Articles for July 2017

Psalm 69:17, “And hide not thy face from thy servant; for I am in trouble: hear me speedily.” 

The psalmist David is pleading with God to hear him. His very words are:  “for I am in trouble: hear me speedily”

How often has this been our prayer – different circumstance but with the same urgency.

This is a quote from my book “I Want to be a Better Me for God” Chapter 20, page 76.

“So often we have a need. It is real, it is important, it is critical that we receive an answer quickly (or so we think.)  But many times God does not rush to answer our prayers.  It is not because He does not understand our need or that He does not care.  The truth is, He can see all the aspects involved in answering our prayer.  He has a divine purpose and plan.  He knows what is best.  It really is a matter of trust on our part.  Don’t give up hope.  Learn to wait — the blessings will be greater and the glory to God will be greater!”

It’s okay to ask God to answer your prayers speedily, but if He doesn’t, trust that He has a plan and a purpose for making you wait. God’s timing is always right!

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!

Proverbs 6:23, “For the commandment is a lamp; and the law is light; and reproofs of instruction are the way of life;” 

The commandments of God are a lamp–they light up the way and show us what God expects of us. We would never know what pleases God or what God considers sin if we did not have His Word and His commandments.

God does not leave us in the dark concerning how He wants us to live.  He desires that we walk in light and provides that light in His Word. Not only do we need to be in the Word regularly but we need to be open to what God is teaching us.

People fuss about rules. They do not want to be told what to do.  Unfortunately, — some even don’t want God to tell them what to do.  BUT, God does tell us in His word what He expects of us – many times, over and over again.  He makes it perfectly clear how we are to live in a manner that will please Him.  This should not be a burden for the Christian but it should make us thankful that we can KNOW what God wants from us.

The last part of this verse says that the reproofs of instruction are the way of life. This verse is saying that when we stray from God’s way, He is there to show us the error of our way and encourage us back into the fold.  (Sometimes gently and sometimes more forcefully.  It all depends on how well we are listening!)  For our life to stay on track for God, reproof is often necessary.

Know the Word and follow the Word and your path with be lighted by God Himself as you walk through each day!

Proverbs 24:10, “If thou faint in the day of adversity, thy strength is small.” 

I believe that we all desire to be strong. How can we prepare ourselves to stand in the storms of life?  Where can we find strength to meet the trials that may be hurled at us?  It is for sure that our drummed up self-will won’t hold us up during these times.

There is only one answer and that is our strength must come from the Lord.

• We must be fed and nourished daily by the Word of God.
• We must develop endurance by walking with the Lord and keeping our eyes upon Him.
• We must learn to depend on Him and trust Him in all the trials of life.
• We must pray and ask God to increase our faith and help us to stand.

There are a whole lot of ‘must do’s’ in those preceding sentences but they are all necessary if we are to be able to stand in the day of adversity.

God is the only one that can hold us up when there is a threat to us and our faith. I fear that hard times may be ahead for the Christian.  We may be called upon to stand up for Jesus as we never have had to before. We can be confident that we will not faint because our strength is not our own but it is coming from God.  Isaiah 40:29,  “He giveth power to the faint; and to them that hath no might he increaseth strength.”  Claim this promise!

Isaiah 40:31, sums this truth up nicely. “But they that wait upon the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk and not faint.”

Remember this promise of strength is to them the WAIT UPON THE LORD.

Psalm 33:12, “Blessed is the nation whose God is the LORD; and the people whom he hath chosen for his own inheritance.” 

I have a sign in my window (pictured in today’s blog). It simply says, ‘God Bless America.’  I feel it might easily read, ‘God Judge America,’ because  judgment is on the horizon if America does not change its ways.

When you read the Scriptures, God is SO clear concerning the standards that He desires for people to live. Nations are made up of people so how the individual lives matters to God.  When the people of a nation turn their back on God, there is no way that they will escape His judgment.  Unfortunately, America has taken this downward path away from God:

There is no reverence for God’s Word the Bible.  The Scriptures have been taken out of our schools and our government.  Drugs and alcohol are rampant.  Immorality is the standard of living.  There is no respect for God or His directives in today’s living.  Wrong living is applauded and righteous living is criticized and belittled.

II Chronicles 7:14 says, “If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.”

Christian – you are the only one that can stand in the gap between God’s blessings and God’s judgment. You have to be the one who will seek God’s face and pray and humble yourself before Him.  You have to be the one that will preach the gospel and warn our nation of God’s judgment if they do not turn to Christ and accept what He did for them on the cross.

The answer to the question, “Can God Bless America?”,  is simple –  ‘Yes, He can’  –  but, it is highly unlikely that He will bless a country that is living so contrary to His Word and His standards.

Christian, you need to allow God to use you to spread the gospel because
Jesus is the only hope for America!

Ephesians 4:26, “Be ye angry, and sin not: let not the sun go down upon your wrath. 

God’s Word is filled with so much wisdom. He knows man’s nature so well and He pinpoints areas that we need to deal with in order to be the testimony for Him that He desires.

When we are angry, we tend to act with quickness and harshness. We are so opened to acting irrationally during this time.  We seem to lose control and focus concerning what is really important (being a good testimony for the Lord) and we often sin as a result.

God knows that anger will come into our life, and He is addressing this issue here. He seems to be saying, “Okay, I know you will get angry…but don’t let that anger carry you into sin.”  Nip it in the bud, short circuit it, and be the testimony you should be for the Me.   When we are angry it seems that our whole being is caught up in the emotion.  There is no room for praising God, praying, or reading God’s Word.

The second half of this verse, “let not the sun go down on your wrath,” is God telling us not to hold grudges.  We are not to stew and fret over what we perceive as an injustice.  Let go of it.  (You need to give it over to the Lord and then ask for His help to leave it there.)  God knows that fuming and replaying something over and over again in your mind will hurt you more than the person you are angry with.  This advice from God is for you.  God says that before your head hits the pillow, resolve the problem so you can face tomorrow with a spirit that can serve and please Him!

Remember – Anger not only affects your emotions, but it also affects your testimony!

I John 2:3, “And hereby we do know that we know Him, if…” 

I John chapter two gives us a clear check list to see if our salvation is genuine. Are we who we say we are?  If so, there will be certain things that will be evident in our life.

1. If we know Him we will keep His commandments. (v.3)   (Plain and simple we will do what He says in His Word.)
2. We will keep His Word.  (v.5)   (In order to keep His Word, we must know the Word.  We will be studying and meditating and following what He tells us in the Scriptures.)
3. We will walk even as He walked.  (v.6)   (Jesus will be our example and we will try to pattern our life after Him.)
4. We will love our brothers.  (v.10)   (There will be a genuine love and fellowship with other believers.  We are now part of the family of God and this will be evident in our lives.)
5. We will not love the world. (v.15)   (We will separate ourselves from the activities of this world.  We will be DIFFERENT!)

This is a well rounded description of ‘Who’ the Christian is: He knows the Word and follows the Word.  He tries to live as Jesus lived.  He loves other Christians and it shows.  He does not participate in worldly activities and is different from the world.

Remember, these are God’s standards for the Christian. How do you measure up?