Saved by Grace

Tag: bible

  • The Power of Remembrance

    I was leaving a revival where my husband was preaching, and we were talking about miracle stories and how there is power in remembrance, power in talking about what God has done for you. Did you know that it is actually a spiritual weapon? Throughout scripture, God repeatedly tells us to remember. Why do you think that is? It’s because remembrance brings power. It anchors our faith, restores our direction, and fuels our worship. When we forget what God has done, it leads to sin, rebellion, and spiritual drought.

    When the children of Israel crossed the Jordan river, God commanded Joshua to take 12 stones from the river bed and set them up as a memorial (Joshua 4:6). Those stones were reminders of what God brought them through. Likewise, your memories of God’s faithfulness are like spiritual monuments – reminders that if he did it before, he will do it again.

    In Psalm 77, the author of this Psalm was so distraught and depressed that his soul refused to be comforted, and his spirit was overwhelmed. He cried to the Lord, but nothing was changing his state of mind until he started remembering. He remembered, meditated, and talked of God’s doings. There is strength in remembrance and in taking time during prayer to reflect on God’s works and telling others what God has done for you.

    In Deuteronomy chapter 8, Moses warns the people of God of the ease with which they can forget the Lord and his kindness towards them. He urges them to be careful not to do so, but to remember the Lord and all that he has done. When things are good, we should always remember it was God that blessed us, not ourselves. Everything we have is by his grace and mercy.

    When you remember, it builds gratitude. 1 Thessalonians 5:18 – “In everything give thanks, for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you. “ What is one of the ways you give thanks? By remembrance. Remembering God’s past faithfulness stirs gratitude and prevents pride. Gratitude keeps the heart humble and worshipful. Sometimes we lose our praise not because God stopped blessing us, but because we stopped remembering.

    When you remember, it prevents backsliding and refocuses your purpose. works, they turned to idols. Remembering keeps us anchored to truth and obedience. Revelation 2:4–5 – The church of Ephesus allowed their love for truth to be greater than their love for Jesus. When the early church lost their first love, Jesus didn’t tell them to try harder — He told them to remember. Remembering helps you realign your heart and renew your purpose. Sometimes the cure for spiritual drift is not a new revelation but an old memory.

    When you remember, it strengthens your faith. When you remember what God has done, you gain confidence in what He will do. Memory fuels faith. We saw that in our scripture with Psalm 77. 1 Samuel 17:33–37  – David didn’t just see Goliath; he remembered God’s power. Memory turned fear into faith. David remembered his past victories. David’s confidence wasn’t in his sling — it was in his memory. What Goliath’s in your life could be defeated if you remembered past victories?

    Remembering is more than recalling — it’s reconnecting. It connects your present struggle with God’s past faithfulness and His future promises. When we remember, faith is restored, gratitude is rekindled, and purpose is refocused. Remembering is a spiritual weapon and a spiritual discipline. 2 Peter 3:1 –  “I stir up your pure minds by way of remembrance.” Take time to remember the prayers God answered, the sins He forgave, and the times He carried you through. The same God who was faithful yesterday is faithful today and forever.

  • Timing is Everything

    Have you ever prayed for something and felt like it was taking a long time to get an answer, or that you have had to go through a hard season for a long time? Every believer will go through seasons of waiting. Timing can make the difference between success and failure, peace and frustration, and joy and sorrow. We live in a world that values instant results — instant coffee, instant downloads, instant gratification. We expect our food to be ready from the time we pay at the drive through window to the time we get to the pick-up window. Though this is the pace of natural life, the Kingdom of God doesn’t operate on human schedules; it operates on divine timing.

    Ecclesiastes 3:1 says, “To everything there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven.” Just like we cannot force natural seasons to change, we cannot force the seasons of our lives to move ahead of time. Trust me, if I had the ability to change seasons, I would skip winter and go straight to spring, but I can’t change natural seasons, just as I cannot change spiritual seasons.

    A great example of God’s divine timing is the story of Joseph. He was favored by his father, and his jealous brothers sold him into slavery. Genesis 39 details how Joseph was a servant in Potiphar’s house, and how God favored him even in his hard season. He was betrayed by his family and sold into slavery, yet Joseph was favored by God and made the overseer over the household. God knows how to prosper us and sustain us even through trials.

