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Reader's Favorite Just for Me: Inspirational Reading

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In the Valley

Imagine that God communes with you so intimately that you become aware of His presence. Imagine that you feel Him taking you somewhere or leading you somewhere. What would you expect to happen? Where would you expect to go?

If you’re anything like me, then your first hope might be that God would take you somewhere wonderful! I could easily imagine God taking me to a mountain top, a luxury home, or a beautiful garden of tranquility.

So then, I wonder how Ezekiel felt when the Lord’s hand was upon Him and took Him, not to green pastures, but to a valley of despair.  It would have been an odd feeling for me. I could imagine asking something like, “Hey Lord, weren’t we supposed turn right into the Valley of VIPs and not left into the Basin of Bones?”

However, we learn something very valuable about the Hand of God. When His Hand is on you, where He leads is second to the fact that His Spirit is with you. And when the Spirit of Lord is upon us, we can go wherever He wants us to go and still be blessed, productive, and victorious.

Something awesome happened with Ezekiel when he let God lead him and when he obeyed what God wanted him to do…

Ezekiel 37: 1, 2, 10 - The hand of the Lord came upon me and brought me out in the Spirit of the Lord, and set me down in the midst of the valley; and it was full of bones. Then He caused me to pass by them all around, and behold, there were very many in the open valley; and indeed they were very dry… So I prophesied as He commanded me, and breath came into them, and they lived, and stood upon their feet, an exceedingly great army.

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He's Trying to Get Your Attention, Don't Ignore Him

Have you had that uncanny feeling that God is trying to get your attention? It's kind of like He is calling out to you - practically calling your name

When that moment occurs, don't ignore it. Go with it. Stop whatever else you're doing and give your attention to Him.

Answer His call by calling back to the Him.

For example, pray to Him something like, “Lord, I hear you; Lord, I am available to You; reveal Your desire for me and give me the strength to accomplish Your will.”

Don't be afraid. He won't call you to do anything that He won't give you the strength and resources to accomplish.

Exodus 3:3, 4 - So Moses thought, “I will go over and see this strange sight … When the LORD saw that he had gone over to look, God called to him … “Moses! Moses!” And Moses said, “Here I am.”

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Our lives are like fields in which the Spirit of God has planted His seeds. In order for those seeds to grow to become fruit-bearing trees, we must cultivate (take care of/nurture) those seeds. One of these seeds is peace.

I'd like to share some of the notes I recently took from my pastor's sermon on what it takes to have peace.

	We must cultivate the fruits of the Spirit.
	What you’ve cultivated is what comes out of you when the pressure is on.
	What comes out of you when you have job pressure, trouble in the home, or sickness in your body proves who is in control of your life.
	First, Ephesians 2:14 teaches us that Jesus is our peace (through Jesus, we are reconciled to God).
	Secondly, peace comes through forgiveness: receiving it and giving it.
	"Don't give today's energies to yesterday's errors."
	Until you are able to forgive the person who's done the vilest thing to you, you won't have peace.
	Ask yourself, "Who is it you need to forgive today?"

It is no surprise that peace is tied to our relationship to Jesus. However, don’t you find it interesting that peace is tied to forgiveness? For one thing, our forgiveness of others determines God's level of forgiveness toward us (Matthew 6: 14, 15; 6: 14, 15; Mark 11: 25, 26). Further, forgiveness is an action. By Biblical definition, when we forgive we let go of / disregard / do not discuss / keep no longer the offense another person committed to us.

This is no small thing!

Forgiveness is a constant way of life. It is living as though there was no offense – after all this is how God mercifully treats us. Godly forgiveness is a result of Godly character - something fairly unnatural to us, although completely possible through our relationship with Jesus.

So then, peace is cultivated (1) through Jesus, (2) the continual act of forgiving others, and (3) God’s resulting forgiveness of our sins.

Be at peace my brothers and sisters. Settle for nothing less. The choice is yours to make.

Galatians 5: 22, 23 - the fruit of the Spirit is: love, joy, peace, long-suffering, kindness, goodness, faith, meekness, self-control; against such things there is no law.

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Have you ever been swept into a wave of complaining? Has it become a habit or is it just something that you sometimes participate in?

Let's begin a remedy. Right now, let's begin to think of ten things God has done for us in our lives. Ready? OK, start thinking…

Now, let's think of ten more things…

No matter how small it may seem to you, keep thinking. For example, thank God for your eyesight or your healthy ankle, or even the hair on your head. Whatever you can think of, focus on it.

God has been so good to us that we take for granted things that others wish they had.

Let's continue to focus all day long.  As a result, our faithful thoughts will begin to outweigh our complaints.

Numbers 11: 1a - Now when the people complained, it displeased the LORD; for the LORD heard it, and His anger was aroused…

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Discipline with a Result in Mind

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