A Wandering Mind

Look straight ahead, and fix your eyes on what lies before you. Mark out a straight path for your feet; stay on the safe path. Don’t get sidetracked; keep your feet from following evil. (Proverbs 4:25-27 NLT)

God wants our full attention, but unfortunately our minds have other plans. When you have your time with God, does it seem like all the thoughts of the world start running through your mind? Do you find your mind wandering the second you sit down and start talking to or worshiping God? Happens to me all the time. What I have to do in those cases and say "Kent, stop it, lets get our focus back on God" and then if that doesn't work, I'll spread out my hands, close my eyes and say "settle my soul Jesus, settle my soul." Honestly I should really do that at the beginning because that always works for me. You may need to find something else that gets your focus back on God. The point is when we have our time with God, we need to keep our focus on Him and not get sidetracked. We need to get control of our minds and not let our minds control us! 

Take Away: if your mind is a wandering mind the minute you sit down to have your time with God, don't let it continue to wander, get your focus back on God

Always There

Don’t be afraid, for I am with you. Don’t be discouraged, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you. I will hold you up with my victorious right hand. (Isaiah 41:10 NLT)

Lets face it, we have finite minds, we can't think of everything all the time. What I mean is that we can't always have everything and everyone in our thoughts all the time at every moment, our human minds just can not handle that. For example, have you gone through a day when you just didnt' think of someone you loved for a period of time, but yet you knew that you knew that you knew that the someone still loved you and was always there. I admit I don't think of my wife 100% of the time, but I know she is always there, and is always loving me. And even when I am not thinking of her, she is still doing things for me, some of which I will never know about because she loves me. The same goes with God. I don't think of God all the time through out my day, but I know that I know that I know that He is always with me, always watching out for me, always having my best interest in mind, always orchestrating events for my benefit and good, EVEN when I am not thinking about Him. The enemy and even our own minds can get us down by saying "you're not thinking of God, you're not meditating on Him, how do you expect Him to help you when you need it." Those thoughts are lies, don't believe them. Like Isaiah said, don't be afraid for God is ALWAYS with you!

Take Away: The next time you hear a voice condemning you because you are not thinking about God, say "I may not always be thinking of God,  but I know He is always there, always thinking of me, and always looking out for me."

Seeking Needs or His Kingdom

Seek the Kingdom of God above all else, and he will give you everything you need. (Luke 12:31 NLT)

In my last post I talked about how God provides your needs, in fact He is everything for you. He is your provider, He is your comforter, He is the One taking care of you. But there is a caveat to this. In order for God to provide for your needs, you must seek the Kingdom of God above everything. What does this mean? First, to seek something means to search it out through exhaustive measures. If means you must go after it with all you got. The Kingdom of God, as described in Romans 14:17 is peace, righteousness and joy in the Holy Spirit. This means you must pursue peace and joy and righteousness...and not only pursue it, but do your best to walk in it! If you are going around complaining about everything and being frustrated, or if you are constantly looking at the bad side of things...then you are not pursuing joy, peace and righteousness. When you start seeking joy, peace and righteousness, as described in Luke 12:31...and also in the book of Matthew), then God will provide for everyone of your needs. Notice that it didn't say seek your needs, it says seek His Kingdom. If you are seeking your needs, then you definitely will not find peace and joy, but you will find frustration and most likely an unmet need.

Take Away: Its not too late to seek joy, peace and righteousness. Make a decision today to seek God's Kingdom instead of your need.

Needs

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. (Philippians 4:19 NLT)

God will always provide for your needs. He always does, that's one of His promises. We don't even need to ask Him most of the time, He just does it! There are times, however, that we do need to voice our needs. In either case, we just have to have the faith and believe that He will do it! Some of us may want to wait for this big Hollywood-style way of God showing up with a light show and all the works. If you are waiting for that, you will be waiting a long time, God doesn't work like that. There was a story from a while ago where a man was on the roof of his house, surrounded by flood waters, and he asked God to save him. A few minutes later a boat comes by and they say to the man "get in." He said "no, I am waiting for God to save me." A few minutes later a helicopter comes by and they say to the man, "get in." Again, he says "no, I am waiting for God to save me." The helicopter leaves. The flood waters continue to rise and eventually the man drowns. He gets up to heaven and asks God why He didn't save him. God said "I sent you a boat and a helicopter, what else did you want?" All this to say is that God works through people to meet our needs, trust Him that He will do and don't miss out when He does provide your need!

Take Away:  When a need rises in your life, ask God to provide for you. Then recognize the provision when it comes and don't miss out. He may not send it the way you expected, but He will always send it.

