THE VALLEY OF DISCOURAGEMENT

“Fear thou not; for I am with thee: be not dismayed; for I am thy God: I will strengthen thee; yea, I will help thee; yea, I will uphold thee with the right hand of my righteousness.”

Isaiah 41:10 KJV

I think if we are honest, all of us will say that there have been times when we were in the valley of discouragement.  The good news is that God is with us and He will strengthen us and help us.  When we serve Jesus, it makes satan very angry and he will do all that he can do to discourage us from serving Jesus.

We must not let that happen.  We must keep serving Jesus.  No one has ever been as discouraged and been as lonely and ridiculed as Jesus was when He was here on His mission.  It may seem that nobody understands how we feel when we are discouraged, but Jesus understands and He cares about us.

Rev. Johnson Oatman, Jr. wrote a heart touching and inspiring hymn. “Count Your Blessings”.  “When upon life’s billows you are tempest tossed, When you are discouraged, thinking all is lost, Count your many blessings, name them one by one, And it will surprise you what the Lord hath done.”

The next time satan attacks us with discouragement and he will attack us, we need to immediately ask God to help us.  Many times we stay in the valley of discouragement because we don’t pray and ask God to help us.  I am so glad we have a Heavenly Father Who loves us unconditionally and really cares about us.

Heavenly Father, thank You for loving us and for caring about us.  You are a tenderhearted caring and compassionate Father and I love You.  Please comfort and encourage all those who are hurting and discouraged.  In Jesus’ Name, I pray.  Amen.

Joanne Lowe

May 7, 2017

IT IS NOT IMPOSSIBLE

“And Jesus looking upon them saith, With men it is impossible, but not with God: for with God all things are possible.”

Mark 10:27 KJV

Have you ever thought that it was impossible to do something?  Jesus said “with God all things are possible”.  When God helps us do something, it is not impossible to do it.  However, it might not be in God’s will for us to do it so we need to ask Him before we do anything.

Heavenly Father, please forgive us for not always asking You if You want us to do something.  Father, there are many people who are lonely, discouraged and heartbroken.  I pray that You will encourage and comfort them and let them know how much You love them.  In Jesus’ Name, I pray.  Amen.

Joanne Lowe

May 6, 2017

JESUS OUR FRIEND

“Henceforth I call you not servants; for the servant knoweth not what his lord doeth: but I have called you friends; for all things that I have heard of my Father I have made known unto you.”

John 15:15 KJV

Eliza Edmunds Hewitt wrote a beautiful hymn about Jesus our Friend “The Precious Friend”.  I love these words.  “Never will this Friend forsake me, I would in His love confide, Then whatever ills o’ertake me, Peace shall in my soul abide; O, how great is His salvation, O, what mercy He’ll extend!”

It doesn’t matter how many times satan attacks us with arrows of doubt, discouragement and lies; Jesus will always be with us.  There are times when we hurt and fail one another but Jesus will never hurt us or fail us.  He loved us yesterday.  He loves us today and He will love us tomorrow.  What a precious Friend!

If you don’t know our loving Saviour, I urge you to take the time to know Him.  You can be saved and not know Him.  To know someone, you have to spend time with that person.  I have not had the privilege of going to Bible College but I have attended God’s University every day since January 24, 2005.

Heavenly Father, thank You for sharing Jesus with us.  Thank You for the privilege of serving Your beloved Son and thank You for adopting me into Your family.  I pray for all those who are discouraged.  I love You, Heavenly Father.  I love You, Jesus.  I love You, Holy Spirit.  In Jesus’ Name, I pray.  Amen.

Joanne Lowe

May 5, 2017

NO DISAPPOINTMENTS WITH JESUS

“Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and to day, and for ever.”

Hebrews 13:8 KJV

Have you ever been disappointed by something someone said or did?  Maybe people said they would do something for you but never did it.  There are no disappointments with Jesus.  What He says, He will do.  If He tells us He is going to do something, He does it and He has promised us He will never leave us.

