The Importance of Christians Knowing Scriptures Associated with the Specifics of God’s Promises! Part 2.

23 Jan 2026 Leave a comment

by randyobrien50 in Christian Thoughts and Inspiration., Daily Devotion, Daily Inspiration, Inspirational Living, Spiritual Living Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

2 Corinthians 12:9.         And he said unto me, ‘My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness.’

And finally, it’s that long awaited day called Friday! So, we offer up our Friday Mantra: ‘TGIF! Thank God it’s Friday and the weekend is here at long last!’ It’s pretty cold, but it’s not snowing, and the sun is predominant over the clouds, though it’s not shining as brightly as we would like. (smile) But we’re still grateful for whatever little sunshine we can get to drive away the darkness of these dreary winter months. 

And as we promised yesterday, let’s continue with some scriptures that highlight God’s promises from the poem ‘The Promises and Non-Promises of God, which reads: “But God hath promised strength for the day, rest amid labour, light for the way; grace for trials, help from above, unfailing sympathy, undying LOVE.’  Yesterday we looked at the first two promises, let’s see how many we can get through today. (smile) 

Now, the first one up is ‘light for the way.’ And Jesus Himself declared: ‘I am the light of the world: he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life.’ (John 8:12) And what does that mean. Hear this commentary explain it. ‘Jesus is signifying that He is the divine source of spiritual truth, guidance, and life, offering to lead people out of spiritual darkness and sin into salvation and eternal life if they follow Him. This metaphor highlights Jesus as the exclusive provider of spiritual understanding, dispelling ignorance and revealing God’s path.’ 

And the scriptures offer up several other verses that agree with Jesus’ declaration, like this well-known one from Psalm 119: ‘Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path.’ (Ps. 119:105) Yes friends, God’s Word shed’s light along the path He desires us to walk. As Cousin Sol so readily agrees with this verse from Proverbs. ‘For the commandment is a lamp; and the law is light; and reproofs of instruction are the way of life:’ (Prov. 6:23) And as Bruh David tells us in Psalm 19: ‘The statutes of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart: the commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes.’  

So however you take it, between a personal relationship with Jesus and God’s Word, we are indeed able to get the spiritual light we need to help us through each  day. Now, what about ‘grace for trials.’ Oh brother, there are so many scriptures that I don’t know which ones to choose. And they all ‘highlight that God’s grace during trials provides strength, restoration, and endurance, often working through weakness to refine faith and offer comfort.’ 

But we’ll begin with this one that seems most important. It’s from  Bruh Paul’s second letter to the Corinthains, where, after beseeching the Lord three times to remove a thorn from his side, the Lord eventually declares. ‘My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness.’ (2 Cor. 12:9) In other words, when we’re weak, God’s grace comes in to strengthen us. That means we are never far from His grace in our everyday lives. As one commentary calls this verse: ‘The definitive promise that God’s grace is sufficient, with His power perfected in human weakness.’ 

Then James, Jesus’ brother, in his famous discourse encourages us to consider trials as joy, knowing they produce endurance and maturity. ‘My brethren, count it all joy when ye fall into divers temptations (various trials); Knowing this, that the trying (testing) of your faith worketh (produces) patience. But let patience have her perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire (complete), wanting (lacking) nothing.’  (James 1:2-4) Now that’s a tough row to hoe, but hoe it we must if we desire to grow in faith and spiritual maturity. 

Then there’s this most encouraging scripture from Hebrews that offers this wonderful invitation. ‘Let us therefore come boldly (confidently) to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need.’ (Heb. 4:16) Wow mih people! Nothing can be better than going to the throne of grace to receive grace as we need it! Meanwhile, here is one of my favourite scriptures. This from Bruh Paul’s opening remarks in his second letter to the Corinthians. 

‘Blessed be God, even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies, and the God of all comfort: Who comforteth us in all our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort them which are in any trouble (tribulation), by the comfort wherewith we ourselves are comforted of God. For as the sufferings of Christ abound in us, so our consolation (comfort) also aboundeth in Christ.’  (2 Cor. 1:3-5) What beautiful assurance and comfort that is my fellow believers! Yes, God is the “Father of mercies and God of all comfort” who comforts believers in tribulation, which then allows believers to comfort others who need comfort! For as we suffer with Christ, we are also comforted through Him. 

