Graced To Do God's Will

We’re busy. We have jobs, a family, social gatherings, and tasks we have to perform. Our busy schedule often leaves little time to spend with God. For some, it may just be 5 minutes out of a 24 hour day. And when we do come to God, we ask Him for our desires, guidance, and protection.

When we make time to come into the presence of God, let’s recognize Who He is. Don’t just give Him your wish list. He is God and besides Him there is no other. He stands outside the universe and at the same time, within the universe. He’s the Creator of all. He’s everything we need and more. With that understanding, worship Him.

Literally get down on your knees (if you can) and worship Him. Let Him know what He means to you. Let Him know how grateful you are for His presence. Pray in the Holy Spirit. Play your favorite worship song. Do whatever that needs to be done that will inspire you to worship. This is not a suggestion it’s a command.

So, in the car, at the house, or in the shower, worship the Lord.

Psalm 99:5 Exalt the LORD our God and worship at His footstool; He is holy.

Psalm 23:1 The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want. 2 He makes me to lie down in green pastures; He leads me beside the still waters. 3 He restores my soul; He leads me in the paths of righteousness For His name’s sake.

Do you see a common theme in these three verses? The theme is God does the work. He makes us lie down in a prosperous place, He restores us, and He leads us. If we continue on, we’ll see this same theme all throughout this chapter.

Some of us are so stressed out trying to figure it out all on our own. We try to make our own provision. We’re emotionally exhausted trying to get over past pains and failures using will power. We try to be righteous only to be disappointed when we fall short. That’s not God’s plan for our lives.

God wants to do everything in us and for us. He doesn’t want us to figure life out on our own. His ultimate desire is for us to humble ourselves, realize we can’t make it without Him, and submit every area of our lives to Him. He wants to be our God. It’s God who works in you both to will and to do for His good pleasure (Phil. 2:13).

Stop doing life without Him. Let Him be God over every area of your life.

Satan has done a good job to distract people into thinking that this other idea or religion, outside of Christianity, is the “real” way to believe. He’s also diluted Christianity to be based on a book of fairy tales.

Let’s be honest. History tells us a man named Jesus existed, however, there’s no physical evidence He was born from a virgin, He died for our sins, and He rose from the dead to intercede on our behalf. That lack of evidence is where Satan works. That’s why we’re instructed to walk by faith (belief alone) and not by sight (physical senses) (2 Cor. 5:7). If we take the time to truly study the Bible, in context, and understand the magnitude of God’s love for us, we’ll have an experience that won’t sway us from one belief to another.

If we’re not convinced that the Word of God is the final authority, we’ll always be inquisitive about some new idea, doctrine, or religion that’s discovered and we’ll never be fully rooted in the Word of God. If we’re not convinced that all of God’s Word is beneficial, we won’t be able to maximize the benefits in God’s Word. If we’re not convinced, none of this will work.

Make God’s Word the final authority in your life and reap the benefits of His love.

2 Timothy 3:16 (NLT) All Scripture is inspired by God and is useful to teach us what is true and to make us realize what is wrong in our lives. It corrects us when we are wrong and teaches us to do what is right.

Proverbs 6:6 Go to the ant, you sluggard; consider its ways and be wise! 7 It has no commander, no overseer or ruler, 8 yet it stores its provisions in summer and gathers its food at harvest.

In today’s society, it’s so easy to get caught up in having the designer clothes, driving luxury vehicles, and living in the best area. There’s nothing wrong with having the best but, if the best is going to cause us financial frustration in the future, is it really worth it?

God desires that we be financially wise with our resources (Prov. 21:20). If we always feel the need to buy the latest things and not store up for our future or for our family’s future, we’re not exercising wisdom.

Be mindful of what and how you spend. Before every purchase, ask God if or when to buy that item. When we allow God to be our ultimate financial advisor, He guarantees that we’ll have all we need, including our desires and more than enough to financially bless our grandchildren (Phil. 4:19; Psalm 37:4; Prov. 13:22).

Psalm 46:1 God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.

When problems arise, society will tell us to “get dirty” and handle the situation ourselves. Religious people will tell us to help ourselves because, “God helps those who help themselves.” Neither solution will be successful. The first person we should contact is God.

