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I love the Psalms! I love the way the Psalmists were so open about their feelings (both good and bad!) Often they’d have it out with God and question how he could let things happen, or called out wondering whether God had left them, but they always ended up praising God because they knew in their hearts that no-matter-what God is good, he is faithful and worthy to be praised!!

When looking through the Psalms I noticed how many statements there are as kind of promises to God, (rather than from God). We look a lot in the bible for God’s promises over us, but I think some of these promises to God can also build us up in the faith as we speak to our hearts and spirits and spur ourselves on to live for God and Praise his name, no matter what we’re facing or how we are feeling.

So…  Here is a small selection of “I will” statements which I pulled out of the Psalms (there were a lot more!!!). Read each one through and speak to yourself as you read them, think of them as a "statement of intent".

Psalm 56:3 : When I am afraid, I will trust in you.

Psalm 52:9 : .. in your name I will hope, for your name is good..

Psalm 4:8 : I will lie down and sleep in peace, for you alone, O LORD, make me dwell in safety.

Psalm 86:7 : In the day of my trouble I will call to you, for you will answer me.

Psalm 27:8 : My heart says of you, "Seek his face!" Your face, LORD, I will seek.

Psalm 119:60 : I will hasten and not delay to obey your commands.

Psalm 119:34 : …I will keep your law and obey it with all my heart.

Psalm 77:11 : I will remember the deeds of the LORD; yes, I will remember your miracles of long ago.

Psalm 145:5 : …I will meditate on your wonderful works.

Psalm 86:11 : … I will walk in your truth.

Psalm 119:45 : I will walk about in freedom, for I have sought out your precepts.

Psalm 32:5 : "I will confess my transgressions to the LORD "— and you forgave the guilt of my sin.

Psalm 91:2 : I will say of the LORD, "He is my refuge and my fortress, my God, in whom I trust."

Psalm 31:7: I will be glad and rejoice in your love, for you saw my affliction and knew the anguish of my soul.

Psalm 9:1 : I will praise you, O LORD, with all my heart; I will tell of all your wonders.

Psalm 13:6 : I will sing to the LORD, for he has been good to me.

 ..And a couple of  “I will not’s”:

Psalm 62:6 : He alone is my rock and my salvation; he is my fortress, I will not be shaken

Psalm 56:11 : in God I trust; I will not be afraid. What can man do to me?

Psalm 23:4 : Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me.

Read through the list a second time and this time pick out one or two that you would like to learn by heart. Ones which you think will help you in your walk with God if you can remember them ..and put them into practice!   :-)

Jesus asked the boy’s father, "How long has he been like this?"

"From childhood," he answered. 22 "It has often thrown him into fire or water to kill him. But if you can do anything, take pity on us and help us."

23 " ‘If you can’?" said Jesus. "Everything is possible for him who believes."

24 Immediately the boy’s father exclaimed, "I do believe; help me overcome my unbelief!"    Mark 9:21-24

Every Christian believes, we believe in God and we believe in Jesus for our salvation.  If we didn’t then we wouldn’t be Christians. Yet these key foundational beliefs don’t stop us from battling with unbelief in other areas of our faith.  Like this chap who said to Jesus "if you can…" don’t we all sometimes approach prayer/requests to God like that?

Perhaps we’re not as obvious as saying "if you can" to God. I think we often mask our unbelief behind "if it’s your will" or "in your timing Lord…" but quite often, when it boils down to it, we lack the belief that God will do what he says He will in His word when we trust in Him.

When faced with opportunities to step out for his glory or to believe a promise he has given us through his word, we often have the battle between our belief and our unbelief. The two things wage a mini war inside of us. It’s often easier to believe what we see/feel, rather than what God says is true.

For example, if we get the opportunity to pray for someone to be healed, and perhaps it’s a person with a serious disability… What do we think?

Option 1) God heals. Jesus healed & the disciples healed and Jesus has also given me authority to heal. I believe God’s word and I believe that when I lay my hands on this person they will be healed.

Option 2) Eeek, what will happen if God doesn’t show up?

I think most of us are probably somewhere in between; believing that God can and does heal, but not necessarily believing that he will heal on this particular occasion. That bit is the unbelief we need to tackle. The disciples didn’t start a prayer of healing with "dear God, if it’s your will please heal this person" they just went up to them and said "be healed in Jesus name." They were certain that it was God’s will to heal. That’s what Jesus had sent them to do. I know this really hard and it brings up so many difficult questions, and I can’t explain why some people get healed and others don’t, but I do think God wants us to believe that He will heal, each and every time we pray for someone. To not entertain the unbelief that God might not show up, or that the timing is wrong etc. as this is a slippery slope to more and more unbelief.