And I’m chuckling here friends, because I’m now discovering that I can’t finish all the parts of the poem today either. So, we’ll end with this other interesting verse from 1 Corinthians, where Bruh Paul declares: ‘There hath no temptation taken (overtaken) you but such as is common to man: but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way of escape, that ye may be able to bear (endure) it.’ (1 Cor. 10:13) 

Now please note that the Lord won’t always allow you to escape temptations, but will rather find a way for you to endure them, for temptations are a part of the testing of our faith, through which we grow in spiritual maturity and become more like Jesus. So, let’s go confidently now, but humbly, to the throne of grace, through our Friday Chant, that we can receive divine aid to help in these crucial times. 

Altogether: ‘Oh Lord, thanks for getting me safely through this past week. You know it’s been rough…  because our many serious problems are escalating instead of improving. And it’s obvious we can’t fix them on our own, so Lord, we’re desperately crying out for your help. Oh heavenly Father, with your omnipotent help, and our trusting faith, we know that we can stand strong and steadfast and defeat the simmering unrest in our land. We therefore ask you Lord to give our leaders the wise guidance to handle these unexpected storms properly. And please help the rest of us to be responsible and to stay safe amidst all the anxiety and confusion of these ungodly times. 

We fervently pray too Lord that you’ll use the discontent and dissatisfaction in our land as a means of restoring faith in you. Return backsliders to your fold. Show them the error of their ways. And please introduce a new flock of believers, who will embrace your LOVE and compassion by the example, we, your faithful believers set. So that our sinful world can wake up and smell the coffee, wake up and smell it sweet and strong! We pray this in the name of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ! Amen!’ 

And what we supposed believers need to realize is that so far our Christian witness has been no good, otherwise the world would not have fallen so deeply into evil and ungodly ways. Therefore, to receive divine aid, we need to up the ante; to improve our Christin walk, and we have enough God-given tools to do it. So, let’s get together and do it nuh! Remember it’s all for our benefit, not God’s! Much LOVE!

…God’s grace and mercy are constantly available…if we walk in obedience to His desires…

Hear our podcast at https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/randy-obrien

The Great Need for Christians to Resist Temptation!

15 Jan 2025 Leave a comment

by randyobrien50 in Christian Thoughts and Inspiration., Daily Devotion, Daily Inspiration, Inspirational Living, Spiritual Living Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

1 Corinthians 10:13 b.       but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able;

Awright friends, Wednesday is up with its joys, problems, challenges and frustrations. But since this is the day we catch our second wind, then hopefully we’ll deal with all of them with a right and godly attitude. (smile) To help us do that, let’s offer up a prayer on a very appropriate subject: Temptation. Yes, we all know that’s our biggest problem in this world, and although we have all the tools to deal with it, the enemy doesn’t make it easy for us. This prayer comes from some prayer cards recently issued by the In Touch Organization, on useful topics that constantly affect our lives. And there’s certainly none bigger than Temptation! 

So, let’s pray: ‘Father, where Your grace has made me firm against old temptations, thank You for victory. In areas where I’m still tempted, I call on You for help. Show me the way out, and give me the wisdom and courage to take it. Make my desire to be obedient greater than the pull of false pleasure. When I see Your escape route, I will rejoice, knowing blessings await those who endure. Thank You for LOVING me enough to rescue me from every trap. Amen!’ 

Oh friends, do we ever need God’s recuing from all the traps Satan and his demonic followers place in our paths! Especially, as the prayer says with ‘the pull of false pleasure.’ That’s Satan’s favourite way of drawing us in; placing what looks like pleasure before us, but a pleasure that’s often short-lived, and very often with an enormous price to pay for our disobedience. But thanks be to God that He’s promised to help us recognize and hopefully avert those temptations. 

And here’s the most famous scripture on that topic, from the pen of Bruh Paul in his first missive to the Corinthians. ‘There hath no temptation taken (overcome) you but such as is common to man: but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it.’ (1 Cor. 10:13) Now that tells us that we all experience the same basic types of temptation, but we have a most faithful God who will not allow us to undergo a temptation bigger than we can handle, but even if it seems like He’s done so, He will always make a way for us to handle it. 

