Psalm 86:8-13 ⁸ Among the gods there is none like You, O Lord;
Nor are there any works like Your works.
⁹ All nations whom You have made
Shall come and worship before You, O Lord,
And shall glorify Your name.
¹⁰ For You are great, and do wondrous things;
You alone are God.

¹¹ Teach me Your way, O LORD;
I will walk in Your truth;
Unite my heart to fear Your name.
¹² I will praise You, O Lord my God, with all my heart,
And I will glorify Your name forevermore.
¹³ For great is Your mercy toward me,
And You have delivered my soul from the depths of Sheol.

Sometimes it’s just good to take a few moments to glorify the Lord. This passage starts it off perfectly telling him how wonderful He is. Even when we spend time in prayer, do we take the time to adore Him, to tell Him how great He is? To lift Him up, and thank Him just for being God?

As a parent, I love to hear my children tell me that they love me, that they appreciate me, that I mean so much to them. When one of my kids takes a minute to say, “You’re the best, Mom!” it truly makes my day. I don’t think our Heavenly Father is any different. When we stop what we are doing to bring praises to the Lord, I think that must make His day too!

Psalm 22:3 tells us ³But thou art holy, O thou that inhabitest the praises of Israel. He inhabits our praises. That means that He lives or resides in, He is present in, and He fills our praise. Since He owns the cattle on a thousand hills and the earth is His, pretty sure He can choose to live anywhere He wants. How special that the words of our mouth coming from our heart, become a place that He chooses to dwell.

I challenge you today to take the time to Glorify God. If you don’t know how to praise the Lord, open the Book of Psalms and start reading out loud! He takes His delight in your praise so get started!

I want to take a minute to tell you about a really great CD that has been blessing me lately.

The Bethel Music latest release Be Lifted High is a fantastic album filled with incredible praise and worship songs.

You will want to sings and dance along to the praise songs You Are Good, and One Thing Remains. Jenn Johnson’s God I Look To You will minister to you, especially if you are facing tough decisions or times. I Will Exalt is an awesome worship chorus.

The entire album is one that will greatly bless you! You can purchase it here. The Deluxe album also includes a special dvd of the different worship leaders discussing the inspiration for each song. That in itself will minister to you!

Here’s a little taste of Bethel Music. Happy listening!

If you look at this picture what do you see? Either a sunrise or a sunset. Kinda like is the glass half-empty or half-full?

It’s all in what your perception is. There are great things about both the sunrise and the sunset. The sunrise represents a new start, a new moment, a new day. I love Lamentations 3:22-23 in the Message Bible - God’s loyal love couldn’t have run out, his merciful love couldn’t have dried up. They’re created new every morning. How great your faithfulness! 

Bethel Worship has a great song that reminds me of this verse- One Thing Remains

If you don’t have time to listen to it, the lyrics are:

Higher than the mountains that I face
Stronger than the power of the grave
Constant through the trial and the change
One thing remains
One thing remains

Your love never fails, it never gives up, it never runs out on me

On and one and on and on it goes
It overwhelms and satisfies my soul
And I never ever have to be afraid
One thing remains

In death and in life I’m confident and covered by the power of your great love
My debt is paid there’s nothing that can separate my heart from your great love

Rejoice today, in this day that Lord has made! His mercies are new and regardless of what may have happened yesterday, today is a fresh start!

We just started a new semester of Bible School, and I’m very excited to be teaching Leadership. I’m using John Maxwell’s 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership as a guide for this class.

What a great book! Tonight we talked about three of the laws of leadership, but the one that stuck out to me the most was the law of influence. Regardless of your position, level of personal success, title, etc… the level of effectiveness you experience in leadership is determined by one thing. The level of influence you possess.

I started thinking about Mordecai. Remember him? If not you can read his story here. His niece was Esther, the girl who became Queen and saved her people from death. Mordecai spoke the famous words found in Esther 4:14 Yet who knows whether you have come to the kingdom for such a time as this?

The law said that no one could go before the king without an invitaiton. The law said if you did you would most likely be put to death. What a level of influence Mordecai must have possessed to instruct Esther to break that law, putting herself at risk, and have her follow his direction to the letter. The majority of the Jewish population didn’t know who Mordecai was, but that didn’t stop his influence from affecting the destiny of that entire nation.

