Whatsoever Things Are True

“And now, dear brothers and sisters, one final thing. Fix your thoughts on

WHATEVER THINGS ARE IS TRUE
(focus on what is true about ourselves & other people & our circumstances, & about God)
See Philippians 4: 8

What is HONORABLE,
(Look For What is honorable in ourselves & other people & our circumstances & in God)
*See Philippians 4: 8

Fix your thoughts on what is RIGHT,
(Seek for what is right about ourselves & other people & our circumstances & in God)
*See Philippians 4: 8

Fix Your Thoughts on What is PURE,
(in ourselves & other people & our circumstances & in God)
See Philippians 4: 8

Seek For things that are LOVELY, (in ourselves & other people & our circumstances & in God)
See Philippians 4: 8

Think about things that are ADMIRABLE.
(in ourselves & other people & our circumstances & in God)
See Philippians 4: 8

Seek For whatever is EXCELLENT
(in ourselves & other people & our circumstances & in God)
*See Philippians 4: 8

Focus on those things that are WORTHY OF PRAISE ”
(in ourselves & other people & our circumstances & in God) ~ Philippians 4:8 NLT
*See Philippians 4: 8

God is looking for the good in His redeemed children, not for faults, not for things to condemn.

Christ came not to condemn, but to save us. (*See John 3:17)

What is true about God?

God is love
1 John 4:8

“Your unfailing love, O Lord, is as vast as the heavens; Your faithfulness reaches beyond the clouds; Your righteousness is like the mighty mountains, Your justice like the ocean depths.You care for people and animals alike, O Lord.”
Psalms 36:5-6 NLT

“The Lord forgives all my sins, and heals all my diseases, He redeems me from death, and crowns me with love and tender mercies. He fills my life with good things. My youth is renewed like the eagle’s!
Psalm 103:3-5 NLT

The Lord gives righteousness and justice to all who are treated unfairly. The Lord is compassionate and merciful, slow to get angry and filled with unfailing love.
Psalm 103:6,8 NLT

God will not constantly accuse us, nor remain angry forever. He does not punish us for all our sins. He does not deal harshly with us as we deserve.
Psalm 103:9-10 NLT

For God’s unfailing love toward those who fear Him is as great as the height of the heavens above the earth. He has removed our sins as far from us as the east is from the west.
Psalm 103:11-12

The Lord is like a father to His children, tender and compassionate to those who fear Him. For He knows how weak we are; He remembers we are only dust.”
Psalms 103:13-14 NLT

For the needy shall not alway be forgotten, The expectation of the poor shall not perish for ever.”
Psalm 9:18 KJV

What is true about God’s redeemed children?

For one thing, we are a new creature in Christ, old things are passed away. God has done a new thing in us, we are reborn in Christ and He has given to us His own righteousness.

“When anyone belongs to Christ, they become a new person. Their old way of life has gone. Their new life has begun! 2 Corinthians 5:17

Christ never did any wrong thing, but God punished Him as if He had. He died as punishment for our sins. As a result, we become right with God when we belong to Christ. We become right, because He is right.” 2Corinthians 5:21 Easy English Bible

“Nobody can say that God’s people are guilty. God himself has accepted us as right with him. So nobody can say that God should still punish us. Nobody can say that, because Christ Jesus himself died on our behalf.

And God raised Christ up so that He became alive again after His death. Now Christ is sitting at God’s right side in heaven. He himself is praying to God on our behalf.

Christ will always continue to love us.Nothing can stop that! We may have troubles.

Things may make us sad or afraid.People may do bad things to us.

We may have no food or no clothes. There may be great danger.

People may even try to kill us.

But none of these things can stop Christ from loving us.

As it says in the Bible: ‘Because we are your people, God, people try to kill us all the time. They think that we are like sheep, and we are ready to be killed.’

Because God loves us, none of these troubles can ever beat us.

He makes us win against them. I am sure of this.

Nothing can stop God from loving us.

Death cannot do that. Life cannot do that.

Angels cannot do that, nor can demons do that.

Nothing that happens to us now, or that will happen in a future time can do that.

No powerful spirits can do that.

Nothing that is high above the world can do that,

nor anything that is deep down below the ground.

Nothing else in the whole universe can stop God from loving us.

Because of our Lord Christ Jesus, we know how much God loves us.”

