"To All Things Good"

"Who covereth the heaven with clouds, who prepareth rain for the earth, who maketh grass to grow upon the mountains." (Psalms 147:8)

  What an amazing God we serve! Whether you are sheltered down or needing to be out working, God is your refuge and your strength; don't you forget it! We do not control anything; so what is it that we are trying to do? I am simply amazed by the oddness of this thing happening all around the world, because it seems as though it has a silver lining; yet, that cloud is just waiting for the Light to shine, all around it. People are being changed, that is for sure. Priorities are being evaluated and the freedoms to do certain things are being discussed and dismissed as unnecessary, if not foolish. The way I see it, there is really nothing but good that can come from this; much like this wonderful verse we have before us today: which is actually part of the same verse we looked at yesterday; which basically means, it is all about your point of view! Back to the topic of last week, the Word of God; it is by far the most important thing that needs to be shared in these times; more important than any sort of treatment or isolation, because God's Word changes everything that God wants to change! His will is more important than our wants, and even more important than what we think that we need. I think our busy lives have made us forget how important it is to seek His will first; verses, starting out in a certain direction, and then asking for His will in that! If I seem to be preaching, the choir is looking back at me through the mirror! Seriously though, I am starting a Book today that previously changed my mind, literally changed the way I was thinking: The Book of James! For those that don't know, I was very heavy into goal setting and planning out things based upon a series of steps and routine procedures. For almost twenty years I made that the way to be successful and to prosper; and it actually worked; at least it was working for my goals and plans, but not for what God wanted! The very familiar verse, "Those that wait upon the LORD," was not being put into practice, because I was always trying to be five or ten steps in front of what the LORD wanted to do in my life. I know that might sound kind of silly; but it is the way I actually saw myself living, as I kept trying to reach certain goals: you are always reaching out to obtain something and never really enjoying what God has already given you...

"Are any of you suffering hardships? You should pray. Are any of you happy? You should sing praises. Are any of you sick? You should call for the elders of the church to come and pray over you, anointing you with oil in the name of the Lord. Such a prayer offered in faith will heal the sick, and the Lord will make you well. And if you have committed and sins, you will be forgiven. Confess your sins to each other and pray of each other so that you may be healed. The earnest prayer of a righteous person has great power and produces wonderful results. Elijah was a human as we are, and yet he prayed earnestly that no rain would fall, none fell for three and a half years! Then, when he prayed again, the sky sent down rain and the earth began to yield crops." (James 5:13-18) NLT