Llew and Sarah shared wonderfully on Sunday their journey of trusting God, waiting for Him and then seeing His faithfulness to them. One statement that stood out to me was ‘In the wait, we chose faith, not fear’. That phrase has stuck with me, as it emphasised to me that’s it’s still my choice not to give in to negative thoughts of fear, the what ifs and the unbelieving voices that so often surround us.

Fear is a liar, the ‘what if’s’ rarely happen and the negative voices rarely ever have our best interests in mind, so why should we listen to them? Whereas the one who made the promise, has proven faithful and true throughout the ages, he knows the end from the beginning and his love for you and me is unwavering, everlasting and sealed in the blood of His Son.

It makes sense to choose faith, so why do we struggle to choose it? Fear is a liar and the first lie it utters is that you can’t really break free of it. It’s a lie. His perfect love casts out ALL fear. Our weapons have divine power to cast down every argument and take captive every thought. (2 Cor 10:4-5). I have over the years discovered this to be true. Starving out the negative weakens it’s grip, choosing faith exposes the lies and they become easier to ignore.

You have the power to choose faith in God and His promises. Even when the wait continues, faith opens the door to His presence and perspective, which is a far far better place than where fear takes you! You can make the choice today, now, for he who promised is Faithful.

It’s not often I feel down and a little lost on how to pick myself up, but this is how I felt a few weeks ago. I won’t go into why, but needless to say I was a bit stuck and found myself one Saturday morning thinking, ‘I could quite happily stay in bed today.’

I didn’t know what to read or listen to because of how I was feeling.

I remember saying ‘Lord please know my heart, and help me’. Then there was a knock at the door.

It was our lovely Sarah and she had brought a daily devotional book for me.

You know, although the gift was lovely and greatly appreciated, what lifted my spirits, was seeing my friend at the door literally 2 minutes after I had cried out to the Lord.

Why am I telling you all this? Because this is my experience since becoming a Christian.

He’s always listening and hears our hearts cry.

I remember once when I’d been stuck at home for weeks while every child had chicken pox one after the other, saying ‘Lord, how will I ever make a difference in this world if I never see anyone?’ (7 weeks guys!) Then there was a knock at the door. It was a neighbour from a few doors away. She said, ‘Annie, I don’t know what or who you believe in, but please will you share it with me, because whatever it is, I want it’. That week she gave her life to the Lord.

I just feel to reassure us today, that the Lord is listening and He hears us. He is always loving, always faithful, always guiding, always protecting, always strengthening, always encouraging. We just need to ask.

Psalm 145:13-17(NLT)

13 For your kingdom is an everlasting kingdom.

You rule throughout all generations.

The LORD always keeps his promises;

he is gracious in all he does.[a]

14 The LORD helps the fallen

and lifts those bent beneath their loads.

15 The eyes of all look to you in hope;

you give them their food as they need it.

16 When you open your hand,

you satisfy the hunger and thirst of every living thing.

17 The LORD is righteous in everything he does;

he is filled with kindness.

In the meeting last week, we were encouraged to realise there is a mountain of God we can climb, instead of just cruising in life we can put effort into and push ourselves to go higher with God to push in to His presence. That is where the blessings really are.

My normal routine with God is telling him all about what I'm concerned about and then going into praise, but I was challenged to put praise first (Ephesians 1:3), to bring to mind the goodness, greatness and wonder of God and express it to Him before anything else.

The result of doing this, this week, is that I've been more full of joy, excitement and childlike lightness in my spirit.

I'm thankful to God when He tells us to give to Him in praise, especially when we don't feel like it, because He reaps back to us so much more.

I'm excited that He promises this year to pour out more blessing, to take us further with Him and that He's going to do more of the supernatural and things we can't explain if we will push into Him with praise and seek Him first.

I've been drawn recently to this scripture;

Luke 15:8 'Or what woman having ten silver coins, if she loses one coin, does not light a lamp, sweep the house, and search carefully, until she finds it.'

In this simple verse, the Lord showed me three action points to encourage us with, for the year ahead:

1. Light a lamp - in psalm 119 it says; your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path. Make reading the word a priority more than ever this year, it will guide you and hold you fast, giving you everything you need.

2. Sweep the house - be Holy as God is Holy. Where there is sin or things hidden in your life, deal with them, love and forgive others, think on good things, choose to rise above arguments and disagreements that would distract you from His calling.

And finally ...

3. Search carefully - give careful consideration to the words you speak, our words are like a searchlight in the darkness. They have power to search the hearts of men, to reveal what is hidden, and draw people out of darkness into light. The power of life and death is in the words that we speak over ourselves and others. There will be much fruit when we choose them carefully.