Take Heart and Be Encouraged

Lately I have had several students and adults share with me that they are currently struggling with depression and doubts.  Unfortunately these are situations that more and more of us are fighting each day.  Be it the pressures of school and work, the increase of drama stemming from social media, broken homes, or the day-to-day grind of life, more people than ever are fighting depression, sadness, and doubts. 

To those of you who find yourself in this trapping of the devil today, let me offer you some simple words of encouragement from Psalm 145.  In this beautiful Psalm, David writes “The Lord is faithful to all his promises and loving toward all he has made.(verse 13)”  Believe today that God is faithful, and trust that he has not left you nor forsaken you.  He is loving and He is faithful to his promises.

Read on . . . “The Lord upholds all those who fall and lifts up all who are bowed down. (verse 14)”  God will lift you up.  Humble yourself before Him today and confess your dependence on Him and allow Him to lift you up, encourage you, and strengthen you. 

And finally today, look at verses 17-18.  “The Lord is righteous in all his ways and loving toward all he has made. (18) The Lord is near to all who call on him, to all who call on him in truth.”  Call to Him today.  Cry out to Him today and trust in His love for you.  He is nearer than you think and He loves you more than you can imagine.  So take Heart and be encouraged. 

**Image courtesy of Graceway Media

Ask for Help

When I was younger my father was always insistent that I help him around the house.  The owner of a plant nursery, he always had work that needed to be done.  And if you have ever been to his place, you know that he has an extremely large and extremely immaculate landscaped garden that has always required a great amount of work.  So he always expected that I be out helping him with various jobs.  As he worked with different tools such as clippers, axes, wood splitters, chain saws, and more, I was taught to watch everything he did.  Had it not been for the hours spent watching him, and assisting him, and listening to him I would have a hard time doing the things I love today.  I love to collect plants, care for them, reproduce them, and work around my place.  Thanks to time spent with my father, I know what to do and I know how to use the tools to accomplish my tasks.

Unfortunately, when it comes to our spiritual walk, we forget that we need to be taught by our Father.  Our pride tells us that we “are just supposed to know what to do.”  Once we are saved a lie comes our way that “we should know everything” and if we do not then we are a failure.  Nothing could be further from the truth.  We must be taught; and our lessons must come from the Father. 

Listen to David’s prayer in Psalm 143:10 – “Teach me to do your will, for you are my God; may your good Spirit lead me on level ground.”  We must humbly pray this prayer more often.  Most of us want to do God’s will, but we need to learn how to follow His “good, pleasing, and perfect will.”  We cannot do it all on our own, we need to be good learners.  So spend time with the Father.

Ask Him to help you.  Ask Him to teach you His will and to lead you on level ground.  My dad wanted me to be good with plants and trees, and he wanted me to be good with tools so that I would be safe when I used them.  (By the way, he is still teaching me)  So how much more will our Heavenly Father want to help us walk on level ground and to do His will. 

Ask Him.  He is ready to answer.  

BE BOLD

BOLD.  We hear this a lot today.  Just a quick Google search of “Be Bold” yields everything from Blackberry Phones to adventurous photos to memes telling us to “Keep Calm and Be Bold.”  So we are challenged by the world of advertisement and social media to be bold.  I must admit; its simplicity is quite catchy. 

But if you really want to be bold today, pray the words found in Psalm 139:23-24. 

(23) Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts.  (24) See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.

David begins this beautiful Psalm with a clear proclamation that God knows all about us: “you know when I sit and when I rise.”  God knows all of our innermost thoughts, He knows all of our secrets, our dreams, our desires, our goals . . . that can be kind of scary huh? David continues on and declares that no matter where we go, God is there: “If I rise on the wings of the dawn, if I settle on the far side of the sea, even there your hand will guide me, your right hand will hold me fast.”

Since God is omnipresent (everywhere) and omniscient (all knowing) we have absolutely nothing to hide from him, and as scary as they may be at times . . . it truly should be a good thing.  We should be able to pray “Search me O God and know my heart.”  We need to ask God to examine us, to see if our devotion and our character is true.  We need to ask God to search us and reveal to us if there is anything offensive within us and if there is, we need to ask him to destroy those offenses and “cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” 

When we openly seek God’s heart, and allow Him to purify us we are led down the “way everlasting.” Then we can trust wholeheartedly in and rejoice in David’s words from Psalm 16: 9-11:

(9)Therefore my heart is glad and my tongue rejoices; my body also will rest secure, (10) because you will not abandon me to the grave, nor will you let your Holy One see decay.  (11)You have made known to me the path of life; you will fill me with joy in your presence, with eternal pleasures at your right hand.

Do you want to be bold?  Pray honestly to God and ask Him to search your heart and to purify your heart.  That is bold.  

**Image courtesy of Graceway Media

Follow Our Leader

You may not know the name Meghan Rutledge.  I certainly had never heard of her until I saw a “highlight” of her on SportsCenter recently.  “Meghan Rutledge, 18, was comfortably leading the Women’s Moto X 12-lap race at the X Games in Los Angeles on Saturday night when she inexplicably started to pump her right fist during a jump just before the final corner of the race.  Unfortunately for young Meghan, taking her hand of the bike caused her to lose control and, as the bike nosedived, she landed awkwardly, allowing her rival to steal the lead.”   (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/sportvideo)  See Video Below.

