Trusting God is Essential

As a kid I remember watching Looney Tunes and there was one episode in particular where an older Indian walked across hot coals, cool as a cucumber while everyone watched in amazement.  Soon a young brave comes up and tries to do the same.  When he gets off the coal bed, his feet are pulsating red-hot and smoking.  

Just like the young brave, all too often we try to handle the tough situations ourselves instead of giving them to God.  I know that I am guilty of this all the time.  As soon as something gets a little tough I say, “I’ve got this!”  When I should be saying, “God I know you have a plan and that everything happens for a reason please help me to see why this is happening and help me to gain the knowledge to not let it happen again”

Are you guilty of this?

If you are you’re not alone, trust me!

Trusting in God no matter the situation can be tough but it is essential for our wellbeing.  We are placed in tough situations so we can learn and grow.  God wants us to lean on him for everything every day.  He wants us to trust that he has everything under control.  He needs us to know that we are here to serve him and help others find him throughout our lives.  He allows us to walk through the fire we create so that we can know he here for us.  He asks us to walk through the raging river trusting that we will not be swept away before we ever touch the water.  God is telling us that he has our back, it is our duty to ensure that we trust him fully. 

What can you do to trust in God even more?  When was the last time you came to God asking for his help to get you out of the situation you created?  When was the last time you thanked God for allowing you to work through the situation?

When I think about silence and faith, I think about Daniel from the old testament.  Can you imagine for how long those 12 hours were that he spent in the lions den? Ill bet for all of the people who threw him into the den that evening was filled with laughter, food and went by very quickly.  For Daniel it must have felt like an eternity though.  Praying earnestly talking to God’s angles throughout the evening.  That must have felt as though it was a lifetime.  Also look at the king.  Daniel was more than just an advisor he was a friend.  How did long was that night for the king?  The thing about hard times is that when we are in the middle of them they seem like an eternity.  When in reality they are not much more than a blink of an eye of our life. 

God knows that we can endure those times, as long as we trust in him. 

God today we come to you today to say thank you!  Thank you for having our backs no matter how bad of a decision we might make.  Thank you for allowing us to walk through the fire so that we might learn from those times. Thank you for not allowing the flames to devour us during those lessons.   God we pray that you allow us to learn from those lessons, help us not to make the same mistakes again.  Help us to lean on you through both our great times and our harder times.  Let us see that satin is at the door and help us to hold the door closed and not let him in!  God we know that you have a plan for our lives, we pray that you help us to be the best person we can be every day.  We pray that you help us make those tough decisions and help us to know that you are there to support us.  Thank you for giving us people to learn from, especially those in your word.  Thank you for being there for us no matter what!

Amen

Suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope.

Not only so, but we also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us.
Romans 5:3-5 NIV

This scripture really touched my heart.  How often when things start to get tough and we start to suffer do we turn to God and say, “What did I do to deserve this” or “I really tried to listen to you, but I feel that I didn’t get the point.”  So often, we turn to God when times are tough to ask him for guidance and to take away our suffering.  The way I take these verses are that it is only through suffering that we can learn perseverance, gain our true charter, and hope so big that we can’t help but be happy.

Wow, that was awesome!

Let’s break down these verses even more.  What is perseverance?  I grew up in the grange where they always prayed for perseverance.  To me perseverance is when you don’t give up.  Angela Duckworth would call it “Grit.”  The ability to stick with something even when things do go as easily as expected.  Faith requires perseverance, being an employee requires perseverance, being the leader requires perseverance, being a parent requires perseverance.  I think you get the point, life requires that we have perseverance, or grit.  Never giving up is huge.  I have been listening regularly to the podcast, “Born to Impact.”  These guys are amazing and constantly talk about what it means to have perseverance.  They use the analogy of a person who hits a rock 99 times and it never breaks, then he swings the 100^th time and the rock breaks open and is full of amazing beauty.  If you don’t have perseverance and gave up at swing 99, you would have never found the true treasure. 

Let’s move on to character.  I consider character to be how we act, and react to every situation that God places in our lives.  Our character is formed by the events that happen for us.  The way we act on those situations shows our true character.  Ill bet that we have been in a situation where our boss was not a a nice guy.  Maybe we gave him a reason not to be nice to us, maybe we didn’t.  the fact is that we don’t like our current situation.  We have the option to allow our character to be one who goes around talking about them behind their backs, or we can bring it up to them and ask how we can fix the situation.  The point here is that our character is what makes the difference.  How is our character formed?  By the situations, God has led us through and our actions during those times.  Character is something that can change over time in everyone.  We have the ability to grow into the person we are truly supposed to be.

