Why don’t our most crucial tasks get done? That thing we’ve been putting off for months. When we know is going to catch up to us. Either there are consequences or we miss the opportunity to do them.
Every action or decision we make has consequences that’s just a fact of life. I know I need to get back to the gym, especially with the colder months coming. And walking and hiking a few easy trails is out of the question.
I have been putting it off because of the money and I’ve been a rut after my surgery and then losing my dog, who brought so much joy in my life. I’ve been on the struggle bus. I can do something about getting in shape, but getting a dog is not possible right now. But I really need to buck and just do it.
God knows we need a way to get from this world to heaven and that we can’t do it on our own. So He built a bridge: Jesus. When Jesus came to this world, He bridged the gap between us and God. By dying on the cross, He made it possible for us to get to heaven.
But Jesus isn’t simply our bridge to heaven or one of many bridges. He is the only bridge. You can’t go to heaven on any other religion bridge or I’m a good person bridge. Jesus is the only way. No one gets to see the Father unless he or she goes through Jesus.
Jesus didn’t come to start a religion. He came to have a relationship with you. He has a purpose and a destiny for your life. Religions tend to condemn people if they don’t obey their “rules.” Jesus is about love and mercy. Not rules and judgment.
When was the first time you really felt like a grown up (if ever)?
I have to admit I had to think on this one. At age 12 I had already been through so much. two brothers had already died. One in a drowning accident and one murdered. My father had turned to alcohol to deal with my brother’s drowning because he had given my brother permission to go on a boy scouting trip with the church. Guilt had overwhelmed him. He would go to work come home start drinking until he passed out.
My sister had moved out right after her graduation from high school. It was then I really realized I was all alone. At age 12 I thought, maybe if alcohol was helping my father cope with my brother’s death, maybe it would help me cope with the pain and no one really cared about me anyway. I could easily get alcohol and no one would notice, my would just think he drank it all.
This led to my journey to drugs, drugs, and alcohol numbing all the pain, and I thought was just what I needed.
God loves to give His children the gift of “the full assurance of faith” (Hebrews 10:22. It is a precious thing, a source of deep peace and consolation, and He wants us to have it.
I was never more intuned to this until the pandemic happened. I saw fear take over so many people. From panic buying tothe knock-out fights in grocery stores, over someone wearing a mask or not. I was lectured to by family members because I chose not to get the experimental vaccine that everyone rushing to get. I chose to trust God.
Assurance is something that goes by repeated conflict, by our repeated experimental proof of the Lord’s power and goodness to save, when we have been brought very low and helped, sorely wounded and healed, cast down and raised again, have given up all hope, and been suddenly snatched from danger, and placed in safety. When these things have been repeated to us a thousand times over, we begin to learn to trust simply in the Word and power of God, beyond and against appearances, and this trust, when habitual and strong, bears the name of assurance.
God’s way of growing His sweet gift of assurance in us is by putting us through numerous and varied hardships. This process is designed to be hard. I think God was testing me through the pandemic. As if you say, “Will you trust that I will take care of you?”
Trials are the way that faith is proven, refined, and strengthened. As my family adhered to the government’s wishes and was vaccinated. I did not, yes I got covid, but I knew God would get me through it. My family got covid even though they were vaccinated. (imagine that).
James 1:2-3 writes,
“Count it all joy when you fall into various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience. But let patience have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete lacking nothing.”
Assurance grows through conflict, and assurance produces character which produces hope.
One of my favorite scriptures is Psalm 27 verse verse 1 says,
“The Lord is my light and my salvation, in whom shall I fear? The Lord is the stronghold of my life, of whom shall I be afraid.”
The pandemic exposed each of our weaknesses and exacerbated some. Confidence is a struggle for many people, and anxiety can erode away the confidence of even the most secure people. Psalms is a place I can go when I need more confidence or encouragement.
God is our light when we feel like darkness is closing around us.
