The J.E.S.U.S method of Bible study

The J.E.S.U.S method of Bible study

by | Mar 7, 2021 | Bible Study, Faith Blog

The J.E.S.U.S method of Bible study comes from the perspective of identifying your most pressing personal needs and then seeking God’s word specifically in this area with the Holy Spirit guiding you through the scriptures.

The acronym for each step is as follows:

Journal

  1. Spend a few minutes writing in your journal.
  2. What is going on in your life at the moment?
  3. What challenges are you facing?
  4. What emotions are you feeling
  5. What do you need from God?

E    Everything

  1. Give everything into God’s care and control – all of your worries, fears, anxieties and needs (1 Peter 5:7 and Philippians 4:6-7)
  2. Take a deep breath and relax, knowing that God will take care of everything
    (Exodus 14:13-14).
  3. Put your trust fully in God and He will give you His peace
    (Isaiah 26:3)
  4. If He wants you to take action, He will show you what to do
    (Proverbs 3:5-6 and Isaiah 30:21)

Scripture

  1. Pray and ask God to fill you with the Holy Spirit to give you understanding of what you read     and to lead you to the Bible Scripture He wants to show you.
  2. Go to an online Bible (eg. Bible Gateway) and in the search field, type in the thing you are       feeling or needing the most (eg. peace, trust, faith, worry, fear, anxiety etc).
  3. Start at the first verse that comes up in the search results and slowly go down the list,
       reading each one.
  4. Not every Bible verse will be applicable to your situation, but many will.  Just keep reading.
  5. Listen for the quiet prompting of the Holy Spirit as to what to read next. God will gently lead     you through the Scriptures.

Example:

You might be feeling full of fear about the future, so you are reading all the Bible  verses about ‘fear’. 

God will guide you.  Sometimes He will prompt you to read the whole chapter the Bible text comes from, rather than just the one verse that talks about ‘fear’.  This may lead to reading the next chapter and other parts of the Bible.

This may be a little hard to understand at first, but you will find that certain words, verses, chapters, stories or concepts will seem to ‘leap off the page at you’, drawing your attention to them.  This is God leading you.

U   Understanding

  1. As you read God’s Word, pray that God will give you understanding of what you are
       reading.
  2. Ask God to give you understanding about how these Bible texts apply to your life,
       personally.

S    Summary

  1. In your journal, write down any Bible verses, chapters, stories or concepts that you feel God      has led you to that day.
  2. Write a summary of how the Bible verses relate to what you are facing or how you were           feeling in the first step of this process.
  3. Pray about your current situation and what you have read today.
  4. As you go about your day, be mindful of the scriptures you read that day and how they apply
       to your life.
  5. Continue to put your trust fully in God.
  6. Have your journal in a handy place, so you can easily re-read it if and when you need to. This will continue to strengthen you and maintain your peace as you go throughout the day.

 

Try this Bible study method out and let me know how you go in the comments.

Enjoy applying God’s Word to your personal needs. 

 

 

 

 

 

Have hope. God is still in control.

Have hope. God is still in control.

by | Feb 14, 2021 | Bible Study, Faith Blog

When life looks like it is spiralling out of control; things like the pandemic that is currently sweeping across the whole world, it can be hard to believe that God is still in control – but He is.

God is the Creator of the universe and He promises in His Word, that He will be there to the end.

Isaiah 41:4 it says “Who has controlled history from the beginning? I, the Lord am the one. I was here at the beginning and I will be here when all things are finished.”

When you are in the middle of a world-wide pandemic, it is hard to see beyond it, but many such things have swept the world before and eventually, they have all come to an end and life has gone on.

There has been other pandemics, such as the Spanish Flu, polio, Swine Flu and Ebola.

There have been other significant and tragic events such as World War 1, World War 2, the Great Depression of the 1930’s, the global recession of 2008.

There have been devastating fires, floods, earthquakes and hurricanes.

In each of these events, eventually they all came to an end and people could begin to re-build their lives.

In the Bible in Psalm 90:4 it says:

“To You a thousand years are like a day that has just gone by.”

When we are in the middle of these hard times, it feels like they will never end, but to God, it is just like a day or a few hours.  He knows the end from the beginning.

This is when it is so critical to exercise our faith in our loving, all powerful God.

We need to walk by faith, not by sight
(2 Corinthians 5:7).

