Category Archives: Trust

Christian Living, Encouragement, Faith, Hope, Love, Peace, Salvation, Trust

Got Peace?

“You will keep the mind that is dependent on You in perfect peace, for it is trusting in You.” (Isaiah 26:3 HCSB)

Many of us Christians do not live in God’s perfect peace.  Instead, we choose to be self-sufficient, completely setting God aside.  We have made up our minds to depend wholly on ourselves.  We’ve looked at our Omniscient, Omnipotent, Omnipresent God and said to Him, “Step aside, God, I’ve got this. I don’t need you.”

Then, when things don’t go the way we thought they would, we’re too prideful to admit we made a mistake.  We are quick to blame others, including God, for our mistakes and the consequences we’re suffering.  Even though we may be part of a higher socio economic class, we still have no peace because we have put our faith in money, which we know we can lose in the blink of an eye.  Jesus said:

 “No one can be a slave of two masters, since either he will hate one and love the other, or be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot be slaves of God and of money (Matthew 6:24 HCSB).”

God expects every one of His children to put the full measure of their faith and dependence in Him, just as new born babies do their parents.  He alone is our “Good, Good, Father.”  No one else can match His great love and care for us because we are His.

Here’s is how we can have that “prefect peace that God offers:

  1. Put the full measure of your faith and dependence in Him alone.  Do not try to be self-sufficient.  You are not Omniscient, Omnipotent, nor Omnipresent.
  2. Strengthen your faith and dependence in Him by staying in a constant posture of prayer, and by reading His Word, every day!
  3. Stay busy obeying what God reveals to you through prayer and the reading of His Word.  Worry more about that, than anything else.

Father in Heaven, I lift up the person who is reading this, to You.  I pray that they will humble themselves before You, go to Your throne of grace and pray, seek Your face, and turn away from their selfish pride.  I ask that You will increase their faith and help them put the full measure of their faith and dependence entirely in You.  Grant them peace.  May it be so, Father.  In Jesus’ name.

In Christ’s love,

Phil Covone

Pride, Trust, Wisdom

Got Wisdom?

“Now if any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God, who gives to all generously and without criticizing, and it will be given to him.” (James1:5 HCSB)

Many of us think we have wisdom, but the state of our lives tells a different story.  We have made such unwise, bone-headed decisions that we’ve almost destroyed our lives and the lives of others, including our families.  Then, our shame makes us look for others to blame for our failure.  We don’t even want to think of taking responsibility for our destructive behavior.

Our problem is pride.  Pride keeps us from asking family, or friends for help because we fear being thought of as weak.  When we find ourselves at a crossroads in our lives we just do the “eeny, meeny, miny, moe” thing and go with it.  However, we soon find out we were wrong.  When we leave God out of our decision making process, we quickly end up paying costly consequences.  There is a reason why God told us:

“Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not rely on your own understanding; think about Him in all your ways, and He will guide you on the right paths. Don’t consider yourself to be wise; fear the Lord and turn away from evil. This will be healing for your body and strengthening for your bones (Proverbs 3:5-8).”

God is Omniscient, and likes it when we humble ourselves before Him and recognize that He is all-knowing, and all-wise, and we’re not.  When we do this and then ask Him to give us wisdom, He will not criticize, or judge us. Instead, He will give us the wisdom to make the right decisions according to His will and purpose.  There is nothing more important to God than His eternal purpose.  God will never give us wisdom so that we can go our own way and do our own thing.  He gives us the wisdom we need to carry out His eternal purpose.

So, do you lack wisdom? Take a close look at your life and see what it says about how wise you really are.  God has all the wisdom you need, and He is ready to give it to you.  Just humble yourself before Him, and ask Him for it.  He will give it to you – He promised He would, so He will.

In Christ’s love,

Phil

 

 

Christian Living, Faith, Satan's Attacks, Tests, Trust, Uncategorized

“Holy Death”

A family, friends of ours, lives in a typical neighborhood in our city that is surrounded by temples to the “holy death” (one of them is pictured above).  On the outside walls of the temples they paint images of a skeleton and build shrines around it so that passers by can stop and worship and pray to it, as seen in the above photo.  People pray to the “holy death” for protection from death, and for the “holy death” to avenge the death of family and loved ones at the hands of others.  This practice was started by narco-traffickers, and sex-traffickers, who are warring against each other, and against police.