And according to the scholars: ‘Make a way to escape (lit. “an egress” or “way out”): In early Greek usage, this term had the sense of a landing place for a ship. The idea is thus not that He will allow us to escape temptation, but that He will enable us to land intact on the other side.’ Now, that’s something a lot of us supposed believers need to come to terms with. Temptation is a must; it’s just part of the world order of things. Even Jesus was tempted before He officially began His ministry. (Luke 4:1-13) 

And He subsequently warned us: ‘These things I have spoken unto you, that in me ye might have peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world.’ (John 16:33) That means in this ungodly and evil world we will certainly have trials, troubles, tests, temptations and all kinds of trouble! However, as believers in Christ Jesus, who has already conquered the forces of evil, we can be of good cheer, or have a basic peace and faith that allows us to go forward with courage, facing whatever comes against with a good, strong and godly attitude. 

Why? Because our God is faithful to His promises! Bruh Paul said it thus to the Corinthians: ‘God is faithful, by whom ye were called unto the fellow ship of his Son Jesus Christ our Lord.’ (1 Cor: 1:9) And I like this scripture that corroborates that one. ‘What shall we then say to these things? If God be for us, who can be against us? He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him freely give us all things?’ (Rom. 8:31-32) 

Now those are indeed very good questions? If the omnipotent, omniscient, and omnipresent God is for us, who can harm us eh? Nobody! And if He’s already broken His own heart, done the most important thing ever by giving us His Son Jesus Christ as the propitiation for our sins, why would He refuse us anything else eh, for nothing can be more important than that? 

Oh my fellow believers, if we would only use our brains and meditate on God’s Word, we’d certainly see how much He truly LOVES us and desires us to have a good life. He’s bent over backwards to show it, there’s no more He can do. The rest is all up to us; either to accept or reject His grace, mercy, favour, faithfulness and LOVE! Or to foolishly accept the short-term pleasures and sinfulness of Satan, who has no LOVE whatsoever for us, but is only looking for company to spend eternal death and separation from God with him. Let’s hope we’re not foolish enough to allow him to draw us into his web and lose the best thing we’ve ever had; that’s Jesus Christ. 

Now, let’s go home declaring (chuhhh!!!) our Wednesday Wail, letting the whole world know of our wonderful position in Christ Jesus, and inviting them to join us in that marvellous journey! As one strong and sincere voice: ‘Wednesday, Wednesday, Wednesday: I’m so glad to be alive on this Wednesday! Wednesday, Wednesday, Wednesday: Thank God the breath of life is still flowing through me on this Wednesday! I am halfway home. My hands are fixed securely on the plough, and I’m not turning back. I’m not looking back at the past, not focusing on what has gone before. But my eyes are fixed straight ahead; straight ahead to a glorious future with Jesus. Glory Hallelujah!’ 

And it’s been promised that if we endure with Jesus right down to the very end, then that future will be even more glorious than we can ask or imagine. So please, let’s plan on being there right at the very end nuh, so that we can enjoy that more than glorious future! See you there! Much LOVE!

…in an ungodly world…temptations are inevitable…but capitulation to them is not…

Hear our podcast at https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/randy-obrien

Today’s Scrip-Bit   1 August 2023   2 Corinthians 3:5.

01 Aug 2023 Leave a comment

by randyobrien50 in Christian Thoughts and Inspiration., Daily Devotion, Daily Inspiration, Inspirational Living, Spiritual Living Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

2 Corinthians 3:5.       Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think any thing as of ourselves, but our sufficiency is of God.

Now, whether you believe it or not, it is indeed the first day of August, a beautiful Tuesday; cool, sunshiny and without a trace of a cloud in the bright blue sky. Ah Lord eh, the good days just fly by so quickly while the cold and ugly-looking ones take their own sweet time to move along. But that’s life, and like all the other aspects of our earthly days, we just have to learn to accept and handle them, obviously with the help of the Holy Spirit of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, our guide and comfort. 

And I know that talk is cheap, while actions cost a lot more, but worrying and agonizing over the things of life we cannot control won’t make them improve or go away. However, with Jesus in your life, you have the assurance that He will help you handle whatever comes against you. Not that He won’t give you more than you can handle, as so many people mistakeably dispense. For all throughout the Bible you can find passages where the Lord gave His servants more than they could humanly handle. 

