Marilyn Hickey

Commit your works to the Lord,
And your thoughts will be established. –(Proverbs 16:3 NKJV)

Do you every have problems with your thought life? The devil can put all kinds of junk and trash into our minds. I hate that. Sometimes I think it happens because we have seen a movie that wasn’t good or because we have seen something questionable on television. Somehow the enemy has done a number on us.

But I have found a way to establish my thoughts: I need to commit all of my works until the Lord. Many times, I have awakened in the night and started to worry. Then I’d catch myself and say, “Lord, I commit my works unto You.” Soon my thoughts come back in line, and I can go back to sleep.

The devil would like to harass us through our thought life. But if we will commit our works unto the Lord, our thought life will come in line. I know that you want your works and thoughts established in Him.

Dear Heavenly Father,

In the name of Jesus, we commit our works into your Hand. We thank You that our thoughts are established and our minds are renewed. We have the mind of Christ. Jesus was made unto us wisdom for this day, and we praise and glorify You for it.

Amen

Look, today I am giving you the choice between a blessing and a curse! You will be blessed if you obey the commands of the Lord your God that I am giving you today. But you will be cursed if you reject the commands of the Lord your God and turn away from him and worship gods you have not known before (Deuteronomy 11:26-28 NLT).

You can choose to spend time with Jesus and how closely you will listen to and obey what he tells you. You can choose what you will allow into your mind and heart. You can choose what you believe. You have free will to make countless choices and decisions every day.

Because of this amazing gift—the God-given freedom to choose—we have the privilege to choose lives of blessing for ourselves and our families. Even if you don’t have the benefits of growing up in a godly family, even if you come from a long line of hard-core sinners, you can choose a life that will bring blessing upon you, your children, and your grandchildren.

Then He came to the disciples and found them sleeping, and said to Peter, “What? Could you not watch with Me one hour?” Matthew 26:40 NKJV

Jesus had called his disciples to pray with Him for one hour. Why is one hour of such extreme importance? Why did He call them for exactly one hour? Because if they had prayed for one hour, they would have been kept from temptation. Jesus later told Peter that he would not have denied Christ if he had spent that time in prayer.

An early prayer a day keeps the devil away. Early in the morning I like to name my day—that is, I name it what I believe God wants it to be. Perhaps He wants it to be a day of victory, maybe He wants it to be a day of wisdom, or a day of revelation. I believe that my day will be in line with what I name it.

Jesus has again given us authority in His name to name things. We can name our day, and our day will get in line with what we name it. Take that early hour of prayer. It can keep your whole day in victory.

Dear Heavenly Father,

Help us daily to have an early time in prayer to set our day off right and give us a day of victory.

In Jesus’s name,

Amen

…But your sorrow will be turned into joy. (John 16:20b NKJV)

God has always delighted in turning curses into blessings. Balaam tried to curse God’s people; but every time he went up on the mountain to curse them, he ended up blessing them. Finally, he said, “I can’t curse what God has blessed.”

Are you in a time of sorrow or crisis? Remember: the bigger this crisis, the bigger the opportunity that God has for transforming crisis into a miracle.

I remember one time with I felt very defeated. We had a prayed for a young woman with leukemia, but she had died. I felt like I never again wanted to do a healing prayer. But the Lord spoke to me about the three Hebrews who would not bow down to the image of Nebuchadnezzar. God told me, “That’s Faith!”

The Hebrews also said, “If He doesn’t deliver us, we still won’t bow down.” And God said, “That’s Faithfulness! Marilyn, I’m growing two things in you, faith and faithfulness. Will you still be faithful to My Word when it appears that your faith has failed?”

God had taught me something very special about the prayer of faith for the sick. My sorrow was turned into joy, and the seeming defeat, into faith.

Dear Heavenly Father,

We pray the You will take hold of our sorrowful circumstances and turn them into victory. Help us turn each disadvantage into an advantage that will bring glory to Your name.

In Jesus’s name,

Amen­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­

Look, today I am giving you the choice between a blessing and a curse! You will be blessed if you obey the commands of the Lord your God that I am giving you today. But you will be cursed if you reject the commands of the Lord your God and turn away from him and worship gods you have not known before (Deuteronomy 11:26-28 NLT).

You can choose to spend time with Jesus and how closely you will listen to and obey what he tells you. You can choose what you will allow into your mind and heart. You can choose what you believe. You have free will to make countless choices and decisions every day.

Because of this amazing gift—the God-given freedom to choose—we have the privilege to choose lives of blessing for ourselves and our families. Even if you don’t have the benefits of growing up in a godly family, even if you come from a long line of hard-core sinners, you can choose a life that will bring blessing upon you, your children, and your grandchildren.

Now when these things begin to happen, look up and lift up your heads, because your redemption draws near. (Luke 21:28 NKJV)

Some people always look down: other always look around. But God didn’t call us to look down, around, or even back. He called us to look up.

When God told Noah to build the ark, He instructed Noah to make only one long window—right near the top, because the only place he wanted Noah to look was upward. If Noah had looked outward, he would have only seen the endless rain, the floating debris, and the people screaming for help.

The secret for our strength today is to look up. Make a decision right now to look up to our heavenly Father, Who is supernaturally supplying all our needs.

One summer our ministry went through a terrible financial crisis, when thousands of dollars and checks had been stolen at the post office. As a result, we could not pay our bills. The circumstances seemed overwhelming. But when I began to look up, my redemption came. For God truly gave us a miracle and supplied all our needs within in 30 days.

Dear Heavenly Father,

We pray that new faith would rise up in our hearts. We will look up, life our heads, and see Your plan of deliverance. We thank You, Father, for you quick answer to prayer, as You hasten to perform Your Word.

In Jesus’s Name,

Amen

Dear friend, I pray that you may enjoy good health and that all may go well with you, even as your soul is getting along well (3 John 2 NIV).

When we talk about healing, we almost always think of physical healing, but God’s healing is for the whole person.

Under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, the apostle Paul prayed, May God himself, the God of peace, sanctify you through and through.

May your whole spirit, soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ (1 Thessalonians 5:23 NIV). God wants all of you well. His Word declares that healing is for your entire being—your spirit, your soul, your body.

Where you are and whatever your circumstance, the Lord wants you whole. If you have a broken heart, He wants to heal it. If you have a broken pocketbook, He wants to heal it. If you have a sick, infirm or broken body, the Lord wants to heal it. Wholeness is the will of God for every individual, and certainly nothing is too difficult for the One who created the universe and fashioned your physical body. The Lord is able to heal your circumstances and your relationships just as easily as He can heal your body—if you’ll only ask and believe.

What needs healing in your life?