Hope!  How would you describe hope?  To me Hope is the ability to have faith that things will turn out great.  Even in those situations where we KNOW beyond any doubt that it will never work out, having faith that it will work out.  Hope is the ability to see the good in others when no one else does.  Hope is the light of the world.  Hope believes that humanity will take the righteous actions.  Hope can be anything you want it to be as long as you believe in it.  Hope is knowing that no matter what God has my life and yours under control.  All we have to do is sit back, work like heck, and trust that God is guiding the ship in the direction he needs it to go. 

The last part of these verses are the hardest for me.  They say that it is only through suffering that we can gain all of these things.  Why are we so, for lack of better words, dumb, that we have to suffer to gain perspective in this?  God knows our path, he knows us before we are even born, he knows us better than we know ourselves.

God today we come to you to just say, THANK YOU!  Thank you for giving us the ability to change, thank you for giving us perseverance that’s changes our charter and gives us hope.  Thank you for everything that you do and everywhere that you guide us to be.  God I pray that you help these words to touch someone’s heart and allow them to see Jesus in them.  God I pray that you help us to give all glory for everything to you.  God thank you for allowing us to suffer so that we may gain all of these awesome traits.  Thank you.

Amen

God Never Gives up on You!

But the fruit of the spirit is love, joy peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. Against such things there is no law.

Galatians 5:22-23

WOW those are some pretty powerful words.  Jesus speaks about how a tree can only bear good fruit or bad fruit.  It can’t bear both.  When he talking about this he wasn’t talking about a real tree he was speaking about people.  When someone has evil in their heart they don’t have the ability to allow God into their hearts.  It happens to all of us at times.  There have been times in my life where I have been overcome with jealousy, or envy, or just wanted to make more money.  I’m not proud of those times and I’m definitely not bragging about them either.

Can you think of any of those times in your life? Times where you didn’t bear good fruit. 

Even through those hard times did God give up on you when you lost your way?  NO!  He never gives up on us.  He asks that we don’t give up on other or ourselves either.  That’s part being a person that bears “good fruit”, not giving up.  We can’t give up because someone hurts us.  We continue to forgive them and in the end it makes us better fruit. 

Last week we talked about how God has a plan for all of us, and how he knew us before were ever born.  I believe that God also knows when we will stumble.  He uses that as a way to help us know that he is in control of everything.  God wants all of his children to bear good fruit.  Think back to when you were a child (I still am according my wife, lol).  Do you remember having to learn a lesson the hard way?  Oh man do I ever.  I had to learn lots lessons the hard way.  There were definitely times where I did not bear good fruit for God.  Does that mean that I can’t bear good fruit now?  No it doesn’t.  Because God knew before I was born that I would mistakes, just like you, just like your neighbor, just like the rest of the world.  He knew that we would struggle.  That’s why God sent his son for us, to atone for our sins. 

God we would like to thank you today for never giving up on us. Like a farmer never gives up on his crops, or parents never give up on their children.  We thank you for taking time to help us bear good fruits.  We know that life can be tough, you never said that it would be easy.  We know that you are here for us and that you help us when we need it.  God Thank you for the opportunities that you give us to share our good fruits.  We pray that you would help us to realize when we are starting to get “rotten” before it’s too late.  God we pray that you help us to share love, give joy to others, seek peace in conflicting times, show kindness when we are struggling, be good to others, always be faithful to you, have genital hands and gentle words, and above all else have self-control in every situation.  We thank you for never giving up on us.

Amen

God knows our purpose, we may not, but GOD DOES

We were all created for a reason.  We may not know that reason yet or our true purpose but rest assured God knows it and he is grooming you and me to be the perfect person.

Have you ever had a time in life where you didn’t understand why something was happening?  I can think of about, let’s see, way too many times that it happened to me.  When I was younger, I remember applying for a job, being super stoked that I was asked to interview.  Nailing the interview, I mean I just killed it.  Then right before walking out the door asking a question that put doubt into the manager’s head.  Not getting the job and wondering why God didn’t allow this to happen.  Guess what if I would have gotten that job, there is a very real chance that you wouldn’t be reading this today. 