Take for instance when Elijah fought and slew all the 450 prophets of Baal, then faced the wrath of Queen Jezebel, who threatened to kill him, he ran for his life a day’s journey into the wilderness and sat down under a juniper tree, and requested of the Lord that he would die. But as it says in 1 Kings 19:1-8, the Lord fed him through ravens and allowed him to rest. 

‘And the angel of the Lord came again a second time, and touched him, and said, Arise and eat, because the journey is too great for thee. And he arose, and did eat and drink, and went in the strength of that meat (food) forty days and forty nights unto Horeb the mount of God.’ (1 Kin. 19:7-8) It’s obvious then that Elijah reached a stage where he just couldn’t handle it anymore, but the Lord looked after him. And that’s what He’s promised to do, for all who sincerely worship Him. 

And I like the examples this commentary by Ron Edmonson gives. ‘David, the great war hero and man after God’s own heart, told the Lord that “troubles without number surround me” and “I cannot see”. He couldn’t see clearly, because he was overwhelmed with the storms of life! Another time David said, “Save me, O God, for the waters have come up to my neck.” (Oh how I identify with David there!) Jehoshaphat prayed, “We do not know what to do, but our eyes are on you.” (2 Chr. 20:12) It sounds like he was facing more than he could handle on his own.’ 

So it’s not that God won’t give us more than we can handle but what the scripture says is: ‘There hath no temptation taken (overtaken) you but such as is common to man: but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear (endure) it.’ (1 Cor. 10:13) 

What that verse says is that God won’t allow Satan to bring  more temptation or enticement to sin than we can handle, and when we are tempted or enticed to sin, He will make a way for us to resist it, because He doesn’t want us to fall into Satan’s clutches, but to live the holy life that Christ desires of us. But He will allow stuff to come on us greater than we handle in our own right, because He wants us to come to the end of our rope and realize that He’s our ONLY HOPE! 

And in Bruh Paul’s second letter to the church at Corinth, he tells them of his deliverance from suffering and death in Asia. ‘For we would not, brethren, have you ignorant of our trouble (tribulation) which came to us in Asia, that we were pressed out of measure (burdened), above strength, insomuch that we despaired even of life. But we had the sentence of death in ourselves, that we should not trust in ourselves, but in God which raiseth the dead: Who delivered us from so great a death, and doth deliver: in whom we trust that he will yet deliver us.’ (2 Cor. 1:8-10) 

Wow! That time of trouble certainly caused Bruh Paul to keep His focus on Almighty God and not himself. And anytime we get into problems we cannot handle, it should also cause us to do the same! Yes friends, our hope lies only in Christ Jesus! For as Bruh Paul later writes: ‘And such trust have we through Christ to God-ward: Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think any thing as of ourselves, but our sufficiency is of God.’ (2 Cor. 3:4-5) 

And until we truly believe and action those sentiments my brethren, we’ll always have problems that cause us unnecessary worry and overwhelming anxiety, instead of the quieting peace of Christ. It’s like Christ says: ‘I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing.’ (John 15:5) And there’s never been a truer word ever spoken my fellow saints! 

So please let’s take it to heart and place all of our trust in the sinless ONE, our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, so that we can handle all the vicissitudes of this interesting but eccentric life. (smile) Now let’s go home declaring (chuh!!!) our Tuesday Mantra, letting all and sundry know to whom we belong lock, stock and barrel. In sincere harmony: ‘In God’s eyes, I’m not what I do. I’m not what I have. I’m not what people say about me. I am the beloved of God, that’s who I am. No one can take that from me. I don’t have to worry. I don’t have to hurry. I can trust my friend Jesus and share His LOVE with my immediate neighbours, as well as with the whole wide world! Glory be!’ 

Now, it behooves us to go out and share that amazing friendship and LOVE of Christ with those we meet, so that they too can come to know and LOVE Him like we do! Much LOVE!

…trust not in fragile and deceitful man… but in the awesome faithfulness and power of Jehovah God…

 Hear our podcast at https://open.spotify.com/show/3aVfqIC1CqwGybISs9dZ