Is God Your Song?

It has been a while since I have written here. I figured when this became a burden and drudgery instead of an overflow of my heart time with God I should take a break. Since my last post many things, both wonderful and challenging have happened. These include 1000's of answers to prayer, dozens of souls saved, people being called into ministry, a new home for my family, a fire in our old home, the birth of my twin sons. Through all of this I have seen God's hand, provision and presence every step of the way.

This brings me to the topic of my post today. It is taken from Psalm 118:14 where it says; "The Lord is my strength and my song; He has become my salvation." This got me wondering. Here we are encouraged to allow God to be two very important things, things that make it possible for us to not only survive but thrive in life. First, we must let God be our strength ... meaning that He is the power behind everything we do. No matter who we are we can all learn to allow God to be more of our power. Second, we need to allow God to be our song ... this the joy or meaning in life, it is the source of passion behind all that we do. What is the passion behind all that we say and do?

Deserts by Divine Design

Often when we are filled with the Spirit we think we will be led to do something great, or least something good because we are close to God. Yet there are times when … as found in Luke 4, God's Spirit leads us into the desert and times of testing.

It is during these times that we must remember to trust God's leading. This passage goes on to give us the keys to doing this. When in those desert times remember God is with us, He led us there, and we must keep our focus on Him and His Word. Keep going to the Scriptures, they are our strength, encouragement and defense. Also remember that these times of testing in the desert are times of preparation for ministry. So let God prepare you for what He has planned for you to do next. Without these desert times we will never be ready to be used by Him.

How big is your God? How sure is your faith in Him?

How big is your God? How sure is your faith in Him? (taken from Mark 11:22-24)

People around us can see the reality of our faith through our actions and our prayers. Here the foundation for answered prayers is stated clearly...have faith in God!

Our faith determines how much God will do in our lives. I am reminded of when Jesus returned to His home area and could not do many miracles because of their lack of faith. Similarly, our amount and type of faith will determine how we see God working in our lives. In this passage, Jesus says, if we have faith in God and don't doubt, what we have prayed about will see it happen. We will see it happen and receive it!

This is a bold promise, but it is Jesus promise to us. Do you take Jesus at His word? If not, why not? In what areas is God challenging you to increase your faith?

God Want to Work Through Weakness

Thoughts taken from Mark 8:4-8
His disciples answered, "But where in this remote place can anyone get enough bread to feed them?" "How many loaves do you have?" Jesus asked. "Seven," they replied. He told the crowd to sit down on the ground. When he had taken the seven loaves and given thanks, he broke them and gave them to his disciples to set before the people, and they did so. They had a few small fish as well; he gave thanks for them also and told the disciples to distribute them. The people ate and were satisfied. Afterward the disciples picked up seven basketfuls of broken pieces that were left over.

When we are in need, often we must look at what we already have because this is where God wants to start working. Yet we often discount this because it doesn't seem good enough. God often wants to take what we think is inadequate and work through that. When He does this, work through our weakness, then His grace and strength shine all the brighter.

So as you look at life, where does God want to shine brightly so others can see His glory? Rejoice in these opportunities and ask God to use them as He wants.

How to Please God in 2014

Taken from Job 1:1b.

The Scriptures are so clear here, if you want to please God and be blameless and upright in His eyes there are two things that must be done. First we need to fear God. Not be afraid of Him, but fear disappointing Him. We do this by making sure our actions are always things about which He will say, "Well done my good and faithful servant." Do all our actions, every day, make God say this to us? If not we know where we can improve so let’s get to it.

The second, which we don't seem to try and do anymore is to shun evil. To shun is to avoid, reject, turn away from or reject. Today many people seem to see how close to evil they can come, but God wants us to go the opposite extreme. He even restates it like this in another place in Scripture, “avoid the appearance of evil.” How well do we safeguard against evil in our lives. What safeguards do we have in place to make sure we don’t even get near to it? Would those who are close to us, watching how we live agree with us about this?

If we want to live lives that are pleasing to God we need to realize and act on the fact that it will not happen by accident. We must be intentional and have a plan on how to do this. Do you have a plan for pleasing God in 2014? If not, take the rest of this week to develop on and live in such a way that God will say about you, “you are blameless and upright.” When you do this you will have the best, most productive, exciting and most fulfilling year ever. God bless in all you do this year!

 

 

Are you good and faithful in God eyes today?

Have you ever taken time to think about what makes someone good and faithful in God eyes. In Matthew 25:14-30 we find Jesus telling how we can live a good and pleasing life in God's eyes.

The first thing we should note is that both goodness and faithfulness are connected in God view. If you have one then you will have the other. God's definition of 'good and faithful' is stewardship, taking care of what He has given us. This raises the question of how do we take care of what God has given us? Well we can see from this story that it isn't just returning what God has given us, He expects more. It also is not doing the same as everyone else.

Good stewardship consists of at least duplicating or doubling what God has given us. As we look at our gift of salvation, have we helped at least one other person come to a saving knowledge Jesus? We are to be reproducing ourselves as much as possible, making disciples and this is what pleases God.

Are you good and faithful in God eyes today? If not we all have a chance to become so starting now.

Showing Reality

With snow gently falling I was reviewing the Christmas story and something about it stood out. It deals with our relationship with God, but should also be applied to all relationships.

In the Christmas story many people knew, heard about and even proclaimed the fact that the Savior was born. The thing that set some people apart is that they acted on what they new and proclaimed. They demonstrated their faith and love for God through their actions. More than hearing us proclaim something, God wants to see us live out our love and faith this Christmas season. Everyone who truly worship the Savior who had been born during that first Christmas demonstrated it through sacrifice. What can we do, what can we sacrifice to show that our stated faith and love for God is real?

Now applying that to our relationship. Yes, people like to hear our profession of love, but if that is all that we do our words are empty. However, if we accompany those words with action of sacrificial love, we will see lives changed. So what can/ should we do, what can/should we sacrifice to show that our stated compassion and love for others is real?