Praying when we should be speaking

There are many things in our life that the Lord has already taken care of for us. Yet, most of us spend hours, days, weeks, even months or years praying for these things. There are some things that the Lord expects us to deal with now that He has taken care of them. When Ezekiel visited the valley of dry bones (Ezekiel 37)the Lord did not tell him to pray and ask Him to put the bones back together. Rather, the Lord told Ezekiel to prophesy directly to the bones and later to the wind. In the same fashion, in Mark 11:23, Jesus instructs us to speak directly to mountains. Yet, we spend our time praying and asking God to fix things that He has already fixed. It is time that we as believers realize our place as the children of God and declare the things that He has done for us. It is time that we quit asking for blessings and declare (speak) that we have the blessings of Abraham (Galatians 3:29).

When the brook dries up

I have recently experienced the truth that it's pretty easy to say the Lord is our source when we have a job. It's another thing to say it when the job is gone. When we have direct deposit set up with the job and we write checks to pay our bills, are we trusting the Lord or our job that the money will be in the checking account? I am not condeming anyone, because I definitely stopped my automatic drafts and havent written any checks since I lost my job. But it is definitely a question worth asking. I don't know that I have the answer to this one. But I do know that I am sick of playing church. I wonder what Smith Wigglesworth would have done...But even more than Wigglesworth, I look to Elijah as our Biblical example. In I Kings 17, Elijah was told by the Lord to go the brook and that ravens would bring him food. He was able to drink from the brook and eat the food the ravens brought him. After a certain amount of time, the brook dried up and the ravens quit showing up. If Elijah had been like most of us, he would have starved to death at the edge of the brook. Most of us would have started griping and complaining so loud that we would not have heard the Lord send us to the widow's house. The Lord has ravens and a brook or either a widow in store for each of us. It is our duty to trust Him and to realize that whether he is using the brook, the ravens, or the widow, He is the one meeting our needs. I pray that the Lord will increase our faith, that He will give us the kind of faith that writes the check even when there is no job.

Time to dig some ditches

Growing up in South Texas I was familiar with the idea of irrigation, but never so much as the time I actually helped irrigate an orchard. My parents had purchased half an acre of an orchard that had been subdivided. Well, not ready to build a house on the land, they decided to irrigate the orange trees. The Rio Grande Valley in South Texas was built on irrigation and there are canals and irrigation pipes just about everywhere. We had to pay a fee to the city or county based on how much water we needed, then the water was turned on at the pipe nearest our land. It was up to us to get the water from that pipe to the land and of course we did this by means of ditches. It was not enough to just dig a ditch from the pipe to the edge of our little grove of trees, we had to dig ditches to control how the water was spread throughout the trees, otherwise it would have just run off and been wasted. I remember that day, because what was for the rest of my family a lot of hard work, was a lot of fun for a 12 year old boy and his friends. But, I learned something about irrigation that day. If you arent prepared for the water, you will not reap any benefits from it. In 2 Kings 3, the armies of Israel, Judah, and Edom are preparing to attack Moab and are moving through the wilderness of Edom. Vs 9 tells us that they went on a 7 day journey with no water. Realizing they were in trouble the kings asked if there was prophet in the company. Elisha, who at the time was still unknown, stepped up. After a rebuke of Ahab's son, he tells them to dig ditches because even without rain or wind the valley is going to be filled with water. I believe the Lord desires to fill our hearts and lives, but we need to dig some ditches to be prepared to handle it. There are several ditches we need to dig, but I just want to point out one: self-discipline. Without self-discipline any blessing that the Lord gives us is just going to be wasted. Many of us wonder why we don't see more of the Lord's blessings in our life, but we have no discipline. If we will work (digging a ditch is very hard work) and dicsipline ourselves, I believe the Lord will fill our lives to overflowing.

The Lord leads us

So often, as Christians we pray, "Lord, lead me; Lord, guide me." Well, we need to realize that He is already leading and guiding us. Our praying like that is equivalent to the children of Israel ignoring the cloud and praying for the Lord to show them which way to go. "Lord, lead us where you want us to go, and while you're at it, could you send some shade?" We immediately see how foolish that would be, yet it's just as foolish for us to pray for His guidance. He is guiding us and showing us His way. So much so, that our VERY steps are arranged by Him. What we need to pray for is that our spiritual eyes might be opened and that we might see Him and follow Him where He is already leading. We are like Elisha's servant in 2 Kings 6. Rather than pray for the Lord's deliverance, Elisha just prayed that His sevant's eyes would be opened. Just like the deliverance was already provided, our guidance is already provided. So let's stop praying for the Lord to guide us, and rather thank Him for the guidance He has aleady provided and then pray that He will open our eyes to see it.

