we will still stand strong for God and HIS glory, knowing full well that it will not be easy.

In Rick’s dream his works were burned up because he chose his wife’s plan for his life instead of God’s plan. When I stand before that judgment seat of God and He asks me why I didn’t do what He told me to do; “because my husband told me not to”, will not be an acceptable answer. Ultimately, I’m responsible for my own life and how I live it.

We all have eternal life… somewhere. We have to live with today’s choices for eternity, no matter where we’re going.

God made YOU for a reason. YOU have a purpose, a position, a job that ONLY YOU can fulfill in this world. If you are not doing it then who will? If you’re not living out the dream that God placed deep in your heart then how will you answer Him on that day? The judgment seat isn’t for condemnation of sins – those have already been judged in the flesh of Jesus. The judgment seat is the day of REWARD. What will yours look like? You don’t have to do big things in human eyes to get your reward. You only have to do one thing – TRUST GOD. Trust His opinion of YOU. Trust His love for YOU. Trust His forgiveness of YOU. Trust His plans for YOU. They are plans for hope and a future not harm and destruction. The God of Love made these plans for you so they MUST be good! Good for YOU. Trust Him. Jesus loves YOU.

Lord, after weighing me in the balances of life, may I never be found wanting in Your eyes! In Jesus’ name, Amen!

* Devotionals Daily FaithGateway. Refining Grace by Thelma Wells. Copyright © 2013 HarperCollins Christian Publishing, 501 Nelson Place, Nashville, TN, United States. All Rights Reserved. http://www.faithgateway.com/refining-grace/

Categories: 365 Life, Daniel, Writing Through the Bible in a Year | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Trust the Truth

Posted on November 26, 2011 by Mrs Knochel

Some people like to think that Jesus was just a good teacher, maybe even a prophet, but not God or the Messiah. There’s a problem with that thought process though, the things that He taught and claimed about Himself weren’t on that same level. He was either absolutely and completely insane or He was Satan himself or He was actually telling the truth and is who He actually says He is. In fact many people accused Him of being demonic (in Matthew 12:22-37) but their accusations were silenced when he pointed out the error in their thinking. If Jesus is demonic then He wouldn’t be commanding the demons OUT of people but rather IN to them!

In Mark’s retelling of this same story of the teachers of the law thinking Jesus was “possessed by Beelzebub! By the prince of demons He is driving out demons.” (3:22) Mark includes a little “behind the scenes” info for us. Before this fateful conversation with the teachers of the law, Jesus’ family came to “take charge of Him, for they said, He is out of His mind.'” (Mark 3:21) Again in John 10:20-21 “many of them said, ‘He is demon-possessed and raving mad. Why listen to Him?’ But others said, ‘These are not the sayings of a man possessed by a demon. Can a demon open the eyes of the blind?”

Would a demon open the eyes of the blind? I don’t think so. Considering that the goal of Satan is to keep as many people as possible spiritually blind, wandering around in complete and total darkness, unable to find God, it makes VERY little sense that Satan would even CONSIDER opening those closed minds and eyes. And since that is the most obvious conclusion I feel it is fairly safe to assume that Jesus was neither insane nor demonic which leaves but one logical conclusion, He is completely sane, telling and teaching the truth and therefore is who He claims to be! Sometimes the truth sounds the most insane because it is the truth. So seldom do we encounter pure unadulterated truth that it automatically resounds in our brains as a foreign invader and thusly insane because it is simply that radically different. Just like when someone donates a kidney to a friend. Even if they’re a perfect match the friend still has to take anti-rejection drugs to keep her body from rejecting the gift she has been given, we too need to take our own anti-rejection medicine in order to accept and keep God’s gift of salvation.

TRUST. Sometimes you just have to trust, even when nothing around you makes sense. Maybe none of it is making sense because it’s really the truth that has been injected into an environment that is simply unfamiliar with the truth. New truth, well, new-to-you truth can be hard to accept. But that doesn’t make it any less the truth, it just makes it less yours. You see, we can possess the truth and the Truth can possess us. Or a falsehood can possess us, as we continue to hold onto it because of its familiarity. But just because it’s our belief that we’re holding onto doesn’t make it any less false, it just makes it ours.

