We all need a refresher course now and then to keep us on track when it comes to living the Christian life. My pastor gave such a refresher this past Sunday and I thought I’d share it today along with my take on it. So Pastor Bob, thanks very much!
Now, most everyone knows these things, but sometimes we get rusty and need some fresh oil applied. So get out your drip cloth and expect to be oiled up.
1. Read the Word for yourself!
Hebrews 4:12 For the word of God is alive and powerful. It is sharper than the sharpest two-edged sword, cutting between soul and spirit, between joint and marrow. It exposes our innermost thoughts and desires.
· We sometimes need our ritual habits cut away by the sharp edges of the sword. The soul’s “I want, I think, I feel” weights down the Holy Spirit so that we are not free to live as He wants us to live.
· We need to understand the difference between the hard joint and the soft marrow. Our joints are flexible and meant to move either by back and forth, side to side or rotating. The marrow keeps the bones alive by sending oxygen to all parts of our body and fights disease and germs. God must be allowed to get to our marrow. Sometimes He has to do surgery to get there... If we are to be alive, we need to read His Word. If we are to be healthy, we are to read His Word.
· We need our thoughts and desires exposed by the light of His Word. Perhaps it’s the purposes for which we decide to do something that needs to be examined. His Word is alive and powerful to reveal the status of our inner being. We will know Him better by reading His Word for ourselves.
2. Prayer is the gate we open and He comes through!
Hebrews 4:13 Nothing in all creation is hidden from God. Everything is naked and exposed before His eyes, and He is the one to whom we are accountable.
· Nothing is hidden from God. God is omniscient! He knows everything. We might think since He already knows everything, then why should we pray. But “He” knows everything and “we” do not. We can’t embarrass or shock God. He loves us and He already knows what we have done before we pray. He knows every fear that we have and all the trials we have faced and every temptations known. He knows all of it even before we realize it!
· Prayer will reveal our motives even more clearly to ourselves when we articulate them in prayer. We might find ourselves repenting for our lustful desires and pride. 1 John 2:15-17 Do not love this world nor the things it offers you, for when you love the world, you do not have the love of the Father in you. 16 For the world offers only a craving for physical pleasure, a craving for everything we see, and pride in our achievements and possessions. These are not from the Father, but are from this world. 17 And this world is fading away, along with everything that people crave. But anyone who does what pleases God will live forever.
· We must give an account. He wants us to be honest with Him.
3. Confess to an accountability partner.
James 5:16 Confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The earnest prayer of a righteous person has great power and produces wonderful results.
· We need accountability in our motives, marriage, ministry and our mind. We don’t need to confess our sins to the world. The world doesn’t need to know our faults and weaknesses. When we discover our sins, faults and weaknesses during our own reading of the Word or prayer time, then we need to make confession to a trusted fellow believer, so that they may pray with us as scriptures reveals.
· Making confession to someone else won’t do anything but allow them to love and pray for us. It is not their forgiveness we need. When we have sinned and repent we tell God who has the power to forgive us.
o Confession allows our accountability partner the chance to come into agreement with us in prayer. It helps to heal the broken spirit and gets us back on track again.
o Confession allows our accountability partner the chance to hear how easily some sin has captured us and may help them to refrain from making the same mistake.
· Pray for forgiveness of our faithlessness in our motives, marriage, ministry and our minds.
4. View everything in life that "all things" work together for good.
Romans 8:28 And we know that God causes everything to work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to his purpose for them.
God allows things to come into our lives so that we can go to Him. We are not to go by our means of rescue (example to borrow money) and we are not to go to others to provide the need before we have gone to God. God wants us to come to Him. (This is not to say that we should never borrow, but it is God who will direct if that is the path we are to follow. The point is that we are to go to Him and find out from Him what He desires of us! Your walk with Him is your testimony. We never know who may be watching us live out the Word. Do we have a faith in the Lord that is showing on the outside? Or do we have only Sunday morning faith? )
Strength Building Scriptures that point to God first!
Philippians 4:19 And this same God who takes care of me will supply all your needs from his glorious riches, which have been given to us in Christ Jesus. God will take care of me.
