Articles for March 2017

Matthew 6:33, “But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and
 all these things shall be added unto you.”

 Webster’s 1828 Dictionary defines ‘first’ as: Before all others in order of time, or progression. Preceding all others in rank.

Now, I know, that you know, what first place means. It’s the top, above everything else.  This verse is telling us that this is where God is supposed to be in our lives.  TOP priority in all our considerations.  But, I fear, if we are honest, that this is not where He is located in the scheme of our activities.  It would probably surprise us as to how far down on the list He is in our daily lives.  Often, we work Him in – if possible.  Other times, He is below the line of what we have time for.

SHAME ON US!

In the earlier verses of Matthew 6, God is talking about meeting the essential needs of our lives – food, drink, and clothing. Verse 32b says, “for your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things.”

The problem comes when these needs became the ‘top priority’ in our lives and not God. We can get caught up in the survival mode and feel everything is depending on us.  God is telling us plain and simple that we are to put Him first and then He will take care of everything else.  (Now, God knows that you have to work and He encourages this throughout the Scriptures.  In fact, He has nothing good to say about the sluggard or lazy person.)

It really is a condition of the heart. Are you thinking about and seeking God in all the demands of the day?  Do you acknowledge His presence and talk to Him as you walk through the activities of life?  Do you spend time in His Word every day? Do you choose God’s ways over your own desires?  All these areas are ways that we put God ‘first’ in our lives.

Life is demanding. These is a constant battle going on for your time.  You will have to fight to keep God in first place.  It is possible – just keep your focus where it should be – ON GOD!

Psalm 113:3, “From the rising of the sun unto the going down of the same
 the LORD’s name is to be praised.”

 I call this my ‘Sunshine Verse’ because it expresses an attitude of praise and thanksgiving that we are to have ALL day long. Our focus needs to be on the good things in our lives and not all the things that are irritations to us.  Life can be filled with rain clouds and problems, but remember that the sun is shining somewhere above those clouds.

We need to look through the clouds of hardships and disappointments and see the sunshine of God’s presence. We need to live in an attitude of trusting that God is in control and He is working everything out for our good and His glory         (Romans 8:28).  Believing this is the only way that praising God all day long is possible!

It is pretty hard to be grumbling and praising at the same time. It takes discipline to thank God when things are not going the way that we desire.  We could even call it a great effort, to praise God  when things are going awry.  But, the interesting thing is that when we do this it takes our focus off the ‘bad things’ and puts it where it should be – on God.

The song by Helen Howarth Lemmel, “Turn Your Eyes Upon Jesus”, sums this truth up nicely:

“Turn your eyes upon Jesus, Look full in His wonderful face; and the things of earth will grow strangely dim In the light of His glory and grace.”

When our eyes are on the Lord, then we will be able to praise the LORD’s name all day long!

Psalm 55:22, “Cast thy burden upon the LORD, and he shall sustain thee; he shall never suffer the righteous to be moved.”

This verse is reinforcing our devotional of yesterday.    Same truth.  Same God.

Everything we need to know in order to survive in this unpredictable world is found in the Scriptures.

God is telling us to give all our problems and hardships to Him. Talk to Him from your heart.  He cares and desires to hear from you.  Problems can seem bigger than life.  They can appear to be overwhelming and insurmountable, but look at the wonderful promise in this verse…”he shall sustain thee.”  God says He will hold us up and support us in all the trials of life.  Remember God’s promises are FOR SURE, you can count on them; You can trust them.

Christians do not have to be up and down, wishy, washy and vacillating through life, because God has promised us stability and strength to meet every need.

You do have a responsibility here – you are to be the one casting your burden on the Lord. He’s waiting.
You cast – He sustains, in that order.

P.S. Don’t forget this promise is to them that are righteous – living right and godly lives!

1 Peter 5:7, “Casting all your care upon him; for he careth for you.”

 Cast – to throw, to fling something out or off. (Dictionary definition)

I love the descriptive words that God uses in the Scriptures. They give us such a clear picture of what He is intending for us to know.  Casting is an action.  It’s a stronger motion then just meekly placing something down somewhere.

God is saying in this verse to deliberately – with purpose – bring all your worries and cares to Him. This does not give us a picture of meekly, with hesitation, taking our problems to Him.  We do not need to apologize or feel that we are burdening Him with our troubles.  He is the one telling us to come.  He is the one telling us to cast ALL our cares upon Him.  He is the one saying I want to hear from you.

The last part of this verse is always a total amazement to me, “for he careth for you.”  God loves you, God loves me, we need to let this sink in.  He wants us to bring every care and problem to Him because He loves us.  If we are living our life not wanting to bother God with our needs, we are actually disobeying Him.

Take ALL of your problems, cares, and frustrations in life to Him. You will be showing God that you believe what He says in His Word because you are following what He told you to do.  You will be living a life of obedience!

Over the years many people have shared with me their ‘Life Verse.” This is a verse that speaks to them and they refer to it often.  I personally have never chosen a life verse.  There seems to be so many verses in the Bible that inspire and encourage me that I have never zeroed in on just one.

Several weeks ago as I was reading in Psalms, I came across a verse that seemed to jump off the page. That verse was:

Psalm 116:9, “I will walk before the LORD in the land of the living.” 

This one simple truth has affected my entire life. By focusing on the fact that God is always present and everything I do is visible before Him has comforted me and encouraged me to live the way I should.