Therefore as a starting point I think we all need to acknowledge to God (and perhaps ourselves) that we do have unbelief  "I do believe, help me overcome my unbelief." Humbly admitting that it’s our problem, not God’s and to trust Jesus when he says  "everything is possible for those who believe".  I don’t think it’s about not having enough faith – faith is a gift from God and he’s given us all we need (we only need faith as big as mustard seed according to Jesus*). I think it’s more about still allowing unbelief to have its say.

"I do believe, help me overcome my unbelief." Such an honest, real prayer. It’s saying, "God I do believe in you, I do believe that you heal, but I know that mixed in with my belief is also unbelief. Therefore please help me deal with this unbelief so that I can overcome it”

Please understand that I’m not just talking about healing here, this basic principle covers so many areas of our walk with God. There are many more places where we allow unbelief to live alongside belief. Things like knowing who we are in Christ - We can believe our salvation, but sometimes not that we are totally new creations; this unbelief opens us up to falling back into our old ways of life. We believe that God is all powerful – but don’t quite believe that he’s won the victory over satan’s power, so we allow ourselves to fall back into believing that we haven’t got the victory over sin, and we fall into temptation, sin and fear through not standing firm on what Christ has already completed on our behalf. We believe the word which says that God is our provider - but do we believe he will provide for us when we’re at the end of our resources and we can’t see how He will do it? We believe that God has good plans for us because his word says so - but when things don’t happen in our timing, do we try to take over and make things happen ourselves, revealing our unbelief, thinking that perhaps God’s not going to come through for us on this one! Perhaps it’s something else, like believing we are saved but not quite believing we can be totally clean and righteous in God’s eyes. Believing we are loved, but that this is conditional on us doing this and not doing that… Putting our own small print on God’s word, on his promises and on who He says He is and who we are in Him.

Some of you could be thinking "that’s not me, I trust God totally for everything" and others may be saying "unbelief is just a part of life and we’re human so we’re always going to be like it" But I believe that God wants to challenge each one of us, and help us to identify and sift out those areas of unbelief in our lives, so that we can be more powerful and effective for him.

We all have growing to do and we all need to say to God "I believe, help me overcome my unbelief." If we settle for lives that are not trusting God 100% in all things, then we will give a lukewarm message about a moderately powerful, sometimes caring God to a world that so desperately needs to see the real Jesus!  If, however, we choose to trust what the bible says about who God is, who Jesus is and who we are in Christ, and ask God to help us in the areas where we still hold onto unbelief, then our message will be powerful! People will see God’s glory and love through his people, and we will see God’s kingdom come in our own lives, and in the lives of others.

Want to know more? Check out a previous study of mine "What do you know" which talks about needing to know God’s word so that we can stand firm in his truth. This is key because if we don’t know God’s word, how do we know what to believe?

Bible gateway have recently published the top 100 verses that are viewed through their website. I was really interested to see what they were. I then thought that it would be good to send the Top 10 out to you guys to have a look too. Perhaps this week you could read through the top 10, see which ones you know and which ones you don’t and maybe learn one or two off by heart to encourage you in your walk with God?

Why not give it a go?!

John 3:16 : For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.

Jer 29:11 : For I know the plans I have for you," declares the LORD, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.

Rom 8:28 : And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.

Phil 4:13 : I can do everything through him who gives me strength.

Gen 1:1 : In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.

Prov 3:5 : Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding.

Prov 3:6 : in all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your paths straight.

Rom 12:2 : Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is-his good, pleasing and perfect will.

Phil 4:6 : Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.

Matt 28:19 : Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.

Because if you acknowledge and confess with your lips that Jesus is Lord and in your heart believe (adhere to, trust in, and rely on the truth) that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. Romans 10:9 (AMP)

Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer believe that you have received it, and it will be yours. Mark 11:24

OK so this is a hard topic! I’m going to approach it on a very simple level and hope that I don’t upset anyone in the process. Please have lots of grace when you read my thoughts on this! This all started on Sunday morning with a conversation about healing and how we (as Christians) can totally believe God for our salvation, but can struggle to believe God for our healing.

My simplistic view is that God created the world and he created it perfect, therefore his plan was for us all to be in full health. Sin came into the world through us disobeying God… enter sickness and disease etc as part of the fallen world.