Malachi 3:10 Bring all the tithes into the storehouse so there will be enough food in my Temple. If you do,” says the Lord of Heaven’s Armies, “I will open the windows of heaven for you. I will pour out a blessing so great you won’t have enough room to take it in! Try it! Put me to the test! God will take care of me.
1 Timothy 6:10 For the love of money is the root of all kinds of evil. And some people, craving money, have wandered from the true faith and pierced themselves with many sorrows. God will take care of me.
Acts 20:35 And I have been a constant example of how you can help those in need by working hard. You should remember the words of the Lord Jesus: ‘It is more blessed to give than to receive.’ God will take care of me.
Proverbs 22:7 Just as the rich rule the poor, so the borrower is servant to the lender. God will take care of me.
5. Learn to enjoy our relationship with God.
Psalm 37:4 Take delight in the Lord, and he will give you your heart’s desires.
[Two words need to be examined closely: “delight” and “desires”. This verse is often misinterpreted by Christians and taken to mean that God will give me whatever we want (i.e. earthly blessings) if I delight in Him. But the Hebrew word translated “delight” (עָנַג, pronounced aw-nag) literally means to be delicate or feminine (Strong’s, עָנַג.) It carries the idea of being pliable or sensitive. In this particular context, it means to be dependent upon God and to derive one’s pleasure from Him. Does this describe us? Would we rather spend time communing with God (in worship, the Word, prayer, even in our vocation) or with other people, engaged in other activities? The verb translated “delight” is an imperative in the Hebrew, meaning this is a command. Does this put a new twist on the meaning for us? Delighting in the Lord is not a helpful suggestion, but a command from the pen of the inspired Psalmist. We are to strive to delight completely in God.
The term translated “desires” (מִשְׁאָלָה, pronounced mish-aw-law) refers to petitions or requests (TWOT, מִשְׁאָלָה.) In Hebrew thought, the heart was primarily the seat of the inner man. It was the source of the will. In other words, the Psalmist tells us that God will honor our delighting in Him by graciously giving us what we are asking of Him from the very depths of our being. If we are delighting ourselves in God… then what are the desires of our heart? If we are relying upon God and deriving our primary pleasure in Him, then He is the desire of our heart. The promise here is not that God will give us the things of this world if we delight in Him. The promise is that God will give us Himself, if and when we delight ourselves in Him. The greatest blessing which we can ever receive is to know God intimately. Jesus said that eternal life is ultimately all about knowing God and Jesus Christ, whom He has sent. John 17:3 And this is the way to have eternal life—to know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, the one you sent to earth.
The greatest blessing imaginable is for God to make His face to shine upon us. Numbers 6:22-27 Then the Lord said to Moses, 23 “Tell Aaron and his sons to bless the people of Israel with this special blessing: 24 ‘May the Lord bless you and protect you. 25 May the Lord smile on you and be gracious to you. 26 May the Lord show you his favor and give you his peace.’ 27 Whenever Aaron and his sons bless the people of Israel in my name, I myself will bless them.” This highlighted text including the Hebrew tranlations is from MBC Globe ~ Pastor's Blog: http://mbcpastoringlobe.wordpress.com/2008/05/22/delight-yourself-in-the-lord-%E2%80%93-psalm-374/ ]
If you love Him and are faithful and honest… if you love the people of God then God looks on you and says, “What is it that you want?”
o Our attitude must turn. We must no longer think in terms of ‘I have to read my Bible. I have to pray. I have to go to church, etc.’
o We must think in terms of ‘I get to read my Bible. I get to pray. I get to go to church, etc.”
This is when true intimacy with God occurs and this is how we are to care for our souls. So find your Bible and dust it off, invest some effort into making a place to study and pray in your home. Think of an accountability partner and perhaps more than one for the various areas of your life (motives, marriage, ministry and mind). Always remember that you are a child of God and He is in control. There is nothing that happens that He isn't aware of. You may be going through something to teach you a lesson or so that someone watching will turn to Him through the testimony of your walk! Last, but not least, be perfectly happy and joyous in your relationship with the Lord. Your life will just get better and better as your love grows deeper and stronger for Him who loves you!
Our Father, forgive us for forgetting you and help us to apply the truth of your Word to our lives daily. May we reflect your honor, power and glory every day!
In Jesus' name. Amen.
Scriptures above are taken from the New Living Translation unless otherwise noted.
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