Articles for September 2017

Matthew 11:28, 29 “Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.  Take my yoke upon you and learn of me: for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest for your souls.”

People often think that when they accept Christ that their difficulties and problems are going to disappear. It is important to realize that this is not what the Word of God teaches.  Christians do have needs.  Christians do face hardships – some quite devastating.  What the Bible does promise is that Jesus will give us strength to get us through our problems, comfort to ease the pain, and as Matthew 11:28 says, “rest” in the midst of our difficulties.  In other words, we do not have to face these hardships alone.

Remember, hardships can help us to mature in our Christian walk.  You’ve heard the saying “A smooth sea, never made a skillful sailor.”  Well, a problem free life never makes a “trusting” Christian.

If you are heavy laden with a great burden, Jesus says come and I will give you rest. It is interesting that He should use the word “rest”.  He doesn’t say, come unto me and I will take all of your problems away.  He doesn’t say that He will solve every difficulty in our lives.  What He does say is that He will be with us and give us rest in the midst of these problems.  What a great promise!

The conditions of Matthew 11:28, 29 are plain – we are to come to Jesus with our burdens, we are to walk beside Him (yoked with Him) and we are to learn of Him (be in the Word).  When we do these things,  we can then claim this promise of “rest.”

Proverbs 22:19a, “That thy trust may be in the Lord…” 

Trusting God is a major theme in the Scriptures. I believe we could probably talk about trust and write about it every day and never exhaust the truths about this very basic trait that God desires for us to have.

Trust is believing that God is in control and all that is happening is in His hands. This seems to be a very difficult thing for us to do.  There are probably several reasons for this:  we may feel that God is moving too slow to handle a problem, or perhaps He doesn’t care about a particular need, or we may feel that if we don’t take over, nothing will be accomplished – at least not the way WE want it to be.

Several years ago, I realized that I was instructing God in my prayers on how to answer a need. I would lay out what needed to be done and how it should be done.  At some point the Holy Spirit convicted my heart and made me realize that God did not need my help in answering a prayer and that He often had something completely different in mind about how it should be handled.  This was a good lesson for me to learn (well, almost learn – I still revert back to instructing God occasionally, but the Holy Spirit is always here to remind me to let go – and let God do it His way.)

I wonder how many times a day we exhibit a lack of trusting God by our actions and thoughts. Trust is a discipline.  It should be a way of life.  Trusting to follow when we don’t understand where God is leading, or when we do not understand what He is doing, can be very difficult.  It is contrary to our nature. We need to join in with the disciples and ask the Lord to “Increase our faith,”  as stated in Luke 17:5.  God does want us to present all our cares and needs to Him, (I Peter 5:7), – but He also wants us to leave it up to Him how He chooses to answer those needs.  That is what TRUST is all about!

Proverbs 21:3,   “To do justice and judgment is more acceptable to the Lord than sacrifice.” 

The 1828 dictionary defines:

Justice as impartiality, equity, fair dealing and
Judgment as comparing facts and arguments and then evaluating the facts.

This blog goes along with the blog of a few days ago – same truth, same principle.

This verse is basically saying that to live right and to choose right, holds more weight with God than to make a sacrifice. Man is an interesting creature – somehow he/she feels that to give up something for the Lord is one step toward making themselves more holy.  But, if they continually choose wrong over right and live lives that are a poor testimony (not living according to God’s principles as shown in the Scriptures) their sacrifice has no value.

God makes His truths quite clear in His Word.   He is clearly saying that to live right is more honoring and pleasing to Him than sacrifice. God is looking at your heart – He wants you to live in a manner that will be a testimony before the world.   Your life should be a statement that He has made a difference in your life.  You will be fair and honest in all your dealings.  You will not make snap judgments but will consider all the facts and seek God’s wisdom in your decisions.

God cares about how you act. He cares that you be fair and use good judgment.  Your choices matter to Him.  If you want your life to be acceptable to God choose right over wrong – live separated and holy lives!

Proverbs 19:23a, “The fear of the Lord tendeth to life: and he that hath it shall abide satisfied…” 

The fear of the Lord. The awe of God is really what life is all about.  To recognize that God cares about you and is part of your life and that He has a will for you – is amazing.  This person’s life will be satisfied – he will be content with whatever a day brings forth.  There will be no fretting or anxiety because he knows that God is in control and He cares about all that happens to him.

Abide satisfied is a far reaching statement. How much satisfaction do most people have in their life?  Most seem to always be striving for more – something else, something better.  They are never content.  They never seem to have enough.

So what’s the answer? The answer is to keep your eyes on the Lord and be satisfied with whatever He gives you.  Now, this does not mean you are to sit back and do nothing.  God does not give us a license to be lazy.  He wants us to be hard working and productive.  It’s the motivation that is center stage here.  Are you working hard to improve your life and honor God or are you working hard because you are ‘dissatisfied’ and want more things?