    Just as things started to improve for Joseph, Potiphar’s wife falsely accused him of trying to seduce her, and he was imprisoned unjustly. Sometimes obstacles come one after another, but even in prison, God favored Joseph. He granted Joseph favor with the keeper of the prison, who gave Joseph charge over all the other prisoners. Even in prison, Joseph remained faithful and obedient to God. He used his gift of interpreting dreams to help Pharoah’s chief butler and baker. We see in Genesis 40:14-15 that Joseph asked the butler to speak to Pharoah on his behalf. Joseph thought this was his chance to get out, but the butler forgot about Joseph. He remained in prison for two more years until Pharoah needed a dream interpreter. We see then how Joseph is remembered and promoted to second in command of Egypt.

    What seemed like a delay was divine design. If Joseph had been released when he wanted, he might have missed the moment when Pharaoh needed an interpreter — the very event that promoted him. He would have been released as a normal, free man, but instead became second in command of Egypt. Because of his ability to interpret dreams, he was able to devise a plan to save many people from famine.  

    God’s timing aligns with His purpose, not our preferences. When our appointed season arrives, no devil, no delay, and no human can stop it. When it is your time, no one can take your place. Many of us are waiting for God to move in situations in our lives. We can learn from Joseph’s story the importance of obedience and serving in the waiting. Joseph didn’t waste his waiting time. Waiting time is not wasted time. It is a time for God to build our faith, humility, and patience. Waiting reveals what is in your heart. Can you trust God when you don’t see progress?

    There is an appointed time for each of us – a time for God to move. We just have to trust the process and wait for our appointed time. When God moves, He moves suddenly and purposefully. We don’t always understand why things happen when they do or why they don’t happen sooner, but we can trust that all things work together for our good.

  • Subscribing To Jesus

    We live in a time where everyone wants us to subscribe to something – YouTube, Netflix, meal services, etc. Whether we are aware of it or not, we sometimes subscribe to things based on certain actions or inactions. One of the definitions of subscribe is to come into agreement to something. That is primarily what I want to explore.

    Have you ever signed up for a promotion and received a free gift with your subscription? I must admit; I have frequently signed up for meal services when they are offering free meal boxes, and then once the promotion is over, I cancel my subscription. Some people treat Jesus how I treat my HelloFresh subscription. They subscribe to him for the gift and then cancel. They never intended to keep the subscription, but only accepted it for what they could get out of it. Some people come to Jesus for the gift, but they don’t want to continue their subscription. Some want him to move based on a situation in their life, but when they get their prayer answered (or not answered how they want), they cancel their subscription. A subscription is only worth what someone is willing to pay for it, and Jesus paid the ultimate price for us to have the ability to subscribe to him. He did the hard part, and all he asks is that we maintain the subscription. There is no unsubscribe button on his end, only ours.

    When we receive Jesus, we are subscribing to him.  When we subscribe to him, we are coming into agreement with what he’s offering us and promising obedience to him. When you subscribe to something, you agree to receive it regularly. If I subscribe to HelloFresh, I expect to receive my box every week. When we subscribe to him, we should be receiving him regularly. The Bible says to take up our cross and follow him daily.

    We must also be careful to whom or to what we are subscribing. If we are not subscribing to Jesus, to whom are we subscribing? In 2 Chronicles 18:1, Jehoshaphat aligned himself with Ahab. Jehoshaphat was a good King, King of Judah, and Ahab was a bad King, King of Israel. Jehoshaphat aligned himself with Ahab to go into battle even though God told him not to, and it almost cost him his life. Be careful what you allow into your spirit. Is it edifying? Is it pleasing to God? We think that some things are not a big deal, but the things we choose to align ourselves with can cost us our lives, or dedication, and our salvation.

    So, what does it mean to agree with him? Amos 3:3 says, “Can two walk together, except they be agreed?” Agreement means in harmony. My husband and I always hold hands when we walk. It is a sign that we are in harmony with each other, walking together. Now, if I were to walk too fast or two slow, we wouldn’t be in harmony anymore. Many times, that is our relationship with God. He reaches out and wants to be in harmony with us, but we don’t allow it. To agree, at least one person in the party must change. If I am walking faster than my husband, then either he has to speed up, or I have to slow down. In Malachi 3:6, God says, “I, the Lord, do not change.” So, if God is unchanging, his ways and thoughts do not change, which means if we are going to agree with him, logically, we must be the ones to change.

