Category Archives: Scriptures to Live By

Scriptures to Live By: Healing

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Healing: to make or become healthy, sound, or whole; cure or remedy.

There are a lot of ads on TV, the radio, and outdoor billboards pertaining to “being healthy or whole.” I would say that most of these pertain to the physical aspect of our lives–eating healthy to stay healthy and getting enough exercise to lose weight or maintain a healthy weight. However, the Word of God teaches us that when we have faith in God, He promises to heal us physically, mentally, and spiritually. (All of the scriptures are taken from the NIV version.)

Exodus 23:25: “Worship the Lord your God, and His blessing will be on your food and water. I will take away sickness from among you, and none will miscarry or be barren in your land. I will give you a full life span.”

Psalm 30:2: “O Lord my God, I called to you for help, and you healed me.”

Isaiah 53:4-6: “Surely he took up our infirmities and carried out sorrows, yet we considered him stricken by God, smitten by him, and afflicted. But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities, the punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed. We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.”

Psalm 103:2-5: “Praise the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits–who forgives all your sins and heals all your diseases, who redeems your life from the pit and crowns you with love and compassion, who satisfies your desires with good things so that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s.”

Jeremiah 17:14: “Heal me O Lord, and I will be healed; save me and I will be saved, for you are the one I praise.”

Mark 5:34: “He said, ‘Daughter, your faith has healed you. Go in peace and be freed from your suffering.'”

God wants healing for everyone; He has promised it.

Blessings,
Yvonne

Scriptures to Live by: Repentance

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“Repent is to turn from sin and resolve to reform one’s life, while repentance is a reciprocal action or effect.”

When I was 15 years of age, I attended a Pentecostal church and our transportation to and from the church each Sunday was a large school bus owned by the church. I enjoyed attending both Sunday School and the morning services. Eventually, I began attending Sunday evening services, which included a teen meeting prior to the worship service. It was there that I learned how important it was for me to turn my life over to God and repent from my sin. It has been over 50 years, and I am still serving a wonderful living Savior.

There are numerous scriptures that explain why it is necessary and why it is important for those who do not know Christ to repent and turn their lives over to God and to begin trusting Him for the strength necessary to serve Him every day.

Matthew 4:17: “Repent for the Kingdom of heaven is near.”

Luke 5:31-32: “Jesus answered them, ‘It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.'”

Acts 3:18-19: “But this is how God fulfilled what he had foretold through all the prophets, saying that his Christ would suffer. Repent, then, and turn to God, so that your sins may be wiped out, that times of refreshing may come from the Lord.”

Acts 5:31: “God exalted him to his own right hand as Prince and Savior that he might give repentance and forgiveness of sins to Israel.”

II Corinthians 7:9-10: “…yet now I am happy not because you were made sorry, but because your sorrow led you to repentance. For you became sorrowful as God intended and so were not harmed in any way by us.”

Revelation 3:3: “Remember, therefore, what you have received and heard, obey it, and repent. But if you do not wake up, I will come like a thief, and you will not know at what time I will come to you.”

In Revelation 3:3, we are reminded that Christ will come back like a thief in the night and for those who have not repented and “turned from their wicked ways,” they will be left behind. May He find us ready.

Blessings,
Yvonne

Scriptures to Live By: Obedience

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John 14:15: “If you love me, you will obey what I command.” (NIV)

According to a devotional by Pastor Rick Warren, obedience is: Love + Trust + Action. Obedience comes from knowing that God loves you, and you love Him in return. Throughout my 50+ years as a Christian, there have been many instances where I have seen God’s hand intervene with family members and even in personal situations in my own life because I was faithful and obedient to God’s direction in my life, including marrying my husband of 45+ years and praying for and obeying God’s direction for our lives together in ministry.

Obedience calls not only for love, trust, and action, but a change in our hearts and attitudes. We obey God for several reasons:

We believe that God answers our prayers.
We feel the Lord’s presence.
We gain wisdom.
We have an open communication with God.
We are blessed beyond measure.
We have a peace that “passes all understanding.”
We will enjoy a long life.