We should expect God to do it all. We should expect God to give us a solution to our problems, a plan of action for that solution, people to help us along the pathway to that solution, AND comfort/peace as we wait on the manifestation of our solution. It’s not one or the other. If we can’t rely on God to be our everything, how can we truly call Him our Father, our Comforter, and The Way?

In whatever situation we face, look to God, believe, and expect ALL the help we need to come from Him.

1 Corinthians 10:14 Therefore, my dear friends, flee from idolatry.

We’re instructed to flee from idolatry. In order to flee from idolatry, we have to have an understanding of idolatry. Idolatry is not always bowing down to some big statue and worshipping objects. Idolatry is anything that takes God out of first place in our lives.

Idolatry can be that TV show we can’t seem to turn off when God prompts us to pray. It can be our family when God wants one on one time with us. It can be working extra hours when God wants us to study His scriptures. Anything that takes God’s place is idolatry.

From now on, let’s be certain that nothing takes God’s place in our lives. He has and should always be #1 in our lives.

Mark 5:6 When he saw Jesus from afar, he ran and worshiped Him. 7 And he cried out with a loud voice and said, “What have I to do with You, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? I implore You by God that You do not torment me.”

When Jesus arrived and saw the deranged man, who was filled with thousands of demons, the first thing the demons within the man did was bow down and begged Jesus not to torment them.

Unfortunately, horror movies have created an image of fear behind demons that totally contradict the Word of God. If some of us were in this same situation as Jesus, we would run or pray that they wouldn’t hurt us when instead, we should operate in our authority and understand they need to be afraid of us.

Believe it or not, we’ve seen demonically influenced people in our lives. They may not have been cutting themselves, but they’re demonically influenced. The abusive husband, the jealous wife, that killer on the news who said the devil made me do it are all demonically influenced. Instead of being afraid of what they’ll do to us or someone else, we should understand nothing can hurt us without our permission and we have power over all demonic forces (Luke 10:19).

Because we’ve been so inundated with fear regarding demons, the confidence to overcome demonic forces may not happen overnight. We may have to spend time meditating on the Word of God and allowing God to show us how to overcome these forces.

So, don’t be afraid of devils, demons, or witches. Let them be afraid of us.

1 Corinthians 13:4 Love suffers long and is kind; love does not envy; love does not parade itself, is not puffed up; 5 does not behave rudely, does not seek its own, is not provoked, thinks no evil; 6 does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth;

If we have problematic experiences in our relationships with our spouses, children, and others we claim to love, we have to ask ourselves are we operating in the biblical definition of love.

If we’re rude, inconsiderate, manipulative, and self-seeking towards someone, but we say we love them, we’re lying to ourselves. We may like what they can do for us from time to time, but we don’t meet the real qualifications of love.

The action associated with love is giving. Love is always giving and it never expects anything in return. Biblical love doesn’t wait on someone to do something for us before showing love. In spite of the other person’s actions and in spite of how we feel, make the mature choice to love.

Relational problems can’t exist when true love is represented.

Genesis 1:26 And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.

How many of us would be bold enough to call God ugly, fat, or skinny? How many of us would tell God that His nose was too big or His hair was terrible? Not a lot of us. If we wouldn’t tell God these things, and we’re made in His image, why would we say negative things about our appearance or the appearance of someone else? Every time we call ourselves these names, we’re essentially calling God these names because we look like Him.

Not only that, but we’re judging His creation. God created us. He allowed our head to be a certain size, our eyes to be a certain color, and our hair to be a certain texture. Just because society deems a certain thing better doesn’t make it true. What God says is true. Every intricate detail about our appearance, He created and called it good and that’s all that matters.

Just know you are beautiful/handsome and we should like and love the creation God created.

Psalm 139:13 For You formed my inward parts; You covered me in my mother’s womb. 14 I will praise You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made; Marvelous are Your works, And that my soul knows very well.

Psalm 138:8 The LORD will perfect that which concerns me: your mercy, O LORD, endures forever: forsake not the works of your own hands.

God said He’ll perfect everything that concerns us. It would’ve been nice if He said that He’ll make our concerns a little better or He’ll work our concerns out in due time. No, He said that He’ll perfect (make perfect) everything that concerns us.

