Wait a Minute!

"Wait passionately for God, don't leave the path. He'll give you your place in the sun..." Psalm 37:34 (Mg)

As we go into a season of prayer, which we have been doing lately, things begin to change.  You can sense the atmosphere around you taking on new form.  What I mean is this, when we begin to passionately wait on God, things begin to happen. 

Now the things that begin to happen are not always positive.  When we begin to wait passionately upon the Lord it stirs up the Devil and at times, things seem to go in a different direction that what we were praying for, but I like how the verse continues..."don't leave the path."

As we pray and seek God we have got to hang in there.  Sometimes we have to hang on for dear life.  We have to hang on as if our very life depends on it and truth is, sometimes it does.  Waiting on God is not easy.  Waiting while the problems and challenges still swirl around us is often unnerving.  It is like being in the eye of a hurricane.  While being in prayer with God there is this sense of calm, but we can still see all the issues of life swirling around us.

But, if you will passionately wait...if you can hang in there just a bit longer and stay on the path...you will have "your day in the sun."   

BRING ON THE SUNSHINE LORD!

Count Yourself Lucky!

"Count your self lucky, how happy you must be - you get a fresh start, your slate's wiped clean.  Count yourself lucky - God holds nothing against you and you're holding nothing back from him.  When I kept it all inside, my bones turned to powder, my words became daylong groans.  The pressure never let up; all the juices of my life dried up.  Then I let it all out; I said, I'll make a clean breast of my failures to God." Suddenly the presure was gone - my guilt dissolved, my sin disappeared." Psalm 32:1-5 (Msg.)

Oh, how lucky we are to have all of our sins forgiven!  The pressure of a guilt filled life is gone.  Your sins, my sins have been removed away from us as "far as the East is from the West, never to be remembered again." 

I vividly remember the day I came to Christ.  When I confessed my sin and asked Christ to come into my life...when I let it all out,  I felt God wipe my slate clean...I felt like I was on cloud nine.  My guilt dissolved and my sin disappeared.  Praise God!

The Road Most Traveled

"And how blessed are those in whom you live. whose lives become roads you travel. They wind through lonesome valleys, come upon brooks, discover cool springs and pools brimming with rain! God-traveled, these roads curve up the mountain, and at the last turn-Zion! God in full view!" Psalm 84:5-7 (Msg.)

Think for a moment with me how blessed we are as followers of Jesus Christ to have God travel the road of life with us.  Often times we feel alone in our struggles and journeys, but the truth is God is with us all the way.  When we are lonely and thirsty for companionship, He leads us to brooks of refreshing and pools brimming with his presence. 

In the valleys of life, he leads us up the mountainside which leads to Him-Zion, the holy mountain of God.  And on the mountain top, God is in full view and the things that we thought were so overwhelming now melt away into nothingness as we gaze at His beauty.

My prayer is that we will look up...look up and begin to climb to the mountain top and get God in full view.  Looking down will get us no where. Although we think we are moving forward all that will really happen is we will walk in circles.  And people wonder why they keep ending up at the same place.  LOOK UP!

The Slight Edge

Anthony Robbins said, "The future is what you make it.  Little, everyday decisions, will either take you to the life you desire or to disaster by default. In fact, it is the littlest decisions that shape our lives."

I couldn't agree more.  This quote is so true in our spiritual lives.  So many people neglect a daily time with God, studying His word or communicating with Him in prayer and they wonder why they are so powerless to face lifes ups and downs.  In order to lift the heavier weights, we must build up our muscles over time.  In order to lift the heavier weights of life, we must build up our spiritual muscles over time, too.

Do you have a workout routine, if not, start today.  You may not have to lift a heavy object this week or even next week, but what about next month or some time this year.  It is time to build your spiritual muscles starting today.

The Goodness of God

Psalm 34:8 "Open your mouth and taste, open your eyes and see - how good God is.  Blessed are you who run to Him."

We could stop today and look at all that is going around us in the world.  And if we did, things are going to look pretty bleak.  There are wars, natural disasters, people who are homeless and hungry, and the threats of more to come are on the horizon.  But didn't Jesus tell us to be on the watch for these things, so why do we seem so surprised when they show up.  Go back to the Book of Matthew and re-read Chapter 24 this week and it will be like reading the local paper or watching the news.

