I feel like I could share a million different things particularly in the season that we are currently in. I could remind you of the disciples afraid in the boat because of the storm that surrounded them. I could remind you of Mary and Martha’s broken hearts over their brother Lazarus who was dead. I could share about blind Bartimaeus, the women suffering with the issue of blood for twelve long years and the disciples fishing all day and catching nothing.

I could share all these stories and so many more both from God’s Word and from today. These stories start out with a few things in common like difficulty, suffering and impossibility but the good news is that none of these stories end the same way they started! See Jesus woke up and calmed the storm, he raised Lazarus from the dead, he healed both blind Bartimaeus and the women with the issue of blood and he told the disciples to cast their net onto the other side and the disciples caught more than they could pull in!

I share these stories to stir up faith in our hearts! Many of us are facing things that we’ve never faced before, difficulties, suffering and problems that seem impossible to solve. And it is in this hour that it is vitally important that we remember who it is that we serve! We must remember who it is that we call God and all that he is capable of doing! Will you remember God’s faithfulness to you and countless generations that have gone before you? Will you allow his faithfulness to stir up faith in your heart to believe him to calm the storm, to bring dead things to life, to heal, to provide and to do the impossible?

Some of the most helpful things for me when it comes to stirring up my faith are prayer, worship, reading Scripture and recalling what God has already done for me over the years. So no matter what season of life you might be in right now or the difficulty that you may be facing I encourage you to spend some time with the Lord and allow Him to encourage your heart and fill you with faith!

“For with God nothing will be impossible.” Luke 1:37

“According to your faith let it be done to you.” Matthew 9:29

God is the God of miracles, let’s believe Him for the impossible!

Blessings,

John

PS I would be remiss if I didn’t share with you the regular encouragement I send out each week. If you would like to be encouraged regularly then subscribe to receive my free devotionals via email @ http://www.johnsilkauskasministries.com/about/ Do it today & be encouraged tomorrow! SUBSCRIBE HERE

The post It’s Not Over Yet first appeared on John Silkauskas.

“It is impossible to please God without faith, for he who comes to God must believe that He exists and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.” Hebrews 11:6

As you know by many of my blogs and messages God is always speaking to me about faith. If indeed we’re called to “live by faith” (Romans 1:17) and it’s “impossible to please God without faith” (Hebrews 11:6) I believe it’s a pretty important subject that should be addressed often. God is the giver of faith but just like in the parable of talents (Matthew 25:14-30) God is looking for us to do something worthwhile with what He’s given to us. God delights in us when we rise up with courage and exercise our faith rather than shrink back with fear and do nothing (Jesus often rebuked the disciples for being fearful and having little faith).

So, today I write you to encourage you with this knowledge: God is a REWARDER of those who diligently seek Him! When we seek Him we find Him and when we find Him He fills our hearts with faith to believe Him for more! To believe that regardless of our past we are justified and forgiven! To believe that no matter our present condition, God is greater than all that we may be going through and He is able to redeem all that we give to Him. To believe that all of our future work, service, time and gifts given will be blessed and rewarded as we do it all in faith.

No matter our age God is calling us to set an example in faith! We all know 1 Timothy 4:12, “Don’t let anyone look down on you because you are young but set an example for all believers in life, love, faith, speech and purity.” But do you recall Hebrews 11:13, “All these people were still living by faith when they died.” To me this clearly calls us all out (no matter our age, from young to old) we’re called to live by faith until we pass to glory!

So let us look to Him and let us expect His reward for He is faithful to His word and He is calling us to live by faith!

Blessings,

John

PS I would be remiss if I didn’t share with you the regular encouragement I send out each week. If you would like to be encouraged regularly then subscribe to receive my devotionals via email @ http://www.johnsilkauskasministries.com/about/

The post God Pleasing Faith first appeared on John Silkauskas.

“These things I have spoken to you, that in Me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world.” John 16:33

Jesus said it, we will have trouble in this world, trials and tribulations, we will face difficulty and yet in the same breath he tells us to be of good cheer! Why? Because He has overcome the world (and He invites us to share in His victory)! But how?

How can we be under the weather and at the same time overcomers? How can we face difficulty without allowing it to rule our lives? How can we suffer loss and still have peace? How can we be angry and sin not? How can we be glad in the midst of suffering? How do we rise above it all and overcome the world and all that it throws at us on a daily basis?

Our answer is found in 1 John 5:4, “This is the victory that overcomes the world, even our faith.”

That’s it! FAITH! It’s through our faith that we overcome the world! Through faith we receive God’s promises of victory and joy! Yes we face difficulty but we do so in light of eternity! We have God’s precious promises that give us the ability to live supernaturally (above the natural). When we face loss, depression, discouragement, defeat, sickness, suffering and the like it’s natural to fall victim to those things which leave us feeling pitiful and in the dumps! But by God’s grace He invites us to rise above those negative emotions through faith. He invites us to live “above” the natural where we walk in His peace, overflow with joy and experience His promises being fulfilled in our lives. Some of you have been struggling for far too long, carrying weights that God has invited you to let go of months ago and yet you’re still carrying them. The struggle seems to be unbearable not only for you but for those closest to you as they don’t understand and feel helpless.