So, our children’s low grades in school, He’ll perfect. Concerns in our marriage, He’ll perfect. Feeling uncomfortable about our finances? He’ll perfect those too. If we give our cares and concerns to God, He’ll perfect them all.

Now, if we really want to apply our faith to the situation, we can look at our concerns and declare they’re perfected now. We don’t have to wait until we see change to declare they’re perfected.

Praise God for His perfection in everything that concerns us.

Ephesians 1:3 Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ.

This scripture tells us God has (past tense) blessed us with every spiritual blessing in Christ. This means, everything we’ll ever need or want in this lifetime has already been prepared. Everything from children, to a car, to deliverance from an addiction, to a boat has already been prepared through Christ.

With that understanding, it’s not God will make a way, it’s God has made a way. It’s not God will heal me, it’s God has healed me. It’s not God will provide, it’s God already provided. Our belief in what God has already done through Jesus Christ allows us to receive the manifestation of whatever we need or desire.

Let’s restructure our speech to align with God’s Word. If He’s already done it, let’s believe, speak, and act like it’s so.

Matthew 7:1 Do not judge, or you will be judged.

When most of us read this scripture, we have an understanding not to judge others, which is true. But, there’s one thing. This scripture doesn’t specify who not to judge. It simply says, don’t judge. The one thing most of us tend to overlook is we shouldn’t judge ourselves.

When we say we’re ugly, we have a bad temper, or we’re broke we’re actually judging ourselves. Not only are we judging ourselves, we’re speaking what we say into existence over our lives. Mark 11:23 says, we shall have whatever we say.

No wonder it’s so difficult for some of us to have confidence in our image, change our attitude, or increase our finances. It’s because we’re judging ourselves and speaking negatively into our lives.

Let’s stop judging ourselves. It will make our lives easier and it will make it easier not to judge others.

James 4:7 Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.

When people are not submitted to God, it creates problems in their lives. Submission to God ultimately leads to the devil fleeing our lives. Likewise, the lack of submitting to God keeps the devil and his influences in our lives.

Here’s how it works. When we don’t submit ourselves to God, we go in a direction and make decisions that seem right to us. Well according to Proverbs 14:12, there’s a way that seems right to us, but it eventually leads to death. We have to undo mindsets and dig ourselves out of holes we could have avoided if we initially submitted ourselves to God.

Also, the lack of submission keeps the influences of Satan around and increases our chances of being deceived. We’ll have thoughts, ideas, and suggestions in our minds thinking they’re wisdom, but ultimately, they’re demonic. These demonic thoughts acted out ultimately lead to fulfilling the devil’s role in John 10:10. We could miss out on a blessing (steal), put our lives in jeopardy (kill), and the destruction of a relationship (destroy).

Let’s keep ourselves from these problems by submitting to God and only doing what He tells us to do.

Galatians 3:26 So, in Christ Jesus you are all children of God through faith,

Isaiah 54:5 For your Maker is your husband, The Lord of hosts is His name; And your Redeemer is the Holy One of Israel; He is called the God of the whole earth.

John 15:15 I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master’s business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you.

It’s apparent, God desires relationship with us and not religion. God made us His children, His bride, and His friend all at the same time. These three things encompass all the forms of an intimate relationship.

God doesn’t want a bunch of people following rules in an attempt to please God. That’s religion and religion means bondage. He wants intimate relationship with us. He wants to spend time with us, He wants to know how we feel about certain things, He wants to be involved in our decisions, He wants us to know Him more. Based on a good relationship with God and understanding the magnitude of what He’s done for us, it should be our pleasure to follow His commandments.

Religion hinders our relationship with God. Get to know God and let Him get to know you. Let’s grow in our relationship with God.

Luke 2:26 And it had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he would not see death before he had seen the Lord’s Christ. 27 So he came by the Spirit into the temple. And when the parents brought in the Child Jesus, to do for Him according to the custom of the law, 28 he took Him up in his arms and blessed God and said: 29 “Lord, now You are letting Your servant depart in peace, According to Your word; 30 For my eyes have seen Your salvation

God promised Simeon that he wouldn’t die until he saw the Christ. The Holy Spirit led Simeon into the temple. When it was revealed to Simeon that Jesus was the Christ, Simeon was overjoyed because God fulfilled His promise.

