The Waiting

What are you waiting on? Everyone is waiting on something: a promotion, a new opportunity to show up, a new love. The list goes on. Waiting can be painful and intense.  Waiting too long can make you quit.  Instead, take a little time to carefully consider what or who you are waiting on? If you are waiting on a person to make something happen, even yourself,  don't. People are limited and cannot always come through. Though they may desire to give you what you are waiting on (and some don't desire to) they may not have it in them to come through for you.  Their experiences are limited.  Their understanding is limited.  They're limited in pretty much everything.  If you're waiting on certain resources thinking that if you have them you will have 'arrived',that's not a good idea either. Unfortunately, even the best of resources are still limiting.  God is not limited, though.  His understanding, resourcefulness, and power reach far beyond what we could ever have need of. He is the only presence in our lives that is unhindered in the ability to see every intricate detail of everyone and everything around us and know exactly what fits where and what should not even be a part of our puzzle.  God knows how to orchestrate the change that you are seeking. Talk to God and ask him to order everything. Ask him to do whatever is necessary to get you beyond waiting whether you would be in agreement with his decision or not. What is so pressing about waiting is the lingering threat that what we are working for and waiting on will never manifest. What relieves that pressure is knowing that God always delivers.  He will put people in your life, adjust your situation, and/or adjust your understanding until either what you've been waiting on comes through or until you clearly see that it was never something you should have been waiting on anyway.  I've seen it happen too many times.  Wait on God. His work is always worth the wait.

Prayer:  Show us the benefits of waiting on and trusting in you Lord.

Believe

How precious are your kids to you?  Wouldn't you, without hesitation,  give your life to keep them out of harms way?  Most of us would rob, steal, and even kill if that is what safeguarding our children required. Thank goodness we have a God whose thoughts are not our thoughts and ways are not our ways.  Our father in heaven has a son we call Christ.  He loves his son dearly. He wants what we want for his Son. Safety, peace, honor, and love.  Still, because it was necessary to protect others, he removed his son from safety and allowed him to be put in harms way.  Jesus, God's son, was wise and pure and honorable.  He testified of God and God's truth.  He healed people and worked miracles that had never before been seen.  He lived a sin free life.  Nonetheless, religious leaders accused him of blasphemy and turned him over to the authorities.  The people judged him harshly.  They mocked him, ridiculed him, beat him to the point of being unrecognizable, and then hung him on a wooden cross by piercing his flesh with nails.  Even then, he asked God to forgive the people who were crucifying him.  He died on that cross. He died on that cross on our behalf.  He took on the death that we deserve and it is God's will that we honor his Son for his sacrifice.  He asks us to honor Him by believing what the Bible tells us about Him. The accounts of Jesus in the Bible are, to our minds, incomprehensible.   Believing requires accepting truths that stretch beyond what is humanly possible or easily understood.  Believing requires faith.  Faith is delicate and not easily attained.  It is precious.  It is productive.  Faith is a gift.  It is a gift that keeps on giving.  So in this season of giving, why not give someone the opportunity to develop their faith.  Find a way to introduce them to the truth of God and his Son.  Maybe give away a few Bibles.  Give some good contemporary Christian music. Books can also be enlightening.  It's amazing how a little trinket with a timely scripture on it, can open someone up to the faith.  Give someone Christ this Christmas.  Help someone believe.

Prayer: Lord the Bible says no one can get to you without going through Jesus.  In order for you to acknowledge us, we must acknowledge that it is truth that Jesus was crucified in our behalf and that he was resurrected and now sits with you in all power.  Lord increase our faith and show us ways in which we can gently lead others to believe.

Name Calling

A prayer is spoken. The presence of the Spirit is more than apparent. The heart of the prayer is unmistakable. It was a prayer from and for God. Still the spiritual conversation isn't thought to be complete until it gets the final seal. We hit it with the consummate "In the name of Jesus". STAMP. Now that prayer can be delivered and the deal is sealed. There's been a misunderstanding. We think praying in the name of Jesus means closing our prayers with the signature phrase. It has become little more than a ritualistic end to our supplication. Or some say it believing, if the phrase is left out,  the prayer won't be heard.  We are right in believing God wants us to pray in Jesus's name. Yet overtime we have lost sight of what that means. When you do something in someone else's name, you are doing it in behalf of them. You are working in representation of them to further the meeting of their goals. Their heart is your heart. You are working for what they want. So when we pray in Jesus's name, the goal of that prayer should be to speak what Jesus would speak. If we are truly praying in the name of Jesus, even if what we want doesn't line up with what God wants, our prayer is such that it is understood that God's desires trump our own. If that is how you have prayed, then there is no need for the "In Jesus's Name" stamp at the end. God already knows you prayed in His name based on the prayer itself. Subsequently, a selfish prayer won't be validated by tagging it with Jesus's name. It's important to understand this, because the power of our prayer lies in the intent of our prayer. The prayers that line up with God's heart and mind will be answered. The prayers that aren't, won't. Liken it to a new reader who can fluently decode words. They can get through a whole paragraph in under a minute. Hit them with some comprehension questions though and they can't answer a thing. They aren't really reading yet. They are just word calling. Those words don't mean anything until they can apply meaning to them.  The same applies to prayer. Putting Jesus's name at then end of a prayer is not a bad thing. It's a step.  Still, until we apply the meaning of praying in His name to the prayer, we're just name calling.  Once we do mature in our prayer life and we begin to pray with God's heart in mind and put his desires over our own, whoo.  Now that's praying.