Alone in a Big World

“Look at the lilies and how they grow. They don’t work or make their clothing, yet Solomon in all his glory was not dressed as beautifully as they are. And if God cares so wonderfully for flowers that are here today and thrown into the fire tomorrow, he will certainly care for you. Why do you have so little faith? (Luke 12:27-28 NLT)

When someone loves you, they want to take care of you. This could mean providing a roof over your head, putting meals on the table, sacrificing their own wants to care for you. The same is with God. God loves you so much that He wants to take care of you. He doesn't want you to worry about anything because He wants to take care of you. He loves you so much that He sacrificed His own Son, Jesus, just so that He could have a relationship with you. There are a lot of lonely people out there that think no one cares for them and that they are alone in this world. I used to think that way. I used to think no one cared about me, that I had no friends and that once I was gone from this world, no one would know the difference. These are the lies that the enemy wants us to believe to destroy us. The reality is there ARE people that care for you and there ARE people that call you friend...but most importantly there is a God that loves you so much and He wants to take care of you. When I realized this, my whole attitude changed, I stopped being depressed, I stopped feeling sorry for myself and I started living! When I realized that God loves me, I found I had hope...and in the process I found I DID have friends and people did care about me.

Take Away: When you are feeling a little unloved, when you think you are alone and no one cares, meditate on Luke 12:27-28, tell yourself "I am not alone, I am not unloved, but I am loved by the God."

Why pray when you can worry

Can all your worries add a single moment to your life? And if worry can’t accomplish a little thing like that, what’s the use of worrying over bigger things? (Luke 12:25-26 NLT)

If there is one thing I know for sure, there is enough going on in our lives and in this world where there is no shortage of things to worry about. We worry about terrorism, we worry about someone breaking into our homes, we worry about not making enough money, we worry if we have a job tomorrow, we worry about this and we worry about that. We worry about the big things and we worry about the small things, but how far have we gotten with worrying about things? Did worrying ever help us? If you answered yes, then you are deceiving yourself because Jesus said reheotorically "Can all your worries add a single moment to your life?" The answer is an obvious no. Worry can do nothing but cause you physical problems. When we worry, a chemical is released in the brain than causes all sorts of problems. God did not design us to worry. He designed us to live and walk in peace and joy. He made life so that when we have something going on in our lives, we are to give it to Him to take care of so that we won't worry about it. 1 Peter 5:7 says cast all your cares and axiety on Him, and that is what we need to do so that we can live in the peace and joy that He designed us to live in. A pastor in St. Louis that I knew said something that I'll never forget. He said, jokingly of course, "why pray when you can worry about it?" 

Take Away: the next time you have a chance to worry about something, do something different and cast it to God and let Him deal with it. Then, and this is the important part, don't think about it! If you need to do something, He will let you know!

Over Planning

But when they bring you before the synagogues, the rulers, and the authorities, do not worry about how you should make your defense or what you should say, for the Holy Spirit will teach you at that moment what you must say.” (Luke 12:11-12 NET)

My wife, Tammy, and I are planners. Everything that we are to do must have a plan, and not only that, it must be planned out days, weeks, and sometimes even months ahead of time. While this can be good in some cases, it is not good in all cases. What I mean by that is say we have an event coming up and decisions have to be made and  details have to be worked out which rely on other people to also have to make decisions. Tammy and I would not only try to plan every detail, but we would also be constantly contacting the other people if they decided anything...and we would do this months ahead of time when there was plenty of time to get it done! For us, however, it had to be done NOW! Well God finally got a hold of Tammy and I and told us that we need to have balance, and while planning is good to a certain extent, if we over plan, it leaves no room for Him to do what He wants to do. God even went as far as telling us not to plan anything for a season, and trust Him and let Him do what He needs to do and He would tell us what we need to do when we need to do it. When we listened to Him it was amazing how much stress and frustrations no longer existed. Since then we have kept to what He has told us and while we plan where we need to plan, we are trusting Him with a lot of the details and allowing God to be God!

Take Away: if you are an over planner or a details person and you find yourself getting frustrated at not only yourself, but at others because they are not doing things when you think they should be doing them, hand it over to God, let God be your planner, and then do what He tells you when He tells you.

Sheep

Acknowledge that the LORD is God! He made us and we belong to him; we are his people, the sheep of his pasture. (Psalms 100:3 NET)

I just recently read a book where the author was talking about us being God's sheep and that God is our Shepherd. We have all heard this at one point or another in our lives, but, if you are like me, you have always saw the good, nice and pleasant side of being His sheep...i.e. timid, gentle, humble, etc. But sheep have another side. Sheep are messy. It is interesting that God calls us the "sheep of his pasture." If you have ever walked in a pasture where there are sheep, you need to watch where you step because sheep leave a lot of...um...droppings. Sheep are messy, dropping a lot of "things" and that is exactly how we, as humans, are. We have a lot of "stuff" that we drop around and God needs to come and clean it up. We have bad tempers, egos, pride, arrogance, false humility, insecurities, codependencies, etc. What I find amazing is that even though God calls us sheep, He also calls us His own. He says in Psalms 100:3 that He made us and that we belong to Him. How powerful is that! Even with all our messes, we still belong to Him and He still wants us as His own! Only through what Jesus did on the cross can we claim that! We will ALWAYS have messes, but He will ALWAYS claim us! 

Take Away: If you feel like you have to perform for God to be accepted by Him, or you feel like you have too much "stuff" to be acceptable to Him, read Psalms 100:3 over and over. Start replacing those thoughts that you are not good enough with "I am a sheep that is messy, and God still accepts me, mess and all!"