It’s important to be led by the Spirit. If Simeon wasn’t sensitive to the Holy Spirit, Simeon could have missed out on His promise. The Holy Spirit positions us in the will of God. As we’re in the will of God, the Holy Spirit can lead us to be a blessing to someone else or God can compel someone else to be a blessing to us.

For instance, the Holy Spirit can tell us to go to a specific restaurant. At that restaurant, the Holy Spirit may tell us to pay for a person’s meal or the Holy Spirit may prompt someone else to pay for our meal. Regardless of the scenario, we could miss out on being blessed or being a blessing if we’re not sensitive to the Holy Spirit.

So, let’s allow ourselves to be positioned by the Spirit.

John 3:16 For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.

We don’t need a Ph.D to understand the way to receive everlasting life is to believe in Him (Jesus).

It’s not believe in Him and go to church every week.
It’s not believe in Him and give our tithes.
It’s not believe in Him and live a perfect life.

It only says to believe in Him. Romans 10:9 give specifics of what we should do to believe in Him. It says if we confess with our mouths the Lord Jesus and believe in our hearts that God has raised Him from the dead, we will be saved. So, believing God raised our Lord and His Son Jesus from the dead will give us everlasting life.

When we have a full understanding of what Jesus did for us, we’ll want to go to His church, we’ll want to give 10% of our increase to God out of gratitude, and we’ll want to honor God with our lives. That’s what grateful people do.

Don’t let anyone make salvation complicated. Believe God raised our Lord Jesus from the dead and you will be saved.

Luke 2:20 Then the shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things that they had heard and seen, as it was told them.

In Luke 2:10-14, an angel told shepherds in a field that Christ our Savior was born. When the shepherds heard what the angel told them, they rejoiced and gave glory to God.

Let’s look at this naturally: nothing in the shepherds’ lives had changed. They weren’t saved from their sins, they didn’t become prosperous, and they didn’t become healed from all their ailments. However, they gave glory to God based on what they heard.

When we hear or read a promise in the Bible, we too can rejoice over the thing we heard or read. Nothing may have changed in the natural, but based on God’s Word, we can give glory to God. We can give glory to God that we are rich (2 Cor. 8:9), we’re healed (Isaiah 53:5), and we’re victorious in everything we do (1 Cor. 15:57).

Give glory to God for His Word because if He said it, it will come to pass.

Too often we wait on external situations to change before we change internally. For instance, we may desire new employment for a better financial situation, better living conditions, peace in our marriages, etc. Because of this desire for external change, internally, we may be moody, sad, anxious, or depressed.

Our internal change should be based on the One Who is always present in our lives. That’s God. With God, there should be an understanding that we have everything we need and desire and it’s a matter of time before our desires manifest. In the meantime, by faith, we can receive the joy, peace, and contentment He provides us in spite of not having our desires. Daily, we can confess we have joy, peace, and we’re content. It’s an ongoing process because Satan will dangle our desires in front of us making us feel like we can’t be happy unless our desires manifest. Eventually, we’ll get to a place where nothing may have externally changed, but internally, we’re joyful and at peace.

Don’t wait on things to change prior to receiving joy. Know that God is with us and He can provide joy in the meantime and He promised to give us the desires of our hearts (Psalm 37:4).

Hebrews 12:2 fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith. For the joy set before him he endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.

Proverbs 27:2 Let another praise you, and not your own mouth; A stranger, and not your own lips.

There’s nothing wrong with being good at something, looking great, or being successful in a certain field. The problem occurs when we boast about our successes without mentioning God.

In the age of social media, some of us have the tendency to boast about how much weight we lost, the cars we have, and/or the house we purchased. We may not say anything about how great we are in our posts, but internally we’re looking to boast about our accomplishments.

Once again, there’s nothing wrong with being pleased with our accomplishments, but give God glory for all that He’s done and let another person praise us and not we ourselves.

1 Corinthians 1:31 Therefore, as it is written: “Let the one who boasts boast in the Lord.”

Ephesians 5:1-2 Therefore be imitators of God as dear children. And walk in love, as Christ also loved us and given Himself for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling aroma.