    What are the basic requirements for this kind of fellowship to walk with God? Micah 6:8 lists three requirements: To do justly (live righteously), to love mercy, and to walk humbly with God. God says if we cultivate these three aspects of character, the result will be that we will be able to walk with God and have fellowship with him. 

    We see previously in Amos that for us to walk with God, we must agree with his ways and his thoughts, but the Bible also makes it clear that by nature, God’s ways and thoughts are different than ours. In Isaiah 55:6-9, we see that when we turn to God, it’s not enough to just turn in outward act, but what really matters is our inward ways and thoughts. That’s what must be forsaken to turn to God, relate to God, and be reconciled with God. Because God is perfect, and we are yet being made perfect, his ways and thoughts are so much higher than ours. Naturally, the way we are inclined to think is not the way God thinks. As the heavens are higher than the earth is the immeasurable gap between God’s ways and thoughts and ours.

    How do we bridge this immeasurable gap? God shows us in Isaiah 55:10-13. Notice how God uses the imagery of rain and snow to reveal how his ways and thoughts are brought down. As rain and snow comes down from heaven, so does his word come down to us. Sometimes it comes down like rain and immediately saturates and becomes fruitful, and sometimes it hits a hard surface like snow, and it doesn’t saturate and become fruitful until the temperature starts to change.

    When we receive God’s word and let it work in our hearts and minds, we see positive results. What used to be unfruitful will now be productive for his glory. God is an everlasting subscription. We don’t ever have to worry about being canceled, but we do have to come into agreement with his ways and requirements.

  • To Overcome Or Be Overcome

    In the world we live in today, with deception running rampant, I think many people have been convinced that there is some gray area in christianity, a middle ground of sorts. They think they can live however they want and still claim to be a follower of Christ and reap his benefits. The truth is, if you are not overcoming, you are being overcome. If you are not following Jesus, then you are serving the enemy.

    Scripture tells us that Jesus died, he was buried, and he rose again. Because he rose again, we have the power to overcome. Ephesians 2:4-6 says, “But God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us, even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with christ, (by grace ye are saved;) and hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus.” When he got up, we got up. We can overcome because of him.

    There are so many examples of overcoming in the Bible, but one that I find encouraging is the story of Caleb. In Numbers 13, Moses sends 12 spies into the promised land, and out of the 12, only two return with a good report: Caleb and Joshua. Caleb says let’s go and possess it, for we are well able to overcome. The negative spies said, “we are not able to overcome.” They said they were like grasshoppers compared to the giants in the land. Notice that they all went to the same place and saw the same thing, yet they have two totally opposite perspectives.

    In Numbers 14, we see the majority of the people complain, and when Caleb and Joshua try to encourage the people to keep the faith, the people don’t want to hear it.

    Everything is about perspective. If you want to be victorious, consider your perspective. Are you letting the giants in your life bring fear or doubt, or are you choosing to believe the report of the Lord?

    In Numbers 14:28-30, we see God’s response to those who chose the wrong report. He said, “as you have spoken in my ears, so will I do to you.” How many of us would be happy if God said to us, just as you have spoken to me, I will do to you? Are you speaking victorious words/words of an overcomer, or are you speaking words that allow the giants in your life to overcome you? Think back to how you have been speaking the last few days, months, and years. Would you be happy if God said, I will do exactly what you have been saying?

    The Power of life and death is in our tongues. We settle our destiny by the words we speak. All of the 12 spies settled their destiny. Caleb was an overcomer, and he was rewarded for it. five times it says Caleb wholly followed the Lord. Are you wholly following the Lord? He has made provision for you to be an overcomer.

    The beautiful thing about the use of “Have overcome” in John 16:33 is that it is present perfect tense. Jesus could have said “I overcame the world,” which is past tense, but he said i “Have Overcome,” which means the victory didn’t just start in the past and end in the past, but it continues into the present. We don’t just get victory over the enemy in some situations and not others. We are continually victorious.