In Isaiah 41:9-10, God says:

“I have chosen you, and I have not turned against you. So do not worry, for I am with you. Do not be afraid, for I am your God. I will make you strong and help you. I will support you with my right hand that saves you.”

And in Isaiah 41:13 God brings us further comfort:

“I am the Lord your God. I am holding your right hand. And I tell you ‘Don’t be afraid. I will help you.’”

In Isaiah 41:17-20 it says:

“17 The poor and needy people look for water.
But they can’t find any.
Their tongues are dry with thirst.
But I, the Lord, will answer their prayers.
I, the God of Israel, will not leave them to die.
18 I will make rivers flow on the dry hills.
I will make springs of water flow through the valleys.
I will change the desert into a lake of water.
I will change the dry land into springs of water.
19 I will make trees grow in the desert.
There will be cedars, acacia, myrtle and olive trees.
I will put pine, fir and cypress trees
growing together in the desert.
20 People will see these things and understand.
Together they will think carefully about these things.
They will know that the Lord’s power did this.
They will know that the Holy One of Israel made these things.”

In other words, God can, and will, bless His people right in the middle of their hard times.

Even in Jeremiah 29:11, where God says:

“For I know the plans I have for you, says the Lord, plans to prosper and not to harm you; plans to give you hope and a future”.

Many people don’t realise that when God brought this encouraging and hope-filled news to His people, they still had to go through 70 years of being held captive in a foreign country.

But God promised that at the end of the 70 years, it would finally be over and they could come home and that their future would be good.

He encouraged them to make the most of the current situation. 

Earlier, in that same chapter, in Jeremiah 29:5-7 God says:

“5 Build houses and make your homes there. Plant gardens and eat what they produce. 6 Get married. Have sons and daughters. Find wives for your sons. Give your daughters to be married. Then they too can have sons and daughters. Let there be many more of you and not fewer. 7 Also work for the success of the city I have sent you to. Pray to the Lord for that city. If it succeeds, you too will enjoy success.”

Right in the middle of their captivity, God tells them to move forward with their lives.

God did the same with Joseph.  Right in the middle of Joseph’s captivity and when he went on to be in prison, God was with him the whole time and blessed him with favour and success, even when Joseph’s future looked very bleak indeed.

Joseph realised later on, after he was made ruler of Egypt that God had been there the whole time.  God had brought him through these hard times for a purpose – to save millions of lives during the famine.  God had used his time in captivity to train Joseph for leadership. 

God is always working on behalf of His people; no matter what it looks like.

So take heart.  Instead of trying to look through the fog ahead of you, look up and see the loving face of God assuring you that He is with you right now, in the middle of the trial and He will bring you safely through.

God specializes in doing the impossible

God specializes in doing the impossible

by | Dec 21, 2020 | Bible Study, Faith Blog

Are you facing something that looks impossible?

Have you looked at all the possible angles and you can’t see a way through?

Are you depressed or anxious about your circumstances?

For most of us, 2020 has been one of the most challenging years of our lives.

Many of us have lost loved ones.  We have lost jobs and businesses.  We may have come to the brink of divorce. 

Whatever you are facing, it looks impossible. 

Yet Jesus specializes in doing the impossible.

In the Bible in the book of John chapter 11, we read the story about where Jesus raises Lazarus from the dead.

There is a link to the podcast at the end of this blog post.

On the surface, it might just look like a good story, but if you look deeply into what happened, we can gain great encouragement and hope for our own lives.

Even when life looks impossible, we can trust Jesus to come through.

John 11 verse 1 “Now a man names Lazarus was sick.”

Verse 3 “So the sisters sent word to Jesus, ‘Lord, the one you love is sick’.”

In verse 4 Jesus says to his followers “This sickness will not end in death”.

Great!  God has given us a promise that everything will be OK.

Verse 5 – 7 says “Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus.  So when he heard that Lazarus was sick, he stayed where he was two more days, and then he said to his disciples, “Let us go back to Judea.”

WHAT? Jesus loved them so He stayed where he was 2 more days?!!

Have you ever been in a desperate situation and although you believe God has spoken a word of promise to you, it seems like He is not doing anything?!!!

We cry out ‘Where are you God?’  You promise in your Word that you will look after us.  We are desperate for your help. 

And you hear nothing!  Just silence!  You don’t even feel like your prayers get any higher than the ceiling.  Where is God when you need Him most?

