{"id":3609,"date":"2014-12-21T00:01:23","date_gmt":"2014-12-20T23:01:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.gfhlive.tv\/freshfire\/?p=3609"},"modified":"2014-12-09T15:03:36","modified_gmt":"2014-12-09T14:03:36","slug":"with-you-always","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gfhlive.tv\/freshfire\/2014\/12\/21\/with-you-always\/","title":{"rendered":"With You Always"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"text-align: center;\">\u2018<em>As evening came, Jesus said to his disciples, \u201cLet\u2019s cross to the other side of the lake.\u201d<strong>\u00a0<\/strong>So they took Jesus in the boat and started out, leaving the crowds behind&#8230;<strong>\u00a0<\/strong>Jesus was sleeping at the back of the boat with his head on a cushion\u2026\u2019 <a title=\"Read the Bible\" href=\"https:\/\/bible.com\/116\/mrk.4.35-38.nlt\" target=\"_blank\">Mark4:35-38<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Many of us today are in the same position the disciples found themselves in today\u2019s scripture reference. We know we are walking with Jesus, we are His sheep and we hear His voice. We have obediently followed His instructions to cross over to the other side but here we are in the eye of the storm as it were. The first thing you need to know is that even when God is for you, you will still experience storms. And like the disciples, we sometimes are perplexed that if Jesus is in this boat <!--more-->why should there be a storm? Just imagine Peter saying to maybe Thomas, go and check if Jesus is still on this boat because I don\u2019t understand this storm. Most times we are unsettled by the fact that God is on our side and we have challenges. And we tend to think that perhaps, just perhaps God may have sneaked off the boat. So Thomas reports back and confirms that Jesus is still on the boat but He is sleeping. And Peter says \u201cif Jesus is still on this boat then we are fine\u201d and they continued to sail. Then the storms intensify and the next question is \u2018how can \u2013 why\u2019? They check again and Jesus is still sleeping. At that point they couldn\u2019t take it anymore. And the Bible says, \u2018<em>the disciples woke him up, shouting, \u201cTeacher, don\u2019t you care that we\u2019re going to drown?\u201d<\/em>\u2019 A lot of us have the \u2018Jesus don\u2019t you care\u2019 question on our minds and lips today. It is a challenge for a lot of us, myself inclusive, that Jesus is in the boat and there is turbulence. But God is saying to you and I today that the fact that you have challenges does not mean that He has abandoned you. In fact Jesus said, \u2018in this world, you will have tribulations, you will have storms\u2019. He says, \u2018but be of good cheer\u2019. So God\u2019s message for you today is be of good cheer because Jesus has overcome the world.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">But in order to deal with things conclusively sometimes you need to know the source. So over the next few days we will be looking into different sources of storms. We need to check where the storm coming from. Sometimes the storms you are dealing with are based on your own decisions, because of what you chose to do. So while you are screaming at the top of your voice \u2018Lord have You abandoned me\u2019. God is saying \u2018check your obedience\u2019.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong>Prayer<\/strong>: Father, please be merciful unto me. I ask for the grace to obey You now and in the coming year, in Jesus Name.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>\u2018As evening came, Jesus said to his disciples, \u201cLet\u2019s cross to the other side of the lake.\u201d\u00a0So they took Jesus in the boat and started out, leaving the crowds behind&#8230;\u00a0Jesus was sleeping at the back of the boat with his head on a cushion\u2026\u2019 Mark4:35-38. &nbsp; Many of us today are in the same position [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[83,70,46,24],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3609","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-grace","category-intimacy","category-mercy","category-obedience"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gfhlive.tv\/freshfire\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3609","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gfhlive.tv\/freshfire\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gfhlive.tv\/freshfire\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gfhlive.tv\/freshfire\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gfhlive.tv\/freshfire\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3609"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/gfhlive.tv\/freshfire\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3609\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3610,"href":"https:\/\/gfhlive.tv\/freshfire\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3609\/revisions\/3610"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gfhlive.tv\/freshfire\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3609"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gfhlive.tv\/freshfire\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3609"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gfhlive.tv\/freshfire\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3609"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}