Thoughts Shared With A Friend

Earlier this week I had a friend contact me and another person to pray for them concerning a possible business venture. We did pray, and we shared with him what we felt God was saying to us in our prayer time. It did not mean much to me at the time, but apparently it meant something specific to my friend. A few days later my friend contacted me on another matter and mentioned that he felt he was being attacked by doubt. He had thoughts like, “You can’t do that. You have never done that.” etc. After considering what he was going through, I prayed and read some scriptures. That’s when it occurred to me that we may have a say in this in our own lives when it happens to us. Here are the thoughts I shared with him.

What has God said to you about this subject? That is what you need to say to yourself out loud. When you do that, you hear it (as does our enemy) and you are proclaiming what God has already proclaimed. When we say what God said, it changes things (like the running conversation in our head). Secondly, what do the scriptures say about this situation? Say those out loud as well. We actually have the power to edify ourselves (or tear ourselves down). This is what Paul was talking about in Romans 10 when he was quoting Moses Our mouth and our heart, working together, is powerful to change things. When we say what God has said, we have that power behind us.

Prayer
Father, please reach out to Your people right now. Those that are struggling with bad thoughts, help them to say what You say and do what You are doing about these things. Help us to be Your ambassadors for truth and light here on the earth. Help us to help others, and bring the kingdom to earth. In Jesus name. Amen.

Who Does God Help?

Growing up in the Midwest, it was a common heard phrase, “God helps those that help themselves.” It was in the Good Book, or so my relatives told me. By that they meant it was in the bible. The trouble was I could never find it. I found out later it is a quote that is attributed frequently to Ben Franklin and actually predates Ben… but not in the bible. So who does God help? It is reasonable to ask, because knowing the answer might mean that I could be the person that God helps. That would be great!

In the scriptures over and over again what we see is that God helps those that cannot help themselves. The Psalms, for example, are filled with the Psalmist crying out to God for help when the world is turning in on him. That does not sound like someone helping themselves. The one thing I do see is that we are to trust in God. We are to find delight in His commands, statutes, and precepts. We are to call upon the name of His Son for our salvation and wholeness. So what can we conclude? Well, if admitting that we are sinners, hopelessly lost, and asking for and receiving forgiveness, followed by a life trying to find God’s way everyday, calling out to Him everyday, spending time with Him everyday…if doing those things is called helping ourselves, then God does help those that help themselves. Let’s do our part. Let’s call upon Him today!

Prayer
Father, we call upon You today to reach out and be our ever present help in times of trouble. Show us Your mercy and Your truth today. Help us to walk in Your ways today. In Jesus name. Amen.

Comfort For Those That Mourn

When Jesus spoke in Matthew He said those that mourned were blessed because they would be comforted. In Isaiah 61 when he spoke of the Messiah, Isaiah said that the Messiah would comfort those that mourn. This would be done by consoling them with beauty, oil of joy, and the garment of praise. The end result of this was that the comforted person would be called the planting of the Lord to His glory. When in the temple, Jesus read from this passage the first few verses, and then declared what Isaiah had written fulfilled. How do these fit together?

Jesus told his followers that He must go so that the Comforter would come, which is the Holy Spirit. This happened at Pentecost (Shavuot). The Holy Spirit can help us past the struggles in life, especially not seeing Jesus in person. We and the whole world travail for the return of the Messiah. When we are down we can feel and look saddened and downtrodden. The Spirit can lift us up. The one thing we need to do is to cooperate by clothing ourselves in praise. The Spirit will give us what to sing and say, but we must open our own mouths. From our own mouths will come the comfort, and from God the wisdom to make it through day to day.

Prayer
Father, thank You for sending the Comforter, Your Holy Spirit, to be with us and in us while we sojourn in a world, fallen. Help us to remember to open our mouth in praise to You, and to never forget that You are the One that rules the heavens and earth, our King. In Jesus name. Amen.

Doing God’s Stuff

Most of the time when I think of the sabbath I think about the part about the rest. This is good, because it is the one day that I can sleep in, for example. God rested from working to get things done. What do you suppose He did on His day off? I think to answer that we have to look at what the scriptures say we are to be doing for a clue.

