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REALITY VERSE 1 Against the world’s empty, toxic lie Fighting evil that wants me to deny That out of Your mouth we became alive Relying on You to exist and thrive CHORUS The depth from each beat of my heart Has a meaning The cry from the air in my lungs Praises Yahweh The silence in my ear seeks to hear You speaking And with my eyes I long to see Your true reality VERSE 2 Stopping Your Spirit is devastation Denying my need for transformation Rest for my soul is hidden in the truth That full life is only found in You BRIDGE Your Word is my reality Your Truth is my reality Your Love is my reality Your Blood is my reality You Lived for my reality Your Died for my reality You Rose for my reality You Fought for my reality

Is Anything Too Hard? This message came to Jeremiah from the Lord: “I am the Lord, the God of all the peoples of the world. Is anything too hard for me?” Jeremiah 32:26-27 Have you lived with a difficult situation that remained unchanged no matter how fervently you prayed? If so, you may have begun to doubt God’s ability to intervene. Have you wondered if your problems were beyond God’s power to help your difficult marriage? out-of -control finances? failing health? a wayward child? God’s Word to Jeremiah is a powerful declaration of who God is and what he is able to do. He is the one true God, the sovereign ruler over all the earth. The rhetorical question “Is anything too hard for me?” is actually a statement of God’s supreme power in all circumstances. If anything were too difficult for him, he would not be God. If God is not sovereign over all, he is not sovereign at all! Because nothing is too hard for God, we can rest assured that nothing in our lives is outside of God’s purposeful control. We may not understand why God hasn’t answered our prayers as we wish, but we do know that greater difficulties are opportunities to draw closer to him. We can have peace in all circumstances when we have absolute confidence that nothing is too hard for God. THANK YOU, LORD, that nothing in my life is beyond your reach; nothing is too large or difficult for your powerful hand. Help me to remember that you display your power best in my impossible situations. Give me greater understanding of who you are so that my trust in you will be complete. No prayer is too hard for him to answer, no need too great for him to supply, no passion too strong for him to subdue; no temptation too powerful for him to deliver from, no misery too deep for him to relieve. Arthur Pink (1889–1952)

What God Delights In The strength of a horse does not impress him; how puny in his sight is the strength of a man. Rather, the Lord’s delight is in those who honor him, those who put their hope in his unfailing love. Psalm 147:10-11 In this psalm we discover an important secret about relating to the Lord. Our great and mighty God, who has absolute power over everything in heaven and on earth, is not impressed with powerful people. Those who are strong and mighty in their own strength don’t get God’s attention. Instead, it is the brokenhearted and humble he notices and supports (Psalm 147:3,6). He chooses to work not through those who are strong but through those who are weak. And most of all, we don’t earn his approval by being great or strong. He delights in those who reverently honor him and put their hope and trust in his unfailing love and mercy, not in their own ability. Today, if you’ve put your hope in anyone or anything else, ask the Lord to forgive you. But don’t stop there. Ask his Spirit to so work in your life that your primary goal becomes honoring and pleasing God. DEAR LORD, there have been times—even many—when I have relied on someone or something other than you. Forgive me. Those things are “puny” compared to the strength that you give to us when we acknowledge our own weakness and dependence on you. Help me to put my trust in you, and show me the way to a life that honors you. I hope in your unfailing love. God being Who and What He is, and we being who and what we are, the only thinkable relation between us is one of full lordship on His part and complete submission on ours. We owe Him every honor that it is in our power to give Him. A. W. Tozer (1897–1963)

Listening Understand this, my dear brothers and sisters: You must all be quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to get angry. James 1:19 Because both of my daughters were born in China, I tell them they are my favorite Chinese characters. You probably know that the written form of Chinese contains thousands of characters, some of which require dozens of brush strokes to create. What’s more, some of these characters are pictographs—pictorial representations of physical objects. The character for sage, for instance, is of particular interest. Consisting of a large ear and a small mouth, it implies that a wise person is someone who listens well and speaks little. When it comes to our search for peace, we should ask ourselves what life would be like if we developed larger ears and smaller mouths. Why is it sometimes so difficult to listen? Perhaps because we think we know more than we do. A child complains about her homework for the hundredth time and we tell her to get to work and stop being lazy. But what if her complaints are a symptom of a learning disability and not laziness? Have we really listened, allowing ourselves to consider that more might be going on than “meets the ear”? Some of us have difficulty listening because we have an urge to fix things. A wife tells her husband she feels down and he tells her she’s got to start exercising more regularly. A friend worries about her son’s inability to keep a job, and we tell her to stop worrying. She can’t do anything about it anyway. Often our advice goes nowhere. That’s because we’re either telling people what they already know or offering advice they aren’t ready to hear. In such instances, we often withhold the thing they need the most—a listening ear. To fine-tune your listening skills, consider spending the next couple of days straining to hear what others are trying to say. Put down the phone, take a break from your computer, turn off those video games, and really listen to the people around you. Help them to experience more of God’s peace by giving them your full attention. Father, give me the grace to hear what others are saying. Teach me wisdom as I listen, both for words that are spoken and for those that are not.

