My Encouragement to you is an encouragement God gave me yesterday.

I have been feeling down and fed up with my studying over the past couple of weeks, but God said to me:

“Why did you start studying, what is the reason you prayed about this career you want to do?

God reminded me why I started this, and why I have been praying about this career.

So if you have prayed about something and not seen anything happen yet, God says; “Don't worry, keep praying, I see you, I see what is on your heart!”

I got excited today as I watched a video on brain development (children's) as part of my college course because it talks about pruning. The video was explaining about the connections that are made in our brains through our experiences in early childhood and the more we use them/they are re-enforced they grow strong but if they are not used/reinforced they are pruned and basically do not exist anymore, they disappear. This is how we develop into the person we become as an adult.

It brought to mind the scripture in John 15: 1-3 (NIV). "I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener. He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful. You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you".

Before knowing God we are shaped by our experiences good or bad in this world and the connections in our brains make us behave and relate the way we do. Once we know God however, he gets to work, he is the gardener and he starts to prune us and shape us by the renewing of our minds.

It is so wonderful that God goes to work to renew our mind, to give us new brain connections that replace ones that don't serve us well and to prune away anything not of Him; we become more and more who we were meant to be; full of truth, love, hope as he prunes away those old negative brain connections. (I love that in the scientific world they also call this process pruning, a long time after it was written in the bible!)

In order for the gardener to be able to work in us, this chapter gives us two ways we need to play our part, verse 3 says, you are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you and verse 4 says, Remain in me, and I will remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me.

God can prune us and renew our minds if we are in the word, the bible but also if we are close to Him and hear His voice, and obey Him when He speaks. And Jesus tells us not just to do this as a one off or every now and then but to "Remain in Him", stay close to him and keep staying close.

Recently I was struggling with an assignment, I'd completely run out of time, and panic had set in. I prayed and asked God what to do, and He told me to contact my tutor and request an extension, so I did. With the extension, I was able to give it the time that was needed. Also, I had heard from the Lord, so I could face it with faith and not fear, and remained at peace and focused. God gave me wisdom. He silenced the doubts in my mind and the voice of the enemy. He gave me peace and the ability to persevere despite the challenge.

This morning I read John 15:4 which says;

'Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in Me.'

I was reminded again of how amazing God is, that, even in our weakness, He is more than enough. He is always good and always faithful. As we abide in Him, He will give us everything that we need in every circumstance, so that we would be a people who glorify His name.

Joshua 1:9 AMP‬‬

Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous! Do not be terrified or dismayed (intimidated), for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.”

I was reading Joshua 1 and I got to the verse above 1:9. As often happens when I am reading the Bible a word jumped out at me. The word was 'be'. I thought to myself what does 'be' mean? I know that Hamlet questioned this in his Shakespeare play. But what does it mean?

I first got out the Oxford English Dictionary and this defines it as - 'Be: to exist'. Now this troubled me because, unlike you I'm sure, I don't always feel strong. Sometimes I am not strong at all, for instance when I'm not well!

So I decided to dig a little deeper and had a look in my Strong's concordance. This says 'to be strong' is the original word chazaq. 'Chazaq' means to 'to strengthen, prevail, harden, be strong, become strong'.

So now I thought let's look a little more at the verse. A little further on it says "Do not be terrified or dismayed". The original word for 'do not' is 'al' and 'be terrified' is 'arats' which literally means 'do not be terrified'! So no big help there!

But then it hit me, the difference between 'be strong' and 'don't be terrified' is, there is a choice. The verse finishes with "for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go". The choice is to look at, think on, worry about, that thing that causes fear OR to look at God and be strengthened because the Creator of the universe is with you!

So now you know you have a choice, what will you choose to 'be'?