I hope you can hear the voice of the Lord today! Jesus says, “Come to me all you who are weary and burdened and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.” Yes, you will have trouble but it doesn’t have to be as hard as it’s been, Jesus says when you come to me it becomes easy.” Because it’s in His presence that suffering cannot compare to the glory that is revealed! When we walk closely with the Lord we are filled with faith and it’s through that faith that we overcome the world! Rise up in faith today! You are an overcomer so overcome!

Blessings,

John

PS I would be remiss if I didn’t share with you the regular encouragement I send out each week. If you would like to be encouraged regularly then subscribe to receive my devotionals via email @ http://www.johnsilkauskasministries.com/about/

The post Overcoming Faith first appeared on John Silkauskas.

Psalm 99:1-5 “The LORD reigns, let the nations tremble; he sits enthroned between the cherubim, let the earth shake. Great is the LORD in Zion; he is exalted over all the nations. Let them praise your great and awesome name– he is holy. The King is mighty, he loves justice– you have established equity; in Jacob you have done what is just and right. Exalt the LORD our God and worship at his footstool; he is holy.”

The Lord reigns and He is going to shake everything that can be shaken! People may say that we live in uncertain times and although this is true from a world perspective this is not the case for those who call themselves believers. See although everything around us may be shaking our God reigns and He promises us that all these things must come to pass. For even now He is shaking the government, the economy, the social structures of our day. And just as we’ve seen unusual patterns in the weather we will see unusual things happening all over the earth in what seems like unprecedented ways. And yet God is saying “Be encouraged, for I am doing this shaking, I am causing people to not put their trust in any other thing for it is only I who you can count on. I am the Lord your God! I promise to go with you even to the ends of the earth. Be not afraid nor shaken for I am in all this and even this will be for my glory.”

I feel like the Lord has been taking His time raising us up, teaching us over weeks, months and years (even decades). And although at many times we have not seen the purpose in things, soon we will see that it has all been working for our good and that God has been preparing us for such a time as this! So don’t be afraid or unsettled rather rest in God’s love for you! And as you rest know that He is preparing you for what He has in store for you this next season. The instructions are simple: rest, remember all that the Lord has done, set your eyes on God, stay in faith, use the gifts He has given to you and be faithful in all that He has called you to. As we do these things we will indeed see God’s great reward! So let us exalt His name together! Let us rest in His love and be encouraged by the truth that no matter what we see around us, the Lord reigns!

Blessings,

John

PS I would be remiss if I didn’t share with you the regular encouragement I send out each week. If you would like to be encouraged regularly then subscribe to receive my devotionals via email @ http://www.johnsilkauskasministries.com/about/

The post The Lord Reigns! first appeared on John Silkauskas.

All throughout the Old Testament God sends reminders to the people of Israel to help them remember who He is, who they are and all that He has done for them! He would tell them to take stones from the Jordan or build an altar, they would even change the name of different mountains, valleys and cities to always remember what God had done there. Often this wasn’t only to help them remember but also in order to teach to their children and their children’s children to remember all that God had done. I love the richness of this and I think we can learn a lot from these practices of old.

How many times do you and I face difficult situations and those difficulties lead us to a place of anxiety and fear. Too often we may even know what to do but we just get stuck. We forget who our God is, we forget who we are and all that God has already brought us through! It’s in these times that we need to remember! Remember it was God who saw Joseph through both slavery and prison. Remember it was God who delivered the Israelites from Egypt, who parted the Red Sea for them and destroyed pharaoh and all their enemies. Remember it was God who delivered David from Saul and Daniel from the lions den. Remember it was God who provided Elijah with miracle after miracle right when he needed it! Remember it was God who rescued the Hebrew three from the fire and Peter both on the water and in the jail. Remember it was God who healed the blindness from Bartimaeus’ eyes and raised Lazarus from the dead!

In whatever season of life we may be in, whatever we may currently be facing we need to remember that Jesus Christ rose from the grave and the same power that rose him from the dead now dwells in us! We need to personally remember all that God has done for us over the years, his faithfulness, his kindness and how he’s ALWAYS been on time! We need to remember His promises in Scripture, the prophetic words spoken over our lives and the truth’s He’s whispered to our hearts. We need to remember, so when the enemy comes and lies to us we can look him in the face and rejoice because we REMEMBER that our God is with us, for us and faithful to see us through!

Be encouraged today as you remember…

~John

“And Joshua set up at Gilgal the twelve stones they had taken out of the Jordan. He said to the Israelites, “In the future when your descendants ask their parents, ‘What do these stones mean?’ tell them, ‘Israel crossed the Jordan on dry ground.’ For the Lord your God dried up the Jordan before you until you had crossed over. The Lord your God did to the Jordan what he had done to the Red Sea when he dried it up before us until we had crossed over. He did this so that all the peoples of the earth might know that the hand of the Lord is powerful and so that you might always fear the Lord your God.” Joshua 4:20-24

PS Pass this message along, share it with a friend, remind those who you know are going through a difficult time and make sure to teach these things to your children! And always remember that the Lord is good and He is always faithful!

(I would be remiss if I didn’t share with you the regular encouragement I send out each week. If you would like to be encouraged regularly then subscribe to receive my devotionals via email @ http://www.johnsilkauskasministries.com/about/ )

The post Why God tells us to Remember first appeared on John Silkauskas.