When we encounter a treasure in our path, if our hands are full of trash we’re unable to pick up the treasure. We come to a moment of decision 1) keep the trash and leave the treasure or 2) reject the trash and pick up the treasure.

Matthew tells us that “The kingdom of heaven is like a treasure hidden in a field. When a man found it, he hid it again, and then in his joy went and sold all he had and bought that field. Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant looking for fine pearls. When he found one of great value, he went away and sold everything he had and bought it.”(13:44-46)In these two stories we meet two men who discover great treasure and are willing to give up everything they own in order to possess that tremendous treasure. At first glance it seems as though both stories are the same message told in two different manners. However, if you look closely at the grammar and the structure of the like statements you will find a subtle difference. In the first story the kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field. The kingdom of God and all its wisdom, power and truth are a priceless treasure worth our life-savings to acquire. (And I speak from personal experience and tell you that it is.) But look at the second like-statement in the second story! The kingdom of heaven is like a merchant looking for fine pearls. In this story the kingdom isn’t the treasure, the kingdom is the one searching for the treasure! Now if God is the one searching for the pearl of great value, then what pray-tell, IS the pearl of great value? Now, I want you to think for a moment, what is the one thing in all of creation that God the Creator does not already possess? Keep in mind that He is GOD, EVERYTHING is His. Except, perhaps, for you. You my friend are that pearl of great value. You are the one that Jesus Himself is willing to set EVERYTHING aside for. EVERYTHING. All His power, all His majesty, all His life; He laid it ALL down at the foot of the cross like trash to pick up the treasure – YOU.

Don’t let the falsehood keep it’s hold on you any longer. Let go of the belief that Jesus was less than what He said He was, that He can’t do everything that He says He can. Because He is, He can and He will… but never without your permission. He is a gentleman after all.

So, how can we apply all this information to our marriages? By remembering that WE are a pearl of great value, worth selling everything else for. If you need help remembering, buy yourself some pearl jewelry and wear it! Then every time life throws you a dirty look, a sneer or snide remark you can look at your pearl – or touch them on your neck and say to yourself “I am worth dying for.” Then just smile back and say “God bless you!” as if they had only sneezed at you and nothing more.

When we place our trust and value in the hands of God it’s out of reach of the things of this world. They can’t touch them. If you feel like your husband isn’t valuing you like the pearl of great value – it doesn’t matter, because your worth doesn’t lie in his hands, but in God’s. However, you can’t just lie down and let your husband walk all over you like a door mat either. Stand up for yourself in prayer. Tell God how your husband is treating you and how you feel about it. Remember, it is not your job or place to change your husband, only God can change hearts. But it IS your job to PRAY FOR HIM!

So often we don’t feel like we’re doing anything when we pray. But nothing could be farther from the truth! I believe that if we could catch just a glimpse of what our prayers activate in the unseen spiritual realm we would never get up off our knees! Why else was that the one thing that ALL the gospel writers mentioned in their letters? If they went without food or water or clothes, or if they were in jail or shipwrecked they could manage, but go without being covered in the prayers of others? NEVER! Prayer IS doing something, it’s doing MORE than you could even imagine. Never stop praying for your husband, not ever!

When Jesus walked this dirtball, He was constantly under pressure and ridicule; even His family thought He was crazy at one point. They failed to believe in Him, failed to believe that He was telling the truth, failed to remember who the angel told them – before His birth – who He would be! Take a moment to do a mental inventory, have you been believing in your husband? Or have you joined in on the ridiculing and doubt? As his wife he needs for you to be his “safe person”. The one who he can always trust to be in his corner when things get rough and the Enemy starts to attack. He needs to know that no matter what is happening in his life you WILL be there to cheer him on and help him up. Can your husband count on you to be that person? Is he that person for you? He should be.

Do you doubt your husband’s ability to perform any of these tasks? Take those doubts to the cross. Ask God to take care of them, His ear is not too dull to hear nor is His arm to short to save. He is MORE than able to help you and your husband achieve greatness in your marriage. God is able to do abundantly more than all you can ask or imagine! So start imagining and asking for that great marriage you dream of, and then let God work His miracles. He is able and He is willing, you need only to ask, believe and then wait patiently on the LORD.

