God’s Will

On June 28, 2019   /   Word of the Day   /   Leave a comment

Psalm 37: 4             NLT

Take delight in the Lord, and he will give you your heart’s desires.

A friend of my emailed me this week, closing her message with “God’s will be done.” That is a heartening expression, is it not? What I heard in it was, “Not the world’s will but God’s will be done.” I am sending out a proposal and I believe it is God’s will so naturally, I want the people who must decide on the idea to follow God’s will. I don’t want them to bend to the world’s pressures, fear, ignorance or any other obstacle. So yeah, God’s will be done in this situation, as in all.

When I read her email, though, it did send me off thinking about something I have been pondering for a while and today’s verse captures the concept. God is willing to give me the desires of my heart because I take my delight in Him. I want you to see this verse from the Passion Translation too. It reads, “Make God the utmost delight and pleasure of your life, and he will provide for you what you desire the most.” This version clarifies what it means to “take delight in the Lord.” He should be the source of pleasure. He should bring smiles to our faces and we should want to be with him.

Now, I think I qualify for the first part of that verse. God is delightful to me. So, that takes me to the second part, He will give me the desires of my heart. So, I ask myself, whose will is this about, His or mine? This project is my desire. It is important that He approve but the truth today’s verse points out is that He is waiting for us to say something. He wants to know what I want, what my will is.

Of course, we all want to be in God’s will. I guess that goes without saying but it is important to note that He will give you the desires of your heart sometimes even when it is not His will. The Israelites wanted a king (1 Samuel 8: 5). It was not God’s will for them. Samuel warned them sternly about this path, but they insisted on being like the other nations and having a king, so, God told Samuel to, “Listen to their voice and appoint them a king,” (1 Samuel 8: 22). And so, Israel got a king. You might recognize his name. It was Saul. Eventually the kingdom was wrenched from Saul’s hands and given to David. Thus, what the people wanted did not serve them well, but God turned it around for them anyway.

The point I wish to make is that God is looking to you. He wants to know what your will is. It is not as though He did not counsel Israel about the wisdom of her choice. He does that. He will speak to your dreams and desires too but first you must communicate them to Him. That is how it works.

Too often we sit on our laurels waiting for God to do something or say something and He is looking to us to say something. “What do you want, children?” I love what my friend meant when she wrote about God’s will being done relative to my project. She had already agreed to pray for it, so her statement was like an exclamation point. Other times, though, I have sensed that people use that expression as an excuse to do nothing. There is another cute phrase I heard years ago when I lived in San Diego. It says, “God can’t steer a parked car.” That has always ministered to me. If we will start the engine, put the car in gear and begin on a determined course, our Father will act as navigator and direct our steps. Everything in the Bible tells us He will guide us. There is not theology or scripture, though, for sit in your recliner and wait for God to do something.

So, what is your will? What is your desire? What will bring you joy and fulfillment? Maybe your recliner needs an eject button. Stir yourself up. Of course, take it to Dad and let Him speak to your goals and embellish your ideas. He has great creative chops. He will bless the work of your hands and everything you set your hand to. So, start dreaming. Start thinking about what you would like to accomplish. It’s not ALL about His will. It’s not all about His desire. It just may be about the desire He has planted in your heart.

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No Lack

On March 8, 2019   /   Word of the Day   /   Leave a comment

Psalm 34: 10

The young lions do lack and suffer hunger; but they who seek the Lord shall not be in want of any good thing.

You know, I really didn’t mean to get waylaid on this “seeking” thing. However, I just can’t seem to get away from it. Today’s verse gives us a really good reason to seek God, i.e. to avoid lack.

Young lions have the power to meet their needs. No beast can stand against them. Lions have even been known to take down elephants. So, if there is any animal with the power and ability to avoid hunger and lack, it is the lion. By contrasting us with a lion the author, David, wishes to show us that in God, we are better sustained and even more powerful than the king of the beasts. We should have no lack, no unfulfilled desire because our Father is the most powerful of all. He is the best provider available because there is no lack in Him.

We pretty much get all that. I don’t think there is much revelation in that for you. What seized me, though, is David’s near insistence that we should not be in want of any good thing. So, I ask you even as I ask myself, “Am I in want of anything?” I would wager that many of you responded affirmatively. We don’t have all we want, for sure, and we may even be lacking something we need.

We need to get out of our heads and into God’s because He is thinking about this far differently than we are. Many people would choke on the idea that God is set on fulfilling our wants. That goes against many people’s theology but not mine and I hope not yours. However, that is a first hurdle we must get over. Psalm 37: 4 reads, “Delight yourself in the Lord; And He will give you the desires of your heart.” That doesn’t say needs, it says desires and that is just another way of saying he will give you your wants. One of the reasons we are not receiving from God is because we have yet to reconcile this point.

Living in God’s provision and His will requires us to make a monumental but sincere decision. Do we choose to believe God’s Word? Is the doctrine of our culture or even our church louder than what God says? When will I decide that I am going to take Him at His Word and live? Maybe you can answer that with today’s date. The first step is believing the Word on its face without reasoning it away.