But if you keep reading the story, you can see that Jesus delayed coming on purpose.

He was planning a much greater miracle than the sisters could ever had imagined.

After 2 days, Jesus starts the journey to where Lazarus and his sisters live.

By the time he gets there, Lazarus is dead!!!!!

The situation couldn’t get any more impossible could it?

How do you continue to have faith when the situation looks this bad?

This is the time when our faith has to kick in to an even higher gear.

Remember in the book of Hebrews, chapter 11, verse 1, it says “Faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see”.

Faith is for those times where it doesn’t make sense; where there seems no physical way out; when it feels like the situation is beyond help.  We are at the end of our strength.  Hope has almost been extinguished.

TRUST GOD ANYWAY!

Back to John 11.

Verse 11 – 13 “After Jesus had said this, he went on to tell them, ‘Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep, but I am going there to wake him up.’ His disciples replied, ‘Lord, if he sleeps, he will get better.  Jesus had been speaking of his death, but his disciples thought he meant natural sleep.

Verse 14 – 15 “So Jesus told them plainly, ‘Lazarus is dead, and for your sake I am glad I was not there, so that you may believe. But let us go to him.’”

What?

Jesus is glad that He was NOT THERE!!

How can a loving God be glad that He was not there, just when you needed Him the most.

The truth is that God always has a greater plan; but we often don’t know what that higher plan is. 

From a human perspective, it looks like God has failed you, but from God’s perspective, it is all part of His perfect plan. 

It is often not until later on, that we are able to look back and see that God was there all the time. 

Have you ever heard the analogy that life is like a tapestry?  We are underneath the tapestry and God is on top of the tapestry.  From our perspective, all we can see is a big mess, with lots of knots and loose threads.

But from God’s perspective, it is a perfect pattern, coming together in just the right way.

He is still firmly in control.

Trust Him, no matter what.

In John chapter 11 verse 21 and 22, it says “’Lord, Martha said to Jesus, if you had been there, my brother would not have died.  But I know that even now, God will give you whatever you ask’.”

Even though, in the natural, Martha is heart-broken because she knows that Jesus could have saved her brother, but didn’t.  Yet she still shows that she has faith by saying ‘But I know that even now, God will give you whatever the ask’.

In verse 32, it says ‘When Mary reached the place where Jesus was and saw him, she fell at his feet and said, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.’

And verse 33 to 34, ‘When Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who had come along with her also weeping, He was deeply moved in spirit and troubled. “Where have you laid him?” He asked.

“Come and see, Lord,” they replied.

And in verse 35, it says ‘Jesus wept’.

Remember that Jesus was both fully human and fully God.  When he saw the tears and the heart ache of this friends, he was moved with compassion and wept with them.

Verse 36 to 37 “Then the Jews said, “See how he loved him!”  But some of them said, “Could not he who opened the eyes of the blind man have kept this man from dying?”

Have you ever been in a difficult situation and you are holding onto your faith in God with the last shreds of your strength and someone comes along and says something that almost completely shatters your faith? 

Perhaps someone who doesn’t believe in God, or someone who only has a shallow faith and they encourage you to give up on God.

This is just what happened in the book of Job, where he was in such terrible suffering and his wife says to Job in Job 2:9 ‘are you still holding onto your faith? Curse God and die’.

But Jesus knew what He was going to do.

In John 11 verse 9, Jesus said “Did I not tell you that if you believe, you will see the glory of God?”

In other words, DON’T GIVE UP NOW!  HOLD ONTO YOUR FAITH IN GOD!

Then in John 11: 41 and 42 Jesus prays out loud to His Heavenly Father and says ‘Father I thank You that You have heard me.  I knew that you always hear me, but I said this for the benefit of the people standing here, that they may believe that you sent me’.

Then in John 11 verse 43 and 44, Jesus says “Lazarus, come out!!!” and with those words, Lazarus is brought back to life again!!!

Jesus knew that by waiting until after Lazarus was dead and then raising him to life, it was a much greater manifestation of God’s power than if he had simply healed him from being sick.

Remember back in John 11 verse 4, Jesus said ‘this sickness will not end in death’.

He knew that although Lazarus was actually going to die, the story would not end with his death.  Jesus would raise him to life again.

In Romans 8 verse 28 it says “we know that in all things, God works for the good of those who love Him.”

In other words, so matter what hard things we go through, God promises to bring good out of even the worst circumstances.  Trust Him.

