“Focus on Me” says the Lord

I often pray to the Lord about things going on in the world around me.  When I ask Him what He his will is, His answer is “Focus on Me”. He reminds me that He rules the Nations.

 This I know is true and trustworthy;   He rules ALL the Nations! His great power rules forever and He watches EVERY movement of EVERY nation. For the Lord is King! The nations tremble before Him. He rules throughout every generation. All Royal and ruling power belongs to Him. He sits on His throne between the cherubim- let all the world quake! He will judge our world with justice and rule the nations with fairness. Every knee will bend to Him, and every tongue will confess and give praise to God.

The Lord goes before us, He will not fail us, nor forsake us, so we fear not, neither be dismayed.  Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever, He is the ruler of ALL the kings of ALL the world.  All glory and power belong to Him forever and ever.  He is the Alpha and the Omega, The One who is, who always was, and who is still to come- The Almighty One.  He is above all powers and principalities. He is the King of Kings and Lord of Lords. Amen!

Answer Him, if you can……
Who else has held the oceans in his hand?

Who has measured off the heavens with his fingers?
Who else knows the weight of the earth
or has weighed the mountains and hills on a scale?
Who is able to advise the Spirit of the Lord?
Who knows enough to give him advice or teach him?
Has the Lord ever needed anyone’s advice?
Does he need instruction about what is good?
Did someone teach him what is right or show him the path of justice?
Who made these things known so long ago?
What idol ever told you they would happen?
Was it not I, the Lord?

“Where were you when I laid the earth’s foundation?
Who marked off its dimensions? Says the Lord.
Who stretched a measuring line across it?

On what were its footings set, or who laid its cornerstone while the morning stars sang together and all the angels shouted for joy?
“Who shut up the sea behind doors when it burst forth from the womb, when I made the clouds its garment and wrapped it in thick darkness,  when I fixed limits for it and set its doors and bars in place,  when I said, ‘This far you may come and no farther; here is where your proud waves halt’?

“Have you ever given orders to the morning, or shown the dawn its place, 
that it might  take the earth by the edges and shake the wicked out of it?
“Have you journeyed to the springs of the sea or walked in the recesses of the deep?
Have the gates of death been shown to you?
Have you seen the gates of the deepest darkness?
Have you comprehended the vast expanses of the earth?
“What is the way to the abode of light?
And where does darkness reside?
Can you take them to their places?
Do you know the paths to their dwellings?
“Have you entered the storehouses of the snow or seen the storehouses of the hail,
which I reserve for times of trouble, for days of war and battle?

What is the way to the place where the lightning is dispersed, or the place where the east winds are scattered over the earth?
Who cuts a channel for the torrents of rain, and a path for the thunderstorm,  to water a land where no one lives, an uninhabited desert,  to satisfy a desolate wasteland and make it sprout with grass?
Does the rain have a father?
Who fathers the drops of dew?
From whose womb comes the ice?
Who gives birth to the frost from the heavens  when the waters become hard as stone, when the surface of the deep is frozen?
Can you bind the chains of the Pleiades?
Can you loosen Orion’s belt?
Can you bring forth the constellations in their seasons or lead out the Bear with its cubs?
Do you know the laws of the heavens?

Can you set up God’s dominion over the earth?
Can you raise your voice to the clouds and cover yourself with a flood of water?
Do you send the lightning bolts on their way?
Do they report to you, ‘Here we are’?
Who gives the rooster understanding?
Who has the wisdom to count the clouds?
Who can tip over the water jars of the heavens when the dust becomes hard?

Do you hunt the prey for the lioness and satisfy the hunger of the lions?
Who provides food for the raven when its young cry out to God and wander about for lack of food?

“I am the First and the Last;  there is no other God.
Who is like me?
Let him step forward and prove to you his power.
You are my witnesses—is there any other God?
No! There is no other Rock—not one”
All the nations of the world are but a drop in the bucket.
They are nothing more than dust on the scales.
He picks up the whole earth as though it were a grain of sand.
Do you know when the mountain goats give birth?
Do you watch when the doe bears her fawn?
Do you count the months till they bear?
Do you know the time they give birth?
Who let the wild donkey go free?
Who untied its ropes?
Will the wild ox consent to serve you?
Will it stay by your manger at night?
Can you hold it to the furrow with a harness?
Will it till the valleys behind you?
Will you rely on it for its great strength?
Will you leave your heavy work to it?
Can you trust it to haul in your grain and bring it to your threshing floor?
Do you give the horse its strength or clothe its neck with a flowing mane?
Do you make it leap like a locust, striking terror with its proud snorting?
Does the hawk take flight by your wisdom and spread its wings toward the south?
Does the eagle soar at your command and build its nest on high?
To whom can you compare God?
What image can you find to resemble him?
Can he be compared to an idol formed in a mold, overlaid with gold, and decorated with silver chains?
Haven’t you heard? Don’t you understand?
Are you deaf to the words of God—the words he gave before the world began?
Are you so ignorant?

God sits above the circle of the earth. 
The people below seem like grasshoppers to him!
He spreads out the heavens like a curtain  and makes his tent from them.
He judges the great people of the world and brings them all to nothing.
 They hardly get started, barely taking root, when he blows on them and they wither.  The wind carries them off like chaff.
  “To whom will you compare me? Who is my equal?” asks the Holy One.

Look up into the heavens. Who created all the stars?
He brings them out like an army, one after another, calling each by its name.Because of his great power and incomparable strength, not a single one is missing.
O Jacob, how can you say the Lord does not see your troubles?
O Israel, how can you say God ignores your rights?

