The Lifter of Our Heads “But You, O Lord, are a shield for me, My glory and the One who lifts up my head. I cried to the Lord with my voice, And He heard me from His holy hill. Selah (Psalms 3:3, 4 NKJV) God has good plans for you and He wants you to enjoy your life. He doesn’t want you to live with a spirit of heaviness, despair, depression or discouragement. The good news is, your attitude and outlook can change when you look to God and let Him lift you up. The psalmist said that God “is a shield for me, my glory, and the lifter of my head.” Think about that phrase ‘the lifter of my head.’ When someone walks around with their head hanging down, we assume that they’re sad or depressed. If that’s the way you feel, know today that God can lift your head and your spirits.- Joyce Meyer : Promises For Your Everyday...

Receive the Holy Spirit and the Power to Forgive God wants us to live lives of forgiveness. We all must willingly choose to obey God and forgive any offense, from the smallest to the largest, no matter how much the devil tries to poison our thoughts with bitterness. This is often easier said than done, but God doesn’t expect you to do it on your own. You cannot forgive without the power of the Holy Spirit. It’s too hard to do on your own, but if you are truly willing, He will send the Spirit to help and enable you. You just need to be willing and humble and cry out to Him for help. In John 20:22, Jesus breathed on the disciples and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit!” His next instruction was about forgiving people. He’s saying the same thing to you. He wants to fill you with the Holy Spirit and enable you to forgive, but you have to ask and receive Him. If you are willing, God can give you the power to get rid of any bitterness and unforgiveness in your heart. Ask God to breathe the Holy Spirit on you so that you can forgive those who have hurt you. Prayer Starter: God, I am willing. Breathe on me and fill me with Your Spirit. I choose to receive the enabling power of the Holy Spirit and forgive. -Joyce Meyer: Promises a For your Everyday...

“If it be so, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and He will deliver us out of thine hand, O king.  But if not, be it known unto thee, O king, that we will not serve thy gods, nor worship the golden image which thou hast set up. (KJV) ( Daniel 3:17-18 )   A lot of times we have our faith backwards. If God does XYZ, then I will believe. But these men had a powerful faith. Even if God didn’t save them from death, they still stood their ground. Why must we have conditions met before we will stick our neck out for God? It comes down to trust. Will you still trust in God even if it appears God didn’t come through?...

Genesis 3:1-3 “Now the serpent was more subtil than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made. And he said unto the woman, Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden?  And the woman said unto the serpent, We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden: But of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God hath said, Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die.” “Satan begins his trickery with a half-truth eating from the trees in the garden. Right out of the gate, he tries to confuse what God really said to Eve and get her to believe that she heard God wrong. Eve remembers what God actually said, and repeats that to Satan, standing her ground for now. As you may well know, Satan comes next with more lies about what God has said, and lies about what will, or will not happen if Adam and Eve eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Deception is the game of our enemy, and deceiving you is the only weapon he has against you. You are free from sin and from believing these lies in Christ. Do not grant Satan power that he does not really have in your life.” Verse/Commentary courtesy of ‘Verse-A-Day’...

Lift Up The Standards as The Great Controversy Intensifies “For we can do nothing against the truth, but for the truth. For we are glad when we are weak and you are strong. And this also we pray, that you may be made complete.” (2 Corinthians 13:8, 9, NKJV.) “God has appointed apostles, pastors, evangelists, and teachers, for the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ, till we all come to the unity of the faith. God declares to His people, “Ye are God’s husbandry, ye are God’s building.” There must be a continual advancement. Step by step His followers must make straight paths for their feet, lest that which is lame be turned out of the way. – Those who would labor for God must work intelligently to replenish the deficiencies in themselves and glorify the Lord God of Israel by standing in the light, working in the light of the Sun of Righteousness. Thus they will carry the church forward and upward and heavenward, making its separation from the world more and more distinct. – As they assimilate their character to the divine Pattern, men and women will not guard their own personal dignity. With jealous, sleepless, loving, devoted interest, they will guard the sacred interest of the church from the evil which threatens to dim and cloud the glory that God intends shall shine forth through it. They will see that Satan’s devices have no place or countenance in it by encouraging faultfinding, gossiping, evil speaking, and accusing of the members; for those things would weaken and overthrow it. – There never will be a time in the history of the church when God’s workers can fold their hands and be at ease, saying, “All is peace and safety.” Then it is that sudden destruction cometh. Everything may move forward amid apparent prosperity; but Satan is wide awake, and is studying and counseling with his evil angels another mode of attack where he can be successful. The contest will wax more and more fierce on the part of Satan; for he is moved by a power from beneath. – As the work of God’s people moves forward with sanctified, resistless energy, planting the standard of Christ’s righteousness in the church, moved by a power from the throne of God, the great controversy will wax stronger and stronger, and will become more and more determined. Mind will be arrayed against mind, plans against plans, principles of heavenly origin against principles of Satan. Truth in its varied phases will be in conflict with error in its ever-varying, increasing forms, and which, if possible, will deceive the very...

“Stand therefore, having your loins girt about with truth, and having on the breastplate of righteousness.” (Ephesians 6:14.) “The enemy is on the track of every one of us, and if we would resist temptations which assail us from without and from within, we need to make sure we are on the Lord’s side, that His truth is in our hearts, that it keeps watch in our souls, ready to sound an alarm and summon us to action against every enemy. Without this defense amid unseen foes we shall be like the willow bending to blast, driven of the wind and tossed. But if Christ abides in the soul we may be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might…. The mind can be expanded and ennobled and should be made to dwell upon heavenly things. Our powers must be cultivated to the uttermost, else we shall fail of meeting God’s standard. Unless…[the mind] flows in a heavenward direction it becomes an easy prey to the temptation of Satan to engage in worldly projects and enterprises that have no special connection with God…. All zeal and devotion and restless energy and feverish desire are brought into this work, and the devil stands by and laughs to see human effort wrestling so perseveringly for an object that it will never gain, which eludes its grasp…. To be independent and self-reliant in some respects is [a] duty that we owe to ourselves. But here, where the enemy will come in with his delusive snares, pride takes the place of humility. And when you or I trust to our own resources, our own wisdom, and seek counsel of our own heart, then certain disappointment, shame, and confusion will be our portion at last. We are in a fair way to triumph only when we are closely connected with God, and have on the whole armor of righteousness…. It is essential that you feel the power of the truth as well as to believe it. It should have a steady, abiding influence upon the mind. But dreamlike projects are favored and bar the way to deep and thorough heavenly principles. The things of this life have the precedence of the interest pertaining to the future, immortal life. The common and earthly deaden the sense of the eternal.” “There is one safeguard against Satan’s deceptions and snares—that is the truth as it is in Jesus. The truth planted in the heart, nourished by watchfulness and prayer, nourished by the grace of Christ, will give us discernment. The truth must abide in the heart, be felt in its power in spite of all the alluring enchantments of Satan, and your experience and...