Look at the demand on these scriptures. These scriptures can make even the most mature Christian want to look the other way. These scriptures command us to imitate God and walk in Christ-like love.

Imitating God means to use our God-given authority, be holy, and show unconditional love to all. If we look through the scriptures, Christ-like love opposes the flesh in every area of life. Jesus was a blessing to those who didn’t believe in Him. Jesus forgave those who abused Him. Jesus loved those who hated Him. All of this is expected of us.

God is not expecting us to do this using will power. He sent the Holy Spirit to assist us along the way. It’s a process. We may not be walking in unconditional love yet but, we can start off by being nice to people. We may not have forgiven everyone who has wronged us but, we can start off by forgiving one person at a time. Just say, “Holy Spirit, help me to _______.”

Instead of not doing any of what God said because it’s seemingly too difficult, allow the Holy Spirit to help and let’s start working our way towards this holy lifestyle.

Genesis 22:12 He said, “Do not stretch out your hand against the lad, and do nothing to him; for now I know that you fear God, since you have not withheld your son, your only son, from Me.” 13 Then Abraham raised his eyes and looked, and behold, behind him a ram caught in the thicket by his horns; and Abraham went and took the ram and offered him up for a burnt offering in the place of his son.

There are some people who don’t mind change and there are some who hate change. When it comes to God directing our lives, we need to be ready for change.

Abraham had it set in his mind that he was going to sacrifice Isaac unto God. Gratefully, at the last moment, God changed the type of sacrifice and put the ram in the bush. Look at Moses in Exodus 2. After Moses fled from Egypt, Moses went to Midian, got married and had a son, but God changed his course of life and had Moses go back to Egypt to set His people free. This change may have initially been uncomfortable, but it caused Moses to save the lives of millions.

We may have had it set in our minds to be in one profession or to marry a certain person, but God had other plans for our lives. Realize this, just like Abraham and Moses, the change God has for us will always work out for our good and for the good of others (Rom. 8:28). Also, Psalm 84:11 says, no good thing will He withhold from those who walk uprightly which means, the change God is pushing us towards will be better than the status quo we’re trying to hold on to. So, don’t be resistant. Be ready for change.

Matthew 16:17 And these signs will follow those who believe: In My name they will cast out demons; they will speak with new tongues; 18 they will take up serpents; and if they drink anything deadly, it will by no means hurt them; they will lay hands on the sick, and they will recover.”

During this time of year, some people declare this “cold and flu season”. Because of this proclamation, people tend to get flu shots and double up on the hand sanitizer to avoid getting sick. Did God say it’s “cold and flu season”? Is that in the Word? I don’t think so.

Some of us have more faith in the contagiousness of the sickness than the healing power of God. Here’s a thought. Instead of avoiding contact with people who are sick or be worried about getting sick, let’s release our faith to heal every person who crosses our paths. Instead of being worried about being infected with sickness, let’s operate in our God-given authority and infect someone with divine health. Let’s proclaim every person who shakes our hand doesn’t get us sick, but we get them well. Let’s believe nothing shall hurt us (Luke 10:19). All of this IS POSSIBLE.

No matter how many people who are sick around us, it doesn’t have to infect us. We can change our environment by laying our hands on the sick and they shall recover.

When we have children and look into their innocent eyes and create a bond with them, we make a vow within ourselves to do everything we can to make sure their lives are wonderful. There’s only one problem with that vow. Our children’s well-being, happiness, and safety are not our responsibility. At the end of the day, our children belong to God and that responsibility belongs to God.

Isaiah 54:13 “All your sons will be taught of the LORD; And the well-being of your sons will be great.

Our responsibility as earthly parents is to point our children to Father God. We’ll let them know God is our provider, God is our peace, God is our help, and God is our everything.

As new parents, we need to trust God to do His job, through us, with our children. This means being led by the Spirit in parenting. Sometimes we see our children in certain predicaments and fear attempts to creep in. Our response to fear has us worrying, not sleeping, and attempting to handle the situation without asking for God’s guidance. This shows a lack of trust in God.

We should trust God in every area of our lives including, raising our children through us.

