TODAY IS…

a wonderful day to move forward in faith.

“Then the Lord said to Joshua, ‘Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged. Take the whole army with you, and go up and attack Ai. For I have delivered into your hands the king of Ai, his people, his city, and his land.’”  Joshua 8:1 NIV

Most of us know the feeling of those days when the presence of the Holy Spirit can be felt, strongly, within us. We have a great day and we feel an extraordinary closeness with God. Everything goes right; things we have prayed for come to be; we give thanks to God over and over for His blessings, and we would like nothing better than to live every day of our lives exactly like this one. We love feeling this way and the Lord loves it when we do. We go to bed that night looking forward to what the next day will bring us.

The morning comes and we arise and immediately notice something is different. It is almost as if the very air around is crackling with negative energy, and that may very well be the case.

“Where did it come from?” we ask ourselves.

“What could I possibly have done while I was sleeping for things to turn so negative compared to yesterday?”

The truth is – and it is important that we all remember this – we didn’t do anything. Unfortunately, just as God notices our happiness, joy, and positive energy, so does satan. Our powerful love for God causes us to praise Him and thank Him for our blessings, which pleases Him. It does not, however, please the evil one. Instead, our love of God creates intense jealousy on his part causing him to attack the very source of our love – our faith.

What a difference a day can make.

But fear not. We know where the real power is. We know where to go for protection. We know who will always be there for us when we come under attack. We just need to constantly remind ourselves that when satan is trying to push us back, away from God, that we must overcome the temptation and the negativity that he bombards us with and we must move forward boldly in faith.

It may be a little frightening at first, because our human insecurities, combined with satan’s evil, will work together to create the illusion that we are alone in the battle.

But we are never alone in battle against evil.

When Samaria was under siege, Elisha spoke to the king’s officer about the victory God would provide for the people.

“The officer assisting the king said to the man of God, ‘That couldn’t happen even if the Lord opened the windows of Heaven!’” (2 Kings 7:2a NLT).

The king’s officer had obviously succumbed to the negativity of satan. However, things did happen just as Elisha had said.

“So it was true… just as the Lord has promised.” (2 Kings 7:16b NLT).

Move boldly forward in faith today, and every day, and don’t worry, it is true.

Just as the Lord promised.

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Taken from “TODAY IS….A Gift From God”, (C) 2013 Tony Casson