Romans 8:33-39 Easy English Bible

Heavenly Father,

Teach us to learn about and then to focus on whatsoever things are true about You, and ourselves, those things in us that are positive, and virtuous, pure and lovely, worthy of praise and of good report; help us not to look for faults or things to condemn ourselves for and feel guilty over; for You forgive our sins and give us the righteousness of Thy Son Jesus Christ, You love us very much, and look for the good in us. Thank You for being so kind to us to save us from our sins through Thy Son Jesus Christ, in Jesus name, amen.

For God So Loved The World Prayersong

Death Could Not Hold Him

Featured ~ Suzanne Davis Harden

Death Could Not Hold Him

On the cross Christ bore the sins
Of all humanity
Not all the pain and sin and shame
For all eternity
Not even all the hosts of hell
Nor death claimed victory…

Over Christ, God’s only Son
Who shed His spotless blood
To redeem our sinful souls
And make us each His child…

Born anew in righteousness,
Not ours but Christ’s alone,
A righteousness we could not earn
But His redemption clothed.

Christ purchased righteousness for us
With His spotless blood;
We receive His gift of grace,
By faith we know and trust

That God is ever faithful,
That He can never lie
He was faithful to His Son
To raise Him back to life
After Jesus bore our sins
And suffered hell three days
His Father kept His Holy Word
And rose Him from the grave…

Now He lives to die no more
So all can now be saved
Who come to Christ for salvation
When to the Lord they pray
Asking Christ into their heart
His children now are they
To ever walk with Him by faith
To love Jesus with all their heart
And ever sing His praise.
In Jesus’ holy name,
Amen.

(Prayer Poem) All Glory To God, Copyright
© 2020, Suzanne Davis Harden, All Rights
Reserved.)

SCRIPTURES FOR MEDITATION

“In hope of eternal life, which God, that
cannot lie, promised before the world
began;” Titus 1:2 KJV

“For by grace are ye saved through
faith; and that not of yourselves: it is
the gift of God: Not of works, lest any
man should boast.”
Ephesians 2:8-9 KJV

“For He hath made Him to be sin for
us, who knew no sin; that we might be
made the righteousness of God in
Him.” 2 Corinthians 5:21 KJV

“Therefore my heart is glad, and my
glory rejoiceth: my flesh also shall rest
in hope.

For Thou wilt not leave my
soul in hell; neither wilt Thou suffer
Thine Holy One to see corruption.” ~
Psalms 16:9-10 KJV

“For we walk by faith and not by
sight…” 2 Corinthians 5:7

“For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.
For God sent not His Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through Him might be saved.”
John 3:16-17 KJV

Prayer

Dear Heavenly Father, thank You for loving the world so much that You sent Thy only Son Jesus Christ to die for our sins, that we might not perish, but have everlasting life with Thee. Jesus Christ is our indescribable Gift of eternal life from Thee. We thank You for the cross and the resurrection. We love You. In Jesus’ name, Amen.

“Death Could Not Hold Him” (Prayer Poem~All glory to God~Copyright © 2020 by Suzanne Davis Harden, All rights reserved. Original Scripture Painting, All Glory to God, Copyright © 2020 by Suzanne Davis Harden, All rights reserved. Scripture Quotes taken from the King James Bible (Public Domain)

Prayer For Miss Phee

Featured ~ Suzanne Davis Harden

Dear Friends,

These past few days have been very challenging for my husband and me. Our little Yorkie, Miss Phee, has been suffering from an illness that is difficult to treat.

I ask you to join me in praying for her healing.
I’m truly devastated over her illness.

She is eleven, so she’s not a young dog, but she’s a Yorkie and has always been full of life and energy up until this year.
However, she has suffered from a liver shunt since she was three years old. Right now she is dealing with related issues, but not the liver shunt directly.

She hurt her back several months ago by jumping too much off of the furniture.
I found that I could not prevent my little dog from hurdling herself off of things when she was excited~alas! Now she has pain associated with all that leaping about.

Alas—everything is painful for Miss Phee right now. And she needs much prayer.
I remember my late dad saying as he got into his eighties that growing older was not for sissies. He even had a small pillow with that saying embroidered on it.
Miss Phee must be at least eighty or ninety in dog years by now.
I guess if she could talk she would agree with my dad’s bit of senior wisdom.

I am so grateful to the Lord that I have had my little Phee for eleven years, for liver shunt dogs aren’t usually as healthy as my little Miss Phee has been up until a few months ago.

Her vet said before she hurt her back that she was the poster dog for liver shunt dogs! Then back in the fall it all went downhill.