Second, we must seek. It just seems we cannot get away from this. God wants to bless us but it is clear that He will not overstep what He considers healthy boundaries. It is up to each of us to establish this provision link with Him. Think of it this way, let’s say you are a business owner and you initiate a new relationship with another business. Perhaps you wish to begin purchasing supplies from them. First, you must contact them. They may have marketed themselves to you, but you still have to initiate the relationship. This is just like God and the Bible. He has sent out His pamphlets telling you what He has to offer. Now it is up to you. The next thing that usually happens is that you set up an account with that business. They get some information from you and you ascertain exactly what their procedures are. After that, you order what you want, and they ship it to you. They don’t initiate the relationship, they don’t just send you product and expect you to pay heed to them. That would breach protocol. There are ways things are handled and we all must play within the scope of accepted business practices.

In like manner, Father has sent His advertising. He has told you what is available, but it is up to you to seek Him out and place your order. People get weird thinking of placing an order with God but if He has already told you what the availability is doesn’t it essentially boil down to putting in your request? And isn’t that comparable to placing an order? We’ve got to come to Him on the terms He set out even if that means we are a bit uncomfortable.

I really like this idea that we need to get out of our heads and into His. Our preconceptions are not helping us, in fact, they are crippling us. What helps is knowing what Yahweh thinks and even what He feels. He has told us today, if we will seek Him, we will have no lack nor even any wants. That is pretty straightforward language, but can you accept it? Can you believe God at face value?

Lastly, if the mandate is to seek Him, and it is, then the question becomes, how shall you do that? This is where your pensive time may be spent. I offer one piece of advice as you begin what I hope will be for you a journey into deeper fellowship with the Lord. Begin by taking your own inventory. How do you spend your time? It is not true that you don’t have enough time to apportion some to the Father. That is a lie and Father doesn’t believe it. So, inventory your time. You need time for many things. Look at how you spend the time you have. How many minutes of TV time do you have a day? How much time do you spend on the internet, Face Book, computer games, and other apps? Be honest with yourself. Remember, we are trying to get your needs and wants met. What is interfering with that? If you cannot find ten minutes in your day to spend with your Father, then you need to overhaul your calendar and start over. Make it a priority today to seek Him.

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Answer my Prayer

On December 3, 2018   /   Word of the Day   /   Leave a comment

Psalm 20: 3 – 4             God’s Word

He will remember all your grain offerings and look with favor on your burnt offerings. Selah. He will give you your heart’s desire and carry out all your plans.

Do you know that there are some people to whom it is difficult to give? I had a friend that way. You couldn’t bless her. She refused kindness or just would not receive graciously. After a while, I just got tired of trying to be a blessing to her. She just made it too painful. I wonder if God has the same problem giving to us. Do we make it difficult?

Today’s psalm is a psalm of David. If you were to read the whole thing you would recognize his writing. One of the things I find most interesting in this selection is the “Selah” at the end of verse three. What is there about the content of verse three that should cause us to stop and ponder? Is it reasonable that God’s memory of all of your offerings inclines him to giving you your heart’s desire?

This would appear to be the operation of the covenant relationship between David and Yahweh. David contributed to the temple. He gave his tithes and offerings and God was aware of David’s faithfulness. David was bolstered by his gifts too because he understood the covenant. He knew that because he did his part, God would do His. There was a trust relationship between them. Of course David could boast in the name of God. He understood covenant relationships and he stood on his covenant. God proved time and again that He would do as He promised. Why then, does it seem that He isn’t fulfilling His promises to us?

If I had the answer to that I would write the book and all Christians would get all prayers answered. It is a question worth pondering though. Why would God even bother make us promises if He didn’t intend to keep them? It’s not like we had some sort of leverage to force Him to make a bargain with us. So, if He so charitably makes promises, will He not also keep them? What then marks a difference between those who receive of God and those who do not. I can’t help but think that it is this confidence that David shows in God keeping His covenant. Does that bold trust and unwavering assurance put David in a better position to receive? In verse 6 he wrote, “I know God gives me all that I ask for,” (Passion). Do you think most of us can say that with the same level of confidence? I want to be able to as I am sure you do also.

So here is what I leave you with today. What do you think distinguishes David from most of us? He was on the wrong side of the cross even, yet he had such confidence in God. Secondly, do you think the covenant relationship had something to do with David being able to receive from God? We have a better covenant than he and ours is made on better promises with a better mediator (Hebrews 8: 6, 12: 4). How is it that God gave him all he asked for when his covenant was inferior to ours and yet we do not seem to receive all we ask? I have questions for you rather than answers but often I believe the questions to be more important. Only the right question will lead you to the right answer. So, will you ponder these questions in light of today’s verse? We would love to hear from you.

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The Seeker

On August 4, 2016   /   Word of the Day   /   Leave a comment

Matthew 6: 33


But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness and all these things shall be added to you.
One encounter with God can change your life forever. Having an encounter with God is worth everything. There really is nothing greater than a touch from Him. But how do we find god in our everyday lives? We must seek Him. When we seek Him, we find Him. In Him is the answer to every question we have as well as every need. Our job is to seek Him out and it is His job to provide us with the resources we need. Everything we need, want or desire is in Him. Seek Him with all your heart, all your mind and all your strength and he will give you the desires of your heart. He will be everything you need or want. His touch will fill your heart and heal your hurts. This type of seeking requires commitment and surrender though. If you will be determined to seek Him out, you will most definitely find Him. Seek Him in His word and through your prayers. He will be found by you.
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