In Isaiah 58 it says we are to turn away from doing our own things, from saying our own things, and treat it as a holy day of the Lord. The word holy here implies dedicated to, like set apart for, focused on, etc. So we are to spend time with God on the sabbath, doing what He wants us to be doing, whatever that is. Now, looking back at the first sabbath, what was God doing when He rested? He was spending time with Adam and Eve! They were all walking in the garden together, checking out the new stuff, Adam naming things. Can you imagine how great a day that would have been?!? The very first time God and man celebrated the sabbath together!

Prayer
Father, thank You for taking time to be with us in those first seven days of creation. What an amazing time that must have been! We thank You for taking time to be with us on the sabbath today, for being willing to talk with us and give us direction for things you want us to do. You are a very great God! Praise be to the Most High, King of the universe! In Jesus name. Amen.

Do No Harm

Several friends of mine were struggling today. Each of them had been impacted, not by chance, or the weather, or sickness, but by the actions and speaking of other people. As I reflected on each of these situations, I was immediately angry, sad, frustrated… Life is tough enough. Taking care of our families. Taking care of our homes. Taking care of our animals. Worshiping our God. There is plenty for us to do in life, it seems crazy to me that we cannot treat each other decently at times.

In Matthew 5 Jesus said blessed are the merciful. Why? Because they will obtain mercy. Blessed are the pure in heart. Why? Because they will see God! I’m pretty sure if we are harming others there is a good chance we are not completely pure in heart. Blessed are the peace makers. Why? They will be called the sons of God. Now this one is very interesting to me. It seems to me that when we are born again, we become the sons of God, and joint heirs with Jesus. Does this imply that one of the fruits we should see in our lives if we are born again is that we will be peace makers? I do not say these things to judge any man. That is not my place, nor am I worthy of the task. I say them to judge myself, and encourage us all to do the same.

Prayer
Father, please forgive us for not treating the rest of Your kids with respect sometimes. Please help us to take that extra minute before we speak to make sure that what we are about to say is really in everyone’s best interest. Please help us to go that extra mile with those in need, those struggling to be free, those that have been harmed in some way. Let us be ambassadors for You of the peace You have to offer. Let our prayers be answered to bring peace that the whole earth may know that You indeed are the Healer Deliverer King. In Jesus name. Amen

Life Repeats Itself

As I listened to the birds wake me up this morning, I thought of how things repeat. Everyday the birds sing early, almost as if they are calling to the sun to rise. We have the night to sleep, and the day to work (or the other way around on third shift). And God is watching over us. As I read the scriptures and prayed this morning I thought about this process of repeating. Why would we read the same scriptures over and over? Because we align with the words as we take them in and speak them out loud to each other. Think for a moment about the story these words tell. There is a God that has all power and He is on our side, watching over us to bring His kingdom to pass in our lives. The Psalms say over and over that we are human, we make mistakes, we have sufferings from time to time in life, we call to God to ask for help to follow Him and for deliverance, and He shows up strong to deliver us. Every time.

How could we not be thankful for that?

Prayer
Father, thank You for repeating Your blessings in our lives. Thank You for all You do to help us make our way through life. Please be with Your people today, and help them find Your way. Help us to know Your truth, and not the truth that men say. Help us to be your kids. In Jesus name. Amen.

Spiritual Warfare Tips

As believers we frequently talk about warfare, spiritual warfare, but what does that mean in real life? We all experience the challenges of living, whether they are small inconveniences or situations that seem to challenge our very lives. These are different in many ways. But they are clearly in opposition to us as a whole human on the earth here to be a part of God’s kingdom and to spread God’s kingdom. So what exactly do these challenges have to do with spiritual warfare? To answer that we have to consider who we are.

We are the temple of God if we are believers, according to Paul in 1 Corinthians 3:17. Here it says that God will destroy anyone that defiles the temple. If your body comes under attack for any reason, whether a person or circumstance, God will go after that source and destroy it. Secondly, remember that we are spiritual first and then physical. That is the way of things in creation. They start with the spirit side, in God, and get created into material things. So if something is attacking us, it started in the spiritual before it ever appeared in the physical. That is just the way it works. Paul knew this when he wrote the second letter to the Corinthians telling them that they were spiritual and the weapons were spiritual. What are these weapons and how do we use them?

