Articles for April 2017

II Corinthians 5:17, “Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.” 

What a great verse – You are not who you were before you got saved. When you accepted Jesus as your Saviour, your life changed forever.  You no longer have to live within the limits of your own abilities.  —  You’ve always been shy and retiring , God can make you outgoing and friendly.  You may have had an anger problem, God can give you a quiet and controlled spirit.  Philippians 4:13 is a very real promise from God and worth trusting,  “I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me.”

The Holy Spirit is now living in you (I Corinthians 6:19-20). He is there to help, teach, guide, and strengthen you (John 14:26).  His help is always available to you, BUT you can still take control of your own life and hinder His work.  God does not force you to follow His leading, but remember, there will be no joy in the old way of living.  If you stray from God, the Holy Spirit is there to convict you.  He wants to lead you back to the right path!

If God calls you to do something, you can be assured that He will give you the strength you need to do it. You are now a child of God and He loves you.  He desires to help you walk through this life in a manner that will please Him and make your life more abundant. (John 10:10b)

It is a wonderful truth that you can now live in the strength of God, because you are a new person forever changed by God’s grace.

James 2:18, “Yea, a man may say, Thou hast faith, and I have works:  shew me thy faith without thy works, and I will shew thee my faith by my works.”

We can declare anything we want to with our lips, but if there is no action to back up the words – they mean nothing. I can tell you all–ll–ll day long that I believe there is a God in heaven who cares about me and is in control of all that happens in my life, but if this is not demonstrated in my actions my message has no effect.

This is not a new truth or thought. Sometimes our actions are in direct conflict with what we claim that we believe.  When we worry, fret, or complain, we are actually demonstrating a lack of belief in the fact that God cares about us and is in control.  When we don’t read and meditate on God’s Word,  we are actually telling God that we can handle life on our own and we don’t need His strength and direction.

Our spiritual food comes from the Scriptures and to neglect our daily Bible reading makes us weak and ineffective spiritually. When we are ‘fed up’ and nourished from God’s Word, then we will have the strength and ability to do the works of God.

Truly, we demonstrate our faith by our works. As you walk through each day, ask God to help you to be the example He desires for you to be.  Be a doer and not a talker only!

Psalm 16:11, “Thou wilt shew me the path of life: in thy presence is fulness of joy; at thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore.” 

This is a promise from God that He will show us the path – of life.  This is really awesome.  We don’t have to flounder and stumble through life not knowing which direction we should take.  God can look out over the span of time and know the exact road that we should walk.  He has a plan and a purpose for your life and mine.  God is no respecter of persons.  He will direct any life that is willing to follow His directions.

What’s the difference between someone that is accomplishing great works for God and others that seem to be doing very little? The answer is not that God loves them more.  It’s because they have gotten on that path that God has called them to walk and they are following His leading.  God will use any of us that are willing to take His path and not our own.

Please understand that not all paths are the same. God sees you and the mission that He has planned for you and He will direct you accordingly.  No one job is more important than another – it’s just different.  God promises to show YOU the path that YOU should walk, but, YOU have to be the one that gets on that path and stays on it.

I love the last part of this verse that tells us where this path is leading. It leads to fulness of joy and pleasures for evermore.  This joy and pleasure comes from walking side by side down this road with your Heavenly Father.  The circumstance of life may lead you into hardships and storms but you always have the assurance that God is with you and He will help you.

No matter where you are in the span of your life, it’s not too late to get on this path.  Jump on now and finish the course with Him!

Lamentations 3:57, “Thou drewest near in the day that I called upon thee: thou saidst, Fear not.” 

This verse is talking about Jeremiah (a man) calling out to God to help him. How did God answer?  He drew near and said,  “Fear not.”

This is a clear illustration of the relationship between a man and God. The man (Jeremiah) called and God answered.  The Bible says in Jeremiah 33:3,  “Call unto me, and I will answer thee, and shew thee great and mighty things, which thou knowest not.”  This is an invitation from God Himself.  This is God reaching down to man and offering to be there for him.

We need to understand that God wants to help us in the chaos of this life.  He wants to draw near to us and put His loving arms around us and say, “Fear not.” But – He requires something from us – we need to call out to Him for this help and fellowship.  We call – God answers.  We need to acknowledge the fact that God wants to help us and then acknowledge that He will help us if we call.  (Please make sure there is no known sin in your life breaking the fellowship between you and God.  If so, confess it and move on.  (I John 1:9.)

