Honor Him for Honoring You!

Psalm 8 (NLT)

1 O Lord, our Lord, your majestic name fills the earth!
    Your glory is higher than the heavens.
2 You have taught children and infants
    to tell of your strength,
silencing your enemies
    and all who oppose you.

3 When I look at the night sky and see the work of your fingers—
    the moon and the stars you set in place—
4 what are mere mortals that you should think about them,
    human beings that you should care for them?
5 Yet you made them only a little lower than God
    and crowned them with glory and honor.
6 You gave them charge of everything you made,
    putting all things under their authority—
7 the flocks and the herds
    and all the wild animals,
8 the birds in the sky, the fish in the sea,
    and everything that swims the ocean currents.

9 O Lord, our Lord, your majestic name fills the earth!

Just take some time to meditate on this song. God has given us a place of honor in His creation, and we have squandered it. What can we do to bring honor to Him with our lives?

Such Were Some of You

1 Corinthians 6:11(NASB) Such were some of you; but you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and in the Spirit of our God.

 

Don’t forget where you came from. The same grace that found you in the pit can lift someone else up out of their pit. All the self-righteous, religious babble in the world won’t change the fact that you didn’t save yourself.  As a matter of fact, the Bible speaks of our righteousness being as filthy rags in God’s presence (Isaiah 64:6). In and of ourselves we are less than worthless, so what gives us the right to turn our noses up and look down them at someone still in his struggle?

 

We sometimes need to remind ourselves that we are in need of God’s grace everyday just like the next person. What separates us from the sinner is solely our acceptance of the everlasting life that Jesus Christ offers. We cannot earn salvation, nor will we ever be worthy of it on our own. Maybe you aren’t a drug addict, but you’re a liar. Maybe you aren’t a prostitute, but you like pornography. Truth be told, we all struggle with something at some point in our lives – even when we are saved.

 

If you think about the grace it took for God to look past your faults, you would be more willing to offer grace to the people with whom you come into contact every day. I often say that it isn’t so much about what Jesus would do, but it’s about what He DID do. His gift is available to everyone who will receive it. That means you, me, and the world. We were no better than what we would consider the worst sinner when Christ’s love found us. We owe the Lord praise for rescuing us, and we owe our fellow man grace because we’ve been rescued.

I Will Not Be Shaken

Psalm 16:8 (NASB) I have set the Lord continually before me;
Because He is at my right hand, I will not be shaken.

I tend to worry about things over which I have absolutely no control. What does my worry accomplish? Nothing. There are situations in life that we are helpless to change, but if we keep our eyes on the Lord, we can get through them. There is nothing that catches God by surprise. He is using all of my experiences, good and bad, to shape me into the woman He wants to use.

 

When I am facing my Goliath, I can stand sure-footed and courageous because God is with me. I don’t have to tremble before my circumstances because I have set the Lord before me. He stands in between me and everything that would destroy me. I get weak, I admit. Sometimes I may have a melt-down or two, but then I remember that mountains melt like wax before my God! The same God who stilled the sun in the sky for Joshua will never forsake me.

 

No matter what comes my way, God is already there. His plan for me is perfect, although some of the pieces might baffle me. He makes use of every disappointment, every hurt, every obstacle, and every tear to draw me closer to my destiny in Christ. Nothing I experience is worthless. If I change my perspective to see God working (set the Lord continually before me), I will not be shaken.

Life is Fleeting

Psalm 39:4-5 (NLT)

“Lord, remind me how brief my time on earth will be.
    Remind me that my days are numbered—
    how fleeting my life is.
You have made my life no longer than the width of my hand.
    My entire lifetime is just a moment to you;
    at best, each of us is but a breath.”

On any given day we may feel anywhere from vulnerable to invincible. Nonetheless, those feelings are temporary. Anytime we focus on what we do not, cannot, and will never control, we are wasting what precious little time we have. Sometimes we need a reminder that life is just too short.  Our days are numbered by God; He’s the only one who knows how many we have left.

Happiness is a choice. You have to choose to rejoice in the day that the Lord has made. Focus on those things that matter in eternity, not those temporal frustrations of life. Things are going to happen in this life that upset us, but how we react to those things is something we can control. Let’s not ruin our days with negativity. When you wake up in the morning, know that God has a purpose for your life that day.

