Trending News This Week:
- US stocks plummet after major China stock market decline.
- Paris train shooting is now being investigated as a potential terrorist attack.
- Questions rise on the safety of nuisance drones, hobby drones, unmanned aerial vehicles, and remote-controlled copters.
Current news headlines reflect the turmoil happening every day around us. But, if you keep your eye on God, who has already defeated the work of the enemy at the cross, and continue to learn to walk in righteousness, then His blessings, victory, peace, and protection will surround you.
Satan spoke through Peter to try to stop Jesus from obeying God’s will. The enemy will speak through other people – even your closest friends and loved ones – to try and discourage you from following God’s will.
They’ll say things like …
- “Are you sure God told you to do that?”
- “Your situation looks hopeless; you might as well give up.”
- “I don’t see how you will ever get out of debt.”
These voices will cause you to rebel and reject the voice of God.
God has given us a written record of the great miracles He has done on behalf of His people. We have seen and experienced His love, provision, and healing power. But when we face circumstances in our lives that require us to act in obedience to God’s Word, our hearts become filled with unbelief, just like the children of Israel, and many Christians today.
Paul instructs us in Hebrews:
See to it, brothers, that none of you has a sinful, unbelieving heart that turns away from the living God …“Today, if you hear His voice, do not harden your hearts as you did in the rebellion.” Who were they who heard and rebelled? Were they not all those Moses led out of Egypt? And with whom was he angry for forty years? Was it not with those who sinned, whose bodies perished in the wilderness? And to whom did God swear that they would never enter his rest if not to those who disobeyed? So we see that they were not able to enter, because of their unbelief.
Hebrews 3:12, 15-19, NIV
The word rest referred to by Paul here is not referring simply to a place of physical rest from all our labors; it is referring to a supernatural, spiritual dimension of rest. It is a place of peace and security – freedom from fear, worry, and stress – even in the midst of great adversity and troubling news. It is a place of blessing and provision, a place of power and victory over our enemies, a place of joy and contentment, and a place where we have ceased from our striving to walk in our own strength and are walking in God’s strength.
Do not be moved by the headlines trending in the news or by your own personal circumstances. Choose to enter into His rest today.
Say this faith declaration out loud: “I will enter into God’s rest today. I will experience peace and security. I will be free from fear, worry, and stress despite the circumstances around me.”
Scripture Reading:
Then said Jesus unto his disciples, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me. For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: and whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it. For what is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? Or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul? For the Son of man shall come in the glory of his Father with his angels; and then he shall reward every man according to his works. Verily I say unto you, there be some standing here, which shall not taste of death, till they see the Son of man coming in his kingdom.
Matthew 16:24-28