Our satisfaction should be in the Lord. We should work hard and appreciate all that He gives us.  This is a life that will please God and a life that will be satisfied in this very unsatisfied world!

Proverbs 20:17, “Bread of deceit is sweet to a man; but afterwards his mouth shall be filled with gravel. 

Sin almost always seems to be sweet – for the moment.
Pleasure seeking seems joyful – for the moment.
Being deceitful to promote a desire, seems worthwhile – for the moment.

This verse is another example of God’s great way of teaching a truth. It’s easy to picture how when we eat something that tastes good, it will give us pleasure.  But, if it suddenly turned to gravel in your mouth – that is disgusting.  This is the way that God describes being deceitful and not truthful. It’s a very good description of SIN.

Often, we talk ourselves into doing things that we know will not please God. We deceive ourselves that sin is okay because we want something, or we want to do something. Man can be a master at manipulating and twisting truth when he or she has a desire.  God is saying – beware, it may seem sweet and like a good idea now, but you are being deceitful and lying to yourself and others.  Watch out – it will result in something quite DISTASTEFUL!

Proverbs 17:1, “Better is a dry morsel, and quietness therein, than an house full of sacrifices with strife.”

I love the visual aids that God uses in His Word. You get a clear picture of what He wants you to know in words you can clearly understand.

Here, we see a house that claims to be spiritual – offering many sacrifices to God but it is filled with strife and anger. This is a house that is not truly honoring God.  They are going through the motions but their heart is not where it is supposed to be.

Next, we see a home that does not have much to offer – only a dry morsel of food. I picture in my mind that there is a quiet spirit there.  The food is meager and not impressive but the people around the table are talking and sharing.  There is joy and peace there and love is demonstrated.  God says that this home is better than the home that appears to have much but is filled with strife.

Attitude, attitude, attitude.   Outwardly you may be doing everything you are supposed to be doing – but your spirit and attitude are wrong.   This can affect every aspect of your life and also affect all of those that are around you.  This kind of life does not honor God.

God does not measure the success of your life by how much money you have but by how much love you have. Being obedient to God and His Word should never be ignored.  But, obedience with anger and strife is a poor testimony before the world and is not what God desires of us.

Remember, God cares about your attitude. Ask Him to help you have a right attitude as you serve Him.  We can all be rich in: love, thanksgiving, and a quiet spirit.  We just need to focus on the things that really matter!

Jeremiah 42:3, “That the LORD thy God may shew us the way wherein we may walk,and the thing that we may do.” 

Every morning when we wake up, we have a whole day ahead of us with many choices and potential paths to follow. I am not a morning person so I honestly cannot say that my mind is racing (more like plodding) though the plans for the day.  There are things to accomplish, places to go, and much to do.

I love this verse in Jeremiah because it causes me to focus on the fact that I need to stop and consult God concerning His path for me during the day.  God actually cares how we spend our time and desires for us to ASK Him what He wants us to do and where He wants us to go.

It amazes me that God cares so much for each one of us that He wants to direct our lives on a daily basis. We certainly cannot ask for a better guide!

The truth is that we often do not even think to ask God to direct our day. We are so busy plodding through the day- choosing our own path and doing our own things that we do not even consult God about what He desire for us to do.  Shame on us!

My challenge to you this week is that you join Jeremiah in his prayer and ask God each morning as you wake up to guide you and lead you through the day. I dare say, at the end of the day you will feel like you have succeeded in doing what you should have done – instead of regretting time wasted.

Proverbs 28:6, “Better is the poor that walketh in his uprightness, than he that is perverse in his ways, though he be rich.”

If we would only learn to see life through the eyes of God, our attitude about many things would be so different. God has given us the ability to do this through the reading of His Word.  He has revealed many truths to us in the Scriptures about how He desires for us to live and what is truly important in this life.

We need to search the Bible to find out what God considers important and pursue incorporating these qualities into our lifes. God puts a great deal of emphasis in the Scriptures on walking uprightly.  To live honestly, with integrity, is on the top of God’s list.

It can be tough to be poor. We can lack so many of the ‘wants’ of life and paying your bills may be hard,  BUT – God says if you are living honestly and uprightly you are better than the rich person who lives for self and ignores God.

The first principle of RU (Reformers Unanimous) is, “If God is against it. So am I.”  The flip side to this statement is, “If God is for it.  So am I.”  We ought to be searching the Scriptures daily to find the things that please God and then we need to DO them.  Man measures success by how much money and goods that a person has.  God measures success in how closely you are desiring to follow His Word.