From there you will seek the Lord your God and you will find him if you search for him with all your heart and all your soul. God is not trying to hide, he is waiting for you to seek him with all your heart and soul. Many want God to do powerful things in their lives, answer their prayers the way they want, or heal someone they love. But those same folks don't want to seek with all their heart and soul...they only want to seek on the surface, or in the convenient moments...which never come...because of the tyranny of the urgent. God knows our heart, our desire to have him, but not full surrender. When we fully surrender to him seeking him fully...then he is found easily. But he will not share his heart with a half hearted attempt, a surface prayer, or someone who only worships when it is convenient. He will not share the glory of his presence with anyone else, or anything else.

Let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin which so easily entangles us and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us. There are things that are not sins but tend to weigh us down, or become distractions. One of the worst is feelings of hopelessness and despair. It is very easy to fall into the habit of wondering if God has forsaken us, and thinking that after all we have been through, our hopes will end in failure. But even when we do not feel like it, we should rejoice by faith, by firm determination that God is, and that he will never leave us or forsake us.

The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit...these God will not despise. Those people who God uses the most to bring glory to himself are those that are completely broken. It has always been in nature, people and all spiritual life. God uses broken things. Broken in finances, self will, ambitions, lofty ideals, worldly reputation, desires and even health. Those who are totally despised and helpless in the worlds eyes. God uses!

After the earthquake...a gentle whisper...the reason why many of us do not know and understand God is because we do not heed his gentle whispers. They are faint and steady pressures on the heart...restraining us or confirming our course. When heeded the whisper grows clearer in the ears that hear. Give us the courage to follow the whisper...without presuming the outcome.

God is our refuge and strength a very present help in time of trouble..be still and know that I am God. I will be exalted among the nations. I will be exalted in the earth. The Lord of hosts is with us. The God of Jacob is our refuge. A safe place to be still...a place to remember in our minds the present tense help he is. When trouble comes, and it WILL in this life. I need to intentionally return to a place of safety...which is Remembering that his name and his cause will be magnified and expanded to all nations throughout the whole earth. So while I retreat into my prayer closet...while I still my soul with peace that goes beyond my understanding of why....I find strength in his presence for my present circumstances. Strength defined as facing the troubles and knowing he is near...may I be still today..

For whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted. World's method of attaining: take every opportunity to promote self. Seize every occasion for recognition and manipulate into the center of attention. God's; seek others needs above your own. Jesus first, then others...then you...spells j.o.y. I pray we will think of ourselves less often...not think less of ourselves.

Walk wisely...not as fools...redeeming the time because the days are evil. The enemy tempts us to sacrifice what is best for what is good...tempting us to fill our anxious minds with that which are good things...finishing tasks...making that one more call to someone who is need...going here and there for family...but all the while God longs for us to spend time with him...he is the best. When we do so he reprioritizes our to do list...re-boots our hearts to peace and calms us with the fact that he is in control...that is the best!!

The thief comes to kill...but Jesus has the abundant life. The thief I guard against is massive and scary...but the little thieves get in unnoticed. The enemy does not care how he steals with little or with intimidation...and he will use any trick. So often I miss that attack...and how much I need the abundant life that only comes thru renewing my mind each day.

Then Jacob awoke from his sleep and said, surely the Lord is in this place, and I didn't know it. And he was afraid and said, how awesome is this place! I pray we awake today from the sleep of insensitivity to God's presence expressed in his word and be aware of the awesomeness of God's power and grace. May we all run into the presence of God this morning!

God will drive out those nations before you little by little. God doesn't take shortcuts. He will take as long as necessary. We should not seek more responsibility than the character that God has won in us can withstand.

Meekness inherits the earth. It would not seem so from the worlds point of operating...where assertion of beauty or intelligence or talent or cult of personality over character...seems to always win....but we are to renew the mind and live differently...we are to be those whose will is submitted, and therefore the power God inside us is focused on advancing his kingdom, not ours...and that is meekness...strength under control...and the Lord above promises a time in the future when the meek will inherit the earth...that is worth waiting for and worth practicing for today! Lord give us this character today!