Have you never heard?  Have you never understood?
This is what the Lord says—Israel’s King and Redeemer, the Lord of Heaven’s Armies:
Heaven is my throne, and the earth is my footstool.
Could you build me a temple as good as that?
Could you build me such a resting place?
My thoughts are nothing like your thoughts,” says the Lord. And my ways are far beyond anything you could imagine. For just as the heavens are higher than the earth, so my ways are higher than your ways  and my thoughts higher than your thoughts.
Only I can tell you the future before it even happens.
Everything I plan will come to pass, for I do whatever I wish.
For I am ready to set things right, not in the distant future, but right now!
I am ready to save Jerusalem and show my glory to Israel.I alone am God, the First and the Last.
It was my hand that laid the foundations of the earth,
my right hand that spread out the heavens above.
When I call out the stars, they all appear in order

   The Lord is the everlasting God, the Creator of all the earth. He never grows weak or weary. No one can measure the depths of his understanding. He gives power to the weak and strength to the powerless.Even youths will become weak and tired, and young men will fall in exhaustion.But those who trust in the Lord will find new strength.
They will soar high on wings like eagles. They will run and not grow weary.They will walk and not faint.

I, the LORD, am the first; and with the last I am He. Bring all who claim me as their God,  for I have made them for my glory.

It was I who created them.’”
You have been chosen to know me, believe in me, and understand that I alone am God.
There is no other God,  there never has been, and there never will be.
I, yes I, am the Lord, and there is no other Savior.
“From eternity to eternity I am God.
No one can snatch anyone out of my hand.
No one can undo what I have done

I am the Lord; there is no other God.
I have equipped you for battle, though you don’t even know me,
so all the world from east to west will know there is no other God.
I am the Lord, and there is no other.
I create the light and make the darkness.
I send good times and bad times.
I, the Lord, am the one who does these things.

For the Lord is God,
and he created the heavens and earth and put everything in place.
He made the world to be lived in, not to be a place of empty chaos.
“I am the Lord,” he says, “and there is no other.

I publicly proclaim bold promises.
I do not whisper obscurities in some dark corner.
I would not have told the people of Israel to seek me  if I could not be found.
I, the Lord, speak only what is true and declare only what is right.
For there is no other God but me, a righteous God and Savior. My hands have made both heaven and earth; they and everything in them are mine.  I, the Lord, have spoken.
To whom will you compare me?  Who is my equal?

 The Lord is coming with fire, and his swift chariots roar like a whirlwind.  He will bring punishment with the fury of his anger and the flaming fire of his hot rebuke. The Lord will punish the world by fire and by his sword.
He will judge the earth, and many will be killed by him.
“I am the Lord your God, who teaches you what is good for you
and leads you along the paths you should follow.
See, I have written your name on the palms of my hands.
I, yes I, am the one who comforts you the Lord, your Creator,
the one who stretched out the sky like a canopy
and laid the foundations of the earth.
For I am the Lord your God, who stirs up the sea, causing its waves to roar.
 My name is the Lord of Heaven’s Armies.
And I have put my words in your mouth and hidden you safely in my hand.
I stretched out the sky like a canopy and laid the foundations of the earth.
I am the one who says to Israel, You are my people

For your Creator will be your husband;the Lord of Heaven’s Armies is his name!
He is your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel,the God of all the earth.
For the mountains may move
and the hills disappear,
but even then my faithful love for you will remain.
My covenant of blessing will never be broken,” says the Lord, who has mercy on you.
 But those who still reject me are like the restless sea, which is never still but continually churns up mud and dirt. There is no peace for the wicked,” says my God.

I am overwhelmed with joy in the Lord my God!
For he has dressed me with the clothing of salvation and draped me in a robe of righteousness.

I am like a bridegroom in his wedding suit or a bride with her jewels.  The Sovereign Lord will show his justice to the nations of the world.
Everyone will praise him!
Oh, that you would burst from the heavens and come down!
How the mountains would quake in your presence!
As fire causes wood to burn and water to boil,
your coming would make the nations tremble.
Then your enemies would learn the reason for your fame!
When you came down long ago, you did awesome deeds beyond our highest expectations.  And oh, how the mountains quaked!
For since the world began, no ear has heard, and no eye has seen a God like you,
who works for those who wait for him!
We are constant sinners;
how can people like us be saved?
We are all infected and impure with sin.
When we display our righteous deeds, they are nothing but filthy rags.
Yet no one calls on your name or pleads with you for mercy.
And yet, O Lord, you are our Father. We are the clay, and you are the potter.
We all are formed by your hand.

 
   Be Wise unto that which is good, and simple concerning evil. During this time, focus on the Lord and on reading the scriptures , encouraging others and teaching them. Remember that each of us will give a personal account to God, so let us stop condemning each other. Decide to live in a way that will not cause another believer to stumble and fall- in other words, live in love for others, do not hate. Stay away from strange, new ideas and search the scriptures with eagerness on all the teaching you receive. Your strength comes from God’s grace- and God’s grace alone. Be patient and wait on Him, for the God of peace shall bruise Satan under your feet shortly. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you. Amen.

Romans 16:17-20 1 Timothy 4:13  Romans 14 11 -13.  ps 22 28 ps 66:7Psalm 99Psalm 9:8  Isaiah 49:7 Revelation 1 5 Psalm 145:13 Hebrews 13:8, psalms, job 37-42,Jeremiah, Isaiah 51 12