Wed, Mar 28th - 4:22PM
Hold On
A couple of weeks ago, God dropped the word perseverance into my spirit.
That’s when I looked up the word. The word perseverance comes from the Greek transliterated word proskartereo. It means to be steadfastly attentive unto, to give unremitting care to a thing.
In our lives, we have plenty of opportunities to quit, to give up. We confess the Word. Nothing seems to happen. We become discouraged and opt to quit.
We’ve prayed and prayed, but our prayers don’t seem to be answered. Again we opt to quit.
We keep being good to people, only to be betrayed....once again. Then we opt to withdraw and not put ourselves out there anymore.
The Bible tells us to seek and keep on seeking, ask and keep on asking, knock and keep on knocking (Matthew 7:7 Amplified Bible).
Quitting for Believers should not be an option. If we are blown away by every disappointment, every difficult time, every distraction, we will never fulfill the purpose God has for us.
We have to determine in our hearts to be steadfast, to be devoted to those things that God has spoken to us to do.
We have to be like a bulldog with a bone. When someone tries to take that bone from him, he digs his teeth in and holds onto it. He refuses to let go no matter how hard the person tries to wiggle it, jerk it or yank it from him. He isn’t giving it up.
When it comes to the things of God, the promises that He has given you both through His Word or through His Holy Spirit, the dreams He has planted in your heart, we should be as that bulldog.
We should dig our teeth into our promise and not give it up no matter how many disappointments, distractions and difficulties come our way. We need to hold onto our promise until we see it manifested.
But most of us give up before our promise comes to pass. Most of us become so discouraged that we decide that God failed us, that our promises are too hard to obtain, that it wasn’t God’s will for us.
No, if we hold onto the promise God has given us, it has to come to pass...no ands, ifs or buts because God’s promises are yea and in Him, amen (2 Corinthians 1:20).
So don’t give up. Hold onto your promise from God, and wait for it to manifest. Hallelujah!
- Annagail Lynes
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Sat, Mar 24th - 9:02PM
I Don't Want To Be Right
My grandmother stood in her yard a little over a year ago. She shook a photo. One that I had seen many times. One of me and some distant cousin playing together when we were real young. I didn’t recall the actual event, but I had heard the story many, many times.
"Do you have a photo like this," she asked.
"Yes," I told her.
"Give it back. It’s mine," she barked.
"No," I protested, ‘it has been in my photo album for over twenty years."
"Just bring me back my picture," she insisted. She had convinced herself that I had stolen her picture. No matter how much I objected, she was convinced that she was right. She just had to be right.
I know that I can be like that too. I think it runs in the females in my family. I have been known to go online to ferret out information to prove that I was right, which has caused people to be leery about speaking their mind around me. I’m sorry to all those who have tangled with me in my effort to be right...you know who you are.
Over the years, I have learned that being right, going down with the "I’m right" ship, doesn’t win you points as a good friend...or with God.
When our hearts become so hard, so rigid, that we think we know it all or that we cannot learn new information, our relationship with God becomes stagnant. It is when we are in this state, this state of hardness, that God cannot teach us if we are not pliable, bendable, and above all, teachable.
I found this wonderful passage in the Bible. I knew about it from Juanita Bynum, who used to preach it. But it didn’t become real to me until now.
"And I will give you a new heart, and I will put a new spirit in you. I will take out your stony, stubborn heart and give you a tender, responsive heart. And I will put my Spirit in you so that you will follow my decrees and be careful to obey my regulations." - Ezekiel 36:26-27 (NLT).
I pray this passage because it is what is in my heart. I don’t want to be right. I want to be teachable. I want to learn all God wants to teach me. I want to obey what He tells me to do.
As long as we hold onto our need to be right, we will never learn at the feet of the Master...and soak in what He is eager to share with us.
