Human-Being or Human-Doing

Hebrews 4:10-11

10: For all who have entered into God’s rest have rested from their labors, just as God did after creating the world. 

11: So let us do our best to enter that rest. But if we disobey God, as the people of Israel did, we will fall. 

When I started to write today's devotion, I got writer's block. I could not figure out how to start this devotion. You don't know how many times I typed the first sentence only to delete it and start again. Then the Holy Spirit said, "uhh, why don't you rest." I chuckled a bit, but He made a point. Its just like when you are trying to remember the name of a band that played your favorite song, but for the life of you, you could not remember the name of the band? No matter how hard you were working your mind, you couldn't remember it? THEN, a few hours later, when you were in the kitchen chopping an onion, suddenly the name came to you! There is something physiological that happens when our mind is at rest, and God designed it this way for a purpose.

When we are at rest, that is when God can do His work! He put Adam to sleep so He could work and take the rib out of Him. Adam had to be at rest. When God needs to work in us, we need to be at rest. That is why it is so important to Him that we enter into His rest, so He can do His work in us. If we are constantly trying to figure things out, we do not allow God to help us...and He WANTS to help us.  When we don't enter into that rest, like the people of Israel, we will fail at whatever it is we are doing (Heb 4:11). I'm going to use a phrase from Joyce Meyer...we are human-BEINGS, not human-DOINGS. We need to be STILL, enter into His rest, and allow Him to do His work.

Wish or Exercise?

Luke 10:19 (AMP)
19 Behold! I have given you authority and power to trample upon serpents and scorpions, and [physical and mental strength and ability] over all the power that the enemy [possesses]; and nothing shall in any way harm you.

When I got married, I inherited three dachshunds. Up until we got married, these dogs had seen me but maybe a handful of times, so I was really nobody to them. Then when they moved in, they quickly learned I was a somebody to them. I started exercising my authority over them. They didn't listen to me for a while, but they soon realized I was the one in authority, not them. Now I could have let those dogs run around, doing whatever they wanted with me "wishing" they would listen to me, but I CHOSE to exercise my authority, and the more I did it, the more they listened.

We have a choice in our daily walk with God. We can either let the enemy run all over us, making us feel defeated, making us feel worthless, stirring up anxiety in us, getting us depressed...well the list goes on and on. OR, we can exercise our God-given authority over the enemy and walk in victory, joy, peace, and contentment. The enemy may push back (and he probably will), but as long as we keep exercising our authority and keep doing it over and over and over, we will walk in the fruit of the Spirit. Wishing for it to happen will not work, you must EXERCISE you authority. 

Start exercising your authority over the enemy, and if you don't know how to do it, read the scriptures, find out what God is saying about a situation, then stand your ground, acknowledge the problem and then announce what God says about that problem...and keep doing it!

The Supervisor

1 Peter 5:6-7
So humble yourselves under the mighty power of God, and at the right time he will lift you up in honor. Give all your worries and cares to God, for he cares about you.

One of the hardest things to do is to release control of something to someone else. If you are a supervisor at your work, that is something you need to do on a continual basis. And when you do release control, you are trusting that person can do the job. Now they may not do it in the way YOU would do it, but you know that they will get the job done. And the more you give control to that person to do a job, and the more they get the job done, the easier it is to release control of something to that person.

But why do we have such a hard time giving control of an area or problem in our lives to God? God has the ability to handle more than you could ever imagine, but yet it is one of the hardest things to do. This is a Kent-ism, but I think the reason we don't give God control is because one of two reasons, 1) we don't completely trust Him to get the job done; OR 2) we hand the problem over to Him but with the condition that He does it the way WE want Him to. It could be a combination of both.

In 1 Peter 5:6, Peter says we need to HUMBLE ourselves under God's power. That means we need to come to an understanding that His power is greater than what we can do. When we do that, we KNOW that God can handle our problems, that way we can cast/give/place upon all our problems on Him KNOWING that He will take care of it in His own way with His own power.

The Training Ground

1 Cor 9:26-27 NLT
So I run with purpose in every step. I am not just shadowboxing. I discipline my body like an athlete, training it to do what it should. Otherwise, I fear that after preaching to others I myself might be disqualified.