Every one of us has a certain level of influence, good or bad. What are you doing with this powerful tool that you possess? Are you using your influence for good, to affect positive change, or are you influencing those around you in negative ways?

Just like Mordecai, even if you think no one knows you the influence that you posses may just affect one person, who in turn affects nations. Use your influence wisely. It might just change the world.

Isaiah 40:28-31   ²⁸ Have you not known? 
      Have you not heard? 
      The everlasting God, the LORD, 
      The Creator of the ends of the earth, 
      Neither faints nor is weary. 
      His understanding is unsearchable. 
       ²⁹ He gives power to the weak, 
      And to those who have no might He increases strength. 
       ³⁰ Even the youths shall faint and be weary, 
      And the young men shall utterly fall, 
       ³¹ But those who wait on the LORD 
      Shall renew their strength; 
      They shall mount up with wings like eagles, 
      They shall run and not be weary, 
      They shall walk and not faint.

There are times when each and every one of us feels weak.  When we feel like we need a little help. This passage is a great encouragement for those times. Verse 29 says He gives power to the weak,  And to those who have no might He increases strength. When we feel weak, that’s when He is strong through us. Verse 31 gives us the key to receiving that strength.  ³¹ But those who wait on the LORD. Shall renew their strength; They shall mount up with wings like eagles, They shall run and not be weary, They shall walk and not faint. We have to learn to wait upon the Lord.

I don’t know about you, but there have been times when I was looking for answers from God but I didn’t take the time to just wait on Him for the answers. When I finally got smart and stopped long enough to really hear Him, that’s when I got my answers. The same is true when we need strength. When we take the time to wait to hear His voice, He will guide and direct us. He will give us the strength we need to face every circumstance.

Psalm 27:14 also tells us  ¹⁴ Wait on the LORD;Be of good courage,  And He shall strengthen your heart; Wait, I say, on the LORD!

Be of courage today, and learn to wait on Him. Soon you too will be soaring like the eagle!

I have a really annoying habit. I have the tendency to not return phone calls. It’s not that I don’t want to talk to people, it’s just that if someone calls me and I miss their call, I try to wait until I’m in a position to really talk. That means without the hubby talking on his phone next to me in the car, without the kids yelling about why the other one looked at them wrong, without the distraction of making dinner, doing laundry and cleaning the house at the same time.

Problem is, waiting for the right moment usually means that that return phone call doesn’t happen right away. The other day one of my friends called. I was running around in the middle of doing some things, but I’m glad I answered that phone call because it was literally a matter of life and death. I’m so glad I didn’t miss her call!

How often do we do that to God? He calls us, and instead of answering right away we wait to find that perfect moment to return his call. How may times has that moment passed us by all together? When we hear that still small voice, asking us to go meet with him for a little while, are we too busy being caught up in our lives, so we say, “I’ll go pray later.”?

In Psalm 91:15 God says, ¹⁵ He shall call upon Me, and I will answer him; I will be with him in trouble; I will deliver him and honor him. When we call upon Him, He doesn’t wait for the perfect moment to get back to us, He answers. Next time He calls us, let’s learn from His example and answer that call!

P.S. If you are one of my friends and I haven’t called you back lately, I promise I’m really gonna try to do better!!

Today we get to talk about my favorite part of this story. Verse 31-³¹ And immediately Jesus stretched out His hand and caught him, and said to him, “O you of little faith, why did you doubt?”

When Peter started to sink, he called out and asked Jesus to save him. Jesus’ response was to immediately reach out his hand and catch him. Not after He gave Peter a lecture on why he messed up. Not because Peter did or did not  deserve His help. Immediately, instantly, without hesitation, the moment Peter called out to Him, He reached out His hand and saved him.

In that one moment, I doubt Peter stopped to think about whether or not he was worthy of Jesus saving him. He just knew if Jesus didn’t he was going to drown. So he called and Jesus answered.

Romans 10:13 says For “whoever calls on the name of the LORD shall be saved” That means whatever we need to be saved from, if we call on Him He will reach out His hand and catch us too. Just because we have received Him as our Lord and have become born again doesn’t mean we still don’t need Him to be our Savior throughout the rest of our life.

