³ Surely He shall deliver you from the snare of the ^[a]fowler
And from the perilous pestilence.
⁴ He shall cover you with His feathers,
And under His wings you shall take refuge;
His truth shall be your shield and ^[b]buckler.
⁵ You shall not be afraid of the terror by night,
Nor of the arrow that flies by day,
⁶ Nor of the pestilence that walks in darkness,
Nor of the destruction that lays waste at noonday.

⁷ A thousand may fall at your side,
And ten thousand at your right hand;
But it shall not come near you.
⁸ Only with your eyes shall you look,
And see the reward of the wicked.

⁹ Because you have made the Lord, who is my refuge,
Even the Most High, your dwelling place,
¹⁰ No evil shall befall you,
Nor shall any plague come near your dwelling;
¹¹ For He shall give His angels charge over you,
To keep you in all your ways.
¹² In their hands they shall ^[c]bear you up,
Lest you ^[d]dash your foot against a stone.
¹³ You shall tread upon the lion and the cobra,
The young lion and the serpent you shall trample underfoot.

¹⁴ “Because he has set his love upon Me, therefore I will deliver him;
I will ^[e]set him on high, because he has known My name.
¹⁵ He shall call upon Me, and I will answer him;
I will be with him in trouble;
I will deliver him and honor him.
¹⁶ With ^[f]long life I will satisfy him,
And show him My salvation.”

I cannot count the times in my life where I was in the lowest of the lows, in the ashes of defeat, some of the time it was because of my own selfishness and pride, and sometimes it was just because God allowed it in order to teach me and prepare me for the future places He would call me to be. 

What ever the circumstance or what ever the reason I just want to say there is not much in my life that I have not faced or needed help to overcome.  I have been in a place of zero self esteem, I have been abused, I have been a single mom, I have made decisions that took me away from God's plan for my life,

I have lived with hurt and rejection, I have struggled to overcome fear, I have questioned God many times as to why I have had to go through certain things in my life that I could not get answers for and did not understand why ????

Anything sound familiar yet?

I could go on and on, but what I sense the Holy Spirit is leading me to do is open your spiritual awareness that God knows exactly where you are and what you yourself are personally facing.

I can remember in some of the lowest points in my life, all I could do is cry out to my Father, I was facing situations in life that I knew I could not overcome or even make it thru on my own, but I knew He was my only hope and even though that is a hard place to be, it is also the times I can say for one hundered percent certainty that I felt Him closer than ever before and there was never a time He ever let me down.

I failed the Lord many times, but it was in those times that I experienced His greatest Grace.  Not because I deserved it, but because through His grace I learned He truly did love me totally and completely unconditional and through His loving me unconditional it taught me the way He wanted me to love others.

It was also during these times that I learned the importance of obedience and aligning my life with His Word. 

We cannot walk in rebellous defiance of God's divine instructions ( The Word ) and expect His blessings upon our life. We know that His promise of Blessings is activated by our obedience to His Word and the surrender of our way for His way.

It seems our greatest battle to overcome on this journey is ourself.

Are you lying face down in the ashes of defeat today?

I have come to encourage you to RISE UP!!!

Just because you feel defeated does not mean that is where you have to stay....

As long as we live in this world, there will be ups and downs in our life, but what will take us out of the ashes and put us back on the mountain top is putting our faith and trust in Jesus.

Taking the steps to align our life and decisions according to His word.  Seeking His plan for our life instead of our own.

Sometimes SURRENDERING IT ALL TO GOD is the hardest thing for us to do because we want to control every aspect of our life when in reality we should be letting go and surrendering it all TO HIM.

 Psalms 68:35

O God, You are more awesome than Your holy places. The God of Israel is He who gives strength and power to His people. Blessed be God!

 Blessed be the LORD my Rock, Who trains my hands for war, And my fingers for battle—

We are at war with an enemy who is desiring to destroy us body and soul, not only does the devil want you to fail in life but he wants to destroy your faith in God.   When we are battling all of the ups and downs in our life there are three things we must hold on to:

FAITH

HOPE

LOVE

Faith requires an action, Your Faith will require you to move, to get up from where you are and know that God will be faithful to move as you move.

Hope because it takes hope in your heart to make you get up from where you are and trust and know that God has not designed the battle for you to be defeated, but to teach you how to overcome and win.

Love because in order for you to overcome you have to love God, and you have to love yourself and you have to love others.

We all need to have the understanding that God is molding us and teaching us for His plan for our lives, and sometimes our plan and God's plan are not in alignment, mostly because we are selfish and sometimes rebellous, either wanting our own way or not wanting to surrender to God's.

But our God is so awesome!!! He knows how to gracefully break us, and gently prod our hearts to surrender to His will and His plan.

He is a TRUE FATHER!!! He loves His children and He knows when we need to be loved and re-assured and He also knows when we need to be grounded and sat in the corner, and He also knows when we need a good slap on the hand or just a hug of encouragement.

HE IS A GOOD, GOOD FATHER!!!  HE IS FOR US AND NOT AGAINST US!!! HE WANTS US TO SUCCEED AND NOT FAIL!!! 

 One thing for sure, our Father knows how to gently guide us out of the ashes of defeat and step by step guide us to our mountain of victory!!!



Psalm 41:2