Enter Jesus. He came as a man and died for us to so that “whoever believes in him” shall not perish, but have eternal life.1) In Isaiah 53 the prophet wrote about the Messiah who was to come & take our sins, Isaiah says that Jesus “took up our infirmities” 2) and that “by his wounds we are healed” 3)

So if our sickness was also nailed to the cross, along with our sins, why do we not regularly see healing today like we saw in Jesus’ time? Jesus told us that anyone who had faith in Him will do “greater things” than he did 4) …and he did A LOT of healing!

I think maybe some of it has to do with our understanding, and thus our authority over sickness. We know in our hearts that by Jesus’ blood we have been saved. This word “saved” to most of us means that we have been forgiven our sins, washed clean, and are now able to approach God through Jesus’ righteousness. That when we die our sins won’t be counted against us, so we no longer have to face death, but are able to have eternal life in heaven. “Saved” to us relates to being forgiven of our sins, yet the Greek word “Sozo” means even more than this! It means being saved from our sins, plus things like “rescued” “delivered” “kept safe” “preserved” “healed.” It implies completeness, being made well in the full sense, not just our souls, our whole self.

So if we believe Jesus died for us and have accepted Him as Lord over our lives, then we will receive “Sozo” – forgiveness from our sins as well as complete wholeness in Christ. He didn’t do half a job on the cross, his death & resurrection changed everything. As it says in Isaiah 53 “He took up our infirmities, and carried our sorrows…. he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed.”

You can be saved on a certain day when you gave your life to Christ, but wholeness is a process and something we have to receive everyday. Like when we go back to Jesus to say sorry again for the things we have done, we have to keep going back to Jesus to receive physical and emotional healing, we live in a fallen world and so we have to hold on to the promises of God and keep seeking him for the things he has promised us. Jesus is alive and with God right now, interceding for us so that we can be saved to the “uttermost.” 5) Jesus’ death on the cross has won the war, but whilst we are on the earth we are still fighting a battle against sin, sickness and the lies of the enemy (with Jesus’ help of course!)

I think what I am saying is that it’s not just “if I try hard enough to believe then God will heal me” The verse in Mark 11 could make us feel that it’s our fault and we just don’t believe enough. But perhaps it’s about a deeper knowledge and understanding of God’s word, which will then enable us to believe (adhere to, trust in, and rely on the truth). This thorough understanding of God’s word will help us claim what is rightfully ours, rather than ignoring our questions/doubts and “trying harder” to believe. If we knew that we were praying God’s will, and for things we have a right to through the blood of Jesus, then we would believe all the more that He will give us what we ask for. We beat ourselves up about our lack of faith, but I think it’s our lack of knowledge we should be more concerned about.

1) John 3:16: For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only son so that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life

2) Isaiah 53:4 Surely he took up our infirmities, and carried our sorrows,

3) Isaiah 53:5 But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed.

4) John 14:12 I tell you the truth, anyone who has faith in me will do what I have been doing. He will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father.

5) Hebrews 7:25 Consequently, he is able to save to the uttermost those who draw near to God through him, since he always lives to make intercession for them.

Psalm 119

33 Teach me, O LORD, to follow your decrees; then I will keep them to the end.

34 Give me understanding, and I will keep your law and obey it with all my heart.

35 Direct me in the path of your commands, for there I find delight.

36 Turn my heart toward your statutes and not toward selfish gain.

37 Turn my eyes away from worthless things; preserve my life according to your word.

Following on from last week’s theme of lack of knowledge leading us to destruction (Hosea 4:6) This week I decided to pick out some verses about understanding & following God’s Word from Psalm 119. Do go and read the whole Psalm, it’s very long but it’s great – it’s all about loving the commands God has has given us to stop us from falling, and wanting to obey them wholeheartedly. There’s such an amazing heart for God’s word in this Psalm and such a desire to follow Him no matter what. But so as not to frighten you off, I’ve just picked out these few verses which are in the form of a prayer to God!!

Read the verses above again. Is this your desire? Can you make this your personal prayer to God?

v33-35: These verses reveal to us that we need to ask God to teach us through his Holy Spirit as we open his Word. We can read the word, even learn the word, but unless God reveals to us what it means so that we can have a true understanding, then we can often miss the point. Once we know, then we can follow. With the help of the Holy Spirit, God can show us how to obey his word in our everyday lives and not to be ignorant of how he wants us to live. Applying it is so important, otherwise there’s no point in reading/knowing it.

v36-37: I like the word “turn” in these verses, it implys that at the moment our hearts and our eyes are not looking towards God’s statues but instead they are focussing on selfish gain (what we want, not what God wants) and worthless things (things of the world that have no real value, but can trick us into believing they have)

Have a think about anything you are focussing on which could fit into these categories. Is there anything that is turning your head/heart away from the truth in God’s word and stopping you from obeying his commands? Are you putting selfishness before your obedience to God? Is your focus on worthless things rather than eternal riches?

