Have you ever found yourself the recipient of some critical advice? My Granddad would often offer his help in the form of critical advice. Looking back now, I would have to say in regard to me, he was most always right. I have come to appreciate every bit of advice the longer time goes by. A number of months ago someone sent me an e-mail offering me some help in the form of critical advice. I found myself at a loss for what to say or how to respond. I either didn’t respond or kept my response to something like, “thanks”. The e-mail bothered me greatly then and I saved the mail, but had done little with it until something made me remember that it was sent. I looked back at at the nearly 8 month old note only with the same continued loss for how to make any meaningful response to such a well intended criticism. I mean in my head I could think of all kinds of one liners and little zingers which could justify my solid position and the choices I had made, but none of them seemed the appropriate or Godly response. I continued on with my Saturday plan deciding to go for a bike ride in the morning hours. I had a planned route in mind, but as the ride progressed I was having second thoughts about going the full distance. Rather than turn back, I made a decision to continue my ride to endure the full course. Somewhere at 3/4 of the trip I began to go up hill; it was one with a long climb. I knew it was there but thought somehow I might be able to coast my way through some of it. It proved to be more a mind game than anything else and the thought to turn around going back the other way did occur to me. I heard the Lord say, ‘Come to Me‘! There is a word that has been spoken about you, it may be true, completely unfounded, or a half truth spoken out of wrong motives, but no matter, God says, ‘Listen to Me! God says reflect on Me…and I will give to you an abundance of wisdom.’ The exercise of ‘going up the hill’ brought forth some lessons worth learning; these offer insight into your trial. Have you ever felt like you were going up a hill? People had some advice for you, although you weren’t entirely convinced they understood your struggle. Don’t worry, God in His wisdom presents you with this trial, and He has answers meant for your overcoming. God revealed, this exercise before you is really a battle for your mind. On the basis of Proverbs 22:13, I believe God says, ‘the way of wisdom is in believing you will overcome not be overcome.’ Last I checked, we overcome because of the blood of the cross. God says based on Isaiah 55, ‘My thoughts are not yours and you don’t even think like Me, If it was up to your thinking, you would have turned around, missed the hill and with it My insight for overcoming.’ In Proverbs 22:17 God says, ‘apply your mind to My knowledge….’ You see, the hill not only tests your mind, but it tests your will. You are going to have to commit yourself completely. It is applying your mind to the body of God’s thinking, not taking a little dab of truth here and there as you want to apply it. God says, ‘your spirit is willing but your flesh is weak and you need the exercise the hill provides. So make up your mind and renew your resolve to trust Me up the hill and strength will be given to you that you know not.’ As Jesus faced the up-hill of the cross, He found strength there in the garden by surrendering His will to the Father’s good pleasure and obtained the will to overcome. God says to your hill, ‘I will that you overcome….Come to Me and I will give you My mind and My strong resolve and you will overcome.’ This hill you face may have come in the form of a rebuke, or personal attack. It may be be a trial that is very real or maybe even imagined. But God says to you, ‘this hill represents a clear place for your victory.’ ‘Come to Me and I will set your face like flint and give to you the understanding you need to respond to you friends, critics and enemies….It will be a glorious testimony of Me and My power to deliver you from what the enemy says, and I will make you to overcome.’ Psalm 37:5-6 (nlt) says, ‘trust in the Lord and He will make your innocence radiate.‘ So go ahead and trust Him, your victory has been assured!