We must choose to focus our attention on God.  Even thought the world around us changes, God never changes.  He is good all the time.  And I love what the Psalmist said, "Blessed are you who run to Him."  So as this world swirls around us and the rest of the world gets into fear and panic, let's choose to run to God" and focus our attention on his goodness.

• Let's focus on His plenty and not our lack. 
• Let's focus on His healing and not our sickness. 
• Let's focus on the fact that He is coming again and all of this will fade away.  

Focusing on Him won't make the world go away, but it least it gets my heart and mind looking at things from a right perspective.

Audacious Faith!

I have been devouring a new book called "Sun Stand Still" by Steven Furtick.  I recommend you get a copy and read it.  You can purchases it from his website.  Here is the link.  http://www.sunstandstill.org/

This is a book completely dedicated to our living by faith, but not just an ordinary faith, but audacious faith.  Now before I go any further, let me give you the definition of audacious.  Audacious means: being extremely bold or daring; recklessly brave; fearless.  It means I not only say I believe God but that I act on that faith with boldness.  What I believe in the dark, I act out in the light.

In my sermon on Sunday I asked people to write on their connection cards, "I want God's best in my life."  I was amazed at how many people followed through with that request and I want them to know that I did pray for them by name today and partnered with them to believe for God's best in their life.

But God's best also comes by audacious faith which is pursuing God's best and boldly daring to move in the direction of God's best in our life.  I am personally believing God for some bold things or at least bold in my estimation.  But I don't only believe them, I am actively pursuing them, partnering with God to see them happen.  That is what true audacious faith is all about.

We have the opportunity to be either day dreamers or dream pursers.  I choose the latter.

A Quiet Place

Psalm 27:5 (Message Bible) "That's the only quiet, secure place in a noisy world, the perfect getaway, far from the buzz of traffic."

I woke up at 4:00 a.m. this morning with a trillion thoughts running through my head.  I went over the activities of my day, mentally checked over my to do list, which is ever burgeoning, thought about my taxes which I have to prepare, and as you know April 15th is right around the corner, and wondered what all of it meant.  I mean why couldn't all of that have waited until I was to officially awake at 6.00 a.m.  I am sure you have experienced the same thing.  I fought to get back to sleep but with no avail.  So I chose to get up and do my morning routines to start the day.

And, as God would have it, I continued on with my devotional reading from yesterday where David talked about living with God in his house (Psalm 27:4) and the next verse jumps off the page at me... "That's the only quiet, secure place in a noisy world, the perfect getaway, far from the buzz of traffic." 

The buzz of traffic...the mental stuff that invades my mind and tries to steal my peace.  A noisy world... all those annoying things that try to crowd out God and rattle my security. 

So early this morning I go to God's Oasis...a quiet place...the perfect getaway and I lose myself in Him and.......what was that?  I think I heard a pin drop!

The One Thing!

We have just completed our series on "Prayer Changes Me"  so I found it interesting that this passage of scripture came to me in my morning devotions.  Psalm 27:4 – “I’m asking God for one thing, only one thing:  To live with him in his house my whole life long.  I’ll contemplate his beauty; I’ll study at his feet.

I was listening to a video on prayer from Francis Chan when he quoted this scripture.  He gave an overwhelming presentation on prayer in his hour long video.  I recommend you watch it, I have posted the link at the bottom of this blog.

Could it be that in our prayer time, we focus on too many things and use our prayer time to shout out to God our wish list.  Instead, shouldn't we use a portion of that time to just sit in his presence and contemplate his beauty.  I think we have missed the whole point of prayer.  Prayer is our time to connect with God on a more intimate level.   Sure we want to make our requests known to him, but I would rather be known by him and get to know him.  I am sure that is the most powerful dynamic of prayer.

Take some time this week to just sit in his presence.  Don't ask for anything or expect anything.  Just live with him in his house and contemplate his beauty and study at his feet.  That will change you, that will change me and that will change the world.

http://www.churchleaders.com/pastors/videos-for-pastors/148911-chan-leading-through-prayer.html