RSS

Tag Archives: birds of the air

Peace is victorious over Pride & Worry

03 Aug

Peace is victorious over Pride & Worry

Proverbs 27:1 Do not boast about tomorrow, For you do not know what a day may bring forth.

I think things to death. It is not really the problem with making a decision, I just seem to think through all the options, all the variables, look at all the outcomes, before making those decisions. Much of that is the DNA that God wired me with; much of that comes from running a service business for so many years. It is funny how even in my years of rebellion against God, I still lived for the moment; seeking the pleasure of the moment. Then God got ahold of my heart and placed eternity there, and I saw things through a different lens. I saw and felt what lie before me; it did not bring worry about tomorrow, but peace and security about it. I did not need to worry about it, for I was secure in it, and I could concentrate on today.

Christ taught directly on all these worries that take our peace away in Matthew 6:25 “Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? 26 Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? 27 And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life? 28 And why are you anxious about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin, 29 yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. 30 But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? 31 Therefore do not be anxious, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ 32 For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. 33 But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. 34 “Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.(ESV) Satan will still come at you with the anxieties; he is here to steal, kill, and destroy all that you are with Christ; but he cannot! When those attacks come, and they will, go to God’s Word and prayer, for seeking Him and the strength found in them for the day. Concentrate on the day, for many times worry is centered around future events of which you have no control. But that peace is found in know HE is in control!

James spoke to the opposing side of worry, pride. Those times when in your power you make your plans, that may not be God’s plans for you. All throughout the Bible there are warnings about how much God hates the pride of life. James 4:13 Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a city, spend a year there, buy and sell, and make a profit”; 14 whereas you do not know what will happen tomorrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes away. 15 Instead you ought to say, “If the Lord wills, we shall live and do this or that.” 16 But now you boast in your arrogance. All such boasting is evil. 17 Therefore, to him who knows to do good and does not do it, to him it is sin.  So if we are not to worry, and we are not to be prideful in our planning, what are we to do? Concentrate on living this day in the center of God’s Will for you life just for the day. A heart that seeks Him, will find him, and understand the meaning of a daily life with him. It can start today when you spend time with him in prayer and his Word.

 
1 Comment

Posted by on August 3, 2013 in Daily Devotions

 

Tags: , , , , ,

Simple songs of praise

12 Jun

Simple songs of praise

Matthew 6:26 Look at the birds of the air, for they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they?

I am really tired today; been putting in some very long hours for a couple of weeks getting ramped up for summer in the air conditioning business. I have also been wrapped up in a self-study of Revelation 3, and the Laodecian church that is a very heavy passage. The language is very strong, and the emotion and disgust that Christ shows towards indifference is painfully clear. I did not know if I had the “energy” for it this morning. As I sat down to pray, a bird began it’s morning praise song right outside my window; peace came over me with it’s song. A simple joy in life, to listen to it’s song of praise and and joy for the dawning of a new day. I thanked God for that little reminder He had placed before me this morning.

In the context of the passage above, it comes from the Sermon on the Mount when Christ is speaking to us about worry. It is also in the more direct context of worrying about money; this is especially relevant to me working 80hrs a week now in my busiest time of the year. 24 “No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be loyal to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon. 25 “Therefore I say to you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink; nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing? I will make 60-70% of my yearly income in the summer months. Brutally honest, I am in the pursuit of money during this time of the year; making hay when the sun shines, as they say. It pulls me away from so many things, and is incredibly demanding physically and mentally. Inside it is the pressures of a service business and all the worry that come with a business that can qualify many times as emergent with the heat. The worry can put great strain on my life in all areas of my life.

Then God gives me simple blessings to encourage me along the way. He gives me a bird singing this morning; He gives me front porch conversation with a pastor friend full of encouragement; He gives me opportunities to share my faith and pray with customers along the way. Proverbs 27:17 As iron sharpens iron, So a man sharpens the countenance of his friend. These little things that He places in my path give me the energy to press on to another day. Why should I worry? God has placed the smallest creatures under his care, and they sing praises to him as the day arises. I sing my praises to Him at this keyboard every morning. Thank you Jesus!

 
Leave a comment

Posted by on June 12, 2013 in Daily Devotions

 

Tags: , , , , ,

The weight

29 Mar

The weight

1 Peter 2:24 who Himself bore our sins in His own body on the tree, that we, having died to sins, might live for righteousness–by whose stripes you were healed.

All the evidence of God’s glory lies before you every day. All the magnitude of His creation, un-explicable majesty of a supreme designer of all the universe is open to your eyes. 2000 years ago today, the opposing weight equal to that glory in the weight of our sins, bore down on that Creator. All the sins of the past, present, and future of the race He created, he now bore on a perfect body. He had come to provide the only possible Holy sacrifice to provide access to a Holy God. It was the only way to atone for our failure; the only way we would not pay for our failure apart from God. He created us like Himself; Genesis 1:26 Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.”; He had created us for fellowship, and we had failed miserably. There was only One who could pay our sin debt and allow us regain access to eternal paradise with Him.

Look back at your life of sin in your years. The weight of your sin, both the evident and the unknown, and try to imagine how you could pay your sin debt to stand before a Holy God. All other religions teach the work you must do to gain access to God. If you honestly reflect on where your sin debt is today, could you from this day on repay that debt in holy service if you could even sin no more? Is there an level of service that outweighs the level of repentance? Christ had pointed to the Pharisee’s who considered themselves the righteous and holy of their day. He had pointed to their religiosity and the failure that lied in their ritualistic approach to God; their service to God to atone for their sin. Matthew 9:13 But go and learn what this means: ‘I desire mercy and not sacrifice.’ For I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners, to repentance.” Going through the motions of religion and church attendance with it’s rituals will only give you a first class ticket to hell. You are never saved by religion; you are only saved in humble repentance and acceptance of the understanding that you can only obtain it in Christ’s sacrifice.

