Greetings, grace, peace, and love to you in the name of God, our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. I am Rev. Reginald Stevens, Pastor of Immanuel Church of Jesus Christ. I thank God for this privilege to share with you a Daily Dose of Encouragement.  

Immediately Jesus made the disciples get into the boat and go on ahead of him to the other side, while he dismissed the crowd. After he had dismissed them, he went up on a mountainside by himself to pray. Later that night, he was there alone, and the boat was already a considerable distance from land, buffeted by the waves because the wind was against it.

Shortly before dawn, Jesus went out to them, walking on the lake. When the disciples saw him walking on the lake, they were terrified. “It’s a ghost,” they said and cried out in fear.

But Jesus immediately said to them: “Take courage! It is I. Don’t be afraid.”

“Lord, if it’s you,” Peter replied, “tell me to come to you on the water.”

“Come,” he said.

Then Peter got down out of the boat, walked on the water and came toward Jesus. But when he saw the wind, he was afraid and, beginning to sink, cried out, “Lord, save me!”

Immediately Jesus reached out his hand and caught him. “You of little faith,” he said, “why did you doubt?”

And when they climbed into the boat, the wind died down. Then those who were in the boat worshiped him, saying, “Truly you are the Son of God.”(Matt 14:22-33).

As you face the challenges of the recent storm, God wants you to hold on to your faith and fear not. God wants you to remember all he has shown and done you. God wants you to place your trust in Him. When the weather is good, we praise God. When the storm comes, we quickly turn away from God as if He is no longer there. God finds it amazing how one minute you praise him, and the next moment you run in fear as if He is not even there. Do you think that God has abandoned you as if He is afraid of the storm?  God wants you to keep your focus on Jesus.

Peter wanted to come to Jesus walking on water in the storm. Peter knew that his request defies science, even so He knew that If Jesus allow him to do so he could. He Had faith in Jesus. We are faced with a raging storm, a viral pestilence. This storm is very deadly and destructive as the storm Peter faced, but because he trusted in Christ, He was able to walk on the water. It was not until He took His focus off Jesus and allowed fear produced by the storm to invade his mind. He then put his focus on what the storm can do, and the impossibility of surviving its devasting evil power. This is when he began to sink and call out to Jesus, Jesus immediately reached out and took him by the hand and saved him from the storm.

You may ask, does God want me to act as if the storm is not there? No, God wants you to not fear the storm. God wants you to know that when you go through the storm He is with you, God wants you to trust Him in the storm, God wants you to know that He will bring you through the storm,

all you need to do is trust Jesus. God expects you to exercise caution, God expects you to do everything you can, not to be infectious, to yourself and to others. God expects you to pray, God wants to enable you to weather the storm. When Storms develop some of them are capable of doing damage which is apocalyptical in nature. God wants us to continue living and placing our trust in Him. David said” though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death I shall fear no evil. This corona Virus is a storm that is apocalyptic in nature and has already killed thousands of people. This storm has cast a giant shadow of death encompassing the face of the earth. God wants you to fear not this evil enemy, God wants you to know that with him you can come through this storm, unharmed, God wants you to know that your salvation is secure. and if things come to their best, you will pass from death to life in Jesus Christ. God bless You, my friends, If you have not asked Jesus to save you don’t waste any more time. This I can tell you, we are closer to the end now then we were when we first began. God loves you, but time won’t wait. God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son that whosoever believes in Him shall not perish but shall have everlasting life (John 3:16).

If you believe tell someone. 

God Bless You

Rev. Reginald Stevens

 

 

 

 

Why sleep ye? rise and pray, lest ye enter into temptation—The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.
Two things have I required of thee; deny me them not before I die: remove far from me vanity and lies: give me neither poverty nor riches, feed me with food convenient for me: lest I be full, and deny thee, and say, Who is the L ORD? or lest I be poor, and steal, and take the name of my God in vain.
The L ORD shall preserve thee from all evil: he shall preserve thy soul—I will deliver thee out of the hand of the wicked, and I will redeem thee out of the hand of the terrible—He that is begotten of God keepeth himself, and that wicked one toucheth him not.
Because thou hast kept the word of my patience, I also will keep thee from the hour of temptation, which shall come upon all the world, to try them that dwell upon the earth—The Lord knoweth how to deliver the godly out of temptations.
1 C HRON. 4:10; L UKE 22:46—MATT. 26:41; P ROV. 30:7-9; P S. 121:7—JER. 15:21—1 J OHN 5:18; R EV. 3:10—2 P ET. 2:9 

 

 

When they shall lead you, and deliver you up, take no thought beforehand what ye shall speak, neither do ye premeditate: but whatsoever shall be given you in that hour, that speak ye: for it is not ye that speak, but the Holy Ghost—Take … no thought for the morrow: for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof.
The God of Israel is he that giveth strength and power unto his people. Blessed be God—He giveth power to the faint; and to them that have no might he increaseth strength.
My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me. Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions, in distresses for Christ’s sake: for when I am weak, then am I strong—I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me—O my soul, thou hast trodden down strength.
D EUT. 33:25; M ARK 13:11—MATT. 6:34; P S. 68:35—ISA. 40:29; 2 C OR. 12:9-10—P HIL. 4:13—J UDG. 5:21