Trust in the Lord forever, for in the Lord God you have an everlasting rock. Trust in Him at all times, O people; Pour out your heart before Him; God is a refuge for us.

Thus says the Lord, “In a favorable time I have answered You and in a day of salvation I have helped You; and I will keep You and give You for a covenant of the people.” Our timing is not God’s timing, but He is always on time.

When my daughter was just a little girl, she was chosen to recite this poem “Time to Pray,” at one of our Harvest Cantata and it has stuck with me all these years. I am hoping that if this is the first time you are learning of this poem that it will have a lasting effect on you too.

TIME TO PRAY!

I got up early one morning and rushed right into the day; I had so much to accomplish that I didn’t have time to pray.

Problems just tumbled about me, and heavier came each task. “Why doesn’t God help me?” I wondered. He answered, “You didn’t ask.”

I wanted to see joy and beauty,  but the day toiled on, gray and bleak; I wondered why God didn’t show me. He said, “But you didn’t seek.”

I tried to come into God’s presence; I used all my keys at the lock. God gently and lovingly chided, “My child, you didn’t knock.”

I woke up early this morning, and paused before entering the day; I had so much to accomplish that I had to take time to pray.

We are reminded in Proverbs chapter 27, that, we should not boast about tomorrow, for we do not know what tomorrow will bring forth. In Matthew chapter 6 we are reminded that we should not worry about tomorrow or what we should eat or what we should drink, or what we should wear, because our Heavenly Father has already taken care of that. He says, “Therefore, do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own. But seek ye first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things will be added unto you.” My brothers and sisters in Christ, worrying or boasting will not bring us any good. God has all of our needs and concerns in the palm of His hands, all we have to do is to trust Him.

Are you the unreliable messenger or the reliable messenger? Too many of us are listening to unreliable messengers, they are causing us to lose our way; but Lord, this morning we are calling on you for redirection, we are calling on you to help us, to listen only to the messengers you send to speak to us and give us the understanding to know the difference. Lord, so many of us are hurting, send us messengers that will bring healing. In Jesus name we pray. Amen!

Lord, please guard our hearts and our minds, so that our thoughts and our actions may be right in your sight. Lord, we can do nothing in our own strength, but we can do all things through Christ who strengthens us. Hear our prayer Lord, and help us to depart from evil and cling to all that is good, so that we may abide with you forever. All this we ask in your holy name. Amen!

Too often we are quick to see the speck in others eyes when there is a beam in ours. We must learn to only be judges for ourselves, to consider our thoughts and our actions. Scripture reminds us, “Do not judge, or you will be judged! For you will be treated as you treat others and the standard you use in judging is the standard by which you will be judged.”

Too many of us complain that the testing of the Lord could be trying; we are ready to give in at the least bit of struggle in our lives; but, hold on, endure, persevere, because, these trials will show that our faith is genuine. For, it is only when we go through the fire, it is only when we are laid out on the threshing floor that we will become refined, that our limits will be truly tested. From time to time we need to humbly come before God and ask him to search us and know our hearts, to try us and know our anxious thoughts and if he finds anything that should not be to remove it and in his own time he will bring us out into rich fulfillment.

We are known by our fruits. We cannot be living apart from God and bear any good fruit. “And, If anyone does not remain in Him, he is like a branch that is thrown away and withers. Such branches are gathered up, thrown into the fire, and burned.” We will know that we were planted by our Heavenly Father by our works and our deeds, our thoughts and our professions of faith, because they will always be made manifest. Praise the Lord!

I don’t know about you, but if I am a part of the good branch, I want to be bearing good fruit. I want to  still yield fruit in my old age; I want to be full of sap and very green, but I will only be able to continue on this way, if I am productively in the service of the Lord, if am constantly being pruned by Him. Make no mistake about this, and scripture reminds us that some of those who have insight will fall, in order to refine, purge and make them pure until the end time, so we have to continue on, sometimes the going will be rough, but we have to stay the course and be fruitful for the Lord.