The scripture is filled with verses that pertain to our obedience to God:

Ephesians 6:1-3: “Children obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. Honor your father and mother–which is the first commandment with a promise–that it may go well with you and that you may enjoy long life on the earth.”

II John 1:6: “And this is love: that we walk in obedience to his commands. As you have heard from the beginning, his command is that you walk in love.”

Luke 11:28: “Blessed rather are those who hear the Word of God and obey it.”

Romans 5:19: “For just as through the disobedience of the one man the many were made sinners, so also through the obedience of the one man the many will be made righteous.”

Let us continue to live our lives in obedience to our loving Lord every day.

Blessings,
Yvonne

Scriptures to Live By: Trust

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“Trust is a firm belief in the reliability, truth, ability, or strength of someone or something.” Who do you put your trust in?

When I was growing up in a “dysfunctional” family, I quickly learned that trust in my family was underwhelming. My father was an alcoholic who had little or no trust in himself or in others. That lack of trust made its way into our hearts as children. However, after I became a Christian at the age of 15, the Lord helped me begin to trust in His ability to resolve or change the dynamics within my own family. It took quite a long time to realize these changes, but I trusted in my Lord to do so. In the end, that trust changed me–my heart, my attitude, my life.

Scripture shows us that we are to trust in God for every situation that happens in our lives because “He works out all things for our good.” He is the strength of our lives.

Psalm 18:1-2: “I love you, O Lord, my strength. The Lord is my rock, my fortress, and my deliverer; my God is my rock, in whom I take refuge. He is my shield and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold. I call to the Lord, who is worthy of praise, and I am saved from my enemies.”

Psalm 91:2: “I will say of the Lord, ‘He is my refuge and my fortress, my God, in whom I trust.'”

Psalm 25:1-2: “To you, O Lord, I lift up my soul; in you I trust, O my God; Do not let me be put to shame, nor let my enemies triumph over me.”

Psalm 37:5: “Commit your way to the Lord; trust in him and he will do this.”

Isaiah 26:3: “You will keep in perfect peace him whose mind is steadfast, because he trusts in you.”

Proverbs 3:5-6: “Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your paths straight.”

Psalm 118:8: “It is better to take refuge in the Lord than to trust in man. It is better to take refuge in the Lord than to trust in princes.”

We trust God for our salvation, but do we really trust God with our every day lives?

May the Lord help us to trust Him more and more each day as we look to Him–the author and finisher of our faith.

Blessings,
Yvonne

Scriptures to Live By: Holy Spirit

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There are so many scriptures found in God’s Word pertaining to His promises of the Holy Spirit and of the Holy Spirit’s working in our lives. Below are just a few that describe what the Holy Spirit means to us as Christians as we continue to walk in faith in our daily walk with Him.

John 14:26: “But the Counselor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you.” Jesus promised His disciples that He would send a comforter to help them in their continuing ministry after He ascended into Heaven and that promise was definitely fulfilled.”

I Corinthians 2:13: “This is what we speak, not in words taught us by human wisdom but in words taught by the Spirit, expressing spiritual truths in spiritual words.” Sometimes we do not know what or how to speak but because of the wisdom of the Holy Spirit in our lives, He will speak the truth through us.

Galatians 5:22-23: “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. Against such things there is no law.” The Holy Spirit helps us to grow in all of the virtues as described here in Galatians.

I Corinthians 6:19-20: “Do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; you were bought at a price. Therefore, honor God with your body.” This passage clearly states that our bodies are the temples of the Holy Spirit which we have received from God and that we are to honor God with our bodies. Let us examine ourselves and what we do with the body that God has entrusted us with.

Luke 11:13: “If you then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him!” Our Father is faithful and wants to give us good things. We just have to ask Him.

Ezekiel 36:26-27: “I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit in you and move you to follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws.” When we follow God, He promises to “create in us a clean heart” and “to renew a right spirit within us” so that we willingly follow His teachings.

May you be blessed as you read the scriptures and take to heart all that the Holy Spirit can and will do in your heart and lives today.

Blessings,
Yvonne