As some of you know, I love mountain biking, it is one of my passions. This past year I started doing something I said I would never do, and that is racing. I never thought I was really competitive, but after doing two races, I discovered something about myself. One; I was competitive, and two; I was not ready to race...in other words I needed training. So starting last month I began training so I could be race ready by March. My training involved CrossFit, and it so happened that my wife was doing CrossFit and her instructor was a road biker.  He knew exactly what I needed to train, not only working out, but also diet. I learned that there were things I was doing in my normal workout routine that were not helping me, in fact, they were hurting me. I also learned that my diet was not what it needed to be, there were things that I was doing with my diet that were hurting me. So I had to change my workout and diet and get rid of what was not helping me.

What does this have to do with our walk with God? You can look at our Christian walk as a training ground. In training, we learn that there are things we do that help us and that hurt us in our relationship with God. In order to find out the things that hurt us, we need to take an inventory of our lives, such as what we do, what we say to others, what we dwell on in our minds, what we view, whether on our phones, iPad, TV, Facebook, whatever...and whatever we find that doesn't help us in our walk with God, we need to get rid of it. In doing that, we will have a stronger and more solid walk and relationship with God.

The January Challenge

Romans 8:16 (NLT)
For his Spirit joins with our spirit to affirm that we are God’s children.

Today is January 1, 2017, the beginning of a new year. We have many opportunities to start a "New Year's Resolution," but like most people, what we start out and what usually has good intentions, well, by the end of January most of us not only have stopped our resolution but even have forgotten that we started one and what it was. But I challenge you today, this 1st day of 2017, to start looking at yourself in a different way, and make a point to do this. So many Christians still see themselves as unworthy in God's eyes, but Romans 8:16 says something completely different. It says we are God's children, His child, His son, His daughter. We need to start seeing ourselves as God sees us, and a good way to start out is by seeing ourselves as a son or daughter of God. When we start seeing ourselves as such, and continue to see ourselves as such, our whole attitude, the way we carry ourselves, our behavior, our talk, our desires begin to change. 

My challenge to each of you is to make a point today, January 1, to start looking at yourself as a son or daughter of God, and make a point to do this everyday during the month of January. How do you do this? By reading this scripture each morning and speaking out loud "I am a son/daughter of God."

A Different Light

Deuteronomy 7:6 NLT
For you are a holy people, who belong to the Lord your God. Of all the people on earth, the Lord your God has chosen you to be his own special treasure.

For years I suffered from low self-esteem, insecurity, co-dependency and everything else that went along with it. When someone tried to give me accolades, I would dismiss it even though I would be craving it. I would also get religious about it too. I would say, "it's not me, it was all the Lord." But deep inside I wanted to feel important, I wanted to feel significant to someone, I wanted to be noticed! But God showed me that He sees me totally different. He sees me as someone special, someone significant. He sees me as His own special treasure! When I read Deuteronomy 7:6, at first it was tough for me to see me in this light, but the more I read it and meditated on it and spoke it out loud, the more I believed it. I can now say that God truly sees me as someone special, as someone significant, as His special treasure...and I can now say that about myself and believe it! Even if no one on this planet sees me this way, He, the creator of the universe, the creator of me, God sees me like this...and that is all that matters! 

If you suffer from low self-esteem, insecurity and co-dependency, make a decision for 2017 that you are going to start seeing yourself in a different light. Start reading Deuteronomy 7:6 every day, meditate on it every day, speak it out loud. You may not believe it about yourself the first day, or maybe even the first month, but the more you read, meditate and speak it, the more you will believe it.

Who's Assisting Who?

2 Cor 6:1a
"I am a laborer together with God,..."

The word "laborer" in the Greek is "sunergeo" which means "to put forth power together with and thereby to assist" according to Strong's Dictionary. I find it interesting that is says "assist." I find myself often doing things on my own, because I want to do them, or I think it should be done a certain way, or "by golly this is my project, my idea and its going to be done my way." I have found that in every instance that I have done this without God, the ultimate result is failure. Yeah, I may get a result I want, but it is usually temporary, and/or it is not satisfying.

When we do not include God in what we are doing, everything that we are doing is in vain. We MUST include God in EVERYTHING we do. Why? Because of what the Apostle Paul said, "I am a laborer together with God." Using a different word from Strong's Dictionary, I am assisting God.

Whatever it is you are doing or about to do, seek God first, and then assist Him. Remember YOU are assisting HIM, not the other way around. Don't seek God to get Him to help you do it your way. When you seek Him, you are surrendering your ideas and plans to Him, and by doing this you start assisting Him!