Facing the Future

 

When we pay attention to all that God does for us throughout our day, we find our soul overflowing with love and gratitude to Him. We rejoice in Him, His provision, His peace and His joy that He showers us with each moment of our day. He is our source of rejoicing.

 

The Trinity of God is available to us every moment of the day, because God the Father, Jesus the Son, and the Holy Spirit abides within us. He provides everything for us exactly when we need it – in His perfect timing and will. 

 

Each day is a new surprise, as we put our trust in Him with every hurdle we come up against. Thanks to God’s Spirit, we have fathomless riches because of who He is and what He does for us each day. This is all possible only because of what Jesus, the Son, did for us on Calvary’s cross. 

 

Once we totally surrender to our Father’s love, our supply of His blessings is instant and eternal. Jesus is our Good Shepherd. Our Father God intimately knows us, because He knitted us together in our mother’s womb (Psalm 139). 

 

We recognize the Holy Spirit’s voice, He leads us, and we follow (John 10:4). God’s Trinity goes before us, to ward off any approaching enemy, and we feel protected and secure in His love (Psalm 27:1-3). He makes a way for us over every towering mountain pass, flooded creek, and even the darkest valley (Psalm 23). 

 

God makes the crooked places straight for us (Isaiah 45:2), He knows ahead of time all of the events of our tomorrows, and He keeps us close to Him (Proverbs 18:24). We even slumber and sleep in His eternal peace. He provides all of our needs.

 

Since God knows what lies ahead of us, we thrive in His mercy, truth, and grace through every circumstance that we face. He heals us in body and soul and spirit, reduces the pain of our trials, and uses us as a testimony of His grace and provision (Philippians 4:19).

 

Prayer:

Father God, it is a comfort to know that we are not a nameless entity who drifts around in this stress-filled life until the day that we die. We are not strangers in the throng of humanity surrounding us, but we are known by You, provided for by You, saved by Your grace, and we will spend eternity in Your service. In the center of Your love, even death is not our enemy, because Jesus overcame death and He abides within us (1 Corinthians 15:19-23).

 

Thank You for walking with us and in us, during every step of our life on this earth. You are our Helper, Hope and Expectation. We need You to care for us each moment of the day, and we thank You for all You have done for us, in us, and will do for us in our future. We have the confidence to face whatever the future holds for us, because You are working our Your purposes for our life. We look forward to worshipping You, with the angels around Your throne (Revelation 7:11), for all of eternity.

 

Thought for the Day:

We do not know what the future holds for us, but we do know who holds us in our future; He knows the number of hairs on our head, He rejoices over us with singing, and He allows us to come boldly to His throne in our every moment of need. 

-      Luke 12:7; Zephaniah 3:17; Hebrews 4:16

 

Dreaming

Dreams play an important part in our lives. They help us to maintain our mental, emotional and spiritual health. They usually occur in the deepest part of sleep, called our REM sleep (Job 33:15). They happen all throughout the night, however. Those we dream just before we awaken are the ones we remember most often. Although our body rests during sleep, our soul – our mind, will and emotions – continues to express our cares and concerns (Ecclesiastes 5:3). The content of our dreams is often continuous with our thought and behavior from our day. God also speaks to our spirit during some of our dreams (Acts 2:16,17; Joel 2:28).

Our dreams often help us to solve the problems, which we are ignoring or that are troubling us throughout the day. Some dreams are often very real and vivid to us; others are less detailed. We may be hungry and dream that we ate, or thirsty and dream that we drank; then when we wake up, our soul is still empty and faint (Isaiah 29:8). We often use our dreams to connect to psychological and emotional issues that we avoid during our waking moments.

We may have many dreams that seem disjointed and have no apparent interpretation. These occur to enable us to deal with issues we ignored during the day. Sometimes, certain aspects surface from the subconscious mind to add to the meaning of our dream and to give us a clue about some issue we are concerned about, but are ignoring. During sleep, when our conscious mind is disengaged, our brain tries to find solutions to our problems. It is wise to deal with these so our soul can move on to other issues.

God uses dreams to communicate to us (Genesis 40:8). For instance, God warns of sin, as He did with Abimelech when he had taken Sarah who was another man's wife (Genesis 20:3). God used a dream to encourage Gideon (Judges 7:13-15). God gives us guidance through dreams as he did for Pilate’s wife and Jesus’ earthly father and the wise men (Matthew 2: 12-22, 27:19; Genesis 17:2). Daniel had dreams and also interpreted them, because they came from God (Daniel 2:7, 2:19, 4:27, 4:34-37, 7:1-28). Solomon had a dream when he was a child that God would give him great wisdom (1 Kings 3:7). The Old Testament Joseph’s whole life was inundated with dreams and their interpretations (Genesis 37:5; Genesis 40 & 41).

In the last days, there will be many dreams (Acts 2:17; Joel 2:28). However, the Bible warns that false prophets will predict by dreams (Deuteronomy 13:1-3; 1 John 4:1). Therefore, we must compare with Scripture any dream or any word that seems to come from God, because the Bible is our standard for our faith and practice (2 Timothy 3:16-17; Psalm 19:7). We are not to put out trust in our dreams, but in the Lord (Ecclesiastes 5:7).

Prayer:

Father God, You know our future and have hope and a plan for us (Jeremiah 29:11). When we ignore your direction in our life, we suffer the consequences in our body, soul and spirit. Help us to walk in Your ways and to listen to the direction of Your Holy Spirit every moment of our day. Help us to make wise decisions and to deal with our inner conflict. Remind us to trust in your wisdom and to follow the guidance of Your Holy Spirit. May we always obey Your Spirit and walk in Your ways. We praise You for who You are and we thank You for all You do for us throughout our day.

Thought for the Day:

If we have need for wisdom, we can ask God, because He generously gives guidance and direction to us all. - James 1:5