Often we apologize for burdening God with our needs.  We sometimes feel that we are bothering Him when we bring Him our troubles.  Please understand that this is not the case.  God desires for us to bring our cares to Him (I Peter 5:7).  He actually instructs us to do so.

God wants to be a part of our lives. We need to start calling upon Him for every need we have, and then we can watch the ‘fears’ of life melt away!

Psalm 25:4, “Shew me thy ways, O LORD; teach me my paths.” 

As I read this verse, I picture two very important truths concerning our walk with God. One is asking God to reveal how He wants us to live.  The other is asking Him to show us the path that we should be taking as we walk through this life.  I feel that every day we should include these two areas in our prayers as we seek to grow in our Christian life.

First is:  Show me thy ways.  I believe that this is asking God to open up with clarity the way that He desires that you should live.  It’s asking Him to enlighten you as you read His Word and enable you to see the things that He wants you to know. Ask Him to show you how to live in a manner that will be pleasing to Him and will be a testimony before the world. This is reading with meditation.  Don’t read His Word quickly and without thought; you will miss out on so many precious truths.

Second is:  Teach me my paths. Teaching is instruction, communicating knowledge. To learn and to gain knowledge takes work and effort.  You are asking the Holy Spirit to instruct you so that you can know the path that God desires for you to walk. You need to be disciplined and consistent in your Bible reading seeking direction in all the decisions of life. You want to follow God, so you will make a commitment to that end.

Ask God to ‘show’ you His ways and to ‘teach’ you His paths as you do your Bible reading. He promises that He will!

Psalm 37:3a, “Trust in the Lord”

Yesterday’s blog ended with the question, “How can I learn to Trust God more?” I believe the only way to develop trust is to seek a closer walk with God. You personally need to experience His trustworthiness.  When we ourselves experience that we can trust God, then and only then do we start living the way God desires for us to live.

My telling you to trust God will not help you to develop this trust. You need to do the work. You need to discover for yourself that God is worthy to be trusted.  This can only be done by reading His Word and then putting into practice what God is teaching you.

Here is my challenge to you. I am writing the references for a few of the verses in the Bible that talk about trust and believing God.  Get a notebook and write out each verse and then (this is an important part of this exercise) write out what God is saying to you in this verse.  Ask the Holy Spirit to teach you and open your eyes to the truths that God desires for you to learn.  I recommend doing one verse a day – think about the verse and meditate on it.

Here is my list – you don’t have to stop here.  There are many, many verses that talk about trusting God, believing God, and having faith in God.  Get a concordance and add to this list.  You will receive a ‘super blessing’ – guaranteed!

• Proverbs 3:5-6                        Psalm 56:3                              II Samuel 22:3
• Psalm 5:11                              Proverbs 29:25                       Psalm 9:10
• Psalm 18:2                              Proverbs 30:5                         Isaiah 26:3
• Psalm 28:7                              Nahum 1:7                              Psalm 37:40
• Hebrews 11:1                         Mark 9:23                               Psalm 107:8-9

This is only a very small sampling of verses dealing with trust as presented in the Scriptures. Hopefully you will search out many more on your own.  Fill your notebook with God’s promises.

Trust, is an ongoing process. It needs to be nurtured and practiced on a daily basis.  Remember God is worthy and our lives will be so much more productive and richer when we TRUST HIM!

Psalm 31:1a, “In thee, O LORD, do I put my trust;”

 So what is Trust? The 1828 dictionary says:  Trust is confidence; a reliance or resting of the mind in the integrity, veracity, justice of another.  To place confidence in; to rely on.

Good definition – this is how God desires for us to live. He wants us to:

• Have confidence in Him apart from our ‘logic’ and need to understand. Proverbs 3:5,6 cannot be any clearer. “Trust in the LORD with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths”  Believe that God is working. Trust that He will work out all the details of a situation in His time.
• Rely on His mercies and promises. Rely means to have a conviction and certainty in the ability of someone to do what they say.   God’s Word is sure and forever settled in Heaven. If He promises something, you can be sure He will do it. Romans 4:21 says, “And being fully persuaded that, what he had promised, he was able also to perform.”
• Rest in our hearts and minds. Stress and rest cannot coincide with each other. Trust always produces a resting of the mind because you KNOW that God is taking care of the matter. Psalm 37:7a says, “Rest in the Lord, and wait patiently for him:”

Trust is leaving a matter with God and not digging it up every other minute. Trust is having confidence in God and relying on Him with rest in your heart because you know He is in control.

