GOOD NEWS DAILY – December 2

LARA’S LATEST UPDATE & PRAYER REQUEST

   My latest book 365 BLESSINGS is now available in print. The book does not have a set price if you order through my ministry, but donations would be very welcome. If you’d like to get a copy for yourself, like to order copies perhaps as gifts, or would like to sponsor copies for people in prison or in homeless shelters, please contact me at lara@GoodNews.love or 843-338-2219.
Love & blessings, Lara

Ever wanted to desperately get out of a place, a situation, a relationship, a commitment, a job, a house, circumstances, etc.? I most assuredly have! Truth is for decades when my flesh wanted to run, I ran! It was all about pleasing myself and moving on immediately when my flesh said GO and RUN!

When we believe in and receive Jesus Christ as Lord, turning from our sins, believing in His death and resurrection, and turning to the Lord and His ways, we now belong to Him and are to live for Him not ourselves.

If you’re desperately wanting to run from something or someone, go before the Lord. Seek Him. Open the Bible. Read what He leads you to read. Seek counsel from people who follow Jesus if He leads you to do so. Wait on the Lord. Go if He tells you to go. Stay if He tells you to stay.

Live for Him. He will give you the strength to do His will.

love & blessings,

lara

“But the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, willing to yield, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality and without hypocrisy.” James 3:17

I have a beloved sister in the Lord and dear friend who is in the thick of facing so many major trials it’s a wonder she gets out of bed every morning let alone that she’s still standing. Loved one just passed away, another loved one desperately ill, she was just diagnosed with a major illness after surviving a life-threatening other one, several immediate family members with major challenges, always this family or that family member sick, she’s relatively young, and the trials in her life have been relentless for years on end. Really her whole life. So of course you can imagine she is a depressed, down, discouraged, self-pitying woman who is always crying out to everyone her troubles and bemoaning her existence, right? WRONG!

She is one of the most vibrant, positive, thankful, love, hope, and joy-filled women I have ever met in my life, and she spends her life day in and day out loving, praising, worshiping, serving, and following the Lord and blessing others with love, encouragement, words of wisdom the Lord gives her for others, and praying for them. She’d be the first to admit she is far from perfect and needs the Lord’s grace and mercy just like the rest of us, but oh what an inspiration she is to me and to others.

She doesn’t let her troubles make her quit. Instead they fuel her fire to live her life for Christ to the utmost and to proclaim Him to the world.

What an inspiration she is to me. And hopefully now to you also. May we not let our challenges stop us. May they instead be a catalyst to chase after Jesus all the more and to live to love and glorify the Lord forever and to tell the world about Him!

“I’m not going there!” I declared aloud. Where? Into self-condemnation!

I had fallen into ugly sin. I had repented. The Lord had forgiven me. I have a long history of then beating myself up over and again for what I have already been forgiven for. Each time the devil has thrown at me what horrible thing I have done, I would go back into the horror, shame, remorse, and guilt and self-hatred over what I had done.

The Lord doesn’t forgive us so we can live in the past and get swallowed up in self-condemnation. He forgives us so we can move forward in fulfilling His greatest commands to love Him with all our hearts and to love others as ourselves – and to carry on in His will for our day to day lives.

Let’s seek Him for forgiveness when we need it – and then move forward as His Holy Spirit leads us!

365 BLESSINGS is a devotional book I wrote that is available in print by contacting me at 843-338-2219 or via lara@GoodNews.love.  

Blessing #221

“I will love You, O Lord, my strength.” Psalm 18:1

One of my favorite verses in the whole Bible, and that says a lot because I LOVE the whole Bible! It is God’s Word! It is the Lord speaking to us! Oh, how AWESOME is the entire Bible. This verse included! We are commanded to love the Lord with our whole hearts as His very greatest command. The psalmist here is resolved to love the Lord. Love isn’t merely a feeling. It’s a demonstration, isn’t it? An action. An expression. It can manifest in all sorts of ways. And well it should when it comes to loving the Lord.

We must not merely feel love for the Lord. We should think loving thoughts about Him. We should say loving things to and about Him. And we should act in loving ways toward Him – including by praising Him, worshiping Him, serving Him, and obeying Him.

What does the psalmist go on to say the Lord is? His STRENGTH! Oh, yes, the Lord is my strength! Is He yours? Can you imagine a greater blessing when it comes to needing and seeking and finding strength than to realize the greatest strength of all is in and through Jesus? Oh, bless the Lord He is our strength! May we turn to Him and His blessed strength, oh yes!

Less than 24 hours after I was moaning, whining, and frantically trying to figure out how I would handle being in a cold climate for this latest season of my ministry work being on the road for Jesus full-time, I came in from walking paralyzed doggy Mr. Simeon in his wheelchair, snuggled up on my little bed with my laptop by the window, and looked out to see what I daresay are the biggest snowflakes I ever recall seeing. Granted I lived in the south for many years and may have forgotten seeing such big ones in the past.

How beautiful each and every flake is, big or small. I hate the cold, I love the outdoors, I thrive on doing streets ministry work in the warm weather, and the last thing I would ever desire is a winter in the north. But complaining is sin against God, and there I had the most wonderful opportunity to enjoy watching the beautiful big snowflakes the Lord was sending down from heaven.

Even in our trials, even in the circumstances we don’t desire, even when things aren’t going our way, there is so much to be thankful for. Let us never neglect to praise the Lord. Thank you Lord for the biggest snowflakes I ever remember seeing. Thank you for ALL my blessings, Father. Thank you most of all for the greatest blessing of all. You, Jesus! AMEN!

Praise the Lord!

Know what a beloved friend and long-time grandmother Christ follower told me she did while on vacation? She prayed for me! I was so humbled and blessed to hear this. I expected to hear all about her vacation. Instead she told me how she loved and helped me through prayer.

What an amazing opportunity we have day or night whenever the Lord so leads us to serve Him in our everyday lives – by praying for others whether loved ones or strangers or anyone in between.

What an incredible gift to be prayed for. Let us give this gift to others! Let’s pray, pray, and pray!