People also call upon the “holy death” to commit acts of evil against family members who have wronged them, or who have chosen not to remain under Roman Catholic rule.  Our friends are Evangelical Christians and their families have turned against them.  Some of their family members have called upon witches and witch-doctors to cast evil spells on them in order to force them back into Roman Catholicism.  Every night, one of their daughters sees shadows roaming around her bedroom.  She prays out loud asking God to remove the evil spirits, which He does, and she can finally sleep.  One afternoon, her mother was putting clothes on the line to dry.  Before she got finished, she went in the house for something and both she and her daughter saw some of the clothes being pulled off the line, but there was nobody there doing it.  They prayed together and the evil spirit left.  This is very common.

Some of you may be wondering how the Roman Catholic Church, in Mexico, feels about worshiping and praying to the holy death.  The fact is, even though they would never admit it, the Roman Catholic Church sanctions and encourages it, as you can see in the picture below.

santa-muerte-1

Through all of this, though, our friends have remained faithful to the Lord and have never wavered in their faith, even though they are surrounded by evil and are being persecuted by their own families and friends.

God tells us:

“In fact, all those who want to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted (2 Timothy 3:12 HCSB).”

Friends, this is why God has us in Mexico.  He has sent us here to share the Good News of Christ with this very spiritually dark country.  Please pray for us and this precious family as we continue to do battle against evil, every day.  In Christ’s love, thank you.

Please visit our website: covoneministries.com

Acceptance, Faith, Hope, Jesus, Joy, Love, Promises, Salvation, Trust

No Rejection!

“Everyone the Father gives Me will come to Me, and the one who comes to Me I will never cast out.” (John 6:37 HCSB)

There are those who misunderstand and misuse today’s verse.  Contrary to the beliefs of some, God does not force His will on us.  In His Sovereignty, God has chosen to give us free will to choose to believe in Him and trust Him, or not.  He does not create some people with the purpose of going to hell, and others to be saved from hell.  That would make Him and unjust God, which he is not.  God would never create anyone for the sole purpose of sending them to hell without giving them a chance to be saved from hell.  That’s why he speaks to all of us and draws us to Himself.  He wants us to be with Him and leads us to the One who can get us to Him, Jesus.

Here’s what Jesus is really teaching us in today’s verse:

  1. “Everyone the Father gives to Me will come to Me…” – this is the drawing of the Father, the hearing and learning from the Father about Jesus.  God’s opening of our eyes to the reality of our spiritual condition, which causes us to seek and call upon Jesus for Salvation.
  2. “and the one who comes to Me I will never cast out.” – the one who seek Jesus with all their heart will find Jesus, will be saved by Jesus, and will never be rejected by Jesus – their salvation can never be lost.

God, through the Apostle Paul said:

“For everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved (Romans 10:13 HCSB).”

Have you been rejecting God’s call upon you to come to Him?  Are you hearing Him calling you now?  Would you like to call upon Him and know that you are saved and have your place in heaven with Him for all eternity?  Here’s how God says you can do it:

1. Recognize that you’re a sinner and thank Him for sending Jesus, His only Son, to die on the cross in order to pay the ultimate price for your sin (Romans 3:23; Romans 5:8), and raising Him from the dead in order to give you eternal life (John 3:16-18; John 11:25).
2. Tell Him that, at this moment, you willfully, willingly, and intentionally choose to stop living your life in rebellion against Him and choose to start living your life as His disciple; that you commit to seeking Him, every day; following Him, every day; and that you will strive, every day, to live in immediate, radical, costly obedience to Him and only Him, no matter the cost – even if it costs you your life (2 Corinthians 5:15; Romans 10:9-10). Then, do it.
This is the only way you can become God’s child (John 1:12) and experience the fullness of His love, goodness, joy, peace and perfect care. Do this right now!

If you did this, God is so happy with you and wants to start working in your life and through your life. Please send me a message letting me know that you did it so that I can pray for you as you begin a new life in Christ.

In Christ’s love,

Phil Covone