I can come up with no adjectives to describe the weight of my sin. I lived a life steep in sin, the unknown is greater than the known; I fail my Lord still every single day.  Even in my greatest sin of pride I understand that I could never pay my sin debt to God. That would make the sacrifice of Christ useless. Romans 6:23 For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. You have only one pathway to paradise, and it began today at Calvary. The pride in your heart steep in religion must be covered with the blood at the Cross. Your salvation began 2000 years ago and it is available to a humble repentant heart that kneels and pleas for forgiveness and acceptance. Thank you Jesus.

 
Leave a comment

Posted by on March 29, 2013 in Daily Devotions

 

Tags: , , , , ,

Hold on. Wait a minute!

15 Feb

Hold on. Wait a minute!

Luke 9:57-62   Now it happened as they journeyed on the road, that someone said to Him, “Lord, I will follow You wherever You go.” 58 And Jesus said to him, “Foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay His head.” 59 Then He said to another, “Follow Me.” But he said, “Lord, let me first go and bury my father.” 60 Jesus said to him, “Let the dead bury their own dead, but you go and preach the kingdom of God.” 61 And another also said, “Lord, I will follow You, but let me first go and bid them farewell who are at my house.” 62 But Jesus said to him, “No one, having put his hand to the plow, and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God.”

“Hold on, wait a minute. I just gotta ___________” Let me FIRST get a few things done, a few items in order, a few questions answered, a plan assembled; and then I will follow you. “Oh yes Lord, I want to follow you, but first tho…….” When you are a planner by nature, breaking that mold on the seemingly big things is hard to do. When you want everything to be in order, the freedom of it not being in order, is seemingly not a freedom at all. Letting go, and letting God, is a hard thing to do. We speak of our faith, but when our faith is taken outside of our comfort zone, the level of our faith is at question; these things I personally understand.

Jesus was on his way to Jerusalem, and this text takes place on a seemingly dirt road through towns where you know Christ attracted attention as he passed through. People were drawn to Him and wanted to be a part of the group. They had no idea of the cost of discipleship. There are many great books out there that speak about this; Christ plainly states the cost of it here; that it demands total commitment and His authority in one’s life. There is nothing that must come before Christ in the heart of a disciple. You say you want to be His disciple, but you cannot command the terms of an agreement to it. It requires great test of the heart and faith. It requires an eternal focus. It requires the denial of self, not the exception; ““Lord, I will follow You, but…” (61)

Living for Christ demands a focus on the future. It demands a heart that is in the now, living in the present for Christ, and not stuck in the past. God has you where he wants you today; for today to live your life for him in that moment. It is not to worry about the things that He has delivered you from in the past; it is for today and the present tense with him. Our past should be looked at as only our testimony; of our life before Christ, and the means of it to share what He can do for others in those same struggles. If you are grabbing ahold of his plow and looking back, the furrow you are digging will be out of the center of His Will for your life. 62 But Jesus said to him, “No one, having put his hand to the plow, and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God.” Only by keeping your eyes on Him will you remain in the center of His Will.

 
Leave a comment

Posted by on February 15, 2013 in Daily Devotions

 

Tags: , , , , ,

Focus on today

26 Nov

Focus on today

Matthew 6:34 Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about its own things. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.

Most of the time my anxieties center around the pressures of life; the worries of tomorrow. I can seem to handle the stresses of the day, but it may be the worry of the stress of tomorrow that get to me. If it is mostly about tomorrow, then it is fully out of my control. I am not guaranteed tomorrow, so why should I waste today worrying about what I cannot control? This were Satan has his victory in these battles; he robs us of our joy of today. Matthew 6:25-34 speaks directly to these types of anxiety. 25 “Therefore I say to you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink; nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing? 26 Look at the birds of the air, for they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? 27 Which of you by worrying can add one cubit to his stature? 28 So why do you worry about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin; 29 and yet I say to you that even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. 30 Now if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is, and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will He not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? 31 Therefore do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ 32 For after all these things the Gentiles seek. For your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. 33 But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you. 34 Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about its own things. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.

How many todays are lost in the worry of tomorrows? God places you in a circle of influence; a setting for you to have possible joy for they day. He may place someone before you that needs to hear of Him; that needs that encouraging word that you can give them of your faith in Christ. That person that may be able to relate to your testimony, they may be walking directly in the struggles you have faced with the strength now in Christ; you can now share that with them. 2 Corinthians 12:9 And He said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore most gladly I will rather boast in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me. Everything we face today we now face with Christ. We must continually seek Christ to tap into this strength; we cannot rely upon our own.

I am trying really hard to seek God for help in this area of my life right now. I have come to describe my anxiety/depression as the Apostle Paul did as, “ my thorn in the flesh”.  Paul pled for God to take it from him, but God let it stay to keep Paul humble, and to keep Paul’s eyes on God. 2 Corinthians 10:10 Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in needs, in persecutions, in distresses, for Christ’s sake. For when I am weak, then I am strong. When you are in the middle of worry, get into the center of it with the strength of God.

 
Leave a comment

Posted by on November 26, 2012 in Daily Devotions

 

Tags: , , , , ,