Romans 8:37\u00a0<\/b>\u2013\u00a0No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us.<\/i><\/p>\n
Way back in the day when I played organized football they had a game called Bull in the Ring. In this game one player was circled by the rest of the team.\u00a0 Everybody was assigned a number.\u00a0 The player in the middle was fully ready, fully energized because the coach would call out a number and then the player assigned that number would charge you and do his very best to knock your socks off.\u00a0 The bull in the ring had better be quick and ready to take the charge.\u00a0 The charge came from any direction, front, back, or either sides.\u00a0 The bull must spin fast, get your feet set, and take the charge head on. \u00a0If you shrank back, you lost\u2026over and over again. The best bulls gave out as much, or more, than they received.\u00a0 Looking back it was a very dangerous game, but it taught us the ferocity of the game of football.<\/p>\n
Life can be like that.\u00a0 Sometimes so many things can come at us at once.\u00a0 So many life events can charge us, one after another, from different directions and all wanting to knock us head over heels and right out of the game.\u00a0 Family, in our own strength this game of life can be overwhelming.\u00a0 The participants in this game of life must be prepared, or they will be bowled over.\u00a0 They will be overwhelmed.\u00a0 They will feel like, or may, just check out of the game.\u00a0 Life, as beautiful and filled with blessings as it is, can sometimes, and for some often, just feel like too much.\u00a0 We learn early in life that life has some very rough challenges.\u00a0 We need to be ready.<\/p>\n
There is only one way to be ready in this life and in the life to come.\u00a0 It is to grasp the hand of God who has promised to be the lover of our souls and our refuge during hard times.\u00a0 Really, our refuge at all times.\u00a0 God promised no-one a trouble free life (John 16:33<\/b>).\u00a0\u00a0 What He promised us was that if we take His hand, that He offers first, He will take our hand and live with us and will never leave us alone and forgotten.\u00a0 He will ask us to trade our strength for His.\u00a0 He will ask us to trust His love and He will daily and continuously envelope us in His love.\u00a0 As we daily walk in His love and protection our faith grows.\u00a0 Faith transforms from a theory or a hope to a sure path of life to walk upon.\u00a0 But no-one who never walks the path knows it is safe and beautiful because they have never been on it.\u00a0 One must trust God, must trust Jesus, to know the reality of the promises of God.<\/p>\n
Here is what I repeat to myself always.\u00a0 It is the truth about God that keeps me from being a bowled over helpless and battered rag doll.\u00a0 It is that God is good and that He loves me.\u00a0 Knowing, not hoping, that God is good and that He loves me will keep me through all of the trials of life.\u00a0 Since He is good He will always treat me good.\u00a0 I will not understand the why of the events of life, but I know that my good God always wants the best for me.\u00a0 And He is able.\u00a0 And I know that the love of God is with me always.\u00a0 This God who can only do good because that is His nature also loves me so much that He sent His Son to pay the price for the ugliness of my sins.\u00a0 His love is so big, so grand, so all-encompassing that it is always present and never exhausted.\u00a0 The sure knowledge that God is good and that He loves me is how I prepare for life.\u00a0 It is the Truth that I know above all other truths.\u00a0\u00a0 The knocks of life still happen, sometimes coming so quick it can take our breath away, but with a sure knowledge of the goodness and love of God we can get it through it.\u00a0 Because of Jesus we can move from this life, with all of its blessings and trials, from this life into heaven, where there is no bad health, no more hate or sorrow or tears, but only love and well-being as we live in the very presence of God.<\/p>\n
Sometimes we are the bull in the ring.\u00a0 But really we can only not be completely run over if Jesus is in the ring with us.\u00a0 With Him we are going to be okay.\u00a0\u00a0 With Him we will stand.\u00a0 With Him we can survive because we know that though we are in the center of the ring we are not the bull, we are the child of the bull, and our Savior and Lord has already won the game.\u00a0 Family, \u201cFinally, be strong in the Lord and in His mighty power.\u201d (Ephesians 6:10<\/b>)\u00a0 We are weak, but He is strong.\u00a0 Walk in the awareness of His goodness and love.\u00a0 Praise God always and continuously, not for His sake, but for ours.\u00a0 He loves us and always wants only the best for us.\u00a0 Praise God!\u00a0 Praise God!\u00a0 Praise God!<\/p>\n
Please pray for my family.\u00a0 Yesterday my brother found his very best friend dead. This is after he found my nephew (my sister\u2019s youngest) dead two months ago.\u00a0 Later in the day, yesterday, our mother had a stroke and she is in the hospital in ICU.\u00a0 Also, I have been out of work and finances are getting very critical.\u00a0 I want to say that in all these things \u201cGod is good and He loves us.\u201d\u00a0 We will walk in His love and goodness and be blessed in the depths of our souls.\u00a0 So we are not abandoned waifs, our God is with us.\u00a0 I merely ask for your prayers that the Lord continue to strengthen and provide for us all, as I know He will.<\/p>\n
Psalm 150:6<\/b>\u00a0–\u00a0Let everything that has breath praise the Lord.\u00a0 Praise the Lord!<\/i><\/p>\n
Micah 7:7<\/b>\u00a0–\u00a0But as for me, I watch\u00a0in hope\u00a0for the\u00a0Lord, I wait for God my Savior; my God will hear\u00a0me.\u00a0<\/i><\/p>\n
Micah 6:8<\/b>\u00a0–\u00a0He has shown You, O man, what\u00a0is\u00a0good; And what does the\u00a0Lord\u00a0require of You but to do justly, to love mercy, And to walk humbly with Your God.<\/i><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Romans 8:37\u00a0\u2013\u00a0No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. Way back in the day when I played organized football they had a game called Bull in the Ring. In this game one player was circled by the rest of the team.\u00a0 Everybody was assigned a number.\u00a0 The player…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1192],"tags":[1841,94,17,10],"class_list":["post-1473","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-devotion","tag-ephesians","tag-micah","tag-psalm","tag-romans"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1473","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1473"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1473\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1474,"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1473\/revisions\/1474"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1473"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1473"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1473"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}