Categories: The Crazy Mom Blog | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Busy Mom’s Morning Prayer

Posted on September 21, 2011 by Mrs Knochel

As Christians and as mothers, we are waging war in a supernatural showdown all day every day of our lives. Therefore life requires that we put on the full armor of God every morning. But sometimes, as busy moms, we just don’t have a lot of time to pray through the Bible every morning to cover ourselves. God blessed me with most of this prayer about 6 months ago, and I can tell you from experience that He answers it immediately every time and that it is very powerful. So yesterday when He made the light bulb above my head turn on and reminded me of this sweet little breath prayer. He also called me to compare it to the elements of the armor of God in Ephesians 6, and I was amazed at the results.

“Come Holy Spirit, fill me with Your fire so that I may be more like You; help me, I trust You.”

“Come Holy Spirit,” – “Belt of Truth buckled around your waist”(v14) & “the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.” (v17): In John 16:13 Jesus tells us “But when He, the Spirit of Truth, comes and guides you into all truth. He will not speak on His own; He will speak only what He hears, and He will tell you what is yet to come.” So simply by me saying “Come Holy Spirit” I am putting on the belt of truth and I am picking up the Sword of the (Holy) Spirit, which is the word of God. I am calling God to come and be with me today. I am asking Him to come into my situation and live through me. “Come Holy Spirit”, guide me with Your light. “Come Holy Spirit” speak Your words with my tongue today. The word of God is sharper than a two-edged sword, it is THE weapon that we use against the Enemy, and the Bible is filled with them! “Come Holy Spirit” and teach me Your words, Your wisdom, Your grace, Your love. “Come Holy Spirit”.

“fill me with Your fire” – “with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace.” (v15): When the Holy Spirit came upon the disciples at Pentacost (Acts 2) it came in tongues of fire that danced above their heads (this was before they had light bulbs of course). Have you ever heard the expression “She is really on fire for the LORD”? When we are “on fire” for something we’re excited about it, we’re ready to tell people about it. And honestly, the gospel of peace is exciting! God’s love is exciting. His grace is exciting. And let me tell you, I’ve been praying this part of the prayer for 6 months, the more often you pray it, the more on fire you will get for God and His gospel of peace! I have prayed this prayer for just about everything under the sun. Wisdom, discernment, help, courage, when I sneeze and there’s no one around to say “God bless you”… “Come Holy Spirit and fill me with Your fire”, it’s an invitation to God to fill you and use YOU for His good purposes on this earth! To use YOU to change the world! “Fill me with Your fire!”

“make me more like You” – “with the breastplate of righteousness in place” (v14): Abraham was declared righteous, not because of his deeds but because of his faith. Faith is our belief in action. Jesus’ death on the cross pays for the debt our sins create between us and God. The blood stained cross declares each and every one of us righteous (or pure) in God’s sight. However, we have to believe that it’s true and then live out our lives in that belief, or “walk in faith”, that it is true and that even though we are human and not perfect, we ARE forgiven, which makes us righteous. A breastplate usually has the royal crest emblazoned on it, declaring whose army you belong to; under whose authority you speak. As Christians, we are children of God Almighty the King of kings. We are not only warriors, we are royal warriors with the righteous symbol of God’s authority emblazoned on our chests. And it is with this very authority that we are able to stand up to the Enemy and WIN! We have been given the authority of Christ’s shed blood to tell the attacking Enemy forces “to report to Jesus immediately” and they must obey. So when we pray “fill me with Your fire so that I may be more like You” we are asking God to fill us up with His shed blood, placing that breastplate of righteousness over our chest and with it His authority over the Enemy. His righteousness covering our humanity. Covering the nakedness that we were once ashamed of; no longer.