Psalm 127:2 In vain you rise early and stay up late, toiling for food to eat– for he grants sleep to those he loves.

A lot of us spend our nights planning the next day, wondering how we’re going to make it, how we’re going to get our business to excel, or how we can better manage our workload. This is pointless. When we do this, we limit the amount of sleep we need and more importantly, we eliminate God.

God grants and desires for us to get sweet sleep. He doesn’t want us up all night worrying about tomorrow (Matt. 6:34). That’s why He ensures us that He’ll perfect everything that concerns us (Psalm 138:3). When we’re worrying and planning our future without God’s guidance, we’re pushing God to the side and saying, “I love You, but I don’t trust You.”

Let’s be believers who truly place all our trust in God. Let’s give our cares to God (Psalm 55:22) and release our faith for sweet sleep every night.

Genesis 12:2 “I will make you into a great nation, and I will bless you; I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing.

We’re commanded to be a blessing to others. We can be a blessing by doing what we can with what we have now.

It may be our ultimate goal to pay off someone’s mortgage or car note, but we may not be at that place financially yet. If we can’t pay off someone’s mortgage, help them pay their electricity bill. If that’s outside of the budget, help clean their house. We all have the ability to do something.

Also, we don’t have to know a person to be a blessing to a person. Another list to bless someone we don’t know includes, paying for a person’s gas, paying for a meal, picking up trash out of our neighbors’ yards, etc.

They may not thank us and some may look at us strangely, but we’re being a blessing and shining our lights in a darkened world and our acts of kindness may be the seed that turns a person’s life around for the better.

Ephesians 6:16 In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one.

Have you ever been moody, anxious, facing bouts of depression, or felt emotionally unstable? That’s spiritual warfare. It’s an attack by Satan where he throws negative thoughts into our minds to make us feel some kind of way. Those thoughts could be related to where we are not in life, the issues at our jobs, or the negative things we’ve experienced in our marriage. If we’re not mindful, we’ll take out our sadness, anger, and frustration on someone else and the cycle will continue.

When those negative thoughts enter our minds, this is not the time to keep quiet and let those thoughts beat us up. We counter those thoughts with God-based speech. We declare we’re prosperous, we’re declare we’re healed, we declare our marriage is made whole, and we declare all our needs are met. Whatever negative thoughts enter our minds, we counter them by speaking the Word of God.

Ephesians 6:8 knowing that whatever good anyone does, he will receive the same from the Lord, whether he is a slave or free.

When we do good for others or for the Kingdom of God, we can expect good to come to us if we let it.

When we’ve sown good in our lives, the time will come when good will be offered back to us. Like anything else in this world, we have the choice to receive or reject something. If we’re too proud, we’ll reject the good God is trying to offer us.

This good can come in the form of rest from our labors, a gift card, or a free meal. Pride will try to convince us we can’t accept the gift card or free meal, and there’s too much work that needs to be done to rest. If we’re not mindful of this pride-pitfall, we’ll eventually end up burnt out or feeling unappreciated in the long run, not realizing we’ve rejected our own rewards.

Don’t fall for these proud moments. Receive the good God has offered.

Luke 24:45 Then he opened their minds so they could understand the Scriptures.

Reading the Bible is not something we do to earn brownie points with God. Studying, not reading, the Word of God is meant for our understanding. The Word of God gives us better understanding of Who Christ is for us. It gives us understanding of Who we are in Christ, and God’s purpose for our lives.

Since God is His Word according to John 1 and there’s no end to God, there’s infinite revelation in the Word of God. We can get new revelation from scriptures we’ve read since we were children. There’s no end to our understanding. The Word helps us in our daily lives. There’s nothing new under the sun and the Word gives us answers to all our problems.

Even if it’s one verse a day, start studying the Word and receive God’s wisdom, revelation, and His solutions.

Jeremiah 17:5 “Cursed is the man who trusts in man And makes flesh his strength, Whose heart departs from the Lord.

As we can see, there’s no profit in trusting man. This includes political figures, religious leaders, our spouses, and even ourselves. If we’re trusting in flesh of any kind, we’ll never be truly satisfied.