God already knows our path.  He does his very best to ensure that we follow it. 

Ed Mylett recently interviewed Darryl Strawberry on his pod cast and it was amazing to hear his story and how he gave all credit to God for everything that happened.  Even the stuff that we would never see as Godly.  He knew that if he did endure and encounter the hard times in his life that he would not be able to connect with God the same way as he does today.  One of my favorite lines was “I’m a sinner. I’m just not practicing right now!”  How profound and true is that. 

God knows where we are supposed to be.  Who we are going to influence and he will give us the platform we need.  He knows us before we are ever born, he knows us when we are in the womb.  Trust in God and know that no matter what happens it is God’s plan.  God never said once in the bible that having faith would be easy, or that bad things would happen if we had strong faith.  He did how ever say that he would never guv us more than we could handle.  God is building the perfect you!!

God as we come to you today we know that you are in control of our entire lives.  We know that you have a purpose for us and that you are preparing us for what you truly have intended for our lives.  WE ask that you give us the patience and preservice to keep on keeping on through the trials.  We pray that we help us to keep contact with you through the great times.  Most of all God we thank you for making us who we are and helping to mold us into who YOU need us to be.  Thank you for making me, me!  Amen

True Wisdom Is More Than Knowledge

When you think about wisdom what comes to mind?  For me several different things pop up.  One is knowledge, another is to know when to stop or start, another is being able to ask questions when you don’t understand.  I used to think that wisdom is being able to answer every question every time.  Knowing the answers meant that you were smart.  I learned that wisdom so much more than knowing the answers and being considered smart by my peers. 

Wisdom from form heaven is so much more that knowing all the answers.  It is being able to pray anytime anywhere, it is giving all of our problems and the things that go great to God.  It is knowing that we aren’t really in control of our lives, but he is.  It is being able to forgive anyone for anything that they have done.  It is not showing favoritism, anger, judgment, or condemnation.  It is following God’s commands without hesitation. 

True heavenly wisdom is so much more than knowledge; it is trusting in God with all of your heart.  Heavenly wisdom is not gained through worldly experiences but is given freely to all of those who ask.  It is our duty to use the wisdom God provides us to serve him better. 

God we come to you today to ask for your help.  We ask that you help to bless us with your wisdom.  Help us to discern the difference between worldly wisdom and heavenly wisdom.  Lord we thank you for everything that you have given unto us.  We ask that you help us to use all of the wisdom you have blessed us with for you.  Show us how and where you need us to use our gifts.  Thank you for sharing your wisdom with us. Amen

Do we give what we want to receive?

²¹ Then Peter came to Jesus and asked, “Lord, how many times shall I forgive my brother or sister who sins against me? Up to seven times?”

²² Jesus answered, “I tell you, not seven times, but seventy-seven times.^[a]

²³ “Therefore, the kingdom of heaven is like a king who wanted to settle accounts with his servants. ²⁴ As he began the settlement, a man who owed him ten thousand bags of gold^[b] was brought to him. ²⁵ Since he was not able to pay, the master ordered that he and his wife and his children and all that he had be sold to repay the debt.

²⁶ “At this the servant fell on his knees before him. ‘Be patient with me,’ he begged, ‘and I will pay back everything.’ ²⁷ The servant’s master took pity on him, canceled the debt and let him go.

²⁸ “But when that servant went out, he found one of his fellow servants who owed him a hundred silver coins.^[c] He grabbed him and began to choke him. ‘Pay back what you owe me!’ he demanded.

²⁹ “His fellow servant fell to his knees and begged him, ‘Be patient with me, and I will pay it back.’

³⁰ “But he refused. Instead, he went off and had the man thrown into prison until he could pay the debt. ³¹ When the other servants saw what had happened, they were outraged and went and told their master everything that had happened.

³² “Then the master called the servant in. ‘You wicked servant,’ he said, ‘I canceled all that debt of yours because you begged me to. ³³ Shouldn’t you have had mercy on your fellow servant just as I had on you?’ ³⁴ In anger his master handed him over to the jailers to be tortured, until he should pay back all he owed.

³⁵ “This is how my heavenly Father will treat each of you unless you forgive your brother or sister from your heart.”