7 Life Lessons we can learn from this Bible story

  1. God doesn’t always do things the way we expect Him to.
  2. No matter how bad our situation looks, God is in control.
  3. God feels your pain and looks on you with compassion.
  4. No matter what things look like, keep trusting God.
  5. When others try to discourage your faith and trust, do not listen to them.
  6. You may not understand now, but you will understand later.
  7. For people who love God, He promises to take bad situations and bring good out of them.
A beginners guide to studying the Bible

A beginners guide to studying the Bible

by | Dec 11, 2020 | Bible Paraphrased, Bible Study, Faith Blog

The first thing I do to begin my Bible study is to open up my computer and go to the Bible Gateway website.  I also prefer the ‘classic’ version of Bible Gateway, but you can choose which style you like that most.

The reason I like Bible Gateway so much is because it has so many different versions of the Bible to choose from.  It also has Bible Commentaries and other helpful resources, all the one handy place. 

You can also highlight Bible verses that you like in a variety of colors and it will save this for future reference.  It also allows you to type notes about the Bible verse and it save your notes for future reference.

I particularly like to read Bible verses in different versions and it really helps you to understand the meaning of what you are reading, from several different angles.  Each version of the Bible uses a slightly different interpretation of the original text.

My three favorite versions of the Bible are:

  • International Children’s Bible (ICB)
  • New International Reader’s Version (NIRV)
  • New International Version (NIV)

You can have more than one version open at the same time.

First, in the search field at the top, type in whatever you want to study. 

This search field is really flexible. 

You can type in a book of the Bible eg. ‘Romans’ or you could type in a specific chapter of the Bible eg. ‘Romans 1’. 

You can also be very specific, for example you could type in ‘Romans 8:28-29’.

You can also just type in a word or a name. 

For example, if you find yourself feeling anxious or afraid at the moment, you can type in the word ‘fear’, ‘afraid’, or ‘anxious’ or ‘worry’ and Bible Gateway will show you all the Bible verses that contain that word.

It’s so much easier than the olden days when you had to manually look up a Bible Concordance to find all the Bible verses for a particular word.

In this case, where I have typed in the word ‘anxious’ and clicked on ‘Search’, the first Bible text that came up was:

Philippians 4:6 “Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God”.

I’ve only found the first verse and already I’m feeling encouraged!

You might like to read more about this verse, by clicking on ‘In Context’, ‘Full Chapter’ or
‘Other Translations’.

‘In Context’ will usually show you the verse that is before and the verse that is after the verse you have looked up.  For example, if you click in context on this Bible verse, is says:

Philippians 4:5-7 “Let your gentleness be evident to all.  The Lord is near.  Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God, and the peace of God which transcends all understanding will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.”

This is even better than just reading the one verse!

Not only is God telling us not to be anxious and to bring our problems to Him in prayer, but He also promises that when we do this, He will give us
His peace. 

If we really apply this to our personal situation, we know that we can relax.  God will look after the situation for us and give us His peace while He does it. 

What a wonderful promise!

‘Full Chapter’ will show you the whole chapter that this verse comes from.

‘Other Translations’ will show you the same verse in many different translations.  Each translation will have a slightly different interpretation and will help you to understand what is being said.

Another thing to note is that when you type in something in the search field, it defaults to showing
25 results per page, but you can change this to be 25, 50, 100, 250 or 500 results per page.

It’s totally up to you whether you use an online Bible or read a regular Bible. 

Personally, I find I really enjoy using an online Bible because I like copying and pasting Bible verses that are meaningful to me into a Word document.  Then I write notes underneath about what I have learned from that Scripture and how it applies to my life at that time.

You don’t have to do that, it’s just what works for me.

Try a few different things and see what works best for you.

How to problem solve with God

How to problem solve with God

by | Oct 15, 2020 | Bible Study, Faith Blog

It’s been a tumultuous 24 hours and this morning my husband has resigned from his job – the second job he has resigned from in as many weeks.

When I woke up this morning, I found myself full heart full of anxiety.  I started reading the promises of God because I know that always calms me down and gives me a sense of God’s peace.

After reading several Bible promises, and still feeling my heart in knots of anxiety, I came to this Bible verse in Exodus 14:13, one of my all-time favourite Bible Promises.

The Red Sea - Exodus 14: 13-14

By the time I finished reading this Bible text, I was at peace once again.