Peace in Your Relationships The wolf and the lamb will feed together. The lion will eat hay like a cow. But the snakes will eat dust. In those days no one will be hurt or destroyed on my holy mountain. I, the Lord, have spoken! Isaiah 65:25 Birds and cats are not normally best friends. That’s why the video I watched surprised me. A couple had documented the relationship of a crow and a stray kitten for a period of eight months. For several hours each day, the crow and the kitten could be seen playing together. Whenever the kitten began to cross the road, the crow would start squawking at it or hop around, pushing it back toward safety. The crow would also feed the kitten with its own preferred cuisine—a diet of worms and bugs—no doubt saving its life. Now that’s one nice crow and one fortunate kitty! Watching that video of the two unlikely friends reminded me of God’s promise that one day the lamb would have nothing to fear from the wolf because every creature in the world would reflect God’s peace. It made me think, too, of Paul’s words to the Romans: “We know that all creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time. And we believers also groan, even though we have the Holy Spirit within us as a foretaste of future glory, for we long for our bodies to be released from sin and suffering” (8:22-23). Some of the pain and suffering we endure comes from the strife we experience in relationships, broken and twisted by sin. We find it hard to get along with certain people at home, at work, and at church. Because of what Jesus has done for us and because his Spirit lives in us, nothing is impossible for the God who is able to heal even our most fractured relationships. Don’t wait for the Second Coming to begin to pray about your own difficult relationships. Ask God for grace and wisdom for yourself and the people you find difficult. Who knows what unlikely friendships you may be able to forge as a result of God’s peace at work within and through you. Father, help me to be ruthlessly honest about ways I have contributed to problems in my relationships. Help me to repent and to be willing to do whatever it takes to respond to the grace you will give me as I seek greater peace in the way I relate to others.

Wanted https://amber.faithlife.com/shares/Yd4hhcD2lLVSMSGR Verse 1 To be wanted means I am loved To be wanted means I am sought after To be wanted means I can be held In my anger tears and laughter PreChorus To understand this to comprehend It means I must believe From Your word to life I long to breathe The truth that I am wanted Chorus Let it sink in I am wanted Let it sink in I am wanted Let it sink in I am wanted Let it sink in I am wanted Verse 2 To erase the lies that the world tells me To erase what my past clings to To break down the wall That hardens my heart I sit in the truth Chorus Let it sink in I am wanted Let it sink in I am wanted Let it sink in I am wanted Let it sink in I am wanted Bridge I am wanted I am lavishly loved I am found by You To the praise of Your Grace I am wanted by Jesus I am sealed by the Spirit I am loved by God

Letting It Go Let’s do a quick recap! To win the battle over temptation: 1. Predetermine Your Pattern of Temptation 2. Protect the Condition of Your Heart 3. Pray for God’s Help! Prayer gives you an inner strength to overcome. We’re told in Matthew 26:41 that the consequence of not praying is that temptation will overpower us! Prayer is the strongest defense you have against temptation. It’s your ammunition in the battle! Throughout the Bible, we’re shown time after time how God definitely answers prayer: Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego in the fiery furnace; Daniel in the lions’ den; Jonah in the whale. God provides help when you call on him. So when you’re tempted, PRAY! Hebrews 4:15-16 tells us that he not only understands your temptation, he’s already been through your temptation! Repeat: he knows and understands what you’re going through! Hebrews 4:15 says he was tempted “in every way, just as we are.” He was tempted to hold a grudge. He was tempted sexually. He was tempted to disobey. He was tempted to take the easy way out. He was tempted to get ahead and exert his power and gossip and get angry for the wrong reasons. But he overcame temptation . . . and so can you! Sometimes we don’t pray because we’re not sure we want to end the battle! If you talk to him about your anger, you can’t continue to be angry. He’ll ask you to release it. He’s going to tell you to forgive. He’ll want to bring healing to your heart. 4. Point Your Attention Elsewhere Temptation always begins in the mind . . . with a thought. It never begins with an action. The very moment a tempting thought enters your mind, give it to God. Pray. Read Scripture. Doing this automatically points your attention in the opposite direction of temptation. Realize that whatever gets your attention gets you! The more you think about something, the stronger a grip it has on your life. When you’re upset, you think about it. And the longer you turn it over in your mind, the more upset you become. Next thing you know, you’re not simply upset, you’re angry! So instead of focusing on the temptation, switch your concentration to WWJD (What Would Jesus Do?). And what would Jesus do? He’d pray. It’s hard to hold a grudge against someone when you’re praying for him! Know It! You’ll never be the person God wants you to be by holding on to sin in your life. So go ahead. Release it. Give up that grudge. Give him your anger. Be willing to walk away from your hurt. Quit living in the past. Let go of your failures. Allow him to help you become all he wants you to be! Read It! Psalm 50:15; Matthew 26:41; Hebrews 4:14-16; James 1:14-15 Pray It! Tell God that you’re realizing your area of weakness is not giving him your temptations immediately. When something enters your mind that shouldn’t be there, seek his help to surrender it quickly!