Reliance

On October 23, 2019   /   Word of the Day   /   Leave a comment

1 Timothy 6: 17          GW

Tell those who have the riches of this world not to be arrogant and not to place their confidence in anything as uncertain as riches. Instead, they should place their confidence in God who richly provides us with everything to enjoy.

This is one of the greatest challenges of wealth, trusting in it rather than trusting in God. This is the story of the rich, young ruler. Jesus invited him to join the team but instructed that first he should go sell what he had and give to the poor. That is where the young ruler stumbled.

Has God ever asked you to give something away? Did you stumble? If so, why do think it was hard for you. I find some of us become very connected to our “stuff.” Others of us find our security in those items. Sometimes we hang on to things because we do not trust that we will have the resources for a later need. That is a sure indication that we are relying on our ability to meet our needs. Trusting in riches can be a problem for people who have wealth, but it can also hamper those without much money. The same reliance issue affects people in each group.

There is also a group who think they are safe and secure because they have money. They don’t realize that the only true security any of us have is in Yahweh. Everything else is transitory. These are the folks who can become arrogant in their wealth. They feel untouchable because they think money can insulate them from problems. It certainly can help fix some problems, but it often brings on others.

If our reliance is on the money we have or even in the money we hope to have, eventually we will be disappointed. As Christians, we need to learn to lean on God 100% rather than relying on our ability to generate an income or to meet our own needs. We should learn to sow generously expecting God to increase our harvest. We can learn to listen to his guidance on money management and disbursement. It is a challenge but one each of us should ponder. How much do you rely on God versus placing your confidence in riches? Think about that question and decide if you need a shift in your focus.

Back to Top

Let Go, Know God

On July 30, 2019   /   Word of the Day   /   Leave a comment

Psalm 46: 10        GW

Let go of your concerns! Then you will know that I am God.

Yesterday I used today’s verse in making a broader point. Today I want to take you into it more in depth. Yesterday I used the NLT version of Psalm 46: 10 which says, “Be still, and know that I am God!” In order to see God’s hand manifested in our lives, we have to be still, quiet and allow Him to be God. Without the benefit of stillness and quiet, it is challenging to hear God.

Another very important aspect of being still is letting go of our worry and putting our trust in Him. It really is a package of trust that allows God to be active in our lives. Doubt shuts Him out. Our worry and keeping our hand in things interferes with God showing up in our lives.

Yahweh God respects our free will very highly. He absolutely will not violate your right to make choices. That also means, though, that He will not step into your business and take over, even if it would be good for you. He knows that would be dysfunctional and that He needs to let you choose for yourself. Therefore, you have to invite Him into your business. He will gladly advise you but only when you allow His participation. If you pray for His help and then lean on your own strength, you are pushing Him out. He wants us to let go of those concerns, turning them completely over to Him.

As you think about this verse, especially as seen from the two different translations, I think you will gain a keen perspective on how to let God be Lord in your life. You may see ways you have restricted Him in the past. Living in Him and with Him means intertwining with Him in every aspect of your life and even every aspect of His. As you release your concerns to Him, He will increasingly minister answers to you. Remember to quiet yourself down and listen for His voice. As He speaks advice, do as He says. You are going to see some fabulous and interesting changes in your life.

Back to Top

Relaxation

On July 17, 2019   /   Word of the Day   /   Leave a comment

Psalm 28: 7

The Lord is my strength and my shield; my heart trusts in Him, and I am helped; therefore my heart exults, and with my song I shall thank Him.

This is a great model for showing us how to live with God’s active presence in our lives. We put our full trust in Him which allows Him to work in our lives. The result is that we are helped. The next thing that happens is that in our joy and gratefulness, we praise Him. Now that is how the Christian life is supposed to work.

Don’t spend all of your time crying and whining about your problems. Instead, take them to the Lord in full trust. Trust Him to be your strength and shield in every situation. Give the problem to Him fully. Then relax. When you do that, you give God room to work in your life. You have to let go in order for Him to be able to take over. But wait! Your job is not over when the solution comes. Your part of problem solving is praising the Lord who works on your behalf. Just spend your days praising and thanking him instead of in travail over all the challenges that meet you. Tell Yahweh that you know those problems to be His concern rather than yours and that you are going to praise Him all the days of your life. Trust Him. You are going to be amazed how much easier life can be.