From the get-go Miss Phee was a fierce fighter. For when she was just a wee puppy, the vet had to redo her sutures about two months after she was spayed because she was allergic to the sutures and they caused her to have a bad reaction. She became very ill and had to go through that surgery twice.

I wept and prayed before the Lord for her healing for she had to be hospitalized for a week. It seemed I’d only had her for three months though it truly had been since August and now she was going to be taken from me. How could that be possible!
But at the time the Lord promised she would be restored to me. He even gave me a promise that not only would she be healed, but she would be a healthy and strong little dog and that I would have her with me to enjoy for many years.
He even gave me a sketch of her to go with my prayer.

Miss Phee had come to me through a dream that summer ~and a sketch.
Now God was giving me another promise.
Another sketch.
He would not take her away.
I stopped crying.

The previous spring and summer were among the worst of my life health wise. I had suffered the worst migraines ever up until that point.

My daughter was planning an early September wedding and I wanted very much to help her with her big day. I felt bad that I was bed ridden with allergies and severe migraines and was unable to be a part of the planning.
The doctors could do nothing for me.
I was losing hope that I would even be able to attend her wedding as mother of the bride. I was very depressed.

I had loved to walk before I got sick and had a particular route in my neighborhood that I took every day. As I walked I memorized the psalms and prayed for family and all kinds of needs as the Lord led me.

When I reached the summit of one particularly challenging hill, there was a panorama of the most beautiful mountains off in the distance. And I was always on a particular bible verse at that time.

“As the mountains are round about Jerusalem,
so the Lord is round about His people from henceforth even for ever.” Psalms 125:2 KJV

The Lord was around me. I knew He was with me just as those mountains surrounded me.

One night I could not sleep, the pain in my head and neck were so severe. The Lord then encouraged me to say in my mind the Psalms I had memorized when I had been able to take my walks. He encouraged me to pray and meditate on His Word despite my pain.

He said to walk with Him in the Spirit, to walk our route in my heart while saying the psalms I had memorized.

The Lord is my light and my salvation. Whom shall I fear, the Lord is the strength of my life, of whom shall I be afraid? Psalms 27:1

As I began to repeat the Psalms over and over I drifted off to sleep. I saw my walking route. It was a beautiful summer day, with a bright blue sky and lovely white clouds drifting above me. Having walked down our big hill, I now found myself on the flat road saying Psalm 27. The Lord was with me in my heart.

Suddenly there was a little dog with me! I didn’t know what kind of dog this was. It just was a tiny little dog. We walked down the flat road through the neighborhood and on to the next one. Soon we came to the big hill.

I had to carry the tiny puppy in my arms because she could not walk up the big hill.

“As the mountains are round about Jerusalem so the Lord is round about His people from henceforth even to forever.” Psalm 125:2

We got back home and sat in the swing out back and looked up at the blue sky filled with clouds and prayed. In my dream, I saw Mark come home from work. He came up to the swing and looked at the little dog and lovingly smiled at her.

Just two weeks before I had prayed for a little dog and then asked Mark and he had said, “I don’t want to have an indoor dog, or any little dog in our house! I really can’t stand little dogs!”
I had been praying and having my quiet time downstairs and started crying. “Lord I wish I had a little dog. But Mark doesn’t want one.
The Lord spoke to my heart.
I will change Mark’s heart.
Did I hear God right? I didn’t ask Mark again.

In my dream I thought about what God had promised me about changing Mark’s heart, when he came up to me and the little dog in the swing. God had promised to change his heart. Now Mark joined us and picked up the little dog and smiled. He lovingly petted the puppy’s ears who licked his fingers.
In my dream we all three sat in the swing in the backyard under the trees in the beautiful golden afternoon sunlight as the bright clouds drifted across the sky above us.

I then woke up and looked at Mark sleeping beside me in wonder.

“HONEY! I DREAMED ABOUT A LITTLE DOG!

Mark groggily woke up and asked me about my dream. I told him all about it. He sighed.

The next day he asked me to draw the little dog. I drew what the dog looked like in my dream. We took the sketch to the library and started searching through every dog book we could find. We finally found the breed that matched the dog in the sketch. It looked like a Yorkie puppy!

That morning I had another dream. In it the Lord Jesus was giving me that little Yorkie puppy from my earlier dream. He said this was my angel dog. I was responsible to take care of her now.
And so was Mark.
Then He released her to me.
Down, down, down from His arms into my space she came! Then I awoke filled with joy at this beautiful new gift!