If so take some time to pray through these verses and ask God for forgiveness where your focus is in the wrong place, and ask him to turn your heart and your head towards him, His word and His truth.

God’s got wonderful blessings in store for us, but these do come with a condition: the blessings are for those who keep his statutes and seek Him with all their heart.¹ Often we think we can go through life doing whatever we want and God will turn a blind eye and keep on blessing us anyway. I personally don’t think God works like this, he is a perfect God who cannot look on sin. Sin is turning away from God and going against his commands. His blessings come when we are in obedience to him. Yes he can turn all things around for good, but he also disciplines² his children when they do not keep his commands.

You might think God trying to impose rules on us and take away our freedom, yet it’s coming under God’s authority which gives us true freedom. The world promises us “free will” to chose whatever we want, but we always end up dissatisfied, dissapointed, unfulfilled and often get hurt in the process. When we obey God, that’s when we start to fully understand why He has given us these commands and why he doesn’t want us to follow the way of the world or our own selfish desires. Sometimes we have to obey and trust Him first and understand why later. But we know that no matter whether we fully understand or not, God know’s what’s best for us and it’s when we are holding to His teaching that we will know the truth, and it’s truth that sets us free.³

Ask God today to help you to obey him in all things, ask him to reveal to you the freedom that comes from following his commands. Ask Him to show you where you may be turning your head or heart to the wrong things and to help you to seek Him with all your heart.

¹ Psalm 119: 2 Blessed are they who keep his statutes, and seek him with all their heart.

² Revelation 3:19 Those whom I love I rebuke and discipline. So be earnest, and repent.

³ John 8: 31 “If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. 32 Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.

Hosea 4:6
My people are destroyed from lack of knowledge

This verse has kept on popping up over the past few weeks so I decided that I should share it with you!

In context, this passage is talking to the leaders and priests who were getting in the way of people finding God and teaching them the right things. They were sinning themselves and being a bad example to the people they were supposed to be leading. Nowadays we can all read the bible for ourselves, we can look up things that we don’t understand and we can ask God through his Holy Spirit to guide us. Therefore, even though we should also be seeking teaching and guidance from our leaders, we also need to accept responsibility for our own walk with God and our own understanding.

We need to find out what God says about everything: things like prayer, relationships, healing, marriage, sex, money, family life, church, worship, work, rest, communication, being single, giving, receiving, life, death, illness, fears, hopes, dreams, freedom, oppression… and the list goes on! God has things to teach us about all this stuff and it’s all in the bible. We need to find out for ourselves so that we don’t fall in confusion, or let ourselves be tricked. We need to know where we stand, so that we can stand firm and not be destroyed.

I think we can often fall in trouble because we base too much on our feelings and circumstances, not on the truth in God’s word. We can wobble and allow ourselves to be open to attack because we are not standing firm on the knowledge of God. We don’t know enough about the promises God has placed over our lives or the instructions he’s given us and we don’t know all of our history (as in the people of God’s history, not our own few years on Earth!) We have such a “cloud of witnesses” as it says in Hebrews12 who “by faith” did so many amazing things and so can we if we trust in God!

We need to stick a few pins in the map to know where we’ve come from and where we are going. Then when we’ve got our Godly bearings, next we can look at the details and see how closely and intimately God knows each one of us, and how he has a plan and a purpose for each one of our lives. Not only that, but he’s already given some wonderful guidelines for all of his people to live by. Not because he’s a spoil-sport, but because he loves us and knows what’s best for us. He knows that if we were only to follow his ways, we would be living lives that were fulfilling, loving, exciting, amazing and God-glorifying! Just like we see in the New Testament. Life wasn’t “safe” or “comfortable” for the people who followed God but it definitely wasn’t boring!!! Plus they knew they were in God’s hands, they knew they were totally secure, they knew no-one could take away the promise of eternal life from them and they knew that they could do everything through Christ who strengthened them. (Philippians 4:13)

So what do you Know??

“If you love me, you will obey what I command. John 14:15

This is quite short and it’s pretty self-explanatory, but I felt it’s important to point out, so that we know the whole truth. These words were straight out of Jesus’ mouth: If you love me, you will obey what I command. It’s not just about singing worship songs, praising God and praying great prayers; if we do all this, but don’t obey what Jesus taught whilst he was on this earth, then how can we say that we love Him?