Rejected on earth, accepted in Heaven

Most, if not all of us know the sting of rejection. It starts early for some. Even on the playground maybe you were the last kid to be picked. Or worse yet, you were the one, when left by yourself, the captain who's turn it was to pick said, "I dont' want him, you can have him." And it continues. Husbands and wives reject each other. Maybe saddest of all is when children are rejected by their parents. It was this kind of rejection that David knew about. In I Samuel 16 we are told of Samuel's visit to Jesse's house to anoint the next king. Samuel had of course let Jesse know he was coming and why. So where was David? David was out watching sheep because his own father had already rejected him as even being a candidate for the king. Remember that Samuel had brought all the fixin's for a feast. It was his plan, after anointing the new king to have a feast in his honor. Notice the last part of verse 11 of this chapter, "we will not sit down until he come hither." No matter how many times we have been rejected on this earth, Jesus is preparing a feast in Heaven and He is saying, "we aren't sitting down, until they are all here. We aren't even starting this until my church has come home." The sting of rejection on earth isn't so bad when you realize that Jesus has accepted you.

Motives Matter

Recently I saw the question, would you live differently if you knew there was no resurrection. There are many different ways to answer that question, even to interpret it. My immediate reaction to it though was what is my motive for living right. Our motive for living for the Lord has to be more than hope for a reward or fear of punishment if we don't. I have preached my share of sermons on hell, and when the Lord leads, I will continue to do so. However, I fear that often-times our motives for right living are wrong. Yes, there is a reward for Christians and yes, there is a punishment for those that reject Christ; however, our motivation to live for the Lord should come from a sense of gratitude for what He has done for us. Sometimes we need to look back and remember were He brought us from. Paul said there but for the grace of God, go I. Another time, after listing a group of people that won't make it to heaven, he said, but such were some of you. So we need to decide to live for Him because of where He has brought us from. I will live for Him because He died for me.

Your Steps

I think that often times as Christians we lose sight of exactly how concerned the Lord is with our daily lives. We seem to forget that His word tells us even the hair on our head is numbered. It is easy to believe that our path or road is set up by God, but it is much harder for us to believe what His word really says. He told us, 'the steps of a good man are ordered.' God is not just concerned with the big picture; He is concerned with our journey to get there too. Most of us can quote this verse from the 37th Psalm, but we forget what it really means. It doesn't say our destination or even our journey is ordered, but each and every step that we take. Our Father is intimately concerned with everything that affects us. In the sermon on the mount Jesus tells us that a sparrow cannot fall to the earth and die with out the Lord taking note of it. If He is that concerned with a soul-less bird, how much more is our Father concerned with the things that happen to us? Be encouraged today, fellow Christians, the Lord Himself is directing your every step. The question is, will we follow Him?

Don't shoot the wounded

A recent FaceBook conversation I had has me thinking about how seldom Christian encourage one another. My pastor used to say the Lord's army is the only army that shoots their wounded. We might not all be guilty of shooting the wounded or putting down the discouraged, but i daresay that we all have been guilty of not encouraging one another as we should. We can't all sing; we can't all teach or preach. But we can all encourage each other. I can't help but think of the battle of Amalek in Exodus 17. The Bible tells us that as long as Moses' hands were in the air Israel would prevail and win the battle. But Moses was human and his hands got tired. Aaron and Hur stood behind him and held his hands up for him. When we encourage people we might not get any credit or any glory; we might be behind somebody who can be seen up on the mountain from the valley, but the Lord sees us. This week take the time to encourage someone. I would like to ask everyone to specifically encourage your pastor this week; let him/her know that you are praying for them. Let their spouse know that too. You'll be amazed at how much better they preach when they someone is holding their hands up.

God's Prozac

1 Samuel 30:6 tells us that David encouraged himself in the Lord. It seems to me that the biggest difference between Saul and David was that David did this one thing, he encouraged himself in the Lord. How many of the Psalms were written by David? David literally spent his whole life encouraging himself in the Lord. He didn't rely on parents, friends, teachers, or anyone else. It seems thats a good thing, as his own father didn't think he had the potential to be king. Saul and David both sinned; they both had shortcomings, but only one was considered a man after God's own heart. I believe the Lord is looking for people to raise up and be like David and learn to encourage themselves in Him, rather than look to a pastor, teacher, mentor, or leader to do it. We need to be Davids and not Sauls. Once we do this I believe the Lord will take care of our possessions, our position, our place, and our people. All of David's possessions that were taken by the enemy were returned, his position changed from that of a shepherd to a king, his place from the pasture to the palace, and his people from those in distress, discouraged, and in debt to might men. All this because David encouraged himself in the Lord.

Holy Impatience

Abraham and King Saul both got in a hurry and did not wait on the Lord. Saul basically lost his kingdom over this and Abraham gave us a whole new nation/race that still troubles the world today. So, it is definitely important to learn to wait on the Lord. However, i also believe that there are certain things that the Lord puts inside of us that He wants us to do. Jeremiah spoke of a fire being shut up in his bones. So, while we are to wait on the Lord, I do not believe he expects us to sit idly by while He does all of the work for us.
That begs the question, where is the line between holy impatience and sin. I think that there are two different things that can cause us to cross the line. These two things are lack of faith and motive. Abraham demonstrates lack of faith. His motive was pure; he just doubted whether Jehova could do what He said. Saul on the other hand wanted to look good in front of the people. That's why he asked Samuel to stand with him in front of the people one more time, even after he was told he had lost his kingdom. So, if we believe that the Lord is able to do what He said he would do, and we have pure motives, we can and should WORK for the Lord.