One of the most peaceful, consoling fruits in the Bible is righteousness. And that the righteousness of God depends on faith. It’s a fruit that is realized “later” in increasing amounts.
We cannot have assurance until we have knowledge of the evil and deceitfulness of our hearts, which can be acquired only by painful, and repeated experiences.
There is a good example in Peter. Peter confidently promised Jesus that he would never deny Him only hours before He did. We don’t realize our sinful nature is how weak our faith is. We don’t know how proud and self-reliant we are. It is the fairy trials that apply heat to our faith and cause the chaff our unbelief in the form of doubt, fear, anxiety, anger, jealousy, bitterness, self-ambition, fear of man, and more to the to the surface. And when we see that chaff, we can fear that our faith may not be real.
But that’s what God wanted. When we sun in us and feel helpless to get rid of it on our own, it pushes us in preparation to trust Jesus’s work on the cross alone. When we see our numerous weaknesses and feel our helplessness to be strong on our own, it pushes us to search out and trust Jesus’s promises to us alone.
We can have no security from gifts, labors, services, or even past experiences, but that from first to last our only safety is in the power, compassion, and faithfulness of our great redeemer.
It is the various kinds of pressing, painful, exposing trials that teach us to trust in Jesus for everything and to really “live by faith in the Son of God” ( Galatians 2:20).
As God grows the full assurance of faith in us and causes the joyful, peaceful fruit of righteousness to grow in us through trials. He wants our faith to rest fully on Him -the Rock of Jesus, so that we rely not on ourselves but on God who raises the dead (2 Corinthians 1:9).
Isaac Newton said,
“We are never more safe, never have more reason to expect the Lord’s help, than when we are most sensible that we can do nothing without Him.”
If you had a million dollars to give away, who would you give it to?
If I had to give a million dollars away. I would first help our veterans. They signed a blank check win they chose to sacrifice themselves for our country. It’s a shame that so many have to suffer when they return home and we do not take care of them. It is estimated that 22 veterans commit suicide a day when our government is supposed to take care of them.
Second I would start a non-profit to help abused children, with counseling programs and such. The government agencies in America have failed. Children fall through the cracks and are either killed by their parents or abused. It’s is estimated that one in four children experience child abuse or neglect in their life time and over 2000 a year are killed by their parents in America. No child should ever have to experience this.
Making God’s Presence our Priority. Seeking the presence of God should be our top value. When you love the Lord being near to Him is like nothing else.
In Exodus 33:15 Moses says,
“If your presence does not go with us, do not send us there.”
I want the presence of God to shape what I see and how I pray. When we perceive what God is doing it changes everything.
God longs to have quality time with us. Think of it this way if you met a friend in a group setting, you may not get to know that person in the same way that you could if you spent time with that person one on one. If we only worship God in public settings but don’t spend time alone with Him you will never get to know Him personally.
Listening to the pastor preach is great to grow our understanding of God. But we only get stoked by another’s oil when we leave or that person fails us, our light burns out. Likewise, learning about God through other means does not replace discovering Him for ourselves.
Worshiping God is a tool He had given us to express our love and affection to Him and honor Him in Spirit and truth. But our lives should also be a living sacrifice. A living sacrifice means offering ourselves to God in a worshipful way, living a life that is consecrated to God and not conformed to the world.
Some ways to be a living sacrifice to God include:
Changing what Is evil with ourselves.
Being transformed into Jesus’s likeness.
Living according to God’s purposes. Living a life that is in accordance to God’s purposes for our life.
Sacrificing emotions such as anger, depression, frustration, or hardening our hearts.
There are blessing that come from sacrificing to God:
Being accepted by God.
God comforting us by showing us we are on the right path.
God helping us to discern His will and know Him.
Being a living sacrifice means believing who God says we are and what He has promised for us.
Praying is simply communicating with God. It should be our everyday conversation with Him. We can talk to God at any time of the day, and He desires constant fellowship with us. There is never a moment that we have to live without Him. He loves when we take little moments throughout of day to connect with Him.
