“The garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness.” Isa 61:3 NKJV

Praise works like a magnifying glass. It causes what you’re focusing on to get bigger, to be “magnified.” David said, “Magnify the Lord with me, and let us exalt His name together. I sought the Lord, and He heard me, and delivered me from all my fears” (Ps 34:3-4 NKJV).

It’s a mistake to wait until you’ve no problems, fewer problems, or your problems are solved before you praise the Lord. Praise is one of the great scriptural keys to problem-solving because it gets your focus on God, the problem solver.

Charles Spurgeon said: “My happiest moments are when I am worshipping God, really adoring the Lord Jesus Christ…In that worship I forget the cares of the church and everything else. To me it is the nearest approach to what it will be in heaven.” God has promised you “the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness.” It works like this. When you begin to praise Him with a heavy heart, you experience a new sense of hope and joy. Through worship you are reminded that God is bigger than the situation you face; that He’s not only capable of managing your concerns but willing, wanting, and waiting to.

The Psalmist wrote: “Seven times a day I praise You” (Ps 119:164 NKJV). Fill your day with praise. Don’t just take coffee breaks and tea breaks, take “praise breaks.” Begin to praise God for two things: (1) His attributes. His power, love, grace, favor, guidance, etc. (2) His acts. Recall His goodness to you. Go ahead; take off the spirit of heaviness and put on the garment of praise today.

​- https://www.jentezenfranklin.org/posts/put-on-the-garment-of-praise -

In Mark 8: 14 – 21, the disciples were worried when they realised they have brought no bread except for one loaf. Jesus who was aware of the discussion, replied, “Why are you talking about having no bread? Do you still not see or understand? Are your hearts hardened?
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The disciples who followed Jesus in His earthly journey, have experienced many of His miracles and yet slow to comprehend who Jesus really was. They had already seen Jesus fed over 5000 people with five loaves and two fish (6: 35-44) yet they doubted whether he could feed another large group.

In most time, we are slow to comprehend the Sovereignty of the Lord although Christ has brought us through trials and temptations in the past. It is easy to doubt He will do it again in the future. Is your heart hardened and doubtful in what God could even do for you? Don’t be like the disciples. Recall the goodness of the Lord in the past and have faith He will indeed do it again.
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Mark 8: 17
Aware of their discussion, Jesus asked them: "Why are you talking about having no bread? Do you still not see or understand? Are your hearts hardened?

- John W.

​“We all…beholding…the Lord, are being transformed into the same image…by the Spirit of the Lord.”     2Co 3:18 NKJV

Many Christians think God is just waiting to pounce on them for their failures, and their wrong believing produces wrong living. When you view God that way you can’t help but live in constant fear, insecurity, and anxiety over your sins and struggles.

Today make a decision to turn your eyes away from yourself and place them on Jesus, for He has already made you righteous with His blood (See 2Co 5:21). The more you behold Jesus, the more you will be transformed into His likeness. “We all…beholding…the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory [by degrees (AMP)]…by the Spirit of the Lord.”

Keeping your eyes on Jesus leads to the greatest expression of holiness. Many of us think we have to do more in order to be more holy and accepted by God. As you focus on Jesus and see His love, His forgiveness, His abundant grace, and His gift of righteousness purchased for you with His own blood, your approach to Christian living changes and you are transformed—from the inside out.

Holiness comes by focusing on Jesus, not yourself. This is not outward behavior modification, it’s inward change sustained by a heart that’s been touched by grace and an emancipated conscience that’s freed from guilt and condemnation. As a result you begin to walk in victory instead of defeat. And this is the life that God wants you to experience today.
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- ​https://www.jentezenfranklin.org/posts/transformed-by-beholding -

Growing up, I have always been the one who likes to rebel a little. When dad or mum says no, I would wander my own way and so it goes. I will then come back in tears or understanding why I shouldn’t have and to hear mum says, “I told you so.” As a Christian, same habit follows. How this shows that we are in need of God’s grace everyday. In humility, I submit my own will power to the Lord’s strength.