The story is about when God miraculously parts the Red Sea and the Israelites are able to walk through on dry land.  Then when the enemy (the Egyptians) follow, God brings the water back down over them and destroys them.

As I considered this wonderful story, of God’s miraculous provision, God showed me a principle that I’d like to share here – the five P’s of solving life’s problems with God.

1. Problem

We have a problem and we need God’s help.

2. Prayer

We bring our need to God in prayer.  We exercise our faith and praise and thank God in advance, confident that He will meet our needs.

3. Promise

We read the promises of God from His Word and stand on those promises while we wait for God to help us.

4. Provision

God provides the help we need. 

5. Praise

We praise God again for providing for our needs.

The 5 P's of problem solving with God

And I was reminded in my Ladies Bible group this morning, we need to start praising God as soon as we have a problem, rather than waiting until after He has delivered us.

We praise God before He answers our prayers.  We believe that, by faith, God has already answered us.  He has already provided for our needs.  He will reveal it to us in His perfect timing.

Let’s look at the story of the Red Sea a little closer, in light of the 5 P’s principle.

1. Problem – they are trapped at the Red Sea

The Israelites were trapped with the Red Sea in front of them and the Egyptians behind them.  They could see no way out of their problem.

Exodus 14 New International Version (NIV)

Verse 1-3 Then the Lord said to Moses, “Tell the Israelites to turn back and encamp near Pi Hahiroth, between Migdol and the sea. They are to encamp by the sea, directly opposite Baal Zephon. Pharaoh will think, ‘The Israelites are wandering around the land in confusion, hemmed in by the desert.’

It’s interesting to note that God guides the Israelites directly into the challenging situation!!! 

He tells them to go towards the Red Sea. 

We need to remember that sometimes, when we follow God’s leading, it may not always turn out the way we expect, but God is still firmly in control.

We might start to question ourselves and question God “but I thought You were leading me Lord”.

God was leading them because He knew He was going to miraculously deliver them.

Verse 4 And I will harden Pharaoh’s heart, and he will pursue them. But I will gain glory for myself through Pharaoh and all his army, and the Egyptians will know that I am the Lord.” So the Israelites did this.

Notice that the first promise God gives them is before they even have a problem.

God tells Moses that He is about to do something amazing.  He tells him in advance that the Egyptians will follow them and that God will miraculously deliver them so that God is glorified.

Verse 5 – 12 When the king of Egypt was told that the people had fled, Pharaoh and his officials changed their minds about them and said, “What have we done? We have let the Israelites go and have lost their services!” So he had his chariot made ready and took his army with him. He took six hundred of the best chariots, along with all the other chariots of Egypt, with officers over all of them. The Lord hardened the heart of Pharaoh king of Egypt, so that he pursued the Israelites, who were marching out boldly.  The Egyptians—all Pharaoh’s horses and chariots, horsemen and troops—pursued the Israelites and overtook them as they camped by the sea near Pi Hahiroth, opposite Baal Zephon. 

2. Prayer – bring your need before God

I wouldn’t exactly call this a prayer, but it does say “they were terrified and cried out to the Lord”. 

As Pharaoh approached, the Israelites looked up, and there were the Egyptians, marching after them. They were terrified and cried out to the Lord.  They said to Moses, “Was it because there were no graves in Egypt that you brought us to the desert to die? What have you done to us by bringing us out of Egypt? Didn’t we say to you in Egypt, ‘Leave us alone; let us serve the Egyptians’? It would have been better for us to serve the Egyptians than to die in the desert!”

The Israelites were understandably terrified by the situation they are facing.  Sometimes the situations we face are so scary, that the only prayer we can offer is HELP ME GOD !!! 

When it looks like there is no way out of a problem, we need to trust God and praise Him in advance that He will make a way where there appears to be no way.

Hebrews 11:1

3. Promise – God promises to deliver them

Verse 13 – 14 Moses answered the people, “Do not be afraid. Stand firm and you will see the deliverance the Lord will bring you today. The Egyptians you see today you will never see again.
The Lord will fight for you; you need only to be still.”

This is God’s second promise to them.  He tells them not to be afraid.  They don’t even have to do anything.  They just need to stand back and watch God work.  He fights ‘for them’.

In whatever situation we are facing, the best thing we can do is to look up God’s promises in His Word, read them and write them out so we can re-read them as we go about our day.