Worship and prayer both play a significant role in drawing near to God. When we do this from the heart, He recognizes our need for more of Him. Jesus paid the price in full for us to be able to be in fellowship and have favor with Him.
Jesus continually left the crowds and went to places of wilderness to get away with His Father. If Jesus, who was God in the flesh, needed to spend time with God the Father alone, his much more do we need to prioritize time with Him?
Time with God may look different from sitting in a prayer meeting, going to church, or a prayer meeting. Don’t put God in a box, time with Him should be refreshing, and joyful. Maybe He leads us to sing scripture or read quietly. Maybe He could highlight something in His Word that may lead you into a time of repentance.
God desires interaction with us, and we should lean into how He leads us to seek Him. We should not assume a formula for pursuing God, but be open to His guidance during our time with Him.
His presence is important because:
He is worthy
We are inviting Him to dwell with us in every area of our lives.
There is a fruit that comes from worshiping, prayer, and fasting:
Satan can no longer no longer torment us. He is defeated.
We align our properties with God’s
We experience freedom
We have the opportunity every moment of our lives to draw closer to Him. There is no one like Him in all the earth. No one can compare to Him.
There is always an invitation to go deeper with Him and discover more of His character. There is nothing like the joy of partnering with Him in preparing the way for His coming while we get ready for the harvest of delivers that will come in the last days.
Throughout my life I have struggled with doubt, fear, discouragement and loneliness. I spent years hiding everything inside because I was taught if you’re struggling “don’t you dare show it, keep it secret.
It was after years of depression, anxiety attacks, and seeing therapists, that I realized if I didn’t get the “secrets” out I was going to self-destruct. It was only then that I began to heal.
After I was saved by Jesus. I realized I was not in control of my life -God was. Yes, I had the choice but I didn’t have that final say -God does.
That is when I chose God as my foundation not anything in the world. From what I learned through was, the world was full of pain. God is full of love and hope.
I discovered that when a person is able to face terrifying obstacles with the assurance that God is truly in control, a awesome sense of power, strength, assurance, and confidence behind to well up inside of the heart.
Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego were able to face the fiery furnace and risk their lives because they knew God was in control and they weren’t going to worship the golden image that Nebuchadnezzar the king had set up.
King David learned this lesson through his life of ups and downs, successes, and fierce challenges. God called David a man after His own heart. In Psalm 103, David praises God for His dominion, crying out, “The Lord has established His throne in the heavens, and His kingdom rules over all.” David recognized his humble submission to the One who sits on the heavenly throne, the Lord of all creation.
David’s awareness of God’s character, and His complete sovereignty. This word sovereignty denotes God’s supreme and absolute rule, control, and authority over this entire universe and every single human being. He is all-powerful, all knowing, and all present.
There are so many people in this world who either deny God’s existence or try and say He’s responsible for all the bad things that happen. When subsequently, it’s our bad choices that make bad things happen.
Why do they do this? Why do they seem to stumble over it and overlook God’s sovereignty? Maybe its because they don’t understand the Word of God, or try to mold Him into what they think He should be. Replacing His righteousness with their own. As a result, if anything happens they may claim that God has nothing to do with it.
If we replace God’s sovereignty with sheer luck, we are simply saying that there is no plan or order in the universe, as we are just victims of circumstance. God is not in the luck business, He’s in the blessings business. Luck runs out, but the blessings of the Lord endure forever.
What’s something you would attempt if you were guaranteed not to fail.
Nothing in life is a guaranteed. It’s impossible to predict that nothing will go wrong ever. Everything we do in life has potential to fail. Even if you’ve done it one thousand times or once,
I would love to go skydiving or race in the Indy 500, but there is a chance something could go wrong. While we shouldn’t live in fear, we should never get big heads and think that nothing could go wrong. In everything we do, there are risks we need to outweigh the risks and benefits of doing anything in out life
Even professionals have failed. Steve Irwin a famous Australian zookeeper and conservationist, known as the crocodile hunter died filming a nature documentary in 2006 and was attacked by a stingray and stabbed in the chest multiple times and as a result, died before reaching the shore.