And when they could not find how they might bring their friend in...they went up on the housetop and let him down through the tiling into the midst before Jesus...the kind of friends who dig the roof out which is holding them all up...to get someone else to Jesus. They even risked their own stable footing to accomplish this act of faith. Lord give us this kind of self sacrificing vision and compassion for others. Thank you all for being roof diggers...who knows how many have been placed before Jesus by those who dig out their own secure footings.

Blessed are those who mourn for they shall be comforted. Mourn over sin and we will receive comfort...not may receive...will receive. No joy comes unless repentance comes first. May we know that our brokenness over our sin is a doorway to experience God's incredible power.

Blessed are the poor in spirit, for they shall see God. Self reliance robs us of God's gifts. Of salvation because we think we deserve it. Of sustaining because we think we deserve grace. Of joy because we feel entitled. Pride is the opposite of poor in spirit. May God remove us from our lofty opinion of ourselves.

God provides daily bread, not weekly...in our daily dependence is wisdom...for tomorrow is not a subject God allows us to know...it would crush us...but when tomorrow comes...his provision will be there...as he has done in the past because of his character...so he will do today because he never changes!

Your kingdom come your will be done on earth as it is in heaven! God's will is done immediately in heaven because all in heaven know he is right all the time. God's will is done perfectly in heaven because all in heaven know God has never made a mistake. God's will is done in heaven excitedly because they all know it will all work together for good. God's will is done without debate because all sin of pride thinking we know better is gone in heaven. May his will be done today just like it is in heaven

I waited patiently on the Lord. Waiting is one thing, doing so patiently is another. How? Avoid putting God on my timeline. The eternal God does not submit to temporary pressures...he relieves them by calling us to trust in his perfect timing. Victory is then to be won by standing still and quietly waiting. Yet this is 1000 times harder to do than in the past...when we rushed headlong into the busyness...of life. It requires much more courage to stand still and wait and not lose heart or lose hope, to submit to the will of God...Jesus said that men ought to pray always and not lose heart...pray for us to do so today!

The Lord provided by extending minimal resources. We have to believe first...then we will see his provision.

One who trusts in his riches will fall, but the righteous will flourish like the green leaf. Folks say....when I have......I will have made it! But the way of the righteous is contrasted...we should desire...making it as...being in a relationship with Jesus, caring for the broken and lost, being a generous giver, being told...well done good and faithful servant.

He has given us great and precious promises...we live by and on promises not on feelings, not on performance. And when he gave us promises he is asking us to use them...trust them..in times of storm they will hold..in times of chaos they will provide peace..in times of loss they will provide comfort...there is nothing Christ dislikes more than for his people to publicly profess him and then privately not depend on him.

O our God will you not judge them? For we have no power against this great multitude that is coming against us, nor do we know what to do, but our eyes are upon you....the Lord says to you...do not be afraid nor discouraged because of this great multitude, for the battle is not yours but God's. We are in a battle with the enemy because we share allegiance with God, whom the enemy hates. We are helpless, without the ability to reason our way, or power our way through. We focus on the one and only help...God. Devotion to him is the only move. And when our hearts are devoted God takes up the battle for us. Therefore put fear where it belongs...in hell where it came from, put discouragement where it belongs in submission to the Word of the God who cannot lie...and see that the battle is never lost when He fights!

Yet when he heard that Lazarus was sick, he stayed where he was 2 more days. Jesus refrained from going because of his divine love. It was his love alone that kept him from rushing to the grieving friends. Anything less than infinite love would have. Only the power of divine love could have held back the spontaneity of the saviors tender heartedness until the work had been finished. Who can estimate the great debt we owe to suffering and pain? If not for them, we would have little capacity for many of the great virtues of the life of the believer. Where would our faith be if it not for the trials that have tested it. Or patience...without anything to endure or experience without tribulations to develop it?

Pray without ceasing...God is here. You can leave your receiver turned on to him constantly and hear the dialogue of his love, encouragement and direction. To go there with him is to set aside other voices and distractions and give him your attention. You must silence every idol, each loud competing voice. God is there but you will never hear him unless you refuse the noise around you.... Presence centered church..

Give God our first...not out leftovers. Especially the first of our days, attention, devotion, recognizing we don't possess anything that God does not own.

Walk as children of the light...the light of God's word is a lamp unto my feet and a light to my path. Only one step at a time though...not every step I will take...otherwise where would faith be needed? Daily dependence because God knows we could not handle foresight...he is being gracious to us to call us to walk one day at a time.