As we claim these promises as our very own, they help to keep our faith strong and our fear and anxiety under control while we wait for God’s deliverance.

4. Provision – God solves the problem

Verse 15 – 18 Then the Lord said to Moses, “Why are you crying out to me? Tell the Israelites to move on. Raise your staff and stretch out your hand over the sea to divide the water so that the Israelites can go through the sea on dry ground. I will harden the hearts of the Egyptians so that they will go in after them. And I will gain glory through Pharaoh and all his army, through his chariots and his horsemen. The Egyptians will know that I am the Lord when I gain glory through Pharaoh, his chariots and his horsemen.” 

Verse 19 – 20 Then the angel of God, who had been traveling in front of Israel’s army, withdrew and went behind them. The pillar of cloud also moved from in front and stood behind them, coming between the armies of Egypt and Israel. Throughout the night the cloud brought darkness to the one side and light to the other side; so neither went near the other all night long. 

Verse 21 – 22 Then Moses stretched out his hand over the sea, and all that night the Lord drove the sea back with a strong east wind and turned it into dry land. The waters were divided, and the Israelites went through the sea on dry ground, with a wall of water on their right and on their left. 

Verse 23 – 25 The Egyptians pursued them, and all Pharaoh’s horses and chariots and horsemen followed them into the sea. During the last watch of the night the Lord looked down from the pillar of fire and cloud at the Egyptian army and threw it into confusion. He jammed the wheels of their chariots so that they had difficulty driving. And the Egyptians said, “Let’s get away from the Israelites! The Lord is fighting for them against Egypt.” 

Verse 26 – 28 Then the Lord said to Moses, “Stretch out your hand over the sea so that the waters may flow back over the Egyptians and their chariots and horsemen.”  Moses stretched out his hand over the sea, and at daybreak the sea went back to its place. The Egyptians were fleeing toward it, and the Lord swept them into the sea. The water flowed back and covered the chariots and horsemen—the entire army of Pharaoh that had followed the Israelites into the sea. Not one of them survived. 

Verse 29 – 30 But the Israelites went through the sea on dry ground, with a wall of water on their right and on their left.  That day the Lord saved Israel from the hands of the Egyptians, and Israel saw the Egyptians lying dead on the shore.

5. Praise

The Israelites rejoice in the miracle God has provided.

Verse 31 And when the Israelites saw the mighty hand of the Lord displayed against the Egyptians, the people feared the Lord and put their trust in him and in Moses his servant.

Then the whole of Exodus 15 is about the songs of praise and thanks that the Israelites sing to God for his deliverance.

Next time you face a problem, try using the 5 P’s: 1) Problem 2) Prayer 3) Promise 4) Provision
5) Praise.  Watch God work on your behalf!

 

What does the future hold

What does the future hold

by | Sep 24, 2020 | Bible Study, Faith Blog

God has a good plan for your life, despite what things may look like right now.

I don’t know about you, but lately I’ve been worried about what the future holds.

When I was reading The Bible the other day, God showed me that we don’t need to worry or be in fear over our future.

By applying God’s promises to our every day life, we put our faith in God and trust Him with our future.

There are five simple steps to doing this:

1) Notice how you are feeling (worried, anxious, fearful etc).  Ask yourself what you have been thinking about.  This is what usually causes our negative feelings and can lead to depression and anxiety.  Write this down or type it up on the computer so you can refer back to it later.

2) Remind yourself of 2 Corinthians 10:5 from the Bible “we take every thought captive to make it obedient to Christ”.

In practical terms, this means you take all of your fearful, worried, insecure thoughts (and any other negative thoughts) and choose to reject those thoughts.

Choose, instead to focus on what God says in His Word and believe God’s Word instead of your own thoughts.

3) Look up Bible promises that are relevant to what you are thinking and feeling or whatever type of problem you are facing. Write them down.  Have them handy so you can read them frequently. Choose to believe God’s promises.

4) Ask God to speak to you through His promises.  Write down any ‘impressions’ you get – this is often God speaking to you.

5) Meditate on these promises day and night.  That means to read them, think about them, quote them in your prayers to God – literally be “mindful” of them any time you start to lose your sense of peace.

Continue to choose to trust God no matter how things look right now.
God is faithful.

I’ll give you an example.

As I said above, recently, I started to worry about my future.

I am just in the beginning stages of trying to build an online ministry through blog posts and You Tube videos.  This includes a section on my website that contains my favourite Bible promises.