World philosophy may say with will power, you can achieve anything. Will power could only get us so far if we would humbly admit. Rebelling against God's will gets us nowhere. The key of successful perseverance and obedience requires supernatural intervention where we lay it at the foot of the Cross and allow God to strengthen us when we are at our weakest.

Would you humbly admit that your victories are unachievable without God’s intervention and strength? Receive the meekness and gentleness of Christ that brings rest to our souls as we take on God’s yoke and lean on Him.
 
Matthew 11:29
Take my yoke on you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and you shall find rest to your souls.

- Irene Soon

Heb 11:1 Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see.

Faith in active opposition to common sense is mistaken enthusiasm and narrow-mindedness, and common sense in opposition to faith demonstrates a mistaken reliance on reason as the basis for truth.

The life of faith brings the two of these into the proper relationship. Common sense and faith are as different from each other as the natural life is from the spiritual, and as impulsiveness is from inspiration.

​Nothing that Jesus Christ ever said is common sense, but is revelation sense, and is complete, whereas common sense falls short. Yet faith must be tested and tried before it becomes real in your life. “We know that all things work together for good…” (Romans 8:28) so that no matter what happens, the transforming power of God’s providence transforms perfect faith into reality.

Faith always works in a personal way, because the purpose of God is to see that perfect faith is made real in His children. For every detail of common sense in life, there is a truth God has revealed by which we can prove in our practical experience what we believe God to be.

Faith is a tremendously active principle that always puts Jesus Christ first. The life of faith says, “Lord, You have said it, it appears to be irrational, but I’m going to step out boldly, trusting in Your Word”. Turning intellectual faith into our personal possession is always a fight, not just sometimes. God brings us into particular circumstances to educate our faith, because the nature of faith is to make the object of our faith very real to us.

Until we know Jesus, God is merely a concept, and we can’t have faith in Him. But once we hear Jesus say, “He who has seen Me has seen the Father” (John 14:9) we immediately have something that is real, and our faith is limitless. Faith is the entire person in the right relationship with God through the power of the Spirit of Jesus Christ.

- ​https://utmost.org/faith/ - 

Some of the loneliest people are surrounded by others, yet they feel that no one understands them. They long for someone to share their interests and problems, to sympathize with them. But it’s true that even your lifelong companion, your closest friend, does not really know you, does not really understand you after all, because in every life there’s a locked door or two where no one enters but yourself.

Why do we have this deep craving to be understood? Why is there this intense longing to have someone enter into what we feel of joys and triumphs, sorrows and defeats? When reality is there is no one who can fully enter into our emotions, and in the depths of sorrow, some tears are always shed alone. Why is that?

God made you for Himself, and He knew that this very sense of isolation, of not being understood, would drive you to Him. God Himself is the answer, the fulfillment. And only as He Himself fills that longing will you ever be satisfied. He made you that way, He made you for Himself, and not until He fills your life will you ever be free from that loneliness.

He’s put a little sign on the table of your heart, which reads, “Reserved for Me.” He knows that when we find human sympathy so lacking, we seek for the divine.

God is big enough, great enough to fill any soul, and His is complete companionship, ideal and perfect friendship. This lack we all sometimes feel, this incompleteness, is a need for God. He who made us is the only One who can fill every part of our life. There’s no need to ever be lonely. Jesus said, “I will never leave you, nor forsake you, for lo, I am with you always.” Let Him come into your lonely heart and take over, and then you can say, as Jesus said, “I am not alone because the Father is with me.”

You can turn to God when you’re feeling alone by praying this simple prayer: “Thank You, Jesus, for Your love and for saving me. Please come into my heart and accompany me on my life’s journey.”

Isaiah 41:10 ESV
Fear not, for I am with you; be not dismayed, for I am your God; I will strengthen you, I will help you, I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.

- Anonymous