Challenged

Philippians 4: 19                    God’s Word

My God will richly fill your every need in a glorious way through Christ Jesus.

Do you believe this verse? I mean do you really, really believe it? Today’s Word of the Day is not, surprisingly, about God meeting your needs. It is about believing. It is about challenging our beliefs. The truth is, most of us don’t really believe the Bible. We believe a version of the Bible. As we read the Bible we need to learn to challenge our belief system asking whether it agrees with the Bible.

Here is another verse, “By His stripes we are healed,” (Isaiah 53: 5) or its New Testament partner, 1 Peter 2: 24By His wounds you were healed.” Do you believe you were and, therefore, are healed? That is what it means to challenge your belief system.

We encounter verses frequently which are just over the top lavish. Here is another one for you, “Now glory be to God, who by his mighty power at work within us is able to do far more than we would ever dare to ask or even dream of—infinitely beyond our highest prayers, desires, thoughts, or hopes,” (Ephesians 3: 20 TLB). How much can we believe that our God really wants to and is going to bless us? How many caveats do we have for each of these verses?

Our belief system is built one verse at a time. You encounter verses like these and you have to spend time with them before you can really believe they are true. How about the verses that tell us to not to fear? How do you get those into your structure? Most people, including Christians, that I hear, talk about fear. They have more belief in fear than in faith. Why? We simply have not integrated God’s Word and our lives. We don’t stop and evaluate our lives in light of the Word. Everyday day when you read the Word of the Day you should look at the verse and ask how fully you believe it and how thoroughly you have slotted into your life paradigm. Do you live that verse? Does it affect who you are? If the words of the Bible aren’t changing your life then you are not allowing the Word of God to do its work. We have to run headlong into these verses and challenge ourselves to believe.

It is an ongoing practice and I doubt anyone has fully integrated every single verse in the Bible but that is our goal. Each week, we ought to become a little more Bible infused. We ought to think more and more like God and less and less as the world does. So, as you read the Bible, stop and ask yourself if you really believe what you just read. Did your mind simply acknowledge the words without affecting your beliefs? The Bible should challenge you. You won’t always like what it says, at least until you let the Holy Spirit teach you about it, but engage it, work with it and let it change your life.

Bible Challenge

Psalm 82: 6

I said, “You are gods, and all of you are sons of the Most High.”

We are all children of the Most High. Did you also know that we are all gods? Is that a difficult thought? For most of us the answer is probably, “yes.” This is the challenge of the gospel, we must learn to except God’s Word even when it challenges our thinking. The task is to come to understand what God is saying to us. Our first reaction to challenging passages may be to shy away from them or even disregard them completely. Hey, that is only natural. However, we don’t want to be natural people. Right? We want to live in the supernatural.

My prayer for all of you is that 2017 eclipses any previous year; that you have more interpersonal experience with God than ever before. I pray that this year brings you unparalleled interaction with the Holy Trinity. In order for us to receive and understand revelation from God, we must be open to ideas we have not encountered before. We have to accept God’s teachings and trust that in time He will show us the fullness.

So we begin this year being told we are gods. What does this mean for our lives? We shall accept that it is true and we have all year to learn how this truth impacts our daily lives. It should be a fascinating journey.