All tagged strength

Are We Blind in Capernaum?

Richard Forbes
Christian , Daily Devotional, Healing The Blind

Two days ago we spoke of cases where prayer wasn't answered immediately, and today we will speak further on that subject through the biblical story of Jesus healing the two blind men in Capernaum. This is indeed the first example we have of Jesus healing the blind... He had been busy through the course of the day, healing, teaching, calling Matthew to follow Him, and raising the dead, but as the people continued to follow after Him we read of two blind men calling out to Him from the crowd for healing. It appears that perhaps Jesus didn't hear them, and yet they continued to follow after Him until they finally entered into the house where He was, and there, because of their faith, He restored their sight.

Who Is Your Strength?

Richard Forbes
Christian , Daily Devotional, Strength in God

One spring day my wife and I returned from Chattanooga where we had celebrated the graduation from college of a remarkable young lady, I plopped down in my prayer chair and was led to read a devotional message titled "Trouble and Prayer". The previous day I had written about this young lady's struggle with Multiple Sclerosis, but when we saw her this morning, after just a few weeks absence, she looked frail and was walking with a cane. It broke my heart to see her this way. Our prayers had been more than needed today, and now we waited confidently for God’s answer.

Trusting from Deep within the Heart

Richard Forbes
Christian , Daily Devotional, Trusting in God

This morning, the day after I wrote about my encounter with the stock clerk at Publix, I couldn't sleep and rose early to pray. I was drawn out of bed for a very specific prayer... On the day before I had written about a man I met at Publix whose nine year old son was in a life or death battle against cancer. Now, on this the morning after, my prayers are focused on this boy and his family, and this led me to pray about the trust I have that God heals.

Do Not Grow Weary in Your Prayers

Richard Forbes
Christian , Daily Devotional, Weary in Prayer

Do you begin to pray fervently with power, but as your prayers continue do you find that your strength is waning? Praying is not only a spiritual exercise, but is also mentally, and physically demanding as well. God sent Jesus an angel to strengthen Him while He was praying in the Garden of Gethsemane, and He will send us help too. There are sweet prayers that we find rather easy to pray, and we can sing and whisper them, but there are also those that are like raging storms within us that we must shout in order to be heard above the gale, and that demand a great deal of effort to pray. Regardless of the nature of our prayers today, let’s not grow weary as we offer them. Have you ever had such an occurrence in your life?

Do we rest as we should?

Richard Forbes
Christian , Daily Devotional , Rest

In our service to the Lord do we ever find ourselves reaching the physical limit of our strength? Do we find ourselves exhausted and our desire to continue on waning? Well, this is not uncommon because there is a natural limit to what our earthly body, including our minds, can sustain before they must rest. When we approach this limit it is no surprise to God, and although He tells us to eat, drink, and rest, our minds often push us on towards our breaking point. Feeling guilty when we rest, or thinking that we have somehow been given superhuman ability by God, pushes us on and we ignore Him. Listen to the angels He sends, and hear Him in our dreams and visions. You are not unlike Elijah, and need to have your strength replenished… the journey is not over yet.

Do Not Fret, and the Reading of Psalm 37

Richard Forbes
Christian , Daily Devotional , Fretting

Psalm 37 speaks a great deal about fretting, or worrying to the point of becoming anxious, and also about how the wicked will be overcome by the faith of the righteous through the strength of God. It is good to read this Psalm from time to time because it reassures us of God’s greater plan for us, and how He will keep His promises to us. This chapter inoculates us with hope when the evil and wicked in the world troubles us, or seeks to destroy us. We are told in this Psalm of many ways that God is our strength, and our savior, as we stand against the world.

Finding Prosperity and Peace in times of Suffering

Richard Forbes
Christian , Daily Devotional , Faith in Suffering

When we, the faithful believers in God, and Jesus Christ, are suffering through some bodily illness, fatigue, failure, or perhaps are being set upon by worldly suffering and calamity, do we hold tight to our faith? Do we continue believing, not as we did previously, but by growing stronger and stronger as we lean more and more on our Lord? Job gives us encouragement that should sustain us in the midst of such tribulation. Are we listening to him, and applying his resolve and faith to our own suffering? Can we prosper in faith, even when we are failing bodily?