“help me,” – “Take the helmet of salvation” (v17): In Romans chapter ten, verses nine through ten we read “That if you confess with your mouth, ‘Jesus is Lord,’ and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you confess and are saved.” Now I know that for someone who hasn’t been raised in the church this could be a difficult passage to read and understand so let me break it down a bit for you. 1) “if you confess with your mouth, ‘Jesus is Lord'” – The word “Lord” is a term of respect that voices the acknowledgement that you are giving Jesus power, authority and ownership over you life. You need to speak out loud your decision to let Jesus be the one in charge of your life instead of you. Now there are all kinds of “sinners prayers” out there that you could pray, but according to this scripture it can be as simple as “Jesus is Lord”. 2) “believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead” – So very much of the Bible centers around belief, and honestly, the helmet of salvation centers around it too. The Bible tells us multiple times that Jesus died on the cross, was buried and dead for three days, and then on the third day He rose from the dead and for a period of 40 days appeared to a multitude of people who then gave witness to the fact that He was indeed alive. So the question you have to ask yourself is, “Do I believe this to be true?” I pray that you’ve answered “YES!” 3) “you will be saved” – Yes, it really is as simple as that! Verse ten explains it to us a little more; that when we believe in our heart that Jesus did die for us personally, then we are justified (which means He made it so that it was just-as-if-I’d never sinned). Salvation is simple, there is no real action required on our part aside from belief and a confession of that belief. Romans 10:13 tells us “for, ‘Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.’” – see, just call on Jesus. No work on the part of man can save him (I believe this includes confession of sins), because Jesus did it all for us to make it as simple as possible so that all who believe will be justified and they will confess with their mouths and be saved! Salvation is the pathway to the Garden of Relationship with Christ and this is where all the healing takes place. The confession of sins and asking for His help with them takes place within the enclosed walls of the Garden of Relationship and is ABSOLUTELY CRITICAL to it. (I can not stress this enough!!!!!!!) Honestly, I don’t know that true healing could take place without it. “Help me”, is our daily cry to Jesus. “Help me” to be the person You want me to be. “Help me” to stop doing the things that I did in the past that got me into trouble. “Help me” to be a better mom. “Help me” to live the life I’ve always dreamed of. “Help me” to get through this dark place that I’m living in right now, shine Your magnificent light on me. “Help me”, so small, and yet so VERY VERY profound.

“I trust You.” – “take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one.” (v16): This is one of my favorite truths that I love to share with people. When God revealed the shield of faith to me I’m glad that I was already on the floor because if I hadn’t been I would’ve hit it! Turn with me, if you would, to the Psalm of Protection, Psalm 91 and look at verse 4. “He will cover you with His feathers and under His wings you will find refuge; HIS faithfulness will be your shield and rampart.” Now I’ve heard a lot of sermons on these passages of scripture and I have to tell you that NONE of them left me feeling any better about being able to fend off the Enemy… because everything depended on me! Did I know the truth? Was I righteous? Was I ready? Did I know the gospel message well enough? Was I faithful enough? Was I saved? Did I know enough scripture? It’s enough to make a girl want to scream “NO! I DON’T! I CAN’T! I GIVE UP!” But look at it right there in your Bible! It’s not MY faithfulness that shields me from the Enemy! It’s HIS! Praise God Almighty in heaven its HIS faithfulness that protects me! it’s HIS faithfulness that never fails! Mine? HUH! All the time! But not His, His faithfulness is unending. His faithfulness is eternal. His faithfulness is more than enough. His faithfulness doesn’t just shield me from one side only like most shields do. OH NO! His faithfulness is a force field that surrounds us in a bubble of protection that not even laser beams or nuclear weapons can penetrate! Hallelujah Praise the LORD for His love endures forever! Isn’t that just the best news you’ve ever heard? I mean as a mom I am pulled a thousand different directions. My daughter needs this from me, my son wants that from me, my husband needs me to do this for him, my friends need help with something, my ministry needs my attention, our family members… the list goes on and on and on! It is so comforting to know that GOD CAN HANDLE IT! That His faithfulness is ALL we need. That we can say “I trust You” and step into that force field of peace and know that no matter what fiery missiles the enemy tries to launch our way, we’ve got our bubble of peace powered by GOD’S FAITHFULNESS.

“Come Holy Spirit, fill me with Your fire so that I may be more like You; help me, I trust You.”

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