Tomorrow we will be dealing with — “How can I learn to Trust God more?”  (Stay tuned – there is an answer!)

Isaiah 41:10, “Fear thou not; for I am with thee: be not dismayed; for I am thy God:  I will strengthen thee; yea, I will help thee; yea, I will uphold thee with the right hand of my righteousness.”

I think the one great hindrance we have in this life can be summed up in one four letter word – ‘fear’.  Fear can hinder us in our service to God and limit our accomplishments in life.  Fear is like an octopus with many legs stretching out in different directions wanting to choke us.

There is: Fear of failure, fear of appearing foolish, fear of losing one’s health, fear of losing a loved one, fear of speaking in public, fear of doing what God is asking you to do, fear of not having enough money……Boy, this is getting depressing!  This list could be endless.  The fact is we all have fears.  It’s how we handle them that makes the difference.

We need to realize that fear is a thief. It robs us of our peace and happiness.  It consumes our thoughts and makes us miserable.  It causes us to focus on circumstances around us instead of focusing on the Lord.  We need to look fear straight in the eye and call it what it is – SIN.

Fear is saying to God – You cannot handle this situation, I know it is too hard for You. Fear or worry tells God in a loud clear shout that you don’t trust that He is in control and that He cares about you.  I know we would not say this with our mouth – but we often say it with our actions.

So, how can a Christian combat fear in their lives? The answer is clear and simple – TRUST GOD.

Come to think about it – this is the answer to every problem of life.  If our eyes could just stay focused on God and realize He is in total control of all that is happening, we could accomplish so much more for Him.

I have now identified a problem – tomorrow we will start working on the solution that we can all follow to make our lives happier and more productive for God.

Luke 11:9,10, “And I say unto you, Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you.  For every one that asketh receiveth; and he that seeketh findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened.” 

Don’t let the familiarity of these verses rob you of the wonderful truths represented in them. 

Ask: request, petition, desire.
Seek: to go after, to press, inquire.
Knock: to strike, to knock at a door.

All these words are action words. Actions that God says WE are to do.

Ask – This is to request and petition God with the things that you have need of or desire. Don’t assume that God will just take care of everything.  He is the one who is telling us to ask.  When we ask and He answers, we will recognize that He has worked.  He wants us to experience His presence in our lives and this is done through answered prayer.

Seek – This represents work on our part. To seek is more than just meandering along.   It’s a focus on wanting to find something.  You want to grow closer to God.  You want to know His will in a matter.  You want to know how to live in a manner that is pleasing to Him.   God says to search for the answers in the Scriptures.  Be diligent and seek until you find the answer.

Knock – This is an escalation of emotion and action. We are now getting more aggressive; we are using a greater force to making our needs known.  When we knock on a door we are saying, “I’m here, hear me, open up!”  God is telling us in this verse that it is okay to knock on the door of heaven with our needs and desires.

God wants to be an active part of our lives. He wants us to know that He has the answers to meet every need we have.  BUT, we have a part in this process – we need to: ask, seek, and knock.

God says in verse 10 that when we do these things – we will receive, we will find, and it will be opened unto us. This is a promise from God, Himself.  You can believe it and you can count on it!

 
Webster’s Dictionary defines ‘Happiness’ as a state of well being and contentment, joy, pleasure.

We often hear people say that they just want to be happy. There are many verses in the Bible that tell us how to find this state of contentment but today we are going to zero in on two of them.

               Proverbs 8:32b, “…for blessed are they that keep my ways.”
               Proverbs 8:34a, “Blessed is the man that heareth me…” 

All the things that people reach for and labor to achieve in life mostly bring stress and frustration, but not true happiness. Somewhere along the way we have put our relationship to God at the back of the line.  The pursuit of wealth, possessions, and pleasure, have taken first place.  Our focus on life has become mixed up and out of order.

True happiness comes from trusting and serving God. To wake up every morning knowing that God loves you and you have a future with Him forever in Heaven, should bring joy and peace to your life – no matter what is going on around you or how much money you have.

Keep God’s ways – read the Bible and follow what it says. (Proverbs 8:32b)
Hear what God is telling you – listen with your heart and be open to His commandments. Put His will before your own.  (Proverbs 8:34a)

God says when you do these things, your life will be blessed and happy. Trust Him and strive to put first things first in your life.  (Matthew 6:33)

True happiness is available to all of us, if we follow God’s plan!