Depend on who?

This man went up from his city yearly to worship and sacrifice to the Lord of hosts in Shiloh. Also the two sons of Eli, Hophni and Phinehas, the priests of the Lord, were there. And whenever the time came for Elkanah to make an offering, he would give portions to Peninnah his wife and to all her sons and daughters. But to Hannah he would give a double portion, for he loved Hannah, although the Lord had closed her womb. 1 Samuel 1.3-5

Can a person be before God for a long period of time and remain sterile, not having a before and after to tell? Of course they can!

Notice that Ana went up every year to present a holocaust, which was double the portion her “adversary” Peninnah offered.

However, she would return angry, crying, and not eating. Do you know why?

First: She did not know how to identify her true adversary, who was not Penina, but her infertility, which was mainly why Elkanah had another wife.

Second: Hannah insisted on using her emotions, and God never changed someone’s life by the size of their pain, because pain has a size and dimension for man but not for Him, Who heals and delivers from any situation with the same ability. What makes a difference is the size of a person’s revolt.

Third: Her holocaust was twice as much as Penina’s, but it was given to her by her husband and not formed by her own faith; this is, she spent a long time hidden behind Elkanah’s faith, when she was the one that was sterile and, therefore, Hannah should have been the one to form her own sacrifice.

Friend, you can share a pain, but you can not share a responsibility, and you are responsible for changing the situation you are in, like what happened with Hannah, who only turned the tables when she decided to be independent and act with her own Faith.

So Hannah arose after they had finished eating and drinking in Shiloh. Now Eli the priest was sitting on the seat by the doorpost of the tabernacle of the Lord. And she was in bitterness of soul, and prayed to the Lord and wept in anguish. Then she made a vow and said, “O Lord of hosts, if You will indeed look on the affliction of Your maidservant and remember me, and not forget Your maidservant, but will give Your maidservant a male child, then I will give him to the Lord all the days of his life, and no razor shall come upon his head.” 

And it happened, as she continued praying before the Lord, that Eli watched her mouth. Now Hannah spoke in her heart; only her lips moved, but her voice was not heard. Therefore Eli thought she was drunk. So Eli said to her, “How long will you be drunk? Put your wine away from you!” But Hannah answered and said, “No, my lord, I am a woman of sorrowful spirit. I have drunk neither wine nor intoxicating drink, but have poured out my soul before the Lord. “Do not consider your maidservant a wicked woman, for out of the abundance of my complaint and grief I have spoken until now.” 

Then Eli answered and said, “Go in peace, and the God of Israel grant your petition which you have asked of Him.” And she said, “Let your maidservant find favor in your sight.” So the woman went her way and ate, and her face was no longer sad. 1 Samuel 1.9-18

The same woman that could not have one child, had six. It only depends on your faith, so stop being sterile!

God bless you greatly!

The assembly
 

1 Samuel 17:47
Then all this assembly shall know that the LORD does not save with sword and spear; for the battle is the LORD’s, and He will give you into our hands.” NKJV
Who can contend with the power of the Lord?

QUOTE OF FAITH
The LORD does not save with sword and spear.

How dependent are you?

 

One of the most common desires of a human being is to be independent. Independent of parents, relationships, children and even favors. It’s really frustrating to have to rely on others to get what you want, but we don’t always have the pleasure of being so independent… that’s when irritation kicks in. The thought of having to wait on others and feel like you are in their hands. This is what Renato and I see the most during our counseling at the Love Therapy. People who depend on others who don’t give them anything, they cheat, abuse and ignore them.
But there are many people who depend on others and don’t know it, out of everyone, I think these are the most unhappy. When you don’t know that you depend on others, you don’t do anything to be independent and it makes you stop in time as well as a vulnerable person.
Some examples of dependent people:

• You never see your mistakes and you need others to call your attention.
• You can’t stay away from social networks and you always need to know what’s happening there.
• You depend on other people’s attention to feel good.
• You check who liked and who didn’t like your posts.
• You don’t like to be alone and always find an excuse to have someone with you, whether it is to go somewhere or to stay at home.
• You need to be in a relationship to feel happy.
• You need compliments to feel good about yourself.
• You don’t like to take initiatives and are always waiting for someone to take them for you.
• You are always asking for prayer and advice. Between you and God, there is always someone to intercede for you.
• You need someone to point which direction to take. You are not firm on your own.
• You don’t seek to learn new things and depend on others to teach you only when it really becomes a necessity.
• You don’t read and don’t keep yourself aware of things and so you depend on others who do it for you.
• You are addicted, whether it is a drug, food, social networks, television, pornography…
• You depend on friends to exercise or to do a diet.
• You depend on feeling motivated to do do everything. If things are not in order, you don’t do anything.
• You depend on the weather outside to feel good. If it is raining, you feel grumpy.
• You depend on the mood of others to be in a good mood.
• You only treat well those who treat you well.
• You depend on being in church to be in spirit.
• You rely on a pet.

As long as you depend on others, you will never feel good about yourself and will always be with that feeling that you are not the person you should be.
In order to stop being dependent on others, you need to learn to depend on God, only He can give us the ability to do so.