John 14:26-27

But the Counselor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you. 27 Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.

The bit that first made me want to share this verse with you is the bit about the Holy Spirit reminding us of everything Jesus has said to us. Now in this verse Jesus is talking to his disciples and had literally spoken to them as they went along, both in stories (parables) to the crowds and also in private, explaining the parables and also telling them more things than he told the crowds that followed him. Amazingly 2000 years later we still have these words written down in the Bible. We have the opportunity to go back time and time again to read what Jesus said and to learn how to live as Christians. However, this doesn’t mean that we no longer need the Holy Spirit to remind us of what Jesus has told us through scripture.. The Holy Spirit is just as present now as he was with those first disciples, and if we ask him to help us and guide us then he will.

The thing that prompted me in all this was the word “remind.” Sometimes we ask God to speak to us, encourage us, comfort us and direct us and, when we don’t hear from God, we get frustrated and wonder why… Could it be that we haven’t read our bibles very much and so it’s harder for God to bring to mind scriptures that would encourage, comfort or guide us, if we’ve never heard/read them before? …Just something to think about!

The other fab bit in this passage is that the Holy Spirit will teach us ALL things! I think a lot of us hold back from serving God or seizing the opportunities he gives us because we feel that we are not ready. We need to learn more, have more faith, perhaps go on some more training courses or learn all the facts before we feel we can be effective for God. Yet Jesus says – “The Holy Spirit will teach us all things!!” Perhaps all we really need to do is get to know and trust the Holy Spirit’s promptings a bit more – oh and choose to act upon them! As I said above, we need to be standing firm on God’s words so that we have the right foundations, but if we wait until we “know it all” before we take a step, then we are trapped and we are never going to be productive for God.

All the early church and disciples had were the things that Jesus told them, the Holy Spirit, and support from one another… and just look at what amazing things they did!!

So don’t think you’re not good enough, clever enough or ready enough for God to use you? If you are reading his Word and have his Holy Spirit living in you, that’s all you need!

I’ve included verse 27 as it’s really important too. Jesus doesn’t want us to be troubled or afraid when serving him, so he gives us his amazing gift of peace. Sometimes we let our hearts be troubled and we need to go back and ask for peace, which Jesus gives to us freely.

Romans 8:14: because those who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God.

Luke 4: The Temptation of Jesus

1 Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit in the desert, 2 where for forty days he was tempted by the devil. He ate nothing during those days, and at the end of them he was hungry.

3 The devil said to him, “If you are the Son of God, tell this stone to become bread.”
4 Jesus answered, “It is written: ‘Man does not live on bread alone.’

5 The devil led him up to a high place and showed him in an instant all the kingdoms of the world. 6 And he said to him, “I will give you all their authority and splendor, for it has been given to me, and I can give it to anyone I want to. 7 So if you worship me, it will all be yours.”

8 Jesus answered, “It is written: ‘Worship the Lord your God and serve him only.’

9 The devil led him to Jerusalem and had him stand on the highest point of the temple. “If you are the Son of God,” he said, “throw yourself down from here. 10 For it is written:

” ‘He will command his angels concerning you
to guard you carefully;
11they will lift you up in their hands,
so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.’^[

12 Jesus answered, “It says: ‘Do not put the Lord your God to the test.’

13 When the devil had finished all this tempting, he left him until an opportune time.

Jesus, straight after he was baptised & filled with the Holy Spirit, was led into the desert. Isn’t that interesting… You’d have thought that God would have sent him straight into the villages to preach & teach the people, but instead God 1^st sent him into the desert.

- Why do you think Jesus was sent into the desert at this time?

- Why do you think God gives us dry or desert times?

- Think of a time when you have felt far from God – looking back, how do you think this has helped you in your faith?

Notice how the devil goes about tempting Jesus (and us): 1^st the devil uses Jesus’ hunger, or his “natural desires”, 2^nd he tries to use “worldly wealth & power” to try to tempt Jesus. 3^rd he even tries to perverse what Jesus knows of God & his promises in the bible, in order to make him sin – to tempt him to use them for His own benefit.

- Why do you think God allowed Jesus to be tempted by the devil?

- What benefits could come from God allowing the devil to tempt us?

(NB: We need to remember that we should not put ourselves in a position of being tempted and wherever possible we should ask God “to lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil”)

- How did Jesus respond to the temptations?

- What was the one and only weapon Jesus used against the devil? …How prepared are you to be able to use this weapon against the devils schemes?