As unfortunate as this was for Meghan I imagine she learned a valuable life lesson.  Hopefully, we can learn the same lesson.  We must be careful not to celebrate our victories and triumphs too early or too often for fear of losing perspective and losing sight of reality.  For when we take our eyes off the race, and focus on ourselves, we often crash.  Now please do not misunderstand; we should celebrate, and we should rejoice.  However, our rejoicing should be in Christ and in God the Father and in the Holy Spirit.  Because the reality is this; with every spiritual victory in our life we can expect a vicious attack from the enemy to follow. 

Take a look at Christ’s encounter with victory followed by attack.  In Matthew 3:13 “ . . . Jesus came from Galilee to the Jordan to be baptized by John.  (14)But John tried to deter him, saying ‘I need to be baptized by you, and do you come to me?’ (15)Jesus replied ‘Let it be so now; it is proper for us to do this to fulfill all righteiousness.’ Then John consented.  (16)As soon as Jesus was baptized, he went up out of the water.  At that moment heaven was opened, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and lighting on him.  (17)And a voice from heaven said, ‘This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased.”  Jesus’ baptism was the coronation of Christ as King.  This was his commissioning to his ministry.  I love how John MacArthur puts it: “His baptism in the Jordan declared his royalty; His testing in the wilderness demonstrated it.” 

For immediately following his baptism, Jesus was led into the wilderness to be tested.  Matthew 4:1-4 “Then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the desert to be tempted by the devil. (2)After fasting forty days and forty nights, he was hungry.  (3)The tempter came to him and said, ‘If you are the Son of God, tell these stones to become bread.’ (4) Jesus answered, ‘It is written: ‘Man does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.’”

The baptism of Jesus was an amazing moment.  It was a fantastic moment.  It is a beautiful picture of obedience and an even more beautiful picture of the relationship of the Holy Trinity.  I love everything about this scene, but I also love what follows.  I love the humility I see in Jesus’ response.  He submits to the leading of the Holy Spirit into the wilderness.  This is not a leading into paradise, or a leading to a crown, but a leading into a barren, hot, dry, wilderness where he will be tested.  Furthermore, I love the humility Christ exhibits as he spends his time fasting, realizing that communion with the Father in Heaven is where he will find his real strength. 

We are all to often eager to celebrate and pat ourselves on the back, yet in Christ we see our Savior showing dependence on the Father.  Attacks will follow our victories;  we can either celebrate, swell up with pride and lose perspective, or we can follow the example of Christ and feast on the Word of God and bask in the presence of God.

When we celebrate ourselves we run the risk of crashing like poor Meghan.  We take our eyes off of the prize, we lose focus in the race, and we crash and burn.  However, when we follow our leader and follow the example of Christ and rely completely and utterly on our Father, we can resist the attacks that come. 

Obedience More Than Sacrifice

Have you ever done anything for the wrong reason?  Or have you ever done something for someone that you believed was the right thing, only to find out that you were way out of line? 

Allow me to clarify.  Sometimes we are guilty of doing good things for people only so that we will feel better about ourselves.  Sometimes we do good things for others so that we will look good.   This is doing something for the wrong reason.

Early in my marriage there were times I made my wife upset.  (I know that is hard to imagine, but it’s true!)  A couple of times I tried to apologize by buying her flowers and having them delivered to her.  I thought I was doing the right thing; it works in the movies.  However, I quickly learned that my wife does not like that.  It cheapens her.  She does not want me to buy her love.  She does not desire flowers that wilt away, she desires a husband who does not act like a moron. 

Unfortunately, when it comes to our relationship with God, we make these same mistakes.  We approach our daily walk and our church attendance with the wrong attitude too often.  Too many of us believe that church is all about us, and all about the impression we make on others while we are there.  There are many church members whose primary goal is to maintain their control, maintain the status quo, and do things as they have always been done, because they know how church should be done.  Some church members have “done church” for so long on their own that there is no need to ask God for His will. 

It is sad that so many of us completely disregard God when it comes to church and our “Christianity.”  We have made God into nothing more than a means to an end.  We talk about Him just enough to gain access to power and control and comfort, and we call it sacrifice and service.  We know the religious things to say and do, but our hearts are as black as coal.  Our mission statements look good on a sign, but our hearts despise those who do not look, act, and think like we do.

In contrast, I believe Scripture is crystal clear on what God desires from His children.  Ecclesiastes 5:1-4 “Guard your steps when you go to the house of God.  Go near to listen rather than to offer the sacrifice of fools, who do not know that they do wrong. (2)Do not be quick with your mouth, do not be hasty in your heart to utter anything before God.  God is in heaven and you are on earth, so let your words be few.  (3)As a dream comes when there are many cares, so the speech of a fool when there are many words.  (4)When you make a vow to God, do not delay in fulfilling it.  He has no pleasure in fools; fulfill your vow.” 

In 1 Samuel 15:22 Samuel states “Does the Lord delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices as much as in obeying the voice of the Lord?  To obey is better than sacrifice, and to heed is better than the fat of rams.”

And finally in Luke 6:46 Jesus asks “Why do you call me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ and do not do what I say?”

It is past time that the church wake up and repent.  Our lives are not our own.  Our churches are not our own.  We exist to give glory to our deserving Father in Heaven and to make His name known throughout the world.  These two things happen when we obey, not when we serve and worship ourselves. 

May we stop running our mouths like fools and start obeying like the children of God that we are.  May our motives become pure and our desires fall in line with the will of our Father in Heaven.