Reliance

On March 24, 2025   /   Word of the Day   /   Leave a comment

Psalm 33: 18 – 19

But the eyes of the LORD are on those who fear him, on those whose hope is in his unfailing love, to deliver them from death and keep them alive in famine.

When you rely on the Lord, when your dependance is upon Him, He is faithful to defend you, protect you and to meet your needs. This scripture says the Lord keeps His eye upon you. What does that mean? If you have children, there have undoubtedly been many times when you kept a watchful eye over them. Why? Was it not so you could protect them or intervene should something threatened their well-being? Sometimes the greatest potential harm to children is themselves, such as putting objects in their mouth they shouldn’t. Parents watch and move to correct potentially harmful situations. So your heavenly Father does for you. The reason it is important for each of us to recognize this is because it alters our sense of confidence and hope. If you actually believe the Father is watching over you, you are also likely to enquire of Him more frequently and approach life and the world with greater confidence. We can have hope in His unfailing love. Although this does not seem like an earth-shaking revelation, I believe it is a key difference in how some people can tolerate stress better than others. They are truly plugged into the Father’s presence daily. When stress touches them, they recall His presence around them.

There is another crucial message in today’s passage. Verse 19 reveals that Father is present to deliver us and meet our needs. Keeping us alive is just that, meeting our need. Therefore, those people who have a continuing awareness of “God with them” understand that Yahweh provides for them. Famine needn’t rule in their house because the Lord God does.

Admittedly we are living in stressful times, but we have a God, indeed a Father, who is watching over us each minute. This passage encourages us to depend on Him, to put our hope in Him and to live under His protective gaze. We mustn’t, like some children do, run away from the cover of His protection. Instead, we are to depend on it, to lean on it. There have always been times of trial. The best thing we can do when faced with them is to draw closer to the Lord, trust in Him and pray with an earnest heart.

If you feel you need help connecting with God in your heart and with your awareness, take advantage of our coaching at Ivey Ministries.org.

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Advisable Reliance

On July 7, 2015   /   Word of the Day   /   Leave a comment

2 Chronicles 32: 8

And the people relied on the words of Hezekiah king of Judah.

Here is another significant lesson for winning spiritual warfare. Find someone you can rely on. Brother, you are a sitting duck if you don’t have someone you can rely on in the day of trouble. I don’t care who you are or who you think you are, you need someone to lean on. You may be the biggest preacher in town but the day will come when you are under attack and you will need someone’s words other than your own. You will need someone to listen to who is an encourager and a bold believer. Do I preach to myself? Sure, but I also have a plethora of people I listen to regularly and on whom I can rely in the day of trouble.

The second part of this is for goodness sake learn to rely on those who are speaking faith in the face of trouble. Jesus said, “Sure you’re gonna have trouble but take heart because I have already won” (paraphrase of John 16: 33). You are meant to overcome those troubles through the victory of Jesus. That’s the plan but when you are under the barrage of missile attacks it is often difficult to remember that. When the onslaught is heavy enough you will even forget which scriptures you know to rely upon. I will even think to myself, “Now, what do I tell other people when they are going through this?” In those times you need the advice of wise, Christian counselors; those who themselves rely on the scriptures. They will feed you the scriptures you need so don’t hesitate to call on them. In the very first Psalm King David starts us off with this advice. Verse 1 reads, “How blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked, nor sit in the seat of scoffers!” I take that to mean “make sure that the counsel you receive is from Godly people who can speak truth.”

And then here is the real key. Make sure you are listening to these sage individuals. We want to know that they are listening God and that their advice is scriptural. And you are still responsible to God for the advice you take but the point is that you need to have someone that you can trust and listen to and you need to sublimate your ego and take advice and counsel. If you are an island then you are in error. God did not make us to be rugged individualists. He made us to be a family of believers. We are supposed to rely on one another as the collective members of one body.

If you never learn to submit to the instruction of others you will always be a target and you will never be a leader. Only those who learn how to follow responsibly ever become leaders. If you can’t quiet your ego long enough to take advice then you will never have the gentility to lead others. You will never appreciate what a good leader looks like. We learn to lead by following good leaders.

We all need those who can help us through the storm. In today’s passage the people listened to the direction of Hezekiah. They relied on his Godly counsel. And they not only weathered the storm but they came out victorious. This is the way and the counsel of God. Seek the wise, scriptural counsel of Godly counselors in the time of trouble and you also will prevail.

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