Tag: trust
The Wilderness of His Glory
Often we find ourselves in a fog, wondering where God is in our circumstances. We may feel as though we made a decision to follow the Lord way back when, but the enemy would have us convinced that all those decisions for what we believed was right and honorable have left us in the middle of the desert. You think, after all these years life should be more comfortable, but instead you feel like your life is in a wilderness and everything you believed is being tested. You are not alone though you may think you are. How you handle the wilderness will be the defining moment in your Christianity. You said you wanted to serve God and be his disciple, but what you may fail to realize is; there is no effective ministry without a wilderness. Matthew 4:1, Jesus is led by the Holy Spirit into the wilderness. This wilderness is for His glory. This wilderness is defining your call. Many a young person may think it well to serve God without fully removing the harmful effects of sin, pride, or rebellion, but without a wilderness you will serve God by what is born out of ‘pop culture’ pursuing what is popular and not what is holy. Remember Moses? It was the wilderness that led him to a place of holy ground. The wilderness defines my call by leading me to holy ground to meet a holy God not given to the popular, but to the pure. The wilderness defines my identity as being in Christ and in Him alone because there is nothing else to cling to. It is here the enemy comes to question your sonship saying, ‘If you’re a son, then do this or do that for instant comfort’ but in the wilderness you must discover it is Christ alone your hope of glory. It is a place of understanding my identity as the Apostle Paul said, “I have been crucified with Christ and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me….” You may feel you have spent your whole life serving people and even family, only to be kicked in the teeth. You may have worked so hard to accomplish some purpose only to be disappointed in some way, yet is it the wilderness that defines my God. He uses the wilderness to prove the true object of my affection. Was my service just my gratification or was it for His glory? You see, the wilderness makes the object of our affection very clear; will my god prove to be self as I bemoan the circumstance, or will I recognize the greatness of our God by completely trusting Him as I offer Him my praise. Often we have come to make worship about the “lights, camera and the action”. In the wilderness, He proves there is no power but His, and He wants to be the main attraction. While He makes us to sing, it’s not the music, it is the message. Jesus said in the wilderness, “man shall not live by bread alone but by every word that proceeds out of the Mouth of God”. The good news is, this wilderness will define your victory by advancing the kingdom for God’s glory. Just remember this fact from the life of Christ; wilderness advances the kingdom (Matt.4:17;19). As you are hidden in Christ and His life is yours, you will advance His cause bringing many sons to glory. The wilderness God is using produces glory every time. After the wilderness, Moses saw God liberate a nation in just a few days. After the wilderness, Jesus moved with might and power. And this wilderness you may find yourself in at this present hour is for His glory to give you a future and hope that through your tried and proven testimony He lives, He moves, He saves, He redeems, and He alone is able to rescue and recover when no one else can. God is using your wilderness to define your Christian faith so embrace it, embrace Him and glory will follow.
The Work of God in Prayer
Recently in prayer, I began to understand the source of my frustration with others. In my discovery, I realized how I had waited on men and not waited on God. I had waited on men to be my help; I had waited for men to have the answer. I was waiting on men for my next move. It was hindering my progress slowing me down and making me angry. I saw my failure to wait on God was causing me to miss His move and with it, His great provision. Bottom line, it was the fear of man and not the fear of God. I began seeing where the fear of man ensnared me and left me without a Godly mandate to move forward. That fear of men kept me from confronting my problems and issues with others. It left me without a voice that could speak as God to inspire true leadership that moves to victory. I did a lot of preaching at the problem, but was distant from confronting it head on with real solutions born out of relationship. The people were not my problem, but failure to wait on God was. Could it be God is calling you to a ‘relationship of waiting on Him’? In your frustations, your failure to wait is a failure to get a word from Him to speak directly with divine wisdom into the lives of others. You like me need to see the work of God in prayer. It is a work that reveals willingness to wait on God bringing rest from other men’s agendas. In prayer, the Spirit of God will cause you to find a ‘fresh wind’ to fill your sails and propel you forward to victory.
In Times Like These
Times like these are days marked by uncertainty. There are pressing fears without and fears within. For the believer, there remains only one constant; it will be the insight you draw from the Word of God that keeps you; it will be this truth that gives you a bearing. When Jesus fed the multitude with one small boy’s offering, He makes a point giving insight into times like these. That day, there was not enough money to feed such a crowd, yet the favor of God at Jesus’ blessing was all that was necessary to transform small things into great. The point is we are living in times when your resources will fail, and it will be more important than ever to understand His ability to take the small things and make great impact, not only in your life, but the lives of many others. In times like these, in the coming days ahead, who are you going to trust? Jesus offers the favor and blessing of God that can unlock the wealth of His kingdom. Like that small boy, He desires to use you and that small gift you possess. What will you do? Times like these require decisive action. What about your gift? It’s greater only in His hand producing the blessing of God–in times like these.
GraceLife 