 

Prayer: Lord your word says some of our prayers aren't answered because the intent of the prayer is wrong. Lord direct us in our prayers and turn our hearts toward you.  Bless us with our hearts' desires when the words of our mouths and the meditations of our heart are acceptable in your sight.

Feeling Cramped?

Feeling cramped? Do you keep trying to spread your wings in your place of employment, but no matter what you do you can't get them fully opened? You work hard everyday, day after day, but the results are mostly mediocre. Even when the results are great, you still feel unfulfilled. Something is wrong with that.  It is an indication that you are not working your gift. Your gift is that thing that God has given you that you  are  powerfully good at doing.  In Proverbs 18:16, the Bible says that a man's gift will make room for him and bring him before greats.  So if you are feeling like what you are doing now is boxing you in, you are probably not working your gift.  What is that you do in your spare time that you are awesome at and can do almost effortlessly? Time and circumstances melt away into oblivion while you use this talent and it is productive and effective.  That's probably your gift.  Use it. It's time.   That doesn't mean you need to walk in your job with your letter of resignation tomorrow.  It may be that you will find a way to use your gift where you are working now.  Then you will find your career and sense of satisfaction quickly catapulted. It may be that you need an absolutely new environment for what God has gifted you to do. Or it could be that you are supposed to keep your job as a source of income and work your gift in isolation of your career. Only God knows. Pray about it.  Ask God to lead you into what he would have you do with your gift. Then work, work, work at it.  It's critical that you do.  God has given you that gift for reasons that go way beyond yourself. God has given you that gift because he wants you to use it for his purposes.  Your gift will meet someone else's need.  If you can't put your finger on what your gift is, ask Him to help you pinpoint it.  You certainly have one. Use it well and those wings that were once stuck and stifled will begin to spread like wildfire and command room be made for you. There will be no stopping you.

Prayer:  God your word says our gifts will make room for us.  Direct us in the use of our gifts.  Help us to use our strengths to strengthen others and to strengthen your kingdom here on earth.  May the talents you have blessed us with be a blessing and may our responsible use of these gifts bless us in return.

There Is A God

Consider our world and how it works. The earth itself is a fantastic entity. In its enormity it revolves and orbits the moon causing day to turn to night and night to return to day with flawless timing. It is a natural system that dictates the ebb and flow of the ocean, the opening and closing of our day, and the sequence of the seasons. What about the creatures on earth? We share a commonality in that we are able to function by systems that are at work in us.  Nervous systems help our brains send signals to other parts of our body to make them work. Respiratory systems work to get oxygen to our vital organs.  Digestive systems get nutrients from our food to our blood system.  There are many other systems at work in us. All of these systems are made to work in specific ways by specific designs. Designs that we did not devise ourselves. Natural order is present all around us.  The rooster will never wake up and have beautiful plumage that it can fan out at will and the peacock will never intuitively know to announce the coming of the morning. The horse will never swim the depths of the ocean and the fish will not run at fantastic speeds.  They each follow their own design.  These designs are by nature predetermined.  Even in the fields of math and science there are principals or laws that are already set and established that cannot be defied. They dictate that certain things will always be ordered according to certain patterns and laws. For example, in math, when you add two odd numbers the answer will always be even.  In science, the law of motion states that an object in motion tends to stay in motion unless acted upon by an opposing force. Something amazing about the scientific laws is that most of them can be represented with a mathematical equation.  It is like each of the laws have their own personal blueprint.  We didn't create the order of these laws. They are sytematic principles that were already established.. Everything I've mentioned to this point leads to this.  Laws, systems, and order all hinge upon one thing: a pre-established design.  Designs do not create themselves.  A design is established by a designer. Order does not create itself.  Order follows rules that were created by design. Again, where there is design, there is a designer and the designer is always greater than the design.  Therefore the natural orders, natural laws, and natural systems we experience around us everyday all follow predetermined designs that were established by a designer.  Who designed them then? They are called natural because we know they are not made by man.  They could not have designed themselves. So it stands to reason that there is a master designer. A designer that is greater than math, greater than science, greater than man, and greater than nature.  That master designer is our creator. That creator is God.

Prayer:  Lord You reveal yourself to us in our everyday surroundings so we are without excuse for not believing.  Help us to see you everywhere you are. Give us eyes that see you, ears that hear you, and hearts that understand you. Amen.