We will be in the same situation we are now, stuck and unwilling to bend. Instead we must be willing to give God our stony heart in exchange for a tender, responsive one
- Annagail Lynes
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Fri, Mar 16th - 8:53PM
He Created Me To Be Me
For years, I wanted to be someone else. Anyone else. Someone prettier. Someone smarter. Someone more talented. I wanted to be anybody but me. I couldn’t wish, beg or plead myself into being a different person. I didn’t have a magic wand to transform myself into someone else. The only person I could be is me. I compared myself to others. It wasn’t the models in the magazines that tripped me up. Instead it was the people who seemed to have it altogether. They looked just right. They said the right things at the right time. Everything they did turned to gold. And I am just not like that. I worried and fretted, trying to be like them, only to fall flat on my face. I could follow the same steps they took and still fail. Things just didn’t come as easily for me. Over the years, I have learned a valuable lesson. God didn’t create me to be someone else. He created me to be me. He created me just the way I am–with my brown hair streaked with gray, to be my height, to have my talents and even my personality. If He wanted me to be someone else, that’s who He would have created me to be, but He created me to be me. He has a purpose for my life and for my specific talents, just as He does for yours. He has a reason why I was born at this particular time in this particular place. The only person you have to be is you. The only person you have to be like is God. If you will let Him, He will teach you how to be all He created you to be. And that’s all you ever have to be. - Annagail Lynes
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Fri, Mar 9th - 6:11PM
Your Faith Has Made Your Whole
Have you ever told God how you think that He should do things? Or how He should answer your prayer? Have you ever bombarded heaven with a list of things that you needed? Or given God a deadline? I know I have. In recent months, I have been upset with God. A few years ago, a close loved one met a man. I knew something was off with him, but I was helpless to stop her from marrying him. I prayed, prayed, and prayed some more. I even shared my doubts with this woman. All to no avail. Now she is going through the process of getting the marriage annulled. During this time, I caught myself saying, "God, if You would have just listened to me..." I don’t know why God chose to do things this particular way. I don’t understand it. But who am I to tell God what to do? As believers, we spent a lot more time thinking of ourselves than about God or other people. We think that God is a vending machine or that He is a piano player at the local jazz club that takes requests. God is God. We cannot change His mind. We cannot influence His decisions through manipulation or tears. God isn’t moved by our tears. He is moved by our faith. Now faith is the assurance (the confirmation, the title_deed) of the things [we] hope for, being the proof of things [we] do not see and the conviction of their reality–faith perceiving as real fact what is not revealed to our senses. (Hebrews 11:1 AMP). To make this even plainer, faith equals God’s Word. If we believe what God’s Word says about a situation over that of our senses–what we see and what we hear–we have faith. And faith moves God. Not our lists. Not our needs. Not our works. No, when we have faith, God moves on our behalf. Remember the lady with the issue of blood? Jesus told her, "Daughter, your faith has made you whole" (Mark 5:34). Her faith in Jesus’ words made her whole. Just like the lady with the issue of blood, if we will agree with God’s Word and believe it, our faith will make us whole too. It is when we believe that we will receive. - Annagail Lynes
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Sat, Mar 3rd - 4:37PM
Religion Or Relationship?
When did you become religious? I didn’t. I went to church for the first fifteen years of my life. I memorized Bible verses. I attended Sunday School. I acted in the church plays. But I am not religious. I have a relationship.
You see, religion is a list of rules and regulations that determine if you are good enough to get to heaven. Religion is a one-way street. You do, do, do. And the more you do, the more you have to do to "please" God. A relationship is a two-way street. Romans 3:23 says "All have sinned and come short of the glory of God." There is nothing that you can do in your own strength to qualify you for heaven. The only thing that qualifies you is accepting Jesus as your Saviour. It isn’t anything that you do. It is what Jesus did by taking your sins on the Cross. It is what Jesus did by laying His life down so that you may have a place in heaven. His shed blood on the Cross puts me in right standing with God. As a result, I have the opportunity to develop a relationship with Him. Instead of praying, begging and pleading, I talked to Him as I would a friend. Then I listen, which to me, is the most important part. When I listen, I hear Him speak. It may not always be a voice. Maybe it is a thought that pops into my mind out of nowhere. Perhaps it is a feeling or an impression, but I know that when I listen, God will speak. I don’t do things because I have to. I do things for God because I want to. I love Him and out of love comes obedience and the desire to want to do things for Him. A relationship with God doesn’t just happen. As in any relationship, you have to work at it. You have to carve out time in your schedule to spend time with Him. The more time you spend with Him, the more solid your relationship becomes. The more your love grows and so does your need to obey Him. Remember, though, that a relationship is a two-way street. You can’t do all the talking. You have to listen. If you don’t, you will never really know God. - Annagail Lynes
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Name: Annagail Lynes