The Power of Faith that Grows from Christ’s Prayers for the Sifted

Richard Forbes
Christian , Daily Devotional , Prayers and Sifting

How does Jesus pray for us? Does He pray for us in the same way that He did for Simon Peter; that although he would be sifted, that his faith would not fail? I dare say that this is exactly how he prays for us. But, if given our druthers, how would we prefer that He would pray for us? Would we want to be sifted and have our faith strengthened, or for Jesus to pray that we not be sifted at all?

Storms, Faith, and the Strengthening

Richard Forbes
Christian , Daily Devotional , Strengthening Faith

Are we in the midst of a storm right now, and if so is it physical, spiritual, or a combination of the two? Sometimes we find ourselves physically challenged but our faith allows us to weather that challenge rather easily, sometimes we are tempted by the dark one in such a way that our spirit is directly under attack, but on occasion we face exceptionally violent storms when the physical things that we hold dear come under such horrific attack, that these storms shake us to our spiritual core, and loosen their roots. It is the latter two storms that Job faced which brought him such pain, and suffering, that he was nearly devastated, but once the wind had died, and the hail no longer pummeled him, he found that not only had his faith triumphed, but that it had grown, been purified, and was strengthened beyond belief. Are we being refined in our storms? In the end will our faith shine like gold?

The Power of One Prayer to Save and Deliver Us

Richard Forbes
Christian , Daily Devotional , Individual Prayer

When we are facing great danger or eminent threat, who do we turn to for our salvation? Do we think that an army can save us, or the money of the wealthy will purchase peace and safety from our attackers? Perhaps we believe that our deliverance will be in a bottle of pills, or by the skill of a surgeon, but whatever, or whoever we rush to, they are nothing without the hand of God guiding them, and we can expect nothing unless our trust, and faith are in anything other than the Lord. Where does our help really come from, and do we place our confidence in God, or in the actions of those who can guarantee nothing?

On what do we concentrate our Prayers?

Richard Forbes
Christian , Daily Devotional , Praying for Strength

We often pray for strength, but are we simply asking for physical strength that is of this world, or for Spiritual strength that is eternal, and lifts us up through Jesus Christ into the presence of God? We pray a great deal for the things that God has created, but let’s think back on our prayers and weigh them on a scale, placing the spiritual on one side and the earthly on the other… this will determine where our treasure is, and our hearts desire. This will show us what we actually worship… what we value most.

Where does our Strength come from?

Richard Forbes
Christian , Daily Devotional , Strength and Faith

We are believers, Christians, and yet we can still lose our grasp on the eternal promise that is offered us by God through Jesus Christ. We come to know Him, pick up our cross, and follow after Him, yet if not careful, somewhere along the way we can become fatigued, we can allow our heart to slip into sinfulness, or we might gaze too long into the evil eyes of the world, and in this way can become corrupt… lost.

Strengthening our Faith through Humility

Richard Forbes
Christian , Daily Devotional , Humility

When everything is going remarkably well in our lives it is easy to become proud, and to walk arrogantly in the world, so we are taught to be humble, and when life is beating us down, and Satan is attacking us at every turn, we can become distressed, and depressed, so we are taught to stand tall, and lean on God. The challenge is not to simply be humble, or to stand only in our strength, it is to know when it is appropriate for us to display one, or the other. The goal is to be neither defeated by our pride, nor destroyed by the suffering that life is handing us. Our faith teaches us to find a gentle and productive place in Christ where we can be like Him; avoiding arrogance, while experiencing strength, and standing firm in the midst of our humility.

Receiving Strength in our Moments, and Seasons, of Exhaustion

Richard Forbes
Christian , Daily Devotional , Strength , Energy

The apostle Paul worked tirelessly to teach and spread the good news of Jesus Christ, and many of us today owe our salvation, and eternal lives, to those seeds he planted, but even Paul would have grown tired in this effort had he not been infused with the energy of Jesus. The most gratifying tasks in our lives can grow wearisome over time, or by sheer exhaustion as our strength is sapped by the heavy lifting, or aging. Are we as energetic in our faith today as we once were? Do we feel weary and depleted, as day after day we go out into the world to spread the gospel message? Well we should look to the Lord as we struggle to walk on… asking for His energy to powerfully work in us, and the wisdom needed to make our efforts more efficient.

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