This thought is not new to me. I covered it in my first book in the chapter “God is Always Near.”  Here is a quote from that book:  “I began to visualize Him (God) across the whole sky of my life.  A panoramic view of His presence.  Up there watching, up there caring, up there wanting to help me, …”

This reality had become a part of my life, but this one verse summed it up so nicely and brought it into such clear focus that I knew it had to be my ‘Life Verse.’ I quote it frequently throughout the day, along with a thank you to God for being with me as I walk through this life on earth.

Another quote from the book is a message for all of us. “All day long, picture yourself as being surrounded by God’s presence…feel His presence, experience His presence, and acknowledge His presence.   What a  difference it will make in your life!”

Proverbs 21:1, “The king’s heart is in the hand of the LORD, as the rivers of water: he turneth it whithersoever he will.”

Are you frustrated, disappointed, angry at our leaders, or president? Are you upset with the way our country is heading?  Always keep in mind that God is in control – nothing happens that He does not allow.  We could become confused if we didn’t trust that all that is happening is under God’s authority.

God knows all about the evil and corruptness in high places. He is not caught off guard by the sinfulness of our nation.  (He certainly does not like it and will judge it in His time.)   But, until then, we must keep our hearts and minds on the fact that God is still on the throne.  Our leaders and president could do nothing if God did not allow it.

So what is our position to be in all of this?   We are not helpless – we can make a difference.

• We should seek to turn things around by winning people to the Lord.
• We should pray that God will change the heart of our leaders .
• We should bombard the throne of heaven on behalf of our country.

Most importantly we should believe that God could and would change the heart of the king if we pray and care!

Are you doing your part for America?

Isaiah 43:2, “When thou passest through the waters, I will be with thee; and through the rivers, they shall not overflow thee:  when thou walkest through the fire, thou shalt not be burned; neither shall the flame kindle upon thee.”

 In this verse God is promising His presence in the life of His people.

“I will be with thee..”

After making this statement, God goes on to list some pretty harrowing circumstances – deep water – and fire.

Basically. God is saying that–no matter what hardships or circumstances you are facing in your life, you do not need to be afraid because He is going through them with you.

I quote Isaiah 41:13 frequently in my mind, “For I the Lord thy God will hold thy right hand, saying unto thee, Fear not; I will help thee.”

These two verses fit nicely together. God not only promises to be with us in all the problems of life but He promises to hold our right hand as we go through them.

Notice that there is no promise here of our not having problems or hardships – only that we need not fear them or be overwhelmed by them. God will be with us to help us through all of them — no matter how serious they are.

Claim these promises of God and there will be peace in the chaos of this life!

The other day I heard a terrible cry at my patio door. It sounded like two cats fighting.  I opened the door, and my cat came rushing in as a neighbor’s cat went scrambling down the path.  He was obviously harassing her.  She knew that safety was available in her home and she was crying out, “Let me in, I need help.”  As she sat in my lap purring, I think she was actually smiling (well, it looked that way to me).  She seemed so happy to be out of dangers way.

This situation made me think about the verse found in Psalms:

Psalm 46:1, “God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.”

This is a short verse with a mega message!

A ‘refuge’ is a shelter or place of protection from danger or distress. ‘Strength’ is firmness, power, support or security.  And ‘present’ means ready, at hand, now existing, and available. (1828, Dictionary)

Put all these thoughts together and we have a wonderful promise from God Himself to us His children.

God is our place of protection and shelter. He will give us the strength we need to meet all the demands of our daily lives.  He is always ready and available to help us.  (I don’t know if cats can smile but this verse definitely warms my heart and makes ME smile.)

The fact that God loves us and desires to be an active part of our lives should be a great encouragement to us. We don’t need to muster up the strength to face the trials of life.  We just need to go to the door of God’s love and cry – let me in, I need help.  He is always there ready to open that door – all we need to do is knock!

Matthew 5:6, “Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled.”

What a great promise! Our part is to desire and want to know God’s truths, and God’s part is to satisfy and fill us.  Since the Scriptures are the only way we can learn about what God teaches about righteousness, we need to have a desire to know the Word.

Hungering and thirsting are pretty strong emotions.  God wants us to have the same intensity of desire to know His Word and His ways.  This hungering and thirsting after righteousness is satisfied when we are actually in the Word of God studying.  It seems that nowadays everyone is so busy.  This seems to be the most common excuse people use for not reading the Scriptures and mediating on what they read.  The second most common excuse I hear is that, “I’m too tired.”

These two areas may seem like legitimate reasons to neglect our devotional time with God. But, are they really?  I think not.  Life can be busy and we can be tired by the end of the day but the truth is we find time for many of the things that we desire to do:  watch T.V., read a newspaper, talk on the phone, check out face book, work on the computer, etc.    If we are truly hungering and thirsting to fellowship with God and grow in the knowledge of His Word, we will find time to do so.

My challenge for you today is to evaluate the way you spend your time and decide if your priorities are what they should be – God first – before everything else!

Psalm 116:1 “I love the LORD, because he hath heard my voice and my supplications.”

I love God because of WHO He is. I love God because He sent His Son to die for me. I love God because He has saved me and I have a place in Heaven reserved for me.

I love God for many reasons, so this verse made me stop and think. God showed me this was, in truth, one of the reasons that I love Him. The deep felt love that I have for God comes from the fact that I can personally see Him working in my life.

• I have prayed and He has answered.
  I have asked and He has replied.
  I have sought direction and He has led.
  I have followed His Word and He has blessed.

It truly is an amazing thing that God cares about me and you so much that He hears our prayers and supplications. He is a PERSONAL God and this personal relationship grows each day because of His presence in our lives.

Psalm 116:2, is a continuation of this truth:

“Because he hath inclined his ear unto me, therefore will I call upon Him as long as I live.”

I CALL   –   HE ANSWERS   

What a great truth!