While I was looking through Pinterest the other day, I found a site that has the most amazing, beautifully designed Bible promises and You Tube videos.  The person who has designed them has such a gift.  They are so creative – much more so than me.

This left me feeling discouraged and unsure of what I should do

For a moment, I considered trying to create something similar to the other website, but it would have taken me months and I couldn’t do it as well as they had.

Then I remembered the five steps above and began to apply them.

I started looking up Bible texts that were relevant to my future and God’s guidance.

I found scripture after scripture where God promises to lead us and guide us.

As I found them and typed them up, I started to become more hopeful and I once again, felt a sense of peace about my future and the direction I should take.

I’ll walk you through the five steps and show you how God spoke to me and brought me comfort and hope and how God will do this for you too.

 

Step 1 – Notice how you are feeling and ask yourself what you have been thinking about

I was feeling discouraged about my ideas and my ability and uncertain about which direction to take.  I knew that if I continued to dwell on these discouraged, negative thoughts, I would end up depressed.

I was comparing myself to others (big mistake!!!).  I did not feel as creative as they were. 

I am just at the beginning of my journey to build a ministry and an online presence. 

Sometimes it’s hard to keep going when no-one knows you; hardly anyone (except maybe your parents!) are reading your blog and only a handful of people are watching your You Tube videos.

I was wondering whether I should continue to create Bible Promises for my website when others had already done that – and better than I could do it!

Once again, I was unsure of which direction to head.  I started to doubt everything!

Step 2 – I reminded myself of 2 Corinthians 10:5 to “take every thought captive” and made a deliberate choice to replace my negative, discouraged thoughts with the promises in God’s Word.

Step 3 – I started looking up Bible texts about God’s guidance and about the future.

This is so easy to do these days.  I just went to my favourite online Bible resource called Bible Gateway and started doing a word search on ‘Guide‘ and ‘Future‘.

I also made a deliberate choice to believe the promises of God.

I asked God to speak to me through His Word and I wrote down any ‘impressions’ I noted as I read.  This is often God speaking to you.

The more I read, the more encouraged I felt!!

I started with Jeremiah 29:11 as this is an all time favourite and guaranteed to encourage me.

When I typed the word ‘future’ into Bible Gateway, a great verse that I have never heard before popped up.  Job 8:7 “Your beginnings will seem humble, so great will your future be”.

What a great verse!

So this tells me that God has a good plan for me, even if it is not 100% clear to me right now. I know the general direction.  I am not sure about all the specifics, but I do know enough to keep going (writing blog posts, making You Tube videos about my life experiences and God’s faithfulness). I was starting to feel encouraged already!

The next verse was Psalm 37:37 “A future awaits those who seek peace.”

If there is one thing I am – it’s a “Peace Maker”.  I always seek to be a peaceful person and to have peaceful relationships, so I knew I could claim this promise for myself.

I went on to read the next verse.

Amen! Another promise that I have a good future.”

The next verse was similar, Proverbs 24:14 “Know also that Wisdom is like honey for you; if you find it, there is a future hope for you, and your hope will not be cut off.”

I do have a genuine desire to seek God’s Wisdom.  Therefore there is a future hope for me. 
My hope will not be cut off.

Next, another favourite.  We can claim this promise for anything. 

God promises that if I call on him and ask him what I should do, He will answer me.

I actually already had this Bible verse typed up, so it was easy to look it up. 

This shows the value in spending time reading God’s Word on a regular basis and typing up favourite Bible promises as you find them (or having a Bible Promise book or a favourite website you can look up).  This is precisely why I want my favourite Bible promises to feature on my website – I want the promises of God quickly available to anyone, any time they need it.  

Having easy access to the promises of God is life saving because when you are feeling down, you don’t always feel like reading the Bible.  You might just choose to curl up in bed instead.

But when you already have these special promises at hand, it takes no effort to look them up and read them again and it starts to bring comfort immediately.

Next, I found another favourite.

 

This promises that even though I don’t have a really clear picture of my online ministry, He is always with me and will never leave me.  This comforts me.  God is with me while we figure this out together.

Next I typed in the word ‘guide’ into Bible Gateway and these Bible texts came up.

Psalm 23:3 “He refreshes my soul. He guides me along the right paths, for His Name’s sake.

Psalm 25:5 “Guide me in Your Truth and teach me, for You are God my Saviour, and my hope is in you all day long”.

