You can have faith or you can have control,
but you cant have both.
~Joel Schmidgall
Put this on your wall to be blessed!
“From now on, you go and listen to what GOD, our God, says and then tell us what GOD tells you. We’ll listen and we’ll do it.”
GOD heard what you said to me and told me, “I’ve heard what the people said to you. They’re right—good and true words. What I wouldn’t give if they’d always feel this way, continuing to revere me and always keep all my commands; they’d have a good life forever, they and their children! – Deut 5:27-29
As I read this I could not help but weep for two reasons
- I wept because I felt Gods broken heart
- I wept because of our lost potential
I wept because I felt Gods broken heart
There is no denying it, God has given me a heart that is tender for Him. I often weep when I am reading scripture and see how much He loves us and how much He has been “long-suffering.”
When I read, I am not fooled into thinking that it was only “they” those who lives in Biblical times, that pained my God’s heart, no, I realize that far too often it is I that have caused Him to suffer.
We all have.
Far too often we get lulled into focusing on “the world” around us, which causes us to lose track of the fact that God has a heart that aches for us, a heart that is saddened when we forget Him or deliberately turn our backs on Him.
Yes, God is strong enough to “take it,” yes, God will forgive us when we “give it,” and we all have times (especially as baby Christians) when wrestling with God is something we need to do, if only to realize that He will still love us when we come out the other side, but in every-day, regular life, we need to be a people who care about hurting God.
We need to love God more than anything else and put Him first in all we do….which leads to why
I wept because of our lost potential
My heart breaks over how much time I have wasted. God says that if we just keep our eyes on Him that He would give us a good life.
Now, that God life will look different for each person (in other words it’s not all about money), however, I know, that I know, that I know, that God’s heart for us is that He wants to love and be loved by us and in that, wants to bless us. But just not randomly, He wants to bless our socks off.
While some people do not believe that I do.
God is love, and all good things come from him.
God gave us the ultimate gift already, Jesus, He is a giver.
Plus it has always been my experience that as God blesses others I notice.
And as God blesses me people notice. People who love God, and people who do not.
Why wouldn’t God want to get “the worlds” attention by showing how wonderful a father He is, by always providing for all our needs, and by giving us many blessings that we do not deserve?
Yet, I along with others of my faith, our faith, have wasted precious time by going my own way, by aligning my heart with a desire instead of with God.
As a result others that needed to see His goodness, did not.
Now I am not sure exactly what percentage of part I play in God’s orchestration of bringing others to Him but even if I was 1% of the equation, I am grieved that I made it 1% harder for someone to come to Christ.
I am going print and post Deuteronomy 5:27-29 to remind myself what is important, to remind myself that as Jesus said I am to love God and then I am to love others. Care to join me?
~~~~~~~~~~~
Photo © Jiri Hera – Fotolia.com
Eugene H. Peterson, The Message: The Bible in Contemporary Language (Colorado Springs, CO: NavPress, 2005), Dt 5:27–29.
Best defense = Good offense
“But GOD told me, “Tell them, ‘Don’t do it; don’t go up to fight—I’m not with you in this. Your enemies will waste you.’ ”” (Deuteronomy 1:42, The Message)
Trusting God is more than just believing He will bring us through a hard time, or bring us our next blessing, Trusting God with all that we are means that before we make those important decisions that we ask God what He thinks about it first.
How many times do we say, “Man I wish I would have known what I know now to help me make that decision?”
Well you can (somewhat). If you bring it before God, He will not let you do anything outside of His perfect will for you. And no matter what that looks like, it will ultimately be good as He is good and loves you so very much!”
Photo © igor – Fotolia.com
Why I will not eat for thirty days
“Consecrate yourselves, for tomorrow the LORD will do amazing things among you.”
– Joshua 3:5
I may not know a lot of things, but I do know the voice of my Father God who leads me and guides me and loves me so.
I know that I can trust Him. I know that when He tells me to do something it is because He loves me and wants me to prosper in some way shape or form.
So when He calls me to fast I do not hesitate.
I am no stranger to fasting. I have done three forty day fasts, a few ten days ones, as well as other small ones.
I may do the fasts, but (except for the first one) I have never initiated one that has ever succeeded.
I know it is not that way for most Christians, but if I want to fast for days over an issue I usually last about half a day.
I get so hungry and faint, I feel like I am dying (It’s ridiculous I know).
But when God puts it on my heart to fast…it’s a piece of cake (oh wait that’s a pun…sorry about that).
I have seen such amazing things happen, seen Good open doors, shut them, or just plain heal and restore.
So when He called me to consecrate myself for ministry by fasting for thirty days, even though I was not very familiar for the term, I was ready.
He told me to start on the third day of the third month and to finish on April 3rd. Those days have meaning but more on that for another day.
I am excited to press into all that God has for me in and through this fast. As God puts it on your heart to do so, please keep me in prayer, and know that I am praying for you as well.
I am not eating solid food but I am feeding on the word of God.
And although I do not broadcast every fasting experience I do believe that God has called me to blog about it this time.
I feel as though He is wanting someone to know today that it is His grace alone that gets you through the hard things He calls you to do.
Sometimes when God called us to do something we get so caught up in trying to figure out how to make it happen that we forget that it’s not our job.
We are to come to God like children, not immature, but trusting.
For the most part kids really don’t give a lot of thought to how things are going to, or did, happen.
Christmas morning they are not deeply contemplating how the bearded man got the bike in through the glass fireplace, they are too busy riding the bike for that.
We have to stop allowing ourselves to get in the way of what God wants to do. We have to Trust and obey and let Him figure it all out.
Photo – © Alexandr79 – Fotolia.com
God’s job vs our job
It’s Gods job to get us where He wants us to go. Our job is to make ourselves available anytime, anyplace. Mark Batterson
I Am Trusting God 