Ready For Battle?

I urge you, first of all, to pray for all people. Ask God to help them; intercede on their behalf, and give thanks for them. In every place of worship, I want men to pray with holy hands lifted up to God, free from anger and controversy. 1 Timothy 2:1, 8 (NLT)

I came down with a nasty illness last week and was out of commission.  This week, the cough still lingers. Last night, we were scheduled to have Bible Study but there was no way I was going to get through it without coughing incessantly so we decided to watch the movie The War Room.

It's a movie about fighting your battles with prayer. You see, most of our battles are not for us to fight.  We are at war with the enemy and he will do whatever he can to destroy us. He will wreck our lives, our families, our health, our spiritual walk given half the chance.

And it is up to us to not give him the chance.  We do that in prayer.  While we know the war has already been won thanks to Jesus' death and resurrection, the battles wage on. God will do the fighting for us. Our job is to pray. We are to stay focused on God and lift every single thing up to him.

When we fight in prayer, we are doing the most we can do. And when we battle on our knees, Satan cannot win. There is no limit to what you can ask for. There is no limit to the answers you will receive.  And remember, prayer is not a transaction between you and God, it is an interaction. When you are praying, you are strategically involved in the outcome of each and every battle.

The best thing about it?  You can fight the good fight anywhere you are. Sitting at your desk. Doing laundry. Walking outside. Grocery shopping.  Anywhere. What are you waiting for?  Fight on!

How To Change Your Life

He must always keep that copy with him and read it daily as long as he lives. That way he will learn to fear the Lord his God by obeying all the terms of these instructions and decrees. Deuteronomy 17:19 (NLT)

When the Israelites wanted a king to lead them, this direction was given to the new king.  It referred to the Torah, to God's Word. He was supposed to write a copy of the Torah in his own hand and carry it with him everywhere he went. He was supposed to read it daily as long as he lived.

I am reading a book by Mark Batterson called If: Trading Your If Only Regrets for God's What If Possibilities. In it, he digs into the word "keep" from the text above. Here is a quote from his book.

"The word keep means keepsake, as in treasured possession. It means to guard something, as if your life depended on it. It means to keep track of, like a courtroom stenographer. It means to watch over, like an air traffic controller. It means to keep watch, like a night watchman. It means to preserve, like a taxidermist. It means to examine, like a forensic scientist. It means to cross-examine, like a prosecuting attorney. It means to put in a vault, like a banker. It means to put a contract on something, like a real estate agent. It means to decipher secrets, like World War II code talkers."

When you read God's word, do you treat it as a treasured possession? Do you guard it, keep track of it, examine it and really dig into it?  To you preserve it and watch it play out in your life? What if we treated God's Word the same way? What if we carried it around with us and read it every day allowing it to change our lives? What if it were that important to us? How would our lives and our world be different?

Custom-Made For You

The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases;
    his mercies never come to an end;
they are new every morning;
    great is your faithfulness.
Lamentations 3:22-23 (ESV)

Do you sin the same way every day?  The mistakes you made Saturday, are they the same mistakes you made on Sunday?

I don't know about you, but on Saturday I may have become angry with someone and said something mean but then on Sunday, I may have told a lie. On Monday, I may irritate my sister on purpose just because she's there. Each day, I sin and no two days or sins are the same.

Did you know that the Hebrew word for new in Verse 23 means different?  Think about it.  This morning God didn't give me the same mercy, compassion and forgiveness that he gave me on Saturday or Sunday. He gave me the mercy, compassion and forgiveness I needed just for today.

Receiving mercy is to receive kindness and compassion that we don't deserve. What kind of God offers you just the perfect mercy each and every day? It is a one-of a kind, custom made mercy. Designed just for you. Given freely with no strings attached.

That, my friends, is OUR God. Great is His Faithfulness!

Glory In The Small Stuff

23 And we believers also groan, even though we have the Holy Spirit within us as a foretaste of future glory, for we long for our bodies to be released from sin and suffering. We, too, wait with eager hope for the day when God will give us our full rights as his adopted children, including the new bodies he has promised us. 24 We were given this hope when we were saved. (If we already have something, we don’t need to hope for it. 25 But if we look forward to something we don’t yet have, we must wait patiently and confidently.)  Romans 8:23-25 (NLT)

Some days, it feels like we take three steps forward and then two steps back. Nothing seems to be working according to plan (our plan anyway). It can be very discouraging.

The Bible affirms this. We groan, we wish for something different....like maybe Jesus would come. As we are waiting though, God does not leave us. We get glimpses of his work. Maybe, just maybe, if we looked for him more in all the events of our lives, we'd see even more of his glory. Instead, we focus so much on what we are doing (instead of what he is doing), that we often miss it.

Today, pray with me that God will open our eyes to see where he is working. Pray that he will open our eyes to recognize the glimpses of his glory in everything around us. Where do you see him? What have you missed because you are so focused on the end goal instead of the journey? Will you pray that with me today?

A Minute In It - More Of You, Less Of Me

A minute in Gods' word will change your life.  Read through the Bible text and answer the questions at the bottom of the post.