 A couple’s false sense of well-being – pay attention to these 8 signs

  

The old saying, “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it,” only applies until something breaks. No sports coach with the minimum level of competence will believe this quote. They know that waiting until their team starts losing to start making changes is a recipe for disaster.

The truth is that this saying is for the lazy. When a person doesn’t want to go to a lot of trouble to care of something, they use this popular quote to justify their apathy.
I’ve seen this happen to many couples. They’re doing well (or so it seems), till one day a bomb goes off. However, a closer look to what really happened reveals that the problem already existed way before the blast. The small signs were there, such as:

1. The couple’s tedious routine.
2. A lack of meaningful conversation.
3. Minor irritations that became constant ones.
4. Fights that never dealt with the root cause.
5. Intimacy was slower than a limping snail (or pleasant only for the man).
6. They couldn’t agree on important issues.
7. A lot of tension between the couple.
8. Schedules that pushed them farther away from each other.

Despite all these signs, the couple keeps thinking that “everything’s fine.” Typical of every couple, isn’t it? But then again, no. These signs don’t indicate a normal marriage, let alone a healthy one.
The problem with such couples is what I call “a false sense of well-being”. They think they’re fine. She thinks that it’s just the way he is. (To be honest, men are usually the ones incurring in this mistake. Men are known for waiting till the last minutes of extra time to deal with their marital problems, and only towards the very end, when all is practically lost, they try to win the game.)
Pay attention to this point:

For a team to keep winning, it is necessary to pay close attention to its performance and make the preventive adjustments every time it’s needed.

 Our great responsibility

 

For if the trumpet makes an uncertain sound, who will prepare for the battle?
I Corinthians 14.8
The trumpet is an instrument of war placed in the hands of the Watchman so that he can warn people about the danger of the sword.
But it’s not enough to be a Watchman and have a trumpet, you must blow it in a way that can be understood, preparing the people for battle. In our case, the battle is for our Salvation.
How many souls are in hell, and how many are still going to go (we are talking about millions of souls), just because they are not prepared, they did not understand the sound of the trumpet?
It is true that many did not want to surrender to the Lord Jesus, but we cannot forget those that were lost because of the Watchman’s negligence.
The devil knows the importance of the Watchman and knows that he is appointed by God Himself. But, once distracted, the sound of his trumpet will not be understood.
This is why the devil tries to distract him with other thoughts to divert his focus, which should only be on saving souls.
An uncertain sound is when:
Emotional faith takes the place of intelligent faith;
The focus is on the gold and not the Altar that sanctifies the gold;
Religious traditions replace the Commandments.
When the right sound is given, those who hear it are left with no doubts.
And so the people are able to get prepared for battle.
The trumpet is already in our hands, but we cannot be distracted, because this would cost lives.

Why did we lose the Power of Asking?

 

 

 

 

 

We were all born with the power of asking. Only seconds after we were born, we already started screaming our lungs out to complain about that drastic drop in temperature, from our mother’s womb to that cold hospital room… And if we took too long to cry, the doctor slapped us to make sure we cried, because that meant everything was okay with us.

But that is about the only time in life somebody actually encourages us to cry. After that, it’s pretty much a conspiracy to try and keep us quiet.

Why is that baby crying? Where’s that pacifier, for crying out loud? (No pun intended…)

It only gets worse from there. And it’s not just our parents — it’s school, it’s religion, (especially religion), it’s social norms… Think about it. Have you any idea how many times we hear the word “no” by the time we are 10 years old? It’s no, you can’t, it’s not allowed, this is not for you, not now, don’t do this, be quiet (or the less polite “shut up!)…

Now, compare how often we’re told all those variations of “no” to how often we’re told yes. The truth is we are told “no” so many more times than “yes” that we begin to expect a “no”. And what happens when we begin to expect a “no”? Exactly. We stop asking!

That’s why by the time we are in our teens or early adult years, we’ve all but lost the power of asking.

So, is there any hope? Is there anything we can do to resurrect the power of asking within us? The good news is there is, and we’ll explore that in our upcoming posts, but before I finish today I’d like you to know this:

Asking is the beginning of receiving.

Successful people are often just better askers. They ask more of life, and so they get more.

If you don’t go after what you want, you’ll never have it. If you don’t ask, the answer is always no. If you don’t step forward, you’ll always be in the same place.

NO ONE WAS BORN PROUD




The proud man can learn humility, but he will be proud of it. — Mignon McLaughlin 
It’s very hard to help a proud person. His pride won’t let him recognize he needs help, let alone receive it. Is there any hope for such person? Sometimes I wonder. 
On the other hand, I don’t think proud people became proud by choice. I can’t imagine they decided one day, “You know what, I’m going to be proud from now on.” So, pride got into them, without them even realizing it. How?
I don’t have the answer. But I think one answer is that they fell in love with themselves. Somehow, they began to admire their qualities way above other people’s, to the point of despising everyone else.
Don’t get me wrong: everyone needs a good dose of self-love. That’s good and it’s healthy. But proud people take that too far.
I believe it’s not by chance that God requires people to love Him above self:
If anyone comes to Me and does not hate his father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes, and his own life also, he cannot be My disciple. Luke 14.26
The only safety we have against pride is to love God above everything, everyone, and above self.
Therefore, it’s impossible for a person to know God and be proud.

Bishop Renato Cardoso