We can’t look to a president as our hope, we can’t look to a minister to be our savior, and we shouldn’t trust ourselves to overcome any situation. Placing our trust in man, will leave us disappointed.

There’s a degree of trust we give to man in order to function in this world, but all our trust, hope, and confidence should be given to God. Give God your trust.

James 3:14 But if you have bitter envy and self-seeking in your hearts, do not boast and lie against the truth. 15 This wisdom does not descend from above, but is earthly, sensual, demonic. 16 For where envy and self-seeking exist, confusion and every evil thing are there.

When most people view marriage, they enter it with the mindset of what they can get out of the deal. They think about what their spouse can do for them and their happiness versus what they can do for their spouse and their spouse’s happiness.

This is a self-seeking mindset and according to this scripture it’s a demonic mindset. We’ll never be fulfilled if we go in any relationship thinking about what this relationship can do for us.

As believers, we should operate from the principle of sowing and reaping. Whatever we want out of our marriage or relationship is what we should be sowing into that relationship. If we want to be unconditionally loved, respected, and surprised with gifts, we should sow that into our spouse. When we sow positive things, we have a guarantee from God to reap a positive harvest (Galatians 6:7).

Let’s remove the demonic self-seeking thoughts from our minds and focus on being a blessing to our spouses.

In boxing, there is a champion and a challenger. The champion’s goal is to defend their title against the challenger. The challenger’s goal is to do whatever they can to dethrone the champion.

Regardless of what the champion goes through in the fight, they’re still the defending champions. They could get punched in the face, get knocked down, and have black eyes, but they’re still the champion. Even though they experience difficulties in the ring, they’re still the champions until they’re defeated.

What does this mean for us? God declared through the stripes of Jesus Christ, we are healed (Isaiah 53:5). In life, we may experience difficulties that attempt to threaten our health, but we’re healed. We may get a cold, break a bone, or be diagnosed with something, but we’re still healed. Even though our health is attacked, like the champion boxer, we’re still healed until we declare our defeat. We’re not oblivious or ignoring the attack on our health, but if God called us healed, who are we to declare otherwise? Whatever you’re facing, declare you’re healed.

Isaiah 53:5 But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed.

Job 8:7 Though your beginning was small, Yet your latter end would increase abundantly.

If we’re submitted to the will of God and we’re being led by His Spirit, God promised that our lives would move from one success to another. Everything in our lives may not be perfect, but we shouldn’t be in the same place we were a year ago.

Something should be better. We should have a better relationship with God, an increase in our finances, a more enjoyable career, a house, a spouse, a child, etc. Our lives should be more enjoyable as we get older.

If we’re not experiencing continuous successes, we need to evaluate our lives to determine if we’re truly submitted to God. Tap into God’s promises and experience a life that gets better with time.

Romans 13:7 Give to everyone what you owe them: If you owe taxes, pay taxes; if revenue, then revenue; if respect, then respect; if honor, then honor.

This scripture includes God.
We must acknowledge and give honor to God for everything He’s done.

How many of us acknowledge Him when we have a great idea? How many of us let our co-workers know God gave us that idea? How many of us inform our co-workers to seek God for a specific answer? It may not be a lot of us.

God desires glory, honor, and credit. It’s ungrateful and selfish to keep His praise to ourselves. So, for every point of understanding, every open door, give God credit. Because He’s God, give Him extra credit.

Exodus 3:11 But Moses said to God, “Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the Israelites out of Egypt?”12 And God said, “I will be with you. And this will be the sign to you that it is I who have sent you: When you have brought the people out of Egypt, you will worship God on this mountain.”

Moses gave God all sorts of excuses as to why he couldn’t fulfill his purpose God had for him. Some of us give God excuses as to why we can’t fulfill His call in our lives. The root to every excuse is fear.

We’ll say it’s too difficult, it takes too much time, it requires too much effort, we don’t have the education or experience, or it’s impossible. What we’re really saying is we don’t want to spend all this time and effort on something for a chance it may fail. Is anything too hard for us when God is on our side? Nothing is impossible with God.

We’re told not to throw all our eggs in one basket but, that’s not true when it comes to God. When we throw all our trust, belief, and confidence into God’s basket, we’re guaranteed success.