Learn to thank God throughout all the ups and downs because He has a greater perspective of your life than you ever could. He sees the whole thing in an instant – beginning to end. He knows what it’s going to take to get you through it. The lessons you learn today will help you tomorrow and the next day and the next day and the next day…until the end. Take it all in stride, trust God, and know that it won’t last always.

2014, Here We Come!

Who needs a New Year’s resolution when God’s mercies are new every morning? We have the opportunity every day to be better than we were the day before. We can set goals, but these drastic lifestyle changes that we propose tend to fall apart after a few months. Without our minds being renewed, we are setting ourselves up for failure from the start. For 2014, why not be a little more realistic?

For example, there is no way I’m going to go from not exercising at all to spending 4 hours a week at the gym. It just isn’t going to happen consistently because my mind hasn’t been trained to do that. However, if I can spend a couple days a week walking for 20 minutes, maybe I’ll be ready for the gym eventually. Maybe it’s just me, but if I miss a huge goal, I am more likely to be totally discouraged from trying again. The smaller ones are easier to evaluate, adjust, and attack.

Several small changes can lead to a dramatically better life. As you see the progress you are making with the smaller goals, your mind will expand to larger goals with greater expectations of achievement and completion. Pray and ask God to show you where to start and how far to go. The beauty of the whole thing is that He gives us another opportunity every time we wake up. We should have a better prayer life, make healthier life choices, and have better relationships with family and friends. These are not bad things. We should also help ourselves to reach our goals by implementing the changes in phases throughout the year instead of all at once.

The only thing that you absolutely must do right now is surrender your life to Christ. You may not have another opportunity to accept eternal life. You also need to align yourself with a community of believers that will help you to be better in Christ Jesus. Responsibility and accountability are not your enemies – just the opposite. Above all, remember that God’s love for you has nothing to do with you meeting your goals. He loves you anyway and He always will.

Seek Him Still

I always love hearing or reading, “Wise men still seek Him.”  It tends to get me to focus on what this season is truly about. For hundreds of years, the Hebrew people had been waiting for the promised Messiah. Finally, He was born!  The word started to spread, a bright star rose to lead the way, and people set out on their journey to go and worship Him.  This was fulfillment of prophecy, this was God in the flesh come to redeem His people, and this was THE Good News!

 

Scroll forward about 33 years, and these people are shouting, “Crucify Him!”  You really cannot consider the birth of Christ without understanding the purpose for that birth.  The birth of the Messiah wasn’t the end of the prophecy.  In order to save His people from their sins, He had to die.  He knew when He took on the form of man, He would have to suffer and die.  There was no other way for our sins to be forgiven then, now, and forever.  God’s holiness demanded a sacrifice, and His son came to this earth to be that sacrifice.

 

The redemptive quality of His work on the cross continues today.  We still have the opportunity to be forgiven of our sins.  We still have the opportunity to accept Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior of our lives.  Not only was He born, did He live as our example, and was He crucified in our stead, HE LIVES!  Christmas means nothing without Easter; the birth means nothing without the subsequent death and resurrection.  Because He lives, those who are wise can still seek Him.

 

Say So

Psalm 107:1-2 (NASB)
Oh give thanks to the Lord, for He is good,
For His lovingkindness is everlasting.
Let the redeemed of the Lord say so,
Whom He has redeemed from the hand of the adversary

It seems kind of pointless to ask people if God has ever done anything for them, doesn’t it? We do it all the time, especially in church. Simply being alive, awake, and active answers that question. I believe what we are intending to do, however, is to get people to think about the goodness of the Lord at that moment. Just consider all the things that God has done for us over the course of our few days.

Not only can we praise Him for those things we know that He has done, we can likewise rejoice over the things that we knew nothing about. The enemy is slinking around looking for ways to destroy us, BUT GOD! Every time you think about how ‘lucky’ you were that some bad circumstance missed you, thank God for His loving kindness. We attribute so much to coincidence, but God knows how many hairs are on our heads, so why not believe that He has orchestrated events to work out in our favor?

I praise Him even harder when the adversary He redeems me from is ME. Sometimes we sabotage ourselves with our disobedience, but He is always faithful. We need to ascribe to God the glory due His name. If He wasn’t the almighty, the omniscient, the omnipotent, the omnipresent, and the eternal God, we would be lost. As the redeemed of the Lord, we need to SAY SO!