Back to Top

Battle Strategy

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

Psalm 59: 16 – 17

But as for me, I shall sing of Your strength; yes, I shall joyfully sing of Your lovingkindness in the morning, for You have been my stronghold and a refuge in the day of my distress. O my strength, I will sing praises to You; for God is my stronghold, the God who shows me lovingkindness.

You may need to read the beginning of this psalm to get the full thrust of these last two verses. The backstory is familiar. Saul was in relentless pursuit of David. Saul’s men surrounded, besieged and attacked David and his men. Day and night, there were spies, sneak attacks and ambushes. David tells of the trials and persecutions through the first fifteen verses. At the end he says, “but as for me . . ..” In these last two verses, David reveals his battle plan.

No matter what the enemy’s tactics were; regardless of being outnumbered, trapped or under siege, the battle plan David employed was praise and complete confidence in our Lord. David’s confidence wasn’t just something he held in his breast, though. His faith in the Father was boldly declared from his lips. That is one thing which distinguished him from every other. Perhaps other people thought God was a stronghold and deliverer, but David made a career of proclaiming it.

How about you? Are your words like David’s? Perhaps we too can turn the tide with our words. You know the end of the story. God removed Saul from the throne and installed David in his place. As I have studied David’s life, I noted his continual boasting in the Lord. I think his success was tied to his proclamation. While others count their soldiers and array their weaponry, David installed his stronghold. His plan involved the power of the Almighty, his strategy relying on the promises of his Lord.

It seems, then, that David didn’t have anything we don’t have. That is what makes his story so attractive. We can do what he did. We can love the Lord and trust in His prowess as David did and enjoy the same success. The strategy that prevailed for David will work for us too. Trust in the Lord with all your heart and soul. Lean on Him and His understanding. Make joyful praise to the Lord and let His power arise in your battles.

Back to Top

Confident Heart

On June 24, 2019   /   Word of the Day   /   Leave a comment

Psalm 57: 7 – 10       NLT

My heart is confident in you, O God; my heart is confident. No wonder I can sing your praises! Wake up, my heart! Wake up, O lyre and harp! I will wake the dawn with my song. I will thank you, Lord, among all the people. I will sing your praises among the nations. For your unfailing love is as high as the heavens. Your faithfulness reaches to the clouds.

Again I find myself understanding why God said David was a man after His own heart. We might say, “He touches my heart,” and how could the Father’s heart not be touched from such an outpouring of love and gratitude?

Personally, I am stirred by David’s confidence. Continually the trust that David had in God appears in his songs. This confidence, or trust, was very real for David. He hung his life on that confidence. Even as a youth, David believed God and His word over the circumstances in the world. That was evident when he faced Goliath for he said to King Saul, “The Lord who delivered me from the paw of the lion and from the paw of the bear, He will deliver me from the hand of this Philistine,” (1 Samuel 17: 37).

It also seems that David’s confident trust goes hand in hand with praise. Which came first, I wonder. Did praise strengthen his heart? How does one grow into the depth of faith David had in God’s faithfulness? He wrote that his confidence inspired praise, but from where did the confidence originate. One might say, “David was able to exhibit confidence in facing Goliath because he had overcome both bears and lions,” but where did he get the confidence to face a lion?

David was the youngest of all his brothers. His older brothers were experienced, strong soldiers while he was still tending sheep and yet he had the faith of a giant. When he faced Goliath, he wasn’t tall or strong, he wasn’t arrayed in the finest battle armor. Instead, he said, “You come to me with a sword, a spear, and a javelin, but I come to you in the name of the Lord of hosts.” Now that is some confidence!

I find myself envious of that depth of faith and my soul yearns to stand as tall as that young shepherd boy. Not only did he shame the Philistine army but imagine the reaction of the army of Israel? His own brothers were part of that force, a force that was afraid to march out against Goliath and his cohorts. Were they inspired by David’s heroism? Were they ashamed of their lack of faith in the mighty hand of the Lord? Let us hope that most of them took inspiration from his confidence in God’s unfailing deliverance. What of us? Can we look at this lad and from his faith and actions draw strength into our own spirits? Are we bolstered by his praises and confidence?

