puricare chronicles: OUR FIRST CHOICE - God should be the first place we turn to when we are facing struggles or problems - we need not wait until our circumstances look bleak and we are desperate. God’s help should be our first choice, not a last resort. Trying to control our own lives without God’s help leads to struggle and confusion. When we stay in close contact with God, we are less likely to create painful situations for ourselves. When life leads us into places of discomfort and struggle, God wants us to come to Him first, seeking His strength and guidance. For a length of twenty years the Israelites had been oppressed by the Canaanites ruler and his people. Yet not until Jabin, the king of Canaan, and Sisera, the commander of the army, prepared to slaughter the Israelites with an army of chariots did the Israelites cry out to the Lord for help. Why had these people lived in unbearable circumstances for so long without turning to God? Only when they knew they had no chance of survival against such a powerful force, did they finally turn to God. Why not before? God should be the first place we turn to when we are facing struggles or problems. Unlike the Israelites, we need not wait until our circumstances look bleak and we are desperate. God’s help should be our first choice, not a last resort. The Israelites chose to go their own way and got into a mess. Yet we often do the same, don’t we? Trying to control our own lives without God’s help leads to struggle and confusion.

Saturday, January 9, 2021

OUR FIRST CHOICE - God should be the first place we turn to when we are facing struggles or problems - we need not wait until our circumstances look bleak and we are desperate. God’s help should be our first choice, not a last resort. Trying to control our own lives without God’s help leads to struggle and confusion. When we stay in close contact with God, we are less likely to create painful situations for ourselves. When life leads us into places of discomfort and struggle, God wants us to come to Him first, seeking His strength and guidance. For a length of twenty years the Israelites had been oppressed by the Canaanites ruler and his people. Yet not until Jabin, the king of Canaan, and Sisera, the commander of the army, prepared to slaughter the Israelites with an army of chariots did the Israelites cry out to the Lord for help. Why had these people lived in unbearable circumstances for so long without turning to God? Only when they knew they had no chance of survival against such a powerful force, did they finally turn to God. Why not before? God should be the first place we turn to when we are facing struggles or problems. Unlike the Israelites, we need not wait until our circumstances look bleak and we are desperate. God’s help should be our first choice, not a last resort. The Israelites chose to go their own way and got into a mess. Yet we often do the same, don’t we? Trying to control our own lives without God’s help leads to struggle and confusion.

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Our First Choice

When life leads us into places of discomfort and struggle, God wants us to come to Him first, seeking His strength and guidance

God should be the first place we turn to when we are facing struggles or problems - we need not wait until our circumstances look bleak and we are desperate. God’s help should be our first choice, not a last resort. Trying to control our own lives without God’s help leads to struggle and confusion. When we stay in close contact with God, we are less likely to create painful situations for ourselves.

listenandprosper.com

‘Because he had nine hundred iron chariots and had cruelly oppressed the Israelites for twenty years, they cried to the Lord for help.’ - Judges 4:3 (NIV).

For a length of twenty years the Israelites had been oppressed by the Canaanites ruler and his people.

Yet not until Jabin, the king of Canaan, and Sisera, the commander of the army, prepared to slaughter the Israelites with an army of chariots did the Israelites cry out to the Lord for help.

Why had these people lived in unbearable circumstances for so long without turning to God?

Only when they knew they had no chance of survival against such a powerful force, did they finally turn to God. Why not before?

God should be the first place we turn to when we are facing struggles or problems.

Unlike the Israelites, we need not wait until our circumstances look bleak and we are desperate.

God’s help should be our first choice, not a last resort.

The Israelites chose to go their own way and got into a mess. Yet we often do the same, don’t we?

God would have delivered His people earlier on, but ‘they did evil in the eyes of the Lord.’ (verse 1).

They refused to repent and turn to Him for help.

Trying to control our own lives without God’s help leads to struggle and confusion.

However, when we stay in close contact with God, we are less likely to create painful situations for ourselves.

This is a lesson the Israelites never fully learned.

When life leads us into places of discomfort and struggle, God wants us to come to Him first, seeking His strength and guidance.

Prayer:

‘Heavenly Father, forgive me for looking elsewhere for the help and comfort that I am searching for just now.

Thank you that you wait for me to return to you. Keep me close to you Lord and help me in this time of need.’

In Jesus’ Mighty Name,

AMEN!

Final Thoughts:

God never left the Israelites, though they often wandered far from His presence.

God promises to stay close to us (Psalm 94:14).

But how often do our hearts stray from Him?

Rather than forsaking our first love (Revelation 2:4), let’s return to our Father and make Him our first choice whenever difficulties arise.

To what or whom do we turn to when we encounter hardship or painful situations?

Nothing or no one else can provide the comfort and help like God. Can we allow God to be all that He is in our lives at this time?

Let’s lay our situation and His feet and trust Him to do more than we could imagine or hope for.

Return to Him and He will turn to us.

Be Greatly Blessed!

https://listenandprosper.com/our-first-choice/

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