Whenever you need Him, you can call His name . He will never leave you or forsake you. He’ll just give you His hand.

Has that ever happened to you? You stepped out to do what God had for you, but then you looked around at the circumstances, allowed fear to overshadow everything else, took your eyes off of Him, and started to sink.
I firmly believe if Peter had kept his eyes on Jesus, fear couldn’t have come in to stop him from walking supernaturally. Faith and fear are opposites, just like light and dark. Where faith is fear cannot be, and vice versa. The circumstances just show up to try to take your focus. I can prove it. Verse 32 says And when they got into the boat, the wind ceased. As soon as they stopped defying the natural, the wind stopped, the waves stopped, and the storm ceased. The circumstances didn’t bother Jesus, and He gave that same ability to Peter.

Although Peter allowed the storm to intimidate him, he had the capacity to dominate the storm, and so do you. Next time you step out and start walking on water, when the wind starts blowing and the waves start crashing, keep your eyes on Jesus, don’t be afraid but only believe. Instead of sinking, you’ll find yourself walking above the storm and accomplishing the supernatural in your life!

There is more to this story, but I want to stop right there. This verse says- So Peter got out of the boat and walked on water! Walking on water is something that is naturally impossible. Don’t believe me? Go try it for yourself, you’re probably gonna sink like a rock!

Peter saw Jesus defying the natural and walking on the water. Something in him said, I want to do that. So he asked Jesus if he could come out there on the waves with Him. When Jesus said yes, Peter hopped out of the boat and started walking.

This story ministered to me because I have somethings on the inside of me. Dreams and desires that naturally I don’t have the ability to accomplish. I have limited myself because of what I think I can and can’t do. But when I ask Jesus if I can do those things, He is gonna tell me yes. Then it’s up to me. I just have to get out of the boat and start walking. That’s when my natural ability turns into supernatural gift and the things that I couldn’t do by myself, He does through me.

Philippians 4:13 says I can do ALL things THROUGH Christ who strengthens me. The same applies to you.

What dreams do you have that you haven’t stepped out on? What desires are in your heart that you haven’t felt qualified to accomplish? Where your ability ends, His ability will take over and you will find the impossible is possible for you! So start today! Get out of the boat and just start walking!

Jeremiah 31:3-4

³ The LORD has appeared of old to me, saying:
“ Yes, I have loved you with an everlasting love; Therefore with lovingkindness I have drawn you. ⁴ Again I will build you, and you shall be rebuilt,

I love this scripture. The Lord says- I have loved you with an everlasting love. So many tines I see people who feel that they are unworthy of the Love of God. They feel that their actions have taken them out of fellowship with Him and that they can never be restored. Others feel that God is a mean judge, who they will never be good enough to stand in front of.

But NO! This scripture tells us that He loves us with an everlasting love. That word everlasting itself means literally lasting forever, never-ending. No matter what we’ve done, no matter how far we’ve strayed, His love is always there waiting for us to come back to him.

I am reminded of the story in Luke 15:11-32. The story of the young man who wanted to get his inheritance early and took it and squandered every bit of it. He walked away from his father, his home and everything that he had. One day he spent all of his money and found himself in the midst of a pig pen, without any friends, without any food, without any hope. Remembering how good he had it at his father’s home, he decided to go back and see if there was any way his father would forgive him. He thought maybe he could just be a servant and work for his keep. But when he returned home, his father came running and embraced him. Instead of becoming a servant he was restored to his place of sonship.

That’s how it is with our God. When we come back He isn’t there waiting to slap us down or punish. He is waiting with open arms ready to love us.

This verse says with lovingkindness I have drawn you. And then comes the best part. When you think you’re too broken, when you think you’re unable to be restored, when you think there is no way you can ever be what you once were, He rebuilds you. Verse 4 says, again I will build you- YOU WILL BE REBUILT. Just like that prodigal son, when you return to your Father’s house He will rebuild you, and restore you to be more than you dreamed possible.

As I was writing this post I felt compelled that there are those reading this today that feel hopeless, that need restoration. No matter what you are going through, you can see your life restored. If you would like to email me at lsarno@relevantfl.org I would love the opportunity to pray with you.