Cheer up!

Romans 8:28 And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.

In her book, Let Me Be a Woman, Elizabeth Elliot records the story of a friend who had great difficulty accepting the looks God had given her. While everyone this girl knew had grown beautiful golden hair, hers was black. And while they were all still growing, she had stopped. She grew to be only about four feet ten inches tall.

Eventually, she reached the country to which God had called her to be a missionary. One day, she stood on the wharf in Shanghai and looked around at the people to whom He had called her. “Every single one of them,” she said, “had black hair. And every one of them had stopped growing when I did.” She was able to look to God and exclaim, “Lord God, You know what You’re doing!”

Are you struggling with something specific today? Have you been asking, “Why Lord?!” Whether we realize it or not, God knows what He’s doing! We may not understand it today — but He has known these things from the very beginning. And He really is carrying out His great plan in us! Cheer up! God is preparing His vessels for GREAT things!

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The testing of Abraham’s faith was repeated by YHVH throughout the patriarch’s entire life. The tests grew greater as his life advanced, and through every one, whether Abraham passed or not, YHVH proved Himself to be his friend over and over again. Every test or “trial” involved a serious challenge or threat in which Abraham had to trust that the LORD knew what He was doing, asking, or requiring, and that His goodness and faithfulness were unquestionably reliable.

Having spent over 20 years living in Israel’s Negev Desert, I’ve come to appreciate the importance of salt in maintaining proper hydration. “What in the world does salt have to do with grace and truth?”, you ask. Well, I’ll tell you.

During the first great awakening, revivalist George Whitfield was preaching to coal miners in England. He asked one man, “What do you believe?” “Well, I believe the same as the church.” “And what does the church believe?” “Well, they believe the same as me.” Seeing he was getting nowhere, Whitfield said, “And what is it that you both believe?” “Well, I suppose the same thing.”

The Great Wall of China is one of the Seven Wonders of the World. It stretches over 4,000 miles (6,400 KM) and was built to protect China from the barbaric hordes to the north. The designers of the wall made it so high that it could not be scaled, so thick that it could not be penetrated, and so long that no one could go around it.

In today’s news, Bloomberg reported that according to a recent study, Americans can add as many as two years to the nation’s life expectancy if they stand up more often and watch fewer hours of television. What a concept — move around and you’ll live longer!

The word verily, in this verse, is the Hebrew word “emunah” (em-oo-nah). It also means faith or faithfully. When we trust in the Lord, He declares that He will faithfully feed us. How will we be fed?

A young couple was visiting a renown jewelry store in New York City. They browsed through cases of magnificent diamonds with their gleaming yellow light along with many other splendid precious stones. Among those beautiful stones, one in particular caught his wife’s eye.