Psalm 31:3 “Since You are my rock and my fortress, for the sake of Your Name, lead me and guide me”.

Psalm 48:14 “For this God is our God forever and ever; He will be our guide, even to the end”.

Psalm 73:24 “You guide me with Your counsel and afterwards You will take me into glory”.

Psalm 78:53 “He guided them safely, so they were unafraid; but the sea engulfed their enemies”.

Psalms 25:9 He guides the humble in what is right and teaches them His way”.

All encouraging.

Isaiah 49:10 “They will neither hunger nor thirst, nor will the desert heat or the sun beat down on them. He who has compassion on them will guide them and lead them besides springs of water”.

Isaiah 57:18 “I have seen their ways, but I will heal them; I will guide them and restore comfort to Israel’s mourners”.

Isaiah 58:11 “The Lord will guide you always; He will satisfy your needs in a sun-scorched land and will strengthen your frame. You will be like a well-watered garden, like a spring whose waters never fail”.

 

Proverbs 6:22 “When you walk, they will guide you; when you sleep, they will watch over you; when you awake, they will speak to you”.

Isaiah 42:16 “I will lead the blind along paths they have not known, along unfamiliar paths I will guide them; I will turn the darkness into light before them and make the rough places smooth. These are the things I will do; I will not forsake them”.

It was really encouraging that God promised to lead me ‘along unfamiliar paths’.
It has taken me a whole year just to decide on a business name, create a website,
learn to use WordPress, learn to use the Divi theme, learn to use Canva, learn to use Pinterest, learn to use Filmora 9, to create and edit my You Tube videos – all new to me!

Isaiah 63:14 “Like cattle that go down to the plain, they were given rest by the Spirit of the Lord. This is how you guided your people to make for yourself a glorious Name”.

John 16:13 “But when He, the Spirit of Truth, comes, He will guide you into all truth. He will not speak on His own; He will speak only what He hears, and He will tell you what is yet to come”.

I felt impressed that God was saying that He will reveal my future direction to me little by little, as I am ready to receive it.  This was quite a breakthrough – knowing that God would reveal the way forward to me step by step, not all at once.

We are growing, spiritually, all through our lives.  We can only handle so much truth at a time and God does not want to overwhelm us.  He could tell us our whole future tonight and we would be so shocked, we would fall down in fear and give up. 

God only tells us what we are ready to hear.  Just the next step or two ahead.

 

The next verse gives me confidence that in my heart, I am going in the right direction.

Psalm 22: 30 “Future generations will be told about the Lord.”

This year, I have been really enjoying putting the Bible on video.

So far, I have put Romans 1, Romans 2 and Romans 12 on Powerpoint, added beautiful pictures, videos and music and created You Tube videos.

I am doing a similar thing with Bible promises – both on my website and in You Tube videos.

I have also been making You Tube videos about my life’s journey and the faithfulness of God.

My intention is to minister to this generation as well as ‘future generations’.

Psalm 102:18 “Let this be written for a future generation, that a people not yet created can praise the Lord.”

Another confirmation about the direction I should be going with my online ministry.  That’s two Bible texts along the same line as each other.  This is encouraging.

I now feel confirmation that even though my Bible promises are not as ‘creative’ as someone else’s, it doesn’t matter.  Getting the Word of God out there in an easy to digest format is what matters.

After reading all these great Bible texts, I feel really encouraged and hopeful!!  I no longer feel down and discouraged. 

I feel like God has confirmed that creating content around the Word of God is what I’m meant to be doing.  He has also shown me that He will not reveal my whole ministry to me now, but will lead me little by little.  I definitely feel that I know the next few steps to take. I am also now certain that creating a ‘Bible Promise‘ section on my website is the right thing
to do.

You don’t need to read as many Bible texts as I have included here.  Sometimes, it is enough just to read one or two Bible texts.

The really important thing is:

1) Taking notice of what you are thinking and feeling.

2) Choosing to give your negative thinking to God and replacing it with His Word.

3) Looking up some relevant Bible texts and choosing to believe that they are for you.

4) Asking God to ‘speak’ to you as you read His Word.

5) Continuing to read and think about these Bible texts frequently and have them handy to re-read any time you start to lose your sense of peace. 

I would love you to let me know if you try this and how it goes   Next time you are feel negative emotions, try this out and see if you find encouragement, hope and guidance.