Later that day Mark called around and found a breeder in a town a couple of hours away. We went to see her and she had two female puppies. The smallest little one seemed to choose me! The little dog clung to me as I sang to comfort her on our way home that afternoon.

My neurologist found a medication that stopped my migraines just in time for my daughter’s wedding a couple weeks later. I was able to attend and we took little Phee. I named her Phoenix and Mark promptly renamed her Phee.

The Lord truly did change Mark’s heart because he has loved little Phee from the start. And she loves him. He has even bought clothes for her. That would never have happened had God not done a miracle in his heart.

She was God’s gift not only to me but to Mark as well.
Then when I almost lost Miss Phee after she got spayed, God restored her to me with a promise and another sketch.

Now she is sick again.

You may wonder how if God promised she would be a healthy and strong little dog, did He then let her get the liver shunt?
Why did she have health issues then?
Because I have learned that God does not define good health the way humans do.

“For my thoughts are not your thoughts,
neither are your ways my ways,” saith the Lord.
“For as the heavens are higher than the earth,
so are my ways higher than your ways,
and my thoughts than your thoughts.”
Isaiah 55:8-9 KJV

Miss Phee has always been healthy and strong in her own way, despite her liver shunt. Her doctor even said she was the poster dog for liver shunt dogs.
This was true as long as she stayed within her boundaries and was given her meds. If she would eat the right things, she was healthy and strong and filled with energy and life.

“… they cry unto the Lord in their trouble,
and He saveth them out of their distresses.
He sent His word, and healed them,
and delivered them from their destructions.
Oh that men would praise the Lord for His goodness,
and for His wonderful works to the children of men!”
Psalms 107:19-21 KJV

I ask you to join me in praying for my little Phee. If it is God’s will, He will heal her once again as He has before.

Thank you so much. God bless you,

In Christ’s Love,

Suzanne

Lord, Please Heal Miss Phee

Lord, I ask You hear my prayer
Please heal Miss Phee I pray
Oh Jesus, Lord, have mercy
On her where she lay.

Have mercy on her, Jesus,
Heal my little dog,
Help her bark with joy again
Her tail to wag with love.

Lord Jesus, help her eat
And food not be her foe
Help her body process food
The way it’s supposed to go.

Lord Jesus, send Thy word,
And fill her heart with life
Let her legs be strong again
And fill her eyes with light.

Wrap her in Thy arms,
Lord, she is so cold!
Help her not to be in pain,
For Jesus, she is old…

Heal her, Jesus, give her back
Her little life, I ask
Hold her Jesus, hold her now,
Heal her with Thy hands.

Lord Jesus, see her suffering!
She’s suffered long with this!
Heal her now, help her get well,
Lord Jesus, let her live!

Oh Lord, she is so precious,
Hear my cry, I pray!
Make her well and let her live
In Jesus’ holy name,
Amen and amen.

(Prayer Poem for Miss Phee) All Glory To God, Copyright © 2020, SD Harden, All Rights Reserved./Prayer For Miss Phee, All Glory to God, Copyright © 2020 by Suzanne Davis Harden, All rights reserved. Photos, All Glory to God, Copyright © 2020, by Suzanne Davis Harden, All rights reserved.

The God of All Grace Settle You

August 30, 2019 ~ Suzanne Davis Harden

“But the God of all grace, who hath called us unto his eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after that ye have suffered a while, make you perfect, stablish, strengthen, settle you.” 1 Peter 5:10 KJV

I had intended this to be a short message introducing my new encouraging scripture music video about suffering that the Lord inspired me to make last week. He helped me make it to encourage myself as well as others who are suffering. The Bible assures me that I’m not the only one who endures challenges. How often we see this affirmed in our society every day.
1 Peter 5 helps me to keep it all in perspective. When I’m at my worse, I know that there are always many others out there somewhere who are worse off than I am.
God’s word exhorts us to pray for just that one who is in a deeper pit than ours when we imagine we are in the lowest depths of hell and that everyone else has it better than we do. It’s in our most painful moments that we are just certain that the Lord has left us and gone off to party with everyone else, now that He’s made our life a dung pile…tears for fears and pity poor me…:(
These are just the moments we need to turn to God’s Word because it’s in His Word that we find Him encouraging us.
Consider the verse I mentioned from 1 Peter 5:

“Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God,
that he may exalt you in due time:
Casting all your care upon him; for he cares for you.” 1 Peter 5: 6-7 KJV

These verses mean that if we pray when we feel burdened or disappointed or depressed or worried or stressed that we can know God hears us; that He cares about us and our needs. God loves us. He wants us to bring our burdens to Him, to pour our troubles out on His Altar. He is real and He is listening even though we can’t see Him. We grow close to Him in our suffering when we cry out to HIM.

“Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour:
Whom resist stedfast in the faith, knowing that the same afflictions are accomplished in your brethren that are in the world.” 1 Peter 5:8-9 KJV

These verses are referring to our unseen enemy who is ever seeking to undermine us spiritually and pull us away from God through any means he can. And we must resist the enemy at all costs because what is more important than our relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ who suffered and died on the cross to give us peace with God? This peace is what the enemy wants to destroy. Our peace with God and our fellowship with each other.
He sows hatred, strife, and dissension. He will use any means he can.
Resist him steadfast in the faith knowing that the same afflictions are being experienced by everyone else in the world.

In other words we are not alone in our trials.
Other people are being gossiped about, abused, slandered, persecuted, mocked, lied about, dishonored, treated shamefully…we are not singled out to be treated like cow pies.
So what does that mean?
We are not really cow pies~no!
We are God’s precious children, but the Apostle John wrote it’s just that the world has not got the eyes to see how special we really are.

“Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God: therefore the world knoweth us not, because it knew Him not.
2 Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when He shall appear, we shall be like Him; for we shall see Him as he is.” 1 John 3:1-2 KJV

But one day the sons and daughters of God will be revealed and those who have treated God’s children so shamefully will be themselves covered with shame.
Amen! God’s word assures us that we are His jewels!

Then they that feared the Lord spake often one to another: and the Lord hearkened, and heard it, and a book of remembrance was written before Him
for them that feared the Lord, and that thought upon His name.
And they shall be Mine, saith the Lord of hosts, in that day when I make up My jewels; and I will spare them, as a man spares his own son that serves him.” ~ Malachi 3:16-17 KJV

Don’t take my word for it~read God’s word and encourage yourself.
This is why the Lord inspires me to make scripture videos. His word is encouraging!

But the God of all grace, who hath called us unto his eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after that ye have suffered a while, make you perfect, stablish, strengthen, settle you.” 1 Peter 5:10 KJV

God puts a boundary on all suffering that we endure. He will not give us more than we can handle. He knows what we can tolerate. All suffering is meant to refine our faith. (See 1 Peter 1, James 1)

11 To Him be glory and dominion for ever and ever. Amen. “ 1 Peter 5:11 KJV

The word dominion means sovereignty or control. This verse means that God is in control over all things. Even though the enemy takes aim at us and tries to harm us, the enemy is on God’s leash and can only go but so far. He, like our suffering, has boundaries placed on him.
We serve a loving, merciful God. His love and mercy towards us reaches higher than the sky it says in Psalm 103.
Read and meditate on the verses below from Psalm 103 about God and His love for us. And then watch and listen to the scripture video He gave me to share with you. May our Heavenly Father encourage your heart with the scriptures and comfort you with His peace and love. In Jesus’ name, amen.

Psalm 103:8-19 *ERV
8 The Lord is kind and merciful.
    He is patient and full of love.

9 He does not always criticize.
    He does not stay angry with us forever.

10 We sinned against Him,
    but He didn’t give us the punishment we deserved.

11 His love for His followers is
    as high above us as heaven is above the earth.

12 And He has taken our sins
    as far away from us as the east is from the west.

13 The Lord is as kind to His followers
    as a father is to his children.

14 He knows all about us.
    He knows we are made from dust.

15 He knows our lives are short, that they are like grass.
    He knows we are like a little wildflower that grows so quickly,

16 But when the hot wind blows, it dies.
    Soon, you cannot even see where the flower was.

17 But the Lord has always loved His followers,
    and He will continue to love them forever and ever!
    He will be good to all their descendants,
18 to those who are faithful to His agreement
and who remember to obey His commands.

19 The Lord set His throne up in heaven,
    and He rules over everything.” Psalm 103:8-19 *ERV

_____________________________________________

“The God of All Grace Settle You,” All Glory to God, © Copyright 2019 by SD Harden, All rights reserved. Scripture Video, “Weeping May Endure,” All Glory to God, Copyright © 2019 by SD Harden, All rights reserved.
Scripture Verses, King James Version Bible (Public Domain)
Easy to Read Version Bible, Copyright © 2006 by Bible League International,
Scripture Paintings/Art All Glory To God, Copyright © 2019 by SD Harden
All rights reserved.