From the Heart by B.Demaere

There are many scriptures in the Bible that encourage us to praise the Lord. It is easy to praise God when we have a song in our heart, and everything is going great. It is a different story when it is not so good. It is like taking off the ground assuming you are a bird lifting a heavy weight. Can anyone relate?   It feels like we are constantly oppressed by the power of darkness. Could it be that what Israel is experiencing right now be the reason for this oppression?   Nevertheless, we must praise the Lord through this oppression. Things are happening in the heavenlies and in this world that we do not understand. Only God and the enemy understand, and we must persevere through this.   Anyway, I am calling on all the praisers out there to get singing (it is your privilege to be chosen as the ones who go first). It is going to be good. Victory is ours. It is not time to be weary and discouraged, it is time to confront a problem head-on and fight with praise ...

It all started when I read: “ For God, who said, Let light shine out of darkness,” has shone in our hearts to give the light of knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ .” ( 2 Corinthians 4:6)   I knew right there and then that God’s light was about to shine in my heart, and it did.   I was inspired by someone’s post about Jeremiah 29:11 “For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope.”   As the post went on with expectation, we might have on another. I realized I had expected my plans to take place in someone else’s and not God’s. I knew I had to do my part of releasing my grip on that person and allow God to work in theirs instead.   The light of God had shone in my heart. The revealing light of his presence. There is freedom in this and where the Spirit of the Lord is there is freedom. We must forgive and release people constantly because we not only bound them but ours...

Is it not wonderful to know that we Christians have a purpose for everything we go through? Our hope is not aimless nor is the purpose of our suffering. Although you or I might not go through persecutions, we go through trials. We are sometimes afflicted in some ways and our lives might still demand endurance and patience.   We might be emotionally targeted by the enemy. A mental assault could affect our life in an extremely negative way. Although these might be results, we could expect in normal circumstances.   Because we are Christians, we are given the mind of Christ, and we can approach our lives with the focus of Christ’s death.   Like it says it in this verse in 2 Corinthians 4:10 “ always carrying in the body the death of Jesus , so that the life of Jesus may also be manifested in our bodies.”    Therefore, now more than ever your life as a Christian has meaning. All those trials and afflictions are aimed by the enemy to make you fall but b...