There are only two things that are guaranteed, “death and paying taxes.
What was the hardest personal goal you’ve set for yourself?
The hardest personal goal I have set for myself was retraining my brain to think positively.
During my entire childhood, my brain was fed negativity. My mother made sure of it. Things like “you are not good enough, you can’t do anything right, no one will ever love you, you’re so stupid.” She had trained my brain to never think positively about anything I ever did, as I thought what she told me was true.
I lived with thoughts like this for nearly 40 years. Which led to drug abuse in my younger years to try and escape from the pain, doom, and gloom I constantly felt. It was the only time it was felt happy.
I was married, had children, and held down a full-time job, and still felt worthless. But I knew I would Never! Treat my children the way my mother treated me.
It wasn’t until my children were raised and moved out, that I began working on myself.
The way you communicate with yourself has a major impact on how you feel about yourself. Positive self-talk has the power to propel you to great heights.
Negative self-talk can bring you down to the depths, where you feel like giving up. I found myself regularly engaging in negative self-talk because it was ingrained in my head. I beat myself up about everything I did positive or negative. When you constantly tell yourself you won’t succeed or do anything right it leads to wanting to make yourself unalive.
But it turns out it is possible to teach an old brain new tricks.
It can be really difficult to think of things you are grateful for when everything in your life seems to be going wrong.
Many studies show that finding a bit of thankfulness each day can actually increase happiness and decrease depression. By developing an attitude of gratitude, we can feel more fulfilled and joyful each day.
An attitude of gratitude is a regular habit to express appreciation for all different parts of life, no matter how small.
“Once you begin to take note of the things you are grateful for, you begin to lose sight of the things you lack” -Germany Kent
Count your blessings. Don’t just think about your blessings in your head. Write them down. Then you can go back to them when you are discouraged.
Three things. Think of three things you are grateful for each day. What are the constants in your life”
Shelter
A bed
Food
Be grateful for yourself. Take time to recognize all the unique things that make you, you. Think of the things you have accomplished (big and small), your God-given talents, and the people you have helped. Once you can appreciate yourself, your ability to see things more positively will grow.
When we train ouryto look at life through the lens of gratitude rather than disappointment, we find ourselves happier and more at peace. When we focus won gratitude the tide of disappointment goes out and the tide of love rushes in.
Psalm 91 speaks about being surrounded by the goodness and power of God. It is packed with reminders of how God works on behalf of those who love Him and dwell in His presence. Psalm 91 is written to people to dwell in the secret place of the Most High. People who find strength and life from the Lord as they cultivate an intimate relationship with Him. It means they confess their sins, repent, and lean on God in their lives.
Psalm 91 contains a series of promises about how God will sustain followers of Jesus, who are dwellers, no matter what comes at them.
He will protect you from every trap and disease.
He will cover you and give you refuge.
You will not fear the terror of night, arrows by day, and the deadly disease or pestilence.
He commands His angels to guard over you, to protect you.
He will answer when you call.
He will be with you in troub
He will home you.
He will reward you with long life.
He will show you His salvation.
Psalm 91 brings us a sense of God’s control in this messy life. When things are good and not so good, God is in control. He is with us when trouble comes knocking on our door. We can lie down and sleep in peace because He is always beside us.
When we make God our dwelling place, we possess peace. We have guidance, protection, deliverance, spiritual blessings and eternal security.
God doesn’t say we won’t have difficulties and challenges. But He does say He will be with us in those times, rescuing us and protecting us. He will always work on our behalf of those who know Him and love Him.
That is His promise to us. And He is faithful to keep all His promises. King David knew God’s kingdom is everlasting. His dominion endures throughout all generations, and He is faithful I’m all His Words, and loving in all His deeds (Psalm 145:13).
“The Lord upholds all who fall and raised up all those who are bowed down” Psalm 145:14.
From Pity to Praise 