If one young shepherd boy can rise from oblivion to the throne, overcoming titanic obstacles along the way, then what can we do, we who have not only the throne of God as our backstop but also the faith of Jesus and the power of the Holy Spirit? What prevents us from being the mighty warriors of our age? I hope you, like me, feel that longing in the pit of your stomach. I hope you find a voice of praise which rivals even that of David because I believe we will find strength, trust, confidence and might in those praises. Lift your eyes, lift your voices and be strengthened in the innermost parts of your being.

Back to Top

Trusting You

On June 18, 2019   /   Word of the Day   /   Leave a comment

Psalm 56: 3, 4b               TPT

But in the day that I’m afraid, I lay all my fears before you and trust in you with all my heart. The roaring praises of God fill my heart, and I will always triumph as I trust his promises.

I am enjoying Psalm Mondays and I hope you are too. I wanted to stay with Psalm 56 for another day or two to soak in what David had to share. His experiences are different from ours but the trials themselves are common to us all and I think by reading David closely, we get some important clues as to how to deal with difficult situations. David also teaches us much about trust, praise and a personal relationship with God.

We have learned that fear is a very dangerous pastime. It is fear which nearly destroyed Job’s life. None the less, it is a state that every one of us will experience from time to time. There are several characteristics of David’s writing which I appreciate. First, his honesty and transparency are laudable. He isn’t so tied up with his image of himself that he won’t express the truth of his fear. The other thing that I value so highly about David and am so appreciative that he shares is how he works his way out of fear, despair or sorrow. He expresses the truth of his state and is eloquent in divulging the depth of his emotion, but we also get to follow along as he works his way back to faith.

In today’s passage we see that praising God is what lifted him out of despair on this day. Praise set him free from fear. He took his fears to God and he walked away with trust and the assurance of triumph. I am sure if we could have stopped David in that moment when fear turned to confidence, he would have expressed an unwavering, absolute belief in his upcoming victory.

We too can trust God’s promises and the trust itself becomes the catalyst for success. Trust begets belief and Jesus said we can have what we believe. It certainly worked for David and my bet is that it can work for us too. Be blessed my fellow believers.

Back to Top

The Believers’ Rest

On May 24, 2019   /   Word of the Day   /   Leave a comment

Hebrews 4: 1

Therefore, let us fear if, while a promise remains of entering His rest, any one of you may seem to have come short of it.

I find this language interesting. Why should there be any fear related to God’s rest? Verse 3 reveals that God was angry and in His anger He swore that “they” would not enter into His rest. Look at verse three from the Passion Translation, “For those of us who believe, faith activates the promise and we experience the realm of confident rest! For he has said, ‘I was grieved with them and made a solemn oath, ‘They will never enter into the calming rest of my Spirit.’”

Rest comes by faith. God was angry at the disobedient ones (Hebrews 3: 18). The Tree of Life version of Hebrews 4: 1 illuminates the disobedience. It says, “For we who have trusted are entering into that rest.” Their disobedience, then, was that they did not trust God and that is what angered Him. Selah – pause and consider that.

Rest is a matter of faith and trust. People who believe, enter into the promise of rest that the Father gave, and they do so with confident trust. They are persuaded that God will not let them down. Failing or refusing to enter into God’s rest is a slap in His face. It says that we do not trust Him. Instead, we trust our own abilities. We are focused on all we need to do and thus, abandon the idea of a partnership with the Divine.

The Holy Spirit was sent to be our “go along.” His intent is to walk with us, side by side, go along with us everywhere we go, assisting us in all we do. Actually, he is supposed to be our guide. He wants to stand shoulder to shoulder but lead us from that position. That is why I call it a partnership. He wants to intertwine with us in every activity rather than run over us or dominate us. And he will gently step aside if we do not choose to partner with him. However, we cannot enter God’s rest if we do not receive the aid of the Spirit. God grieves when we fail to enter into “the calming rest of my [His]Spirit.” His anger is kindled when we try to do everything in our might. “Therefore let us be diligent to enter that rest, so that no one will fall, through following the same example of disobedience,” (Hebrews 4: 11). Our job is to enter into His rest. Our task is to seek His face. He has people for all of the “work” but there is only one person who can spend time with God for you. Guess who!

Let this sink in today. Ponder these verses and ideas. Can you find the way to let God do the heavy lifting for you at your job? What about all those tasks on your list, can He somehow help those to get done more efficiently? I think you will find the time you spend with Him, seeking His advice and guidance, will more than pay for itself. Find your place of rest. I will give you a hint. It’s in Him.

Back to Top