While it hurts when we are disappointed by people, we must always remember that we also disappoint people at times.  None of us are perfect.  There was only one perfect person who ever lived or ever will live and His Name is Jesus.  We can trust Him because He proved how much He loves us when He died for us.

Pastor Arthur Abner Luther wrote the beautiful inspiring hymn “Jesus Never Fails”.  It is one of my favorite hymns and it is so true because Jesus never fails.  I love these words.  “Earthly friends may prove untrue, doubts and fears assail; One still loves and cares for you, one who will not fail. Jesus never fails,”

How I long for the day when I will see my beloved Saviour face to face.  I am going to hug Him for all eternity and try to tell Him how much I love Him and appreciate Him.  Since I gave my heart to Him on August 14, 1980, He has never left me, not even for a minute.  O how I love my precious Saviour.

What a privilege it has been to be in full time service to Him since October 4, 1998.  He has never left me or disappointed me one time.  Pastor Byron said in a sermon, “If you want to fly higher than a kite, start bragging on Jesus”.  I have been flying higher than a kite even when satan tries to discourage me.

Joanne Lowe

May 4, 2017

OUR MOTIVE

“Serve the LORD with gladness: come before his presence with singing.”

Psalms 100:2 KJV

What is our motive in serving Jesus?  It should be to lead others to accept Him as their personal Saviour.  Before we can expect them to ask Jesus into their heart, we must not only tell them about His unconditional love; we must also prove that He loves them by our actions.

Someone said “I am serving Jesus so that makes me a good person”.  That is not a true statement.  It is a privilege to serve our precious Saviour and we should do it with joy because God has allowed us to serve His beloved Son.  I have been so happy since I started serving Jesus.  O how I love Jesus.

Joanne Lowe

May 3, 2017

HEART EXERCISES

“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”

John 3:16 KJV

It is not enough to just do physical exercises, we must also do heart exercises and we should do our heart exercises before we do our physical exercises.  The first heart exercise we should do every morning is tell Jesus we love Him.  If we don’t have time to tell Jesus we love Him, we need to rearrange our schedule.

We should tell Jesus we love Him before we tell our spouse and our loved ones we love them.  Jesus has earned the right to have first place in our heart and in our life.  As soon as I wake up in the morning and before I get out of bed, I say “I love You, Heavenly Father.  I love You, Jesus.  I love You, Holy Spirit.”

When I go to bed at night, I say “I love You, Heavenly Father.  I love You, Jesus.  I love You, Holy Spirit”.  I thank God for all He has done for me and I thank Him for loving me and for adopting me into His family.  There are many people who are lonely and discouraged and we need to adopt them in our heart.

When is the last time you told someone that Jesus loves him or her?  It is not enough to tell people Jesus loves them; we must also show them Jesus loves them by our kind and loving actions and words.  My physical therapist does that for me.  She shows me the love of Jesus by her words and also by her actions.

Heavenly Father, I know how it feels to be discouraged, lonely, heartbroken and afraid of everyone and everything.  I pray for all who need Your comforting touch and encouragement.  Please comfort and encourage them.  In Jesus’ Name, I pray.  Amen.

Joanne Lowe

May 2, 2017

THE MOST EXPENSIVE WEDDING

“For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God's.”

1 Corinthians 6:20 KJV

Someone said “My wedding cost me over one thousand dollars”.  It doesn’t matter how much we spend on our wedding because the most expensive wedding there has ever been or ever will be was when Jesus died for us on the cross and shed His own blood for our sins and redeemed us to be His bride.

Jesus had never sinned, had never done anything wrong yet He willingly walked that long lonely road to Calvary and allowed them to crucify Him.  What kind of love is this?  It is an amazing and unconditional love for you and for me.  Nobody loves you like Jesus loves you and nobody ever will.  What a Saviour!

Heavenly Father, we praise You and thank You for Jesus.  I pray if there is anyone reading this devotion who has not given their heart and life to Jesus that today will be the day.  Jesus, I love You and I long for the day when I will see You face to face.  Thank You for loving me.  In Jesus’ Name, I pray.  Amen. 

Joanne Lowe

May 1, 2017