hold on to the promises.."Surely your goodness...

 “surely goodness and mercy have followed me all the days of my life" 
These words pierced the day's heaviness. The sermon then stated "Come, now! In reading this verse over, can you say Amen to it?  He stated "if you cannot say of your year, " surely goodness and mercy have followed it all,' I am afraid you are not a child of God, for a child of God would say, when he reviews it all, " not one good thing hath failed of all the Lord God hath promised, but all has come to pass." 

I have to say I was CHALLENGED. 
I tried rationalizing my unbelief about certain circumstances but it kept coming back to faith toward God and believing Psalm 23 .

Psalm 23

1The Lord is my shepherd, I lack nothing.
2 He makes me lie down in green pastures,
he leads me beside quiet waters,
3 he refreshes my soul.
He guides me along the right paths
for his name’s sake.
4 Even though I walk
through the darkest valley,
I will fear no evil,
for you are with me;
your rod and your staff,
they comfort me.
5 You prepare a table before me
in the presence of my enemies.
You anoint my head with oil;
my cup overflows.
6 Surely your goodness and love will follow me
all the days of my life,
and I will dwell in the house of the Lord
forever.

The Lord is My Shepherd Psalm 23 - Keith Green

Excerpt from the sermon i read..

CHS Sermon # 58
The eyes of the Lord your God are

always upon it, from the beginning of the year, even unto the end of the year.”

(Deuteronomy 11:10, 11, 12. )

 You may say, “Surely goodness and mercy have followed me all the days of my life and I will dwell in
the house of the Lord forever.” Do not pick out one day in the year and say it was a bad day, but take all the year round!
Let it revolve in all its grandeur.
 “Ah, bless the Lord! He has done all things well. My soul and all that is within me, bless His holy name!” And you know why all things have been well? It is because the eyes of the Lord have been upon you all the year! Oh, if those awful eyes had been shut for a single moment, by night or day, where would we have been? Why, we had not been at all, but swept away, like airy dreams, into annihilation! God watches over every one of His people, just as if there were only that one in the world. And He has been watching over you, so that when a trouble came, God said, “Trouble, Avaunt!”

“There shall no temptation happen to you but such as is common to man.” And when your joys would have satiated upon you and around you, God has said, “Stand back, joy! I will not have you fondle him too much. He will be deceived by you.” “The eyes of the Lord have been upon you continually, from the beginning of the year even unto the end of the year.” “Well,” says one, “I cannot say so much of my year.”

 Then I cannot say so much of you. I was speaking to the Christian. And if you cannot say of your year, “surely goodness and mercy have followed it all,” I am afraid you are not a child of God, for I think a child of God will say, when he reviews it all, “not one good thing has failed of all the Lord God has promised, but all has come to pass.” 

I heard this song the same day that motivated me to think and remember the promises of God.

Promises- Sanctus Real

Promises

Sometimes it's hard to keep believing
In what you can't see
That everything happens for a reason
Even the worst life brings
If you're reaching for an answer
And you don't know what to pray
Just open up the pages
Let His word be your strength

And hold on to the promises (Hold tight)
Hold on to the promises (Alright)
Jesus is alive so hold tight
Hold on to the promises

All things work for the good
Of those who love God
He holds back nothing that will heal you
Not even His own Son
His love is everlasting
His faithfulness unending
Oh, if God is for us who can be against us
So if you feel weak

Neither life, nor death
Could separate us
From the eternal love
Of our God who saves us





Evening April 8 CHS

"I will fear no evil: for Thou art with me." --Psalm 23:4

Behold, how independent of outward circumstances the Holy Ghost can make the Christian! What a bright light may shine within us when it is all dark without! How firm, how happy, how calm, how peaceful we may be, when the world shakes to and fro, and the pillars of the earth are removed! Even death itself, with all its terrible influences, has no power to suspend the music of a Christian's heart, but rather makes that music become more sweet, more clear, more heavenly, till the last kind act which death can do is to let the earthly strain melt into the heavenly chorus, the temporal joy into the eternal bliss! Let us have confidence, then, in the blessed Spirit's power to comfort us. Dear reader, are you looking forward to poverty? Fear not; the divine Spirit can give you, in your want, a greater plenty than the rich have in their abundance. You know not what joys may be stored up for you in the cottage around which grace will plant the roses of content.

Are you conscious of a growing failure of your bodily powers? Do you expect to suffer long nights of languishing and days of pain? O be not sad! That bed may become a throne to you. You little know how every pang that shoots through your body may be a refining fire to consume your dross--a beam of glory to light up the secret parts of your soul. Are the eyes growing dim? Jesus will be your light. Do the ears fail you? Jesus' name will be your soul's best music, and His person your dear delight. Socrates used to say, "Philosophers can be happy without music;" and Christians can be happier than philosophers when all outward causes of rejoicing are withdrawn. In Thee, my God, my heart shall triumph, come what may of ills without! By thy power, O blessed Spirit, my heart shall be exceeding glad, though all things should fail me here below.
























"It is a year of miracles. Tell it to the wide, wide world; tell it everywhere."