Pastor Bell's Words To Live By

Jesus said to him, “If you can believe,  “all things are possible to him who believes.” Immediately the father of the child cried out and said with tears, “Lord, I believe; help my unbelief!” Mark 9:23-4.

Fear causes us to jettison our dreams and compromise what God explicitly spoke to us in the first place. The major problem we face is who do we share our deepest secrets with and who do we entrust with our future? We often forget that we are more powerful than we realise and more resourceful than we first imagine. Consider Joseph son of Jacob. He had everything going for him. He was handsome, loved by his father and mother and belonged to a people who were beneficiaries of the blessing of the Lord God of the universe. However, by sharing his dreams at the wrong stage in his development, he was led down a path that was life threatening and fraught with many dangers, including being put in an unregulated Egyptian jail. I know that some will say that it was character forming going through all the struggles he experienced, but I am not convinced. I believe that a lot of his woes could have been avoided if like Mary (Luke 2:19), he pondered the things of God in his heart rather than blabbing off his mouth to his brothers. Sometimes we speak because we just want to be heard. At other times we speak because we lack self-control.  And still at other times we speak because we get excited and cannot contain ourselves. When God speaks to you, and he will, be extremely careful who you share your encounter with and above all be very careful when you release it. As we enter review mode we should always be mindful that for God timing is everything. An ancient writer says this: ‘let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart, be acceptable to you O God, my rock and my redeemer.’ Let me not pre-release or leak what you have placed in my heart to do! And teach me to ponder more and speak less. Read Mark 23&24.