In Romans 10 Paul talks about a power we have. It is not physical, but it affects the physical. It is the power that changes us forever from lost sinners to believers saved by grace. It is the power in our mouth. Let’s put a few things together here. If we pray without ceasing (out of our mouth), if we use the tongue for good as James admonished us, and if we speak the things that God has said first to ourselves then we change our minds, we build our faith. We have to fight at the smallest level first, and get to the place where we can fight bigger things, like giants. This is why James said both good and evil should not come from our mouth. When I think of how often I have gotten upset about the simplest thing and said something stupid, it makes me sad. No man can rule his own tongue by himself. But with God, all things are possible, and if we will but commit to verbalizing God’s truth to our selves through out the day, we will be fighting and winning the smaller battles and preparing for the bigger ones.

Prayer
Father, thank You for putting the power in us through the spirit of living water that can pour out of our mouth. Thank You for this day in history that the Jewish people call Shavuot that is the day You sent Your Holy Spirit to indwell us. Thank You that You help us to learn to control our tongue that our power might be released to defeat our enemies in our prayer, praise, and speaking. In Jesus name. Amen.

Building Thoughts

Last night with a group of believers I listened as someone read a verse I had heard many times. In II Corinthians 10 Paul is talking about warfare, but specifically in verse 5 he addresses thoughts. We are to take every thought captive. In that moment as our group was praying together it began to really sink in that it is our mind that we must control in a way that takes the thoughts captive. We sometimes think good things and other times we have to take control and make our mind think things that are exalting of the Messiah. But how?

Then I had an opportunity to understand just how that works. Waking from some dreams through the night I had thoughts that I did not want to have. I was tired and trying to escape them by thinking about something else. I was not having any serious luck with that. Then I remembered that the same Paul talked about how we change things with our speaking in Romans 10:8-13. This is how we become believers. It is how we are made whole. It is how we take control of our minds. I began to pray out loud to God for His help. I also began to say out loud what I would think about in detail. I said out loud generally that I would not think about the things that were trying to enter my mind, but did not give them voice with specific words. This lasted about five minutes. My mind was clear and I went off to sleep. God is good.

Prayer
Father, please help us to remember Your blessings. Please help us to have the power to speak the things that You speak. Please help is in times of trial to say out loud the things You would have us to say. Be with Your people today and build them up. In Jesus name. Amen.

Where Courage Comes

As I thought this morning about the word, encouragement, I tried to think about what it means just by its sound. To me, it sounded like something that someone does, as if they were trying to place courage into us. It just sounds like that should be one of the meanings. That made me remember Stephen, one of the most courageous people I can think of in the bible.

In Acts 6-7 we see the story of Stephen brought before certain members of the synagogue. They accused him of trying to teach against what Moses had taught, and that Jesus did the same. His response was interesting. He gave them the history of the Hebrew people, showing that Jesus had both taught and kept the law perfectly, and that they had conspired to murder him. What happens next is the courage placement. The heavens opened and Stephen once again saw the Messiah, standing next to God. This gave him the courage to face the stoning death he was about to endure. Sounds like God, and seeing Jesus, implanted courage. May we all be so fortunate as to have the revelation in a personal way that Jesus will stand for us.

Prayer
Father, I ask that you touch the lives and hearts of people today that they may know You. Give them the courage to stand for You by knowing that Jesus stands for us. Thank You for being our King, and never turning Your back on any who will turn to You. In Jesus name. Amen.

In The Arms Of God

Little children can teach us a great deal. I saw a woman at the local race track last night arm in arm with her little girl. It was very chilly; we could see our breath. They were both dressed warmly, but still the little one wanted to be in the arms of her mom to be comforted against the cold. We as humans will look for comfort, especially in times of distress.

In Psalm 55 this morning I read both a sad and a happy story. It was sad because David was speaking of a friend, a dear friend, that had turned against him. The former friend at one time went to church together with David, but was now out to get him. David was sad because the comfort that his friend had once been to him had turned into what seemed almost like hatred. So much that David was calling on God to defeat his former friend. Here is what I find interesting. David did have faults. After all he committed adultery and had the lady’s husband murdered. But David repented. Maybe his friend just could not forget and forgive. Unfortunately for the friend, God was on David’s side, and probably things turned out badly for the friend. So where is the happy part of the story?

God is our friend, regardless of what others that may even have been our friends and gone to church with us, say about us. God is on our side and will defend us. God will be our comfort, if we let Him and call upon His name.

Prayer
Father, thank You for being our friend. Please help those that once were our friends to see the sad state they are in when they are against one of Your children. If they will not change, Father, then I ask You to defend Your people mightily that all may know, that You alone are God, the Deliverer Healer King. In Jesus name. Amen.