12 One day Moses said to the Lord, “You have been telling me, ‘Take these people up to the Promised Land.’ But you haven’t told me whom you will send with me. You have told me, ‘I know you by name, and I look favorably on you.’ 13 If it is true that you look favorably on me, let me know your ways so I may understand you more fully and continue to enjoy your favor. And remember that this nation is your very own people.”
14 The Lord replied, “I will personally go with you, Moses, and I will give you rest—everything will be fine for you.”
15 Then Moses said, “If you don’t personally go with us, don’t make us leave this place. 16 How will anyone know that you look favorably on me—on me and on your people—if you don’t go with us? For your presence among us sets your people and me apart from all other people on the earth.”
17 The Lord replied to Moses, “I will indeed do what you have asked, for I look favorably on you, and I know you by name.”
18 Moses responded, “Then show me your glorious presence.”
19 The Lord replied, “I will make all my goodness pass before you, and I will call out my name, Yahweh, before you. For I will show mercy to anyone I choose, and I will show compassion to anyone I choose. 20 But you may not look directly at my face, for no one may see me and live.” 21 The Lord continued, “Look, stand near me on this rock. 22 As my glorious presence passes by, I will hide you in the crevice of the rock and cover you with my hand until I have passed by. 23 Then I will remove my hand and let you see me from behind. But my face will not be seen.” Exodus 33:12-23 (NLT)

Why did Moses ask to see God's glory?
What did God say about his character in these verses?
What kind of relationship did God and Moses have?
Do you think Moses already had seen some of God's glory?
Do you think he reflected it himself? How was he able to do that?

Facing The Impossible

Abraham never wavered in believing God’s promise. In fact, his faith grew stronger, and in this he brought glory to God.  Romans 4:20 (NLT)

Abraham walked toward the designated spot. I imagine his heart was aching within and there was a knot in his stomach the size of a basketball. Beside him was Isaac, his son. His only son.

God had asked the unthinkable and as hard as he tried, he could not think his way past what he had to do. He could say no. He could reject the request and go on with his life but to do that would mean to go on with his life without God as the center. That, he couldn't do.

So he climbed the hill and prepared to face the choice he had made. As he prepped the alter to sacrifice his son, what was going through his mind? How could he face this? How would he make it through? 

In those moments, he decided one thing and that one thing was that he trusted what God said and he trusted what God allowed, no matter what it looked like to him. And that became the plan. Trust God no matter how crazy it seemed. Trust God even if in his human way of thinking it didn't make any sense. Wrestle as he might, that is where he always ended up.

God showed up with a replacement for Isaac and Abraham called the place Yahweh-Yireh which means "the Lord will provide." And Abraham's faith grew stronger.

Every time we trust God our faith grows. And as we take that step of faith, as we choose God's impossible over our possible, as we live our lives believing that he is more powerful than anything we face, that is when God is glorified.

What Does God's Glory Look Like?

The god of this age [Satan] has blinded the minds of unbelievers, so that they cannot see the light of the gospel that displays the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.  2 Corinthians 4:4 (NIV)

What do you think of when you think of God's glory? What does it look like? I imagine it is a brilliant, take your breath away moment. Much like Paul was blinded by the glory of Christ, the memory would be chiseled in your mind forever because of the impact seeing God would have.

And all of that is true. God's glory was demonstrated all throughout the Bible and even more so in the New Testament in the life of Jesus. What was the moment that Jesus' glory was most evident? When was it that his and God's glory was glaringly obvious? It was when he was hanging on the cross.

During that time, God's love for us was indisputable. Jesus' death, how it happened, what he suffered and more importantly why he died revealed the glory of a heart we will never truly understand. The depth of the love that led to that one event was never more awesomely demonstrated than when Jesus willingly sacrificed himself for us.

Satan wants us to believe that the glory of God has to look brilliant and sparkly. And sometimes it does. But don't get side-tracked looking for sparkly alone. Sometimes, God's glory is displayed with sacrifice. And truly, there is not greater glory than that.

Why Do You Do What You Do?

So whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God.  1 Corinthians 10:31 (NLT)

Every year I pick a character trait of God and ask him to show me what that means. One year, the word was joy. I wanted to understand the joy of the Lord. Last year, it was power. I wanted to experience his power. This year, my request is to understand his glory.

One of the verses I noticed (again) recently was 1 Corinthians 10:31. Isn't it funny that you can read a verse over and over again and when your focus changes just a little the verse takes on new meaning?

Whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God. What does that mean in simple terms? I was reading a devotional by John Piper and he said that glorifying God was living your life in such a way that you make God look great. 

That made me think. Do I? In everything I do, whether I'm eating, working, playing, am I making God look great? In every conversation I have, every encounter at work, at the market, at a restaurant with a waiter, on the phone with a telemarketer, am I making God look great?

We've all experienced people who call themselves Christians who don't make God look great and I am sad to say, I have done that. What does it take to live my life so that I make God look great?

I have to know him. I have to be in a relationship with him. I have to want what he wants and I have to be aware every moment that he is the end goal. Even though that sounds super lofty, it's easier to do than you'd think. If you desire a relationship with Jesus, keep showing up. Show up and spend time with him every day. Pray, read your Bible, ask questions and just be you. That's exactly where God is meeting you.  Right where you are.