Mathew 18:21-35

Do we give what we receive?  We all have moments when we may be more critical or judgmental then we need to be, but how would that make you feel if it was returned on you?  I don’t know about you, but I try my hardest to do my best in everything that I do.  I know it will never be good enough for some people, but it’s good enough for me, and it’s good enough for God.  God wants us to show mercy and forgiveness.  Especially to those that have wronged us.  Before you act out of anger or spite.  Take a second and ask yourself how you would want someone to act towards you in this situation.  If you can honestly answer that this is what you would want, then this is the way you should respond in kind. 

Take Mathew 18: 21-35 for instance.  The servant was not able to pay his debt and asked the master for patience and mercy.  The master went even further and forgave all the servants debts.  I’m sure the servant was very grateful and thankful.  Maybe he even thought “wow what a lucky day I am having”.  He then immediately went and threated a fellow servant that owed him money with extreme hatred and greed.  Had the servant taken a second to think about how he had been treated by his master and how he was treating his fellow servant, would he have made the same choices?  God shows us mercy and forgiveness every day in everything that we do.  I ask you are you treating your fellow brothers and sister with the same kindness that God has treated you? 

Have you been wronged by someone close to you?  It is our human nature to want to get back at, harm, punish, or just make feel the way that they made you feel.  Is this what God wants?  If you have wronged someone how would you want them to respond to you?  Would you ask them for forgiveness, or be to proud?  If you did ask for forgiveness.  Would you want them to forgive you?  Can you forgive someone who doesn’t think they did anything wrong or doesn’t ask for forgiveness?  Sometimes the person who has mistreated you is proud, stubborn, arrogant, or flatly believes that they did nothing wrong.  The answer of course is, yes.  Through God and prayer you can slowly begin to heal your heart and forgive.  God wants us to show forgiveness and mercy.  The way we respond when we are wronged or when we have wronged someone truly shows the person we are becoming.  Take a second and look at yourself and see if there is something that you can work on.  Look in your heart and see if you are responding in a way that God would want.  Through God and prayer he can help you become the person you want to be. 

Dear God, Please be with us this week as we go about our day.  Please help us to act in the act in a kind and humble manner.  Please help us show the same forgiveness and mercy that you have shown us

Isn’t it funny sometimes how quickly we forget about God when life is rolling right on by in high gear?  Things are going so well that we just forget about the creator momentarily.  It happens to the best of us at time.  We forget the true reason that we were designed and placed on this earth, to serve God. 

Life is interesting, when we are born we completely depend on someone else for our every need.  Soon we begin to walk and gain confidence quickly.  Shortly after that, we begin to talk that’s about the time we start to loose control.  Then a little after, we are so confident in our own abilities that we stop listening to others and take our own advice.  We start preaching without any true knowledge. This continues to some of us for quite a while, for others they learn quickly, and other may never learn and spend their entire life spewing garbage. 

I find it funny watching my kids growing through their different stages.  One of them is extremely honest.  They would tell you if they took a toothpick from the drawer.  On the other hand if one of them believes that they will get into trouble from their actions or words they will do their best to cover them up.  I have another one that says something so much that they truly believe that’s its true, even if it’s not.  I understand that it’s only a stage for each of them, but I still pray earnestly for them daily.  To be honest I have dealt with people in the past who acted the same.  All I could do to help them was to offer prayers. 

God is in control, and God can do anything.  He can move mountains, make anyone a leader, turn a shepherd into the king, or even make a giant fish swallow and spit out a person on command.  God is the light of this of this world. He is the reason that we exist.  He is the reason for every season, and he can save anyone.

God we come to you today, not to ask for you anything but to offer you our assistance in any way possible to serve you. You know what our strengths are and you know how we can best serve you.  We pray that you help us to realize our true potential and our true calling at this moment in our lives.  God we know that our calling can change in an instant.  However we pray that help us to listen to you.  We pray that help those who are in need and we also pray that you will continue to guide our words, actions, and yes our thoughts.  Help us to live the righteous life you desire for us.  Help us to push our anger and resistance off to the side and follow you with our whole body including our hearts.  We thank you for giving us a purpose! We thank you for your sacrifices for us! We thank you for being there for us when we need you, which lord is all the time for me. 

Thank you.