As we begin this journey of 2018, don’t give God excuses. Let’s give Him our trust.

When we’re in our late 20’s, we begin to think about our purpose and how it’s going to be fulfilled. Some of us know our purpose and some of us don’t. Regardless of where we are, there’s a temptation to be anxious about fulfilling our purpose. We look at our current situation and know we’re not walking out or even on the pathway of our purpose. This can be frustrating.

When working towards our purpose, patience is necessary. We hear about all the success stories or read about people in the bible fulfilling their purpose and want to instantly be in our purpose. Some may be fulfilling their purpose now, but that’s not the case for everyone. It takes time for some.

Look at Joseph. God revealed Joseph’s purpose when he was 17. It wasn’t until he was 30 when he fulfilled his purpose. Jesus was 33 when He fulfilled His purpose. The point is there’s some maturing that needs to take place, some things we need to learn, and some things that need to line up in order for our purpose to be maximized.

So, be patient with purpose and believe where we are now is not always where we’re going to be.

Psalm 138:8 The Lord will fulfill his purpose for me; your steadfast love, O Lord, endures forever. Do not forsake the work of your hands.

Matthew 24:14 And this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations; and then shall the end come.

The word gospel simply means good news. Jesus gives us a command to preach this specific gospel throughout the world. The fact that He uses the term “this gospel” lets us know there are other gospels out there in the world.

This gospel is the gospel of grace. This gospel lets us know that Jesus is the One who sacrificed Himself for us and made Himself to be our Savior. This gospel lets us know all of our sins are forgiven, we’re made righteous, and we’re forever loved based on His sacrifice.

There are other forms of good news in the world, but there’s nothing like this gospel. Receive and reap the benefits of this gospel.

Genesis 3:7 Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they realized they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves.

When Adam and Eve ate the fruit from the forbidden tree, their eyes were opened. Today, some people may refer to this as “being awakened” or “woke.”

Unfortunately, still today, people are going against God-inspired norms of society, attempting to become wiser than God’s system. We will never be wiser than the system God created. People may say, don’t get married, it’s a trap; going to church is nothing but, a gimmick, or God isn’t real. Like Adam, some of us will eat (listen to) fruit thinking we’re expanding our minds, but all we’re getting is deceived by the great deceiver.

There’s nothing wrong with questioning some of society’s norms and ideas, but if society’s concepts parallels the Word of God in context, our best bet is to respect and work within those norms because those norms will benefit our future.

If someone tells us to consult God about a certain decision, some of us say we’ll use the sense God gave us to work our way through this situation. We think we’re being wise, but what we’re really saying is we’d rather use our logic and human wisdom instead of relying on God.

We were never meant to be led by our senses or how we feel. Our senses are inconsistent and unreliable. We’re to be led by the Holy Spirit.

Our senses say, don’t go on that cruise because the ship could sink meanwhile, the Holy Spirit is telling us to trust in God’s protection and enjoy the abundant life Jesus paid for. Our senses say, don’t get married to prevent ourselves from going through the hassle of being divorced if it doesn’t work meanwhile, the Holy Spirit is instructing us to honor God with our bodies and participate in God’s divine plan called marriage.

Senses are here to enhance, but not govern our lives. Let’s free ourselves from ourselves and trust the living God.

Psalms 20:7 Some trust in chariots, and some in horses; But we will remember the name of the Lord our God.

Mark 10:21 Jesus looked at him and loved him. “One thing you lack,” he said. “Go, sell everything you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.” 22 At this the man’s face fell. He went away sad, because he had great wealth.

Some of us may be in bondage to a certain sin. We’ve tried our best to be delivered from that vice, but we find ourselves back in that situation again.

It’s the Holy Spirit’s job to help free us from our vice. The Holy Spirit will have us making tough decisions. For instance, if we’re addicted to pornography, He may have us turn off our cable altogether. That’s a tough decision because we would miss out on all the other non- pornographic TV shows, but it’s either deliverance or entertainment. The Holy Spirit may have us leave a social scene where we know everyone so that we can renew our minds with the Word of God. That’s a tough decision because we would have to leave our social circle to develop our relationship with God.

These tough decisions will come periodically in our lives, but remember, these decisions are here to help and not harm us.